Air India feeder to cover 115 destinations across country

Mumbai/New Delhi: Making a strong bid to strengthen its nationwide network, Air India plans to launch a feeder service — India Hopper — with about 40 small aircraft as early as by March next year.

Top officials said the service will be operated under the Air Operator Permit of the Air India Regional or Alliance Air, which was a subsidiary of the erstwhile Indian Airlines.

“We are currently fine-tuning the blue-print. And if everything goes as per schedule, the proposed service may be launched as early as this fiscal-end,” an official close to the development told PTI.

As per the proposal, India Hopper will offer flight services in a radius of 700 km with about 40 ATR turboprop planes and Canadian Regional Jets (CRJs) from five bases in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata and Hyderabad.