Dum Dum airport: Poor load factor trims air roster

Calcutta: The soaring flight count in “upwardly mobile” Calcutta has hit an air pocket. Light passenger load is forcing airlines to prune operations from Dum Dum airport.
Kingfisher airline, which withdrew daily flights to Port Blair and Chennai on Monday, is the latest to trim its roster. “The decision was prompted by poor load factor on the two routes,” an official of the airline said on Tuesday.
Air India, too, recently stopped operating from Calcutta to Jaipur-Ahmedabad, Bhubaneswar-Chennai and Hyderabad. Last Puja, Air India had withdrawn its daily flight to Bangkok. It was replaced by low-cost Air India Express flights thrice a week.
Malaysia Airlines had stopped its thrice-a-week flight from Calcutta in 2006. Jetstar Asia followed suit.
The Puja, summer and Christmas holidays are when even the tickets in the highest fare bracket are sold out. For the rest of the year, the average passenger load varies between 40 per cent and 60 per cent.
13/02/08 Sanjay Mandal/The Telegraph

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Categories: airports Feb 2008