Hitting an air pocket

The global economic turmoil has hit the aviation sector hard. While in 2008 airlines were queuing up to launch flights to and from India, in 2009 they are scaling back. Foo Chai Woo, Country Manager, Singapore Airlines, explains that this is not due to any particular problems with India but as a result of the global slowdown. “Singapore Airlines is cutting back services by about 11 per cent across all routes and our Indian cutbacks reflect this overall decline,” he says.

A spokesperson from Kingfisher Airlines clarifies that even during the good times routes took six to 10 months to stabilise. “Right now it would take much longer, maybe even two years, and it is far too expensive to deploy aircraft on loss-making routes,” he says. Even Jet Airways has cancelled flights on its busy Mumbai-Shanghai-San Francisco route because of lack of passengers.

“Many Indian passengers, who travelled with us, flew onto other countries such as Australia, China and the US. Even that traffic has declined sharply,” says Woo. But he adds that airlines are offering promotional fares to get Indians flying again. “Indians still have the money to spend and it’s up to us to give them incentives to fly,” he adds.

And while some high-profile services have been cut, other services are being added slowly. Jet Airways recently added additional flights to Dubai and Kingfisher began services to Colombo.

— Kushan Mitra