New Delhi: After failing to fill up even three-fourths of their seats in 2012, airlines are hoping that the largely untapped traffic in tier II and tier III cities can revive their fortunes. Last year the domestic air passenger market contracted 2.1% and while some of it may have been due to the absence of Kingfisher Airlines, the market had begun to contract six months before October 1, 2012, when Kingfisher was finally grounded.
SpiceJet, an early mover, has had two profitable quarters in 2012-13 by increasingly deploying more capacity on non-metro routes. “Regional connectivity has been a focus area for us,” said SpiceJet CEO Neil Mills. “We do 110 flights a day now on our Bombardier Q400 fleet and we have seen a lot more traffic in the tier II and tier III cities.”
Jet Airways agreed that non-metro or regional routes are the future. “As good as our railway network is, it still doesn’t connect most non-metro cities,” said Raj Sivakumar, senior vice-president, alliances and planning.
15/04/13 Debabrata Das/Financial Express
