Wednesday, April 23, 2014

Singapore Airlines – Reducing capacity to Mumbai & Delhi

For years, Singapore Airlines (SIA) has been ranked as a premium carrier. With its limited network, only 62 destinations as compared to 200+ of fellow airlines and alliance partners in Star Alliance, and a fleet of just over 100 aircraft, SIA has done all that it could to maintain its leadership by maintaining the quality of their aircraft, impeccable training of in flight staff resulting in world renowned service and pushing the local government and operator to keep upgrading Singapore Changi Airport – its hub, which like SIA in airlines, is ranked very high in Airports, year after year, even when new airports have been built in the last decade.

Today SIA group has presence in regional full service market through its sister carrier Silk Air, in Short haul LCC market via its stake in Tiger Airways and in Long Haul LCC market by its wholly owned subsidiary – Scoot. SIA also operates its own Cargo Fleet and division.

While the history of SIA, takes it back to 1947 when it originated as Malaysian Airways Limited. SIA in its current form came into existence in 1972 and since then the iconic Singapore Girl continues to be part of advertisements of SIA, showing significance & emphasis on its service quality and standards.

Having operated a fleet of B737s, B727s, B747-200/300s, A300/A310, SIA heralded into the modern era with B747-400 christened MEGA TOP which was a work horse for the long haul and introduced A340-500 christened LEADERSHIP which was used to operate its Ultra Long Haul (ULH) flights from Singapore to Los Angeles and Newark, and held the record of longest civilian flights till they stopped operating recently.

SIA, is also one of the leading carriers in Star Alliance, but many a times mistaken as one of the founding carriers. 

The Indian Story

Singapore airlines, and its subsidiary Silk Air serves 11 destinations in the country with a mix of B777 of SIA and A320/B737s of Silk Air offering service on the route. Known for its inflight entertainment system – KrisWorld and frequency flier program – KrisFlier, it is very popular among the frequent fliers.
 Singapore Airlines operations in India. Image: www.gcmap.com
Operations to Amritsar(ATQ) were discontinued by SIA

The onslaught of new carriers and flights to Singapore from India, mainly by Jetairways has not had any effect on the perfectly designed hub and spoke operations of SIA and the newer players like IndiGo pulled out their flights to Singapore from Delhi & Mumbai.

From the standard daily flights to Mumbai and Delhi on B777s, SIA had added a day flight to Mumbai by winter of 2006-07 and was seeing steady loads. Few years down the line, this was joined by a day flight to Delhi. And two years ago, they launched their third flight each to Mumbai and Delhi.

Having been a launch customer of Airbus A380, and seeing a lot of traffic in India, SIA could have well launched the Super Jumbo on its routes to India, but for the regulations of Indian government which did not allow the operations of A380 in India until recently, held them back. When SIA took delivery of the A380 and slowly started converting their B747-400 routes to A380, they were selling the A380 flights at a premium over other flights on the sector.

The plan thus with the third flight, was to not only increase Origin & Destination traffic (O&D), but to also get more connecting traffic to S-E Asia and Australia.

The new flights departed Delhi and Mumbai, so as to reach Singapore by 06:05 and 06:10 respectively. This has opened up a huge bank of flights from Singapore to Sydney, Brisbane, Auckland, Perth, Ho Chi Minh City, and many more. Much of these lucrative routes which earlier had a very tight connection of a connection with a long lay over.
 Connections to multiple cities from Singapore became easy after the introduction of new flights from BOM & DEL. The above image (courtesy: www.gcmap.com) shows the connections one can make (connecting time > 1:00hr and <2:00)
Image Courtest: www.gcmap.com. This image shows how one gets connected at SIN. Non daily flights are not shown in this image. The number of destinations increase drastically when those flights are included as well.

A380 operations to India & subsequent capacity reduction

As the Government of India moved to allow A380 operations to India, most of the people thought it would be Emirates or Lufthansa who would be the first to start A380 operations to India, however, SIA announced the same first and they will launch flights to Delhi and Mumbai effective 30th May.

Schedule 


Seats Deployed


While everybody around is talking about SIA A380 operations to India, I am left wondering the eventual reduction in seats on the route, making me suspect that SIA was facing overcapacity due to its flights close to each other and on the DEL-SIN route, possibly the onward traffic was impacted due to Air India’s non-stop flights to Australia.

