British Airways plans new India flights, eyes cargo opportunities from FTA

British Airways, which has been flying to India for more than 100 years, will look to further expand routes and frequency of flights as well as tap the cargo opportunities from the India-UK free trade agreement, the airline's Chairman and CEO, Sean Doyle has said.

Currently, the airline operates 56 flights a week from five Indian cities, including three-weekly flights from Mumbai, double daily services from Delhi. It also has daily flight from Chennai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad.

In an exclusive interview to PTI, Doyle said India is a "very, very important" market for British Airways and hopes to continue with expansion in the future in terms of both routes and flight frequencies.

From October this year, the airline is set to re-introduce first class seats in one of the flights in the Mumbai-London Heathrow route, after a gap of nearly five years.

"I think we want to be part of the growth of aviation in India. We have been part of it for 100 years... about 2,500 people work for British Airways in India... outside of the United States, our biggest single market is India," he said and highlighted that the airline has increased capacity to India by around 25 per cent compared to the pre-coronavirus pandemic levels."  Doyle, who is in the national capital to participate in the annual general meeting of the global airlines' grouping IATA, also said that travel demand will catch up very quickly in India in the next decade, especially with a big and emerging middle class who wants to travel.

"I think that the growth is going to be incredibly exciting, and something that you won't see. It's a once-in-a-generation growth opportunity here, what's happening in India," he noted.

The airline is also bullish about the cargo opportunities between India and the UK, especially in the wake of the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between the two countries, and expects to transport more cargo.

"I expect more cargo being exported from India under the FTA. And I would expect as well that it would be an increase in certain niche exports coming into India as well. Not necessarily out of the UK but also out of the surrounding kind of markets that we serve," he said.

On tariff uncertainties, Doyle said that everybody is watching what is happening and the impact.

"I was extolling the positives of a free trade agreement between the UK and India, and I think anything which goes in the opposite direction, you obviously look at very closely. Because we've been used to, in the last 40 years, that trade is liberated and opened up," he added.

British Airways has increased its weekly flights from India to 56 compared to 46 before the coronavirus pandemic.

"I think we've been expanding steadily since the end of the pandemic, and in fact, we're bigger now than we were pre-pandemic, which is quite unique because there's a lot of markets where we haven't really been fully yet. But India is one where we're actually bigger. And we are obviously down to three per day in Mumbai, and we're going to a third daily service in Delhi come winter," Doyle said.

Besides, upgradation of the fleet with more wide-body aircraft will help the airline significantly expand its long haul operations that in turn will offer opportunities for strategic markets like India.

While stressing that British Airways offers value for money in every segment it serves, Doyle said that since the pandemic, there has been growth in premium leisure travel and that is expected to stay.

From October 27, British Airways will re-introduce first class seats in its Boeing 787-9 fleet operating in the Mumbai-London Heathrow route. The airline also offers business, premium economy and economy class seats.

To a query about the airline's connecting as well as O&D (Origin & Destination) traffic from India, the British Airways chief said that in the case of mature markets like Delhi and Mumbai, more traffic is O&D traffic that starts and ends in the UK.

"If you look at markets like Bangalore and Hyderabad, that still is very much driven by connecting traffic into the United States... as we launch more services into India, and as we add more services into the United States, we give people more of a one-stop solution to get to more places than they can with any other carrier," Doyle said.