SpiceJet to launch biggest advertising campaign for image makeover

Mumbai: Budget carrier SpiceJet will soon go live with its biggest advertising campaign in the last threefour years. Starting May, the campaign with the tagline "With all our heart" will be splashed across billboards, newspapers, magazines and websites. The airline is also working on a television commercial but will later take a call if and when to launch it, sources said. Instead of playing the usual cards of low fares and timely connectivity, the ad depicts the "warmth, humanity and passion of SpiceJet," its chief operating officer Sanjiv Kapoor told ET.
"The ad seeks to depict the character and strong personality SpiceJet stands for. On time, pricing and connectivity are part of basic hygiene for a carrier. But a brand campaign has to show what the company stands for," he said.
30/04/14 Anirban Chowdhury/Economic Times

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SpiceJet Welcomes Dentsu Marcom On Board

SpiceJet aims to re-define and refresh the flying experience in India by its internal mantra of SOCCH: Safe, On-time, Clean, Courteous and Hassle-free. The brief it gave to advertising agencies was to capture this spirit in its newcampaigns.
Rohit Ohri, Executive Chairman, Dentsu India and CEO, Dentsu APAC (South) said, "The new leadership team at SpiceJet has a clear and compelling vision of what the airline will stand for. Our task will be to develop this vision into a unique thumbprint for the brand and bring that to life at every customer touch point."
28/04/14 Business World

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SpiceJet allows passengers to use electronic devices onoard

New Delhi: Budget passenger carrier SpiceJet Monday became the first airline in India to allow passengers to use personal electronic devices (PEDs) in non-transmitting mode during flights.
"Our customers can now use their smart phones during the flight to watch movies, listen to music, read books, read and compose emails and other documents, and use their phone cameras (where permitted) like customers already do inflight in many other parts of the world," Sanjiv Kapoor, chief operating officer, SpiceJet was quoted as saying in a statement.
The development comes as the aviation regulator on April 23 last allowed the use of electronic devices, including mobile phones, during flights. However, no transmitting activity will be allowed through the device.
Currently Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) allow the use of PEDs in airplane mode in all phases of flight.
28/04/14 IANS/Business Standard

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For SpiceJet, Bombardier Q400 upkeep costs same as Boeing 737

New Delhi: Barely two years after SpiceJet started operating the 70-seater Bombardier Q400s to increase connectivity in smaller cities, high maintenance cost of the aircraft has become a cause of worry.
The airline is learnt to be paying a maintenance cost of over 50 per cent more than the cost of any aircraft of its size.
An official source in the know, said that the maintenance cost per flight hour for a 70-seater Q400 type aircraft should be about $800.
“In the case of SpiceJet, the maintenance cost per flight hour is about $1,300, which is over 50 per cent higher than any other aircraft of its type and the same as its Boeing 737 aircraft. Maintenance cost of any aircraft of Q400’s size should be about $800 per flight hour,” said the source.
The Gurgaon-based low-cost airline operates a fleet of 15 Bombardier Q400 aircraft, to connect cities that are in the one-and-a-half hour flying range of larger airport cities like Hyderabad and Chennai.
The source added that SpiceJet chief operating officer Sanjiv Kapoor, who will be promoted as the CEO in a few months, has also raised concerns over the high maintenance cost of the aircraft.
28/04/14 Mihir Mishra/Indian Express

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Special discount fares fail to get SpiceJet more passengers

New Delhi: Low-cost carrier SpiceJet's special discount fares, which began in January has not helped the airline carry more passengers.
For the month of March 2014, the airline carried 11% fewer passengers as compared to the same month last year. During the month, SpiceJetBSE -4.23 % carried 9.41 lakh passengers, compared to 10.58 lakh passengers in the same month last year.
The data was retrieved from the DGCA website.
The increased capacity meant that the airline's average  load factor during March 2014 fell sharply to 68.9% while in the same month last year the low-cost carrier was flying its planes 76.1% full on an average.
The statistics are alarming for SpiceJet whose first two offers of the year launched on January 21 and January 31. The January 21 offer was a three day discount window for 30-day and 60 day advance booking till April 15 while the January 31 offer was also a three day window for 30-day advance bookings till April 15.
26/04/14 Debabrata Das/Economic Times

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SpiceJet offers limited time low fares from South

New Delhi: SpiceJet is offering cheaper fares to flyers from eight southern cities, including Bangalore, Kochi, Kozhikode, Mangalore and Thiruvananthapuram.
To make use of these cheap fares, a passenger has to make a booking by April 25 and travel has to be completed between June 10 and August 10. The offer allows a passenger from Bangalore to travel to 27 cities, including Delhi, for a fare staring at 2,049 while flyers from Kochi can look at flying to 13 cities, including Hyderabad, at an all inclusive fare of 1,949.
23/04/14 Business Line

