India's Kingfisher Plans First U.S. Service To SFO, New York

Aviation Daily ^ | 11/22/2006 | Steven Lott

[sukhoi-30mki]

[sukhoi-30mki]

[lesser_satan]

Their logo would look a lot better on a Boeing. Those Airbuses are some butt-ugly planes.

[Paleo Conservative]

With the A340-500, Mallya claims Kingfisher will be the only carrier with the equipment to operate the flight nonstop to the U.S. West Coast. "People will argue that the Boeing 777-200LR can do the same thing, but there are a lot of [weight and extended twin-engine operations] problems," he said.

Supposedly the Indian government won't give permission for ETOPS for new carriers till they have a few years in operations.

If you want on or off my aerospace ping list, please contact me by Freep mail.

[COEXERJ145]

Being a member of Airliners.net, I should warn you that a lot of photographers over there tend to be very anal when someone uses their photo without permission, especially on the Internet.

[buccaneer81]

Uh, no. I think not.

[Doctor Raoul]

What's the significance of the shading on the route map?

[Paleo Conservative]

What's the significance of the shading on the route map?

ETOPS limits. I posted the lower map with 60, 120, and 180 minute limits. If you click on the image, you can get to the page I used go generate the maps.

[phantomworker]

Wow, that second map is interesting.

[Paleo Conservative]

Which one?

[Paleo Conservative]

Which one?

Whoops, I didn't see the word "second".

[PandaRosaMishima]

I swaer, my first thought was: And where are Amos & Andy in this? Which one gets to fly the plane?
The thought of a Kingfisher-type shyster, with an Indian accent, only gives me hysterics. To anyone who remembers the old controverisal series, Kingfisher was unforgetable with his get-rich-quick schemes, the man who taught Mr. Haney (of Green Acres) everything he knew. My father still thinks A&A the funniest show ever written, once you get past the accents; and I fear I've been around him too long.

[Paleo Conservative]

Look at this map of great circle routes SYD-DFW and SYD-IAH. You can see why QANTAS is interested in the 747-8I to fly to DFW rather than the 777-200LR. I set the ETOPS limits to 180, 240, and 330.

[phantomworker]

Cool. They look so 3 dimensional.

I see what you mean about using these maps to make decisions on type of airplanes to purchase. Thanks.

[Paleo Conservative]

In order to fly from SYD to IAH, it is necessary to have an ETOPS 240 rating for both the aircraft and the airline. With headwinds, it might require ETOPS 330. QANTAS wants to be able to fly to DFW, because that would allow their One World partner American Airlines to feed passengers from most cites in the middle of the US and east of the Mississippi with just one connecting flight. Currently lots of those cities require two connections before transfering to QANTAS at LAX. DFW also has advantages that it has lots of available capacity compared to LAX, and it has a brand new international terminal with rather light traffic. If the Bermuda II treaty prohibiting flights between LHR and ATL, IAH, and DFW were dissolved, British Airways could code share with QANTAS between LHR and AKL via DFW. Currently they code share that route through LAX which is a close to capacity limits.

[Apercu]

The Kingfisher is a beautiful bird but I hope the airline doesn't perform like it's animal kingdom namesake unless it is also a submarine.

[balch3]

you'd get quite a scenic view on that route.

[sukhoi-30mki]

Actually the real reason for not granting overseas clearance is that it will push the national carriers, Air India & Indian airlines over the hill.The North American & Middle Eastern sectors are a virtual monopoly for Air India as of now.The moment Kingfisher,Jet & other private carriers enter those sectors,the government will have to undertake drastic restructuring if not disinvestment of the 2 national carriers,which anyway is inevitable.

[sukhoi-30mki]

The advent of upto 6-8 major private players on the Indian domestic market has shaken Indian airlines to undertake modernisation,which may not be enough,though.

[Paleo Conservative]

Well there's almost alway a real reason and a stated reason why bureacracies make their rules.