MAP: All the routes flown by all airlines operating the Airbus A380

As of date there are seven airlines operating the Airbus A380 superjumbo.

1. Singapore Airlines
2. QANTAS
3. Emirates airline
4. Lufthansa
5. Air France
6. Korean Air Lines
7. China Southern Airlines

This post summarises all the A380 routes operated by these seven operators. See more A380 articles.

The launch operator of the A380 was Singapore Airlines. The newest route is SQ25/SQ26 Singapore - Frankfurt - New York JFK which is the last operated by their Boeing 747-400 Megatop aircraft. In January, this era will come to a close when this flight will be upgraded to an A380.

Australian flag carrier uses A380s primarily on the 'kangaroo run' between Sydney and Melbourne and London, with Singapore as the hub. Its sole north American destination is Los Angeles LAX.

Dubai's Emirates is the largest operator of the A380, and also has the most diverse network covering almost the entire world.

German carrier Lufthansa has been re-jigging its A380 network. It has suspended New York JFK and San Francisco SFO in the current winter schedule citing poor load factors. It has though introduced Frankfurt-Singapore, which will also be operated by Singapore Airlines with an A380. Is there enough traffic to fill two superjumbos every day? Time will tell.

Air France too has been re-jigging its flights. With currently the Paris CDG to San Francisco SFO route being suspended.

Korean Air Line's A380 route network is limited since it is a new operator and has a very limited fleet, but I gave the map an unusual polar view.

China Southern is the newest operator, and also the only airline to use the A380 on domestic flights. However its sole A380 has had teeting problems and the routes are yet to properly launch.

Please keep in mind that airlines keep changing the routes and aircraft deployed.

Maps generated by the Great Circle Mapper - copyright © Karl L. Swartz.

Read more »

KLM's Christmas gift ideas: 24ct gold Dino iPad 2 with T-Rex bone, 40MP digital camera, Sapphire Iridium razor

If money is no object what could you get your loved ones this Christmas?

How about a 24 carat, diamond encrusted iPad 2, with a frame of Ammolite a stone over 75 million years old and containing bones of a Tyrannosaurus Rex dinosaur?

Yes, its $5 million but it is unique. Do you know anyone who has a DinoPad? I sure don't.

How about a shaving razor whose blades are made out of sapphire iridium crystal and will never dull?

In case any reader is feeling generous, can I request for a 40 mega-pixel Hasselblad H4D-60 camera?

These are just few of the ultra-luxurious Christmas gifts featured in the new edition of Dutch airline KLM's, iFly magazine. Check out some of the other gifts here.

A big hat-tip to British senior spotter and dear friend M. Azizul Islam for the lead. Check out some his amazing photographs here.

Read more »

VIDEOS: How airlines select Wines, Cheeses and Teas for in-flight menus

British Airways has a series called Height Cuisine. In this post, view two videos showing how the airline selects wines, cheeses, and teas for service on-board their flights.

It is quite amazing to learn that seemingly un-connected thing like sound and pressure affect the taste in one's mouth.



Have an enjoyable and profitable week ahead. If it is going to be too busy for you to visit Bangalore Aviation, look near the top right and subscribe to our free daily update delivered via e-mail direct to your mailbox.

Read more »

VIDEOS: The application of the "Panda Express" decal to a FedEx 777F

US cargo airline FedEx announced that it painted one of its aircraft with a special panda decal to commemorate the carrier's transport of two giant pandas from the Washington D.C. zoo to a natural reserve in China. The one-time transport flight was conducted in February of 2010 on one of FedEx's 777Fs.

The following video from the official FedEx YouTube Channel shows FedEx painting this decal onto the Boeing 777 freighter.

Read more »

Kingfisher operating payments at Mumbai International Airport are overdue

It appears that Kingfisher's troubles may not yet be over.

After the carrier flirted with financial disaster last month, a report from the Economic Times suggests that new trouble is on the horizon for India's self professed "King of Good Times."

According to the report, Chatrapati Shivaji International Airport (CSIA) has sent notice to Kingfisher that it must pay the dues owed to CSIA, or risk the possibility of shutting down its operations.

"From Saturday, Kingfisher will be put on a cash and carry mode if it wants to continue operating out of Mumbai airport," a CSIA spokesperson said.

Kingfisher apparently has about 90 crore rupees worth of unpaid operating charges in Mumbai, and checks written from Kingfisher over the past three or four months to CSIA to clear these operating dues have bounced.

Under a cash and carry system, Kingfisher, which has around 57 daily domestic departures from Mumbai in winter 2011-2012, would be forced to pay cash at the beginning of each operating day before starting up flights in Mumbai. With Kingfisher's credit worthiness in the tank after its recent shenanigans, CSIA will no longer honor non-cash payments from them.

