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More flights to India....
Govt gives nod for more India flights NEW DELHI: In a bid to boost air connectivity with the rest of the world, the government has granted designated airlines from 9 countries — Austria, Australia, Taiwan, Korea, Kenya, Sweden, Finland, Kyrgyzstan and the Slovak Republic — the right to operate a daily flight to any two metro cities in India. This comes at a time when in-bound traffic — both holidayers and corporate travellers — is at a high, resulting into offloadings at airports. "The move is aimed at increasing the number of seats available on the India route. Besides the nine countries already approved, the government has decided to extend a similar incentive to any other country that wishes to increase connectivity with India," a senior official from the ministry of civil aviation said. The arrangement, the official added, will be on a reciprocal basis with Indian designated carriers also getting a similar access to cities in these countries. Industry observers say the move will help boost air traffic to India. "Almost every flight coming from Europe is choc-a-block. Airlines are even being forced to offload India-bound passengers now. This decision should ease burden," Amadeus India MD Ankur Bhatia said. Hot on the tail of this approval, Austria's flag carrier Austrian Airlines has decided to start operations between Vienna and Mumbai. The first flight would be mounted from May 1, 2005, and the airline intends to operate five flights a week on this route. Meanwhile, UAE's national carrier Etihad Airways also announced the launch of its India operations, with scheduled flights between Abu Dhabi and Mumbai. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/a...how/868552.cms |
Slovakia???
With the exception of LCC Skyeurope, I didn't know there were any Slovak airlines offering scheduled service to anywhere! :eek:
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It shocks me that there is no non-stop USA-India service. It seems like this would be a slam-dunk money making route.
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Originally Posted by PresRDC
It shocks me that there is no non-stop USA-India service. It seems like this would be a slam-dunk money making route.
Unless CO decides to give it a shot... ;) |
Air Canada non-stop Toronto to Delhi, is the best option currently ! ^
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Originally Posted by PresRDC
It shocks me that there is no non-stop USA-India service. It seems like this would be a slam-dunk money making route.
Not kidding.. With all of the executives trying to work out deals to send jobs to India, you would think there would be a huge demand. I wonder how our people get to India to visit our subsidiary. |
Originally Posted by graraps
With the exception of LCC Skyeurope, I didn't know there were any Slovak airlines offering scheduled service to anywhere! :eek:
http://www.airslovakia.sk/new/index_sk.php |
Originally Posted by PresRDC
It shocks me that there is no non-stop USA-India service.
Air India has operated daily services from New York through London to Bombay and Delhi for about 40 years, and go from Chicago as well. It's a long way nonstop, nearly 8,000 miles Great Circle from New York to Bombay, and even with a 747-400 that is not practical with a full load of passengers and cargo. So they stop. Toronto to Delhi is about 750 miles less and an Air Canada A340 can handle it currently without too much freight load, but that drives up costs, and Delhi is a lesser destination than Mumbai. India is not a wealthy country and operating high fare A340-500 nonstop services is not what Air India (or the Indian market as a whole) is about. |
Originally Posted by WHBM
I think there are probably some more shocking events in the world than the fact there is no USA - India nonstop ......
Toronto to Delhi is about 750 miles less and an Air Canada A340 can handle it currently without too much freight load, but that drives up costs, and Delhi is a lesser destination than Mumbai. India is not a wealthy country and operating high fare A340-500 nonstop services is not what Air India (or the Indian market as a whole) is about. |
Originally Posted by djjaguar64
Well how can you verify that Delhi is a lesser destination than BOM as the YYZ-DEL flights are usually sold out and AC is not beginning to use the 345 on this route as well.
It is good to hear the Air Canada service to India is getting satisfactory loads (I recall Canada 3000's aborted attempt at the route) but I wonder how limited they are for payload, especially westbound, with the A340-300. The Indian market is particularly price sensitive and susceptible to fare competition from the Gulf carriers, which reduces the ability to recover extra costs with premium fares. A full flight is not necessarily a highly profitable one. |
Some comments.
a) BOM is a significantly larger market than DEL. The BOM market commands about 50% stronger traffic volume and marginally stronger yields on average. b) Air Canada's 345 is not taking over the DEL route because its doing so well, but rather because its doing so badly. AC takes a huge payload hit westbound and struggles to break even using the 343. Peak winter season to DEL corresponds to weak season on the HKG route, so the 345 is better deployed there. c) There are only a handful of city pairs that can support nonstop service between the US and India, and with the major chunk of the market being lower yield VFR traffic it simply isn't worth it at this time. |
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