REGIONAL PLAYERS IN INDIA
and within four hours as medium haul on domestic routing. While one could fly a regional jet from Bengaluru to Delhi, it would not make sense as there is traffic density, requiring a narrow-body single-aisle aircraft up to 180 seats.
In view of the traffic load factors between major and metro airports, the regional aircraft becomes irrelevant. Hence, we see regional aircraft deployed between metros and non-metros with flying time, invariably less than two hours. The pick of regional aircraft for the operators are: Embraer’s E-Jets family; Bombardier’s CRJ; Bombardier’s turboprop Q400s and the ATR family of turboprops. ATR holds a dominant share in the Indian regional aviation market. In India, we have four regional players – Air India Regional; Air Costa; Air Pegasus and TruJet. Air India Regional operates a mixed fleet of turboprops and regional jets (three CRJ and nine ATR aircraft). Air Pegasus and TruJet fly ATR aircraft while Air Costa has deployed Embraer E-Jets. Besides, we have mainline operators such as SpiceJet and Jet Airways who use turboprops on short haul journeys. It truly is a case of capacities and presently capacities are being created in Tier-II and Tier-III cities. The obvious choice of aircraft is between the two – turboprop or regional jet. as Pondicherry has a 4,500 feet runway which comfortably accommodates the ATR 72, imposes load or range restrictions on the Q400 due to lower uplifted fuel; but greater restrictions on the regional jets.
As can be seen, the deployment of ATR in India is by five players as it displays better fuel economy, though speed could be a major limitation. “For a typical Bengaluru-Hyderabad sector, which is 250 nm, the aircraft consumes approximately 770 kg of fuel. The Q400 consumes close to 1,000 kg, the CRJ700 consumes close to 1,200 kg and the Embraer E170 1,300 kg, all three aircraft carrying 78 passengers. Fuel consumption for the regional jets will operationally be lower, as even with a full passenger load, the fuel burnt for a 250 nm trip is just 10 to 13 per cent of the tank capacity, keeping the aircraft close to 4,000 kg lighter than the maximum take-off weight and thus burning lesser fuel.” On a typical short route of 300 nm the fuel consumption of an ATR 72 is roughly half that of a regional jet.