Extra fuel surcharge to raise airfares by Rs 150

Mumbai: Domestic airlines are all set to raise fuel surcharge on passenger tickets by Rs 150 from May 4. The higher amount combined with the congestion charge, will mean that passengers will have to pay Rs 1,050 per ticket on fuel related charges.
Of this amount, the fuel surcharge will go up from the existing Rs 750 to Rs 900, while congestion charge is Rs 150. In addition to the fuel related charges, air-travellers also shell out Rs 225 as service fee, which accrues to the airport and the government.
The increase in fuel surcharge will help improve the airlines’ margins to some extent. An overcapacity situation in the domestic airspace has led to a situation where none of the nine airlines in the country is making profits.
In fact, they are collectively expected to lose about $300m in 2006-7. “The increase in fuel surcharge is to compensate for higher aviation turbine fuel (ATF) prices in the past few months,” airline sources said.
30/04/07 Cuckoo Paul/Economic Times

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Airlines suspend Sri Lanka flights after rebel air strike

Colombo: Emirates Airlines and Hong Kong's flag carrier Cathay Pacific on Sunday suspended flights to Sri Lanka following a rebel air strike around the troubled island's capital.
Emirates operated scheduled flights from Dubai to the Maldives, Singapore and Indonesia through the Sri Lankan capital, Colombo.
However, the airline plans to operate a relief flight for any stranded passengers.
Hong Kong's flag carrier Cathay Pacific suspended flights to Sri Lanka's international airport indefinitely, it said in a statement Sunday.
Planes manned by Tamil Tiger rebels struck fuel depots around Sri Lanka's capital early Sunday, briefly plunging Colombo into darkness. Security forces lit up the night sky with anti-aircraft fire.
The island's only international airport, located near the capital, diverted flights after rebel aircraft were spotted in its air space.
Flights were disrupted by air defence systems, officials said, adding that one Indian jet was turned back and several departing flights were delayed. It is the second time in recent weeks that Cathay Pacific has suspended flights to Sri Lanka.
29/04/07 AFP/Lanka Business Online, Sri Lanka

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Air ticket cess to fund small airport revamp

Mumbai: With the central government planning to fund the development of 35 non-metro airports through internal accruals, rather than taking the private funding route, some airline operators believe the government may consider its earlier decision of levying cess on air tickets.
The cess could be anything between Rs 50-100 per ticket. The estimated cost to fund the development of the non-metro airports is approximately Rs 4,662 crore.
Around 25.5 million domestic passengers and 22.4 million international passengers will be charged an additional cess every year if the proposal is sanctioned by the government.
Maintaining that the funds for the purpose will be raised through internal sources, a civil aviation ministry source explained that even China had imposed a cess for a temporary period for modernising it airports. “It is an international practice,” said the official.
Says GR Gopinath, managing director, Air Deccan, “I don’t espouse the government taxing air travellers for operating uneconomic airports. It’s an infrastructure-related issue and should be addressed through public-private participation.”
He added that uneconomic airports should be developed as low cost airport terminals and built along with industrial and information technology (IT) parks in the vicinity.
29/04/07 Shaheen Mansuri/Financial Express

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Tripmela.com Enters into Strategic Partnership with TravelLab

TripMela.com announced that it has entered into a strategic partnership with TravelLab, one of Europe’s leading meta search companies, to launch a travel metasearch tool focusing on the Indian travel market. The new functionality, which consumers will soon be able to access on Tripmela’s website, will allow consumers to search multiple airlines and online travel agencies with just one click.
Tripmela will continue to offer a daily selection of great travel deals for India as well as its famous Top 10 Best Deals weekly newsletter.
In addition, Tripmela’s visitors will soon be able to use TravelLab’s unique metasearch technology to find the best airfares without having to visit multiple websites.
29/04/07 India eNews.com

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IAF fumes at civil aviation authority

New Delhi: The IAF HQ dashed off a strongly-worded letter to the civil aviation ministry on Friday, holding that "misinformation" being spread by its officials about IAF was just not done. The last straw for IAF was the recent US-India Aviation Partnership Summit, held on April 23-24, during which Airports Authority of India (AAI) chairperson K Ramalingam and others blamed IAF for not sharing enough airspace to ease civilian air traffic congestion in the country.
"Commenting adversely on IAF in an international seminar, in presence of a large number of foreign delegates and that too in the absence of IAF representatives, who could have clarified the matters, was in bad taste. It cannot be taken lightly," says the letter, written by Air Vice-Marshal D C Kumaria of IAF HQ to the civil aviation ministry.
IAF already allows civil flights from 19 of its airfields, ranging from Chandigarh, Jammu and Srinagar to Allahabad, Gwalior and Tezpur. So do the naval and Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd airfields in Goa, Visakhapatnam, Port Blair, Bangalore and Ozhar.
"We have also given a lot of airspace to these guys (civil aviation). But they just keep on carping. It's just that they cannot handle the air traffic properly," said a top IAF officer.
"Despite the boom in civil aviation, they also do not have the proper infrastructure in place like parallel runways, rapid exit tracks, properly-trained air traffic controllers and the like," he added.
28/04/07 Rajat Pandit/Times of India

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Regulatory authority for airports in the offing

New Delhi: The Centre will shortly come up with a bill to set up an Airport Economic Regulatory Authority (AERA). The bill is likely to be finalised by the Cabinet and passed by Parliament in this session itself.
It will ensure a level-playing field in major airports and bring about the spirit of competition between them. It will also have the power to determine tariffs such as airport charges – landing, navigation and parking charges – in these airports.
AERA will monitor pre-set performance standards at airports and oversee and deal with natural monopoly and common user/carrier segments.
The draft bill also proposes the setting up of an Appellate Tribunal with the power to slap hefty fines on defaulting individuals, airlines and companies. The bill empowers the tribunal to punish a defaulter with a fine of up to Rs 1 lakh.
The fine could be doubled in case of a second or subsequent offense. For repeat offenses, the defaulter could be additionally fined as high as Rs 2 lakh for every day the default continues.
The AERA would consist of one chairperson and two other members, who will be selected by the Centre from among people with adequate knowledge and professional experience in aviation, economics, commerce or consumer affairs.
28/04/07 BS Arun/Deccan Herald

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A rather murky business

New Delhi: The recent arrest of Bharatiya Janata Party Member of Parliament Babubhai Katara for his alleged involvement in a human trafficking racket has exposed the deep nexus between traffickers and politicians. Already six persons have been arrested and four Members of Parliament are under the police scanner. It is common knowledge that human trafficking is an age-old practice. Poor people from developing countries migrate to developed countries in search of a better life.
On several occasions the police have found that human trafficking rackets are run in connivance with airlines, passport office staffers and even their own men. In a case reported about two years ago, the Indira Gandhi International Airport police discovered that an assistant sub-inspector with the Special Branch had helped in arranging about 100 passports under different names on a particular East Delhi address. The passports were allegedly issued in the names of Afghan nationals who later fled the country. In another case, the police found that a passport official had arranged over a dozen passports issued on a particular name.
28/04/07 The Hindu

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In India the sky's the limit

Bangalore: With the Indian aviation industry predicted to experience spectacular growth in the coming decade, foreign aviation companies are lining up for a share in the multibillion-dollar deals. These are exciting times not only for the foreign aviation giants but also their Indian partners.
According to India's Civil Aviation Ministry, the industry is expected to grow at 25% per annum for the next 10 years. The number of domestic passengers, which currently stands at around 30 million per year, is expected to touch 182 million per year by 2020, while the country's airports will handle 400 million passengers annually.
Purchases of more airplanes, equipment and infrastructure are in the pipeline. For this "the civil-aviation sector will need investments worth [US]$120 billion. While two-thirds of the money will go towards aircraft purchases - the number of planes is expected to grow from the current 350 to 1,000 by 2020 - the remaining would go into upgrading aviation infrastructure," an official in the Ministry of Civil Aviation said.
Foreign and Indian companies are eyeing the multibillion-dollar deals in the civil- and defense-aviation sectors. Indian players are hoping to partner with the aviation giants for a share in the cake. There are immense benefits to be had from partnerships, says retired Air Commodore J Varkey, secretary general of the Society of Indian Aerospace Technologies and Industries (SIATI).
It is a nodal organization that has some 330 small, medium and large-scale private industries doing work in the aviation business. SIATI has been putting its members in touch with aviation companies and facilitating the partnering.
27/04/07 Sudha Ramachandran/Asia Times Online, Hong Kong

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Aviation and Tourism Investor Summit from June 11

Mumbai: The third annual two-day Aviation and Tourism Investor Summit will be held here from June 11.
The summit will especially focus on India and the West Asia. Over 250 delegates will participate in the meet, a Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation release here said.
The meet will consider the outlook for the region's low cost sector. In India, this sector has been driven by a domestic traffic growth of almost 50 per cent, but faces critical issues related to profitability, funding, infrastructure and regulation. The year 2007 will be a pivotal year for the long-term viability of the sector and the symposium will provide critical insights into the likely outcomes, the release said.
In the West Asia, the model has gained momentum, and Kuwait and the UAE already have very successful operators. In 2007, low cost airlines are set to launch operations in the largest Gulf market, Saudi Arabia, the release added.
28/04/07 UNI/NewKerala.com

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Thomas Cook not to acquire visa services unit of TT Enterprises

Mumbai: Holiday services firm Thomas Cook India is not going to buy the visa services division of TT Enterprises Pvt Ltd, as the transaction could not be completed before the expiration of the Memorandum of Understanding.
Thomas Cook had earlier announced that it will buy 12.91 lakh shares or 76 per cent stake in the equity share capital of TT Enterprises Pvt Ltd (TTEPL) at a price up to Rs 130.98 per share, for Rs 16.90 crore.
TTEPL, which is in the business of visa facilitation services, cargo services and foreign exchange services, was supposed to sell its business of visa facilitation services to Thomas Cook.
The visa services division has a team size of 120 and handles more then 3,50,000 visa applications annually, according to latest information available.
28/04/07 PTI/The Hindu

