A Jetlite Boeing 737-800, registration VT-SJH performing flight S2-320 from Kolkata to New Delhi with 140 persons on board, was forced to make three landing attempts due to weather and a fault Instrument Landing System at New Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport.

The flight was on approach to New Delhi's runway 29, when a thunderstorm went into its final approach and landing path. The crew aborted the landing and requested for a different runway.

Air Traffic Control (ATC) vectored the aircraft for an ILS approach to runway 11 (the opposite side of runway 29). However, when the crew attempted to intercept the ILS localizer on runway 11, the ILS was found to be malfunctioning.

Air Traffic Control then instructed the pilots to swing over to runway 10. However, while the airplane manoeuvred to align with runway 10, Air Traffic Control reported that the ILS on runway 11 was now working.

The airplane finally landed on runway 11 on the third approach 20 minutes after the first approach attempt.

JetLite refused to answer my queries if they have lodged any complaint or protest about the malfunctions with either the Airports Authority of India (AAI) whose controllers operate the ATC or with the airport operator Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL). They issued me this statement

"Due to weather detected on the aircraft weather radar S2 320 requested a runway change from R/W 29 to R/W 11. While the aircraft was being vectored for an approach to R/W 11, non-availability of the ILS (Instrument Landing System) of R/W 11 necessitated the change of the approach to R/W10. However, during the approach to R/W 10 a downgrade of the R/W10 ILS and subsequent availability of R/W 11 ILS resulted in the approach and landing being made on R/W 11. The changes in the approaches did not result in any go-arounds."

METARS:
VIDP 291300Z 00000KT 3500 HZ SCT035 FEW040CB BKN090 23/19 Q1010 TEMPO TSRA
VIDP 291230Z 18005KT 3500 HZ SCT035 FEW040CB BKN100 23/19 Q1009 TEMPO TSRA
VIDP 291200Z 18006KT 3500 -DZ SCT035 FEW040CB BKN100 23/18 Q1009 TEMPO TSRA
VIDP 291100Z 18005KT 3500 HZ SCT035 FEW040CB BKN100 26/17 Q1009 NOSIG
VIDP 291030Z 20005KT 3500 HZ SCT035 FEW040CB BKN100 26/17 Q1009 NOSIG
VIDP 290930Z 31005KT 2800 TS SCT035 FEW040CB BKN100 27/17 Q1010 BECMG 3000
VIDP 290900Z 28003KT 2800 HZ SCT035 FEW040CB BKN100 28/17 Q1010 NOSIG
VIDP 290830Z 01005KT 2600 HZ FEW035 FEW040CB BKN100 28/17 Q1010 NOSIG
VIDP 290730Z 32005KT 2800 HZ FEW035 FEW040CB BKN100 27/18 Q1010 BECMG 3000
VIDP 290700Z 34005KT 2800 HZ FEW035 FEW040CB BKN100 27/18 Q1011 NOSIG

Thanks to Simon Hradecky at Aviation Herald for the tip.

A JetLite flight to Bangalore was delayed by 45 minutes and boarding on several flights had to be suspended for 10 minutes on Sunday evening after a passenger Saptarishi Basu, complained that his laptop had gone missing from the security hold.

Around 5 pm, Basu, who was to board the JetLite flight to Bangalore, went in for security check. On completion of his check, he found his laptop missing on the delivery side of the X-ray machine. He immediately lodged a complaint with the nearby CISF official.

5 pm is a peak travel hour, and there were over 400 passengers departing to Chennai and Delhi undergoing security checks. The CISF suspended all boardings, and started checking the CCTV footage to find the missing laptop. S.B. Hari, a Chennai bound SpiceJet passenger had mistakenly picked up Basu's laptop, thinking it as his own, since both passengers carried the same model.

The JetLite flight took off 45 minutes behind schedule. All other flights, for which boarding had been suspended, took off on time. Basu though, was not on the JetLite flight, since he had to complete formalities. He was accommodated on an Air India flight leaving at 7.55 pm.

