Continental Airlines To launch in 2009 BLR, HYD, MAA, BOM - Airliners-India

sri_bom · Member

Continental Airlines To launch in 2009 BLR, HYD, MAA, BOM

karatecatman · Member

sri_bom wrote:

Continental Airlines confirmed it is considering launching services to Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad and Mumbai when it takes delivery of B787s from 2009 . The carrier currently operates non-stop New York-Delhi service.

(Hindu Business Line, 20-Nov-06

I think 2009 would be like coming too late for the party, unless this is a typo error by the journo at Hindu...

Air India will be ahead of them, though there will be a one-stop in Europe. AI is to use its new 777-300s on these routes by June 2007.

The SDD for Continental's 787s are 2009. Report is right.

Nimish · Member

This is great news, and I'm confident that CO will make a killing! Whether business or VFR traffic, no one wants to connect in BOM or DEL. And given CO's great hub at EWR, making one connection at EWR is definitely the best option for most travellers - who can gain from a one-stop route from almost any point in the US to major cities in India.

This is the kind of strategy that 9W and AI need to start thinking of, but I think they're too deeply embedded in the hub BOM/DEL strategy for the moment and risk loosing the first mover advantage.

tayara mechanici · Member

Nimish wrote:

And given CO's great hub at EWR, who can gain from a one-stop route from almost any point in the US to major cities in India.

This is the kind of strategy that 9W and AI need to start thinking of, but I think they're too deeply embedded in the hub BOM/DEL strategy for the moment and risk loosing the first mover advantage.

How is AI / 9Ws strategy diff from CO ? AI / 9W are building up a network out of DEL/BOM. They will eventually connect the major cities of the world to most cities in India with a single connection, similar to CO's out of EWR & IAH . I doubt if CO flies long haul out of every major metro in USA.

AI has been clever while introducing new routes, it has always started long haul flts from metros other than DEL / BOM only after build up of critical mass by the competition. CCU is a recent example.

Anyway, I'll be looking forward to these non-stops to HYD, BLR & MAA. This wil definately result in lowering the ticket prices to Europe.

ArtofZen · Member

Looking forward to see CO 787s in Bombay.

Aseem · Member

for the sake of discussion, lets compare three real and hypothetical flights and see which of them is most advantages to the passenger. The difference being that one has hub in India, other in US and in Europe...

AI: IC from BLR-DEL and DEL-IAH

AF: BLR-CDG and CDG-IAH

CO: BLR-EWR and EWR-IAH

So, what will a passenger traveling from BLR to IAH opt for?

What will be his priorities keeping the price the same?

Will he still be averse to tranisiting from Indian or European hub?

What other factors will come into play?

lets have a bit of brainstorming.

rgds

VT-ASJ

ArtofZen · Member

Transferring from Domestic to International terminals in India (not sure if u have to do it in Delhi) might weigh against transfering in an Indian city.

My 2 cents.

-- Edited by ArtofZen at 22:18, 2006-11-21

karatecatman · Member

Aircraft type plays an important role.

So in this situation we may have types Boeing 777-300, 777-200ER, 777-200LR.

Factor of non-stop, full payload has to be takne into account.

blrsea · Recruit

The prime considerations:

1. PRICE
2. Connectivity. If I can get to say SEA with BA BLR-LHR-SEA, then I would prefer that over AI's BLR-BOM-JFK-SEA route!!.
3. My personal preference is to have to similar legs of 10 hours each, compared to legs of 15 hr, 2hr, 4 hr etc.
4. Service on the plane.
5. IFE options on the plane :)

tayara mechanici · Member

As we all know pax are generally segmented into Business and Leisure.

Business preferences generally revolve around TIME (Sector & Dep/Arr), RELIABILITY (punctual), IFS, COMFORT, FFP & PRICE. Priorities differing as per individuals / corporates. A corporate traveller will prefer minimum loss of working hrs. A well planned schedule on a comfortable flt with shower and meal on arrival (depending on time of the day) will always be attractive.

Leisure preferences are PRICE, TIME & IFS. All other factors are commensurate to price i.e. like the absolute thrift, that travels on Syrian and Yemenia to LHR. The flts dep at odd times with long transit times in airports that make DEL / BOM proud.

IMO Business travellers will end up choosing the best 2 airlines, the rest will have to fight for the leisure traffic. Airlines from India have an advantage due to their domicile advantages i.e. Domestic FFP etc. But how they exploit this to their advantage will become evident only with time. I place my bets on IT to position itself as 1 of the 2 preferred Airlines for the Business traveller to USA. 9W has squandered its first mover advantage by chasing SAHARA, its not going to get out of this fiasco unhurt-badly.

