Leading the pack yet again - IndiGo now corners 36.4% market share

Summarizing 2014

2014 was a year of mixed emotions for Indian Aviation. The industry returned to growth after a brief hiatus post the fall of Kingfisher Airlines and in the latter half of the year saw reduction in prices of Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF) on global cues.

With this came the unprecedented but widely forecasted crisis at Spicejet, after few steady months. The year which started on a good note for Spicejet, having performed better than IndiGo in its much touted On Time Performance (OTP) ended with one of the worst performances on the same parameter for the airline, recording a low of 47% on time departures at Delhi in December’14.

Go Air, launched a new station – Bhubaneshwar and deferred delivery of its 20^th aircraft, Air Asia had muted performance with expansion nowhere close to what was being discussed and published.

Jet Airways was resurgent with funding from Abu Dhabi’s Etihad and subsequent changes, while only other Full Service carrier Air India had its own share of problems with the technical glitches on the Dreamliner’s and engineering issues on the Narrow bodies yet made it to Star Alliance.

Well, that leaves us with IndiGo – which continued to expand with more flights between metros and launching flights to few more domestic and international destinations. The airline also, for the first time decided to induct aircraft available in open market as a stop gap arrangement till the A320 NEO are inducted.

IndiGo continued to be a market leader, closing the year with a market share of 31.8% followed by Jet Airways and its subsidiary Jetlite at 21.7%. National carrier Air India garnered 18.4% while Spicejet cornered 17.4%. Go Air failed to breach the double digit mark and ended the year at 9.2% with Air Costa and Air Asia closing at insignificant 0.9% and 0.5% respectively.

2015 begins

Passengers grew 21.33% MoM in January 2015, an indication of return of good times and assertion that growth in capacity is followed by growth in passenger numbers.

The year started with news of change in ownership at Spicejet and launch of Vistara. Both will have an impact on the market in these 12 months of 2015. However, at the end of January, Spicejet was still struggling to get its act in order with an On Time Performance (OTP) of just 34% at Delhi in January. Indeed most of it was affected by fog, but it wasn’t fog alone which led to this performance.

The OTP remained an issue for all airports across the country due to the fog in North & East India which was around for a prolonged period than yesteryears. Normally unaffected stations also saw fog this year which compounded the problem.

January 2015 saw a total of 62.45 lakh passengers taking to the skies, with the month clocking marginally lower Load Factors than December 2014.

Jet Airways clocked the maximum load factors of 87.4 percent for flights operated under Jetlite code (S2) and 87 percent for those operated under Jet Airways (9W), while the lowest load factors were clocked by new comer Vistara which recorded 45.4 percent. Vistara did not have complete month of operations and this was its first month, thus this is too early to judge the performance.

Spicejet saw maximum cancellations and also maximum complaints – a trend that should reverse very soon as funding is tied up and operations are back to normal.

IndiGo continued to outperform competition in market share as well as On Time Performance with overall On Time Performance of 73.3% and a market share of 36.4%. Spicejet had the worst On Time Performance with less than 50% of its flights being on time. This is largely due to its performance at Delhi being hit to a low of 34%.

Go Air has seen its market share slip from over 10% which it achieved twice last year to less than 9% now. With no addition to capacity, the airline will find it tough to hold on to the market share. However, the airline continues to have some monopoly or duopoly routes which the competition is not after. This is either due to slot constraints at Mumbai or the leaders fighting it out with the newbies in the market.

Challenges Ahead

2015 will be a challenging year, Vistara would be flush with funds to expand and Air Asia would be hoping to get back on track with newer routes, planes and a massive expansion if they have to sustain. So far it looks like IndiGo has been able to contain them and made them re-think on the plans they had. Jet Airways will continue its expansion to its middle eastern hub of Abu Dhabi with flights from Ahmedabad and Pune on agenda effective March. This year will also give us an answer on the European hub strategy of Jet Airways.  Spicejet will get its strategy in place with respect to Q400 and B737 and will have another “NEW” network this year.

