LH to get new slots to India

[SailorOrion]

Now that Air India has been given 5th freedom rights on the FRA-ORD sector, it seems that LH will receive some 7+ new daily slots for flights into India.

Under consideration are:
Hyderabad
Kochi
additional frequencies to Bangalore
additional frequencies to Dehli

LH has expressed strong interest in adding a new flight from MUC to DEL.

Opinions?

SailorOrion

[rsoman]

Hyderabad - YES
Bangalore - Surely yes - they already have 3 x
Kochi - forget it! The only way Kochi will be viable is to have extension of one of the Middle East flights to Kochi with fifth freedom- Else not enough traffic. Plus evryone from QR to EK to UL not to forget AI flies from there and you have Silk Air flying non stop to Singapore which takes away all the US /Canada west coast traffic.

Additinal flights to DEL- I guess MUC can work as well if it provides a connection to the US/Europe flights. When AZ switched the BOM FCO flights to MXP there was no drop in loads because of the same reason - most of the load is not Origin Destination traffic (although there will be more of it for MUC).

This is what me thinks!

Cheers

[SailorOrion]

Scheduling flight to India is always a big pain.

But there are some configurations which might work out:

Noon option:
Out: Depart MUC around noon, arrive DEL late evening
In: Night Layover, depart DEL VERY early morning (around 0530-0600) arrive in MUC around 1030.
Pros: Best connection options to US (currently: EWR (business only), ORD, LAX, BOS, MIA (in the winter), IAD (UA), PHL (US), YYZ(AC)), flights to all major and minor European LH cities.
Cons: 8 hour ground time in DEL.

Short-layover noon option:
Same as above, but flight departs DEL sometime around midnight.
Pros: same connections as above, short layover time
Cons: very long connecting time for Pax in MUC

Alternative-Time flight.
Out: Departs MUC at 2100 (together with the far-east bank) Arrive DEL at around 0700.
In: Depart DEL at around 0900, arrive MUC 1400
Pros: This would provide an alternative to the currently existing flight, which more or less all depart DEL at pretty crappy times (middle of the night), offers connections to the (somewhat smaller) afternoon US bank (JFK, SFO, YUL, I guess NRT is of no interest). At least one of the new US flights (CLT and/or DEN) will probably end up in this group as well.
Cons: fewer intercontinental and continental connections than the primary banks at 1100 and 1900.

SailorOrion

[akerosid]

Is there any particular reason why most European flights arrive/depart very late in the evening/early morning; there are very few (such as VS and SK, now ended) which arrived in the early morning and left at a civilised hour.

To my knowledge, DEL's international terminal isn't the most sophisticated and it must surely be a nightmare to have a dozen or so long haul flights all scheduled to leave at the same time?

[SailorOrion]

I presume it is mainly for the connection to the U.S. flights, so that pax from India can get right onto their transatlantic flights. Considering that most transatlantic flights leave late morning / early afternoon, they schedule the India flights so that they arrive in the morning, therefore the middle-of-the-night departure time. The same is true for North Africa and the Middle East.

SailorOrion

[Jordan D]

It seems that the best option is with BA, who leave early enough and get into LHR at a decent hour, giving passengers only a 3 to 4 hour wait ...

The alternative is to wait for EK to start doing services to USA, or to use AI ... and remember the only reason they have 5th freedom rights FRA-ORD, is a back up in case they fail to get same rights to LAX.

Jordan

[SailorOrion]

Jordan D:

I quite disagree, both LH and BA leave DEL at quite the same time (0225 and 0210) but I consider that an unacceptable departure time actually. Besides, if LH gets those slots they will offer quite a bit more flight to/from India than BA does. Also I find a 3 or 4 hour wait nothing to be called "only". There I prefer my idea to leave DEL at around 0930, arrive in MUC at around 1430 and continue to the Americas somewhere at 1515 to 1545, which is much much more convenient.

SailorOrion

[Jordan D]

What you want is one thing, but the European airlines have good reason to operate for a midnight turn around, as that is the most convient for passenger thru-flow.

As someone who regularly flies to BOM for family reasons, its something that is part and parcel of the trip.

Jordan