The Hindu Business Line : Change of Govt will not affect aviation sector: Air Sahara CEO

THE possibility of a hung Parliament or a change of Government at the Centre has seen the Sensex plunge, but the domestic aviation industry is not unduly perturbed and appears to be flying high.

Addressing a press conference here on Wednesday, the Chief Executive Officer of Air Sahara, Mr Uttam Kumar Bose, said that it would be difficult for whichever party comes to power after the Lok Sabha elections to stop the movement that is taking place in the aviation sector.

"The ball has started moving. To stop it will be difficult. There has been growth in the gross domestic product (GDP) and the economy is also growing. We feel that whoever comes to power will take care of the sector," Mr Bose said.

Senior airline officials felt that within four to five months of a new regime taking over at the Centre, private sector domestic airlines will be allowed to operate around the globe.

Currently, the two private sector domestic airlines — Jet Airways and Air Sahara — are allowed to operate regular services to and from India to the six countries grouped under the South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation (SAARC), including Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Bhutan.

Meanwhile, although the airline has shelved its decision to launch operations to Kathmandu and Dhaka till May, it plans to introduce flights to Srinagar and Jammu from Delhi from May 12 this year.

The airline, which has started operating daily flights to Colombo from Bangalore and Chennai, has already announced that it plans to launch regular flights to Kathmandu from Delhi while Kolkata will be linked to Dhaka.

Commenting on how the recently launched India-Colombo sector flights of the airline were doing, Mr Bose said that while the 50-seater aircraft flying from Bangalore was reporting an "almost full" passenger load, the flight from Chennai was, on an average, reporting a load of about "100 passengers."

The airline operates a larger Boeing 737 aircraft on the Chennai-Colombo-Chennai sector.

In response to a question on how Air Sahara flights were doing on the India-Colombo sector vis-à-vis the competition, the airline CEO said that the private sector domestic airline was carrying "eight times the load of others."

In-flight stress management

IF you are a regular air traveller in the domestic sector and are stressed out with the daily routine, then Air Sahara has the perfect solution for you.

The airline has introduced a special in-flight programme for stress management through meditation.

"The idea is to give some value-addition to the passenger and give them an experience which they would have never experienced of meditating 39,0000 feet above the sea level," the airline Chief Executive Officer, Mr U.K. Bose, said.

The programme will be initially launched on the metro sectors once or twice a week beginning April 29 and will be extended to other sectors in a phased manner, Mr Bose said.