epages News [Travel Agents, February 2003]

Passenger cars cheaper by 4%

Feb 01, 2003: New Delhi: According to sources in the auto industry and Udyog Bhavan, excise duties on passenger cars may come down by 4% from the current peak slab of 32%. The drop in excise duty is in line with the recommendations of the Kelkar committee, which fixed a 20% slab for the auto sector.Currently, cars and multi-utility vehicles attract 32% excise duty (16% excise and another 16% special additional duty) while two-wheelers and commercial vehicles attract 16% duty.

Ford India' sales double with Ikon NXT

Feb 05, 2003: Chennai: The sale of Ford India Ltd doubled last month to touch a record 1735 units as against 860 units in the same month last year. The 102% increase, highest ever sales registered by Ford India in a single month, is indicative of appeal and popularity of IKON NXT. With 149 changes from its original version, IKON NXT, recently introduced variant of the company's flagship mid-size passenger car IKON. It has generated a strong buyer demand. The IKON NXT's record sales in January reaffirmed customers' expectations with the offer of new and exciting quality products.

Maruti Udyog to introduce cheaper Alto

Feb 06, 2003: Maruti Udyog, the country's largest car manufacturer, is all set to introduce a stripped-down version of its Alto model latter month. To start with the model - that would come without the AC - would be targeted at the North East markets. The Alto Lx is currently pegged at around Rs 3,10,000 while the non-AC model would cost about Rs 35,000 less.

Ford India sales double

Feb 08, 2003: Chennai: Ford India has announced that with the introduction of the latest generation ‘Josh’ machine, the Ford Ikon NXT, it has doubled its sales for January with a record of 1,737 units compared to 860 units during the same month last year. Ford India plans to sustain its leadership position by targeting over 20% share.

Skoda Auto to launch diesel-powered Superb

Feb 10, 2003: Skoda Auto India has decided to introduce in the Indian market the diesel-driven luxury car Superb by middle of this year. According to a report, the carmaker has deferred plans to launch the petrol version of Superb due to unavailability of high-grade petrol in India. The E-segment vehicle, which will be imported through the completely built route, is to be priced comparably with D-segment cars, and way below that of the Mercedes E-class. The car would sport a 2.5-litre Tdi engine that would offer 142 bhp power.

Mahindra to hike production of Scorpio

Feb 11, 2003: Buoyed by the success of its sports-utility vehicle ‘Scorpio’, Mahindra and Mahindra (M&M) will increase monthly production of the vehicle to 2,500 units in the next six months. The company is also planning to launch new variants of the SUV this year. On exports, the Mumbai-based firm was expected to sign an order for export of 1,200 units of ‘Scorpio’ to Sri Lanka in the next few days. M&M is finalising plans to undertake ‘crash-tests’ of the ‘Scorpio’ in Spain or Britain to test the safety of the vehicle as per European standard. In the next month or two, they will finalise the deal with a European firm. The sales of M&M’s other utility vehicles, specially the ‘Bolero’ has been affected by the success of the ‘Scorpio’ with monthly sales falling down to a low of 250 units as against 800 units till recently. Now, with the rationalisation in pricing, the ‘Bolero’ sales have gone up to 750 units per month.

Tourists keep it short & sweet

Feb 13, 2003: New Delhi: The last 18 months have brought dramatic changes in inbound tourism. Travel companies are no longer vying for tourists from conventional destinations like the US, the UK, Germany and Austria. Instead, tourists from the Mediterranean region, west Asia, Japan, Taiwan and Russia are extremely sought after. Also, large travel companies like Sita Travels are also re-organising their operations in the US by drastically reducing promotional expenses and diverting expenditure in promoting either domestic tourism or inbound tourism in short-haul destinations.

The reason for shifting focus can be attributed to a substantial drop in tourists from the US over the last two seasons. Moreover, travel companies feel that, worldwide, people are preferring short-haul destinations instead of long-haul ones due to fear of the US attacks on Iraq.

