• HOME
  • Aircraft
    • AIRFRAMES
      • Proud to fly a Turboprop: Q400 vs ATR72
      • Airbus A320 Experience
    • SYSTEMS
      • Pratt and Whitney PW1100G Geared Turbofan Engine
      • Winglets and Sharklets
      • Cockpit Design: EPR v/s N1 indication
      • Boeing’s MAX, Southwest’s 737
      • GPS to the rescue!
    • ACCIDENTS AND INCIDENTS
      • LOT 767 Gear Up Landing
      • Iran Air 743:Partial Gear Up Landing
  • AIRLINE
    • ANALYSIS
      • IndiGo performs well in Q3’16, but is outshone by Q1’16
      • SpiceJet: Q1’16 Operational Financials Forecast
      • Vistara – Review & Analysis
      • AirAsia India – Q2FY15 performance and outlook
      • Q2 results and Prof. Sanjiv Kapoor’s introductory class on Airline Economics
      • SpiceJet in Q(2) – Great Performance in Testing Times.
      • Could SpiceJet have been profitable in FY2013-14?
      • Interlysis – AirAsia India and Mrithyunjaya Chandilya
      • A glimpse of Tony’s AirAsia India, and his success mantra
      • Interlysis with Shyson Thomas – Air Pegasus, Unplugged.
    • EVENTS
      • AirAsia India-and the competition-gets real
      • Spicejet’s inaugural Bangalore-Bangkok Run
      • Spicejet unveils the Q400s
    • HUMAN FACTORS
      • Dissatisfied Flightcrew
      • Love is in “the air”
      • Captain Dad and kid First Officer
      • Cathay’s Young Cabin Crew!
  • AVIATION
    • The Indian Aviation 2015 growth story deciphered
    • National Civil Aviation Policy 2015
      • Safety
      • Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS)
      • The 5/20 Rule
      • Route Dispersal Guidelines
      • Scheduled Commuter Airlines (SCAs)
      • Aviation Education & Skill Development
    • 2014: A year flown by
    • 2013: A year flown by
    • Training
      • Familiarization Flights for ATCOs
      • A320 FFS LOFT Session
      • HINDUSTAN GROUP OF INSTITUTIONS: AN AVIATION UNIVERSITY
        • Hindustan Institute of Engineering and Technology (HIET)
        • Hindustan Institute of Technology & Science (HITS): Hindustan University
        • Orient Flight School (OFS)
      • IGRUA
      • NFTI: Rising to the Top, and how
      • Aerospace Engineering in India: the Gaps
      • Chief Flying Instructors
    • PEOPLE
      • Radka Máchová
      • Rodrigo David: The man behind some of the best A320 flightdeck videos
    • TECHNOLOGY
      • GAGAN: India’s first step to a Future Air Navigation System (FANS)
  • PROJECTS
    • AIRBUS TECH
      • About PAT
      • AIRCON/PRESSURIZATION/VENTILATION
      • AUTOFLIGHT
      • COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS
      • ELECTRICAL SYSTEMS
      • FIRE PROTECTION SYSTEMS
      • FLIGHT CONTROLS
      • FUEL SYSTEMS
      • HYDRAULIC SYSTEMS
      • ICE AND RAIN PROTECTION
      • LANDING GEAR
      • LIGHTS
      • OXYGEN
      • PNEUMATICS
      • APU
      • DOORS
      • POWER PLANT (IAE)
    • ATR9X
      • About ATR 9X
      • Logbook
      • Introduction
      • Fuselage
    • General Aviation Flight Simulator
    • Dual Cyliner Rotax Electronic Engine-Kill Switch
    • Making a Lynx Micro Headset Charger on the Go!
  • ABOUT
    • About The Flying Engineer
    • Advertising
    • Merchandise

The Flying Engineer

~ Technically and Operationally Commercial Aviation

The Flying Engineer

Tag Archives: Mittu

A quick take on Tony’s talk

26 Friday Sep 2014

Posted by theflyingengineer in AirAsia India, SpiceJet

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

AirAsia India, fares, Kaneswaran, Mittu, Sanjiv, Spicejet, Tony, Vijay

TonyOne interview – just one – of Tony (Economic Times, ‘So IndiGo, FIA want to fight? We fight!: Tony Fernandes, AirAsia chief’- Anirban Chowdhury) set Twitter on fire, with Sanjiv Kapoor (COO, SpiceJet) reacting, and Vijay Gopalan (CFO, AirAsia India) counter-reacting.

This is not about the gossip, but to make sense of the nonsense.

