SpiceJet and TigerAir collaborate via interline agreement

by Devesh Agarwal

Two budget carriers, India's SpiceJet and Singapore's Tiger Airways, have signed a three-year interline agreement to carry passengers on each other's networks through Hyderabad Rajiv Gandhi airport (RGIA).

From January 6, 2014, SpiceJet customers from 14 Indian cities Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Bhopal, Chennai, Kolkata, Coimbatore, Delhi, Goa, Indore, Mangalore, Madurai, Pune, Tirupati, and Visakhapatnam, can connect to TigerAir's Singapore flights from Hyderabad. From January 12, 2014, TigerAir passengers can connect to destinations on SpiceJet's domestic network.

RGIA, operated by GMR Hyderabad International Airport Ltd. (GHIAL) will be the first Indian airport to facilitate the connecting flights between SpiceJet and Tigerair. The airport will provide a free porter service to facilitate the collection and transfer of checked-in baggage for passengers travelling on connecting flights between the two airlines.

SpiceJet is the first Indian budget carrier to establish such an arrangement with a foreign airline. SpiceJet is offering an introductory promotional fare, starting from Rs 4,699 one way and return starting from Rs 9,998 both all inclusive.

The agreement was concluded by SpiceJet's new Chief Operating Officer, Sanjiv Kapoor, with TigerAir Group Chief Commercial Officer of Alexander Knigge, in the presence of SGK Kishore, CEO, GHIAL

Read more »

Upgraded terminal at Bangalore airport inaugurated, airport renamed, exclusive pictures

by Devesh Agarwal

Bangalore's Bengaluru International Airport (BIA) was renamed to Kempegowda International Airport, Bengaluru (KIAB) at a glittering ceremony on Saturday by Karnataka state chief minister Siddaramaiah and Union civil aviation minister Ajit Singh, along with a battery of ministers, legislators, the Mayor of Bangalore, politicians, bureaucrats, the chairmen of the airport operating company Bengaluru International Airport Limited (BIAL), amongst others.

Upgraded terminal 1A at Kempegowda International Airport. The original portion is visible in the middle.

Along with the renaming, the upgraded passenger terminal, 1A, was inaugurated. The new terminal will be progressively introduced for passenger use starting from January 2014.

T1A, will almost double the floor space of the terminal, and is expected to cater to 20 million passengers. Mr. G.V. Krishna Reddy, the chairman of GVK Power and Infrastructure Ltd., the majority shareholder of BIAL, also indicated that the airport will now commence on planning for a new mega terminal 2, and a second runway that should see the airport build a capacity of up to 40 million passengers.

Upgraded terminal capabilities

The graphic below compares T1 with T1A. Comparisons aside, the new areas have a distinctly superior air. Almost like a five star hotel lobby.

The domestic portion on the west side of the terminal (right side of the picture) will commence operations first. The east side of the existing terminal which serves international traffic at present will remain for international traffic use which the area behind the existing immigration, customs and security will be built for international use.

Luxurious bathrooms await passengers in terminal 1A.

At a future date, not yet disclosed, but expected near March 2014, the new customs, immigration, and baggage reclaim hall will be completed, at which time the east portion of the existing terminal will be converted to domestic use, and the international operations will move to the new east hall (left side of the picture, under the new roof-canopy) and the extended pier will also be used.

In an environment first, the terminal building is LEED Gold certified for green energy use. 

Floor plans of Terminal 1A, Kempegowda international airport, Bangalore

Level 0, terminal 1A, Kempegowda international airport, Bangalore. Bus gates domestic, international baggage claim

Level 1, terminal 1A, domestic international contact stands, departures. Level 2 domestic close-up day hotel, lounges

Level 2, terminal 1A. Domestic lounges, international arrivals, immigration, extreme right Code F departures and lounge.

Lounges, day hotel, and food options

Now, there are reasons to get to the airport early. The domestic portion of the terminal will see a dramatic improvement in the lounges, with two of them opening up. Of significance to Citibank PremierMiles Mastercard holders, and other credit cards, one of the two lounges opening is by Plaza Premium. Overlooking the departure gates, the lounge is very much in the style of Cathay Pacific's The Wing lounge at Hong Kong airport.

