Kingfisher Airlines

Let's kick off with Kingfisher my personal choice for air travel in india... Why? I hear u ask, the answers are pretty simple.

The one time I was able travel on Kingfisher (on a standard economy class ticket) I was whisked from the airport entrance by a dude in a red blazer to their counter, he even pushed my trolley for me (this was in India!) after a prompt check-in procedure I could spend a few more precious moments bidding farewell to loved ones before I had to go through the gates (quite a contrast to the usual where one has to wait in a queue hoping that you won't have issues with luggage weight and that sort of thing).


Secondly Kingfisher which was launched in just 2005 only purchases new aircraft and this means you get to travel in a fleet that is still very new (they're still to receive the bulk of their orders). Kingfisher were the first domestic Indian airliner to launch a First class service and their aircraft are well-specced with in-flight entertainment options even for the economy (Kingfisher) class. Services such as personalized video screens and headphones broadcasting 5 video channels of the trendy FUN TV and the exclusive Kingfisher Radio - 10 channels of chartbusting music from across the globe, and individual moving map on the personalized video screen which continually keeps track of your aircraft's altitude and speed, as well as flight time remaining to keep you on top of things at all times are noteworthy for a domestic flight in any country (so in India, they're damn impressive).

In addition the luggage restrictions are reasonable, the onboard cuisine is more than satisfactory, the crew are professional (..and good looking ;) and the ticket prices are comparable to other carriers. These are the factors that draw me when I'm trying decide which flight to choose. Ahh... Go Ahead and 'Fly the Good Times' :)



About Kingfisher Airlines

Kingfisher Airlines is India's first and only private airline to receive the prestigious, 'Best New Airline of the Year' award in the Asia-Pacific and Middle East region from Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation (CAPA). Kingfisher Airlines has also been voted as the 3rd Most Successful Brand Launch of the Year 2005, in the annual Brand Derby Survey conducted by India's leading business daily-Business Standard. In another Survey conducted by agencyfaqs.com, Kingfisher Airlines was voted as the 8th Buzziest Brand of 2006 amongst 2000 leading national and international brands. Kingfisher Airlines has also bagged the "Service Excellence for a New Airline" award from Skytrax, a UK based specialist global air transport advisor.

Another addition to the list of laurels is the "Best New Domestic Airline for Excellent Services and Cuisine" award from Pacific Area Travel Writers Association (PATWA). In a survey conducted by IMB for the Times of India, 46% of the participants voted Kingfisher Airlines 'The Best Airline" and "India's Favourite Carrier". Kingfisher Airlines has also won the “Brand Leadership Award” in the service and hospitality segment against several acclaimed hotels, leading banks and other airlines. Lastly Kingfisher Airlines won the Economic Times Avaya Award for Excellence in “Customer Responsiveness” for 2006. The Award is highly acclaimed and is presented by India’s largest selling Economic daily, “Economic Times. For more information on Kingfisher Airlines log on to flykingfisher.com. Fly the Good Times with Kingfisher Airlines.

[Airbus photo obtained from airliners.net]

The (new) Indian aviation industry...

And keeping in line with my new theme of providing interesting stuff that I think might interest you; I've decided to post a few items on the recent boom in the air travel industry in the motherland.

Here's a quick question to get you thinking:

Q: How many domestic airline carriers are in operation in India today? Care to name them...

A: I only realised the scale of growth on my recent visits in 2005 and 2006. A quick check on Wikipedia reveals the following list:
* 1 Air Sahara (now taken over by Jet Airways and soon to be rebadged 'JetLite')
* 2 Jet Airways
* 3 Air India Express
* 4 Alliance Air
* 5 Paramount Airways
* 6 Indus Airways
* 7 Air Deccan
* 8 Go Air
* 9 IndiGo Airlines
*10 Kingfisher Airlines
*11 Spicejet
*12 Jagson Airlines

Yes that's 12 domestic carriers in operation today. Just four years ago, before India liberalised aviation, there were only three main domestic airlines!

Here's a piece I read somewhere on the net... 'During the financial year 2005 - 06, India's civil aviation industry achieved the biggest ever growth in aircraft movement and passenger traffic. Passenger traffic in the domestic airports increased by 22.3 per cent to 59.54 million, while aircraft movement increased by 14.2 per cent to 730 000.'

India is now the fastest growing aviation market in the world according to a recent article by the BBC.

