Best printers for Home

Best Mixer Grinder

Best wired Earphones

Best 43 Inch TV in India

Best Wi Fi Routers

Best Home Theatre in India

Smart Watch under 5000

Best Laptops for Education

Best Laptop for Students

India’s civil <keyword id="45911" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Aviation-sector">aviation sector</keyword> has been going through turbulent times lately. During its boom period from 2004 to 2008, the sector was driven by high economic growth rates and rise in income of the salaried class which had come to enjoy huge disposable incomes. 
 
Then the global economic recession hit in the last quarter of the calendar year 2008. Travel numbers dropped significantly and pushed airlines to barely managing operating costs. Yet amidst the gloom and doom scenario where the most glamorous of them all, Kingfisher, has fallen, a new star is aiming to rise. 
 
A new market of small city middle class travellers Malaysian budget carrier <keyword id="6358246" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="AirAsia">AirAsia</keyword>, one of the most profitable low-cost airlines in the world, partnered with <keyword id="46894" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Tata-Sons">Tata Sons</keyword> and launched AirAsia India, which has been touted to bring in ultra low cost air travel to everyone in India who currently still travel by bus and trains. So who is the target traveller of AirAsia India? The vast majority of the Indian middle class which mostly avoids costly air travel. They include people like IT and sales executives travelling short distances between two nearby cities, teachers, doctors, engineers and small retail owners. But how will or can AirAsia tap this potentially huge customer base with existing low margins and high costs in the Indian aviation sector? 
 
Big time cost cutting to go cheap 
AirAsia India’s model is based on squeezing out every bit of time, energy and space from every other possible asset. AirAsia India is targeting fastest turnaround time for Indian aviation at less than 25 minutes. Turnaround time is defined as the time duration counted from the moment the plane lands till the moment the plane takes off from a particular airport. But high congestion in Indian airports, big ones in general, and especially during holiday and festival season makes turnaround times of even less than 30 minutes impossible. So, this will be a challenge that AirAsia will have to face for bigger airports. 
 
Again, intertwined with faster around time is its concept of more flying time for its aircraft per day and higher frequencies. This will serve smaller airports during the day which will be served by more number of flights by AirAsia. However, this would mean flights at odd hours like 5:30 in the morning to 11:30 at night which will be difficult at smaller airports where night flying facility is not up to the mark or not available. And larger airports’ congestion might not allow for such schedules. 
 
Then, on the personnel front, it is also going for cabin crews helping in loading and unloading from the baggage compartment and same crews will assist in removing stubs from boarding passes and prepare load sheets. Thus in this way, AirAsia is targeting an aircraft-to-manpower ratio of less than 1:100. Indigo achieved a ratio of 1:98 many years ago but that was because of economies of scale achieved through owning many planes. 
 
It is also going for point to point service without any tie ups with other airlines and travel companies. AirAsia India has its own website from where it provides all information and booking facility to its customers and travellers. This saves on costs of networking with other airlines and travel companies but takes away the advantage from travellers of being able to compare total flight expenses from different flight options on travel companies’ websites. 
 
Also, it aims to utilise every inch of space in the aircraft by packing as many seats as possible. So basically, there’s not much scope in terms of leg room or stretching your seat back. That is also one of the reasons why the airline has chosen smaller duration routes. 
 
Will consumers have to pay eventually? 
Finally, the real squeeze will be eventually from the consumers themselves but in a tricky way. The key here is targeting that segment of travellers who have to travel light for short distances – single-day or two-day business trips mostly over short distances. That’s why it is not refunding anything to travellers on cancellation of tickets. This is something that ‘no-frills’ airlines have been using across the globe in different ways. 
 
But in an evolving market like India, it will depend on how different segments of travellers take to the concept of going for reservations only in case of absolute certainty in travel plans. Companies paying for their employees’ travel will mostly not go for this option as corporate travel plans often change at the eleventh hour. 
 
They also did away with free check-in luggage of up to 15 kg but the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) butted in and asked the airline to take it back. That was some relief for consumers. 
 
Polarised opinion 
Other airlines and industry experts are divided on the future of AirAsia India. On one hand, industry experts and corporate honchos from other airlines feel that since the biggest cost element for Indian airlines remains aviation turbine fuel, making up 50% of operating costs along with airport leasing charges, the tweaking of other elements will not make that much of a difference in the long run. 
 
On the other hand, while the airline has targeted a break-even in less than six months, perhaps a promotional gimmick at best, it doesn’t matter that much because of the Tata tag. The biggest and most respected business group in India will easily make lenders wait for the airline to break-even and anytime expansion is needed, the profitable parent airline AirAsia in Malaysia and Tata Sons in India can put more capital into it. 
 
In essence, AirAsia will have to go for a lot of planning, market research, high operational efficiency and revenue forecasting for different possible routes so as to ascertain the most profitable ones.

