New Delhi: Cathay Pacific is expanding its cargo operations from India, adding Chennai to its network besides Delhi and Mumbai, saying the country was emerging as one of the world's fastest growing cargo markets.
While the twice-weekly direct freighter flights between Hong Kong and Chennai would be launched from June 2, Cathay already operates three cargo flights each week from Delhi and Mumbai, the airline's General Manager (Middle East, India and Africa) Tom Wright said.
He said that more freighter services would be added on the India route when additional aircraft are inducted in the fleet. Wright announced that a new office would be opened at Jalandhar on Wednesday to cater to the needs of growing number of passengers from Punjab, who, he said, contributed around 18 per cent of revenue for it and other airlines.
Observing that Cathay Pacific was giving ‘value for money’ to consumers from India, Wright said they were not looking at any promotional fares or packages for the Indian travelers at the moment.
Asked to comment on Indian government's decision to impose a 12.24 per cent service tax on First and Business Class travel out of the country, he said the measure was too new to have an impact. "We still have tremendous demand and there is no noticeable impact (of this tax) as yet," he added.
To questions on the zooming jet fuel prices, Wright said the airline had already sought permission from Hong Kong authorities to raise the fuel surcharge from the present levels. However, he did not disclose what percentage of hike the airline was looking at.
On whether the airline was considering expanding its passenger operations from India, Wright said the air traffic rights granted to it was being fully utilised, though it wanted to expand its network further.
This, he said, would depend on the bilateral agreement between India and the Hong Kong authorities, which still deals with aviation related matters despite the island state's
merger with China.
General Manager (Cargo) Ron Mathison said Chennai was a major air cargo centre for textiles and clothing industry and would be a useful addition to Cathay's global freighter network.
"We will look to adding more freighter services to India later this year when we get more aircraft capacity", he said.
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