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US bombing inflicts more pain on airline industry

Sumeet Chatterjee, in New Delhi

The US military strikes on Afghanistan have set off a drastic fall in air travel that was already reeling under massive cancellations since last month's terror attacks, airlines and industry sources said Tuesday.

According to industry sources, 30-40 per cent bookings have been scrapped across all sectors after the US, on Sunday, started bombing Afghanistan in retaliation for the September 11 terror attacks.

"The scene right now is very gloomy. The number of people flying is far below what it was last year at this time," moaned Subhash Goyal, owner of Stic Travel and a member of Indian Association of Tour Operators.

"The situation clearly indicates that anxiety about flying has been worsened by the start of the war in Afghanistan. Cancellations are pouring in from the US, Germany and even places like Japan and Hong Kong," he told IANS.

Poor passenger volume forced at least two airlines to cancel their flights Monday. Swissair and Oman Air cancelled flights scheduled to depart from Bombay.

Juerg Christen, manager (northern India) of Swissair, however, said the flight was cancelled as part of the company's strategy to reduce capacity worldwide.

"We are planning to start our normal operations from India soon. Though we have witnessed a slight weakening in global traffic, we don't plan to cut capacity at the moment. Until this month we intend to run our operations normally," he said.

Swissair operates 14 flights a week from India, connecting New Delhi and Bombay daily, while its sister concern Sabena of Belgium operates three flights a week out of Madras.

Debt-laden Swissair's familiar red-and-white flag emblem returned to the Indian sky last Thursday, ending a chaotic 48-hour global grounding. The crisis petered out after the Swiss government injected $277 million into the airline.

Although India's flag carrier Air-India has not announced any capacity cut so far following the US raids, it is also reported to be witnessing drops in both in-bound and out-bound traffic volumes.

Air-India may cancel flights to Tokyo because of poor loads.

A little over 2.6 million foreigners, many of them budget travellers, visited India last year, giving the country a microscopic 0.4-per cent share of the world tourism market.

Analysts say India's proximity to the theatre of conflict in Afghanistan will take a vicious swipe at the country's tourism industry in the current year.

"Any military action in India's backyard is sure to keep away even the few travellers who might have ventured to the region," said an airline industry official.

The Indian travel industry has lost billions of dollars since September 11, as many major airlines have cut capacity to save money.

In New Delhi two major American carriers - NorthWest and United Airlines - have pulled out and curtailed services respectively. The United move means passengers cannot fly on that airline daily from New Delhi to London and Hong Kong.

United has also decided to postpone the launch of its daily New Delhi-Chicago service. NorthWest is, however, still continuing its Bombay-Amsterdam service.

"Many airlines are facing huge losses as a result of the sharp drop in traffic volume," said Goyal of Stic Travels.

"They have no idea whether they will recover or be forced to seek bankruptcy protection, because they cannot predict when passenger levels will return to normal."

Indo-Asian News Service

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