Indian carriers can now make Malaysia a hub

[Naim 6]

 

Indian carriers can now make Malaysia a hub

18 Jul 2007, 0335 hrs IST,TNN

 

NEW DELHI: Indian carriers designated to fly abroad now have the opportunity to set up an international hub. The government's recently-signed pact with Malaysia has won India the "beyond right" that allows airlines to use Kuala Lumpur as a hub in the east and connect other destinations like Australia and the west coast.

 

So far, Jet is the only Indian airline to have a base abroad, in Brussels, and now Air India is also trying to get a base in Europe.

 

"The beyond right is an important feature of this pact as any designated Indian carrier can fly beyond KL. The best part of the deal, signed by an Indian team led by aviation secretary Ashok Chawla, is that the excellent KL is also among the most economical ones in the southeast. It will be the ideal hub for an airline that's equipped to expand operations to the southeast and Australia," said a senior official.

 

The importance in terms of growing traffic to the southeast can be gauged from the fact that Jet recently strengthened its code share agreement with Qantas to provide seamless connectivity between India and Australia via Singapore.

 

Without a base of their own, Indian carriers need such pacts. But with India now tying up with Malaysia, its carriers can set up base in KL to offer onward connections.

 

Air India chairman and managing director V Thulasidas said: "We will surely look into the potential of using KL as a point for carrying beyond traffic. We are going to expand our operations and add more cities on our map."

 

AI is currently in the final stages of tying up with a major European hub airport for using it as a base.

 

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Busines...how/2212402.cms

 

[Pieter C. 5]

Interesting development !!!

 

MH should join an alliance soon in order not to loose too much traffic (no doubt those Indian carriers will offer competative fares)...

[Seth K 3]

Sounds great for both, hope Kingfisher will come to KUL soon.

If Indian carriers do wish to make Asian hub, where could they go from one stop at KUL? Seems like flight to Australia via KUL will only add miles and time. For Aussi routes, they hv to go nonstop to compete with SQ, MH, CX etc. I dun see making a hub at KUL will be efficient enough but if they station some aircrafts there for SEA operation, that will be tremendous Good move from both India/Malaysia, this must be after India put pressure on Malaysia.

[Keith T 2]

Interesting development !!!

 

MH should join an alliance soon in order not to loose too much traffic (no doubt those Indian carriers will offer competative fares)...

 

Their strategy at this stage of their turnaround plan is to sign bilateral codeshare agreements to ensure feeds, rather than multilateral alliances which can incur a lot of costs. Like the recent agreement with AZ. They could codeshare with one of the Indian carriers to ensure traffic?

 

Good example: QF is one carrier that takes advantage of bilateral agreements with carriers that may or may not be part of oneworld, for India - they work with 9W to service Indian cities other than BOM. Last I checked, there are no less than 28 interline/codeshare agreements that QF has forged with other carriers.

 

OT: BTW - what's happening with MH and Skyteam? No movement yet?

Edited July 18, 2007 by Keith T

[Naim 6]

Yes, very interesting development indeed, as Pieter said. But I'm more keen on getting cheap access into the Indian cities, and eventually into places like Kashmir, Nepal, and Bhutan.

 

 

+++

[Pieter C. 5]

OT: BTW - what's happening with MH and Skyteam? No movement yet?

 

Not that I know of, except that Leo van Wijk, KLM's ex-CEO has been appointed as Skyteam's "CEO" !!!

I know he's pro-MH (one of the main forces in KLM to sign the code-share with MH) and hope can persuade AF not to resist MH any longer...besides, he really envisions KUL as Skyteam's hub for S-E Asia (read in some KLM internal document)...

