Airlines India, Indian Airlines

There couldn’t be a better time to fly. On the occasion of the 58th Republic Day, budget airline SpiceJet is offering 99,999 seats at an unbelievable price of 99 paise. This will be applicable for traveling between 15th February 2007 and 15th April 2007. These promotional seats will be available on all SpiceJet routes across 14 destinations with 84 daily flights.

The airline recently crossed 3 million passengers mark since its inception on May 23, 2005. Announcing this special offer, SpiceJet’s CEO, Siddhanta Sharma said, “There cannot be any better way to celebrate the 58th Republic of India, than giving the citizens of India the ‘Freedom to Fly at 99 paise’. This is also a small gesture of thanks giving to all those passengers who rendered their valuable support to us.”

With an overall market share of 9 per cent, SpiceJet remains an undisputed leader in load factor among all the domestic airlines. Even in existing foggy conditions, SpiceJet achieved one of the highest load factors of 88 percent in December 2006. It also holds a record for highest load factor achieved by any airline based in India, with all time high 95.4 percent passenger load factor achieved on April 18, 2006.

Jet Airways, India’s premier airline, has rescheduled some of its flights operating  from and to Delhi due to IAF fly past exercises being held from January 20 till 24, 2007 and on January 26, 2007, leading to restriction of air space over Delhi between 1100 hours and 1215 hours on these dates. The following flights have been rescheduled on January 20, 21, 23, 24 and on January 26, 2007:

Jet Airways flight 9W 3705/3706 operating on Delhi-Vadodara-Delhi sector will depart Delhi at 0535 hours and arrive Vadodara at 0750 hours. On the return sector, flight 9W 3706 will operate from Vadodara at 0820 hours and reach Delhi at 1045 hours.

Jet Airways flight 9W 901/902 operating on Delhi-Kolkata-Delhi sector will leave Delhi at 0545 hours and arrive Kolkata at 0745 hours. On the return sector, flight 9W 902 will operate at 0825 hours from Kolkata and reach Delhi at 1040 hours.

Jet Airways flight 9W 331 operating on the Mumbai-Delhi sector will depart Mumbai at 1015 hours and arrive Delhi at 1215 hours.

Jet Airways flight 9W 3319/3320 operating on Delhi-Lucknow-Delhi sector will leave Delhi at 0845 hours and reach Lucknow at 1010 hours. On the return leg, flight 9W 3320 will operate at 1040 hours from Lucknow and arrive Delhi at 1205 hours.

Jet Airways flight 9W 833 operating on the Bangaluru-Delhi sector will depart Bangaluru at 0940 hours and reach Delhi at 1215 hours.

Jet Airways flight 9W 333 operating on Mumbai-Delhi sector will depart Mumbai at 0740 hours and reach Delhi at 0935 hours.

Jet Airways flight 9W 262/261 operating on Delhi-Kathmandu-Delhi sector will operate at 1200 hours from Delhi and arrive Kathmandu at 1345 hours. On the return leg, flight 9W 261 will leave Kathmandu at 1445 hours and reach Delhi at 1615 hours.

Jet Airways flight 9W 705/706 operating on Delhi-Ahmedabad-Delhi sector will depart Delhi at 1815 hours and reach Ahmedabad at 1940 hours. On the return sector, flight 9W 706 to Delhi from Ahmedabad will operate at 2020 hours and arrive at 2140 hours.

Jet Airways flight 9W 605 operating on Delhi-Jammu-Srinagar-Delhi sector will operate at 1200 hours from Delhi and reach Jammu at 1310 hours. The flight will proceed at 1345 hours from Jammu and arrive Srinagar at 1420 hours. On the return leg, flight 9W 605 will depart Srinagar at 1500 hours and reach Delhi at 1625 hours.

On January 20, Jet Airways flight 9W 911/912 operating on Delhi-Kolkata-Delhi sector will leave Delhi at 1815 hours and reach Kolkata at 2020 hours. On the return leg, flight 9W 912 will operate at 2100 hours from Kolkata and arrive Delhi at 2320 hours.

Similarly, Jet Airways flight 9W 815 operating on Delhi-Bangaluru sector will depart Delhi at 1200 hours and arrive at 1435 hours.

