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United Airlines in connectivity talks with IA, Jet

Ashwini Phadnis

NEW DELHI, Sept. 7

UNITED Airlines (UA), which is to launch a daily Delhi-Chicago flight on October 28, has held talks with Indian Airlines (IA) and Jet Airways (JA) to offer better connectivity to its passengers in the Indian markets.

``The nature of our discussions with JA and IA have been to see how UA can offer greater connectivity throughout India for our passengers,'' the airlines General Manager, India, Mr Michael J. Purchon, told Business Line.

While the airline has already spoken to the two major players in the Indian markets, officials of the US carrier are also proposing to meet with officials of Sahara Airlines (SA) shortly. Officials pointed out that as the idea was to provide the maximum connectivity and convenience to the passenger, UA was holding talks with all the Indian domestic carriers.

The idea of the proposed tie-up will be to ensure that a passenger from any part of India can tie-up with the UA flight without too much trouble or having to wait too long at Delhi. ``The new UA flight into and out of India has been timed in such a fashi on that it provides convenient and immediate connections not only in India but also in the US. The proposed tie-up with the Indian carriers is to help facilitate that process,'' Mr Purchon said.

On the issue of the withdrawal of the around the world service which UA had launched earlier this year, Mr Purchon, while admitting that the service had been in the market for a short time, added that with the start of the new service the US carrier woul d be able to focus on its core strength.

``As a US carrier we are best at taking people to the US. In fact, almost 80 per cent of the UA tickets sold in India were to the US. Besides, UA sees the withdrawal not as a negative move but as providing the market with an improved product and faster s ervice to the US,'' Mr Purchon said.

Meanwhile, UA has no immediate plans to look at operating more flights between India and the US. ``We have no immediate plans for starting another service. If the new flight does well that will encourage us to look at other cities also,'' Mr Purchon sai d.