Low cost carriers (LCC’s) of India are looking at ways to attract, retain and build stickiness in their products by planning to introduce loyalty programs or frequent flier programs. Currently, LCC’s lure passengers with special promotional campaigns in coordination with OTA’s but increasing competition within LCC’s and some new regional airlines to be launched soon and with Indian Railways, LCC’s are finding it difficult to keep their revenues growing.
GoAir is in the final stage of launching their a frequent flier program (FFP) by next month said GoAir MD Jeh Wadia. Deccan, after the merger with Kingfisher has also launched their FFP under King Club campaign of Kingfisher Airlines. Jetlite passengers earn FFP benefits on its parent airline program Jet Privilege. SpiceJet VP Marketing Kamal Hingorani Said - “Though for an LCC introducing a full-fledged FFP may not be a viable option, we’ll for sure introduce some innovative programs soon.”
All this is coming after Indian Railway has announced the cut in the prices of tickets for AC travel, launch of new schemes, providing wi-fi connectivity on important trains etc.
With this ongoing battle between Airlines and Railways, customers will going to enjoy all the benefits…
Rajat Nagpal
Loyalty in Indian Skies
Corporate Travel Business in India
Corporate Travel business is changing dramatically in India. With more online travel Agents (OTA’s) coming up with lucrative offers on air travel, hotels, packages and car rentals, many companies are looking at to shift to online travel agents for their bookings. However, these companies are realizing the fact that OTA’s will not add value to managing their official travel in long run.
With personalized services, self booking tool, calculating carbon foot print, taking care of all travel requirements with a dedicated implant team, Travel management Companies (TMC’s) are competing and taking all the benefits in the organized travel market business in India.
Some of the OTA’s like MakeMyTrip, Yatra & Arzoo among others are offering corporate travel solutions to few companies, but they are still far away in creating a benchmark in this space like they have done in online travel space. On the other hand, TMC’s like Carlson Wagonlit Travel, FCm Travel Solutions, Amex are some of the companies who are way - way ahead in giving unmatched service quality and support to their corporate clients.
With Indian companies going global, Indian TMC’s are surely going to get benefit in this organized market.
Lufthansa on India Expansion
Lufthansa will add more frequency to its India operations from May 3, 2008, when it will become the only airline to start direct service from Mumbai to Munich with three weekly flights. The flight will have convenient connections to Europe, USA & Canada and will complement Lufthansa’s existing service to Frankfurt.
Munich Airport, which is partly owned by Lufthansa, has been rated as the best airport in Europe by Skytrax. Lufthansa currently operates daily flight from Delhi to Munich. Lufthansa is also working on increasing the frequency to Kolkata from Frankfurt. Currently Lufthansa operates with three flights and from 3rd Jun, they will increase to five flights a week.
The increased flights will add some relief to customers as passengers coming from the USA, Canada and Europe during the peak season of Jun/Jul will have more options to travel to India. This might also helps in reducing the price of tickets for travel to India from all these places.
With addition of these flights, Lufthansa will offer 50 flights per week from India via its six gateways which are Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Kolkata and Hyderabad.
India is certainly gaining ground as one of the biggest travel market in the world. With new players and new flights, there will be more employment opportunities for Indians and also increase in the traffic of inbound tourist.
Next 10 years will see India as one of the world’s largest travel & tourism economy.
Jet – Set – Go to Canada
Jet Airways has partnered with Air Canada on code share agreement where a passenger can fly Jet till London and onwards to Canada on Air Canada & Vice Versa. The agreement will come into effect on Feb 28, 2008.
We still have to see how the connection looks like and what the wait period is at London airport both ways. This could be one of the fastest ways to fly to Canada. Passengers will get benefits of through check-in; interline e-ticketing and frequent flier benefits with this new seamless connectivity. Passengers can also take a stopover in London subject to fare rules.
Jet is spreading its wings fast and wants to gain market share before Kingfisher launches their International flights in August.
On the other note, government is coming out with some or the other clauses to ensure the delay of Kingfisher International operations which will benefit both state owned Air India and Jet Airways.
