Small, but boarding fast

Kigali might not be one of the regular tourist destinations attracting flight-loads of tourists everyday. But if the success of the recently launched flight of RwandAir, connecting Mumbai to the Rwanda capital, is any sign, times are changing.

“Almost 40 per cent of the passengers that we fly from India travel onwards to Johannesburg while another 30 per cent use our airline to go onwards to East Africa, Tanzania and Uganda,” says Ivan Mugisha, Country Manager, RwandAir. The flight was launched in April. Kigali is becoming popular as a Meeting, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibition (MICE) destination.

The airline is also hoping to woo Catholics from India to visit Our Lady of Kibeho in Rwanda. “Normally a group of 25-40 Catholics travel to Our Lady of Kibeho. One group has already been and the other is preparing to go,” Mugisha says. The airline has four flights a week from Mumbai.

Kibeho is a small town in southern Rwanda where a group of young people, notably three girls, reported visions of Mary beginning in 1981, which continued till 1989. These apparitions weredeclared authentic in June 2001 by the Vatican. The airline is hoping that this will attract visitors from India.

RwandAir is not alone in tapping the Indian aviation market, which in May regained its rank as the fastest growing globally. The domestic market grew by 20 per cent for 14 consecutive months, till February this year.

Many other lesser known airlines are now wooing the Indian fliers. These include Ethiopian Airlines and Kazakhstan’s Air Astana. All these airlines are ferrying flyers primarily to specific tourist destinations. Some like Oman Air also connect passengers to other parts of the world.

Oman Air’s connection to Najaf in Iran is popular with passengers from Lucknow. The airline has two flights connecting the cities daily. “This is basically religious traffic. We have a strong connectivity within Iran, especially Mashad and Najaf,” says Bhanu Kalia, Country Manager, Oman Air.

“And it is not just from Lucknow, but we also get a lot of traffic from Delhi, Mumbai and Hyderabad,” adds Kalia..

Shia Muslims go to the two cities for Ziarat , a pilgrimage.

Kalia points out that passengers from India alsofly with Oman Air to destinations in China and Manila, even though this means that they have to first go west, before reaching their destination in the east. “They can do two holidays for the price of one. They can break journey in Oman and go for their main holiday in China or Philippines,” he points out.

Ethiopian Airlines is also using its network to connect its customers from India to other destinations in Africa. Its Group Chief Executive Officer Tewolde GebreMariam points out that almost 50 per cent of the passengers travelling on the Addis Abab-Delhi flight go onwards to other parts of Africa including South Africa, East Africa and Nigeria.

“A small number of Indian passengers also use the Ethiopian connection to travel to West Africa,” he said on the side-lines of the 25th anniversary celebrations of Star Alliance in Frankfurt earlier this year.

He said that their flights to India are doing so well that the airline has put a bigger aircraft, a 223-seater Boeing 767on the Addis Ababa-Delhi route.

Air Astana, the national carrier of Kazakhstan, is cashing-in on the increasing demand for holidays in Kazakhstan.

“The demand has been growing steadily due to a variety of reasons including the devaluation of our national currency, the lower cost of accommodation and also because of the availability of vegetarian food,” says Karlygash Omurbayeva, Regional General Manager, Gulf and Indian Subcontinent, Air Astana.

Indians are also visiting Kazakhstan for golfing holidays. Many of them first land in Almaty, Kazakhstan’s largest city, and then take the return flight from Astana, the capital. Apart from these airlines, there are others waiting in the wings to start operations to India. Among them is the Polish national carrier, LOT, which is examining the options of operating to Delhi.

“This year we received two Boeing 787-800 aircraft, which opens up the possibility of operating to Delhi. The Delhi project is an important project for the airline. The start of the route will offer better connection through Warsaw to five destinations in the US and Canada,” a senior official of LOT told BusinessLine at the Star Alliance event in Frankfurt.

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