From Abu Dhabi to
the world – with feed from India
Analyzing Etihad’s long haul network
to United States of America and changes to Abu Dhabi feeders
I have traditionally been a student
of domestic network in India trying to remember the history, rotation and
traffic patterns for an airport or an airline. Time and again, I rely on some
of my friends to understand the international connections and networks. This
time around, I decided to team up with Rishul – a student of engineering and a
keen follower of Jet Airways network to attempt writing about what the change
in Etihad’s USA bank means to the Indian customer.
Etihad flagged off its 2nd
Daily non-stop flight to New York’s John F. Kennedy airport (JFK) on 1st
March 2014, where competitor Emirates already operates double daily and direct
from neighboring Dubai in addition to one via Milan. Emirates will also add
another frequency from March 2015.
However, this is the first of many
flights as Etihad starts an aggressive expansion in North America. The airline
would start 3 new destinations in the United States within a span of 8 months
backed by a strong demand from India which is being fed into Abu Dhabi by its
equity partner Jet Airways.
Traditionally network carriers –
which work on a hub and spoke model, schedule flights to a region at a
particular time. Example – all flights from Europe to India would typically
leave around mid-day to reach at night in India and depart so as to reach early
morning in Europe. Departures to USA would be at similar time to ensure
connectivity from east to west. This departure of flights is known as a bank of
departures.
Cost
of opportunity
As they say, cost of opportunity
cannot be ascertained and when Etihad decided to go ahead and buy a 24% stake
in Jet Airways and purchase the Jet Privilege Frequent Flier Program, it also
came with an exponential increase in seat allotment from India to Abu Dhabi
allowing new frequencies and destinations. While most of the tier II
connections will be flown by Jet Airways, the major metro would see expansion
from Etihad too.
Etihad Airways had clearly maintained
the importance of a strong feed from India and how dipping deep into the Indian
market was to play a pivotal role in their planned growth. With the launch of their flights to Abu Dhabi
from Chennai and Kochi, continuing on to Dammam and Kuwait, in the 2nd week of
January, Jet-Etihad had given a very clear indication of the hub in Abu Dhabi
they were working towards, which was re-enforced by the addition of the
Hyderabad and Bengaluru to Abu Dhabi flights from 1st of March.
The hub was structured around the
2nd daily to New-York JFK, operated by a Jet Airways B777 aircraft, leaving Abu
Dhabi at 0145 hours Local Time (LT), and returning at 0920 LT the next day,
thus adding another bank of departures to the United States, later in 2014 EY
added late afternoon departures to 6 India destinations, returning back to AUH
by midnight, thus providing an Etihad operated connection to the JFK, newly
launched SFO and other European flights.
Jet Airways was supposed to operate
this flight but for the downgrade in status of Indian aviation by Federal
Aviation Authority (FAA) which now bars any airline in India to add flights to
United States. Etihad went on to add flights to Dallas Fort-Worth and Los
Angeles using the 77Ls they had acquired from Air India.
USA
OVERHAUL
Coinciding with the enhanced
availability of the US Preclearance, 9W-EY announced a major overhaul of
schedules to their India - AUH - North American flight structure, w.e.f 29th March 2015. While in actual addition were
just 21 weekly flights from Ahmedabad, Mangalore and Pune, along with
additional wide body services from Etihad, there was a major shift in timings
of Etihad's North-American Departures.
While Emirates has a mixed
departure bank to USA, Etihad is trying to get maximum early morning arrivals
into USA and could see further time changes in the next season as the India
feed stabilizes.
- To Toronto and Chicago from Abu Dhabi – which now leave late night from Abu Dhabi reaching early morning at destination.
- Delaying the departure from New York to popular late afternoon 1530 hours, along with re-timing San Francisco departure so ensure that the arrival bank is stronger than ever.
Etihad now has two very prominent
USA departure / arrival banks
- Red eye departures to New York, San Francisco, Toronto, Chicago; returning back between 1200 – 1300 hours LT.
- Mid-morning departures to Los Angeles, New York, Dallas; returning back during late evening hours.
This is far cry from Emirates bank
to New York, Seattle, Houston, Boston, Los Angeles and San Francisco – which
leaves mid-morning and returns late evening and flights to Dallas and
Washington along with the second frequency to New York which leaves
post-midnight returning in the afternoon.
Qatar Airways flies to seven
destinations in the United States – all in one bank of mid-morning departures, barring Philadelphia which departs post mid night and does not connect to any Indian destination within an acceptable connection time. With just one bank of flights to India, the options are limited but connections
are perfect.
