THE BIG THREE

Everyone is talking about the big 3, so what exactly is " THE BIG THREE " ?

The big three are actually the trio which is giving sleepless nights to all the major airliners of the world. The trio is none other than the Legendary:-

1) Emirates Airlines, operating from Dubai International Airport

2) Etihad Airways, operating from Abu Dhabi Airport

3) Qatar Airways. operating from Hamad International Airport

These three airlines are probably the last entrants in the airline business. But the three have a lot of things in common and also kind of the some illegal advantage. They are the chief Gulf operators, they are located at the cross-roads of the world. Every impossible connection is possible from this location. Almost 75% of the world population is 7 hours flying distance from these airports. Last and not the least, the land under these location produces a lot of oil. Almost an ideal setup for any airline.

Emirates is building a whole new airport the Al Maktoum International Airport, which is slated to be the busiest airport.
The Abu Dhabi Airport is rapidly expanding with new terminal buildings and additional developments.
Qatar recently moved up to a new airport, Hamad International Airport.

The big 3 are at the start of their career, actually the real damage is going to show up when all their airport work in full swing, and the other threatening thing is their fleet, all of them have a lot of heavy bodied flights on order, these 3 alone combined will be having a fleet of over 1100 aircrafts and majority of them being twin aisle, ultra long haul flights.

The Arabs know what they are doing, and they are really smart putting their money planning their country`s future.

A350 is Going on a World Tour

It is a common practice for new airplanes to go on test routes on locations around the world.

The most talked about tour was the A380`s tour. Now it is the turn of the much talked about A350 XWB, the direct competitor of the 777.

(XWB- Extra Wide Body)

There are going to be 3 test routes, as depicted by the different coloured lines on the above map. The main objective of such test runs is to check how the plane is performing in different locations and conditions. Also, it provides a feedback report to clients who ordered the aircraft. The A350 is scheduled to be delivered to Qatar airways this year.

Till date the A350 has already operated over 2000 flying hours !!!!


Image courtesy: australianaviation

Airline Alliances and Partnerships

Alliances help us at personal as well as professional levels. This is kind of important for airlines too. The more the friends an airline has, the more benefits it gets. 

There are three major airlines at this moment namely, Star Alliance, SkyTeam and One World. The main benefit of having an alliance is that sharing of resources, which effectively bring down the cost of operation. Plus, the alliances also help them to forward passenger to routes using partner airline routes where it does not operate its own flights. This is definitely a win, because, despite not serving a destination an airline can still service the passenger thus, improving the load factor. Certainly a win.

Eg. When some one want to fly between Toronto and Delhi, a passenger realizes that there is apparently no direct flight,

BUT,

There is choice, Air Canada and Air India are members of star alliances, which means, the passenger can fly between Toronto and London on an Air Canada flight and then fly between London and Delhi by an Air India flight. An onward connection is also possible further.

For frequent flyers there is another plus, where miles can consumed and gained even while flying on partner airlines. This in turn makes the customers loyal to a particular alliance

Members of the alliances are as follows: 

Star Alliance: Adria Airways, Aegean Airlines, Air Canada, Air China, Air India, Air New Zealand, All Nippon Airways, Asiana Airlines, Austrian Airlines, Avianca Holdings, Brussels Airlines, Copa Airlines, Croatia Airlines, EgyptAir, Ethiopian Airlines, EVA Air, LOT Polish Airlines, Lufthansa, Scandinavian Airlines, Shenzhen Airlines, Singapore Airlines, South African Airways, Swiss International Air Lines, TAP Portugal, Thai Airways International, Turkish Airlines and United Airlines

SkyTeam: Aeroflot, Aerolíneas Argentinas, Aeroméxico, Air Europa, Air France, Alitalia, China Airlines, China Eastern Airlines, China Southern Airlines, Czech Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Garuda Indonesia, Kenya Airways, KLM, Korean Air, Middle East Airlines, Saudia, TAROM, Vietnam Airlines and Xiamen Airlines.

