Airlines Deals

Deccan Aviation, which operates the low-cost carrier Air Deccan, will start its international operations out of Sri Lanka in October this year. Deccan has chosen its Sri Lankan arm, Deccan Aviation (Lanka) to kickstart its international operations because Indian domestic carriers cannot fly overseas unless they have a 5 year experience of flying in the domestic market.
They must also have a fleet-size of at least 20 aircraft.Air Deccan, which launched India’s first low cost airline service in August, 2003, does not qualify on the basis of number of years until August 2008 but with a fleet of 36 aircraft, it already fulfills the other criterion.Initially the services will connect the Sri Lankan capital, Colombo to the southern Indian cities of Trivandrum, Madurai, Coimbatore, Cochin and Trichi.Three ATR turbo-prop aircrafts will be deployed on the route.“We have already applied for the required licences from the government of Sri Lanka. Plans will only be finalised after we visit the country next month,” Air Deccan managing director GR Gopinath told FE

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However, they were not looking at any other international market at present,he said.“The domestic market in India offers tremendous growth opportunities. I am not even trying to compete with other low-cost airlines but with the Indian Railways. If I can lure even 10% of train passengers to airlines industry, it will be a major push for the low cost carriers,”Gopinath said.

At present,Deccan is flying to 56 destinations and claims to be the second largest airline by marketshare, next only to Jet Airways.

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YOUR cellphone has just doubled up as your personal travel agent, enabling you to search for and book the cheapest available air tickets on the move, thanks to Flight Raja.

This Bangalore-based company is all set to revolutionise air travel—after its official launch on Friday—because of its mobile flight reservation service.

‘‘We offer all domestic airlines, available to the entire nation on a single SMS and provide instant ticketing, a first for India,’’ said Harsh Azad, director (Mobile), Flight Raja.

The simple, four-step procedure to fly through mobile (see box) took the team six months to execute and has seen an investment of ‘‘roughly a quarter million US dollars,’’ Azad added.

‘‘Payments can be made both by credit card and cash. We have tied up with UTI and SBI banks for the latter,’’ said Amit Aggarwal, director (Kiosk).

Clearly, the success mantra for the venture will be the ability to penetrate the 100 million-strong mobile market in India.

Currently, among the domestic carriers, individual airlines like Indian, Air Deccan and IndiGo have options for mobile bookings. While Indian’s is restricted to Reliance customers, Air Deccan requires one to register before availing the service and IndiGo offers bookings only on GPRS-enabled phones.

Meanwhile, Air Sahara, SpiceJet, Kingfisher and GoAir have no plans for launching similar services in the near future, their spokespersons confirmed.

Industry watchers say that in such a scenario, this will be a one-stop shop for travellers because of easy accessibility and having the cheapest options across airlines listed for you at your fingertips.

In four steps
Step 1: Search for the cheapest airfares. SMS Fly, first three letters of originating city, first three letters of destination city, date of flying to 4242 and receive list of cheapest air tickets (e.g. Fly Del Mum 28 July)
Step 2: SMS Fly Book to book
Step 3: A customer care representative will call back to complete the booking
Step 4: The PNR number is delivered via SMS and you can collect the e-ticket from the airport counter or print it online

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QANTAS chief executive Geoff Dixon does not expect high fuel prices to damage the prospects of low-cost carrier Jetstar International when it launches in November.
Mr Dixon said yesterday he did not believe that high fuel costs meant low-cost airlines could not survive, although carriers that were not well run might well hit trouble.

He said Qantas was aware of the risks involved with fuel rises but it had a highly developed risk management system. “Fuel affects all airlines but at the moment with certain difficulties, we’re managing it through,” he said.

“Obviously, there’s a certain amount of hedging, which is not great at the moment, but the surcharges are offsetting a lot of this.

“And it’s interesting, the surcharges are a fare increase but travel is still very, very buoyant in most of the industry.”

Mr Dixon said Qantas was not discussing another fuel surcharge, although it was keeping a close watch on prices.

Jetstar International attracted an avalanche of web hits when launched commercially yesterday with international promotional fares as low as $169 one-way to Bali.

The launch, which was mirrored in Osaka and Bangkok, is part of the group’s strategy of developing two brands.

Qantas will use Jetstar to fly services on leisure routes and keep mainline services on those where there is a leisure and premium market.

It will start service with four two-class A330-200s, adding another two next year before switching to next-generation Boeing 787 Dreamliners.

Mr Dixon told tourism, travel and airline officials at the Sydney launch that Jetstar’s international service would be grown aggressively and that this would focus on developing inbound markets.

“At the end of the day, Jetstar International when it’s fully fledged will be principally an inbound carrier and I believe it will be of tremendous importance to the Australian tourism industry,” he said.

