--Lowcost Airline In India--
::Spicejet:::
SpiceJet is a low-cost airline based in New Delhi, India It is the most profitable airline in the country and the only profitable airline among NSE/BSE listed companies. It began service in May 2005 and by 2008, it was India's second-largest low-cost airline in terms of market share.
SpiceJet was voted as the best low-cost airline in South Asia and Central Asia region by Skytrax in 2007. SpiceJet, India's leading low cost airline, is a reincarnation of ModiLuft. It is promoted by Ajay Singh and the Kansagra family. SpiceJet marked its entry in the Indian skies with 99 fares for the first 99 days, with 9,000 seats available at this rate. This deal was followed it up with a 999 promotional scheme on select routes.
Their marketing theme "offering low 'everyday spicy fares' and great guest services to price conscious travelers. Their aim is to compete with the Indian Railways passengers travelling in air conditioned coaches. On 15 July 2008 Billionaire Wilbur Ross suggested he would invest 345 crore (US$ 78.32 million) in the low cost airline.
The board of directors of SpiceJet accepted an offer in-principle from the US-based PE firm that would make available about 345 crore (US$ 78.32 million) to SpiceJet, a joint statement issued by SpiceJet and WL Ross & Co. Indian media baron Kalanidhi Maran acquired a major stake (37.7%) in this airline on June 2010. Today, Spicejet operates 21 Boeing 737-800/900ER aircraft across 19 destinations and has a 12% share of the Indian market.
::Indian Airline::
Indian Airline is a major Indian airline based in Mumbai and focuses primarily on domestic routes, along with several international services to neighboring countries in Asia. It is state-owned, and is administered by the Ministry of Civil Aviation. It is one of the two flag carriers of India, the other being Air India.
On 7 December 2005, the airline was rebranded as Indian or for advertising purposes as a part of a program to revamp its image in preparation for an initial public offering (IPO). The airline operates closely with Air India, India's national carrier. Alliance Air, a fully-owned subsidiary of Indian Airlines, was renamed Air India Regional. In 2007, the Government of India announced that Indian would be merged into Air India. As part of the merger process, a new company called the National Aviation Company of India Limited(NACIL) was established, into which both Air India (along with Air India Express) and Indian Airlines (along with Alliance Air) will be merged.
Once the merger is complete, the airline - which will be called Air India - will continue to be headquartered in Mumbai and will have a fleet of over 130 aircraft. The airline is set up under the Air Corporations Act, 1953 with an initial capital of 32 million and started operations on 1 August 1953. It was established after legislation came into force to nationalise the entire airline industry in India. Two new national airlines were to be formed along the same lines as happened in the United Kingdom with British Overseas Airways Corporation(BOAC) and British European Airways (BEA).
Air India took over international routes and Indian Airlines Corporation (IAC) took over the domestic and regional routes. Seven former freedom domestic airlines, Deccan Airways, Airways India, Bharat Airways,Himalayan Aviation, Kalinga Airlines, Indian National Airways and Air Services of India, were merged to form the new domestic national carrier. Indian Airlines Corporation inherited a fleet of 99 aircraft including 74 Douglas DC-3 Dakotas, 12 Vickers Vikings, 3 Douglas DC-4s and various smaller types from the seven airlines that made it up.
Vickers Viscounts were introduced in 1957 with Fokker F27 Friendships being delivered from 1961. The 1960s also saw Hawker Siddeley HS 748s, manufactured in India by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, join the fleet. The jet age began for IAC with the introduction of the pure-jet Sud Aviation Caravelle airliner in 1964, followed by Boeing 737-200s in the early 1970s. April 1976 saw the first three Airbus A300 wide-body jets being introduced. The regional airline, Vayudoot, which had been established in 1981, was later reintegrated. By 1990, Airbus A320-200s were introduced.
The economic liberalisation process initiated by the Government of India in the early 1990s ended Indian Airlines' dominance of India's domestic air transport industry. Indian Airlines faced tough competition from Jet Airways, Air Sahara (now Jet Lite), East-West Airlines, Skyline NEPC, and ModiLuft. As of 2005, Indian Airlines was the second largest airline in India after Jet Airways while Air Sahara controlled 17% of the Indian aviation industry.
East-West Airlines, Skyline NEPC and ModiLuft discontinued flight operations but the entry of severallow-cost airlines in India, such as SpiceJet, IndiGo, GoAir and others like Kingfisher Airlines along with its low cost arm Kingfisher Red continue to give competition in its market, forcing Indian to cut down air-fares. However, as of 2006, Indian Airlines was still a profit making airline.
::Air India Express::
Air India Express is a low-cost airline subsidiary of Air India, operating mainly from Indian state of Kerala. It operates services mainly to the Middle East and Southeast Asia.
The airline belongs to Air India Charters Limited, an whole owned subsidiary of National Aviation Company of India Limited, which was formed in order to facilitate the seamless merger of Air India and Indian Airlines. Today Air India Express operates nearly 100 flights per week, mainly from southern states of India.
The airline was established in May 2004, after a long demand from Malayalee expatriate communities living in Middle East, seeking for a low cost budget airline. The airline started operations on 29 April 2005 with a flight from Trivandrum to Abu Dhabi. Delivery of the first aircraft for Air-India Express took place on 22 February 2005 when a new production Boeing 737-86Q (leased from Boullioun Aviation Services) was handed over.
