Airliners-India

aeroblogger · Posted: Fri Apr 13, 2012 1:19 am Post subject: GoAir News - Part 1

By request of [b] Devesh, this is a consolidated thread for GoAir News. If Mods could please merge the following threads into this thread:

http://airlinersindia.s4.bizhat.com/viewtopic.php?t=11681
http://airlinersindia.s4.bizhat.com/viewtopic.php?t=11934
http://airlinersindia.s4.bizhat.com/viewtopic.php?t=11876
http://airlinersindia.s4.bizhat.com/viewtopic.php?t=12239
http://airlinersindia.s4.bizhat.com/viewtopic.php?t=12232
http://airlinersindia.s4.bizhat.com/viewtopic.php?t=12158

Future news can be posted directly onto this thread.

Thanks!
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Devesh · Posted: Fri Apr 13, 2012 8:31 am Post subject:

Thanks Rohit.
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ameya · Posted: Fri Apr 13, 2012 9:19 am Post subject:

Thanks ! This would help consolidate.

btw, was just going thru the G8 website, they have a couple of allied things like
Go travel - similar to the indigo one, gopacking/goholiday

go club which is some kind of frequent flyer program

and their website is advertising that web checkin is now enabled, which is surprising since web check in is d norm these days !

ameya · Posted: Fri Apr 13, 2012 11:54 am Post subject:

Go Air is relocating one of the planes

Cancelled Flights :
1x each DEL-BLR-DEL
Morning freq on DEL-IXR-DEL
Pullout from DEL-GOI-DEL
day 2,3 DEL-IXJ-SXR-DEL

This looks like being done to accommodate the new flights ex-MAA

ameya · Posted: Fri Apr 13, 2012 12:03 pm Post subject:

Go Air is taking delivery of its 12th factory fresh plane by april end.
VT-GOJ would be coloured blue

Spiderguy252 · Posted: Fri Apr 13, 2012 4:04 pm Post subject:

The threads created prior can remain, all new topics on the airline can be posted in here to warrant discussion.
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747-237 · Posted: Mon Apr 16, 2012 3:47 pm Post subject:

Go Air Ends 3 Domestic India Routes from May 2012

India’s low-cost carrier Go Air from 01MAY12 is pulling out service on 3 domestic routes, which includes the following:

Delhi – Bangalore Reduces from 2 to 1 Daily (eff 30APR12)
Delhi – Goa 5 weekly service Cancelled
Delhi – Ranchi 1 Daily service Cancelled
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ameya · Posted: Mon Apr 16, 2012 4:28 pm Post subject:

Nimish · Posted: Mon Apr 16, 2012 5:48 pm Post subject:

ameya · Posted: Mon Apr 16, 2012 6:01 pm Post subject:

indopaki · Member Joined: 23 Jul 2007 Posts: 479 Location: Pakistan

What about their livery are they still bent on painting that drab grey as a uniform look fleetwide?

ameya · Posted: Wed Apr 18, 2012 3:58 pm Post subject:

VT-GOJ is coming in Blue to the best of my knowledge

747-237 · Posted: Thu Apr 19, 2012 10:47 pm Post subject:

http://www.thehindu.com/business/companies/article3332831.ece

GoAir keen to fly global routes

April 19, 2012

Domestic airline GoAir is not averse to expanding its operations to international routes, subject to revision of certain eligibility norms, even while retaining its focus on growing in the country.

“I might apply with a request for a revision in the norms,” Giorgio De Roni, Chief Executive Officer, Go Airlines (India), said, referring to the government stipulation that domestic carriers could go abroad only if they have a minimum 20 aircraft. Some foreign airlines with less than 20 aircraft, he added, were, however, allowed to operate.

While stating that GoAir respected the regulatory framework, he said the government stood to gain by permitting the domestic carriers to operate on international routes as the move would bring more foreign tourists, foreign exchange and have a positive impact on allied businesses such as hotels.

Mr. Roni was addressing a press meet to announce the decision of GoAir to start operations in Chennai from May 1. It has also got its 12 Airbus A320. Chennai, the 22nd destination for the carrier, he added.

To a query on the plans for more aircraft, he said GoAir had 12, of which one was on a short lease.

The company proposes to add three more aircraft this fiscal. The number would increase to 20 by 2014. It has also placed orders for 72 aircraft, which will come by 2016.

On the decision of the government to allow foreign direct investment (FDI) in airlines, he said the group was willing to sell, but would consider if there was an opportunity to “improve our vision and market.” He said GoAir was in discussion with “two big brothers in Europe” for a tie-up for maintenance and spare parts, but not with anyone for FDI.”