Currently, SIA offers 8 First, 118 Business Class and 684 Economy from Mumbai in a day, a total of 810 seats to Singapore a day, which will reduce to 737 seats a day, comprising 12 First, 98 Business and 627 Economy Seats a drop of 73 seats or 9% of existing capacity.

The drop based on seat count will be highest in Economy class with a drop of 57 seats, roughly 8% of existing economy class capacity but would be highest in Business Class, where it would reduce seats by 17% from 118 now to 98 post end of May.
 The chart shows deployment of seats ex-Mumbai




The situation is similar for Delhi, where the drop in seats is even higher. I have not represented the Delhi operations, since the third flight is not daily in Delhi and operated 6x weekly.

However, on an average, Delhi will lose out on 28 seats per day in Business class, a loss of 22% over existing and 55 seats in economy, a loss of 8%. On a daily basis, it’s a loss of 10% of seats.

Operational Challenges

Operating the super jumbo, the Airbus A380 to Indian airports is a challenge, more so in Mumbai than Delhi. With construction happening, limited number of bays, single runway operations and much more to add to the complexities.

The timings, also reveal how SIA expects the ground operations to take a little longer to turn around the A380 in Mumbai as compared to Delhi. While SIA turns around the B777 in almost similar times at both these airports, it is budgeting 30 mins extra in Mumbai for turning around the A380.



It indeed would be a challenge not just for the operator but also the airport to extend all support and ensure that the aircraft gets pushed back on time, every time to attract more traffic to the airport and more operators to get their A380 to India.

Future

Aviation is still going through difficult times and definitely so in India. SIA having invested in a JV in the country with Tata and looking forward to start sometime by end of this year, they should expect a lot of feeder traffic from smaller cities around their main hubs and may well look at increasing capacity one more time, provided they have the necessary bilaterals.

This is one case where switching services to A380 is not impacting anybody because of reduction in seats by the carrier on the route.

Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Darios-The specialty Italian “Veg” Restaurant in Pune


Dario’s is indeed one of the topmost Italian specialty restaurants in Pune. The only reason why I would not call it “THE” topmost in Pune or consider it as part of one of the topmost in the country is because it is “Pure Veg”.

Dario’s is named after Dario Dezio – Chef & Owner, a person who has long experience in India, having helped grow The Little Italy Group and later consulted Intercontinental Hotel Group.

Nestled behind Hotel Sunderban – Lane No 1, off North Main Road, Koregaon Park, the location is definitely top notch and enviable for other restaurants.

Website

The website of the hotel is neatly done but not updated. While on the left, one would see the locations as Koregaon Park & Fatima Nagar, the dropdown at menu shows the menu at Koregaon Park & Amanora town center – an outlet they closed some time back.

The website could be enhanced to let the user reserve table from the website and may be even select which table to reserve.

Booking

I booked a table for 4 and this was handled effortlessly by the staff. The booking was done promptly and I am happy that Dario’s is flexible with timings unlike so many others in Pune these days, which opt for only two time slots, till 7:30PM or after 9:45PM.

For keeping the booking option flexible and adhering to the promise of table in the outdoors, definitely a thumbs up for the Dario’s team.

Parking

The restaurant has Valet Parking service available and limited parking inside its premises. The valet service was efficient and the car came back without the seat adjustment being changed, which is a big plus.

Ambience, Décor & Seating

The ambience of the place is nice & relaxing. The restaurant provides open air seating as well as covered. The covered seating has good wooden chairs along with the tables and the seating outside is a mix of wooden sofa/bench with wooden tables or with plastic chairs, which are the least comfortable of the lot, but certainly not uncomfortable.

The outdoor section, essentially a patio, is good in all seasons except monsoon, when it was closed. Some bit of mosquito menace can be expected though, since the seating is nestled in the midst of trees and lawns. The tables are arranged just right, so that you do not hear the conversation of the table next to you.

The décor of the indoor section is dull, with some paintings hanging around and the bar section nearby. What adds to the dullness is the tables which are too close to each other and people going towards the outdoor section transiting through this area.

All said and done, once you are out there, you completely forget that you are in Pune and certainly one of the best places in terms of seating in the city.

Music

We visited Dario’s for dinner and while being seated outside, there hardly was any music audible. The music being played in the indoor section was some good Italian music including opera.

Drinks

The drinks menu is as elaborate as the food menu with a lot of options in wines, cocktails and mocktails – for the non-alcoholics. We opted for 1 cocktail and two fresh lime soda and had no complaints about the drink.

