Private carriers gain at Air India's expense on CIS routes

Mumbai: The aviation ministry's determined push to have a local presence in the flying routes between the CIS countries and India may end up helping private carriers such as SpiceJet at the expense of Air India, government and industry officials said.
The Gurgaon-based Kalanidhi Maran-controlled airline has shown interest in flying to countries that were a part of the former Soviet Union, grabbing an opportunity that was rejected by Air India about six months ago. The offer was made on an exclusive basis but the public sector carrier said no on the grounds that it wanted to focus on more lucrative routes.
"We feel that there is a market with decent latent potential that can be developed," said Samyukth Sridharan, chief commercial officer, SpiceJet. "Apart from the traditional routes of four to five hours like the Middle East and South East Asia, we are also looking at developing interesting routes like Tashkent," he added.
30/08/11 Manisha Singhal & Anindya Upadhyay/Economic Times

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Categories: Air India Aug 2011