Airlines rationalise routes to trim losses

Mumbai/New Delhi: India's airlines are trimming the frequency of services on crammed routes and withdrawing from unprofitable ones in a bid to reclaim pricing power and turn profitable, industry players and analysts said.
Airlines are also renting freed aircraft to foreign carriers or returning planes to leasing firms to stem losses.
Deccan Aviation Ltd., which runs budget carrier Air Deccan, kicked off the exercise about a year ago by pulling out of Nashik and Agra after the two routes continued to make losses, a spokeswoman said.
Rival budget carriers SpiceJet Ltd. and GoAir have also scaled back. While Go flies to 11 cities from 14, SpiceJet has cut frequency on the Mumbai and Goa routes.
Go flew seven planes in March but has since sent three back to leasing firms.
SpiceJet has leased its aircraft to a European carrier to offset low demand and earn leased income at the same time.
State-run Indian has withdrawn its Mumbai-Pune and Kolkata-Dhaka service citing losses, civil aviation minister Praful Patel said in a written reply to Parliament on Thursday.
Consolidation in the industry is also changing schedules. JetLite, formerly Air Sahara, is reworking its route network after Jet Airways Ltd. acquired it in April.
16/08/07 Narayanan Somasundaram & Rakesh Sharma/Reuters

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Categories: General Aviation Aug 2007