Menu

The menu is exhaustive to say the least and certainly a welcome thing. It gives you more options and a lot of variety. It doesn’t end here, if you know what exactly you are looking for, you will also get things outside the menu, which is exactly what I did, requesting a Penne Pesto which the waiter said would be available and was done perfectly.

Menu comprises sections devoted to “All day breakfast”, “Sandwiches & Burgers”, “Starters”, “Salad”, “Soup”, “Risotto”, “Pasta”, “Main Course”, “Pizza” & “Desserts” 

Food

After a lot of deliberations, we ordered two starters, CREMA DI SPINACI (Rs. 260) – Spinach and fresh cheese dip with parmesan, served with warm pita bread. The dip was refreshingly different from the normal dips and the pita bread was just right. Our other starter was NACHOS MESSICANI (Rs.300) – Mexican style nachos with cheese sauce. The standard plane Nachos – with right amount of cheese and Bell Peppers and fresh salsa. An assortment of food, followed as main course, starting with the Penne Pesto (Not part of menu) which was superb! The pesto was right and so was the pasta – boiled to perfection. Another dish on the table was TORTA PIPOLINO (Rs. 430) – Home-made tomato and cheese tart with basil, served with sauté baby potatoes, onion and tomato with oregano. Nothing to complain here again, just one tip – if you ever order this dish, ensure that you take a portion of each of the ingredients and eat it together to get the best of taste from this dish. The portion of Pasta and Torta Pipolino were enough to be had as One Dish meals. The last on the table was the pizza – SICILIANO (Rs. 470) – Spicy Tomato Sauce, Mozzarella, sun-dried tomato, garlic & bell peppers.The pizza was tasty, stomach full and had all the ingredients in right quantities.

The 12” Pizza was sufficient for two, and was perfectly done wood fired thin crust pizza. I have heard good reviews  about desserts at Dario’s but I could not try it this time, so there would be one more visit to Dario’s for the desserts.

Service

The staff is friendly and helpful, but is not around when you have to place your order. The service is quick and efficient right from the complimentary bread basket till the cheque.

Cost

Dario’s is on the expensive side and a meal for two without drinks, one starter and two main dishes plus a desert would cost you 1400 + taxes.

Overall Rating

If you want to try out Vegetarian Italian food in Pune, you should not look at any other option but head straight to Dario’s. If you are looking for a perfect candle light dinner, this is the place again. A must visit place for Italian food lovers.

Its time they seriously look at offering Non-Veg options at this outlet and increase the size of the table, which does not fit in food for 4 people with the cutlery, glasses & serving dishes.

Dario’s
Lane No.1 Koregaon Park
Pune
www.darios.in

·         Due to candle light dinner, we could not get good snaps of our food and hence this review does not contain any pictures of the tasty food we had
·         The restaurant was not aware that I would write a review of my experience


Friday, April 11, 2014

The Q Story - Looking at the network of Q400s of Spicejet and its short history

One December day in 2010, Spicejet (SG) announced that they have concluded a deal with Bombardier from Canada to purchase 15 Q400 turboprops with options for 15 more. This came as a big surprise for the entire aviation fraternity in India. Nobody expected this nor predicted it.


Very few LCCs in the world operate a duel fleet, the best they go is to have sub fleets of the same type (B737-700 / 800 / 900 or A319/A320/A321) but not a different aircraft type altogether. However, the rhetoric of “India is different and standard things do not work for India” sealed the deal and explanation from Spicejet’s perspective.

Circa 2011-12

It was a very different phase for the company compared to what it finds itself into right now, Mr.Mills had taken over reigns of the company post acquisition of Spicejet by Marans and was keen to expand in the market dominated by IndiGo and seeing a steady decline of Kingfisher. Possibly the top management then felt that they could easily fill up the void which was being left by Kingfisher from time to time as it went around pulling out route after route to support their holding plan until they stopped operations in October’12.

The Maran’s confidently went around stating that this would be the last change that SpiceJet is seeing in its ownership – which has its roots in ModiLuft, one of the carriers which started post liberalization of Indian aviation in early 1990s.

The first set of aircraft were in the fleet at the end of 2011 and started operations in the South with its first base as Hyderabad and next Chennai. SG ramped up its operations overnight, starting flights to umpteen new stations, recruiting people, giving growth to existing, which many a times made the quality of staff look pale over competition. As the Kingfisher crisis started, SG decided to open up a new hub in Delhi connecting to some of the destinations which Kingfisher had flights to. The idea probably was to cash in on the demand available and also to speed up the fall by giving some more competition to the fading airline.