If all goes well, by year end IndiGo may receive the all new A320 NEO. Spicejet would hope to stabilize the network and operations in first half of the year and take a decision on the Q400s by mid-year. Go Air could well be the next airline to start international operations, most likely a short hop from Mumbai or Delhi.

Lastly, the government will have to get its house in order and iron out differences on the revised Route Dispersal Guidelines and revise the 5/20 rule at the earliest. The battle for Noida airport will increase from here on and so would this be a critical year for Navi Mumbai. Any delay now, will mean the airport opening certainly gets pushed post next general elections

I can only hope for a great 2015 for Indian Aviation !

A delayed Air Asia India experience. Are they taking passengers for a ride?

Air Asia India (IATA:I5) has been operating in Indian skies from June 2014. Personally I have not been impressed by their overall strategy, plan and operations. From the selection of its hub and then moving it, to having a serious foot in mouth syndrome when it comes to declaring profitability predictions and fleet induction strategy. Nothing has gone as per what was published or planned.

I always wanted to fly the new airline, which now has a fleet of just three A320s, all with Sharklets, leased from the parent in Malaysia. The airline launched Pune operations in December 2014 with flights to Bengaluru and Jaipur. As I made my plan for Aero India 2015, I decided to return early but try out Air Asia.

Booking

Effortless booking experience on Air Asia website, which is common for the entire group and not country specific. I find the websites of SpiceJet & IndiGo clutter free as compared to the home page of Air Asia. Quick selection of seats, in which I choose the first free seating, 8F followed by meal selection – Rs. 150 for a Masala Omlette and I was done. The ticket was quickly in my mailbox.

The airline allows check-in up to 14 days in advance and I did not know this. The airline sent an email mentioning that my flight was open for check-in. Indeed very helpful.

The Fiasco!

As I booked the ticket, the flight was showing as a departure of 1530 from Bengaluru (BLR) arriving into Pune (PNQ) at 1700. Going by the past experience of air space closure at Bengaluru, I cross checked on the air space closure. The airport website had official information that airspace will be closed from 1400 – 1700 from 19^th February to 22^nd February which happens to be the air display time at the Aero Show.

I tweeted tagging Air Asia asking if the flight would change. Since Pune airport is closed on all Saturdays from 1100 – 1700 hours, I was sure the flight could not be advanced, it can only be delayed. Yet there has to be a confirmation. As all other airlines continued adjusting the timings, Air Asia did not !

My twitter interaction with the Air Asia team was as below,

After this I got a call from Air Asia team in Bengaluru informing me that in no case will the flight be delayed.

Snapshot of information from BIAL website

On the day of departure, I got an email saying that my revised time of departure is now 1700 hours and not 1530. This was expected because the airport operator will have given a new slot to the airline and cancelled its slot in the closure hour.

Wonder why the airline did not initiate information to passengers till the last minute.

Check-In

I reached the airport early keeping in mind the traffic conditions which I experienced since morning at Bengaluru. The airport was deserted due to the closure and quickly made my way to the check in counters which had some rush.

A quick chat with the check-in agent of Air Asia about the delay and I was informed that the airline wanted to advance the flight to before the closure hour and hence the last minute delay. This reason again does not make sense considering the closure at Pune.

Fail #2

Check in was a smooth experience otherwise with boarding card handed over. I headed for security which was a very quick affair because there were no flights departing till 1700.

Airport Renovation

I have always considered BIAL as an air conditioned warehouse building until recently when they went for an expansion. The expansion has been done very well with gates on the ground floor in addition to the contact gates. The renovation is still in progress and some good food options are coming up. It was very nice to see the expansion work in progress and on track.

Soon the airport will start work on second runway and another terminal. Overall it should be good for the city and the airport.

Boarding

This was utterly messed up affair. The airline said that boarding will commence at 1625 hours. The flight had a load of roughly 163 pax and all of them were at the gate by then. As people started queuing up around 1630, the lone staff informed that there will be a delay of 10 mins or so due to the runway still being closed. Now this was always known !

As the queue became longer, there were conversations between the ground staff and somebody either on the ramp or in office about revised timing for Pune departure. Whatever the passengers could hear on the walkie talkie, it created an impression that everybody was clueless on when this flight would depart.

