Kingfisher and Air India flounder: CAPA study
With Kingfisher's international operations suspended and Air India's long-haul services likely to be subject to ongoing industrial action, Jet Airways is expected to seize the opportunity and aggressively expand its international operations, aviation think-tank Centre For Asia Pacific Aviation has said.
“In addition to increasing frequencies to existing destinations in the Gulf and Southeast Asia, the other new routes under evaluation include Beijing, Ho Chi Minh City, Shanghai, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Munich, Paris and Rome (with Frankfurt and Munich being the priority destinations, expected to commence from the Winter 2012/13 schedule), Chicago, San Francisco and Washington,” the study adds.
Strategic development
The study also hints at Jet Airways becoming the first Indian carrier to join a global airline alliance, Star Alliance. The ongoing troubles in Air India may force the Government to do a rethink on whether Jet Airways should be permitted to join Star Alliance or not.
Initially, the Government had said that it could not proceed with the application of Jet Airways until Air India had been inducted.
“Its (Jet Airways) plans to start services to Frankfurt and Munich are linked to this strategic development,” the report adds.
Short-haul international traffic growth — to South and Southeast Asia, as well as the Gulf and Central Asia — is expected to be above 10 per cent as IndiGo and SpiceJet ramp up their overseas operations.
Traffic impact
“GoAir has also applied for permission to launch international services, despite the fact that it has not yet met the qualification threshold of having a fleet of at least 20 aircraft (it has just twelve).
However, its application is likely to be approved,” the report adds.
The study estimates that International passenger traffic is projected to grow by 8?10 per cent in fiscal 2012-13 to reach approximately 44 million. “However, much will depend upon developments at Air India, which has the largest share of international capacity to and from India at 14.4 per cent. If the failure to address human resources issues leads to ongoing industrial action and even a possible temporary shutdown of the carrier, there would undoubtedly be an impact on traffic growth,” the report states.
Keywords: CAPA study, international operations,
Comments:
How can Go Air even apply to fly international, when it does not have the minimum
of 20 aircraft which is required as per DGCA. This is how the Airline operators
manipulate the system, They will bribe the officials and the MPs to give concession,
deposit money in Swiss Secret Accounts. Laws are never respected. Businessmen will
twist the system and the law.
It is absolutely untrue to say that Jet Airways is trying to seize the
opportunity to expand international operations in view of ongoing IR
problems in AI and closing down of International operations of King
Fisher airlines.
It takes months of planning and several visits of top executives to
get various permissions and permits to start international services to
a new destination for any airline. It also involves finding out
business partners for marketing and distributions of tickets, handling
of planes at the new destination. Airline operation is a very
difficult and time consuming affair apart from conducting marketing
surveys.
It is also a very difficult task to get the desired slots for
operation in very busy airports. After obtaining the landing permits
Schedules have to be prepared taking into consideration availability
of planes and crew to operate the flights and also connecting flights
to other various destinations to boost traffic on the new
international sector.
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