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Freewheelers face a bumpy ride at airports

Kolkata: Better late than never. This must be the resolution for the airline companies before charging passengers for misusing the wheelchair facility meant for the sick and the physically-challenged at airports.
Airline companies have for a long time complained of passengers unnecessarily occupying wheelchairs at airports when they don’t need them. There are reports of passengers faking ill-health to take advantage of the service and the number of such cases is high during any security alert or flight delay.
“Women often pretend that they have undergone abdominal surgeries, and have someone else carry their cabin luggage,” said an official from a domestic carrier. Reasons for availing of the advantage are many. First, wheelchair passengers do not have to stand in long queues for security checks. Second, they don’t have to undertake the long, tedious walk in the lounge area. Third, they are helped on board before other passengers and are spared from carrying their cabin luggage.
Air-India charges Rs 500 per leg of a journey to specifically ward off the misuse of such services. Air Deccan has started charging Rs 200 per leg to curb the practice.
27/04/07 Madhumita Mookerji/Daily News & Analysis

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Police say Katara had sent 15 more abroad

New Delhi: The Delhi Police have found that BJP MP Babubhai Katarta and his associates had illegally sent 15 people abroad.
The Gujarat politician was personally involved in six of these cases. The police have approached the embassies in the US, UK and Canada through the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) for details about the people who had been sent abroad and Katara’s travel itinerary. They have also sought information about Katara’s travel schedule from some airlines.
“The embassies and airlines can provide us with vital information about the human trafficking racket. We have issued notices to them through the MEA,” said a senior officer investigating the case.
The officer added that though the police had got certain details about Katara’s travel itinerary, they wanted to confirm the information through other sources.
The police on Thursday said they were also trying to trace Katara’s wife Sharadaben and his three children, who had gone missing since the scandal broke out on April 18.
The police have so far found that Katara and six travel agents were involved in human trafficking. Three travel agents are from Punjab, one from Hyderabad and two from Delhi. The police said the agents used to identify people who could pay up to Rs 30 lakh to travel abroad.
27/04/07 Gyan Varma/Daily News & Analysis

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Trafficking: Airlines asked for travel information about MPs

New Delhi: The Delhi Police Thursday sent notices to five airlines including three international airlines to disclose travel information about the MPs allegedly involved in an international human trafficking racket, a senior official said.
Notices were sent to Indian Airlines, Air India, Austrian Airlines, British Airways and Northwest Airlines asking them to provide all information pertaining to five parliamentarians' domestic and international journeys during the past few years.
Information was sought on Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) MPs from Uttar Pradesh - Mohammed Tahir Khan (Sultanpur), Mitrasen Yadav (Faizabad) and Ashok Rawat (Misrikh) - and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MPs Ramswaroop Koli (Bayana, Rajasthan) and Babubhai Katara (Dahod, Gujarat).
Sunder Lal Yadav, a travel agent arrested Saturday with Rajendra Kumar Gampa and their female accomplice Kiran Dhar, alleged in a city court that Khan and Koli were the central figures in a racket involving smuggling people abroad on diplomatic passports of MPs' family members or forged documents.
26/04/07 Indo-Asian News Service/Monsters and Critics.com, UK

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Trafficking racket gets murkier - from Delhi to Andhra

New Delhi: A flourishing human trafficking racket involving India's political class is becoming murkier as the police disclosed Wednesday that at least 12 people had been smuggled out on diplomatic passports and more politicians were linked to the scandal.
The Delhi Police, which is at the heart of the investigation sparked by the April 18 arrest of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Babubhai Katara, said it had discovered that a dozen people appear to have flown out of India using passports of politicians' families to the US and Britain over the past three years.
Six of them, a police officer told IANS, had travelled with Katara. He said the US embassy and the high commissions of Britain and Canada had provided the information to the external affairs ministry.
Katara is being interrogated every day at the Crime Branch office but officials are tightlipped.
The Delhi Police have summoned the other BJP and BSP MPs but they are yet to present themselves.
25/04/07 IANS/Andhra Cafe

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39 deported youths go missing after questioning in Delhi

Chandigarh: Thirty-nine youths deported from Dubai for not having valid documents, who were also questioned at New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport, have now gone missing. While the maximum number of deported youths are from Naraingarh tehsil and Ambala district, a few also came from the Kurukshetra, Amritsar, Jalandhar and Patiala districts of Punjab.
Newsline tracked down the addresses of 32 persons, who had purchased tickets for Rs. 20,000 each from Sandal Travels, Sector 34, Chandigarh.
Families of some youths contacted by Newsline today are not only in a state of shock, but are also confused. Two such families had different stories to tell.
Mangal Singh (21), resident of Raiwali Village failed his matriculation exams. A number of his friends from his village are at present working in Iraq. He had always dreamt of going abroad and persuaded his father to send him abroad. “ He only asked for Rs. 50,000, which I gave him. He did not disclose which company was he enrolled to work with. I am surprised to know that he was deported. He called me last night and told me he was safe. We have not received any call from him after that,” Jeet Singh said.
A similar state of confusion prevails at Satwinder Singh’s home, another school dropout.
26/04/07 Varinder Bhatia/Ludhiana Newsline

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Big airlines shop for small jets

Mumbai: The country’s scheduled domestic carriers are ordering over 150 small jets, which will be delivered in the next two to three years.
Carriers like Indian, Jet Airways, Kingfisher Airlines and Paramount Airways, apart from a host of start-up airlines, are sewing up deals to acquire 50-70 seater aircraft for less congested routes.
As many as 35-40 new small jets will join various fleets by the end of this year.
Indian is planning to have 16 50-seater turboprop aircraft. This is in addition to its earlier plan to acquire six 70-seater regional jets on lease.
Kingfisher Airlines is set to add 8 ATRs to its fleet this year, while it has already placed confirmed orders for 35 ATRs. The country’s largest budget carrier, Air Deccan, will add 25 more 72-seater turboprop jets in the next three years.
Start-up airlines such as MDLR Airlines are also planning to go in for Bombardier or Embraer jets to start point-to-point services.
At present, only 18 per cent of the 400 civilian aircraft in the country are jets with below 100 seats, but in the next two years they would comprise over 37 per cent of the 600-odd aircraft in the Indian skies.
26/04/07 P R Sanjai/Business Standard

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Low fuel cost will not mean low fare

Mumbai: The aviation industry has reacted with measured caution to the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) decision to allow aviation turbine fuel (ATF) users to hedge their price risk on international commodity exchanges based on their domestic purchases.
However, the ‘feel good measure’ which was announced in its annual Monetary and Credit policy, will not mean lower air fares for passengers. What it does mean is that airlines, which are the end users of the ATF, will be able to reduce the risk of loss caused by the fluctuating ATF prices. They, as end users of ATF, would be able to hedge economic exposure.
But the industry does not see the RBI decision as a ‘big move.’ In fact, the industry’s demand to bring down the base price of ATF and also to have a uniform policy of sales tax has not won any favour till now. The Federation of Indian Airlines (FIA) has been lobbying for both these demands for quite some time now. Without the lowering of the base price and the reduction in the sales tax, the industry feels that the move is a no-gainer.
26/04/07 Manisha Singhal/Daily News & Analysis

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India at take off stage in aviation sector, says U.S. official

New Delhi: Expressing optimism about the Indian carrier and aviation business, a senior U.S. official told a select group of media persons that the aviation industry in India is very focussed, and expressed hope about its chances of moving forward to meet global challenges in this sector head-on.
Federal Aviation Administrator Marion C Blakey, who is in Delhi to attend the three-day U.S.-India Aviation Partnership Summit, which concludes today, said: "I hope India is able to move forward towards a more corporate-style of aviation. That has to develop significantly. I am very optimistic about the future of Indian carriers and the Indian aviation business."
Lauding what she called "one of the fastest growing (aviation) systems in the world, Blakey, however cautioned that while growth and opportunities are welcome, it comes with attendant challenges."
She opined that just like the U.S. aviation industry, the Indian aviation industry was passing through a period of heavy losses, and a growth period would follow naturally.
25/04/07 ANI/DailyIndia.com, US

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Armed forces must share airspace: AAI

New Delhi: Civil aviation authorities made a strong case of a need for the military to 'spare' more airspace to ease civilian air traffic congestion in India.
"Right now about 35 per cent of the country's airspace is used for military activities. In Delhi the total military (air)space is 70 per cent. That space can be shared between the civil and military operators," said K Ramalingam, the chairman of Airport Authority of India (AAI), at the US-India Aviation Partnership Summit in New Delhi today. The three-day meet will conclude tomorrow.
A working committee, which includes representatives from the Indian Air Force, the Ministry of Civil Aviation and the AAI, is already in place. "What needs to be done is a proper demarcation between scheduled civilian and military aircraft," said an AAI official.
The AAI also said that it is planning to use high-tech "performance-based navigation (PBN)" to improve air-traffic management in India.
Discussing the key issues related to air traffic management, officials from Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) of the US and the AAI pointed out the need of better monitoring and alerting systems.
25/04/07 Business Standard

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RBI permits airlines to hedge price risk on aviation fuel

