BIAL airport closure in Feb 2019 due to Aero India

Last post of 2018 on Airlineblog

This post is to alert you on possible flight disruptions during Aero India 2019 at Bengaluru International Airport during Feb 20-24 2019

Aero India is a once in two year activity- after repeatedly threatening to move out of Bengaluru, organizers are still sticking to Bengaluru, at least for 2019 edition. Apart from business deals, the biggest crowd puller is the air show where military and other aircrafts soar to the sky and perform various stunts to the delight of audience.  While it is exciting for general visitors, Aero India show means big disruption for regular flyers.

BIAL or Bengaluru airport will be closed for passenger aircrafts for about 5 to 8 hours each day. Exact closure timing for Feb 2019 is not yet available but below is the closure timing during previous Aero India. We can expect a similar schedule this year, during Feb 20-24 2019

What does this mean?

• Most flights scheduled to arrive or depart during the closure hours will be cancelled by the airline.
• If an incoming flight is delayed and can’t land before airport closure, it will have to be diverted to another airport and can reach BLR only after airport re-opens- passengers may lose about half a day in the process
• If weather is bad and even early morning landing/take off can’t happen due to poor visibility, then expect more delays, cancellations and inconvenience.
• Expect major traffic jams on airport road- you may need several hours to reach Airport by road during day time
• There could be more restrictions on preceding days during practice sessions (up to one week prior to opening day)
• There will be more ad-hoc restrictions during VVIP movement like Prime Minister's visit.

So what precautions to take:

• Avoid flying in and out of Bengaluru between Feb 13 and 24 if possible.
• If you still have to fly select an evening flight (like departing around 7 to 11 PM) which will have a much higher probability of taking off on time (assuming incoming aircraft is not affected)
• You can fly out of alternate airports like Mysuru or Chennai if viable for better certainty
• Factor 2x-3x time to reach airport, unless it is mid night or you stay very close to airport

Airline websites are still accepting bookings as per normal schedule as NOTAM hasn't been issued yet.

If you already have a booking for these days don’t rush to cancel- wait for airlines to provide updated schedule- if your flight is cancelled or time changed, you will be eligible for full refund.

Do you plan to visit Aero India? I visited last in 2015 and was totally disappointed by the infrastructure provided to general visitors- read my detailed thoughts here. This time the fee is 3x more at Rs 1800 without much hope for better services.

Few other posts from my previous visit to Aero India:
Scandinavian Skycats * Some more pictures from 2015 Aero India * Breitling wing walkers * 

Cinnamon Air-Srilanka’s domestic airline!

While visiting Srilanka, almost all of us arrive at Colombo and from there proceed to our destination by road. We hardly consider flying domestic within Srilanka- Primary reason, we are not even aware there is a domestic airline within Srilanka and that we can take flights to domestic destinations. We may have noticed air taxis or chartered flights, but they are too expensive for middle class tourists, so never considered. But then, there is a domestic airline in Srilanka and they operate scheduled flights to various domestic destinations at a price which is not too expensive.

The airline is cinnamon Air, aviation arm of popular cinnamon hotels chain.

Below are some of the scheduled flights they operate, from Colombo’s Bandaranaike International Airport (CMB)

#	From	To	Frequency	Fare per person (USD)-One way
1	CMB	Sigiriya	2x daily	184
2	CMB	Kandy	2x daily	142
3	CMB	Trincomalee	1x daily	210
4	CMB	Hambantota	2x daily	212
5	CMB	Pasikudah - Batticaloa	2x daily	212
6	CMB	Colombo City	2x daily	98

Sample screenshot below.

 Points to note

• Flights need to be booked exclusively on Cinnamon air website- they won’t appear on OTAs like Skyscanner and MMT
• Looks like fares are fixed- they don’t vary w.r.t time and other factors
• You don’t have to arrive 90 mins before scheduled departure time like in India- reporting 30 mins prior is enough
• Considering the distance flown, the prices are obviously very high- like a 40 km hop between CMB and Colombo city costs 100 USD- I can get Chennai-Colombo return fare in that amount during a sale- but Cinnamon air has limited capacity and is for those who value time a lot and can afford a premium.
• There could be luggage limitations given the small size of the plane- do check.

Cinnamon Air operates 8 seater Cessna planes- so you can understand how limited the capacity is. But even taxis cost a lot- so if you’re just one person, instead of taking a taxi from airport to say Kandy or Sigiriya or Trincomalee and spending several hours on road, it might just be worth booking a seat on the plane. For example, Colombo airport to Trinconmalee is about 300 kms. A 600 kms round trip taxi costs easily 200-300 USD (around 70 LKR per km)- If it is for just one person, flight makes more sense. (Of course you can save a lot by using bus/train)

Apart from the scheduled flight, if you have the money to pay, Cinnamon air will be happy to organize chartered flight as per your custom needs. Srilankan Airline air taxi is also operated by Cinnamon Air.

