DGCA told to sort out travel agent commission issue

MUMBAI: Domestic travel agents, which have been demanding commission from foreign airlines, have managed to draw the government�s attention.

Civil Aviation minister Praful Patel on Tuesday asked the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to look into the matter, a person privy to the development said. He said the DGCA might ask both parties to explain their case.

Earlier, members of six associations, including the Travel Agents� Association of India (TAAI), Travel Agents Federation of India (TAFI) and the IATA Agents Association of India (IAAI), met Mr Patel in New Delhi. TAAI president Rajii Rai told ET: �We have urged Mr Patel to restore our commission.�

Most airlines stopped paying 5% commission from November last year forcing agents to shift to a fixed-transaction fee on every ticket purchased. From December, however, the fixed-transaction fee, which was in the range of Rs 350-2,500 a ticket, was also discontinued.

Later, all domestic carriers agreed to pay 3% commission to travel agents from December. But foreign airlines have not been paying anything to travel agents.

Typically, travel agents and online portals account for more than 85% of airlines\' ticket sales, while the remaining 15% are sold directly by the carriers. There are about 50,000 travel agents in the country.

Kingfisher Airlines Offers an all Inclusive Fare Starting at Rs. 883/- for Travel From Mumbai to Nasik

Mumbai, Maharashtra, India, Wednesday, February 04, 2009 -- (Business Wire India)

Kingfisher Airlines, India’s first and only 5-Star airline and the only airline that offers flights between Mumbai and Nasik now offers an excellent value proposition for travelers. 

Kingfisher Airlines offers an all inclusive fares starting at Rs. 885/- for travel from Nasik to Mumbai and Rs 883/- for travel from Mumbai to Nasik. Guests can now avail these “Value fares” by planning their travel in advance. 

The flights between Mumbai and Nasik are operated by Kingfisher Red Service using an ATR aircraft. On board, guests are served complimentary hot and filling food and can earn King Miles every time they fly.

Kingfisher Red has redefined Low Fare Flying in India and is dedicated to upholding the highest standards of excellence in making your journey a memorable experience without burning a hole in your pocket. 

The Kingfisher Airlines’ flight leaves Mumbai airport at 05:50 am and arrives at Nasik at 06:40 am. The return flight leaves Nasik at 4:30pm and arrives at Mumbai at 5:20pm. These convenient fight timings ensure that those who would like to return to Mumbai on the same day can make the best use of their time and the day, when they are at Nasik. Guests from Nasik can now get onward connections to Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad and London from Mumbai and it is now possible for Mumbai based guests to visit Shirdi & return on the same day.

Commenting on all-inclusive starting fare of Rs. 883/-, Mr. Siva Ramachandran – Vice President Global Sales, Kingfisher Airlines said, “Since the commencement of flights on the Mumbai-Nasik route Kingfisher Airlines has offered pilgrims, businessmen, traders, corporate executives and other guests a very cost-effective option to travel from Mumbai to Nasik and save time by choosing to fly instead of using surface transport, all for just a little more.” 

Kingfisher Airlines has blazed a trail of innovations and introduced a range of market-firsts that have completely redefined the whole experience of flying. By elevating its customers to a level of being 'guests' and not just passengers, Kingfisher Airlines has endeared itself to consumers.

About Kingfisher Airlines:

Kingfisher Airlines is India’s first and only 5-Star airline and the only one to offer a premium first class. Besides being the first and only airline in India to offer in-flight entertainment on every seat, Kingfisher offers LIVE TV with 16 channels of live and exciting content. The airline has received numerous awards for innovation, customer responsiveness and was voted the “Best New Airline of the Year”, within months of its launch. Kingfisher Airlines is a part of the UB Group that is one of India’s largest conglomerates with diverse interests and a global presence. The UB Group is also the largest Indian alcoholic beverages (beer and spirits) company and the third largest drinks group in the world.

Kingfisher Airlines covers all segments of air travel from low fares to premium service and offers most flights by any single airline network in India. With a fleet of 76 aircraft, Kingfisher Airlines connects 71` cities and operates over 400 flights a day.

