With key international markets closing doors on fliers, Indian airlines are staring at a new challenge amidst the spread of coronavirus: unused aircraft.
It is a double whammy of sorts. Apart from loss of business, airlines have to continue paying rentals and parking charges on these aircraft.
While airlines, including Air India and IndiGo, have already suspended flights to China, where the virus first broke out, operations to key markets including Singapore and Thailand have been truncated.
Added to the list are Qatar and Kuwait, which have barred fliers from India in an attempt to limit the spread of the virus.
While the loss of operations in China was not a big dent, all the other markets - Singapore, Thailand and Qatar - are among the most popular routes for fliers from India. For instance, Doha is among the busiest routes and over a million passengers fly between the Qatar capital and Indian cities in a quarter.
All this means that airlines, which also includes SpiceJet, Vistara and GoAir, have additional aircraft to deploy on other routes.
One of the most obvious things is to deploy these aircraft on domestic routes. After all, the Indian domestic market is among the largest in the world and is the fastest growing.
"The capacity curtailed on international flights will need to be deployed on domestic flights,” says Shakti Lumba, an aviation professional and former Executive Director Airline Operations (Alliance Air) and Vice President Ops (IndiGo).
Domestic fliers are already seeing aircraft, which usually fly on international routes, being used on the domestic circuit.
Unfortunately though, domestic travel too has taken a hit. The trend has become clearer after fresh cases of those infected with coronavirus started seeing a daily increase in India. The number of confirmed cases has crossed the 40-mark in India.
11/03/20 Prince Mathews Thomas/Moneycontrol.com
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It is a double whammy of sorts. Apart from loss of business, airlines have to continue paying rentals and parking charges on these aircraft.
While airlines, including Air India and IndiGo, have already suspended flights to China, where the virus first broke out, operations to key markets including Singapore and Thailand have been truncated.
Added to the list are Qatar and Kuwait, which have barred fliers from India in an attempt to limit the spread of the virus.
While the loss of operations in China was not a big dent, all the other markets - Singapore, Thailand and Qatar - are among the most popular routes for fliers from India. For instance, Doha is among the busiest routes and over a million passengers fly between the Qatar capital and Indian cities in a quarter.
All this means that airlines, which also includes SpiceJet, Vistara and GoAir, have additional aircraft to deploy on other routes.
One of the most obvious things is to deploy these aircraft on domestic routes. After all, the Indian domestic market is among the largest in the world and is the fastest growing.
"The capacity curtailed on international flights will need to be deployed on domestic flights,” says Shakti Lumba, an aviation professional and former Executive Director Airline Operations (Alliance Air) and Vice President Ops (IndiGo).
Domestic fliers are already seeing aircraft, which usually fly on international routes, being used on the domestic circuit.
Unfortunately though, domestic travel too has taken a hit. The trend has become clearer after fresh cases of those infected with coronavirus started seeing a daily increase in India. The number of confirmed cases has crossed the 40-mark in India.
11/03/20 Prince Mathews Thomas/Moneycontrol.com
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