KPMG partner Sukesh Kumar makes business trips to India from Vancouver several times each year. He usually flies in business class, which sounds comfortable, but the 22-hour journeys are more draining than necessary because they always require a stopover.
Whether Kumar flies via London on British Airways or via Frankfurt on Lufthansa, he wastes up to six hours in stopovers.
“Direct access to India is critical for business travel,” he told Business in Vancouver. “You save your time and the comfort level is much better than flying to other airports.”
John Korenic, Vancouver International Airport Authority’s director of aviation marketing, has been hard at work trying to convince a carrier that direct Vancouver-India flights make economic sense.
The economic case partly rests on the volume of business travel between Vancouver and India.
“For airlines going to almost any market now, filling the front cabin, business class, is important,” Korenic said. “India is the largest market to which there are no direct flights from Vancouver.”
The most popular end-destination, outside Canada and the U.S., for travellers who fly out of Vancouver are (in order):
•China (mainland);
•the U.K.;
•Mexico;
•Hong Kong;
•South Korea; and
•India.
According to Chris Rossi, Virgin Atlantic senior vice-president for North America, strong final-destination traffic was key to convincing Virgin Atlantic to select Vancouver as its first Canadian destination since pulling out of Toronto about 10 years ago.
But Korenic said a destination’s popularity is not the top priority when considering an airline’s bid to fly directly to Vancouver.
His top considerations include:
•the air agreement Canada has with the destination country.
•the potential strength of the flight’s business clientele;
•the airline’s strategic focus and whether it has a fleet that can handle a long-haul flight over Alaska to New Delhi.
“There are countries where the market size is too small,” Korenic said. “It might be sustainable perhaps for a couple flights per week by a charter airline, but it wouldn’t be sustainable year-round by an airline on a fairly frequent basis.
“The worst thing that can happen to our market is if we convince an airline to fly into Vancouver and it’s not viable. They will pull out and not come back. More importantly, word gets out.”
After securing a direct flight to India, Korenic’s next priorities are:
•increased flights to China;
•a direct link with the Persian Gulf region; and
•a direct link to southeast Asia. •