The Qantas boss also hit back at a push by a Queensland airport, tourism and marketing group to put pressure on the federal Government to further open Australian skies.

He said Australia could not have it all ways.

He said reports that Austrian Airlines had decided to abandon its Australian services highlighted problems with the viability of operations by end-point carriers competing against mid-point airlines.

“They insist that Qantas keeps all its jobs in Australia, keeps all its engineering operations in Australia, is virtually not allowed to consolidate like any other business and is also quite hampered in its ability to fly to various places because of bilateral agreements with other countries,” he said.

“But we’re then supposed to exist in this pure competitive world which doesn’t exist anywhere in the airline industry.”

Asked about the delays to the A380, Mr Dixon said the airline was still in talks with manufacturers about aircraft to replace the extra capacity provided by the big jets.

He said Airbus was still saying it would deliver the first Qantas A380 in October and the airline was happy with the way the jet was meeting its specifications in tests.

But there was no move at Qantas to follow the example of Singapore Airlines and order the redesigned A350 as well as 787s.

Figures released yesterday by the International Air Transport Association appeared to back up Mr Dixon’s optimism for Jetstar International. The figures showed international passenger traffic rose 6.7 per cent in the first half of 2006 and freight traffic grew 5.2 per cent.

Passenger load factors were also up compared with last year, rising 1.2 percentage points to 75.1percent.

Asia-Pacific passenger traffic rose 6.2 per cent while freight was up 4.8 per cent.

International Air Transport Association director general Giovanni Bisignani warned that near record oil prices would result in a $US112 billion ($147.4 billion) fuel bill for the global industry this year at an average price of $US66 a barrel. “The good news is that neither the extraordinary price of oil nor the inching-up of interest rates negatively impacted on demand,” he said.

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IRISH Ferries has started a battle with the low-cost airlines in a major tug-of-war for customers.

Ireland’s largest ferry company has promised to take on airlines like Ryanair and easyjet their own game by adopting a low-fares model.

In an unprecedented move the ferry company itself as a low-fares carrier — similar to the Ryanair model. And Irish Ferries has also followed the airline’s lead by offering big savings to those who book early.

Its new pricing model gives bigger savings for those who book at least four weeks prior to travel.

Irish Ferries’ British passenger manager Darragh O’Reilly said: “Gone are the traditional days of price vultures waiting until the last minute to book travel to take advantage of our low, low prices. From now on people will have to book in advance to guarantee getting our best price. And indeed if they do try to book at the last minute they will find that our prices have risen just as happens with the low-cost airlines.

“This represents a massive investment in our commitment to the future and the new pricing levels. We are dedicated to offering this pricing model consistently.”

The company said they had taken on board what their passengers were asking for and developed a fluid pricing structure which emulates the best elements of airline systems while retaining the traditional Irish Ferries’ offering.

Customers can choose from several alternative crossings as well as having the choice of a club class seat and individual cabins.

And they said that unlike the airlines all taxes were included in the quoted fare and customers could bring as much baggage as they like.

Mr O’Reilly said: “Exploring Ireland is best done by car.

“You can take yourself out of the city off the beaten track and into some of the most beautiful countryside in the world.”

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Are “no-frills,” or low-cost, long- haul flights now a reality? At issue is the future shape of a new wave of low-cost, long-haul carriers and whether the short-haul model can successfully translate to long-haul requirements. This issue will be debated by more than 40 airline executives at the World Low Cost Airlines Congress’s annual conference in London in September.

The conference comes just before the start-up budget carrier Oasis Hong Kong Airlines begins flights in October. Its one-way fares between London Gatwick and Hong Kong will be £75, or about $135, plus taxes. This is less than half the cost of a standard round-trip train ticket from London to Manchester.

The airline will be competing directly with British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Virgin Atlantic on the route. (BA’s lowest round trip is £389.)

Oasis Hong Kong Airlines (www.oasis-air.com) will operate Boeing 747-400s; seat-back entertainment and hot meals will be included in the ticket price, but passengers can order a “gourmet food service” at extra cost. Seat-pitch, a knee-crunching 82 centimeters, or 32 inches, is better than cattle class with many airlines. (A business-class cabin offers 154 centimeters of leg room.) The carrier plans nonstop services between Hong Kong, and Milan-Malpensa, Cologne/Bonn and destinations in the United States (Oakland in California and Chicago).

Oasis Hong Kong Airlines is joining an expanding band of carriers seeking to replicate on a global scale the no- frills model so successful in Europe, North America, and Asia-Pacific.

