Underserved Route: Kolkata-Pune

Kolkata and Pune, the two major cities of the East and West India, are served by the fifth busiest and ninth busiest airports in India respectively. But the direct air connectivity between Kolkata and Pune is not yet fully developed as only one daily non-stop flight and three one-stop direct flights are operational on the route as of date. In fact Kolkata is the only metro city which receives just one daily non-stop flight from Pune. Still a rapid increase has been experienced in the demand of air travel between the two cities in recent times. In May 2016, a total of 19,323 O&D passengers (two-way) have traveled between Kolkata and Pune, reporting a 26% growth from almost a year ago.

Analysis: Bengaluru-Guwahati direct flight

The prospect of new direct flight between Bengaluru, the leading metropolis of South India and Guwahati, the hub of entire North East India, has never been so bright. As a rapid increase has been experienced in the demand of air travel between the two cities in recent times. In fact Bengaluru is the fourth busiest domestic route from Guwahati. In May 2016, a total of 17,223 O&D passengers (two-way) have traveled between Bengaluru and Guwahati which is more than double the number of passengers traveled almost a year ago. The flight distance between Bengaluru and Guwahati is 2,042 km (1,102 nm) making it one of the longest domestic route in India.

Focus on CAT-II, IIA & III routes in Vistara's initial summer schedule

On 8 March 2016, Vistara has revealed its initial summer 2016 schedule which proposes to take the number weekly flights to almost 400 from the current level of 317, a 26% rise effective from 27 March 2016; The schedule also adds 3 new destinations namely, Jammu, Kochi and Srinagar in the network. The airline launches new destinations like Jammu and Srinagar, located north of Delhi for the first time in its 15 months of operational history which is going to help it implementing the hub-spoke model better out of its Delhi Airport hub.

Comparative analysis of Bengaluru and Chennai Airport's passenger traffics

If we look at the top 10 busiest airports in India while Delhi and Mumbai are settled for the first and second position respectively for a quite a long time, competition can be seen between Bengaluru and Chennai for the third position. Until 2014 Chennai used to be at number 3 when Kempegowda International Airport in Bengaluru replaced it and became the third busiest Indian airport and the busiest airport in the South India. However a huge gap remains between Mumbai (second) and Bengaluru (third) airport's passenger volumes. Now if we look at the CY2015 ranking of top 10 airports (see above chart) and their passenger growth rates while all airports had recorded double digit growth rate, Chennai was the only one to grow at below 10% rate.

Revealed: Pattern for 99 & 100th aircraft of IndiGo, to operate one of the longest domestic flight

IndiGo, India's largest carrier by passenger volume, is all set to expand its domestic capacity in the new year.  It has already opened booking for a range of new flights to be operated from second week of January 2016. The new flights include the first non-stop flight between the national capital Delhi and Kerala capital Trivandrum. This is going to be one of the longest domestic flights with great circle distance of 1,201 nautical miles (NM) or 2,224 km and block time of 3 hours 15 minutes. IndiGo is increasing its presence at Kempegowda International Airport, Bengaluru as it will station one more aircraft there and will operate new frequencies to Ahmedabad, Bhubaneswar and Visakhapatnam from Bengaluru.

With the arrival of the new Airbus A320neo (-271N) likely to be delayed at least by January end. IndiGo will operate these new flights with old Airbus A320ceo aircraft currently being dry-leased from various sources and it is evident that IndiGo to have at least 2 more such aircraft by the end of December 2015. With this IndiGo will become only the third airlines in India to have a 100 aircraft fleet after Air India & Jet Airways. Anticipating a potential delay in the A320neo delivery, IndiGo management was already in the process of taking a 11.3 years old A320ceo (MSN: 2275) on dry-lease and now it is learned that another 11 years old A320ceo (MSN: 2359) will also join it's fleet soon. Which is currently being painted in IndiGo colors in Shannon, Ireland. Eventually the airline may take up to 4 such old aircraft on dry-lease. Your author had already indicated before that IndiGo to dry-lease not just 1 more but several old Airbus A320ceo in the coming weeks to fuel its domestic growth till the arrival of A320neo. Currently IndiGo has 98 A320ceo aircraft in its fleet out of which 14 have been inducted old (VT-IDX, X=A-N). The upcoming aircraft will likely to be registered with VT-IDO onward.

The 99th aircraft, to be based at Kempegowda International Airport, Bengaluru, will operate the BLR-VTZ-BLR-AMD-BLR-BBI-CCU-BBI-BLR pattern from 7 January 2016. Overall the aircraft will clock a block time of 13 hours 30 minutes with 8 flights a day. This will help IndiGo to increase daily departures from Bengaluru from current 31 to 34.

The most important feature of this pattern is the first non-stop flight between Delhi and Trivandrum, one of the longest domestic flights. No other airline operates non-stop flight on this route. However it is not yet clear where the aircraft will be stationed at night or it will operate late night/early morning flight, better known as red-eye flight. The partial pattern, known by the time of writing this piece, includes MAA-TRV-DEL-TRV-MAA effective from 7 January 2016. The airline is expected to open booking for 1 or 2 more rotation within this pattern.