Jet Airways reduces free baggage allowances

Jet Airways and JetKonnect have effectively hiked their fares by Rs. 1,250 by reducing the economy class free baggage allowance from 20 kilos to 15 kilos on all domestic flights within India, effective May 15, 2013. Cabin baggage will be restricted to seven kilos, against a national norm of eight kilos.

Frequent flyers who are JetPrivilege elite status members, (Platinum/Gold/Silver), will continue to receive the additional free baggage allowance as per their status. Business class passengers will continue to receive 30 kg of free baggage allowance.

A flat rate of Rs.250 per kilo will be applicable for baggage over and above the free baggage allowance.

This is the first salvo being fired across the bows of the aviation regulator The Directorate General of Civil Aviation, who till now, has mandated, a 20 kilo checked baggage allowance. One can expect other airlines to follow suit.

For now, passengers who are travelling with extra baggage, we suggest you consider GoBusiness of GoAir which offers a whopping 35 kilos of free baggage allowance. i.e. about Rs. 3,750 ~ Rs. 5,000 worth of additional baggage for Rs. 2,500 extra, not including the additional goodies of extra leg space, meals, and free re-booking and changing of flights.

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Middle East Loses its Luster for India's Airlines

Will the majority of future of India-Gulf flights go through Dubai?

The first 9 months of 2012 will see a major re-shuffling by India’s airlines on the heavily trafficked India-Gulf sector, as airlines respond to higher fuel prices and a poor regulatory environment, and Air India continues to re-align its network strategy.

Air India will be enacting the most significant changes, primarily in Dammam. The third city of Saudi Arabia has a huge Indian population to work in the numerous oil fields and ancillary industries that dot the world’s most oil-rich region, Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province. Despite this large traffic base, traffic from Dammam is mostly junk-yield VFR travel, especially for a carrier of Air India’s (non-existent) caliber, which is unsustainable for Air India in the face of rising costs and fuel prices. Thus Air India has announced a consolidation of Dammam services to its primary hub at Delhi. Dammam-Delhi will be served daily with an A319, replacing the current twice weekly service with Boeing 777-300ER. However, more than half of Air India’s remaining Dammam flights will all be cancelled, including Mumbai-Dammam. Air India has had direct flights between Mumbai and Dammam since the 1960s, and the end of this route is indicative of Air India’s continual shift towards a Delhi-centric airline since the decision was made to turn India’s capital into Air India’s primary hub in 2009. Along with the thrice weekly A320 service from Mumbai, current 4 weekly Hyderabad-Dammam A320 service will also be cancelled. Daily tag on service Sharjah-Dammam (linked to Varanasi and Lucknow flights) is cancelled as well. Dammam will continue to be served from Kozhikode and Trivandrum.

Meanwhile, other notable changes include the addition of a Bahrain tag to daily Delhi-Abu Dhabi services, which represents a return for Air India to Bahrain after the destination had been previously given over entirely to Air India’s low cost wing Air India Express. 2nd Daily Mumbai-Dubai flight will be re-instated with Airbus A330-200 equipment, enabled by substitution of 777-300ER for A330-200 on 7 weekly Mubai/Delhi-Jeddah frequencies (3 ex-Delhi, 4 ex-Mumbai). This 777-300ER meanwhile, is freed up by substitution of 747-400 and A320 family for 777-300ER on select Kerela-Gulf, as well as the removal of 777-300ER from Delhi-Dubai daily services in favor of Airbus A321. A full catalogue of Air India’s Middle East changes can be found at the bottom of this post, courtesy of airlineroute.net.

