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| Paragliding adventure carnival at Wagamon, , organised by Kerala State Youth Welfare Board. |
The ongoing price war between the low
cost aviation companies seems to welcome benefits for kerala.
The new joint venture of Air Asia and Tata group, which is expected to start its operations by the end of this year would also have its destinations in kerala and its itinerary.
The new joint venture of Air Asia and Tata group, which is expected to start its operations by the end of this year would also have its destinations in kerala and its itinerary.
Suresh Nair, Regional Head of Air Asia,
India, told the Indian Express, “The airline is going to be a domestic service.
We would look at destinations in Kerala to operate from, once we commence our
services.”
The joint venture is surely going to
cater the domestic market but the experts in the aviation sector believe that
it would also soon foray on the international routes. But for the company to
operate in the international market the, according to the rules, it would
require a minimum of a 5 years of
domestic service and a minimum of 20 aircrafts.
There are reports coming out that
fare war initiated by the low cost carriers in the state such as Spice Jet,
Indigo and Jet Airways is also likely to pull the state run Air India too in
the fare war. Nevertheless, if it goes to be a reality then this is directly
going to benefit the expatriate community in the state.
Suresh Nair also said, “We would be
offering travel fares that are around 40 per cent lower than that of other
airlines. On an average, around 85 per cent of our seats are being sold out.”
Paulose K Mathew, chairman, Travel
Agents Federation of India (Kerala Chapter) said that it would ultimately prove
beneficial for the tourism in the state and also the business community based
in the state and further added that, “The Kerala market seems reluctant to
spend much on air travel. But with the entry of low-cost airlines, people would
start to depend more on air travel.”
Air Asia started its services in the
state on the 16th of November 2009 and the initial one way travel
rates to Kula Lumpur were merely 3,000 but following the success of the
operations the rates were hiked later. But if the bookings are done in advance
one is sure to get charged less.
With a seating capacity of 180 Air
Asia has been providing flights daily for its passengers form Kochi to Kuala
Lumpur.
With the annual increase of around
15% in the number of the number of the flights operating from the state and the
number of passengers making their travel kerala has emerged as a key player in
the aviation market in India.
Not only that but at present on the
whole there are round about 100 trips
operated from Kochi, Kozhikode and Thiruvananthapuram airports together every
day by various airlines operating in the state.