Mumbai: In a major relief to the loss making aviation industry, the Reserve Bank of India has allowed airlines to hedge their price risk on Aviation Turbine Fuel in international commodity exchanges.
In its annual monetary policy review, the central bank decided to permit ‘actual users’ of Aviation Turbine Fuel to hedge their economic exposures in the international commodity exchanges based on their domestic purchases. Fuel cost constitutes to one third of the total operational cost of the airline. Federation of Indian Airlines has welcomed the move stating that this will moderate the extensively priced ATF in India. Domestic ATF prices are 65 per cent higher compared to international benchmarks. Currently, Air India has already started hedging up to 25 per cent of its international fuel uplift. With the relaxation, AI would be able to extend its hedging after seeking necessary approvals from the board for the domestic uplift also.
AI uplifts 45 per cent of its fuel requirement domestically and 55 per cent internationally. Kingfisher Airlines said the move would help the aviation industry to control costs.
Though the industry has witnessed huge growth in passenger traffic in recent years high fuel costs, wage inflation and high airport charges have rendered the industry losing over Rs 2,000 crore annually.
25/04/07 Indulal PM/Hindustan Times

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Airline CEOs to meet revenue secy tomorrow

New Delhi: The CEOs of all airlines will meet revenue secretary KM Chandrasekhar on Thursday to urge that the high tax structure and withholding tax plaguing the sector be redressed in the Finance Bill. Civil aviation ministry officials will also be accompanying the airline CEOs for the meeting. The issue had not been addressed in Budget, 2007, which had disappointed the industry.
They would be meeting the revenue secretary under the aegis of the aviation lobby group Federation of Indian Airlines.
The Budget has proposed that the list of declared goods under section 14 of the CST Act be amended to cover small aircraft with minimum takeoff mass of less than 40,000 kilograms. With the measure, the airline industry will save around Rs 100 crore, against a saving of almost Rs 1,900 crore if the ATF was brought under the declared goods category for all kinds of aircraft.
The aviation ministry has also been trying to bring ATF as a whole under the declared good category, which would have helped the industry emerge from the red. Of the total expected loss of $500 million by the industry in 2006, almost $450 million are on account of fuel.
25/04/07 Atreyee Dev Roy/Financial Express

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Abacus sees Surge in Electronic Ticketing Levels

Abacus today reported that in March 2007, its level of airline bookings issued as electronic tickets had passed the 60% mark for the first time and more than 81% of all Abacus tickets are now ET-ready.
The 61.4% adoption for electronic ticketing (ET), during March 2007, was approaching double the 35.5% level of electronic ticketing recorded in the same month last year, said Abacus International President and CEO, Mr Don Birch.
“The surge in electronic ticketing is a positive indication towards the achievement of IATA’s goal of 100% electronic ticketing by the end of 2007. The market is showing that it can adopt this cost-saving initiative at an accelerating rate and it will need to continue doing so to hit IATA’s target,” Mr. Birch said.
Regional markets such as India, South Korea (106%) year-on-year growth in March 2007, The Philippines (80%) and Thailand (93%) have demonstrated the highest levels of e-ticketing penetration, reflecting growth figures, while India recorded a notable 5,624% more e-tickets processed by Abacus in March 2007, than the corresponding month a year earlier.
25/04/07 ASIATravelTips.com, Thailand

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FDI norms may be relaxed in civil aviation, air safety deal with US likely

New Delhi: The government is planning to relax the foreign direct investment (FDI) norms for the civil aviation sector. There are indications that it may enhance the 49 per cent FDI limit in areas such sea-planes, helicopter services and non-scheduled operations.
Besides, the government is also examining a bilateral-aviation safety agreement with the United States. India and the US,
which have an open skies agreement, also initialled a memorandum of understanding to establish the US-India Aviation Cooperation Programme (ACP) for providing unified communication between the governments and private sector entities. The programme would focus on supporting activities relating to air traffic, air space management, expanding airport facilities, installing airport security and monitoring systems and enforcing airworthiness certification and regulatory systems.
The “open skies” agreement with the US had paved the way for a reduction in fares and increased flights between the countries.
23/04/07 Gaurav Choudhury/Hindustan Times

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India-US Aviation Partnership Summit takes-off

New Delhi: A three-day India-US Aviation Partnership Summit was inaugurated by the Minister for Civil Aviation, Shri Praful Patel, here today. Also present at the inauguration were the Administrator, Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), Ms. Marion Blakey, the Secretary, Civil Aviation, Shri Ashok Chawla and the Deputy Director of the US Trade and Development Agency (USTDA), Ms. Leocadia Zak. The objective of the Summit is to encourage high level discussions between the US and the Indian Aviation Sectors regarding Industry growth challenges. It is expected to help in building long term strategy and commercial relationship between the two countries to address important issues like air traffic management, air-space utilization and commercial collaborations in new airborne systems. The Summit is designed to promote trade, shared technical managerial and strategic planning approaches to adept integrated automatic air traffic control and management systems focusing on safety, capacity, efficiency and security for future air transport systems.
A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was also initialed at the inaugural of the Summit today. It was signed by the Joint Secretary of the Ministry of Civil Aviation, Shri R.K. Singh and Deputy Director, USTDA, Ms. Leocadia Zak on behalf of the Indian and US Governments respectively.
23/04/07 Press Information Bureau (press release)

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Foreign equity cap for helicopter operations to be raised

New Delhi: The government is set to increase the upper limit of foreign equity in helicopter operations and seaplanes to boost the growth of the sector, Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel said here Monday.
Patel told participants at the inaugural session of a three-day US-India Aviation Partnership Summit that the government was keen on more private participation in the development of infrastructure in the civil aviation sector.
'We need public-private partnership for airport development. We want others to join. We have allowed 100 percent foreign direct investment (FDI) in the area of greenfield airports,' he said.
23/04/07 India PRwire (Press Release)

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Norms for overseas flights may be reviewed

New Delhi: Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel today hinted that his ministry might review the existing policy of allowing domestic scheduled airlines to fly international routes only after they have flown for five years within the country.
"Govt policies are not frozen. they can be reviewed," said Patel, when asked whether the five-year restriction is being reduced.
Patel, who was speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the Indo-US Aviation Summit 2007 in New Delhi, also said that there have been proposals to increase the FDI limit in the aviation sector, from the existing 49 per cent, especially in areas like non-scheduled operations, helicopters and sea planes.
Patel said, "India has a total of about 300 aircraft now and the number of air travellers comes to about 0.8 per cent of the population. By the time even 10 per cent of the population begins to fly, we will need about 5,000 aircraft."
24/04/07 Business Standard

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More flights for Tripura

Agartala: Tripura is awaiting a bonanza in air service for internal and external connectivity.
Air Deccan and Jet Airways have been operating daily flights to and from Agartala at an affordable cost.
But the list of private airlines is swelling with the arrival of Indigo Airlines that has sought permission from the state government for launching services between Agartala and Guwahati and other capitals of northeastern states. The 180-seater aircraft operated by Indigo is expected to land at Agartala airport on May 2.
However, transport minister Manik Dey said, “I am not aware of the date but they met me with the proposal and we have already cleared it.”
Air travellers as well as the state government are also awaiting the arrival of Surya Airlines.
23/04/07 The Telegraph

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USIBC Aviation Delegation Seeks Business in India

New Delhi: Today, the U.S.-India Business Council ( USIBC ) launched its first-ever Executive Aviation Mission to India to participate in the US-India Aviation Partnership Summit between April 23rd and April 25th. The delegation is led by Scott Bayman, President and CEO of General Electric India, and comprised of senior leaders from America?s leading aerospace, transportation, and logistics companies.
The Executive Delegation will meet with senior leaders from India's Ministry of Civil Aviation and industry leaders to discuss areas of collaboration in India's booming aviation industry.
The US-India Aviation Partnership Summit offers an excellent platform for American aerospace companies to build alliances, find partners, and share cutting-edge technology with India. USIBC Chairman's Circle Members Federal Express, General Electric, Goodrich, Northrop Grumman, United Technologies Corporation/Pratt & Whitney, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Honeywell, and Continental are represented by senior executives on the mission, and will speak throughout the duration of the conference
USIBC's first civil aviation mission to India comes on the heels of unprecedented boom in India's aviation, logistics, and transportation sectors. Led by USIBC, the American business community continues to serve as the leading advocate for a stronger commercial relations with India.
23/04/07 Media Newswire (press release), US

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Report votes 2006 as safest year in flying

Mumbai: The International Air Transport Association (IATA) in its annual safety report, released last week, shows that the past year was the safest year in aviation. IATA is an international representative body of airline operators with about 260 members representing 94 percent of international scheduled air traffic.
For the Indian fliers, this good news comes at the heels of the International Civil Aviation Organisation’s (ICAO)interim report which suggests that the “Indian skies are amongst the safest in the world”. In another safety audit carried out by ICAO, India scored 98.3 - the highest for any 155 member countries.
For an industry that has been witnessing passenger traffic growth of about 6.8 per cent per year worldwide, the report is an important indicator, which asserts that flying is a safe mode of transportation.
According to the IATA report, the industry hull-loss (it refers to incidences where damage to the plane must be written off, or in which the plane is totally destroyed) in 2006 was 0.65 accidents per million flights for western-built jets or one accident for every 1.5 million flights.
22/04/07 Manisha Singhal/Daily News & Analysis

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More airline mergers on the cards

New Delhi: The merger of the two state-owned carriers, Air-India and Indian, and the acquisition of Air Sahara by Jet Airways has set the ball rolling for further mergers and acquisitions.
Sources in Air-India told The Statesman that a detailed project report was being prepared on the scope for further mergers and acquisitions in the aviation sector. The Jet Airways chairman, Mr Naresh Goyal, has said that “mergers and consolidations were a reality now”.
According to civil aviation ministry officials, consolidation will occur through a process of closure or mergers and acquisitions, leaving around two to three full service carriers, three to four large national carriers and three to four niche, regional operators (with aircraft less than 80 seats).
The process, it is understood would begin this year, but ministry officials said given the overhang of foreign investment eager to enter the market, it may take some more time.
As the aviation industry is drastically expanding, India is in an “unusual situation” of having potentially billions of dollars of investment preparing to enter the sector, but the lack of a clear policy is a deterrent. The sector is eagerly awaiting the “Civil Aviation Policy” expected to be announced shortly.
22/04/07 Sanjay Singh/The Statesman

