SpiceJet's Q400s: The Gap Fillers

SpiceJet introduced the Q400 in 2011 as a game changer. The move went against what low cost carriers around the world had done. After Air Deccan, SpiceJet became the second low cost carrier in India (we prefer the term low fare carrier) to adopt a dual fleet.

The reasoning

The logic was simple. First, India has some saturated routes and many promising routes left unexplored, largely because of the mistaken belief that one aircraft fits all. Flying an aircraft with too many seats on a route with too little demand only weakens control over pricing and revenue. Hoping that routes will grow into a large jet is unwise. The right sized aircraft matters. Second, copying a low cost model that worked abroad straight into India is also unwise. Every market is unique and needs its own study.

But perhaps SpiceJet was not ready for the Q400. Perhaps it did not get a good deal from Bombardier. Perhaps its study was half baked. Perhaps it was short sighted, and the turboprop would have done better with a smarter, shrewder operator. Most of all, perhaps the Q400 fleet and its staff were treated like second class citizens.

Changes under way

Improvements in the Q400 operation were only now becoming visible. Ajay Singh was using pressure tactics to get more out of Bombardier. A few Q400s were expected to join the fleet with the insurance payout from the Q400 written off after a runway excursion at Hubli. The fleet had fallen from 15 to 14, and one Q400 that had been cannibalised for parts had been restored and was apparently due for a maintenance test flight. The airline had also begun flying its aircraft more efficiently to save fuel and time, and saved time can add up to an extra sector. It was working to integrate the Q400 network better with the Boeing network, since the Q400s were meant mainly as feeders. Q400 pilot salaries were brought level with those on the Boeings.

Four years late, the airline had realised the Q400 cannot play the ATR game. It must play the Q400 game. The aircraft was designed for routes as thin as the ATR's but longer than the ATR suits, and its selling point is speed. The Q400 is about maximising revenue potential; the ATR 72 is about minimising costs. They are not the same kind of apples. Simply put, the management had not been ready for the Q400.

The Q400s in July 2015

At the time of writing, 13 of the 14 Q400s were active, with the 14th due soon. From 16 July those 13 aircraft would fly 116 flights a day, 149 hours 20 minutes of flying in total, and 9,048 seats a day across the network.

Each Q400 flew almost 9 flights a day and was used just a minute short of 11 hours 30 minutes a day. A year earlier, utilisation had been 10 hours 20 minutes.

The 116 departures covered 76 routes (counting out and back separately) between 38 city pairs, an average frequency of 1.5 on each route. The Q400s served 28 destinations, an average of 1.3 city pairs per destination.

• Of the 38 city pairs, 10 were monopoly sectors.
• 34 of the 38 city pairs were flown by SpiceJet only with the Q400.
• 15 of the 28 destinations were Q400 only destinations for SpiceJet.

The Q400 flew the longest turboprop sector in India, Jabalpur to Mumbai. Sectors like that suit the Q400 best: longer than an ATR sector, shorter than a jet sector. Nearly 90 percent of the city pairs were flown only by the Q400 at SpiceJet. Block times did not always match distances.

The most important Q400 stations, by departures, were Hyderabad, Chennai, Delhi and Bangalore. Bangalore, though a hub, was not a Q400 base.

Jabalpur mattered to the airline. Q400s from Delhi swapped with Q400s from Hyderabad at Jabalpur, which was needed because maintenance was done at Hyderabad. Q400s from Chennai swapped with Hyderabad aircraft through the Goa flights.

53 percent of the stations served by the Q400 were Q400 only stations for SpiceJet. Belgaum and Tuticorin were served by SpiceJet alone, with the Q400. They are examples of airports where a 180 seat jet is either operationally impossible or commercially unviable. Most of the Q400 sectors were not viable for a 180 seat jet because the markets were not yet big enough, and at least 40 percent were too short for a jet to make sense.

Typically a regional jet with similar seating offers better economics and productivity once sectors exceed 250 to 300 NM. The average Q400 sector at SpiceJet was 260 NM, which spoke well of how the asset was used. 53 percent of the 38 sectors were below the 260 NM average, and 74 percent were below 300 NM.

Flying the Q400 faster to save fuel?

The Q400 can be flown at one of four speed schedules: Long Range Cruise (LRC), Intermediate Cruise Speed (ISC), High Speed Cruise (HSC) and Maximum Cruise Rating (MCR), listed here from slowest to fastest.

Of the 16 ways an operator can save fuel, optimising cruise speed offers the biggest gain. The Specific Air Range (SAR) curve shows distance flown per pound of fuel; the higher the SAR, the farther the Q400 goes on the same fuel.

LRC would be the choice for an operator looking only at fuel cost. SpiceJet used to fly at ISC, which burnt more fuel but saved time, cutting time related costs and raising productivity.

More recently SpiceJet had been flying its Q400s at HSC on flights of about one hour of flight time (not block time). That means sectors of 300 NM and below, which were 74 percent of all Q400 sectors. By the tables, HSC should burn more fuel, yet pilots reported savings of around 150 kg per sector. That is about 14 percent of trip fuel on a one hour sector, a large amount.

Savings that big from flying faster are not possible on their own. The only explanation is a set of other procedures that cut overall fuel use: better routing to use winds, weight optimisation, better climb and descent profiles, improved taxi procedures and approaches, use of detailed performance tables, and better APU management.

Conclusion

The Q400 must be used as a high speed aircraft that sits between jet speed and turboprop economy. Pushing it to either extreme strays from its purpose and leads to poor use of the asset.

Utilisation was rising. The Q400 was deployed on routes a 180 seat jet cannot fly, letting SpiceJet grow into untapped markets and feed its mainline network. It is a gap filler. With more flights a day, the aircraft was being flown closer to its revenue potential, and the jet and turboprop networks were being aligned into a hub and spoke model. But a healthy narrow body fleet was needed for the airline to get the most out of the connectivity its turboprops offered.