City sees a 3% dip in domestic flights

City sees a 3% dip in domestic flights
Anshul Dhamija | TNN

Bangalore: After airlines embarked on a flight frequency trimming exercise — triggered by skyrocketing prices in aircraft turbine fuel (ATF) — the city has seen a 3% dip in domestic aircraft movement. That’s not all, the fall islikely to touch 10% in the coming weeks, according to experts.
As per aircraft movement estimates reported by Bengaluru International Airport (BIA), the week gone by reported 1,120 aircraft movements. This includes domestic and international flights.
“In comparison to the first week of operations (starting May 24), there has been a 2% reduction in the total number of flights. This is due to a 3% reduction in domestic flights per week. However, international flights have shown a 4% increase from 134 flights to 140 flights per week,’’ said BIAL, the promoters of BIA.
The new international flights include West Asia carriers such as Oman Air and South East Asian airline like Dragon Air.
“Due to operational reasons, GoAir has suspended operations till September 15 and Paramount Airways has reduced its frequency,’’ said BIAL.
Airlines though say that the cut in frequencies from Bangalore is due to adouble-whammy effect.
TOI had earlier reported that issues of connectivity to BIA and anever-increasing oil price were causing a meltdown in air travel on theBangalore-Chennai route which used to be a profitable sector among airlines.
“We have cut our frequency on the Bangalore-Chennai route from 4 daily flights to 2 daily flights,’’ M Thiagarajan, MD, Paramount Airways had told this newspaper earlier. He added before the new airport opened, the four dailyflights operating out of the old HAL airport were recording load factors of 85%. “Our load factors had dropped to 70% on peak hours and close to 50% on non-peak hours once the new airport opened,’’ said Thiagarajan.
According to travel agents there has been 30% drop in the overall passenger traffic on shorthaul routes and a 10%-15% drop in traffic on domesticlong-haul routes from Bangalore, primarily due to the double-whammy effect.
But, going forward airline officials say it will be the rising ATF prices that will make airlines cut frequencies out of Bangalore. SpiceJet, which had 14 departures from Bangalore in a week, has trimmed it down to 9 as of July 1. Kingfisher Airlines has also cut down its Bangalore frequencies by 3 flights and more cuts are to follow.
Value-based carrier Deccan has trimmed a number of its short-haul flights on routes like Trichy, Coimbatore and other destinations. “When the new airport opened we had dropped two flights on the short-haul routes, but now with rising ATF prices we have cut the number of flights further,’’ said a senior SpiceJet official.
PLANESPEAK
3% dip in domestic aircraft movement at Bengaluru International Airport. May touch 10% in the coming weeks.
Only 1,120 aircraft movement in the last week
POSITIVE SIGN
International flights have increased 4% from 134 flights to 140 flights per week.
LESS FLIGHTS
GoAir has suspended operations till September 15
Paramount Airways has reduced its frequency.
Kingfisher Airlines has cut by 3 flights. More cuts to follow.
Deccan has trimmed its short-haul flights on routes like Trichy, Coimbatore and other destinations.
SpiceJet, which had 14 flights a week, has trimmed it down to 9 as of July 1.
DOUBLE WHAMMY EFFECT
Connectivity to BIA and ATF prices