India’s largest private carrier Jet Airways, meanwhile, has been more muted in its response to the rising fuel prices and increased competition, but it is of course much smaller than Air India to and from the Gulf. Apparently seizing on the same trends as Air India, Jet Airways has announced a temporary reduction in many Kerala-Gulf sectors from daily to 5 weekly. The routes affected are from Trivandrum to Sharjah and Muscat, and Cochin to Muscat and Doha. On Kerala-Gulf sectors, the majority of the traffic is considered VFR or visiting family and relatives, with a smaller tourist component, and very limited business traffic. This breakdown is very consistent with variance in traffic across the various days of the week, meaning that it is not necessary for Jet to maintain services every day of the week. Jet currently has reduced service only till the end of March, but we feel that it would be prudent for them to extend these reductions further in order to boost profitability.

More troubling is Jet Airways’ subsequent addition of 4 weekly Delhi-Dammam services from mid March 2012 (17th March to be exact) using Boeing 737-800 equipment. Considering that Air India will be consolidating to the same route later in 2012, does it really make sense for Jet Airways to go head to head with Air India on a yield-limited sector? Moreover, Air India is ending Mumbai-Dammam, and Jet Airways is perhaps strongest in Mumbai. It might be more effective for Jet to target the limited business and high yield leisure traffic between Mumbai and Dammam as opposed to splitting a smaller full service market with an irrational pricing agent such as Air India. The schedules for Jet Airways Delhi-Dammam can also be found at the bottom of this story, once again courtesy of the excellent airlineroute.net blog.

Dealing with its own fiscal and operational issues, India’s third full service carrier Kingfisher has cut its Gulf operation down to almost nothing; 3 daily flights to Dubai (one each from Bangalore, Delhi, and Mumbai). Kingfisher had once operated to Saudi Arabia and other Gulf destinations as well, and the drawdown in India-Gulf mirrors Kingfisher’s overall capacity pull down, which has seen the carrier slash more than half of its capacity down to a level of around 200 flights per day. Neither GoAir nor SpiceJet operates to the Gulf (though the latter might begin to do so soon as domestic avenues for growth dry up), but the third Low Cost Carrier (LCC) of India, IndiGo is likely to add further flights to the Gulf, as it evolves towards a model of around 20% capacity deployment abroad, and adds frequencies later this year. Muscat was already mentioned as a potential destination, and further destinations are likely to complement the carrier’s existing Dubai service. Only Saudi Arabia is fully saturated under current the current bilateral agreement, so IndiGo’s possibilities are virtually endless.

Even amongst India’s full service carriers, the trend for Gulf flights is to use their LCC wings as the primary tool. Air India Express has already taken over many non Mumbai/Delhi flights to the Gulf (excluding Saudi Arabia b/c of the bilateral), and indeed Air India Express’ lower costs and more efficient 737-800 aircraft are more suitable for the VFR heavy Gulf Sectors. Jet must first integrate its Jet Konnect and JetLite brands before considering international expansion, but they too can use an LCC wing effectively to carve out a niche in this huge market. Gulf based LCCs are expanding even more exuberantly than Indian ones, with carriers such as FlyDubai adding capacity to India at exponential rates.

At the same time, the full service market between India and the Gulf has been all but ceded to airlines on the Gulf end. Emirates has, for the most part, saturated its allotted capacity, but Etihad, Turkish Airlines, and Qatar Airways to a lesser extent, all have room for expansion. Even secondary carriers such as Gulf Air are sending their most up-to-date premium products, with Gulf Air substituting its new amenity-filled A321s onto their Mumbai and Delhi routes. Whether or not government malfeasance is at the root of this imbalance, the future of Gulf service on India’s airlines increasing appears to be of the no-frills variety.

