AirAsia India – potential route network evaluated
AirAsia CEO Tony Fernandes was born in Kuala Lumpur to an Indian father from Chennai where he has decided to base AirAsia India, the seventh incarnation of the AirAsia low-cost mega brand. Fernandes may want to consider expanding his sports sponsorship strategy to the Chennai Super Kings (the equivalent of Manchester United in cricket-obsessed India) as the most effective means of overcoming the eye-watering competition he faces on the 11 routes anna.aero is predicting AirAsia India will operate.
Although routes are yet to be divulged, Tony Fernandes, Founder and Group CEO, AirAsia, has already said he won’t serve some of the larger Tier 1 Indian airports in his statements on the start-up of AirAsia India, the seventh operation under the over-arching AirAsia low-cost mega brand (following AirAsia, Thai AirAsia, Indonesia AirAsia, AirAsia Philippines, AirAsia X and AirAsia Japan): “Certain airports we will avoid due to their high charge structure.” Specifically Fernandes says: “We wouldn’t see Mumbai as a main destination.” However, he does acknowledge that: “Delhi has a kind of low-cost terminal offering.” It would therefore seem that AirAsia India will initially link smaller, Tier 2 cities to Chennai and will also look add some competition on the largest international markets in the medium-term. Here anna.aero investigates the potential target markets.
AirAsia India’s Chennai competition is fearsome (for whom?)
What we do know is that AirAsia India will be based at Chennai International Airport, India’s third largest. As low-cost airlines typically like to “join-the-dots”, Bengaluru and Kolkata would seem to be the most likely Tier 1 opportunities, as AirAsia already flies to both destinations from Kuala Lumpur. Competition on the Kolkata route will be against Jet Airways, SpiceJet, Air India and IndiGo – a combined 56 weekly flights – and it will be fiercer on Bengaluru, where the same four airlines fly 101 weekly services! Ignoring the remainder of the Tier 1 cities (Mumbai, Delhi, and Hyderabad), all of which have in excess of 10,000 weekly seats, eight Tier 2 airports are currently served from Chennai.
| Airport | Airline (WF) | Weekly seats | Sector length (km) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pune | IndiGo (12), GoAir (7), Jet Airways (7) SpiceJet (7), Air India* (6) | 6,445 | 911 |
| Kochi | Jet Airways (21), SpiceJet (21), Air India* (7) | 5,607 | 519 |
| Coimbatore | Jet Airways (19), SpiceJet (14), IndiGo (7) | 5,500 | 406 |
| Thiruvananthapuram | SpiceJet (14), Air India* (8), IndiGo (7), Jet Airways (7) | 4,646 | 613 |
| Tiruchchirappalli | Jet Airways (21), Air India* (7) SpiceJet (4) | 2,916 | 294 |
| Ahmedabad | IndiGo (7), SpiceJet (7) | 2,583 | 1,372 |
| Vishakhapatnam | IndiGo (7) SpiceJet (7), Jet Airways (7) | 2,254 | 617 |
| Vijayawada | SpiceJet (7) | 546 | 396 |
| Source: Innovata Apr-13. *Includes Air India Express | |||
SpiceJet would appear to have the most to fear from the arrival of AirAsia India on its patch – as it flies to all eight Tier 2 airports currently operated from Chennai. Jet Airways would be a formidable competitor on six, with low-cost airline IndiGo operating on five, and state entity Air India on four of the routes.
Looking at the top four routes as being approximately the same size (in terms of 5-6,000 weekly seats), and assuming yields would be largely the same, Coimbatore, then Kochi (also served daily by AirAsia from Kuala Lumpur), with at least daily flights, would appear to be the routes with the most compelling arguments for start-up given that they have the shortest sector lengths of those city pairs. Conversely, with its lower seat volume (and therefore lower demand) and its longer sector length, Ahmedabad in Gujarat, would look to be the least appealing on this basis. Again, using the “join-the-dots” philosophy, AirAsia already flies to Tiruchchirappalli, 11 weekly from Kuala Lumpur, and, combined with it having the shortest sector length of all eight routes, perhaps a three, four weekly or even daily service may be considered.