One big concern will be syncing your international flight to/from Colombo with Cinnamon Air's domestic flight. Given that there're just one or two domestic flights per day, if you've to wait say 6-9 hours between flights, the value goes down that much.

Another concern is what happens if your inbound international flight is delayed- would Cinnamon air consider you as no show and you've to buy new ticket? Looks like that is the process.

So what do you think? Would you prefer to fly within Srilanka at these rates?

Oman Air Year end Sale- Muscat return ticket for 14k

Oman Air is currently running an year end sale for travel till May-June 2019

Chennai Muscat return ticket could be had for INR 14k and discounted tickets are also available on other destinations on Oman Air Network. This is not super cheap- I have seen lower return fares for about 11K but is decent enough if you have plans of visiting any destination on Oman Air Network. Oman air is a full service airline, so fare includes food and bags.

Best wishes to them

Check https://www.omanair.com/ and book

Best of 2018 at Airlineblog

This year, I have published over 137 posts at Airlineblog. Most posts did average, few posts were well accepted than others.  In this post I’ve listed the most read and most commented blogposts of mine this year. If you've not been regular, I suggest don't miss reading these!

Most read posts of 2018
1 Ultimate guide to cheap flight ticket bookings

Everyone wants to fly cheap- booking cheap ticket is NOT a function of how early you book or which website to use- it is a function of your flexibility and knowing what price is high/low or average for your destination. Read detailed post and save some good money.

2. Ten tips to deal with high cancellation charges

At times cancellation costs more than ticket cost- learn various options available to reduce impact of high cancellation costs.

3. Hubli airport getting lots of flights
This post got lots of views

4. When will star air take off?
Sanjay Ghodawat group was advertising launch of Star Air- but no sign yet- wondering if they will take off in 2019

5. Cheapest way to reach Hyderabad's Airport- 
Save hundreds otherwise spent on taxi with these cheaper alternatives

6. WOW Air India launch
Unfortunately no longer relevant, as they are discontinuing India flights from Jan 20- This airline gave lots of hope of cheap flights to US and Canada-sad to see them pack up

7. India Europe one way for 6k
An ultra low fare deal spotted to visit Europe

8. Jet Airways bid for upgrade scheme
Possibly copied from Srilankan, a detailed review of this scheme and its flaws

Most commented blog posts (excluding those already listed above)

1. Cheapest way to reach Bajpe airport Mangaluru
Taxi costs Rs 500 to reach Mangaluru town just 12 kms away. Find cheaper alternatives in this post-found useful by many.

2. AirAsia's deliberately complicated cancellation process
AirAsia cancels their flights left and right and we have to waste our time and effort to get our money back. Have to fill up 30-35 fields and wait for weeks for cancellation to process- no tracking, no option to update and any mistake your refund request will be denied. AirAsia management promised a review, but nothing has happened in 9 months

3. An easy tool to create a map of your travels

Keep an easy track of all your flights.

Some of my personal favorites
Besides above, these are my personal favorites, I suggest you give them a read as they will be either very useful or interesting to know.

1. Do I need transit visa?
The need for transit visa for different scenarios explained

2. No takers for in-flight WiFi
Did a quick survey- not many were keen on inflight WiFi service

3. Complications involved in why Airlines can't make all announcements in regional languages

Many wonder why flights of out Tamil Nadu doesn't get inflight announcements in Tamil-an attempt to throw more light on this aspect

4. Fly Dubai Experience
How was flydubai experience? Was it better than AirAsia?

5. Ten Airline Industry developments to watch in 2019
Hopefully 2019 will be more kind to airline industry

6. What I could redeem from Srilankan airlines Flysmiles loyalty program after spending 1.1 lakh
Managed to redeem a kids watch finally! Not an experience worth explaining

7. AirAsia X long haul flight to Auckland experience
Read and learn about my experience and expenses

Gold Coast Approach

8. Safety issues involved in posting your boarding pass online
Some reasons why you should never post photo of your boarding pass.

9. TIMATIC- official tool to know visa requirements

Don't trust what travel websites say- TIMATIC is your official source of visa requirements- ensure you comply, to avoid being denied boarding or entry into a country.

10. Fake airline websites

Beware of fake websites and promotions- don't lose your money to these scamsters.

Alpfly goes Bankrupt

Alpfly was a website which sold flight tickets n hotel rooms in bulk- like you could buy 10 flight tickets for some 25000 in bulk. I had written a detailed review of Alpfly here.

However looks like mid-2018 they have gone bankrupt and have filed for solvency. Their website now shows a copy of their bankruptcy procedure details and indirectly hint that those who are to get money from Alpfly may as well forget it.

It is not clear if they gave proportionate refund to public who had bought their packages but hadn’t used all their tickets- mostly No, as it happens with any company going bankrupt. As such there were numerous complaints about AlpFly’s operating model, secret tricks used (like one stop flight with long transit time is treated as two tickets) and so on.

