Airlines India, Indian Airlines

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.

After the proposed merger of the Indian Airlines with Air India, the cargo arm of Indian Airlines will be hived off to operate as separate entity. The proposed cargo operations will be handled as a division of Indian Airlines till the process of merger is completed. The airline has already taken approval from the Government of India for its cargo operations. India has a huge market for cargo carriers and is growing at a rate of 20 percent per year. Jet Airways and Kingfisher Airlines are also planning to start their cargo operations. with the booming retail sector, the cargo business is expected to grow at a higher pace as the retail companies would use air cargo services to ship their goods to various destinations across the country.

Under the process the airline is planning to convert some of its existing passenger carriers into freighters. To start with, the airline will convert its five Boeing 737 aircrafts into cargo carriers. Some non airline companies are also showing their interests in air cargo business, therefore, the airline companies are making their first moves to encash the upcoming opportunity.

Kingfisher Airlines has leased two Airbus A321 aircrafts from Pegasus Aviation Finance Company. At present Kingfisher has a fleet of 10 Airbus A-320s and 3 Airbus A-319s. Pegasus Aviation Fianace company is the world’s largest commercial aircraft lessor, it owns and manages a fleet of more than 200 aircrafts and it is a privately held company. As per the terms of lease, the ownership of the new aircrafts will be taken by Pegasus and Kingfisher will concurrently lease these airbus A-321s from Pegasus, the lessor.

Kingfisher started its operations in May 2005 and presently it is the fourth largest airline operating in India with a market share of about 9 percent. With the addition of Airbus A-321 Aircrafts to its fleet the airline expects to launch more flights and add more destinations to its network. The company was also very delighted on striking a deal with world’s largest commercial aircraft lessor.

Kingfisher will be the first in India to use Airbus A-321 carriers. It has state of the art technologies and is powered by IAE V-2500 engines and a seating capacity of about 150.