What is the future of domestic aviation industry?

Role of Domestic Airlines in the Tourism Industry

The role of international airlines in the total tourism business is to provide mass and quick transportation between countries under safe, standardized and economical conditions. Its relationship to the tourism industry

is better understood by breaking down the entire activity of tourism into its component parts.

Because of quick and efficient transportation, people are spurred to travel for various reasons as destinations have become more accessible. Some of these reasons to travel are

Sightseeing - historical, cultural, social and technological sights

Relaxation - beach and mountain resorts

Sport - mountain, climbing, skiing, surfing, scuba diving

Special Interest - Study tours on art, history, religion, culture and science.

Shopping - personal and professional

Business

Governmental - political, cultural, social and scientific reasons.

The travel industry requires an efficient infrastructure which put together constitutes the tourism industry which is the world's second largest industry. The infrastructure is thus:

Each country has a point of prestige its national carrier. To name a few, they are Lufthansa of West Germany, British Airways of United Kingdom and Air France for France. In order that these carriers can fly to or over other countries to reach their destinations, Governments negotiate with each other to grant certain "freedoms".

Air Fares are subject to increasingly competitive conditions. For example the world oil crises has hit the airline industry the maximum and many airlines have been liquidated or have had to cut down operations by reducing manpower and unprofitable routes. Together with the recent world inflation and unemployment, travel which came out of disposable income has become a luxury for a few. To meet such fluctuating world trends airlines have modulated their fares and devised novel methods of tariffs to meet the travel need of various segments. They have thus come up with:

1.The First class fares - for exclusive passengers

2.Economy fares - for the common passengers

3.Excursion fares, charter fares - for tourists

4.Discounted fares - for students and emigrants

All fares used by the airlines come under two categories

1.IATA fares

2.Government directed fares

Fares have a relation to volume and capacity. Technology brought the wide- bodied aircraft which increased capacity overnight to almost double per aircraft. While on a average 35% of the airline carriage was on account of business travel, this segment alone could not be relied on totally to fill additional capacities. Thus, the holiday market had to be tapped and fares reduced to stimulate demand, holidays and student passengers. A peculiar aspect of consumer mix is that product is essentially the same but the conditions of sale are different.

A revolutionary concept n air travel was initiated by Freddie offered low air bus fares as a result of cutting down on the comforts and services.

Types of packaged tours offered by airlines are:

Destination - where the ultimate destination is the unique selling point.

Stopover Packages - where a passenger has the benefit of stopping at other destinations lying en-route the ultimate destination.

Special interest packages - sport, historical etc...

Brand Name packages to destination of known tourist attractions

These packages guarantee value for money, backed by airlines name and reputation for maintenance of standards.