Newstrack

Air Astana focuses on brand awareness in India

Anupama Sushil - New Delhi

Air Astana, the national carrier of Republic of Kazakhstan recently entered into an interline agreement with the Indian domestic carrier Kingfisher Airlines based on a pro-rata fare basis. On a tourism level, both airlines will help promote each other's country as a tourism destination. Speaking exclusively to Express AviationWorld, Chan Gammampila, the airline’s regional general manager, Arabian, Gulf and Indian sub-continent, said that the interline agreement is a prelude as the carrier will soon launch a third frequency from India. The airline aims at growing at double digits, he added.

The focus for this year, he said was building brand awareness in the Indian market as they aim to get more people travelling between both the countries. "While the business travel stands at a relative high percentage there is a serious lack of tourists from India," Gammampila added. He further informed that the percentage was as low as less than two per cent from India while the main traffic still consists of students and business travellers.

But with the focus now on leisure tourism - which also saw the Kazak tourism board coming into India last year for promotions - this initiative will now be followed by the airlines and the Kazakhstan Embassy itself. The official informed that this would mean the airlines will now be selling packages to Kazakhstan soon. "There is also some amount of religious traffic that is coming in to India. The leisure traffic from the Kazakhstan is significant and therefore this interline agreement will work very fine," notified Gammampila. The airline also sees a lot of potential for cultural tourism to the pilgrimage of Kazak.