Tony Speaks

First, for Tony to say that he doesn’t understand ‘SpiceJet’s logic or strategy’, and that ‘the fares are unsustainable’ is a surprise. The man behind these low fares is Kaneswaran Avili, who was with AirAsia since its inception, and has also been involved with the group’s Tune Hotels and Tune Money. Kanesh drove the discounts and promo ‘sales’ at SpiceJet, and his logic is no different from AirAsia’s, but perhaps, tailored to suit to the needs of the Indian environment – and particularly SpiceJet.

Despite repeated attempts by SpiceJet to make the industry understand the too-easy-to-not-understand logic of their low fare strategy, people seem to not comprehend it. Even more surprising is the fact that AirAsia India, which claimed to sustain with the all inclusive INR 990 fares (AirAsia India CEO Mittu told TFE on June 12th: ” 990 fare for us is something that we think is sustainable”), finds SpiceJet’s ‘sale’ airfares, which are priced on average around INR 2,000, ridiculous. Or that’s what Tony thinks. Below is a snapshot of AirAsia’s low fares – far lower than SpiceJet’s. SpiceJet’s fares are almost always higher than AirAsia’s, for the same sector.

AA_faresThe Spicy logic

SpiceJet’s strategy is simple : determine those seats that will fly empty, and sell those seats at fares that more than cover the costs associated with transporting that discounted passenger. The result? The average yields for SpiceJet may have diluted, but the airline now records a higher – much high revenue per available seat kilometer (RASK). Which only means that on average, the airline realizes a larger revenue per flight, than it used to without these promotions and sales. Had these promos not been in place, SpiceJet would have bled further – in the face of increasing symptoms of overcapacity, with no guarantee of sold inventory or high yields.

What Tony must remember is that SpiceJet did not have the luxury of being run entirely by industry professionals throughout its existence. AirAsia has had that, and has carried no dirty laundry. SpiceJet’s performance today is awesome-for those who really know the figures-but appear terrible only because of the losses, penalties, interests, and other unwanted baggage from the past.

All that Kaneswaran has done is to implement an AirAsia strategy in SpiceJet, tweaked to ensure its optimisation for SpiceJet specifically. This has resulted in industry-wide highest loads for the year, high RASK, and working capital even in the face of a cash crunch and a meager investment of INR 300 Cr by Maran. Team SpiceJet is keeping the ship afloat.

The last word

It was perhaps poor research, poor understanding of SpiceJet’s strategy, or just a joke badly presented that drove Tony to be taken so seriously. Tony’s loose tongue lands everyone – including his airline – in trouble. For Tony to not understand SpiceJet is to not understand his own – Fares Kilpady (Vice President, Revenue Management at SpiceJet, and formerly at AirAsia X) and Kaneswaran, which is unfortunate.

What Tony doesn’t realize is that every time he or his team make a statement that counters a previous statement by Mittu, it only puts the young CEO in bad light.

Sanjiv came back with knee jerk reactions – unfortunately, even if his arguments were valid – which shows him being sucked into an unwanted word game he’s not cut out for. It’s proof that Sanjiv – a non resident Indian, with his family at London- is getting topicalised. The ‘foreigner’ jabs were uncalled for – Sanjiv is as much a foreigner in India, atleast as far as his career history shows. Mittu and Tony are a different breed, with a different mindset; but Sanjiv’s appeal as a classy COO may be waning.

Unlike Tony and Mittu who seem to have sufficient non-airline related time, Sanjiv has a big set of tasks: to walk the talk, turnaround an airline, and secure an investor (perhaps a ‘foreign(er)’?)

Meanwhile, the media & India will soon get used to Tony, and possibly not bother or read too much into each and every comment that he makes – which puts Mittu in bad light and leaves a bad after taste with the competition.

Tony flies AirAsia India, developments get interesting.

07 Monday Jul 2014

Posted by theflyingengineer in General Aviation Interest, Operations

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

03, Air, Airline, Asia, benjamin, Break, disagreement, Even, Investor, July, Launch, Mittu, official, ratan, relations, tata, Tony

04_TonyAirAsia India , which opened for sales on May 30th, sold out the entire seats on the first flight in nine minutes, according to the Indian venture’s chief executive officer Mrithyunjaya Chandilya better known as Mittu, which according to him, “must be a record somewhere”.

Loads on the airline have been very encouraging. Reportedly, the Bangalore-Goa flights fly almost full, while the Bangalore-Chennai flights fly with about 80% load factor (occupancy), bringing the average to around 90% plus. The CEO is smiling, albeit with a hint of nervousness, and the big boss: AirAsia group CEO Tony Fernandes is very optimistic about India.

