The Indian LCC market has come of an age.
About a decade or so back, no person would have thought that the newly formed
private airline companies will take on the government held Air India and
Indian Airlines and give them stiff competition on the domestic turf. The
emergence of low cost carriers such as Spicejet,
JetLite, Go Air and Indigo, promising
cheap air tickets and adopting a no-frills
approach to operations, has shaped an altogether different future of the Indian
civil aviation. Here is brief account of their inter-comparisons on parameters
of operations such as beginning, reach, market share, punctuality and occupancy
levels.
Beginning
of Operations
JetLite, previously Sahara Airlines and
then Air Sahara, was the first one to be established among these four airlines,
in the year 1991, before being taken over by Jet Airways in 2007 and getting
rechristened as JetLite. Since March
2012, it has been merged with Jet Konnect.
Next airlines to be set up were the
Spicejet and the Go Air in the year 2005. Indigo Airlines began the operation in 2006. So, all these three were set up and
began operations at about the same time.
Reach
and Market Share
Though Jetlite, or Jet Konnect, began
operations far earlier than the other Indian LCCs, it has a market share only
at about 7 percent. But, when combined with Jet Airways operations, it has a
share of about 29 percent. However, it connects 56 domestic destinations and
only 1 international destination with about 430 flights in a single day, which
proves that it is essentially focused on providing cheap air tickets to passengers in the Indian market.
Spicejet Airlines is the next major airline in terms of the number of
destinations reached, since it reaches 35 domestic and 2 international
destinations. It has recently got the approval for 6 more international
destinations. However, despite this reach it has the market share of 17 percent,
less than that of Indigo Airlines.
Indigo, also called Go Indigo but different from another airline Go Air, is the dominant player in terms of the market share as it
holds about 22 percent of domestic share. It flies to 27 domestic and 5
international destinations with 347 daily flights. Interestingly, its growth
rate has been the fastest among the LCCs of the world.
Go Air touches 22 domestic destinations
with no international operation till the time this article is being written.
With less than half the reach of the Jetlite, the airline has almost equal
market share to that of Jetlite, at about 7.5 percent.
Punctuality
And Occupancy
Airlines need to have good credibility and
reliable operations for the customers. The history of punctual and safe operations,
besides the offering of cheap air
tickets to customers, determines
the extent of loyalty that the airline will be able to generate for itself.
The on-time performance of Jetlite and Jet Airways combined shows
and average level of 90.7 percent from the 6 major airports of India:
Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Delhi, Chennai and Kolkata. Also, there has been an average occupancy
level of 74 percent.
The on-time performance of Spicejet has
been an average of 87.7 percent and load factor of 73 percent, a little lower
than that of Jetlite on both counts.
For Indigo
Airlines, the on-time performance is rated at an astonishing 94.7 percent
which clearly shows the level of punctuality and efficiency with which it has
been operating. However, the occupancy level of 76.5 percent is comparable to
that of other LCCs.
The Go Air airline has shown an impressive
occupancy level of close to 80 percent, the best among the scheduled domestic
LCCs. Its on-time performance has also been one of the best, second only to
Indigo, at about 93 percent (but operating from four airports: Bangalore, Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkata).
These LCCs have been growing significantly
in their reach not only in the Indian market but also in the adjoining
countries. Further, the efficiency levels in operations, the
customer-orientation and good occupancy levels have fuelled their growth
ambitions.
