Jetstar Will Stop Flying To Kolkata
[Via The Telegraph] Jetstar will stop flying to Kolkata, from May 1, 2006.
Jetstar is the third international airline to stop flying to Kolkata in little over a month. Others being Royal Jordanian and Malaysian Airlines.
For most airlines, an aircraft needs to be about 60% full to break even. This figure is even higher for budget airlines (75-80% for Jetstar Asia). The official reason for Jetstar to stop flying to Kolkata is its the low number of passengers per flight (about 40%). But this might be part of the bigger problem(s) they face.
Anyways, all this is not a good news. There goes my chance to visit Kolkata anytime in the near future. Its just too expensive flying other airlines. A Singapore-Kolkata round trip costs about SGD 1000 on Singapore Airlines, SGD 900 on Indian Airlines and SGD 800 on Thai Airways.
Meanwhile, here is an interesting article I just came across on how budget airlines keep their costs low.