AI: DEL-MEL fully approved
Air India to start daily direct flight from Delhi to Melbourne
NEW DELHI: After a delay of about 6 months, Air India will be launching its direct flights to Melbourne from here. "The Civil Aviation Ministry has approved our request and granted Air India the traffic rights to operate seven services per week on Delhi-Melbourne sector," an Air India spokesperson said. Melbourne would be the 34th international city on the list of Air India destinations. The national carrier was to start Delhi-Melbourne daily direct flight from the winter schedule starting October last. It has been a long-standing demand of the Indians, including many students studying and settled in Australia, the spokesperson said. Air India is planning to add more international destinations to its operations and in Australia, it is eyeing Melbourne. |
The India - Australia sector could certainly benefit from the extra seats..Fares hit the roof during the Nov/ Dec season on this route.
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Yet another vanity route with absolutely no justification for its operation other than some anecdotal tale about "lots of students". I'll give it 8 months.
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Originally Posted by B747-437B
(Post 15936012)
Yet another vanity route with absolutely no justification for its operation other than some anecdotal tale about "lots of students". I'll give it 8 months.
Maybe some "mantri" has recently shipped off his son/daughter to study in Oz, and needs easy regular F/J rides at Y prices for the whole family! |
Originally Posted by B747-437B
(Post 15936012)
Yet another vanity route with absolutely no justification for its operation other than some anecdotal tale about "lots of students". I'll give it 8 months.
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Originally Posted by B747-437B
(Post 15936012)
Yet another vanity route with absolutely no justification for its operation other than some anecdotal tale about "lots of students". I'll give it 8 months.
Atleast they've kept the vanity factor somewhat in check and not gone for a route to SYD, which, IMHO would have even lesser numbers than MEL. The tale about "lots of students" isn't anecdotal insofar as the actual number of Indian students in Australia in general and Melbourne in particular is concerned. The story about students demanding an Air India flight, on the other hand.... well, can't blame AI for reaching out to its target market, can we! With AI yet to join *A, why anyone down under would fly on AI between MEL and DEL is beyond me. Perhaps AI is strictly targeting the O/D and VFR (mainly inbound from MEL!!) market between the two cities, which goes through peaks during February, July and November, coinciding with the start of Autumn and Spring sessions and Summer vacation at the universities down under. As it currently stands, there's one stop options between DEL and MEL on SQ, TG, CX, MH, 9W/IT/QF. |
Originally Posted by SQ421
(Post 15939794)
Is this a non-stop flight or will it be routed via SIN using it as a feeder hub?
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Maybe AI will be targetting this flight mainly at the european market. There is a lot of demand EU-Aus and if AI can offer competitive fares then I don't see why they couldn't fill seats.
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Students demanding an Air India flight? yeah right as if Air India have ceded to such demands. The gujjus in the UK have been demanding Ahmedabad flights for years with no luck..........(apart from a brief period using crappy flyglobespan 767s).
The DEL-MEL may work with cheapo passengers connecting from LHR and other non stop flights who would not mind an 8 hr transit on the way back etc etc. Any ideas what the premium fares are like? |
Originally Posted by d3vski
(Post 15940213)
The gujjus in the UK have been demanding Ahmedabad flights for years with no luck..........(apart from a brief period using crappy flyglobespan 767s).
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Originally Posted by B747-437B
(Post 15940250)
Actually AMD-LHR operated for a number of years with the 744s (AI 121 on Fri/Sun) long before the Globespan 767s were on the scene. It used to be the easiest seat to nonrev into London on, so I am quite familiar with it! The Gujjus however were happy enough to fly via somewhere else to save £20 so it couldn't command the yields needed to maintain the flight.
So true about the Gujjus. They demand a flight but refuse to pay an extra £10 to go direct and will endure ridiculous layovers in middle east! |
Originally Posted by SQ421
(Post 15939794)
The tale about "lots of students" isn't anecdotal insofar as the actual number of Indian students in Australia in general and Melbourne in particular is concerned.
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Originally Posted by d3vski
(Post 15940265)
was it connected to a USA destination?
There was a one-off flight that ran ORD-LHR-AMD in September/October 2003 however that was a special flight due to Navratri. |
There has been a lot of Indian interests in MEL, mostly students and families who live in Melbourne (VFR), every Year there are huge amounts of Indians traveling on SQ, TG, MH & even back tracking on EK to fly to India. And the market is growing strongly with double digit growth year on year, AI would also have NZ to feed NZ traffic exMEL onto DEL.
Having a direct option at the right price would be very attractive IMO, if AI could also get domestic connections that would be an added bonus. India is said to be emerging into one of MEL's top markets, just behind China, where the growth is just phenomenal. |
Originally Posted by pogonation
(Post 15939996)
Maybe AI will be targetting this flight mainly at the european market. There is a lot of demand EU-Aus and if AI can offer competitive fares then I don't see why they couldn't fill seats.
In case of IRROPS, each of the aforementioned airlines offer multiple flights into Australia from their hubs in SIN/DXB/AUH/HKG (and multiple flights a day between major European cities) into their hubs, which would tilt the balance in their favour; and the fact that Australian/NZ and EU Citizens get visa on arrival at each of these hubs - to make their delay a touch more comfortable, in case of substantial skewering of schedules as it happened after the QF32 incident |
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