Kingfisher cargo service from February 2

In a bid to improve ancillary revenue and cash flows, Kingfisher Airlines on Friday announced that it will be starting a door-to-door delivery cargo service from next month. The service — Kingfisher Xpress — will use the airline’s belly space for carrying cargo from February 2.

“Through this service, we will improve our ancillary revenue and utilisation of the aircraft,” said Prakash Mirpuri, vice president-corporate communications.

Ancillary revenue constitutes income from sale of merchandise on the aircraft, advertising on seats and aircraft, excess baggage and other non-ticket services. It is generally around 5-10% of an airline’s total revenues.

Kapil Kaul, chief executive officer, Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation (CAPA), said Kingfisher would be able generate substantial income for the new offerings as it has huge belly capacity at its disposal because of a large fleet.

“The airline is said to have one of the largest fleets of Airbus and ATR aircraft, which have potentially large belly-space to carry cargo. So for them to make use of the same, makes sense, as they have the capacity to carry the cargo,” said Kaul.

Kaul said the service will help Kingfisher add significant revenue without incremental costs.

Kingfisher rival Jet Airways already offers a similar service. Paramount Airways and SpiceJet also earn ancillary income from cargo activity. 

The Kingfisher service will offer a pick up facility in the six metros and delivery in 18 cities — the four metros and Bagdogra, Bangalore, Coimbatore, Kochi, Goa, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Indore, Raipur, Ranchi, Lucknow, Nagpur, Pune and Srinagar. It will also offer money-back guarantee.