To view the flight timings, click the link below:

Flight Timings

      

For press backgrounder on Kingfisher Airlines click here

Media contact details

Prakash Mirpuri, Sr. General Manager - Corporate Media Relations,

The UB Group, Mumbai,

+91 (022) 2284 1520,

prakash.mirpuri@flykingfisher.com

Shefali Mehta,

IPAN – Mumbai,

+91 (022) 4066 1781 / +91 9819410990,

shefali.mehta@ipan.com

Sabina Lama,

IPAN – Mumbai,

+91 9819592389,

sabina.lama@ipan.com

They can't be so low cost, whines Kingfisher Airlines

NEW DELHI: A tariff war in the Indian skies is pitting full-service carriers against low-cost airlines with at least one player, Kingfisher 

Airlines, alleging that the race to the bottom would leave the industry grounded. Kingfisher has voiced its concerns to the government through informal channels against budget carriers—SpiceJet, IndiGo and GoAir—for bringing down tariffs to “unrealistic levels”, said a company executive. 

Currently, a Delhi-Mumbai ticket that costs about Rs 3,500 in a full-service carrier comes around Rs 1,000 cheaper in budget airlines. “These fares would spoil the sector and leave the industry sick. We have taken the issue at every level. Besides informing the ministry of the unwarranted development, we have also discussed the issue in the Federation of Indian Airlines (FIA) meeting,” the Kingfisher official, who didn’t want to be identified, told ET. 

However, the argument doesn’t wash well with no-frills players. “It’s actually the full-service airlines which have lowered fares to unrealistic levels. If they claim to be five-star or seven-star airlines of the country, I don’t know why they are selling tickets at dhaba rates,” said an official with a budget airline on conditions of anonymity. 

When the fuel price reached its peak in August last year, all the airlines under FIA banner had flocked to the government for a bailout package. Domestic carriers together lost Rs 4,000 crore in 2007-08 mainly on account of high aviation turbine fuel (ATF) price, predatory pricing and excess capacity. Airlines are expected to post an accumulated loss of Rs 8,000 crore in FY09. Following a 54% fall in ATF price since September last year, airlines have again adopted an aggressive pricing strategy. 

“We increased fare by 30% days ago, but no other airline followed us. This forced us to revert to the same comparative fare level. As of now, fares have come down by 50% as compared to fares a few months back. At this yield it requires 100% flight occupancy to become operationally profitable. We think all the airlines are equally responsible for the recent development,” SpiceJet CEO Sanjay Aggarwal said. 

Budget carriers have been upping their traffic at the cost of full-service carriers. According to data compiled by ET, the SpiceJet traffic went up from 2.13-lakh passengers per month in September to 3.73 in December. For Indigo, the figures went up from 2.71 lakh in September to 5.12 in December. 

However, Kingfisher, which had 4.09-lakh passengers in September, saw its traffic coming down to 3.48 in November. For Jet Airways, India’s top airlines by passenger traffic, the numbers came down from 6.31 lakh in September to 5.55 in December.

Jet may best Kingfisher at beating slump

New Delhi: India’s biggest airline by passengers, Jet Airways (India) Ltd, is better placed to weather the current slump in aviation than its closest private sector rival Kingfisher Airlines Ltd, analysts said.

To recover costs in the first half of the current fiscal year to March, Kingfisher needed to fill 96% of seats on its domestic flights, compared with 82% for Jet, said a report by financial services firm CLSA Asia-Pacific Marketsreleased on Thursday.

Also See Comparison between Jet and Kingfisher (Graphic)

Kingfisher and Jet—which together make up for 60% of the passenger market share in India—only managed to fill 60% and 68%, respectively, of their seating capacity from 1 April to 30 September, according to averages calculated by Mint on official data.

Indian aviation is facing difficult times as passenger numbers are declining on the back of an economic slowdown.

Jet reported losses of Rs236.18 crore and Kingfisher posted Rs626 crore in losses for the three months to December, pushing their balance sheets further into the red.

CLSA analysts Anirudha Dutta and Prakhar Sharma said in the report that they believed “Jet is in a much stronger position to weather these turbulent times,” when compared with Kingfisher.

Their conclusions were based on the fact that in the first half of this fiscal, Jet’s domestic revenues were 37% higher and profitability was superior to Kingfisher due to a higher share of full-service carrier operations, while the higher proportion of low-cost operations in Kingfisher’s operations dragged it down.

Full-service carriers typically provide frills such as on-board entertainment systems and meals, which are not available on low-cost flights.

Kingfisher acquired low-cost carrier Deccan Aviation Ltd and Jet took over budget carrier Jet Lite (India) Ltd, both in 2007. Jet now operates 480 flights a day with 111 aircraft and Kingfisher has 400 daily flights with 76 aircraft. Both the fleets include a few aircraft the firms have either grounded or leased out.

