Airlines India, Indian Airlines

Will the no frills Air India Express, which will commence its first international flight between Mangalore-Dubai on Tuesday, affect the prospects of airlines ferrying passengers between Mangalore-Mumbai? Will this development benefit passengers in terms of air fares?

Though the Dubai, Sharjah bound passenger traffic constitutes as much as 50 per cent of the total traffic of all airlines from here to Mumbai, the effect may not be pronounced in the initial stage, says Nagesh Shetty, area marketing manager, Indian here.

“In case the frequency of Air India Express flights is increased from the present three times a week to daily, the effect may be much more pronounced,” asserts Shetty.

But other airline operators do not seem to toe the line. “It is a hype which may not last for long,” says Pramod Nair, station manager of Jet Airways here. Nair said though there is no argument that it will wean away the low cost passenger traffic, which may constitute 20 per cent, the passengers who are accustomed to first class/business class will still prefer the slightly inconvenient Mumbai or Bangalore route.

Nagesh Shetty says this development will affect Indian also as 60 per cent of the traffic is Gulf bound. “It can be offset by the development the region will witness in a couple of years,’’ he said, pointing out at the IT Special Economic Zone (SEZ) and the Coastal SEZ projects, which are going to boost the overall economy of the region.

Sudhir Bhat, senior sales executive, IA, adds that though the traffic pertaining to Dubai, Sharjah sectors will see a drop, there are other sectors like Muscat, Kuwait, Bahrain which hold promise. Incidentally, sources says that Indian may also commence its flights to Dubai from here shortly.

Regarding the fares, Nair says the airlines are offering the lowest fare as of now and he fails to see a further drop in the rates. Shetty also agrees that the fares have hit rock bottom and the airline companies are just breaking even with sub Rs 3,200 fares on offer now to Mumbai.

Shetty sees tremendous opportunities for Mangalore due to the international flights arriving here. “Some medical professionals are planning to open up consultancy services in the Gulf. Also medical tourism can see a boost here,” Shetty asserts, adding that education sector will boom as people may send their wards here directly than getting them educated in the Gulf.

MEET THE FIRST PASSENGERS

Mangalore: Only two politicians will be on the first international flight, which will take off to Dubai at 9 pm from the Bajpe airport here on Tuesday.

BJP state president D V Sadananda Gowda and Surathkal MLA Krishna J Palemar will fly to Dubai and return on October 7. Palemar said he was happy that he was one of the first passengers to be on the inaugural flight.

Among those who will greet the inaugural flight are Union minister of state for civil aviation Praful Patel, Union minister Oscar Fernandes, Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy, deputy CM B S Yediyurappa, V Thulsidas, chairman and MD, Air India, K Ramalingam, chairman, Airports Authority of India, K Rahman Khan, deputy chairman, rajya Sabha, Union minister of State for planning M V Rajashekaran, Union minister of state for transport K H Muniyappa. Also Patel will lay the foundation stone for the integrated terminal building of the airport on the same day.

M T Alva, officer customer services, Air India, who also will be on the flight, said that though the capacity of Boeing 737-800 is 185 seats, only 165 passengers will be there on the arrival flight and 174 on departure. Alva said this precaution was taken as the pay load of the airport was not ascertained as yet.

AIR INDIA EXPRESS, India’s only International budget airline and fully owned subsidiary of AIR INDIA is happy to announce the schedule for direct flights between Mangalore and Dubai, as well as, flights between Amritsar, Delhi and Dubai.

The inaugural flight on 3rd October 2006, will commence at Delhi proceed to Amritsar and onwards to Dubai. On the same day operations between Mangalore and Dubai will start. Special inaugural fares are being offered for a limited period.

Effective 5th October 2006, there will be three weekly frequencies each between Amritsar, Delhi, Mangalore and Dubai. Departures from India will be every Monday, Thursday and Saturday as follows: (all times local)

DELHI/AMRITSAR to DUBAI and return

Delhi Departure 0910, Amritsar departure 1125 Dubai arrival 1310

The return flight will depart Dubai on every Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday as follows: Dubai Departure 0001; Amritsar arrival 0430; Delhi arrival 0645.

