Alliance Air (India)

Alliance Air (formerly Air India Regional), presently owned by the Government of India (GoI) as the Designated Indian Flag Carrier, mainly operates domestic routes as part of the government's Regional Connectivity Scheme (UDAN). As of May 2024, Alliance Air operates to 57 destinations in India with 21 planes, including 18 number of 72-seater ATR 72-600, 2 number of 48-seater ATR 42-600, and 1 17-seater Dornier 228. Operating in the hub and spokes model, it has hubs at Delhi (Indira Gandhi International Airport), Mumbai (Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport), Hyderabad (Rajiv Gandhi International Airport), Bengaluru (Kempegowda International Airport), and Kolkata (Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport).
It is presently a wholly-owned subsidiary of Air India Asset Holdings Limited, a special purpose vehicle formed by the GoI to retain the ownership of the Alliance Air after its parent company Air India was sold to Tata Sons in 2021.
Alliance Air was founded in April 1996 as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Indian Airlines. The parent company wished to make better use of its Boeing 737 fleet, so it wet-leased 12 of these aircraft to Alliance Air. The subsidiary operated its first flight on 15 April 1996. Alliance Air served as a low-cost feeder airline for Indian Airlines, providing connections to the latter's hubs from various smaller cities across the country. In 2002, the airline was offering flights to 44 destinations in India utilising a fleet of 11 Boeing 737-200s. On 1 April 1997, Vayudoot Airlines, a joint venture of Air India and Indian Airlines, merged with Alliance Air to serve the regional air routes of Northeast India and several other parts of India.
In November 2013, Air India announced that it would dry lease eight ATR-72 aircraft to replace Alliance Air's ageing fleet of ATR 42 and CRJ700 aircraft. The airline inducted its first ATR 72-600 aircraft in to its fleet in December 2014. The last CRJ aircraft was phased out in 2017.
In 2016, the airline was delegated to kick-start the Indian Government's Regional Connectivity Scheme to connect unserved and under-served airports in the country. The airline hence placed orders for ten ATR 72 aircraft in October 2016.
Alliance Air began operating its first scheduled international flight from Chennai to Jaffna on 11 November 2019. Alliance Air announced that it had recorded an operating profit for the first time in its history during the 2019-20 fiscal year. The airline made an operating profit of ₹65.09 crore (US$7.6 million), but still ended the period with a net loss of ₹201 crore (US$23 million). The airline stated that it had adopted the new IND AS 116 accounting standard, and would have actually recorded a net profit of ₹37 crore (US$4.3 million) under the previous standard.
Alliance Air's parent company, Air India Limited, was sold to Tata Sons on 8 October 2021. However, Alliance Air was not a part of the deal, and was instead transferred to Air India Asset Holdings Limited, a state-owned special purpose vehicle that holds Air India's remaining assets and liabilities. The Economic Times reported that the government also intended to sell Alliance Air and use the proceeds to pay down AIAHL's debt. Alliance Air was valued at around ₹2,000 crore (US$230 million). Alliance Air started functioning independently of Air India on 15 April 2022 and started selling its tickets under the Alliance Air banner.
Alliance Air signed an agreement with Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) to lease two 17-seater Dornier 228 aircraft in September 2021. The first aircraft was delivered to Alliance Air on 7 April 2022. The Dornier 228 had previously only been used by the Indian Armed Forces but was modified by HAL for commercial operations. Alliance Air deployed the aircraft on a new route connecting Dibrugarh, Assam, and Pasighat, Arunachal Pradesh, on 12 April 2022, becoming the first airline to use an Indian-made aircraft in civil aviation operations and the first commercial airline in the country to operate the Dornier 228 aircraft.
Alliance Air signed a deal in February 2022 to acquire two ATR 42-600 aircraft for serving challenging airfields in the Himalayas.
Alliance Air operates to 57 destinations in India as of May 2024. It operates regional services in India through its hubs in Kempegowda International Airport at Bengaluru, Indira Gandhi International Airport at Delhi, Rajiv Gandhi International Airport at Hyderabad, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport at Kolkata and Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport at Mumbai. The airline started its first international flight from Chennai to Jaffna on 11 November 2019 but temporarily had to halt operations from Chennai due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The connection was eventually resumed on 12 December 2022.
Alliance Air operates the following aircraft :
On July 17, 2000, Alliance Air Flight 7412, a Boeing 737-200, crashed into a residential area in Patna during its approach, resulting in 60 fatalities, including 5 people on the ground.