News: World all out to woo Indian travellers
(TNN 09/04/2006) New Delhi - The Indian outbound travel has been growing by leaps and bounds, and the world at large is all out to woo the Indian traveller. The market potential can be seen from the fact that while five years ago there were just a handful of foreign tourist boards operating in India, today some fifteen countries are active here, and many more are lining up to display their countries’ attractions to Indian travellers. It is raining planes in India as state-owned and private airlines are expanding their fleets with a vengeance and foreign players are rushing in to grab a share of the Indian aviation pie.
Says Rajji Rai, secretary general of The Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI): ”The middle class of India is growing by almost 30 million every year and so is the rising disposable income as a result of which overseas travel is fast becoming a part of the modern lifestyle. In 2004 we had an estimated six million outbound travellers from India and this year the projected figure is expected to cross eight million and the majority of the travel from North India happens in the summer.”
“Persistent strong economic growth, new airports in ur-ban heartlands and air liberalisation will continue to drive the Indian outbound boom,” says Vinay Malhotra, GM, Emirates Airlines. “Indian outbound is growing at a staggering rate and the seat availability along with the airfares have become a major issue this summer.”
With the current Canton Fair scheduled to be held in Guangzhou in two phase from 16th April and 25th April onwards, the flights catering to this destination are ab-solutely choc-a -bloc. In fact, one had the option of flying to Hong Kong and then taking a bus, train or a ferry to Guangzhou but even those flights are full. As of now even the hotels in Hong King, Macau and Guangzhou are fully booked. Various Airlines like China Eastern, Thai Airways and Air India did have special airfares but seats are hard to come by even in the normal fares.
Malaysian Airlines have introduced a special fare of Rs 6,000, which is flight and date specific, for Kuala Lampur but if one were to log on to its site the seats are al-ready sold out. Even for London, which is a hot favourite destination, Jet Airways, British Airways & Lufthansa Airways have introduced special fares, which hover around Rs 18,500 with a stipulated condition of getting the ticketing done before a certain specified dates. But yet again the seats are simply not available. On certain dates even in the normal fares the seats remains a distant dream.
For March 2006, British Airway’s passenger capacity, measured in available seat kilometres, was 2.5% above March 2005. For the January to March quarter, available seat kilometres rose by 2.8%, with revenue passenger kilometres rising by 2.9%. This resulted in an increase in passenger load factor of 0.1 points, to 73.1%. This comprised a 10.1% increase in premium traffic and a 1.6% increase in non-premium traffic. CTKs rose by 0.9%.
The same stands true for Dubai which is a hot selling destination and has direct connections on Air India, Indian Airlines, Emirates and Etihad. Most of the airlines catering to this destination have special fares but to getseats is usually not possible. Keeping in mind the way the Indian outbound trade is growing, the airlines have a major role to play, says Naved Desai GM, Jet Airways.
“There is a dire need for airlines, catering to popular destinations like South East Asia and Europe to not only increase its connectivity and frequency but should push to operate from popular destinations. Also newer destinations should be explored and travel agents and tour operators should cater more and more to the emerging trend of exploring new countries and regions and savouring different experiences by the regular travelers.”
“It should be ensured that the political and bureaucratic indecision’s should not stymie or restrict the open air policy. The government still does not allow foreign airlines to start joint ventures, and a majority of the foreign investors are of the opinion that the limit for foreign equity stakes from sources with no significant airline connections, which has been raised from 40% to 49%, is not open enough,” adds Rajji Rai.
The biggest constraints in an otherwise promising story is the airport bottleneck. Though airport modernisation in 3-5 years features topmost on the government’s agenda, it will take a while for the results to take effect. Meanwhile, the airport infrastructure, which is deplor-able and crumbling, would make things worse as passenger and aircraft traffic surge.
Says Rajji Rai, secretary general of The Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI): ”The middle class of India is growing by almost 30 million every year and so is the rising disposable income as a result of which overseas travel is fast becoming a part of the modern lifestyle. In 2004 we had an estimated six million outbound travellers from India and this year the projected figure is expected to cross eight million and the majority of the travel from North India happens in the summer.”
“Persistent strong economic growth, new airports in ur-ban heartlands and air liberalisation will continue to drive the Indian outbound boom,” says Vinay Malhotra, GM, Emirates Airlines. “Indian outbound is growing at a staggering rate and the seat availability along with the airfares have become a major issue this summer.”
With the current Canton Fair scheduled to be held in Guangzhou in two phase from 16th April and 25th April onwards, the flights catering to this destination are ab-solutely choc-a -bloc. In fact, one had the option of flying to Hong Kong and then taking a bus, train or a ferry to Guangzhou but even those flights are full. As of now even the hotels in Hong King, Macau and Guangzhou are fully booked. Various Airlines like China Eastern, Thai Airways and Air India did have special airfares but seats are hard to come by even in the normal fares.
Malaysian Airlines have introduced a special fare of Rs 6,000, which is flight and date specific, for Kuala Lampur but if one were to log on to its site the seats are al-ready sold out. Even for London, which is a hot favourite destination, Jet Airways, British Airways & Lufthansa Airways have introduced special fares, which hover around Rs 18,500 with a stipulated condition of getting the ticketing done before a certain specified dates. But yet again the seats are simply not available. On certain dates even in the normal fares the seats remains a distant dream.
For March 2006, British Airway’s passenger capacity, measured in available seat kilometres, was 2.5% above March 2005. For the January to March quarter, available seat kilometres rose by 2.8%, with revenue passenger kilometres rising by 2.9%. This resulted in an increase in passenger load factor of 0.1 points, to 73.1%. This comprised a 10.1% increase in premium traffic and a 1.6% increase in non-premium traffic. CTKs rose by 0.9%.
The same stands true for Dubai which is a hot selling destination and has direct connections on Air India, Indian Airlines, Emirates and Etihad. Most of the airlines catering to this destination have special fares but to getseats is usually not possible. Keeping in mind the way the Indian outbound trade is growing, the airlines have a major role to play, says Naved Desai GM, Jet Airways.
“There is a dire need for airlines, catering to popular destinations like South East Asia and Europe to not only increase its connectivity and frequency but should push to operate from popular destinations. Also newer destinations should be explored and travel agents and tour operators should cater more and more to the emerging trend of exploring new countries and regions and savouring different experiences by the regular travelers.”
“It should be ensured that the political and bureaucratic indecision’s should not stymie or restrict the open air policy. The government still does not allow foreign airlines to start joint ventures, and a majority of the foreign investors are of the opinion that the limit for foreign equity stakes from sources with no significant airline connections, which has been raised from 40% to 49%, is not open enough,” adds Rajji Rai.
The biggest constraints in an otherwise promising story is the airport bottleneck. Though airport modernisation in 3-5 years features topmost on the government’s agenda, it will take a while for the results to take effect. Meanwhile, the airport infrastructure, which is deplor-able and crumbling, would make things worse as passenger and aircraft traffic surge.
posted by InCar Group Press Room at 11:51
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