Working on approach papers on aerospace and defence priorities for next 5 years: AeSI

Bengaluru: The council of Aeronautical Society of India (AeSI), which met at IIT Delhi recently, discussed about the emerging trends and priorities in indigenous defence technologies.

Aeronautical Society of India (AeSI) is one of the oldest society of India formed in 1948 to promote the advancement and dissemination of knowledge of Aeronautical and aerospace science/technologies and has 17 branches all over India representing 13,000 plus professionals.

Dr. R K Tyagi, President AeSI and independent Director on Board of Air India informed that AeSI is working on a approach paper to be submitted to new government on aerospace and defence priorities for next five years.
29/04/19 Business Line

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Bid to make `green aviation policy’ a reality

New Delhi: In a bid to minimise air pollution and keep the sky clean, various stakeholders at the Centre, which includes Ministry of Civil Aviation, Directorate of Civil Aviation (DGCA), Petroleum Ministry, airlines, and other aviation related agencies have initiated talks to implement `green aviation policy’ that will ensure airlines and other stakeholders in the civil aviation industry to use modern, less noisy and more fuel efficient aircraft.

The development comes in after the government in March this year came up with the white paper titled ‘National Green Aviation Policy’, which suggested that airlines use modern, less noisy and more fuel efficient aircraft.The policy, has however not mentioned any proposal to tax on carbon emissions by pollutants.

The white paper is crucial for ensuring the pace at which India’s aviation sector is growing. India’s domestic aviation market today is one of the fastestgrowing sector globally and is projected to take over as world’s third largest air passenger market by year 2029.

The White Paper also said the civil aviation regulator, the DGCA should work with the Petroleum Ministry and other private stakeholders to encourage and facilitate availability of boil-jet fuel and make it commercial available. The green aviation policy proposes that the DGCA must assess and understand emissions from all aviation related sources and as to how much to they contribute to local air quality.
The government on March 14 sought for views on a set of proposals which is aimed towards minimising air pollution at airports and India’s air space.

The white paper also pointed out that efforts should be made to minimise air pollution at all new and upcoming airports and must have clean energy generation projects at these sites.

30/04/19 Sanjay Singh/Indian Awaaz 

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Over 20,000 Indians, among them Punjabis, stuck abroad due to ‘air crisis’

Jalandhar: Thousands of Indians, including Punjabi passengers, have got ‘stranded’ in the US, Canada, Europe and Australia for India’s biggest ever ‘air crisis’ largely triggered by abrupt grounding of over 600 Jet Airways flights and partly for temporary suspension of dozens of United Airlines, Air Canada and Turkmeinstan Airlines out-bound flights.

More than 5,000 Punjab-based passengers and around 15,000 people from rest of the country have got run aground in the USA, Canada, the UK, France, Italy, Germany, Australia, Dubai and other parts of the Middle-East as an outcome of unforeseen ‘ship wrecking’ of Jet Airways fleet on April 17.

The temporary suspension of Toronto-bound Air Canada and US-based United Airlines’ flights from New Delhi caused by clamping of ban on flying over Pakistan air space in April has only worsened the situation—resulting in a big seat capacity loss.
The worst-ever Indian ‘air crisis’ had started unfolding for the Punjabi and Indian air passengers and the country’s ‘once flourishing’ travel and tour industry, the moment the European Union (EU) had banned Turkmeinstan Airlines flights from Amritsar to the UK and Germany in March on safety grounds.

The EU, the travel trade insiders revealed, has banned the Turkmeinstan Airlines with directions to its management to first upgrade their existing planes and only then it would be allowed to fly to any European destination.


The first and largest-ever Indian Air ‘jumble’ has led to an unparalleledand huge monthly seat capacity loss crossing the mark of 20,000.

Thousands of Indian passengers stranded abroad --- mainly those who had bought return tickets from Jet Airways and the Turkmeinstan Airlines --- and who were on family visits ranging between 15 days to four months are in a fix what to do next.

“At least, I have not seen such a staggering situation in my over 40 year-long career in the travel industry. I am getting dozens of daily queries from foreign-stuck passengers. They have no option left but to buy new tickets at jacked-up prices (ranging between 30 and 200 per cent) to return home from whatever destination they have got stranded in. No airlines is adjusting passengers of any other airlines,” said D.P. Sondhi, a leading Jalandhar-based travel agent and former president of the Punjab Travel Agents’ Association.

