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| Air India Boeing 777-200LR |
It is December and new flights are raining at
airports across India. Typically airlines commence new flight services around
the beginning of summer and winter season which start from last Sunday of March
and last Sunday of October respectively. But there is a whole lot of new
flights starting in December this time. Obviously it signals good times of
Indian aviation as it continues to grow at double-digit and became the fastest
growing major aviation market in the world. Although the growth is primarily
led by foreign carriers which are either starting new routes, increasing
frequencies on existing routes or upgrading the present capacity with change in
aircraft. But it is the national carrier Air India which had captured maximum
headlines with its launch of Delhi-San Francisco (DEL-SFO) non-stop
flight on Dec. 2;
Air India, the national carrier has introduced San
Francisco as its 4th US gateway on Dec. 2; Air India will fly the sector 3x
weekly using its Boeing 777-200LR aircraft. It is the only non-stop flight
available between India and US west coast. The flight is appearing to become
popular among large non-residential Indian population living there but it will
take more time to assess its real impact. In fact its inaugural flight on
DEL-SFO route flew with full-load, a remarkable achievement given the poor
financial performance of its international operations. The national carrier has
also introduced new frequency on the Delhi-Guwajati (DEL-GAU) sector with a 4x
weekly (-2-4-6 7) morning flight from Dec. 1; It also commences the first
Airbus A319 service on Kolkata-Durgapur-Delhi (CCU-RDP-DEL) route on Dec. 7;
the flight will operate 3x weekly. Earlier Air India Regional was the only
carrier on the CCU-RDP sector flying an ATR-42 aircraft 6x weekly. The Air
India Regional service will also continue as of now. One of the new feature
observed that Air India has stopped providing meals on shorter duration
flights. Both DEL-GAU & DEL-RDP-CCU flights have no meal services included
in the ticket. However, it is not clear whether there will be meals available
to purchase on-board like most low-cost carriers in India.
- DEL-SFO 3x weekly from Dec.
2
- DEL-GAU from daily to 11x
weekly from Dec. 1
- DEL-RDP 3x weekly from Dec.
7
- CCU-RDP 3x weekly from Dec.
7
Vistara, countries latest full-service carrier, has recently
inducted its 9th Airbus A320-232(wl) (VT-TTJ) aircraft in its fleet and it will
increase frequencies on key routes from mid-December. It will add 2 more
flights on the busy Delhi-Mumbai (DEL-BOM) sector from Dec. 15 taking the
number of its daily flights on the route from current 6 to 8 (on weekdays), a
total of 53 weekly flights one way. Vistara will also add an additional
frequency on the Delhi-Goa (DEL-GOI) route from Dec. 18 which will operate 4
days in a week (1- - -5 6 7), taking the frequency on the route from daily to
11x weekly. In the recent months, the carrier shows signals of improving its
operational statistics as in October it had crossed the 1 Lakh monthly
passengers mark for the first time and also achieved 67% passenger load factor,
an increase of 5% over what it had reported in September.
- DEL-BOM from 6x daily to 8x
daily Dec. 15 (on weekdays)
- DEL-GOI from daily to 11x
weekly from Dec. 18
SpiceJet, countries second largest low-cost carrier,
will further expand its international operations. From Dec. 10 it will
introduce a 6x weekly Chennai-Bangkok (MAA-BKK) flight service using its Boeing
737 Next Generation fleet. It will be the SpiceJet's second route to Bangkok
from India, currently it already serves Bangkok-Suvarnabhumi from
Kolkata.
- MAA-BKK 6x weekly from Dec.
10
TruJet, the Hyderabad based regional carrier has further
revamped its network and increased frequencies on key routes from Dec. 6; The
airline also launched new route to Goa on the same day, TruJet which focuses
heavily on religious (pilgrim) tourists on popular temple sectors, became the
first regional carrier to arrive in Goa, popular leisure destination. The
airline has doubled the frequency on Hyderabad -Chennai (HYD-MAA) route from
Dec. 6; The Hyderabad-Goa (HYD-GOI) flight will operate daily once.