Etihad would look at two banks of
arrivals at Abu Dhabi from India
- First between 2200 and 0100 which sees arrival from ten destinations and another between 0600 and 0800 from another 10 destinations
- A mini Jet Airways hub at Abu Dhabi with flights from Hyderabad and Chennai going onwards to Dammam and Kuwait City.
- One Mega departure bank between 2100 and 2300 with departures to 13 destinations
- Connection from a total of 23 cities in India to Abu Dhabi and many more in second phase
Combined
9W-EY India Operations
Etihad with equity partner Jet
Airways would operate 217 weekly flights to India effective 29th
March 2015 as compared to 95 of Qatar and 188 of Emirates. While Emirates
operates all wide body aircraft, Etihad – Jet Airways would operate the narrow
body B737s for all of their flights to Tier-II cities.
 |
| Image Source: gcmap.com |
ANALYSIS
With the new timings and addition
of another bank of departure, Etihad – Jet Airways combine would connect Indian
cities to New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Toronto, Dallas, Los Angeles,
Washington in a seamless sub 3 hour connection, which is most preferred with
travelers.
What would add up to this is the
pre-clearance facility at Abu Dhabi which means that you land in USA as a domestic
passenger having done your immigration during transit at Abu Dhabi.
Cities like Mangalore, Goa, Lucknow
and Pune which see limited competition have longish connection times for few
cities. Passengers from these cities tend to look for flying out of their own
city rather than change flights at one of the hubs in India and then again in
Middle east or Europe.
With fast expanding network of
Etihad not just to United States but also to Europe and Etihad investing in
Alitalia and Etihad Regional in Europe – passengers from tier – II cities in
India are an attractive lot who can now transit at Abu Dhabi and reach their
destination one stop.
While this change means a lot for
feeder traffic, it also has positive implications for traffic originating in
United States with New York, San Francisco and Chicago getting early morning
arrivals. The differentiator here would be pre-clearance, however this will
continue to be a tough market for Etihad with Emirates mounting flight after
flight and upgrading flights to A380.
This change gives a big boost to
Jet Airways aircraft utilization – from parking the planes overnight at Abu
Dhabi, they will not have a full rotation. The existing utilization which has
already crosses 11.7 hours, could well cross 12 hours post this change.
The bonding between Jet Airways
& Etihad will only increase from here on as the inter dependency increases,
with the entire bank to Unites states dependent primarily on feed from India
for Etihad and the Abu Dhabi shuttles of Jet Airways dependent on Etihad to be
filled up.
A little over a year after the deal
went through 15 of 23 destinations are already connected to Abu Dhabi. As
people say, India - USA market is so dynamic and diverse, that an airline
doesn't have to target growth, it has to merely position itself in the most
comfortable way to get the best out of it. So, as Emirates darts A380s to the
US with an tremendous network feed, QR fully integrates itself into the One
World structure, Air India with
incredible India penetration this is the path Etihad has chosen to grow on this
sector.
Hard
Product
The San Francisco and (2nd daily)
New York flights are operated by Jet Airways configured 77Ws, consistency of hard product becomes a
problem, business travelers and frequent flyers have always shown an
inclination towards familiarity, and while the Jet Airways’ 77Ws have a fairly
good hard product, the 737s, can't match up to EY's A320s, all of which on the
whole creates a negative impact on frequent fliers. Even though, Etihad and
partners are moving towards a single hard product, it is still some distance
away as of now.
Tail
Note
Etihad would find it easy to fill
up flights from Tier – II destinations to Abu Dhabi and onwards to Europe and
USA as compared to Mumbai or Delhi. The two leading metros have direct
connectivity to USA with Air India and United. With Abu Dhabi – USA being a 15
hour non stop flight, the comparable flight from Mumbai or Delhi drops you in
Newark or Chicago. The odds of flying these are more
if the final destination is not on the network map of Etihad. Etihad will have to grow rapidly in the United States in the next one year.
The airline has been struggling to
get hold of the Indian market, even when it is growing leaps and bounds. The
next focus, we believe would be on improving the hard product, standardizing it and focusing on marketing and
sales efforts.
There would be more in store from
the partnership when India is upgraded to Category – I status by FAA, when the
airline may launch a India – Abu Dhabi – Chicago by its own B777s either from
Mumbai or Delhi and take a decision on its limited operational hub at Brussels.
