How Indigo is eating big boys Air India and Jet Air's lunch

Shaheen Mansuri

Moneycontrol Bureau

 Indigo Airlines has improved its market share to 23.8% in April, from 19% seven months ago, in the process eating up the lunch of its larger rivals like Jet Airways and Air India. While Indigo is touted as the most efficient domestic carrier, problems at Kingfisher Airlines and Air India too have contributed to its expanded market share.

Combined market share share of Jet and its subsidiary JetLite has been steady at slightly over 28% for April. AI's share too has remained stagnant at 18%, as have been those of low fare warriors SpiceJet and GoAir.
 
Moneycontrol.com spoke to experts in the aviation industry as to how Indigo with a much smaller fleet size compared to Jet and AI has been able to benefit the most from the ongoing turbulence in the sector. Following is what they think as the reasons:

*Unlike Jet and AI or KFA, Indigo is the only airline which operates on a hub-and-spoke model. In such a case, the airline operates through one central hub and all its aircraft flies on spokes between destinations and the hub, with very few direct flights between other destinations. "Routing all the traffic through the hub actually makes the overall system more efficient," says an analyst.

 *The airline operates on all metro city routes, tier I and tier II networks between spokes and less desirable locations which do not need to be connected directly to the hub, thereby improving its overall capacity.

*The airline deployed 112% capacity (highest in the industry) on Category III routes, which mainly comprise of smaller cities. According to the route dispersal guidelines of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) the airlines are mandated to deploy 50% of its capacity on these routes.  Travel agents say the airline has managed to tap the air travel boom in smaller cities which help it garner better share than its peers.

* Indigo utilizes its aircraft for 16 hours in a day which is considered the highest in the industry, hence can ferry more passengers (on an average its passenger loads have been around  90% in the past one year.)

*Being no-frills is an added advantage for the airline as it takes lesser turn-around time then full service carriers which cater food on-board.

*Due to having the highest on-time performance in the past one year with no record of either pilot strike or flight cancellations, it now commands strong passenger loyalty.

shaheen.mansuri@network18online.com