Dutta and Sharma said aircraft ownership was the key difference between the two airline companies. “Not only does Jet own 39 aircraft against 21 by KFA (Kingfisher Airlines), 18 of Jet’s owned aircraft are wide bodies. Difference in fleet ownership is reflected in Jet’s high debt levels of Rs153 billion (compared with) Rs53 billion for KFA. As per Jet’s management, 85-90% of the debt is towards purchase of aircraft at interest rates of 5-7%,” they said in the report.

Based on this, the analysts estimated the enterprise value of Jet at Rs237 billion, 73% higher than Kingfisher’s enterprise value of Rs137 billion.

Another New Delhi-based aviation analyst said the industry’s profitability will depend on events in the next six months. “Airlines continue to bleed heavily and while the... (jet fuel) price cut will help them get closer to break even, they will need to maintain rational pricing, high load factors, and focus relentlessly on cost optimization,” said Kapil Arora, an analyst with Ernst and Young Ltd, adding that the new fare wars are likely to create more problems for the full-service carriers rather than low-cost airlines, as the latter have leaner operating models.

Kingfisher appoints S R Gupte as Addl Director

Mumbai (PTI): Vijay Mallya-led Kingfisher Airlines on Thursday said it has appointed S R Gupte as an Additional Director of the company, with effect from January 28.

In a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange, Kingfisher said Gupte, who took over the directorship pursuant to the receipt of clearance from the Ministry of Civil Aviation, would hold office until the company's next Annual General Meeting.

Earlier in December, the board of the private air carrier had appointed Gupte as an Additional Director and was awaiting security clearance from the Ministry of Civil Aviation.

The ministry approved the appointment on January 28, thereby the effective date for it would be the same, the company added.

In the December quarter of the current fiscal, Kingfisher posted a net loss of Rs 626 crore, against Rs 423 crore in the same quarter last fiscal. The company's net income during the period was Rs 1,447 crore as compared to Rs 1,353 crore in the same quarter in the previous fiscal.

Kingfisher was trading at Rs 32.50, down 1.22 per cent in the afternoon trade on the BSE.

Kingfisher Airlines offers an all inclusive fare for travel from Mumbai to Nashik

Kingfisher Airlines has come up with a value proposition for travellers for its Mumbai-Nashik flights. The airline is offering an all inclusive fares starting at Rs 885 for travel from Nashik to Mumbai and Rs 883 from Mumbai to Nashik. Passengers can now avail these ‘Value fares’ by planning their travel in advance. According to a report in Business Wire India, the flight will leave Mumbai Airport at 5:50 am and arrive at Nashik at 6:40 am. The return flight will leave Nashik at 4:30 pm and arrive at Mumbai at 5:20 pm. Passengers from Nashik can now get onward connections to Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad and London from Mumbai and it is now possible for Mumbai based passengers to visit Shirdi and return on the same day.

The flights between Mumbai and Nashik are operated by Kingfisher Red Service using an ATR aircraft. On board, passengers are served complimentary food and can also earn King Miles every time they fly. Commenting on the all-inclusive fare Siva Ramachandran, Vice President Global Sales, Kingfisher Airlines said, “Since the commencement of flights on the Mumbai-Nashik route Kingfisher Airlines has offered pilgrims, businessmen, traders,

Jet-KF alliance likely to hit air pocket

MUMBAI: The differences that have cropped up between Jet Airways and Kingfisher Airlines, the country’s two largest private carriers, on the 

issue of FDI participation by foreign airlines in the domestic aviation sector threaten to derail their strategic alliance. 

It was known that all was not well between the airlines, but it now appears that the issue is now out in the open. The tussle between the carriers on the FDI issue may have a bearing on their alliance that was formed last October to streamline capacity, rationalise routes and to bring about a code-sharing arrangement. 

“We don’t see any value in the FDI policy currently as airlines globally are bleeding. Jet Airways is neither discussing stake dilution with any foreign airline, nor is it referring the case to the government,” Jet Airways CEO Wolfgang Prock-Schauer told ET recently. Kingfisher Airlines chairman Vijay Mallya earlier wrote to the government to allow FDI in domestic carriers. Interestingly, Kingfisher is believed to be discussing a stake sale of 25% with three foreign airlines. 

