Indian Airlines flying high in the Gulf

Vimala Vasan

ABU DHABI, Dec. 19

INDIAN Airlines (IA) is looking at expanding its operations in the Gulf region in the near future with the focus on the UAE in particular, while plans to start operations out of Saudi Arabia are also awaiting Government approval, according to a senior airline official.

Mr R.C. Kathuria, IA Regional Manager (Gulf), told Business Line that the airline had been doing quite well in the Gulf region and the potential for growth warranted an expansion in operations.

"We would like to increase our operations out of Gulf stations and we are working on it. The recommendations are awaiting Government approval," he said.

Currently, the airline operates out of the UAE, Bahrain, Doha, Oman and Kuwait. Saudi Arabia is currently an offline station. Mr Kathuria said that IA plans to operate, for the first time, a lot of Haj flights to Jeddah from Srinagar and Hyderabad, with a technical stop in Sharjah.

The flights will be operated on IA aircraft and with IA crew, but with Air India numbers. "This is the first time we will be operating Haj flights and we hope to carry around 11,000 passengers," he said.

IA has met with good response in terms of traffic in the ongoing peak season and is operating three additional flights to Goa from Sharjah, as well as two additional flights to Goa from Kuwait, to meet the demand of holiday-makers heading home for Christmas. An additional flight was also operated out of Doha to Kozhikode, he said.

Meanwhile, Mr Shyam Sunder, UAE Manager for IA, is upbeat about the airline's business out of the UAE, with demand picking up well in the peak season.

He told Business Line that the combination of the Eid and winter school holidays offered a three-week break for families and had resulted in full flights to most Indian destinations.

"We are optimistic that the trend will continue in the first part of next year with the Baisakhi and Pongal festivals coming up." IA operates out of Sharjah to inner cities in India such as Amritsar and Lucknow and some in Tamil Nadu. IA is also offering a special bonus coupon to Thiruvananthapuram for passengers on the Sharjah-Kochi route, which will enable them to fly to Thiruvananthapuram free on the domestic sector. The offer is valid till May 31. Low fares are also on offer for the same period on the Jaipur and Patna routes over New Delhi, as well as to Kathmandu over New Delhi and to Kolkata over New Delhi.

The discontinuation of the Dubai-Kathmandu flights by Royal Nepal Airlines could give a boost to IA's traffic on that sector, he said. IA has tided over the initial drop in passenger traffic out of the UAE post-September 11, with 1,500 more passengers in November this year, compared to the same month last year. The airline hopes to carry 1,000 to 2,000 more passengers this December compared to December 2000, he said.