Airlines roll back short-haul flights on rising input costs
27 Jun 2008
New Delhi: The warnings are now starting to turn into action. Vijay Mallya's Kingfisher-Deccan combine is the latest to reduce both metro and regional flights, as rising input costs, specially that of jet fuel, force a capacity rationalisation on the domestic aviation industry.
Kingfisher has withdrawn 17 metro flights. Most of the cancellations have been in the south, which sources say are on account of the new Hyderabad and Bangalore airports being far and relatively inaccessible from the city, which is resulting in passengers preferring alternative modes of transport for short haul destinations. Deccan too has withdrawn 20 flights, both being a mix of metro and shorthaul flights.
South India is facing a virtual exodus of flights, as short haul destinations abound in the south of the country. Low cost carriers SpiceJet and JetLite have also announced trimmed services, while Deccan has started to cut back capacities on routes in the north east such as the Dimapur-Imphal sector, and other regions like Kolkata-Jammu or Delhi – Amritsar. It has also removed low cost flights from metro routes such as Mumbai - Kolkata and Mumbai – Hyderabad.
Kingfisher has cut back on services from Bangalore to Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai and Hyderabad to Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai. The frequency on Mumbai-Ahmedabad route has also been trimmed.