Suspension of Air Asia’s Goa-KL flight may not hurt too much

In June 2014 when the Air Asia flight from Bengaluru landed at Dabolim there was joy that another airline had thought it viable to connect with Goa. It was also Tony Fernandes coming home to the land of his father. The flights from that city remain popular and are usually snapped up as soon as they come on the market. However the Air Asia story in Goa suffered a dent when a communiqué was issued announcing the decision to suspend its three times a week flights from Kuala Lumpur to Goa effective June 7, 2016 as part of its route rationalisation initiatives. 

This decision may have come as a shock considering the emotional connect between Tony Fernandes and the State of his father. The Goa chapter of the CII had been in the forefront to make Goa the hub of the airline in the country. The State was competing with Bengaluru and Chennai for that deal. In time, nothing came of that due to the inability of the State’s authorities to take decisions as fast as is required in today’s competitive world. 

Attempts to contact Air Asia at its headquarters in Kuala Lumpur via its communication agency in India proved futile with the airline not being able to revert at the time of going to press. The Goan market has been in a slump following the ban on mining. The recent commencement of mining activity has not had an effect on sentiment. 

The decision by Air Asia begs the question if Goa had a market interested in travelling around the world. Attempts to contact airlines operating in the State were not very successful with some not willing to answer the questions and others difficult to contact. However Ivan Fernandes, manager of Air Arabia in Goa was more than willing to answer queries about the state of the market. He said “The market has responded to our 5 flights from Sharjah to Goa. The aircraft can seat 168 passengers and we are on an average 80-85% full.” June and July was a problem because it was an off season and in December the travel was usually one way with Goans coming home for Christmas. A one way ticket he said could cost Rs 9000 depending on the time of the year a two way ticket could be as much as Rs 20,000.  

Perhaps it could be said would hazarding a guess that strong demand would remain due to the strong presence of Indian expatriates in the Gulf with a large number from Goa, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. 

Attempts to speak to people involved in making Goa the base for the airline proved difficult with many of the players either out of the country or incommunicado. Nitin Kunkolienkar past President of the CII who was involved in the process said “the decision to suspend the flights were taken on purely business reasons. With regards to Goans travelling to that region, there is greater interest in visiting Thailand and Singapore.” 

He felt the suspension of flights it would not be a matter of great distress considering the same airline offered flights to Bengaluru from Goa for as little as Rs 2000. The low fares on the international sector meant they were losing money on each ticket which could not be sustained over a period of time.      

Perhaps there is some semblance of hope for those interested in flying straight out of Goa to Malaysia. The statement released by Air Asia expressed the company’s commitment to India and it looked forward to returning to Goa in the future. One could perhaps live in hope.