Even as recession is sending shock waves across the aviation sector worldwide, Gulf-based carriers have no plans to curtail operations in and out of India. For instance, Qatar Airways, which has 58 flights a week flying out of India, has robust plans to increase frequencies. UAE-based Emirates is also reaching out to maximum points of operations in India in a phased manner.
Renowned travel agents, with whom FE spoke to, said that even smaller players like Al-Jazeera Airways and Air Arabia are fine tuning their business strategies for the upcoming Haj and Umrah season to pull in maximum load factors out of India. One of the agents added, ?There will be a fare war amongst these carriers as discounted fares will be offered to travellers who will have a wider optionto choose from.?
Return fares on the Mumbai-Dubai route could vary between Rs 12,000-18,000, depending on the services offered by airlines and their business model.
Good performance of these carriers comes in stark contrast to news of empty business seats and falling freight traffic throughout the world currently. An analyst from IL&FS Investsmart says, ?Unlike other countries where air traffic has dipped significantly, carriers from this region are expected to post profits in the current financial year. Regions like Dubai, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman and Abu Dhabi have expat working population from every corner of the globe, including India. He further added there is mobile business population from India visiting Dubai, Sharjah and Ajman, amongst other Gulf regions, due to the existence of ‘free trade zones’ there.
In Qatar alone, there are over 5 lakh Indians who visit their country at least once in a year. The saving grace for these carriers is having business throughout the year due to the presence of working population, unlike other countries that have tourists visiting their countries only in holiday seasons.
Meanwhile, the International Air Traffic Association (IATA) has predicted that air traffic to Gulf region will grow by 2% despite a downturn. Anticipating a strong increase in demand, airlines in the region placed orders for more than 1,000 aircraft over the past three years with a total investment of $178 billion (Rs 90,7,800 crore).