Indian carriers pip foreign airlines

For those wanting to travel abroad this summer season, the news could not have come at a better time. Riding high on improved earnings in the domestic market, Indian carriers are beating their formidable foreign rivals on key international routes like India-Dubai and India-US.

In addition, they have increased their share of the pie on sectors connecting Hong Kong, Thailand and Singapore.

Latest government data shows that the combined capacity of Indian carriers is more than their counterparts Emirates and flydubai on the India-Dubai route.

On the India-US route, Indian carriers are operating 10,092 seats a week as against 3,768 seats by the American airlines. With Air India planning to launch flights to Washington and Los Angeles in the coming months, the quota utilisation is all set to go up.

As per aviation ministry data compiled till the summer schedule of 2017, Indian carriers operated 66,526 seats a week on the India-Dubai route compared to 66,462 seats together by Emirates and

flydubai.

They have also been steadily mounting flights to other countries in the Gulf and West Asia.

For instance, they are currently operating 25,187 seats to Saudi Arabia compared to 20,000 seats by Saudi Arabian Airlines. “When Indian carriers go outside, they buy fuel abroad, which is a good 30-40 per cent cheaper. So if an airline looks at improving their bottomline, they have to move outside. That is the reason carriers like IndiGo, SpiceJet and others are diverting their flights outside India,” said ClubOne Air chief operating officer (COO) Rajan Mehra, who also earlier headed India operations of Qatar Airways.

Asked if airlines are adding flights on foreign routes because of airport capacity constraints locally, Mehra said it was not

the case.

“There is certainly a lot of potential and scope for growth in the local market. The fact that Qatar Airways wants to fly to India proves there is a lot of room for growth in domestic market,” he said.

Apart from the Gulf and West Asia, the bilateral seat capacity utilisation of Indian carriers has also shown an increasing trend in case of South East Asian countries like Singapore and Thailand.

While they have not been able to match the capacity of designated carriers of these countries, the performance is not disappointing. In the case of Singapore, Indian carriers have a total of 20,520 seats a week in operation compared to 35,246 seats by the island nation.

In UK, another key aviation market globally, the Indian airlines operate 15,332 seats a week versus 18,669 by the British carriers.

“Indian carriers are adding to their fleet size considerably and the India-Gulf and the India-UK sectors are the ones which offer the potential to expand,” said a senior Air India official.

nirbhaykumar@mydigitalfc.com