Indian Airlines: Indigo's Sustainable Model

Facing a 3 hour delay on Kingfisher, I negotiated a transfer to Indigo airlines on my last domestic flight in India. I was impressed with the start-up discount carrier and I believe that have the most sustainable long-term model for India's growing domestic market.

Indigo most closely resembles Southworst or RyanAir - a no-frills, all-economy-class airline flying a single jet type (A320) on short-haul routes. Indigo has no fancy in flight entertainment, no fancy amenities, and just like RyanAir, sells products and snacks other than water on board. For a 90 minute flight, this is just fine and I didn't see any passengers complaining.

The no-frills structure allows them to turn aircraft faster than competitors and while I have no data to prove it, I'm guessing that they enjoy a superior on time performance as a result. Additionally, as wage costs and congestion affect the Indian skies, Indigo's quick turn, low-cost model may be much more scalable than the high touch services offered by competitors.

In my experience, Indian consumers are very modern in their approach to purchasing products - they adhere to the "Well Curve" philosophy rather than the "Bell Curve". That means that for some services they prefer low cost, low touch and for others high cost and high touch. While domestic services for Jet Airways and Kingfisher sit in the middle of this picture, Indigo sits neatly at one end of the scale. I believe it will be a hit with cost conscious Indian travelers.

Indian Airlines: Kingfisher- When JetBlue meets Virgin

Kingfisher is a one a host of new Indian Airlines that have taken to the skies in the last few years. Kingfisher operates a fleet of Airbus A320 and A321 jets on domestic routes across India.



The Airbus A320 I flew on from Bangalore to Pune offered a single class of service, though the effort was made to make it "high class." Every seat was equipped with a personal video system very similar to that offered by JetBlue. I believe it was a live satellite feed, but I was unable to confirm that. The seat-backs offered 8 channels plus an in-flight GPS status page. I didn't see anyone watching the tedious collection of Bollywood musicals, but I assume it's popular with some passengers.



The flight from Bangalore to Pune is just about 90 minutes. In that short flight time, the Kingfisher staff provided amenity kits to every passenger that included complimentary headphones as well as a hot breakfast. The service was competent if not very friendly. I sat in an exit row and was made to move my small briefcase to the overhead bin even though it fit underneath the seat in front of me. In the exit row, leg room was barely acceptable and in regular rows it looked down right painfully tight in there.



Kingfisher gives every appearance of having an unsustainable cost structure, similar to Jet Airways. Catering short flights is probably not necessary and the impact on turn-around time is probably very serious. I didn't see published on-time performance ratings for Indian airlines, but I suspect they are poor and tend to get worse as flights collect delays during the course of the day. My return flight was over 3 hours late.

Better Than The Hotels: India's Growing Airlines

Freshly back from a trip to Banaglore, I posted my opinions on India's hotels. I have also now sampled a full array of the local airlines and am posting my results here.


Jet Airways: High Class, High Cost, An Unsustainable Model?

Jet Airways is the success story of India's new aviation sector, doing a land-office business domestically and expanding into the vacuum created by Air India's horrendous service and decrepit planes overseas. They fly modern Boeing jets domestically and Airbus wide-bodies overseas.

The service is "high touch" and modeled on Singapore Airlines. Meals on even short domestic flights including hot towels and a first class section. The airline has a frequent flyer program and offers services such as online check-in. Expatriates will be most comfortable flying Jet Airways and I would predict that they will be the first to join one of the global alliances, probably Star.

The downside of Jet Airways: their operating model may be too complex to be sustainable. Flight times within India are probably not long enough to sustain a hub and spoke model and catering an aircraft can really slow down a quick-turn. Additionally, as the market matures, they may find that there is limited demand for first class seats on flights under 3 hours.

Next Post: Kingfisher Airlines

Bangalore: If everything worked as well as your IT help desk

It may be impossible to argue with the success of India's outsourcing companies, but when it comes to hotels, Bangalore is the pits. One of my friends relayed a great story which captures the awful reality of the city's hotels. He was on the phone to a colleague and she asked where he was - he said he was at the Sheraton in Bangalore. "Oh," she said, "I can smell it now."



Worst: The ITC Sheraton Bangalore



Faux British Empire style, horrible service, and a small that no amount of detergent can wash away, the ITC Sheraton Bangalore is one of the worst hotels in the city. The restaurant is mediocre, the health club is microscopic, and the pool is not exactly suitable for lap swimming.



Not Quite As Bad: The Park



Modern "boutique" style is an improvement of "glory of colonialism" at the Sheraton, but the service is even worse. Getting an airport pick-up or room service is a major event. The saving grace of this hotel is the 25 meter pool. Though designed more as a location around which fashionable people can hang-out and been seen, it does quite well for lap swimming. On my stays, I was the only person actually seen in the pool.



Almost Passable: The Meridien Bangalore



I have not spent the night at this hotel, but the meals and business events I have been to at the Meridien have all been passable if not exactly wonderful. The hotel seems well maintained and I think I'll be trying it on my next trip to India.