Cathay Pacific Airways has witnessed a strong growth from the India market in 2015. The airline has recorded around 85 per cent load factor on India routes. “The year 2015 was one of the bright years for us. We have enjoyed a load factor of around 80 to 85 per cent from this sector. From India market, we welcomed majorly business travellers who travelled to Hong Kong and Macau and also further destinations. India is one of our top 10 contributors, overall,” Rajesh Menon, Regional Sales and Marketing Manager – South Asia said. The airline had introduced the CX Mobile booking platform on CX apps in November 2015.
Presently, Cathay Pacific has 48 weekly departures from India and serves to six destinations namely; Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Bengaluru and Hyderabad. Speaking about the plans to increase its geographical presence in India Menon added, “We have always been keen on increasing routes in India. In 2015, we had increased one flight to Kolkata, which is doing very well. It all depends on the flying rights. Currently, we have exhausted all our bilaterals with India. Once we get a few bilateral, we will take a final call on increasing the routes. I think the introduction of the new aviation policy will be the right time for more discussions.”
The airlines had introduced its new mobile booking app in India market. Menon said, “Last year we did a soft launch of our new mobile application last year. “We will do more campaigns and promotions to promote our app to the customers in 2016. We have witnessed that over two per cent of all the total bookings happens our app platform. We will take a small feedback from our customers who have used it and will soon launch it in a major event. We will aggressively promote the app to our clientele.” CX-India mobile users can now book their travel on Cathay Pacific directly from their mobile devices on the go. It is expected to enhance convenience but also the overall mobile experience for the airline’s Indian passengers.
Commenting on the future, he explained, “2016 looks like a promising year for us. The first quarter of 2016 is already looking robust with a good number of bookings. The economy is picking up, so even the leisure travel business will increase from India. Hong Kong being a business hub, our major customers will be business travellers. So all in all we are more of a business carrier. We work very closely with the travel trade and agents community in India. In 2016, we will again organise a few trade engagement activities.”
Dragonair, a member of the Cathay Pacific Group which currently serves to Kolkata and Bengaluru markets, is also performing extremely well with a load factor of around 85-90 per cent on the Indian routes.
