The Hindu Business Line : Indian carriers may cut fares on Kuwait route

A COMBINATION of the situation in Kuwait returning to near normalcy and slackening demand for tickets from and to India may force the State-owned Indian carriers to slash the existing fares on these routes.

Addressing a press conference, the Secretary, Civil Aviation, Mr K. Roy Paul, said that with demand slackening on the route the two State-owned airlines might decide to cut fares. "It is a simple question of demand and supply which is driving the decision on fares," he said.

Commenting on the mood of the Indian community in Kuwait, the Secretary said that they were absolutely safe and going about life normally. "The exodus of Indians from Kuwait on the first day of the war was caused due to a number of coincidences. A couple of major Korean companies wound up their operations and a large number of Indians were forced to return. Furthermore, schools were also closed so there was some rush. Air India and Indian Airlines operated seven additional flights to bring back those who wanted to come back," he said.

He, however, added that since then the situation had changed and not only were seats easily available on flights to India but people were also coming forward to cancel the tickets that they had booked earlier. Besides, AI, which earlier had decided against allowing its crew to stay back in Kuwait, was now reconsidering the decision, the Secretary said.

Later answering questions, Mr Roy Paul said that the ongoing conflict and rising prices of aviation turbine fuel (ATF) would impact the profitability of AI. "There is unlikely to be any major impact of the current crisis on the airline. There has been some fall in the traffic of the two airlines on the India-Kuwait sector but the flights are not empty. Besides, the flights to Europe are being forced to take a detour. But the detour is not like the worst fears that we had.

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