CaliguyNYC wrote:

ameya wrote:

Let’s face it — unless govt breathes life into UDAN urgently, it will die

Early last month, Minister of Civil Aviation (Independent Charge) Hardeep Singh Puri informed the Rajya Sabha about the status of UDAN (Ude Desh ka Aam Nagrik) scheme. A total of 705 routes have been awarded thus far of which 174 routes are operational. A dismal 24.7 percent!

.

Is it that they need to just work on the system and process or does it need to breath life into it? I think they just need to fix the system. The concept of subsidizing an air route to increase small town connectivity is quite normal and straight forward. I think this will work itself out in a few years.

It needs a new life. Ways to find out how the remaining 75% flights can be started and soon we will reach end of life for subsidy. What happens next? Established airlines like SG has pulled out of RCS routes, one wonders what happens after subsidy stops!

srkSJC wrote:

unrave wrote:

VietJet launches Delhi from HCMH (4x weekly) and Hanoi (3x weekly) wef 6 December

Lets hope this time they actually start flights. Previously they announced but never went whole hog on that. Indigo needs to ramp up Vietnam from BOM or BLR big time. Loads of potential in Vietnam. VietJet is quite a name out of that country. Not to speak of its quirky image (though they seemed to have toned down a bit on that).

It looks like they have loaded the flights now.

https://www.routesonline.com/news/38/ai ... -dec-2019/

I went to their website to see if I could actually book anything, but it’s a mess. Vietnamese and English hopelessly mixed together, and no sign of Delhi anywhere.

Spicejet will be shifting all their ops at BOM to T2, from Oct 1st.

Currently they operate out of T1 (domestic), T2 (int'l+ Jet acquired slots for domestic) . So they will have integrated ops at BOM T2, which also sees all int'l flights operating out of that terminal. Nice opportunity for them to forge new codeshare partnerships with global carriers (EK already signed up with).

They need to ofcourse work on their ops and making it more efficient and non-messy.

Would have preferred GoAir to have moved their entire ops to T2 and grown more out of BOM, considering they are one of the most decent LCC's (of late).

The farce of “temporarily” extending the period of Jet’s slots, allocated to competitors, continues.......

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cnbctv ... 81.htm/amp

Government extends Jet Airways' slots allocated to other airlines till December

Why is it so hard for India to accept reality that Jet isn’t flying and that there is a zero percent chance they will get any new funding from banks because they have already said so!

Etihad exits being a participant in a potential “resolution plan” for Jet.

Jet’s lenders are now poised for Jet’s liquidation For which they expect to collect 10 paisa for every Rupee.

https://www.firstpost.com/business/jet- ... 1.html/amp

TEMPO wrote:

I went to their website to see if I could actually book anything, but it’s a mess. Vietnamese and English hopelessly mixed together, and no sign of Delhi anywhere.

I managed to do a dummy DEL-SGN booking and proceed right up to the payment page, so I guess it is all good now.

avier wrote:

Would have preferred GoAir to have moved their entire ops to T2 and grown more out of BOM, considering they are one of the most decent LCC's (of late).

There is no room for any airline to "grow" at BOM

unrave wrote:

TEMPO wrote:

I went to their website to see if I could actually book anything, but it’s a mess. Vietnamese and English hopelessly mixed together, and no sign of Delhi anywhere.

I managed to do a dummy DEL-SGN booking and proceed right up to the payment page, so I guess it is all good now.

It’s New Delhi I should have been looking for, and the website is not optimized for IOS. But a bare bones fare of INR 13,000 for a mid-January round trip is not bad at all! Of course, in true LCC style, nothing other than a 7Kg carryon is included.

Air Asia goes after slots in Kolkatta, New Delhi and Chennai.

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/in ... 756791.cms

IndiGo announces a new station in India: Belgaum. Will connect it to BLR with ATR 72's.

Meanwhile, govt. extends Jet's slots allocated to other airlines on so called temporary basis at BOM/DEL till Dec 31st from the current Sept 30th timeline.

