Airlines up frequencies, capacity as India network thrives

WITH the recovery in India's air cargo business, several global and domestic airlines are planning to add new destinations or capacity to their India networks.

According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), freight volumes temporarily disrupted by the volcanic ash cloud in Europe actually grew by 26 per cent in the first quarter and yields were up by 15 per cent as load factors regained pre-9/11 levels.

A report by Mumbai's Economic Times noted that the Lufthansa passenger airline group, Europe's principal airline for offering connections to India, along with Swiss International Air Lines and Austrian Airlines will from October 29 provide more flights from seven Indian destinations to Frankfurt, Munich, Zurich and Vienna, with a total of 75 weekly frequencies.

Lufthansa will serve its Pune-Frankfurt route with four weekly frequencies, up from three currently. In addition, the carrier will deploy an Airbus A340-600 aircraft on its Chennai-Frankfurt route. The larger airplane will be operated six days per week on this route, which continues to be served daily.

Swiss will serve both its Indian routes, Delhi-Zurich and Mumbai-Zurich, with daily flights, up from six per week to Delhi and five per week to Mumbai at present.

Austrian Airlines is also adding Mumbai to its global network. The carrier will offer five weekly flights connecting Mumbai with Vienna and its huge Eastern and Central European network during the winter schedule.

SilkAir, the regional wing of Singapore Airlines (SIA), has introduced daily services between Singapore and Chennai. With the addition of Chennai, SilkAir now flies to six points in India, the report added.
(Source:www.schednet.com)