Jet-Sahara tie-up buzz has small players edgy

Meeting today to decide on informal alliance among other players.

All private airlines are planning to form an informal alliance to counter the "monopoly" situation that may arise out of the proposed strategic tie-up between Jet Airways and Air Sahara leading to unequal distribution of infrastructure at airports.

According to highly placed industry sources, the private airlines are planning to hold an informal meeting tomorrow in Mumbai to decide on their future course of action. Sources said almost all airlines were expected to take part in this informal meet to discuss the possible impact of Jet Airways-Air Sahara deal.

"The airlines will essentially work out possible measures to cut down the cost of operations by the way of mutual co-operation and sharing the assets. Jet Airways and Air Sahara will be the main agenda of this informal meeting," sources said.

Representatives of the airlines, however, declined to comment on the informal meet scheduled tomorrow.

GoAir, managing director, Jeh Wadia, told Business Standard: "It is always good to stand united. There could be mutual agreements or seat sharing agreements among us. Airline companies with less number of aircraft cannot afford to have too many bases for parking. Equal distribution of infrastructure is a indeed concern."

"The alliance of these two airlines will create monopoly and we need to put up a united front to neutralise the effect," added a senior executive of a low-cost airline.

He sid the objective of this initiative would be to ensure equal distribution of night parking space, take off and landing slots, check-in counters, parking bays and other facilities among the players.

"From the begining onwards, we are looking for a platform of private airlines for sharing their assets which will give better service to passengers. But then no body want to share but to operate on their own," a senior Air Deccan executive said.

All private airlines are concerned about the post acquisition scenario as Jet Airways will have a fleet of over 75 aircraft with prime slots at airports and over 50 per cent market share. Industry sources pointed out that there was a possibility of Jet Airways floating a low-cost and no-frill airline in the post acquisition scenario.

This is to ward off stiff competition of from other such airlines. Jet will not find it very difficult if it gets hold of pilots, engineers, management staff and infrastructure following a strategic alliance with Air Sahara.

Singapore Air to up flight frequency

Singapore Airlines is planning to increase the frequency of flights to Delhi, Chennai, Hyderabad and Banglaore.

Buyoed by the good show of its Amritsar and Ahmedabad links, the airline is also keen on operating new flights from the second-rung in the country.

Singapore Airlines General Manager (India) B K Ong said the airline is awaiting traffic rights to operate into more destinations to augment its current capacity.

"We are expecting more discussions on bilateral agreement to open up the skies between India and Singapore. This will enable us to operate services from here to more destinations," Ong said.

Ong said that the airline was in talks with major domestic airlines for code sharing agreements. However, nothing has been finalised yet. Singapore Airlines has such arrangements with national flag carrier Air-India.

The airline operates 48 flights a week from 8 cities in the country while its subsidiary Silk Air operates 8 services from Thiruvananthapuram and Kochi. Recently, it has taken over the Hyderabad service from Silk Air.

Singapore Airlines clarified that there was no plans to fly the Airbus 380 to any of Indian destinations as the domestic airports did not support the infrastructure requirement for running this 800-seater aircraft.

Ong said the airline would fly this aircraft in Singapore - Sydney and Singapore - London routes.