Coimbatore : With the ongoing financial crunch at Jet Airways, the airlines has grounded seven of its flights to Coimbatore, since February. Two flights to Delhi, one to Pune, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad and Bangalore have been cancelled.
Coimbatore : With the ongoing financial crunch at Jet Airways, the airlines has grounded seven of its flights to Coimbatore, since February. Two flights to Delhi, one to Pune, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad and Bangalore have been cancelled.
Alliance Air too has pulled out three flights headed to Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad. In total, ten flights have been cancelled leaving passengers at Coimbatore airport in the lurch. Prices are also expected to soar owing to the demand during the holiday season in April and May.
Jet Airways has had several financial problems like non-payment of dues to lessors, owing to which the airlines have grounded 49 aircraft since February 7, according to a DGCA official, as reported by PTI. Out of the 49 aircraft grounded, seven are from the Coimbatore sector.
Since last October, Coimbatore airport has had a number of domestic flights introduced to various destinations in the country by Air India and other private air carriers. This has boosted air traffic with most flights full, according to airport officials. Now with the cancellation of flights, air traffic is expected to be hit which could result in high demand during the holiday season which could in turn lead to a hike in ticket rates.
Commenting on the development, a frequent traveller from Coimbatore opines, "It is true that Jet Airways is going through a difficult phase and the air carrier is grounding many flights, but seven flights grounded in the Coimbatore sector will affect passengers at the Coimbatore airport in a big way.
As usual, Coimbatore airport is getting the step-motherly treatment and we do not have politicians lobbying for us. Our region has a majority population and with the increase in flight connectivity, people travelling from Coimbatore airport had also increased. There was a competitive pricing among air carriers and the passengers were ultimately benefited.
Now since 10 flights are grounded, it will lead to a price rise and make air travel unaffordable for the middle class passengers."
In addition to the private airlines, Alliance Air has also cancelled three flights out of its four flights operating from Coimbatore. The flights were to Kochi, Bangalore and Hyderabad. When contacted, a senior official in Air India stated, "Alliance Air, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Air India was not flying on enough passenger load from Coimbatore. Sometimes, we used to have passengers as low as below 10.
The airlines was not making any revenue at all and they had to ground three flights. But hopefully, we will be bringing in more flights to other destinations in the near future."
Passengers in the Coimbatore sector can now only hope that other air carriers will operate more flights to combat the holiday rush ahead.
An expert’s split up on the loss to Coimbatore airport Due to this - In total 10 flights have been cancelled.
Jet Airways 7 big B737 180 seater aircraft.
Alliance 3 small ATR 70 seater aircraft.
In total we lost about 3000 seats a day which translates into 90,000 approximately a month.
180 × 7 = 1260
70 × 3 = 210
1470 seats one-way.
Approx 3000 seats a day.
It totals to 90000 seats a month which will increase the cost of travel for the passenger.