Recently there was uproar over the tweets of Shashi Tharoor regarding austerity measures for members of parliament and others. There was a direction from above that the members should travel in the economy class as a measure of austerity. Shashi had remarked on Twitter that the said class was a “Cattle Class”. Many a politicians and bureaucrats were incensed by his remarks and were after his blood. He got reprimands from all sides and had ultimately to apologise for uttering the “truth”. However, there is sufficient truth in the remark that the economy class in most of the airlines especially after the introduction of cheap flights has virtually turned into a “Cattle Class”. There are some airlines called “no frill” airlines. These do not give any cabin service and the passengers are virtually squeezed in like sardines. However, the fares are quite cheap. In number of other airlines, the business class remains on some of the routes empty as the fares for the same are astronomical. In fact, it is sometimes cheaper to travel by air in economy class than by train. This break neck competition in air fares has reduced the status of flying to almost people being ferried like cattle.

However, there are certain routes and certain flights which are started with a definite purpose and goal in mind. One typical example is the Srinagar-Dubai flight. This is the first flight to take off from the new upgraded International Airport of Srinagar. The flight was supposed to be a great opening for Kashmir. It was expected that this would give a boost to up market foreign traffic to Kashmir. One of the main handicaps for development of foreign tourist traffic to Kashmir had been the absence of a direct international air connection. Because of this deficiency the peak foreign traffic never went beyond 5% of the foreign traffic to the country in the best tourism decade of Kashmir which was in eighties. The maximum number of foreigners to visit Kashmir was in 1989 and the figure was 67,000. This formed part of the total figure of 7.22 lakh tourists that visited Kashmir during that year. It was with the aim of improving Kashmir’s accessibility to foreign tourism markets that the airport was declared an International Airport after almost 30 years of persistent efforts. One expected that the upgrading of the airport will allow operation of many flights to various long haul and short haul destinations. However, after starting a single weekly flight to Dubai, the whole thing seems to have got stuck in time. The worst thing about the flight is its configuration and its frequency. It is definitely the cheapest international flight at about Rs.13,000 for a return trip to Dubai. It is cheaper than going to Delhi on a normal fare. One would have thought that this would prompt a large number of Kashmiris to visit Dubai but unfortunately even if they want to do so it is a laborious process as there are no visa facilities in Srinagar. Conversely, the people really interested in visiting Kashmir from Dubai and other areas in the Gulf Region or even from Europe feel taking this flight as a punishment. It is at present being used mostly by some Kashmiri families and the people working in Dubai and neighbouring areas for the convenience of direct access to Srinagar. That is the only consolation. Recently, there was an article written by a Kashmiri traveller coming from Europe who had used the flight. He had described the torture he and his family including small children had to undergo on the flight. They were in true sense of the word treated as “Cattle”. Unfortunately, from the State Government side too no one seems to be interested in cashing on this new opening. Firstly, it does not have to be a cheap flight. If it is meant for foreign tourists, they can easily pay the normal fare as is available on Delhi-Dubai sector. Secondly, the people who are expected to use the flight from Dubai and neighbouring regions to visit Kashmir are bound to be of a higher income group. One is not expecting the labour class from Dubai and beyond to visit Kashmir by this flight. It has been reported that a large number of Golfers in Dubai would love to come to Kashmir for a week end of Golf. Dubai has almost a dozen Golf Courses of International standing. World’s top most players like Tiger Woods come to play there. The Indian Golfers Association in Dubai has over 5,000 members. The flight can be useful to these golfers only when it has better frequency of at least two flights a week. No one wants to get stuck in Kashmir for a whole week. Two flights a week appropriately placed would allow people to spend a week end of Golf in Srinagar, or go for Trout fishing, or any other adventure as well as leisure activity. A number of rich people living in Dubai wanted to visit Kashmir but they were put off by the prospect of having to stay a whole week in Kashmir. Quite a few were put off by the nature and configuration of the flight. It was said by them that they would have visited Kashmir but the flight has no business class!

When this fact of both the frequency and the configuration of the flight was brought to the notice of the higher authorities in Air India and Civil Aviation Ministry, their curt reply was there is no load and the flight may have to be discontinued. But has any one from the travel industry both in the private sector and the state sector made any tangible effort to increase the load? Has any effort been made to sort out the visa problem? It is not difficult for travel agents and hoteliers to work out packages with online visa facility. This system is operational in many other metros. How many interactions have taken place between the travel trade in Dubai and Kashmir? How many familiarisation tours of travel trade and media have been conducted between the two destinations so far? On the contrary, the State Tourism Officials did not even participate this year in the biggest Travel Mart called the Arabian Travel Market or ATM in Dubai held every year in the first week of May. It seems the flight is going by default and it may continue as a “Cattle Flight” or even get wound up soon. This is because every one seems to treat Kashmiris as the “Cattle People!”

There is however a silver lining to the dark clouds. The Travel Agents Association of India is holding its Annual Travel Congress in Dubai next week. J & K Chapter of the Association has reportedly decided to send a large delegation to the Convention to make efforts to promote tourism from the Gulf Region to Kashmir. One sincerely expects the State Government to commend these efforts and play its role too. Apart from supporting this private initiative of the travel trade, they need to convince the Civil Aviation authorities to improve the status and frequency of the flight. The sooner it is done, it would be better for promoting foreign tourism to Kashmir!