Kingfisher to start BLR – DXB

Kingfisher has announced that it will begin its Bangalore-Dubai flights starting June 25 with an Airbus A 320. This flights was originally planned to start in March 2009, but has been delayed due to poor economic conditions.

“The conditions have improved now. It is a good time to connect Dubai and Bangalore with the summer travel season starting,” said Vinay Nambiar, Kingfisher’s area manager for the UAE, Qatar and Oman.

Kingfisher also plans to start flights to Abu Dhabi and a couple of other destinations in the Gulf region, he said.

The daily Dubai services will be operated using an A320 aircraft. Flights from Bangalore will depart at 6.30pm and land in Dubai at 8.55pm local time. The return flight will leave Dubai at 11.30pm and reach Bangalore at 4.45am.

Kingfisher Airlines defers Dubai launch until June

Kingfisher Airlines has put off its plan to launch Dubai services until June, according to an airline source and Dubai-based travel agents. 

The Bangaluru-based airline had earlier decided to launch Dubai route on March 7, but has now deferred it given the current slowdown in air travel and declining airfares. 

“We would be launching a daily Bangaluru-Dubai service now sometime in June, though no specific date has been decided yet. The reason for deferring the launch is the current situation wherein airfares have dropped to very low levels,” the airline source told Emirates Business. 

At present UAE carriers such as Emirates and Etihad Airways are offering return airfares to India at below Dh1,000 levels, according to travel agents, who pointed out that Etihad Airways’ India fares recently went down to as low as Dh530. “We would have also had to join the bandwagon had we launched as planned, on March 7. There has been a drastic change in air travel in the region. So we took a decision to defer it until June when it would be a peak travel season,” said the airline source. 

He said the airline would launch one more destination out of India in June, besides Bangaluru, connecting to Dubai. “We are currently studying various options including Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai and Ahmedabad. The Kingfisher team is working on the feasibility of the routes, after which we will decide one of these four cities to connect to Dubai.” 

Meanwhile, Kingfisher Airlines has plans to launch three to four new global destinations this year from Bangaluru, despite the economic downturn. 

Also, this is the second time Kingfisher has deferred its Dubai launch. The earlier plan was to launch flights between Bangaluru and Dubai in February 8 this year. The airline had said in January that it will fly the Airbus A320 aircraft for its daily Dubai flights with a single-class economy offering. 

“With Dubai’s daily service, Bangaluru will become Kingfisher’s new hub in India with seamless transit without any change of airports to directly connect to over 26 cities in India,” the airline said this in a memo to one of the Dubai-based travel agents. 

Kingfisher launched its international operations in September 2008, connecting Bangaluru with a daily non-stop London flight, followed by a Mumbai-London flight that commenced in January this year.

Kingfisher cancels Hong Kong and Singapore launch

 Kingfisher is cancelling planned launch on the Mumbai – Hong Kong and Mumbai – Singapore route for this month. These flights are closed for sale and not showing in Kingfisher’s inventories from GDS direct access. Sources have confirmed that the launch has been pushed back by 4 weeks according to initial estimates. 

More updates to follow.

Kingfisher Red to soon touch S-E Asian skies

Vijay Mallya’s Kingfisher Airlines will face-off with Asia’s budget airline pioneer Tony Fernandes-led AirAsia in South-East Asian skies. 
India’s beer-to-airline billionaire is mulling introduction of his value offering, Kingfisher Red, on S-E Asian routes, even as AirAsia kicked off operations to India—flying into Trichy from its base in Kuala Lumpur. 

Sources said Kingfisher Red, formerly Air Deccan, was planning to fly on Chennai-Kuala Lumpur route, but is yet to apply to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation. It is believed that Kingfisher Red is charting a distinct strategy on international flights, and is seen evaluating several sectors connecting India to S-E Asia and M-E. 

Meanwhile, Tony Fernandes, who is also a personal friend of Mr Mallya, is eyeing aggressive expansion in the Indian market. The Malaysian airline tycoon also plans to fly to Chennai, along with other destinations like Madurai, Cochin and Coimbatore in the next one-and-a-half years. AirAsia-X, the long haul subsidiary of AirAsia, plans to connect New Delhi, Bombay, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Kolkata subsequently. Speculation has also been gaining ground that Mr Fernandes could be interested in buying equity stake in Indian carriers once the government permission falls in place. 

According to the industry sources, AirAsia’s flights for the Trichy-Kuala Lumpur route have been completely booked till May. The airline started its daily direct flights for this route from December 1 2008. “Tamil Nadu is historically linked with Malaysia and people here are finding the discounted fare offered by AirAsia as a good opportunity to travel to the port city,” said Travel Tours marketing vice-president Ashwin Narayanan.

Kingfisher launches Dubai flights from Bangalore (Bengaluru) BLR-DXB

Kingfisher Airlines will launch its Bengaluru(Bangalore)- Dubai flights starting March 1.

IT 45 BLR D 1940 DXB A 2215 A320 
IT 46 DXB D 2330 BLR A 0445 A320 

Tickets can be booked through their website. The fare for March is INR 20319 including taxes.

Kingfisher launches Mumbai-London daily flight

Expanding its overseas operations, Vijay Mallya-run private air-carrier Kingfisher Airlines launched its daily non-stop Mumbai-London flight today at Mumbai Airport. Mumbai-London is the airline’s second overseas route after its Bangalore-London flight was launched in September last year. 

