Airlines

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 …

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 …

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 …

SpiceJet announced the launch of 8 new direct flights to Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh. This city will be connected under the UDAN III scheme. It is the airline’s 11th destination under the regional connectivity scheme (RCS). In doing so, SpiceJet continues building its network strategy of connecting smaller towns and cities while leveraging the government’s flagship policy. The UDAN scheme …

Indian aviation continues to show tremendous aviation potential with growth forecast to be in the double digits for the next few years. Consensus forecasts indicate that India will be the third largest aviation market by 2026 after the United States and China. Both India and China will propel growth in the Asian region and consequently for the world economy. The Asian …

A few weeks back I had written about British Airways’ plan to repaint one of their Boeing 747s, with a retro British Overseas Aircraft Cooperation (BOAC) livery. The livery was the standard BOAC livery between 1964 and 1974. The aircraft G-BYGC entered the paint shop at Dublin Airport on 5 February, with the aircraft having been repainted and put back …

Middle-eastern carrier Emirates has placed an order for 70 Airbus aircraft, which includes 40 A330-900 and 30 A350-900 aircraft. The order comes following discussions regarding the airline’s A380 order, which resulted in the airline cancelling 39 of their pending A380’s for this order. The change has also prompted the announcement of the closure of the Airbus A380 production line. Emirates …

European airframer has announced the end of its A380 program with the final delivery of the type in 2021. The decision comes after discussions with the aircraft’s biggest customer resulted in them cancelling its 39 orders for the A380 and replacing them with other Airbus twin-jets. Tom Enders, CEO, Airbus “As a result of this decision we have no substantial …

SpiceJet, reported its third quarter results of the fiscal year 2018-19 (FY19) this Monday. There were mixed views on the performance. While a profit of 55.1 crores is definitely good news, when compared to the same period last year the profit declined by 77%. Performance also cannot be cited as definitive as this came during the strongest quarter of the …