This does raise some interesting questions to which I request comments.

• How do you protect and identify your laptop either during your travels on in public areas ?
• JetLite is a low cost carrier, and Air India a full service one. Who paid for the difference in fare ? If Basu or any of the airlines did, is it not unfair ? After all, it is Hari who picked up the wrong laptop. Should he not pay for the delays ?
  

The Mint is reporting that GoAir recently started offering uniform fares, inclusive of surcharges and other taxes, for purchases made 21 days in advance.

For short sectors, defined as less than 750 kms travel distance, the airline will charge Rs 1,700 a ticket and Rs 2,700 for distances greater than 750 kms. According to the company statement, in effect a Mumbai-Delhi ticket bought 21 days in advance will be for Rs 2,700 instead of the base fare of at least Rs 1,000 plus Rs 2,925 of surcharges and airport fees.

GoAir’s new offer is in reaction to the introduction of Rs one fare by IndiGo on certain routes and SpiceJet Ltd.’s Rs 99 base fare for tickets booked at least 21 days before travel.

The quarter ended December 31, 2008 witnessed an 18 per cent decline in domestic passenger growth, and has prompted all major airline groups in India to resort to price cuts in order to stimulate passenger demand.

Jet Airways, and its low cost subsidiary JetLite, were one of the early adopters of the 21 day advance fares also called APEX fares. Jet Airways also recently offered Rs 250 base ticket fares, while JetLite started Rs nine base fare for travel during this month. It has similar schemes for its Business-Class too. Jet Airways is expecting a 15 per cent increase in passenger traffic.

Jet's alliance partner Kingfisher Airlines also slashed fares between 21 per cent and 65 per cent on various routes earlier this month while the state-owned and operated National Aviation Company of India Ltd. (NACIL), which runs Air India, also announced an average reduction of 52 per cent in basic fares for domestic travel on 20 major routes.

2008 was a torrid year for domestic airlines in India, as recently released figures by the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) show.

Domestic passenger traffic for the year 2008 fell 5% from 42.58 million to 40.77 million (Fig. 1), driven by the increase in fuel costs, and the massive hikes in air fares, which are yet to fully retreat, and capacity reductions by the airlines.


The Low Cost Carriers (LCCs) Indigo, SpiceJet, and JetLite, improved their market shares at the expense of Full Service Carriers (FCCs) Air India, Jet Airways, and Kingfisher Airlines. IndiGo is the big winner this year with a four per cent market share gain. Air India (the former Indian Airlines), gave up a big three per cent share. (Fig. 2)

The notable exception is Go Air (now called No Go Air due to its numerous flight cancellations), and the former Air Deccan, now christened Kingfisher Red after their acquisition. Kingfisher Red lost five per cent market share, while Kingfisher Airlines gained only three per cent, resulting in an overall loss of two per cent market share to competitors. Clearly the strategy at Kingfisher is not working.


While most airlines and airline groups lost in actual passenger numbers, LCCs IndiGo, SpiceJet, JetLite (the former Air Sahara now a subsidiary of Jet Airways), and Paramount, gained passengers. (Fig. 3).

The capacity swapping at Kingfisher group is clearly visible, and when performance of both Kingfisher Airlines and Kingfisher Red is combined, actual passenger numbers went down 10.5 per cent, from 12.56 million to 11.25 million.


The first two quarters of 2008, provided no clue to the excess capacity in the Indian airline industry. The "perfect storm" of increased fuel prices and reduced economic activity started rearing its ugly head towards the end of Q2 (April, May, June), and kicked the industry in it's teeth in Q3, with a mind numbing 25 per cent drop in traffic. (Fig. 4). Q4 has provided some seasonal relief, but Q1 of 2009 will see numbers dropping back again.


With the exception of Paramount, which has a small niche regional market, all the airlines saw massive drops in passengers in Q3. (Fig. 5). Most airlines staged a recovery in Q4, but the surprise is Jet Airways. It's passenger numbers tanked almost 20 per cent in Q3 and continued the downfall by another 15 per cent in Q4.


