IndiGo arrives in Port Blair, its 41st destination

In a first, IndiGo goes beyond the mainland India in ten years of its 'domestic' operations. The airline launches Port Blair as its 41st destinations which is also its 36th station in India. In a typical IndiGo way, it is adding multiple frequencies and at least two non-stop destinations from the new station. Daily Delhi-Port Blair flight via Kolkata from today and daily Hyderabad-Port Blair flight via Chennai from 30 September are being introduced. Interestingly the Tata Singapore Airlines joint venture full service carrier Vistara too is scheduled to launch Delhi-Port Blair flight via Kolkata on 30 September. And Vistara has made the route announcement long back on 23 June and IndiGo has followed it up and opened the reservations on 29 August barely a month ago from launch. This would be the first time when IndiGo has closely followed up Vistara network growth as so far it had chased the other new joint venture airline of Tata, AirAsia India. 

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.

Vistara to go Big with Kolkata

Vistara, the premium full service carrier has extended its service to Kolkata with double daily* flights to Delhi commencing today. Kolkata, the fifth busiest airport in India and the busiest airport in Eastern India, becomes the 17th destination of the airline, it also the third busiest domestic route from Delhi Airport. As of today, Vistara operates a total of 457 weekly flights in a network of 36 routes across India. And the airline plans to increase the number of weekly flights to 580 by the start of the winter schedule 2016-17 (effective 30 October 2016) with Kolkata having the third largest operation after Delhi and Mumbai. Vistara seems to be bullish about its prospect in Kolkata as it plans to operate as many as six-seven daily flights from Kolkata on four different routes by the year end. In the immediate term, it is likely to announce the second route from Kolkata by early next week and it would be interesting to see whether it opens the route to a destination within its existing network (like Mumbai, Bengaluru, Guwahati) or launch a all new destination (like Port Blair).

Vistara team during service launch in Kolkata on 9 June 2016

The Curious Case of Kolkata-Europe direct flight

Currently Kolkata airport lacks any direct link to Europe, so people travelling to European destinations have to fly via Delhi, Mumbai or Middle East hubs. Even smaller cities like Ahmedabad and Amritsar have direct flight to London and Birmingham via Mumbai and Delhi respectively owing to much larger diaspora from Gujarat and Punjab compared to that of Bengal. Kolkata's long-haul international market heavily depends on visiting friends and relatives (VFR) traffic which is often price sensitive therefore a sizable demand for economy-class seats exist but premier class (business-class or higher) demand remains low on European routes.

Durgapur Airport continues to struggle with low passenger demand

India's first private greenfield airport at Andal near Durgapur, West Bengal continues to struggle even after a year of its commissioning. The airport project which is developed by the Bengal Aerotropolis Project limited (BAPL) which has Singapore's Changi Airport as one of its stake holder, is located just 170 km away from the Kolkata Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport, the prime airport of East India. Therefore it is facing challenges in convincing new airlines to fly from the airport as it is too close to Kolkata airport. After long delays the airport had secured final operational clearance from the aviation regulator DGCA on 24 April 2015 and scheduled commercial flight operation started on 18 May 2015; Air India under its regional arm Alliance Air was the first airline to operate 3 weekly flights on Kolkata-Durgapur-Kolkata sector with 48 seater ATR-42 turboprop aircraft. Alliance Air had agreed to serve the route under the 'viability gap funding' scheme where the airport operator guarantied for a minimum load or compensate for the same so that the airline didn't make any loss on the route. But the response of the 45 minute short flight was muted given the sector was already well connected though Rail and road transports facilities. 

Bhutanese flag carrier Druk Air has entered into an agreement with the airport operator where it will use Durgapur Airport as a technical and refueling stop. Since Durgapur doesn't have clearance for international flight, Druk Air not able to operate commercial flight service at the moment. BAPL also is in talk with several private airlines in order to start direct flight to Mumbai and 1 or 2 destinations in South India. But all depends on the success of its maiden Delhi service by Air India as private operators having a close eye on the statistics of the route. Let's have a look at the performance of the two routes currently in operation from Durgapur Airport, Delhi and Kolkata.

From May to November 2015, Alliance Air only operated point to point service between Kolkata and Durgapur which used to be the only route of the airport. And as per DGCA released data of domestic city-pair passenger traffic, the route was not at all successful with below 50% loads on an average. From December Air India had commenced Kolkata-Durgapur-Delhi Airbus service while Alliance Air continued its ATR service till late December. This had brought complexity in the operation as a flight originating from Kolkata not just have passengers destined for Durgapur but also passengers flying one-stop to Delhi via Durgapur. Now it is surprising to see there a sharp fall in the Kolkata-Durgapur traffic in December and January at  a time when the service was upgauged from ATR-42 to Airbus A319. But the exact load factor of those two routes could not be calculated for the month of December and January on Kolkata-Durgapur and Durgapur-Delhi route as it also might have carried some one-stop passengers on Kolkata-Delhi route. However one can doubt the appeal of such one-stop flight on the well served Kolkata-Delhi route as 22 daily non-stop flights (one way) operate on the route including Air India's own 4 daily service. Air India flies double daily Dreamliner service on the route.

Month	CCU-RDP pax	RDP-CCU pax	Total pax	Load factor
Aug’15	86	135	221	17.70%
Sep’15	176	239	415	33.25%
Oct’15	183	332	515	41.26%
Nov’15	154	362	516	41.34%
Dec’15	152	165	317	--
Jan’15	27	118	145	--

Air India's inaugural flight being welcomed with cannon shower at Durgapur

On 7 December 2015, Air India officially launched 3 weekly Kolkata-Durgapur-Delhi flights and return with 144 seater Airbus A319 aircraft with regular service started from 21 December 2015 while Alliance Air continued its Kolkata-Durgapur ATR-42 service till 18 December 2015; January 2016 was the first full month of the Delhi-Durgapur flight and total 1,037 passengers flew between Durgapur and Delhi during the month against a monthly seat capacity of 3,744 on the route. But this doesn't reflect the actual loads of the route as the same flight also offers one-stop connection on the Kolkata-Delhi route. But the January 2016 passengers data shows a great challenge for the Durgapur Airport.

Flight No.	Origin: Departure	Destination: Arrival	Frequency
AI 733	Kolkata: 08:25	Durgapur: 09:00	1,3,5
AI 733	Durgapur: 09:30	Delhi: 11:45	1,3,5
AI 734	Delhi: 12:35	Durgapur: 14:40	1,3,5
AI 734	Durgapur: 15:20	Kolkata: 15:55	1,3,5

Shandong Airlines to cease Delhi-Kunming flight in end March

In November 2015, East China's Jinan based Shandong Airlines had commenced 4 weekly service to Delhi from Kunming. The airline also provides one-stop connection to its hubs in Jinan and Qingdao from Delhi via Kunming. It operates 167 seats Boeing 737-800 aircraft on the 2,574 km Delhi-Kunming route. Kunming, the capital of South-west China's Yunan province, is a major commercial center and the Changshui International Airport is major hub for short-haul international flights to South and South-east Asia. Kunming also one of the nearest Chinese major city from India and a direct flight from Delhi was much awaited. Shandong Airlines's service launch on Delhi-Kunming route in November 2015 therefore was very welcome development which also provides Delhi Airport with connectivity to regional China (Jinan, Qingdao) through one-stop flights. But it seems the airline is withdrawing its Delhi service in summer 2016 season as it has closed booking on the route after 25 March 2016;