December 13, 2011: Airline operators and passengers are finding it difficult to conduct business when it comes to new domestic flight services. Looking to minimize costs, airline companies are regularly canceling under booked flights, resulting in erratic, undependable service. The result is logical: would-be frequent fliers are staying away.
Both state owned and private airlines have recently rushed to expand their domestic service; at Chandigarh, the eight flights from the city airport 3 years ago has increased to 26 flights today, connecting 45 domestic destinations.
Passenger traffic is on the rise and about 2,500-3,000 thousand passengers fly in and out of the city each day. Services were expanded rapidly to meet an ever growing demand. Many of the new flights are now failing to reach levels of occupancy that would balance out or outweigh operating costs and, therefore, airlines are rethinking their decisions.
For example, Jet Indore-Jodhpur and Indore-Hyderabad flights have been canceled while the Indore-Jaipur-Chandigarh bound flight is losing money due to low occupancy.
Timings for these flights are not serving the needs of business travelers. This is one reason a frequent flier cited for the low air ticket sales. He said that he often needs to visit cities where flight services have been recently introduced for both business and personal reasons, but the erratic timings of the flights are a problem. Fares running higher than those to Delhi and Mumbai are another reason that passengers are not piling on board.
Many flights connect three to four cities, resulting in odd scheduling that is often inconvenient.
For example, the Indore-Jodhpur Jet Airways flight leaves Devi Ahilyabai Holkar Airport at 1 pm, but the return flight takes off at 2.45 pm to reach Indore at 3.35 pm. Indore-Kolkata, Indore-Jaipur and Indore-Chandigarh flights have similarly ill-timed schedules.
Late morning take offs for flights on these routes make it impossible for passengers to take a same day return flight, thus disturbing busy work and home schedules. One industry professional pointed out that business travelers want flights because they want to reach their destinations early, complete their work during the day and then return the same evening. He said that therefore flight timings should match office timings, like the Indore-Delhi flights, which take off from Indore early in the morning and then return late in the evening.
The Indore- Delhi starts at 7.30 am and return flight is scheduled at 6 pm. Chandigarh currently has three flights from the city to Delhi.
Jet Airways station manager Tapan Kulkarni said that orders had been received from high officials to discontinue services on two routes due to operational difficulties. He cited low occupancy on the flights as a major factor. Jet Airways is discontinuing its Jodhpur and Indore-Hyderabad flights from December 15.
Meanwhile, Kingfisher is suspending service to major cities. Its flights connecting Jabalpur-Indore-Mumbai and Goa-Pune-Indore-Nagpur-Hyderabad have been suspended through December 15.