Restaurants are upscale, and focussed towards local cuisine.

There is also a day hotel, located on the third level above domestic departures in the far west of the expanded terminal, offering bed-capsules for travellers wanting a quick rest and shower between flights or for passengers from slightly distant cities like Mysore, Tumkur, Salem, etc. The airport authorities are going to have to work out the modalities with the security agencies for international passengers to use the hotel, or early arrivals from close by cities like Mysore, Salem, etc.

Coming back to the lounge front, international premium passengers are doomed to suffer. The new wing while providing for new lounges, will expand lounge capacity by a small fraction over the existing Oberoi group operated lounge, was is forced to continue well past its contract period, supposed to end in October 2013. Oberoi did not get a contract to operate either of the two lounges, and naturally, their interest in operating the existing lounge is low. Despite the best efforts of BIAL staff, the Oberoi lounge provides a very sorry departing experience to the premium passengers.

Security check area shows a distinct five star look and feel of the new terminal.

Lounges are crucial to the passenger experience at hub airports. While the new international lounges are expected to be more luxurious than the existing, it remains to be seen whether these lounges will match up to the likes at Singapore Changi, Dubai, or even New Delhi IGI airports.

One of the two new lounges will be Plaza. Given its relatively small size, it is not clear whether credit card holders will be permitted entry. There is one lounge area being considered at level 2 of the east most gate (right side of floor plan photo) which is a Code F and can be used by an Airbus A380. Will Lufthansa use this area for creating a dedicated lounge? Let's see.

Photography at the terminal

Airplane photo buffs will be able to enjoy great views at the west end of the airport which should allow for a panoramic view of the apron. Head out near the new gate 1 any time before noon and click some photos. The best time of the year to take photos will be from September to April after which the sun will be north of the airport and many photos will be back-lit.

Photography from the terminal is permitted by the DGCA. You can read this article for more details and the relevant notifications which we suggest you keep a print out of.

Read more »

AirAsia to use Bangalore as its India hub?

by Devesh Agarwal

AirAsia is close to signing an agreement to use Bangalore as its hub for India operations, Bhaskar Bodapati, Senior Director of the Bengaluru Airport International Limited (BIAL) revealed in Saturday's Deccan Herald.

This will be a coup for the company, especially after the loss of the financially defunct Kingfisher Airlines.

Historically, Bangalore has been ignored by India's domestic airlines for their international operations, who chose to go to Chennai, thus leaving the field wide open for foreign carriers like Emirates, Lufthansa, Singapore Airlines, and Air France from the HAL airport days, and DragonAir, Qatar Airways, Etihad and others since 2008 when the new international airport opened.

Air India operates just one flight to Dubai, via Goa, and SpiceJet has just commenced a flight to Bangkok from the city. Jet Airways briefly operated a flight to Brussels which is its scissor hub for flights on to the east coast of north America, but it was shut within months.

Both BIAL and AirAsia have not commented on this story.

Read more »

DragonAir takes advantage of expanded Bangalore airport terminal capacity to improve flight schedules

by Devesh Agarwal

The new expanded terminal at the Bengaluru International Airport (BIA) will be inaugurated this Saturday, December 14th. At the same time the airport will be re-named in honour of the founder of Bangalore, as Kempegowda International Airport, Bengaluru (KIAB).

Aerial view of the expanded terminal at Bangalore airport. Photo copyright Devesh Agarwal. All rights reserved.

With the addition of four international gates on the east pier (in the picture above, only the first gate is visible on pier on the left of the photo), airlines have improved access during the prime desired time from 11pm to 1am.

Cathay Pacific's subsidiary DragonAir, which operates a daily A330 service between the city and Hong Kong is one of the first airlines that will take advantage of the expanded capacity of the new terminal.

Its existing poor time slot departs Bangalore at 02:40 and arrives in Hong Kong around 11:00 causing many passengers to miss the morning connections to many onward destinations.

