(MENAFN- Khaleej Times) The launch of the service is likely to offer a major boost to the airlines business on the India-UAE sector helping short-term visitors especially kin of expats.
Prem Sagar K. Shyam Sundar and Melwin D’Silva regional manager Gulf Middle East and Africa of Air India during a Press conference in Dubai on Sunday. — Supplied photo
Dubai — Air India Express the low-cost arm of India’s national carrier Air India is set to offer online UAE visa service the airline’s top officials said in Dubai on Sunday.
Air India Express (AIE) CEO K. Shyam Sundar announced at a Press conference that the airline was in the process of developing the online UAE visa service facility.
Speaking to Khaleej Times later he said the service is expected to be launched by March 31.
Timed just ahead of summer vacations in Indian schools the launch of the service is likely to offer a major boost to the airline’s business on the India-UAE sector where it faces tough competition.
“It will be a great facilitation for people residing here to call their friends and relatives here for short visits” said Sundar.
“It will even benefit holidaymakers from India to make short visits to Dubai Abu Dhabi etc” he said.
Prem Sagar manager AI and AIE (Dubai and Northern Emirates) said the airline was working with its representative agency Arabian Travel Agency in the UAE to offer the online visa service.
Officials said the service will be offered at competitive rates. “Anybody taking an AIE ticket and taking a visa separately will find it cheaper for him to take both the ticket and the visa from us” said Sagar.
Sundar who is in town to open a new dedicated satellite office for AIE in Sharjah said the airline was devising more inventive measures to boost its profitability from the UAE sector.
The new office is equipped to handle all reservations and ticketing requirements including sale of ancillary services. More such offices are planned to be commissioned in other places in the near future he said.
Mangalore-Abu Dhabi direct flights
To meet the demand during the summer AIE plans to operate direct services from Mangalore to Abu Dhabi and Muscat. For this the current four times weekly round-robin operations on the Mangalore-Muscat-Abu Dhabi-Mangalore will be restructured in the coming summer schedule.
The flights from Abu Dhabi to Mangalore operating on Tuesday Thursday Saturday and Sunday will depart from Abu Dhabi at 2.20am and reach Mangalore at 7.35am officials said. Increasing the number of flights on the UAE-Kerala sector the most profitable route for AIE during summer holidays is also under consideration.
Fleet expansion
In order to tap the opportunities to expand further in potential markets including the UAE AIE plans to increase its fleet size from the current 17 aircraft to 25 in 2016.
Asked how many of these will be used for the UAE sector Sundar said: “We are working on the blueprint of what we should be doing. But leasing eight aircraft is going to be a significant step for the airline.”
With the current fleet the airline has carried about two million passengers in the current financial year up to December 2014. It is projected that the passenger carriage will touch 2.6 million by the close of this fiscal. The UAE is a major market for the airline accounting for about 60 per cent of its capacity and revenues. AIE has achieved impressive load factor of close to 85 per cent on the services to the UAE.
Fares and profit
Sagar said the company had made operating profits in 2013-14 and the profit is likely to be slightly larger than that in 2014-15.
“That is not because we increased airfares. The reduced fuel prices have also helped in getting the extra profit” he said. Though airfares have come down due to the current decline in oil prices officials said it was not a phenomenon based on which airlines could make policy statements on slashing prices.
“It has had positive effect on the profitability of operations. But it cannot be ground for slashing fares. We don’t know how long this will continue” said Sundar.
Asked about the excess baggage charges that are unaffordable for a large number of Indian workers who depend on the budget airline Sundar said the AIE had recently introduced “block rates” for the same.
“We have a very nominal charge for the first 10kg beyond the free baggage of 20kg. Passengers don’t have to pay the high old rates for that. But everything depends on the demand and we are forced to limit baggage when we have to meet the demand and fly more passengers” he explained.
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