As reported recently, Jet seems to be heading for liquidation mostly as they haven't received any serious bids.

AI sale formalities are on progress, with govt planning to sell upto 95% stake in the national carrier.

When the two sale processes are completed the Indian aviation landscape will get fundamentally altered. Interesting times to follow the industry

avier wrote:

IndiGo announces a new station in India: Belgaum. Will connect it to BLR with ATR 72's.

Both of North Karnataka’s airports, IXG and HBX, have seen a lot of shuffling, possibly by 6E and definitely by SG, which has pulled out of HBX entirely. Why is this?

On a separate note, I see an Alliance Air flight, 9I527/528, flying from Hyderabad’s old Begumpet Airport (BPM) to Tirupati, which continues to VTZ and VGA. Does this not flout the government rule of not allowing more than one airport in a given radius? In that case Bengaluru’s HAL airport should seriously be resurrected.

That "rule" is applicable for greenfield airports only, and that too with a lot of exceptions

unrave wrote:

That "rule" is applicable for greenfield airports only, and that too with a lot of exceptions

It effectively seems to prevent Chennai from building a new airport. Meanwhile Delhi and Mumbai are happily progressing with Jewar and NMIA, respectively, with Hindon also a possibility for Delhi.

That said, HAL ought to make a comeback, as the two-hour taxi to BLR is quite taxing.

VTCIE wrote:

unrave wrote:

That "rule" is applicable for greenfield airports only, and that too with a lot of exceptions

It effectively seems to prevent Chennai from building a new airport. Meanwhile Delhi and Mumbai are happily progressing with Jewar and NMIA, respectively, with Hindon also a possibility for Delhi.

That said, HAL ought to make a comeback, as the two-hour taxi to BLR is quite taxing.

Wasn’t the ride just 1 hour or so, a few years ago? Road traffic has probably increased significantly during that period. Who knows, maybe Garden City will head to Smog City in a decade.

Terminal rejig at BOM continues...GoAir is moving all domestic operations to terminal 1. Now I think only Indigo has split domestic operations because of Jet's slots.

UA to make SFO-DEL a year round service.

Meanwhile at BOM

Here is the video of a man approaching SpiceJet plane at Mumbai Airport runway 27 today out of nowhere. Major breach. Unbelievable.

https://twitter.com/shukla_tarun/status/1164543555940995072?s=20

killswitch13 wrote:

UA to make SFO-DEL a year round service.

Meanwhile at BOM

Here is the video of a man approaching SpiceJet plane at Mumbai Airport runway 27 today out of nowhere. Major breach. Unbelievable.

https://twitter.com/shukla_tarun/status/1164543555940995072?s=20

Were the engines running or did they shut them down once he approached the plane? It's hilarious how he is casually inspecting the plane, checking things out. lol

Blerg wrote:

killswitch13 wrote:

UA to make SFO-DEL a year round service.

Meanwhile at BOM

Here is the video of a man approaching SpiceJet plane at Mumbai Airport runway 27 today out of nowhere. Major breach. Unbelievable.

https://twitter.com/shukla_tarun/status/1164543555940995072?s=20

Were the engines running or did they shut them down once he approached the plane? It's hilarious how he is casually inspecting the plane, checking things out. lol

The latter. A tragedy was averted.

edealinfo wrote:

VTCIE wrote:

unrave wrote:

That "rule" is applicable for greenfield airports only, and that too with a lot of exceptions

It effectively seems to prevent Chennai from building a new airport. Meanwhile Delhi and Mumbai are happily progressing with Jewar and NMIA, respectively, with Hindon also a possibility for Delhi.

That said, HAL ought to make a comeback, as the two-hour taxi to BLR is quite taxing.

Wasn’t the ride just 1 hour or so, a few years ago? Road traffic has probably increased significantly during that period. Who knows, maybe Garden City will head to Smog City in a decade.

