Indian Airlines Hikes Fares To Gulf Sector 10%

The state-owned domestic carrier Indian Airlines has increased its fares for the West Asia sector _ by 10 per cent for traffic bound to West Asia from India and 5 per cent for in-bound traffic. The fare hike was expected to come in force from yesterday.

The increase comes close on the heels of around 20 international airlines, including Air-India, increasing their fares from April 15. The hike is on account of heavy traffic from West Asia.

Some airlines that implemented the fare hike include Emirates, Gulf Air, Qatar Airways, Bahrain Airlines, Saudia Airlines and Kuwait Airlines.

The proposed fare hike is expected to be in place until September, an Indian Airlines source said. "We will be considering a review of fares only in November when the lean season begins," he added. The fare hike is a result of the demand and supply situation in the market place, industry sources said.

 

An Air-India spokesperson, also confirmed the proposed fare hike and pointed out that "this is part of the demand-supply situation in the market". The fare hike is expected to enable Air-India to show better realisations than the previous year. Air India operates the largest number of weekly flights, around 130 to 150, to West Asia.

While Air India's operations in West Asia are profitable, operations to the US and Europe sectors have been predominantly loss-making due to lack of aircraft for operating connecting flights from the main destinations.

The airline's profits have been declining since Indian Airlines started operating flights to West Asia four years ago.

While Air-India operates from main metros and sub-metros to West Asia, the Indian Airlines operations extend from the source-to-source market, which faces less competition. In addition, Indian Airlines' fares are lower than those of Air India.