Spoilt For Choice

For the Indian traveller, the skies have never looked more alive. When one looks at the plethora of choices that airlines are set to offer in the near future it would seem that the business traveller has almost sprouted wings, says Anindita Chattopadhyay

The sky looks like Diwali," said Vijay. "Yes, an amazing change from what it was 24 months ago," added Himmat. No, we were not star gazing. We were chatting at the Sita-hosted do in Delhi. Vijay Chadha and Himmat Anand being the bosses of BTI-Sita and Sita Inbound were playing gracious hosts. Were they referring to any fireworks or laser show? No, wrong again. We were talking about the Indian sky after liberalisation.

Flip through the dailies and you would know what I mean. News of increased frequency, new hubs, new airlines starting operations, sops etc are a regular feature almost daily. Indian aviation is on a high like never before and most airlines around the world, both scheduled and low cost, are waiting to get a slice of it. And for the consumer it means more connectivity, cheaper fares, better service, more options - extra frills for who are ready to pay and no frills, for those who want the bare basics.

Choices On A Platter

Compared to 2003, there has been a vast increase in the number of choices available to the customer today. Imagine you are flying to London or New York. You have - hold your breath - a bouquet of not less than 18 airlines to choose from.

There are direct flights from India to London offered by Air India, Virgin Atlantic and British Airways. There is no direct flight to New York, but all three have onward flights to the Big Apple. Other airlines that fly from India to London and New York with a stopover in their respective countries are Air France, Lufthansa, Alitalia, Emirates, Royal Jordanian, Kuwait Airways, KLM, Austrian, Delta, Aeroflot and Turkish Airlines. Qatar Airways, SriLankan Airlines, Gulf Air and Etihad Airways fly to London with a hop in their respective countries and from London use their partner airlines to connect to New York and other cities in USA.

Are these sounding like sweet music to your ears? Then there's more. The future looks all the more bright with Jet and Air Sahara venturing overseas. In its summer schedule, Jet will launch one flight a week from Mumbai to Singapore and a daily flight to London, while Sahara will fly on the Delhi-Singapore sector and twice-a-week to London.

That's not all. Lufthansa is looking at increasing its capacity by 50 per cent. Virgin Atlantic will soon start flying out of Mumbai. And if you live in Bangalore, Hyderabad or Chennai take heart. You can expect more flights to the west coast of USA as Air India is planning to connect the Silicon Valley to the IT and BPO hotspots of south India via Frankfurt. Air-India now offers 25 flights a week to USA, including a weekly service from India to Los Angeles. By 2006, A-I is hoping to add a total of 40 flights per week to the United States.

According to industry practitioners, even a direct flight to USA seems to be a possibility. "If there can be a direct flight to Toronto, there can be one to New York, Washington or Newark. Simply because all three places are almost the same distance from India as Toronto since they lie along the same longitude," argued Arvind Saraswat of makemytrip.com.

Wind Of Change

The change was being felt since the monopoly of national carriers ended in 1994, allowing the entry of private carriers. As domestic traffic grew fast, policymakers realised that air travel can become a viable alternative to rail travel and should be accessible and affordable to the majority of the population.

"The increase has come about primarily owing to three reasons," said Deep Kalra, CEO, makemytrip.com. "With liberalisation, most airlines have increased the number of flights they used to operate to India. Many airlines have spread their operations to new cities in India, primarily to Hyderabad, Bangalore, Kolkata and Ahmedabad. And thirdly, new flights started operating to/from India such as Turkish Airlines, Etihad, Air Canada, while carriers like Alitalia, Myanmar Airways, who had once withdrawn flights, returned."