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Rare WWI-Era DeHavilland DH9 Bomber Restored

Discovered rotting in the palace of the Maharajah of Bikaner's elephant stable in India,a rare DeHavilland DH9 has been restored by Guy Black and now sits in all its former glory at London's Imperial War Museum.
The biplane is the only one in Britain and one of the six in the world, a museum official said.
According to Black, an airplane restorer, "It was a phenomenal find, like discovering gold."
The improbable discovery was made by a British backpacker, who photographed a cannibalized DH9 in a new museum at the palace of Bikaner in Rajasthan 12 years ago, according to Zee News.
On his return to Britain, the photographer circulated his photograph, and Black, who runs Aero Vintage, a specialist restoration company, heard about it.
Three years later he visited the palace, and on making inquiries about the 1918 aircraft, the first British bomber to house bombs in its fuselage, he was told that it did not exist.
Further inquiries led him to the palace's former elephant stables, where, among piles of elephant saddles, was the airframe of the engineless DH9. Along one wall, Black also discovered six DH9 wings and several tailfins.
According to reports by Daily India, the DH9s had been given by Britain to a royal family in India's Rajasthan state in the early 1920s to help establish an air force under the post-war Imperial Gift Scheme.
Black bought two of the rotting hulks, restored one of them, reported the paper, and sold it to the Imperial War Museum for about two million US dollars. The restored plane was unveiled at Duxford, Cambridgeshire, yesterday.
22/04/07 Aero-News Network, US

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Congestion down, but problems remain: Airlines

New Delhi: Airlines are divided over the civil aviation ministry’s claim that its recent steps have reduced congestion in metro airports.
While budget airlines like SpiceJet and Air Deccan say the airborne waiting time has come down by up to half, others like Kingfisher say there has been no change.
Many airlines say they are not being given priority over chartered carriers, which is adding to the congestion problem.
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation had recently taken a number of steps to reduce congestion during peak hours. The maximum number of flights during peak hours has been capped at 35 per hour in Delhi Airport and 30 per hour in Mumbai Airport. Also, in the case of Delhi Airport, the period when both the runways are open has been extended by one hour.
Airline companies have been facing huge losses due to congestion as long waits for landing consumes a lot of fuel.
Most airlines agree that there is still a long way to go. Delays in takeoffs and getting parking slots continue.
Industry experts say there could be many reasons for the delay and rescheduling of flights is not the only answer.
22/04/07 Anirban Chowdhury/Business Standard

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US - India Aviation Partnership Summit next week

To promote greater cooperation between the U.S. and Indian aviation sectors, the U.S. Trade and Development Agency (USTDA), in cooperation with the Indian Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA), the Airports Authority of India (AAI), Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, U.S. Department of State, U.S. Department of Commerce, U.S. Transportation Security Administration, American Association of Airport Executives (AA), International Association of Airport Executives (IA) and the MITRE Corporation will sponsor a high-level U.S.-India Aviation Partnership Summit. The event will take place at New Delhi, India, April 23-25, 2007.
The objective of the summit is to generate discussions between the U.S. and Indian aviation sector regarding industry growth opportunities and challenges. Moreover, the summit will help build the long-term strategic and commercial relationship between U.S. and Indian aviation sectors in addressing, among other issues, air traffic management, airspace utilization and U.S.-India commercial collaboration in new airborne systems.
20/04/07 Indlaw.com

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Chief of US aviation agency visits India and Dubai

Washington: The head of the Federal Aviation Administration left Friday for India, where she will sign an aviation cooperation agreement next week.
FAA Administrator Marion Blakey said the agreement she expects to sign Monday in India is only the second such pact the United States has. The other is with China.
``This will be very much a two-way street,'' she said. Blakey predicted India would benefit from expert US advice on aviation regulation and facilities, and the United States would learn from India's rapid installation of new technology like satellite-based aircraft monitoring.
After three days in India, she will travel Dubai for talks with its aviation officials and air carriers.
She told reporters in a teleconference Friday it was important for the FAA to make such contacts to ensure smooth interaction with two rapidly growing aviation markets.
21/04/07 Economic Times

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ONGC to upgrade helibase in Mumbai

New Delhi: Flagship explorer Oil and Natural Gas Corporation has initiated an exercise to modernise and upgrade the helibase at Juhu in Mumbai. The helibase is used by a fleet of choppers providing support service to Mumbai High's oil-pumping installations over 200 km into the sea.
ONGC director for offshore operations, N K Mitra, laid the foundation stone of the project and reviewed the project planning and implementation with officials from organisations such as Airports Authority of India and National Building Construction Company that are involved in the project. The helibase was damaged in the July 26, 2005 floods in Mumbai. Most of the helicopters parked there at the time were grounded due to ingress of flood water. On earlier occasions too, helicopter operations were affected during the monsoon, forcing ONGC to go for a massive modernisation and upgradation programme.
20/04/07 Times of India

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Airlines turn Bollywood enthusiasts to promote market share

New Delhi: Hollywood star John Travolta is so crazy about aviation that he went to the extreme of naming his son 'Jett', but in India its the airline companies that are wooing film stars to propel their revenues.
Bollywood diva Preity Zinta is the latest to be roped in by an airline -- GoAir -- as brand ambassador to help prop up its image in an increasingly competitive market.
Hindi film superstar Sharukh 'King' Khan serves as a member on the Board of leading private carrier Jet Airways.
Keeping him company on Jet's Board are film producer Yash Chopra and noted lyricist Javed Akhtar. Model and actress Yana Gupta has a contract with Kingfisher Airlines of liquor baron Vijay Mallya, while others like Soha Ali Khan make do with promoting air hostess academies.
Bollywood has even promoted a foreign airline, with Pooja Bhatt playing a role for British carrier Virgin Atlantic.
19/04/07 PTI/The Hindu

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Taiwan, India to promote cooperation in the field aviation

New Delhi: Taiwan signed a memorandum of understanding with India Wednesday on cooperation in the fields of science and technology, sources at the Taipei Economic and Cultural Center (TECC), the TECC in India said.
The two parties agreed in the accord to promote bilateral cooperation in the fields of nanotechnology, semiconductors, aviation and space, satellite development, biotechnology and agriculture, according to the sources.
The new ties will also facilitate other forms of collaboration between the two sides, such as programs to encourage commercialization of research and development, sustainable development and innovation.
According to the memorandum, the NSC and India's Cabinet-level Department of Science and Technology will establish a joint committee for work including scientific talent exchanges and the promotion of joint technological development projects.
19/04/07 China Post, Taiwan

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Indian closes in on Jet

New Delhi: State-owned Indian Airlines has closed in on the country’s largest private sector carrier Jet Airways by posting a market share of 21.9% in March 2007, just 1 percentage point short of the latter’s 22.9% during the month.
According to the latest figures of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, Air Deccan is now a distant third with a market share of 17% in March. Vijay Mallya’s Kingfisher also posted a double-digit market share of 10.6% in the last month of 2006-07 fiscal.
If Air Sahara is considered to be part of Jet, then Jet’s share would rise by 8 percentage points during the month.
While domestic market grew over 40% during 2006-07 and two new airlines joined a dozen already in the skies, Indian Airlines managed to have held on to its market share. In March 2006, its market share was 23.2% and Jet was number one player with a share of 34.6%. IA lost less than 2% of its share, but Jet’s share dipped sharply by 11.5 percentage points between the 2 months.
19/04/07 Atreyee Dev Roy/Financial Express

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Seminar to discuss problems in aviation industry

Coimbatore: A three-day seminar is being held here from April 20 to discuss the problems and challenges being faced by the airline industry.
The seminar Aeroplus-2007, would identify a set of priority requirements around the arguments, concerns and issues for research in the grooming field of aviation, N V Jayaraman, Head, Corporate Relations, Nehru College of Aeronautics and Applied Sciences, the organisers, told reporters here on Wednesday.
Experts from the aeronautical field, like IISc, IIT, private operators like Air Deccan, Paramount and Aeronautical Engineering would participate, Jayaraman said.
There would also be an exhibition, where aero-models, engines, model airport, runway and rare photographs about planes would be displayed for the benefit of the public, Jayaraman said.
19/04/07 PTI/The Hindu

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Saras prototype to make maiden flight this week

Bangalore: The second prototype (PT2) of India's first indigenously designed and developed civilian aircraft Saras is on the verge of making its maiden flight this week. Designed and built by the Bangalore headquartered National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL), a constituent of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, the eight to 14-seater Light Transport Aircraft Saras will follow in the footsteps of prototype one (PT1) which flew in May 2004.
While NAL have long completed the PT2's low speed taxi trials (where the aircraft is taxied to a speed of up to 60 knots) and high speed taxi trials (where the aircraft is pushed between 60 and 90 knots and the nose wheel just lifts off the ground), the three Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) ground runs — a statutory requirement under the Directorate-General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) — are yet to be completed.
During the SOP ground runs the aircraft will be checked for safety related snags while it is identically configured to the parameters (such as the weight of aircraft, centre of gravity, amount of fuel) that will be present during its first flight. While two SOP ground runs have been successfully competed, the third is due any day now.
The aircraft's maiden flight with pilots from the Aircraft and Systems Testing Establishment at the controls will then follow.
18/04/07 Ravi Sharma/The Hindu

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Jet Lite may fuel fresh round of price war

