Location cannot compete with the ME3 for US flights to Asia or Africa, but can for flights from EU to Asia or Aus/NZ
Originally Posted by
PiperAtGatesofDawn
Perhaps to try and be a hub for US/EU to SE Asia and Aus/NZ.
Also if AI has a competitive product and direct flights... EK/EY/QR will have to give massive discounts to be reason to fly one stop for leisure and price sensitive customers.
India used to be like the US with full immigration queues and delays upon landing
- that always kills a transit passenger market.
The Indian Govt did not let AI play the transit game as in EU, ME3, HKG, SIN etc
Now that those entities are well developed the chance to grow AI in terms of connecting traffic through India is gone
Ex- India traffic has a lot of connecting options to US now and the long direct flights are only profitable to good solid markets like NYC or SFO due to the distance
Originally Posted by
PiperAtGatesofDawn
There will be 2 things that AI and 6E and others will be banking on... transit passengers and huge growth in the Indian market.
20+ years ago the Indian aviation market like everything from telephones to cars to anything else was choked by the funnily "socialist" governments from independence to the late 90s and only meant for affluent Indians. This would be the topic of a very heated discussion I'm sure.
Originally Posted by
GUWonder
Who isn’t trying to play the international transit passenger game. Nowadays for trips from India or even parts of the GCC, I am even seeing Israeli flights transiting TLV for trips to go from India to the EU. Also, the Saudis want in on this business of international transit passengers more and more. And then we have the likes of EthiopianAir, RwandaAir, EgyptAir and RoyalJordanian also not out of this kind of game.
I am still sort of amused at how domestic Indian flights seem to be about the only thing in India where I pay less now (in USD terms) than 20+ years ago. Long live competition and capacity.
True. How you find the time and energy to fly all these places and airlines is beyond comprehension.
You have been truly knowledgeable about most places and airlines ever since I have been on flyertalk and I have flown a lot !