- HYD-MAA from daily to 2x
daily from Dec. 6
- HYD-GOI daily from Dec. 6
IndiGo, countries largest carrier by passenger carried,
though has not yet commenced any new flights in December so far. But it is
known that IndiGo will launch an early morning Bangalore-Kolkata flight via
Bhubaneswar (BLR-BBI-CCU) on Jan. 1, 2016 but it has not yet opened the booking
of the flights till the time of writing this article. IndiGo is scheduled to start
receiving the latest Airbus A320NEO (manufacturer designation: A320-271N) by
the end of this month, it has 430 of such aircraft on order. Apart from the new
aircraft, it will soon dry-lease a 11 years old Airbus A320 aircraft (MSN:
2275), most likely to be registered as VT-IDO. Therefore significant numbers of
new flights are expected in the coming weeks from IndiGo.
Oman Air, the gulf carrier has increased its India capacity
from early December. After the recent liberalization of the
bilateral air services agreement between Indian and Oman, the weekly seats
entitlements has risen to 21,149 from 16,018 earlier. And Oman Air utilizing
the full benefit of the additional seats entitlements has increased frequencies
on key Indian routes. It has doubled the frequency on the Bangalore-Muscat
(BLR-MCT) and Kochi-Muscat (COK-MCT) sectors from daily to 2x daily both from
Dec. 1; Also the Lucknow-Muscat (LKO-MCT) frequency has been increased from
daily to 11x weekly from Dec 2; Goa-Muscat (GOI-MCT) from 6x weekly to daily
from Dec. 2 and finally the Jaipur-Muscat (JAI-MCT) frequncy has been increased
from daily to 10x weekly effective from Dec. 3; Although Air India is expected
to launch additional flights on India-Oman sector, so far no Indian carrier
have announced any plan to add capacity on the Oman secotr.
- BLR-MCT from daily to 2x
daily from Dec. 1
- COK-MCT from daily to 2x
daily from Dec. 1
- JAI-MCT from daily to 10x
weekly from Dec. 3
- LKO-MCT from daily to 11x
weekly from Dec. 2
- GOI-MCT from 6x weekly to
daily from Dec. 2
Tigerair, the Singapore based low-cost carrier, has made it
to North India with its maiden flight to Lucknow on Dec. 3; The
Lucknow-Singapore (LKO-SIN) flight will be operated 3x weekly using its Airbus
A320-232 fleet (180 seats). Lucknow became the 6th Indian destinations of
Tigerair as it already operates flights to Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kochi
and Trichy, all in South India.
- LKO-SIN 3x weekly from Dec.
3
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| Qatar Airways Boeing 787-8 Dream)Liner |
Qatar Airways, the
middle-eastern carrier had returned to Nagpur after almost 6.5 years, making it
the 13th Indian destinations. It has introduced daily flights on Nagpur-Doha
(NAG-DOH) route from Dec. 1, the flight will be operated using its Airbus A320
fleet. On the same day the the gulf carrier made the Kolkata capacity almost
double. As it has deployed a Boeing 787-8 Dream)Liner aircraft (254 seats) on
Kolkata-Doha (CCU-DOH) sector replacing the existing Airbus A320 service (144
seats).
- NAG-DOH daily from Dec. 1
- CCU-DOH from Airbus A320 to Boeing 787-8 from
Dec. 1
Gulf Air, the Bahrain based carrier, has marginally increased its India
capacity. From Dec. 2 it has started flying the Hyderabad-Bahrain (HYD-BAH)
route daily, earlier it used to fly only 5x weekly using its Airbus A321 fleet.
- HYD-BAH from 5x weekly to daily from Dec. 2
Kuwait Airways, the gulf carrier has increased its Mumbai capacity as it has
started flying its Boeing 747-400 on the Mumbai-Kuwait (BOM-KWI) route from
Dec. 2; It used to fly Boeing 777-200ER on the same route.
- BOM-KWI from Boeing 777-200ER to Boeing
747-400 from Dec. 2
Note:
All the routes shown here are operated
in both directions.
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