New Delhi: Jet supremo Naresh Goyal’s two-brand strategy — Jet and Jet Lite — has taken the low-cost airlines by surprise who expect discount fare war in the domestic market to continue for some more time, even as they gear up to fight a stronger competitor than Air Sahara.
Low-cost carriers would like to believe that Jet’s dual strategy could turn out to be double-edged. While formally taking on rival price-warriors in their own territory, Jet would be open to cannibalisation from its own “value” brand. Most industry players agree that the market is in no position to accommodate another low-frill player. Competitive fares would not allow yields to go up, while lean travel months would see higher discounting of fares.
LCAs also expect Jet to rationalise frequencies between some busy sectors — such as the Delhi-Mumbai route — to improve on its yields, and deploy them on under-served markets.
Analysts point out that expectations of low-cost carriers getting better valuations post Jet-Sahara deal, are unfounded.
Many in the industry feel that Jet’s dual brand strategy — which has not worked to great success in international markets — could only be a precursor to having two separate brands for domestic and international operations.
18/04/07 Sudipto Dey/Economic Times

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Congestion surcharge to dip, but fuel cost to nullify benefit

New Delhi: With a marked decline in the average time they spent hovering in the skies, private sector airlines are planning to reduce the congestion surcharge by Rs 50 to Rs 100. But there’s little cheer for passengers since fuel prices have seen a continuous increase over the previous quarter. As a result fuel surcharge is likely to go up again by Rs 100, nullifying the correction in congestion at the airports.
According to a highly placed industry source, in the last meeting of the airlines with the Directorate General of Civil Aviation on March 9, Jet Airways, Indian Airlines, Air Sahara (now acquired by Jet), Spicejet and Indigo, agreed that there has been considerable decrease in the hovering time over Delhi and Mumbai airports from 40 minutes to 20 minutes.
At the same time, the airlines are contemplating an increase in the fuel surcharge if prices again register an increase in April end, industry sources said. In January, March and April this year fuel prices have seen an average increase of 5%, 2% and 5% respectively across the metros. However the aviation turbine fuel price registered an average decline of 9%. Jet fuel prices currently average Rs 38,678 per kilolitre.
18/04/07 Atreyee Dev Roy/Financial Express

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IAF pilot to sanyasi, he now wants to unite India, spread peace

Kolkata: What can compel an Air Force pilot and a father of two to turn to spirituality? For Swami Sachidananda Bharathi, it was an air crash in 1982.
Bharathi said he was flying from Delhi to Kochi when the aircraft caught fire and went out of control. “Instead of going up in flames or crashing, it dived into a nearby lake,” said Bharathi, the pilot-turned-peace-activist who is now in the city. “I and 14 passengers were rescued after 10 minutes.“It was a miraculous escape. I realised that there was some divine power that was driving our destiny.”
Born in a Christian family at Kerala’s Idiki district, and named N V John, Bharathi then turned to spiritualism.
Squadron Leader John got married in 1979, and later became a father of two. But he renounced his family in 1996 and took up sanyas in 2001. In 2003, he finally decided to change his name to Swami Sachidananda Bharathi.Out on a year-long tour of India, Bharathi wishes to unite Indians for a second freedom struggle. The aim of his tour, called ‘Desh Vandana’ (salute the nation), is to promote values of sacrifice and service.
17/04/07 Debarati Chakraborty/Kolkata Newsline

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India, Russia To Jointly Manufacture Aviation Sector Components

In what has been dubbed as a "breakthrough deal," India and Russia have agreed to set up a joint venture to produce titanium dioxide, a key component for the strategic metal used in aerospace industry.
"Russian Deputy Finance Minister Sergei Storchak and his Indian counterparts signed a breakthrough deal in Washington to invest the rupee portion of India's debt to the Soviet Union into a titanium dioxide production," Kommersant daily reported.
Under the agreement, rupee debt equivalent of USD 126 million would be invested to build a plant in India with the annual capacity of 40,000 tonnes of titanium dioxide within the next three years in which Russia is to hold 55 per cent equity.
Back in March 2006, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov suggested using the debt money for investment projects, an idea that President Vladimir Putin supported during his visit to India this January.
During Putin's India visit, Russian Vnesheconombank, Technochim-Holding and Indian Saraf Agencies had inked the titanium JV deal to be financed through debt rupees. Storchak told Kommersant that the project will finally transform the system of the return of the Indian debt that India estimates at USD one billion while Russia deems it to be three times as much.
16/04/07 India Defence

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PM's men find aviation policy up in the air

New Delhi: Even as the domestic aviation sector is leveraging economies of scale through M&As, the government is yet to approve vital policy documents including civil aviation policy, model concession agreement (MCA) for development of airports and establishment of a statutory regulator for economic regulation and dispute resolution.
The PM’s committee on infrastructure (CoI), in its recent review, has found that some of its important decisions could not be implemented even after two years. The government is yet to table the draft Airport Economic Regulatory Authority (Aera) Bill in Parliament.
The ministry of civil aviation is making efforts to introduce the Aera Bill in the current session of Parliament. “A draft Cabinet note along with the draft Aera Bill has been circulated to the ministries for their comments,” an official source said. The CoI had fixed September 2005 as the deadline to set up the regulator.
Setting up a regulator is a pre-condition for a competitive aviation sector. The regulator is proposed to fix, review and approve tariff structure for aeronautical services and monitor pre-set performance standards at airports. The authority will also ensure a level-playing field for all categories of airport operators as well as oversee and deal with natural monopoly and common carrier segments of airport.
16/04/07 Rajat Guha & Rajeev Jayaswal/Economic Times

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Pay before using facilities, AAI tells pvt airlines

New Delhi: Airports Authority of India has decided not to give credit to airlines. It will take a security deposit from private airlines based on the projected billing for two months. "This deposit is more than the actual billing and bolsters our efforts to get back dues," says an AAI source. AAI has a fortnightly billing with airlines and in case of consistent delay, takes up the issue with them. If airlines come with new schedules, routes and sectors, the security limit is increased.
And the security deposits with AAI in respect of private airlines is not small change (see box). Naturally, none would like to default with so much at stake. With steep fuel bills and thin margins, only those with deep pockets can survive. The government, too, has put in place measures to make operators financially stronger.
The equity base for private scheduled operators was raised from Rs 30 crore to Rs 50 crore with a minimum fleet of five planes within a year and that for those owning five small aircraft was doubled from Rs 10 crore to Rs 20 crore. But what if airlines don't pay up? They will not be given parking slots, says the source.
Even for non-scheduled carriers, including charters, AAI's system is cash-and-carry, ie, for each landing, cash is paid by the airline or its ground handling agent. Credit isn't allowed.
15/04/07 Shobha John/Times of India

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Chopper economy takes off

“The helicopter has become the new drum in these elections. With the noise the machine makes, no one needs to announce his arrival," says colonel VS Guleria, a helicopter pilot with Deccan Aviation who has been flying politicians to far-flung places in Uttar Pradesh for campaigning.
About 20 helicopters are said to be flying politicians from various parties in these polls. For the 80-odd civilian helicopters in the country, elections are the biggest business season. "There were 24 to 25 choppers flying in the last Bihar elections. Because the UP elections are stretched over seven phases, the number deployed is a bit lower," Guleria told HT from Banda near Bareilly.
João Aiso of Brazil, the only foreigner heli-pilot in India, has been flying his Bell 407 for Summit Aviation in the UP sector for over a month. "I love flying to Amarnath, because I am a Shiva devotee and the hills there are fantastic," he says. "But UP is a difficult sector."
The flights cost a packet. Among the companies raking it in this season are Pawan Hans, Trans Bharat, Span Air and Indo Pacific.
For a small craft like the Bell 206, they charge a minimum of Rs 45,000 an hour. For a twin-engine Augusta machine, the cost could go up to Rs 1.25 lakh. Political parties which strike long-term deals, of course, get a hefty discount.
15/04/07 Amitava Sanyal/Hindustan Times

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Domestic travellers too going places

New Delhi: It’s not just foreign tourist arrivals which is going through the roof. Domestic travellers too are footloose and this year will see a big jump in, from 425 million last year to 500 million this year, an increase of more than 18%. According to tourism ministry figures, in 2004 the domestic travellers were 368 million and the numbers have steadily gone up since then.
An interesting fact which has emerged is that out of the 425 million domestic tourists last year, only 225 million were urban residents. The remaining 200 million were rural residents. And while 30 to 35% of the domestic travellers go for religious trips, the leisure segment too is on the fast track.
In fact, besides the popular destinations such as Goa and Kochi, many north Indian states such as Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Uttaranchal too will together register more than 230 million domestic tourists this year - which is more than 40% of the total numbers.
15/04/07 Raja Awasthi/Economic Times

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Travel whizzes on online highways

Mumbai: Travel wizards don’t come in long, flowing capes anymore. They come at the click of travel sites like Makemytrip, Yatra, Cleartrip, TravelGuru, HiBye, and Travelocity. We’ve seen their ads flying across our TV screen.
However, we don’t realise the juicy lucre these journeys promise: The online travel market is a cool $460mn and is slated to grow to a $2bn market by 2008, says Sachin Bhatia, marketing chief at Makemytrip.com.
Little wonder that VC funds from Norwest Ventures to Kleiner Perkins are eagerly backing travel sites.
A goldmine called e-commerce will help these sites fly high. Says Ashwin Damera, founder and owner of TravelGuru: Online travel is rapidly gaining popularity in India and by 2010 will be a force to reckon with.
E-ticketing and e-travel in India took off as a result of the efforts by Indian Railways in late 2004, and good deals offered by new-generation budget airlines which sell most of their stock through the Internet.
An estimated 7,000 tickets with an average price of Rs 1,500 each are sold each day on the Indian Railways website.
13/04/07 Anushree Madan Mohan/Daily News & Analysis

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India May Curtail MAS Flights In Tit-For-Tat Move