The Southern Hub – Hyderabad

The decision to have Hyderabad as its hub was surprising to me, while Hyderabad had ample parking capacity and slots as compared to the other options – Bangalore or Chennai, it was expensive to operate and generated far lesser traffic on its own as compared to Bangalore or Chennai. None the less, Hyderabad it was and later as it turned out, helped survive the airport closure of Bangalore – due to its runway issues.

So, Q3 – 2011, SG launched flights to Aurangabad, Bhopal, Goa, indore, Madurai, Mangalore, Nagpur, Pune, Rajahmundry, Tirupati, Trivendrum & Vijaywada. Of the initial lot, Aurangabad, Bhopal, Nagpur connections have long gone with Nagpur and Bhopal missing from the airlines map completely. Interestingly, of these 12 destinations, 8 were new and must have taken considerable expenditure to set up the stations. 

The Northern Hub - Delhi

SG launched its Delhi base, with flights to Amritsar, Chandigarh, Indore, and flights on Amritsar-Srinagar and Chandigarh-Srinagar sectors. Amritsar & Chandigarh were new stations for the company and the ramp up started in the north too. Soon, these were joined with flights Bhopal, Dehradun, Dharamshala, Jabalpur, Allahabad and much later Udaipur.

The Kumbh Mela was the high point for its Q400 fleet when it had up to 7 flights a day on Delhi – Allahabad sector on few days and thus it’s an irony that they pulled out of Allahabad for lack of profits as they started restructuring few months ago !

While the northern base was being set up, Southern bases started to crumble, the launch of flights in quick succession without adequate market research, go-to market time; (Few flights and sectors were started within a week of launching (announcing them ) was taking its toll and thus started the great fall from grace.

The fall – Both North & South!

A plethora of factors led to the operations being unstable from the word Go!
The Q400s were not as reliable as they were thought to be with many flights being delayed or cancelled due to engineering issues, which eroded the passenger patronage. Further, SG was slipping into difficult times because of its overall Blue skies strategy and launch of multiple stations and flights which were bit of a stretch for their B737 fleet. This led to culling of flights on the Qs almost instantly.

The airline did not even have the patience to try out a flight for two-three weeks. If they would find the flight unprofitable, they would just change the timings or cancel it. This did not help even a bit, because it led to customers being dissatisfied by the service and the cost of handling these IRROPS – as it is known in the aviation parlance, only added to its woes.
Patronage fell further on these regional routes, which were once touted to be the star performers, the stations from where money would be made, the places where the biggies can’t reach and hence the Qs would reach and create miracles. None of which happened or seemed to happen for a considerable period of time.

The route changes were so regular, that spicejet never updated their website, I wonder if internally they knew which flight would come at what time and I remember seeing passengers in Bangalore having three different timings for the same sector and flight.
The standard Network Planning tricks were being tried, more feed was provided for a flight, flights were converted from direct to triangular one, but none helped. Finally, they were simply dropped.

The network today

A lot has changed in the last 4-6 months at Spicejet. The new management has possibly been given ultimatums and they are going down to the basics. The concept of shrinking to re group and put up a better fight might not always work, but it certainly would be a good try and only time would tell what the results are. 
The network of SpiceJet as of today. Map courtesy: www.gcmap.com

Eventually, today they have a stable network on the Qs, a better On-Time Performance than before and hopefully would continue like this for at least one season to have confidence in the market.

The most popular flights are those which have been around the longest, 9W 338 on AhmedabadMumbai departing at 07:10, 6E 221 from DelhiGuwahati, AI 849 from Delhi to Pune are all examples of flights being popular due to their timing remaining the same for the longest periods of time. For instance, I think the above flights have not changed their timings since inception of that flight. SG could hardly match such reputation on their Q400 network.

Today, SpiceJet has 14 of its 15 aircraft operational with one suspected to be AOG at GMR MAS MRO in Hyderabad. Of these 14, 4 seem to be based out of Delhi, and 10 in the south – 6 in Hyderabad and 4 in Chennai.

Operations in the North have been scaled down and the below map shows the operations from Delhi.
                                   Image Courtesy: www.gcmap.com

South India operations are still pretty strong and the map below shows the same.


