India's largest domestic airline by market share, IndiGo, is now also the fastest growing one. The directorate general of civil aviation (DGCA) Monday cleared the schedule of domestic flights this winter which will be effective by this month-end.
Only low-cost carriers IndiGo and GoAir will be operating more flights this winter than they did last year. All other Indian carriers have cut flights. But thanks to these IndiGo and Go and new launches Tata Group's AirAsia India, this winter will see almost 60 more flights everyday — something that is expected to help check help the steep hike in fares in the coming peak travel season.
Financially struggling SpiceJet is slashing flights the most by 16.2%, in a clear bid to rein in costs. Air India's subsidiary Alliance Air has the second deepest cut at 13.9% but that is largely due to the DGCA's unprecedented ruling that smaller commercial aircraft which cannot operate in dense fog will not be allowed in Delhi this winter. Alliance Air has only turboprop ATR and Canadian Regional Jets (CRJ) in its fleet.
The aggressive growth by IndiGo will see the low-cost carrier (LCC) adding a whopping 25% flights this winter. Making no bones about its plans, it is taking two planes every month on lease from Singapore's Tiger Air from October to next March, that is 12 more aircraft. IndiGo currently has 83 Airbus A-320s in its fleet.
Wadia Group-owned GoAir is the only other Indian carrier that will add flights this winter as it does 12.6% more weekly operations. Interestingly, IndiGo claims to be the only consistently profitable Indian carrier since inception. And GoAir is the only other desi airline that has started making profits.
"If profitability is an indicator of how an airline is run, then clearly only the well run airlines are expanding their wings while the loss-making carriers are shrinking to survive led by deep-in-red SpiceJet," said an airline official.
But aviation sources point out that only IndiGo and GoAir have no smaller planes as they have an all A-320 fleet. All other airlines like the Air India and Jet groups and SpiceJet have the smaller ATRs, CRJs and Bombardier Q400 in their fleet. "These planes do not have instrument landing systems and can't operate in fog. So they have been banished from Delhi this winter. This automatically led to curtailment of flights in the schedule approved by the DGCA," said a source.
Meanwhile, the DGCA has asked Daman & Diu administration to ensure that the Diu airport gets a licence by December 31, failing which no flights will be allowed there from January 1.
Only low-cost carriers IndiGo and GoAir will be operating more flights this winter than they did last year. All other Indian carriers have cut flights. But thanks to these IndiGo and Go and new launches Tata Group's AirAsia India, this winter will see almost 60 more flights everyday — something that is expected to help check help the steep hike in fares in the coming peak travel season.
Financially struggling SpiceJet is slashing flights the most by 16.2%, in a clear bid to rein in costs. Air India's subsidiary Alliance Air has the second deepest cut at 13.9% but that is largely due to the DGCA's unprecedented ruling that smaller commercial aircraft which cannot operate in dense fog will not be allowed in Delhi this winter. Alliance Air has only turboprop ATR and Canadian Regional Jets (CRJ) in its fleet.
The aggressive growth by IndiGo will see the low-cost carrier (LCC) adding a whopping 25% flights this winter. Making no bones about its plans, it is taking two planes every month on lease from Singapore's Tiger Air from October to next March, that is 12 more aircraft. IndiGo currently has 83 Airbus A-320s in its fleet.
Wadia Group-owned GoAir is the only other Indian carrier that will add flights this winter as it does 12.6% more weekly operations. Interestingly, IndiGo claims to be the only consistently profitable Indian carrier since inception. And GoAir is the only other desi airline that has started making profits.
"If profitability is an indicator of how an airline is run, then clearly only the well run airlines are expanding their wings while the loss-making carriers are shrinking to survive led by deep-in-red SpiceJet," said an airline official.
But aviation sources point out that only IndiGo and GoAir have no smaller planes as they have an all A-320 fleet. All other airlines like the Air India and Jet groups and SpiceJet have the smaller ATRs, CRJs and Bombardier Q400 in their fleet. "These planes do not have instrument landing systems and can't operate in fog. So they have been banished from Delhi this winter. This automatically led to curtailment of flights in the schedule approved by the DGCA," said a source.
Meanwhile, the DGCA has asked Daman & Diu administration to ensure that the Diu airport gets a licence by December 31, failing which no flights will be allowed there from January 1.
