Mumbai: Air India is gaining market share in India-Australia market but competition will intensify with Singapore Airlines plans to introduce Airbus A380 to Mumbai and Delhi from May end.. Air India launched its Delhi-Sydney-Melbourne flight end August last year. and now has 17-20% share on this route. Currently Singapore Airlines is the market leader and has 30% share on Delhi-Australia market and 40% share on India-Australia market.
Also the introduction of Air India's service, the only direct air link between the two countries led to around 20% industry wide drop in fares last winter in comparison to previous years, a source said. Air India is gaining share though its fares on Delhi-Australia route is higher than the competition including Singapore Airlines and Malaysia Airlines.
"We now have a 17-20% market share on the route and we are looking to grow traffic with passenger feeds from other Star Alliance member airlines. Our Delhi-Australia flight connects well with our arrivals from Europe. We are flying passengers from Europe to Australia via Delhi. Our flight occupancy in December-January, a peak travel season, was over 90%. Other airlines are operating on the route for years and it will take time for us to stabilise on the route,'' said a senior executive from Air India.
Another source from Air India, however, pointed out that the airline had failed to capitalise on the route despite being a non stop service. Problems surrounding Boeing 787 led to flight delays impacting the service, he pointed. Another irritant has been protests from cabin crew over inadequate on board rest facilities but this did not impact inflight service as such, he added.
05/04/14 Aneesh Phadnis/Business Standard
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Also the introduction of Air India's service, the only direct air link between the two countries led to around 20% industry wide drop in fares last winter in comparison to previous years, a source said. Air India is gaining share though its fares on Delhi-Australia route is higher than the competition including Singapore Airlines and Malaysia Airlines.
"We now have a 17-20% market share on the route and we are looking to grow traffic with passenger feeds from other Star Alliance member airlines. Our Delhi-Australia flight connects well with our arrivals from Europe. We are flying passengers from Europe to Australia via Delhi. Our flight occupancy in December-January, a peak travel season, was over 90%. Other airlines are operating on the route for years and it will take time for us to stabilise on the route,'' said a senior executive from Air India.
Another source from Air India, however, pointed out that the airline had failed to capitalise on the route despite being a non stop service. Problems surrounding Boeing 787 led to flight delays impacting the service, he pointed. Another irritant has been protests from cabin crew over inadequate on board rest facilities but this did not impact inflight service as such, he added.
05/04/14 Aneesh Phadnis/Business Standard
