The Hindu Business Line : Kingfisher to avoid price war, boost passenger load to London

Bangalore, Sept. 7 Kingfisher Airlines is set to make key changes in its London flight to strengthen its operations, as some of the major airlines, including British Airways, have reduced fares to trigger off a price war in the sector.

In another development, Kingfisher Airlines will fly to 17 international destinations within a year, including a non-stop flight to San Francisco from November.

The airline’s Vice-President for global sales, Mr Sivaramchandran, told Business Line that once the winter schedules are drawn up, the airline might change its departure timing to London to allow more passengers from other southern cities to hop on to the flight.

At present, Kingfisher Airlines’ flight takes off from Bangalore at 8.30 a.m. every day to reach London around 2.30 p.m. (local time). The airline is also fine-tuning its in-flight offerings as well as removing some of the glitches in its operations to make the London flight more efficient.

Kingfisher Airlines is not just looking at Indians but also wants to woo foreigners. “What this does is that we don’t necessarily depend on Indians to fill up our seats,” Mr Sivramachandran said.

He said the response to the airline’s decision to launch flights to London towards the end of the peak season was “surprising”. “It would be foolish to enter into a price war at this time,” he said.

Terming the move by international airlines to reduce the fares in response to Kingfisher Airlines’ flight to London as unprecedented, the airline’s Executive Vice-President, Mr Hitesh Patel, said his airline will not get embroiled in the price war.

He said passenger load factor for the airline will gradually increase to a level that could see Kingfisher Airlines breakeven sooner than expected. For an international airline to break even on a particular sector it should have between 70 and 75 per cent passenger load factor. “We hope to achieve that much, much sooner and breakeven before the year is complete,” he said.

Mr Patel said the airline had factored in the competitors’ move in response to the launch of the new flight to London. “We expect to increase our load factor gradually and hence don’t want to get into any kind of price wars,” he said.

Mr Kapil Kaul, who heads airline consultancy Centre for Asia-Pacific Aviation in India, said though Kingfisher Airlines’ product was world-class, the airline’s success will depend on its ability to maintain the level of service. “If they are able to maintain the same level or even exceed for the next three years, they would have built a world-class brand,” Mr Kaul said.

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