My experience: 35 minutes to the MG Road CBD at night, up to 4 hours during bad weather (pooling rain) at rush hour. The city lost its “Garden City” tag twenty years ago.

killswitch13 wrote:

UA to make SFO-DEL a year round service.

Wow! Even before the route is launched!
I wonder if we will eventually see reduction in service from AI. Maybe go Daily on AI173/174 and remove AI183/184 (?) altogether given that UA will have considerable advantage over connecting traffic.

Indigo announces resumption of Delhi-Singapore flight, increases to double daily on Delhi-Doha from September 12 and 16 respectively



Link: https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/in ... 793006.cms

IndiGo also introduces daily flights between:
Rajahmundry-Visakhapatnam (eff: 8th Sept)

Adds 2nd frequencies between:
Hyderabad-Dubai (eff: 12th Sept)
Hyderabad-Doha (eff: 17th Sept)
Chennai-Doha (eff: 23rd Sept)
Bengaluru-Rajahmundry (eff: 8th Sept)

Adds 3rd frequency between:
Bengaluru - Madurai (eff: 8th Sept)

Adds 4th frequency between:
Mumbai - Dubai (eff: 25th Aug)

Commences booking for (announced earlier):
Delhi - Chengdu (eff: 15th Sept)

fuel supply to Air iNdia Stopped at 6 airports

https://www.kitco.com/news/2019-08-22/F ... urces.html

killswitch13 wrote:

Here is the video of a man approaching SpiceJet plane at Mumbai Airport runway 27 today out of nowhere. Major breach. Unbelievable.

https://twitter.com/shukla_tarun/status/1164543555940995072?s=20

Did SpiceJet pay him for his inspection of the exteriors? Maybe he is filling in for the pilots who are also required to visually inspect the aircraft exteriors before each flight.

This video deserves a thread of its own with a title like "Move over Tom Cruise, Mungherilal is here"

chiraagnt wrote:

Indigo announces resumption of Delhi-Singapore flight
Link: https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/in ... 793006.cms

It looks like they are taking on Vistara "head on" having previously also introduced Mumbai to DXB, and BOM to SIN, around the same time that Vistara has. Maybe their strategy is to slowly bleed Vistara.

VTORD wrote:

killswitch13 wrote:

UA to make SFO-DEL a year round service.

Wow! Even before the route is launched!
I wonder if we will eventually see reduction in service from AI. Maybe go Daily on AI173/174 and remove AI183/184 (?) altogether given that UA will have considerable advantage over connecting traffic.

Hardly. From my frequent interactions with the local indian community and the software professionals, Air India actually needs to go double daily on weekdays and triple daily on weekends(they fly double daily on weekends) to make the demand somewhat catered to. Three people i met in SF last November told me that there is small but a steady stream of connections from Vancouver ( yes of all places), Seattle, Spokane, Portland connecting to the Air India Delhi flight. If anything United understood the latent demand and trying to catch up. I have flown this sector twice from India and believe there is much much demand than the supply. And the demand is non-stop. Yes you have ANA, JAL, KE, CX and SQ but the demand is too much. And while foreign carrier can mount more flights to US, they cannot plough the indian traffic sufficiently since they have reached the cap in terms of seats/frequencies. US-INDIA have a open skies policy..something that Air India is trying hard to corner but unable to do so {for variety of factors majorly due to the financial situation, government style of functioning, slimy unions to list some}. So whoever buys Air India they must move double to triple daily services to Delhi. Unconfirmed social media gossip i saw somewhere saying that Air India needs to cut down NYC service and move it to SF (again this is unverified so please dont bay for my blood).

edealinfo wrote:

fuel supply to Air iNdia Stopped at 6 airports

https://www.kitco.com/news/2019-08-22/F ... urces.html

It is expected to be stopped not stopped. I am sure early morning flights of Air India from Delhi and Bombay are on the runway now. But if they are stopped as of this moment then i stand corrected.

VTCIE wrote:

avier wrote:

IndiGo announces a new station in India: Belgaum. Will connect it to BLR with ATR 72's.

