Indigo- A Success Story of Flying on Efficiency

In an aviation market, where the airlines are generally left struggling, often running into losses and getting bundled-out of market due to intense competition, it does make news when some airline makes profit. Indigo is a case study altogether different from the other players in the Indian aviation sector, a sector which is infamous for its aviation-unfriendly reasons. What makes Indigo different from the other? Why is it that indigo airlines is able to book profits when none other player is able to do it?

Indigo is a low-fare Indian carrier which has recently got the permission to fly on international routes. The airline has singularly focused on providing cheap air tickets to the customers on the short-haul domestic and international routes. With this objective clearly in sight, the airline has taken all measures to operate efficiently. Efficiency has been the watchword for the airline ever since its inception and it has remained steadfastly committed to it from the beginning.

Being punctual has been one of its strongest USPs as it has helped in promoting efficiency on one hand and in generating goodwill among the passengers. With impressive track record on making sure that the arrivals and departures are not delayed and there are fewer cancellations as compared with the other carriers, it has become the most reliable airline for the passengers. Being punctual also helps in garnering more corporate deals since the companies prefer their employees to travel on those cheap international flights which do not make them miss their crucial appointments.

The whole systems and procedures of the airlines are geared in such a way as to ensure that the planes do not miss their schedules. The passengers reach, embark on and disembark from the plane smoothly. There is minimal turnaround period for the flights. Even the pilots seem to be well instructed to ensure minimal wastage of fuel. Maximum utilization of the seating space is balanced well with the level of comfort desired by the customers to provide optimal efficiency levels as well as customer satisfaction.

All in all, the go indigo success story is pivoted around being punctual which means efficient operations. 

Is Assets Allocation Responsible For Hike in Delhi Airport Charges?

The recently announced hike of the Delhi airport charges which include the landing-parking charges and the user development fees have been widely criticized by the domestic and international airlines. The steep increase will make Delhi airport the most expensive airport in the Asia-Pacific region. The low-cost domestic carriers (LCCs) which used to provide the cheap air tickets have gone on to state that the hike will be transferred to the customers. Certain other airlines including the ones which provide the cheap international flights are likely to find this hike financially unviable to operate from Delhi, compelling them to reschedule their flights and operations.

It is noteworthy that the impact will be felt the most by the low cost carriers since the hike could mean shrinkage of the market which used to travel on the cheap air tickets. Therefore, domestic LCCs such as Indigo Airlines, Jet Airways and Spicejet are likely to be hit hard with this measure. The network or legacy carriers, too, will have to increase the ticket prices considerably, if not totally.

Why is it that the Delhi airport charges have become so high? The experts point out two major reasons for these high charges. The first reason is that the there has been an increase in the cost outlay for the project from what was projected initially to what has actually been incurred. While this increase was considerable, its impact could still have been absorbed had it not been for way the airport assets have been allocated. So, the second reason for the increase in the prices of the cheap international flights is the way the assets have been allocated to the aeronautical activities. It is common knowledge that there are different service providers at an airport and, therefore, the costs of the assets need to be carefully allocated to them. Experts believe that allocation of about 90 percent of the assets towards the aeronautical activity is what is making these charges so high. IATA has requested DIAL to study the assets allocation once again since the current allocation is not as per IATA-established guidelines.

A Glance At The Spicejet Corporate Benefits Program

Civil aviation is expected to grow at a fast pace in India, at the rate of 13-15 percent annually on an average. Within these broad growth projections, there is a vast potential of corporate travel business which is expected to grow at 20 percent on an annual basis. Therefore, the players in the travel industry including the airlines, travel agencies and hotels are increasing scouting for the bigger share of the corporate travel market and offering them their special packages and benefits. Spicejet Airline, a low-cost carrier (LCC) from India flying to 34 destinations in India, also focuses on the corporate market and has a special benefits program for this purpose. Spicejet also flies cheap international flights to the two neighbouring cities: Kathmandu and Colombo. Despite being an LCC which offers cheap air tickets to customers, the airline gives further incentives to the corporate bodies. These benefits are:

1.    Discounts of 30-50 percent on the Spicejet booking of domestic and international flights.

2.    Making it possible for the corporate clients to have the internet based access to the fares.

3.    Further incentives on the volume based travel.

4.    Though the airline provides the buy-on-board snacks and mineral water and allows passengers to carry the selective snacks, it has provision of offering complimentary snacks to the corporate clients.

5.    LCCs are generally strict on their cancellation and rescheduling policies but Spicejet promises more flexible terms on these two counts to its corporate clients.

6.    For the corporate, the Spicejet booking process is further simplified making it easier for them to book the domestic or international flights through any media.

7.    The transferable credit balance is allowed.

8.    There are more frequent product updates given to the corporate clients.

9.    Free web-based check-in is also allowed to these special customers.

These are some of the main benefits extended by the airline to its corporate clients with the aim of garnering more market share by focusing on the niche segment. 