What is surprising is that an aircraft was available in Bengaluru and the airline was not waiting for an aircraft to land before they can board this flight.

The ground staff kept on delaying boarding, even as two busses of Air India waited for the passengers to board. Finally the staff informed passengers that the runway is still closed and just when the sentence ended, JetAirways B737 took off which led to some cheers and jeers from the waiting passengers.

Slow boarding commenced and we made our way to the aircraft as more and more people came in. I was seated in seat 8F and from what I saw, the baggage loading had completely stopped for a while which led to further delay.

Eventually doors closed at 1743 hours, a good two hours 13 minutes from the scheduled time of departure and 43 minutes from the revised time.

Fail#3

Inflight and meal

The pilot came on PA to apologize for the delay and this was followed by a safety demo while we taxied past Kingfisher and Blue Dart aircraft and lined up on active runway 09 to take off before another Air Asia bird bank left and set course for Pune.

The aircraft was clean, the seats very comfortable as compared to the slim seats of IndiGo and the seat belts neatly arranged. Bright red color of the seat belt along with the black leather seats is a great color combination.

Inflight service started soon. With the cabin crew coming with a tray to passengers who had pre-booked their meals. This makes a huge difference. Couple of points to ponder here for the market leader IndiGo

• Air Asia allows you to choose the exact meal and not a veg or non veg option like IndiGo 
• This ensures that you get exactly what you have ordered unlike in IndiGo where one has to still go through the lucky draw process. Even with a pre booked meal, your choice may not be available.
• You get served first before the on board sales commence.
• Hot Meals! 

These four factors are huge differentiators for Air Asia India and when the expand between Metro routes, could tilt the balance in favor of them especially of the corporate passenger.

The meal was tasty, filling and cheap! This was one case where the taste and cost in air is comparable to that on ground.

The airline should do everything possible to highlight this as part of its sales strategy.

#SuperWin

Deplaning

We landed smoothly on runway 28 at Pune and parked at Gate 2. The pilot came on PA informing the cruising altitude of 36000 feet and the outside temperature of -45 degree C. The airline could also announce the outside temperature at destination post landing. Just a additional brownie point.

I did not have any check in luggage but while I walked till the baggage belts, the luggage had started arriving, which is very fast and commendable.

Overall verdict

The airline will give tough fight to the competition if it gets it operations in order. While this was my first flight, I have read about the delays from a lot of friends and also some news items in the newspapers here in Pune. The delay experience was certainly something which has not been handled well.

I would give full marks to inflight – seating, comfort, service and food.

Now the last question – Will I fly again? I will, but not immediately. I will wait for the operations to stabilize and have more positive feedback on this before I book again.

Also, with the fog season behind us, the airline operations to the north should stabilize and February – May On time performance will be a good parameter to judge the airline.

Flight Summary

I5 – 1424 Bengaluru to Pune

STD: 1530, RTD: 1700; ATD: 17:55

STA: 1700, RTA: 1830, ATA: 19:05

Aircraft: VT-RED

MSN: 5824 Airbus A320 with Sharklets. Operated before as 9M- AQW

Revised Policy on 5/20 and Route Dispersal Guidelines

 Last week the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) discussed revised policy on regional connectivity with all stakeholders and came up with a middle path to address the issue which has been awaiting reforms for a long time.

In 2012, a leading consulting firm submitted report to MoCA on revamping the existing Route Dispersal Guidelines (RDG) but these suggestions were never implemented. The government now is looking to club the famous 5/20 rule with RDG. This comes at a backdrop of airlines making full use of Regional Airline policy with Air Costa scaling up operations, Air Pegasus setting up shop soon and Air Asia India – working like a regional airline operator.

New proposals in classification of airlines

The new proposal looks at abolishing the Regional Scheduled Airline status to an airline and converting it to a regular scheduled airline status. Currently, the regional status is helpful in the south, where Air Costa operates and Air Pegasus is coming up. This policy gives access to one metro in the area and other non metros across the country, except for south where an airline has access to Hyderabad, Chennai & Bengaluru, making it possible to fly in the golden triangle in the south.

