The Qatar Airways, for example, has launched flights to Nagpur recently. The launch of twice-weekly flights between Doha and Nagpur takes the airline’s burgeoning network across India to 44 services a week. The airways had recently launched daily service to Mumbai from Doha and this has been a complete success.

Meanwhile, Bahrain’s Gulf Air which connects several Indian cities including Bangalore wants to revamp all its services, including those to India. SriLankan Airlines already caters to the major Indian cities via Colombo and there are direct services offered by several airlines such as Oman Air, Emirates, Air Arabia, Saudi Arabian Airlines, Etihad Airways, Kuwait Airways to the Indian destinations from their respective countries.

Enter Jet

Amidst this, the entrance of Jet Airways has intensified competition. The decision of the Indian government to allow Jet Airways to fly to certain Gulf destinations is expected to induce more customer friendly environment and possible cut in the fares. It is estimated that fares on the Indo-Gulf routes would come down by 10 per cent in view of the extra capacity that would be inducted by the Jet Airways when it launches services to the Gulf from the New Year. Till now, bilateral rights for the lucrative Gulf were reserved for Air India and Indian, which have now merged into a single airline.

Jet is certain to offer an additional choice to teeming passengers who are used to the long waiting periods. There is huge demand for seats in this region. The Gulf and Middle-East market accounts for around 40 per cent of total out-bound airline traffic from India. Till recently, flying to the Gulf has been preserve of Air India, often criticized for its poor services and rude staff. The government airline has been protected for years as it dictated terms to hapless Gulf travelers. Most of them are in workers category and earn a paltry salary of US$ 300 per month. They seldom dare to protest. Even now the Indian government has been careful by not throwing open the entire Gulf to Jet Airways. Airlines such as Vijay Mallya’s Kingfisher too wants to fly to the Gulf. But these airlines have to wait as they do not fulfill the mandatory five-year of domestic flying experience required to apply for permission to fly overseas.

Lucrative routes

The Gulf is attractive because most of the destinations can be reached within the time one takes from Mumbai to Kolkata. This means any airline can use its low cost arm. Jet Airways, for example, can use Jetlite (its recent acquisition of Sahara fleet) to provide a low cost service in addition to regular flights. On the domestic circuit the seats are sold at much lower prices due to heavy competition. Apart from Air India there are other airlines from the Gulf countries that operate direct flights to India as they have bilateral rights. Then there are new entrants such as Air Arabia – whose value proposition is “Pay less, fly more”. Also available Etihad Airways which offer seats at attractive prices. Some passengers lap them despite the time lost in hopping. Given this scenario, it seems the Indian government does not want Jet Airways to be a rival in a true sense. Jet Airways, for the time being, has been allowed to fly to the selected destinations in the Gulf Cooperation Council Countries (GCC), Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and Bahrain. It has been kept out of the most lucrative Saudi Arabia, Dubai and Abu Dhabi from where almost every direct flight to India goes packed and has demand all around the year.
In the Gulf sector, the stakes are high for national carrier Air India which commands almost 45 per cent of the Indo-Gulf market, accounting for up to 50 per cent of the company’s cash flow. The rest is shared by the Gulf-based airlines.

With airlines such as Emirates taking pride in elite services, others are tempting passengers with reduced fares, tourist packages and hotel tie-ups etc. The NRIs in the Gulf have been looking for a airlines that treat them with respect.  The Maharajah could never satisfy them in all these years. Now it is the turn of the Jet Airways to fill the gap till Mallya’s red skirted girls get the permission to fly to desert Kingdoms!

The writer is Media Editor for Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC), in Riyadh. E-mail: gopalsutar@gmail.com