The airline has plans for expansion into Europe and The Americas with the arrival of new aircraft. The airline has been making huge profits on most routes. But after seeing Air-India Express' success, many other carriers such as Air Arabia and Jazeera Airways have entered the India - Persian Gulf market and many others such as JetLite might enter.
::Air India Regional::
Air India Regional started as Alliance Air which was the low-cost arm of Indian. As part of Indian's merger with Air India, it was renamed Air India Regional. It operates 357 weekly flights to 25 domestic destinations and remains a subsidiary of Indian. The airline was established on 1 April 1996 and started operations on 21 June 1996. It is wholly owned by Indian.
The airline was renamed Air India Regional post-merger, its ageing fleet ofBoeing 737-200/Adv's were converted to freighters for the new Air India Cargo.
::Jet Airways::
Jet Airways is a major Indian airline based in Mumbai, Maharashtra. It is India's largest airline and the market leader in the domestic sector. It operates over 400 flights daily to 67 destinations worldwide. Its main domestic hubs are Mumbai and Delhi. It has an international hub at Brussels Airport, Belgium.
Jet Airways is owned by the London-based billionaire Naresh Goyal. Jet Airways was incorporated as an air taxi operator on 1 April 1992. It started Indian commercial airline operations on 5 May 1993 with a fleet of four leased Boeing 737-300 aircraft. In January 1994 a change in the law enabled Jet Airways to apply for scheduled airline status, which was granted on 4 January 1995. It began international operations to Sri Lanka in March 2004. The company is listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange, but 80% of its stock is controlled by Naresh Goyal (through his ownership of Jet’s parent company, Tailwinds). It has 10,017 employees (as at March 2007).
Naresh Goyal – who already owned Jetair (Private) Limited, which provided sales and marketing for foreign airlines in India – set up Jet Airways as a full-service scheduled airline to compete against state-owned Indian Airlines. Indian Airlines had enjoyed a monopoly in the domestic market between 1953, when all major Indian air transport providers were nationalised under the Air Corporations Act (1953), and January 1994, when the Air Corporations Act was repealed, following which Jet Airways received scheduled airline status.
In January 2006 Jet Airways announced that it would buy Air Sahara for US$500 million in an all-cash deal, making it the biggest takeover in Indian aviation history. The resulting airline would have been the country's largest but the deal fell through in June 2006. On 12 April 2007 Jet Airways agreed to buy out Air Sahara for INR14.5 billion (US$340 million). Air Sahara was renamed JetLite, and was marketed between a low-cost carrier and a full service airline.
In August 2008 Jet Airways announced its plans to completely integrate JetLite into Jet Airways In October 2008 Jet Airways laid off 1,900 of its employees, resulting in the largest lay-off in the history of Indian aviation. However the employees were later asked to return to work; Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel said that the management reviewed its decision after he analysed the decision with them.
In October 2008 Jet Airways and rival Kingfisher Airlines announced an alliance which primarily includes an agreement on code-sharing on both domestic and international flights, joint fuel management to reduce expenses, common ground handling, joint utilisation of crew and sharing of similar frequent flier programmes. On 8 May 2009 Jet Airways launched another low-cost airline, Jet Konnect.
The new airline uses spare aircraft from Jet Airways' routes that were discontinued due to low passenger load factors. It also uses the same operator code as Jet Airways. The decision to launch a new brand instead of expanding the JetLite network was taken after considering the regulatory delays involved in transferring aircraft from Jet Airways to JetLite, as the two have different operator codes. According to a PTI report, for the third quarter of 2010, Jet Airways (Jet+JetLite) had a market share of 26.9% in terms of passengers carried, thus making it a market leader in India, followed by Kingfisher Airlines with 19.9% .
::Indigo::
IndiGo is a private domestic low-cost airline based in Gurgaon, Haryana, India. It operates domestic services linking 23 destinations. Its main base is Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport. It was awarded the title of ‘Best Domestic Low Cost Carrier’ in India for 2008. IndiGo commenced operations on 4 August 2006 with a service from Delhi to Imphal viaGuwahati. The airline is owned by the Gurgaon based InterGlobe Enterprises .
It took delivery of its first Airbus A320-200 aircraft on 28 July 2006 and received six aircraft during 2006. Nine more aircraft were delivered in 2007 taking the total to 15. Former US Airways Executive Vice-President, Marketing and Planning Bruce Ashby joined IndiGo as their Chief Executive Officer. The airline has also acquired 3 parking spots in Indira Gandhi International Airport andChhatrapati Shivaji International Airport[4]. Recently IndiGo changed the outfits for their crew members on occasion of its 4th anniversary.
::GoAir::
GoAir is an Indian low-cost airline based in the Paper Box House in Andheri, Mumbai,Maharashtra. It operates domestic passenger services to 19 cities with 160 daily flights and approximately 1120 weekly flights. Its main base is Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport, Mumbai.
It is owned by Jehangir Wadia, the great-grandson of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, founding father of Pakistan. The airline was established in 2006. It launched commercial operations on 4 June 2007. It is now wholly owned by the Wadia Group, Mumbai based and majority owners of Bombay Dyeing andBritannia Industries.
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