                                Image Courtesy: www.gcmap.com

SpiceJet operates the Q400 to Mumbai linking it to Jabalpur and Hubli and links Pune to Goa and thus has limited presence in the west. It’s as good as anybody’s guess but had SpiceJet taken delivery of the 15 Q400s which were on option, the next hub could well have been Ahmedabad before venturing into the East.
Operations in the west & Central India - Image Courtesy: www.gcmap.com

Q400s prime selling point has always been it’s speed, and when the Qs were inducted, there were news of how the pilots took off after ATR-72 of another airline and landed before it, flying faster and higher than the ATR. This made the Q400 look popular on paper, because it could do one sector more as compared to ATR. However, “India is different” and thus when majority of the airports in the north have watch hour limitations or absence of Night landing facilities, the additional leg most of the times is not doable. Where it is doable, (Eg: Amritsar, Lucknow, Jaipur) there is ample capacity across the day and on narrowbody which continues to be a preferred choice for general traveler over turbo-props.

As we look at the schedule today, the Delhi based Q400s are clocking an average utilization of 09:25:00 a day at 6.7 flights per day per aircraft. Average flight duration for its Delhi based fleet stands at roughly 01:25:00.

The network in the south is different than the one up North, with multiple one stop flights unlike in the North. Chennai – Bangalore – Belgaum, Chennai – Bangalore – Mysore, Hyderabad – Bangalore – Mangalore and so on. Coupled with a lot of flights amongst the Southern Triangle of Chennai – Bangalore – Hyderabad, and traffic available even across the day, the utilization of the fleet increased to an average of 10:55:00 mins. This also includes the three international sectors which are operated by the Q400s. Chennai – Colombo; which Spicejet cancelled, reinstated, changed equipment and timings every now and then, but now operated during the night on Q400 and flights from Madurai to Colombo and Kochi to Male.

Thus, the southern network clocks 8.25 flights a day per aircraft with average flight duration at 01:20:00.
                                 Only 4 Q400s are based in Delhi, the rest in Hyderabad & Chennai


Average length of each flight in similar across the country

The fleet based in North does lesser number of flights per aircraft per day than in the south. The average is 7.8 flights per day per aircraft.

Conclusion

The future looks bleak for some and promising for others. The next two Quarters would be critical, not just for the Qs but overall the airline. The new focus on On Time Performance should help and silently the turn around time for the Q400 fleet is pushed to 00:30 from 00:20 at the major airports and to 00:25 at the smaller ones. SG should focus on still turning around the Qs in 00:20 and ensuring that the buffer thus built up helps them absorb the delay which creeps into the system.

Entry of Air Asia and their growth in the south will be a big challenge, which SG will have to consider and take it up as and when it comes. After closing the non profit making stations of Nanded, Bhopal, Allahabad, Pondy and many others, its time they re-group and perform. However, I would conclude to say that the routes which they have now chosen are those which have been tried and tested and thus defeats the initial idea of deploying the turbo props on virgin routes and attract more travelers.
Day wise flights. Good Balance with lesser flights on days showing weak travel trend

Day wise utilization - in sync with the flights per day
Station wise departures across the Q400 network on a per week basis

Wednesday, April 9, 2014

Zambar-The authentic? South Indian cuisine restaurant


As I started jotting down the summary of my visit to Zambar, I was curious to know what Zambar means, and a quick google search threw up some wiki results

·         Zambar River, a river of Tajikistan
·         Zambar, Afghanistan, a settlement in Sabari District, Khost Province, Afghanistan
·         Zambar, Iran, a settlement in Markazi Province, Iran
·         Zambar, Iraq, a settlement in Neineva Province, Iraq
·         Zambar, Uzbekistan, a settlement in Sirdaryo Province, Uzbekistan
·         Zambara, a settlement in Central Region, Malawi
·         Jabal Zambar, a mountain of Iraq
·         Zambar Toy, river of Khost Province, Afghanistan

None of which could be linked to Zambar – the restaurant, which serves cuisines from the south of India. Another search, this time on dictionary.com, did not return any results and I finally found out that Zambar is run by a company called Lite Bite Foods, part owned by Mr.Burman of Dabur, which run a mixture of successful and not so popular brands of restaurants in India – Punjab Grill, Asia Seven, Fres Co, Pollo Campero, Baker Street to name a few and as they put it, Zambar is much more than Sambar with a Zangy, Zingy Twist. Well, not an impressive explanation for the name !

