TKMCE From India, joined May 2002, 841 posts, RR: 2 Posted (8 years 1 month 2 weeks 4 days 15 hours ago) and read 3902 times:
India's first LCC- apparently going great guns. But be aware that there are chinks showing up.
Although they trumpeted with great fan fare the launch of servicees of the 4th and 5th A320s based in DEL and HYD, on March 27th making a total of 5 A320s, one of them seem to be still on the ground as I understand due to shortage of crews.
One of the two flights on the DEL BLR DEL , DEL BOM DEL and BOM BLR BOM have been continusously cancelled for the past few days (information thanks to what is provided helpfully in the Air Deccan website itself). There seems to be a serious shortage of crew and word is getting around that the reason is that they want staff to work on poverty level wages!
I can foresee the situation to get worse only now that the new start ups start operating. So be careful if you are booking tickets with them esp on the A320 sectors. ATR sectors seems to be stable so far although as I understand sectors like BOM AMD do get cancelled quite often.
And finally before you jump to Air Deccan for that cheap fare, check out the fares in the internet in the Jet Airways website. Jet is using Dynamic Yield Management so you may get cheap fares even at the last minute with hardly any restrictions. As I mentioned in a previous thread, I was able to get a MAA CJB fare for next day travel at Rs 1800 viz a viz Air Deccan' Rs 2800!
Stealthpilot From India, joined May 2004, 510 posts, RR: 0 Reply 1, posted (8 years 1 month 2 weeks 4 days 13 hours ago) and read 3779 times:
Yup DN is facing a crew shortage alright! They recently made a deal with KingFisher where they wouldn’t 'steal' each others employees, and I believe they agreed to help each other out in other aspects (share the new simulators coming up in Bangalore?)
Shortage of crew to fly the planes = wow! I wouldn’t be surprised if it occurred in the near future but I didn’t think it would happen so fast. Let’s hope this ‘shortage’ (mildly) continues for the next 2 years, makes my prospects of getting a job even better once I graduate
-Nikhil
HAWK21M From India, joined Jan 2001, 31201 posts, RR: 58 Reply 2, posted (8 years 1 month 2 weeks 3 days 16 hours ago) and read 3576 times:
Shortage of Flying crew is a Big Issue among all Airlines currently,especially KF,AD,BD & Spicejet.
Even IA & AIe requires a lot.
Two F/Os left BD yesterday for IA.
Some Expats are being recruited soon.
Even AMEs shortages are creeping up.
regds
MEL
AirIndia From United Arab Emirates, joined Jan 2001, 1546 posts, RR: 1 Reply 5, posted (8 years 1 month 2 weeks 2 days 18 hours ago) and read 3321 times:
I hope they dont cancel my flight for 13th, delay wud be fine.
I think the 4PM DEL from BOM is on the older 320s...
AirIndia From United Arab Emirates, joined Jan 2001, 1546 posts, RR: 1 Reply 7, posted (8 years 1 month 1 week 6 days 18 hours ago) and read 3101 times:
They have rescheduled the 4PM flight to 4:50 PM now. I checked this on their site. they hadnot informed me about this. This is really un-professional.
AirIndia From United Arab Emirates, joined Jan 2001, 1546 posts, RR: 1 Reply 9, posted (8 years 1 month 1 week 6 days 15 hours ago) and read 3002 times:
Quoting HAWK21M (Reply 8): Hopefully you would be posting a Trip Report.
My sister was here this weekend, and has taken my camera with her to Goa. I dont know how much exciting it wud be to post a report without pics.
Mrniji From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 10, posted (8 years 1 month 1 week 6 days 15 hours ago) and read 2991 times:
Quoting AirIndia (Reply 9): trying to get a cam from some frnd...
We will use mine to monitor the mini a.net meeting in DEL.. btw, tomorow I will do my best to get tickets for the last ODI - should I try to grab you one? SMS be best
AirIndia From United Arab Emirates, joined Jan 2001, 1546 posts, RR: 1 Reply 11, posted (8 years 1 month 1 week 6 days 15 hours ago) and read 2981 times:
TKMCE From India, joined May 2002, 841 posts, RR: 2 Reply 13, posted (8 years 1 month 1 week 6 days ago) and read 2823 times:
Back to the topic
IC, Jet and Sahara have all hiked fares by around 12% thanks due to the spiralling costs of ATF. But Air Deccan as usual have not raised fares saying their higher occupancy rates compensate for it.
