Air India chief executive Campbell Wilson says the airline can keep Qantas at bay and win back travellers by investing in new planes as it targets twice-daily flights to Melbourne and Sydney and expansion into more Australian cities.

Speaking on the sidelines of an aviation industry conference in Brisbane last week, Mr Wilson told The Australian Financial Review that Australia was Air India’s third priority market, after North America and Europe, given the Indian diaspora in this country was about 1 million people.