He said Jet Airways has not extended any word even on the air-fare refund to its passengers even as, the Air Canada and the United Airlines were striving had to somehow ‘adjust’ their load with other airlines.
30/04/19 Varinder Singh/Tribune

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Airlines likely to see 'volatility' in profit & loss accounts on new accounting standard

Financial costs are likely to climb further for airlines in the near term, with new accounting standards on leases set to create "significant volatility" in their profit and loss accounts.
Indian Accounting Standard 116 or Ind AS-116 has come into effect from April 1 and pertains to principles for recognition, presentation and disclosure of leases.
The standard, notified by the corporate affairs ministry, would have a significant impact on various industries such as airlines, where aircraft operated are mostly on lease.
It also comes at a time when the domestic airline industry is grappling with tough times due to rise in fuel prices, intense competition, financial issues and infrastructure woes.
Sandip Khetan, National Leader and Partner (Financial Accounting Advisory Services) at EY India, said that many aircraft leases are denominated in USD, which is likely to be a currency different from the functional currency of most domestic airline companies.
"Ind AS requires foreign currency lease liabilities to be retranslated at each reporting date and resulting gain or loss is typically recognised in P&L (Profit & Loss). This will create significant volatility in the P&L of Indian airline companies," he told PTI. However, he noted that companies might wish to assess whether they are able to apply hedge accounting to address this volatility and reconsider their treasury strategy. In the airline industry, leasing of planes is a common practice rather than outright purchase and the new accounting standard requires entities to show all leases on their respective balance sheets.
With Ind AS 116, experts said that net income would be negatively impacted in the early years of operating lease arrangement on account of higher interest costs while there would be a positive impact in the later years of lease life cycle.
Besides, there would be an impact on various key ratios of companies such as EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Tax, Depreciation and Amortisation) and net income. Under the accounting standard, leases which were previously treated as operating leases would now be recognised on balance sheet.
28/04/19 PTI/Economic Times

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After Jet Airways, state-owned Pawan Hans delays employees’ salaries for April

New Delhi: After Jet Airways and Kingfisher Airlines, it is now the turn of Pawan Hans Limited, which is facing a financial crisis.

Pawan Hans' management, on April 25, issued a circular to its employees stating that the company is not in a position to disburse employees' salaries for the month of April due to "uncomfortable financial position in Pawan Hans".

"While reviewing the overall performance of the company, it has been observed that the company is facing an uncomfortable financial position. The industry's future is uncertain as many of our established businesses and our associated challenges are threatening future deployments. In terms of financial performance, the revenue has sharply declined in the financial year 2018-19 and the company has incurred a net loss to the tune going to Rs 89 crore during this financial year," the circular said.

"Also, search trends have been financially downturn owing to serious mismatch that has been built up between the revenue income depending on the present business volume and the expenses, particularly on the staff cost. The situation has further turned critical as the outstanding amount lying with various customers has risen to alarming levels of over Rs 230 crores.
28/04/19 ANI/India Today

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Pitch for jet fuel in GST

Airline companies will lobby with the new government to bring aviation turbine fuel (ATF) under the goods and services tax (GST) even as Jet Airways battles for revival.

Aviation fuel makes up about 40 per cent of the operating cost of an airline, and fuel prices in the country are higher by about 35 per cent than elsewhere.

ATF attracts an excise duty of 11 per cent, while states charge additional value-added tax (VAT) that go up to 30 per cent.

The high cost of fuel has been blamed as one of the reasons for the failure of several airlines such as ModiLuft, Damania Airways, Air Sahara, East-West Airlines, Kingfisher and Air Deccan.

Diesel, petrol, crude oil, natural gas and aviation turbine fuel, of the various categories of fuel, are outside the GST, giving states the right to impose value-added tax on them. Items such as kerosene, naphtha and LPG are under the GST.

SpiceJet chairman Ajay Singh had said airlines was a global business and any country couldn’t keep ATF, the single largest cost item in the business, 40 per cent more expensive than elsewhere.

“It is not sustainable, and we will have to find a solution to it. Bringing ATF under the GST ambit can be one solution for it and it has been discussed several times with the government and it has accepted it.

“It has also been discussed at GST meetings and several states have also agreed on it because bringing it into the ambit of the GST will not lead to any revenue loss.

“Hopefully, the GST Council will pick it up for discussion at its next meeting in July 2019 when it meets once again after the elections are over,” he said.

Airlines can expect an annual relief of at least Rs 3,000-5,000 crore under input tax credit if ATF comes under the GST.
29/04/19 R. Suryamurthy/Telegraph

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Inside India's aviation revolution and what it means for travelers

Just as the railways shaped modern India, cheap air tickets, driven by fierce competition between carriers, are changing the way Indians travel around their country.
See how >>

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Airlines Announce New Routes, Discounts On Flight Tickets