The carrier, like many others in the industry, was evaluating the prospects of importing aviation fuel, he said, pointing out that cost of fuel represented 50 per cent of the total cost for airlines. Importing fuel would mean lot of investments for the airlines, he added.

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vikramv2 · Posted: Sat Apr 21, 2012 12:26 pm Post subject:

G8 is anyways a very marginal player. Dont know where they will fly Int'l given the fact that 6E and SG are flying Int'l too. If they fly on the same routes, yields will be quite low. All the new routes have to be innovative and these destinations have to be developed for tourism along with the tourism board; along with the business traffic of course
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747-237 · Posted: Tue Apr 24, 2012 3:44 am Post subject:

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-industry/transportation/airlines-/-aviation/goair-mulls-late-night-flights-to-attract-budget-fliers/articleshow/12844159.cms

GoAir mulls late-night flights to attract budget fliers

24 Apr, 2012

To beat rising costs that have pushed air travel to a premium category and out of reach of many, the Wadia Group-promoted budget airline GoAir is falling back on strategies that were discontinued because those were ahead of times.

The airline is contemplating tossing back its red-eye flights once again, and it is in dialogue with several state governments to allow it to develop non-capital city routes with lower sales tax on the air turbine fuel (4% as opposed to 27%) and also has sought a waiver for 20 aircraft norm before an airline goes international from the government, said Jeh Wadia, managing director, GoAir.

GoAir, with a market share of 7.5% (government March passenger data), lost the tag of the smallest commercial airline to Vijay Mallya-promoted Kingfisher Airlines in March this year. It is evaluating adding a different aircraft type for smaller cities, beside its fleet of Airbus A320 narrow body type.

The push to tap potential from smaller cities, according to Wadia, comes after observing fast-moving consumer goods companies that have beaten the downturn by scaling up in the rural markets.

"We are looking at alternative ways to attract a better and untapped market place for low-cost airlines with smaller aircraft and smaller markets that attract lesser sales tax on ATF. We are looking at evaluating an alternative aircraft type primarily from a perspective of the rural market. In FMCG terms, when the urban markets are drying up, every company starts talking rural. So, Tier-II and Tier-III cities offer opportunity to do point-to-point flights, not the hub and spoke, which the current ATRs with Jet and Kingfisher are doing," Wadia told ET.

The evaluation, according to him, will be completed in a couple of months. Rival carrier SpiceJet also has the Bombardier Q400s for the smaller regional markets in its fleet.

GoAir will also be building up on this strategy of permeating smaller cities by seeking permissions from state governments to fly to non-capital cities in states so that these states develop as feasible stations and the airline can also take the benefit of lower sales tax on ATF which in smaller cities can be as low as 4%.

The idea developed after GoAir successfully started flights to the small town of Nanded in Maharashtra. "What we are planning is refinement to the Nanded model where we are incentivised as the state government has offered us 4% sales tax on flying back from Nanded to Mumbai. What we are requesting is that the government calculate the miles and offer us that tax relaxation from Mumbai to Nanded as well. We have made representations to the other state governments to work on the same plan. This allows these governments to milk their golden goose and also incentives the airlines," Wadia said.

GoAir, which completed five years of domestic operations, has also sought permission from the government to fly to international routes and waive off the restriction of an airline to have minimum of 20 aircraft in its fleet before it can go overseas.

The move will allow GoAir to increase its aircraft utilisation from an existing 14 hours to almost 19 hours. Wadia is also contemplating getting back his red-eye flight operations that he abandoned last year for want of passengers to increase his aircraft utilisation and offer cheap tickets to passenger in the environment where air fares have risen by 20-25% over the last three months.

"From GoAir's perspective, there is no rush to go international. But we have made the application as we are eligible and would like to start a few routes at night to take utilisation of aircraft from 14 hours to 19 hours. Our aircraft complete domestic routes by one in the night and from one in the night to five it is idle. We want to put out one route may be Sri Lanka or the Middle East during this time and even if we achieve a break even at variable cost that will help to lower the cost of available seat per kilometre," Wadia said.

He added that red-eye flights that are incentivised in the west will be restarted as initially they found that in India unfortunately no one wants to fly during the night between one and five. "Hopefully we are going to try that again," Wadia said.

The low-cost airlines in the current scenario are under pressure as the operating costs for the airlines have risen by 12% over the last one year.