The market share of LCCs followed the increase in air fares, as passengers shifted from the FSCs. SpiceJet share in Q3 reflected its financial problems, prior to the Ross bailout. (Fig. 6)

It is an ignominious performance that the pioneer in the air travel bubble, Air Deccan (now Kingfisher Red) has lost over six per cent market share over the year. Clearly many of the "first time flier" passengers have chosen not to repeat, either returning back to trains and buses, or moving to other carriers like IndiGo and SpiceJet.


The data highlights the price sensitive nature of the Indian traveller. IndiGo appears to have a winning formula with its low prices and efficient service. Fancy gimmicks do not work. At a time of economic slowdown, the FSCs have to get their act together quickly. By holding fuel surcharges to unjustifiably high levels, they are surrendering ground to the LCCs and surface transport.

JetLite Boeing 737-300
A JetLite Boeing 737-800 performing flight S2-361 from Kolkata to Guwahati, India, returned to Kolkata airport, after the crew declared an emergency after the left hand engine caught fire shortly after take-off at 0629 local 0059 GMT, January 17, 2009.

The crew shut the engine down, activated fire extinguisher, and stopped the fire. The plane landed 0648 local.


The entire incident was handled in such a smooth and practised manner, that emergency services attending the aircraft did not need to jump in to action. All 38 passengers and 8 crew disembarked normally. Kudos to the JetLite crew.

The flight was cancelled, the passengers were rebooked onto another flight four hours later.

The cause of the engine fire has not yet been determined.

Update 1 - January 18, 2009

Similar to the US Airways A320 crash in New York, a bird hit has been held responsible for the engine failure.

A kite was sucked in to the left side engine before the aircraft reached an altitude of 500ft AGL. Smoke starting billowing from the engine. An air traffic controller alerts the flight crew, who must have also received in-flight alarms by that time. With alacrity, the crew led by Captain Ajay Keri, goes through the emergency procedures, extinguishes the fire, turns the aircraft around, and lands.

From news photos, the aircraft appears to be VT-SJI. Construction Number: 34399, Line Number: 2030, Aircraft Type: Boeing 737-89P; Engines 2 x CFMI CFM56-7B24, First Flight: August 16, 2006, delivered to Air Sahara: August 24, 2006. Air Sahara was acquired by Jet Airways and renamed JetLite.

On Friday, January 16, 2009, in a very similar incident occurred halfway across the world.

An Interjet Airbus A320-200, flight 4O-809 from Guadalajara to San Jose Cabo, Mexico, with 106 passengers, struck a vulture with its left engine while departing from Guadalajara forcing the crew to shut the engine down and return to Guadalajara. The airplane landed safely about 20 minutes after lift-off.

Be it geese in New York, kites in Kolkata, or vultures in Guadalajara, for the third time in this incident laden week-end, pilots across three countries and three airlines, have calmly done what they repeatedly train for, and completed their primary duty, by safely bringing back the people in their charge.

Kudos.

IndiGo, Jet Airways, JetLite, and SpiceJet have announced Advance Purchase Excursion (APEX) fares for all purchases made at least 21 days before the flight departure.

Jet Airways offers a fare of INR 250 while JetLite offers a fare of INR 9. The booking and sale validity of this offer is from January 1 to January 31, 2009.

SpiceJet is offering ‘Spicy Hot Fares’ starting INR 99 across its network and is valid till June 30, 2009.

IndiGo's APEX scheme is called 'Early Bird Fares' and start at INR 99.

All fares mentioned above are exclusive of taxes and surcharge, and this is where the kicker comes. The fuel surcharges are still around INR 2,000 for short distance (under 750km) and INR 3,000 for long distance.

I really wish that airlines respect their passengers' intelligence. These APEX fares while welcome, remind me of the earlier times when airlines used to offer a "fly free" concept. After all, we do know basic arithmetic.