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SpiceJet Selects airRM as Its Revenue Management System

Seattle: Revenue Management Systems (RMS) is excited to announce that it has been selected to provide SpiceJet with state-of-the-art revenue management, inventory control, and reporting tools. SpiceJet has chosen airRM, the innovative revenue management software developed by RMS, Inc., to help it identify sales opportunities and maximize passenger revenues. The airRM software allows airlines to closely control pricing and analyze performance through a robust suite of features.
"As one of the most dynamic and innovative Low Cost Carriers in the Indian marketplace, we are very pleased to welcome SpiceJet to the growing list of airlines which use airRM to maximize their revenue," said Ben Druce, Vice President Sales and Support APAC. "In today's dynamic airline marketplace, the ability to react quickly to competitors while easily implementing pricing and inventory strategies is critical. With its robust suite of sophisticated inventory control methodologies, reporting tools and analytical modules designed specifically for today's modern airlines, airRM will provide SpiceJet the power to achieve their revenue management goals."
22/04/14 Consumer Electronics Net

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SpiceJet pips IndiGo to win punctuality race

Mumbai: Low-cost airline IndiGo has successfully sold its airline on its much touted marketing plank of ‘IndiGo Standard Time’. But recent data show rivals challenging its numero uno position.
Data from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) show that in the months of December 2013 and January and February this year,  SpiceJet topped the on-time performance (OTP) ranking among all domestic airlines. The data for December and January was collected from the four metropolitan cities and Bangalore and Hyderabad.  In February, data from Chennai and Kolkata were not available.  IndiGo and Jet Airways took the second and third rank, alternatively, during this period. DGCA has not yet released the March data.
The data show SpiceJet fared better than the rest at Chennai and Kolkata airports with over 96 per cent on-time flights in December and January. DGCA did not provide the data of these two airports for February. IndiGo had a better OTP than rivals at Mumbai and Delhi during those two months.  OTP of airlines has been the lowest at Mumbai airport in recent months, as the  ongoing taxiway work is causing flight delays.
23/04/14 Business Standard

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Aircraft grounded after bird hit in Hubli

Hubli: SpiceJet flight (SG 2441) with 77 passengers onboard suffered a bird hit while landing at the Hubli airport on Saturday afternoon.
The pilot, however, landed the flight safely. The aircraft is a Bombardier Q400, which flies on the Hubli-Mumbai route.
After initial inspection of the damage, the crew decided not to fly back to Mumbai as per the schedule. The SpiceJet authorities made arrangements to fly the passengers in another aircraft in the evening.
M. Basavaraj, director of Hubli airport, told The Hindu that the captain had informed them that the aircraft could not be used for the return journey. “As a result, another aircraft from Goa was pressed into service for the flight back to Mumbai,” he said.
20/04/14 The Hindu

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Competition, losses in aviation sector turning FIIs away from Jet Airways, SpiceJet

Foreign investors may have been pumping funds into the Indian debt and equity markets since the beginning of 2014, but aviation stocks appear to be clear exceptions.
Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs), who have pumped in Rs 57,728 crore (Rs 22,196 crore into the equity and the rest into the country’s debt market) during the quarter ended March 2014, they have pulled funds out of the country’s two listed airlines.
While FII stake in Jet Airways has come down to 4.27 per cent in the fourth quarter from 5.85 per cent in the third quarter, the drop in FII stake in case of SpiceJet was even steeper from 2.01 per cent to 0.82 per cent, according to Bombay Stock Exchange data.
The two listed Indian airline companies have been reporting losses since FY11. Jet Airways, which made a profit of Rs 9.69 crore in FY11, has accumulated losses of Rs 1,513 crore since then. SpiceJet’s financial situation is no better and the airline has accumulated losses of Rs 1,477 crore after making a profit of Rs 101 crore in FY11. Both the airlines will announce their fourth urrent month.
19/04/14 Mihir MIshra/Indian Express

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Competition, losses in aviation sector turning FIIs away from Jet Airways, SpiceJet

New Delhi: Foreign investors may have been pumping funds into the Indian debt and equity markets since the beginning of 2014, but aviation stocks appear to be clear exceptions.
Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs), who have pumped in Rs 57,728 crore (Rs 22,196 crore into the equity and the rest into the country’s debt market) during the quarter ended March 2014, they have pulled funds out of the country’s two listed airlines.
While FII stake in Jet Airways has come down to 4.27 per cent in the fourth quarter from 5.85 per cent in the third quarter, the drop in FII stake in case of SpiceJet was even steeper from 2.01 per cent to 0.82 per cent, according to Bombay Stock Exchange data.
The two listed Indian airline companies have been reporting losses since FY11. Jet Airways, which made a profit of Rs 9.69 crore in FY11, has accumulated losses of Rs 1,513 crore since then. SpiceJet’s financial situation is no better and the airline has accumulated losses of Rs 1,477 crore after making a profit of Rs 101 crore in FY11. Both the airlines will announce their fourth quarter results by the end of the current month.
19/04/14 Indian Express