[Izanee 0]

well pieter...i hope that this guy will make a difference. MH is just wasting its time - some of the major airlines that didn't join an alliance include EK, EY and VS. MH does not have the money to expand like EK/EY/QR- therefore it needs all the help it can get to further increase loads and yields as well as to make KUL a major hub. We are now fourth in SEA (Jakarta overtook us past 2 years with 30 million pax/annum). we are still far behind SIN (35 million) and BKK (42 million) despite what our dear friend TF is saying about his beloved AK making KUL a LCC hub. SIN and BKK will also have huge increases in LCC traffic considering they already ARE air hubs of choice in this region.

 

[S V Choong 4]

KUL is too close to SIN and it is not easy for KUL to overtake SIN and BKK as a hub. A lot of things have to happen before that, including the city's infrastructure, commerce, tourism and etc.

 

[Sandeep G 1]

AirAsia is in a good position to boost pax numbers through KLIA.. with the success of new venture AirAsiaX it is possible that KUL will really benefit from a surge in pax numbers.

 

As a skyteam member, MAS would also contribute significantly to pax numbers.

 

It is important for Malaysia to develop strong and frequent city pairs by both legacy carriers and budget carriers. At the moment, our ASA with many countries is quite dated and poor. This can only be done by increasing commerce and trade as SV rightly said. Look at the Middle East though.. we receive almost every major Mid-East carrier in Malaysia and this is because of burgeoning trade betwen the two and tourism - yet MAS offers limited number of services to DXB per week... It's a shame we still don't get Royal Jordanian from Amman or MEA from Lebanon.

 

With EK/EY/QR, they are building world-class support infrastructure and a highly enviable route network and fleet! We have the infrastructure, it just needs to be maintained with proper foresight and vision.

 

 

[Seth K 3]

It's a shame we still don't get Royal Jordanian from Amman or MEA from Lebanon.

Yea, Royal Jordan drop KUL long time ago, isn't MEA coming to KUL, read about it sumwhere.

[KK Lee 5]

 

Need to read the new ASA to find whether is just fifth freedom or beyond fifth freedom.

 

If beyond fifth freedom, there will be huge pressure on MH and Air Asia X.

 

Will be interesting to see how Air Aisa X will be competing with Jet Airways on long haul. It is a matter of time, Chinese LCC will join the bandwagon.

 

Edited July 21, 2007 by KK Lee

[KC Sim 2]

East Star Airlines recently became the first private carrier in China to be granted a license for international operations. Although the Civil Aviation Administration of China would only consider issuing such a license after 3 years of domestic operations, it has made a dispensation to grant East Star Airlines this right as a move to boost traffic into Wuhan, capital city of the Hubei Province.

 

East Star Airlines will cosequently begin flying to HKG and MFM (both considered to be international destinations) and has applied for permission to fly to BKK, SIN and KUL.

 

KC Sim

[Pieter C. 5]

More Indian airline news:

 

Air India last week took delivery of its first 777-200LR, part of its January 2006 order for 68 aircraft. It is expected to take an additional three 777-200LRs and three -300ERs this year. It will use the aircraft delivered last week on its new Mumbai-New York JFK service scheduled to launch Aug. 1. The aircraft will seat 238 passengers in a three-class configuration.

 

and...........

 

Boeing Sees USD$86 Bln India Orders Over 20 Years

 

July 30, 2007

Boeing expects airlines in India to buy more than 900 new planes worth over USD$86 billion in the next 20 years on the back of strong passenger growth in Asia's third-largest economy.

 

India's domestic aviation market is forecast to grow at about 20 percent a year over the next five years. From just four airlines three years ago, India has more than 10 carriers now.

 

"This demonstrates that Indian airline operators, not foreign carriers, are increasingly connecting India to the world by expanding their regional and global presence," said Dinesh Keskar, Boeing's senior vice president for commercial planes.

 

The firm estimates the Indian air travel market will grow at an average 12 percent per year over the next 20 years, compared to the worldwide average of 4.7 percent.

 

"The Boeing company detailed its current market outlook for India projecting India's need for 911 new commercial airplanes worth more than USD$86 billion over next 20 years," according to a company statement.