The CSIA spokesperson stated that they [CSIA] have asked Kingfisher to pay Rs. 50-60 lakh daily, about half of which will fund operations with the remainder being used to pay off Kingfisher's bills. He added that, "If the airline does not pay up then we have the option of going to he civil aviation regulator to explore which airlines have sought extra slots from Mumbai as if the airline does not pay up it will be asked to stop services from here."

Kingfisher assured its passengers in a statement Thursday that operations from Mumbai would continue as normal, and that there would be no disruption of operations.

These types of issues are not new for Kingfisher, as the airline has been shut out by its suppliers numerous times over the past year, most notably with fuel.

Beyond its troubles in Mumbai, Kingfisher also has outstanding lease payments due to lessors, who have already begun to re-possess their aircraft. Furthermore, Kingfisher has been placed on cash-and-carry by the Airports Authority of India as well, and its 400 crore equity line hinges on a sustainability report from SBI Caps, which will be presented to lenders in the near future.

While these types of problems are understandable as Kingfisher attempts to right its financial state, one can only wonder at how this type of headline will affect the business travelers that are Kingfisher's new core passengers.

Read more »

MAP: 8 Air India flights cannot even cover their cost of fuel

According to a report from the Press Trust of India (PTI), Indian civil aviation minister Vyalar Ravi revealed before the Rajya Sabha today that Air India's estimated loss for FY 2010-2011 was Rs. 6,994 Crore, down sharply from the Rs. 5552.55 Crore loss posted in FY 2009-2010.

Ravi also said that, "Based on April-September, 2011 route wise profitability, two routes out of 175 services meet total cost viz Kolkata-Yangon (vice versa) and Kolkata-Kathmandu (and vice versa)."

He further related that, "Based on April-September, 2011 out of 175 services [by Air India], 8 services (are) not meeting fuel cost, 109 services(are) meeting fuel cost but not meeting cash cost, 56 services (are) meeting cash cost but not meeting total cost and two services meeting total cost,"

***Note the traditionally accepted difference between cash cost and total cost for airlines is that total costs include aircraft financing costs and aircraft lease payments, which are not included in cash costs.

An earlier report in the Times of India had confirmed those figures for the routes and also contained the following caveat: "90% of the losses in these six months [April-September] came from international routes. AI lost Rs 791 crore on routes in that time, of which only Rs 57 crore was due to domestic flights and the rest on foreign flights. The entire network planning needs a relook and urgently to cover the revenue-expenditure gap."

That report also listed Delhi-Tokyo-Delhi as the only profitable flight in Air India's network, a route not mentioned by Vyalar at the Rajya Sabha.

8 Air India flights not making fuel cost

Bangalore Aviation has obtained the following list of the 8 Air India flights that currently do not generate enough revenue to even cover their fuel costs. One of these routes was already revealed in our post about Air India's London Heathrow slots: Amritsar-Delhi-London Heathrow.

• Amritsar-Delhi-London Heathrow
• Amritsar-Delhi-Toronto,
• Delhi-Dubai (AI 947)
• Ahmedabad-Mumbai (AI653)
• Delhi-Chennai (AIC 437)
• Chennai-Delhi (AIC 438)
• Delhi-Gwalior-Mumbai-Gwalior-Delhi (AI 421/422)
• Mumbai-Delhi (2x: AI 623 and AI 624),
• Mumbai-Ahmedabad (AI 643)
• Delhi-Mumbai (AI688)
• Ahmedabad-Mumbai (AI 614)

In all, 15 of Air India's flights don't make their fuel costs: the map below shows these routes in red, as well as Air India's profitable flights in green.



*Click map for larger view


Maps generated by the Great Circle Mapper : copyright © Karl L. Swartz.

As the map shows, Air India's Delhi operation clearly faces a lot of trouble. Back in 2009, the carrier had shifted towards an intercontinental hub at Delhi's T3. Yet Air India is today unable to even cover its fuel costs on 7 different sectors from Delhi! Despite having a monopoly on nonstop flights from India to Toronto, Air India appears to be bumbling in its attempt to serve this large market of Indian nationals. It's time that Air India takes a good hard look at just how viable its international flights from New Delhi are, and whether it really makes sense for Air India to be operating widebody aircraft on domestic "tag" sectors for international routes (i.e. the Amritsar-Delhi segment of Amritsar-Delhi-Toronto).

At any other airline, routes whose revenues did not cover their fuel cost would have been dropped almost automatically; but at Air India; these routes will continue to be operated into the foreseeable future.

In the coming days, we will be analyzing Air India's financial results for FY 10-11 (and hopefully their annual report with its management commentary as well).

Read more »

VIDEOS: Fitting the wingtip Sharklets on the A320 and its first flight

On Wednesday Airbus completed the first flight of its 'Sharklet' equipped A320 test-bed aircraft. Two videos on the subject for your Friday viewing pleasure.

The first one shows how the new wingtip devices are fit on to the aircraft, and the second covers the first flight itself.