AirAsia India – Can It Survive In Turbulent Times?

Following the successful launch of their unified reservations system, <keyword id="2573" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="air-india" source="Orion">Air India</keyword>'s subsidiary airlines - <keyword id="6378232" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="air-india-express" source="Orion">Air India Express</keyword> and <keyword id="1583080" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="airasia-india" source="Orion">AirAsia India</keyword> - are now focusing on cutting over to common airport check-in systems in a phased manner at all international terminals in <keyword id="3658" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="india" source="Orion">India</keyword>, followed by the overseas network. The unified customer interface of Air India Express and AirAsia India has witnessed a surge of visitors within days of the launch of the platform, contributing over 25 per cent of international flight revenue on the first day itself. Nearly half the bookings on airindiaexpress.com have been from international markets, with Dubai being the largest source city of traffic and other top international sources of traffic being Abu Dhabi, Doha, Sharjah, and Singapore. Domestic traffic and bookings on the platform have come from metro markets like Bengaluru, Delhi and Mumbai, reflecting the domestic network and hubs of AirAsia India. Flyers of both airlines are now logging in, booking, and managing reservations for both Air India Express and AirAsia India flights on the unified website, launched as a milestone in the integration of the two airlines. The new website is built on the platform of the AirAsia India website developed by <keyword id="6357585" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="tata-consultancy-services" source="Orion">Tata Consultancy Services</keyword> with the support of <keyword id="8187544" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="tata-digital" source="Orion">Tata Digital</keyword> and provides a significantly enhanced booking, support and travel experience for Air India Express customers from its historical platform. The launch of the new website was enabled by the migration to common reservations and check-in system, which now unifies the entire commercial ecosystem of the two airlines. As part of the integration, brand communications and support have also moved to common social media handles on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. Online reputation management tools indicate that the integrated social media handles have the highest social reputation score amongst all Indian airlines, driven by the faster response and resolution times and massive positive sentiment and feedback on the user experience of the new website and support channels. With a unified sustainability strategy, the website also offers flyers the opportunity to offset their carbon footprint by planting a tree for every booking, with a geo-location tagged URN Certificate. In the warm response to the integrated platform, Aloke Singh, Managing Director, of Air India Express and AirAsia India, said: "The initial phase of integration of Air India Express and AirAsia India has been executed in a robust manner in record time. We have successfully migrated to modern-day technology from the legacy systems that were dominant. This migration has been built by leveraging the existing strong attributes of AirAsia India with additional deployment of relevant tech solutions. We are working on adding even more unique features and integrated service which will deliver an enhanced experience and strengthen our position in the minds of the customers." SEE ALSO: <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/personal-finance/news/two-tax-regimes-rise-of-freelancers-drive-people-to-tax-experts-chartered-accountants/articleshow/99243392.cms">Two tax regimes &amp; rise of freelancers drive people to tax experts, chartered accountants</a> <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/news/ondc-to-foster-hyperlocal-ecommerce-business-model-in-india-nandan-nilekani/articleshow/99243637.cms">ONDC to foster hyperlocal ecommerce business model in India: Nandan Nilekani</a>

Air India Express, AirAsia India focus on common check-in systems after unified reservations

<keyword id="1674460" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Mittu-Chandilya">Mittu Chandilya</keyword>, the model-turned-headhunter who was picked by <keyword id="82750" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Tony-Fernandes">Tony Fernandes</keyword> to be the CEO of the India joint venture of AirAsia, is most likely quitting from his position in March once his current two-year contract with the airline ends. 
 
Among the top three executives that are being considered to replace Chandilya, Amar Abrol, current chief of AirAsia Bhd's insurance arm Tune Money is the frontrunner for the post of AirAsia India’s next chief executive. However, Abrol, who has no prior relevant experience, would be a surprise selection for the post. 
 
At the airline's next board meeting, which is expected by the end of this month, the matter would be discussed and most likely approved. As per ET sources, the airline has probably also selected a new chief financial officer. 
 
Since its operations began less than two years ago, AirAsia India has either lost or replaced about ten top executives, including chief financial officer Vijay Gopalan and commercial director Gaurav Rathore. 
 
"These are speculative reports," an AirAsia India spokesman replied to ET's request for comment. "We have no (further) comments to offer right now." 
 
