The Hindu Business Line : Mumbai-Coimbatore flight — Air Deccan to benefit from timing, fare structure

AS Air Deccan gets ready to launch its flight on the Mumbai-Coimbatore sector from December 3, travel industry circles here are confident that the service would prove to be a big draw because of two crucial advantages — timing and a huge difference in the fare structure compared to its competitors.

The industry does not think that the `no-frills' service being offered on a long-haul flight such as the Coimbatore-Mumbai flight by Air Deccan would deter the potential air passengers since the travellers do not mind paying a small sum for any in-flight refreshments they might need.

An industry source told Business Line here today, that his travel agency , was able to sell nearly 60 tickets on Tuesday to Mumbai from here by the Air Deccan flight taking off on different dates like December 3, 5 and 7.

The source pointed out that the Air Deccan flight would take off from here at 10.15 a.m. and would land in Mumbai around noon. This would benefit the business travellers.

The other flights to Mumbai from here are scheduled between 12 noon and 3 p.m.

Travel operators feel that timing is a crucial factor in determining the occupancy rate and pointed out the case of Indian Airlines, which enjoyed a high occupancy ratio when it was operating a direct flight on the Mumbai-Coimbatore sector almost at the same time as that of the Air Deccan flight from here.

Asked whether there was enough business potential for a fourth flight on this sector— already Indian Airlines, Jet Airways and Air Sahara are offering services on this route— the source said the expectation was that the number of passengers travelling on this route would go up rather than the market share of each operator coming down because of the entry of one more service provider .

The peak season on this route is the November-January period because of business and tourist demand and the traffic might expand by 20 per cent-30 per cent.

The other advantage Air Deccan flight enjoys is the low fare.

While the Air Deccan's last day fares on the Internet in the Coimbatore-Mumbai route would be Rs 4,200, for the other airlines the standard last day economy fare is Rs 7,330.

This is a huge difference and if a family were to travel on this sector, the saving in fare would be substantial.

For the airlines, the route would be a profitable one because of the higher fare earned per passenger and due to higher passenger retention ratio.

The travel industry is also waiting for the work on the airport runway expansion to be completed soon so that it would enable international operators to include Coimbatore in their air-map.

At present, the airport is closed rather early in the day to facilitate runway expansion work.