Nimish · Member

Aseem wrote:

for the sake of discussion, lets compare three real and hypothetical flights and see which of them is most advantages to the passenger. The difference being that one has hub in India, other in US and in Europe...

AI: IC from BLR-DEL and DEL-IAH

AF: BLR-CDG and CDG-IAH

CO: BLR-EWR and EWR-IAH

Excellent example Aseem - thanks for the post.

Let's take the VFR traveller first - typically very price sensitive. This lot would choose the cheapest option - even if that had a long layover or bad on-board service. Hence probably go with IC/AI combination via DEL.

Next let's take the regular Indian business traveller - where flight reliability and schedule is as important as price. This person would probably choose AF or CO, simply because of the AI's terrible reliability. In addition, DEL is a pain to transfer at (domestic->intl), though I hear CDG is not much better.

Next let's take the American business traveller - who probably already has a CO or a Skyteam FFP program. His flight would probably depend entirely on his FFP membership, and in this instance would be advantage CO.

So all in all, AI/IC seems to be the looser, with CO gaining a slight edge due to the loyalty factor in it's home market.

Seat 13A · Member

Options 2 or 3 over 1.

As for option 2, if the option were something other than CDG, I would choose that one. You clear customs at the last point and go home.

As for option 3, you need to clear customs, re-check in and go searching for the domestic flights after that really looong flight. Don't know about EWR, but in ORD and YYZ it is not as easy to change planes as it is in, say, LHR or SIN. People don't want to deal with the hassle of checking in baggage more than once. A non-stop to an entry point in the US and then a domestic segment is not that attractive (especially older travelers).

Jaysit · Member

Nimish wrote:

This is great news, and I'm confident that CO will make a killing! Whether business or VFR traffic, no one wants to connect in BOM or DEL. And given CO's great hub at EWR, making one connection at EWR is definitely the best option for most travellers - who can gain from a one-stop route from almost any point in the US to major cities in India.

This is the kind of strategy that 9W and AI need to start thinking of, but I think they're too deeply embedded in the hub BOM/DEL strategy for the moment and risk loosing the first mover advantage.

But you cannot compare AI with CO. AI is not a US-based carrier. At best, all it can do is establish a single hub in the US in an alliance with a US carrier. Being an Indian carrier, it can only establish a hub(s) in India. If you don't want to make multiple stops enroute to your US destination of choice and wish to avoid having to undergo immigration and customs at your first US point of entry followed by baggage claim, check-in, and a second baggage claim at your final destination, then the best choice is either taking an EU based carrier through its EU hub, or AI/9W/IT through an Indian hub. A daily 787 nonstop from a single Indian hub to secondary US cities like IAH, IAD, MIA is entirely possible if such a strategy is employed. I doubt if multiple daily nonstops from India are possible given all the other competition on the India-US routes. Of course, it all depends on having a well-run, modern, efficient single terminal at an Indian hub where transfers can take place efficiently.

tayara mechanici · Member

I doubt if multiple daily nonstops from India are possible given all the other competition on the India-US routes. Of course, it all depends on having a well-run, modern, efficient single terminal at an Indian hub where transfers can take place efficiently.

BOM-JFK/EWR and BLR-SFO/LAX are a distinct possibility as far as multiple non-stops go. If you break down the nationality of the travellers on the India-USA route 90% are of Indian origin. Out of this you could say 60% of the pax are resident in India. You'll find that from this lot of travellers the segment with the purchasing power to pay for a non-stop premium (All classes) fare are mainly from BOM/AMD or BLR/MAA. The ones with business or social contacts in BOM are predominantly resident in and around NYC (3hr drive time). While the ones from BLR/MAA reside along the bay (3hr drive time) area. This is purely speculation based on my personal observation, if there is any research data contradicting or supporting this theory, a link to it will be much appreciated.

As far as HYD goes IMO the ME airlines will be dominant at this destiantion because of the large number of worker from HYD working in the gulf. The gulf base workers will end up subsidizing the US based NRIs. Anybody with info on loads for the LH flts to HYD ?

tayara mechanici · Member

http://www.aviationnow.com/avnow/news/channel_comm_story.jsp?id=news/KING11226.xml

BOM-NYC and BLR-SFO non-stop by IT. Guess this proves, initially the market for non-stop is concentrated at BOM & BLR/MAA.

Air service anyone · Recruit

Wow!Thats a great news.I would love to see CO787 touching down at BLR's new int'l airport which will be operational by apr 2008.I think they might operate with their T7s to one of the cities.

Nimish · Member

Let's move further discussions to the new forum please! Thanks in advance.

New forum details at: Thread on New Forum