Will AirAsia India invent some new routes too?
Should AirAsia India look to be a new route pioneer, there are a host of unserved Tier 2 airports from inside the top 20 largest airports in India, which are currently not flown from Chennai. All of the airports below already handle aircraft in the A320/B737 category.
| Airport | Annual traffic – million (2012) | Sector length (km) |
|---|---|---|
| Guwahati | 2.24 | 1,890 |
| Lucknow | 2.01 | 1,526 |
| Jaipur | 1.83 | 1,598 |
| Srinagar | 1.62 | 2,389 |
| Nagpur | 1.42 | 904 |
| Bhubaneshwar | 1.25 | 1,002 |
| Indore | 1.11 | 1,172 |
| Source: Airports Authority of India | ||
Notably, the average sector length of 1,500 kilometres to these seven cities is more than double than that derived (640 kilometres) from the eight Tier 2 airport already served from Chennai — probably one of the reasons that they are not currently operated. Using a similar methodology to the served markets, it would appear that Nagpur in Maharashtra and Bhubaneshwar, the capital of Odisha State, would appear to be the most attractive unserved routes to consider from Chennai. Nagpur sustains daily A320 operations to Tier 1 cities Bengaluru and Kolkata with IndiGo, with Delhi (16 weekly) and Mumbai (59 weekly) generating significantly higher volumes of traffic. Chennai is currently the only Tier 1 airport not connected to Bhubaneshwar — Kolkata (35 weekly flights), Delhi (34), Mumbai (21), Hyderabad (14) and Bengaluru (7) are predominantly connected with multiple daily flights and on that basis this potential route may even justify a double daily operation.
Considering a further macro-economic metric, city population, the largest Tier 2 cities in India currently not connected to Chennai, or having a top 20 airport, are Surat in Gujarat, which has a population of over 4 million (sector length – 1,196 kilometres), Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh, population of 1.8 million (1,178 kilometres) and Patna, capital of Bihar State, population 1.6 million (1,487 kilometres). Surat currently has 11 weekly flights with Air India and SpiceJet to Delhi, and daily SpiceJet 737 flights to Mumbai — its only connections to Tier 1 cities. On that basis, if AirAsia India was consider services to Surat, it would probably start with two to four weekly flights to match potential demand.
Jeddah justified?
Indian Government regulations normally require a carrier to have operated domestically for five years and have a 20-aircraft fleet before it can operate internationally. However, Fernandes believes that “that may change”. On that basis, opportunities in the international market may again be concentrated on those routes where the highest volumes of traffic already exists, and AirAsia India would look to steal and stimulate market share. Off the route development radar (and not included in the chart below) are Kuala Lumpur, from which AirAsia launched flights in April 2010, while Thai AirAsia added flights from Bangkok in March 2012, initially from Suvarnabhumi International Airport, but more recently from Don Muang – unless of course the airline believes there are robust reasons for operating an Indian-originating service to benefit passengers at that end of the route. For operational reasons London and Frankfurt have also been excluded in this analysis.
Source: Innovata Apr-13
The top three routes of Colombo, Singapore and Dubai would almost certainly be dead-certainties, given they generate more than three times as much traffic as the #4 route of Muscat. In terms of currently unserved potential routes, services to the Middle East will no doubt be high on the route wish list, with Jeddah being the only top 10 point (in terms of weekly frequencies to India) from the region that is currently not flown from Chennai.
anna.aero’s AirAsia India route predictions in essence:
Domestic routes to include – Bengaluru, Kolkata – double daily. Coimbatore, Kochi, Nagpur, Bhubaneshwar all operated at least daily – the latter maybe even double daily. Possibly a low frequency service to Surat. Regulatory approval aside, international routes to include Colombo, Singapore, Dubai and Jeddah. Flights are planned to begin in Q4 this year, so we’ll keep an eye on route announcements in the coming months.
tata airasia can expore the following routes/airports also
Madurai/Chennai- Varanasi (pilgrimage route to link Kasi/Varanasi and Rameswaram)
Trivandrum- Chennai- Calcutta/Guwahati
Chennai-Salem
Chennai-Goa
Chennai-Agra
Chennai- Visakhapatnam
chennai-Calcutta/Gaya(Hindu/Buddhist Pilgrimage center).
new airports would bring better eveues and costs less.