New Delhi: India's civil aviation authorities are reported to be threatening to reduce landing rights for Malaysia Airlines (MAS) in a tit-for-tat move which could impact on Malaysia's tourism industry.
It is believed that the Indians are resorting to such action after MAS was alleged to have asked that India's Air Sahara be not allowed to fly to Kuala Lumpur (KL) from New Delhi on grounds that passenger volume on this route was low.
Air Sahara had planned to start its New Delhi-Kuala Lumpur operations last month.
Airline industry sources said that the possible retaliatory move to restrict MAS to New Delhi could have serious ramifications on the Malaysian tourism industry as more Indians are opting to holiday in Malaysia.
A senior New Delhi-based airline official told Bernama that if India reduced the landing rights, then MAS flights from Kuala Lumpur to New Delhi could be down to four flights a week from the present seven.
The Kuala Lumpur-Mumbai route could see MAS flights cut to six from seven per week.
In total, MAS flies 27 times to major Indian cities weekly while Indian Airlines, Air India and Jet Airways have a combined total of 56 flights to Kuala Lumpur each week.
The sources said Malaysia's Transport Ministry had proposed a dialogue to solve the matter but so far the Indians had yet to respond.
11/04/07 P. Vijian/Bernama, Malaysia

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Jet rivals breathe easy

Mumbai: Low-cost carriers aren’t squealing in alarm over the Jet Airways’ buyout of Air Sahara. Fifteen months ago, when the two airlines had crafted a merger deal, there was a squawk of protest and a quick huddle to form a forum that would lobby the government against clearances for the merger. Not this time.
Low-cost carriers have carved out a niche and large market shares and don’t fear a Jet-Sahara combination as they once did.
Air Deccan’s G.R. Gopinath reckons that in the next eight to 10 months, his low-cost airline will grab greater market share than Jet Airways.
The low-cost carriers are happy that the merger will force a rationalisation of the price discounts in the industry.
“The airline (Air Sahara) was selling low fares and undercutting no-frills carriers despite having high costs. As Jet Airways will now be answerable to its shareholders, this could come to an end,” said Ajay Singh, director of SpiceJet.
At present, Air Deccan is the second largest private airline after Jet Airways in terms of market share.
When Jet Airways first announced its intention to buy out Air Sahara, the combined market share of both the airlines was put at over 50 per cent. This was another factor that worried its rivals. However, in this calendar year, the combined market of these two airlines is now just over 32 per cent.
12/04/07 The Telegraph

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Certain routes to see rise in fares

Mumbai: Expect that Mumbai-Lucknow air fare to go up. With Air Sahara, the only full service carrier that at times dropped air fares like a low-cost carrier now being taken over, there may be an upswing in fares in certain sectors.
"The equation generally has been more the number of airlines operating to a particular destination, better the availability of cheaper fares," says an airline official.
"Quite a few sectors in the country are only serviced by Air Sahara, Jet Airways and Indian Airlines. The Delhi-Lucknow sector, for instance, where Air Sahara often initiated a dip in prices that the others were forced to follow. Now fares are bound to go up at least by 20 % in these places," he added. Then, there are routes which are serviced only by Air Sahara.
"The Delhi-Gorakhpur sector, where the fares are not cheap at Rs 5,947. But then, introductory fares on such routes have always been attractive, like the recently launched Kochi-Delhi route, which only Air Sahara operates, comes at a dirt cheap Rs 5,000," the official added.
Though there won't be much change in the degree of competition on most sectors, what with low-cost carriers around, there will be changes in the last-minute fare structures, feel experts.
13/04/07 Times of India

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Staring the end of cheap airline fares

New Delhi: Deep-discount offers may soon be a thing of the past. Industry players and analysts feel the Jet-Sahara merger may mark the beginning of the end of cheap fares, with airlines shifting focus to profits.
Consolidation may help existing players to improve profits, but fare-hardening is seen as a forgone conclusion. A Kingfisher official said ‘yields would improve’ which, in other words, means fares would inch up. “Post-merger, some low-fare discounted fares may go, but that would be good for the sector on the whole,” said SpiceJet director Ajay Singh.
Travel agents point out that Air Sahara over the last 12-18 months has been trying to “buy” market share by offering discounted tickets, while at the same time incentivising agents to promote the carrier.
Senior executives of some low-cost carriers confide in private that with Sahara out of the reckoning, there will be less confusion in the market.
11/04/07 Economic Times

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Consolidation in aviation: calls for competition authority

The resurrected Jet-Sahara deal, which is almost there, would kickstart the much-anticipated market-driven consolidation in the Indian aviation industry, though the government has already set the ball rolling with the merger of the two state-owned carriers Indian and Air-India. The consumer is, however, likely to face pricier travel because of reduced competition.
The beleaguered aviation industry will likely welcome the deal, it means one desperate player less — Air Sahara had been dumping tickets, further eroding the already in the red finances of most airlines.
Post merger, Jet Airways-Air Sahara and Indian-Air India combine would command over 50% share of the total market and nearly 70% of the total capacity. More importantly, there would now be a clear division between full service carriers and low-cost airlines. Jet Airways-Air Sahara and Indian-Air India would together have over 90% of the domestic full service market and 100% of international capacity in the hands of local airlines.
Therefore, at least in the full-service segment there is a chance of cosy duopoly emerging. With Air Sahara out of the equation, even the low-cost segment is likely to benefit. With a dominant player gone, price increases could become easier. All this makes a competition authority a must, to protect the consumers’ interests in the rapidly changing aviation market.
12/04/07 Economic Times

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Deep vein thrombosis due to long haul flights

Mumbai: The spate of recent deaths on long haul flights mostly due to caused by deep vein thrombosis has prompted the city’s medical fraternity to deliberate on ways to tackle the problem.
On Wednesday, doctors from private hospitals and airlines who met at Holy Family Hospital in Bandra unanimously agreed that fliers with prior health complications should be extra cautious as airlines have limitations on “providing emergency medical aid”.
Some suggestions: Dr Lata Nakhwa, Head Medical Services Department, Air India (A-I):
She suggested that A-I could have portable defibrillators — a device to restore normal heart beat, ECG machines and anti-coagulant medicines — it stops blood from clotting easily — on board.
Dr Mahesh Shirke, Chief Medical Officer, Go Air:
He insisted that fliers should disclose their previous medical records and be informed about the medical facilities that the airline provides. “For instance, we do not provide ambulance. So if a flier informs us in advance, we can arrange for one," said Dr Shirke.
Dr Punita Masrani, MD Aviation medicine, Med Solutions
“Aero-medical evacuation or having helipads for emergency landing would be of immense help,” she said, adding fliers with ailments could travel by dedicated chartered aircrafts, which have mini ICU units.
11/04/07 Sumitra Deb Roy/Hindustan Times

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Alliance Air submits proposal increasing fleet

New Delhi: State-owned carrier Alliance Air has submitted a proposal to the North Eastern Council (NEC) and the Centre for increasing its fleet, dedicated for operations in the region, from four to six.
"We have submitted a proposal to the NEC and the Department of North Eastern Region (DONER) for expanding our fleet to six with enhanced support", Alliance Air MD Deepak Brara said at the Third North Eastern Business Summit here.
The airline, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Indian, currently operates four ATR turbo-prop aircraft dedicated to the North Eastern region.
Maintaining that his airline operated on all the 11 airports, which were operational in the region, Brara said Alliance Air alone operated a total of about 120 services to and from as well as within the region, while all private airlines put together operated about 130 flights.
11/04/07 PTI/Economic Times

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InfoVision Establishes Another Center in India

InfoVision Group, an India-based business process outsourcing company, has expanded its Western India operations with the opening of a new facility at Borivali.
Spread over 40,000 sq ft., housing 1,500 employees, the new facility will have state-of-the-art equipment, latest technologies and ultra modern facilities for enhanced customer satisfaction. With further expansion plans in the pipeline, the capacity will be enhanced to 2,500 employees by March 2008. The center will cater to various verticals like banking and financial services, insurance, retail, telecom, aviation and consumer durables. The company recently announced expansion of their Naraina facility in New Delhi.
11/04/07 Global Services, US

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Boeing seeks foreign partner for India plant

Mumbai: Boeing Co. is looking for a foreign firm to partner it in its proposed maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) facility in India, the Mint paper said on Wednesday.
The planned $185 million facility is being set up in Nagpur in Maharashtra with state-owned Air-India, which had ordered 68 Boeing aircraft in 2005.
"The only two companies that have elaborate aircraft maintenance structure in the county are Air-India and Indian, so we are looking for foreign partners," Dinesh Keskar, vice-president of sales for commercial airplanes at Boeing, told the paper.
"We are in talks and a decision is expected before the ground-breaking ceremony (in July)," he said.
Boeing has said it expects India would need 856 new jet aircraft worth more than $72 billion over the next 20 years.
11/04/07 Reuters India

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Airlines see better profits, less competition

New Delhi: With two mergers, first Indian with Air-India and now Jet-Sahara, all set to happen in 2007, expect market dynamics of aviation industry to undergo major changes.
After the mergers go through the paces, two strong players will together command over 50% of the market share, and 60% of the country’s aircraft fleet. Close on their heels will be the other full-service carrier, Kingfisher Airlines, which is in the process of ramping up its fleet size from 27 to 45 over the next eight to 10 months.
Reacting to the renewed merger deal between Jet and Air Sahara, a senior executive from Kingfisher Airlines said: “We are working towards achieving our vision to be the largest private domestic carrier in the country by 2010.” Kingfisher currently has over 10% market share.
Most of the industry players were of the view that the consolidation will help the industry improve passenger yields and sagging bottomlines. “It’s a very positive development for the aviation industry, which requires consolidation. It is also expected to improve its overall profitability,” said SpiceJet director Ajay Singh. V Thulasidas, chairman, Air-India, pointed out that it is important for the industry to have strong players.
11/04/07 Economic Times

