Two Indian Airlines and Singapore Airlines announced low fares

To attract summer holiday traffic like Air India did, two Indian airlines and Singapore Airlines announced low air fares and special schemes. A discount of up to Rs 500 per return-trip being announced by Spice Jet under a special scheme, Jetlite also did the same on Wednesday by keeping the fare as low as Rs 4170, excluding passenger service fee and the development fees charged by certain major airports.

Air India on Monday announced advance purchase fares, available on 35 domestic sectors; of Rs 2494 one way if booked 20 days in advance and Rs 2694 if bought 10 days before travel. A ‘Fabulous Singapore Stopover’ package for USD one only for the first night stay in Singapore is offered by Singapore Airlines, together with the Singapore Tourism Board and Singapore Changi Airport. Exclusive deals on hotel stay, airport transfers and entry to some Singapore’s leading tourist attractions are some of the things covered in package.

Merger Talk denial by GoAir

GoAir denies merger talks with its largest rival in Indian aviation i.e. Spice jet. GoAir chief executive officer says that, they are not looking for any kind of merger with Spicejet. This all was told to reporters during a press conference on 25th March’09 in New Delhi. The merger has been denied by saying it as one of the rumors. The officer also said that Jet Airways and Kingfisher airlines too had a merger as a part of cost cutting by becoming code sharing partners, sharing crew and managing fuel so, there can be a consolidation with other airlines as a part of cost cutting.

The officer says that GoAir is planning to add on fleets, taking it to 20 by 2012 from current six. Though merger is good for airlines to come out of any kind of losses but still making decisions and implementing them is a task in itself. In the last the officer adds on that, an intelligent investor is always an opportunity but this all depends on conditions as well.

Spice jet awarded for excellence in cost management

On 17th March’09 Spice jet won the ICWAI award for excellence in Cost Management. The Ministry of Corporate Affairs, presented the award. Spice jet was one out of the three companies who won the award. The people from industry, Academia and Administration were the Jury who selected Spice jet and awarded it with an excellence award. The selection was done on the basis of adapting better practices for resource management, efficient utilization of capacity, working capital and R&D efforts done by the airlines.

The Chief Executive officer of Spice jet said that he was very much delighted after winning the award. They were always concerned with the capital i.e. the investment and the gains they are getting in return, this is why Spice jet airlines is the lowest operating carriers in the airlines industry. Other airlines should work on the operating costs to get profits out of what they invest.

India still in decision making mode to allow Overseas stake in Local carriers

Overseas airline code-sharing agreements with various Indian domestic carriers have made India to examine a plan for allowing the overseas airlines to buy a stake in local airlines. The plans will definitely going to benefit the airlines specially the airlines faced losses last year such as Jet Airways and Spice Jet. India currently will permit 49% stake in Indian carrier and no direct or indirect dealing will be allowed. The Minister stated, India will look into any attempt at cartelization. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation is inquiring into cartelization allegations after some airlines made coordinated fare increases earlier this month.


The recession has definitely affected the airlines industry for that the Civil Aviation Minister has ruled out the establishment of a stabilization fund sought by Indian carriers. A stabilization fund of $2 billion for 3- 5 years, interest free loans has been asked by the Government.

Recently announced Updated report of Jan-09 Indian Domestic traffic

Indian Ministry of civil aviation recently reported the total passengers carried by domestic airlines in Jan’09. The total passengers carried were 3.3 million. Air India carried 555000 passengers, Jet airways carried 596000 passengers, 241000 passengers were carried by Jet Lite, Kingfisher carried about 919000 passengers, 393000 passengers were carried by Spice jet, Go air carried about 81000 passengers and Indigo airlines carried about 457000 passengers in Jan’09.

The seat factors of domestic airlines in Jan’09 is nearly varied with each other: Indigo has 72.2% of seat factor, Spice jet about 68.3%, Jetlite 67.5%, Jet airways 64.8%, Kingfisher 64.0%, Go air 64.0% and Air India 60.2%. The report generated shows that Kingfisher airlines are ahead of others in carrying passengers and Indigo in seat factors in the month of Jan’09. The Jan’09 domestic traffic data is the result of introducing promotional flights airfares by almost all domestic airlines, report may vary a bit this month as there has been a rise in fares in Feb’09.