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AirAsia India takes to the skies
The first airline with foreign investment to operate in India took its maiden flight yesterday.
AirAsia India, set up by Malaysia’s AirAsia, India’s Tata Group and investment firm Telestra Tradeplace, flew from Bangalore to Goa.
Tickets for the flight went on sale for as little as £11, cheaper than a second-class train ticket between the two cities.
AirAsia’s promise to become the ‘lowest-cost’ airline in India has already triggered a price war with India’s existing low-cost airlines – IndiGo, Jet Airways’ JetLite, SpiceJet and GoAir.
Most of India’s domestic airlines are already suffering losses because of high fuel costs and intense price competition.
Only one of its six main carriers, IndiGo, has been making a profit in recent years.
India opened up its aviation market to foreign investment in 2012 in a bid to boost growth in the sector.
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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