Warns us to be more careful and not to believe every startup and their offers.

WOW Air begins refunds on ex-Delhi flights

Update: Today WOW Air India support team called and has initiated refund process of my affected tickets. And refund has been processed within days- Good work WOW Air. At least they don't have super complex 36 field complicated form filling marathon like AirAsia does

Below original post is now for reference purpose only- I would like to withdraw any accusations I might have made in the post. If you had a booked ex-New Delhi beyond Jan 20, contact WOW Air Support.

------------------ Original post ---------------------
Now it is widely known in public domain that WOW Air is not planning India flights after Jan 20- Not just India, they are returning all their A330s and stopping flights to Los Angeles, Chicago and many destinations world wide.

I've written about it in detail in this earlier post and dozens of news websites and blogs have also covered this topi, even citing WOW Air founder.

But adding insult to injury is WOW Air's support teams not being authorized to confirm to affected passengers what airline's management has admitted to news outlets. Though WOW Air has no intention of operating flights to and from India (and other A330 destinations) from end of Jan 2019, no official communication has been sent to affected passengers (who have booked flights on WOW Air for travel beyond Jan 20)

This means those who had their flights would continue to assume that their flight is as per plan (unless they are actively tracking airline news) and will be shocked with cancelled flight info too late- may be sometime late January- leaving them too little options and all alternate flights by then would be costing a lot more, compared to what they cost today.

If WOW Air sends out communication to affected passengers right now, may be they can save a bit on hotel cancellations or on alternate flights- WOW Air is not giving its customers such option by withholding and delaying service disruption communication.

Even when I proactively contacted WOW Air support to initiate refund of my affected flights, WOW Air support is insisting that flights are as per plan. This is out right lie and unethical business practices by WOW Air.

May be the support staff themselves are worried about their job, as WOW Air is looking to fire half the staff and cut costs- I don't hold anything personal against them. They are simply following instructions from management. But if the airline is planning to survive, recover and eventually grow, it needs to be honest and upfront with its customers. Holding customers who trusted the airline and booked tickets hostage is not the right way forward.

If you're an affected passenger on WOW Air, you're now at the mercy of the airline, with your money stuck, uncertainty on their flights and a dishonest/incapacitated customer care which isn't allowed to process your refund.

Knowing that WOWAir is not going to fly out of Delhi beyond Jan through external sources, at least I am able to reduce additional money I would have spent on the trip-hotel, siteseeing etc and think of plan B/alternative destinations to visit. Those who aren't following the news will be up for more expense and inconvenience.

I hope WOW will have money to refund affected passengers when the news will be eventually revealed to affected customers.

This is a common practice in airline industry- Airlines delay cancellation announcement till the last minute, so that they can bag as many bookings as possible and pocket the money, then take their own sweet time to refund, leaving affected passengers stranded. Though there're many laws to protect passenger interests, airlines either disregard them, find a loophole or in most cases are just bankrupt to honor any commitments. Don't think many affected Kingfisher passengers got their refunds- are you aware if Jet Airways is processing prompt refunds to passengers affected by cancelled flights? If WOW Air goes bankrupt n doesn't honor refunds, will the government/DGCA step in?

Since WOW Air is operating Delhi flights till 20 Jan, I guess they don't want to lose any possible bookings till that date by admitting their dire state of affairs. Primea air was even worse, even on the day of their bankruptcy they were accepting bookings. Norwegian is also on the brink of crisis. Even crisis laden Jet Airways tries to put up a brave face infront of customers, as they need to show confidence to garner booking by concerned passengers who doubt airline's reliability.

God bless airline industry in 2019

AirAsia India Update- Surat discontinued, New flights to BOM & HYD

Surat Bye Bye, Hello Mumbai
Looks like Air Asia India has suspended recently launched Bengaluru-Surat route- sometime in June 2018, barely 6 months.

Website now shows the flight but fares "unavailable" for all dates. Unlike launch announcements for which airlines seek maximum publicity, cancellations are often done silently without detailed announcements in the news section of airline website. Often we have to infer from booking section as official announcements come much later.

Looks like Mumbai is being reintroduced- AirAsia X had discontinued flying to Mumbai earlier this year, citing cost and competition. AirAsia India didn't have any plan to fly to expensive airports as their's is a low cost model. However looks like Airline has reconsidered its thoughts and decided to fly to Mumbai from Bengaluru.

Mumbai airport is one of the most congested airports in India with nearly no space (slots) left for new flights. A new airport is still an year away at least (Navi Mumbai). Looks like AirAsia has managed to get one late night slot at low price so that they can operate an economical flight to Mumbai from Benglauru. The Bengaluru-Mumbai flight is scheduled too late in the night, making it a red eye flight, but as long as fare remains super cheap, I am sure there will be enough takers.

