International routes may hurt airlines now

Turmoil in the US financial sector – triggered by the Lehman Brothers collapse – may prove to be yet another dampener to the international air travel. Aviation experts fear US and the Europe-bound air traffic may be hit due to the crisis which is resulting in loss of jobs.According to International Air Transport Association (IATA), the financial sector meltdown poses a much sharper economic downturn than the fuel price spike. This may lead to negative growth in travel, affecting revenue of airlines.“The collapse of US financial giants would certainly affect US-bound air travel. Europe-bound traffic is also expected to get hit as some of the big financial institutions there are also heading to a possible crisis. Also there are many companies in the country which are directly or indirectly related with these falling giants,” Amadeus India managing director Ankur Bhatia said.Home-grown airlines, such as Jet Airways and Kingfisher Airlines, are, however, not in a hurry to assess the impact of the financial crisis on their international operations. Kingfisher which just started overseas operation by launching a service on Bangalore-London sector doesn’t see any significant dent to its maiden flight at least in the near future.According to industry estimates, corporate travellers comprise about 63%-65 % of the country’s total inbound and outbound international air traffic.

Source: http://www.indianaviationnews.net/