Indian airlines looking for international tie-ups

INDIAN domestic airlines are pursuing tie-ups with international carriers to help increase their dollar earnings and load factors, says a report in the Mumbai-based Economic Times.



Jet Airways and Air-Sahara are leading the charge and are tying up with dozens of carriers to increase their penetration in markets they do not fly to.



Among the other domestic carriers chasing international counterparts is Kingfisher Airways, which is negotiating with several international airlines and is expected to announce its first interline tie-up in the coming weeks.



However, low-cost carriers, Air-Deccan and SpiceJet, have no such arrangements because their business models do not allow for interlining.



"Interlining is a tool used by airlines to reach markets they do not serve," says Peter Luethi, chief operating officer (COO) of Jet Airways.



The Mumbai-based airline, which has begun flying to Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and London, has reached such agreements with large international carriers which can feed India-bound passenger traffic to its flights, the newspaper said.



Jet's international network is very small and it has to depend on other airlines to feed into, according to industry sources.



On the domestic front in India, over the past 12 years, Jet has signed up with over 100 airlines ranging from Iceland Air to Hawaiian Airlines.



Tickets are sold abroad, for example for travel between Reykjavik and Raipur, where Iceland Air will fly the international leg and Jet gets paid the dollar fare for the Mumbai-Raipur sector. Jet earns about 26 per cent of its revenue from tickets sold abroad.