Now this is all fine in theory- but in practice when you are having A320s, which they are struggling to keep on air (despite brave announcements - one of the five A 320s have been on the ground for the past ten days) due to a severe shortage of crew, is this such a smart move?? As it is they end up paying lease rentals on the aircraft, whether in the ground or in the air and in many of the routes now Jet is matching them move for move with their dynamic "Check Fares" now being introduced into the Mumbai Coimbatore route as well.
In addition to this I understand Deccan is hiring expat crews (not getting too many takers as I understand because of their spectaculary low salaries) and this pushes up their costs as well.
Also nowadays the loads are not as high as it used to be.
As of today (12th April) seats are avaiable for ALL Air Deccan flights on all sectors tommorrow, 13 April and they have over 10 flights a day from HYD. You should also remember that of these flights all except 3 are ATR flights.
Also a comparison of lowest fares (for 13 April) as of today (12 April) for Air Deccan vs Jet is interesting (all fares incl of taxes)
Hyderabad Chennai Deccan - Rs 2321 Jet - Rs 2911
Hyderabad Bangalore Deccan - Rs 3171 Jet- Rs 5171
Hyderabad Delhi Deccan - Rs 4921 Jet - Rs 4771
Hyderabad Kolkata Deccan - Rs 4871 Jet - Rs 4550
You can see that for two of the four sectors they compete head to head, Jet is cheaper than Deccan whle for Chennai sector they come close. Only in the case of BLR is there a big difference (but this is a sector Jet has a major capacity crunch with one ATR and a 737 which continues to CCU).
I have a feeling in view of all the above, Air Deccan is a bubble going to burst!!!!
Mrniji From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 14, posted (8 years 1 month 1 week 5 days 23 hours ago) and read 2802 times:
Quoting TKMCE (Reply 13): I have a feeling in view of all the above, Air Deccan is a bubble going to burst!!!!
Let's see what happens when the other LCCs come.. there might be overcompetition. I think it is difficult to predict, but you may be right, though I think that they might become a good regional and trunk route player..
Maybe I should aply as beinga n FA with them.. they might even take me
AirIndia From United Arab Emirates, joined Jan 2001, 1546 posts, RR: 1 Reply 15, posted (8 years 1 month 1 week 5 days 21 hours ago) and read 2753 times:
Quoting Mrniji (Reply 14): aply as beinga n FA with them
with so many airlines coming up and an airline seat becoming more like a commodity, there might be huge opportunity in marketing as there can be lot of research involved, is anyone aware of such openings?
TKMCE From India, joined May 2002, 841 posts, RR: 2 Reply 17, posted (8 years 1 month 1 week 5 days 19 hours ago) and read 2711 times:
Quoting AirIndia (Reply 15): with so many airlines coming up and an airline seat becoming more like a commodity, there might be huge opportunity in marketing as there can be lot of research involved, is anyone aware of such openings?
Not with Air Deccan. anyway!! As it is I heard even their pilot salaries are so lucrative that there are hardly any takers
AirIndia From United Arab Emirates, joined Jan 2001, 1546 posts, RR: 1 Reply 18, posted (8 years 1 month 1 week 5 days 2 hours ago) and read 2588 times:
Nimish From India, joined Feb 2005, 3078 posts, RR: 9 Reply 20, posted (8 years 1 month 1 week 4 days 19 hours ago) and read 2455 times:
I really hope DN does survive, they've had a huge impact on the Indian airlines in the past year they've been in business, and it's all been for the better for the passengers.
The airlines themselves must be cursing DN for bringing much needed price competition into the market, and hence undoubtedly there will be many (vocal) detractors to the airline.
Given a market driven economy, pilots/mx folks need to get market based salaries, and if the market is on the way up, DN will need to follow as well. There's no way they can pull pilots out of thin air! If that means their air fares go up by a notch, so be it, since they'll still be much cheaper than full price tickets on traditional airlines.