Domestic airlines such IndiGo, SpiceJet and GoAir have announced flights on new routes and discounts on bookings. SpiceJet and IndiGo have announced the launch of new domestic flights connecting Mumbai and Delhi with other cities. GoAir is offering domestic and international flight tickets at a starting all-inclusive price of Rs. 2,765 and Rs. 7,000 respectively in a limited-period sale, according to the airline's official website - goair.in. The announcements come at a time when full-service carrier Jet Airways has suspended its operations temporarily.
IndiGo has announced six additional daily direct flights from Delhi. The airline said in a statement that the six flights will be launched with effect from May 25. The new flights by IndiGo, the country's largest airline by market share, will be operated to and from Allahabad, Bhopal and Patna.
SpiceJet will launch 28 new domestic flights connecting Mumbai and Delhi with other cities on its network, said the carrier in a press release. Of the new flights, 14 will connect Mumbai, eight will connect Delhi while the rest will connect the two metros with each other. On Saturday, SpiceJet said it will commence two new daily flights connecting Durgapur with Mumbai from June 25.
GoAir is offering domestic and international flight tickets at a starting all-inclusive price of Rs. 2,765 and Rs. 7,000 respectively in a limited-period sale, according to the airline's website. In a separate offer, the carrier is also offering domestic flight tickets at a starting all-inclusive price of Rs. 1,375. Earlier in the week, GoAir announced the launch of new domestic flights connecting Mumbai and Delhi with other cities.
28/04/19 NDTV

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Indo-Pak airspace tussle spices up

New Delhi: A Sharjah-Kabul SpiceJet cargo flight is the latest trigger for an India-Pakistan airspace tussle that started after Islamabad closed its airspace to Indian aircraft in late February.
Pakistan closed its airspace after an aerial dogfight between its F-16s and Indian fighter jets that followed Indian Air Force’s February 26 strike on a terrorist training camp of the Jaish-e-Mohammad in Balakot. India, apart from a few hours on February 27 and that too only for its northern airports, did not close its airspace to Pakistani civilian aircraft.
Even a ban would have made little difference to Pakistan’s few international commercial flights because they don’t use Indian airspace. But Pakistan-registered aircraft operating non-scheduled flights were allowed to use Indian airspace before the SpiceJet incident.
That’s now changed.
Airspace over Pakistan’s western border is used mainly by flights originating in the Middle East. On April 3, a Sharjah-Kabul SpiceJet cargo flight (VT-SFB) was turned back by Pakistani air traffic controllers despite the Indian carrier having obtained prior permission from Pakistan’s Civil Aviation Authority.
SpiceJet sent a complaint to India’s civil aviation ministry — ET has reviewed the plaint — and the ministry forwarded it to the ministry of external affairs. And India decided to retaliate.
No permission is being granted any more by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) for non-scheduled flights by Pak-registered aircraft.
Non-scheduled flights include those by aircraft owned by individuals or companies or chartered planes or even aircraft carrying government or personnel from multilateral agencies.
“There is no written order but we are not allowing any Pakistan-registered aircraft to use the Indian airspace since the day (April 3) Islamabad did not allow an India-registered aircraft despite clearances,” said a senior DGCA official, who did not want to be identified.
27/04/19 Mihir Mishra/Economic Times

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Airfares shoot up after highway restrictions

Airfare to and from Kashmir has risen steeply after the government imposed restrictions on civilian traffic along the Srinagar-Jammu National  Highway for two days in a week earlier this month.

Air tickets from Delhi to Srinagar and vice-versa cost over Rs 12000 per passenger and Rs 8000-9000 on Jammu route. This hike comes at a time when more than one lakh government employees are scheduled to shift to Kashmir after Durbar Move.

An airlines official said that fares are driven by demand and supply and people have no option other than air travel.

People will have to bear with high airfare as the Government of India has already clarified that it can’t regulate prices that were determined by demand and supply.

Delhi-Srinagar airfare is among the highest in India, which rises further whenever the highway is closed due to inclement weather.
26/04/19 Mukeet Akmali/Greater Kashmir

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More opportunities in Indian market after Jet suspension

Dubai: A top executive at Emirates said on Wednesday that there are “more opportunities left on the table” in the Indian aviation market now that Jet Airways has suspended all its fights.

Thierry Antinori, executive vice president and chief commercial officer for Emirates Airline, said the Dubai-based carrier “would love” to add more flights into India, but is currently already at the limit of the capacity allowed by Indian regulators.

He said there is a lack of seats in the market compared to the number of passengers, and that Emirates’ latest codeshare deal, with SpiceJet, will help increase connectivity within India.

Emirates on Monday announced it has signed a codeshare agreement with India’s SpiceJet, a deal that will provide it with an additional 67 weekly connections between Dubai and six of what it described as “fast growing destinations in India.”

Besides India, Antinori also said Emirates is focusing on Africa where it sees opportunities for growth.
24/04/19 Sarah Diaa/Gulf News

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64% flight diversions in 2018 were due to bad weather: Govt

Around 64 per cent of the flights that were diverted from four metro cities -- Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru and Chennai --- last year were due to bad weather conditions, an official document stated.

According to estimates of the Ministry of Civil Aviation, in 2018, the worst affected airport due to "bad weather" conditions was Delhi airport as 213 flights were diverted because of it.

In 2017, just 111 flights were diverted from Delhi airport due to bad weather.

The document shows that total 796 flights were diverted from the airports of aforementioned four metro cities due to various reasons last year. Out of 796, the number of flights that were diverted due to bad weather stood at 510.