Bhuvaneshwar Bye Bye, Hello Hyd

Similarly I had written about AirAsia India's Chennai-Bhuvaneshwar flights being cancelled. Looks like AirAsia India has decided to take some pity on Chennai and introduce Chennai-Hyderabad flight instead. (Tip off by Ajay Mirchandani) Probably they had too little demand for Bhuvaneshwar but figured they might get better load to Hyderabad.

MAA-Hyd flight timing is same as that of discontinued Bhuvaneshwar flight

Fare are very reasonable at present- if you have a trip in mind, go ahead and book. And just hope that they won't cancel it before your trip.

Go Air flight to Kannur from MAA BOM BLR and HYD

GoAir has announced flights to Kannur in Kerala from 4 South Indian cities- Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Chennai

Kannur airport became operational very recently and is 4th international airport in Kerala.

Kannur is located half way between Kochi and Mangaluru. so flying direct to Kannur would be convenient if your plan is to explore nearby areas. However do note that Kannur airport is some 30 kms from city.

GoAir Kannur flight details as below- it will take you between INR 4000-6000 for a round trip ticket- may be a bit cheaper during next sale.

Calicut Airport, roughly 100 kms from Kannur is an existing operational airport with few daily flights- will the new Kannur airport cannibalize Calicut? Will there be enough demand for both airports? Only time will tell. What do you think?

Airlines often announce flights but withdraw after few months if load factor is not good enough- needs to be seen how popular/supportive Kannur will be, to keep and grow demand so that airlines don't have to think of cancelling the flights.

Spicejet Chennai to Kashmir in 5 hours & 5500 rupees!

Visiting Jammu & Kashmir from South India has been an expensive affair-We often had to take one stop flight via Delhi and with Delhi-Jammu/Delhi-Srinagar route having limited capacity, a round trip to Srinagar was almost always more expensive than going abroad say to Dubai, Singapore or Malaysia

Also one stop flight and change of aircraft meant lots of time to reach Kashmir.

Now there's a good news. Spicejet has announced flight between Chennai and Jammu as well as Chennai and Srinagar- these are still one stop flights (via Ahmedabad and New Delhi respectively, but no need to change aircraft. This means you can now reach Srinagar in about 5 hours total or Jammu in about 4 hours plus the fares are reasonable at about 5400 for Srinagar (plus 250 convenience fee) onwards.

These prices vary from time to time, 5300 shown above is on the lower side- depending on date it may be higher. Also I hope during a promotion or sale they will get a bit lower.

Note that return flight involves change of aircraft and hence few hours extra. Only onward flight is hopping.

This means now Chennai people can escape to snow covered Kashmir for about INR 12000 round trip (or less if you get it) and if you're pressed for time, travel quick and plan a 3-4 day trip without losing lots of time at airports.

Spicejet has also launched a evening direct flight to Guwahati from Chennai and few more flights- do check their website for details.

I will wait for next Spicejet sale- if I can get a round trip to Srinagar for under 8k, it will be a steal

FlyDubai India flights to shift to DWC instead of DXB from Mid April 2019

FlyDubai is a low cost carrier based out of Dubai. I flew with them to Dubai for a low return fare of about 12000 INR this April.

So far, FlyDubai was flying to Dubai’s main airport, DXB and was operating out of terminal 2.

Mid 2018, Fly Dubai started shifting some of its flights to Terminal 3, for better synchronization, code share with Emirates.

Meanwhile,  Dubai authorities are reportedly trying to de-congest DXB by asking airlines to move more n more flights to DWC, a bigger, newer airport but too far from city at present. DWC stands for Dubai World Centre and Airport is known as Al Maktoum International Airport I have written a detailed post on DWC here.

I noticed that from 17 April 2019, FlyDubai is no longer flying to DXB from Chennai, Kochi, Ahmadabad and few other Indian cities that I tried. Instead, you can fly to DWC.

What does FlyDubai’s shifting to DWC mean to us as Indian passengers?

• Some connecting flights will also originate from DWC so you can still fly seamlessly to Alexandria and few other destinations. If your destination is also served by DWC then no problems at all
• However looks like many destinations- such as Helsinki, Tblisi (Georgia) etc will continue to be served from DXB (terminal 3). This means you can’t connect to these destinations from India in single PNR.
• DWC is far away from city- prepare to shell out more for taxi. It is not clear if cheaper buses, trains are operational yet connecting DWC to DXB or Dubai’s city centre (such as Sheik Zyed road)

Looks like FlyDubai’s rivals in India- Air India, Indigo etc would still fly to DXB- so unless FlyDubai tempts people with exciting fares, passengers might prefer to fly to DXB as they can save time and money required to reach city from DWC.

DWC is 65 kms from Dubai city- no metro/train yet. Taxi n bus (I guess) are the options- if you've to spend 100-200 dirhams (INR 2000 to 4000, USD 25-50) wouldn't it be better option to pay a bit more and fly into DXB with other airlines?

