In the last 6 months private Indian airline companies have placed orders for 250 aircrafts + 93 by national carriers Air India snd Indian Airlines , representing more than 50 per cent of the total global orders placed with aircraft manufacturers Airbus and Boeing.The result ,India stealed the limelight in the Paris Airshow.
Root for no-frills-
Going down the calendar when Ramaswamy Iyengar Gopinath launched the first n0-frills airline AirDeccan in August 2003 with the tagline "Simplifly",everyone expected it will fade one day in the future.But Gopi(as he is called) proved critics wrong and today he created an industry entire world is looking for a slice in the Indian sky.
Gopi lists the following to be his success keys behind cost reduction:
- More seats: AirDeccan Airbus A320 can carry 180 passengers compared to 142 of indain Airlines and 145 ofJetAirways.That extra seats accounting 23% are reserved for sale at 500Rs(plus Tax).Some more seats are sold just fpr 1Re(plus tax).Remaining 75% are sold at reduced price.
- Turn Around time:It is calculated based on the time a flight spends in air to the time spent on ground.AirDeccan flights spends 13 hours in air compared to 11.5 to 12 hours by other domestic players.Fewer time on ground means lesser parking charge. Air deccan doesnt provide cargo shipping means no wastage of time in loading and unloading on ground.
- The free online reservation system,with very selected travel agents reduce the intermediate costs ,that account close to 25% of ticket cost.
- Further AirDeccan doesnt provide free meals,headsets ot magazines......No frills.
- It employes only 4 member onboard crew compared to 8 by other players.Further it recruits part time employees in smaller places like Vijayawada,mangalore etc rather than full time by others.
- Additionally Air Deccan lets companies paint their logos on its aircraft for a fee.Even the reverse side of checked-in baggage ticket is given to advertisers.
Finally Gopi's model has frutified ,successfully going to celebrate 2 years coming August.It carried 1.2 million passengers in the first one year.The success fruits of Gopi's model attracted many others,leading to launching of many low cost Airlines like KingFisher(Liquor Barron Vijay Mallya),spice Jet.Already 6 players competing in the Indian skies,half a dozen players like GOair(of Wadias),IndiGo(InterGlobe),Indus Airways ,AirOne,Magic Air and East West Airlines have got NOC and are in the process of purchasing/leasing aircrafts and fund raising process.Another 1/2 dozen expressed plans of launching low cost carriers.Even the international carrier AirIndia launced low cost carrier AirIndiaExpress to Gulf that significantly increased the traffic.
State governments too want to share the pie:
Most of the airlines are confined to big and medium cities, they cannot operate flights to smaller towns like ooty,Malabar,Khajuraho,varanasi etc.,Some of the state governments having huge tourist inflows want to exploit this base using the no-frills model.
The kerala government backed Kerala Airlines,Madhya Pradesh government' Khajuraho Airlines ,one by UP govt are in the process of undertaking a feasibility study to understand the costing ,possible revenue sources and cities to be connected.For this they do not want to depend on the central government.
What to the customer-
Well all these changes in the Indian sky really delighted the upper middle class Indian to whom travelling by flight was a distant dream.The low cost carriers succeded in grabbing the Ist class AC train passengers to their seats.One survey revealed many IT employees are making most of it by advance booking the low cast seats.The recent launch of Spice jet was a huge success whose 2 weeks seats were booked in advance to its launch.
Golden word: The customer will be the ultimate benefiter in the growing competition.So no worries all happies.
Government Angle:
Obviously the government is pretty much delighted with kind of competition in the Aviation sector.The prices of the Aviation Turbine Fuel has slashed by 8% in the interntional market bringing the cost to 29,500Rs per kilolitre.Govt is further promising in reduction of taxes.
The low cost Airlines complain of the infrastructure being provided in the airports are poor and needs to be improved.The parking cost on the low cost carriers should be subsidised keeping in view of the middle class people.Further the existing airports in Hyderabad ,Bangalore etc., should be given to low cost carriers at a reduced parking cost,when the new airports starts operating(As many countries have a separate Air ports for low cost carriers).
Also the low cost carriers need to be cautious of the safety measures taken before taking off.Although no major mishap happened so far ,but everyone is aware of the incident happened to the much publicised launch of Air Deccan in Vijayawada.
oooh..Any way thanks to Gopinath for bringing new colour to the Aviation field that increased the traveller base by 20 per cent last year.Hope every one of will fly one day.
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