Flying out of air pockets

GoAir’s future was tense just a year back, but the budget carrier is now talking scale and has preponed deliveries of 10 more aircraft.
GoAir, which touched a new low in March 2009 when its planes were flying half-empty, is trying to stage a comeback.
The Wadia Group’s budget carrier, which had 2.6 per cent market share in the first quarter of 2009, has increased it to 5.8 per cent. It carried 52 per cent more passengers last quarter compared to the same period last year and 153 per cent more in 2009-10 compared to year before, albeit on a low base.
The numbers are still very small, compared to what relative newcomers such as Spicejet and Indigo have achieved. And it’s also a fact that despite its focus on driving efficiencies, the airline is at best catching up with its rivals. In May, GoAir had a load factor of 85.7 per cent but its peers did better than that – Indigo clocked 92.3 per cent and Spicejet 90.4 per cent. Even on on-time performance, most airlines scored higher than GoAir.
But everyone agrees that the numbers are a sharp improvement for an airline which everyone had written off. No one had thought that the airline will be in a position to talk about building scale and will finally exercise the option of buying 10 more planes from Airbus. It is in fact trying to prepone deliveries which are slated to start in January 2012. What’s more, the airline is making the pre-delivery payments for these planes from its accruals, and is no more looking to induct a financial or strategic partner.
19/07/10 Ranju Sarkar/Business Standard/Sify

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Categories: GoAir Jul 2010