Business booms for domestic airlines due to bandas

Domestic airlines have reported a boom summer as travellers have been forced to fly due to the ongoing strikes that have shut down overland transport. Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) handled 170 domestic flights on Tuesday, and all of them were packed.

“Airlines have not cancelled even a single flight due to the rush,” said Purna Chudal, chief of the domestic airport division at TIA. According to carriers, all the incoming flights at TIA have been full for the last two weeks. Chudal said the flights had an average occupancy rate of 90 percent due to the prolonged strikes.

Airline officials said that one reason for the packed incoming flights at TIA could be the strict schedule of migrant workers who had to get back to work on time.

Increased passenger traffic has also led to private air operators removing cheap fares from their tariff. Airlines that have been launching different promotional schemes to attract flyers amid fierce competition have seen the busiest two-week period encouraging them to cancel their cheap fares.

Vinaya Shakya, senior manager at Yeti Airlines, said that the airline business was all about demand and supply, and that operators normally remove cheap fares when demand for tickets soars.

Yeti Airlines and its subsidiary Tara Air has been flying with full passenger loads to Kathmandu during the past week. However, occupancy on departing flights was around 70 percent. Yeti and Tara operate 52 flights daily.

Shakya said that even Dhangadhi, which Yeti considers to be its weak sector, has seen 100 percent occupancy. “Business has been good after a sluggish start this summer,” he said.

Buddha Air, the leading domestic airline, said that it had not been able to fulfil demand for air tickets. “Demand for air tickets has soared dramatically, but airlines were unable to cope with the rush as it was limited to flights to Kathmandu,” said Buddha Air’s senior marketing manager Rupesh Joshi. According to him, occupancy on departing flights is around 40 percent.

A surge in airfares hit domestic passenger movement in 2011 which registered a 1.85 percent growth compared to the previous year. Domestic passenger movement in 2010 soared as airlines cut fares amid stiff competition. However in 2011, travellers switched to surface transport amid rising airfares.

source: The Kathmandu Post,22 May 2012