Kingfisher Airlines

Kingfisher Airlines

IATA IT

ICAO KFR

Callsign KINGFISHER

Founded

2003

Commenced operations

9 May 2005

Hubs

Bengaluru International Airport

Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport(Mumbai)

Secondary hubs

Indira Gandhi International Airport (Delhi)

Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport(Kolkata)

Focus cities

   

Chennai International Airport Cochin International Airport(Kochi) Pune International Airport Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (Hyderabad)

Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport(Ahmedabad)

Frequent-flyer program Airport lounge

King Club

Kingfisher Lounge

Alliance Subsidiaries Fleet size Destinations Company slogan Parent company Headquarters Key people

Oneworld (future) Kingfisher Xpress 66 (+130 orders) 71[1] Fly The Good Times

Website

Kingfisher Airlines is an airline group based in India. Its head office is Kingfisher House inVile Parle (East), Mumbai.[3][4] Kingfisher Airlines, through its parent company United Breweries Group, has a 50% stake in low-cost carrier Kingfisher Red. Kingfisher Airlines is one of the seven airlines to be ranked as a 5-star airline by the independent research consultancy firm Skytrax.[5] Kingfisher operates more than 375 daily flights to 71 destinations, with regional and long-haul international services.[1] In May 2009, Kingfisher Airlines carried more than a million passengers, giving it the highest market share among airlines in India.[6] Kingfisher Airlines is also the sponsor of F1 racing outfit, Force India, which Vijay Mallya also owns.[citation needed]
Contents
[hide]

1 History

1.1 Operational performance

2 Destinations

2.1 Codeshare agreement

3 Fleet

o o

3.1 Current 3.2 New aircraft orders and deliveries

4 Services

4.1 Cabin classes

 

nited Breweries Group

Kingfisher House, Mumbai,Maharashtra[2] Vijay Mallya (CMD) Sanjay Aggarwal (CEO)

flykingfisher.com

o o o

4.2 In-flight entertainment 4.3 King Club 4.4 Kingfisher Lounge

5 Awards and achievements 6 Accidents and incidents 7 See also 8 References 9 External links

edit]History

Kingfisher Airlines was established in 2003. It is owned by the Bengaluru based United Breweries Group. The airline started commercial operations in 9 May 2005 with a fleet of four new Airbus A320-200s operating a flight from Mumbai to Delhi.[7] It started its international operations on 3 September 2008 by connecting Bengaluru with London.

Kingfisher Airlines Limited

Type

Public (BSE: KFA)

Industry

Transportation

Founded

2003

Headquarters

Mumbai, Maharashtra

Area served

Asia, Europe

Key people

  

Dr. Vijay Mallya, CMD Sanjay Aggarwal, CEO A. Raghunathan, CFO(Finance)

Services

Airline catering & foodservice,aircraft ground handling and passenger transport

Revenue Subsidiaries Website

5,271.04 crore (US$1.18 billion)(2009-10) [8] Kingfisher Xpress flykingfisher.com

On 7 June 2010 Kingfisher became a member elect of the Oneworld airline alliance when it signed a formal membership agreement. A firm date to join the alliance will be announced once the implementation process is underway, it possibly may take 18 to 24 months.[9][10]

[edit]Operational

performance
Kingfisher Airlines Statistics[citation needed]

Year ended April 2007 March 2008 April 2008 March 2009 April 2009 June 2009

Passengers carried 12,414,336 10,850,359 2,851,360

% Change 12.6% -

Average load factor (%) 61% 60% 69%

edit]Destinations

Main article: Kingfisher Airlines destinations Kingfisher Airlines serves 63 domestic destinations and 8 international destinations in 8 countries across Asia and Europe. Kingfisher's short haul routes are mostly domestic apart from some cities in South Asia, Southeast Asia and Western Asia. All short haul routes are operated on the Airbus A320 family aircraft. ATR 42s and ATR 72s are used mainly on domestic regional routes. Kingfisher has its medium, long-haul destinations in East Asia,Southeast Asia, and Europe. Its first long haul destination was London, United Kingdom which was launched in September 2008. It has plans to launch new long haul flights to cities in Africa, Asia, Europe, North America and Oceania with deliveries of new aircraft. All long haul routes are operated on the Airbus A330-200.

