Good times appear to be returning to Vijay Mallya’s Kingfisher Airlines.
A spokesperson of the carrier confirmed to DNA on Monday that seven of the A320 family aircraft, which were grounded due to engine trouble last year, will return to the fleet by March this year.
Earlier, the airline had estimated that their return will happen only around September—so this development gives it a six-month head start.
The re-induction of this last batch of aircraft follows a similar re-induction of seven aircraft by the airline in December 2010.
The aircraft grounding issue has impacted Kingfisher since April 2009, leading to some loss of market share.
Though the airline did not share details on routes on which of these aircraft would be deployed, industry experts said Kingfisher could use the re-inducted aircraft to strengthen its presence within the country and also on short-to-medium haul international routes such as the Gulf and Southeast Asia.
Already, the airline has announced new flights between Mumbai and Jabalpur, Mumbai-Belgaum, Jabalpur-Indore and Indore-Mumbai from January.
Also, the re-inducted aircraft could come in handy when the airline decides to shift back some of the capacity from Kingfisher Red (low-cost service) to the full-service model.
As per Director General of Civil Aviation data, Kingfisher’s market share stood at 20.6% in December 2010, a decline of about 2.4 percentage points from the 23% share it commanded even as late as March 2010.
Along with re-induction of the grounded fleet, Kingfisher is already talking of leasing eight additional aircraft from the market next fiscal.
This means Kingfisher Airlines will have 15 additional aircraft —13 of the A320 family and 2 wide-body A330s—by the end of fiscal 2012. By the end of next fiscal, the airline’s fleet will comprise 40 A320s, 28 ATRs and 7 A330 aircraft.
But is capacity addition by the airline keeping pace with demand projections?
The Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation (CAPA) has projected that the airline industry’s capacity addition will be just about 12% in fiscal 2012 against passenger growth estimate of 17%.
Hemant Bhattbhatt, who heads the transportation team at Deloitte, cautioned that adding capacity at this rate is “a sensible move by Kingfisher Airlines provided the aircraft are taken on lease (and are not being bought) and position on further demand is not presumed.”
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