Chinese commercial airlines offering economical fares to travelers from India

China-based airlines are offering reasonable prices to Indian travelers. These economical fares are being offered for long distance tours that involve travel between Australia, the Far East, West coast of North America and India. This includes short term passage stop over at China.

President of Thomas Cook India for Global Business Travel Indiver Rastogi has said that in the last few years there has been a steady hike in the number of commercial airlines in India from China. Their airlines provide the customers a class experience along with economical fares and this has appealed to the travelers from India who is specific about the prices, as quoted by the Times of India.

The Chinese airlines have also caught the attention of the commercial travelers who have trade interests in mainland China or they intends to arrive in China for a stopover journey to the US, explained Rastogi.

The variation in air travel ticket fares ranges from Rs 25,000 to 20,000 for air travels to far off places such as Canada or the US when evaluated against other airlines such as the Thai Airways, Singapore Airlines, and Malaysian Airlines. The price variation amongst airlines of Japan and China ranges between 20, 000 to 15,000, added Rastogi.

The right of use given to the airlines from mainland China is limited which has prevented them from dominating the east routes over other airlines from Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, or even India. As of now, to and fro connectivity flight service for Delhi is provided by most of the leading airline companies in China.

A senior official of the Government of India has informed that as per the existing bilateral arrangement between India and China, air flight firms in both the nations can operate every week 10,000 people for 42 air travels. While airlines from China are completely availing this facility, India utilizes just 1,280 seats through the five flights that are operated by Air India to Shanghai every week.

China has even been demanding to increase the quota of seats for airlines under the mutual agreement with India. But the Modi government has been insisting that the increase can be done only when Indian airlines begin to exhaust at least 80% of the quota of seats under the existing agreements.

Cathay Dragon and Cathay Pacific based in Hong Kong have flights operating to six cities in India that go up to 48 flights per week. Though Hong Kong is now incorporated into China the Cathay air flight operators maintain their flight operation with India according to the agreements they had with India when Hong Kong was ruled by the UK.

In the airline operators that provide connectivity to India, the maximum number of airline connectivity is provided by China Southern that operated two flights per week for the Guangzhou and Delhi route.

The Head of China Southern in Delhi Chengming Yan said that majority of the travelers from India arrive in Guangzhou for a stopover journey to the US, New Zealand, and Australia. The travelers from India have to wait for just two hours to board their connecting flight, added Yan.

The head of business travel for Cox and Kings, John Nair has agreed that the lower flight fares offered by the airlines from China are a significant threat to global airline firms. The fares of Chinese airlines are fairly economical when evaluated with airlines in India or even other global airlines from Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong or Thailand. The competition offered by them is around 30 to 20 percent lesser than other airline firms, added Nair.