TBM Staff - Mumbai Direct flights between India and Western Australia’s Perth are being explored and discussions are being initiated with at least two Indian carriers – the Tatas and IndiGo, reports The Hindu Business Line.
India has no direct air connectivity to Perth and the present ones are either through Singapore or via Melbourne and Sydney. Data from Indian tour operators also shows that visitors generally prefer taking flights to Sydney and then travel to Perth via domestic flights or by road.
Air India, now owned by the Tatas, has direct flights to Sydney and Melbourne.
“We are going to have meetings with a range of companies. The Tatas, who are a major aviation company in India… We are looking forward to sitting down with them and explore the opportunities of direct flights between India and Perth, Western Australia,” Roger Cook, MLA, Deputy Premiere, and Minister of State Development, Jobs and Trade, Tourism, Commerce and Science, told BusinessLine during an interview. “The other company is IndiGo,” he added.
Cook is leading Western Australia’s largest ever business delegation to India.
Airfares for the one stop flight to Perth (via Singapore) start at around INR 66,000 currently, as against other places like Sydney and Melbourne which start at around INR 96,000. Perth and Singapore share the same time zone (2 hours 30 minutes ahead of India) with flying time between the two cities being around 5 hours. A direct air connectivity is expected to provide fillip to tourism in the region too.
One of the largest producers of iron-ore, Western Australia is mostly known for extraction and processing of minerals and petroleum products, apart from agricultural production.However, in recent years, tourism has grown in importance, with tourists coming in from countries in Europe, including the UK and Ireland, New Zealand, Singapore, Japan and Malaysia.
