Industry watchers point out the challenges for airports in India to become international hub for airline companies.
An airport must have two prerequisites to become an effective hub. First, it needs a strong anchor airline operating out of the airport, as Emirates does from Dubai or Deutsche Lufthansa AG from Frankfurt.
An airport must also have a seamless and integrated infrastructure so that an arriving domestic passenger need not commute too far to reach the international terminal.
The other big challenge is the lack of strong domestic airline companies that can make airports in India an international hub.
IndiGo, the largest domestic airline firm, is not a network carrier as it believes in ferrying passengers from point to point.
Jet Airways is next big airline. But it may shift its hub to Abu Dhabi if its plan to sell a 24 percent stake to Etihad Airways PJSC materialises.
Another challenge cited by industry watchers is the high cost of operation. Many international airlines have pulled out of Indian airports citing high costs. The proposed joint venture between Malaysia-based low-fare airline AirAsia Bhd and the Tata Group recently said they will skip the high-cost Mumbai and Delhi airports once their AirAsia India takes off.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.