Schedule Changes

Air India Summer 2012 Middle East Changes

Abu Dhabi / Bahrain

Delhi – Bahrain – Abu Dhabi – Delhi Abu Dhabi service on outbound operates via Bahrain, where AI is resuming operation
AI941 DEL1745 – 1915BAH2015 – 2225AUH 320 D
AI940 BAH2015 – 2225AUH0005+1 – 0515+1DEL 320 D

Mumbai – Abu Dhabi Airbus A319 replaces A320, Daily service

Dammam / Sharjah

Delhi – Dammam Service changes from 2 weekly 777-300ER to Daily A319. Operational schedule moves from morning/noon to red-eye.
AI913 DEL0810 – 1010DMM 77W 37 -24MAR12
AI913 DEL0130 – 0345DMM 319 D 25MAR12-

AI912 DMM1250 – 1855DEL 77W 37 -24MAR12
AI912 DMM0445 – 1115DEL 319 D 25MAR12-

Amritsar – Sharjah – Dammam Sharjah – Dammam sector cancelled. Service to Sharjah remains at 4 weekly with schedule changes on return flight and will originate to/from Delhi

Hyderabad – Dammam 4 weekly A320 service cancelled

Lucknow – Sharjah – Dammam Sharjah – Dammam sector cancelled. Service to Sharjah remains at 3 weekly with schedule changes on return flight and will originate to/from Delhi

Mumbai – Dammam 3 weekly A320 service cancelled

Dubai

Delhi – Dubai AI995/996 Airbus A321 replaces 777-200LR/-300ER
Kozhikode – Dubai Airbus A321 replaces A320, Daily service
Mumbai – Dubai 2nd Daily service restored with A330-200
AI957 BOM1445 – 1605DXB 332 D
AI983 BOM2030 – 2155DXB 321 D

AI956 DXB1710 – 2130BOM 332 D
AI984 DXB2340 – 0405+1BOM 321 D

Jeddah (Previously reported on this site)

Delhi – Jeddah Boeing 777-300ER replaces A330-200, 3 weekly
Mumbai – Jeddah Boeing 777-300ER replaces A330-200, 4 weekly

Muscat

Delhi – Muscat Airbus A319 replaces A320/321, Daily service

Riyadh

Delhi – Riyadh Introduction of 3rd weekly service with Boeing 777-200LR
AI925 DEL1525 – 1730RUH 77W 16
AI925 DEL2010 – 2215RUH 77L 4

AI924 RUH0710 – 1355DEL 77W 16
AI924 RUH2330 – 0615+1DEL 77L 4

Mumbai – Riyadh AI927/920 (Day 24 from BOM, Day 35 from RUH) operates with 747-400, replaces 777-300ER

Thiruvananthapuram – Kochi – Riyadh Boeing 747-400 replaces 777-300ER, 2 weekly

Jet Airways Delhi-Dammam Schedules

Jet Airways from 17MAR12 is starting 4 weekly service on Delhi – Dammam route, on board Boeing 737-800 aircraft. The airline already operates Daily Mumbai – Dammam service.

Schedule from 25MAR12:

9W568 DEL2000 – 2150DMM 73H x245
9W567 DMM2250 – 0530+1DEL 73H x245

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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.

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Financial analysis of JetLite's Q1 fiscal 2011~12 results

This is the final carrier-specific financial analysis for Q1, covering JetLite. The overall market picture will be studied in a separate analysis.

Previous Analyses: Jet Airways, Kingfisher, SpiceJet

Despite the positive results shown by its parent carrier Jet Airways in the face of rising fuel costs, low fare carrier JetLite succumbed to domestic competitive pressures, posting relatively poor results in the first quarter of fiscal 2011-2012.

In Q1 FY2012, JetLite slipped to a pre-tax loss of Rs. 52 million, down from a profit of Rs. 49 million in Q1 2011. Other performance metrics also showed a general negative trend when compared to the same quarter a year earlier.

• Absolute revenue dropped 9.6% to Rs. 4.29 billion, from Rs. 4.74 billion in Q1 FY2011
• Revenue passengers carried increased 7.9% YOY (year-on-year) to 1.20 million.
• Passenger yield decreased 12.3% to Rs. 3,451
• Absolute non-fuel costs were down 6.5%, while absolute fuel costs increased 46.6%; on capacity growth of 7.5%, a 3.7% drop in total hours flown, and a 2.8% drop in number of departures.
• Average fleet size dropped from 24 aircraft to just 17.2 aircraft
• EBTIDAR loss (which measures operating results before taxes, interest, depreciation, loan amortization, and rent) of Rs. 16.6 Crore
• R/ASK- down 12.9%, C/ASK- up 9.3%, C/ASK excl. fuel- down 13.3% (R is revenue, C is cost per ASK - Available Seat Kilometer - a measure of capacity).
  

