With many non-metro cities demanding air connectivity,Air India is gearing itself to cash in on the opportunity by adding more aircraft to its fleet and introducing flights to these new destinations. The national carrier is also considering introducing flights on the existing routes during non-peak hours connecting tier-II and tier-III cities with the metros. "At present,about 42 cities - with more than one million population - want air connectivity from metro cities. We are doing feasibility study about the possible load and ways to connect those towns," a senior Air India official said. We are getting requests from small towns like Bhagalpur in Bihar,Deogarh in Jharkhand,Agra and Gorkhapur in Uttar Pradesh to begin air services,the official said. "But for this,we will have to see if there is required infrastructure or not," he said. In an effort to connect more tier-II and tier-III cities with metros,Air India has launched Delhi-Gwalior-Mumbai-Gwalior-Delhi,Delhi-Ranchi-Delhi and Delhi-Kanpur-Kolkata-Kanpur-Delhi flights recently. Apart from these,Air India is planning to launch Delhi-Vizag-Chennai-Vizag-Delhi,Delhi-Coimbatore,Delhi-Vadodara-Surat,Delhi-Port Blair flights in the next phase. Besides Delhi,Air India is also planning to make another hub at Guwahati to provide better connectivity to northeast.
