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Turning over a new leaf – Spicejet revamps Q400 schedule

 
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ameya
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Location: Pune,Maharashtra

PostPosted: Thu Jul 09, 2015 2:44 pm    Post subject: Turning over a new leaf – Spicejet revamps Q400 schedule Reply with quote

Full article with charts on the link below

Turning over a new leaf – Spicejet revamps Q400 schedule

Spicejet started with rapid expansion, immediately after the induction of Q400s in 2011/12. This meant opening up new stations, many of which were single flight stations. This trend was seen for the B737 operations too with flights to Guangzhou – which were one of the early pull outs. The strategy was termed Blue Oceans by the then CEO – Neil Mills, but sadly it has not given the results it was expected to give.

The difference in salary paid to staff at stations which handle multiple flights a day and a single flight a day is very less, thus it makes sense to have as many flights as possible to each and every station in the network, and find a station which can support such operations, unless the station is such that it gives exceptional yields.

There is a lot to learn from Network Planning of IndiGo. Over the years, they have selected stations which let you launch flights from multiple destinations in their network. While this approach is considered to keep costs low, there is another benefit which lies on the Marketing and Sales side. By having more frequencies and connections, it is easy for the Sales team to get more and more travel agents on board and increase sales in a particular city, which in turn help shore up the load factors.

When the head winds started for Spicejet, the blame was being put on the Q400s and the dual fleet strategy. It was also reported that Ajay Singh – the new MD is not in favor of dual fleet strategy and would look at phasing out the Q400s. Thankfully, there is new lease of life, at least temporarily for the Qs and there were news items of the turboprop fleet being cash positive in Q1-CY15.

I have always felt that a dual fleet strategy will be helpful for Spicejet and be a differentiator. Spicejet should aim to be a JetBlue in India – a value carrier! And this is how they would be different from market leader IndiGo – which now commands a premium and with operational issues & lowest OTP of Spicejet mainly due to its B737 fleet, the airline will take a lot of time to regain business customers or high yielding passengers.
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sumantra
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PostPosted: Thu Jul 09, 2015 8:23 pm    Post subject: Re: Turning over a new leaf – Spicejet revamps Q400 schedule Reply with quote

ameya wrote:
Turning over a new leaf – Spicejet revamps Q400 schedule

Fascinating, as usual. I really look forward to your focus on airlines which are a bit mysterious in terms of their strategy, and your predictions, suggestions, and analysis of their performance, parameters, your perspective on their progress and take-home points.
- Salary difference point: an eye-opener for a novice like me, who has no idea about airlines running, and cost structures.
- Indigo had started with a large part of their senior core being all ex-IC stalwarts, who got a free hand to organise and run an airline very well.
- Interesting point about travel agents. However, many travel agents are shutting shop in Delhi, and are bleeding badly, due to razor-thin margins, and zero commissions (at last, officially). What is the reality like?
- I am secretly pleased you mentioned JLR, since I seem to have visited the place quite often in the near past, and have lamented left, right and centre that AI-R cries out for capacity on this (albeit average-yield) route. Now, we have a second frequency, 6/w till Oct'15, and daily, afterwards. So, almost twice daily, DEL-JLR. Sure, they have picked up the travel trend possibly really well. Kingfisher: I seem to remember two Delhi flights on the AT7, all to.from BOM, via JLR. AI-R did not have enough planes, almost, till now. They are trying to put the new AT&-6s on the economically better routes: this is good for them. I guess with more planes coming in, JLR may see more AI-R ops.
- The denser ops rather than spread out, is a nice conclusion from the Ajay Singh-promoted airline now. And Sanjeev Kapoor and his team are no slouches, either. The away-from-6E strategy is also neat.
- We will watch out for your B737 prediction: you have a knack of making things happen!
- Neat one with the double-dip comparison, and usual outcome!
Thanks once again,
Sumantra.
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ameya
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PostPosted: Mon Jul 13, 2015 10:43 am    Post subject: Re: Turning over a new leaf – Spicejet revamps Q400 schedule Reply with quote

sumantra wrote:
ameya wrote:
Turning over a new leaf – Spicejet revamps Q400 schedule

Fascinating, as usual. I really look forward to your focus on airlines which are a bit mysterious in terms of their strategy, and your predictions, suggestions, and analysis of their performance, parameters, your perspective on their progress and take-home points.

Thanks for the kind words!
sumantra wrote:

- Indigo had started with a large part of their senior core being all ex-IC stalwarts, who got a free hand to organise and run an airline very well.

You are right about IndiGo. However, there were many ex- Sahara guys as well, who could well be ex-IC again !

sumantra wrote:

- Interesting point about travel agents. However, many travel agents are shutting shop in Delhi, and are bleeding badly, due to razor-thin margins, and zero commissions (at last, officially). What is the reality like?

TA are still getting business from corporate customers as well as focusing on package deals where the customer books from them. More on the international side where visa is involved

sumantra wrote:

- I am secretly pleased you mentioned JLR, since I seem to have visited the place quite often in the near past, and have lamented left, right and centre that AI-R cries out for capacity on this (albeit average-yield) route. Now, we have a second frequency, 6/w till Oct'15, and daily, afterwards. So, almost twice daily, DEL-JLR. Sure, they have picked up the travel trend possibly really well. Kingfisher: I seem to remember two Delhi flights on the AT7, all to.from BOM, via JLR. AI-R did not have enough planes, almost, till now. They are trying to put the new AT&-6s on the economically better routes: this is good for them. I guess with more planes coming in, JLR may see more AI-R ops.

KF was the first to operate A320 to JLR, operating BOM-JLR-IDR-BOM sometime in 2010/11

sumantra wrote:

- We will watch out for your B737 prediction: you have a knack of making things happen!
- Neat one with the double-dip comparison, and usual outcome!
Thanks once again,
Sumantra.


Thanks again !
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sumantra
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PostPosted: Fri Jul 17, 2015 7:46 pm    Post subject: Re: Turning over a new leaf – Spicejet revamps Q400 schedule Reply with quote

ameya wrote:
sumantra wrote:

- Interesting point about travel agents. However, many travel agents are shutting shop in Delhi, and are bleeding badly, due to razor-thin margins, and zero commissions (at last, officially). What is the reality like?

TA are still getting business from corporate customers as well as focusing on package deals where the customer books from them. More on the international side where visa is involved
Sir, I'll ask this on another thread.

ameya wrote:
KF was the first to operate A320 to JLR, operating BOM-JLR-IDR-BOM sometime in 2010/11
Sir, please tell us more about this. I am interested, since by the time I started taking interest in JLR operations, Kingfisher had shifted to an AT7-5 for its DEL-JLR-BOM ops and vice versa. That would possibly be late 2011. I will be interested to know about the A320 operations to JLR as well. Was it somewhat load-restricted? The largest plane I have seen at JLR has been the Comm Squadron's B737-700 BBJ. The Govt ops have seen the HS-748, and the type can also do the short-field operations quite well. How were the average loads on the A320?
Thanks once again, Sir.
Cheers, Sumantra.
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