Observations
From these results, it is clear that JetLite felt the pain caused by over-capacity in the industry as a whole. In reporting its own results, SpiceJet had mentioned that capacity growth outstripped demand growth by about 5%. With JetLite, it almost seems as if a large chunk of the related loss was accrued to them, as the rest of the carriers studied in this analysis recorded positive revenue growth domestically. Of course IndiGo, Go Air, and Air India all operate in the Indian market as well; and their results may reflect the over-capacity as well.

It’s interesting to note that a lot of the changes in absolute figures were skewed slightly by a contraction of the airline as a whole. While the contraction can help explain the fall in total revenue, it also makes the airline’s total cost figures look much better year over year than they actually are, and mitigates somewhat the increase in absolute fuel costs.

It is to be noted that the carrier maintained strong discipline of non-fuel costs, perhaps by increasing its average utilization per aircraft from 8.2 hours per day to 11. Additionally, the trend towards larger aircraft flying longer distances (ASKs increased while number of departures decreased) may have helped unit costs as well.

Regardless, the results are still disappointing on numerous levels. Perhaps the fact that sums it up best is that JetLite now needs a seat load-factor of 98.2%, just to break even!!! With seat loads at 80.5% in Q1, that number is brought into the proper perspective.

JetLite faces vigorous competition from the various LCCs in India (SpiceJet, IndiGo, etc.), which limits its revenue growth. In the face of high fuel prices, it is then not surprising that they quickly slipped to losses. At the moment, JetLite can hope for marginal profitability in the best of times; never a good situation.

Perhaps JetLite could mitigate the effects of fierce domestic competition with international flights, especially to the Gulf, but given the current uproar on Air India, will the government risk the slightly profitable Air India Express?

This beneficial effect was exemplified in the results of Jet, Kingfisher, and even SpiceJet. However, access to Gulf routes may be seriously curtailed in the coming months, as MoCA wants to “protect” Air India, so international expansion may not be a feasible option.

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Comparison of 1Q operating parameters of Jet Airways, JetLite, Kingfisher, and SpiceJet

India has three airline groups which are listed on the stock market and therefore regularly release information on their quarterly and annual financial and operating performance.

Jet Airways group comprising of full service carrier Jet Airways and its low cost subsidiary JetLite, (the low fare service Jet Airways Konnect's numbers are rolled in to those of Jet Airways), fellow full service carrier Kingfisher which includes its low fare Kingfisher Red service, and low fare carrier SpiceJet.

Instead of the usual droll numerical comparisons, we thought about experimenting by presenting a comparison of operating parameters of these airlines. Vinay is working on comparing the financial numbers and should have his analysis soon.

We request and welcome your feedbackon this method. Please click on any of the slides for a larger view.

Slide 1 compares the basic numbers -- totals, domestic and international,  in terms of numbers of departures, the total block hours the aircraft in the fleet flew, the capacity measured in Available Seat Kilometres (ASKs), and performance measured in Revenue Passenger Kilometres (RPKs), from the first quarter of this Fiscal year 2011~2012, and the first quarter from the last fiscal i.e. 2010~2011.

Slide 1 - Operating parameters - capacity and performance

Slide 2 compares the domestic and international performance of Jet Airways and Kingfisher. JetLite and SpiceJet are not included as JetLite does not have international operations and SpiceJet's international operations are extremely limited. While Jet has remained fairly steady, it is clearly observed how much the international operations of Kingfisher have improved in terms of RPKs from last fiscal to this fiscal and its resultant effects on the percentage shares.

