Go Air – an Airline Operations Review
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International Journal of Scientific Research and Engineering Development-– Volume 3 Issue 2, Mar-Apr 2020 Available at www.ijsred.com RESEARCH ARTICLE OPEN ACCESS Go Air – An Airline Operations Review Anuj Modgil*, Kanishk Rastogi**, Mohit Mohan Saxena***, Epari Shravan****, Prof. Vidhya Srinivas***** *(Student, Universal Business School, Mumbai Email: [email protected]) ** (Student, Universal Business School, Mumbai Email :[email protected]) ***(Student, Universal Business School, Mumbai Email: [email protected]) **** (Student, Universal Business School, Mumbai Email : [email protected]) ***** (Professor, Universal Business School, Mumbai Email : [email protected]) ---------------------------------------- ************************ ---------------------------------- Abstract: GoAir is an international carrier based in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. It is a low-cost carrier, owned by Wadia Group. The airline company has 9% market share in the Indian domestic carrier market. GoAir started its operations back in 2005 with the first flight being operated on Mumbai - Ahmedabad sector on 4 - November - 2005. The airline was one of the first in India to operate the Airbus A320 aircraft in an all economy setup. Initially GoAir operated just a single aircraft and was able to cover four destinations across India. As of January 2019, GoAir owned a fleet of 48 Airbus A320 aircrafts with 114 more on order. The airline operates 230+ daily flights which are spread across 26 destinations (24 domestic and 2 international). This paper is an operations review of the airlines. Keywords —GoAir, Airlines, Aviation, Operations, Management, Fleet, Airport, Industry . ---------------------------------------- ************************ ---------------------------------- next set of passengers are ready to board the aircraft I. INTRODUCTION for the next destination on the route. This gives a GoAir has a reputation of being Slow, Very Slow mere 20 minutes to the ground staff to prepare the in expanding its business. This can also be being aircraft for the next flight. called the tortoise operations strategy. While its As it is a budget carrier, GoAir charges for all competitors have been aggressively expanding their meals served onboard to the passengers. Passengers reach by adding more domestic and international are given an option to buy their food onboard the destinations to the mix, GoAir has been focusing flight. GoAir also offers Go Business which is their only on the domestic market. Even the rate at which premium service which comes at a higher fare GoAir has been increasing its fleet size, remains providing better legroom, meals, more baggage very low compared to its competitors, namely allowance and priority boarding and priority Indigo and SpiceJet. baggage handling. Being a low-cost carrier, the airline operates point to point flights with minimal aircraft park time. Whenever an aircraft lands at an airport, the ISSN : 2581-7175 ©IJSRED:All Rights are Reserved Page 740 International Journal of Scientific Research and Engineering Development-– Volume 3 Issue 2, Mar-Apr 2020 Available at www.ijsred.com II. LITERATURE REVIEW traditional transfer method. GoAir only offers Strategies followed by GoAir: - transfer option when the aircraft is flying to or from the focus cities along the flight plan. In all other 1) Aircraft Choice cases there are no transfers involved. Further this GoAir since its launch has been using single aircraft saves luggage transfer costs and airlines can further i.e. Airbus A320. The Airbus A320 family has been avoid problems related to lost luggage. widely accepted as the go to choose for all low-cost To keep the turnaround time as low as possible, in carriers across the world. The main reason behind 90% of GoAir flights the boarding and offloading is this choice is that having a same aircraft in its done via stairs and not via aerobridges. The flight inventory GoAir is in a beneficial position timings at busy airports are kept at a time when considering all its maintenance ground staff i.e. there is a minimal congestion at the terminal while mechanics and the procurement of spare parts will during peak hours the aircraft is in flight or is at a be aligned as per the Aircraft A320 family. The secondary airport where terminal congestion is not crew onboarding also becomes easy as both cabin an issue. This simplistic approach helps the aircraft and ground crew needs to be trained for only one to be serviced, offloaded and re-loaded in shorter type of aircraft. GoAir like other low-cost carriers time frame allowing maximum utilization of the in India, keeps a minimalistic approach while aircraft. setting up their aircraft. That is, they keep their