From the Summer 2014 schedule DragonAir will pull forward its schedule. As per Rakesh Raicar, Sales and Marketing Manager - South Asia for the airline group,

“We have already revised our timings from Bengaluru and effective 30 March 2014, Dragonair will depart at 0130 from Bengaluru to Hong Kong. This decision to revise the timings was taken to offer our passengers an early arrival into Hong Kong and greater access to our extensive network. With a departure time of 0130, we will be able to offer better connections to the various cities we operate to, in China, Japan, Korea, North America and Australia.“

With this departure, arrival will be at 10:00. Better than the current 11:00, but still not ideal. In our opinion, DragonAir should try to advance their departure another hour, depart by 00:30 and arrive into Hong Kong by 09:00. To achieve this, the airline will have to advance their Hong Kong departure from the current very late 22:40 to around 20:30, which is still a very good time for both business and trade passengers.

Which other airlines, if any, do you feel should change their schedule at Bangalore? Share your thoughts via a comment.

Read more »

Regulator certifies Dubai World Central for passenger operations

By BA Staff

The General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA), the sole regulator of all licensed airfields within the UAE, has certified Al Maktoum International Airport at Dubai World Central (DWC) for passenger operations after assessing and confirming full compliance of the aerodrome with its stringent requirements.

In a letter issued by GCAA’s Air Navigation and Aerodrome department yesterday, the regulator accepted the implementation process for full passenger operations at the new airport and acknowledged the “hard work and commitment of Dubai Airports in achieving the status of full aerodrome operations”.

Dubai Airports Airside Operations staff work closely with the GCAA to make sure that operations at both Dubai International Airport (DXB) and Dubai World Central are fully compliant with the highest professional international standards and regulations set out in federal law.

Jamal Zaal, Vice President of Airside Operations at Dubai Airports, had this to say:

This is a welcomed and critical step forward in the process of preparing DWC for full passenger operations. We will continue to press ahead with trials that test every system, process and piece of equipment in the new terminal, be it signage, gates or boarding procedures to make sure the new facility is ready to accept passengers on October 27.

Facility preparations culminate in advanced passenger trails on October 12, 2013 where the full passenger journey through the new terminal will be tested by some 1,000 members of the travelling public to identify any areas for improvement before its doors open for business. An advanced passenger trial using employees will take place in early October as a dress rehearsal for the public trials.

Paul Griffiths, CEO, Dubai Airports, had this to say about the support received:

As was the case with Concourse A trials last year, the support from volunteers has been tremendous which only goes to prove that in Dubai, people are passionate about aviation.

The new passenger terminal building is designed to accommodate five to seven million passengers per year. When completed, Dubai World Central will be the largest airport in the world with five runways and capacity for 160 million passengers and 12 million tonnes of cargo, though Beijing is building an airport that may soon surpass those figures

Read more »

AAI makes progress on PPP for six airports

by BA Staff

Yesterday, the Airports Authority of India (AAI) announced that it has invited the Request For Qualification (RFQ) for selection of the prospective bidders for Chennai and Lucknow Airports for conversion of these airports to a Public Private Partnership (PPP). The RFQs will remain open till mid-October, and applications are allowed from a single entity or a consortium.

As per a report from the Press Information Bureau,

The SPV shall be formed for this purpose. In order to secure representation of the Airports Authority of India on the Board of the SPV, the Concession Agreement will include a provision for issue of a golden share in accordance with a Shareholders’ Agreement that would form part of the Concession Agreement. 

The concessionaire can levy tariffs for aeronautical services including the User Development Fee (UDF) as may be determined by AERA to start with. Such charges would be revised normally once every five years by the Airports Economic Regulatory Authority (AERA) in accordance with the AREA Act. The RFP would indicate the parameters for determining charges for aeronautical services as well as the UDF 

It is expected that similar RFQs will be opened at the remaining four airports earmarked for transition to PPP (Kolkata, Jaipur, Guwhati, and Ahmedabad) soon. No applicant will be allowed to participate in the PPP at more than two of the six airports involved. 

The new PPPs will help bolster AAI's finances at a time when the authority is struggling under the weight of nearly Rs. 1,900 Crore worth of unpaid dues from several airlines. 

Read more »