Both of North Karnataka’s airports, IXG and HBX, have seen a lot of shuffling, possibly by 6E and definitely by SG, which has pulled out of HBX entirely. Why is this?

On a separate note, I see an Alliance Air flight, 9I527/528, flying from Hyderabad’s old Begumpet Airport (BPM) to Tirupati, which continues to VTZ and VGA. Does this not flout the government rule of not allowing more than one airport in a given radius? In that case Bengaluru’s HAL airport should seriously be resurrected.

There is no regular service from Begumpet airport anymore. Though Indian Airlines (IC) used to have and still has a flight training academy in there for Airbus and ATR ( need to check this one). Also a major crew training centre. I dont think it was a regular commercial flight. Case for HAL airport is always strong. However need of the hour is to have efficient rail transport with the city centre and BIAL. I always used to wonder why the existing railway line of Indian Railways was never utilised despite its obvious benefits. There is no law which says only Namma Metro is the best mass transportation system to go to BIAL.

Just read these ......reveals the pathetic pace of our mind- it is time we overcame this mentality

https://www.deccanherald.com/city/rs-10 ... 14255.html

https://www.deccanherald.com/state/25-m ... 54194.html

https://www.deccanherald.com/city/benga ... 49492.html

https://www.deccanherald.com/city/top-b ... 49488.html

ameya wrote:

CaliguyNYC wrote:

ameya wrote:

Let’s face it — unless govt breathes life into UDAN urgently, it will die

Early last month, Minister of Civil Aviation (Independent Charge) Hardeep Singh Puri informed the Rajya Sabha about the status of UDAN (Ude Desh ka Aam Nagrik) scheme. A total of 705 routes have been awarded thus far of which 174 routes are operational. A dismal 24.7 percent!

.

Is it that they need to just work on the system and process or does it need to breath life into it? I think they just need to fix the system. The concept of subsidizing an air route to increase small town connectivity is quite normal and straight forward. I think this will work itself out in a few years.

It needs a new life. Ways to find out how the remaining 75% flights can be started and soon we will reach end of life for subsidy. What happens next? Established airlines like SG has pulled out of RCS routes, one wonders what happens after subsidy stops!

There are multiple and overlapping issues in this. RDG guidelines were insisted upon in a era where then civil aviation minister Madhav Rao Scindia was made aware of the situation where East West airlines, damania airlines will eat away all the big bucks domestic routes of Indian Airlines and IC will have to pick up the bones. Being acutely aware of this, IC pushed for and got its own terminals in Delhi and Bombay ( Terminal 1A) and one in Bombay had jet boarding bridges. But the over the years it was seen that merely pushing the airlines to ply on remote routes will not help the civil aviation. So UDAN was brought in using internationally accepted principle of incentives and subsidy. Merging RDG with UDAN is most widely spoken idea but it involves many issues. Like what if airlines start a route, develop the particular sector and then leave it. Would they be exempt from compulsorily mounting flights to remote areas in return for allowing permission for metro routes. Somewhere the taxation, the issue of connectivity to and from airports ( some airports like Bagdogra private cabs charge an obscene amount to cover mere 25 kilometers), basic but usable facilities ( less ornamental but more functional) are important. Blaming the Central Govt or the airlines would not lead us to any solution. We need joint centre-state collaboration here.

Bhadra wrote:

IndiGo also introduces daily flights between:
Rajahmundry-Visakhapatnam (eff: 8th Sept)

Adds 2nd frequencies between:
Hyderabad-Dubai (eff: 12th Sept)
Hyderabad-Doha (eff: 17th Sept)
Chennai-Doha (eff: 23rd Sept)
Bengaluru-Rajahmundry (eff: 8th Sept)

Adds 3rd frequency between:
Bengaluru - Madurai (eff: 8th Sept)

Adds 4th frequency between:
Mumbai - Dubai (eff: 25th Aug)

Commences booking for (announced earlier):
Delhi - Chengdu (eff: 15th Sept)

We need more denser networks....like Trichy- Bangalore, Trichy- Kochi, Madurai-HYD, Madurai-Goa, Madurai-Mumbai. Good expansion in the south by 6E.

