Kingfisher mulls flight cuts

By Our Special Correspondent

New Delhi

June 27: A senior official of private carrier Kingfisher Airlines on Friday said that the airline was examining various flight routes to decide on route-rationalisation, which, in effect, means cutting down the overall number of flights. Though the official, Sanjay Bahadur, head of corporate affairs of Kingfisher, said that a team in the airlines was still working on the matter, there are indications that airlines, in general, could first cut down on flight routes that are of a short distance.

Another official of an airline told this newspaper later, "Apart from flights to Class-II and III cities (smaller cities and towns) that are likely to be affected, even connectivity on metro sectors, such as Bangalore-Mumbai and Bangalore-Chennai, that are short-haul routes, may be affected.

Passengers from Bangalore have also to travel a large distance to reach the new airport at substantial financial cost."

In fact, a recent civil aviation ministry presentation had mentioned that "fare-elasticity" in short-haul sectors would be the maximum.

Speakers at an Assocham conference on the civil aviation sector in the city also called for opening up of air-space (currently reserved for military use) for civilian use so that aircraft can fly on straight air-routes in order to save precious expensive aviation turbine fuel.

"It will be much easier for us to save ATF if this is done," said an official.