How to Make Best Use and Most Profits from Kingfisher's Network

Vijay Mallya’s Kingfisher Airlines began with a great bang as an airline that would offer a high quality in-flight product and an extensive worldwide route network.
Although they have kept up with a good product it is worth considering what actually happened to their planned extensive network.
This is an insight onto how Kingfisher’s current network could be transformed into a profitable network.

Let alone operating flights to San Francisco, Kingfisher is in a situation where they cannot make profits from their international network. Although their initial network plan could have been too ambitious, they still do not appear to have learnt a lesson on where they could make profit from. They had to lease out all of their A340-500s and the A330-200 remains IT’s sole long-haul aircraft. Nevertheless, the A330 is an excellent aircraft and let’s find out how Kingfisher can use it to have an excellent, proud and profitable international network.

Kingfisher’s current international network is as follows

Hong Kong – BOM-HKG-BOM
Dhaka – CCU-DAC-CCU
Colombo -MAA-CMB-MAA
Singapore – BOM-SIN-BOM
Bangkok – CCU-BKK-CCU
Dubai – BLR-DXB-BLR
London – BOM-LHR-BOM

All of the above routes are operated daily.

None of the above routes could be considered bad, but they certainly can be done better. And apart from always trying to save some costs, Kingfisher should focus on developing its market case.

One key market that IT has not yet set its foot is Saudi Arabia. With the recent new bilateral agreement between the two nations, there really is no reason why IT should not enter this lucrative high density market.

Considering the long-haul market, Italy is one market that IT could opt to begin and dominate without any risk. There is a good demand to Italy from India and currently the only flight connecting India with Italy is China Airlines’ proposed thrice weekly Rome ( TPE-DEL-FCO ) flight.

The following network plan has been built taking notice of the above factors. Aircraft utilization has been increased to enable more routes and Kingfisher will not need any extra aircraft to put this plan into action. None of the existing routes will be cancelled or reduced. Flights will be started to Milan from Mumbai and to Jeddah from both Delhi and Mumbai.

Route network

A330 network

From Mumbai
-

From Delhi
-

Narrowbody network

From Bangalore
-

From Chennai
-

From Kolkata
-

Flight Schedule

( New flights are marked in bold. Re-scheduled flights are in italic )

Flight No. Route ETd ETA Frequency Aircraft

IT 007 BOM-LHR 1225 1740 1234567 A330
IT 008 LHR-BOM 2050 1040+1 1246 A330
IT 008 LHR-BOM 2100 1040+1 357 A330
IT 016 BOM-MXP 1245 1645 135 A330
IT 017 MXP-BOM 1805 0615+1 135 A330
IT 021 CCU-BKK 1120 1515 1234567 A321
IT 022 BKK-CCU 1630 1745 1234567 A321
IT 029 BOM-SIN 2305 0705+1 1234567 A330
IT 030 SIN-BOM 0815 1110 1234567 A330
IT 045 BLR-DXB 1815 2055 1234567 A321
IT 046 DXB-BLR 2210 0345+1 1234567 A321
IT 051 BOM-JED 0820 1045 126 A330
IT 052 JED-BOM 0345 1115 237 A330
IT 053 BOM-JED 1450 1715 3457 A330
IT 054 JED-BOM 1040 1815 1456 A330
IT 055 DEL-JED 2250 0225+1 126 A330
IT 056 JED-DEL 1205 2035 126 A330
IT 057 DEL-JED 0545 0920 3457 A330
IT 058 JED-DEL 1835 0325+1 3457 A330
IT 061 MAA-CMB 1300 1415 1234567 A320
IT 062 CMB-MAA 1525 1640 1234567 A320
IT 071 BOM-HKG 2255 0805 1234567 A330
IT 072 HKG-BOM 0950 1335 1234567 A330
IT 073 CCU-DAC 1335 1605 1234567 ATR
IT 074 DAC-CCU 1650 1615
1234567 ATR

All times local

All of the above flights have been enabled through increased utilization of the existing 5 A330s.
I have selected Jeddah to be the first Saudi Arabian destination, due to lower competition and considering lower station costs. The flights operates a triangular routing of Mumbai – Jeddah – Delhi – Jeddah – Mumbai which enables fourteen weekly flights from both ends for both DEL and BOM without the need for a maintenance supplement at DEL.
However
1 The airline may opt to operate to either Riyadh, Jeddah, Dammam or even any other Middle Eastern destination from Mumbai. It is worth noting that Riyadh will take a shorter flight duration than to JED, however IT will have to compete with Air India, Jet Airways and Saudi Arabian on this route.

2 As with Mumbai sector, the airline may opt to operate into any other destination. Again, JED remains the Saudi Arabian airport with the longest duration from DEL, hence the aircraft could be easily deployed to any destination of choice. However, competition to Riyadh still remains fierce.

The airline shall also completely or on selected days eliminate the A330s from the Saudi Arabian routes and use it on any other route or keep them free.

The red-eye flights to Hong Kong and Singapore have been retained, however their ground stay at the overseas stations have been considerably reduced thus enabling a higher utilization from the aircraft.

The Milan flight could be flexibly selected to be operated in any three days of the week. I have opted to set this flight on a BOM-MXP-BOM routing since China Airlines’ Rome route operates from Delhi and it might not be financially much interesting in the beginning for IT . I have opted to set its departure time in the same time window as the LHR flight to enable more transit traffic to take the flight as BOM-MXP sector has traditionally not had many O&D passengers. However the airline has the flexibility to change the MXP flight to a destination of choice within the same range such as ZRH or FCO and I have made sure such a change will not affect the aircraft rotations, in the above schedule.

The above planned flights have been scheduled with a high focus on flexibility and without any compromise to maintenance procedures. There will be some extra free time for all aircraft rotation plans as well, which will enable the airline to use them on any short haul routes or charter flights.

In the end of the day, the above schedule will help the airline to get a higher revenue and a profit by optimizing the aircraft usage.

What is your opinion ? Please leave a comment.

The excellent photos of Kingfisher aircraft are by Mark D. Martin .