Infographic: India's ten busiest airports: June 2013 vs. June 2012

by Vinay Bhaskara

June was a mostly positive month for traffic at India's ten busiest airports. As the table below shows, traffic grew at eight airports, while declining at just two. Total traffic at India's ten busiest airports grew around 2% year-over-year to roughly 10.7 million passengers, positive news after some declines in passenger traffic earlier this year. There were no changes in the top ten, either in constitution or in order, though Bangalore moved closer to surpassing Chennai as India's third busiest airport as traffic grew 2.4% against a drop of 1.2% at Chennai. Just outside the top ten, fast growing Srinagar surpassed Goa to become India's 11th busiest airport in June, and will likely surpass Trivandrum by the end of the year (Srinagar trailed Trivandrum by 11,000 passengers in June).

Airport	June 2013	June 2012	YOY Growth
Delhi (DEL)	3133135	3072780	2.0%
Mumbai (BOM)	2573600	2494202	3.2%
Chennai (MAA)	1077267	1090302	-1.2%
Bengaluru (BLR)	1022158	998302	2.4%
Kolkata (CCU)	854846	890240	-4.0%
Hyderabad (HYD)	711677	702940	1.2%
Kochi (COK)	428251	382566	11.9%
Ahmedabad (AMD)	356558	348273	2.4%
Pune(PNQ)	297421	276496	7.6%
Trivandrum (TRV)	243968	232024	5.1%
TOTAL	10698881	10488125	2.0%

The following chart shows traffic India's top ten airports in June 2013 vs. June 2012 (click for a larger view)

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SpiceJet to commence Pune Sharjah flights

by Vinay Bhaskara

New Delhi-based low fare carrier SpiceJet, is launching direct flights between Pune and Sharjah from September 21, 2013. The airline will deploy its Boeing 737-800 which seats 189 passengers in a single class configuration.

SG051 departs Pune 22:30 on Mondays, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturdays and arrives Sharjah 00:25+1
SG052 departs Sharjah 01:25 on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, Sundays and arrives Pune 06:00

SpiceJet is offering an introductory fare of Rs 6,499/- one way all inclusive on this route. For full information and terms and conditions visit www.spicejet.com.

Pune is the third Indian destination to connect with Sharjah on SpiceJet network. SpiceJet already serves Sharjah with three flights per week from Lucknow and three flights per week from Varanasi. The airline also operates four daily flights to Dubai from Delhi, Mumbai, Ahmedabad and Kochi.

International operations have become an increasingly large component in SpiceJet's operations as the carrier deals with heavy competition in the domestic sphere from low cost rivals like IndiGo, GoAir, and Jet Airways subsidiary JetKonnect.

The carrier now serves eight international destinations, Sharjah, Riyadh, Guangzhou, Kabul, Kathmandu, Dubai, Male, and Colombo, with a ninth, Muscat coming on-line a week from now when the airline will commence Ahmedabad Muscat flights. Read about that service here.

The growth in international operations helped contribute to a Rs.55 Crore profit for SpiceJet in the first quarter of fiscal year 2014.

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India and Singapore enhance bi-lateral air capacity by 10%

by Devesh Agarwal

India and Singapore signed a new Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on bilateral air services arrangement in the presence of Civil Aviation Minister, Shri Ajit Singh and Minister of Transport of Singapore, Mr Lui Tuck Yew on April 2 in Singapore. It rationalizes the capacity entitlements of both countries in terms of seats per week in each direction with a route specific cap for Singapore on each route. The MoU also enhances, by 10%, the capacity entitlement with India now entitled to operate 29,400 weekly passenger seats from India to Singapore and the designated airlines of Singapore entitled to operate 28,700 weekly passenger seats from Singapore to India. No additional point of call has been given to Singapore. India also did not agree to the demand of Singapore for additional point of calls from Pune and Madurai.

The common pool rights to the extent of 5160 seats earlier available to Singapore, which provided greater operational flexibility to Singapore carriers at major metro centres viz Chennai, Delhi and Mumbai, have now been withdrawn. The designated airlines of Singapore can operate with any aircraft type except A-380. The delegation level talks were held between Dr. Prabhat Kumar, Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Civil Aviation and Mr. Yap Ong Heng, Director-General, Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore. Both the sides have agreed to review and update the air services agreement and meet every two years to discuss various air services matters.

