The Hindu Business Line : IA bullish on S-E Asia

THE aviation industry continues to be bullish on the South-East Asian region despite the tsunami disaster last year and the recent earthquake in Indonesia.

National carrier Indian Airlines (IA) has begun marketing aggressively and has increased the number of flights significantly to this region.

According to company officials, the number of aircraft deployed to this region would go up, once the proposed acquisition plan of the airline is completed. They said that the growth in India and the South East segment is likely to be 15-20 per cent in the next five years. IA has started a new flight connecting New Delhi and Kuala Lumpur via Bangkok. This is in addition to the flight connecting Chennai and Kuala Lumpur.

Besides this, IA has already announced 28 new flights a week as part of its expanding operations to South-East Asia. It is also launching two flights a week on the Delhi-Kabul-Amritsar-Delhi sector during the summer schedule. Also, there will be flights connecting these destinations from Mumbai and Hyderabad as well.

However, IA will have to compete not only with international airlines, but also with some of the Indian private carriers such as Jet Air and Air Sahara, both of which are planning to commence operations to Singapore and Kuala Lumpur next month. Company officials said that the national carrier would launch a special scheme and promotional packages to woo travellers.

According to Malaysian officials, the tourist inflow to Kuala Lumpur is on the rise. The number of tourists coming to this city, which went up from 47,000 in 1999 to 1.73 lakh in 2004, is expected to cross two lakhs.

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