But one thing is sure, customers will get all the benefits with this increased competition and once Kingfisher is launched on International Skies, the benefits & choices will be more.
Online Travel in India bleeding in competition
Cleartrip, an online travel portal has done a tie-up with Go Air to offer tickets as low as Rs.599 during lean season. This has made other LCC’s to do tie-ups with online travel agents (OTA’s) to offer their tickets at a price similar to Go Air offer.
Spice Jet, Simplify Deccan & Indigo all are looking forward to do tie-ups with other OTA’s like MakeMyTrip & Yatra.
Indigo is offering fares for a limited period for a discount of Rs.200 on all their tickets. Simplify Deccan has approached Yatra for a tie-up to offer return airfares at throw away prices and Spice Jet has approached MakeMyTrip for same.
With this competition, no doubt customers are going to get all benefit but travel industry will not gain anything. Profit margins are thin on the air travel and with low fares, they will not anything good in the kitty of airlines and OTA’s. They will only be able to attract those customers who are only looking for cheaper deals on the net and are not loyal to any particular airline or OTA website, so there is a customer acquisition but there is no customer retention.
I hope OTA’s & LCC make profits
Smoking Ban in Thailand
Thailand has put a national ban on smoking in public areas which includes pubs, restaurants, discos and market-places, both open-air and air-conditioned.
Previously, the regulations applied only to public buildings and closed air-conditioned areas. The regulations took effect February 11, 2008. Individual violators can be fined as much as 2,000 baht (US$65). If any public places violate the rules, they will be warned but after May 31, 2008, they are supposed to be fined 20,000 baht.
Smokers are however permitted to smoke in designated areas which the affected places will have to set aside.
Numerous public places in Thailand are planning to distribute brochures and post signs in at least five languages such as Thai, English, Korean, Chinese and Japanese to inform tourists of the new regulation.
A report released by the WHO calling on countries to strengthen tobacco control measures as a means of preventing tens of millions of premature deaths by the middle of this century and this initiative is after this report.
Thailand has over 15 mln foreign tourist arrivals every year and it will be difficult to educate them on this new policy. It is important for the travel professionals to educate their customers on this.
Etihad Airways on India Expansion
Etihad Airways will soon start flying to Chennai, Jaipur, Kolkata and Kozhikode. This decision came last week after successful talks between the two governments. Airline is now busy finalizing the dates and schedules for these flights.
At Present Etihad operates daily flights from Abu Dhabi to New Delhi, Mumbai, Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram. It has also plans to launch services to Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Bangalore and Hyderabad.
With this increasing competition, customers are going to enjoy lower fares with great services.
Enjoy Flying!
Free tickets on Jet Airways
For all jet privilege members, fly jet airways between Feb 01 and April 30, 2008 on the select domestic routes and stand a chance to win a FREE ticket on Jet Airways International Destination.
Complete 20 one-way domestic flights in Premiere or Economy on eligible fares and get a free return ticket in Premiere or Economy to Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok, Dhaka, Colombo, Doha, Kuwait, Bahrain and Muscat. The international tickets will be issued for travel from our gateways in Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, Kochi and Kozhikode.
Jet Airways domestic sectors:
- Mumbai to Chennai/ Bengaluru/ Hyderabad/ Coimbatore/ Indore/ Nagpur/ Thiruvananthapuram and vice versa.
- Delhi to Hyderabad/ Bengaluru/ Chennai/ Kolkata/ Jaipur/ Indore/ Ahmedabad/ Vadodara/ Pune and vice versa.
- Bengaluru to Mumbai/ Delhi/ Hyderabad/ Kolkata/ Coimbatore/ Goa and vice versa.
- Chennai to Mumbai/ Delhi/ Coimbatore and vice versa.
- Kolkata to Delhi/ Hyderabad/ Bengaluru and vice versa.
The Fly Free International ticket must be claimed latest by June 30, 2008, and your outbound travel should be completed by September 30, 2008.
For more information, check http://www.jetairways.com/Cultures/en-US/India/Special+Offers/Fly+Free+International/
I’m flying… what about you?
Rajat