A closer look at the Indian sky would explain Kalra's point. Air-India has started new flights from Bombay and Delhi to London, Paris, Frankfurt, Newark (NJ) and Los Angeles. In addition, the national carrier has started operating a service from Ahmedabad to London and onwards to New Jersey. Last season Delta and Northwest doubled their flights to Mumbai. Lufthansa has increased its flights to Chennai and has started operations to Bangalore and Hyderabad. Austrian Airlines now has a daily flight out of Delhi and will start a five-weekly service from Mumbai this summer. Malaysia Airlines has taken Hyderabad, Bangalore, Kolkata and Ahmedabad into its fold. If Malaysia increases points of call, can Singapore Airlines be far behind? Certainly not. It has started flights to Amritsar, Bangalore and Ahmedabad. Emirates, which earlier used to fly till London and connected to USA through services of partner airlines like American Airlines and Continental Airlines, has started flying to New York City. Correspondingly, it has increased the number of flights from Hyderabad, Mumbai, Chennai and Delhi, which offer onward journey to London and New York from Dubai.

Consumer Is King

No doubt, the Indian traveller has never had it so good with all these airlines wooing them. More choices mean that consumers like you and me stand to gain in terms of price, options and service quality. So what can you expect as a consumer? Let's hear it from the experts.

"With the supply side increasing there will definitely be reduction in prices - at least a drop of 20-25 per cent," said Thomas Cook India managing director Ashwini Kakkar. "With more choices, corporate travellers will have varied options to suit their needs and negotiate better corporate fares. Further, service quality would improve with cut-throat competition," said Vijay Chadha, COO, BTI Sita. "Outbound leisure travel will become more attractive with increasing competition. What started as 'ek ka do' might now become 'ek ka teen'," said Himmat Anand, COO, Sita.

Increased competition means that no airline can take its passengers for granted. Gone are the days when you had to be deep pocketed to take a flight to London. Now, pay just Rs 17,000 and you are there - courtesy Qatar Airways. Believe it or not, Myanmar Airlines will fly you to Bangkok for Rs 8,000 - almost the same fare you pay from Delhi to Kolkata. According to Saraswat, "India-London can be flown on Syrian Air for as low as Rs 19,000 (taxes extra) and lowest fares for India-New York route would be Rs 35,000 (taxes extra) on Kuwait Airways or Royal Jordanian."

It is not just that fares are doing a southward curve, with so many flights your options have widened. You can now choose the leg that suits your business needs and schedule. Sample this. The west coast flights of A-I are intended to bite into the market share of Thai Airways, Singapore Airlines and Malaysia Airlines, which are flying Indian traffic to Los Angeles and San Francisco through their own hubs in south-east Asia. What does that mean to a traveller? Once A-I starts operations competition will invariably reduce fares. Further, flying through Frankfurt to the west coast of America would mean quicker connections and saving time. So if one does not intend to finish a quick business meeting at the Changi airport en route west coast, he can take the A-I terminator flight to Frankfurt and board onward flights to San Francisco or LA.

Make The Right Choice

Well, with so much on the platter it is really confusing. So, weigh your options well before making a decision. If you look at prices only you may end up carrying the baggage of inconveniences too. Reason? The cheapest fare would mean multiple hops and longer flying times.

"It is wise to look for the best fare option from a basket of airlines offering the shortest or direct route to the destination of travel without compromising on convenience, quality and reliability," said Chadha.

Conceded Kalra. "At times it may not be worth saving a few hundred rupees and opting for a circuitous/longer flight route. Generally, the airlines come out with special fares in order to promote their new flights/routes. Customers can benefit from these offerings and save considerably."

Further, with an increase in the number of flights lowering fares is emerging as a major trend to retain customers. So, the better or more direct flights need not necessarily be far more expensive. "Customers can now choose the comfort of direct flights at marginally higher fares on world-class carriers. For instance, it is possible to take a direct flight from Mumbai to London for Rs 19,990 on A-I. British Airways has also come out with a special fare of Rs 38,000 for New York in an effort to promote its new flight between Mumbai and London," added Saraswat.

What Does The Consumer Want

Certainly, the jet-setting, wallet-happy, ever-evolving business traveller has learnt to make the best of the situation.

There is no second-guessing the fact that businesspersons prioritise a work-adaptable environment when choosing an airline. Ashank Desai, chairman and MD, Mastek Ltd says, "Time for me is a decisive factor. Thus, various mediums, which facilitate travel have to prove gainful with respect to time."