Zoom Airlines (www.flyzoom.com), a Canadian carrier, offers low-cost services between London Gatwick, Glasgow and Manchester and Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, Edmonton, Ottawa, Calgary, Halifax and Winnipeg, with one-way fares starting at £129. Zoom operates the wide-body Boeing 767-300 with 268 seats. Economy passengers get an 80-centimeter seat pitch but free meals and drinks; premium economy passengers get 92 centimeters of leg room and extra baggage allowance. One-way tickets are flexible: you can change flights up to 21 days before departure for a fee of 50 Canadian dollars, or about $43. A quick search came up with round-trip fares from London to Toronto for two dates in August of £109-£149 in economy class and £188- £228 in premium economy.

Air Sahara, based in New Delhi (www.airsahara.net), operates a network of services within the subcontinent, and between New Delhi and London or New Delhi and Singapore. One- way fares from London Heathrow to New Delhi start at around £126.

The Scottish airline Flyglobespan (www.flyglobespan.com) operates a fleet of wide-body Boeing 767-300s with three classes: no-frills economy with a 78-centimeter seat pitch (you buy your own meals and drinks); premium economy with an 88-centimeter pitch and full meals service; and business, with 128-centimeter sleeper seats. Flyglobespan operates from Glasgow and Edinburgh to a score of European destinations; from Glasgow to Orlando, Florida; Liverpool to New York Newark; Manchester to Cape Town and Toronto. One-way fares from Glasgow to Orlando start at £99; premium economy, £129; and business class, £324.

No-frills carriers are modeled on Southwest Airlines in the United States.

An expanding band of carriers are seeking to replicate the no-frills model on a global scale.

They are characterized by point-to- point services, high utilization of aircraft, low distribution costs, achieved with online booking, and variable one- way fares that reflect demand for flights at different dates and times of the day. Such has been the success of carriers like EasyJet, Ryanair, Air Berlin and German Wings, that “full-service” airlines like Air France, SAS Swiss and British Airways have adopted similar low-cost, one-way pricing on short-haul routes in Europe.

Aer Lingus, meanwhile, says it has reinvented itself as a low-cost point- to-point carrier and offers cheap one- way fares from Britain and Ireland to North America at about a quarter of the cost of full-service airlines.

Analysts have long debated whether the no-frills formula can work with long-haul services, if only because quick aircraft turnarounds can be frustrated by issues of safety, time- zone constraints, and crew schedules. And, of course, there is the discomfort issue: Will passengers tolerate being jammed for eight hours?

Airlines also need to offer some comforts on long flights, and “pay-per- frill” - like charging for priority boarding and disembarking, in-flight use of mobile phones, extra leg room and baggage allowance, and gourmet meals - might be the answer. Look out for hybrid premium seats or cabins, not as fancy (or pricey) as the ergonomic lie-flat sleeper seats in first- and business-class cabins of the big name carriers, but at least as comfortable as those old first-class seats in the narrow body Boeing 707s and DC 8s of the late 1960s.

We may have to wait for the Airbus A380 superjumbo before the idea of long-haul, no-frills flying really takes off. It was the extra capacity of the wide-body Boeings on short- and long- haul routes in the 1970s that led to low fares and today’s cattle class.

Southwest Airlines’s trial of pre-assigned seating is welcomed by most passengers; there are, however, complaints about getting stuck in the middle seat. Meanwhile, EasyJet, which also has “free seating,” is considering allowing passengers to pay a £5 supplement to be first to board.

Business travelers fear that mobile phones in flight will spark air rage. This is the finding of a poll, published June 28, by the International Airline Passengers Association. Although 90 percent of respondents carry mobile phones when they travel, only half say they would find it useful to make calls during a flight and many were opposed, saying that phones would be disruptive. Indeed, 45 percent of respondents ranked listening to someone else’s phone calls as the second most irritating thing they could imagine on an aircraft, worse than listening to a child crying or a passenger snoring. The only thing more annoying was someone kicking the back of their seat. A few said they would refuse to travel on aircraft that allowed the use of mobile phones.

The IAPA poll reflects the findings of a recent Skytrax survey of airline passengers from 76 countries (www.airlinequality.com). It found that nearly 90 percent of people are opposed to plans to allow the use of mobile phones in the air.

Meanwhile, technology developed by OnAir (a joint venture between Airbus and SITA, an airline communications provider) is now in place to allow people to safely use their mobile phones in the air. Air France has announced plans to carry out trials on its Airbus 380s between March and September 2007 on services in Europe and to North Africa. OnAir has signed agreements for new voice-mail technology with TAP Air Portugal and BMI International. According to SITA, 44 percent of airlines will be offering at least one in-flight communications option by the end of 2007.

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Low-cost airlines easyJet and Ryanair have backed moves by the European Commission to look into the operation of flights between the Italian mainland and Sardinia.