Airlines having empty seats on any flight is a terrible thing, given that those seats are perishable. Hence it's great that 9W is introducing a load based pricing strategy. However full credit goes to DN, to force 9W to offer unused inventory at lower prices!
TKMCE From India, joined May 2002, 841 posts, RR: 2 Reply 21, posted (8 years 1 month 1 week 3 days 23 hours ago) and read 2365 times:
As I see it the probllem with Air Deccan is they are in an overambitious expansion mode (memories of Vayudoot come to mind).
It is only now that they are introducing a second daily flights on routes like BOM-DEL or DEL - BLR. Having "half" a daily flight in stations like Hubli or Kolhapur doesnt do well as far as costs are concerned. Even if they are outsourcing such things such as Ground hndling or Check in, such small scale of operations arent cost effective.
The big difference with Air Deccan viz a viz airlines like Southwest is that the latter concentrated on building up frequencies over a few routes (like Dallas - Houston- San Antonio for South west) before they started spreading elsewhere. This is not the case for Air Deccan.
Take a look at their one or two flight frequency stations
Kolhapur/Belgaum/Surat/Nasik/Vijayawada/Tirupati/Vizag/Ahmedabad/Baroda/Jaipur/Agra/Bhopal/Kanpur/Jammu/Mangalore/Madurai/Coimbatore/Guwahati....................
Mrniji From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 22, posted (8 years 1 month 1 week 3 days 23 hours ago) and read 2332 times:
AFAIK they should be allowed to go international after two years of successful operation.. that could be a money-making market (Far East, SAARC etc..). If they do so, they should focus on a few cities they perate from
One thing I wonder: do you think they have beytter chances of making cash within India or with international flights?
TKMCE From India, joined May 2002, 841 posts, RR: 2 Reply 23, posted (8 years 1 month 1 week 3 days 22 hours ago) and read 2297 times:
Quoting Mrniji (Reply 22): One thing I wonder: do you think they have beytter chances of making cash within India or with international flights?
I would say for Air Deccan atleast going international will be suicidal right now. While their head honcho keeps on saying that they have high load factors so they dont have to raise fares, I dont really know how long they can stick to this (maybe a case of foolish pride taking precedence over common sense?). How muh of these "high loads" are at LOW fares???
Low cost or high cost, fuel costs are the same for everyone. And in the case of Deccan, the 320 lease rentals I aussme will be quite high. Plus the fact that it is now becoming one of Indian Aviation's worst kept secrets that they are struggling for crew and as a result there are major service disruptions which again doesnt do their revenue flows any good.
How long will the situation remain like this...
HAWK21M From India, joined Jan 2001, 31201 posts, RR: 58 Reply 24, posted (8 years 1 month 1 week 3 days 19 hours ago) and read 2253 times:
Quoting TKMCE (Reply 23): How long will the situation remain like this...
Upto 2006,when the Bubble bursts.
regds
MEL
Think of the brighter side!
25 AirIndia: will be posting a detailed trip report, but in short, DN is trying to get airtravel to the masses. In my flight there could have been as many as 50% f
26 Mrniji: We will talk today, after I call Pran (in office, as his son used his mobile like a cricket ball) and Kartik
27 HAWK21M: Interesting. Did you get the Tickets for the match or is the meet someplace else. regds MEL
28 AirIndia: this seems very unlikely. rush is maddening. we have decided to see the match in some common place. thats a beter idea.... will get the pics...
29 Mrniji: Yes after Teams India's fascinating performance in the last three odis, I do not want to spend one Paisa for the tickets and consider to recommend Ar
30 AirIndia: sorry subin. cud not reply your call as I was in the middle of something very urgent. will call you in the mornng....
31 HAWK21M: Yeah,since last year I only watch the Highlights regds MEL
34 COUGARRIDES: Rajeev does have a point. I just booked myself on Jet HYD-BOM-PNQ for 16-May for an unbelievable fare of 3460 of which INR1300 was for BOM-PNQ! While
35 VictorTango: Hey Roy welcome back.... You grown old pretty quick! BTW you be joining us for the meet at BOM? Olly
36 HAWK21M: Yeah Roy.Would you be back from Ladakh by then. This time it looks like a Big Gang meeting up. regds MEL
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