A total of 727 flights were diverted from the aforesaid four airports in 2017 for various reasons. Out of this, 502 flights were diverted because of bad weather.

Flight diversions due to "overhead congestion", also known as air traffic congestion, have increased at Bengaluru airport and Mumbai airport in 2018.

According to the document, while 37 flights were diverted last year from Bengaluru airport due to overhead congestion, such diversions were just seven in 2017. In 2016, this number stood at four only.

The number of flights that were diverted from Mumbai airport due to air traffic congestion increased to 41 in 2018 from 28 in 2017. In 2016, this number stood at seven only.
25/04/19 PTI/IndiaTV

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Fleet expansion by carriers not to make up for Jet absence

New Delhi: Even as SpiceJet and Indigo are aggressively expanding their fleets, they are unlikely to bridge the entire demand-supply gap created by the temporary grounding of Jet Airways.

According to a report by Elara Capital, domestic carriers would potentially add 150 aircraft during the financial year 2020. The fleet size of SpiceJet would be up by 45-50 aircraft, that of IndiGo by 50, GoAir by 10- 15, Air India by 25, and Vistara and AirAsia by 15.

The report, however, says that the net fleet addition in the domestic sector would be only 40 aircraft following the grounding of the Jet Airways fleet, SpiceJet’s grounding of its Boeing 737Max, and deployment of 10 aircraft on international operations.

“If we were to assume 10 per cent domestic demand growth, the net fleet addition requirement would be 50 for domestic operations, which implies the supply would lag demand and result in higher PLF and a consequent higher margin at INR 0.40/seat-km,” the report said.

Jet Airways, till last year, had a fleet of 119 aircraft, but since it started grounding its aircraft over non-payment of dues to lessors, the industry has faced severe capacity constrains, which have pushed up airfares. Now, many of its grounded planes have been leased by SpiceJet, which had to ground a dozen of its Boeing 737 Max planes over safety concerns.
24/04/19 New Indian Express

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Aviation failure in every 5 years is a worrying signal: Ajay Singh, Spicejet Chairman

Aviation companies going belly up every 5 years in India is a worrying signal. The sector is a huge contributor to the Indian economy so tax needs to be relaxed, says Ajay Singh.
See video >>

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Amid Jet crisis, IndiGo comes through with flying colours

The financial crisis at Jet Airways, and SpiceJet’s troubles due to the grounding of Boeing 737 MAX aircraft, have benefited IndiGo Airlines the most.

IndiGo further consolidated its leadership position in the domestic market in terms of passengers carried, as its market share expanded to 47 per cent in March, against 44 per cent a month ago.

While India’s domestic passenger traffic grew a marginal 0.1 per cent to 11.6 million, IndiGo reported a 19 per cent growth in passengers to 5.4 million, according to data released by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).

“With the grounding of Boeing 737 MAX in the middle of March, SpiceJet saw a marginal blip in its market share. Go Air, Vistara and AirAsia India gained market share at Jet’s expense and reported a share of 10 per cent, 4 per cent and 6 per cent respectively,” said a report by analysts at Prabhudas Lilladher.

IndiGo has been taking multiple steps to ensure it emerges stronger in the ongoing crisis in the sector. It temporarily added approximately 20 new departures each from Mumbai and Delhi in a phased manner from April 15. It also launched three new international flights.

This comes even as domestic available seat kilometers (ASK), a measure of passenger carrying capacity, slowed down to 5 per cent in March 2019 compared to March 2018. This is the lowest in the past 16 months as the industry continued to witness capacity pull-out.

IndiGo, however, continues to aggressively add capacity, reporting a 26 per cent YoY increase in ASK last month. SpiceJet reported a 13 per cent YoY growth in ASK. However, Jet, with only a handful of aircraft operating due to the ongoing financial crisis, saw its ASK decline 66 per cent YoY.
23/04/19 Forum Gandhi/Business Line

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Jet freefall hits domestic air pax volume

Mumbai: Even with the month of March posting the lowest growth rate in many years, domestic air passenger volume grew 14.25 per cent to 171.25 million in fiscal 2019 over the previous year, according to data from the DGCA. In FY18, the passenger volume was at 146.84 million.

In March, air traffic though stayed flat at 0.14 per cent to 11.59 million passengers up from 11.58 million a year ago. Data from Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) showed that the low numbers were largely due to the huge capacity reduction following the troubles at Jet Airways in the month.

Budget carrier IndiGo continued to be the largest player with a market share of 46.9 per cent ferrying 54 lakh passengers during the month, while its closest rival SpiceJet was a distant second with 13.6 per cent traffic pie as its ferried 15.81 lakh passengers in the reporting month.

The flat growth in traffic is a setback for the industry which had been clipping at over 20 per cent for more than four years in a row. Significantly, betting on the double-digits growth in the past four years, the government in its vision document released this January, has pegged the traffic volume to 1.1 billion by 2040.
23/04/19 News Today

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Govt policies put aviation sector on a wing and a prayer

Have government policies helped or hindered the growth of the civil aviation sector in the 25 years since the Air Corporation Act was amended in 1993 allowing the re-entry of the private sector into the domestic civil aviation space?