With some flights landing DWC, few in DXB terminal 2, few in terminal 3, FlyDubai's network feels like a mess, preventing them from maximizing revenue and be able to offer more connecting flights to passengers. But then, this is probably a transition phase- hopefully will be sorted out shortly.

Dubai charges more for multi entry visa- so it doesn’t make economical sense to take visa just for transit from DWC to DXB. If Dubai can provide visa free transit between two airports, it will be good for all stake holders. At present I understand some sort of controlled visa free transit is arranged between DXB terminal 2 and DXB terminal 3 for guests having connecting flight from another terminal. Do share if you have more updates or an experience to share in this regard.

In the long run, more n more flights may shift to DWC- we have to wait and watch. At this moment, be extra careful before booking where exactly your flight is headed to in Dubai and if that airport is convenient for you.

10 airline industry developments to watch out in 2019!

2018 is almost history and new year is around the corner. This year hasn't been very great for Airline industry- multiple airlines are struggling to survive while few gone bankrupt, a few crashes and high fuel prices have kept the spirits low. Will 2019 be any better? Below are a set of 10 things I am looking forward to in 2019, mostly from Indian perspective. Give it a read and share your thoughts.

1. Hundred years of KLM Royal Dutch

KLM Royal Dutch, based in Netherlands and now part of Air France KLM Skyteam, is world’s oldest operational commercial airlines. KLM began operation in 1919, which means in 2019 they are completing 100 years of operation- world’s only airline to achieve this milestone.  That is a great news to celebrate. We hope to see some great discounts and offers to flyers during the celebration time. Read more KLM posts here

2. What will happen to Jet Airways?

Particularly Indian travelers will be keen to know what happens to Jet Airways. Will they manage to turn around and keep running, will they get investor, or will they go south cancelling more flights and go Kingfisher way. If they can’t contain their woes and continue to cancel flights, it will be more risky to book on Jet Airways as there won’t be reasonable assurance that they will fly as per plan. We can only hope for good.

Read my other Jet Airways posts here

3. Indonesia Lion Air Crash Investigation

Lion Air flight 610 B737 Max crash off Jakartha is undoubtedly most concerning aviation accident in 2018. World would wait for final report that would put definitive conclusions on the cause of accident- is it B737’s faulty design and poor manual/training, is it Lion Air’s poor maintenance. This revelation and corrective action will be crucial to prevent such incidents in future, given that B737 Max is used by 100s of airlines around the world.

4. Will Star Air take off?

Kolhapur based Sanjay Ghodawat Group’s Star Air was supposed to commence operations in 2018- they were running ads in airports, had launched an almost ready website n social media accounts, all beaming about the soon to launch new airline. But all of 2018 there’s been no signs of the airline taking off. Hopefully sometime in 2019 Star Air will take to skies, connecting Hubli, Bengaluru, Tirupati, Pune, New Delhi etc.

5. More direct flights between US and India

As of now, only Air India flies non-stop between US and India. However there’re news of Delta and United planning non-stop flights to India. I am curious to see if this brings down average cost of flying between US and India (right now one needs to spend around 60k INR at the minimum for a round trip ticket)

6. What happens to WOW Air!

WOW Air is an Iceland based budget airline, but now reportedly in deep financial trouble. They are cutting several routes, including flights to Delhi, Los Angeles etc, returning aircrafts and firing staff to stay afloat. Would that be enough? Will the survive through 2019? Will they re-introduce India routes? I will be curious to keep an eye.

7. ATF Prices

Throughout most of 2018 fuel prices were on the higher side. Only towards the end it has begun to get a bit cheaper. Because of higher fuel cost, most airlines were unable to profit this year and subsequently, they couldn’t offer ultra-low fares during sales n promotions as they used to do earlier. If ATF price can remain low and stable for most of 2019, this could mean lower ticket prices for passengers in 2019. Let us see what 2019 brings to us.

8. Will Chinese airlines expand their footprint in India?

At present, if you’re flying out of Delhi or Mumbai to international destinations, there’s very high chance that you’ll find Chinese airlines like Air China or China Eastern offering the lowest price via their hubs in China. Reportedly Chinese govt is subsidizing their airlines to win more business in Asia. This is worrisome to Middle East and Europe based airlines, but as of now impact is limited because Chinese airlines are largely limited to Delhi n Mumbai while Emirates, Etihad, Qatar etc fly to 10-20 cities in India. I will be curious to see if Chinese airlines extend their tentacles to other Indian cities in 2019

9. Where else I can fly with Air Asia?

Air Asia has cut lots of destinations this year- flights to Auckland are being discontinued from Feb 2019, Air Asia X Indonesia is being closed, Chiang Mai-Yangon, Chennai-BBI and many such routes are being discontinued. With lots of planes now free n more aircrafts expected in 2019, I am curious to see which new destinations AirAsia will introduce in 2019. If the destination excites me and if I can get super cheap fares, will be the first to book.

