Travel portal Cleartrip’s outgoing CEO Ayyappan Rajagopal said airfares are expected to go up, both on international and domestic segments, as there is high demand and more people are making bookings in advance.
“In the premium segment, the (price) sensitivity is not so high. There is a second set of consumers, they are a lot more bothered about pricing and they might even take three hops to reach a destination,” he told PTI.
Meanwhile, Akasa Air’s Dube said there is no shortage of pilots at the airline and that there won’t be any flight disruptions.
The revised flight duty time limitation norms that provide for increased rest time for pilots will come into force from June 1.
“We have got around 700 pilots at Akasa. We have no pilot shortage. I don’t want to just say no without giving numbers as you can make your own calculations on what an airline with 24 aircraft requires when it comes to pilots.
“We are focused on creating a highly reliable network. We want to be India’s most on-time airline. We want to make sure we have the lowest cancellation rate,” Dube said.
On whether there could be disruptions once the revised norms are implemented, he replied in the negative.
“Absolutely, 100 per cent you are not going to see disruptions. Reliability is intrinsic to everything we do at Akasa. Nobody should expect any disruptions in June,” he noted.
Regarding bilateral air traffic rights, the Akasa Air chief said there is plenty of room for international expansion.
Some Gulf carriers have been seeking enhanced flying rights to operate more flights to and from the country.
However, the government is not in favour of granting more bilateral flying rights.
“I think that there may be a couple of markets in the entire Gulf where bilaterals have saturated like Dubai and Sharjah, the best I know but places like Abu Dhabi have a lot of capacity, Dammam has open skies, we have got Riyadh, Jeddah, Kuwait, I think there is room in Bahrain, Muscat.
“So, if you ask me particularly about the Middle East, I don’t see issues. South East Asia has a lot of capacity in almost every market. So, I think we are good that there is plenty of room for expansion internationally,” Dube said.
When asked whether there is any particular tag that Akasa Air would like to be identified with, Dube said that personally, he does not like such a tag.
“We are India’s most on-time airline, lowest cancellation rates, best baggage, literally, we have got the best leg room in India, take your tape, measure out and measure it, we have got USB ports increasing in flights, the quality of food is fantastic, we think we have got some of the best-trained staff. I don’t have a tag, Akasa is not about marketing gimmicks. We are really there to serve the people with the best customer service,” he said.