Category Archives: Aviation

The recent grounding of aircraft of the Indian aviation industry has hit its total capacity, resulting in increased airfares and more inconvenience to the passengers, thereby affecting passenger traffic growth. According to Investment Information and Credit Rating Agency of India (ICRA), 98 of the total 670 aircraft in the industry have been grounded. These include 86 aircraft (75% of total fleet) of Jet Airways grounded due to non-payment of lease rentals to the aircraft lessors owing to its liquidity problems, and 12 aircraft (16% of total fleet) of SpiceJet grounded as required by a regulatory directive post technical issues reported with the flight control software of the Boeing 737 Max (B737 Max) aircraft. Elaborating further, Kinjal Shah, Vice President and Co-Head, Corporate Sector Ratings, ICRA, says, “These groundings have impacted ~15% of the total industry capacity. The consequent flight cancellations have resulted in ~30-40% increase in airfares over September 2018 to March 2019. However, India being a high price sensitive market, this has impacted the domestic passenger traffic growth from October 2018 onwards, with the Q3 FY2019 Y-o-Y growth reduced to 12.4%, as against the H1 FY2019 Y-o-Y growth at 19.8%. In fact, the domestic passenger traffic growth in January 2019 reached a 53-month low of 8.9% Y-o-Y, and February 2019 was further lower at 5.6% Y-o-Y. The passenger traffic growth for March 2019 is expected to be lower than that in February 2019. Moreover, these issues have raised concerns on passenger safety.”

Dubai International Airport’s (DXB) runway will be closed for repair work from April 16 to May 30. Owing to this, Air India and Air India Express have announced a change in airport for some of their flights during the runway renovation period in Dubai International Airport. Some of the flights will be affected during the Dubai runway closure and operate out of the Sharjah International Airport. Affected flights are- AIR INDIA: Daily direct flights from Mumbai (AI 983) and Chennai (AI 906) to Dubai, daily flights in the route Visakhapatnam/Hyderabad/Dubai/Hyderabad/Visakhapatnam (AI 951/952) and the Bengaluru/ Goa/Dubai/Goa/Bengaluru flights on Thursday and Sunday (AI 993/994) AIR INDIA EXPRESS: (IX 813/814), (IX 383/384) — daily flights from and to Mangalore, IX 141/142 (Delhi/Dubai/Delhi on Sunday), and IX 435/434 (Kochi/Dubai/Kochi on Sunday). (Source: Gulf News)

AirAsia will start its inaugural Ahmedabad route – starting May 31, 2019, with special all-in promotional fares exclusively for AirAsia BIG members from Rs 4,999 one way. Guests can take advantage of the convenient flight schedule with early morning arrival and evening departure, which gives them more time to spend in Bangkok.  Ahmedabad is the ninth Indian destination for AirAsia Thailand (carrier code FD), after Kochi, Chennai, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Bhubaneswar, Jaipur, Visakhapatnam and Gaya (seasonal). Book from 9-21 April 2019 for travel between 31 May 2019 and 4 February 2020 on airasia.com or the AirAsia mobile app. AirAsia Thailand CEO Santisuk Klongchaiya said, “India is a strategic market for AirAsia and our focus is on further growing our international connectivity to the country. This new route will expand the travel opportunities for the people of western India, and we are confident that our unique combination of low fares and award-winning service will stimulate traffic on this underserved route and fuel tourism and economic growth.” AirAsia Thailand has recorded a positive load factor of up to 87 percent on its India routes, with guests travelling between Bangkok and existing destinations in India increasing 7% on-year, translating into economic benefits for both countries. Guests who wish to explore AirAsia’s network beyond Bangkok can make use of the convenient Fly-Thru service, which allows them to transit via Bangkok with baggage checked through from Ahmedabad to domestic destinations such as Chiang Mai, Phuket and Krabi, as well as other Asian cities like Singapore, Bali, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, Ho Chi Minh and Tokyo.

Effective June 05, IndiGo will fly daily non-stop from Mumbai to both Jeddah and Abu Dhabi. Effective July 05, the airline will connect Mumbai with Dammam through daily direct flights (Subject to regulatory approvals). Additionally, IndiGo is temporarily adding approximately 20 new departures each from Mumbai and Delhi in a phased manner from April 15, 2019. This is an effort to make it easier for customers to find affordable fares during the busy season. William Boulter, Chief Commercial Officer, IndiGo said, “We are strengthening Mumbai as a key travel hub for domestic and international connectivity from India. We are pleased to announce Jeddah and Dammam as our 17th and 18th international destinations effective June 05, 2019 and July 05, 2019 respectively. Jeddah being the commercial capital and the gateway for Haj, Dammam being the growth centre in Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi being a major cultural and commercial centre in UAE, are critical markets for strengthening our presence in the Middle-East. Mumbai is the commercial hub of India and we see great potential connecting the Middle-East with this city, further bolstering the extensive cultural, business and tourism links between India and the Middle East. With the addition of these new international flights and enhanced domestic frequency, we are committed to expanding our network to meet the requirements of both business and leisure travellers. It is our constant endeavour to provide flexibility of choice to our customers as IndiGo continues to offer on-time, affordable, courteous and hassle-free flying experience consistently.”

