Chances of new int’l flights remote at city airport
Ayyappan.V@timesgroup.com
Chennai:27.09.2019
The possibility of new flights to international destinations from Chennai airport seems remote as many airlines did not show much interest at World Routes 2019 organized by Airports Council International in Adelaide, Australia.
Airports Authority of India (AAI), which operates around 125 airports, including 11 international airports, held several meetings at the annual meeting of airlines, airports and aviation executives.
However, except Heathrow airport, which showed interest in boosting the number of flights between London and Chennai, no other major airline or airport showed interest.
Foreign airlines — Batik Air, Cathay Pacific, Bangkok Airlines, Shenzhen airlines, Sydney airport, Capital airlines, Oman Air — held discussions with AAI to start flights to major airports in the country. But the focus was on flights to Kolkata and Guwahati rather than Chennai.
Chennai had a direct flight to Australia several years ago. Thai Airways and Thai AirAsia are two foreign airlines that fly on the Chennai-Bangkok route that has a good demand for seats.
Yet, Bangkok Airlines preferred to fly to Jaipur, Pune, Port Blair, Bhubaneswar, Kolkata and Guwahati. All Nippon is the only foreign airline that started a service from Chennai in the last few years.
Sources said Chennai airport is struggling due to lack of capacity on the airside where planes are parked for boarding.
“Foreign airlines are particular about turnaround time. Their flights are scheduled to depart an hour after landing.
For this, passengers must disembark, baggage needs to be unloaded and the aircraft readied in less than an hour. This often gets delayed at night as there are too many flight movements,” said an airline official.
Airport director S Sree Kumar said new routes were decided based on potential for airlines and also based on discounts offered by airports. “We have a common policy for all AAI airports. So we cannot market a single airport.
Airports are marketed based on their strengths such as apron and terminal capacity. Now, we are not in a position to offer peak hour slots for new flights in Chennai.
The decision of an airline to select an airport will also depend on potential of the route to draw passengers.” He also said, “IndiGo would start more flights by March. AirAsia will also add flights and we can accomodate new flights during non-peak hours.”
Sources said Chennai airport was struggling due to of lack of capacity on the airside where planes were parked
Ayyappan.V@timesgroup.com
Chennai:27.09.2019
The possibility of new flights to international destinations from Chennai airport seems remote as many airlines did not show much interest at World Routes 2019 organized by Airports Council International in Adelaide, Australia.
Airports Authority of India (AAI), which operates around 125 airports, including 11 international airports, held several meetings at the annual meeting of airlines, airports and aviation executives.
However, except Heathrow airport, which showed interest in boosting the number of flights between London and Chennai, no other major airline or airport showed interest.
Foreign airlines — Batik Air, Cathay Pacific, Bangkok Airlines, Shenzhen airlines, Sydney airport, Capital airlines, Oman Air — held discussions with AAI to start flights to major airports in the country. But the focus was on flights to Kolkata and Guwahati rather than Chennai.
Chennai had a direct flight to Australia several years ago. Thai Airways and Thai AirAsia are two foreign airlines that fly on the Chennai-Bangkok route that has a good demand for seats.
Yet, Bangkok Airlines preferred to fly to Jaipur, Pune, Port Blair, Bhubaneswar, Kolkata and Guwahati. All Nippon is the only foreign airline that started a service from Chennai in the last few years.
Sources said Chennai airport is struggling due to lack of capacity on the airside where planes are parked for boarding.
“Foreign airlines are particular about turnaround time. Their flights are scheduled to depart an hour after landing.
For this, passengers must disembark, baggage needs to be unloaded and the aircraft readied in less than an hour. This often gets delayed at night as there are too many flight movements,” said an airline official.
Airport director S Sree Kumar said new routes were decided based on potential for airlines and also based on discounts offered by airports. “We have a common policy for all AAI airports. So we cannot market a single airport.
Airports are marketed based on their strengths such as apron and terminal capacity. Now, we are not in a position to offer peak hour slots for new flights in Chennai.
The decision of an airline to select an airport will also depend on potential of the route to draw passengers.” He also said, “IndiGo would start more flights by March. AirAsia will also add flights and we can accomodate new flights during non-peak hours.”
Sources said Chennai airport was struggling due to of lack of capacity on the airside where planes were parked
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