I wanted to visit this place, when I saw it in Amanora Mall few months ago, but by the time I made up my mind and went there again, this place was closed in Amanora and thus could only be visited in Phoenix Market City.

Ambience, Décor & Seating

Zambar is located level 2, at Phoenix Market City, a little distance away from the food court. It’s a non-descript place from the outside and the first impression was that it was dull but the interiors are nicely done. The restaurant seating is divided into two sections, one being inside the boat structure which they have created and the rest as normal seating.

The walls have framed pictures and paintings from the south along with some decorative sculptures. Some sea sand is spread next to the boat which they have as part of the décor, nice touch for a restaurant which claims to specialize in coastal food.

We opted to be seated inside the boat. The tables are good sturdy types, big enough to accommodate all the food that you order. But the cushions on the sofa were stained and dirty, a thumbs down here for Zambar.

Music

I really liked the music that was being played; these were some good south Indian songs with nice and soft music. The volume was just right and that makes a lot of difference! Thumbs up Zambar for getting this right

Drinks

The menu is elaborate but one of our three choices was not available. We asked for a Mocktail, a pint of Budweiser and Mojito. However, all they had in beers was Fosters, and we reluctantly ordered the same. 

Menu

The menu is a mix of food from the four southern states – Andhra Pradesh / Karnataka / Kerala / Tamil Nadu. While primarily it is positioned as Chettinad cuisine, which has its origin in Tamil Nadu.

On offer is a Thali experience, both veg and non-veg along with varieties of delicacies from the region in all sections – Veg / Sea Food / Non Veg / Rice. There is some description about the dish below the name of the dish in the menu card, but this is not standardized. While most of the dishes tell about the origin of this dish, not all have this.

Food

We ordered for Vada Fantasy ( 8 pcs, 2 each of 4 types of wadas) and it wasn’t an exceptional item so to say. It has Aalo Bonda ( Potato Wada), Medu Wada, Onion Pakoda and Dal wada. Only the last being a genuinely different wada. The starters certainly were oilier.

The main course consisted of Cheppala Pulusu (Rs. 525) – which was Surmai fish cooked in tangy red gravy and was a preparation from Andhra, Malabar Veg Stew (Rs. 325) – which was mixed vegetables simmered in coconut milk cutty, Chicken Chettinad(Rs.425) – The famous Chettinad preparation, Malabar Parotha (Rs. 50), Idiappam (Rs.55), Plain Rice (Rs.150) &  Rassam

Of all the above, the vegetarian dish has a peculiar smell and taste, which we could not identify till the end. The fish curry and its gravy were perfectly done and tangy and the chicken chettinad was authentic with succulent pieces of chicken perfectly cooked.

The Malabar parotha, could have been much better, unlike Idiappam which was done nicely. It felt as if it was one of those ready to cook parothas and not the regular ones done fresh which have layers of parotha to be had with chicken or fish, as they have it in Kerala.

While Rassam was available as part of the Thali menu, it was not listed as a standalone item in the menu. However, the waiters were kind enough to offer us rassam as a separate dish (offcourse charged ! ) and thus we enjoyed Rassam Rice as well to complete a perfect south indian food medley.

The rassam was much below expectation and one which cannot be classified as authentic.
Not to be missed is a complimentary basket of papad but not with the chutneys on the table, which had no taste.

Service

The staff is friendly and helpful. However, it takes a long time to get your food once you have placed the order. The wait goes beyond the standard 15 minutes at restaurants and hence I suggest one orders their food early, especially if you are hungry.

Cost

This restaurant is moderately priced from a specialty restaurant perspective. And meal for two without drinks should be around INR 1200.

Overall Rating

The food is good and I would like to try this place again and try some different dishes. Needs to be a little quick on the service front and maintain cleanliness of the seating area. Also some more lighting is required in the restaurant


Zambar
Level 2, Phoenix Market City
Wiman Nagar, Pune


Tuesday, April 8, 2014

Go Air : The Silent Performer

In an industry where brands are being built and glamour quotient is highest, GoAir continues to be one which performs silently. With hardly any financial information being given out since it is a privately held company, one can only guess based on news reports given out from time to time.

While there is a lot that can be written about the history of the airline, culture, top level exits – as reported by media, I have kept this article restricted to its current schedule and its analysis.

