I pulled my previous post Air Asia is pulling out of Trichy…..Thanx to A. Kumar and Subash in letting me know that AirAsia is not pulling out of Trichy but from Trivandrum. It was a mistake from my source of this information. I stand corrected and modified this entry with the correct information. Thanx for making this right.
http://www.airasia.com/in/en/latestnews/reducedfrequenciesindia.html
AirAsia is also suspending service from Chennai to Penang, starting Jan. 21, although it is increasing frequencies on other sectors.
The reason cited by Air Asia is higher Airport taxes.
High airport taxes are hurting. “We are a commercial airline getting into a new market. If we have to pay half the ticket price in taxes on an average $100 fare, it doesn’t make commercial sense,” says Suresh Nair, AirAsia’s regional manager for South Asia.
Another telling quote from the same source above on the state of Indian Airports :
Indian airports are of two types. [There are] the private parasites who are doing a job. They put in money and want a return. But the danger is nobody is regulating their return. They look for short-term profits as opposed to long-term development. Then there are the government airports, where people get paid a salary [but] they do not do much work. Airports are always a problem in Asia.”
Too much growth too fast ?
or
Fast growth and no Planning ?
January 10, 2011 at 12:42 PM
Air Asia is not pulling out of Trichy. It is stopping flights to Hyderabad and Trinvandrum.I think its wrong quoted as Trichy instead of Trivandrum.
Kuala Lumpur – Trivandrum Suspended till further notice 11 Jan 2011
Penang – Chennai Suspended till further notice 21 Jan 2011
http://www.airasia.com/in/en/latestnews/reducedfrequenciesindia.html
January 10, 2011 at 6:44 PM
It is not Trichy it is Trivandrum.
January 14, 2011 at 4:59 PM
last few months, nobody posting ref, TRZ Airport news,Flight services, New Airlines.
Mr.Kumar, Mr.Johnson,Mr.Narayan and Kudos.
Where are you all my freinds.
“Happy Pongal” to Viewers, Admin People and Supporters of This Portal.
January 15, 2011 at 3:46 PM
Air Asia Pulling out service from HYD and TVM, Reducing services from Seven to Four.
TRZ service continue…….
International low-cost carriers|Bird Group|AirAsia BANGALORE: International low-cost carriers flying into India have hit serious air pockets. NOK Air, Tiger Airways and Jetstar Asia have already faded from people’s memory. Some of the few remaining players are said to be struggling to generate a decent economic return.
From January 11, Malaysian low-cost carrier AirAsia ceased operating out of Hyderabad and Thiruvananthapuram. Last year, it scaled down its Bangalore operations from a daily flight to four flights a week. It’s also withdrawing its Chennai-Penang route, on which it had a complete monopoly, and instead converting that to a Trichy-Kuala Lumpur route.
Bruising fare wars have been one reason for the exits by these carriers. But there are other equally important reasons: low load factors, poor onward connectivity and competitive holiday packages offered by full service airlines.
“International point-to-point traffic is limited for these low cost airlines,” said Ankur Bhatia, executive director of aviation consultancy firm Bird Group. So, if your flight gets delayed at your India boarding destination, and you miss the onward flight, these carriers don’t have the bandwidth to quickly provide an alternative or to put you in a hotel.
On the contrary, full-service carriers like Malaysian Airlines, SriLankan, Thai Airways and Singapore Airlines connect passengers to other destinations. They also offer competitive holiday packages. And passengers don’t mind paying a few extra bucks for hassle-free travel. Thai low-cost carrier NOK Air began operations in June 2007, it was positioned as a shoppers’ airline offering discounts at malls in Bangkok. But the airline withdrew the Bangalore-Bangkok route in November of the same year. This was attributed to poor passenger response.
Singapore-based Jetstar Asia also met a similar fate three years back. It suspended the five flights per week service on the Bangalore-Singapore sector.
For AirAsia, some of the withdrawals have been on account of poor load factors. “We were not seeing growth in the Chennai-Penang route. It is not as profitable as we expected it to be,” said Suresh Nair, the India head of Air Asia.
Another problem is that since low-cost carriers operate on slim margins, they don’t engage travel agents as much as full-service airlines do. Many potential passengers on these flights are first-time travellers, but such travellers are often not familiar with the documentation work. They rely on a travel agent to process their visas, arrange for hotel bookings, holiday packages etc. But since low-cost carriers have a limited engagement with travel agents, they lose out on first-time travellers. “These carriers typically depend on online ticketing and have not been travel-agent friendly,” said B Ashok, director of Excelsior Travels.
Cost has been the main reason for AirAsia’s exit from Hyderabad. GMR’s Hyderabad International Airport recently increased the UDF (user development fee) from Rs 1,000 to Rs 1,875. AirAsia offers a Hyderabad-KL ticket at Rs 4,500.
“In this case, we pay Rs 1,875 as UDF, Rs 230 as passenger service fee and Rs 515 as service tax. It’s not feasible to run the show,” Nair said.
Capt G R Gopinath shares a similar view. “Most of these carriers require alternative airports. Airport charges are so high that they are sometimes 50% of the fare. This makes it economically unviable,” he says.
However, some of the low-cost carriers from the Gulf still look optimistic about India. Air Arabia flies to some large Indian cities, and many smaller ones like Nagpur, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Coimbatore, Kochi, Kozhikode and Thiruvananthapuram, helping passengers fly directly from and to their hometown. Dubai’s low-cost carrier FlyDubai started a Dubai-Lucknow direct flight in June last year, and is now awaiting clearance to operate from south India.
Given that airport charges in smaller cities are lower, these destinations may be more viable for low cost carriers that see sufficient passenger numbers from those places.
Can Tiger Airways survive Trichy route?
February 2, 2011 at 8:01 PM
Amsi,
There was a sad demise of my father in law, and that is why I was silent. By the way, I tried Srilankan two times in Trichy-Columbo and both times , the load was odd 150 which seems great.
February 3, 2011 at 12:47 AM
Dear Johnson,
Sorry to hear from you…sad demise of your father-in-law..
And thanks for your posting again in this portal.
January 4, 2012 at 10:11 AM
Sad Story,
Even though bangkok is a famous tourist spot…there s only one direct flight from bangkok to chennai(ie Thai airways)….where as there are other Air ways like Air india and Jet airways which goes to Mumbai,Delhi,kolkata…why not to chennai??? I Dont understand the concept behind it…Even from Singapore to chennai there are 6 direct flights…why not from Bangkok alone….Air India and other Airways can look into it and can arrange an alternative airlines to chennai..which will b very useful to south Indians….
Thanks…..
February 10, 2012 at 7:19 PM
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