More airlines waiting to take off in India

The concept of low cost airline and other segmented offering continues to expand in India.

As per the information available, Bangalore-based Air One, feeder carrier Jagson Airlines, Chennai’s Premier Air and East West Airlines will cruise into the domestic skies to compete with other existing players. Daily Deccan Herald reported that four new low-cost carriers will join the race to grab a slice of the swelling domestic air passenger market in the country in three to four months.

Another airline IndiGo is set to take to the skies by July-August this year. “We will be airborne anytime between July 1 and August 5 this year. We have decided to start the airline with purchased aircraft instead of leased aircraft as was planned earlier," the airline’s newly appointed president and chief executive officer, Bruce Ashby recently told media. In June last year, the airline ordered 100 Airbus A-320 family of aircraft.

Air One head K W Lobo reportedly said, “We will start in any case before March 17,” the airline’s managing director told Deccan Herald. Further, the report added that East West, which had withdrawn from the Indian skies under a cloud in mid-1990s, is eager to join the sky war. Its director Faisal Wahid, reportedly said, “We will launch within three months with five leased Boeing aircraft. We will service Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, Delhi and Nagpur.”

Jagson Airlines will fly as a National Carrier covering nine cities by the end of 2006, with the inaugural flight between Delhi and Bangalore in April/May. Jagson Airlines will be targeting the existing Economy Class travelers and frequent flyers of full service airlines with premium service at competitive prices.

Jagson Airlines, president and chief executive officer, Uttam Kumar Bose said, “The backbone of domestic air travel has been the Economy Class business traveler or frequent flyers of full service airlines. However, they seem to have lost out on comfort, choice and service in the recasting of the airline business around low cost carriers… Today, the Economy Class traveler of full service airlines has got very little of the advantages of the boom in aviation. The Economy Traveller, therefore, by and large, tends to spend as much as he did before for poorer inflight and on ground service. Jagson Airlines plans to make a focused difference to this segment and earn their loyalty by constant innovation and changes that bring them packages that are specifically tailored to their pricing, in-flight and on-ground expectations.”

 
Airlines which had launched their operations last year included SpiceJet and Kingfisher Airlines.