Airlines too are playing the corporate game with panache. For instance, SWISS offers its business travellers electrical power outlets for laptops but with the caveat that a special aeroplane adapter cable compatible with a 15 volt DC hypertronic socket would be required. For shorter notes, the airline offers an e-messaging system that enables travellers to send short text messages to any e-mail, mobile phone or fax world wide. Business executives are undoubtedly choosing those airlines where deals can be struck at while flitting through international skies. Shekar Bajaj, chairman and MD of Bajaj Electricals Limited says, "I rate Singapore Airlines very high because they are able to provide passengers all the convenience needed to turn their flight into an office in the sky. Another airline that matches my expectations, even though I do not fly it frequently, is Emirates. The airline offers a host of modern benefits."

It is not just the frills and food. Business travellers are demanding high quality service in an environment where they can dictate terms. As Pushpendra Kumar Gupta, director strategic development, Asia Pacific and Japan, EMC Software opines, "Low fares are okay, but price is my secondary consideration. I choose an airline for its reliability factor, comfort and timeliness. Because if the flight is late my meetings go for a toss and of course one cannot compromise on the safety aspect. So I prefer Lufthansa and Singapore as they have a credible track record. More so, because they have a two-four-two sitting arrangement even in the economy class, which means I am not crammed between seats."

Well, value-add and sops can tilt the balance a little if one is on a leisure trip. "Recently, I flew to Kuala Lumpur in the business class of Malaysia Airlines and my wife flew for a just Rs 1. We were thinking of a holiday in Hong Kong, but opted for Kuala Lumpur because the offer made sense," said SB Saha, a businessman from Kolkata.

Many ask the question that with international airlines constantly innovating to offer its passengers incentives by the dozen, be it flat beds, multi-cuisine options or even faster technology, where do low cost carriers stand a chance? The fact is smaller businessmen and professionals in India want to go from point A to B in the shortest possible time and are not looking at luxuries. "I am a frequent traveller and time is of the essence for me. From a business traveller's viewpoint I don't require the service drama on board. I want to take my boarding card and get on the flight within 20 minutes. In the one-and-a-half hour of travel time, I am not worried about what they are serving. If I want food I can buy it from the trolley when it comes," said Kapil Kaul, chief executive officer, CAPA.

No wonder, Air India is launching its low-cost carrier A-I Express in April for the gulf sector, known to be its stronghold. International low cost carriers like Lion King and Air Asia are also planning to enter the India market. Well, the more the merrier.

Take Your Pick

"The market is fluctuating everyday. Airlines are changing fares frequently. Go to the Internet, look for the best fare and fly," comes the pearl of advice from Anil Bhandari, managing director, International Travel House.

Internet certainly has changed the face of travel. You can conveniently sit at home or office and plan trips. Just view the flight timings, connections and fares, book and pay online. It is better to check airlines' websites, GDS sites like Galileo and Amadeus or travel sites that uses a real-time reservation database such as airticketsindia.com and makemytrip.com. As airlines fill flights or change fares, the database immediately reflects those changes. Always be sure to double-check prices when reserving or purchasing tickets as the fare may have changed since you first searched for fares or created your itinerary.

However, with online booking cancellation and refunds become a problem. In case you cancel your booking, be prepared to shell out Rs 5,000. Further, if you want to purchase tickets using frequent flyer miles, then you cannot book online. You need to contact the airlines because they want to directly handle tickets purchased using either frequent flier miles or travel vouchers at one of their locations.

Naturally, corporate houses and frequent travellers prefer to take the agent route. "The advantage of going through a travel agent is your documentation, passport and visa are taken care of. You get airport assistance and don't have to break your head for cancellation or rescheduling a flight. I would rather pay a little more and save the bother," said Ratan Bhatia, an exporter, who frequently travels to London and Europe.

Some airlines like Sahara, British Airways and Air France have call numbers for reservation queries.

So essentially it is all about making the right choice now that you, the traveller, is the monarch of all you survey.

(With inputs from Bhisham Mansukhani in Mumbai)