AirAsia India Increases Aircraft Utilisation

A year after its first flight, AirAsia India had pushed the use of its aircraft to one of the highest levels in the country. The airline began operations on 12 June 2014. By mid 2015 it flew five aircraft from two hubs, Bangalore and Delhi. It expected to carry its one millionth passenger around 5 August 2015.

Key points

• One AirAsia India rotation had reached some of the highest utilisation among Indian domestic operations.
• The one millionth passenger was expected around 5 August 2015.
• A typical turnaround took 25 to 30 minutes.

Why long flights help

Every flight from Delhi was at least 2 hours 20 minutes long. Long flights keep an aircraft in the air for more of its day, and that raises utilisation.

One of the five rotations flew only 2:30 hour flights. It covered a Delhi to Bangalore return and two Delhi to Goa returns. That pattern added up to 15:10 hours a day. This was 50 minutes below the target the airline had made public, but still among the highest for domestic flying in India.

Utilisation and turnaround times

Average utilisation across the fleet was 12:19 hours a day, and the lowest was 11:00 hours. The average turnaround time was 36 minutes, which was 16 minutes above the airline's target of 20 minutes. Even so, turnarounds of 25 and 30 minutes made up 70 percent of all turnarounds. None took 20 minutes.

Network and traffic

The airline had just added Imphal, which brought it to 10 destinations. It flew 32 flights a day, offered 5,760 seats a day and carried about 4,500 passengers a day. Up to the end of May 2015 it had flown 716,000 passengers.

What could come next

The airline might add a third morning flight from Bangalore to Cochin, so that Cochin had an even, three times daily service. With that flight, every aircraft would be close to its maximum utilisation, and the existing fleet could not support more growth.

Aircraft could be swapped between the two hubs on the night flights I52227 Delhi to Bangalore and I52228 Bangalore to Delhi, where two rotations line up at the right times. Until a third Cochin flight began, the morning flight I52221 Delhi to Bangalore could also be used for swaps.

Delhi had the higher utilisation, so the airline could save more fuel by basing two winglet-equipped aircraft there instead of one. Winglets save the most fuel on longer flights.

The AirAsia Group said the airline's overall performance was better than expected, with strong loads, and that it was working to keep costs under check.

A reader commented on 28 June 2015 that the airline had since based two aircraft, coded RED and ATB, in Delhi.