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Air Costa to begin commercial ops from Oct 14

 
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SSCMG
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PostPosted: Tue Oct 08, 2013 5:19 pm    Post subject: Air Costa to begin commercial ops from Oct 14 Reply with quote

Air Costa to begin commercial ops from Oct 14

Quote:
Hyderabad, Oct 8 (PTI) Air Costa, Andhra Pradesh's first regional airline promoted by the LEPL group, will launch its commercial operations from October 14, its Chairman L Ramesh said today.

With coastal city Vijayawada as its base, Air Costa would initially operate flights to Hyderabad, Chennai, Bengaluru, Jaipur and Ahmedabad and subsequently to Madurai, Visakhapatnam, Goa, Thriuvananthapuram and Mysore, Ramesh told reporters here.

LEPL is currently into infrastructure and power sectors and make its first foray into aviation.


http://www.ptinews.com/news/4047361_Air-Costa-to-begin-commercial-ops-from-Oct-14-.html
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Nimish
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PostPosted: Tue Oct 08, 2013 5:33 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Bookings commenced?
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basheer1211
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PostPosted: Tue Oct 08, 2013 5:46 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

These are the schedules as of now

LB601 VGA 0645 - BLR 0745 D
LB601 BLR 0810 - JAI 1030 D

LB613 JAI 1100 - MAA 1320 D

Rotation : VGA - BLR - JAI - MAA

LB614 MAA 0540 - AMD 0755 D
LB615 AMD 0835 - MAA 1050 D

LB612 MAA 1120 - JAI 1330 D

LB604 JAI 1355 - BLR 1615 D
LB604 BLR 1640 - VGA 1740 D

Rotation : MAA - AMD - MAA - JAI - BLR - VGA

MAA- HYD and HYD - JAI are yet to be uploaded
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ameya
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PostPosted: Tue Oct 08, 2013 5:52 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Poor utilization to begin with and to start long haul in the domestic market is to get hit badly. They are beating SG in time to market. Poor for a new airline

Wrong time to launch considering the current stir in VGA
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Optimus.Prime
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PostPosted: Tue Oct 08, 2013 5:55 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Oh boy. Have they c*cked up or what?
Anyways 20 says they wont hit the 2 year mark or wrap up before that, or limp miserably into year 3.
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iah87
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PostPosted: Wed Oct 09, 2013 7:19 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Among all the routes proposed to be served, none of them are unique. I dont see how they can differentiate from other carriers. Air Costa does not look any different than Paramount. India only needs 4 to 5 carriers, the market is not big enough for more than that.

The only unserved market there is HYD-NAG, Jet withdrew, but I believe there is market for MAA-HYD-NAG route.
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theflyingsikh
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PostPosted: Thu Oct 10, 2013 5:11 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Flights available to book.

Randomly checked VGA to BLR on 15th Oct 13. Flight LB 601 Dept VGA 06:45am Arrv BLR 07:45am. Total fare INR 2798.00

GoodLuck Costa!
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sriramhariiyer
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PostPosted: Thu Oct 10, 2013 9:23 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Quote:
theflyingsikh


May I know which site you were able get the price and booking info?
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basheer1211
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PostPosted: Thu Oct 10, 2013 10:54 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

sriramhariiyer wrote:
Quote:
theflyingsikh


May I know which site you were able get the price and booking info?


www.aircosta.in
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The_Goat
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PostPosted: Thu Oct 10, 2013 1:48 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

iah87 wrote:
Among all the routes proposed to be served, none of them are unique. I dont see how they can differentiate from other carriers. Air Costa does not look any different than Paramount. India only needs 4 to 5 carriers, the market is not big enough for more than that.



I believe Air Costa can do well if the management keeps its heads between the shoulders.
First, they are flying the ERJ, which is one of the most economical airplanes in the skies today. Second, they are, at least for the time being, keeping their operations small. They need to control costs and manage the revenues.

Paramount was all about bad management and making grandiose plans of acquiring A321s even before establishing a market presence.
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theflyingsikh
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PostPosted: Fri Oct 11, 2013 3:37 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

sriramhariiyer wrote:
Quote:
theflyingsikh


May I know which site you were able get the price and booking info?


It was on the airlines own website.
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HAWK21M
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PostPosted: Fri Oct 11, 2013 3:10 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Heard they have started flying ffrom yesterday.....can anyone confirm.
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basheer1211
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PostPosted: Sun Oct 13, 2013 2:29 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Nimish wrote:
Bookings commenced?

Booking is opened for VGA - BLR - JAI - MAA and MAA - JAI - BLR - VGA which is commencing on 15th Oct. MAA - AMD - MAA leg is yet to opened for booking though schedule page stats that it will be commencing on 23rd Oct.
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himmat01
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PostPosted: Mon Oct 14, 2013 4:19 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

They had a first page advertisement in Yesterday's "The Hindu", Delhi edition. The operations as per this ad are commencing on October 14, 2013.
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basheer1211
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PostPosted: Mon Oct 14, 2013 4:28 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Air Costa, India's newest airline, takes flight today

Just when the airline sector is staring at runaway operational expenses worsened by a weak rupee, a little-known business group from the Andhra Pradesh town of Vijayawada has entered the money-guzzling business.

