National carrier Air India finds itself in a jumbo-sized problem. It has a huge excess of wide-body ‘jumbo’ and ‘mini-jumbo’ aircraft used for international flights, while facing a severe shortage of narrow body aircraft leaving it unable to capitalise on the increased winter demand and the additional demand shying away from SpiceJet due to the latter’s financial troubles. The current …
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SpiceJet has seen challenging times over the past 5 years. While numerous reasons can be cited for this ranging from network structure, fleet decisions, competition, ability to command a premium, management churn, market weakness and overall brand strength, the financial position of the airline as of today is quite challenging. Much is being reported about the possible funds infusion and/or …
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Based on the recent statement of the Indian Minister of State for civil aviation to the Indian parliament we have produced these two graphics showing the country-wise break-up of Air India’s passengers and revenue for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2014. Air India transported 15,831,554 passengers earning revenues of Rs 15,551.78 thus earning an average revenue of Rs 9,823.28 …
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Continuing our analysis in to national carrier Air India’s international operations which loses money on all but two flights, yesterday we published part 1 of the three part analysis which focussed on the numbers, today’s analysis comes from Bangalore Aviation guest analyst and former co-author Vinay Bhaskara. Vinay’s strength is finance, and he focusses on the costs of Air India. …
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Last week we reported on the massive loses made by national carrier Air India on 57 of its 59 international flights. Over the next few days we will bring you differing points of view on Air India’s international operations. Today is from a professional analyst at one of the world’s leading aviation consulting and advisory practices. He cannot be named …
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As Jet Airways announces its fifth daily flight between Mumbai and Dubai, thanks to an exhaustive analysis by our supporter Abhijit, we have compiled a map of Jet Airways gulf and middle-east network. The map is generated courtesy of GCMap. Jet Airways will operate 280 frequencies a week between India and the middle-east and Gulf region in the Winter 2014 …
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National carrier Air India lost money on 57 of its 59 international routes in the last fiscal year which ended March 31, 2014. The airline lost a whopping Rs 4,273.35 crores (approximately $712 million at current exchange rates) operating these international flights. This according to an internal “Route Economics” provisional report for April 1, 2013 to March 31, 2014 which …
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Global aviation leaders at the Farnborough international air show 2014 termed India’s decision to levy service tax of 12.36% on aircraft lease charges as a regressive step which will only hurt India’s already over-taxed airlines. As per a report in The Mint, the maiden Union budget of the Narendra Modi led NDA government proposes to levy the service tax effective …
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I had the pleasure of joining industry stalwarts Amber Dubey, Ayaz Memon, Govindraj Ethiraj, and Jitender Bhargava on Boom News’ Google+ India Hangout discussing the impending entry of new airlines AirAsia India and Tata-SIA and their potential impact on the Indian airline industry. Govindraj Ethiraj is a journalist of repute and the moderator. Amber Dubey is the head, aerospace and …
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German flag carrier Lufthansa has announced effective July 15, it will upgrade the existing Boeing 747-400 on the daily Mumbai Frankfurt service, and fly the new Boeing 747-8i. Mumbai will be the third city in India, following New Delhi and Bangalore to receive the newest variant of the legendary Jumbo-jet also called the “queen of the skies.” Lufthansa’s new business …
Read More »A brief comparison of select Asian low cost carriers shows India’s IndiGo (6E) airline larger than Malaysia’s AirAsia (AK) in terms of fleet operations. While AirAsia as a group is the largest low cost carrier in Asia, when broken up in to its various operating subsidiaries, the largest, Malaysia AirAsia with an airline code of AK has 73 aircraft compared …
Read More »Indian low cost carrier IndiGo continues its breathtaking pace of domestic expansion with the addition of two new domestic routes and capacity expansion on Delhi – Hyderabad. This past Friday, IndiGo began service to Varanasi, its 36th destination and 31st in India, with three new daily flights between its largest hub at Delhi and Varanasi using its 180-seat Airbus A320 …
Read More »Earlier this week, low cost carrier SpiceJet reported its latest round of disappointing financial results, reporting a Rs. 172.80 crore net loss for the third quarter of fiscal year 2013~2014 (3Q FY14), swinging from a net profit of Rs. 102.01 crore during the same period last year. The carrier blamed high fuel prices and rupee depreciation for the net loss, …
Read More »by Vinay Bhaskara Earlier this month, the United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced a major downgrade of India’s aviation safety rating, citing a lack of safety oversight on the part of India’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). The downgrade to Category 2 is a significant national embarrassment, and comes after months, if not years, of FAA warnings to …
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In response to a series of questions from law-makers, the Indian civil aviation minister Ajit Singh and his junior minister K.C. Venugopal gave some operational insight to the Indian parliament on national carrier Air India. It was the first time, in recent memory where we obtained some numbers on the otherwise very opaque airline. Air India debt and equity As …
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Last week, the Indian aviation community was abuzz with the news that the government had finally permitted operations of the Airbus A380 in to India. In its announcement, the ministry mentioned Singapore Airlines, Lufthansa, and Emirates as potential candidates in operating the aircraft to India, but there are seven other operators of the giant, all of whom, with the exception …
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Value of orders at the show exceed India’s annual tax revenues The recently concluded Dubai Air Show 2013 broke all records for aircraft orders placed at an air show. Driven by the “Gulf Big 3”, Emirates, Qatar Airways, and Etihad Airways, the show clocked orders exceeding a mind-boggling, $206 billion, underscoring the power shift in the commercial airline industry to …
Read More »by Devesh Agarwal On Tuesday, beleaguered Indian carrier, Jet Airways cleared its final hurdle in its $397 million quest to sell a 24% stake to Abu Dhabi based Etihad Airways PJSC, when the Competition Commission of India (CCI), cleared the deal paving the way for the Naresh Goyal promoted Jet to receive desperately needed cash from the deal. The Union …
Read More »by Devesh Agarwal Emirates A380. Photo copyright Devesh Agarwal. The Emirates Group, the aviation holding company of the Al Maktoum family which rules Dubai, and the parent of Emirates airline, announced its first half (April to September) results of the fiscal year 2014 (ending March 31, 2014) today. Group The Emirates Group revenues reached AED 42.3 billion (US$ 11.5 billion) …
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Two days ago, when gulf major, Etihad Airways, announced its intention to fly between Abu Dhabi and Los Angeles, we at Bangalore Aviation were the first to indicate that Etihad’s announcement was a pre-cursor to its purchase of Boeing 777-200LRs from Air India. Yesterday, it was confirmed that Air India will indeed sell five of its eight Boeing 777-200LRs to …
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