We are eyeing one million passengers from India in 2018, says KLM CEO

India is now the 7th largest intercontinental market for Amsterdam airport up from 12th in 2016

KLM  and its partner Jet Airways are targeting one million passengers between India and Amsterdam in 2018, with the launch of new services and enhanced co-operation,  the Dutch airline’s Chief Executive Officer Pieter Elbers said on Monday. 

KLM which is part of the Air France-KLM group resumed it’s Amsterdam-Mumbai service while Jet introduced a new flight between Bengaluru-Amsterdam from Sunday. A new service between the Dutch capital and Hyderabad is under evaluation.

“Traffic from India is booming with the launch of new services and enhanced co-operation with Jet. In 2014, there were 250,000 passengers travelling between India and Amsterdam and the increase in traffic has been steep,” said Elbers, who is on his third visit to Mumbai within a year. 

Growth of Indian passenger traffic at Amsterdam has been due to Jet shifting it’s European operations from Brussels to the Dutch capital in March 2016.  Number of weekly frequencies between India and Amsterdam has increased from 21 to 31 over the past 12 months. For 12 months ended February 2017, Jet and KLM carried around 490,000 passengers between India and Amsterdam. This included onward passengers.

In fact, India is now seventh-largest inter continental market for Amsterdam airport up from 12th in 2016. The  number of Indian tourists visiting Netherlands, too, increased 30 per cent to 130,000 in 2016.

In his current trip, Elbers is accompanied by board members and they met senior management of Jet and Tata Consultancy Services on Monday. The airlines are negotiating a commercial joint venture which could allow them to collaborate on pricing, schedules and capacity. The airlines already have a code-share partnership and have 450 passengers transferring on each other’s network daily. 

“We are working on further steps to increase co-operation and we are optimistic about the progress. But I do not want to commit to a precise date,” Elbers said on a query regarding the joint venture plan. Elbers added he would not speculate on question of investment in Jet.

As part of strategy, Air France-KLM are working to regain the market share it lost in key markets to carriers from the Gulf. In India, too, the Gulf carriers collectively have 30 per cent of international traffic while Air France-KLM’s share in India is less than two per cent. Closer ties with Jet allows it to grow it’s share in India.

“For Jet the partnership with Air France-KLM is now more strategic than its partnership with Etihad Airways. We believe more strategic developments would emerge,” said Kapil Kaul of aviation consultancy CAPA.

“There is a concerted strategy between Jet and Air France-KLM to work together and I would not be surprised to see a deepening of relationship. While it is hard to know what Etihad (which owns 24 per cent in Jet Airways) will think of Jet’s overtures to Air France-KLM, Etihad has enough critical mass, as does Emirates and FlyDubai, to service India alone. This would allow Jet Airways to harness it’s own growth aspirations in the domestic market,” said aviation expert Saj Ahmad.