Its regional airline - Air Costa, first to be set up under the government of India's regional airline policy in South India - takes to air with two Embraer jets on Monday.

The airline will be headquartered at Vijayawada, and have Chennai as its maintenance centre.

This start-up comes seven years after the launch of Paramount Airways, which too flew Embraer jets. Air Costa has plans to invest about Rs 610 crore over the next two years. The airline has taken delivery of two E-170 jets and, will add two more E-190 jets in November. In all, Air Costa plans to have 10 E-190 jets by end of 2014, and take the total fleet size to 25 by 2018 in phases.

"We are adopting an operational strategy wherein we would be focussing mostly on under-served and lesser-competitive routes," Air Costa Chairman Lingamaneni Ramesh said ahead of the launch.

Air Costa will have unconventional city-pairs connecting tier-II and tier-III cities, looking at routes not served by the established carriers. The start-up will operate services to Hyderabad, Chennai, Bangalore, Jaipur and Ahmedabad and later to Visakhapatnam, Goa, Madurai, Thriuvananthapuram and Mysore.

Two Embraer jets have already arrived from the ECC Leasing Company, and the third one is expected from the GECAS soon.

The privately-held Lingamaneni group, founded in 1983 by the first generation entrepreneur L.P. Bhaskar Rao, has tasted success in real estate and construction business. The group has completed many real estate projects in Vijayawada, and is currently building a satellite township project in an area of 32 million square feet with an investment of close to a billion dollars, according to media reports. The group's website says it also has a presence in renewable energy, health care, education and hospitality.
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Nimish
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PostPosted: Mon Oct 14, 2013 6:30 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Flight was cancelled today, likely to operate tomorrow. Interesting article by Vasuki/ Flying Engineer on the horrible economics of the route!

http://theflyingengineer.com/2013/10/14/air-costa-operational-costs-market-inaugral-flight-pushed-to-15th-october/
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sri_bom
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PostPosted: Thu Oct 24, 2013 1:08 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Air Costa: More than half of sectors are approx. one hours duration: CAPA report
News
23-Oct-2013 12:25 PM
CAPA - Centre for Aviation, in its India Aviation Monitor, stated (22-Oct-2013) it believes Air Costa, which launched operation on 14-Oct-2013, is achieving aircraft utilisation of close to 11 hours/day. The report noted: "India’s newest airline, Air Costa, launched commercial operations on 14-Oct-13. The regional carrier is based in Vijayawada in south India and operates a fleet of two ERJ170s, to be joined shortly by two ERJ190 regional jets. Based on our understanding of their schedule the airline is achieving aircraft utilisation of close to 11 hours/day but this may need to be enhanced further to achieve the necessary cost efficiencies to be viable. This could require a restructuring of its route network to include longer sectors. At present more than half of the sectors operated are of approximately one hour duration which makes it difficult to achieve higher utilisation due to the number of turnarounds. The airline is reportedly well-capitalised which is essential for a start-up carrier and indicates a realistic and long-term strategy. However some of this capital would have been consumed due to cash burn from holding costs during the extended delay to the launch of the carrier".
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theflyingsikh
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PostPosted: Mon Oct 28, 2013 6:22 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Air Costa commercial

http://youtu.be/L-L5jfLrBuA


http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tpS5bO94lHw
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Jeh
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PostPosted: Mon Oct 28, 2013 7:22 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

theflyingsikh wrote:
Air Costa commercial

http://youtu.be/L-L5jfLrBuA


http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tpS5bO94lHw


Ghastly Shocked From the shampoo-ad jingle to the scrolling ticker at the bottom (Sandhi Sudha inspired?), it's just so incredible tacky. And their airport scenes look like something you'd expect in a CID episode. At least they've got a plane at the end - why on earth don't airlines use planes more? Most ads are barely about the product anyway, so why not use something that looks impressive and awes the customer - e.g. stock footage of the flagship of your fleet?
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airbus340
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PostPosted: Mon Oct 28, 2013 10:49 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

theflyingsikh wrote:
Air Costa commercial

http://youtu.be/L-L5jfLrBuA


http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tpS5bO94lHw


What a cheap rip off of the Virgin Atlantic 25 yr old Anniversary advert .

The advert starts with this bloke stepping out of the car with a mobile phone and cant get enough of the crew in the distance .

The link to the VS advert is as below . Its a shameless copy , at least the bit mentioned above .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6cM4EOeJzHA


Happy flying for sure ... LMAO !!!
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HAWK21M
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PostPosted: Tue Oct 29, 2013 2:28 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I wonder if they can sustain, whats their E170 support like.
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