Bibihaji Zia returned to Kabul in August after knee surgery in New Delhi. She flew on SpiceJet, the only private Indian carrier with direct flights to war-torn Afghanistan. “There are hospitals in Afghanistan, but the quality of medicine is the biggest issue,” says Zia’s son, Sediq. “Getting Indian visas is easy. The alternative, Pakistan, is less secure and less friendly.”
The demand for medical tourism is a rare bright spot for SpiceJet, which is struggling financially. The number of Afghans seeking treatment, up 21 percent last year to more than 32,000, is set to climb further now that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has relaxed visa rules to strengthen ties between the two nations. SpiceJet’s data show it flies about 1,000 Afghan medical tourists and their relatives each month from Kabul to New Delhi, earning the company about 156 million rupees ($2.6 million) a year based on average ticket prices. The carrier says the route is “very positive” when asked about profitability but won’t give details. Mounting costs and competition in India’s skies caused SpiceJet to lose 1.24 billion rupees from April to June, its fourth straight quarterly loss.
Sediq Zia, 24, studies in New Delhi and lives in the city’s Lajpat Nagar neighborhood, a “Little Afghanistan” that draws medical tourists from his country and is dotted with travel agencies bearing signs in Pashto. He says he paid $3,700 for his mother’s knee replacement at Saket City Hospital in India’s capital.
04/09/14 Anurag Kotoky and Soumya Gupta/Bloomberg BusinessWeek
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The demand for medical tourism is a rare bright spot for SpiceJet, which is struggling financially. The number of Afghans seeking treatment, up 21 percent last year to more than 32,000, is set to climb further now that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has relaxed visa rules to strengthen ties between the two nations. SpiceJet’s data show it flies about 1,000 Afghan medical tourists and their relatives each month from Kabul to New Delhi, earning the company about 156 million rupees ($2.6 million) a year based on average ticket prices. The carrier says the route is “very positive” when asked about profitability but won’t give details. Mounting costs and competition in India’s skies caused SpiceJet to lose 1.24 billion rupees from April to June, its fourth straight quarterly loss.
Sediq Zia, 24, studies in New Delhi and lives in the city’s Lajpat Nagar neighborhood, a “Little Afghanistan” that draws medical tourists from his country and is dotted with travel agencies bearing signs in Pashto. He says he paid $3,700 for his mother’s knee replacement at Saket City Hospital in India’s capital.
04/09/14 Anurag Kotoky and Soumya Gupta/Bloomberg BusinessWeek