OneWorld: Air Berlin, American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Finnair, Iberia, Japan Airlines, LAN Airlines, Malaysia Airlines, Qantas, Qatar Airways, Royal Jordanian, S7 Airlines, TAM Airlines, SriLankan Airlines and US Airways.

Airbus A330 NEO, A Quick Response to Boeing 787

At Farnborough International Airshow, Airbus made an announcement that a newer version of the A330 is going to be under production soon. The reported plane would be called A330 NEO (New Engine Option), this product is going to be a direct competitor of the Dreamliner.

The A330 from Airbus has been one of the best planes ever built, this has been one of the better models of its time. But the 787, the latest offering from Boeing, has allowed airlines to operates flights at a cheaper rate due to its fuel efficiency. It consumes almost 20% lesser fuel over any other traditional plane. The 787 has been attracting airlines because, this plane has enabled airlines to launch newer routes which didn`t exist earlier.

Airbus claims that with the new A330, they would be able to improve fuel efficiency by almost 14% and this would indirectly increase the range by 400 Nautical miles. Another plus is that, the plane is going to be cheaper than the 787 and would be delivered earlier as the research program is not very long. The first half of 2014 has not been a great one for Airbus because not many orders were held by it. Airbus is somehow trying to attract the lost traction and hope for revival.

We will get our answers only in 2017, when the first A330 NEO rolls out.

Air India, is it that bad ??

On my recent trip, rather than taking a foreign airline ticket, I decided to book direct flight tickets with Air India, I wanted the firsthand experience of Air India and forget how badly it has always been criticized by the media. I was booked. Even I had doubts if the plane would take-off or would it be cancelled like we read in the papers all the time. I reached the airport a cool 5 hours before time, because I wanted to see the Mumbai Airport Terminal 2 at length. It was mid-night flight, the flight took off... The crew began offering beverages, snacks, to the passengers who were awake and hungry. Mine was a special meal so I was the first one to receive my food. I asked for additional bread, to which the air hostess politely replied, "On the returning from the end", yes indeed when she returned she handed me some more and after some time, she again asked if I wanted anything else. Meanwhile, the guy in the row ahead of me, was so drunk that he passed out in the alley, within minutes another guy in the front row seat also passed out.  So on my outward trip I came to one conclusion, that the crew was very well trained, and they did a great job overall, there was literally nothing which was out of order.

On inward flight, a big tour group of some 40 odd people boarded the plane, not to forget, they very jolly and friendly amongst their group. The moment the flight took off, before the air hostess` could give us anything, the people from this group started distributing wafers, gathiyas, kachoris to one another.... and then they started distributing to the co-passengers also. They were repeatedly warned to take their seats but then they would not listen, despite their wives being with them, they misbehaved and kept drinking. The Air India Employees were not able to provide food/beverage services in their regular fashion because of this confusion. Had this been the case in a popular airline then, they would have been hand cuffed or duct taped to their seats like the poor guy below.

Further, the guys from the group even started clicking photos of the Air Hostesses, in all unruly behavior. It was certainly an embarrassment to our whole culture. Some Europeans were also on board, I bet they would have pledged that they`d never fly on any airlines from India, nor have a layover at an Indian airport by mistake. 

Finally we landed in Mumbai and I had a new image of Air India in my mind. I can proudly announce that the service which was offered by Air India was actually awesome, but it is us who fly on board are not allowing the crew to function properly. If we don`t allow them to carry out their task efficiently then we should not complaint either.

Dear Brothers and Sisters from India, how well behaved are we when we fly with foreign carriers, then why not behave well in our own Air India flight ??

Emirates Receives Its 50th A380 Jumbo

Emirates received its 50th A380 today, and still continues to be the undisputed leader with the highest A380s in its fleet.

With this addition, this newest A380 aircraft will be taken for operations by August. It is estimated that by late 2017, there would be a total of 90 A380s in the Emirates fleet in operation. Currently 27 airports are being served with the A380 by Emirates alone. By the end of this fiscal year, the number of destinations will rise to 33 after the gradual addition of Kuwait, Mumbai(YES our MUMBAI !!!), Frankfurt, Dallas, San Francisco and Houston.