Underneath the show, excitement, and optimism, are the currents of cautiousness, and disagreement within the airline. The head of investor relations at AirAsia did not seem to mince words when talking about the airline’s break even: What Mittu had told the whole world: a break even in four months, seems to be far fetched for the head of investor relations who now says it’s not before eight months.

AirAsia India is probably the most dynamic airline in the country, today. Which is very good (and much needed), and at the same time paints a picture of an airline that wasn’t fully prepared for India. In parallel, the airline is putting people first, promising to make a cabin crew a line pilot. This, and a lot more, including Tony’s recipe for success, and how it seems to really be his show, which you can read when you click here.

The airline and its captain: AirAsia India and Mrithyunjaya Chandilya

23 Monday Jun 2014

Posted by theflyingengineer in General Aviation Interest, Operations

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Air, Airline, Asia, Chandilya, India, Mittu, Mrithyunjaya

Interlysis02The Flying Engineer does an interview and an analysis – or an Interlysis with Mrithyunjaya Chandilya, CEO of the newest airline in India: AirAsia India. Better known as Mittu, he’s stands out from the other heads of an airline: in his appearance, his fondness of the limelight, and his admirable warrior spirit. He talks to The Flying Engineer on AirAsia India and a variety of topics in the airline: its expansion plans, staff, culture, targets, and more, including how he came to figure in the continuing story that everyone is watching closely.

The Flying Engineer also analyses certain things about the airline, trying to make sense out of certain targets and decisions. We do hope you enjoy this piece. Click here to read a lot about the new airline and the new kid on the block.

AirAsia India receives its Air Operator Permit; Salaries to increase

07 Wednesday May 2014

Posted by theflyingengineer in Operations

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Air, AOP, Asia, Date, India, Mittu, time, Tony

A320_AAI_VT-ATF

AirAsia India CEO Mittu posing with the AOP

AirAsia India CEO Mittu holding the AOP

Air Asia India receives its AOP at 6:15pm IST. Landmark in Indian Aviation. Article also counters certain incorrect and misleading statements in Business Standard.

AirAsia India received its Air Operator Permit (AOP) today, at 18:15hrs IST. The Chief Executive of the airline, Mittu Chandilya, was at Delhi to receive the AOP.

Tweeted Tony Fernandes, AirAsia Group CEO, at 18:37 IST, “History has been made today in Aviation. Everything has been hard for Airasia but we never give up. Today Airasia India has got APPROVAL.”(sic) That was followed by, “What a battle that was. proud day for me and all airasia all stars”(sic)

This development follows a tweet from AirAsia Group CEO Tony Fernandes, on May 5th: “I think huge week for Airasia. I feel that Airasia India will be approved very soon.” (sic).

AirAsia India concluded its proving flights-the last stage in the award of an AOP-on May 02, 2014. The two day-long proving flights saw the airline fly non-revenue passengers, which included airline staff and inspecting DGCA officers, to Kochi, Bangalore, and Kolkatta, from Chennai, to satisfy a March 2014 revision by the DGCA that requires an AOP applicant to fly a minimum of 5 sectors and 10 hours.

Revised Crew Remuneration

Along with this imminent AOP award today, the airline plans to upward-revise the salaries of its staff. Captains at AirAsia India reportedly are paid INR 1,60,000 (Indian Rupee One lakh Sixty Thousand) less than what IndiGo offers, per month, which results in an annual difference of INR 19,20,000. (Indian Rupee Nineteen Lakh Twenty thousand). This difference in pay was justified with the phase of the airline: non-operational.

The exact increment is unknown, but is believed to be competitive with prevailing market rates. Effective December 2013, IndiGo hiked the salaries of its pilots. Captains received a pay hike of around 15%, while that of cabin crew close to doubled. This salary increment checked the outflow of pilots from the airline.

Few pilots, who had joined AirAsia India early, left the airline to join IndiGo in light of the delays and uncertainties that surrounded the AOP, and the lower remuneration. This long drawn wait had partly demotivated some pilots, but has ensured that only the loyalists and believers are with the company when it starts operations.

However, few pilots left AirAsia India with hesitation, purely due to financial commitments.

Business Non-Standard

Business Standard came out with a piece “Meet AirAsia’s multitasking pilots; they do the cargo, too”, which unfortunately is misleading and partly incorrect.