aircraft equipment as minimal as possible. There 4) Alternate Sources of Revenue are no in-flight entertainment systems available to Along with flight-based revenues, GoAir generates the passengers. These practices help to reduce the revenue by using other activities as well. In flight cost of maintenance and overall cost incurred meal options, seat upgrade options and other during the service life of the aircraft. Further this premium services are charged by the airlines. Even keeps the overall weight low thus saving the costly service like Web Check-In and seat selection is a aviation fuel. charged service for GoAir. Also, while operating 2) Focus Cities point to point flights, if there is additional space for cargo, the same is sold to interested companies who Further GoAir like other Low-Cost Carriers have send in their cargo in the flight. These additional not kept a single operating hub, instead it has four services help GoAir to generate more non-flight different hubs strategically spread across India. revenue from its operations. These hubs can also be called focus cities. GoAir has its flight operations strategized around these 5) Limiting Costs focus cities and all its flights run point to point GoAir tends to cross train its crew and ground staff routes. so that they can work as gate agents and work on 3) Simplicity other roles if required. The staff is sometimes employed via a third-party employee partner so that GoAir has been on the frontline of charging flat direct expenses can be decreased. This practice fares to its customers, with point to point flat fares enables GoAir to keep a high performing staff and being set as INR 999/-. This flat fare policy is only offer competitive fares along with other low-cost set for initial set number of seats. As the aircraft is carriers. One more practice which has been seen in booked, the latter tickets are sold at a premium. Indian domestic market is introduction of machine- This is basically a way to reward the passengers based check-in counters at the airport further who booked their flights early. GoAir normally reducing ground staff requirement and decreasing keeps one flight per route and day and prefers cost. Sometimes secondary airports limit the use of passengers to travel direct routes as compared to such machines but in majority airports where GoAir ISSN : 2581-7175 ©IJSRED: All Rights are Reserved Page 741 International Journal of Scientific Research and Engineering Development-– Volume 3 Issue 2, Mar-Apr 2020 Available at www.ijsred.com operates, they introduce this facility at their own aggressively concentrating on their mammoth size expenses to reduce overall wait time and enhance expansion, GoAir has been consistently increasing customer experience. the fleet like a tortoise at a rate of 1-2 aircrafts annually. Though as per Indian aviation rules, the 6) Best principles of operation airline is eligible to operate International routes, As per IATA i.e. International Air Transport GoAir has not been much inclined towards Association, a low-cost carrier's primary objective international routes, rather its top management has is point to point operations where it operates on stated that they are concentrating more on the short haul routes (less than 5 hours) and is normally domestic sector. between a focus city and secondary city. GoAir strongly focuses on price sensitive traffic Challenges Faced who are leisure travellers. These customers have a very rare chance of entering a loyalty program with The main challenge faced by GoAir is high tax the airline. levied on aviation fuel in India. Along with that airports in tier 1 cities like Mumbai, Bangalore, Thus, the services offered are always limited in Chennai, Delhi and Hyderabad are running at full option because majority of concentration is keeping capacities with congested terminals and very high the average fare low as the flight operations depend aircraft parking rates. If GoAir tries to operate from on the price competition. Of course, the lower fares tier 2 cities the expected demand gets low, cutting are only applicable if the booking is done well in out on margins and customer demand. Getting slots advance, towards the flight date higher fares get for the new aircrafts also is an ongoing issue and applicable as per dynamic pricing strategy. One getting approvals from Airport Authority of India major contributing factor in advance bookings is remains a headache for the airline management. that they are done over the internet. Another challenge for GoAir and its competitors Optimized aircraft turnaround remains the primary operating Airbus 320new family of aircrafts is that factory in keeping a high aircraft utilization rate. the engines supplied by Pratt & Whitney are not GoAir can achieve this as its management is simple optimized