Meltdown in the sky : Jet-Kingfisher reduce their fleet of aircrafts

Author: Anurag Bhullar

The two biggest private players of the Indian Aviation Industry, Kingfisher and Jet Airways, that entered into a cost-saving coalition on October 13th, have now made an announcement to send around 15 narrow-bodied aircrafts back to the leasing companies after the completion of their leases later on this year and in the next 8-9 months.

The fleet of two carriers combined together comes to 189 aircrafts that comprises of aircrafts like A-320, A-330, Boeing-737, Boeing 747 and also turbo props.

According to some industry experts, this action would automatically indicate the withdrawal of around 8 percent of combined domestic flights per day that comes to about 75 daily flights.

Out of the 15 aircrafts, eight would be pulled out from Kingfisher-Deccan’s fleet and rest from Jet Lite division of Jet Airways. Both the companies have shown no intentions to return any wide-bodied aircrafts that are flying on the International routes.

In the Hyderabad Aviation Show, Naresh Goyal, Promoter Jet Airways, and Vijay Mallya, Chairman of Kingfisher, said the coalition between the two firms would save them around Rs 1500 crore and the gains would arise in the next three to four months. There is presently a 30 percent excess capacity in the industry and airlines are operating below cost. The alliance would definitely help in cutting down the excess capacity that the two are currently operating with. According to industry experts, a 10 percent reduction in the level of excess capacity can easily be achieved in quick time.