Fuel spiral hits SAARC flights

New Delhi: The high price of oil is now all set to spoil your dream of catching a low cost flight to meet loved ones in Pakistan and other neighbouring countries. Naresh Goyal-owned budget carrier JetLite, which had earlier applied to launch flights on new routes like Mumbai-Karachi, Delhi-Lahore and Amritsar-Bangkok, has now decided to put them on hold. The soaring operating costs have instead led the airline to look closely at 25 to 30 short-haul domestic routes for rationalization.
Apart from keeping the proposed flights to Pakistan and the Amritsar-Bangkok sector on hold, low-cost carrier (LCC) JetLite has also decided not to start operation on Kolkata-Dhaka route.
At present, Air India Express is the only Indian LCC that flies abroad. But of its 12 destinations, eight are to the Gulf and the other four are — Singapore, Colombo, Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur. The Kingfisher-Deccan combine which will begin international operation from August-end has proposed budget flights to nearby places like Pakistan. While so far it has not given any application for rescheduling, whether it begins short haul international flights in this cost-hostile environment remains to be seen.
Gupta said JetLite is looking at curtailing short haul flights that are under an hour in duration. It has already withdrawn from Delhi-Chandigarh route.
Air connectivity on short-haul sectors is clearly going to the biggest casualty of the oil price crisis. SpiceJet is also withdrawing many flights on such routes, especially in the south.
24/06/08 Saurabh Sinha/Times of India

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Categories: Foreign Jun 2008, Indian Aviation- In General Jun 2008