British Airways (BA), Europe’s third largest carrier, has finally decided to take on rival Indian and international carriers, which have been eating into its market share in the India-Europe sector.
The London-based airline is starting a new route to Hyderabad from December with five weekly flights to London, a few months after Vijay Mallya-owned Kingfisher launches its flights to London on September 3. BA, which counts India as its second-biggest market after the US in terms of volumes, says India is a key market for growth. The carrier may also deploy some of its new aircraft on Indian routes as well as enhanced product lines, such as Club World, as and when they are inducted.
“India is an important market to be in right now as its customer base is growing. We are listening to what the Indian customer wants from us and will try and offer the same,” said Amanda Amos, area commercial manager, south Asia, British Airways.
British Airways has been a late mover in the Indian market whereas international carriers, such as Singapore Airlines, German carrier Lufthansa and Dubai-based carrier Emirates, have all ramped up their Indian operations in the last couple of years by increasing frequencies and adding routes. Currently, India is one of the three global centres for BA and employs 600 people in the country.
British Airways, inclusive of Hyderabad, will now have 48 flights per week from India as compared with Emirates' 135 flights and Singapore Airlines' 58. “The bilateral agreement between Britain and India opened very late, in fact, only by October 2005. Since then, we have added flights on routes like Mumbai-Delhi, Chennai, Bangalore and now Hyderabad,” aid Sriram Narayan, commercial development & deputy commercial manager, south Asia.
We have exhausted our rights on the Mumbai-Delhi route but the rest of the network in India is still underutilised,” said Sriram Narayan, commercial development & deputy commercial manager, south Asia. British Airways is also planning additional routes from India.
BA also announced that Mumbai-London flights will be shifted to Terminal T5, an exclusive terminal for the airline built with at an investment of 4.3 billion pounds. The terminal will begin operations in September and the rest of the network will shift by October.