no airline company will work out in India not just Air Deccan concept even Kingfisher airlines will flop miserably simply because India is still a mainly poor country and most of the people travel by bus/rail, and air travel is unaffordable except to a very small number of rich people. No industry can survive just by depending on corporate visits. India will do well on creating better roads where cars/buses can go at 100 km/h at a minimum and by building faster trains ala French TGV
RE:Hello
by Raam Kool on Jan 01, 2008 02:15 AM Permalink
What world are you in Sir ? I travalled many more times in Air Deccan / Jet Airways, even thouh there was a relatively cheaper potion of travelling by train. Esp - I dont think I am "rich". You may say air-travel may not be affordable to poor of India, but its surely affordable to burgeoning Middle-Class and that makes it a economically viable industry.
RE:RE:Hello
by Adnan Aurangabadwala on Jan 01, 2008 02:32 AM Permalink
I agree totally with Raam... If you see the amount of traffic at the domestic terminals, you will be astonished.. the Indian middle class is HUGE.... More than sufficient to sustain the airline... I think forgotten in all this is the Taxation on travel... Many a times you manage to get a ticket for Rs 300, but then, the taxes for that travel are close to 5 times the ticket cost... This I feel is still holding back the domestic passengers...
RE:RE:RE:Hello
by Arvind on Jan 01, 2008 08:51 AM Permalink
It is as simple as get. From Bangalore to Delhi it takes two days to go and fair is around 1,500/- so for a return trip for a couple it would cost around 6,000/-. Now in that they have to spend 4 days in train. At least add the extra cost of eating at stations, books, megazines,etc. etc. It would easily go to 7,500/-
In flight it would take around 12,000/- for return ticket of two. Now even if we consider only husband as working he would loose his 4 leaves for this train. Which can easily be worth another 5K. Now do your math and find out what is better option.
And for even more mathematical satisfaction do check the number of I AC, II AC, and III AC travel data with railways and you would come to know.
I think you must belong to Gandhi-Nehru family who are hellbent on projecting India as poor country so that they can win elections on the basis of "Garibi Hatao" which they never did !!
Dude we are not poors have some self respect and selfesteem. How long you would be under this illusion of poverty do you like being poor, at least I dont want to be poor and would never tolerate if somebody comes and say that India is poor country!
RE:Hello
by Vijay on Jan 01, 2008 01:39 PM Permalink
India is a poor country statistics tell it I dont, what is our per-capita income in India? in US it is around 40K Dollars, here it is less than 2K dollars, so only minority will be able to afford air-travel. Right now it is 4 days to travel to Delhi but with high-speed train it can be easily cut to 2 days. And moreover travel to Delhi is not comparable, yes I agree maybe in such cases Delhi to Bangalore travel by plane travel is better, but what about from Bangalore to Hyderabad from Bangalore to Mumbai Bangalore to Chennai, where distance is less than 1000 kms with faster trains and faster roads we can cut travel time by more than half. If China can have fast trains why not India, after all China is only slightly ahead of India in economic terms, India definitely needs high-speed trains
RE:RE:Hello
by Arvind on Jan 02, 2008 09:58 AM Permalink
Dude,
What was the last time you checked the fare of these bullet trains? You need to relay the entire tracks to sustain such high speed trains!
There are not the only two kind of people in the world Rich and Poor. There is some thing called middle class. Hope now you remove the Gandhi-Nehru spec. from your eyes and see India.
RE:RE:Hello
by Abhijeet on Jan 01, 2008 05:52 PM Permalink
Dear Vijay, Please chck the rates of Fast Trains you are talking about. Bullet train in China cost about 35USD for 45Km run. Do you think that wd be affordable??
