Airlines add capacity as demand surges

Mumbai: In a sign that demand for air travel worldwide is slowly improving, Indian and foreign carriers are adding flights and adding new routes to India to meet rising demand.
While, last year Kingfisher returned 11 aircraft to its lessors, Jet cut 25% of its capacity and national carrier Air India slashed 30 unprofitable flights, this year most airlines are ramping up. Domestic carriers such as Jet Airways, Kingfisher Airlines, Air India, SpiceJet, IndiGo, GoAir are increasing capacity, routes and fleet size, although at a much slower pace. Air India has added seats in profitable sectors in its winter schedule plans. According to an Air India spokesperson, the carrier will add capacity and start new routes with a focus on demand. “We have plans to raise capacity to the Middle East like Riyadh, Muscat, and also to Tokyo, London, Toronto, Paris,” said the Air India official.
According to Travel Agents Association of India president Rajji Rai, “There is enough labour traffic from India to the Middle East, and hence better load factors compared with the US and Europe sectors.”
Apart from labour, tourists inflow is also a factor. Data shows that Dubai received around 2.5 lakh Indian tourists in the first half of current calendar year, a growth of 13%, compared with the same period last year. Indian arrivals to the region jumped 20% to 5 lakh people in 2008.
Kingfisher plans to open new routes and will introduce a morning flight on the Kolkata-Patna-Kolkata route from the first week of December. A senior official said Kingfisher has plans for the New Delhi-London route, and add more flights to Dubai, Maldives, Colombo and Ludhiana, Pantnagar in the domestic sector. Jet Airways plans to raise its domestic capacity through low-cost brand Jet Konnect, apart from starting international flights.
Separately, SpiceJet is seeking to tap overseas travel demand to offset rising competition in the domestic market.
30/11/09 Mithun Roy/Economic Times

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Categories: Indian Aviation- In General Nov 2009