The battle in the domestic aviation skies will soon shift to Delhi, with low-cost carrier AirAsia and Tata-SIA’s Vistara booking slots at the T-3 terminal of the international airport in New Delhi.
Sources in the know confirmed Vistara had booked six slots here and was ready to fly once it got the government nod.
What is a surprise is that AirAsia, looking for six to seven slots here, was offered three to begin with from T3.
Sources say the LCC has decided to begin services within one and a half months; it had earlier planned to start operations from Delhi only next year.
AirAsia will be the first LCC from Delhi which will not fly from the terminal earmarked for these.
It will take on chief rival IndiGo on home turf.
IndiGo has already taken on the battle with AirAsia to the later’s first hub in Bengaluru, where they have substantially increased flights, taking the Malaysian carrier head-on.
Tata Sons and Singapore Airlines, which partnered to launch a full-service airline in the country, called Vistara, are expected to launch services this year.
The plan is to initially begin services in five cities and go to 11 within a year.
The airline will have 87 weekly flights and these will link Delhi with Mumbai, Goa, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Jammu, Srinagar, Patna and Chandigarh.
It will gradually scale up to 301 flights and 21 destinations, in the fourth year of operations.
The airline has made Delhi its operational hub because of capacity constraints at Mumbai airport. Tata-SIA has said it would like to operate international flights from India.
Government rules do not allow domestic airlines with less than five years in operations and less than 20 aircraft to do so.
However, the civil aviation ministry has prepared a cabinet note to change the policy.
India hopes to have six new aircraft by the end of the year and add 12 to 14 by the end of next year.
The airline has asked for a substantial expansion of flights in the winter schedule this year, to 180 flights a week.
Its group chief executive, Tony Fernandes had said in September that AirAsia India would start flights to and Delhi soon and take on the ‘big boys’ on metro routes.
“In Incredible India, Bombay is changing by the day. AirAsia India will be starting in this metro soon. We are coming,'' Fernandes had tweeted. Last year, he’d announced that AirAsia India would skip Mumbai and Delhi due to high airport charges.
While Fernandes did not indicate a date, aviation sources said AirAsia was likely to launch Mumbai flights from early 2015.
It has not applied for slots at the airport there for the winter schedule, starting October-end. AirAsia commenced operations in May and operates two Airbus A320 planes from Bengaluru to Goa, Chennai, Kochi, Chandigarh and Jaipur.
The airline expects to add three or four additional planes and ply to Guwahati over the next few months.
It recorded a load factor of 73 per cent in August, higher than Air India and Jet Airways but lower than other LCCs.
AirAsia is facing stiff competition on all its routes with IndiGo and Jet Airways adding flights on these routes. The airlines are also locked in a fare war.
"We are not surprised (about plans to start Mumbai flights).
"It is on expected lines. Challenges faced on current routes might force a rethink on the entire network strategy which means a more direct competition with other key carriers,'' said Kapil Kaul of the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation.
Image: AirAsia chief Tony Fernandes