Both airlines have faced legal challenges to their plans to offer flights to the island, with Italian air travel regulators saying the routes are protected via Public Servicing Obligations (PSO) designed to guarantee continued service on routes deemed to be unprofitable and remote.

Earlier this year, easyJet’s inaugural flight from Milan to the island’s airport at Olbia was stopped from taking off and check-in desks were closed down. Passengers protested to the Italian officials.

Arnaldo Munoz, of easyJet in southern Europe, said: “We are very pleased with this decision and are confident that the investigation will restore competition on routes to Sardinia.

“The winners would be the Italian taxpayers, the flying public who will benefit from more choice, lower fares and better service as well as the region of Sardinia, which would benefit from a boost in tourism.”

Ryanair is also keen to see the restrictive measures taken down and claim that the price of a flight from Italy to Sardinia has gone up from €40 to €160 in the past few months.

Peter Sherrard, of Ryanair, said: “Sardinian consumers and visitors are being ripped off, denied choice and paying fares four times higher than Ryanair’s, solely as a result of the unlawful actions of the Italian authorities to block Ryanair’s flights and permit the routes to be taken over by high fare Italian airlines.”

easyJet currently flies to Sardinia from Gatwick, Geneva and Berlin, carrying more than 200,000 passengers to and from Sardinia since flights began a year ago.

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Air Deccan is the leaders in the budget airline market in India and they are now due to announce some new flights next month to further boost their presence in the Indian market.

The company confirmed that they would be launching five new flights from next month in different sectors.

These new flights would include flights on the routes: Delhi-Dehradun, Bangalore-Pune and Jammu-Srinagar.

The company added that they would launch new flights on these routes: Hyderabad-Cochin via Coimbatore and Chennai-Rajhamundry via Vijayawada.

There is more good news for the customers as the company is aiming at offering introductory fares of Rs 599 for the Delhi-Dehradun sector; Rs 499 on the Jammu-Srinagar route; Rs 999 on the Bangalore-Pune route and Rs 1224 on the Chennai-Rajahmundry and Hyderabad-Cochin sectors.

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As many as 12 A-320 aircrafts of state-owned carrier Indian are grounded for major maintenance or want of engines, the Lok Sabha was informed on Thursday.

“The exact loss of revenue is difficult to compute as different aircrafts are under scheduled maintenance or otherwise for different periods of time,” Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel said in reply to a question.

He said normally about six A-320s remain grounded for maintenance, but currently there were 12 aircrafts. The reasons for delay in repairs were not due to shortage of spare parts but for major maintenance, want of engines or scheduled maintenance checks.

In reply to another question, he said while there was no shortage of pilots in Indian, its subsidiary Alliance Air had a shortage of ten pilots each for its Boeing 737 and ATR turboprop aircrafts fleet.

Air India and subsidiary Air India Express have a shortage of 85 and 22 pilots respectively, Patel said.

On modernisation of Kolkata and Chennai airports, he said though modalities for implementing the modernisation plan were yet to be decided, the Airports Authority of India has drawn up plans for construction of a new international departure block with car parking faciility at an estimated cost of Rs 225 crores at Kolkata.

Thereafter, the new arrival block would be constructed, Patel said, adding action to extend runways and construct a new domestic terminal building and 11 additional bays was already being undertaken.

At Chennai, AAI has already taken up expansion and modification of the international terminal block at a cost of Rs 23.47 crores, besides constructing 20 additional parking bays.

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Wadia group, the promoter of budget airline GoAir will invest $30 million with SIA Engineering, a subsidiary of Singapore Airlines, for maintenance, repair and overhaul services in the country.
The joint venture is expected to commence operations from November this year. Wadia group will hold 49 per cent stake in JV while the foreign partner will hold the remaining stake.

“We will invest up to $30 million to start with…and plan to operate at eight major airports in India and expand to 30 cities over the next five years,” Wadia group Director Jeh Wadia said.

Both firms also plan a training institute and expect to produce 50 engineers and 100 technicians in next two years.

“The staff strength would be 100 in the first year of operation, which would go up to 500 by 2010,” he added.

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Indian Airlines Ltd., is vigorously pursuing all possible means to increase engine availability. This information was given to the Parliament by Shri Praful Patel, Minister for Civil Aviation in the Lok Sabha today.

The Minister added that the Indian Airlines was doing this through outsourcing of engine overhaul to outside agencies, continued retention of three short-term leased engines till January-February 2007, leasing three more engines on short-term basis and implementing the engine upgrade programme. These steps are being taken by Indian Airlines since the grounding of a number of aircrafts are primarily due to shortage of engines.

Normally, about 6 A-320 aircraft remain ground for scheduled maintenance. Presently about 12 A-320 aircraft are grounded for major maintenance/want of engines and for scheduled maintenance checks. They have not been grounded due to shortage parts.

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