Another low-cost airline in city sky

Carrier’s move comes after pullouts by some bigger brands in past few years.

After a period of lull marked by airline pullouts and decrease in frequencies, the skies over Kolkata are set to get busier. While, earlier this week, Dubai-based Emirates Airline said that it would increase its weekly flights out of the city to 12 by next month, on Friday, Malaysian low-cost major Air Asia commenced its daily services from Kolkata.

Consequently, passengers here will be better serviced on the West-bound route, which leads into Europe and North America, as well as the Eastern route that provides access to South East Asia and Australia.

With both the airlines operating around a hub-and-spoke model, greater flexibility for fliers is in the offing. Those flying Emirates Airlines can use Dubai to then move onto other destinations in the Western hemisphere and Africa. “About 30 per cent passengers from Kolkata fly to Dubai and 70 per cent go to destinations beyond Dubai,” the airline said in an emailed statement. In the other direction, Air Asia’s Kuala Lumpur hub allows access to the entire East Asian region and from thereon, fliers can use the low-cost carrier’s eight other hubs for travelling to over 70 destinations across 20 countries.

However, both airlines are relying on divergent business models to fuel their growth in eastern India. Emirates Airlines is positioned to take advantage of the vacuum caused due to the pullout of West-bound operators from the city. “We are trying to take advantage of the current opportunity. Our load factor has gone up by about 10 per cent since certain airlines pulled out,” Emirates Sales Manager (East India) Geetika Seth said. On the other hand, Air Asia is confident of capitalising on the large catchment area that the airline has built up in the East Asian region and the latent demand for low-cost travel in India.

“We have nine hubs across the region that service a large network. Also, we are looking to utilise the internet and will have a new booking engine operational in December. Since we are the only low-cost long-haul carrier on this route, there is huge market that no one is serving presently,” Air Asia Regional Head (Commercial) Kathleen Tan said.