A fresh war is brewing on the India to UK air travel market with British Airways and Air India preparing to mount new flights to capitalise on the travel boom. London is one of the most lucrative destinations for carriers connecting to India as the British capital is home to a large Indian diaspora besides being a leading tourist and business destination for Indians.
British Airways operates 56 daily flights from Heathrow to Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Hyderabad. It will add a new daily Delhi-Heathrow flight from April next year which will augment the carrier’s total flights to India to 63 per week.
“India is our second biggest market. It is strategically very important. We have a lot of links from a trade and a diaspora perspective,” Sean Doyle, CEO of British Airways said, on the sidelines of an event commemorating the airline’s 100th year of flying to India.
Tata Group-owned Air India, the only Indian airline flying between the countries, will expand its presence significantly by increasing flights from Bengaluru, Goa and Ahmedabad to London. It will also add frequency between Amritsar and Birmingham to four weekly flights from the current three.
While Air India has 31 weekly flights to Heathrow, it also flies to Gatwick Airport from Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Goa and Kochi due to unavailability of slots at Heathrow airport. London Heathrow is the largest airport between India and Europe with a share of more than 30 per cent seats deployed on the route.
To alleviate the current scenario of slot scarcity, Air India is leasing a dozen slots per week at Heathrow from Scandinavian Airlines. India and the UK revised their air services agreement this May. This revision will allow carriers from both nations to enhance flights from 56 to 70 per week from London Heathrow to Delhi and Mumbai airports.
Under the new deal, the weekly quota of flights between these Indian cities and London will rise from 56 to 70. This is particularly significant due to London’s substantial Indian diaspora, making these routes highly lucrative for airlines. However, Indian airlines say they will be unable to take advantage of the new deal as their expansion is stalled due to unavailability of landing slots at Heathrow.
The need for expanding the agreement arose after airlines in the UK like British Airways and Virgin Atlantic exhausted their quota of aircraft seat capacity per week, hindering plans to launch any new flights. Doyle at British Airways said considering the current robust demand on the India-UK route, there should be an ‘open sky’ without any cap on the number of flights that can be operated between the two countries.”I think as demand grows, and as the economy develops, it is very important that the air services agreement keeps pace with that,” Doyle said.
India has become the third largest for Virgin Atlantic after North America and Caribbean, CEO Shai Weiss had earlier told ET. The London-based carrier added a second daily flight from Mumbai in October after launching a flight from London Heathrow to Bengaluru in March.
Calum Laming, chief customer experience officer of British Airways, said a substantial number of passengers from India travel onwards to the US and Canada.
“Depending on time and period of the year, it’s very much possible to have even half of the flight with connecting passengers,” he said.
Laming said British Airways builds its schedule in such a pattern where passengers from India can connect to US flights without an extended waiting period at the airport.