Slide 2 - International and domestic operations comparisons

Slide 3 goes towards the financial angles of operating parameters. Cost and revenue per ASK (available seat kilometer) is measured. The costs of fuel which airlines have little control over and the non-fuel costs, over which they have complete control are compared. For ready reference the cost of fuel as a percentage of total cost is indicated.

Thanks to absurdly high fuel taxes, Indian carriers are forced to pay as much as 59% of their total costs towards fuel. Compare this to a global norm of 20%~30%. This norm is also reflected on the costs and revenues per ASK for domestic operations compared to international.

Slide 3 - Financial aspects of operating parameters

In a nation which constantly seeks value, forcing such high costs on Indian carriers only disadvantages them in their quest to grow the markets. Indian airlines are further disadvantaged as they are unable to reap efficiency advantages over much of their cost -- i.e. a 10% improvement in efficiency will only produce at best a 5% impact on total cost compared to 7%~8% for a non-Indian carrier.

It is also observed that Kingfisher managed to retain its operational profits in the black despite surging fuel costs, by improving its R/ASKs (revenue per available seat kilometer), while every other airline lost money for every ASK it flew. However, the international operations are still a huge money drain on the beleaugered airline. While Kingfisher has the best premium cabin of any Indian carrier, Dr. Mallya should question whether his airline can afford these flights of fancy. Kingfisher is also let down by its astronomical debt servicing costs which eats up an astounding 16.25% of its revenues.

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Jet Airways dis-Konnects 63 low fare Konnect flights back to full service

Mumbai based Jet Airways is moving operations of 63 domestic flights from its low fare Jet Konnect service to its full service operation under Jet Airways.

Some of the sectors which will see this change are :
Delhi-Pune, Delhi-Bangalore, Delhi-Chennai, Delhi-Kolkata, Delhi-Hyderabad, Mumbai-Ahmedabad, Mumbai-Pune, Mumbai-Chennai, Mumbai-Kolkata, Mumbai-Mangalore, Mumbai-Hyderabad, and Mumbai-Kochi.

During the height of the economic slowdown in 2009, Jet Airways moved over 220 of its 390 flights and launched the no-frills Jet Konnect service in order to retain passenger share. This was in addition to Jet's other low cost subsidiary JetLite which still operates about 110 flights a day.

The changes are from October 1, 2010 till February 28, 2011 and from April 16, 2011 to June 30, 2011. The winter season is a peak travel period as millions of Indian diaspora come to India for vacations, and the summer period is when most Indians take their annual holiday.

It is a smart move by the carrier.

With an essentially full-service airline organisational and operational structure, Jet was unable to reduce costs to match the low fare leaders IndiGo and SpiceJet whose cost per available seat kilometre were about 30% lower that Jet Konnect.

With the Indian economy growing at 8.5% annually, corporate demand has returned. Corporate travellers want their frequent flier benefits and are returning to full service carriers.

However, with the economic recovery in Europe and North America still subdued, Indian businesses are very cautious investing in new capacity, which makes the renewed demand, soft.

Having burnt themselves in 2008 and 2009, airlines are still treading cautiously. From over 66% of its 500 flights in the low fare segment, the Jet Airways group will move to a more balanced 50-50 split for the peak periods. Also, by selectively moving these flights back to the full-service Jet Airways, the airline will be able to command the 12%~15% higher fares without a significant increase in costs, during the peak demand period, and will revert to low fare Konnect service during the lean times.

Sort of having your cake and eating it too, but then, no one has ever doubted the business acumen of Mr. Naresh Goyal and his team.

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Analysis of fleet share vs. passenger share in the Indian airline industry

Every month passengers are bombarded with statistics by various airlines in India. Best on-time performance, largest market share, most preferred airline ...... the list is endless.

Mathematical logic would dictate that an airline with the largest fleet of aircraft will have also have the largest share of the market, but an analysis of the passenger market share vs. the fleet share, based on the number of aircraft in each airline's fleet, throws up some very interesting results.

