NEW DELHI: The Purbayan Airlines might not have got permission from the State Governments to start its flights from Northeast, but a much bigger airlines AirAsia seems to have sensed an opportunity in the underserved Northeast region, which has only two direct flights to Mumbai and Bangalore.
Budget carrier Air Asia India is planning its future routes in the country and is betting on North East as the next big destination for air travel. “It is not about going places where every other airline goes. It is about going to places where no airline goes and in that sense North East is an appealing destination,” said AirAsia founder and CEO Tony Fernandes recently.
Fernandes said the airline would focus on the Northeast destinations but did not specify routes.
Last month Air Asia India launched flights from Bangalore to Chennai and Goa at advance fares as low as Rs 490 and Rs 990, prices much below levels which would cover costs of the airline. It also announced that it would operate a daily service to Kochi from Bangalore with promotional seat being offered at Rs 500.
Air Asia India launched its services more than 15 months after it announced a 49:30:21 partnerships with Tata group and Arun Bhatia’s Telestra TradePlace to set up a budget carrier in the country in February 2013. The airline will continue focus on connecting tier-II cities to begin with and fares will be about 35 percent lower than the current market rates, Air Asia India CEO Mittu Chandilya had earlier said.
The other budget carriers in the country are IndiGo, SpiceJet and GoAir. Naresh-Goyal promoted full service airline Jet Airways also operates a low-cost service JetLite. All airlines are mandated to fly certain specific flights to areas like North East which many think is not profitable.
An official of the company on Thursday said the company is ready to operate flights on the Guwahati-Tura-Shillong route but there has been no response from the State Government so far. The Company also offered to operate exclusive flights between Shillong and Kolkata if the State Government was interested in the proposal.