Shri Ajit Singh, during his visit to Singapore, also held Minister- level discussions with Minister of Transport of Singapore, Mr. Lui Tuck Yew and Second Minister of Trade and Industry, Mr. S. Iswaran, to explore the possibility of co-operation in the area of civil aviation. Both the sides, while expressing satisfaction on growing trade and economic co-operation, felt that there was a need to foster greater co-operation in the area of airport development and airport management. Besides, institutional- level co-operation is needed in the areas of training in aviation skill development, maintenance repairs and overhaul services, aviation safety and exchange of technology transfer in air space management and air navigation services.

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Analysis: IndiGo plots international and domestic expansion

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 Airbus A320-232 aircraft and holds a 24.9% share of India’s domestic air travel market, currently serves 5 international ports (Bangkok, Singapore, Muscat, Kathmandu, and Dubai) as well as 27 cities across India.

IndiGo will commence daily flights between Chennai, Cochin, Hyderabad and Dubai, as well as add a second daily flight between Delhi and Dubai.

Thanks to smart scheduling, IndiGo has managed to schedule all 4 daily Dubai flights on just two aircraft – affording it a high level of utilization, with rotations as follow:

Aircraft 1
6E 66 - Dubai – Chennai-- D: 22:20 A: 04:15(+1) -- Daily -- Effective 25th August
6E 65 - Chenai – Dubai -- D: 07:30 A: 10:30 -- Daily -- Effective 25th August
6E 68 - Dubai – Kochi (Cochin) -- D: 11:30 A: 17:15 -- Daily -- Effective 25th August
6E 67 - Kochi (Cochin) – Dubai -- D: 18:15 A: 21:15 -- Daily -- Effective 25th August

Aircraft 2
6E 23 - Delhi – Dubai -- D: 02:30 A: 04:35 -- Daily -- Effective 7th August
6E 25 - Dubai – Hyderabad -- D: 05:35 A: 11:05 -- Daily -- Effective 7th August
6E 26 - Hyderabad – Dubai -- D: 13:20 A: 15:45 -- Daily -- Effective 7th August
6E 24 - Dubai – Delhi -- D: 16:45 A: 21:50 -- Daily -- Effective 7th August

The flight schedule for its Bangkok flights are as follow:

6E 43 - Delhi – Bangkok -- D: 18:25 A: 12:10 (+1) -- Daily -- Effective 10th August
6E 44 - Bangkok – Delhi -- D: 01:10 A: 04:10 -- Daily -- Effective 10th August

These flights in turn complement the current daily Bangkok flights and allow all Bangkok flights to be operated with one aircraft, whose only down time is a 2 hrs 50 minutes period in the mid afternoon in Delhi.

6E 41 - Delhi – Bangkok -- D: 05:35 A: 11:20 -- Daily
6E 42 - Bangkok – Delhi -- D: 12:35 A: 15:35 -- Daily

IndiGo has given indication that it has received all the required regulatory, government, and airport approvals from relevant authorities in India as well as from Dubai, United Arab Emirates and Thailand to launch these services and it has already put tickets on sale via its website. Introductory fares will begin at Rs. 11,200 return (round trip) for all flights in question.

Taking advantage of Kingfisher’s fall 

Image courtesy and copyright U. Krishna

Undoubtedly, IndiGo has been one of the largest beneficiaries of the 65% capacity reduction, earlier this year by Dr. Vijay Mallya promoted Kingfisher Airlines. The only profitable Indian airline has grown its market share from under 20% to a robust 25%, all the while benefiting from the rise in fares caused by the constriction in capacity.

IndiGo has indeed taken the opportunity to fill the void left by Kingfisher through prudent expansion in large markets from the Metros, whereas competitor SpiceJet has instead focused on filling in the gaps left behind in Tier II and Tier III by the withdrawal of Kingfisher’s fleet of ATR 72-500 turboprop aircraft. For example, the airline added two more daily flights between Mumbai and Delhi on May 25th, bringing their total offering on the route to 11 daily flights.

Upon the announcement, IndiGo CEO Aditya Ghosh said;

“In line with our endeavor to meet the requirements of both business and leisure travellers, we have introduced two new daily direct flights between Delhi and Mumbai. We are looking at providing affordable fares on these new routes for 6E travelers. IndiGo will continue to expand its network to meet the requirements of both business and leisure travelers wherever they demand it. It is our constant endeavour to provide more flexibility of choice for our customers as IndiGo continues to offer them on time, hassle free and always affordable flying experience.”

Beyond these new rotations, IndiGo also took advantage of a recent slot auction at Pune Airport in Western India near Mumbai to add a second daily Delhi-Pune rotation, as well as add new daily Hyderabad Pune services.

