------------------------------------------------------------------------ * G * O * A * N * E * T **** C * L * A * S * S * I * F * I * E * D * S * ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Enjoy your holiday in Goa. Stay at THE GARCA BRANCA from November to May There is no better, value for money, guest house. Confirm your bookings early or miss-out
Visit http://www.garcabranca.com for details/booking/confirmation. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=129025 Flying fears Are we ready for growing domestic air traffic? Posted online: Thursday, June 01, 2006 at 0000 hours IST The sharp increase in domestic air traffic at a number of non-metro airports is a sign of both greater business activity and higher incomes and reflects how demand is pulling in supply of air travel services. The same applies for the low-cost airline phenomenon gaining strength in the country and for innovative pricing offers by competing full-cost service players. But key to all this is the pace of development of non-metro airports and the cost corrections needed to sustain domestic traffic growth. Thanks to substantial easing of the highly regulated environment, air travel is set to become a preferred option. But it calls for rapid growth in airport handling capacities. As low-cost airlines work on a point-to-point service model and quick turnaround time is crucial for maximum utilisation of aircraft, requirements from airport facilities would be that much more. A study conducted by the DGCA of towns and cities exceeding 100,000 and conforming to certain key growth parameters had found clear potential for air services from 92 centres, with an associated set of a possible 2,000 city pair connections. But given the protracted experience in the case of metro airports, concerns arise about the subsequently proposed 35 non-metro airport plans' progress. Any airport modernisation programme calls for far greater transparency, predictability and stability to lower investors' risks and make long-term returns attractive. Besides, structural constraints create a cost bottleneck for domestic airlines. The cost of fuel constitutes a huge 30% of operational costs (against 10-15% in other countries), mainly due to anomalies in taxation across states. Indian players still fare poorly against global ones with higher costs due to fuel, maintenance and airport charges. Another issue is the route categorisation policy forcing airline operators to fly unviable routes, which means they cross-subsidise by charging higher fares on trunk routes. The bottomline is that even as demand is now a given, unless airport development moves fast and the cost structures are corrected, recent growth trends will not be sustainable, nor will it be possible to realise the full potential. ------------------------ Those who can understand English should be able to realise by now that the military (with its spurious security arguments) is a major impediment to the growth of low cost aviation at Dabolim and indirectly at Mopa. Is this not of concern to Goa or not? Cheers. _____________________________________________ Do not post admin requests to the list. Goanet mailing list (Goanet@goanet.org)