GoAir started with its hub in Mumbai in 2005-06 with a European philosophy of deploying additional capacity in Europe in the peak months of EU, which co-insides with the lean season here. However those experiments failed and the first few years were spent in choosing routes and discontinuing them. It wasn’t restricted to flights but extended to stations, launching Chennai, Hyderabad, Pune, Coimbatore and then discontinuing them one by one to shrink the network. This phase was similar to what SpiceJet is doing today – Shrinking to regroup and expand again, just that GoAir then looked too small to shrink further and re group.

GoAir also placed an order for 10 A320 (firm) + 10 A320 (options) and the delivery of the new aircraft helped stabilize its operations post 2008-09 ( 7 aircraft in service in 2009).

Today GoAir has a fleet of 18 aircraft and 1 more VT-GOR MSN 6072 which will be delivered shortly to take the count to 19 aircraft, just 1 short of the current regulation for flying international. The famous 5/20 rule, which mandates 5 years of domestic flying and a fleet of 20 aircraft before going international could well be changed as the new government takes the seat of power in Delhi and it would be almost at the same time that Go Air satisfies this rule, since it is only an aircraft short, having completed 5 years of flying in 2010-11.

GoAir today flies to 21 destinations across the country, without any monopoly routes under its umbrella. The last to Nanded was discontinued over a year ago. It operates 1075 flights a week (154 flights a day).

21 destinations across the country. (Image courtesy: gcmap.com)


Of its 21 stations, 7 are in North India, 5 in the East, 5 in the West and 4 in South. For a long period of time, flights to Gauwahati and Bagdogra, remained the only flights to the East, until GoAir launched services to Patna in 2009, followed by services to Kolkata and Ranchi in 2011. The expansion in south, which had restricted presence (only Bangalore & Kochi) was increased by adding Chennai & Port Blair to the network in 2012.

Post 2010, the focus was always on consolidation of stations, where in the stations launched were given additional connectivity and frequencies. Patna and Ranchi were connected with multiple frequencies to Delhi and Mumbai, Portblair which was connected to Delhi via Kolkata, was connected to Mumbai via Chennai.

Currently, Delhi & Mumbai have come up as hubs with Delhi connected to all stations except Chennai, Jaipur & Chandigarh by direct flights or one stop flights.

Network From Delhi (Image: gcmap.com)

The network from Mumbai, is not as extensive as Delhi, since it does not connect one to Kolkata, Bagdogra, Gauwahati & pune – which is for obvious reasons.
Network from Mumbai (Image: gcmap.com)

The concentration of flights region wise looks like below,


 The West & North cover three fourths of the departures for Go Air thus making it a little weak in terms of being a preferred carrier for business in the south and East of the country.




The maximum departures are from Maharashtra where it flies to three destinations – Mumbai, its hub along with Pune and Nagpur & from Delhi – which again is its hub.



After being perceived as a leisure carrier for years, it has in the recent past moved on to take lead in business traffic as well.

SWOT
Strengths
Small Network, Slow Expansion, Mix of Business & Leisure Routes, Slots in Congested Airports
Not seen as a stable carrier, Too Many Frequent top level exits, Not a preferred Business Carrier
Weakness
Opportunities
72 aircraft on order - All A320 NEOs, Attractive valuation for foreign airlines to invest in the country
New airlines - Tata-SIA, Air Asia, Poaching of critical staff like pilots, Frequent cheap fares by struggling carriers
Threats


Future

As Go Air starts taking deliveries of its 72 aircraft on order, starting 2015, it will attempt something it has never done before, inducting 1 plane a month. This is something which even IndiGo does not do yet. It will have to launch new stations in quick succession, ramp up its revenue management and start moving towards being a leader in fares than being a follower by merely matching up fares.

In India, where market share follows capacity share, Go Air should have the ability to lose money as it grows capacity and appetite to fight it out in the market to gain market.

Hyderabad – the only metro not served right now, should come up sometime soon and so should flights on some major routes, which are currently not served. They include flights to Chennai from Delhi, Kolkata from Mumbai, Bangalore & Chennai. A lot also depends on the availability of capacity at airports and GoAir might start looking at night parking their aircraft at secondary airports in the country since the major ones like Mumbai & Delhi might run out of Night Parking by mid 2015 and Kolkata and Chennai will continue to be constrained in terms of Slots and Night Parkings.


           

*Information related to flights, schedules has been taken from the website of GoAir (www.goair.in)