“At this juncture, a difference in opinion between them (Jet and Kingfisher) may hamper the alliance, which is yet to take off after three months,” an analyst with a Mumbai-based domestic brokerage firm said, on condition of anonymity. 

Naresh Goyal, Jet Airways’ promoter, and Vijay Mallya had a closed-door meeting in London in December to look for ways to avoid duplicating flights on domestic and overseas routes. The meeting did not yield anything of consequence. With the Jet-Kingfisher alliance not progressing too smoothly, a difference in opinion on the FDI issue is not the best piece of news at this juncture. 

Current regulations do not allow foreign carriers to hold equity, either directly or indirectly, in domestic airlines. Importantly, India is the only country where foreign institutional investors are allowed to invest in the aviation sector with a FDI cap of 49%.

Most Indian carriers are already sitting on significant debt and raising additional resources may not be easy in the prevailing conditions. United Spirits (USL), a UB Group company, has pledged its shares to fund Kingfisher’s expansion plans.

JetLite gets global certification for maintainance, safety

New Delhi (PTI): JetLite, the wholly-owned no-frill subsidiary of Jet Airways, on Monday announced receiving a global certification for maintainance of safety in flight operations and other areas. Following stringent audit of its operations in various areas including engineering, maintenance, flight operations and dispatch, cabin operation, ground handling and security, the airline received the International Air Transport Association\'s (IATA) Safety Audit certification called IOSA. The IOSA is a globally recognised and accepted benchmarking and evaluation system to asses the operational management and control systems of an airline. It uses internationally-accepted quality audit principles. It is also used by airlines worldwide to identify partners for the purpose of codesharing. This is a very important step for JetLite. We have confirmed that we have operational safety processes that are in alignment with all IOSA standards. We welcome the confirmation of our high standards of safety through IOSA registration, Jet Airways CEO Wolfgang Prock-Schauer said. IOSA Registration is also a condition for airlines to become members of the IATA. As many as 274 airlines across the globe are IOSA registered at present.

New Syndicated for Domestic Airlines in India.

Jet Airways not to opt for FDI in present market conditions

Mumbai (PTI): Private air carrier Jet Airways on Tuesday said it would not sell its equity to foreign carriers at this stage in view of the low valuation in current market. We will not go for any equity dilution to foreign air-carriers at this stage as it will not fetch us the required funds, a senior Jet Airways official told PTI here. Jet Airways is the largest air-carrier in the country. Naresh Goyal\'s Tail Winds holds 80 per cent stake in it. Jet\'s assertion comes in the wake of the Union Government\'s proposal to allow domestic airlines to sell stake to foreign carriers. Last year, Goyal was looking at diluting his stake to raise funds. But the stock markets have been on the downslide since January 2008, leading to a slump in Jet Airways stock prices, too. Low valuation was the reason for not going ahead with Goyal\'s dilution last year, too, the Jet official said. Even industry experts feel that it would not be a good move for the air carrier to go for equity infusion from overseas in view of the prevailing market conditions. It is correct on Jet Airways part not to go for equity infusion from foreign airlines and rather manage cash on their own, an aviation analyst from a brokerage firm said on anonymity. The market cap of Jet is currently Rs 1,500 crore, which is too low valuation to dilute the stake, he said. The current FDI norms prohibit overseas airlines from picking up stake in Indian carriers.Kingfisher Airlines Chairman Vijay Mallya had sometime ago written to the Union Government to allow FDI in domestic carriers to make them internationally competitive. With mounting losses, liquidity crunch, Mallya is scouting for foreign funds to keep his airlines afloat.

New Syndicated for Domestic Airlines in India.

Kingfisher Airlines registers net loss worth Rs 413 crores in Q3

The Vijay Mallya-controlled Kingfisher Airlines has posted a net loss of Rs 413 crore for the third quarter of the current financial year as against a net loss of Rs 427 crore in the corresponding period last year.Company officials stated in a release that the increase in loss in the quarter was on account of initiation costs of international operations (Rs 17 crore), increase in interest expenses (Rs 100 crore) and exchange rate impact of dollar denominated expenses (Rs 60 crore).
It may be noted that private carrier had a loss of Rs 105 crore in the nine months ended December 2008 against a loss of Rs 617 crore reported for the same period in the last financial year.However, the company\'s net income during the period has surged to Rs 1,447 crore as compared to Rs 1,353 crore in the same quarter in the previous year.

New Syndicated by Domestic Airlines