<a href="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Ir0PMqoVTkg/maxresdefault.jpg">Image source </a>

CEO Mittu Chandilya won’t renew his contract with AirAsia India

BANGALORE: A year after aviation entrepreneur G R Gopinath sold his baby — India's first low-cost airline <keyword id="96736" type="CITY" weightage="80" keywordseo="Air-Deccan">Air Deccan</keyword> — he had famously told TOI that budget air travel was all about people wanting to go where an aircraft took them. People, said Gopinath, should ask, "to where can I get a ticket for Rs 500? So wherever that place may be, people go because the aircraft is going there." 
 Unfortunately, Gopinath was much ahead of his time, said 33-year-old Mittu Chandilya, CEO of <keyword id="1583080" type="COMPANY" weightage="80" keywordseo="AirAsia-India">AirAsia India</keyword>. Almost seven years after the Air Deccan legacy, AirAsia India is living up to Gopinath's words with the launch of its maiden flight from Bangalore to Goa on Thursday. "We want to give people the option to fly even if they didn't think about it," said Chandilya. 
 
A mint fresh Airbus 320 aircraft, registered as VT-A TF, took off to Goa at 3.10pm with 186 passengers including 10 children, three infants, five first time flyers and CEO Chandilya. Around 40% of the passengers paid Rs 990 for a one-way ticket, 10% paid Rs 5 as base fare (approximately Rs 500 all inclusive), and the rest of them didn't pay more than Rs 1,900. 
 
Besides the ticket fare, all passengers paid for their check-in luggage, which costs approximately Rs 199 per suitcase up to 15kg. The airline is in discussions with the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on whether or not passengers should pay for their check-in luggage. While the DGCA has raised objections to the charge, AirAsia India believes that 'unbundling of fares' leads to more transparent airfares. 
 
"Somebody should be able to get up one weekend and say look I got nothing to do, so let me get on a flight and go somewhere and explore a destination which is new. Cost should be almost something that people don't spend time thinking about," said Chandilya, echoing what Gopinath had said years earlier. But he was quick to point out that AirAsia India is not an Air Deccan. 
 
India's newest domestic low-cost airline has started operations on the non-trunkBangal ore-Goa route, and at a time when the tourist season of Goa is at its lowest. The airline's second flight connecting Chennai-Bangalore next week is also on a non-trunk route, given the fact that the two southern metros are exhaustively connected by bus and rail services. 
 
"Both Bangalore and Goa have some sort of synergies with us in terms of our brand, marketing, and as destinations we believe that we can build up," said Chandilya, adding that AirAsia India's average fares would be comparable to rail tickets. "Railways first class and AC class is my target," he said. 
 
Interestingly, all of AirAsia India's upcoming destinations — nine by the end of this year — will connect to Bangalore. A clear indication that the country's IT capital could well be the airline's operational hub. The erstwhile Kingfisher Airlines had planned to make Bangalore its hub, but that idea died with the airline going bust a couple of years ago. 
 
Originally Chennai was chosen to be AirAsia India's hub, but there is some rethink happening on that strategy. "If you have a sudden emergency, which airport has the capability to get you up and running fast? We felt it was Bangalore. And that's the difference between private and government run airports," he said.

Air Deccan Was Ahead Of Time: AirAsia CEO

Mumbai, Apr 22 () Budget carrier AirAsia India is likely to resume operations with a fleet of 24 planes post lockdown, according to a source. Amid financial woes, the airline is also unlikely to induct any new aircraft this fiscal.A joint venture between Tata Sons and Malaysia's AirAsia Berhad, the Bengaluru-based airline has 29 Airbus A320 planes in the fleet, catering to 21 domestic destinations.All domestic and international commercial passenger flight operations have been suspended during the lockdown, which was initially imposed from March 25 to April 14 and thereafter extended till May 3. Soon after the extended date was announced on April 14, some of the Indian carriers announced that they would recommence flight operations in a phased manner from May 4 and had started taking bookings also.The government later directed them not to do so and wait till further orders on the issue."The travel demand is not going to come back any time soon. We are expecting initially it would be the stranded people in different state capitals and cities of the country, who have been waiting to return to their original places, will be rushing to the airport whenever lockdown ends and air services are allowed to operate," said a source from AirAsia India. Since it would take a lot of time for even the domestic traffic to return to normal, carrying out operations with the entire fleet will not be financially prudent, he said."Considering these factors, we are looking to put only 24 aircraft in service with reduced frequencies when we restart operations after the lockdown. And once the traffic starts picking up, we will also ramp up both the fleet and the services," the source said.AirAsia India spokesperson refused to comment on queries. According to a recent survey by global aviation and aerospace consultancy ICF, the aviation industry may take six months to two years to recover from the severe blow dealt by the coronavirus pandemic.Last week, AirAsia India had said, " we look forward to resuming our operations soon, once we receive the appropriate approvals. Preparations are underway to implement and strictly adhere to the social distancing guidelines laid out by the government across all facets of our operations as the safety and security of our guests and crew is our top priority."The source also said the airline is unlikely to induct any new aircraft this fiscal owing to an expected low demand, "if market dynamics changes and there is any sudden spurt in domestic traffic then it would prefer subleasing from the parent AirAsia Berhad than going for fresh deliveries."The airline, which narrowed its losses to Rs 123.35 crore in the December quarter of the previous fiscal, had added nine planes in the fleet to take total number of aircraft to 28 as on December 31, 2019. Since then it has taken delivery of only one aircraft in January this year.In late January, European aviation major Airbus had announced it was deferring aircraft deliveries to the Indian customers through March 9. However, later in March itself coronavirus pandemic hit the world, bringing the aviation industry to a near halt. ANUANU