Following the announcement by alliance partner, Kingfisher, Jet Airways, announced "substantial" reduction in basic fares on Economy class, on all its domestic flights with immediate effect.

The special fares are lowered by as much as 40%, but fuel surcharges remain high.

The economy class basic fares will be as low as Mumbai – Delhi INR 2,000; Mumbai – Kolkata INR 4,065; Bengaluru – Mumbai INR 1,220; and Mumbai – Ahmedabad INR 500.

The normal chestnuts of Terms and conditions apply.

For further information, customers can contact the airline call centre on (city code) 39893333, or the toll free number 1-800-22-55-22, or visit the Jet Airways website.

Similar fare reductions have been announced by Jet Airways' low cost subsidiary JetLite. For more information visit JetLite website.

The travel agents appear to have won Round 1 of the "Zero Commission" battle. Less than four days after the agents decided to boycott Jet Airways and low cost subsidiary JetLite, Jet Airways announced restoration of the travel agents' commissions.

As per the release from Jet Airways,

Recognizing the difficult economic environment for the travel industry as a whole, Jet Airways engaged in a constructive and intensive dialogue with the Travel Agency Associations to find solutions acceptable to the airline and the partners in the travel trade. As a result of this dialogue Jet Airways has agreed to pay three percent commission on gross fare (defined as basic fare plus fuel surcharge) of domestic and international tickets sold in India. The commission scheme will come into effect immediately and will replace the transaction fee model recently introduced.

JetLite will continue with the practice of transaction fee model consistent with the practice adopted by the other Low Cost Carriers (LCC’s).

As I had indicated in my earlier story, the travel agents will next focus on Kingfisher Airlines. Expect a similar announcement from Kingfisher very soon. The big question will be Air India, since Air India controls the bank settlements system that agents rely on to book tickets and settle accounts with all the airlines.

As the Chinese say, may we live in interesting times.

PTI reports, Jet Airways' unlisted subsidiary, low-cost airline JetLite, had incurred a loss after tax of Rs 273 crore ($54.6 million) for the second quarter ended September 30, which made the accumulated losses of the erstwhile Sahara Airlines exceed its net worth.

While declaring its results of the second quarter ended September 30, Jet Airways had said the subsidiary had "accumulated losses exceeding its net worth and its financial statements have been prepared on going concern basis".

According to reliable sources, JetLite's revenues for the said quarter were at Rs 429.3 crore against Rs 366.2 crore in the corresponding period last fiscal.

Jetlite's loss after tax increased over three-fold for the second quarter to Rs 273 crore from Rs 86.27 crore in the year-ago period.

Jet Airways had also said in October that the parent company planned to support the growth plans of the said subsidiary based on its assets, growth model and other factors.

During the quarter under review, Jetlite had a seat factor of 61.2 per cent against 68 per cent in the corresponding quarter last fiscal.

I was just reading an article on Business Standard about no fare cuts by Jet and JetLite, and in the background, I get this news from Jet and JetLite.

From tomorrow, December 6, 2008, JetLite has announced a reduction in applicable passenger fuel surcharges on all domestic routes.

• For routes under 750 kms, the fuel surcharge is reduced by Rs. 300, from Rs. 2,250 to Rs. 1,950.
• For routes over 750 kms, the fuel surcharge is reduced by Rs. 200, from Rs. 2,900 to Rs. 2,700.

Similarly Jet Airways has also reduced the fuel surcharge.

• For routes under 750 kms, the fuel surcharge is reduced by Rs. 400, from Rs. 2,350 to Rs. 1,950.
• For routes over 750 kms, the fuel surcharge is reduced by Rs. 400, from Rs. 3,100 to Rs. 2,700.

While these reductions are welcome, I am wondering why is the reduction not greater on the longer distance routes. With massive reduction in aviation turbine fuel prices, wouldn't the savings to airlines be greater ?

JetLite introduces a direct flight connecting Gorakhpur to Delhi five times a week with immediate effect.

