The diversity in the Indian market continues to attract more international airlines with the result that Indian fliers have the option of choosing between established names like British Airways and Lufthansa and also the Thailand-based four-year old NokScoot and the less-than-a-year-old Air Italy when planning their holidays.

Seeing the potential in the Indian market, Kuwait-based Jazeera Airways too decided to relaunch its flights to India in 2017 with services to Hyderabad, which was followed by Kochi, Ahmedabad and Mumbai. The airline entered the Delhi market in December 2018.

Religious route

The newer, younger players are looking at different segments of the Indian market. For example, Jazeera Airways is looking at point-to-point travel. Says Andrew Ward, Vice-President, Marketing and Customer Experience, Jazeera Airways, “If you take the Delhi route, 70 per cent is point-to-point. We are satisfying a demand for direct flights. Fliers had limited choice out of Kuwait in the past. They were going on other carriers via Dubai, Muscat and Abu Dhabi. Now there is a choice to fly direct at an affordable price.”

If getting a slice of the over 8,00,000 Indian nationals living and working in Kuwait, not to mention the Indian nationals within the Gulf region is not enough of a market for Jazeera, there is also religious traffic as the Kuwaiti carrier flies to many of the religious and offbeat destinations that Indians frequent.

“The religious route is going into Jeddah, Iraq and even Jordan. What helps is that religious tourism is not restricted to one month but happens throughout the year. The religious segment is a profitable segment to be in. It is good business to be involved in whether in India or other markets,” adds Ward.

The airline has already seen close to 200 bookings for Najaf, a religious tourist destination which it flies to. Besides, there are also Christian pilgrims going to Amman.

On his part, Toh Giam Ming, Deputy Chief Executive Officer, NokScoot, is betting on what he picked up about Indian travel patterns during his five-and-a-half-year stint in India, first with Singapore Airlines and then as part of the start-up team of Vistara.

NokScoot is hoping to tap into the 1.3 million Indians who visited Thailand in 2018, a figure that is expected to touch 2 million by 2020. At the moment, NokScoot flies four times a week between Delhi and Bangkok and also gives the option of premium economy seating on its flights.

Pointing out that the India-Thailand market is predominantly a leisure and Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibition (MICE) market, Giam Ming says that leisure travellers are generally flexible about their days of travel. “Our schedule has been carefully chosen because of my insight into the Indian market. Bangkok is near enough and with our value proposition it is cost-effective enough to go away for a short weekend. You can go on Friday night and come back to Delhi on Sunday,” he says.

The arrival of NokScoot in the Delhi market also technically opens up the possibility of flying from here to Honolulu in the US as NokScoot is a member of an alliance of low-cost airlines in South-East Asia and a passenger from Delhi could fly NokScoot to Bangkok and then transfer on to Scoot and go onwards to Kansai and Honolulu.

Exploring tourist destinations in Italy is an option Air Italy hopes to offer as flyers from Delhi and Mumbai can fly directly to Milan and from there also connect to other destinations like Rome, Catania, Palermo and Naples. Besides, passengers travelling on the flight to Milan can also connect to New York and Miami. Air Italy flies three times a week from both Delhi and Mumbai to Milan.

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