Indian domestic airline market - Fleet share (based on number of aircraft) vs. market share (based on number of passengers)

The airline with the largest fleet in the domestic market is Air India, but its market share of the number of passengers is low, and therefore results in a low fleet hare to passenger share ratio of 0.62.

Kingfisher leads the full service carrier segment with a fleet to market share ratio of 0.95, but this also includes figures from their low cost Kingfisher Red service. Passenger market share leader Jet Airways is at 0.82 and this includes their low fare service Jet Konnect.

For a better comparison between Jet and Kingfisher, if we add-up the numbers of Jet's other low fare subsidiary JetLite, the total group ratio of Jet at 0.865 still remains well behind Kingfisher's 0.95, suggesting a far more aggressive fleet utilisation strategy by Dr. Mallya's airline.

Expectedly, the low fare carrier side, shows much higher ratios, due to their higher usage of aircraft and also the higher number of seats offered per flight due to an all-economy configuration. The laggard is JetLite with a ratio of 1 while SpiceJet and IndiGo are neck and neck at 1.75 and 1.76. In defence of SpiceJet, their figures appear lower since they inducted their 22nd aircraft only at the end of the month which skews the results.

The surprise of the whole exercise are the results of industry minnow GoAir, who have an industry leading, fleet to passenger share ratio of 2.04. Clearly the airline has shaken off the demons of the past and is aggressive in their fleet utilisation.

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Plane spotting photo: the two low cost Jet Airways siblings at Bangalore

As I was coming towards the terminal at Bengaluru International Airport, VT-JGA a Boeing 737-800 of the low cost service Jet Airways Konnect was pulling in to its parking bay. I managed to grab a picture while in the background another Boeing 737 of its low cost sibling, JetLite takes-off from runway 27.

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Jet Airways incident at Mumbai -- DGCA release preliminary report, crew suspended

A Jet Airways Boeing 737-800 registration VT-JGM operating Jet Airways Konnect flight 9W-2302 from Mumbai CSI airport to Chennai Kamaraj airport, India, with 139 passengers and six crew, was taxing on taxiway N parallel to runway 09-27 having pushed back from stand A-6 at 20:47 (15:17Z). At 20:55 (15:25Z) the captain declared a port side engine (i.e. left side , engine 1) fire, which activated the emergency services.

The aircraft rescue and fire fighting (ARFF) vehicles took position on port side the aircraft by 20:58 (15:58Z) and reported there was no visible indication of fire. The crew evacuated the aircraft via slides while on taxiway N which was completed by 21:02 (15:32Z).

Click on image for high resolution view. Photo used with permission of copyright holder.

Doctors at the airport attended to 25 passengers who suffered injuries during the evacuation process. 13 passengers were sent to area hospitals (11 to Nanavati Hospital and 2 to Sujay hospital) for diagnosis and treatment, including suspected fractures.

Jet Airways carried 117 passengers on a delayed flight operated with another aircraft at 23:57 (18:27Z)

The incident has been referred to India's Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).

TV media reports indicate the DGCA has already found the crew actions highly questionable and suspect lapse on part of both the flight and cabin crew, of standard operating procedures. The crew has been de-rostered pending the detailed investigation.

Apparently the "fire alarm" was raised by passenger(s) in the rear of the aircraft who confused the anti-collision beacon and strobes and their reflections of the engine casing, as sparks coming from the engine.

The cabin crew informed the flight commander who declared a fire emergency and ordered an evacuation, without physical verification, despite a lack of any alert on instruments and reports by the ARFF crew of no visible indication of fire.

The cabin crew, lost control of the situation instead of taking charge and attempting to calm the passengers, thus aggravated the situation leading to a panic. The cabin crew allowed passengers to use the slides wearing shoes and carrying bags, a serious breech of safety procedures. This damaged the slides, further constricted the passages and exits which aided the stampede and caused panicked passengers to jump from the aircraft leading to the injuries sustained.