Read more »

Jet Airways must remove brand confusion by consolidating its low cost Konnect and JetLite services

TURBOCHARGING JET AIRWAYS PART 1
By Rishul Saraf

Jet Airways is a pioneer in Indian aviation. From the earliest stages of India’s economic liberalisation, with a fleet of just four Boeing 737-300 and 737-400, Jet Airways grew to reach a fleet size of over 92 aircraft, by 2008, and become a dominant force in Indian aviation.

Since then, due to recession, competition and some say waning political clout, the airline and its brand have been on a downward slide. Jet’s finances look bleak and their operations, especially domestic, appear muddled.

Despite these setbacks, Jet is, in my opinion, the Indian carrier with the highest potential to bounce back to consistent profitability and become the iconic brand of Indian aviation once again. To achieve this, the airline needs to re-energise its operations, remove brand confusion, and address some major hindrances it is facing, and will encounter, in overseas markets.

Along with the main brand, Jet Airways offers two low cost brands – JetLite and Jet Konnect. These two low cost brands, which operate only domestic flights, constitute over 75% of Jet’s total domestic available seat kilometre (ASK) capacity; and one can infer by extension, the revenues.

The Jet Airways flights, offer a full service Economy, i.e. meals and soft-drinks included, and Club Premiere, the business class. The erstwhile Air Sahara acquired by Jet, was renamed to JetLite and is operated as a low cost service, but with a separate air operator’s permit (AOP). All Jet Airways flights are coded 9W while JetLite is S2.

During the 2008 economic slowdown, the low fare brands of IndiGo, SpiceJet and GoAir experienced a meteoric rise. To address rapidly eroding marking share, Jet wanted to increase its low cost capacity, but did not want to dilute the main Jet Airways brand. Jet could not increase JetLite capacity, since it was involved in litigation with the previous owners of Air Sahara at that time. Jet Airways instead came up with Jet Konnect service in which, under its existing air operator permit (9W), it converted much of its mainline dual class Boeing 737 fleet in to an all economy class low cost service. Once the market recovered, Jet converted some of the Konnect aircraft to feature business class seating (2+2 in each row), but, to prevent confusion with its mainline Club Premiere, labelled this class as Konnect Select, and called it an “economy plus” cabin, even though for all practical purposes it is a business class seat.

While Konnect helped Jet Airways compete with the low fare carriers during lean times, and Konnect Select enhanced incremental revenues, this flooding of new brands on a less than stable base, confused passengers, and has resulted in fragmenting the unified and powerful brand the carrier once commanded.

The first Jet Airways Konnect flight lands at Bangalore International Airport

Now, both Konnect and Konnect Select brands’ have run their course, very rarely will one find a Low Cost Carrier running under the same brand as the parent full service carrier. For any organization to have various brands makes sense only if they are differentiable in terms of product prices, features, etc. Jet has failed in both these aspects.

Going forward, Jet must eliminate its low cost brand confusion by consolidating and developing a distinctly separate and strong low cost brand. The additional air-operator permit (AOP) of JetLite is the perfect vehicle. It has the needed separation from the full service Jet Airways, can compete with low cost carriers not just from India but from overseas, like AirAsia, flyDubai, and others.

This will also allow Jet to focus on full service and premium traffic and compete with mainline carriers like Emirates, Qatar, Etihad, Thai, Singapore Airlines, and others.

JetLite continues to be a liability for Jet, apart from having a poor brand image in the market, JetLite continues to lose money year after year. A single unified low cost carrier, will help Jet remove these negative JetLite impacts once in for all.

Rishul Saraf is an aviation enthusiast for the last three years when not engaged as an Engineering student. He has a keen interest in Jet Airways.

Read more »

MAP: Lufthansa Airbus A380 operation in winter 2011-2012

The following is a map of Lufthansa's planned Airbus A380 operation in IATA's northern winter 2011-2012. All flights are daily, and this list does not include the few flights that will be operated in late December between Munich and New York JFK on the A380.



Maps generated by the Great Circle Mapper : copyright © Karl L. Swartz.

The operation is as of right now concentrated in Frankfurt (with the exception of previously mentioned Munich-JFK flights), as it is expected to be in the future. Lufthansa has 9 Airbus A380s on order, as well as 3 Airbus A330-300 and 20 Boeing 747-8 Intercontinental aircraft

Read more »

Tailspin: Praful Patel and the fall of Air India - A must read article

It is not very often that I recommend an article that appears in the print media.

The Caravan is one of the oldest publications in India, first launched in 1940.

In the December 2011 issue, Praveen Donthi has written a mammoth article going into great detail the history of Mr. Praful Patel and his recent tenure as civil aviation Minister, and the conincidental disasters suffered by the national carriers Air India and Indian Airlines.

It is one of the most comprehensive articles any serious Air India watcher or aviation analyst must read.

I must warn you though. The article is long. 12,000+ words, over 500 lines. So I suggest printing it or copying it on to an e-book reader.

Read "Tailspin: Praful Patel and the fall of Air India"

Read more »