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GE Finance eyes realty, aviation in asset push

Bangalore: GE Commercial Finance, which has an asset base of more than $230 billion globally, is planning to increase its exposure in the Indian market.
The company, which is registered as NBFC (non-banking financial institution) in India, is targetting an asset base of over $8 billion by 2010 from less than $4 billion at present. The financing behemoth is betting on real estate, aviation, infrastructure and energy to drive growth.
Speaking to Business Standard, Tejpreet S Chopra, president & CEO, GE Commercial Finance India said, “Globally, we are among the top to finance commercial sectors across a range of sectors which we understand in depth. Be it infrastructure, manufacturing, power, real estate, we have been pioneering funding with a plethora of instruments. We should be breaching the $8 billion mark much ahead of our target time.” Though Chopra declined to spell out the company’s current asset base, industry sources confirmed that it was close to $4 billion.
11/04/07 Raghuvir Badrinath/Business Standard

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Three Key Appointments for Amadeus

Amadeus has made three key appointments in the Australasia and Pacific region to support the rapid expansion of its Airline Business Group.
Paul Martin, Regional Director South-East Asia and India Subcontinent, Amadeus Airline Business Group: In his new role, Paul will be responsible for the strategic development and maintenance of the Amadeus ABG as well as establishing new partnerships with airlines in the region. He will oversee commercial operations, business development and marketing support for the Amadeus ABG across the region.
Stephann Wensink, Regional Director Distribution Sales Management, Amadeus Airline Business Group: Stephann Wensink will join the Airline Business Group as Regional Director, Distribution Sales Management. He will manage and lead the Asia-Pacific distribution and sales strategy, guidelines and follow-up for the ABG’s products and services, helping to reinforce Amadeus’ market and financial position.
John Chapman, Regional Director IT Sales, Amadeus Airline Business Group, Asia Pacific: John Chapman will be responsible for strategic development of partnerships with airline IT providers in the Asia Pacific region, overseeing commercial operations, business development and marketing support for Amadeus’ Airline Business Group IT Sales across the region.
11/04/07 ASIATravelTips.com, Thailand

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Hero of 26/7 arrested for air ticket fraud

Mumbai: August 2005:Assistant Police Inspector Tushar Kadam was felicitated by the Police Commissioner AN Roy for putting his life at stake to rescue people stranded by the 26/7 deluge. He rescued around 40 people - seven of them schoolchildren. He retrieved 12 bodies from the Indian Airlines Colony in Kalina.
April 8, 2007: The Economic Offence Wing of the Crime Branch arrested Kadam for his alleged involvement in the multi-crore Kingfisher Airlines E-ticketing fraud case.
It had been a journey from glory to disgrace for the 43-year-old API from Kherwadi police station. Prior to his arrest, he was suspended on February 15.
Kadam was the 17th person to be arrested in the case. His arrest brought to light that apart from the purchase of airline tickets, the credit card data was also used for some real-estate dealings.
Two of the 17 arrested were BPO employees. The charges against them include leaking crucial customer credit card data and harbouring other accused involved in the case. The two BPO have been identified as Ishan Nazir Shaikh and Aziz Iqbal Qazi.
10/04/07 Somendra Sharma/Daily News & Analysis

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CCI sees red over sops for AI-Indian marriage

New Delhi: The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has called for parity in the M&A conditions for public and private sector companies, in a recent policy document submitted to the Planning Commission.
According to the commission, PSUs should not be given any special fiscal or other benefits that are denied to private companies. The Plan panel is considering the competition principles proposed by the CCI to be incorporated in the 11th Plan.
In the recent merger of national carriers Air India and Indian, the government has provided income tax benefits worth about Rs 256 crore as well as stamp duty waiver. The CCI, in its draft report on a national competition policy submitted to the Planning Commission, has suggested ‘competition neutrality’ with respect to merger of government or private companies.
In the case of Air India and Indian, the finance ministry has allowed the carriers to carry forward unabsorbed depreciation and losses to be set off against future profits. The ministry has already proposed an amendment to Section 72A of the Income Tax Act to enable these benefits to the two airlines. This would result in tax concessions close to Rs 256 crore.
Once the new norms suggested by the CCI are in place, the disparity may end.
09/04/07 Suny Verma/Economic Times

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Thomas Cook inducts four senior execs

Mumbai: After two high-profile acquisitions last year, travel and forex major Thomas Cook (TCIL) is now consolidating its business by bringing four senior-level executives into its fold.
The top-level appointments include Vinayak Purohit, who will take over as executive director, finance. Coming from a prominent media house, Mr Vinayak will take over from Robin Banerjee who had quit the company late last year. The company is also set to consolidate its travel business, which includes outbound, inbound and corporate segments, under new head Nalini Udai Gupta.
Ms Gupta comes from South African Airways and was earlier with Air-India as the regional head for the Indian subcontinent and South Asia.
Industry sources added that Rajeev Kale will join TCIL and handle the company’s emerging incentive business in India. Mr Kale comes from TCIL’s industry peer, Cox & Kings.
Vijay Sethi will take over as the head of the service quality & customer care department. Mr Sethi moves in from Jet Airways.
The latest executive appointments are expected to come into effect from the end of this month or the beginning of May, said sources.
09/04/07 Prince Mathews Thomas/Economic Times

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Airlines gear up to meet demands of the summer traveller

New Delhi: Airlines in India are gearing up to meet the demands of the summer traveller by introducing new flights and adding destinations to a growing network. Offbeat destinations like Leh and perennial favourite Goa will see more flights added as carriers ready for the summer rush.
The peak summer season starts from the first week of April and runs through mid-June.
Experts estimate a 20 per cent rise in domestic tourists this year with India exiting the World Cup Cricket Championship earlier than widely expected. While the April-June quarter in 2006 flew about 7.5 million, it is likely to add another 1.5 million this time, predicted Kapil Kaul, an analyst with Center for Asia Pacific Aviation (CAPA).
Air Deccan that recently added Dharamsala in Himachal Pradesh, will start a new Airbus flight to Leh from New Delhi mid-May to tap the summer tourist. Kingfisher Airlines will add an additional flight to Goa from Mumbai around the same time.
SpiceJet will be adding a new flight from Mumbai to Raipur in Chattisgarh, and increasing the number of flights from New Delhi to Srinagar, Varanasi and Goa. Other airlines will finalise their summer schedules in the coming weeks.
CAPA's Kaul said airlines were just beginning to unlock the potential on routes frequented by tourists.
08/04/07 Tarun Shukla/Hindustan Times

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Soaring above the maddening crowd

Mumbai: When Bollywood art director Nitin Desai decided to build a new studio in Karjat, the first thing he put in was two helipads. The studio is only an hour-and-a-half’s drive from Mumbai, but with traffic, it takes almost double the time, too much for busy actors and directors who have to juggle meetings and appearances with shooting.
“The helicopter is the transportation of the future,” says Desai.
In Mumbai, it is the latest way to avoid punishing traffic snarls. Earlier this week, an air marshal of the Indian Air Force was censured for using an officially-chartered helicopter to make a personal trip to Shirdi, but there’s no doubting the convenience of the move.
“India has about 150 rental services — compared with 1,100 in the US — and Mumbai has only a handful. But there is a lot of requirement for this,” says PK Ratta, vice-president (aviation) of Raymond, one of the busiest operators in town.
While companies such as ONGC and Reliance use their own helicopters to ferry staff around, more people are going for what Ratta calls unscheduled, on-shore services — people chartering copters for their individual needs.
Right now, almost every operator in Delhi and Mumbai has been tapped by politicians chartering copters for campaigning in UP. The top users, however, are still corporate honchos.
08/04/07 Labonita Ghosh/Daily News & Analysis

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Prime accused in online air ticket booking scam held

Mumbai: The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Mumbai Police Crime Branch on Thursday arrested Sameer Qasim Shaikh (22), the prime accused in an online ticket booking scam that caused Kingfisher Airlines a loss of Rs 13.47 crores.
A case had been lodged with the EOW by the airline on December 21 last year. And 16 persons have been arrested in the case so far.
"We have arrested Sameer Shaikh, a resident of Mira Road, who is a prime accused, and a leader of one of the three gangs involved in the online ticket booking scam case. He is accused of stealing credit card details of unsuspecting persons through people working in malls and hotels, and using the information to book 15,255 Kingfisher Airlines tickets online. He then sold the tickets at a lower rate in exchange for cash,” confirmed Additional Commissioner of Police, EOW, Sadanand Date.
According to the police, Sameer was arrested on Thursday afternoon, when he was attempting to meet his wife Firdaus and their two-year-old son — Firdaus was being produced at Esplanade Court for an extension of judicial custody.
07/04/07 Mumbai Newsline

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Airlines target training institutes to fill requirement

Mumbai: College campuses are turning into aircraft parking lots. Airliners are flying to cabin crew training institutes to handpick talent urgently needed to fort the skies. On April 4, Air Deccan, the Banglore-based low fare air service provider signed exclusive cabin crew recruitment partnership with Frankfinn Institute of Airhostess Training. Read On >>

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Cargo traffic: Airports in India report excellent growth

The Airports Council International (ACI), has announced that cargo traffic in February 2007 increased by four per cent compared to the same month in 2006. International freight went-up five per cent and domestic cargo rose by three per cent.
According to ACI, airports in India reported excellent growth, as did several Chinese hubs. Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Muscat were top performers in the Middle East. In the European region Barcelona, Liege, Munich, Milan, and Moscow had double-digit increases. North American airports reported a four per cent increase, while the Latin America and Caribbean results appear very low.
“The overall results for February are excellent, excepting a few hubs impacted by local factors. This is great news for the industry and reinforces our message that all industry partners must work urgently and efficiently with governments to ensure that capacity is sufficient to serve steadily growing numbers in a safe, secure and environmentally compatible manner,” commented Robert J Aaronson, ACI’s director general.
03/04/07 Air Cargo News.net, UK