Civil Aviation Minister Suresh Prabhu is of the view that Aviation turbine fuel (ATF) should be brought under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime to ensure a level playing field for the domestic airline industry. He says, “Each state has a different tax. Due to this, the refuelling (for airlines) cost completely changes. We feel that it should be done. I hope the GST Council takes a call on that and we are pursuing this with the council continuously. “He said input costs should be competitive for any sector and the ministry has been of the strong view that the fuel should be brought under the GST regime.” (Source: PTI)

Expensive air fares as a result of capacity constraint and high fuel prices are expected to further decelerate India’s passenger growth numbers, experts opined. As per the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) data, on a YoY basis, growth rate in February stood at 5.62 per cent to 1.13 crore, while it was 9.10 per cent in January and 11.03 per cent in December 2018. Even though, there has been a growth in passenger numbers on a year-on-year (YoY) basis, the traffic on a sequential level has shown a negative trend. Even data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA) showed a similar trend. The growth rate of India’s domestic air passenger volume — measured in revenue passenger kilometres (RPKs) — slowed in February to 10 per cent from a rise of 12.4 per cent in January. Industry observers blamed the downward sequential growth trend on high air fares. According to experts, since March 14, passengers had to shell out high fares as several airlines cancelled operations for a number of reasons, including grounding of Boeing 737-MAX aircraft. During this period, some sectors continued to see a rise of more than 100 per cent in case of last minute bookings. “Indian aviation has seen a capacity constraint due to multiple reasons over last couple of months. The immediate impact of this reduction noted on fares was an average of 15-20 per cent hike in price,” said Sharat Dhall, COO (B2C) of Yatra.com. “While that acted as a deterrent for people who were looking to book air tickets in short notice, however, the traffic was not seen to be affected as the fares did moderate for people booking in advance,” he …

SpiceJet has announced a direct flight connecting Mumbai to Bangkok becoming the first Indian LCC to introduce a daily flight on the Mumbai-Bangkok-Mumbai route. The flight will commence from May 17. The budget carrier also introduced six additional domestic flights on the Mumbai-Kolkata-Mumbai (third frequency), Mumbai-Chennai-Mumbai (third) and Mumbai-Varanasi-Mumbai (second) route from April 18. SpiceJet will use its Boeing 737 NG aircraft on both the international as well as domestic routes. The Thai capital is SpiceJet’s second international destination after Dubai with a direct flight from Mumbai. The airline already operates non-stop flights from Bangkok to Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Delhi and Kolkata.

IndiGo is has announced six new routes, out of which four will be serving Ude Desh ka Aam Nagrik (UDAN) RCS scheme, starting June 22, 2019. The UDAN routes include Kolkata-Allahabad, Allahabad-Kolkata, Raipur-Allahabad, Allahabad-Raipur. On the other hand, the airline launched new flights between Kolkata, Allahabad, Raipur and Jabalpur, while developing regional hubs at Allahabad and Kolkata. The new routes will be serviced by an ATR aircraft. The new flights will boost IndiGo’s connectivity in the Tier II cities with fares starting from INR 1,999. William Boulter, Chief Commercial Officer, IndiGo said, “We are pleased to have the opportunity to be able to fly on these RCS routes and enhance connectivity amongst the Tier II cities including Kolkata, Allahabad, Raipur and Jabalpur. Launching flights on these routes will enhance our point to point connectivity, enabling customers to save both time and money. IndiGo will continue to expand its network to meet the requirements of both business and leisure travellers. It is our constant endeavour to provide more flexibility of choice to our customers as IndiGo continues to offer them on-time, affordable, courteous and hassle-free flying experience always.”

Air Asia recently announced new routes from Mumbai to Kochi and Kolkata, and additional flights on the Mumbai-Bengaluru route, four times a day. Mumbai-Kochi route will fly six days a week except Tuesdays. Operations will start from April 15. In the wake of the recent Jet Airways crisis, Air Asia and Vistara are adding more aircraft to fill in the unused slots. The capacity shortage and Delhi airports have led to the hike in the airfare to 40 per cent.

Bahrain International Airport welcomed the arrival of the inaugural Air India Express flight from Kunnur, India to Bahrain, following the commencement of a new service. As the first direct route from Kunnur to Bahrain, it opens up many new opportunities for tourism and trade between the two countries. A BAC delegation led by Chief Commercial Officer, Ayman Zainal received the inaugural flight alongside Indian Ambassador to Bahrain, His Excellency Alok Kumar Sinha, Air India Express Country Manager, Saket Saran, and other officials. The airline, a subsidiary of Air India, will operate a service between Kunnur International Airport and BIA twice a week. The route from BIA includes one stopover in Kuwait. The flight from Kunnur International Airport is the fourth direct route to BIA after Kochi, Kozhikode, and Mangalore. In total, there are seven routes from BIA to India, all of which are direct. Mr Zainal said: “We hope that the introduction of this new route will further strengthen bilateral relations and serve the needs of the large expat community in the Kingdom. We look forward to working with Air India Express to offer its customers a seamless and smooth passenger experience.” He added: “With the launch of the new Passenger Terminal Building later this year, BAC expects to attract further interest from leading airlines wishing to explore the potential of adding new routes linking Bahrain to the rest of the world. In addition to giving passengers more destinations to choose from, route development enables flows of trade, investment, and tourism that will support wider economic growth in line with the Kingdom’s Vision 2030.”