On January 21, Jet Airways 9W 306 will leave Delhi at 1200 hours and arrive Mumbai at 1400 hours.

On January 23, Jet Airways 9W 729 will operate from Delhi at 1040 hours and reach Amritsar at 1140 hours.

The following flights will operate to revised timings on January 26, 2007:.
Jet Airways flight 9W 3311 operating on Delhi-Jodhpur-Delhi sector will depart Delhi at 1245 hours and reach Jodhpur at 1405 hours.
Similarly, Jet Airways flight 9W 3408 operating on Jodhpur-Mumbai sector will operate at 1435 hours from Jodhpur and reach Mumbai at 1630 hours.

Jet Airways flight 9W 3321/3322 operating on Delhi-Amritsar-Delhi sector will leave Delhi at 1245 hours and reach Amritsar at 1410 hours. On the return sector, flight 9W 3322 to Delhi will leave Amritsar at 1445 hours and arrive at 1610 hours.

Flight 9W 802 operating on Chennai-Bangaluru sector will depart Chennai at 0555 hours and arrive Bangaluru at 0640 hours while flight 9W 804 will leave Bangaluru at 0715 hours and arrive Delhi at 0950 hours.

Jet Airways flight 9W 603 will leave Delhi at 1030 hours and reach Srinagar at 1150 hours.

Jet Airways has cancelled  its flight 9W 306/305 operating on Mumbai-Delhi-Mumbai sector and 9W 921/922 operating on Kolkata-Delhi-Kolkata sector on January 23, 24 & 26.

Jet Airways flight 9W 121 operating on  the London-Delhi sector will depart London at 2030 hours (Local Time) on January 19,20,22,23 and 25 and reach Delhi at 1045 hours the next morning, ie. January 20,21,23,24 and 26 respectively.

Air Deccan has announced that the bookings for its summer schedule will start from Sunday, the 12th November 2006. The airline will offer tickets starting from Rs.9 for the months of April, May and June. However, this fare is exclusive of taxes.

Air Deccan has recently sold 1 lac Rs. 9 tickets for the months of January to March. The bookings were opened on 5th of November and the tickets were sold out in a couple of days.

If you have planned out your summer schedule, we recommend you to log on to the Air Deccan website as early as possible on the 12th of November to fix your air fares in advance. You should also bear in mind that the cancellation charges in case of discounted fares are very high, so carefully read all the instructions and rules before booking your flight.

Like other Indian air carriers, Indigo airlines has also executed a sale and leaseback deal on the five jets. The airline has booked 100 Airbus A-320s and is planning to execute similar lease deals for the first 15 airbus A-320s. Sale and lease back process is being adopted by most of the airlines across the world. In this type of arrangement the carrier has the ease to pay out from the earnings from the aircraft. Indian carriers Jet Airways, Deccan Aviation and Kingfisher Airlines have also closed such kind of deals.

At present Indigo has a fleet of five Jets and has booked Airbus A-320s to enlarge its fleet. Indigo is operating as a low cost budget airline. The company has not bought any aircraft and is playing safe by executing sale and lease back deal to maintain cash flows. The airline is aiming at a faster growth in future.

Jet Airways has announced a daily flight from Kolkata to Port Blair from 11th November 2006. This is going to be the first foreign flight from kolkata. Additionally the airline will also commence a daily flight to Bangkok from Delhi from the same date. For the Kolkata Port Blair flight, Jet Airlines will keep four aircrafts of its fleet at Kolkata.

Presently Jet Airways’ 17 percent revenue comes from international operations and 83 percent from domestic operations. The airline is aiming at a 50 percent revenue from international operations as the competition in the domestic market is getting stiffer. Jet is already flying to Britain, Clolombo, Kuala Lumpur, Kathmandu and Singapore. Besides, the airline has applied for approval to fly in United States and the airline is planning to add more destinations like Canada, China, South Africa, etc. to its list. The margins on international flights are better than domestic flights. The airline is already trying to cut down its fixed costs and come out profitable in the next financial year. With increase in international operations the airline is expecting to boos its revenues and will be able to thrive in the competitive domestic market.