SATexan wrote:

srkSJC wrote:

SATexan wrote:

My guess is that major indian expat population would not like to travel all the way to Philly to fly to India when they can easily fly to Newark or NYC or Boston giving them way better options. Plus these are way bigger hubs than one Philly. Chicago OHare is not going to work because AA knows it does not have the long term growth potential having burnt their fingers in its earlier avtaar. Only option is DFW. And 787-9, 787-8 are based in DFW as well. Not sure about 787-10 though.

We are talking about AA starting a flight to India. So Newark is out of question. The AA hub at Philly is significantly bigger than their focus city operations in JFK or BOS. Philly - India is itself a pretty good market. There are tons' of Indians in South New Jersey, Delaware, Eastern and Southern Pennsylvania and the suburbs of Baltimore/DC that are well within the driving distance to Philly airport. Plus, Philly is more ideally located to capture India bound passengers from Florida, Carolinas and even the midwest.

But DFW is a massive hub for AA and and the market to India is fast growing. But, like I have mentioned in previous post, I am little apprehensive about AA trying to reenter the Indian market using an ULH route such as DFW-DEL while they (theoretically) could get similar or better results doing something like PHL/ORD-DEL, both of which are 700-800 miles shorter than DFW.

Agree but if the catchment population is not AA loyal do they not have already existing AI service to Dulles International in addition to Turkish, BA and LH already serving them. East Coast has already so many options from all foreign carriers so why would anybody prefer AA from Philly. Plus Delta is starting Mumbai service this year. Seems everybody is taken care of. It is the south which is not well connected and AA has the mammoth base of DFW to take that on. But how it works out is a debate for a different day. I still believe that can make it work if they really want to and interline with AI. Once AI is gone it is questionable if the new buyer will interline or codeshare with them or not ( assuming it is not Qatar airways or Singapore airlines).

killswitch13 wrote:

UA to make SFO-DEL a year round service.

Meanwhile at BOM

Here is the video of a man approaching SpiceJet plane at Mumbai Airport runway 27 today out of nowhere. Major breach. Unbelievable.

https://twitter.com/shukla_tarun/status/1164543555940995072?s=20

The perimeter security is supposed to be water tight and air tight. There is an electric fence on Andheri- Kurla road section of the jari mari slums and in Vakola area as well. But if they really energised or not cannot say. This is one of the rarest security breach i have read of since 1999. Even prior to that there was not that any worth reporting of. Removing the slums is not going to be the solution. The unauthorised ingress is the issue here. Need to wait for the inquiry report here.

Anybody following the news of Go Air appointing merchant bankers for their IPO? Is it true or via sources only??

Go Air IPO has been rumoured on and off for many years now. I don't think it is happening anytime soon given the current market conditions

CNBCTV18: 6 airports have stopped fuel supply to Air India

It happens in India only ??

Has happened multiple times in the past. Will be resolved by a call from the Civ Av ministry to the Petroleum ministry

Delhi-Chengdu is an interesting choice by IndiGo. Could we expect more flights by them to China? How many Chinese destinations do they have now?

Blerg wrote:

Delhi-Chengdu is an interesting choice by IndiGo. Could we expect more flights by them to China? How many Chinese destinations do they have now?

They have approvals to fly CCU-CAN. Bliaterals are restricted to 42 weekly flights each side. China has exhausted its share.

Blerg wrote:

Delhi-Chengdu is an interesting choice by IndiGo. Could we expect more flights by them to China? How many Chinese destinations do they have now?

Yes considering that Guangzhou or Shanghai was the usual suspect. Rono for sure knows how to meander in this chinese market. But good choice. Opens a new route altogether.

CaliguyNYC wrote:

killswitch13 wrote:

UA to make SFO-DEL a year round service.

