Why Air Asia Had to Step Down in the Indian and European Markets
An airline that has been a favorite wherever it flew, Air Asia’s latest decision to withdraw some of its services in the Indian and European markets has come as a shocker to many passengers. The low cost airline has been the first option for many fliers and this decision of the airline is sure to affect many.
Though the decision is not being taken too kindly by many passengers who relied on Air Asia to offer the best in costs and service, one look at the reasons at play behind the scenes show that this decision was not entirely the airline’s fault. After all, every organization needs to think of its own survival first, only then will it be able to provide services to customers, and by withdrawing some of its services from these markets Air Asia has done just that.
London, Paris, New Delhi, and Mumbai are the cities which are affected by this decision of Air Asia. New Delhi which had daily Air Asia flights to Kuala Lumpur had to see scaled down operations amounting to four weekly flights while Mumbai had four existing weekly flights suspended. Similarly, the European markets witnessed a scale down with six services a week to London suspended and four services a week to Paris discontinued. The reasons associated with each one these decisions are well justified too.
In India, there were quite a few factors that led to Air Asia’s scale down in operations. Firstly, the visa issue was what was affecting the airline’s traffic the most. Before Air Asia decided to fly to India, the Malaysian Government had facilities in place that allowed Indian nationals to obtain a Visa On Arrival. As soon as the airline began its operations however, this policy were revoked and Indian visitors now had to apply for a Visa even before planning their visit. Singapore and Thailand still offered the Visa On Arrival scheme for Indians and this meant that instead of Malaysia, the Indian tourists now started eyeing Thailand and Singapore as convenient destinations.
Furthermore, the airports in India increased their airport fees drastically with the Indira Gandhi International Airport even raising its fees to the tune of 300%. This meant that low cost airlines such as Air Asia couldn’t afford the exorbitant fees anymore.
In Europe, the increased taxes as well as the continual downward spiral of the European economy did the airline in. As far as passengers are concerned, they are only hoping that the scale down in flights in both India as well as Europe is only a temporary move by Air Asia. After all, the airline sure has given its customers a good time with every flight.
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