Faced with the huge surge in operating costs, due to rising input costs, many of the airlines in India and over the world are getting down to the drawing board to find every little nook and cranny that they can squeeze excess expenditurefrom.
Apart from the obvious moves like lay-off and lowered appraisals for employees, the airlines are looking deep into nibbling at amenities, ?even some basic amenities?, to pare operational expenses. The domestic airlines have already decided to prune routes by 20% and have hangered gas-guzzler planes,replacing them with fuel-efficient ones or smaller turboprops. This form of cost cutting by cutting back on the perks of flying was first started by American airlines but has steadfastly moved to the rest of the world. Airlines companies in India were in any case battling lower growth rates, the fuel hike has only worsened it.
Through 2006-07, the number of passengers flying the domestic routes rose 38% over the previous year. In 2007-08, with fares rising, the growth rate dropped to 22%. Many domestic airlines have already started asking their logistics and ground-handling agencies to fill the aircraft?s water tank to only 60% of capacity, though none of them are ready to admit it.
And that?s not all. The airlines are doing whatever they can to reduce the weight of the aircraft and everything that is not necessary is losing a place on most of the full service carriers. ?We have removed everything that is not needed even if it is bolted to the ground,? one official with a premier full service carrier in the country said. ?We have pulled out unused ovens, changed metal food carts with lighter fibre ones and replaced glassware with plastics weight.?
Some American airlines have started charging $15 for the first bag and $25 for the second. More bizarre steps are the ones by some airlines in China, asking its passengers to relieve themselves before boarding not only to reduce aircraft weight but also to reduce the amount of fuel it takes to power the flush of airline toilet at 30,000 feet.
Estimates say toilet flushes use about a litre of fuel enough to power an economical car at least 10 kilometers.
The civil aviation ministry has already started initiatives to help the airlines like sharing airspace with the defence forces and upgrading communications equipment so that aircrafts can fly in a straight line. Earlier the approved Chennai-Mumbai flight path was 14% longer than the straight line, which meant the several dozens of aircraft that fly this route spent that much extra time and fuel.
The ministry has also suggested dynamic take-off and landing systems where a flight that is going to be late at its destination due to congestion should take-off late to avoid unnecessary hovering over an airport.