COIMBATORE – TRIVANDRUM CAN ALSO BE ADDED
Great article….job well done…perhalps Air asia would need regional jets first to stimulate some of the indian domestic market tier-II and III cities and then back it up with the A320s…Any thoughts?
Indeed, it will be interesting to see what they do with these these types of airports – fortunately there are plenty of fast growing smaller airports to fill.
Thanks, some of the routes of interest are BLR-IXC, BLR-ATQ, BLR-IXB, BLR-STV, HYD-VNS, HYD-LKO, etc…. The PDEW numbers today will support a 80-100 seat aircraft. Bypassing the hubs would be a great strategy..
The A320 or B737 are too big at this stage
Chennai – Coimbatore
Chennai – Tuticorin
Chennai – Madurai
Chennai – MANGALORE
Chennai – Kochi
Chennai – Vijayawada / Vizag
Chennai – GOA
Chennai – Surat
———————————–
* Coimbatore – Tuticorin ( weekly flights )
* Tuticorin – Coimbatore ( weekly flights )
———————————————-
If these are the suggested routes, looks like we have got some right and some wrong! Only time will tell!!
Have you gone nuts, its AIrasia not Airindia, Coimbatore – Tuticorin… HAHAH LOL
Air Asia can explore following routes also.
Tuticorin – Coimbatore – Bengaluru
Madurai – Coimbatore – Bangkok
Chennai – Coimbatore – Mangalore
Madurai – Chennai – Mysore
Coimbatore-Chennai-Goa
Coimbatore – Bengaluru – Bangkok
Chennai-coimbatore- Tuticorin
Jaipur – Chennai – Coimbatore
Trichy- Coimbatore- Dubai
Madurai – Coimbatore- Dubai
Thiruvanathapuram- Coimbatore- Surat
Thiruvanathapuram- Chennai – Kolkatta
great initiative
apart from the above proposals, I would also recommend that air Asia can consideR operations on the following routes which are practically unserved …air India which cancels services more often
Kolkata – port Blair
chennai-Bhubaneswar-Kolkata
chennai-Kolkata-bagdogra
chennai- trivandrum- Kolkata
Kolkata – Surat
chennai- Jamshedpur- Kolkata
chennai- Kolkata- silchar
chennai- Gaya- Kolkata
Kolkata- Gaya- Varanasi
Kolkata- Phuket
Kolkata- Singapore
Kolkata- Dubai
Kolkata- muscat
Kolkata- chennai- Colombo
Kolkata- Hyderabad
Kolkata- port Blair- Yangon
Kolkata – port Blair- vizag
chennai-surat
chennai-dubai (via surat)
surat-kolkata-chennai
surat-hyderabad
surat-chennai (via banglor)
surat-mumbai
surat-goa
mail and Reply from Airasiaindia CEO Mittu chandilya
Dear Friend,
As a flier I hope you have managed to sort your problems with the aviation authorities and we would be seeing you in the Indian Skies.
As a resident of Surat, I request you consider connecting in your network the city of Surat, having 5 million population and the hub of diamond and textile business in India. Surat has an airport that can cater to Airbus and Boeing Aircraft and a capacity of handling 270 passengers every hour. Currently Surat is served only by 1 CRJ aircraft 6 days a week to Delhi. & 2 Boieng 747/800/900 to Delhi-surat-mumbai and BOM-STV-DEL It deserves much more than that considering majority of the fliers are forced to travel by road / rail to other alternate airports like Mumbai, Ahmedabad and Vadodra to fly long distance. Surat also has an independent Passport office and many international travelers. Even Airlines like Lufthansa canvass passengers from Surat to fly from Delhi or Mumbai. Therefore Surat offers good opportunity to mount connections to international flights from the international gateways in India.