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Poor business forces SpiceJet to shut down two international routes

Barely four months after it started two new sectors connecting Bangalore and Pune with Bangkok, low-cost carrier SpiceJet has discontinued the services, apparently due to poor response. Generally, airlines study a new route for about a year to know its feasibility.
Behind the razzle-dazzle of exciting discounts, the Kalanithi Maran family-owned SpiceJet is going through turbulent times – it is already said to be having a debt burden of over Rs1,400 crore and the owners have pumped in Rs500 crore in past few months.
Attrition at top management, intense competition and the likely entry of new airlines, including Air Asia, have pushed the SpiceJet management to hire a consultancy firm which will suggest changes its operations to bring the carrier out of the red.
An airline source said, "After observing poor performance on these two sectors for a while, they have now been discontinued. Several other sectors where the airline is performing badly are also under the radar."
18/04/14 Shahkar Abidi/Daily News & Analysis

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'SpiceJet needs Rs 1,200-cr infusion'

India’s second largest no-frills airline, SpiceJet, requires $200 million (approximately Rs 1,200 crore) to turn operations around, according to the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation (CAPA), an aviation advisory firm.
The need for more funds comes at a time when the airline is expected to post losses of around Rs 1,000 crore in 2013-14. The estimated net loss for the previous financial year almost equals the Rs 1,186 crore combined losses over seven years from 2006-07.
SpiceJet has launched a series of discount offers — seven flash sales in the last three months — to improve cash flows and clear vendors’ dues. The Airports Authority of India had last November threatened to put the airline on cash-and-carry for not clearing dues. However, a senior airports authority official said SpiceJet did not have any dues pending with it.
Unlike full-service airlines that give credit to agents, budget carriers collect deposits in advance from them. Discount offers induce agents to sell more tickets, thereby increasing the deposit amount and helping airlines meet immediate cash requirements. “The airline is also asking (ticket-booking) portals to increase the deposit amount,” an industry source said. SpiceJet is understood to be paying the portals Rs 150 above the commission on the ticket price.
The airline denied the industry insights available about the frequent flash sales in response to an emailed query from Business Standard.
18/04/14 Aneesh Phadnis & Sharmistha Mukherjee/Business Standard

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SpiceJet supports SunRisers Hyderabad

Chennai: Kalanithi Maran-promoted low-cost airline SpiceJet has said it will be the principal sponsor of Indian Premier League (IPL) franchisee SunRisers Hyderabad, owned by Maran-promoted Sun Group, for the second consecutive year. It is also the official airline partner for the team.
“SpiceJet is proud to extend its association with SunRisers Hyderabad as the principal sponsor of the team for the second consecutive year,” said Sanjiv Kapoor, chief operating officer with SpiceJet in the company announcement. This association gives the airlines the right kind of opportunity to promote its brand among the travelling public, most of whom are also cricket lovers, he added.
18/04/14 Business Standard

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SpiceJet offers three day discount on bookings from Western region

New Delhi: Delhi-based low-cost carrier SpiceJet is not shying away from offering sales. On Wednesday, the low cost carrier announced a three-day sale for its flights from seven western Indian cities for travel period between June 10 and August 10.
SpiceJet has been in the eye of the storm of late with the civil aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation asking the airline to stop its Re 1 scheme offered recently after it found the discount to be 'predatory'. The carrier has already offered five different discount windows from the beginning of the year. Last week, the carrier had a similar offer for Southern Indian cities, but very few cities were connected under the offer.
Wednesday's offer gives customers a chance to book one-way tickets to 30 destinations from Mumbai for an all inclusive price of Rs 2,249. For example, a Mumbai-Delhi one-way flight is available for Rs 2,699 as against a normal price of Rs 4,895. Similarly, a Mumbai-Kochi flight is available for Rs 2,249 all inclusive.
The discount also covers Ahmedabad, Aurangabad, Goa, Indore, Mumbai, Pune and Surat. The cheapest one-way fares are available from Surat, Indore, Pune and Goa.
However, the inventory of tickets available for discount was not mentioned by the airline, a preliminary check on its website reveals that few seats are available under the discounts with most being on weekdays. Also, the discounts are only for the flights departing from the seven Western Indian cities, so passengers won't be able to avail of the discount on the return flight unless the travel is within the Western region.
16/04/14 Debabrata Das/Economic Times