Read the analysis by Ashwini Phadnis of Business Line >>

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Airlines in India have 'limited freedoms' but huge potential: IATA

New Delhi: Airlines in India have "limited freedoms" to operate as true commercial businesses and the country is a challenging market for the carriers despite the huge aviation potential, according to global airlines' grouping IATA.

The comments from the International Air Transport Association (IATA), which has nearly 290 airlines as members, also comes at a time when Jet Airways has temporarily closed down its operations due to cash crunch.
Jet Airways is also a member of the IATA.

Albert Tjoeng, Assistant Director of Corporate Communications (Asia Pacific) at the IATA, said that while the aviation potential of India is huge, it is a challenging market for airlines.

"Airlines have to deal with high operating costs: fuel, taxation, airport charges - in a very competitive environment. Fuel costs makes up 34 per cent of operating costs of Indian carriers when the industry average is about 24 per cent.

"Coupled with the depreciation of the Indian rupee, it is a double whammy for the airlines," he said in a statement.

According to him, India's regulatory and tax framework around fuel also adds a burden on the airline industry.

He also noted that there is no real competition for fuel suppliers at airports and excise duties and state taxes on fuel can be up to 30 per cent.
19/04/19 ETNowNews.com

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Airfares shoot up due to Jet Airways crisis

Mumbai: With Jet Airways suspending international operations till April 22 and drastically curtailing domestic flights, airfares have shot up 28% overall when compared to this time last year as passengers are left to making last-minute changes.

Air France and KLM have both operated additional flights to Mumbai owing to demand on April 14 and 15 respectively to accommodate passengers. Besides, there are 10 international routes where Jet Airways had monopoly by being the only Indian carrier to operate these sectors.

An analysis of April 2019 fares in comparison to last year shows that fares for flights originating from Delhi have increased by 19% and fares for flights from Mumbai are up by 36%. Airfares from Bengaluru and Pune are up by 18% and 30% respectively due to the limited availability of seats.

“With Jet now cancelling international flights, the rising fare situation is set to get worse if capacity is not increased before peak summer travel season,” said Aloke Bajpai, CEO and co-founder, ixigo.

The Jet Airways international network, which it started building in 2007 with the induction of its wide-body fleet of the Boeing 777, saw it becoming the only Indian carrier to develop a hub in Brussels, which it later moved to Amsterdam.
16/04/19 Aditya Anand/The Hindu

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What took off in domestic aviation, and what didn’t

The five years of the Modi government saw a lot of attention focused on the civil aviation space. The period saw the domestic aviation market witnessing double-digit growth for 52 months in a row, there were some big-ticket announcements like the UDAN scheme, and there was the passenger charter meant to give more power to the flying public.

On the flip side, aviation infrastructure, especially air traffic management, did not keep pace with air traffic demand and towards the end of Modi’s term, all the private airlines were in the red, with there being uncertainty about Jet Airways’ future.

Given these developments, and now that the country is in the process of electing a new government, FlightPlan looks at aviation during the five years of the NDA government.

According to Diogenis Papiomytis, Global Program Director, Commercial Aviation, Frost & Sullivan, if one is to compare the state of the industry in 2019 vis-à-vis 2014, the five years have been a mixed bag.
“The Regional Connectivity Scheme and reduction of aviation fuel tax to 11 per cent helped airlines double air traffic in five years. However, the government failed to resolve many of the issues faced by industry stakeholders in 2014. Air India is still a massive burden to taxpayers, States continue to charge separate aviation fuel taxes and Foreign Direct Investment continues to be restrained,” he points out.
The jury is out on whether this was a hit or a miss. Flagged off in April 2017 by the Prime Minister, the scheme is meant to give people in tier-II and tier-III cities a chance to fly at a ticket price of ₹2,500. Airlines operating under the UDAN scheme have to ensure that prices of at least 50 per cent of the seats are available at ₹2,500 for one hour of flying.
16/04/19 Ashwini Phadnis/Business Line

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India struggles, logs 6% passenger growth; Mumbai airport rises by just 1.4%

Air passenger traffic across Asia-Pacific and the Middle East recorded growth in January at 5.6% and 1.7% respectively, reports ACI Asia-Pacific Monthly Traffic report for January 2019. The report further informs that China overtook India, generating the highest passenger traffic growth in the region with approximately 8.1% increase from last year. Both the domestic and international segments experienced strong growth, possibly due to the earlier timing of the Lunar New Year holidays. The top three airports with the most passenger volume increase were: Shanghai Pudong (PVG) 8.8%, Guangzhou (CAN) 8.6% and Beijing (PEK) 5.8%.