We wish you all the best and look forward to you flying again in the new year 2013-14. We do hope that with help of Surat you will profit and continue flying.
* AAI will make as western india ( will be helpfull for connect western Asia and Europe – Africa) HUB at SURAT- STV with 600 hectors land second largest land after Delhi.
Reply from Mittu Chandilya
Linesh,
Thanks for that passionate view in Surat. It is one of the cities in our near plans. Thanks
A very under-served route is BLR-BBI-BLR. Currently, Jet Airways operates the only direct flight on this route once daily and Indigo operates a daily flight via HYD. Both flights operate routinely at almost 100% capacity. KFA used to fly a third direct-daily flight and frequently operated an A321 on this route. One hopes that Air Asia India will capitalise on this––and BBI’s growing aviation infrastructure––and operate this sector at least once daily.
DEL-BBI-DEL has also suffered since KFA’s demise. KFA used to operate double-daily on this route and at that time there used to be 9 daily flights on this route. Currently, this highly demanded route is served by only 5 daily flights by Indigo and Air India.
With international ops commencing from BBI from 1st July, Air Asia India could even club these routes with BBI for operations to Middle East and Souteast Asian destinations.
Kolkata – Singapore route would be a sure shot winner. The current Air Asia travel to Singapore via Kuala Lumpur is a bit tedious due to the night halt.
I would suggest the following route to air asia.
Mangalore- Pune
Mangalore- tirupati
Mangalore- delhi
mangalore-surat
mangalore- kochi.
I would suggest the following route,
Coimbatore to Dubai
Because Coimbatore is south India’s business hub and no direct flight to Dubai also so this is best route for Air Asia
Please start immediately
Yes, Coimbatore is one of the India’s well known business hub, If AIr Asia Starts direct flight to Dubai and Gulf, it will be a grate help for the business community to explore more business opportunities
Coimbatore – Singapore/KL Best Route
I would suggest the following route,
Chennai – Bangalore
Chennai – Coimbatore
Chennai – Mangalore
Chennai – Truchy
Chennai – Madurai
Chennai – Trivandrum
Chennai – Goa
Chennai – Agra
Chennai – Visakhapatnam
Chennai – Nagpur
Chennai – Indore
Chennai – Bhubaneswar
Chennai – Bagdogra
Chennai – Coimbatore
Chennai – Tuticorin
Chennai – Kochi
Chennai – Vijayawada
Chennai – GOA
Chennai – Surat
Chennai – Calcutta
Chennai – Guwahati
Chennai – Port Blair
Chennai – Imphal
Chennai – Patna
Chennai – Lucknow
Should consider
Trivandrun-Coimbatore-Hyderabd
i suggest to explore –
Mumbai-Patna-Mumbai
airasia will certaily change the indian aviation sector. what needed is a very clear support structure from AAI regarding landing charges and other fees. Indian aviation governing sector is still very complicate to understand…….
Hi All,
I want to refer a route i.e from Pune to Bhuabneswar.At present there is no direct flight or flights with 1hop from pune to bhubaneswar.Bot Pune and bhubaneswar are growing city in terms of IT and other industry.There is only one train service daily from Pune to bhubaneswar and one weekly.We all are facing difficulty for this route.If you can cosider this to fro route while considering a new route then it will be great.
Thanks,
Gyana
Air Asia please do something for
Ahmedabad to Kolkata this is very good traffic rout
I would suggest the following route to air asia.
Chennai-Ranchi
Chennai-Bangalore-Ranchi
Chennai-Hyderabad-Ranchi
Chennai- Kolkata-Ranchi
At present there is no direct connectivity to south region of India.Road/Rail facility are not upto the mark.
Ranchi is the major design hub for steel Industry.Ranchi contains major company like HEC,MECON,SAIL,CMPD & Usha Martin.
Major design firm from south india are frequently visiting ranchi and most of the wards are doing their studies/works in south region.