This proposal also looks at creating three categories viz. Scheduled Airlines, Scheduled Commuter Airlines and Charter Operations.

The scheduled commuter airlines and charter operations will see reduction in paid up capital – thus encouraging newer entities to set up businesses. These operators would be allowed to publish their schedule and would have a cap on minimum number of movements per week to continue holding this status with a restriction of operating at one metro airport only.

The scheduled commuter airlines will be allowed to enter into a code share arrangement with a scheduled airline, thus making it viable for smaller airplanes to fly on thin routes and get paid for by the larger airlines who will shy away from plying here, but continue to provide seamless connectivity, including baggage and passenger transfers at major airports.

Route Dispersal Guidelines

When the Revised draft of Civil Aviation Policy was released in November’2014 I had written on how the Route Dispersal Guidelines (RDG) need to be looked at in detail and what changes are essential. The blog post is available here. I am not sure if the letter was read by the ministry or not, but a lot of things have been incorporated in the revised policy in line with the recommendations which I had sent. 

Category - I

The number of Cat – I routes increased from 12 to 26, where the additional 14 routes are those which saw traffic of more than 5 lakh passengers in 2013. The additional routes are – Mumbai – Goa, Mumbai – Ahmedabad, Delhi – Lucknow, Delhi – Pune, Delhi – Ahmedabad, Bengaluru – Pune, Mumbai – Kochi, Bengaluru – Hyderabad, Hyderabad – Chennai, Delhi – Patna, Mumbai – Jaipur, Delhi – Goa, Chennai – Pune, Mumbai – Chandigarh. ( Cities in BOLD are those which were not part of Cat I before)

I am surprised to see continuation of Mumbai – Trivendrum into Cat – I. Interestingly, IndiGo has maximum presence on the list of routes proposed for inclusion in Cat – I and is a capacity leader on most of the routes, if not all.

Category – II

The existing definition would continue, with routes connecting North – Eastern region, J&K, Andaman & Nicobar and Lakshadweep but there is a proposal to add Dehradun, Shimla, Kulu & Dharamshala to this list.

Currenly, only Dehradun supports narrowbody operations and Shimla & Kulu are restricted to ATR-42 operations with load restriction.

Currently, an airline has to deploy 10% of Category – I ASKMs on Category II routes. The proposal if accepted would mandate the airlines to deploy 20% of Category – I ASKMs on Category – II routes.

Category – II A

The existing definition of this would continue the way it is with inter – Category II flights considered for calculation of ASKM and it being mandatory to operate 1% of Category I ASKM in Category II A.

However, the flights get restricted to inter north east and between Jammu – Srinagar – Leh since there is no other airport in Andaman & Nicobar which is open for commercial operations or at Lakshadweep.

Category – III

Currently it is mandatory for airlines to operate 50% of Category – I ASKMs on Category – III routes. This condition will be dropped completely in the new policy. Traditionally airlines have been making money on these routes and offer more than double the mandatory ASKM’s.

Revision of 5/20 rule

The famous 5/20 rule refers to requirement of 5 years of domestic operations and a fleet of 20 aircraft to be eligible for international operations. As newer airlines like Air Asia India and Vistara entered Indian market, there is renewed push and focus on this requirement. While there is a valid argument that an airline which starts operations in foreign land can fly to India in its first year of operations, subject to bilateral arrangements, Indian carriers cannot reciprocate this due to this rule.

While Spicejet has scaled back operations to international stations in recent past, IndiGo has not expanded beyond certain routes and infact discontinued flights on certain sectors in the past.

The 5/20 rule will make way for a prima facie complex system which will be based on Domestic Flying Credits (DFC) which will be earned by airline by deploying capacity on domestic routes

The calculation would be as below,

       1)      Deployed ASKMs in updated Cat – I  ( x 1)

       2)      RPKMs deployed in updated Cat II ( x 3)

       3)      RPKMs deployed in updated CAT IIA ( x 5)

       4)      ASKMs deployed in updated CAT III  ( x 1)

There will also be a grant of 5 times the ASKMs deployed on currently un serviced airports for a period of 5 years. This will be exclusive for an operator along with having Right of First Refusal for 2 years from the start of operations.