On the other hand, passenger growth in India increased approximately 6% from last year and continued to trend downward in both the domestic and international segments. Weather disruptions, slower upward capacity adjustment by airlines, and temporary airspace closure at Delhi were a few factors that negatively affected traffic growth during the month. Delhi (DEL), the largest airport in the country grew 1.7% in the month. Mixed results were observed among the major airports in the country: Mumbai (BOM) 1.4%, Bangalore (BLR) 18.4% and Chennai (MAA) 5.2%.
Elsewhere in Asia-Pacific, a number of airports reported strong growth, likely due to the earlier timing of the Lunar New Year holidays: Tokyo Narita (NRT) 7.3%, Bangkok Suvarnabhumi (BKK) 6.2% and Seoul Incheon (ICN) 4.3%.

In the Middle East, passenger growth continued to moderate. Dubai (DXB), the largest hub in the region, declined 1.2%.  Bahrain (BAH) 17.9% posted the highest growth rate in the region. Other high growth airports in January include: Sharjah (SHJ) 8.8% and Muscat (MCT) 8.0%.
16/04/19 ZeeBiz

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Turbulence hits Indian aviation

India saw an impressive growth trajectory of the Aviation Sector with a CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of 12.72% between 2006 and 2018 and proposed Capital Expenditure of Rs. 180 billion over the next four years. The sector has hit an expected roadblock causing speculation on the industry’s future. There is much cavern around the discernible similarities between the two crashes of Boeing 737 Max 8 Passenger aircrafts-Lion Air flight off the coast of Indonesia on October 29, 2018 and Ethiopian Airlines flight on March 10, 2019. This has prompted countries around the world to ban the 737 Max 8 pending conclusive safety investigations.
India’s Aviation Industry regulator, Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) grounded the operation of the Boeing 737 Max 8 through notifications dated March 11, 2019 and March 13, 2019. This threw schedules of the aviation sector into disarray with widespread cancellations of flights with inflated airfares. DGCA is likely to intervene in the matter to combat the spiralling airfares. Since the airfares of the airlines are driven by market forces, it remains to be seen how and to what extent can DGCA regulate this situation.
This incident seems to have accentuated the financial crisis of a leading full-service carrier, Jet Airways which operated five Boeing 737 Max 8 jets. The Airline is reportedly in the midst of resolution talks at present, and a resolution plan was expected by the end of March 2019. Jet Airways had been reeling under financial woes, reportedly piling up to US $ 1 billion in red on its balance sheets. With the grounding of the 737 Max 8s, there has been a rise in demand for aircraft in Jet’s grounded fleet, particularly older versions of the Boeing 737. This may prompt financiers to re-deploy the aircraft, pushing Jet into further trouble.
Another low-cost carrier, SpiceJet, which operated 12 Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft is the worst affected. It has leased two additional aircraft to tide over the spate of cancellations caused by the grounding.
Talks of redeployment of aircraft follow the Government’s recent introduction of the Cape Town Convention Bill, 2018, aimed at streamlining the process of deregistration and recovery of aircraft from defaulting lessees along the lines of the international standards.
15/04/19 Poonam Verma/DNA

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Boeing India arm picks up office space in Bengaluru

Mumabi/Bengaluru: Global aerospace major Boeing’s India arm has picked up over 1.50 lakh sq ft of office space in Bengaluru’s Hebbal locality on a long-term lease spanning over 9 years, said two persons with direct knowledge of the development.
The company has leased the space in realty developer RMZ Corp’s commercial project RMZ Azure in Hebbal locality of Bengaluru. Of the total tenure, lease rental for the initial three years is set at Rs 74 per sq ft a month, taking the total rentals to over Rs 13 crore per annum. The agreement includes a rental escalation clause of 15% increase every 3 years.
“The deal has been inked and concluded recently. Boeing India has leased the said office space for its research and development operations,” said one of the persons mentioned above.
The company is currently undertaking fit-outs at the newly leased office and is expected to start operations from this premise from July.
Boeing is looking to undertake work related mainly to data analytics and advanced environmental-friendly coating for next generation airplane health management tools and other software tools for airlines and airports to improve operations and reduce costs, said the persons mentioned above.
The company is currently undertaking fit-outs at the newly leased office and is expected to start operations from this premise from July.
Boeing is looking to undertake work related mainly to data analytics and advanced environmental-friendly coating for next generation airplane health management tools and other software tools for airlines and airports to improve operations and reduce costs, said the persons mentioned above.
15/04/19 By Kailash Babar,Sobia Khan/Economic Times

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Indian top court says ‘leaked’ Rafale documents admissible

The Supreme Court of India Wednesday dismissed the Narendra Modi-led government’s preliminary objections to review of an earlier judgment that had exonerated the government in the Rafale fighter jet deal, Asian News International reported.

In a move seen as detrimental to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ahead of general elections starting on April 11, the top court also allowed the admission of three ‘leaked’ documents in the Rafale case. They will be used as evidence in re-examining the review petitions filed against the Supreme Court’s December 14 judgment, which refused to order a probe of the procurement of 36 Rafale fighter jets from France. The petition was filed by former Union ministers Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shourie and lawyer-activist Prashant Bhushan.

