Airlines fly to smaller cities for growth in passenger traffic

New Delhi: India’s airlines are charting new routes to connect neglected, smaller cities that have some tourist or business potential, as the economy brightens and passenger numbers rise.
Airlines saw a spurt in passenger traffic, growing by 5.45% to 39.96 million between January and November, according to the regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). The figure for December is not yet available. The number had contracted as much as 4.84% to 42.85 million in 2008.
Kingfisher Airlines Ltd and regional airline Jagson Airlines Ltd are among those planning to harness the potential of smaller airports.
“The bigger airlines have a focus on category I (metro) routes by default, but category II routes like smaller capital cities make a lot of sense,” said Jagson CEO Koustav M. Dhar.
Jagson plans to take to the skies from February with a 88-seater aircraft and subsequently increase its fleet to four by the end of the year. It will connect Srinagar to Leh with a daily flight starting April.
So far, only Air India has a weekly flight between the two cities, an Airports Authority of India (AAI) official at Leh airport said over the phone.The AAI official said additional flights will help, but there was a limited potential. Jagson will also connect New Delhi to Shimla and Dharamshala, and operate flights to Ranchi and Patna in summer on alternate days.
Kingfisher Airlines has started flights between Chennai and the industrial town of Salem in Tamil Nadu, and Jharkhand’s capital Ranchi and Chhattisgarh’s capital Raipur recently. It has also received permission to start services to Uttarakhand’s Pantnagar from New Delhi. Also on the cards are flights to the hosiery and garments hub of Ludhiana in Punjab from New Delhi.
11/01/10 Tarun Shukla/Live Mint

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Categories: Airports Jan 2010, Indian Aviation- In General Jan 2010, New Jan 2010