Kingfisher to launch Bangalore London Heathrow from September 3

August 20, 2008 Comments Off on Kingfisher to launch Bangalore London Heathrow from September 3 250 Views

Kingfisher Airlines – Air Deccan will commence its much awaited international operations on September 3, 2008, offering Bangalore to London Heathrow non-stop service using its newly arrived Airbus A330 aircraft.

As per the airline website, the schedules are :

BLR-LHR IT1 0840 – 1450
LHR-BLR IT2 2205 – 1235+1

More details on the Kingfisher website.

Totally four A330 aircraft have arrived. While other schedules are yet to be announced, it is almost certain that Mumbai – London will be the next city pair to be served, followed by Bangalore – Singapore by late September. All using the A330 aircraft.

The ultra long range Airbus A340-500 aircraft are expected to arrive by end September. There is intense business planning on the Bangalore – San Francisco non-stop. Sky high fuel prices (pardon the pun), have forced many carriers like Thai to discontinue their A340-500 ultra long haul non-stop operations, or like Singapore Airlines to covert their service in to an all business class format.

Dr. Vijay Mallya is a maverick business leader, which deep pockets, and renowned for his bold decisions. Given the high passenger demand between “Silicon Plateau” and “Silicon Valley”, I would not be surprised, if he commences the Bangalore San Francisco service, by early October, regardless of the fuel economics.

Bangalore – Hong Kong – San Francisco is another possible route.

All the Asian carriers operating from Bangalore, Singapore, Thai, Malaysian, Dragonair, are bound to feel the impact of Dr. Mallya’s entry, and it will behoove them to forge interline alliances with him.

About Devesh Agarwal

A electronics and automotive product management, marketing and branding expert, he was awarded a silver medal at the Lockheed Martin innovation competition 2010. He is ranked 6th on Mashable's list of aviation pros on Twitter and in addition to Bangalore Aviation, he has contributed to leading publications like Aviation Week, Conde Nast Traveller India, The Economic Times, and The Mint (a Wall Street Journal content partner). He remains a frequent flier and shares the good, the bad, and the ugly about the Indian aviation industry without fear or favour.

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No comments

  1. kbsyed
    August 20, 2008 at 19:49

    It is a welcome development in the Indian aviation history. I hope the B’lore – SFO route gets materialized soon. What I am really looking forward to is flights from B’lore to Washington DC served by Jet, AI, and KF? Any chance of materialization of this route? Even though this route is currently served by LH, AF and BA, would really like to fly by airlines from India. Is there any reason, why this route doesn’t find any mention in any of the India’s airlines International plans?

  2. Anonymous
    August 24, 2008 at 00:30

    FYI… KF has recieved couple of their A340-500 few months back. They are currently wet leased to other airline (don’t know which one)

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