Second City battle over Indian air link

Regeneration & Renewal, 29 June 2009

Manchester Airport, which carries more routes than any other handler in the UK, last week invited senior figures from the Indian aviation industry to a panel to encourage them to revive direct services to the subcontinent.

Currently, Indian-based airlines only fly direct to London after canning services to Manchester in the late 1990s and to Birmingham last year. Although there is interest from airlines such as Kingfisher in serving another UK city, the decision may rest on which city is considered the UK's second city by decision-makers in India.

Dilip Kakar, UK finance manager at Kingfisher, and Shashi Kant Kaundal, a representative for state airline Air India, faced demands from senior British Asian business leaders to reverse their decision to abandon direct flights to Manchester. "I think people in India still believe that Birmingham is the second city," one audience member said. "Let me tell you right now that it is not. Manchester is."

Andrew Harrison, commercial director at Manchester Airport, said: "There is a perception that the Indian population in England is in the Midlands. What we have to feed back to (Indian decision-makers) is where are the businesses?" A huge concentration of firms run by British Indians are in the North-West, he added.

"Our plans (for new routes) have not been shelved by the recession, but have been moving at a slower pace," said Kakar.