10. Will Air India be sold in 2019?

With Jet Airways cutting its network and facing huge uncertainty, it is a golden opportunity to rival Air India to step up its game and gain more market share and passenger trust- only if it has any intention of doing it.  Air India sale was attempted couple of times in 2018 but nothing materialized. From what I have seen, Air India is overstaffed and many have become lethargic, developing a sense of I don’t care attitude. Would the government continue to pour tax payer money to keep Air India afloat? Will some sale materialize in 2019? Will Air India be able to cut its losses? Will the pride of Maharaja be sustained or it will get worse? Only time will tell

These are 10 things I am eagerly looking forward to see/know in 2019. What are yours? Are there any particular development you’re looking forward to w.r.t aviation industry in 2019?

WOWAir to suspend Delhi-Iceland flights from Jan 2019

Yesterday while I was browsing through WOW Air website I was in for a rude surprise. WOW Air website was not accepting any bookings to and from Delhi after Jan 20th.

Take a look at screenshots..

This sounded too odd, due to following reasons

• WOW Air had started Delhi flights only too recently-from December 7th. Jan 2019 is bit too early to give up on this route
• There were no official words on it- no mails to those who have tickets, no press releases etc
• It seemed business as usual with WOW Air advertising Xmas promo with 50% off, valid for travel till end of March 2019

After offer, it is now possible to fly from Delhi to Iceland (or other destinations world wide) to and fro for as low as about INR 22000, even cheaper than 26998 they were offering earlier.

Though I had my doubts on WOW Air, various events and news gave assurance that there's nothing to worry

-They started Delhi flight on December 7 as per plan without any postponement or issues

-We say news that they got new investor (Iceland Air)

-After initially opening bookings only till March 2019, WOW Air extended it till October 2019, hinting that they are committing long term to Indian market

-In one TV interview WOW Air founder had said that Delhi is doing very well for them.

Now this faith is shaken.

I didn't want to post something immediately and spread panic. I put a question to WOW Air on their twitter and FB. I waited till today, to see if this was any temporary issue or website glitch.

Today things got more clear. Few twitter users confirmed their fear that WOW Air may suspend India flights from Jan 20th. WOW Air has responded as below

While flight schedules and networks are constantly reworked by airlines all over the world, it is odd to stop accepting booking- usually airlines continue to accept booking and once new schedule is in, affected passengers are given option to take alternate flight or refund. WOW Air suspending bookings altogether hints they don't want any head ache to collecting money and then refunding it, losing a part of it (for bank commission, staff overheads etc)

Support/Social media teams are not confirming one way or the other- they are not confirming flights are cancelled, they are not confirming they will operate. This could mean the following

1. WOW Air management doesn't want to announce cancellation of Delhi flights yet- because it was launched just a week ago, it will be a big PR issue if they admit its discontinuation so soon. Then probably want to release this news a bit later to soften the impact

2. If they have decided to operate flights till Jan 20, 2019, they don't want to miss any opportunity of making money- announcing cancellation beyond Jan 20th will reduce chances of someone booking any ticket with WOW Air ex Delhi from now till Jan 20th. So they will probably announce the bad news as late as possible.

3. May be WOW Air is still making some last ditch effort to keep the route open- like trying to get funds from investors etc. If this succeeds, which I hope it will, somehow, they might silently re-open Delhi flights.

What went wrong?

There're multiple factors. Some of them as far as I can list, as below

1. WOW Air is running out of funds. It has been known since sometime that WOW Air is having financial troubles. It was cutting routes to US, was trying various other options. But then almost every airline in the world has some sort of financial trouble, so it was too early to predict the worst.
Update: this seems to be the reason- airline has decided to trim its fleet, return most A330s (needed for Delhi route)

2. IcelandAir buyout didn't happen: Then there was news that Iceland Air will buy WOW Air- A month later we read that Iceland Air has backed out. This means WOW Air isn't getting the funds it was hoping to get and is in desperate need to cut costs and spending.

3. Delhi route is not performing as per expectation

When WOW Air announced India operation, they advertised a low fare of INR 13499 one way to any destination on that network. This was tempting enough (as low as half of what a full service airline would charge) but my guess is not enough tickets were sold. Reasons could be as below

• Wrong timing: December-Feb is winter in most destinations WOW Air flies- Europe, Canada, US etc. So tourists don't have a motive to go there, as there won't be much to do in snowfall.
• New Airline: Because Indians are not used to WOW Air, they were probably adopting a wait n watch strategy- to see how this airline operates, what feedback others give and then consider booking. This meant it would take a few months for word of mouth publicity to spread and more people consider WOW Air
• No free cabin baggage: Most other LCCs like AirAsia allow one 7kg cabin bag free. WOW Air was allowing only one small personal item. How to go all the way to Canada/USA without food, baggage? If all add-ons were to be purchased, WOW Air's pricing had not much savings compared to full service airlines.
• Visa: All destinations WOW Air flies to, Indians need Visa, which is a complicated process and expense in itself. US visa is toughest to get, Iceland visa needs colour xerox of all passport pages and so on- an additional expense of 8-12k INR plus a processing time of few weeks to few months- This is probably a deterrent to budget travelers or opportunistic travelers who fly to wherever it is cheap to whenever it is cheap.
• Not appealing to business travelers- Most of India-US, India-Canada traffic is of businessmen, working professionals who travel on company's money- Low cost model doesn't appeal to them. WOW Air's target market is limited to leisure travelers who are eager to save every penny possible, even if it means limited services and lots of inconveniences.