The domestic flying credits thus accumulated will allow an airline to offer equivalent ASKMs on international routes. These criteria will be applicable to new airlines and new routes of existing airlines when the policy comes into effect.

The differentiation of ASKMs ( Available Seat Kilometers ) and RPKMs ( Revenue Passenger Kilometers ) is well thought out for the above calculation.

Change in criteria

The change in criteria would mean that the existing rules of 5 years of operation will be over ridden by requirement of minimum 200 crore DFC for designation as an international carrier and the fleet size requirement of 20 is reduced to 5, which is the minimum prescribed to get a scheduled airline status.

The policy also allows purchase of DFCs from another airline to gain the status quickly. This will get the rule from 5/20 to 1/5.

Comments

This policy is a sensible shift from existing to the new by factoring in remote connectivity, international operations and creating a balance between the two. Established airlines will face issues with the revision of Category – I routes and fulfilling revised ASKM criteria. However, with cities like Pune, Lucknow and Goa seeing rapid expansion of traffic over the last decade and half, it was prudent that these cities and certain routes from here would be included in the revised definitions.

This proposal looks viable and acceptable as compared to dealing with the RDGs and 5/20 rule in isolation 

From Lohegaon to Sonegaon & back on IndiGo’s A320

2014 ended with very few flights for me, yet I went to some new places, flew new airlines and aircraft. Even before the year was to end, I had booked for a short trip to Nagpur for a wedding, followed by a short family holiday in Tadoba Tiger Reserve. As always the trip had some last minute scare due to work, but I made it!

Trip Planning & Flight History– The first of many favorite parts of a trip

We booked the ticket in October’14.  The sector has traditionally seen flight operations from IndiGo. If my memory is right, the airline started basing its second A320 in Pune sometime in October 2009, with base departures to Chennai – Kolkata with one aircraft and Nagpur – Delhi with another. In 2013-14 when the airfield saw closure due to MAFI (Modernization of Airfield Infrastructure) project of Indian Air Force, the schedules were changed and when the airfield opened for normal operations, IndiGo chose to continue its base departures to Chennai and Kolkata – thus starting a non-stop Kolkata flight, terminating the early morning Nagpur flight.

Currently, Go Air flies an early morning departure to Nagpur, which operates as Bengaluru – Pune – Nagpur – Kolkata in the morning and reverse in the evening along with two departures of IndiGo, first at 11:05 and the later at 18:25.

In the past, Jet Airways has tried this route, when they operated a Pune – Nagpur – Indore and vice versa routing on a B737 (Kolkata – Mumbai – Pune – Nagpur – Indore and return) and prior to that Kingfisher had a popular Nagpur – Pune connection via Indore on ATR-72

Booking

It was a breeze as usual on the official IndiGo website. Hassle free, with options of choosing seats, meals and excess baggage – none of which was booked by us.

Few days prior to the flight, I checked what the availability of seats is, most of the paid seats were snapped up, which meant the chances of getting emergency row or first row was rare, so I purchased the seats.

Airport Information

Enough has been covered in my previous trip reports about Pune and hence I will update only the latest. The canopy structure is now complete, so vehicles now come in and stand underneath the canopy. Also complete is a building in the old parking area, which was supposed to house ticketing offices and Air Asia has been allotted space there, the rest of the airlines are protesting to move there. The hangers meant for private jets parked in Pune are in final stages of completion.

Nagpur Airport – famous for the over a decade old MIHAN project now has a Work in progress hanger which will soon be for Air India MRO along with 7 bays and one operational runway – 14-32 which is 10500 feet long. The airport has been renamed as Dr.Babasaheb Ambedkar International Airport in 2005 from its earlier name of Sonegaon.

Rotation

IndiGo’s two A320s parked at Pune typically operate as Pune – Chennai – Pune – Nagpur – Delhi – Goa – Delhi – Bengaluru (Subject to change once it reaches its hub in Delhi) and Pune – Kolkata – Dibrugarh – Kolkata – Ahmedabad – Pune – Nagpur – Delhi, making it easier to predict the registration a day in advance !

