 "Air India gains market share on Australia route but challenges loom")
Also the introduction of Air India's service, the only direct air link between the two countries led to around 20% industry wide drop in fares last winter in comparison to previous years, a source said. Air India is gaining share though its fares on Delhi-Australia route is higher than the competition including Singapore Airlines and Malaysia Airlines.
"We now have a 17-20% market share on the route and we are looking to grow traffic with passenger feeds from other Star Alliance member airlines. Our Delhi-Australia flight connects well with our arrivals from Europe. We are flying passengers from Europe to Australia via Delhi. Our flight occupancy in December-January, a peak travel season, was over 90%. Other airlines are operating on the route for years and it will take time for us to stabilise on the route,'' said a senior executive from Air India.
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Another source from Air India, however, pointed out that the airline had failed to capitalise on the route despite being a non stop service. Problems surrounding Boeing 787 led to flight delays impacting the service, he pointed. Another irritant has been protests from cabin crew over inadequate on board rest facilities but this did not impact inflight service as such, he added.
However, Air India will be facing more vigorous competition with the launch of A380 flights from India. Competition comes from Malaysia Airlines, Thai Airways, China Southern Airlines, Cathay Pacific and Emirates also carry passengers between Delhi and Australia.
Air traffc between India and Australia has been growing around 10% annually for the last three years. Last year about 8.75 lakh passengers flew between these two countries and 3.6 lakh persons travelled between Delhi-Australia, according to an airline source.
Singapore Airlines flies three daily flights to Delhi and Mumbai with a 280-300 seater Boeing 777 and now plans to introduce Airbus A380 on the route. Singapore Airlines Airbus A380 can seat 409 or 471 passengers and the airline will be able to offer A380 connection all the way to Australia as it operates the aircraft to Sydney.
"Singapore Airlines is likely to be followed by carriers from the Gulf and Western Europe over the next six months. The winter of 2014 is likely to witness the full impact of the A380s in bringing down airfares on global routes. This coupled with the reduction in sales tax on ATF in many states, is expected to give a big boost to aviation and tourism in India”, said Amber Dubey, Partner and India Head of Aerospace and Defense at global consultancy KPMG
"Singapore Airlines and Emirates offer the highest number of flights amongst the foreign carriers. I expect Singapore Airlines will aggressively market its A380 flights to India without comprising on price,'' said Rajji Rai, ex president of Travel Agents Association of India.