Passengers flying to West Asia can soon see fares going down by 10 to 30 per cent as Indian domestic operators such as Jet, its low-cost carrier (LCC) Jet Lite and Air Deccan are all set to fly to this market.
With monsoons round the corner, the airlines are busy announcing monsoon offers to woo passengers to travel during the rainy season, which is considered as the lean period for air travel.
SpiceJet Ltd., an Indian budget airline, will likely to sell a foreign currency convertible bond worth $90 million by early September to raise money for more plane purchases, a company executive said Wednesday.
Domestic air travel traffic has already seen a 23.87% rise over the same period in 2017.
SpiceJet, IndiGo, Jet Airways, Alliance Air, and Turbo Aviation are among the operators that have bagged the routes in the third round.
A court in Bulandshahr (Uttar Pradesh) has asked the Bangalore Police to ensure the presence of Kingfisher Airlines chief Vijay Mallya before it on October 31 on a pilot's petition alleging that the company was withholding his dues.
IndiGo will add Nagpur to its flight map from October 20 with daily flight to Mumbai and Kolkata.
With an aim to link the unconnected destinations in the country, Indian Airlines and its subsidiary Alliance Air would soon acquire small aircraft to fly to smaller cities, Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel said in New Delhi on Thursday.
The low fares will come with a discernible sea-change in service quality and minus the luxury which comes as an essential part of any long-haul travel
Majority of India's international routes have been captured by foreign airlines.
The national carrier's market share has declined from a near-monopoly to 16.6 per cent as of September 2014.
IndiGo which has close to 40 per cent market share, at present has 129 aircraft and operates 883 daily flights to 44 destinations. It also has around 400 aircraft on order.
Kingfisher Airlines Ltd has been directed by the Delhi High Court to pay Rs 52.61 lakh to a pilot.
A senior official in the central labour commissioner's office said the efforts of the government were to resolve the cases amicably and not to press for legal action against employers. "Everyone is going through tough times. We could initiate legal action if we want but that's not the idea. We want to address the issues amicably," the official said.
Unless Naresh Goyal pulls the proverbial rabbit out of his hat or reveals an unexpected ace of spades, the airline he built from scratch - many refer to it as "his baby" - may slip out of his grasp, says Anjuli Bhargava.
Aditya Ghosh, with no prior aviation background or MBA degree, managed not only to become the CEO of an airline but even piloted it to the top with almost half of the market.
GoAir is smaller in comparison to its rivals but is still surviving despite financial crisis.
The decision was taken after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that the lockdown across the country will be extended till May 3 to fight the coronavirus pandemic.
Barely a fortnight after it launched international operations and integrated low-cost carrier Simplify Deccan with it, Vijay Mallya-promoted Kingfisher Airlines plans to lay off at least 300 employees, official orders for which are to be conveyed on Monday.
Terming SpiceJet's offer of rupee one fare across its domestic network as "predatory" and a "malpractice", aviation regulator DGCA on Tuesday came down heavily on the no-frill carrier and asked it to stop such pricing immediately.
Most major carriers -- barring Deccan (which has a August-September financial year) and Kingfisher airlines -- do not agree on the figure. Hitesh Patel, executive vice-president, Kingfisher, said, "We have not yet decided on our increments but will follow the industry benchmarks."
Airlines earn ancillary revenues from freight, sale of food, drinks and gifts onboard, sale of travel insurance, hotel rooms and car rentals, through frequent flier programmes, and by trying to cross-sell other products like credit cards and medical insurance. Globally, airlines make 4-5 per cent of their revenues from ancillary sources.
GoAir reluctant to respond to overtures.
India's affluent middle class is rekindling its affair with long-distance train travel, as sharp jumps in domestic airline ticket prices push many former frequent fliers back to the railways.
"Earlier, we were being paid a salary of Rs 4.30 lakh per month. Now it has been cut to Rs 3.50 lakh, all in the name of integration (with the erstwhile Deccan)," said a Kingfisher pilot said on condition of anonymity. Kingfisher's management, while slashing the salaries, has taken the defence that it was only implementing the Deccan-Kingfisher package structure in Kingfisher post-the merger,' the pilot said.
Budget airlines are now set to explore the non-metro markets. With high growth prospects there, the carriers are pumping in funds and offering attractive packages to lure customers.
During the checks on the Cessna aircraft registered with Business Jets India, the DGCA found that the pilots in command did not have necessary training certificates.
GR Gopinath, chairman of Air Deccan (in which Vijay Mallya has picked up 26 per cent), says the policy is blatantly tilted towards protecting just two carriers - Jet Airways and Air-India - to maintain their monopoly in the international skies.
Only 9% of passengers on such airlines are first-timers: CAPA survey.
European aeroplane maker Airbus Industrie hopes to sell 55 of its A380 planes, including 10 freighter aircraft, in India in 20 years.
Shivaz Rai, owner of a travel agency in Delhi, spent Rs 48,000 on low-cost carrier Air Deccan's Superflier scheme offering coupons for 12 flights to any destination.
Rival airlines expect Jet Airways to restore some "sanity" in the pricing of tickets after the acquisition of Air Sahara.
Air Deccan boss Gopinath is considered the father of low cost air travel in India.
