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Air Arabia uses India's Open Skies policy to tap smaller cities New Delhi: Taking advantage of India's open sky policy, global airlines like Air Arabia and Malaysian Airlines are now eyeing smaller Indian cities for future business growth. "We see a huge potential in India's smaller cities and connecting towns like Nagpur will also encourage business travel," said Adel Ali, a senior official of the Air Arabia. Air Arabia, a Sharjah-based low cost airline which operates in the Middle East and North African region, had recently launched a flight between Nagpur and United Arab Emirates. It had become the first international carrier to fly to Nagpur. Fares start from Rs.2,400 for a one-way flight to the UAE, exclusive of tax and surcharges. "We have a history of creating destinations and bringing affordable travel to more people across the region and look forward to doing the same in Nagpur," said Air Arabia chairman Sheikh Abdullah bin Mohammed Al Thani. "We look forward to growing trade and tourism links between the United Arab Emirates and Nagpur and providing the opportunity to the people in and around Nagpur to travel to the UAE," he added. According to sources, Malaysian Airlines is now planning to begin operations to Amritsar and to some tier-II cities like Guntur, Visakhapatnam and Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh. The airlines are enthused by the strong load factor in its flights to Hyderabad, Bangalore and Ahmedabad. "Smaller cities will be the drivers of international air travel growth for years to come," said Adel Ali. While overall foreign travel demand grew 30 percent this summer, the bookings from smaller cities outpaced the industry growth at close to 40 percent. "It's a lot of untapped market and airlines are seeing this at a huge goldmine," he said. Besides, Air Arabia, Singapore Airlines, Air India and Malaysia Airlines are operating their flights to the small towns of the country. Meanwhile,
Air India Express, the budget travel arm of Air India is planning to spread
its operation to Bahrain, Doha and Kuwait in the Gulf region, and Bangkok,
Kuala Lumpur and Singapore in the Far East early next year. Most of these
new international connections would originate from south India. Air India
Chairman and Managing Director V Thulasidas said that the airline is planning
to begin operation to Doha, Kuwait and Bahrain by early next year. "With
these connections in place, AI will withdraw most of its operations to
these cities," he said. Private airliner Air Sahara has also entered the
American airline market through a code sharing arrangement with American
Airlines (AA), which will take off with AA's inaugural Chicago-New Delhi
non-stop service. The two airlines have agreed on a reciprocal frequent
flyer programme. Apart from this, both AA and Air Sahara will be putting
on their codes in India, the transatlantic flights between New Delhi and
Chicago, and beyond. For instance, AA will have its code on Air Sahara's
26 destinations in India including New Delhi and Air Sahara in turn will
have its S2 code on American flights over the transatlantic to Chicago
and beyond. The Office of Secretary in the Department of Transportation
(DOT) had given the final consent on November 8 to a filing on October
3 for approval of Code Share.
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