The decision to shift the Indian Premier League (IPL) out of India may cost the airline industry over Rs 300 crore in revenues.
?According to market buzz and some unorganised data available from travel portals, the first season of IPL generated revenues worth Rs 300 crore for the airline industry,? said an analyst from IL&FS Investmart.
The airline industry, which has been struggling of late, was relying on the second season of the IPL to raise passenger numbers. During IPL?s first season, each player travelled at least 15 times over the month; the tournament had 59 matches. There were seven teams and each contingent would travel with at least 25 members, and star players would travel business class. This apart, other stars, officials and fans also traveled by air. This year, due to the shift in the venue, airlines will not be able to cash in on the boom. An official from SpiceJet said, ?I don?t have figures off hand, but we had very healthy load factors on our network during the IPL matches in April 2008.? He added that before the decision to shift the venue, airlines were planning various schemes to lure passengers.
Jet Airways had tied up with Citi for the platinum card and had been using the IPL final as a pitch in their advertising campaign as well.
With the IPL shifting possibly to England or South Africa, things are quite different now. However, Kingfisher Airlines could still gain. Vijay Mallya, owner of Bangalore Royal Challengers and head of Kingfisher Airlines said, ?Being the official airline of IPL, we will offer special packages for fans who would like to go overseas to support their teams.?