Brussels, July 6: Sabena Airlines is on the lookout for a local partner in a bid to improve connectivity and offer better service to customers travelling to and from India by its thrice-a-week direct flight between Chennai and Brussels. The tie-up, according to Hans-Peter Doser, general manager - India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Sri Lanka of the Swissair Sabena group, will enable passengers to benefit from one-time baggage clearance and shared frequent flyer programmes, apart from comfortably connecting Chennai to the rest of India. Negotiations are on to zero in on the partner, he added.The airlines launched its direct flight from Chennai six months ago and has been operating at an average 75 per cent capacity utilisation. Based on the success of its flights from India, Sabena has sought permission from Government of India to increase the frequency and was awaiting it, he added. The ultimate objective is to make it a daily flight in stages and only after that Sabena would consider starting services to any other city in India, Hans-Peter Doser added.
Sabena, which is in the midst of an exercise to improve its image and market share across the globe, has identified customer service and easy connectivity as a thrust area in order to become the most preferred airline.
The Brussels international airport, which is a crucial link to Sabena's operation, is being expanded both to take care of growth in traffic and also offer quicker transfer facilities so as to become the hub for Europe.
According to Jos De Houwer of Brussels International Airport Company (BIAC), the airport currently handles 20 million passengers a year. The new terminal being built will increase the capacity to 35 million passengers, he added.
In order to further increase its traffic, BIAC has also put in place a quick transfer system whereby passengers who have to catch connecting flights from Brussels are given a faster transfer facility by special teams. As much as 55,000 passengers benefitted from it last year. By doing so, the airport hopes to attract transit traffic into Brussels. Even today, as much as 57 per cent of the traffic is transferred to other locations. Sabena operates 110 destinations, of which 81 are in Europe.
It has also tied up with several airlines and the one with American Airlines comes into effect from August 6, 2000. This, according to Sabena officials, would be useful to Indian customers as American airlines connects well all major NRI centres in US.
Sabena, which has integrated most of its operations with Swissair consequent to the takeover by latter posted profits for the first time last year. Apart from an integrated marketing communication and modern flights with better comfort facilities, it has also appointed a punctuality manager to ensure that its flights stick to time. It has also called for a unified air traffic control for EU in order to cut delays.
Copyright © 2000 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.