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Domestic Airlines advertising on TV in the year 2006

Key Findings:
# 33 per cent share of ad volumes garnered by Domestic Airlines in Aviation Industry on TV in year 2006.
# 2.7 times increase in ad volumes of Domestic Airlines on TV in the year 2006 over 2005.
# Maximum ads by Domestic Airlines in the fourth quarter in the years 2005-2006.
# Advertising skewed towards Business channels.
# 86 per cent share contributed by Full Service Airlines whereas Low Cost Airlines had a 14 per cent share.
# 'Kingfisher Airlines' ruled advertising on TV with a high 74 per cent share in the year 2006.
# Prime Time saw the maximum ads by Domestic Airlines.
# 36 per cent share of ads used by Domestic Airlines on Tag Promo and 64 per cent on Commercials.
03/04/07 Indiantelevision.com

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DGCA may allow in-flight mobile use

Mumbai: The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) may soon allow domestic airlines to permit passengers to use mobile phones and access mail on PDAs while air-borne.
Sources said the DGCA is reviewing tests by the US-based Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and European Air Safety Agency (EASA) on mobile phone usage on board aircraft.
At present, passengers are asked to switch off their mobile phones in-flight on the assumption that telecom signals may interfere with the plane's navigational tools and ground-based communications. But tests carried out by global agencies on airlines such as Emirates and Ryan Air have shown that there is no danger or disturbance.
Kingfisher Airlines could be the first off the block. The airline has sought government permission and started talks with German telephone equipment company OnAir to install technology allowing passengers to use GSM mobile phones while in the air.
03/04/07 P R Sanjai/Business Standard

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EADS plans engineering hub in India

Major global aviation and defence consortium, European Aviation, Defence and Space company will invest in an engineering centre in India to develop aviation software and aircraft designs for its planes and other systems.
The centre, for which land has been leased at the upcoming new greenfield Bangalore airport, would house units of major Indian software firms like HCL, Satyam and Infosys as well as some European companies to develop specific software and designs, EADS (India) CEO Yves Guillaume told PTI.
The software would be produced for defence systems as well as planes like the largest Airbus A-380s and A-350, which is in the pipeline, besides the Airbus military aircraft.
All investments on this centre of EADS, which has aircraft major Airbus Industrie as one of its business units, as well as the purchases over the next 15 years would amount to over two billion Euros.
03/04/07 PTI/Rediff

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Indus Air stops operations

Mumbai: Indus Air, a regional airline, has suspended operations from last week, just three months after its commercial launch.
Sources from the government said financial problems had led to the suspension of operations. Operated as a full-service airline from mid-December 2006, Indus Air was promoted by liquor company Mohan Meakins.
Indus Air Director Krishnan Gopal Beri confirmed the suspension of commercial operations.
An airport representative of Indus Air said the passengers who had booked tickets in advance would get refunds.
Indus Air, which holds a scheduled operating licence, was connecting feeder routes such as Amritsar and Chandigarh to Mumbai and Delhi with two 50-seater Bombardier CRJ 200 aircraft. A senior government official pointed out that the airline had failed to pay lease rentals of its two aircraft, which led to cancellation of registration of the aircraft.
03/04/07 P R Sanjai/Business Standard

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Airlines will leave reddish streaks in the skies

Bangalore: Looks like profits will elude the carriers this year also.
SpiceJet’s results for the third-quarter ended February 28, 2007, makes you feel just that, because soaring aiation turbine fuel (ATF) prices have been dragging the engines.
The budget carrier’s net loss has shot up 395.34% to Rs 21.37 crore in the third quarter of this fiscal from Rs 4.30 crore during the same period last year.
Since February, ATF prices have risen by about 6.37% from Rs 33,982.95 per kilolitre to Rs 36,149.04 in April (in Delhi).
Even though this will impact their yields, airlines will not pass on the impact of rise to the consumers as yet.
They will be adjusting the impact of the current hike against gains from the drop in ATF prices during October, November, December and February.
These negative forecasts notwithstanding, budget carrier Air Deccan managing director Capt G R Gopinath, as always, remained positive.
02/04/07 Praveena Sharma/Daily News & Analysis

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Fuel prices turn heat on air fares again

Mumbai: Passengers looking for bargain air-fares for the holiday season had better grab their tickets soon. Domestic airlines are set to increase air-fares, mainly by cutting down their low-priced tickets. The revision is prompted by an increase in aviation fuel prices by the oil companies. Fuel prices went up 4% from Sunday.
They have however, decided not to increase the fuel surcharge, that is currently being charged separately from passengers. However, several international carriers have upped the fuel surcharge in response to the firm oil prices.
``Fares could harden up to 10% higher than current levels as margins come under pressure,’’ airline sources said.
International price of aviation fuel is now around $76 per barrel, much higher than the $60 levels two months ago. Fuel price comprises the highest component of an airline’s operating costs.
03/04/07 Economic Times

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Bavaria, Karnataka eye joint ventures in aerospace sectors

Bangalore: The German state of Bavaria and Karnataka are exploring possibilities of joint cooperative ventures in the field of research, industry, commerce, tourism, infrastructure and other related areas.
Both the states -- Bavaria and Karnataka -- today signed a memorandum of understanding to facilitate collaborative projects in areas such as trade, information and communication technology and bio-technology.
The MoU also covers genetic engineering, research and manufacturing, electronics, aerospace, media technology and agribusiness and services sector.
The two states would establish a steering committee or working group in Munich and Bangalore, respectively.
Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy said 12 companies from Bavaria, which has a liaison office here, had chosen Bangalore as their business location and hoped the number would increase further. Referring to the potential for aerospace industry he said the government is developing 1000 acres exclusively for aerospace and aircraft component manufacturing cluster near the Bangalore International Airport.
02/04/07 Zee News

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Indian’s exclusivity at terminal 1A to end

New Delhi: In a move that would end Indian’s exclusivity over the Delhi airport’s spacious 1A terminal, SpiceJet and Air Sahara are being shifted from terminal 1B which is now being used by all private airlines barring Kingfisher. While the GMR-led consortium—which manages the Delhi airport now—says the proposal to shift the two airlines into terminal 1A is aimed at decongesting the other terminal, the move has led to speculation about rehaul in space allocated to airlines for domestic departures.
Indian, its subsidiary Alliance Air, and Kingfisher—the only private airline to operate out of 1A—are upset that the facilities enjoyed by their customers would be affected, carriers housed in 1B are also upset since they feel that that move is an indication that their terminal will not be expanded now. Kingfisher operates out of 1A since its ground handling operations are managed by Indian. Shifting Air Sahara and SpiceJet to 1A means that our passengers would face space crunch, said sources in the airlines functioning from the terminal, feels the airline official.
03/04/07 Sunny Verma/Economic Times

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Brand Curry to handle advertising duties for Air Hostess Academy

New Delhi: Air Hostess Academy (AHA), which provides training in the aviation, hospitality and BPO sector, has roped in Brand Curry as its advertising partner. The agency will handle both the creative and media duties for the brand. The decision was taken after reviewing a number of agencies.
This is not the first time that the agency is working on this brand. It was hired to handle the below-the-line activities for this account in October 2006.
For the last six months, the creative duties for AHA have been handled by IB&W. Prior to that, the creative duties were with Madison Creative and the media duties were with Madison Media. However, even after the creative duties were moved from Madison Creative to IB&W, Madison Media continued handling the media duties. It’s only now that both sets of duties have been moved to Brand Curry.
03/04/07 agencyfaqs.com

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Airlines seek more fuel to fly global routes

Mumbai: Major airlines in the country, under the banner of the Federation of Indian Airlines (FIA), are lobbying with the ministry of civil aviation to amend the existing norms that prevent them from flying international routes unless they have completed five years of operations in domestic skies.
All schedules passenger airlines, including Indian Airlines, Air-India, Jet Airways, Kingfisher Airlines, Air Sahara, Air Deccan, GoAir, Indigo, SpiceJet and Paramount Airways, are members of the FIA.
Airline operators now want to fly abroad as soon as they complete a year of domestic operations. According to industry sources, airline operators are simultaneously talking to major airports like Stansted in the UK, that country’s third busiest airport after Heathrow and Gatwick, in anticipation of their international sojourn.
Air-Sahara also claims to have been approached by airport authorities in the European sector.
Jet Airways had recently gone for an image makeover to attract more leisure travelers, especially on its international flights.
02/04/07 Shaheen Mansuri/Financial Express

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Rights charter to check errant airlines?

New Delhi: In order to make airlines more accountable, a charter on rights of air passengers has been prepared.
Formulated by Air Passengers Association of India (APAI), a 17-year-old consumer organisation, this draft, if translated into law as proposed, would be a path-breaking one as there are no laws in this regard presently.
It'll be called the Civil Aviation (Rights of Passengers) Regulations 2006.
One of the demands of the draft is proper compensation. If boarding is denied or a flight cancelled, it should be: Rs 5,000 for flights of 1,500 km or less; Rs 7,500 for flights between 1,500-3,000 km; Rs 10,000 for flights not falling in the above two categories.
Another demand is flight re-routing.
The arrival time of the alternate flight should not exceed that of the original flight by: two hours for flights of 1,500 km or less; by three hours for flights between 1,500-3,000 km; by four hours for those not in the above categories and for which airlines may reduce compensation by 50%.
If a flight is cancelled, the full cost of the ticket for part/parts of the journey not made should be reimbursed within a week, together with a return flight to the first point of departure or to final destination.
01/04/07 Shobha John/Times of India

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