Over time I have seen that WOW Air did several desperate attempt to fill up their planes- they reduced fares to just 10999, did fair bit of promotions, PR events, campaigns in India, ran a free honeymoon contest and so on. Even now on select dates it is possible to book a round trip on WOW Air network for about 25000 INR, lower than what they had originally planned (27000). Usually airlines sell first few seats for a loss or very low price to attract passengers, then gradually increase the rate for remaining seats. Not being able to sell ex-Delhi seats (at least part of them) at increased price has probably put WOW Air Delhi route under pressure and made it economically non-viable to operate.

WOW Air has not sent any email to customers who have their bookings with WOW Air for travel dates beyond Jan 21 2019. They deserve to know- because after booking a ticket, people spend more money on visa, hotel bookings and so on. If the airline is not going to operate the flight, they need to know asap, not few days before planned departure.

Also I am hoping WOW Air will promptly refund the booking money taken from current bookings between Jan 21 and October 30th and won't go bankrupt like Primea Air.

Also wondering what happens to those who are flying to Delhi on the last flight on say 19th Jan- what if they miss the connecting flight due to late arrival of incoming flight? Will WOW Air send them home on another airline or the passengers have to fend for themselves?

Personally it is a disappointing news if true. If you enter a new market, at least commit to it for 3-4 months before withdrawing. All the effort put into Delhi launch will go waste and this will impact other new destinations WOW Air may look to enter, as people will suspect airline's commitment. I have a few tickets myself with WOW air affected by this and now have to see what happens to it. I also feel guilty having repeated posted about WOW Air's offers and making others book, who now will have to wait for refund and face inconvenience and disappointment due to this sudden decision by WOW Air.

Disclaimer: This post carries interpreted news based on information available in WOW Air's website and reliable news available in public domain and not officially endorsed/confirmed by WOW Air. Please use your discretion or cross check.

So what next?

I hope I am totally wrong on this post. We can only wait and watch while WOW Air either confirms withdrawal from India market or silently resumes flights and opens booking beyond Jan 20th. Hopefully it is the later. If it is the former, Airlineblog.in is probably the first blog/website to identify and reveal this sad news.

Update: I found two news articles confirming this development: One on Business Standard and one more here The main reason said to be the decision to return all A330s, not load factor.  Chicago and Los Angeles routes are also axed.

FlyScoot now accepts payment in INR

Despite operating flights to and from India since several years, Scoot airline wasn’t supporting INR payment so far. We had to pay in USD or SGD which meant a few hundred additional rupees would be lost as banks charge their own conversion rates and fee for supporting USD payment.

Recently I noticed that Scoot website now accepts payment in INR. This is a welcome move. 

Hope they introduce more India friendly changes in future (such as more Indian food options), matching AirAsia's fares and so on (at present Scoot prices are 15-20% higher than AirAsia for most destinations. If Scoot can match (or better) AirAsia a lot would prefer Scoot as Changi is much better airport to transit through and their dreamliners are better than AirAsia's A330 for long haul. There're many other drawbacks/limitations in Scoot w.r.t. Air Asia- a detailed comparison post is due from my side.

I read that there’re also lots of realignment happening within Singapore Airlines, SilkAir and Scoot (all belong to same parent company and based in Singapore). Need to wait n watch how these changes affect Indian passengers.  You can read my previous TigerAir experience here (had chance to fly to Singapore on Tiger Air also between Sydney and Melbourne.

Vistara stops Chennai-Kochi flights

 I flew Chennai-Auckland on AirAsia earlier this year and then Air Asia announced they are suspending flights to Auckland from 2019

I booked AirAsia Chennai-Bhuvaneshwar flights, AirAsia Suspends MAA-BBI flights permanently.

I had booked a flight to Yangon and Air Asia cancelled it (I had to fly on another flight with more connection time at airport and left me with less time at the destination)

Now one more to the list- I flew Air Vistara Chennai-Kochi this September, now it looks like Vistara is discontinuing this route.

