In a bid to tap corporate executives and businessmen, airlines operating on international routes have started scheduling their flight timings keeping their business engagements in mind.
The latest to aggressively start day operation service is Malaysian airlines. From September 1, the airline which at present is starting seven flights per week from Mumbai , will be adding three more to it.
Duncan Bureau, Senior VP (Global Sales and Distribution), Malaysian airlines says, “ The three new flights will be operated during the day time, which has been done keeping in mind the need of corporate travelers so that they can reach their destination well in time of their engagements or meetings”.
Also, Singapore airlines which at present operates 19 flights weekly from Mumbai will get over to 21 from October 23.
“India is a growing market and Mumbai is its financial hub. There is tremendous opportunity in taping the corporate sectors so we are planning to start more day flights with the convenience of corporate executives/ businessperson in mind” says GM Toh, General Manager (India) Singapore Airlines.
Besides Malaysian and Singapore airlines, other airlines like national carrier Air India and Jet airways are also trying to maintain similar schedules, industry insiders reveal.
According to the aviation analyst the trend is mainly noticeable for travelling to nearby Asian countries.
However, the trend has been in place for quite some time for domestic travelling as many of the airlines operating here have several flights early morning for business centres- big and small. “The early morning flights provide convenience to executives and businessman to leave early for their destination and return the same evening” said Iqbal Mulla, President, Travel Agents Association of India.