 

Boeing has firm orders for more than 140 aircraft worth USD$20 billion from various Indian airlines, including Jet Airways, Air India and SpiceJet.

 

State-run Air India has already received the first plane of a 68 aircraft order in the form of a long-range Boeing 777-200 that will fly non-stop between Mumbai and New York.

 

It is likely to buy another 60 new planes by 2011 to expand operations and meet growing demand.

 

Jet Airways, the country's top domestic airline, has also decided to buy three additional Boeing 777-300 aircraft, supplementing an earlier order for 30 new planes.

 

Boeing delivered 18 aircraft to Indian carriers between January and July this year worth more than USD$2.3 billion.

 

Boeing's rival Airbus expects Indian firms to place orders for 1,100 passenger and freighter aircraft valued at about USD$105 billion over 20 years.

 

(Reuters)

 

plus............

 

Air India May Need 60 More Aircraft By 2011

 

July 30, 2007

State-run Air India may need another 60 new aircraft by 2011 to expand operations and meet growing demand, the firm's chairman said on Saturday.

 

"Looking at the demand and the passenger growth, the number would be in the range of 60 planes. But this is a very rough estimate," Air India Chairman V. Thulasidas said at a ceremony to mark the induction of a new aircraft to its fleet.

 

The government merged state-run carriers Air India and Indian earlier this year to help them face tough competition from private airlines.

 

The merged entity, to be called Air India, will begin operations by August and will have more than 100 planes in its fleet, which analysts say will be big enough to compete with larger rivals such as Singapore Airlines and Emirates.

 

The state-run carrier has already ordered a total of 43 new planes from Airbus and 68 from Boeing to be delivered over the next few years, with 25 of these to be added this year.

 

It has already received the first of its long-range Boeing planes, which will be used for a daily non-stop flight between Mumbai and New York.

 

Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel said his ministry would revisit the aircraft acquisition plan in two weeks' time and the process for identifying new aircraft would be started.

 

India's state-run carriers have not bought new aircraft since the 1990s and have lost market share in recent years.

 

"Our national carriers were unable to take full advantage of the opportunities at hand for a variety of reasons," Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said at the ceremony.

 

"The shortage of aircraft was one such and our government has taken decisive steps to address this problem."

 

(Reuters)

 

Boeing yesterday told reporters in New Delhi that it has boosted its forecast for aircraft demand in the fast-growing Indian market, projecting that the country's airlines will order 911 passenger aircraft valued at $86 billion over the next 20 years. Last year the manufacturer pegged demand in the market at 856 aircraft valued at $72 billion over the next two decades. It said the higher demand is owing to the rise of private airlines in India. About 75% of the demand will be for single-aisle aircraft, it said.

 

 

 

[Izanee 0]

MEA already flew to KUL in the late nineties - BEY-KUL-SYD with 747s. they used to fly once weekly codesharing with MH's twice weekly BEY-KUL services. They pulled out after some time... codesharing on MH's services instead.

 

[kandiah k 0]

I read in the NST on Monday that Jet Airways which had initially planned to begin a second daily MAA-KUL-MAA (B737) route has scrapped their plans and instead will be using a bigger aircraft, an A330 when one becomes available in January 2008. Only then will they start a new service, the BOM-KUL-BOM route with the available B737.

 

Good news for spotters !!!!

 

 

[Sri Ramani K. 0]

AFAIK, the 737NG used by jet is quite enough. load on the MAA flight out from KUL is pretty good, sometimes packed up to 90%..

 

yes they're doing well in this sector..

[Isaac 0]

I read in the NST on Monday that Jet Airways which had initially planned to begin a second daily MAA-KUL-MAA (B737) route has scrapped their plans and instead will be using a bigger aircraft, an A330 when one becomes available in January 2008. Only then will they start a new service, the BOM-KUL-BOM route with the available B737.

 

Good news for spotters !!!!

By the way, 9W air fares to/from India is up to several hundreds cheaper than MH.