International routes may hurt airlines now

Turmoil in the US financial sector ��� triggered by the Lehman Brothers collapse ��� may prove to be yet another dampener to the international air travel. Aviation experts fear US and the Europe-bound air traffic may be hit due to the crisis which is resulting in loss of jobs.

According to International Air Transport Association (IATA), the financial sector meltdown poses a much sharper economic downturn than the fuel price spike. This may lead to negative growth in travel, affecting revenue of airlines.

���The collapse of US financial giants would certainly affect US-bound air travel. Europe-bound traffic is also expected to get hit as some of the big financial institutions there are also heading to a possible crisis. Also there are many companies in the country which are directly or indirectly related with these falling giants,��� Amadeus India managing director Ankur Bhatia said.

Home-grown airlines, such as Jet Airways and Kingfisher Airlines, are, however, not in a hurry to assess the impact of the financial crisis on their international operations. Kingfisher which just started overseas operation by launching a service on Bangalore-London sector doesn���t see any significant dent to its maiden flight at least in the near future.

���Lehman Brothers has just about 400 employees here in India. Since India in itself is a big market, we don���t think the current financial situation in the US would have any impact on our international operation,��� Kingfisher executive vicepresident Hitesh Patel said.

According to industry estimates, corporate travellers comprise about 63%-65 % of the country���s total inbound and outbound international air traffic. Rising airfares due to the high jetfuel price have already affected leisure travel.

���It���s too early to say as the financial market trouble in the US would affect the traffic. So far, we have not seen any impact,��� Jet Airways vice-president (marketing) Gaurang Shetty said.