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.

Rupees 11 billion to be paid by Airlines to the Airport Operators

Airports Authority of India said that Airlines owe it Rupees 11 Billion, out of which Air India alone has to pay Rupees 7 Billion. Though airport has given airline operators an ample of time to clear dues but still they need money for upgrading the airports and government also approved the airports development fee for raising fund for the development of airports. Already 20 airports including Kolkata and Chennai are being upgraded by AAI by investing Rs 120 billion.

Delhi International Airport Ltd. (DIAL) has already started charging Rs 200 from domestic passengers and Rs 1300 from international passengers as development fee from March 1st onwards. The one upgrading the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport in Mumbai will charge Rs 100 per trip from domestic passengers and Rs 600 from international passengers April 1st onwards. Greenfield Airports at Hyderabad and Bangalore charges Rs 375 and Rs 260 from domestic passengers and Rs 1000 from international passengers on Airline Tickets.

Business Travellers never demands for a luxury travel

A survey has been done regarding what a business executive demands while travelling, and was found that it wasn’t the luxury extras but the good service and basic efficiency. They want the things that can help in their official work; proper internet connection is their main priority. Now a day’s business professionals want a proper Wi-Fi connectivity so that they can complete their pending tasks before they reach somewhere for their meeting.

According to the survey the business travelers will go for the basic facilities no matter what is the price of Airline Tickets. Proper internet connectivity is the main priority for worldwide business travellers rather than a peaceful room, good transport and central location. Economic pressure has let the business professionals to think more about the basic facilities rather than the luxury requirements. The same is for the hotels they stay in, hotels must have proper internet connectivity rather than the luxury. Corporate companies have started looking more closely into the travelling expenses which has made the business travellers specially in Asia-Pacific to look for Cheap Air Tickets with basic faculties rather than having luxury flight experience and spending too much on the tickets.

Travel agents protest against foreign airlines commission denial

The travel agents all over India are planning to protest on 30th Jan’09 against the foreign airlines those who have refused to pay the commissions to them. It has been noticed by the travel agents that they have not been paid the commissions on the air ticket booking of the airlines. The international airlines such as Singapore airlines, Lufthansa airlines, Qatar airways, Air France and many more which are operating there airlines in India has deprived the travel agents of the commission on airline tickets booking.

The domestic airlines later on after the protest agreed to pay on 3 percent of airfare. An official of foreign airline said that there would be a temporary reduction in the Indian flights airfares that’s why they were unable to pay the commissions to the travel agents. Now, the airlines are selling the tickets from their offices or online through their websites as there are unable to pay commission to the travel agents.