While the "where we fly" map on AirVistara still shows Chennai-Kochi, the schedule section now shows that Chennai has flights only to Delhi, Kolkata and Port Blair, not Kochi

Attempt to make a booking between Chennai and Kochi is also resulting in an error. Delhi-Kochi twice a day flights are operational. Network re-adjustments are a constant process, as airlines try to cut loss making routes and fly to some other city expected to be more profitable. Probably the middle of the day timing of Chennai-Kochi wasn't very convenient for travelers and load wasn't good enough for Vistara. We don't really have much of a say in this matter. My best wishes to Vistara.

Update: Looks like WOW Air is also discontinuing New Delhi-Iceland flights.

Also read: Air Vistara Premium Economy experience * Air Vistara first time flying Chennai-Kochi experience  * Cheap transport to and from Kochi airport *

Annoying bugs/shortcomings on Srilankan Website

Srilankan Airline has pretty good service standards and fly to quite a decent number of destinations around the world from their hub in Colombo. I have booked 3 different trips on Srilankan this year- to Gan Island, To Colombo and to Beijing, during their February 50% off sale. Because they are a full service airline, flying them is a good experience particularly when we can grab cheap fares.

However, using Srilankan’s website is another story- it has several bugs and limitations and annoying behaviors, which are irritating. I hope Srilankan Airlines’s tech team fixes them asap

Here’s what I have been experiencing on Srilankan

1 No Forgot password button in login popup

Website home page as a small popup to let users login with their FlySmiles account. But if you forget the password, there’s no way you can request a reset. Forgot password option is pretty basic- wondering how designers missed it.

Unable to reset my password, I called the helpline- after long wait and going through multiple options, the human I could connect to transferred to another department saying she’s transferring me to ‘FlySmiles’ team. The gentleman who got the forwarded call said he needs to transfer my call to someone else as this password reset is technical thing. At this moment I lost my patience and disconnected.

A google search threw up this page for password reset- it works- if only a link to this page could be given from the login popup in Srilankan’s home page, life would have been so simpler

2 Can’t login with email

Many airline websites and their loyalty programs allow you to login with your email as login ID. This is a lot simpler, instead of remembering long multi digit loyalty program numbers. But Srilankan won’t let you login with email. You’ve to scan your mails, get your UL Fly Smiles number and then attempt to login.

3 Won’t list my bookings in one place

Upon login, I might wish to see all my past and future bookings- Srilankan has no such provision. I have to retrieve my booking by entering Booking reference number one at a time. Even Jet Airways has this problem. We’ve to store booking details elsewhere and then retrieve it on the airline website- which isn’t really convenient.

4 Buggy seat selection process

I tried selecting seats for my Colombo-Beijing leg on their A330-300. While selecting the seat, it showed Zero rupees as fee. But next stage I was slapped with a payment demand of some INR 1200. Getting ride of this (saying I am fine with earlier seats and don’t want to pay) was a pain. Ignore changes option won’t work, log out and relogin won’t solve the problem- it still says payment is pending- can’t go back to seat selection process (wasn’t available) so that I could select a free seat instead)- had to call and take help of customer care.

5 No search/sort options in Redeem rewards section.

I have 2720 loyalty points. When I tried to redeem, there was no search option- can’t search by points, can’t search by items, can’t sort items in the order of increasing or decreasing order of points. Have to browse each category one by one. Inflight, I had seen a pair of playing cards- the cheapest items that can be redeemed, costing some 732 points. But without a search option, I had to go into each category and browse through multiple pages before I could locate this item.

Then, out of 2720 points, only 720 are usable. 2000 points will remain there, can’t be redeemed. I need 732 points to redeem the playing cards but I am few points short. Only way to redeem it is order online before  your flight.  The time and effort I have to put to redeem just doesn’t seem worth it. I would probably ignore this whole points program as I fly too less and Srilankan’s terms and conditions, as well as process are too complicated. Here’s a detailed experience of me trying to redeem my miles from FlySmiles Account

6. Can’t modify search

While trying to book, we might want to modify the search, change some select parameters (like date or destination alone) and search again. But Srilankan doesn’t give such options, we have to enter every field values one more time. Many airline sites let you selectively modify and retry-saves lots of time. Other airline sites also remember previously used searches and allow reuse. At least I am thankful Srilankan defaults return date to 7 days from onward journey date, which is nice.

These points were from section of the website that I explored. If they review entire website, they will find lot more such possible improvements.

Srilankan seem to have a good feedback collection process-during my Colombo Beijing flight I was asked if I would like to fill detailed feedback form. It was 5-6 pages long, I patiently filled it as much as I could. But it didn’t have some extra space for free text remarks. Also they won’t take my details from my seat number- had to write my name, address and other details again. Hopefully they will take my feedback in this post and improve their website. I had 3 good trips with them this year- to Srilanka, Gan Island and Beijing and will book more in future if I get good price. Just that their website is unable to stay abreast with the experience competition airlines are able to offer. Fixing above isn’t really effort intensive, some directives to IT team and they can fix it.

Hope Srilankan website is improved before I book my next flight with them