With 50 A380s already delivered to Emirates, deliveries are still pending for an additional 90. And no surprises that in case Airbus chooses to offer the A380-NEO(New Engine Option), which Emirates is asking for, who knows, it is quite likely that Emirates may add more of the double deckers to their fleet.

Literally, the A380s of the Emirates fly from one corner of the world to another, Los Angeles in one end, to Auckland in the other end.


Image Courtesy of bhmpics.com

Mumbai Aviation: A Soon To Be Extinct Species

Mumbai Airport, or as locally called the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport, is perhaps the most important place in the whole of India.

Be it Business, Glamour, Travel or a Fun trip, a person is most likely to land in Mumbai. This airport began operation as early as in the year 1942, this is one of the few airport in the world which is located in the middle of the city and not in the suburbs or the out skirts of the city. This airport is the hub for India`s flagship airline the Air India and its competitor Jet Airways. Time and again this airport has seen developments in the limited space, but there is no room for further development or to make a ground making change because of the lack of additional space. This airport has 2 very long runways, but then they cannot be used simultaneously due to their intersecting nature. 

Unlike the EU airports, this airport functions 24 hours round the clock, even with just a single runway operation this airport comfortably manages over 250,000 aircraft operations and almost over 3 million passenger pass through this airport annually. In February, 2014 Terminal 2 began operations which was perhaps the best terminal building which could have been ever built. It is not just a terminal or a building, it is a museum, it has tons of artwork, paintings, statues, etc, where seeing all the display items would need a 4km walk, pretty amazing. Having traveled to London`s Heathrow Airport, New York`s JFK Airport, Boston`s Logan Airport, Abu Dhabi Airport, Bangkok`s Suvarnabhumi Airport and a couple others, I can proudly say that India has made a big statement and shown the world what they can achieve when they are hell bent. A person having a connecting flight may miss the next flight as he may be so engrossed with the art work in this airport.

What is missing in Mumbai Airport ??

Being a huge business district, Mumbai definitely attracts a huge set of travelers, but what Airports Authority of India (AAI) failed to understand is that for airports to expand they must be extended horizontally and not vertically, but there is no space for the horizontal expansion,  and there you go, this is a need for a new airport at a new location close to Mumbai. The solution was Navi Mumbai Airport, which is a decade old plan and has been delayed by a number of reasons.

Will the Navi Mumbai Airport be enough ?

For starters the Navi Mumbai airport will have 2 parallel runways just like London`s Heathrow airport, which was built in the 1960s....

Seriously ?? Mumbai is putting up a plan which was used by the Brits 50 years ago, this clearly shows the lack of planning and management. Is Mumbai 50 years behind the United Kingdom?? Heathrow airport is operating at 98% capacity which means, newer airlines are not given additional landing slots. So if Mumbai has a new 2 runway airport then in just 10 years, because of tremendous demand, the airport will be operating at full capacity and there shall be need for a third airport, which shall take again 2 decades of planning and construction.

Seeing the forecast, it seems that Mumbai actually needs a 4 parallel runway airport just like the one in Los Angeles Airport (LAX), because Mumbai is in the centre of Europe Africa, Asia and Australian sub-continent, which means if there is infrastructure, foreign airlines may consider it as their secondary hub also. This location could act as an onward connection for flights between Europe-Australia, Africa-China, Gulf-Far East & a lot of other combinations.

Mumbai Airport fared far better than most of the other airport in the Asian sub-continent a couple decades ago, but now even underdeveloped economies like Indonesia, Taiwan, Philippines have better planning and better airports to give their economy a boost, seems like the planners have not thought the process all the way through.

An important lesson which we can learn is that Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Qatar and other gulf cities have all got huge just because they focused really well in the aviation business, they literally stole the charm from the European airports by planning and operating better. Another example to consider is the Suvarnabhumi airport of Bangkok, currently they are working on a 2 runway system, but they reserved enough space to construct a total 5 runways, a country like Thai is setting the priorities right.

Mumbai, a city which never sleeps, is actually sleeping in the Aviation department, and lesser aviation business means, hurting the local economy, AAI, do something, Mumbai is the Los Angeles of India.