[edit]Codeshare

agreement

Kingfisher has codeshare agreements with: American Airlines (Oneworld)[11] British Airways (Oneworld)[12] Philippine Airlines [13]

   [

edit]Fleet

[edit]Current

Kingfisher Airlines' fleet currently consists of ATR 42, ATR 72 and Airbus A320 family aircraft for domestic and short haul services and Airbus A330-200s for international long-haul services. The average age of its fleet as of January 2009 was 2.3 years. All ATR's and a few aircraft from the A320 family are used for Kingfisher Red service. Kingfisher's fleet consists of the following aircraft as of 15 August 2010:
Kingfisher Airlines Fleet[14] Passengers Aircraft Airbus A319-100 Airbus A320-200 Total Orders Options P 3 10 67 0 Y 144 Total 144 134 All dry-leased 11 dry-leased Notes

20 114

3 10 6 Airbus A321-200 2 Airbus A330-200 Airbus A350-800 Airbus A380-800 ATR 42-500 ATR 72-500 8 Total 66 130 25 5 2 17 38 20 15 5 5 5

0 0

174 180

174 180 151

Deliveries through to 2016

32 119 0 199

2 dry leased. 199 217 Deliveries through 2015 Deliveries starting 2015 Deliveries starting 2014 48 66 15 new aircraft to be dry leased 0 72 72 All dry leased 30 187 TBA TBA 0 0 48 66

New aircraft orders and deliveries

On 21 July 2004, it signed a MoU with Airbus for four A320-200s with options for eight more[citation needed]. The first four A320-200s were leased from debis airfinance. On 23 February 2005, it signed a contract with Airbus for three Airbus A319-100s and firm orders for ten A320200s with options for twenty more.[15] On 25 April 2005, it took the delivery of its firstAirbus A320200 aircraft[16] which was used to start operations in 9 May 2005. On 15 June 2005, it created history by becoming the first Indian airline to place orders for the Airbus A330, Airbus A350 and Airbus A380aircraft. The order was for five A330-200s, five A350-800s and five A380800s.[17] On 21 November 2005, it placed another order for thirty Airbus A320 family aircraft.[18] On 24 April 2006 at Hannover, it became the first Indian airline yet again to place orders for the Airbus A340 aircraft. The order was for five A340-500s.[19] However, these A340-500 orders were cancelled in 2008 due to worldwide economic recession which resulted in skyrocketing of petroleum prices across the world in July 2008. On 20 June 2007 at the 2007 Paris Airshow, it signed a MoU with Airbus for twenty Airbus A320 family aircraft, ten Airbus A330-200s, fiveAirbus A340-500s and fifteen Airbus A350-800s.[20] The order for five A340-500s were converted to A330-200s in 2008 after the cancellation of the initial five A340-500 order which was placed in April 2006 at Hannover. On 14 July 2008, Kingfisher unveiled its first ever Wide-body aircraft, a Airbus A330-200 (registered VT-VJL) at the 46th Farnborough Airshowheld in July 2008. Kingfisher's first Airbus A330-200 was widely billed (according to the airline's press release) as the best A330-200 ever built by Airbus.[21]
Kingfisher Airlines new aircraft delivery schedule[22]

Aircraft Airbus A320 family Airbus A330-200 Airbus A350-800/A380-800 Total

2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 Total 6 4 10 9 3 12 7 4 2 13 8 4 6 18 12 2 14 42 15 10 67

edit]Services
classes

[edit]Cabin

[edit]Domestic [edit]Kingfisher First

The domestic Kingfisher First seats have a 48 inch seat pitch and a 126 degree seat recline. There are laptop and mobile phone chargers on every seat. Passengers can avail of the latest international newspapers and magazines. There is also a steam ironing service on board Kingfisher First cabins. Every seat is equipped with a personalised IFE system with AVOD which offers a wide range of Hollywood andBollywood movies, English and Hindi TV programmes, 16 live TV channels and 10 channels of Kingfisher Radio. Passengers also get BOSEnoise cancellation headphones. Domestic Kingfisher First is only available on selected Airbus A320 family aircraft.

[edit]Kingfisher Class
The domestic Kingfisher Class has 32-34 inch seat pitch. Every seat is equipped with personal IFE systems with AVOD on-board the Airbus A320 family aircraft. As in Kingfisher First, passengers can access the movies, English and Hindi TV programmes, a few live TV channels powered by DishTV and Kingfisher Radio. The screen is controlled by a controller-console on the seat armrest. Earcup headphones are provided free of cost to all passengers. The default channel shows, alternating every few seconds, The aeroplane's ground speed, outside temperature, altitude, distance and time to destination; the position of the aircraft on a graphical map and one or more advertisements. Passengers are served meals on most flights. Before take-off, passengers are served bottled Lemonade. On-board the ATR 72-500s there are 17 colour LCD drop-down screens mounted along with loudspeakers for audio in the cabin overhead, a head-end unit to handle CDs and DVDs, and a crew control panel. The screens measure 12.7 cm by 9.3 cm, weigh 0.2 kg each and are spaced every two or three seat rows along both sides of the cabin.

Economy class meal on-board a Kingfisher Airlines domestic flight

[edit]Kingfisher Red
Main article: Kingfisher Red

After Kingfisher Airlines acquired Air Deccan, its name was changed to Simplifly Deccan and subsequently to Kingfisher Red. Kingfisher Red is Kingfisher Airline's low-cost class on domestic routes. A special edition of Cine Blitz magazine is the only reading material provided. Kingfisher Airlines is the first airline in India to extend its King Club frequent flyer program to its low-cost carrier as well. Passengers can earn King Miles even when they fly Kingfisher Red, which they can redeem for free tickets to travel on Kingfisher Airlines or partner airlines.

[edit]International [edit]Kingfisher First

The international Kingfisher First has full flat-bed seats with a 180 degree recline, with a seat pitch of 78 inches, and a seat width of 20-24.54 inches.[23] Passengers are given Merino wool blankets, a Salvatore Ferragamo toiletry kit, a pyjama to change into, five-course meals and alcoholic beverages. Also available are in-seat massagers, chargers and USB connectors. Every Kingfisher First seat has a 17 inch widescreen personal television with AVOD touchscreen controls and offers 357 hours of programming content spread over 36 channels, including Hollywood and Bollywood movies along with 16 channels of live TV, so passengers can watch their favorite TV programmes live. There is also a collection of interactive games, a jukebox with customisable playlists and Kingfisher Radio. Passengers are given BOSE noise cancellation headphones. The service on board the Kingfisher First cabins includes a social area comprising a full-fledged bar staffed with a bartender, a break-out seating area just nearby fitted with two couches and bar stools, a full-fledged chef on

board the aircraft and any-time dining. A turn-down service includes the conversion of the seat into a fully-flat bed and an air-hostess making the bed when the passenger is ready to sleep. Both Kingfisher First and Kingfisher classes feature mood lighting on the Airbus A330-200 with light schemes corresponding to the time of day and flight position.

[edit]Kingfisher Class
The international Kingfisher Class seats offer a seat pitch of 34 inches, a seat width of 18 inches and a seat recline of 25 degrees (6 inches). Passengers get full length modacrylic blankets, full size pillows and meals. Each Kingfisher Class seat has a 10.6 inch widescreen personal television with AVOD touchscreen controls. The IFE is similar to that of the international Kingfisher First class. It can also be controlled by a detachable remote-control console fitted in the armrest. This device can be used to control the IFE, reading-lights, play games and even has a credit-card swipe for shopping on Kingfisher's 'Air Boutique'. It also has a facility for sending text-messages, though the service isn't provided by Kingfisher.

[edit]In-flight

entertainment

Kingfisher's IFE system is the Thales TopSeries i3000/i4000 on-board the Airbus A320 family aircraft, and Thales TopSeries i5000 on-board the Airbus A330 family aircraft provided by the France-based Thales Group.[24] Kingfisher was the first Indian airline to have in-flight entertainment (IFE) systems on every seat even on domestic flights. All passengers were given a "welcome kit" consisting of goodies such as a pen, facial tissue and headphones to use with the IFE system. Now, passengers of kingfisher class are not given "welcome kits" but as mentioned earlier, a complimentary bottle of lemonade and earphones for use with the IFE are still given. Initially, passengers were able to watch only recorded TV programming on the IFE system, but later an alliance was formed with Dish TV to provide live TV in-flight.[25] And in a marked departure from tradition, Kingfisher Airlines decided to have an on-screensafety demonstration using the IFE system, however the conventional safety briefing by the flight attendants still exists on many flights.