The alliance between country's two biggest private carriers Jet Airways and Kingfisher Airlines will take six months to be fully operational, according to Kingfisher Chairman Vijay Mallya. Already the two carriers were cooperating "very closely in many ways" but it was not as simple as it sounded to operationalise the agreement, signed by them last October, Mallya told reporters.
"One project is taken at a time. If you decide that frequencies on a particular route operated by either Kingfisher or Jet are going to be changed, it is not as simple as making one phone call to the planning department and saying stop the flight," he said.
Asked if the alliance could take off fully in the next three to six months, he said: "Absolutely, hundred per cent."
For the deal to be smoothly implemented, Mallya's Airbus based fleet will have to be synergised with the largely Boeing based fleet of Jet.
When the hand-holding process by the two would be completed, they will command a market share of about 58 per cent (based on calendar 2008 figures).
Last year the two carriers had announced an alliance of wide-ranging proportions aimed at helping both carriers to significantly rationalise and reduce costs, provide improved standards of service and a wider choice of air travel options to consumers.
Source:indiatimes
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Monday, January 19, 2009
Cold wave sweeps north India
The entire state has come under an intense cold wave following heavy snowfall and rainfall across the higer reaches. The showers, however, brings sme relief to the farmers for cultivation of rabi crop.
The sky remained overcast over the weekend at most of the places in the state and finally it started raining causing the mercury to plummet and give the state the freezes.
With the exception of Nainital, the entire Kumaon region experienced rainfall. Snowfall was witnessed at higher altitudes like of Munsyari, Dharchula, Kapkot, Manila, Tharali, Pinderghati, Har-ki-Doon, Bedni, Roopkund besides Badrinath and Auli in Garhwal.
According to the director of Metrological department of the state Dr Anand Sharma, the weather would remain overcast and the cold wave is here to stay for a couple of more days.
Meanwhile, the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway, the only surface link between Kashmir and the rest of the country, was thrown open to traffic today after remaining closed for more than a day due to heavy snowfall and landslides in the area.
“Highway was reopened for vehicular traffic after the landslide that hit Panthal area was cleared at 1100 hours and snow at Jawahir tunnel was cleared, traffic police officials said.
However, motorists have been advised to move slowly due to threat of more landslides in Panthan belt and heavy snowfall in Banihal and Jawahir tunnel areas.
People in remote areas of North India woke up to a chilly morning to see water frozen in pipes and power supply disrupted. The high altitude Rohtang Pass was enshrouded in 10 ft-snow, ski slopes Solang Nallah in Kullu district had 19-cm snow, while it was 14.7 cm at Kalpa in Kinnaur district.
Over 3,500 vehicles stranded at several places on the 300-km long stretch have been allowed to move to their respective destination.
Border Road Organisation (BRO) personnel are working round-the-clock to clear the highway of snow and landslides and make it fully operational.
Flights cancelled due to fog
New Delhi, Jan 19: Dense fog disrupted normal operations at the Indira Gandhi International Airport here this morning with over 30 domestic and international flights being delayed and six others cancelled. “The fog, which began to descend late last night, affected normal operations at the airport, delaying the flights and diverting one to Jaipur,” a source at the airport said. Six flights were cancelled, it said.
Air India flight from Muscat to Delhi was diverted to Jaipur around 3.15 am when the general visibility was zero and the runway visibility range (RVR) was 100 metres.
The fog began to envelope the airport around midnight, when the visibility dipped to zero and the RVR to 75 metres for new runway (29/11) and 100 metres for main runway (28/10).
Source:thestatesman.net
The sky remained overcast over the weekend at most of the places in the state and finally it started raining causing the mercury to plummet and give the state the freezes.
With the exception of Nainital, the entire Kumaon region experienced rainfall. Snowfall was witnessed at higher altitudes like of Munsyari, Dharchula, Kapkot, Manila, Tharali, Pinderghati, Har-ki-Doon, Bedni, Roopkund besides Badrinath and Auli in Garhwal.
According to the director of Metrological department of the state Dr Anand Sharma, the weather would remain overcast and the cold wave is here to stay for a couple of more days.