Meanwhile at BOM

Here is the video of a man approaching SpiceJet plane at Mumbai Airport runway 27 today out of nowhere. Major breach. Unbelievable.

https://twitter.com/shukla_tarun/status/1164543555940995072?s=20

Wow before it even started. So pre sales must be good? So what will AI do? I think they should go back to 7X SFO-DEL and move the 3X to either LAX-DEL or SFO-BLR. What is going on with AI’s IAD-DEL flight? I am surprised that AI hasn’t increased frequency there to at least 5X. Serving a station 3X is not efficient. I was in favor with AI testing the waiters with 3X. But either expand or cut the station. Long term no way a 3X ULH flight can be profitable.

AI Dulles Intl service is having 70% occupancy rate and which is similar to most if not all foreign carriers operating there [i]{ source A.net contributor 'dcaviation' on thread "IAD is bouncing back again" on page 1 bottom most post.} [/i]

Seems time is right to pull it back from there and may be add a second daily DEL-JFK or second daily BOM-EWR where they can more better response. But being a prestigious service it may not be done. SF service should stay as it is. It is performing better than any other sector.

srkSJC wrote:

CaliguyNYC wrote:

killswitch13 wrote:

UA to make SFO-DEL a year round service.

Meanwhile at BOM

Here is the video of a man approaching SpiceJet plane at Mumbai Airport runway 27 today out of nowhere. Major breach. Unbelievable.

https://twitter.com/shukla_tarun/status/1164543555940995072?s=20

Wow before it even started. So pre sales must be good? So what will AI do? I think they should go back to 7X SFO-DEL and move the 3X to either LAX-DEL or SFO-BLR. What is going on with AI’s IAD-DEL flight? I am surprised that AI hasn’t increased frequency there to at least 5X. Serving a station 3X is not efficient. I was in favor with AI testing the waiters with 3X. But either expand or cut the station. Long term no way a 3X ULH flight can be profitable.

AI Dulles Intl service is having 70% occupancy rate and which is similar to most if not all foreign carriers operating there [i]{ source A.net contributor 'dcaviation' on thread "IAD is bouncing back again" on page 1 bottom most post.} [/i]

Seems time is right to pull it back from there and may be add a second daily DEL-JFK or second daily BOM-EWR where they can more better response. But being a prestigious service it may not be done. SF service should stay as it is. It is performing better than any other sector.

The IAD discussion is a heated argument on the comparative utility of DCA, IAD and BWI to the Metro Washington DC area. They are using an average of 70% occupancy for all airlines to illustrate a point on how many passengers use IAD every week. I’m not sure the 70% can be used to determine AI’s performance on the DEL route.

srkSJC wrote:

Blerg wrote:

Rono for sure knows how to meander in this chinese market.

What is his knowledge or experience in this market?

Port Blair loses lot of connectivity...

https://www.livemint.com/companies/news ... 56179.html

Jet Airways crisis: Irish lessor moves NCLT seeking to take back Boeing 777
https://www.business-standard.com/artic ... 134_1.html

I think any attempts to seize and sell planes to Indian carriers can now easily be foiled, with teh DCGA simply refusing to "de-register" the airplane. This is a clear cut case of India having its cake and eating it too (i.e., happily defaulting on loans while ensuring that the aircraft owner/lessor can't recoup it.)

BREAKING NEWS: "‘Mystery’ foreign investor may turn white knight for Jet"

Holy Connolly; the Jet saga never ends! What's even more interesting is this interest has come in despite the raids against Naresh Goyal and all the accusations against him.

“The foreign entity which sent in its EoI yesterday is interesting. The company is renowned and the outlook looks positive so far,” said a source close to the development. “The Committee of Creditors (CoC) needs to approve the EoI. Secondly, the company should sign an NDA. Then, if there is merit in the bid, it’s a win for the airline.”

https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/ec ... 235659.ece

Let the speculation begin on who is: "The [foreign] company is renowned and the outlook looks positive so far"