International
IA corners 25 p.c. of Gulf market share
By Gargi Parsai
DUBAI
FEB. 10.
Expatriate Indians here are excited about the Indian Airline's new Jaipur-Delhi-Dubai service from February 12, which will enable them to access Delhi directly. As of now, it takes 12 to 17 hours for North Indian passengers to reach metro cities from the Gulf on IA flights. While destinations like Thiruvananthapuram, Kozhikode, Hyderabad, Amritsar, Ahmedabad are popular with the over 60 per cent expatriates major destinations such as Delhi and Mumbai are not directly connected.
Even so, having cornered a market share of 25 per cent on the India-Gulf sector, the airline is now seeking Government permission to operate on India-Saudi and India-Hong Kong sectors with the two Airbus A-320 aircraft it will acquire by the end of next month. Thirty per cent of IA's revenue is generated on the Gulf route.
Jaipur is a surprise addition to the Middle East network, which is more for tourism promotion than for ferrying real term traffic. The big traffic is expected to originate from Delhi and Mumbai, as to start with, the daily service will be a Jaipur-Delhi-Dubai service. Adding Jaipur enables pilgrims to visit Ajmer's famous Dargah and Pushkar. IA's Managing-Director, V.P. Arora, expects the initial Jaipur-Delhi traffic to Dubai to be in the ratio of 25:75 per cent. The airline has offered a one-way introductory fare of 500 dirhams (about Rs. 6,500) till March 31, when the Dubai Tourism Festival ends.While India is adding capacity on this sector to serve its expatriate Indians, the Dubai International Airport is poised to see a passenger growth of 15 million by 2003. In answer to a question, the Director of Strategy and Management Excellence of the Dubai Department of Civil Aviation, Jamal Al Hai, told visiting journalists from India here that while Indo-Pak. tension had not influenced passengers arrival, there was a drop of five per cent in transit passengers after the September 11 attack on the Twin Towers in New York. "We have an open skies policy and we welcome all airlines in our skies,'' he said.
In addition to the Jaipur-Delhi-Dubai service from February 12, IA will operate its Hyderabad-Dubai frequency daily. It will also operate two flights between Kozhikode and Dubai taking its weekly frequency to 16 flights a week. The Jaipur-Delhi-Dubai inaugural flight was flagged off by the Union Civil Aviation Minister, Shahnawaz Hussain, the Chief Minister of Rajasthan, Ashok Gehlot and Bhairon Singh Shekhawat on February 7.
Coinciding with the inaugural of the Jaipur-Delhi flight, the Indian Association here will organise an Indian Fair and Festival with participation from Indian fashion designers, pop singers, film stars and artisans. Andhra Pradesh is the theme State.
`Not to press charges'
IA will not press charges against the passenger who had fiddled with the safety latch of the emergency exit door on board the inaugural IC-895 flight from Jaipur-Delhi-Dubai on February 7.
"We have not received any complaint,'' IA's Regional Manager, Gulf, R.C. Kathuria, told The Hindu here on Friday.
The passenger who had created a stir in the aircraft was a skilled worker from Bihar. He was a first-time air traveller.
Apparently he read the instructions on the emergency exit door and followed them without realising the consequences, while his co-passenger watched.
Forty first-time travellers had boarded the 145-seater Airbus A-320 from Delhi. There was a family of about 10 from Jaipur who were travelling to Dubai for a wedding and of course, an Indian Airlines and media team of about 19.
What heightened the anxiety was that the flight was cruising at an altitude of about 34,000 feet over the Arabian Sea with more than 90 minutes to Dubai. And when the Commander, Captain Chandok, made an announcement to ease panic, several passengers feared the worst.
But several minutes later, while two flight engineers on board physically held the latch back in place to keep the door from shifting when the pressure in the aircraft decompressed, compromising their own safety, the Captain made a safe landing. "There was an emergency, but it was under control,'' he said later.
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