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Kingfisher relooks at US nonstop flight
NEW DELHI: The relentless rise of crude prices has led Kingfisher Airlines to relook at its proposed non-stop flights to US as the airline prepares to fly abroad on Deccan’s licence from August-end. It is now evaluating whether a one-stop flight that allows it to pick jet fuel at much cheaper rates and more passengers makes better economics than flying non-stop to US by tanking up expensive fuel from India.
An airline needs to lift nearly 150 tonnes of fuel for a 16 to 18-hour nonstop flight which at Indian airports will cost nearly Rs 60 lakh. But a stopover and filling up elsewhere could lead to nearly 25% saving in fuel bill on each flight. Kingfisher EVP Hitesh Patel said: “We are re-evaluating all our domestic and international flights. If there’s any negative route, we’ll look at it. We are also looking at the options of flying nonstop to US or with one stop. No final decision has been taken so far. The Airbus A-340 we are getting is capable of both these flights.”
It’s likely that the airline will have one or two nonstop flights like Bangalore-San Francisco that it had announced earlier. However, others may be via places like Hong Kong (for west coast) and Europe for east coast. While international flights get fuel at cheaper price than domestic ones in India, the base price of Aviation Turbine Fuel (even without taxes) is among the highest here.
Patel added that combine orders for aircraft placed by Kingfisher and Deccan individually before merger are being looked at. “It is being examined if that much capacity is required. If there is some excess capacity, we may postpone deliveries or think of other steps,” he said.
While Patel added the wide-bodied A-330s and A-340 deliveries are on schedule, the airline is closely looking at the order for single aisle A-320 family planes. Most of A-320s were supposed to be used on domestic routes, which are now fast witnessing a decline in traffic growth. A negative growth is feared now till mid-September.
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