The schedules for the new Pune flights are as follow:

6E405 - Delhi – Pune -- D: 18:25 A: 20:30 -- Daily -- Effective 25th June
6E402 - Pune – Delhi -- D: 21:00 A: 23:05 -- Daily -- Effective 25th June

6E313 - Hyderabad – Pune -- D: 14:25 A: 16:00 -- Daily -- Effective 25th June
6E306 - Pune – Hyderabad -- D: 16:30 A: 17:50 -- Daily -- Effective 25th June

On the international front, SpiceJet too saw some opportunity, and added its own set of daily flights from Mumbai and Delhi to Dubai recently, marking the first foray for India’s second largest LCC outside of the SAARC countries.

For IndiGo and SpiceJet both, there is no question that Dubai has the potential to be a very lucrative route with its humongous base of migrant, tourist, and VFR (visiting friends and relatives) traffic, not withstanding the enormous business ties with India. Yet at the same time, there may be signals that the India-Dubai market might be reaching saturation, with private operator Jet Airways recently cancelling its Hyderabad-Dubai and Chennai-Dubai services.

IndiGo recently won approval from the Ministry of Civil Aviation for services Kathmandu, Dubai, Bangkok, Singapore, and Jeddah. The carrier was given rights to add up to 20,000 weekly seats on these routes, and the currently announced routes

1000th 777 built. Boeing image

add just 6,300 weekly seats. So there is definitely room for IndiGo’s expansion. In particular, more services to Dubai can be expected, as the carrier won approval for eight daily flights to Dubai but has added just six ( two from Delhi, and one each from Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, and Kochi).

There is definite potential for IndiGo to expand further Dubai services, it could consider services from India’s technological capital and third economic city, Bangalore, or a second daily from Mumbai, or even Chennai, however, in all these cities IndiGo will face fierce competition from Dubai based behemoth, Emirates airline, which operates multiple wide body flights between these Indian cities and Dubai, besides offering global connectivity.

Share your views and thoughts on this subject via a comment.

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Indian Air Force Sukhoi Su-30MKI frontline fighter aircraft crashes near Pune

IANS is reporting that a Sukhoi Su-30MKI the frontline air superiority fighter of the Indian Air Force (IAF) crashed near Pune around 13:15 local (07:45Z) today. Both the pilots bailed out to safety, an officer said.

The fighter belongs to a squadron of the Su-30MKI which is based at the Lohegaon Air Force Base to protect amongst others, the economic capital of India, Mumbai. The part of the base also serves as the civil airport serving the city of Pune.

Base commander, Air Commodore V. R. Chaudhry told reporters

‘Today at around 1.15 p.m. a Sukhoi fighter jet, which took off from the Lohegaon Air Force Base for a sortie, presumably developed a technical snag and crashed,’

‘Two officers – Wing Commander Suhail, who was the pilot and Flight Lieutenant Nautiyal, who was the weapons system operator – ejected out of the aircraft after manoeuvring it over barren land,’

‘While the preliminary circumstantial reason could be a technical snag, we are investigating the matter. Both the officers were highly competent. They showed great presence of mind and courage by steering the aircraft towards a safe location and thus avoiding any civilian damage,’

Both the officers have been taken to the Command Hospital in Pune.

The aircraft crashed at Wade-Bholai village, 20 kms from here. The search for the aircraft’s black box is on.

This is the third crash of a Sukhoi Su-30 since its induction in 1997.

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Air India increases ex Bangalore flights in new schedule

State carrier Air India (AI) has announced its winter schedule which comes into effect from 25 October which highlights a significant increase in commitment to Bangalore.

The airline will be operating around 130 flights per week ex Bangalore to various destinations in the country and abroad, offering around 17,000 seats weekly.

The carrier is introducing new "same day return" flights on regional routes, which allow early morning departures and late evening arrivals, facilitating business passengers to conduct a full day of work at their destination. Air traffic on regional routes fell sharply during the slowdown as passengers shifted to buses and trains to save costs.

Bangalore-Hyderabad

Air India will provide 17 flights a week in this sector with an additional capacity of around 2,000 seats per week.

A new daily service IC-917, which will depart Bangalore 08:10 arrival Hyderabad at 09:15. The complementary flight IC-915 will arrive from Hyderabad at 07:30.

In the evening, IC-916 will depart Bangalore 18:50 and arrive Hyderabad 19:40, while the incoming flight IC-918 from Hyderabad will arrive in Bangalore at 17:45 providing a daily day return connection between the two cities.

