Summary
- Alliance Air’s new service between Delhi and Kolkata, covering 1313 km on an ATR, will operate five times a week.
- The carrier’s ticket prices on this route are comparable to most other major carriers.
- With a fleet of 21 ATRs, Alliance Air mainly focuses on regional routes in India.
Indian carrier Alliance Air, known for its regional network comprising short flights using predominantly an ATR fleet, is now flying between India’s capital city, New Delhi, and Kolkata. This is a new development as this trunk route mostly sees the likes of Airbus A320s and Boeing 737s from major Indian airlines.
1313 km on an ATR
When flying between Delhi in North India to Kolkata in the East, one is usually accustomed to seeing popular narrowbody jets such as the Airbus A320 family or the Boeing 737s. The smaller turbo planes operated by some airlines are mostly reserved for regional connectivity, with flights mostly to and from tier 2 and 3 cities.
Photo: Harsh – S | Shutterstock
But aviation expert Ameya Joshi, also known as Khabri Lal on X (former Twitter), pointed out an interesting development. His post revealed that Alliance Air was selling a flight between Delhi and Hyderabad for April 24 and 5 weekly services between Delhi and Kolkata.
The Delhi-Hyderabad flight was a one-off, apparently, as Alliance Air does not have it listed on its website, but it is selling flights between Kolkata and Delhi, covering a distance of 1313 km, making it the longest ATR flight in India.
How does it compare to other airlines?
It’s interesting to see Alliance Air selling tickets on a route that is dominated by all major carriers in the country and that, too, on slightly bigger jet aircraft. A fare comparison on the official websites of all major airlines for a Delhi-Kolkata flight on May 18 does not show any major difference from the fares offered by Alliance Air.
Except for full-service airlines such as Air India and Vistara, all other airlines are offering a one-way ticket close to what Alliance Air is selling, which is ₹5,744. In fact, Air India’s fare is only marginally higher at ₹5,990 for its cheapest flight on the sector, and if one is willing to endure early morning departures, then IndiGo’s Delhi-Kolkata service could be purchased for even cheaper than Alliance Air’s, at ₹5,163.
Alliance Air has published a block time for this flight as almost three hours whereas other airlines have it as two hours and 10 minutes. However, the carrier operates this flight at 16:00 or 17:00, depending on the day of the week, which might work for some passengers.
Photo: kbp.spotter | Shutterstock
Still, it’s a departure from Alliance Air’s usual network, which mostly sees regional flights offering connectivity to India’s tier 2 and 3 towns, many of which come under the government’s subsidized regional connectivity scheme.
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Currently, IndiGo and Alliance Air are the only two Indian Airlines operating ATR aircraft commercially.
Alliance Air’s fleet
According to ch-aviation, Alliance Air currently has 21 ATRs in its fleet, of which two are ATR 42-600 and the rest ATR 72-600. Almost all of them are used on regional routes in India and some international, such as the Chennai-Jaffna route between India and Sri Lanka.
It also operates a Dornier 228 aircraft for smaller airfields, such as those in Northeast India, and recently also partnered with another state-owned entity, Pawan Hans, a helicopter service provider to offer last-mile connectivity to smaller towns in the state of Himachal Pradesh via a codeshare agreement.
What do you think about Alliance Air’s Delhi-Kolkata service? Please let us know in the comment section.