The airline has deployed a brand new Airbus 330-200 aircraft, configured in two classes, Kingfisher First and Kingfisher Class. 

The Mumbai-London flight will take off from Mumbai at 1.50 pm (IST) and arrive at Heathrow’s Terminal 4 at 5.55 pm (GMT), the spokesperson said. 

The return flight from London will leave at 8.30 pm (GMT) and arrive at Chhatrapati Shivaji International Terminal the next day at 11 am (IST), he said. 

Kingfisher has also plans to launch Mumbai-Hong Kong operations from January 12 and the Mumbai-Singapore flight from January 16. 

Kingfisher flights from Bangalore and Chennai for Sri Lanka capital Colombo will start from January 19.

Arik in talks for A340-500s as Kingfisher retrenches

Nigeria’s Arik Air is to take over part of Kingfisher Airlines’ Airbus A340-500 order as the Indian carrier seeks to reduce capacity in an effort to cut costs and stem losses.

A source at Arik Air says the airline is in negotiation with Airbus for two new A340-500s: “We are buying the aircraft from Airbus, they are ex-Kingfisher,” the source told Flight’s Commercial Aviation Online.

Kingfisher placed orders in 2006 for five A340-500s along with five options, the first of which have been awaiting delivery in Toulouse. However, at Farnborough in July, chairman Vijay Mallya revealed that Kingfisher was planning to sell at least two of the ultra-long-range aircraft this year.

The Mumbai-based airline, which is in the process of integrating operations with low-cost carrier Deccan, is also returning some leased aircraft and seeking 300 voluntary redundancies.

“Upon rationalising the route network of the airline and having closely examined aircraft utilisation, we have identified surplus aircraft that are now redundant and are therefore being returned to lessors,” says Kingfisher. It adds that the cost-reduction drive has taken on greater urgency because of “the ongoing turbulence faced by the aviation industry”.

Arik Air has approval to serve London Heathrow and is expected to start operations this autumn. It is also cleared to start US services in April. The airline’s expansion plan includes the acquisition of more than 50 new aircraft over the next 10-15 years. According to Flight’s ACAS database, Arik Air has firm orders for 12 Boeing long-haul aircraft – five 777-300ERs and seven 787-9s, as well as commitments for four 747-8Is.

Kingfisher gets govt nod to fly abroad

Kingfisher Airlines has secured permission to fly abroad starting with flights to London.

The civil aviation ministry granted the traffic rights to Deccan Aviation in which Kingfisher Airlines merged in 2007, to operate services to London and other global destinations.

The airline, which has already firmed up plans to launch its Bangalore-London (Heathrow) flight from the first week of September, would be starting its international services on the rights granted to Deccan Aviation on the India-UK sector.

The mnistry on Mondayconveyed its approval to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation for granting traffic rights to Deccan Aviation, an official spokesperson said on Tuesday.

Traffic rights of seven services per week have been granted with effect from August 26 between Bangalore and London and the airline permitted to utilise a large aircraft, Airbus A-330 for the long-haul operation.

The ministry has also advised DGCA to grant operating clearance to Deccan Aviation after due diligence of the airline’s ability to operate on the long-haul sector, the spokespersons said.

According to guidelines an Indian carrier can fly abroad only after serving the domestic market for five years and having a fleet of 20 aircraft.

First Kingfisher international flight on Sept 3

Kingfisher Airlines plans to launch its first international flight on September 3 with a direct Bangalore-London flight. “The countdown has begun. We are all set to fly to London from Bangalore on September 3,’’ a Kingfisher Airlines official said here. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation had last month granted permission to Deccan Aviation to fly to 13 countries from August 26, the day the airline will complete the mandatory five years of domestic operations to become eligible for overseas operations. Kingfisher and Deccan Aviation have now merged. Under normal circumstances, Kingfisher would have to wait for two more years to complete the five-year term mandatory to become eligible for overseas flying. But now the government has let Kingfisher fly overseas under both brands—Deccan and KF.

Air traffic In India drops sharply

Airlines, triggered by increasing fares, reported lower passenger loads for the second consecutive month. Despite significant capacity reduction, airlines have also been hit by lower loads. Domestic airlines managed to carry only 3.04-million passengers in July, down 12.64 per cent, in comparison to 3.48 million during the same month of the previous year.

Low-cost carriers such as Air Deccan and SpiceJet were the worst hit, with their load factor falling significantly. Air India also saw its loads falling and market share dipping. Passenger traffic in the domestic segment declined 4% in June 2008, suffering negative growth for the first time in years. The slide has ended an unprecedented growth phase, which lasted for years and witnessed 40 per cent buoyancy during certain quarters. While LCCs fared poorly, Naresh Goyal-owned Jet Airways and Vijay Mallya-promoted Kingfisher Airlines maintained their position.

According to data, the load factor of almost all the airlines declined. The largest budget airline of the country, Air Deccan, registered only 49.2 per cent load factor in July as compared to 67.7 per cent in the same month last year. Its market share declined 11.3 per cent in July from 16.1 per cent. SpiceJet’s seat factor declined to 57.8 per cent in July 2008 from 71.4 per cent in the corresponding month last year.