The flight operated by 50 - seater Canadian Regional Jet -200 Series will give connections to passengers from Gorakhpur to major metros like Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai and Ahmedabad, via New Delhi.

Flight S2 6125 will depart New Delhi at 1430 hrs and arrive Gorakhpur at 1550 hrs. On the return leg, flight S2 6126 will depart Gorakhpur at 1620 hrs and arrive New Delhi at 1740 hrs.

For more information visit the Jetlite website.

Ratan Tata's words say it all

We cannot replace the lives that have been lost and we will never forget the terrifying events of last night, but we must stand together, shoulder to shoulder as citizens of India, and rebuild what has been destroyed. We must show that we cannot be disabled or destroyed, but that such heinous act will only make us stronger. It is important that we do not allow divisive forces to weaken us. We need to overcome these forces as one strong unified nation

Stay strong Mumbai!!!!!

All domestic airlines report that their operations at Mumbai are largely unaffected and most flights are on schedule. Airlines clubbed their flights to accommodate the expected drop in passengers. Some international airlines like Lufthansa, Air France, Delta, KLM had flight disruptions or cancellations, but operations are expected to normalise by Friday.

As expected, security is extremely tight. All passengers are advised to carry valid official photo identification. If possible carry two pieces of identification. Also, please give yourself extra time to complete the enhanced security checks.

Jet Airways and JetLite have also announced the waiver of cancellation and re-issue charges on their domestic and/or international services into and out of Mumbai, on Thursday, 27 November and Friday, 28 November, 2008 on account of the current situation.

Passengers may contact Jet on 39893333 or the toll free number 1800-22-55-22 for further information or visit www.jetairways.com

SpiceJet CEO, Sanjay Aggarwal's statement is similar to Jet's:

"SpiceJet flight operations are not impacted by the unfortunate incidents in Mumbai. We are offering all passengers who have missed their flights or chosen not to take them from Mumbai, to Mumbai or via Mumbai, a choice of either rescheduling their flights or total refund or creating a credit shell with us. No change fee will apply on any of these transactions. In view of the current situation, we have also beefed up security at all the stations across our network."

I was unable to find any information or have received any similar statement from Kingfisher, IndiGo or Air India, but I suspect they too will follow a similar line.

The consolidation in the Indian aviation industry has commenced.

Jet Airways announced, today, it has entered into a codeshare arrangement with JetLite, its wholly-owned, all economy subsidiary as part of its ongoing efforts to offer passengers synergetic benefits when they choose to fly with the Jet group.

As part of the agreement, Jet Airways will place its marketing code (9W) on key domestic routes operated by JetLite (S2), enabling both carriers to offer passengers better connections and a wider network.

Jet Airways’ JetPrivilege members travelling on these codeshare flights* can avail of a range of JP benefits, including the accrual of JPMiles based on class of travel. Moreover, the JPMiles thus earned will be Status JPMiles, and these JPMiles as well as each codeshare flight will also count toward JetPrivilege tier upgrade/ retention. JPMembers will also earn Tier Bonus JPMiles and Online booking bonus for the codeshare flights booked on the Jet Airways website.

Jet Airways Citibank Co-brand Credit Cardholders can use their companion discount vouchers on codeshare routes on applicable booking classes. Exclusively for Platinum members, there will be a waiver of cancellation charges on all these codeshare flights.*

Commenting on the codeshare, Mr. Wolfgang Prock-Schauer, Chief Executive Officer, Jet Airways said, “The codeshare agreement with JetLite will enable both carriers to optimally leverage their respective networks, offering passengers enhanced online connectivity across more than fifty domestic and international markets.”

Mr. Daniel Barranger, Vice President-Sales, JetLite added, “Besides offering passengers seamless connectivity and additional same-day return possibilities on several domestic sectors, this agreement is an important step forward in achieving further revenue synergies between the two carriers, both leaders in their respective market niches.”

Additional codeshare services between the two airlines will be implemented in phases.

*Conditions apply. Please refer to www.jetairways.com for more details