Indian carriers increasingly add international routes to their flights

New Delhi: Indian carriers are becoming increasingly competitive on international routes on the back of a growing domestic base of air passengers and fleet modernization.
Until 2004, national flag carrier Air India was the only airline flying to overseas destinations. Since then, private carriers Jet Airways (India) Ltd and Kingfisher Airlines Ltd have added international routes to their expanding domestic operations.
But the story began a year before that, when India moved on from being a dedicated full- service airline market to start relying increasingly on the globally successful no-frills model.
The growth of low-cost carriers (LCCs) such as Air Deccan (now Kingfisher Red), SpiceJet, IndiGo and GoAir has doubled the number of annual fliers to 44.5 million in 2009 from 22.3 million in 2005. It was this boom that set the stage for the start of international operations by private carriers.
“Your home market is your biggest asset,” said Azran Osman-Rani, chief executive of the long-haul low-cost airline AirAsia X, based out of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
The 17-year-old Jet Airways, which runs the domestic LCC JetLite, launched its first international flight to Sri Lanka in 2004. Since then, it has added 22 destinations, including Johannesburg, Newark, Toronto and a European hub at Brussels.
There have been some setbacks—such as the cancellation of a Mumbai-Shanghai-San Francisco route in 2008. Still, Jet Airways, India’s largest airline group by passengers carried, has managed to convert its loyal domestic customer base into a clientele for international flights and now earns 60% of its total revenue from overseas operations.
Kingfisher Airlines launched international services with a Bangalore-London flight in 2008 followed by Mumbai-London in 2009. Soon after that, British private carrier Virgin Atlantic pulled out of the Mumbai-London route and entered into a code-sharing agreement with Jet Airways, so it could still book its passengers for that route on Jet flights.
13/09/10 Tarun Shukla/Live Mint

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Categories: Foreign Sep 2010, Indian Aviation- In General Sep 2010, New Sep 2010