Hong Kong-based airline Dragonair says it has started seeing a small uptick in traffic at its lone Indian port of call Bangalore and plans to capture a wide variety of travellers to and from the city, Hong Kong and mainland China.
The priority is to restore daily flights between Bangalore and Hong Kong very soon, Mr James Tong, Chief Executive Officer of Dragonair (officially Hong Kong Dragon Airlines Ltd), said.
India was a small dot yet for the carrier but was unfolding as a growth area. It was connected by air with Hong Kong and from there to mainland China. With a little promotional push, the country, with its beautiful locales, food and resorts, can be a hot draw for leisure and corporate travellers from Hong Kong and China, Mr Tong told a group of Indian journalists invited to the inaugural flight between Hong Kong and Guangzhou in southern China.
ADVANCE BOOKING
Advance bookings between Bangalore and Hong Kong were showing signs of a revival next year. "We now want to capture diverse segments of travellers such as students and businessmen" for the Bangalore-Hong Kong-China segments, he added. He hoped the new twice-daily 50-minute hop to Guangzhou would catalyse travel between India, Hong Kong and southern China.
Indians and West Asians were already trading in textiles, electronics and consumer goods in Guangzhou.
The load factor from Bangalore also looked better than in early 2009. "We want more Indian investments and more Indians to come to Hong Kong and China."
Guangzhou, on the Pearl River delta, borders the Shenzhen special economic zone. IT, telecom, automotive and many Fortune 500 companies have a base there and the city is emerging as a new gateway to China. The nearby town of Dongguan is shaping up as China's own Bangalore. Guangzhou is also gearing up to host the Asian Games in November 2010.
DAILY BANGALORE
On Indian operations, Mr Tong said the airline started flying daily to Bangalore in July 2008 but had to cut to four times a week in February this year after being stung by the `financial tsunami'.
While other Indian cities could wait, "we hope to go back to flying daily again very soon." Hong Kong, the nearby casino city of Macau and the mainland could be a new package for Indians. Without giving figures, he said, "[Traffic] was quite low earlier this year. Especially the front-end business and first class (traffic) were badly affected, as IT and business professionals were not travelling any more. But come September-October, some business is coming back."
Dragonair operates 400 flights weekly to 29 Asian, mostly Chinese cities. Mr Tong said it was consolidating its airline business rather than diversifying, "but you can never say."
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