Expats want more budget flights to Gulf

GULF TIMES
17 September, 2007

By Ashraf Padanna

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Kerala expatriates have called for more budget flights on the Gulf sector.“We appreciate the decision to permit Indian private airline Jet Airways to operate on the Gulf–India sector,” the Pravasi Bandhu Trust, an association of expatriates said.
“But the federal aviation ministry is yet to permit private airlines to operate flights to Dubai, Sharjah, Abu Dhabi and Saudi airports,” Trust chairman K V Shamsudheen said.
Air India Express, the low-cost subsidiary of India’s flag carrier, offers fares as low as Rs6,000 for a one-way ticket to destinations in the United Arab Emirates, but during the peak summer season when most expatriates travel to India, the fares go up to more than Rs17,000.
“This is the way AI Express exploits the poor Indian workers in the Gulf who pump in precious foreign exchange into the country’s burgeoning economy. India encourages private participation and competition in all sectors except aviation,” Shamsudheen complained.
“The competition will bring down the fares and the passengers will get better service from the airlines. It will only help the country’s economy to grow and create more jobs,” he said.
The Trust wanted the Gulf-based budget airlines like Air Arabia, Al Jazeera and Sama and regular carriers like Al Etihad, Qatar Airways, Oman Air, Emirates, Kuwait Airways and Gulf Air to be allowed to fly into all Indian airports including Kozhikode which caters to most of the low-income workers from Kerala.
“In a sample study we conducted among expatriate Indians, 90% said they would travel to India frequently to meet their families if the fares were affordable. They don’t want to bring their families since it’s too expensive now,” he said.
“So by reducing the fare, there won’t be any loss of revenue for the airlines and they will get more passengers and more profit. That makes more business sense,” Shamsudheen added.
The Federation of North Kerala Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNKCCI) also said foreign airlines should be allowed to start flights to Kozhikode. The passengers are having a harrowing time because of frequent delays and cancellations of Air India’s flights, it said.
“Recurring cancellation of flights has made Air India unreliable. Hence, the state-owned operator’s dominance has to be ended,” said M Muzammil, chairman of FNKCCI. The airport was accorded international status a year ago and an exclusive international terminal was opened for passengers two months back but the national carriers are said to be reluctant to allow competition for fear of losing the monopoly.
Jet Airways has been given permission to start flights on the Delhi-Kuwait, Thiruvananthapuram-Kuwait, Kochi-Kuwait, Kochi-Muscat, Thiruvananthapuram-Muscat, Kozhikode-Muscat, Mumbai-Doha, Kozhikode-Doha, Mumbai-Bahrain and Kochi-Bahrain sectors.
According to statistics, the Gulf sector accounts for at least 40% of international air traffic from India. Indian carriers on the Gulf routes are allowed a total of 85,481 seats per week: 21,950 seats from Dubai, 7,420 from Abu Dhabi, 10,206 from Sharjah, 8,000 from Kuwait, 10,892 from Qatar, 7,546 from Oman, 10,967 from Bahrain and 8,500 from Saudi Arabia.
But Indian carriers still have a huge unutilised capacity that the private airlines can now capitalise on. Air India earned Rs28.65bn in 2005-06 from the India-US route, while the India-Gulf sector contributed about Rs20.23bn.
Jet Airways chairman Naresh Goyal said the airline would operate its Airbus 737-800s and 330-200s on these routes on a daily basis. The airline also plans to make Kochi its secondary hub.
Currently Jet Airways and its subsidiary JetLite - Air Sahara before its takeover - are the only private Indian airlines allowed to operate international flights. Jet already flies to Toronto, London, Kathmandu, Colombo, Singapore, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur and Brussels.