Meanwhile, the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway, the only surface link between Kashmir and the rest of the country, was thrown open to traffic today after remaining closed for more than a day due to heavy snowfall and landslides in the area.
“Highway was reopened for vehicular traffic after the landslide that hit Panthal area was cleared at 1100 hours and snow at Jawahir tunnel was cleared, traffic police officials said.
However, motorists have been advised to move slowly due to threat of more landslides in Panthan belt and heavy snowfall in Banihal and Jawahir tunnel areas.
People in remote areas of North India woke up to a chilly morning to see water frozen in pipes and power supply disrupted. The high altitude Rohtang Pass was enshrouded in 10 ft-snow, ski slopes Solang Nallah in Kullu district had 19-cm snow, while it was 14.7 cm at Kalpa in Kinnaur district.
Over 3,500 vehicles stranded at several places on the 300-km long stretch have been allowed to move to their respective destination.
Border Road Organisation (BRO) personnel are working round-the-clock to clear the highway of snow and landslides and make it fully operational.
Flights cancelled due to fog
New Delhi, Jan 19: Dense fog disrupted normal operations at the Indira Gandhi International Airport here this morning with over 30 domestic and international flights being delayed and six others cancelled. “The fog, which began to descend late last night, affected normal operations at the airport, delaying the flights and diverting one to Jaipur,” a source at the airport said. Six flights were cancelled, it said.
Air India flight from Muscat to Delhi was diverted to Jaipur around 3.15 am when the general visibility was zero and the runway visibility range (RVR) was 100 metres.
The fog began to envelope the airport around midnight, when the visibility dipped to zero and the RVR to 75 metres for new runway (29/11) and 100 metres for main runway (28/10).
Source:thestatesman.net
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Jet-Kingfisher alliance fails to take off
Three months after rivals Jet Airways (India) Ltd and Kingfisher Airlines Ltd announced an ambitious operating alliance that would help both cut costs in the background of a slowing economy and slowing business, the airlines seem to be flying their separate ways, according to analysts and government officials.
Both airlines declined comment for this story.
The alliance would have covered at least 800 flights operated every day by the two airlines, but it is far from being executed on the ground or in the air, say analysts and officials at India’s aviation ministry.
On 13 October, Naresh Goyal, the chairman of Jet and Vijay Mallya, the chairman of Kingfisher, said they were coming together to form an alliance given the harsh economic environment and would cooperate under eight specific areas: code-sharing flights, interline agreements, joint fuel management to reduce fuel expenses, common ground-handling, cross-selling of flight inventories, network rationalization, cross-utilization of crew on similar aircraft types and reciprocity in frequent flier programmes to achieve profitability.
Code-sharing refers to a ticket marketing practice among airlines that allows carriers to share codes used in airline reservation systems. On the ground, this helps customers purchase a single ticket on a journey that has two flights such as a New Delhi-Amsterdam one and an Amsterdam-New York one on two different airlines.
The mid-October announcement had raised high expectations, with Goyal calling it a “completely new industrial model for aviation in India which would be based on an unprecedented depth of cooperation between the two companies”. Mallya had said the alliance would “benefit customers by delivering the most comprehensive integration in the industry”.
The alliance, which also meant neither airline needed as many people as it had on the rolls, ran into trouble in its first few days when a plan by Jet Airways to sack 1,900 staffers ran into trouble with high-decibel employee protests and intervention by politicians.
Last week, a senior ministry official said the administration has not been officially informed of any alliance or any efforts jointly planned by the two airlines. “Nothing at all, absolutely nothing,” said M. Madhavan Nambiar, secretary, ministry of civil aviation, when asked if the alliance had sought any permission from the government. “I don’t think they have done anything or they have communicated anything.”
Although it has not progressed on approvals for such arrangements with Kingfisher, Jet Airways has taken aviation regulator director general of civil aviation’s permission for code-sharing flights with its low-fare subsidiary JetLite Ltd. Such permissions were announced on 21 October.
Source:livemint.com
Both airlines declined comment for this story.
The alliance would have covered at least 800 flights operated every day by the two airlines, but it is far from being executed on the ground or in the air, say analysts and officials at India’s aviation ministry.