GoAir, which completed five years of domestic operations, has also sought permission from the government to fly to international routes and waive off the restriction of an airline to have minimum of 20 aircraft in its fleet before it can go overseas.

The move will allow GoAir to increase its aircraft utilisation from an existing 14 hours to almost 19 hours. Wadia is also contemplating getting back his red-eye flight operations that he abandoned last year for want of passengers to increase his aircraft utilisation and offer cheap tickets to passenger in the environment where air fares have risen by 20-25% over the last three months.

"From GoAir's perspective, there is no rush to go international. But we have made the application as we are eligible and would like to start a few routes at night to take utilisation of aircraft from 14 hours to 19 hours. Our aircraft complete domestic routes by one in the night and from one in the night to five it is idle. We want to put out one route may be Sri Lanka or the Middle East during this time and even if we achieve a break even at variable cost that will help to lower the cost of available seat per kilometre," Wadia said.

He added that red-eye flights that are incentivised in the west will be restarted as initially they found that in India unfortunately no one wants to fly during the night between one and five. "Hopefully we are going to try that again," Wadia said.

The low-cost airlines in the current scenario are under pressure as the operating costs for the airlines have risen by 12% over the last one year.

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Nimish · Posted: Tue Apr 24, 2012 3:21 pm Post subject:

With air fares about 60% higher than a few months ago, this is a good time for G8 to relaunch the mid-night flights at lower fares. There's a huge market for a 3.5K BLR-DEL one way fare (compared to 5.5-6K these days), and a lot of these pax would not mind a mid-night flight.
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747-237 · Posted: Fri Apr 27, 2012 6:20 pm Post subject:

GoAir have added a new A320 to the fleet today, as VT-GOJ

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747-237 · Posted: Tue May 22, 2012 12:12 am Post subject:

ameya · Posted: Tue May 22, 2012 9:04 pm Post subject:

Now they are back to 12 planes I suppose

747-237 · Posted: Sat Jun 02, 2012 6:56 am Post subject:

After Jet Airways, private airlines IndiGo, Go Air and Spice Jet have started charging Rs 50 for an e-ticket printout at the airport counter.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/3-more-airlines-charge-for-e-ticket-printout/articleshow/13712470.cms
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747-237 · Posted: Tue Jul 03, 2012 3:29 pm Post subject:

GoAir Expands Domestic India Operation in July 2012

India’s GoAir starting today (03JUL12) introduces expanded service on a number of domestic routes. Planned routes and schedules:

Delhi – Ahmedabad NEW 1 Daily one-way service
G8104 DEL1945 – 2115AMD 320 D

Delhi – Pune Service increases from 14 to 19 weekly
G8381 DEL1850 – 2100PNQ 320 x23
G8382 PNQ2130 – 2340DEL 320 x23

Delhi – Ranchi Service increases from 1 to 2 daily (from DEL only)
G8341 DEL0535 – 0715IXR 320 D

Delhi – Srinagar Service increases from 3 to 4 daily (SXR departure increases from 22 to 29 weekly)
G8362 DEL1530 – 1710SXR 320 D
G8363 SXR1740 – 1920DEL 320 D

Mumbai – Chandigarh BOM departure increases from 1 to 2 daily (overall service will become 2 daily round-trip)
G8144 BOM1630 – 1840IXC 320 D

Ranchi – Patna Service becomes round-trip instead of one-way (from Patna)
G8341 IXR0745 – 0835PAT 320 D

Source: Airlineroute.net
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ameya · Posted: Tue Jul 03, 2012 3:31 pm Post subject:

This also comes with some insane changes

BOMBLR-1950 dep shifted to 2220
Morning DEL-PAT-DEL re routed as DEL-IXR-PAT-DEL

Service reduction on CCU-IXZ-CCU sector

More changes awaited, last heard they are not doing good on their newly launched routes and a major rework on flights is expected

ameya · Posted: Sat Jul 07, 2012 11:37 pm Post subject:

Business world - Go Air article

If I may vet it, there is a lot more which is not reported. Found this in last weeks edition

ameya · Posted: Sun Jul 08, 2012 7:49 pm Post subject:

Few sources confirm the following exits

- Head security
- GM - APS
- GM - Marketing, Revenue , Planning
- Head - IT
- Head - RM
- CFO two people have moved out in a matter of 8-10 months
- Head Legal

Karan69 · Member Joined: 22 Dec 2006 Posts: 1334

Nimish · Posted: Sun Jul 08, 2012 8:57 pm Post subject:

The real question is - how is the departure of all these big-wigs impacting the airline? Are the numbers looking better or worse Smile

?