MANGALORE to DUBAI and return – every Monday, Thursday and Saturday

Mangalore departure 2100 –Dubai arrival 2300

Dubai departure 1410 –Mangalore arrival 1910

Air India Express now operates 41 flights per week between Amritsar, Delhi, Mangalore, Kozhikode, Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram and Muscat, Salalah, Dubai, Sharjah, Abu Dhabi and Al Ain.

The flights will be operated by Boeing 737-800 aircraft in an all Economy version.

AIR India Express (AIE), the low cost airline operated by Air India, will be introduced in Bahrain next summer and not this October as previously announced, said a senior official.

“There is no question of AIE coming to Bahrain before the next summer season,” Dubai-based Regional Director (Gulf) for Air-India Sanjeev Talwar told the GDN.

He cited the shortage of aircraft and ‘diversion of planes to other lucrative routes’ as the reason behind the move.

“As much as we would want more and more destinations to be covered by the budget arm of Air-India, this is not possible in the immediate future.”

The airline was first expected to fly in to Bahrain in April last year when it was reported the first flight would land only in winter.

This schedule was again revised to happen with the advent of the summer this year.

“After it failed to meet this year’s summer deadline, we had been reasonably sure it would finally happen in October to coincide with the winter schedule,” said Air India’s manager for Bahrain and Jordan M N Naik.

“This is also apparently not happening now.”

Meanwhile, an Air India official, speaking from Mumbai, told the GDN that Mumbai and Delhi might not even be connected from Bahrain even after the AIE starts operations, possibly in the summer of next year.

“The routes are simply not profitable and we will concentrate only on the South Indian market (Kerala) because that is where the loads are,” said the official.

He said while Air India Express flights from points in Kerala to Dubai and Abu Dhabi, among other destinations in the Gulf, had a load factor of more than 90 per cent, those from Delhi and Mumbai to the same destinations had reported less than 50pc.

“The same, we expect, will be from Bahrain,” said the official.

AIE began services last year, and flies to Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Muscat, and Salalah, from Kozhikode, Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram, Mumbai, Delhi, Amritsar and Mangalore.

The state owned Air India has registered a decline of 82.54% in its net profits at Rs 162.9 million in 2005-06, mainly on account of an increase of Rs 9.52 billion in the fuel bill that touched Rs 31.34 billion during 2005-06 from Rs 21.82 billion recorded in the previous year.

During the year, the airline reported an increase of 25% in its total revenues at Rs 96.77 billion, as compared to Rs 77.5 billion recorded in 2004-05. Similarly, there was also an increase of 25% in total expenses at Rs 96.6 billion in 2005-06 against Rs 76.9 billion in the previous year.

The airline, however, reported a 10.5% increase in passengers carried during the year at 4.86 million higher from 4.40 million carried during the previous year. The yield per revenue tonnes kilometres, which is the globally accepted measure of the capacity utilised by an airline, touched 62 cents, up from 58 cents recorded in the previous year.

AI has initiated a number of steps to bring down its oil bill, including increasing the amount of fuel it can hedge to 25% from this month. In January this year, the airline board had allowed AI to hedge on 10% of the fuel that it uplifts from abroad. During the eight months that the airline has been hedging on oil, it is believed to have managed to save close to USD 4,00,000.

India’s flagship carrier Air India has been given the green signal by the government of Thailand to operate its flights from the new Suvarnabhumi International Airport, Bangkok.

The first AI flight, AI348, operating on the Delhi-Bangkok-Shanghai route will be the first AI flight to take-off for Shanghai will take off from tomorrow afternoon from the new international aviation hub of Bangkok.

The Suvarnabhumi International Airport measures five times the size of the existing Don Muang Bangkok International Airport. IT covers a total area of 563,000 sq metres — 10,000 sq metre bigger than the former record holder, Hong Kong’s Chep Lap Kok airport.

With an investment of Baht 731 million (Rs897 million), the 132.2-meters tall air traffic control tower has set a new world record by overtaking the former record holder Kuala Lumpur International Airport by 10meters.

The new air traffic control tower enables all air traffic controllers an optimal 360 degrees view of all operating surfaces, the length of runways, taxi-ways and aircraft stands in its entirety. Despite its height and surrounding glass panels, the control tower can resist surface winds of up to 200km per sq m and wind speeds of 165kph. It’s special design and structure also enables it to withstand earthquakes measuring a magnitude of 5 on the Ritcher scale.