Cathay: Cautiously optimistic for 2014
Closing the year with an increase of 25 per cent in terms of growth, Cathay Pacific holds a positive outlook in the India market. The airline recently announced the change in schedule of its Delhi-Hong Kong route, by offering double daily non-stop flights
Earlier, Cathay Pacific offered one direct Delhi – Hong Kong flight, and the other via Bangkok. In the recent schedule change effective March 31, 2014, they dropped the Delhi - Bangkok sector and turned that into a non-stop to Hong Kong.
“We’re essentially doing this because we would like to provide enhanced connectivity and service to our Hong Kong hub, rather than going via Bangkok. We’re a Hong Kong carrier and would like to serve that market comprehensively,” said Charlie Stewart-Cox, General Manager – South Asia, Middle East and Africa, Cathay Pacific. He further added, “We think the new flight will give our customers convenient departure times. The first flight will land in Hong Kong at 7 am, good for connecting into Northeast Asia, China, especially for business travel. The second flight gets in around 9.25 am, allowing better connectivity into North America.”
Abhijit Abhyankar, Area Sales Manager – Northern India, Cathay Pacific, said, “Our customers like us. With the Delhi - Hong Kong route, we have a 32 per cent market share with just one direct flight. With two direct flights, we hope to touch almost 50 to 51 per cent of the market.” Both the non-stop services will be operated by A330, with three class configuration.
The airline maintained an 80 per cent load factor on all the Indian flights last year, and with 47 flights a week connecting India to Hong Kong, the airline has placed 93 aircrafts on order. Rakesh Raicar, Regional Sales & Marketing Manager – South Asia, Cathay Pacific, added, “We closed the year at 25 per cent plus in terms of growth, and the first two months of this year has also been good. Keeping in mind the political and economic scenario, we are cautiously optimistic on our projections for 2014.” India features among the top 10 markets for the airline, and this makes it an important market for the Cathay Pacific group. “We’ve been growing significantly in the last four to five years, and we’re very pleased with our business and operations here,” Stewart–Cox opined. “The Indian market is growing well providing good support to business travel. The leisure market provides a very strong opportunity, as Indians are looking towards more and more destinations to travel to.”
Challenges are abound in every market, and in India fuel costs add much pressure, as it accounts for 39 per cent of their total operating cost in 2013. A significant issue, rising fuel costs create a difficult environment for airlines. “We have reduced our operations of low fuel efficient aircrafts and increased the operations of higher fuel efficient aircraft. It was a important factor in the pickup of our business in the second half of last year,” he added.