Bharat Chawla: Indian New Zealand Business Council Chair on direct flights between India and New Zealand

Direct flights to India are one step closer following a codeshare agreement signing between Air New Zealand and Air India.

Passengers will be able to travel from Indian counties Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Chennai on their national airline, and connect at Sydney, Melbourne or Singapore and onto New Zealand.

Both airlines revealed they are aiming for direct flights in 2028.

Indian New Zealand Business Council Chair Bharat Chawla talks to Tim Beveridge about what this means for New Zealand.

LISTEN ABOVE.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
We're one step closer to direct flights between New Zealand
and India. Air New Zealand and Air India working together
to get flights off the ground in twenty twenty eight. Yes, yeah,
it's still three years away, but Air New Zealand hasn't
got any planes to make it happen sooner. India New
Zealand Business Council chair Baratchawla is with us. Good evening,
Hey get you.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
Good morning from India to at the moment.

Speaker 1 (00:25):
All right, okay, well good morning to you. How popular
to expect this flight, this route to be.

Speaker 2 (00:31):
I think we been holding for vulging or voting it
from from long time. It will be a lot. See
if you see the Indian dice for which is around
three hundred thousand fair and tech people, there are or
six person of the population. Even we take one way
or two, don't right, there will be a lot of movement.
And with the amount of tourism promotion have been going on,

(00:53):
we expect this number will be bigger and stronger.

Speaker 1 (00:56):
I mean, how much of this is meeting a demand
and how much is it going to actually create huge demand?

Speaker 2 (01:02):
See, there are multiple layers here, depend upon how we
open tourism. How the visa process works in India. I
give an example compared to Vietnam. Vietnam opened a direct
flight the business of or unfolded multi five weeks to
ten x. If you see that within six months to
one year, wow, So the multiplication can be done faster

(01:24):
because Indian community or Indians in India will be one
of the largest traveling population in coming years.

Speaker 1 (01:33):
How currently, how long does it take to get from
between New Zealand and India apurrently?

Speaker 2 (01:37):
I believe if I say the minimum time is eighteen hours,
the maximum can be roughly twenty four to thirty two.

Speaker 1 (01:43):
Hours and multiple what will that reduce to? Sorry, friendsrat time?

Speaker 2 (01:48):
It can go up to twelve to fourteen hours or
sixteen hours max. Depend upon you. Again, this is a flight,
and then what kind of aircraft has been used on?

Speaker 1 (01:56):
Who's the target group for these flights? Is it can
you find it? Or is it broad based?

Speaker 2 (02:02):
It will be broad based because what we are seeing
is that the business which is seeing the bit of
challenges of having multiple layovers and going on that is
not also taking place because of the the the flight connectivity.
At the same time, the again, the target group is
still the community and the diaspora, but education, immigration and

(02:26):
like tourism will get a lot more boost if things
go right.

Speaker 1 (02:31):
Fantastic. Look, you've been in India with the Prime Minister
for the last few days. The impression we get back
here is that things are pretty bullish, that there's a
really good feel about it. How has the trip been
from your perspective.

Speaker 2 (02:42):
Uh, it is bullish. It is a positive going on.
I will say that both the governments are actually in
a phase and favor to work at a speed. I
believe you might have heard the speech of mister Goyle,
who's a trade and counterpart for a minister totomical lay.
They wanted to be done faster. But again what we

(03:02):
are seeing is that it should not be done in
a two rush. It should be well thought deal. Whatever happens.

Speaker 1 (03:09):
Do you have your own guess on how long it's
going to take to put a deal together.

Speaker 2 (03:14):
I think because there are examples from twenty sixteen and
there's a recent example for Australia something the circle of
twelve months time should be a good time for this. Yeah,
all the things happen, which is a good enough time
for things because we have a lot of now in
India's and multiple FTAs, so it's a good they have

(03:36):
some what you called pre drafted things, are there, so
not much to be done from zero?

Speaker 1 (03:43):
Okay, yeah, because they're starting with some other some stuff
already sort of Matt, I guess, yeah, yeah, I agree.

Speaker 2 (03:48):
The same time, the Australia has also been already done,
so we know what they've got and what we can
get a benefit out of it. Excellent.

Speaker 1 (03:54):
Well, that sounds very positive. I really appreciate your time.
Thanks Barratt. That is Barachal. He's a India New Zealand
Business Council and he's currently in India with with our
delegation incluing Christopher Luxon's. For more from Heather Duplessy Allen Drive,
listen live to News Talks A B from four pm weekdays,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio