Summary
- Alliance Air partners with Pawan Hans to offer helicopter rides for customers traveling to various places in Himachal Pradesh.
- The partnership aims to provide last-mile connectivity to smaller towns in the region via a codeshare agreement.
- The two entities are working on integrating their ticketing systems and addressing challenges such as baggage allowance to ensure a seamless travel experience.
Indian regional airline, Alliance Air, is taking its commitment to reach remote locations one step further by partnering with a helicopter service provider for last-mile connectivity in the state of Himachal Pradesh. The government-owned airline has signed an MoU for a codeshare agreement and is currently working on the finer details of the partnership.
Alliance Air partners with Pawan Hans
Alliance Air customers flying to the hilly region of Himachal Pradesh could soon have the option of including a helicopter ride on their tickets for onward journeys into other smaller towns in the region.
Alliance Air flies to two destinations in Himachal Pradesh – Kullu and Shimla. According to a report by businessline, the airline is looking to partner with another state-owned entity, Pawan Hans, a helicopter service provider.
Photo: Joe Ravi | Shutterstock
Pawan Hans owns dozens of helicopters and provides various services, including charters, rescue work, and aerial photography, among many others. The report says Alliance Air could include several destinations in Himachal on a single ticket for its passengers via its connections in Shimla. Alliance Air CEO Vineet Sood was quoted as saying,
“We have signed an MoU with Pawan Hans and our commercial teams are working on nitty-gritty for the code share. We will be working on integration of application programming interfaces for single ticketing and revenue share mechanism. We have different baggage policies and that too will have to be harmonized.”
Of course, flying in the challenging terrain of Himachal while keeping in mind the weight limit is something this partnership will have to sort out. One challenge that needs to be tackled is the baggage allowance: Alliance Air offers 15 kg, while Pawan Hans offers only five. The next stage of discussions between the two entities will discuss this issue, among others.
Committed to regional connectivity
The challenging airfields in the hilly terrain of Himachal Pradesh mean that they are restricted to smaller turboprop airplanes. Alliance Air primarily operates ATR 72 aircraft for the bulk of its operations, but it invested in two smaller ATR 42s to operate flights to Kullu and Shimla in Himachal Pradesh.
Photo: ATR
The two planes are part of Alliance Air’s deal signed with ATR at the 2022 Singapore Airshow via Amsterdam-based lessor TrueNoord. Just months later, the carrier was able to deploy the aircraft to Kullu and also resume its Delhi-Shimla flight after two years in September 2022. With its partnership with Pawan Hans, Alliance Air passengers will have access to convenient air connectivity within the state.
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Alliance Air Finally Resumes Delhi-Shimla Flight After Two Years
The airline started the service on September 26th.
Recent developments
To fuel its operations and growth, Alliance Air has been allotted almost $140 million in this year’s interim budget. The money is expected to help the carrier with its financial struggles, debt, and operational hiccups.
Alliance Air is a former Air India subsidiary and the only state-owned carrier in India. However, the government is interested in privatizing the airline and could speed up that process this year.
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