Calcutta: Calcutta's bid for direct air connectivity with Europe has been effectively grounded with Jet Airways saying it can't take any risk in a low-yield market despite a personal request from Mamata Banerjee.
Jet Airways' refusal to fly non-stop to Europe comes in the wake of Qatar, Emirates and Etihad deciding to increase seats or add flights to the Gulf, from where all three offer onward connectivity to Europe and the US.
Officials of Jet Airways recently conveyed to the airport authorities that it wasn't viable at this moment to start a direct flight to Brussels, the airline's hub in Europe, sources said.
A compromise had been suggested in the form of a hopping flight from either Delhi or Hyderabad that would bring domestic passengers to Calcutta and carry Europe-bound travellers to Brussels. The airport authorities turned down the proposal.
"Jet told us that the proposal was meant to cut potential losses since it didn't expect enough Europe-bound passengers from Calcutta alone. We had to reject the idea because civil aviation policies don't allow this model," a senior airport official said.
Jet sources said the Calcutta market was not conducive to a direct Europe flight yet.
Travel and aviation industry experts said the expansion of operations by airlines based in the Gulf countries was a factor in other carriers not showing interest in the proposal to fly direct to Europe from Calcutta.
Qatar Airways is bringing the Boeing 787 Dreamliner to town in December in anticipation of higher passenger traffic on the Calcutta-Doha route. The airline currently operates an Airbus 320 in this sector with 12 business class and 132 economy seats. From next month, there will be a 76 per cent increase in capacity with 22 business class and 232 economy seats.
Based on market surveys, the airline hopes to fill about 60 per cent of the additional seats with Europe-bound passengers and most of the rest with travellers heading to the US.
Emirates, which connects Calcutta to Dubai with two flights daily, will also change its aircraft configuration next month. It is adding a first-class segment to its evening flight with 12 seats. Emirates' morning flight already has first-class seats.
20/11/15 Sanjay Mandal/Telegraph
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Jet Airways' refusal to fly non-stop to Europe comes in the wake of Qatar, Emirates and Etihad deciding to increase seats or add flights to the Gulf, from where all three offer onward connectivity to Europe and the US.
Officials of Jet Airways recently conveyed to the airport authorities that it wasn't viable at this moment to start a direct flight to Brussels, the airline's hub in Europe, sources said.
A compromise had been suggested in the form of a hopping flight from either Delhi or Hyderabad that would bring domestic passengers to Calcutta and carry Europe-bound travellers to Brussels. The airport authorities turned down the proposal.
"Jet told us that the proposal was meant to cut potential losses since it didn't expect enough Europe-bound passengers from Calcutta alone. We had to reject the idea because civil aviation policies don't allow this model," a senior airport official said.
Jet sources said the Calcutta market was not conducive to a direct Europe flight yet.
Travel and aviation industry experts said the expansion of operations by airlines based in the Gulf countries was a factor in other carriers not showing interest in the proposal to fly direct to Europe from Calcutta.
Qatar Airways is bringing the Boeing 787 Dreamliner to town in December in anticipation of higher passenger traffic on the Calcutta-Doha route. The airline currently operates an Airbus 320 in this sector with 12 business class and 132 economy seats. From next month, there will be a 76 per cent increase in capacity with 22 business class and 232 economy seats.
Based on market surveys, the airline hopes to fill about 60 per cent of the additional seats with Europe-bound passengers and most of the rest with travellers heading to the US.
Emirates, which connects Calcutta to Dubai with two flights daily, will also change its aircraft configuration next month. It is adding a first-class segment to its evening flight with 12 seats. Emirates' morning flight already has first-class seats.
20/11/15 Sanjay Mandal/Telegraph
