Bangalore Aviation News, Reviews, Analysis and opinions of Indian Aviation

Last week, Bangalore Aviation introduced the BAASA Index, the world’s first index of 30 airline stocks measured from a 3,000 point base value and designed to provide a broad based measure of airline financial performance and investor confidence in the airline industry. Over the past week, the BAASA index fell 0.49% to close at 2985.80 points. Performance was mixed across …

Norwegian Air Shuttle AS which operates under the brand Norwegian has confirmed an order, earlier announced in January, with Airbus S.A.S. The order makes Norwegian a new Airbus customer, and as well, one of the biggest A320neo customers. In January this year, Norwegian had also announced a firm order for 100 737 MAX airplanes which was developed by Boeing in …

Singapore Airlines (SIA) will introduce a fourth flight between Singapore Changi and London Heathrow from September 9th onwards. The fourth flight will be operated by a Boeing 777-300ER which features the ultra-luxurious Raffles business class, along with the latest cabin product of the airline which has a state of the art in-flight entertainment (IFE) system with full AVOD (Audio-Video On …

AirAsia Japan, a 67%-33% joint venture between Japan’s ANA Group, which owns All Nippon Airways, and Malaysia’s AirAsia has taken delivery of its first Airbus A320 aircraft in Toulouse, France. The Japanese low cost carrier will start commercial services on August 1st from Tokyo’s Narita International Airport to the Japanese cities of Sapporo and Fukuoka, and from August 3rd to …

After almost two years after it commenced international flights, low fare carrier SpiceJet is expanding its destination portfolio by adding Dubai. The airline will commence daily flights from Delhi and Mumbai to Dubai later this month from June 25th. The flights will be operated by narrow body Boeing 737-800 aircraft and SpiceJet has announced a special inaugural fare of Rs. …

When Kingfisher Airlines, once India’s second largest domestic airline, reported a Rs. 2,328 Crore (1 Crore = 10 Million) net post-tax loss for fiscal year 2012, it was simply an affirmation of the dire straits that a once proud airline has fallen into. Of the Rs. 2,328 Crore net loss, a whopping Rs. 1151.5 Crores were lost in the fourth …

The topic of the week is the on-going pilot’s strike at national carrier Air India by members of the Indian Pilots Guild (IPG) which began last month on the 7th making this strike almost a month old. The strike has caused estimated losses exceeding Rs.350 Crore ($64 million) to airline. This at a time when the airline is on life …

Just a little over nine months ago, Indian low fare carrier SpiceJet took delivery of its first Bombardier Q400 turbo-prop on August 26th last year, and commenced commercial flights with the aircraft on September 21st. In a recent internal publication, aircraft manufacturer Bombardier, claimed a 99.8% despatch reliability for the Q400 at SpiceJet, an enviable number considering the high and …

As the post title indicates, we’d like to introduce the Bangalore Aviation Airline Stock Average (BAASA), by our count, the first officially defined Airline Stock Index. The goal of this creation is to provide a measure of global airline financial performance, and investor sentiment about the global airline industry. In creating the index, we first picked a representative sample of …

The income tax department has frozen two of Kingfisher Airline’s bank accounts for alleged non-payment of dues. However the airline has clarified in a statement The IT department attached two of our bank accounts on May 24th which was not in accordance with the speaking order of the Hon’ble IT Appelate tribunal during the hearing. Subsequently, in a written order …

Airbus has delivered to national carrier Malaysia Airlines (MAS) the first of its ordered six Airbus A380 superjumbos. Malaysia Airlines becomes the eighth A380 carrier. The MAS A380 has 494 seats in a three class configuration with 8 seats in first class, 66 in business, and 420 in economy. The first class is in a 1-2-1 configuration and boasts the …

Late last week, reports emerged that beleaguered Indian national carrier Air India, which is in the midst of a crippling strike by its international pilots union, was in discussions with Canadian airline Air Canada to lease out 5 of Air India’s Boeing 777-200LRs to the Toronto based airline. The news broke as Air India continues to operate less than half …

Virgin Atlantic shows off the first of its “face-lifted” Boeing 747-400’s G-VROM named ‘Barbarella’. The aircraft features the new Virgin cabin interiors and new in-flight entertainment (IFE) system.

Singapore Airline’s low cost carrier Scoot revealed its livery painted on its Boeing 777-200 registered 9V-OTA. What are your thoughts? Share your views via a comment. For more images visit Scoot’s Facebook page. Images courtesy Scoot.

MSN 5000 The first Airbus A350 XWB static airframe fuselage roll-out at the A350 Final Assembly Line in Toulouse, France.

The image above shows the load factors at each of India’s airlines. Considering that Kingfisher has shrunk so much, it is surprising that their seat factor has not elevated past its pre-downsize levels. The image above shows on-time performance for April. Two interesting things to note about the data. First, Kingfisher’s OTP has come back down to earth. In earlier …

When the Indian Pilots Guild, one of two pilot unions at national carrier Air India, began a strike around 2 weeks ago, it once again illustrated the deep fallacy of the employee situation at Air India. Coming on the heels of a $5.8 bailout package over 8 years offered by the Indian government, IPG’s industrial action marks just the latest …

Open publication – Free publishing Above you can find my article in Orient Aviation India magazine (pages 9-10: reading link is http://issuu.com/orientaviation/docs/oamagindia_may12/3) on Air India Express’ hypothetical shift towards an LCC business model. Readers, what are your thoughts on Air India Express’ plan? Will you stop flying Air India Express because of these service cuts? Can this model be modified …

The newly travelling youngsters may not have the pathos, but the Maharaja of national carrier Air India is a brand cherished by most persons of my age, with ties to India. We remember, with pride, the fact that Air India was the first all jet airline in the world; one of the earliest adopters of the Boeing 747 jumbo jet …