Air China, Virgin Australia Plan to Operate in India

Monday, 4th June 2012 at 04:14am

Some observers noted that the prevailing uncertainties in the aviation industry in India have not discouraged foreign carriers to venture into the country. Amritsar, Ahmedabad and Kolkata have recently drawn the interest of these foreign airlines which usually focus on traditional hubs such as Mumbai and Delhi. Recently, Air China commenced its Chengdu-Mumbai direct flight, said to be the first between the Indian capital and the Southwest Chinese economic hub. Other airlines may have terminated its services to India such as AirAsia and Qantas but still, other carriers are seeing opportunities and start to venture into the industry.

Virgin Atlantic will stage a comeback in November after suspending its direct flights from London to Mumbai two years ago. After a long 20-year hiatus, Iraqi Airways is returning to India with flights from Baghdad and Najaf to Mumbai and Delhi. Also in November, Hong Kong's Dragonair will start its direct Hong Kong -Kolkata service in addition to its Hong Kong - Bangalore flight. The Kenya Airways has just commenced its direct Nairobi-Delhi flight early last month. The flag carrier of United Arab Emirates, Etihad Airways, will also fly to Ahmedabad from Abu Dhabi beginning in November. More airlines appear to have noticed the huge opportunities in Asia and Africa in recent years.

Kenya Airways and Ethiopian Airline are just two of African carriers who are aggressively expanding its network to Asia. Kenya Airways, for instance, is planning to serve more Indian cities such as Ahmedabad, Chennai, Hyderabad and Bangalore in the near future. Ethiopian Airline went as far as saying that it could bridge the gap between South America to India by carrying traffic between the two regions.

Based on the current economic outlook, the United States and Europe as a whole will experience a stagnant, if not negative, economic growth in the years to come as many Asian countries, especially the developing economies, will keep a steady and robust growth even reaching double digit figures. In the same context, countries like Myanmar, India and Vietnam, will continue to draw more attention from global communities.

There are claims that a number of airlines from Europe (Alitalia and Czech Airlines), Asia (Lion Air, Jetstar Asia and Vietnam Airlines) and Africa (Air Austral) are studying the possibility of exploiting the Indian market in the next one to two years. The Middle East giants Emirates, Qatar Airways and Turkish Airline also plan to expand their operations in the country. The flag carrier of Turkey, Turkish Airline, reportedly wants to add one more flight each to its existing once-daily flights to Mumbai and Delhi. The airline is also negotiating with concerned officials to fly to six more key Indian destinations.

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