Will Efficiencies In Aviation Sector Make Possible Cheap International Flights?

Aviation generates air and noise pollution. The exhaust gases during the flight are the most visible forms of air pollution but pollution is also caused by the thermal conditioning of the airports and buildings associated with the aviation operations, the ground vehicles used in the aviation sector and a number of in-flight services offered by the airlines. With the consciousness of the environmental damage increasing significantly, there have been all-encompassing efforts to reduce the levels of emissions through better technological interventions, search for the alternative fuels, better operational efficiencies and a number of other measures. These efficiencies have made it possible for airlines to offer cheap international flights to customers.

With the cheap air tickets becoming a reality, the market for aviation has increased considerably. The thrust of the globalization and liberalization of the economies has further added to the increase in the international aviation. But, this increase of the flights traffic has certain misgivings on the environment front since these off-set the gains achieved on the efficiency front. This is evident from a number of studies that the global increase in the civil aviation has led to the increase in the emissions. The plying of the airplanes in or close to the stratosphere has also meant that the gases remain in the atmosphere for a longer duration since it is a dynamically stable layer of the atmosphere where there is no regular convection of the air currents. These are some of the instances where the increase in aviation has led to more environment damage despite measures being taken at the level of manufacturing of airplanes to use better technologies, alternative fuels and highly efficient operations.

The question now is whether the level of efficiencies will rise to such levels where the emissions are reduced despite the increase in air travel? Will the people continue to get the cheap international flights or will they end up paying more as environment costs? The chance of cheap air tickets becoming costly looks to be a more likely scenario. There are already suggestions that the airline industry must end the incentives that they provide to their customers which increase the demand for air travel.  Airplanes have a long life and, therefore, even if there is a technological improvement, its introduction in the existing fleet of aircraft might be highly restricted. This means that the far reaching improvements will happen only in the long term when continued upgrading of technologies will significantly reduce dependence of environmentally damaging processes.

3 Best Avenues For Finding Cheap Air Tickets

Do you have to make endless searches for finding the cheap air tickets? Or, do you have some select avenues where you are confident of finding the cheap international flights? Searching for the lowest airfares is one of the most crucial activities while travelling abroad. There could be a number of places, online or offline, where these can be looked for, but mainly there are three main avenues which provide you the discount tickets.

Airlines

Once you are looking for cheap air tickets, your first reaction would be to get in touch with all the airlines which are flying on that day to your destination to find the best rates being offered. Airlines normally have the service-price segmentation done for their different classes of seating, namely, economy, business and first class.

Travel Agencies

The travel agencies are the intermediaries between the customers and the airlines. By their very nature of business model, these agencies get into arrangements with the airlines and get the tickets at reduced prices on which these agencies place their markups and then sell the same to customers. These are in a better position to provide the customers will cheap international flights tickets, at rates which can even be lower than what the airlines offer.

Fare Comparing Service Providers

This is a third class of service providers which only provide the information on the domestic or international flights and prices for the tickets. These provide the service of informing the passengers with the best possible prices which can be had from the different airlines for travelling on a particular segment but are not involved in actual ticket booking operations. These websites work in close arrangement with the airlines and travel agencies and quote their rates based on the input from these agencies and on the working arrangements with these bodies. 

Pinnacle Airlines Debacle: A Result Of Uneconomical Operations

The news is that the Pinnacle Airlines of the US has filed for bankruptcy. For an airline which operates close to 1500 flights daily to about 180 destinations across US and neighbouring countries, it was no longer feasible to operate profitably in the wake of high fuel costs and a number of other reasons. This is a case study in stark contrast to the Kingfisher Airlines of India which is also having uneconomical operations but is yet to file for bankruptcy. Operating in a highly mature and competitive market, the Pinnacle airlines has been forced out of its domestic and international flights operations.

The increasing costs of the fuel have led to restructuring of the airlines industry at a macro level even while there has been impact on providing the cheap air tickets to the customers. The rise of the fuel costs has meant that the major airlines have cut down on their regional operations in smaller towns and cities and instead focused on the larger cities since the demand for travel has seen a decline. This shift in focus has also led to the acquisition of larger aircraft to make for more economical operations. By moving out of the regional sectors, the smaller airlines partners that operated the connecting flights between the smaller towns and cities with their smaller aircraft have been affected considerably. This has made these smaller airlines to face the prospects of shrinking market and uneconomical operations.

The filing for bankruptcy by the Pinnacle airlines, which acted as a connection to the Delta, United and US airways, has not been the result of providing the cheap international flights to the customers but also due to this restricting of the airline operations resulting due to the increasing fuel costs.  Delta Airlines, a major partner of the Pinnacle, has committed itself to providing help to make the airlines more operationally viable while the contract with the other two partners are likely to end. Filing for bankruptcy will also put pressure on the labour unions and staff to agree to new contract with less hefty pay structures so that recurring operating expenses are reduced.