Pune – Nagpur is a distance of 605 kms ( 800 announced by the pilot) which is scheduled to be covered in 1hour and 20 minutes. The flight would typically fly overhead Aurangabad (IXU) before setting course for Nagpur. 

The return rotation typically works as Delhi – Vadodara – Delhi – Kolkata – Dibrugarh – Kolkata – Delhi – Nagpur - Pune

Pune - Nagpur

Check-in & Airport Experience

We reached the airport well in time for our 1825 departure. The cab situation in Pune has improved after Meru cabs entered the scene. Quickly going through the standard CISF – double check at Pune, we made our way to a quick baggage screening and to the counters of IndiGo. An IndiGo aircraft was pushing back for Delhi – their 5^th daily and another (VT-IDD ex-Tiger Air) was at the bay waiting to go to Bengaluru as 6E-105.

Check in was quick and pleasant, followed by a very quick security as we went and waited at the first floor departure gate. No new options have been added in terms of shopping or eating at this level.

Unfortunately there was no air force activity in this clear winter weather as we waited for our flight to arrive from Ahmedabad.

Boarding & In-flight

The incoming aircraft landed before time at 1750 hours from Ahmedabad (AMD) and docked at bay 4. About 100 passengers seemed to have got down at Pune. I hurried to stand first in queue so that I could find a place for cabin luggage as well as see the loads on AMD-NAG sector.

Hello 6E had this interesting information

Boarding commenced at 1805 and was done in the next 5-7 mins, helped by light load of 78 pax boarding at Pune with around 25 already inside the aircraft transiting. That is indeed a very light load of just over 50%!

As we made ourselves comfortable, IFE Poonam briefed us on the safety procedures since we were seated on the emergency exit row and the reason why I’m mentioning the name here is because these were the most crisp and clear instructions I have ever had in over 50 flights which I Have sat on the emergency exit row. Indeed the airline should ensure that the IFE trains their other crew for this.

Doors closed at 1812 and we pushed back at 1815 for a long taxi to runway 28. The instructions by the crew were very clear except for one part where the crew mentioned that Capt. Peter was from Czechoslovakia. Well, he can either be from Czech Republic or Slovakia! It would be a 1:15hr journey to Nagpur. Vacant premium seats were available on sale inflight.

As we taxied out, my wife wondered if IndiGo has taken my last Trip Report seriously and stopped announcing “समयपर रहना अनिवर्य है”/“ Samay par rehna aniwarya hai” ( It is mandatory to be on time). I wondered that too since there was no announcement to this effect. 

We waited for an 9W ATR to land (arrival from Indore) and were cleared to taxi on active, where we made a powerful westwards takeoff from runway 28 at 1820, banked right headed to Nagpur.

Service started soon after we stabilized and I saw that the non-veg options have substantially reduced in the menu. We ordered for Corn & Spinach sandwich (Quality improved over last time), Non-Veg noodles (Out of stock) – hence asked for Veg Noodles and two coffee.

Cockpit crew did not announce the flight details like altitude, speed and route in-flight but Capt.Devraj, the First Officer came on PA as we started our descent and announced that our ETA would be 1928, 17 mins before schedule and outside temperature being 21 degree Celsius with clear skies.

We landed before time on runway 32 and went till the end to turn and park at one of the aerobridges. The airport is a huge building with flights concentrated at few times, like many other airports.

Deplaning & Baggage

The baggage was quick to come out and the staff was around to check if we are taking our own baggage or not. We were out in no time being welcomed by infinite horns at the airport and chaos that ruled the exit lanes.

Nagpur – Pune

Check-in & Airport Experience

We reached Nagpur airport, fairly early for the 2145 departure, which I was sure would depart early. As we entered, we saw crowds boarding flights for Mumbai, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Pune on IndiGo, Air India and Go Air.

Check-in was quick and pleasant experience but the security lines were long and we waited for lines to be cleared before we crossed Security. The Security Hold Area (SHA) is divided into ground floor and first floor sections. I think Nagpur is the only airport, where I have purchased a bottle of water for Maximum Retail Price (MRP)

Boarding & In-flight

The incoming flight arrived at 2105 and about a 100 passengers deplaned before row wise boarding was announced and enforced. We boarded in the second lot and made our way to the emergency exit row. The briefing on emergency procedures seemed dull and not up to the mark, obviously compared to the inbound flight.

