01 Jul 2019

India Aviation Industry Newsletter 1 July

Airfares set to fall as Jet Airways headwinds beginning to cool down, says Thomas Cook Air passengers, who have been bearing the brunt of a surge in airfares due to troubles in the Indian aviation industry of late, may have a reason to heave a sigh of relief as the higher airfares are cooling down, Madhavan Menon, CMD of Thomas Cook (India), told CNBC TV18 in an interview. “The headwind of higher fares due to the Jet Airways ceasing to exist is coming off now and in reality, both domestic and international fares have stabilised,” Madhavan Menon said. GoAir fleet reaches 50 aircraft looks to add one aircraft per month GoAir has added 50th aircraft to its fleet, doubling its fleet in a span of less than two years, it said in a statement. The Wadia group airline has become the fastest growing carrier in the country, it said. However, it is still far behind rival SpiceJet and other airlines such as IndiGo, Air India, with less than half the fleet size. Going ahead, GoAir looks to add at least one aircraft every month, on average, Jeh Wadia, Managing Director, GoAir, announced. Speaking about the company’s plans of expanding further, he also said that the airline will add four more international destinations to its network. India needs to scale up airport infrastructure: Virgin Atlantic The airport infrastructure in India needs to be scaled up to meet the growing demand, according to David Hodges, country head India of Virgin Atlantic (VA). Hodges said, “India is a great growth market, we have seen a 20 per cent growth since we were here last time.” According to Hodges, the Indian aviation market is likely to become the third largest in the next few years with airlines such as SpiceJet, IndiGo and Vistara rapidly expanding. IndiGo launches maiden flights to China effective September 2019; announces Chengdu as its 19th International destination IndiGo will extend connectivity into China to one of its busiest and fastest growing cities – Chengdu. While also operating to five other international destinations in Asia, this flight will make Chengdu, the airline’s 19th international destination. This will be the first non-stop service between Chengdu to India. Mr. William Boulter, Chief Commercial Officer, IndiGo said, “This is truly a milestone moment for all of us at IndiGo. “India is witnessing a much higher growth rate with respect to aviation and currently the India-China route is underserved by Indian carriers. With our plan to operate non-stop daily flights to this Chengdu we are providing the much needed connectivity between the two destinations. China is a market with immense potential and holds prominent trade, cultural and tourism values. We hope to further strengthen this relation by announcing our entry into China.” IndiGo most punctual; GoAir, AirAsia among top 3 IndiGo has emerged as the most punctual airline in India, followed by GoAir and AirAsia India, in the rankings released on Thursday by UK’s air intelligence group OAG. IndiGo scored an annual OTP (on-time performance) record of 81% for the 39,295 flights operated between June 2018 and May 2019. The survey assigned star ratings to airlines and airports, ranging from one star to five stars. Airlines and airports with the best on-time performance, for example, the top 10%, received five stars, it said. “IndiGo (81.5%) is the largest low-cost carrier to earn four stars with Jetstar Asia (84.6 %), Thai AirAsia. SpiceJet gets 43% of slots vacated by Jet Airways SpiceJet has acquired the most number of airport slots 43% in total vacated by Jet Airways, according to a report by Elara Capital. TCS wins deal to digitise daily operations of India's aviation regulator Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has won a mandate from India’s civil aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to digitise its daily operations. As part of National Civil Aviation Policy (2017), it was planned that the aviation regulator’s daily functioning will be digitised. The project is named as E-Governance for Civil Aviation (eGCA). Upcoming Noida International Airport at Jewar will be major air cargo hub for India The upcoming Noida International Airport (NIA) at Jewar will be a trans-shipment hub for the country once it starts operations in 2022-23, according to the development plan of the Techno Economic Feasibility Report (TEFR) prepared by PricewaterhouseCoopers. As per the report, the airport is expected to cater to 2.5 million tons of cargo in the next two decades. The first phase is expected to cater to 0.5 million tons of cargo, which is estimated to increase to 2.6 million tons by 2045 as 51 per cent of cargo traffic at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International airport is being generated in the primary hinterland of NIA. The primary hinterland for NIA includes Mathura, Agra, Aligarh, Palwal, Greater Noida, Noida, Meerut and Ghaziabad. Acumen Aviation © 1 July 2019 All Rights Reserved.