The Rafale deal has become a major controversy with the opposition alleging corruption on the part of the current government.

Reacting to the Supreme Court’s judgment, Congress chief Rahul Gandhi told the media, “The Prime minister has been claiming that the Supreme Court had given him a clean chit on the Rafale deal. The Supreme Court has clarified and has begun an investigation into the Rafale deal.”

Earlier, the BJP-led government had told the Court that the plea for review of the Rafale verdict was not maintainable as it was based on documents that were protected under the British-era Official Secrets Act of 1923. It claimed that the documents were unauthorized photocopies of the originals kept in the Ministry of Defense and leaked into the public domain by the media.
11/04/19 Asia Times

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IndiGo joins other carriers in taking up Jet Airways vacant slots

New Delhi: With prime slots occupied by Jet Airways at the congested Mumbai airport getting vacated, rival airlines have been grabbing the opportunity to expand their operations from the base.

On Monday, India’s largest airline IndiGo announced expansion of its international network from the city, besides launching additional domestic destinations, to cater to the demand following withdrawal of several routes by Jet Airways.

The three new overseas services include daily non-stop flights to Jeddah and Dammam and Abu Dhabi, while the domestic services will be launched to cities such as Indore, Kochi and Patna among others, IndiGo said in a release.

“We are strengthening Mumbai as a key travel hub for domestic and international connectivity from India. We are adding Jeddah and Dammam effective June 5 and July 5, respectively. Mumbai is the commercial hub of India and we see great potential connecting the Middle East with this city,” said William Boulter, chief commercial officer, IndiGo.
Jeddah being the commercial capital and the gateway for Haj, Dammam being the growth centre in Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi being a major cultural and commercial centre in UAE, are critical markets for strengthening IndiGo’s presence in the Middle East, he further said.

The services on the Mumbai-Abu Dhabi route will be operational from June 5, the airline’s release added.
“Additionally, given the rush in summer traffic and the shortfall in industry capacity, IndiGo is temporarily adding approximately 20 new departures each from Mumbai and Delhi in a phased manner from April 15,” the airline said.
Other carriers, including Vistara and AirAsia India, too have expanded services from Mumbai with Jet vacating slots.
09/04/19 Indian Express

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Bid to check surge in airfares

New Delhi: The aviation regulator plans to ask airlines to come up with immediate and medium-term plans to increase domestic flights and check the spike in fares.

Official sources said the regulator would be meeting the airlines on Wednesday. They have been asked to come out with an “immediate and medium-term plan to augment the additional capacity in the market”.

The regulator will also discuss ways to increase capacity, which would be over and above the flights approved for the summer schedule.

It had approved last month a nearly seven-month-long summer schedule beginning March 31

Data showed airfares had increased substantially compared with the spot ticket prices available during the same period last year.

A travel portal said the Delhi-Mumbai spot fare was now over Rs 11,000. Similarly, Mumbai-Bangalore fares have increased to about Rs 13,000.

“In the last few weeks, fares have been higher by 15 per cent year-on-year on an average for last minute bookings,” Balu Ramachandran, head — air and distribution, Cleartrip said.

The shortage of planes and high seat occupancies are expected to push fares higher in the short term.

Demand for flights is higher from April to June because of holiday travel as most schools and colleges are closed at this time of the year.
Jet Airways’ domestic pilots body — the National Aviators Guild — on Tuesday served a legal notice to the airline, setting an April 14 deadline for the new management to clear their salary dues.

Jet Airways pilots along with engineers and senior executives have not been paid for the last three months. Along with these staff, the airline has defaulted on the payment of March salaries to other employees as well.

Jet has massively reduced its operations from its main hub Mumbai to just about 32 flights on Tuesday, an airline source said.
09/04/19 Telegraph

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DGCA asks airlines to increase number of flights to stabilise rising airfares

India's aviation regulator has asked all airlines to come out with individual medium-term plan by Wednesday on enhancing availability of domestic flights, in a move aimed at curbing rising airfares, government officials said.

Airfares have been on an upswing across India for last few weeks due to sharp decline in number of flights primarily caused by grounding of three-fourths of cash-strapped Jet Airways' 119-aircraft fleet.
The availability of flights was also hit by pulling out of Spice Jet's 12 "737 Max" aircraft in March following safety concerns in the wake of crash of an Ethiopian Airlines jet on March 10.

"The Directorate General of Civil Aviation has been meeting with the airlines continuously so that they augment their additional capacity, which would be over and above the flights approved for the summer schedule," a senior government official said.

According to officials, the each of the airlines was "requested to bring an immediate and medium-term plan to augment the additional capacity in the market", and ways to increase the overall availability of flights will be discussed at a meeting on Wednesday.

The DGCA last month approved a nearly seven-month-long summer schedule beginning March 31 for SpiceJet, Vistara, IndiGo, Air India and GoAir. However, for Jet Airways, the DGCA approved the summer schedule for nearly a month only due to its financial crisis.

