Bangalore’s wings clipped

Bangalore’s wings clipped
Saurabh Sinha | TNN

New Delhi: The increasing cost of jet fuel, which has already made flying expensive, is now taking its toll on short-haul sectors with airlines starting to withdraw such flights. The impact is being felt more in the south, thanks to the added impact of Hyderabad and Bangalore getting new airports very far from the city centre.
From Monday, low-cost carrier (LCC) SpiceJet will withdraw as many as 12 shorthaul flights originating in southern cities that connect about 20 sectors. These include sectors like Hyderabad-Chennai and Bangalore-Kochi. The frequency of thrice-daily Hyderabad-Bangalore flight is being reduced to one.
More airlines could follow suit soon once the new airport opens in Bangalore next month. The real problem will be faced by LCCs that do not have ATRs for short-haul routes. For instance, SpiceJet has all Boeing 737s and Indigo all Airbus A-320s. However, Deccan-Kingfisher, Jet-JetLite and Air India-Indian combines have ATRs.
“With Hyderabad and Bangalore airports far away from the cities and connectivity a big issue, short sector road travel from these cities will be as effective as air travel. Since demand might get affected, we have withdrawn 12 flights from the south. North India has not been touched,’’ said Siddhanta Sharma, SpiceJet executive chairman.
Apart from being far from the city centres, airport developers plan to levy a user development fee from all outgoing passengers from Hyderabad and Bangalore, is likely to impact traffic.
M Thiagarajan, MD of Paramount Airways, said: “Being a premium airline, our passengers are not fare-sensitive. But overall for the industry, the rising cost of jet fuel will have an impact on firsttime travellers.’’ He admitted that the long travel time to the new airports will “defeat the purpose of a 45-minute or one hour flight.’’