Airlines India, Indian Airlines

Air Deccan has said it will stop flying unprofitable routes, as it seeks to come into the black by 2008. The Bangalore-based budget airline aims to carry 80 lakh passengers in 2007, compared with 45 lakh this year, and aims to break even on as many routes as possible by cutting operation costs. It has not indicated which routes will be affected by the plan.

Air Deccan, Jet Airways, Spicejet, Kingfisher Airlines and other private airlines are facing losses as a result of increasing competition, which is squeezing their margins. Air Deccan made a loss of Rs341 crore ($74 million) in the 15 months ending June 2006. Indian private carriers will probably make a combined loss of Rs1,125 crore ($250 million) this year and next, as they cut fares to as low as 1 rupee to maximise capacity utilisation.
Redeploying excess capacity and containing costs by utilising aircraft for longer hours could help Air Deccan and other budget airlines emerge from losses. Air Deccan is India’s second-biggest airline by market share behind Jet Airways.

The airline recently sold and leased back two Airbus SAS planes and three spare engines to balance its books. The company will consider similar deals for more planes. Air Deccan has 92 planes on order, valued at Rs 17,000 crore ($3.8 billion), to be delivered by 2012, most from Airbus. The airline has postponed a plan to start overseas routes in a joint venture in Sri Lanka, to focus on the turnaround.

The airline today announced a Rs675 crore ($150 million) 10-year maintenance agreement with Lufthansa Technik to support its fleet of 14 Airbus planes. Lufthansa Technik and its Indian subsidiary One Stop Airline MRO Support will independently serve the fleet of 60 Airbus A320 airplanes with spares at the carrier’s hub, Bangalore, Air Deccan and Lufthansa said in a joint press release. Lufthansa Technik will set up a regional pool of spares in India because of increasing demand in South Asian countries.

Air Deccan’s move to operate direct daily flights in the Delhi-Kullu sector, would be a real boost to the tourism-based economy of the Himalayan valley as it is a paradise on earth for many.

Analysts explain the move would help the promotion of tourism here as domestic tourists belong to the upper-middle class will prefer low-cost carriers for Kullu-Manali trips during holidays, since time would worth more than gold in the IT-age.

India’s premier low cost carrier- Air Deccan’s offices in metros and other cities are now receiving a huge number of calls daily from people who are planning a Kullu- Manali trip after it announced the addition of Kullu to its aviation map, setting a new trend in India’s tourism industry.

The airline said in a recent release that direct daily flights from Delhi to Kullu and back would commence operations on 17th October and a 48 seater ATR 42-500 aircraft would be deployed on this route.

The flight DN 557 would leave Delhi at 0615 hrs and reach Kullu at 0725 hrs and the return flight DN 558 would leave Kullu at 0740 hrs and reach Delhi at 0850 hrs, providing a quick access to the valleys where one can see how mountains touch the door steps of heaven.

For years together, the Kullu – Manali region had been attracting tourists and mountaineers from across the globe and last year Kullu – Manali saw almost 1 million tourist footprints. But there is just one airline operating to Kullu at present and the other options available are either by road or by train which take as long as 14 hours and are not very safe considering the hilly terrain of the region. Poor air connectivity has been a major hurdle to the promotion of tourism in the area.

Therefore the Airport Authorities over the last few years are involved in development of various airports in Himachal Pradesh including the Bhuntar Airport at Kullu. As a result, a lot of infrastructural development has happened at these airports especially widening of airstrips enabling the turbo-prop aircrafts to land here.

However, the new trend hints low cost connectivity to Kullu can play a vital role in enhancing tourism by providing a quick and affordable travel option for domestic tourists.

Paramount Airways is planning to launch its third Madurai-Chennai service with a link to Hyderabad on Friday.

The airline aimed to operate 56 flights from next month from the current 24 flights it was operating now, the Airways Managing Director M Thiagarajan told newsmen here last night.

It planned to introduce flights between Tirupathi and Vishakapatnam in October and a Madurai-Bangalore flight from November. It had also planned to connect prime destinations in south India, he said.

“We will concentrate on south and then move to north. In a year or two we will be able to do that”, he said.

The airways would offer 50 per cent discount on full fare to senior citizens and disabled passengers, Thiagarajan said adding that travel for disabled children below 12 years would be free.

A special group rate for college and school students would be given soon under a scheme, by which one ticket would be given free for every group of 10 students, he said.

Thiagarajan requested the Tamil Nadu and Kerala Governments to reduce the sales tax on aviation turbine fuel to make air travel cheaper.

Air India Express (AIE), the low cost airline operated by Air India, will start flights to Bahrain next summer and not this October as was announced earlier.

“There is no question of AIE coming to Bahrain before the next summer season,” Dubai-based Regional Director (Gulf) for Air India Sanjeev Talwar said.

He cited the shortage of aircraft and “diversion of planes to other lucrative routes” as the reason behind the move, according to a media report.

“As much as we would want more and more destinations to be covered by the budget arm of Air-India, this is not possible in the immediate future,” Talwar said.

The airline was first expected to fly in to Bahrain in April last year when it was reported the first flight would land only in winter, the Gulf Daily News reported.

The load factor, indicating occupancy, of Air India Express flights from Kerala to Dubai and Abu Dhabi, among other destinations in the Gulf, was more than 90 per cent.

Flights from Delhi and Mumbai to the same destinations had reported less than 50 per cent load factor.

AIE began services last year, and flies to Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Muscat, and Salalah, from Kozhikode, Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram, Mumbai, Delhi, Amritsar and Mangalore.

Leading private carrier, Air Sahara has launched the Delhi-Indore-Delhi non-stop twice daily flight here on Sunday, with a plan to introduce Indore-Mumbai flight by February-March.

“We are delighted to add Indore to our route network as it is a very vibrant city,” Air Sahara senior vice president, K Damodaran told reporters after the launch of the new flight.

He said that by February-March the carrier will introduce a new flight to Mumbai in view of the growing traffic on the Mumbai sector.

He informed that Indore is the third of the 14 new destinations being added by Air Sahara to its route network.

Earlier, it has added Nagpur and Port Blair to its list of destinations. Among the 14 included the three international destinations like Guangzhou (China), Dhaka (Bangladesh) and Male (Maldives), he said.

Claiming that the timings of the Indore-Delhi flight were very convenient, he said that the inaugural flight from Delhi has 42 passengers, while the return flight has 40 against the total capacity of the 50 seater aircraft. The company enjoys a market share of 12 per cent (domestic) in the country.

He said flights for Chandigarh and Vadodara would soon begin from Delhi and added that the plans were afoot for connecting smaller towns like Raipur and Jodhpur among others.

When queried he said that it was not a viable proposition to reduce fares.

Damodaran also refused to talk about the grounded Jet-Sahara deal.