Hello 6E was missing from my seat

Boarding was complete for this flight which had about 12 empty seats and push back commenced at 2134 as we taxied to runway 32 and were airborne at 2041. Capt. Puneet Kaushik was in command with First Officer Capt. Dhillon for this 800 km journey which was announced to take an hour and 10 minutes. We banked left and set course for Pune cruising at FL340 (34000 feet).

Between boarding and push back – came the twist, the familiar and amusing announcement in auto mode - “समयपर रहना अनिवर्य है”/“  followed by “समयपर रहना महत्वपुर्णा है”/“Samay par rehna mahatwapurna hai” ( It is important to be on-time)

Now I am confused on why this was not played in the inbound flight ! Standardization anybody ?

Inflight service was quick owning to this time of the day not being the perfect time for Buy on Board. We asked for two cups of coffee which were promptly delivered.

The pilot came on PA and announced the commencement of descent (somewhere over Aurangabad) at 2215 and expected time of arrival being 2240. A steep descent later,  we flew in really smooth with flaps extended, reduced thrust as we made a feather touch landing on runway two-eight at Pune at 2234 and exited the runway after light braking to reach the bay at 2235. This indeed was one of the best landings I have had for a long time!

Deplaning & Baggage

The step ladder at the rear took a lot of time to come thus the majority of the crowd rushed towards the forward exit as we deplaned and made our way to Baggage belt 4 to collect our luggage. As we walked towards the arrivals gate, VT-GOQ of Go Air taxied in followed by a Jet Airways aircraft.

Overall Rating

Booking – 5/5

Web Check in / Website – 5/5

Airport Experience – 5/5

On-Time – 5/5

In-Flight service 4/5 (Inconsistent)

Meals – 3/5 (Still needs improvement)

The Aviation Weekly

1. Air Asia changes flight timings to Jaipur & Chandigarh in Winter schedule

As Air Asia India awaits delivery of its third aircraft VT-ATD, it has made changes to its network in winter schedule. The flights to Jaipur & Chandigarh have been swapped, mostly in view of fog at Chandigarh.

I5 1824 BLR0940 – 1235 IXC D

I5 1825 IXC1300 – 1600BLR D

I5 1722 BLR1630 – 1905JAI D

I5 1723 JAI1935 – 2200BLR D

IndiGo operates the Bengaluru – Chandigarh route non-stop and Jet Airways & SpiceJet offer a one stop service via Delhi, while IndiGo and Air Costa operate non-stop on the Bengaluru Jaipur sector.

2. IndiGo expands yet again

After launching flights to Bengaluru, Goa & Coimbatore from Delhi, IndiGo is expanding on the Delhi – Chennai sector with additional 2 flights each way. This will take the total count of flights on this sector by the airline to 7 Daily and will now have highest flights on this sector ahead of Air India – which operates 5x Daily, SpiceJet – which operates 4x Daily and Jet Airways – Which operates 3x Daily

6E602 DEL0830 – 1050MAA D

6E603 MAA1120 – 1425DEL D

6E547 DEL1345 – 1620MAA D

6E605 MAA1650 – 1930DEL D

3. Spicejet flight number changes

As part of network changes in Winter schedule, Spicejet has changed flight numbers for flights operated by its Q400 aircraft. Through flights like Delhi – Jabalpur – Mumbai, which is done by same aircraft and has same flight number, is now being changed to have two different flight numbers on the Delhi – Jabalpur and Jabalpur – Mumbai leg. The existing SG 2441 will now be SG 2451 from Delhi to Jabalpur and SG 2454 from Jabalpur to Mumbai.

The same has also been done on the Hyderabad – Pune – Goa leg. This would mean that when passenger purchases a Hyderabad – Goa ticket via Pune, the passenger would now have to carry two boarding cards instead of one. Additional Cost? Certainly yes!

