UK carrier Virgin Atlantic will add a new daily connecting flight between Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport and New York’s John F Kennedy International Airport via London Heathrow from October 28, 2012 after reporting a 50% year-on-year increase in traffic in this market.
The airline says the new evening service will complement its existing Delhi – Newark Liberty International service and will have a 1 hour 25 minute stop-over in Heathrow to give passengers chance of “stretching their legs and indulging in some duty-free shopping” before departing for JFK. The new service will allow the carrier to capitalise on the growing passenger numbers to New York and the USA.
“India is definitely one of our key markets and along with launching Mumbai later this year we are really looking forward to connecting more passengers to JFK and Newark out of Delhi. The schedule has been designed to enable passengers from India’s capital to connect quickly to New York,” said Stephen King, General Manager for India, Virgin Atlantic Airways.
“Our increasing share to Newark shows that passengers prefer breaking the journey in half, stretching their legs and indulging in some duty-free shopping. We're looking forward to making this new service to JFK a success,” he added.
The market between Delhi and New York is highly competitive. Although United Airlines is currently the only operator to provide a direct daily connection, operated into Newark Liberty International using a Boeing 777, a number of airlines including Air France-KLM, British Airways, Emirates Airline, Etihad Airways, Lufthansa, Qatar Airways and Swiss International Air Lines provide transfer options via their respective hubs, while Jet Airways serves the route via its mini-hub at Brussels Airport. Air India has also served the Delhi – New York JFK route non-stop since February 2008 but suspended its flights in June 2012. These are expected to resume in the future.
In 2011 an estimated 38,000 O&D passengers travelled between Delhi and New York’s three main airports – JFK, Newark Liberty International and LaGuardia. The table below highlights the main operators on the route and shows that Virgin Atlantic held a 6.7 per cent share of this traffic during the last calendar year.
|
SCHEDULED AIR DEMAND BETWEEN DELHI AND NEW YORK (bi-directional O&D traffic; 2011) |
|||
|
Rank |
Airline |
Estimated O&D Passengers |
% Total Demand |
|
1 |
Air India (AI) |
10,333 |
26.9 % |
|
2 |
Continental Airlines (CO) |
6,719 |
17.5 % |
|
3 |
Emirates Airline (EK) |
4,256 |
11.1 % |
|
4 |
British Airways (BA) |
3,304 |
8.6 % |
|
5 |
Jet Airways (9W) |
2,731 |
7.1 % |
|
6 |
Virgin Atlantic Airways (VS) |
2,581 |
6.7 % |
|
7 |
Qatar Airways (QR) |
1,815 |
4.7 % |
|
8 |
Lufthansa (LH) |
1,348 |
3.5 % |
|
9 |
Air France (AF) |
931 |
2.4 % |
|
10 |
Swiss International Air Lines (LX) |
776 |
2.0 % |
|
(Others) |
3,667 |
9.5 % |
|
|
TOTAL |
38,461 |
- |
|
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