24% of traffic between India & US flies non-stops of Air India & United; Emirates leads in market share

NEW DELHI: Less than a quarter of the people travelling between India and the United States fly non-stop. And, a majority of the one-stop travellers fly via the Gulf, with Dubai-based Emirates having the largest share of the India-US travel pie. Air India, which along with United, has direct flights between the two countries is at the second spot after Emirates in terms market share of this lucrative sector, according to data shared by UK-based air consultancy firm OAG with TOI.
The OAG data, which is for bookings made between October 2017 and September 2018, shows the direct flights of AI and United accounted for 17% and 7% of travellers while the remaining 76% flew one-stop or more. The top 10 carriers for this sector are from the Gulf, Europe, Southeast Asia and one each from India and US.
The number of Indian travellers to the US has been growing constantly since 2010. According to US department of commerce’s National Travel and Trade Office (NTTO) latest data based on citizenship, Indians became the 10th largest in terms of visitors in 2017. NTTO data shows 13.5 lakh Indian travelers went to US in 2017 and 11.1 lakh American travelers came to India last year. The demand from travel from both sides has made this a big market for airlines.
“The India–US market has always been of interest to the network airlines. Combining the vast expanse of the US from the West to East Coast allows both Middle East, European and Asian airlines to serve the market making it extremely competitive for all and with rapid growth continuing in India and enhanced connectivity through Asia that will only continue for the coming years,” said OAG’s regional sales director Mayur Patel.
“United States market is very strong and strategically very important to Air India who in the last rolling twelve month period for which data is available handled some 860,000 bookings (17% share) placing them second only to market the market leader, Emirates who handled close to 1 million bookings (19% share) whilst United Airlines the only US based airline operating direct services handled some 380,000 bookings and secured a 7% share,” OAG said.
AI and United currently have 36 and 14 non-stops, respectively, a week between India and US. United will start a seasonal San Francisco-Delhi from next December. Delta is going to re-start direct flights to Mumbai next year.
While the non-stop options will soon increase, the dominant one-stop players are going all out too woo travelers on this route. Singapore Airlines has added a number of flights from its Changi hub to west coast cities like Los Angeles, SFO and Seattle and is targeting Indian travelers in a big way by offering convenient connections. Emirates serves 12 US destinations.
Given commercial sensitivities, none of the airlines contacted gave a break-up of their passenger share of the India-US market.
Top 10 airlines in terms of passengers between India and US flew from Oct 2017-Sept 2018:
1. Emirates
2. Air India
3. Qatar Airways
4. Etihad
5. United
6. British Airways
7. Lufthansa
8. Cathay Pacific
9. Singapore Airlines
10. Air France
(Source: OAG)