Jet Airways eyes A380 or 747-8 for long haul aircraft fleet
Jet Airways, fresh off its acquisition of Air Sahara, is considering ordering the A380 or 747-8, CEO Wolfgang Prock-Schauer told ATWOnline. Here is the link.
IMO Jet would prefer 747-8 over A380. Even with new airports coming up at HYD and BLR presumably with better facilities, I dont think airports in India can handle such an aircraft and A380 is too huge to fill.
Filling coach seats is usually not a problem on Indian routes. Its hard to get people to pay for Business and First.
Jet Airways among the Indian domestic carriers has been successful in filling up its front cabin. They have had high yields and very good load factors in the business class cabins.
BA and LH have had fairly full F and J cabins on flts to India, despite a rapid increase in capacity over the past few years. This also seems to have been the case for AA as well with its recently launched ORD-DEL flt.
Jet Airways, fresh off its acquisition of Air Sahara, is considering ordering the A380 or 747-8, CEO Wolfgang Prock-Schauer told ATWOnline. Here is the link.
IMO Jet would prefer 747-8 over A380. Even with new airports coming up at HYD and BLR presumably with better facilities, I dont think airports in India can handle such an aircraft and A380 is too huge to fill.
The new airports will be generally able to handle 380s with minor changes if not initially. I believe they are part of the master plan, even if not of phase one. Once SQ and EK start discussing with the airports, I'm sure it'be done. Don't forget that Kingfisher has also ordered the A380.
787s are non-issues. They can even land in some of the smaller airports.
So Jet is getting the 777 and 330. And now they are thinking about the 747 and 380. Somehow I don't see 4 widebody types in Jet's future (not counting the 340 / 767 which they fly today).
My prediction is that the 748 will find no takers except (1) southern hemisphere airlines, (2) BA and (3) of course, cargo.
So Jet is getting the 777 and 330. And now they are thinking about the 747 and 380. Somehow I don't see 4 widebody types in Jet's future (not counting the 340 / 767 which they fly today).
My prediction is that the 748 will find no takers except (1) southern hemisphere airlines, (2) BA and (3) of course, cargo.
Jet airways could very well end up with an all Boeing fleet. The A340s are on a 2 yr lease from SAA and will leave early 2007. The A340 lease was a desperate attempt to gain widebody/long distance capacity when 9W and S2 were given rights to fly outside India.
The A330s are coming to open up SE Asia and other medium distance destinations. Also the lone B767 (via the S2 acquisition) will be returned to UA/desert as soon as contractually possible after Jet gains control of S2.
9W senior mgmt in tech and flight ops is filled with ex AirIndia personnel who are quite firmly in the Boeing camp. The only unanswered question is whether the A330's stay on in their fleet over the long term.
Jet airways could very well end up with an all Boeing fleet. The A340s are on a 2 yr lease from SAA and will leave early 2007. The A340 lease was a desperate attempt to gain widebody/long distance capacity when 9W and S2 were given rights to fly outside India.
The A330s are coming to open up SE Asia and other medium distance destinations. Also the lone B767 (via the S2 acquisition) will be returned to UA/desert as soon as contractually possible after Jet gains control of S2.
9W senior mgmt in tech and flight ops is filled with ex AirIndia personnel who are quite firmly in the Boeing camp. The only unanswered question is whether the A330's stay on in their fleet over the long term.
A330's are here to stay in Jet's fleet for a long term. Jet has 10 firm orders for A330-200/-300 and options for 10 more. Deliveries of the A330s are to begin in the first quarter of 2007.
Given the crowds and the extended check-in times at BOM and DEL, can you imagine how much worse this would be if an airline chose to check in a full load of A380 passengers at the same time.
I am also quite surprised that Jet is going for such a complex fleet structure. I can understand the economics of 787 and 380 but adding this to the current fleet types seems too complex.
I would think 737-NGs, 787s, 777s and 380s would be enough. The 330s always confused me.
A lot of the recent moves seem to have been made in haste to lock-in delivery schedules for their long-haul fleet. Unfortunately, the delay in US approvals means Jet has to look at other greener markets.
Given the crowds and the extended check-in times at BOM and DEL, can you imagine how much worse this would be if an airline chose to check in a full load of A380 passengers at the same time.
I have been flying to India from North America for nearly 2 decades now. When I compare the current volumes with volumes a decade ago, I would've thought that it was simply inconceivable to handle current volumes in those outdated airports.
Incremental improvements have made the huge growth in volumes manageable. I feel that 380s will be handled the same way. It is the equivalent of two 777s landing around the same time. As more traffic migrates to point to point connections, BOM and DEL will be able to handle the load from 380s. Look at the number of flts to MAA, HYD, BLR, CCU compared to just a few years ago. Most of these pax had to transit through BOM and DEL in the past.
A330's are here to stay in Jet's fleet for a long term. Jet has 10 firm orders for A330-200/-300 and options for 10 more. Deliveries of the A330s are to begin in the first quarter of 2007.
Depends on what you consider to be long-term.
9W mgmt has already said that they are in a "wait and see" mode with the A330 purchase.
In short Jet went for the 330 because there weren't any viable alternatives that could be delivered within 2 years of order placement - which will allow Jet to gain market share before the other domestics are let loose on int'l flying.
Filling coach seats is usually not a problem on Indian routes. Its hard to get people to pay for Business and First.
Getting people to pay for business and first is increasingly less of an issue as of late. My business and first class cabins are increasingly near full (or even full) -- with even more Indians paying up, and with a growing number of foreigners coming to India paying up too nowadays than 4 years ago.
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This game is not as much fun as it used to be: 2008/2009 Frequent Flyer Program Fleecing Award goes to Delta Airlines
I have been flying to India from North America for nearly 2 decades now. When I compare the current volumes with volumes a decade ago, I would've thought that it was simply inconceivable to handle current volumes in those outdated airports.
Incremental improvements have made the huge growth in volumes manageable. I feel that 380s will be handled the same way. It is the equivalent of two 777s landing around the same time. As more traffic migrates to point to point connections, BOM and DEL will be able to handle the load from 380s. Look at the number of flts to MAA, HYD, BLR, CCU compared to just a few years ago. Most of these pax had to transit through BOM and DEL in the past.
The last I checked BOM and DEL still accounted for a huge portion of all incoming and outgoing international traffic there. And by measure of the immigration control lines on arrival and departure, incremental improvements will not be sufficient unless 45 minute to 75 minute waits in immigration lines are acceptable. I don't think they are acceptable.
Maybe the migration toward more international trips from airports other than BOM and DEL will help alleviate the pressure, but I don't see pax demand for flights from BOM and DEL declining -- especially as more Indians travel overseas and as more visitors travel to/from India and still have BOM and DEL as the preferred port of entry. Even with the increased flights for places other than DEL and BOM, immigration and security lines are routinely worse for more of the year today than they were before the ramp up of international flights from those other airports. (Thankfully, the security lines seem to have improved a bit this year compared to a year ago, but the immigration control lines are worse.)
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This game is not as much fun as it used to be: 2008/2009 Frequent Flyer Program Fleecing Award goes to Delta Airlines
