The Hindu Business Line : Air Sahara moves to make Hyderabad its prime hub

PROMISING likely spin-offs worth Rs 1,000 crore to the economy, Air Sahara has announced that Hyderabad would be its hub to handle 126 flights connecting all major destinations in the country, beginning February 3.Stating this here on Friday at a press conference, Mr Ronojoy Dutta, President of Air Sahara, said the airline would invest $20 million in the next two years in setting up the "highway in the skies". The first-of-its-kind hub would ensure better connectivity to secondary cities.

When the hub is opened, Air Sahara would have 140 flights a week from Hyderabad from the present 28. "By 2006, it will go up to 217, while number of cities served would go up to 25 from four," Mr Dutta said.

The `Hub Hyderabad' would have a flight academy and kitchen. Geographical advantage, promising growth and friendly political environment made the company to zero in on Hyderabad as against other cities. Additional advantage was that the city connected both the north-south and east-west routes well.

"Besides being a gateway to all Southern cities, Hyderabad is a good location for serving ASEAN countries from all Indian cities. It is also positioned well for attending to West Asia , Europe and the United States for the South," he said.

Mr Dutta said that travel times to most destinations would effectively fall by 50 per cent.

In the first phase, the airline proposed to link the hub with Delhi, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Pune, Goa, Kochi, Bangalore, Chennai, Bhubaneshwar, Kolkata, Coimbatore and Lucknow. Though the service would begin in February next, the airline would start selling tickets right away. In the next phase, it would connect Colombo and Kathmandu and then cities like Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and London.

Air Sahara argued that a hub like this would have cascading effect on business activity and tourism.

The airline, however, was aware of the risks like relocation of capacity from established markets and investing in a market prior to that market being stimulated.

It has asked the State Government to share some of the risks by giving incentives. Mr Dutta said the State would get substantial benefit out of the hub.

Direct benefits would be in the form of new jobs, increased landing charges, increased concession revenues and catering opportunities. Indirectly, the hub would kick off conventions and trade expos, while boosting tourism.

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