Air Kerala and Al-Hind Air: What will the Kerala-based airlines offer expats?

Dubai: It was the Oommen Chandy government that gave wings to the dreams of expatriate Malayalis when he announced the spectacular project for launching Air Kerala, Kerala’s own airline company. Everyone hoped that the expatriates would be saved from the exorbitant airfares and other travelling difficulties once an airline company owned by the state government took flight. However, Air Kerala’s wings were clipped even before it took off due to severe financial difficulties.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Civil Aviation has approved Zettfly Aviation to give a new lease of life to Air Kerala. Currently, the DGCA has approved to operation of domestic services. The aviation company hopes to begin international services in the future. Interestingly, Al Hind Air too is all set to take off, promising an affordable air travel experience to Malayalis. Al Hind Group which is a notable general sales agent of various domestic and international airline companies has reportedly invested Rs 500 crore to begin their airline service.

Domestic services first
In the initial stages, the new airline companies have to operate domestic routes, connecting two-tier and three-tier cities in the country. They could use the profit from these services to buy more aircraft to start international services. However, this is not an easy task as it includes many obstacles and other complex steps. If the companies can’t wait, then they should have the financial capability to operate services despite the severe financial loss. Besides, they cannot avoid the ‘obstacle’ of domestic service even if they decide to start the company with UAE as its headquarters.

An airline service could be operated only by following the UAE – India aviation contracts. This is the reason why the airfares couldn’t be lowered during the season by allowing more services. The ratio of Indian aircraft operating services to the UAE and the UAE-based airlines running services to India should be strictly maintained. It is highly unlikely that the leading airline companies that currently operate services on these routes would be ready to slash the number of their services.
Even if the new airline companies gain the approval for international services after successfully operating the domestic routes, it won’t be easy for them to compete with airline giants like Air India, Emirates and Etihad that operate countless services in the UAE to operate an airline company on extremely reasonable or affordable rates. Journalist Jacob K Philip who keenly observes the aviation industry says that getting enough passengers would be the biggest challenge for these companies. The name of Air Kerala could be a stumble, especially when it is launched as the airline of a particular state. This is quite evident from the number of passengers and the aircraft to the Kannur International Airport that was inaugurated with much fanfare.

Can new flyers cover off-season loss?
Airfares go up when there is high demand during seasons and drop when the number of passengers is less. The companies cover the off-season loss during the season when the number of passengers is higher. So, the question here is whether the new airline companies would be able to cover the off-season loss without hiking the ticket fare, especially when the actual problem faced by Malayali expatriates is the exorbitant ticket price during the school holiday season in the Gulf countries including UAE. Those who react emotionally when the ticket fares are hiked during the season often forget that the tickets are available at really low prices at other times. Meanwhile, Jacob K Philip observes that even if the airline companies propose the same fares at all times, ordinary fliers wouldn’t be able to accept that.

Aviation is one of the swiftly growing and most competing sectors in the world. Lessons should be learned from the experiences of Air Carnival, Air Pegasus and Air Costa TruJet which had ceased all operations. Meanwhile, airline companies like Akasa Air focus on operating tier-1 cities using big aircraft. So, one should think about whether such operational methods are possible and whether they have the financial capital for that. An airline company cannot be operated successfully only as the manifestation of the dreams and hopes of a particular group of people. For that, proper research should be done and practical solutions should be sought to overcome roadblocks like shortage of capital.