The next couple of posts will take a closer look at specific airlines that have been making the headlines of late.

iGoogle

Ever heard of iGoogle? Browse to google.com and have a look on the top right hand corner, you'll probably see a link that plainly reads 'iGoogle'.

iGoogle which was previously known as 'Personalized google homepage' is a way to customise your google page with all sorts of information that you frequently access on the net (by clicking on 'personalised home' once in iGoogle). From your mail, news, sport and even weather; all these can be added in the form of 'gadgets' to your personal iGoogle. You'll have to sign in with your gmail login (whats that... you don't have a gmail account?! WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN all this time! Tsk tsk) and then you can search from hundreds (probably thousands of gadgets). Probably a good idea to save your login details (if you're using a private connection) and set your iGoogle as your homepage :)

Go ahead, try it out if you haven't already done so and if you're a regular on the net then you'll surely find it worthwhile.

Zamzar???

Zamzar is a free online file conversion site... and its brilliant. No need to register on the site, no cost involved and its legal; its plain, simple to use and very handy indeed!

Convert document, image, audio or video files (up to a size of 100MB) to another format. For example you can convert a Microsoft Word document (including the new 'docx' MS Word 2007 format) to 'pdf'; or a '3gp' (popular cellphone recording format) file to 'mpg' format. See the full list of available conversion formats here.

New Indian cricket kit on sale now...

The latest ODI kit for the 2007/08 season of team India by Nike is available on Amazon for $99 and from Cricshop (by cricinfo) for 40 pounds.

How safe is your car ???

Ever wondered how safe you and your loved ones would be in the event of a motor accident. Do various makes of vehicles offer various levels of safety and if so is the difference really tangible? The short answer to this question is YES! In fact, its so important there's an institute whose sole purpose is to assess the safety of new cars. You might have heard of it, Euro NCAP (thats pronounced 'n~cap'), based in Brussels, Belgium. They've come up with a system of rating cars according to how safe they are. There are various tests conducted (for example a frontal head on collision into a cement block at 64 km/h), more detail on this as well as test results for specific car models are available at www.euroncap.com. Oh, also note that your car's model (ie year of manufacture) will most likely have a different rating to a different generation of the same make (as in when a new model is introduced with a new shape this car's safety rating will usually be different to the previous model) with safety standards improving with newer models generally. So make sure you check the correct period of your model.

Presenting...

I've had an idea... my next goal is to create informative posts that YOU might be interested in, things that you're not really sure about, perhaps don't know where to look... well I'll try give u a map :)

Yawn... Is it over yet... CWC 2007

Hmmm... So its finally done... actually it was over a while back, just didn't bother to report on it.

The final was a sad tale which will be remembered for all the wrong reasons, which is unfortunate as both sides who contested it clearly deserved a grand showdown. The first of the disruptions was the weather, the taps were opened and showers rained down and resulted in a much delayed start and a shortening of the match to 38 overs a side.

Hardly an ideal start, but Adam Gilchrist didn't seem to care; he set about destroying the SL bowling attack and managed a blistering century (he really seems to be the guy for the big occasion, he's played in the last 3 world cup finals and has been resoundingly successful on each occasion), there were other noteworthy contributions from the Aussie top order including Mattie Hayden and Ricky Ponting. None of the SL bowlers had any figures of credibility.

The Sri Lankans faced with a mammoth target of 282 in 38 overs had to be aggressive from the start, after an early loss there was a phase when SL were still in the chase while Sanath Jayasuriya and Kumar Sangakkara were together, but when that partnership was broken one felt the game slipped out of reach for SL. This combined with other factors such as rain, bad light, pathetic umpiring made the latter stages of this game a sad affair.

Eventually after a few incidents that I'd rather not mention and the second innings being further shortened to 36 overs Australia came out victors by 50 odd runs. The presentation and closing ceremony were conducted in the dark with makeshift spot lights and all that can be said is that the competition should have ended much earlier.

Player of the Tournament was Glenn McGrath, one of the legends who went out in style. Perhaps its worthwhile dwelling on the fact that this tournament presented an opportunity to see many of the retiring greats, complete their ODI careers. So thanks to McGrath, Lara, Kumble and Inzamam-ul-Haq as well as the late Bob Woolmer for their part in making the modern game what it is today.

Oh... and I know I won't forget Leverock’s stunning one-handed catch to dismiss Robin Uthappa, just about Bermuda’s only memorable performance during a pitiful World Cup campaign. India showed just who was boss with a 257-run walloping. It was the largest margin in one-day history.


[Information source: cricinfo.com]