Thank you so very much for proving my point... THE ONLY NON-STOPS FROM NA TO INDIA ARE FROM ORD AND NYC.

ORD-DEL isn't doing nearly as well... over an extended period of time the only non stops that have worked and will continue to work are NYC-BOM/DEL... as the DL case proves.

I don't know people hate the skyteam alliance? yea the redemption not so great.. but still a decent group.. i don't know if you noticed but 9w is not a decent airline anyways.. i'd choose AI over 9w any day.. Delta is going to open jfk to bom with a year or two with or without 9w.. so tough..live with it.. if 9w is so greqat I did not see OW or SA pick them up over the other carriers.. just be happy they're part of a group.. or the can join Emirates.. they have no one but themselves.. Has 9w contacted EK for joint venture? NO!.. they have missed the boat.. now thye have to join Skyteam to survive...:D

You what? Care to explain what route you feel AI beats 9W on?

You are the first person I have come across who prefers AI to 9W.
Also 9W does have FF agreement with EK. Check it out here

For anyone near the east coast..the nyc-del/bom nonstops are great..I definitely prefer taking the nonstops over a stop in europe..can get a full 8 hours of sleep..don't have to deal with the hassle of reclearing security etc, arrive in del/bom relatively early instead of the middle of the night..and now with T3 in delhi..transfers there are pleasant...but i agree, sometimes a direct flight to the secondary metros is useful...but still sucks arriving in the middle of the night into those cities....the continental flights have been full most of the times i've taken it recently...would love to see 9W as an alternative option to go nonstop.

hilarious post....none of it made any sense but still fun to read....

Exactly what I was thinking when I read it :D

Ouch!!!! I am already shuddering at the name of Delta... reminds me how I have to choose BOM-BRU-AMS or BOM-LHR-AMS everytime I need to go to AMS, but I would avoid with a barge pole the wreck called Delta, where, ladies and gentlemen, to serve water takes them 1.5 hours and 6 reminders! It could also be that 9w might do a huge favor to Skyteam by joining their alliance. But anyways I am not Mr. Goyal and its not my airline to defend! I am just a humble pax on their metal! ;)

Oh, well. This is as good as "invent new generation of hybrid-engine planes and start flying them". :D

Probably harmless, but there isn't much traffic between India and most of those SN cities.

This seems like the beginning of a good plan, but in this age of longhaul nonstops 9W would need to do a little more to make the BRU connection competitive.

4a) Recognize that BRU is not a natural attraction for most pax. It is not LHR where people may hate the airport but have friends/relatives to visit plus other touristic cache. Your photograph in front of Buckingham Palace or Big Ben still means more to friends/family than EU secretariat. :) So does a gift with Harrods written on it.

4b) Work with BRU authorities to make the transfer smooth. If there are unnecessary queues and extra security searches, the plan is DOA.

4c) Build a very big lounge (!) and provide access to all premium pax, and all elites of all partner airlines. I don't mean just alliance apartners, but all partners.

Without such compensating factors, BRU is about as attractive as AUH and AMM. Some people will choose it on fare/availability/don't care basis, but most won't bother. They'll certainly have no reason to seek it out.

Personal perspective: Having taken the ORD-DEL AA nonstop as well as various OW connections, I decided to try the BRU connection once. As an AA elite I knew going in that there would be no lounge in BRU during outbound and DEL upon return, but I was curious and went anyway. It was a big yawn. Reminded of the importance of lounge access in the middle of a very long trip, I'd rather connect in HEL or AMM now.

Basically, 9W needs a business approach. If you want to lure customers to your venture, you have to offer them at least what they have now, and probably something extra, instead of a routine ho hum experience.

You are right that at this point, there is little chance of star alliance accepting 9W. The only way is if LH (SN owner) were convinced it was in their best interest (the above plan could make SN far more profitable). If LH wanted Jet to join Star and work closely with SN, it might happen.
Are you sure?
SN serves most of the biggest cities in Europe. Not much traffic between India and SN's short haul Europe network?

http://i.imgur.com/TsYCj.png


And it wouldn't be just about SN cities <--> India, it would be equally about SN cities <--> USA. I frequently connect via BRU to/from Africa. Many of the people on SN coded ORD-BRU, IAD-BRU, EWR-BRU, etc are going to Africa. Passenger demand to/from Africa is growing steadiliy and 9W could take advantage of the fact BRU-USA is underserved. SN serves a lot of high fare African markets via BRU; advance purchase deep discount economy USA-Africa usually costs ~$2000 RT so fare levels should be profitable.

I agree with you on the important of providing lounge access with enough capacity to be inclusive at BRU.

I also agree that the BRU transit experience would need to be worked on to make it a winner.

The plan would only work with scale. BRU-PNQ can be full and profitable with feed from 20 US non-stops to BRU plus ~20 Europe BRU non-stops on codeshared on SN plus a handful of people coming to/from Africa, all feeding the flight. With just a few BRU-USA flights, the plan would fail. Similarly, BRU-BOS can be full and profitibale with feed from 10 9W India cities, 10 Africa SN codeshare cities, and ~20 Europe SN chodeshare cities but without all those connections wouldn't make a profit.

http://i.imgur.com/ozT5S.png

We should also never write off AI's ability either to blow the *A entry even now or to drop out / get evicted later, which would open up the possibility for 9W. :)

I should have said except UK. Anyway, what I meant was...UK is already well served with direct flights (including 9W), so a connection in BRU won't be competitive. To compete with AF to Paris, or LH to Germany, 9W would have to undercut them seriously in price. Other cities all over Europe: I don't think any one of them has serious traffic, but you'd correctly point out that none has to. After all, the whole idea of hubs is that only totals matter. I can imagine the US<->India and Europe<->India traffic adding up to reasonable loads.

Yes of course. That traffic would be good for SN. However, 9W's viability will depend on India routes. They can't be flying BRU-USA if they don't have enough pax to/from their home turf.

Thank you. To win, 9W will either have to be significantly cheaper than others, or provide a significantly better experience. I don't think it is in 9W's genes to strive to be a low cost carrier (despite their domestic flirtations with the concept), so they'll probably succeed or fail in the "better experience" department.

As of now they are normally 20% more expensive then their competitors.

Unlikely at this point though - AI's entry to *a was a carrot dangled by LH to get more rights and routes to India, and when it goes through will be their ticket to operate the 380 to Indian with AI codeshare... It is largely political game playing, more than the desire to enrol a quality airline into the alliance... I mean they haven't kicked AI out yet and it's been 4 yrs to integrate into a single code... hopefully this summer AI will be a member of *a and then people will probably suck up a crappy 1.5 hour domestic flight on AI to get those oh so valuable status miles / points for *a

Any further updates on this? Last I heard they were looking at 2012 entry period.

Wonder if the role of an FT evangelist is to simply get into quarrels with other FTers on facts they have wrong in the first place.

I agree about 9W sticking to plan AND lobbying the authorities in BRU for easier transit - transit in BRU is far more onerous than it should be in such a tiny airport.