Despite contrary reports and alleged lack of instrument indications, the evacuation was ordered on the single active taxiway of the airport's primary runway, during the peak period, severely hampering airport flight operations.

Bangalore Aviation made multiple attempts by phone, e-mail and SMS text, to contact the airline for a statement of its version of developments, but did not receive any response till the time of this article. We will post the airline's statement when received.


Update 1 - 16:30 IST (11:00Z)
A statement received from Jet Airways

Jet Airways 9W 2302 from Mumbai to Chennai initiated a precautionary evacuation on the taxiway due to a suspected fire around the left engine. The precautionary evacuation was carried out in the interest of safety of the passengers and the crew. The crew carried out the evacuation in accordance with standard operating procedures.

Subsequent inspection of the engine has indicated that there was no fire.

A formal inquiry has been initiated by the DGCA and Jet Airways is fully co-operating and providing all necessary assistance.

The welfare of our guests and crew is of prime importance and Jet Airways is taking appropriate steps to ensure the same.

Guests travelling on that flight were immediately afforded alternate travel arrangements via an additional flight 9W 2302, which departed Mumbai for Chennai at 2357 hrs with 117 guests onboard.

During the process of evacuation, twelve guests sustained injuries and were duly administered medical assistance and taken to nearby hospitals. Out of the twelve guests, 8 have been released this morning and have proceeded to Chennai. Jet Airways Medical personnel have been onsite at the hospitals and have been co-ordinating the medical assistance provided to the remaining four guests.

Safety is of paramount importance to Jet Airways and we regret the inconvenience caused to our guests. Jet Airways would like to express its gratitude to the crew, the airport staff, the medical staff, MIAL and all other agencies for providing their timely assistance and support.

This is the second incident in less than a year where the crew actions of Jet Airways are suspect. About ten months ago on October 20, 2009, a check pilot on-board a Jet Airways Boeing 737-900ER VT-JGC allegedly performed what is consider in aviation circles an extremely reckless and risky act -- he pulled the circuit-breakers on a regular revenue flight from Delhi to Mumbai. It appears that the check pilot is back on duty with Jet Airways despite such a serious lapse.


Update 2 - 18:30 IST (13:00Z)

India's aviation regulator the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has put out this initial report.

DGCA Finds Serious Procedural Lapses In the Incident of the Jet Airways Flight 9W2302 In Mumbai Yesterday

Pilot and Crew Suspended

Preliminary fact finding by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has indicated serious procedural lapses in dealing with the emergency and evacuation situation as per existing procedures laid down in aircraft rules and regulations, by the operating aircraft crew members of the Jet airways flight 9W2302 scheduled to fly from Mumbai to Chennai yesterday. Hence the Pilot in Command (PIC), First officer, four cabin crew members and four ACMs [additional crew members i.e. off-duty crew] have been suspended till further orders. This incident has been treated as serious incident and will be investigated under rule 77C of Aircraft Rules 1937 by a team comprising of Director Air safety Mumbai, Flight Operation Inspector and Cabin Safety Incharge of DGCA.

On 27 August 2010, the Captain and the First Officer were operating the flight 9W2302 on Mumbai-Chennai Sector. There were four cabin crew members, as per the requirements; 131 passengers including one infant and Nine Additional crew members (8 cabin crew + one trainee Pilot). During the taxing of aircraft, an Additional Crew Member (ACM), travelling as a passenger, seated on 35A apparently observed fire on the Left Engine and informed another ACM also travelling as a passenger, seated on 35B, who also claimed to have seen the fire. The ACM seated on 35B immediately went back and contacted Captain from aft right door location(R-2). He also informed Cabin crew assigned for aft left door (L2). Pilot immediately asked L2 cabin crew to confirm the fire and report. She also confirmed to the Captain.