Kindly consider this route.
Thanks
Sudharsan
AirAsia should also go for Chennai – Nagpur – Jabalpur .
As there is no Air connectivity for entire south & Nagpur also. I think they should go for it.
It is encouraging to read AIR ASIA has embarked upon a number of routes in India covering various cities. I would like to recommend a direct flight from Delhi to Singapore and back. Also cover Delhi – Jammu and Kashmir. I sincerely hope that due consideration will be given to my recommendation and suggestion. Warm regards. Karan.
If I’m right, with its first flight, Air Asia will use connects its existing hubs in India. Once they have their 2nd & 3rd flights, the routes may be extended. So, the first flight may commence from Chennai to Kochi, Kochi to Bangalore, Bangalore – Kolkata, Kolkata – Chennai, Chennai – Kolkata, Kolkata – Bangalore, Bangalore – Kochi, Kochi – Chennai.
i would like air Asia India to start the following routes:
mangalore-bangalore
mangalore-goa
mangalore-chennai
mangalore-delhi
mangalore-dubai
mangalore-singapore
mangalore -kolkata
mangalore-mumbai
mangalore-hyderabad
Cochin-Chennai-Kolkata-Guwahati/Silchar/Agartala
Kolkata-Silchar-Guwahati
I request Air Asia to tap the potential of under served North East India and connect it with South India.
By when AirAsia will announce all the routes and there operation dates any idea???
Starting 12 June, it has announced it will be serving Bangalore to Chennai and Goa – so far.
In the recent past i.e. wef 01.06.2014 all Air India ATR flights has been withdrawn for SILCHAR-GUWAHATI-SILCHAR ,
SILCHAR -KOLKATA-SILCHAR and SILCHAR- IMPHAL routes. At present only Jet airways is plying one ATR flight daily to Silchar-Guwahati & Kolkata- Silchar and Air India Air Bus 4days in a week ( 1,2,4 & 6), which is not sufficeint.
There is a huge potential markets for above all routes, specially for SILCHAR- GHY & SIL-KOL routes (connecting rest of India ), as for railway gauge convertion megha block is start from 01.10.2014 and also the Silchar- guwahti road condiiton is also in bad shape. Air Asia may explore in the aforesaid routes.
Chennai – Nagpur
Nagpur – Chennai
route will b sure shot winner as there are no direct flights available and there is always a heavy rush in rail route.
Airasia must consider daily flights from jaipur to kolkatta via allahabad on a daily basis and return the same route. more than one dozen trains ply this route and all run full even the 3rd ac and 2nd ac are full. people from rajasthan wanting to go to west bengal side either go via delhi or go by train.
when to expect chennai – nagpur route?
chennai – nagpur route any idea
A very potential route for Airasia is Chennai – Trivandrum
TrivandrumBangalore
TrivandrumPune
TrivandrumPune
TrivandrumBangalore-Pune
Trivandrum-Pune-Delhi
please provide Chennai – Ahmedabad too. There are 300+ Families shifted from chennai to ahmedabad recently due to an auto manufactures has its second plant in sanand so we request you to provide route.
Air India ATR Flight has been withdrawn from Silchar-Kolkata route this year. Due to lack of connectivity (both railways and road), kol-silchar flight route is the only way for the Silchar people to connect with the other part of india. There are two national level institute (Assam University and NIT Silchar) at Silchar and we the officials sometimes facing lots of problem. AIR India and Jet Airways both were looting the money by increasing the flight fair for the coming 6 months. So I request you to plz provide silchar -kolkata Air Asia flight daily.
Thaks and Regards,
Mou
please provide a flight to chennai portblair sector please……………………….
When will AirAsia connect Srinagar with Bangalore or mumbai
how about air asia direct links with indonesia? a lot of tourist traffic and business trade would be there. already indians are showing up in large amounts in bali despite the high fares and connection problems.
chennai jakarta, trichy-jakarta, chennai-trichy-denpasar, jakarta bangalore, medan- chennai, medan-trichy, bandung-chennai, just to suggest a few.