Car, commercial vehicle sales surge in January

Feb 14, 2003: Domestic car sales surged by 10.15% in January 2003 with automakers like Maruti, Hyundai and Tata Engineering leading the growth. General Motors, Fiat and Hindustan Motors drove into negative territory during the month. Total sales, rose for the eighth successive month, to 54,825 cars from 49,769 cars sold in the same month last year. Cumulative sales grew by 8.61% to 4,36,475 cars from 4,01,845 units a year earlier. Commercial vehicles also continued with their strong performance this fiscal clocking a 35.32% rise in January 2003 at 18,650 units over 13,782 units in the year-ago month. Domestic two-wheeler sales increased by 6.6% to 5,967 units in January 2003.

IA to lease 3 Airbus A320 by Febuary-end

Feb 19, 2003: Indian Airlines plans to lease three Airbus A320 planes by the end of February and another two by mid-year as it battles to claw back market share. The move is on top of the loss-making state-owned airline’s plans to buy 43 planes from Europe’s Airbus that its board approved last March as part of fleet renewal programme.

Jet Airlines extends apex fare scheme

Feb 19, 2003: Private airline Jet Airlines extended its ‘Everyone Can Fly’ scheme with immediate effect. The scheme, which was earlier scheduled to run from August 1, 2002 to March 31, 2003, has been extended till further notice, the airline said. The scheme is valid for 50 sectors across the country. A spokesman said the previously announced special fares would continue and that they would not be revised.

Travel agents see no drop in sales, but fear attacks

Feb 21, 2003: Banglore: Even though there are mixed signals from the industry, travel giants like Kuoni and Thomas Cook do not expect any serious drop in business this year. The present lull has been largely attributed to the focus on World Cup, and not so much on the war clouds, which are once again hovering over the Middle East. The two majors also say that domestic tourism, which was virtually rediscovered after 9/11, is here to stay and will continue to be nurtured by the travel trade at large. Unless there is a full-blown war, Indians will continue to travel overseas for work and on holiday. While hotel occupancies in India are high at present, any drop in foreign travel on account of a war, will hurt business, both airline and hospitality. Room rates are down both in UK and US. The element of uncertainty is only growing, if it’s not US and Iraq, there may be problems with North Korea, all of which will add to a sense of unease, and can prove detrimental to travel in the coming months.

Air Sahara to start regional service on Feb 28

Feb 22, 2003: New Delhi: The regional services of Air Sahara would be launched on February 28, setting off fresh competition in a new segment of the domestic airline industry. The first regional jet leased by the airline has arrived in India and it would be pressed into service on the Delhi – Lucknow – Gorakpur - Kolkatta route four times a week. On the remaining three days, the airline would connect Allahabad instead of Gorakhpur.

The aircraft leased by Air Sahara is CRJ 200, a 50-seater manufactured by Bombardier of Canada. The airline is leasing six more CRJ 200s. The aircraft can fly as fast as Boeing B737s and the airline can connect all sectors in the domestic market with the CRJs. Air Sahara plans to connect regional routes with the 50-seater during the morning and evening hours. During the off-peak hours, these aircraft would connect metros. Larger aircraft cannot be deployed on metro routes during off-peak hours since they need more passengers to break even.

High costs may ground domestic airlines in '03

Feb 24, 2003: Mumbai: Domestic airlines are bracing themselves for a turbulent 2003, as high costs, combined with poor growth in passenger numbers, and a steady increase in capacity threaten to combine, to deliver a triple whammy. Consider this, while 13.4m passengers travelled by air on domestic routes in 2002, the number was lower than 2000, when the airlines carried 13.6m people.

Airlines globally are combating falling loads, but the scenario in the domestic skies is different, with each of the three main players Indian Airlines, Jet Airways and Air Sahara actually adding significant capacity during ‘03. Indian Airlines, the largest player by aircraft numbers (a fleet of 45 aircraft) is planning to lease three A-320s by April and two more by the middle of the year. This will add at least 1,200 seats to the airline’s system. Air Sahara plans to induct seven CRJ (50 seater) jets and five Boeing-737s during the year. The first of the jets is in the process of being inducted.

 
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