The PIC, on receiving the confirmation pulled the fire handles for left engine, right engine and APU. However he did not discharge any of the fire bottles. PIC ordered the evacuation from the aircraft. Escape slide on front and aft doors on the right side (R1 & R2) and both the over wing emergency exits were deployed. On the left side, the aft door (L2) and rear over wing emergency exit were also deployed. The airport fire and rescue services personnel immediately reached the site. During the evacuation, 14 passengers sustained injuries. After the evacuation the aircraft inspection was carried out in the night time under supervision of DGCA team. No fire or smoke was observed in the engine area. Both the engines were checked and boroscope inspection was carried out. No abnormality was observed in engines and its systems. CVR and DFDR have been removed.

The DGCA has also called for a meeting of the Heads of training of all Airlines to review the training procedures of cabin and flight crews, particularly in emergency and evacuation procedures.

Taxiway N is parallel to the left of the main active runway 27 i.e. the runway would be on the right side of the aircraft.

The main question that comes to mind is that it is normal procedure for crew never to open the exits on the side of the aircraft with the fire, which in this case was the left, yet the exits, especially overwing (closest to a left side engine fire) were opened. Why??

The exits on the right were also opened which is correct procedure, but the main active runway is on the right, and one cannot have evacuating passengers running away from an aircraft towards an active runway. Was air traffic control informed and runway operations suspended prior to opening the right side doors?

There is much more to this incident and the full truth will have to be determined.

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JetLite unveils new crew uniforms and cabin branding

JetLite, the former Air Sahara and now wholly owned subsidiary of Jet Airways India Ltd, has unveiled a new uniform for its staff as the airline commences a strategy of brand enhancement.

Unlike the very modern and western look projected by the cabin crew uniforms of parent Jet Airways, the new blue and white uniforms of JetLite, with their embroidered hip length 'bandh-gala' or closed collar jacket, designed by Italian fashion designer Roberto Capucci, draws from the traditional Jodhpur style from the state of Rajasthan, blending it with a contemporary look. Capucci has also designed the uniforms of the Jet Airways cabin crew. The badges are in the airline's base colour of light sky blue colour.

Since its acquisition of Air Sahara in 2007 and subsequent renaming to JetLite, the branding of the carrier has been in limbo. Industry watchers were unsure of Jet's plans for its low cost subsidiary and whether the airline would be absorbed in to the parent. Ongoing litigation between Jet Airways and the original Sahara group forced Jet to commence another all economy service called Jet Airways Konnect. It appears that Jet has taken a decision to keep JetLite as a clear separate brand as JetLite aircraft cabins are also being refurbished in line with the new colour scheme. However the airline has not provided any details.

JetLite operates a fleet of 23 aircraft, which includes 17 Boeing 737 series and 6 Canadair Regional Jets 200 Series. The airline flies to 25 domestic destinations and 2 international destinations (Kathmandu and Colombo), operating over 110 flights a day, on average.

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Monster discounts on Jet Airways for the next two days

Jet Airways and it's no frills service Jet Airways Konnect, is offering passengers a monster 50% discount in economy class and 33% discount on it's Jet Premiere business class fares.

The discount includes the fuel surcharge component of the fare, so the discount does have significance.

The sale of these special fares will be between September 14 and 16, 2009. Travel must be completed by September 18, 2009

If you have to travel within the next week, Bangalore Aviation strongly recommends this sale.

To sweeten this sweet deal even more, JetPrivilege members will earn 1,000 Bonus JPMiles for all bookings made via the Jet Airways website during the offer period.

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Image: Boeing 737-800 VT-JGH of the new Jet Airways Konnect landing at Bangalore

Jet Airways recently launched its low cost service called Jet Airways Konnect. A while back I managed to catch one of the Boeing 737-800s of the new Konnect service at Bangalore airport.


VT-JGH slows down after landing on runway 27 in front of the iconic air traffic control tower of the Bengaluru International Airport. Just love the complex wing with all its parts opened out - flaps, slats, and spoilers along with the reverse thrusters on the CFM56 engines.

In the background is the tail of one of the Airbus A330-203s of Kingfisher Airlines.

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