Thiruvananthapuram: With hardly a few hours left for sealing the fate of the privatisation of Trivandrum airport, the campaign for privatisation of the airport and against it, has reached a feverish pitch. While a section has been pointing to the drop in the flight services from the airport in the recent times and the relatively higher airfare to drive home their point, the other section has been putting up frontal protest against the government decision of privatising.
Recently, Flydubai and Saudi airlines moved out of Trivandrum airport. While Saudi airline moved to Calicut airport, Flydubai has plans to operate from both Calicut and Kannur airports. Similarly, Jet Airways has also withdrawn its flights from here to Doha, Muscat and Dammam, and to Bengaluru in the domestic sector. Further, the relatively high airfare being charged by the airlines from here is also a cause for concern.
However, sources close to the airport clarified the Flydubai and Saudi airlines moved out of the airport citing bilateral seat arrangement issues in the wake of pressure from a lobby which wants to promote the newly-commissioned Kannur airport, while Jet Airways’ exit has some operations reasons. Besides, there has been a lobby based in New Delhi to promote private airports in the country, they said.
When contacted C V Ravindran, director of the airport, told Express there was no point in the charges being levelled against the airport. Though two airlines have recently switched their hub to other airports, Trivandrum airport will start a daily flight service to Kannur and Kochi from March. Go Air will hold daily services to Kannur from March 1 and Indigo will start operations to Kochi and Kannur from March 31. If there is any drop in flight services, there will be new additions in new routes, he said.
In the price factor, Trivandrum airport is around 200 kilometres away from the nearest airport, so naturally this would reflect in the airfare. Further, since there have been more airlines services to nearest Cochin airport, the competition between airlines would eventually force the airlines to offer competitive fares to woo the passengers, said experts. And the airline companies are following market-driven dynamic pricing which has no connection with the airport or airport operator, they said.
13/02/19 DHinesh Kallungal/New Indian Express
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Recently, Flydubai and Saudi airlines moved out of Trivandrum airport. While Saudi airline moved to Calicut airport, Flydubai has plans to operate from both Calicut and Kannur airports. Similarly, Jet Airways has also withdrawn its flights from here to Doha, Muscat and Dammam, and to Bengaluru in the domestic sector. Further, the relatively high airfare being charged by the airlines from here is also a cause for concern.
However, sources close to the airport clarified the Flydubai and Saudi airlines moved out of the airport citing bilateral seat arrangement issues in the wake of pressure from a lobby which wants to promote the newly-commissioned Kannur airport, while Jet Airways’ exit has some operations reasons. Besides, there has been a lobby based in New Delhi to promote private airports in the country, they said.
When contacted C V Ravindran, director of the airport, told Express there was no point in the charges being levelled against the airport. Though two airlines have recently switched their hub to other airports, Trivandrum airport will start a daily flight service to Kannur and Kochi from March. Go Air will hold daily services to Kannur from March 1 and Indigo will start operations to Kochi and Kannur from March 31. If there is any drop in flight services, there will be new additions in new routes, he said.
In the price factor, Trivandrum airport is around 200 kilometres away from the nearest airport, so naturally this would reflect in the airfare. Further, since there have been more airlines services to nearest Cochin airport, the competition between airlines would eventually force the airlines to offer competitive fares to woo the passengers, said experts. And the airline companies are following market-driven dynamic pricing which has no connection with the airport or airport operator, they said.
13/02/19 DHinesh Kallungal/New Indian Express
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