New Delhi: Vistara, the Tata-Singapore Airlines joint venture airline, is promising a personalised, premium flying experience. Last night, Jet Airways said it will scrap its no-frills service and concentrate only on the bells-and-whistles service for domestic travellers.
Air India is already promising the moon, thanks to its induction into prestigious global airline grouping called Star Alliance. The two legacy carriers are loss making and debt laden - how will they make ends meet in a market dominated by low cost carriers (LCCs) if they price themselves at a premium?
Experts say the answer to these questions is simple: Vistara, Jet and AI need to make the flyer feel like a king but then hurry to their back-end and ensure costs there are as close to LCCs as possible.
In other words, merely offering hot meals will not work - these airlines need to devise smart pricing strategies while relentlessly driving down costs. And their pricing also needs to remain close to that of LCCs.
Kapil Kaul of global aviation consultancy CAPA says there is little difference between an LCC and economy product of full service carrier (FSC) at present. "LCCs operate from the same airport, offer high frequency services, a very competitive route network, focus on onboard and ground services and reliability/ on time performance. Except a meal on board, everything is almost similar......FSCs need to have a tangible service differentiation compared to LCCs with a cost base to support. Providing meals on board cannot be the differentiation and the strategy for a NFSCs. It has to much more meaningful and defining."
14/08/14 Sindhu Bhattacharya/First Post
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Air India is already promising the moon, thanks to its induction into prestigious global airline grouping called Star Alliance. The two legacy carriers are loss making and debt laden - how will they make ends meet in a market dominated by low cost carriers (LCCs) if they price themselves at a premium?
Experts say the answer to these questions is simple: Vistara, Jet and AI need to make the flyer feel like a king but then hurry to their back-end and ensure costs there are as close to LCCs as possible.
In other words, merely offering hot meals will not work - these airlines need to devise smart pricing strategies while relentlessly driving down costs. And their pricing also needs to remain close to that of LCCs.
Kapil Kaul of global aviation consultancy CAPA says there is little difference between an LCC and economy product of full service carrier (FSC) at present. "LCCs operate from the same airport, offer high frequency services, a very competitive route network, focus on onboard and ground services and reliability/ on time performance. Except a meal on board, everything is almost similar......FSCs need to have a tangible service differentiation compared to LCCs with a cost base to support. Providing meals on board cannot be the differentiation and the strategy for a NFSCs. It has to much more meaningful and defining."
14/08/14 Sindhu Bhattacharya/First Post
