Kingfisher Airlines through its affiliate Deccan Aviation aka Air Deccan, has applied to the U.S. DOT for permission to operate service to USA from April 2008, and also requested to place Kingfisher's "IT" code on its flight. Kingfisher will dry-lease their A 340-500 and other long-haul aircraft to Deccan. In 2008, Kingfisher will add 10 long-haul planes, i.e. two A 345s + 8 A 332s, intended for non-stop flights to the US, Far East, JNB & Europe.
The first international flight is planned to start between BLR & SFO by April, followed by BLR-JFK nonstop in June-July. This is likely to be followed by flights between Mumbai, New Delhi and London Heathrow using the A 332s.
In other news, Kingfisher has formally informed the Indian Government of its wish list of international routes that it wants to launch from 2008 onwards. The main highlights are as follows :
DEL-YYZ : nonstop daily using an A 345
DEL-YVR : nonstop daily using an A 345
DEL-GVA : nonstop using an A 332 (market for a daily flight doesn't exist)
DEL-KWI : nonstop daily using an A 321 / A 332
DEL-DXB : nonstop daily using an A 332
DEL-PEK : nonstop daily using an A 332
DEL-KTM : nonstop daily using an A 320 / A 321
DEL-CAN : nonstop using an A 332 (massive cargo potential here)
DEL-BKK : nonstop daily using an A 321 / A 332
DEL-KUL : nonstop daily using an A 321 / A 332
BLR-JFK : nonstop daily using an A 345
BLR-SFO : nonstop daily using an A 345
BLR-SFO : nonstop daily using an A 345
BLR-LHR : daily nonstop using an A 332
BLR-DXB : daily nonstop using an A 321
BLR-CMB : daily nonstop using an A 320
BLR-BKK : daily nonstop using an A 321 / A 332
BLR-KUL : daily nonstop using an A 321 / A 332
BOM-JFK : nonstop daily using an A 345
BOM-LHR : daily nonstop using an A 332
BOM-DUS : nonstop using an A 332 (does a market for this route exist?)
BOM-HKG : daily nonstop using an A 332
BOM-PVG : daily nonstop using an A 332
BOM-ZRH : daily nonstop using an A 332
BOM-JNB : daily nonstop using an A 332
BOM-DXB : daily nonstop using an A 321 / A 332
BOM-BKK : daily nonstop using an A 321 / A 332
BOM-KUL : daily nonstop using an A 321 / A 332
BOM-SYD : daily nonstop using an A 332
BOM-BAH/DOH/MCT : each city to beserved daily nonstop using an A 320 / A 321
MAA-DXB : nonstop daily using an A 321 / A 332
MAA-CMB : nonstop daily using an A 320 / A 321
MAA-BAH : nonstop daily using an A 321
MAA-KUL : nonstop daily using an A 321 / A 332
MAA-BKK : nonstop daily using an A 321 / A 332
ATQ-DXB : nonstop daily using an A 321ATQ-SHJ : nonstop daily using an A 320
HYD-KUL/DXB/SHJ : each city to be served daily nonstop using an A 320 / A 321
TRV-SHJ/MCT/BAH : each city to be served daily nonstop using an A 320 / A 321
COK-BAH/DXB/MCT : each city to be served daily nonstop using an A 320 / A 321
Analysis :
From the looks of it, Kingfisher's wish list especially for Europe makes it out to seem that it is positioning itself to be a "cosmopolitan airline" flying to exotic destinations nonstop from India not explored before by its competitors such as GVA & DUS. It is very pleasing to see that BLR-LHR nonstop with the A 332 is being seriously considered as someone needs to make BA sweat it out on this profitable route which KF has the potential to do so due to its excellent on board product and brand name recognition in BLR and in the NRI community residing in the UK.
There are rumors floating around that the Spanish Government is very eager in wanting to make MAD or BCN a "scissors hub" for KF just like BRU is for 9W as Spain lacks nonstop connectivity to many key U.S . cities. However, KF's business strategy for North America is to fly nonstop from India's premium markets and not copy AI & 9W's one stop model which is fine. Most of its wish list routes are viable ones except for DEL-GVA & BOM-DUS as a size able O&D market segment doesn't exist for these routes to even warrant a 4 times weekly nonstop flight using an A 332!
Sources for new routes :
and
1 comment:
Sorry, I accidentally posted in the Korean Air section, so I'm copying this here:
Behramjee, you are quite spot on in your analysis on happenings in international India aviation, but I wonder if you have too much faith in low yield NRI traffic (the masses) and discount all other types of traffic, particularly higher yield business traffic, in your analysis. This seems to come out particularly vis-a-vis DUS and GVA in Kingfisher's plans. Even looking strictly at NRI communities, I would reasonably confidently guess that the EU ex-UK has double this population than does Australia. Yet not a word of caution about Kingfisher going BOM to SYD, where QF can only manage 3x weekly 332 flights amidst all SE Asian carriers providing connections. In the coming years at least 2-3 major Indian cities should gradually be able to sustain direct flights to major rich industrial countries without large NRI populations on the basis of business and tourist links--think of Germany, Japan, Switzerland, etc., not to mention newer powers like South Korea and China. I just wonder why there is so much attention in general for NRIs going home on super-discounted fares once a year or two and so little notice of the travel patterns of the Indian elite living in India, not to mention international businesspeople.
I'll add a similar comment about SA to JNB--analogous to QF in that neither offer can offer daily nonstops probably because the markets aren't all that big or because connecting airlines (SQ, TG, and MH to SYD and EK to JNB) take some of the pie. Similarly, traffic to exciting, happening places like China is still as not as high as to the wealthiest EU countries.
Post a Comment