Flights Withdrawal by Foreign Airlines

Prevailing Economic downturn forces foreign airlines to pull out the flights between various Indian states. The Airlines such as Austrian Airlines, Virgin Atlantic, Sri Lankan Airlines, Syrian Airlines, Singapore Airlines, Lufthansa Airlines and many more withdrew over 100 flights in last 6 months. The rise in airport charges, the growing cost between fuel cost in India and globally, Travel agents pressurizing threatening to boycott Airline tickets sale and a 20% fall in inbound premium passenger travel forced international carriers to reduce flight services in the country.

Fruitema said airports around the world have cut airport charges, whereas Indian airports have increased theirs. Among airports that have lowered airport charges between 10 and 50 per cent are Singapore, Thailand and Korea. Our airport charges in India have gone up 9 to 10 per cent in the last few months. KLM pulled out its services from Hyderabad last October and operates only to Mumbai and Delhi. The airline has no plans to deploy additional flights to India for the time being. Its partner Air France recently pulled out of Chennai. KLM will deploy 5 per cent less capacity in India this summer against last summer. The carrier is, however, considering code-share agreements with full-service carriers Jet Airways and Kingfisher airlines to improve access to Indian destinations.