On 13 October, Naresh Goyal, the chairman of Jet and Vijay Mallya, the chairman of Kingfisher, said they were coming together to form an alliance given the harsh economic environment and would cooperate under eight specific areas: code-sharing flights, interline agreements, joint fuel management to reduce fuel expenses, common ground-handling, cross-selling of flight inventories, network rationalization, cross-utilization of crew on similar aircraft types and reciprocity in frequent flier programmes to achieve profitability.
Code-sharing refers to a ticket marketing practice among airlines that allows carriers to share codes used in airline reservation systems. On the ground, this helps customers purchase a single ticket on a journey that has two flights such as a New Delhi-Amsterdam one and an Amsterdam-New York one on two different airlines.
The mid-October announcement had raised high expectations, with Goyal calling it a “completely new industrial model for aviation in India which would be based on an unprecedented depth of cooperation between the two companies”. Mallya had said the alliance would “benefit customers by delivering the most comprehensive integration in the industry”.
The alliance, which also meant neither airline needed as many people as it had on the rolls, ran into trouble in its first few days when a plan by Jet Airways to sack 1,900 staffers ran into trouble with high-decibel employee protests and intervention by politicians.
Last week, a senior ministry official said the administration has not been officially informed of any alliance or any efforts jointly planned by the two airlines. “Nothing at all, absolutely nothing,” said M. Madhavan Nambiar, secretary, ministry of civil aviation, when asked if the alliance had sought any permission from the government. “I don’t think they have done anything or they have communicated anything.”
Although it has not progressed on approvals for such arrangements with Kingfisher, Jet Airways has taken aviation regulator director general of civil aviation’s permission for code-sharing flights with its low-fare subsidiary JetLite Ltd. Such permissions were announced on 21 October.
Source:livemint.com
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Air India to slash basic fares by 60%
After announcing a fare reduction of up to 82% a few days back, national carrier Air India has announced that it will cut basic fares anywhere between 45% and 60% in February following a drop in ATF prices.
A government official said that the National Aviation Corporation of India (Nacil), which controls Air India, is currently working on the mechanism of reduction. The management of Air India and even the government are keen that airfares should drop to 2005 levels. An Air India official based in Delhi told ET: “We are not ruling out a cut on our basic fares in the immediate future.” When contacted, the Air India spokesperson declined to comment on the possibility of a fare cut.
The proposed fare cut will be implemented in select sectors, which will include routes to metros, apart from tier-I & II cities. A 50% drop in the average basic fare will mean that a ticket on the Delhi-Mumbai sector will have a basic fare of Rs 837 instead of Rs 1,675. Similarly, the Mumbai-Bangalore basic fare will be Rs 600 instead of Rs 1,200.
These fares are exclusive of taxes and fuel surcharge. Airlines have been desperately trying to increase load factor. Domestic air traffic has hit a record low this November when only 30 lakh people flew compared with 38 lakh for November 2007—a drop of 21.3%. Industry trackers expect ATF prices to fall further in a few days by at least 6%.
Source:indiatimes.com
A government official said that the National Aviation Corporation of India (Nacil), which controls Air India, is currently working on the mechanism of reduction. The management of Air India and even the government are keen that airfares should drop to 2005 levels. An Air India official based in Delhi told ET: “We are not ruling out a cut on our basic fares in the immediate future.” When contacted, the Air India spokesperson declined to comment on the possibility of a fare cut.
The proposed fare cut will be implemented in select sectors, which will include routes to metros, apart from tier-I & II cities. A 50% drop in the average basic fare will mean that a ticket on the Delhi-Mumbai sector will have a basic fare of Rs 837 instead of Rs 1,675. Similarly, the Mumbai-Bangalore basic fare will be Rs 600 instead of Rs 1,200.
These fares are exclusive of taxes and fuel surcharge. Airlines have been desperately trying to increase load factor. Domestic air traffic has hit a record low this November when only 30 lakh people flew compared with 38 lakh for November 2007—a drop of 21.3%. Industry trackers expect ATF prices to fall further in a few days by at least 6%.
Source:indiatimes.com
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