As metro airports in India become more
expensive to operate from, foreign airlines with existing bilateral rights are
flying in to new markets in India, especially Tier II cities.
Earlier, foreign carriers had the maximum
number of outbound passengers from the four metros, but with outbound traffic
increasing manifold from the Tier-II and Tier-III cities, European and
Gulf-based carriers are looking to pick up passengers from the smaller cities.
For instance, Etihad Airways will start
daily flights to Ahmedabad in November 2012. This will be Etihad Airways’ ninth
destination within India. Etihad Airways serves the major population centres
across India with direct flights to Abu Dhabi. Ahmedabad will make significant
contributions in traffic flows to Abu Dhabi and beyond, as it is an economic
centre,” James Hogan, Etihad Airways’ President and Chief Executive Officer
said, adding that the airline anticipates strong traffic flows onto its
European and the US destinations.
A new international terminal is coming up
at the small airport of Coimbatore. Its sizeable business community, which
otherwise had to travel to Chennai for an outbound flight, now have Silk Air
and Air Arabia at their doorstep connecting the Gulf and the European sectors.
Keeping the increased traffic in view,
Cathay Pacific will operate a daily flight from Chennai from September this
year. Earlier, the airline operated just four days a week from Chennai.
Dragonair, a subsidiary of Cathay Pacific,
will begin services between Hong Kong and Kolkata, subject to government
approval and the opening of its new international terminal, reveals Rakesh
Raicar, Dragonair’s Regional Sales and Marketing Manager (South Asia).
Gulf-based carriers have been the biggest
beneficiaries of India’s liberal and Open Sky policies. For instance, Emirates
operates 185 flights from 10 Indian destinations. Emirates cashed in, when Air
India failed to mount additional aircraft on the cash-rich Gulf routes.
“Apart from the metros, Emirates operates
from Hyderabad, Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram, Bengaluru, Ahmedabad and Kozhikode
with an average load factor of 80 per cent across all Indian destinations,”
revealed Orhan Abbas, Vice President (India and Nepal), Emirates airlines.
The pace of expansion and growth is also
higher with the Gulf-based carriers as compared to their European counterparts.
“Gulf’s efficiency of connecting through a larger hub and spoke systems and
their geographic location gives them a upper hand in connecting to Indian
destinations at lower-costs,” explains Nawal Taneja, an aviation business
strategist. Not only do the Gulf carriers have the oil cost advantage, but also
the rapid expansion and optimum use of their sixth freedom traffic to connect
to other destinations via their hub has helped them bring more volumes.
“Emirates, for example, offers service from
five cities in England (Glasgow, Newcastle, Manchester, Birmingham, and London)
to Dubai, from which it serves 10 cities in India. There may only be few
passengers from, say, Birmingham to Hyderabad, but when you combine all the
passengers originating from Birmingham and destined for all ten cities in
India, not to mention all other cities served by Emirates in the Asia-Pacific region,
it makes the route viable for Emirates, but not for British Airways,” Taneja
said.
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