Low cost air services, a major hit in Tiruchi

While the airline industry is passing through troubled times, low cost carriers such as Air India Express and Air Asia have been highly successful with their operations.

Industry sources here estimate that nearly 65 to 70 per cent of passengers from the city take the services of the low cost carriers. With the services being run with excellent average load factor, more services from budget airlines are in the offing. Air Asia, which has been operating daily services on the Tiruchi-Kuala Lumpur sector with an average load factor of over 80 per cent, is expected to come with a second frequency soon.

With Air India too looking to convert its short-haul flights into no-frills services, the national carrier’s services on the Chennai-Tiruchi-Sharjah route could be brought under the Air India Express. AI Express is expected to launch services on the Tiruchi-Kuala Lumpur sector soon. Indications are that AI Express could station an aircraft here and possibly make Tiruchi a hub of its operations in the region.

AI Express operates flights to Singapore, Dubai and Abu Dhabi from here currently. The airline carried about 34,000 passengers to Dubai and Singapore during 2007-2008 and 52,000 passengers on the sectors during 2008-2009, industry sources say. Mihin Lanka is the third budget airline operating out of here with services to Colombo.

The low fares of the budget airlines have made them a big attraction for the huge ethnic and labour passenger traffic from the region, industry sources say. This apart, it has brought in a whole new segment of the traffic – first time travellers. “Several individuals and families, who normally prefer to travel by train, are taking to air travel. Families are also flying abroad taking advantage of the low fares,” says an official of an airline. Airlines expect the first-time travellers to become regular travellers in due course.
Hassle-free operations

Besides, the convenience of online bookings, easy access and hassle free operations have been attractive to the passengers. For the airlines, the instant revenue realisation, fuel economy, more capacity and single class configuration, limited liability to customers, contractual crew, engineers and limited overheads, have been favourable considerations, the sources said.