Given the airline seems pretty "stagnant" - perhaps there's nothing much for these chaps to do?
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Karan69 · Member Joined: 22 Dec 2006 Posts: 1334

Nimish · Posted: Sun Jul 08, 2012 9:03 pm Post subject:

Karan69 · Member Joined: 22 Dec 2006 Posts: 1334

Nimish i ,must clarify that my comments in brackets was regarding how family business units are managed as iwork with my family was not referring to any personal association with the airline

Karan

Nimish · Posted: Mon Jul 09, 2012 2:20 am Post subject:

ameya · Posted: Mon Jul 09, 2012 11:50 am Post subject:

Though the loyalist promotion makes sence, the problem is that there are certain areas which do require specialised airline knowledge and would not function like how britania or the reality business functions and the instability in the market is probably because of the churn every now and then.

New person, new ideas, new logic

jasepl · Member Joined: 26 Jul 2008 Posts: 4257 Location: bund-bay

Is there more than one Wadia involved in the daily micromanagement?
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747-237 · Posted: Fri Jul 27, 2012 10:01 pm Post subject:

GoAir have added a new A320 to the fleet today, as VT-GOK.
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ameya · Posted: Sat Jul 28, 2012 9:23 am Post subject:

The new bird would operate new flights from Aug 21st

MAA-BLR-GOI-BOM-LKO-DEL and v.v

747-237 · Posted: Fri Aug 10, 2012 8:41 am Post subject:

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-industry/transportation/airlines-/-aviation/goair-signs-10-year-contract-with-lufthansa-technik-for-a320-maintenance/articleshow/15427355.cms

GoAir signs 10-year contract with Lufthansa Technik for A320 maintenance

10 Aug, 2012

Budget airline GoAir has entered into a long-term component support contract with Germany-based Lufthansa Technik for maintaining its Airbus A320 aircraft.

The 10-year contract will cover most spare parts required for maintaining the Wadia Group-promoted carrier's fleet of A320 aircraft as well as the more fuel-efficient narrow-body A320 neo aircraft that it plans to add from 2016 onwards.

GoAir has 13 A320s and it plans to add 72 A320 neo aircraft after four years. The airline operates 98 daily flights and has a market share of over 7%. The carrier has achieved international benchmark for aircraft utilisation, with over 13 hours of flying on its Airbus A320 aircraft.

The details of the deal could not be determined immediately as GoAir refused to divulge details due to contractual obligations.

However, according to the airline, GoAir will get access to Technik's web-based system manage/m and both parties will implement just-in-time inventory management. This tool for managing technical operations will allow the aircraft operator to manage "core functions of their fleet's technical operations as an entirely web-based system". Spare parts will be supplied to the airline's bases at Mumbai and Delhi. Maintenance and repair of the components will be done at Lufthansa Technik facilities. A dedicated customer support team will support GoAir.

"Over the past years, Lufthansa Technik has proven its ability to understand the dedicated needs of low-cost carriers in the Asian region. Thus, we are sure that we have made the right choice to get the best possible technical support for our growth path in India," said GoAir CEO Giorgio De Roni. The engineering arm of the German carrier Lufthansa, Technik, has about 750 customers worldwide as per the corporate information on the company website.

According to persons familiar with the matter, GoAir was previously sending aircraft to MRO company Air Works and a few aircraft were also sent to GMR-operated MRO at Hyderabad. "The current tie-up for GoAir will be expensive as there is taxation issue in India and there will be a levy of 12% of service tax. And, in any case, Lufthansa does not negotiate on rates," said a person, who did not wish to be identified. Another expert said that Lufthansa will charge about $50 ( 2,750) per hour, though this could not be verified.

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Nimish · Posted: Fri Aug 10, 2012 11:34 am Post subject:

^^ Wow - does that mean that LHT will set up shop in India now? Good move from Go Air IMO - leave the maintenance to the experts rather than try and do everything yourself.
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HAWK21M · Posted: Sat Aug 11, 2012 4:40 pm Post subject:

Nimish · Posted: Mon Aug 13, 2012 2:22 pm Post subject:

ameya · Posted: Mon Aug 13, 2012 2:35 pm Post subject:

Couple of points which I would want to understand from the maintenance angle.

My assumption is you can outsource economically when you are small. As you grow bigger, in housing everything is a better bet from a cost and control perspective.

Now when the airline is growing, why is it out sourcing ?

Nimish · Posted: Mon Aug 13, 2012 3:27 pm Post subject: