Jab Gopinath Met Mallya...

Blogpost on Deccan Branding... plz go thru the comments on all of the articles....i found them interesting... click on title to go to the blogpost

Brand Update : Airdeccan ...

Blog post on Rebranding on Air Deccan aka...Deccan

Plzzz....click on the title to read it

Watch Out For the New Deccan - Simplifly...

A good article on Deccan's new look on Agency Faqs...click on the title.

Not so Simple in Simplfly Deccan...

I was jus goin thru the new look of Deccan website (which i will review soon), where i found their new resheduling & cancellation policy. In bold its written that-

• Please note: This Rescheduling / Cancellation Policy supersedes all previous rescheduling / cancellation policies; all old rescheduling / cancellation policies will no longer be valid.

Besides this, earlier they used to refund the money if a passenger wished to cancel his/her ticket, but now they have stopped it. Now, they give a credit period of 180 days. Same as all other LCC's. Deccan was the only LCC who used to refund passenger's money. It was jus like a competitve edge for them bt, now they have lost their advantage over others.

Also, in their resheduling they have made following changes-

• If the applicable fare (basic and surcharge) is more than the current fare, the difference amount will be charged to the passenger along with a Rescheduling Fee of Rs.500/- for either advancement / postponement of the flight.
• If the applicable fare (basic and surcharge) is less than the current fare, the difference amount WILL NOT BE REFUNDED to the passenger and difference amount will be charged to the passenger along with a Rescheduling Fee of Rs.500/- for either advancement / postponement of the flight.

By introducing these changes in their policies Deccan has lost its edge.

It used to be a common man's airline but, no more.

A feather of Indian Aviation has been diminshed as soon as it bacame Deccan from Air Deccan.

The policy can be read @ Deccan's website or jus by clickin on the title of this post...

The Spicejet Way...

The most quite n non-controversial airline "Spicejet" has made a deal with Air India. Air India will take 02 of its boeing 737-800 aircrafts on wet lease. the aircrafts will be used for Haj Pilgrimage only, the flight number will be of Air India but the logo will be of Spicejet...its a great achievement for Spicejet as it is only in its 3rd yr of operation. A setback for all those airlines who are making a lot of hoopla to fly abraod, as they dont meet the criteria required of 05 yrs experience domestic flying. It will be connecting Varanasi, Jaipur & Lucknow with Jeddah for 75 days starting this november.

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Kingfisher Airline the surrogate brand...

Ever wondered about why the kingfisher airlines got its name ??? It could have been UB Air as, it goes effectively with the groups name. If one carefully analyzes the complete portfolio of brands available with UB group (parent company of Kingfisher Airlines) none of the brand is repeated that is none of the brand name is used for two diversified products, only kingfisher has got that honor…the big Q is why so??? Well if we talk about Kingfisher it was originally only a beer brand, the only brand which is present in more than 50 countries & which is served on 5 int’l airlines…it’s the fastest growing brand in beer segment with a growth rate of nearly 30 % where as all other beer brands in the world have growth rate of only 3%... kingfisher beer definitely has a commanding position. The beer drinkers are usually youngsters between the age of 14 to 30 yrs. these constitute of more than 50% of the world population, that means it’s a significant market to be catered. Now, the question arises what connection it has with kingfisher airlines. In many countries (including India) any sort of advertising pertaining to hard drinks are banned, to counter that & to enhance its reach kingfisher airlines was launched with a lot of fanfare, the first airline in the world which started its operations with a new aircraft, not to mention about its air hostess, the kind of service it provides… the only airline in India which has been sponsoring F1 racing even it has nothing to with it, kingfisher does not fly outside India & F1 is not in India till now… that means there is no relation between the two. The tagline for both of the brands are nearly same, “Fly with the Good Times” goes for Kingfisher Airlines & “King of Good Times” is for Kingfisher Beer. Kingfisher brand name is being played on top-of-mind concept. Only to sustain & improve the beers position in the world market Kingfisher Airlines is so desperate to fly international for which, it had to acquire a stake in Air Deccan too. Air Deccan will be completing its 5 yrs of flying in Aug. 2008 after which it can fly overseas, so Air Deccan was only choice for Kingfisher to go overseas on its back. I also feel that as & when Kingfisher will start flying overseas on its own it will back off from Air Deccan or it will take complete control of that airline. Clearly Kingfisher Airlines is a surrogate brand, i.e. Kingfisher Beer is promoted on the name of kingfisher airlines. Excellent strategy Dr. Mallaya, hats off to u…

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Mergers in Aviation...

Ever thought the impact of mergers that’s takin place in Indian aviation will lead to??? The rosy picture what we see is not that rosy if we analyse carefully the complete scenario. Whats the basic reason of mergers, are airlines loving to get merged in order to have some sort of benefits to them…I don’t think so, they are doin it due to compulsion, the financial compulsion. Air Deccan sold its stake to Kingfisher only due to financial crisis, Air Sahara sold only due to mounting losses (the second deal). GoAir is cutting operations, even Spicejet may also be on sale (some stake). So, whats the mergers will finally lead…it will lead to cartels. Cartels of 2-3 airlines coming together like Kingfisher – Deccan, Jet- Jetlite, Air India or even Paramount with Spicejet or GoAir , may be both on Paramounts side. The cartels then formed will lead to some kind of monopoly with big players having there own say, prices have already started to going up, they are already heading north. The big Q is the impact it will have on the passengers pocket???

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