Thursday, May 14, 2009

Jet Airways Konnect - following a once successful model

On May 7th 2009, the Indian aviation industry, which has witnessed everything from boom to crashes in the past, saw the emergence of another successful business model that is still followed in the U.S and Europe. The feeder and hub model. Under this model low density routes from major cities are served by a subsidiary which acts as a feeder for the mother airline. The mother airline operates on the high density routes. These subsidiaries act as a feeder service for the high density routes. For eg, if a passenger wants to travel from Coimbatore to Kolkata, he will take a Jet Konnect to Chennai from where a Kolkata bound Jet Airways flight would leave in twenty or thirty min. At the same time similar flights from other tier 2 cities like Trichy and Madurai will also arrive to connect with the Kolkata flight. Since only ATRs or other regional jets would be operated on these routes, the load factor would be high as well as the load factor on the mother Chennai - Kolkata flight would be high.
Similar model is already being followed by Paramount keeping Chennai as a hub, with the only difference being it operates all business class flights in all its routes. Though the time of introduction of such a service by Jet Airways is debatable, considering the position of Jet lite and the current economic scenario, this age old model has been highly successful in boom times. Seems like Naresh Goyal wants to consolidate his position further in the domestic sector, considering the current international scenario.

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