The existing thrice a week flight, IC-977 departing Bangalore at 16:50 pm on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays arriving Hyderabad at 18:10 will continue.

Bangalore-Chennai

A new daily flight, IC-509, departs Bangalore at 07:45 to arrive at Chennai at 08:30. The incoming flight from Chennai, IC-909 will arrive Bangalore at 09:00.

In the evening, the existing flight IC 911 will depart Bangalore at 16:35 pm to arrive Chennai at 17:35 and the incoming flight IC-511 from Chennai, will arrive in Bangalore at 17:25.

Given the distance of the Bengaluru International Airport from the city, the Bangalore departure is much too early. Network planners at Air India do appear to have done their homework.

Bangalore-Kochi

This is a "bundled" service involving Chennai. The morning flight is Bangalore-Chennai-Kochi vv, while the evening flight appears to be a Chennai-Bangalore-Kochi vv.

The morning flight IC-509 to Kochi will operate via Chennai, leaving Bangalore at 07:45 arriving Kochi at 10:25.

The evening flight IC-511 departs Bangalore at 18:10 arrives Kochi at 19:20 daily.

The incoming flights from Kochi will arrive in Bangalore at 07:10 in the morning and 17:25 in the evening daily, providing a day return connection.

Bangalore-Pune

Air India has made this route via Hyderabad. Very poor planning which ensures that Air India will not be the preferred option for travellers who would instead use the services of Jet Airways, Kingfisher and other carriers who operate this one hour flight, direct.

Air India flight IC-917 from Bangalore to Pune, departs Bangalore 08:10 arriving Pune at 11:15. The return flight from Pune, IC-918 will arrive in Bangalore at 17:45.

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Paramount adds Pune as third destination in Western India

Paramount Airways extended its services to Western India, by launching daily flights from Chennai to Pune. Paramount already serves Ahmedabad and Goa from Chennai.

Commenting on the Pune launch Mr Thiagarajan, MD, Paramount Airways said, “As part of our expansion strategy we have launched the Chennai - Pune sector today. This we believe will help our foray into the western region and we hope to replicate the success that we have acheived in the Southern market. Being a premium airline, we are certain that Paramount would receive a huge franchise from these key market. This flight would be a convenient and comfortable option for Chennai flyers to Pune.”

The airline has also launched its frequent flyer programe “Paramount Royale”.

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Jet re-introduces Bangalore Mangalore, adds Pune Bangalore flights

Jet Airways, will reintroduce daily service on the Bengaluru – Mangalore sector, effective December 01, 2008, using an ATR-72 aircraft.

Jet is trying to target business passenger with a same day return facility. 9W 3561 will depart daily from Bengaluru at 0855 hrs in the morning, and arrive at Mangalore at 0955 hrs. On the return leg, 9W 3562 will leave Mangalore at 1025 hrs and arrive back at Bengaluru at 1125 hrs.

In the evening, 9W 3563 will depart Bengaluru at 1730 hrs and arrive in Mangalore at 1830 hrs. 9W 3564 will leave Mangalore at 1900 hrs and arrive back into Bengaluru at 2000 hrs.

Also effective 1st December'08, Jet Airways will further enhance its services to and from India’s the IT hubs Pune and Bengaluru. 9W 3559 will depart Pune daily at 0620 hrs and arrive in Bengaluru at 0820 hrs. 9W 3560 will then depart Bengaluru 2030 hrs and arrive in Pune at 2250 hrs. This is in addition to Jet Airways’ existing services operated by 9W 445/9W 446 using a Boeing 737 on this sector.

Image courtesy Jet Airways

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Jet Airways re-introduces Bengaluru-Pune same day return flight

Jet Airways, announced, they will re-introduce their daily operations on the Pune-Bengaluru-Pune sectors, becoming the only airline to offer its passengers a same day return service between the two cities, effective September 11, 2008

Jet Airways will commence daily operations on the sector with Boeing 737 aircraft, complementing the airline’s existing (six days a week) service on the sector.

Flight 9W 460* (Pune-Bengaluru) will depart Pune at 0620 hrs, arriving in Bengaluru at 0740 hrs. On the return leg, flight 9W 459 (Bengaluru-Pune) will depart Bengaluru at 2100 hrs, arriving in Pune at 2220 hrs.

With the launch of these new, daily flights, Jet Airways will offer passengers an early morning departure from Pune and arrival in Bengaluru. The airline will also operate the last direct service out of Bengaluru to Pune, offering business travellers a full day to complete their work and return home, without the bother of an overnight stay.

*Subject to Government Approvals

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