AirAsia India likely to restart operations with 24 aircraft post lockdown

Malaysian airline group <keyword id="6358246" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="AirAsia">AirAsia</keyword> today announced discounted fares across its flights, including those operated by <keyword id="1583080" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="AirAsia-India">AirAsia India</keyword>, for a period that goes up to April 2017. 
 
The bookings for availing the discounts can be made between today and October 16, 2016, AirAsia said. 
 The airline's year-end sale has fares starting from Rs 999 inclusive of all taxes for a one-way journey to domestic destinations such as <keyword id="6354321" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Bengaluru">Bengaluru</keyword>, Kochi, Hyderabad, New Delhi, Guwahati, Jaipur, Pune, <keyword id="45774" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Imphal">Imphal</keyword> among other destinations connected by AirAsia India, it said. 
 
Passengers can also book tickets to international destinations such as Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok, Singapore, Bali, Phuket, Melbourne, Sydney, among others, for fares as low as low as Rs 3,599. 
 
According to the airline, the booking period stands from October 3 to October 16 for travel between October 4, 2016 and April 27, 2017. 
 The Bengaluru-based budget airline AirAsia India, a subsidary of <keyword id="86568" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Air-Asia">Air Asia</keyword>, is run jointly by AirAsia and <keyword id="46894" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Tata-Sons">Tata Sons</keyword>. 
 
AirAsia India currently flies to 11 destinations with its two hubs in Bengaluru and New Delhi, covering Chandigarh, Jaipur, Guwahati, Imphal, Pune, Goa, Vizag, Kochi and Hyderabad.

Air Asia announces discounts on domestic, foreign flights

In an announcement made by <keyword id="1583080" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="AirAsia-India">AirAsia India</keyword>, the<a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/No-major-foreign-control-in-AirAsia-India-and-Vistara-Tatas-deny-rivals-accusations-in-the-ongoing-5/20-rule-debate/articleshow/51134064.cms"> Indo-Malaysian airline</a>, <keyword id="3288032" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Amar-Abrol">Amar Abrol</keyword> will be succeeding <keyword id="1674460" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Mittu-Chandilya">Mittu Chandilya</keyword> as the CEO of AirAsia India, after Chandliya’s <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/CEO-Mittu-Chandilya-wont-renew-his-contract-with-AirAsia-India/articleshow/50959175.cms">contract ends on March 31st 2016</a>. 
 
"Chandilya's contract ends March 31, 2016, but he will continue with the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/AirAsia-All-Set-To-Take-Off-In-India/articleshow/34824944.cms">company</a> until the end of April to ensure a smooth transition of the CEO role," said the release. 
 
Abrol comes with over 20 years of professional experience and was the CEO of Tune Money, a low-cost financial products start-up since 2013, before which he spent 19 years with American Express. 
 
Chandilya has led <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/AirAsias-founder-Tony-Fernandes-is-looking-for-buyout-as-shares-plunge/articleshow/49596326.cms">AirAsia India</a> from June 1, 2013, and the airline has established a fleet of six aircraft, covering 12 routes and carrying over 1.8 million passengers. 
 
"In the most recent quarter of operation, October-December 2015, AirAsia India clocked a 134% growth in passenger traffic as it flew over half-a-million customers, and operated 3,376 flights as compared to 1,444 flights in the same period of 2014," said a release from the airline. 
 
Other changes in the management include the appointment of Ankur Khanna as the Chief Financial Officer and Kiran Jain as the Head of Commercial. 
 
While Khanna worked with Air France/KLM before this, Jain brings in over 25 years of aviation-related experience covering airports, airlines and duty free, having headed the Airport Marketing and Route Development function at Delhi International Airport. 
 
<a href="http://techstory.in/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/mittu.jpg">Image source</a>

You Searched For "Air Asia India" and got 7 results

AirAsia India – Can It Survive In Turbulent Times?

Pallavi Srivastava

Air India Express, AirAsia India focus on common check-in systems after unified reservations

IANS

CEO Mittu Chandilya won’t renew his contract with AirAsia India

BI India Bureau

Air Deccan Was Ahead Of Time: AirAsia CEO

Times Of India

AirAsia India likely to restart operations with 24 aircraft post lockdown

PTI

Air Asia announces discounts on domestic, foreign flights

PTI

Air Asia gets a new CEO, Mittu Chandilya’s contract ends this month

Popular Keywords

Buying Guides