Bipin Shah   Self Employed
British Airways chief Willie Walsh flew to Mumbai on Friday for his second trip to India in four weeks as his airline faces mounting competition in one of the world?s fastest growing aviation markets.

He took off in BA?s newest aircraft, a Boeing 777-300, adorned with a garland of flowers by Slumdog Millionaire star, Dev Patel.

It is no accident that the jet?s showy launch was aimed at Mumbai.

After the US, India is BA?s second biggest market outside the UK and the British flag-carrier has long been a dominant force on routes between London and India?s two largest cities, Mumbai and Delhi.

The US market remains much bigger: traffic between the UK and US last year was 16.3m passengers compared with 3.3m between the UK and India. But India is growing much faster. Its traffic numbers have nearly doubled since 1999, according to the UK Civil Aviation Authority, while the US?s have fallen from 18.2m in 1999.

But BA faces increasing competition on two fronts: rapidly expanding Middle East airlines such as Emirates of Dubai, Qatar Airways and Abu Dhabi?s Etihad; and Indian airlines freed from regulatory constraints.

?I suspect BA is losing market share,? says Peter Morris, chief economist at Ascend, an aviation consultancy.

The connectivity the Gulf carriers have developed into India ?is steadily improving with each year that goes by?, he says, pointing for example to Emirates? ability to fly passengers from Dubai direct to cities such as Chennai.

Emirates also has Airbus A380 jets, the world?s largest passenger aircraft, which it started flying from Manchester this week.

?It?s fascinating to see Emirates bringing in an A380 to Manchester whereas BA hasn?t even got an A380 going to Heathrow yet,? said Mr Morris.

India?s airlines are also a rising threat. Six years ago, the India-UK route was largely the preserve of BA and Air-India, India?s state-owned national carrier, thanks to rules limiting each nation?s airlines to just 19 flights per week between the two countries.

BA had 19 flights; Air-India had 12 and Sir Richard Branson?s Virgin Atlantic operated three flights using Air-India slots, a total of 34 between the two, according to OAG airline schedule data.

Today, thanks to liberalisation, those 34 weekly services have grown to 108: 45 operated by BA; 21 by Air-India and seven by Virgin Atlantic. The rest are run by two Indian carriers, Jet Airways and Kingfisher .

Mr Walsh?s last trip to Mumbai in early August was to see Kingfisher, whose flamboyant founder, Vijay Mallya, wears diamond ear studs and handpicks his glamorous flight attendants. Mr Walsh had less flashy aims: discussing Kingfisher?s recent move into the Oneworld global airline alliance.

Bringing Kingfisher into Oneworld should be good for BA. And given the amount of competition both airlines face from the Gulf, it may prove increasingly important in years to come.

●BA on Friday reported its traffic in August fell 3 per cent from the same month in 2009, due partly to promotional activity last year. The group said overall summer volumes had been slightly lower than the peak levels seen last year
Sep 4th 2010 00:17