Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Thursday, Nov 10, 2005
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Thursday, Nov 10, 2005 |
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Logistics
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Airlines Air India Express plans more flights from Sharjah to Kerala — Services to Bahrain, Doha likely next year Vimala Vasan
Abu Dhabi , Nov. 9 AIR INDIA'S budget carrier, Air India Express, is looking at increasing its operations to Kerala from Sharjah and launch flights to Bahrain and Doha early next year, according to a senior airline official. Air India Express, which was launched six months ago, suffered a setback in the first two months due to a host of technical and administrative problems, but has subsequently settled down to some good response from the Indian expatriate community, Mr Sanjeev Talwar, Air India's Regional Director, Gulf and West Asia, told Business Line. "After the initial hiccoughs, the product has settled down to good response from our customers. In fact, in the past four months, we have recorded 97 per cent seat factor levels," Mr Talwar said. Though revenues have been on the low side, he is optimistic of ending the financial year on an upbeat note. In response to the growing demand, Air India Express launched a four-times weekly flight from Sharjah to Kozhikode on October 25. This was Air India's first operation out of Sharjah. "There is a lot of demand for flights on this sector and the response has been good. We are looking at extending our operations out of Sharjah to Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram early next year," Mr Talwar said. Air India Express, which has at present restricted its operations to the UAE and Oman, will also launch operations from Bahrain and Doha (Qatar) from April, the official said. "We are waiting to take delivery of four additional leased aircraft, which are due to arrive between February and April next year. The new routes will be planned after the aircraft arrive," he added. Air India Express has no plans to enter the Saudi Arabian market due to the present nature of the bi-lateral agreements, but Kuwait may be looked at in the long term, Mr Talwar said. He was optimistic about the mid and long-term prospects for the budget carrier despite the entry of regional budget carriers such as Air Arabia and the more recent Kuwait-based private airline Al Jazeera Airways, which is hoping to enter the Indian market. The Kerala State Government is also reported to be launching a budget carrier to serve the requirements of Kerala's NRIs. "There will be competition but Air India Express will have its own niche segment. Budget airlines, I think are the solution for this region in the future," the official said. Despite complaints that the Air India Express fares are relatively high, he maintained that the carrier's highest fares are 22 per cent lower than the regular fares. Regarding plans in the region for flag carrier Air India, Mr Talwar said that Air India has finalised arrangements to launch thrice-weekly flights to Pune from Dubai from December 12. "We decided to launch operations to Pune due to growing demand fuelled by IT business exchanges and increased travel by students etc. We are actually diverting three night flights that we currently operate from Dubai to Mumbai," he said. Air India currently operates daily flights to Mumbai, Delhi, Goa and Ahmedabad out of Dubai. The Dubai-Kerala operations and Abu Dhabi-India operations have been taken over by Air India Express.
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