Aviation

‘India is United Airlines' largest offline market worldwide’: Marcel Fuchs

Bhisham Mansukhani - Mumbai

United Airlines has deemed India as its biggest offline market and plans to ramp up its sales and marketing activity in the country even though the airline is not likely to fly into India in the near future. United Airlines managing director, Sales - Europe, Africa, the Middle East and India, Marcel Fuchs told Express TravelWorld in an exclusive about the high priority the airline accorded to the Indian market, which was fuelling a lot of its domestic aviation growth as business travel from India to the US continues to rise.

Following 28 months of restructuring after the airline filed for bankruptcy, United Airlines is back in the reckoning for top US-carrier status. The airline has slashed staff strength from 105,000 to 57,000 in four years and fleet size down to 460 from 560 aircraft. Its commuter carrier United Express with 70-seater jets and low-fare carrier Ted, have helped strengthen the airline's domestic network and tap a varied profile of passengers. Domestic travel still remains United Airlines's biggest revenue contributor, registering load factors of 82 per cent from April 2005 to March 2006.

United Airlines is keen to push its economy plus product in India as well as low-fare carrier Ted. "We are investing considerably in marketing and sales in the Indian market. It is our largest offline market. We want to distinguish our product from a traditional American airline product. Ted is a low fare rather than a low cost airline. Further, the onboard economy plus product has five inches of extra seat pitch and taps the business travel profile. As a direct result, our corporate loyalty base has increased dramatically. We have also introduced emailing onboard for domestic flights. The product is by no means minimal. On coast to coast flights like New York to San Franscisco, interestingly, United Airlines has a seat cabin configuration of economy plus, business and first class," Fuchs said. United Airlines is also looking at driving growth of Indian traffic through international gateways, apart from Western Europe like Singapore and Japan. With Swiss International Airlines joining the Star Alliance, a number of Indian business travellers travelling to the US can fly via Zurich, thereby adding a holiday option to their journey. Regarding the likelihood of operating flights into India, Fuchs said, "Air fares need to stabilise in the wake of massive capacity addition following the deregulation on the Indo-US route. These are simply unviable at current levels. Also, the duration to get a US visa is simply unacceptable. This is a matter of great concern."

Given that traffic on United Airlines flights into Asia Pacific increased by 14 per cent in 2005, Fuchs said there was every reason to be hopeful. He added that travel agents were important to the airline's strategy in India and that the airline will drive its business on the retail and corporate segment. United Airlines has a call centre in Pune to where US callers are routed and most recently, UK callers as well.