4. Air Costa introduces flights on Chennai – Jaipur

Air Costa, which had some aircraft issues during the last few months, plans to come back strong in the winter schedule. The airline will operate non-stop flights between Chennai & Jaipur and will be the only airline to do so.

The flights would operate at below timings.

LB634 MAA1705 – 1940JAI D

LB635 JAI2005 – 2245MAA D

Currently, only IndiGo offers same aircraft services from Chennai to Jaipur

5. Jet Airways delays flights on Pune – Abu Dhabi & Ahmedabad – Abu Dhabi sector

Jet Airways, which was recently in news for expansion as well as issues related to pilot training and was operating A330 aircraft on the domestic sector to tide over pilot shortage has decided to delay the introduction of flights to Abu Dhabi.

The flights from Lucknow, Goa, Ahmedabad & Pune, which were to start on 14^th November will now be introduced in a phased manner, with the Ahmedabad & Pune link to be introduced later.

To get slots at Pune, the airline had gone to an extend of asking parking permission on the taxi-way, which was rightly rejected. The airline had kept its flights on the Delhi – Pune – Delhi sector on hold to accommodate the flight to Abu Dhabi.

As per latest GDS display, the night parked aircraft in Pune continues to operate to Bengaluru in the morning, and the additional flights planned on Delhi – Pune and Mumbai – Pune (International Connector) have been rolled back, all possibly due to pilot shortage

The story of highest load factor in September

As reports started trickling in that the Indian market has grown 27.8% MoM, people were astonished to know that data is for September, traditionally a lean month for travel in India. The entire industry, tends to work on two good quarters – Q1, covering the school holidays and Q3, covering the Diwali & X’mas holidays, while the other two Q2 & Q4 are traditionally bad because only business travelers fly and less people tend to fly for leisure.

Overall, all airlines in India have improved on OTP, with the lowest being 75%+ but IndiGo continues to outperform at 90%. Spicejet has not been able to keep up the momentum of Dec – Feb period and that is more to do with the fact that IndiGo was heavily impacted by the winter / fog, where as Spicejet has much lesser operations at such stations. Once the weather turned good, it was difficult for all airlines to catch up with IndiGo. However, the point of discussion has now shifted from OTP to Load Factor.

This growth is an indication of how the Indian market reacts, and a vindication that people fly more only when fares are cheap. At these fares, seats are filled up but airlines struggle to make money, but at higher fares, seats are empty, yet the revenue may be better. I am no expert in Revenue Management and only results of airlines for this quarter will let us know the financial position of two listed airlines – Spicejet & Jetairways, who had some difficult questions to answer when numbers were reported for last year.

Spicejet topped the load factor chart with 85.9%, which was followed by Jetlite at 82.7 and Go Air at 82.3.  Jetlite which primarily operates on monopoly routes or duopoly ones seems to be doing bad on few of its flights on the metro segments. Market leader IndiGo was at modest 77.9 percent.

The Load Factor of Air Asia India, was a far cry from the tall claims by the airline of being full for the first few months of operations. With claims of profitability, sold out flights and much more, Air Asia clocked the lowest Load Factor of 68.7%. Air Costa on the other hand, has been able to consolidate and increase Load Factors, more because only two aircraft were in operation for majority of the period.

With a lot of discussion, justification, counter points coming up about the market simulation by Spicejet, let me throw some light on the sale / offers which were launched by this airline. There were no less than 5 times that a sale was announced for tickets in September and all of them had competitive cut throat pricing.

		Period for which ticket is sold
Sale Start Date	Sale End Date	01-Sep	05-Sep	10-Sep	15-Sep	20-Sep	25-Sep	30-Sep	Tickets @
01-Aug	03-Aug								2099
05-Aug	10-Aug								2199
12-Aug	14-Aug								1947
20-Aug	22-Aug								2269
25-Aug	27-Aug								1888

This has certainly helped in shoring up loads but has it helped in making money? We would know this only when Spicejet announced the results of Q2. 

The month to look out for would be December, where IndiGo has in the past had load factor of 90%+ and all others have found it difficult to match that. However, with numerous sales by Spicejet in the past selling tickets for December, this year could be different.