The saga of Jet Airways has been analysed to death. The situation is turning in to a tale of “could have, should have, would have……..”. In this scenario, we opine the best option, for now, is to ground Jet Airways, and suspend all operations. It is a radical opinion, but do read on. The current situation The proposed funds infusion …

Beleaguered carrier Jet Airways seems to be going from bad to worse, while the airline is inching forward on fumes waiting for emergency funding – the delay is continuing to cost the airline dearly. So far in the last 30 days: The airline’s fleet has reduced from over a 100 aircraft to around an estimated 15 today. Jet Airways cancels …

American airframer Boeing has closed out the first quarter by adding 44 orders to its order book for 2019. The orders included 18 777X’s for British Airways, Two 777F’s for DHL, 20 787’s for Lufthansa group and 3 BBJ’s for private customers. In total the manufacturer has reported 95 orders and four cancellations for a net positive of 91 orders …

The first day of release of the Expression of Interest (EOI) document for the sale of Jet Airways (download here) failed to see any formal response. Inspite of tomorrow being the deadline for submission investor interest has been tepid at best. We feel there are some key reasons for this lack of interest. No certainty on the price and value …

Low-cost carrier Indigo has announced that it will begin 20 new domestic flights from Mumbai and three international flights. The airline is adding international flights to Damman, Jeddah and Abu Dhabi, all of which were previously destinations served by Jet’s 737 fleet. The new domestic flights will be operated by the airline from Mumbai’s Terminal 2. Rival airlines have been …

European airframer Airbus has closed out the last month of the quarter with 58 orders. While the figures are much better than the first two months where the company only secured orders for four of it’s the smallest aircraft. Airbus will still close the quarter with a net order deficit of 58 aircraft. The manufacturer has also not yet accounted …

Full-service carrier Vistara has announced that it will begin operating 14 new flights from 16 April 2019. The flights will be between Mumbai and Bangalore, Hyderabad and Kolkata with varying frequencies and will end on 15 July 2019. The airline appears to be taking the opportunity to seize the market share previously held by rival Jet Airways. In all likely hood …

It is well known the aviation business is competitive, and India is probably the most difficult market to succeed in. While airlines are making handsome profits across the world, almost every Indian airline is facing financial issues. Leading the losses are national carrier Air India and private sector pioneer Jet Airways. Even the low-fare carriers are suffering in this era …

Low-cost carrier SpiceJet has announced new UDAN flights from Jharsuguda, Odisha, Kishangarh, Rajasthan and Lakhimpur, Assam. The airline has launched 14 new UDAN and 14 other direct flights. Starting today the airline will operate the UDAN routes of Kishangarh-Ahmedabad-Kishangarh, Lakhimpur-Guwahati-Lakhimpur, Jaipur-Amritsar-Jaipur, Delhi-Jharsuguda-Delhi, Hyderabad-Jharsuguda-Hyderabad, Kolkata-Jharsuguda-Kolkata and Bhopal-Udaipur-Bhopal. The airline has also launched direct flights on the Mumbai-Bhopal-Mumbai, Mumbai-Gorakhpur-Mumbai, Chennai-Patna-Chennai, Delhi-Bhopal-Delhi (two …

Icelandic low-cost carrier Wow Air Hf has ceased operations after failing to find an investor to rescue the struggling carrier. Wow Air has been struggling financially since last year. In November 2018, it was announced that the airline would be taken over by rival Icelandair Group. However, Icelandair pulled out of the talks at the end of that month. As …

Over 2.5 months ago, on CNBC, I said Mr. Naresh Goyal must decide, whether Jet Airways lives without him or dies with him. After stalling all this time, and taking the airline to the brink of closure, he appears to have realised he has finally run out of options. In a filing with the stock exchange, the company announced Mr. …

Fleet – with a majority of the fleet grounded, what is the way forward? The fleet of 119 aircraft is now down to 40. The flying fleet includes eight A330s, nine Boeing777s and twenty three 737s. Luckily the majority of the wide-body fleet (the A330s + B777s) is owned by Jet Airways. Thus it can be utilized at a higher …

A couple of days back, I had written about the status of Jet’s regional international services. Since the routes are all operated by the airline’s 737 fleet, many of the flights had been cancelled. The airline was also previously cutting the number of daily flights on major routes but trying to maintain at least a single flight. Bangalore – Singapore …

Jet Airways has been cancelling flight after flight on an almost daily basis. A couple of days back I had written about the international flights that the airline had cancelled. While those destinations were all serviced by the 737 fleet of which around 50 aircraft are now grounded. The destinations serviced by Jet’s wide-body fleet were continuing unaffected. Now it …

The Boeing Company which recently celebrated its centenary is facing one of the greatest threats to its reputation in the wake of two fatal crashes of the workhorse 737 MAX, the world’s best selling passenger jetliner. In the jetliner era, the United States Federal Aviation Administration has grounded the entire fleet of an aircraft three times. In 1979, McDonnell Douglas …

Boeing Chairman, President and CEO Dennis Muilenburg, on Sunday, confirmed that the company was finalising its “development of a previously-announced software update and pilot training revision that will address the MCAS flight control law’s behavior in response to erroneous sensor inputs”. MCAS The Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS) was developed by Boeing to make the newest version of its best …

British Airways has launched its new long-awaited business class seat. The ‘Club Suite’ will offer enclosed suites with a door, industry standard flat-bed seats, direct aisle access with a 1-2-1 seat configuration. The seat will also feature 18.5-inch inflight entertainment screens, high definition gate-to-gate programming, and PC / USB power. The Club Suite will first feature on the airline’s first …

Struggling carrier Jet Airways has been cancelling flights for many weeks now. However, the carrier has now started making drastic cuts to their international network as well. For now, the cuts seem to be limited to the routes being operated by the airline’s 737 fleet – a large part of which including all their new 737 MAX’s have been grounded …

Etihad Airways recently reported its annual results for 2018. The results highlight the continuing challenges for the airline as it addresses elements of its fleet, network and profitability. These are important for its transformation program.  While there was a 4% increase in passenger yields, the impact on overall revenue was not significant. On the cost side, the airline was able …

The Lufthansa group has placed an order for 20 Boeing 787-9 and 20 additional Airbus A350-900’s. The order which is worth $12 billion at list prices (as confirmed in the group’s statement, airlines always negotiate a heavy discount from the list price). Deliveries of the new aircraft will be between 2022 and 2027. The new aircraft will primarily replace four-engine …