In Brief

Air France, Vietnam Airlines Sign Code-Share Agreement

Vietnam Airlines and Air France recently signed a code-share agreement covering routes between Paris and Hanoi and Paris and Ho Chi Minh City. As from March 28, 2004, the two airlines will jointly offer 11 weekly (12 as from 27 June 2004) non-stop round-trip services between France and Vietnam. These flights will be shared between the two airlines, which will each have a quota of seats on all flights.

"This agreement will mark a great leap forward in the close cooperation between our two airlines, bringing in benefits for both passengers and the two airlines, and thereby reflecting Vietnam Airline's success in international integration and cooperation for mutual development," said Pham Ngoc Minh, commercial executive vice-president for Vietnam Airlines.

"By rationalising air services between our two countries, this agreement will enable us to provide our customers with optimum service by doubling the number of frequencies and offering only non-stop flights," underlined Dominique Patry, Air France's vice-president for international affairs and alliances.

Lufthansa Opens New Route Linking New Delhi To Munich

Lufthansa German Airlines will offer three weekly non-stop New Delhi-Munich services for the first time starting March 29, 2004. Said Werner Heesen, general manager passenger sales India and director South Asia, Lufthansa German Airlines, "We are excited to operate these new scheduled flight services between New Delhi and Munich in view of the continuous growth of India's travel market. India has enormous growth potential, and is an important strategic market in Lufthansa's global network."The thrice weekly New Delhi-Munich flights will be operated with Boeing 767-300 aircraft and subsequently with Airbus 340-300 aircraft from June 07, 2004 onwards. For the first time in India, Lufthansa will also introduce from June 09, 2004 onwards, its new Business Class product on the Airbus 340-300, developed with an investment of around 300 million euros. It will feature a new multi-functional seat, which guarantees ideal conditions for sleep, work and relaxation. FlyNet - the broadband Internet connectivity will also be made available onboard in all the three classes. In its summer schedule 2004, Lufthansa will provide a total of 29 weekly services to and from India: daily New Delhi-Frankfurt, three weekly New Delhi-Munich, daily Mumbai-Frankfurt, daily Chennai-Frankfurt and five weekly Bangalore-Frankfurt flights (three scheduled and two seasonal flights).

BA, Swiss Begin Code-Share

British Airways and Swiss International Air Lines began code-sharing on each other's services between London City Airport, Geneva and Zurich and between London Gatwick and Geneva from February 24, 2004. Additionally, from the start of the 2004-05 winter timetable on October 31, British Airways will increase its flights from six to eight daily frequencies between London Heathrow and Geneva. All these services will be offered as BA/Swiss code-share flights. The four daily Geneva-London frequencies currently operated by Swiss will be withdrawn. In all, customers of both airlines will have a choice of 14 flights a day to Geneva from London's three airports and up to eight daily flights between London City and Zurich, building on the existing code-shares on services from Heathrow to Zurich, Geneva and Basle. Last year both airlines signed a legally binding memorandum of understanding entering into a commercial agreement, with plans to operate code-share flights between the UK and Switzerland.

Air Deccan Aims To Operate 120 Flights Per Day By December 2004

After having established themselves as India's first 'No Frills' carrier, Air Deccan is set to take on the Indian aviation scene with gusto. Bejan Dinshaw, head - marketing and sales, Air Deccan, was recently in Mumbai to make a presentation to the TAAI western region agents on the airline. Talking about Air Deccan's plan for the coming year, he added, "Our road show in Mumbai was a great success. Taking that into consideration, we want to consolidate our position as a regional carrier in the western and northern region. In the coming months, two aircraft will be based full time in Mumbai, which will cater to the Goa-Belgaum, Ahmedabad- Baroda routes. While in April-May, our focus will move to Delhi where we will incorporate two to three ATRs catering to the Jaipur, Agra, Lucknow, Ludhiana, Chandigarh, Jammu and Kullu routes."

With a strategic plan well in place, Air Deccan certainly does not feel that there exists competition with India's domestic carriers. Dinshaw adds, "We cater to a different segment altogether so competition with our national carriers does not arise. We want to make air travel affordable to every Indian and our prime targets are the upper end rail travellers. On a more progressive note, we want to increase our frequencies from just two flights to 38 flights and now 60 flights. Our aim is to have 120 flights per day by the end of 2004. Besides, we want to replace the existent ATRs based in Hyderabad, Chennai and Bangalore and gradually move on to Jets and link the metros."

SriLankan Airlines Commences Service To Hyderabad

As private carriers wait for a green signal to fly to Colombo, SriLankan Airlines has begun its Hyderabad service effective February 20, the carrier will service the cybercity four times a week on Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday. "We will fly in a 140-seater A320 with two configurations of 12 in business and 128 in economy," said Lalini Weerasinghe, manager - northern India, SriLankan Airlines. Currently, the carrier operates 44 flights to India and enjoys an average load factor of around 85 per cent.

Taking advantage of the open sky policy valid till March, the airline is currently operating 44 flights to India including daily flights to Delhi and Mumbai, 14 flights to Chennai and six flights to Bangalore.

"We are ready to operate daily services to the cities earmarked by the government under the year-round open sky policy and are waiting for formal guidelines to be issued," said Weerasinghe. As a fallout of the government decision to allow private carriers to fly to Sri Lanka, she foresees phenomenal increase in tourism arrivals from India. Far from being worried by the competition looming large, she lauded the decision saying, "We would like to have healthy competition. With Indian investors showing interest in Sri Lanka, trade and commerce between the two countries are on an upswing. There's lot of leisure travel happening, in addition to business travel, as Indians find it an ideal weekend, incentive and family destination. Hence, aggressive marketing by different airlines will give prominence to the destination leading to market growth and every player will have his share."