Hike in ATF may hit flight frequency

New Delhi: Your favourite airline may no longer be able to offer a flight on busy routes like Delhi-Mumbai every half hour in the peak morning and evening times. After Saturday’s unprecedented 20% aviation turbine fuel (ATF) price hike, airlines are now closely looking at rationalizing flights not only on lean routes but also on busy ones with poor load factors in a bid to cut down costs.
For instance, around 55 schedule movements take place on Delhi-Mumbai route daily while the load factor on most of them usually does not cross 60 to 70%. Many southern cities also have a very high number of daily flights with Mumbai. Now, airlines are feeling clubbing some flights and having better load factors is a more effective way of staying afloat in these tough times rather than providing access capacity with half-hourly departures.
Kingfisher has called a meeting on Monday and Patel said they would look at hiking both fuel surcharge and basic fares. IndiGo president Bruce Ashby confirmed that "some people in the industry" are pushing for reducing frequency of flights. "In such times, there is a natural tendency to reduce capacity. There is talk of coordinated capacity reduction but I am a free market person who would much rather each airline take its own decision."
A senior Air India official also wanted such steps to be taken now but admitted that everyone is waiting for someone else to make the first move.
Rationalizing flights on some sectors, especially those operating to the choked airports of Delhi and Mumbai, will also mean reduced congestion. Currently airlines hover for anywhere upto an hour to land in these cities, thereby burning ATF.
02/06/08 Times of India

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Categories: Indian Aviation- In General May 2008