主题：【原创】运七与中国的航空发展之路 -- 大厨

这里还有个坑留着呢，一方面是最近比较忙，另一方面是跟一些朋友有意识地讨论过之后，感觉还需要再补充些资料才好继续。不过这里刚巧有一篇关于印度LCC的文章，出自ORIENT AVIATION, VOL.13, OCT, 2005,摘录下来供大家参考，对国内的情况也又不少借鉴意义，也算偷个懒，填两锹土。

题目：Air Deccan, an LCC to the core, by Tom Ballantyne

India's first low-cost carrier, Air Deccan, has just celebrated its second birthday, . But unlike its local rivals, the airline will remain focused on the country's enormous domestic market and resist the temptation to spread its wings internationally.

-----Air Deccan started off with one ATR turboprop on one route and the launch was inauspicious. On the inaugural flight, an engine caught fire before it got off the ground.

注：TURPROP指涡轮螺旋桨飞机，刚古狗了一下，这里是指ATR42，国内新疆有5架72，据说亏损很严重。

It turned out to be a minor hiccup. By the end of this year, Air Deccan will be flying a fleet of 19 ATRs and 11 A320s, operating 174 flights a day, linking more than 35 airports. It has ordered 32 more ATRs and 30 A320s.

-----( Captain Gopinath, managing director, Air Deccan ) , the 52 year old former Indian Army aviation captain explained:" Europe has close to 40,000 flights a day for one quarter of our population and the U.S has even more. If America had our population or if we had their economy, you would need 160,000 flights per day.

If we take 1% of it as the potential, you would need 1,600 flights a day straight away." he said. The domestic market is approaching 19 million passengers annually. Five million more a year are expected, which will make around 50 million by 2010.

Capt. Fopinath will not divulge financial details about Air Deccan, but said the airline is making a profit. With per kilometer, seat costs on its Airbus fleet at around $0.04 and at $0.08 on the ATRs, the airline turned over $100 million in its first year and expecteds sales of $230 million in its second.

------Unlike many LCC start-ups, he did not opt to buy jets and link big cities. His plan was simple. Firstly, link up the small airports using ATRs and connect them to India's major cities, the "Metros".

Then buy jets and gradually grow the network to include both small towns and major centers..

"I come from a village where farmers used home-made tooth powder and a stick to clean their teeth. Today, compannies like Samsung and LG and motoring companies like Hyundai and Honda are talking about a population explosion of 400 to 500 million middle-class and lower middle-class people--it's the other India. It crossed my mind nobody was looking at this sector as a source of air ticket sales," he said.

Small towns and villages throughout the country had no connectivity, " One day I asked one of my charter pilots to list all the airports we had in India, big and small. I discovered we had 400 airports that were "unused", some going back to World War II. Some were big enough to take Boeings, other s only suitable for turpoprops," he said.

His business plan banked on the fact that India had changed. " There is a new enthusiasm, a new self-confidence in the coutry. India has arrived as a major world economy," said Capt. Gopinath.

----Critics warned Capt. Gopinath three reasons would prevent his airline from being a success: India was an over-regulated market, airports were a nightmare and there was insufficient internet penetration.

"I knew in my bones that if you could creat an airline model in the India continent for the Indian people it was possible to overcome there obstacles. For me the dream was so powerful. The vision was to go to small towns and make it possible for middle-class and lower middle-class Indians to fly , to creat a business model and business strategy that is sustainable for 40 to 50 years."

评论：很赞赏他的lower middle class的观点，目前国内商家的眼睛，不光是民航领域，都集中在所谓middle class, 甚至所谓“成功人士”， 这刚刚富裕起来，有了一点，又不是很多消费能力的lower middle可能还真不被看上眼。

----" We are averaging 85% occupancy on our ATRs and 90% on our Airbus."

As India's airline market continues to boom and the country liberalises its air routes, the airline boss has no ambitions to spread the carrier's wings overseas. " We are very clearly focused on domestic services because the domestic market is so huge and there are so many airports still unconnected."

评论：中国的情况何其相似！

And Air Deccan is competing successfully with the railway, the nation's most common means of transport. " Between Bombay and Delhi you have to wait 45 to 60 days before you can get an air-contioned second class berth on the train. All our tickets are below first class prices and a large number of our seats are below the air-conditioned second class price," he said.

评论：看来这印度的火车问题还真不小。得感谢我们的铁路这些年的进步。

"We have 20 million peopel travelling by train in India every day and there are only 16 million people travelling by air in a year. If you transfer 5% of the train passengers , it's another million air traveller. We are very closedly focused on "mining" the bottom part of the pyramid.

One thing he will not do is spend money on frills. " We are not going to pay Singapore Airlines to come and groom our air hostesses to do a better job in service delivery. It's not that its not important, but we are very clearly focused on price. If you do anything to increase price it will "undermine" the brand as a LCC. We are not embarrassed about it. We are very proud of the fact that we can give wings to millions of Indians who could never fly before."

评论: 这位印度老板就差用中文喊出“为人们服务”了。

----忽然发现这内容称原创不合适，不过为了这一系列的统一，就原谅自己这一次了，毕竟也花了不少时间一字一句敲进去的。