The Hindu Business Line : Hub Hyderabad: Sahara opens a gateway

IF someone in Coimbatore wants to go to Jaipur, it won't be a tedious journey anymore. He or she can catch a flight to Hyderabad and board another one to reach Jaipur in just a few hours. This holds good for 14 cities and nearby areas, courtesy the Hub Hyderabad launched by Air Sahara here on Saturday.

"Usually, travellers from places like Coimbatore spend almost a day to reach a place and to get flights to other cities in the country," an Air Sahara spokesperson told Business Line.

Hyderabad will now be the gateway for the South. "It will be a transit point for people crisscrossing the North and the South," she said.

The hub, with 126 flights a week, will make a pool of passengers arriving from different destinations and fanning out to other cities. In a month's time, the airline plans to operate 140 flights.

The spokesperson said it was not economical running point-to-point flights to smaller cities. On the other hand, hub flying meant good revenues, as load factors were higher. While point-to-point services offered rigid flying schedules, the hub offers convenience and reduces travel time considerably. For instance, the travel time from Bangalore to Lucknow is just four hours for Sahara passengers, against nine hours in other services.

Mr Rono Dutta, President and Chief Executive Officer of the airline, said the hub would trigger industrial and financial development. It was a well-established fact that several regions grew on aviation hubs. "Take Frankfurt for example. The hub there helped the region grow," he said.

For the operator, the hub will act as an axis, covering up its weaknesses on the South-West sector and leveraging its strengths on the Delhi-Kolkata sector. "It (Hyderabad) is well placed both on the North-South and East-West traffic," the spokesperson said.

In future, it will prove to be a strategic location for Sahara to serve ASEAN countries from all cities in the country. Similarly, Hyderabad is also ideally located to serve West Asia, the European Union and the US from the Southern cities.

Besides, Andhra Pradesh has offered to reduce the aviation turbine fuel tax for airlines operating more flights.

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
Air Sahara's Hyderabad hub to link global destinations

Hub Hyderabad: Sahara opens a gateway

Malaysian Airlines plans flights to more Indian destinations