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SpiceJet may elevate Sanjiv Kapoor as CEO

New Delhi: Low fare carrier SpiceJet will shortly appoint its current chief operating officer Sanjiv Kapoor as its chief executive, two persons with direct knowledge said on Wednesday.
Kapoor is responsible for making aggressive changes to the airline's operations, fronting fare wars and overhauling the top management.
Under Kapoor's leadership, SpiceJet slashed prices by 50% in January forcing other airlines to follow and more recently announced Rs 1 base fares across sectors, a move which an angry aviation regulator called the promotion of "predatory" pricing.
SpiceJet on Tuesday took the lead in merging its base fare and fuel surcharge in ticket prices. ET had reported the imminent elevation, when Kapoor had joined the airline on October 31.
17/04/14 Debabrata Das/Economic Times

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SpiceJet, IndiGo mix fuel surcharge with base fare

Mumbai/New Delhi: No frills airlines SpiceJet and IndiGo today merged fuel surcharge with the base fares, saying it would simplify the prevailing fare structure.
Before this, an air ticket of domestic airlines used to have different components, separately showing base fare and fuel surcharge, apart from charges like user development fees and taxes which go to the airport operator and the government.
“Ticket pricing and fare displays have been made simpler and more transparent by removal of the fuel surcharge add-on from all of its pricing, and consolidating it as part of the base fare. Going forward, the fare displayed will be what you see is what you pay,” SpiceJet said in a statement.
The airline claimed it was the first Indian airline to implement such an initiative aimed at making air travel and pricing more consumer friendly and transparent.
However, the web site of IndiGo also showed the carrier combining the base fare with fuel surcharge, besides service tax, development fees, passenger service fees and user development fees.
15/04/14 PTI/Business Line

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Mallya And Now Maran?

Is Kalanithi Maran owned SpiceJet airlines heading the Kingfisher way? That’s the question being asked in aviation circles, the ministry and industry today. Rivals are claiming that the airline is “going down rapidly” and that this is the “beginning of the end”.
On what are people basing their claims? One, the airline has been announcing a series of fare discount schemes – a tactic usually resorted to mop up cash when cash flow problems begin to occur. The latest scheme (which follows the Rs 1 fare scheme that was frowned upon by the Director General of Civil Aviation)  – South and East routes – is probably the fourth scheme in as many months of 2014 introduced by the airline to try and shore up revenues and generate some cash.
When contacted with a detailed questionnaire, SpiceJet declined to comment. It denied any default on lease payments however.
A senior government official told BusinessWorld that the airline is financially stressed and has been hoping to tide over its immediate cash flow problems by introducing these discount schemes. “This typically is of limited use as rivals match them and no one ends up any richer”, he adds.
But perhaps even more serious than this is the position as far as the leased aircraft go. According to industry sources, Babcock and Brown (one of the biggest lessors to the airline) have threatened to terminate the lease on three of the aircraft (in March) currently with the airline after facing delays in lease rental payments this year and sensing that the trouble runs deeper.  The airline also “narrowly escaped a termination notice from Avalon (one of the other lessors) two weeks ago. Catering companies are complaining of delayed payments.
09/04/14 Anjuli Bhargava/Business World

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SpiceJet cuts fares for monsoon flights

Mumbai: Low-cost carrier SpiceJet on Tuesday announced yet another fare sale, especially for those planning a holiday during monsoon.
Under the current offer open till April 10, one can book tickets valid for travel between June 1 and July 31. The sale has on offer one-way, all-inclusive tickets in the range of Rs 1,800 to Rs 2,200 from destinations like Chennai, Coimbatore, Hyderabad, Madurai, Rajamundry, Tirupati, Tuticorin, Vizag, Vijaywada and also from Kolkata.
John Nair, head, business travel, Cox and Kings, said: "The discounts are for connections from secondary airports in the south and it's value for money as these sectors have few flights and they are expensive."
09/04/14 Times of India

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SpiceJet launches scheme for fliers from South, East

New Delhi: Low-cost airline SpiceJet on Tuesday announced a three-day special discount fares are for flyers primarily from Southern India by offering fares as low as Rs 1,773 for one-way travel.
Travel for the tickets booked till April 10 would have to be completed between June 1 and July 31.
Competitors IndiGo, GoAir, Air India and Jet Airways, which have followed SpiceJet in offering discounted fares to passengers in the past, had not reacted till late Tuesday evening.
The airline’s discount offer are for travel originating from Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal.
This is the sixth discounted ticket sale which SpiceJet has launched this calendar year and comes less than a week after it had to close another discounted ticket sale, which offered passengers the opportunity to fly for Re 1.
09/04/14 Indian Express

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