Tag Archives: Mumbai

Thanks to its strong, and consistent, on-time performance, Gurgaon based IndiGo, has grown to become the largest domestic airline in India, by passenger numbers. On Tuesday, 4th September, along with my better half, I experienced one of the rare delays that occur at the airline, and it was a doozy. A humble request to read the story till the end. …

Late yesterday, India’s ministry of civil aviation (MoCA) announced the latest allocation of traffic rights to Indian carriers. Traffic rights granted effective Summer 12 Spicejet – 7 services/week for Delhi-Kabul, Delhi-Guangzhou, Madurai-Colombo, Hyderabad-Bangkok, Trivandrum-Male, Cochin-Male, Delhi-Dubai, Mumbai-Dubai, Delhi-Hong Kong, Delhi-Riyadh. Jet Airways – 4 services/week on Guwahati-Dhaka, 7 services/week each on Mumbai-Chittagong, Kochi-Kuwait, Mumbai-Kuwait, Trivandrum-Dubai, Chennai-Colombo-Male, Mumbai-Singapore, Delhi-Singapore, Mumbai-Dar es …

For the first time since I joined Bangalore Aviation, I am posting from India; Bangalore to be exact. I am definitely excited to be back in India for only the second time since I lived here for a year back in 2003, and being on the ground here is an immensely enjoyable experience. I will be in Bangalore today and …

When India’s largest full service carrier Jet Airways announced that it was reconfiguring its fleet of five Boeing 777-300ER aircraft, it was a part validation of Bangalore Aviation’s suggestion made in March of this year. Jet Airways will be switching its Boeing 777-300ERs from a 9-abreast 3-3-3 seating configuration in economy class to a 10 abreast 3-4-3 seating configuration. The move …

Carrying 1.226 million passengers in July 2012, Gurgaon based IndiGo pipped the Jet Airways’ group (Jet Airways and JetKonnect) at 1.207 million, to become the largest domestic carrier in India. IndiGo’s market share has grown to 27.02%, at the expense of a failing Kingfisher Airlines whose market share has declined to a mere 3.44%. The country’s aviation regulator reports based …

Earlier today, Maldivian national carrier Maldivian announced that it would be adding new flights between its hub at Ibrahim Nasir International Airport in Male, and Mumbai and Chennai. The new flights would operate 3 times per week, and are being launched from November of this year along with Dhaka, Bangladesh (also a thrice weekly operation). The flights to Mumbai will …

The Press Trust of India is reporting that disgruntled employees of the financially ailing Kingfisher Airlines went on a wildcat strike at Mumbai and Delhi earlier today which led to the cancellation of over 30 flights, with ripple disruptions across the airline’s national network. The protesters were mostly pilots and engineers who are protesting non-payment of their salaries for many …

SpiceJet will be adding daily nonstop service between Delhi and Jaipur with schedule as followsSG 133 –> DEL –>JAI –> D – 07:15 A -08:00 –> 737 –> Daily SG 218 –> DEL –>JAI –> D – 20:40 A -21:15 –> 737 –> Daily This flight will be operated in conjunction with SpiceJet’s Mumbai-Jaipur services, as one aircraft will be …

Jet Airways reported a large net pre-tax loss (Jet Airways and JetLite combined) of Rs. 1,331 Crore for fiscal year 2012, a very disappointing result. Revenue and passenger growth were robust as usual at 14.8% and 16.3% respectively. But the carrier’s net margin of -8.5% is indicative of tangible flaws in the business, and goes beyond the explanations of higher …

Less than a year after it commenced international operations, India’ s largest low cost carrier (LCC) IndiGo, is planning a massive expansion of its Dubai operations, adding four new flights to its current two daily flights (one each from Mumbai and Delhi). Additionally, the carrier will add a second daily flight between Delhi and Bangkok. The carrier, which operates 57 …

Japan’s largest airline, All Nippon Airways (ANA), has announced that it will be launching flights between Tokyo Narita and New Delhi later this fall as part of a broader plan to increase its international capacity by 22% by the beginning of fiscal year 2014. The expansion will be enabled by a growth in ANA’s long haul fleet, as it will …

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. …

Yesterday the government announced a massive Rs. 30,000 Crore ($5 billion) bailout of national carrier Air India. The government has justified this this bailout to ostensibly protect the jobs of the over-bloated workforce of 30,000 employees at the airline. Simple maths effectively translates the infusion to Rs. 10 million per employee, a figure the average Indian cannot even hope to …

By Rishul Saraf and Vinay Bhaskara Jet’s international operation, which began in 2004 with a Chennai – Colombo flight, today has over a hundred flights daily, which generate nearly 60% of the airline’s total revenues. Jet’s system wide load factors stay around a healthy 80% mark, but their revenues are unable to match up with this, hence denying them of …

When full service carrier Kingfisher Airlines enacted a latest round of route and capacity cuts last week, it represented simply the latest evidence that the carrier is headed for bankruptcy and is in a death spiral. Part of the drawdown involved the cancellation of almost all of Kingfisher’s international operations, which occurred after the airlines lessors began demanding the return …

Lufthansa group member Austrian Airlines will suspend services between Mumbai and Vienna, most likely from the start of the Summer 2012 time-table which will commence from end March. Austrian is facing seat load factor pressure from the two other members of the group; Swiss and Lufthansa. All three members of the group, have departures from Mumbai to their Europe hubs …

Vinay Bhaskara and Devesh Agarwal When Malaysian budget carrier AirAsia X announced last week that it would be ending service to Mumbai, Delhi, London, and Paris earlier this month, industry analysts seized on the occurrence as a repudiation of the long haul, low-cost business model. AirAsia X, an offshoot of Southeast Asian behemoth AirAsia, operated 377 seat Airbus A330-300s to …

AirAsia X, the low cost, long haul, affiliate of AirAsia, today announced a suspension of flights between its Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia hub and Mumbai and Delhi in India, London, UK, and Paris, France. AirAsia X Airbus A340-300 at London Stansted airport. Photo copyright Devesh Agarwal. Mumbai – Four weekly services will be suspended with the last flight on 31 January, …

Theft of intellectual property.NDTV has joined the my “wall of shame” by stealing my picture of a Kingfisher Airlines aircraft VT-KAC and displaying it on a story sourced from Agence France Presse (AFP) without taking my permission or even acknowledging my intellectual property rights. The NDTV web page in question is here. A screen shot is posted just in case …

The growing popularity of web, kiosk and mobile check-in has almost doubled passenger self-service check-in at Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (CSIA), Mumbai over the year, up from 36% to 65%. The 2011 SITA/Air Transport World Passenger Self-Service Survey found that the web check-in rate was higher in Mumbai than at any of the other airports included in the survey. 70% …