All pilots can carry out checks known as transit checks, between flights. There is no necessity for an engineer to be involved with this check unless an issue requires rectification. Pilots are usually not authorized to rectify the issue. Pilots in every airline perform a “walk-around” to check the aircraft before departure, to look for signs of visible damage, such as worn tires, or from bird hits. If everything looks fine, no action is required. However, if something is out of place, an engineer’s opinion, involvement and clearance is required.

Such transit checks add an extra level of safety, and are practiced world over.

As far as Cabin crew are concerned, no cabin crew will be expected to perform the load and trim sheet. Errors in the load and trim are unforgivable, with fatal consequences. The cabin crew will perform only those duties which are required of them: cabin safety. Sources in the airline deny the cabin crew being involved with ticketing, and load & trim sheets. However, AirAsia Bhd cabin crew check the boarding passes at the apron entrance, while here, that check might be performed by cabin crew at the entrance to the aircraft, possibly at the foot of the air-stairs.

No pilot or cabin crew will handle the cargo, as suggested by the title of the BS story.

Not all flights have a turnaround time of 30-35 minutes. SpiceJet targets 20 minutes on some of its Q400 flights. Air Costa targets 20minutes on its Embraer E170s and 25 minutes on its E190s. The 25 minutes that AirAsia India targets will, however, be the best for a Boeing 737 or an A320 in India. 20 minutes, however, seems too optimistic.

Indian budget carriers achieve more than 12 block hours, contrasting what was reported. GoAir presently has the best aircraft utilisation in the country, with some of its airplanes flying patterns that start at 05:20AM and land at 12:50AM: a good 19hrs30min every day, picking up a total block time of 14hr15min daily. AirAsia India will not be the only airline to efficiently utilise its aircraft, though with a 20-25 minute turnaround, 16hrs block time is achievable, and may set a record in India.

Referred by:

Referred by:

Project:

Project:

In Depth Articles:

In Depth Articles:

In Depth Articles:

RSS Feed

RSS Feed RSS - Posts

RSS Feed RSS - Comments

The Flying Engineer’s tweets

  • Couldn't have asked for a more glorious end. https://t.co/f9NYJgxYCL 1 week ago
  • Some hold the emergency door open. Regardless. twitter.com/mhdksafa/statu… 1 week ago
  • Embraer twitter.com/BrothaManBlack… 1 week ago
  • RT @jamiebsmith: Legroom is on point. Absolutely love the Embraer jets. https://t.co/wNpTJXm7uQ 1 week ago
  • @unraveaero @aditishahsays @AirLeaseCorp @Reuters @Airbus @Boeing Exactly what was on my mind but refrained from co… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… 1 week ago
Follow @TheFlyingEnggnr

Visit our Facebook Page

Visit our Facebook Page

Blog archives of The Flying Engineer

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 17,608 other subscribers

Site Statistics

  • 2,447,315 views

Top Posts & Pages

  • Pratt and Whitney PW1100G Geared Turbofan Engine
    Pratt and Whitney PW1100G Geared Turbofan Engine
  • Winglets and Sharklets
    Winglets and Sharklets
  • Cockpit Design: EPR v/s N1 indication
    Cockpit Design: EPR v/s N1 indication
  • Proud to fly a Turboprop: Q400 vs ATR72
    Proud to fly a Turboprop: Q400 vs ATR72
  • On the A320 Neo, if you're unlucky, you've got the last row
    On the A320 Neo, if you're unlucky, you've got the last row
  • Vision, Mission and Objectives
    Vision, Mission and Objectives
  • FUEL SYSTEMS
    FUEL SYSTEMS
  • HYDRAULIC SYSTEMS
    HYDRAULIC SYSTEMS
  • AIRCON/PRESSURIZATION/VENTILATION
    AIRCON/PRESSURIZATION/VENTILATION
  • AUTOFLIGHT
    AUTOFLIGHT

Recent Posts!

  • IndiGo receives its first Airbus A320neo at Toulouse
  • On the A320 Neo, if you’re unlucky, you’ve got the last row
  • Why the FIA’s case against the removal of the 5/20 rule is unjustified
  • Why the 90 seat Q400 had to be announced at the Singapore Air Show
  • Analysing IndiGo’s performance in Q3’16
  • Deciphering the 2015 Indian Aviation growth story
  • Air Costa receives its third Embraer E190 at Jordan
  • Why Jet Airways meant much for Brussels
  • Same aircraft family, different hands: Boeing 737NG flown by the Air Force and an airline
  • IndiGo to fly India’s longest daily domestic flight effective 7th January 2016

Blog at WordPress.com.

  • Follow Following
    • The Flying Engineer
    • Join 393 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • The Flying Engineer
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...