11 Sep 2017

India Aviation Industry Newsletter 11 September

AirAsia India adds one A320 aircraft, to launch 3 new routes AirAsia India announced said it has inducted a new Airbus A320 aircraft in its fleet and will commence flight services to three new routes from Ranchi from October. AirAsia India will introduce flights from Ranchi to Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Bhubaneswar, besides scaling up the frequency on Bengaluru-Hyderabad route, the airline said in a statement. AirAsia plans to aggressively grow its Indian joint venture fleet by adding 10 planes a year and "India will become a very big hub for us eventually," AirAsia group chief executive officer Tony Fernandes had said at the time of launch of services more than three years ago. India's Burgeoning Civil Aviation Market And The Prospects For Boeing And Airbus Civil aviation is a sunrise sector in India, and competition is intensifying between Boeing and Airbus. While Airbus looks well-positioned to capture the narrow-body segment, the competition looks stiff in the wide-body segment, with both holding the potential to capture a decent share. India’s air travel market has been enjoying steady growth, with the number of passengers doubling since 2006. With 131 million passengers in 2016, India jumped four spots in as many years in the global air traffic rankings according to data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA). Indian LCC Spicejet eyes amphibian operations SpiceJet is set to further diversify its business model through the proposed introduction of amphibian/seaplane operations. According to The Times of India, the Indian budget carrier is scheduled to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Japan’s Setouchi Holdings during Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's visit next week. The terms of the deal were not revealed. India-Malaysia air traffic flies on Indonesian wings The busy India-Malaysia air sector is seeing a sudden spike in traffic, thanks to some ingenuity of AirAsia and Lion Group – the two low-cost carriers from Southeast Asia. The carriers which have exhausted the bilateral rights – the number of seats and flights they can operate to India and back – are using the fifth freedom rights meant for Indonesian airlines to cater to the growing traffic, according to a report by aviation consultant CAPA. IndiGo eyes wet lease to cash in on winter traffic A slowdown in the delivery of new aircraft has forced India’s biggest airline, IndiGo, to consider the wet-lease option to raise its passenger capacity for the upcoming winter schedule.  The airline is in talks with Lithuanian airline SmallPlanet and troubled European airlines Air Berlin and Alitalia to wet lease at least seven A320 planes, sources close to the development said. While IndiGo has been dry leasing older planes since 2015, this will be the first time the airline will resort to wet lease. SpiceJet Shows Long-Haul Intent With Boeing-Airbus Contest Indian budget airline SpiceJet Ltd. has begun an order contest between Boeing Co. and Airbus SE for wide-body aircraft, in the strongest indication yet that it will go ahead with a move into discount long-distance flights. The carrier is evaluating the U.S. manufacturer’s biggest 787-10 Dreamliner together with Airbus’s A350-1000, Ajay Singh, its chairman, told Bloomberg TV last Thursday. Vistara to start international operations soon Vistara, a joint venture between Tata Sons and Singapore Airlines, is likely to start its international operations soon, its Chief Executive Officer Phee Teik Yeoh said in an recent interview. Vistara and Japan Airlines signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to pursue commercial opportunities that combine synergies of both airlines with the aim of providing greater convenience to their joint customers travelling between India and Japan, and through Japan to points beyond. Acumen Aviation © 11 September All Rights Reserved.