Bookings up 30 percent as Jet resumes normal operations

Bookings for domestic and international flights on private carrier Jet Airways went up nearly 30% since the airline returned to normal operations. The carrier, which cancelled over 400 flights in the past five days following mass sick leave by its pilots, is back in the skies with bookings in full swing.

An official from Jet's revenue department said, "We had a decent number of seat bookings by passengers on our domestic network on Monday. In a day or two, we hope to touch our regular mark of getting over 23,000 passengers to fly with us." Jet's passenger figures declined to 14,000 in the first two days due to the mass protest by pilots on September 8 and in the last two days, the bookings dropped to7,000

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Private airlines call off strike on August 18

The Federation of Indian Airlines (FIA) has revoked its earlier decision of suspending flight operations on August 18. FIA, which is a forum to voice grievances of the aviation industry , has said sentiments of passengers and willingness from the government to hold talks with airlines has prompted them to take this decision. Civil aviation minister Praful Patel has already said the government can't extend financial help to loss-making airlines but is open for a dialogue.

Private carriers and members of FIA like Jet Airways, Kingfisher Airlines, GoAir, SpiceJet and Indigo will operate on August 18. The airlines sector has collectively posted losses of Rs 10,000 crore for FY08-09.

Says Aditya Ghosh, president, Indigo, "The airline appreciates the sentiments expressed by the ministry of civil aviation that it understands the problems faced by the Indian aviation industry and that we should all engage in a dialogue with the ministry .

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Flocking Together

AD times can make strange bedfellows of those who cannot see eye to eye otherwise. The Kingfisher-Jet alliance struck recently is an apt example. As the aviation industry in India bleeds and is estimated to close this financial year with cumulative losses of about Rs 8,000-9,000 crore (close to $2 billion) double the amount last year, alliances of this kind have become a necessity today.

“It (airline alliance) is nothing uncommon abroad,” says M Thiagarajan, managing director of Paramount Airways, a regional carrier that operates flights mainly in the south of India. “Alliances have been around for some time in the international market.”

Star Alliance, One world and SkyTeam, for instance, have been competing with each other globally over the last decade or so. The objective of these alliances is to provide a common pool of services to their members such as the use of common passenger terminals at airports, linking frequent flyer programmes and providing flights across member carriers.

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Airbus, Boeing see sharp growth in Indian demand

Despite a slowdown in the economy and the aviation sector, Airbus and Boeing have projected a sharp growth in the demand for aircraft in India. Close on the heels of Boeing predicting that India will need 1,001 aircraft in the next 20 years, Airbus has forecast that the sector will require 1,100 aircraft in the next 25 years.

Says Justin Dubon, regional press manager for Airbus, "India is a promising market for us.

Our forecast takes into account the industry's near-term challenges, including surging fuel prices and slowing air traffic growth. Yet, we foresee a strong demand for aircraft because India is the third largest in terms of purchasing power parity.It is also projected to be the seventh largest economy by 2017." It has predicted that the Indian market will need 1,100 passenger and freighter aircraft valued at $105 billion over the next 25 years. Since 2005, Airbus has bagged over 295 orders from Indian carriers valued roughly at $22billion.

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