The DGCA approves winter as well as summer schedules every year in order to ensure smooth flights operations.
The airlines were asked to come out with immediate and medium-term plan over and above the summer action plan to make available additional flights so that airfares remain in control.
09/04/19 PTI/Business Standard

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Indian aviation: From duopoly to monopoly

In the early ’90s, India’s aviation industry, which was then a duopoly between Indian Airlines and Air India, was opened to private enterprise in a bid to democratise air travel. While seven private air operator permits were issued, by 2005, only two airlines—Jet Airways and Air Sahara—had survived the open skies policy.

“A lot of people got into aviation in the early ’90s because it was a glamorous industry,” says Jitender Bhargava, former executive director of Air India. “But people didn’t have the knowledge and a lot of them suffered.”

Cut to 2019 and there is a clear indication of where the aviation industry is headed. Nearly three-fourths of the market is dominated by low-cost carriers (LCC), which offer cheap fares.

Operationally, the Indian aviation industry is a high-cost market. “This reality, that the Indian aviation market is highly price sensitive, has been overlooked by many a businessman,” says Bhargava. “With regard to Air India’s losses, people dubbed the causes as government interference, bureaucracy and union issues. But there are real issues concerning the Indian [aviation] market.” 

At present, it is dealing with multiple crises: Shortage of pilots, financial woes of Jet Airways and issues pertaining a specific aircraft type, including engine-related problems. All of this has resulted in about 100 airplanes being grounded. Adding to the stress was the single-digit growth in passenger air traffic in January (9 percent) and February (5.71 percent).
09/04/19 Anshul Dhamija/Forbes India

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BJP promises to double number of functional airports in 5 years

Big plans for the aviation infrastructure! The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in its manifesto for Lok Sabha polls 2019 has promised huge development for the nation’s aviation sector. With regard to the establishment of new airports, the party has promised that in the next five years, that is by the year 2024, they will double the number of functional airports in the country, if voted to power. According to the manifesto, in the year 2014, there were a total of 65 functional airports. While today, there are as many as 101 functional airports in the country. The Modi government aims to double this number.

Meanwhile, in the last one year, several airports have been inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The state of Sikkim was finally put on the aviation map as PM Modi inaugurated the Pakyong greenfield airport in the state. The airport is spread across 201 acres and is approximately 30 kilometres from the state capital Gangtok. In addition to this, the Hollongi airport was also inaugurated by PM Modi in the state of Arunachal Pradesh in the month of February. The airport becomes imperative for providing regional air-connectivity to the state and for boosting the tourism potential.

Apart from these airports, the UDAN (Ude Desh Ka Aam Nagrik) scheme or the RCS (regional connectivity scheme) was launched by the government in the year 2017, with the objective of making it affordable for the common man to fly. Under the UDAN scheme, the number of regional airports in the country increased significantly. Inaugurated recently, the Hindon Air Force Station in Delhi-NCR will let passengers fly at affordable air ticket prices to places like Pithoragarh, Jaisalmer, Gorakhpur, Allahabad and Kannur. Additionally, popular tourist heartlands like Hampi, Gangtok and Shimla will be easier with the UDAN connectivity flights to these places.
09/04/19 Nikita Prasad/Financial Express

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Good news for frequent fliers: Your pre-booked airline seats cannot be changed without explanation!

Are you a frequent flier in India? Have you ever had your pre-booked seats on an airline changed without your knowledge or without a proper explanation? Then, here’s an important update for you. Recently, the country’s apex consumer commission directed Air India to pay Rs 5 lakh as compensation to its two passengers. Wondering why? The reason is that the airline was found to have changed the passengers’ pre-booked seats. Air India was also found to have failed to provide a wheelchair, to one of the passengers, which had earlier been confirmed as per their electronic tickets.
The bench comprising of NCDRC president Justice RK Agarwal and member M Shreesha found that the airline was ‘deficient’ in its service of changing the pre-allotted seat booking without any explanation. Not only did the airline do this on domestic flight but also on the international flight. The NCDRC bench observed that this had caused considerable inconvenience without any explanation to the passengers.
The airline’s claim regarding the paucity of wheel chair at the Delhi airport was rejected by the bench. According to Air India, there were not enough wheelchairs to provide to a passenger waiting in transit at the IGI airport. This claim was rejected. The NCDRC held that the passenger’s electronic ticket clearly indicates the confirmation of a wheelchair. Also, given the fact that their air ticket had been booked at least two months in advance, Air India should have directed the ground staff to ensure and provide a wheelchair to the passengers ahead of the scheduled flight.
09/04/19 Swapna Raghu Sanand/Financial Express

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Add more flights, govt tells airlines as prices soar; Vistara, IndiGo step ahead

Airfares have been on a continuous rise for some time now in the aftermath of 737 Boeing MAX groundings and amid Jet Airways flights cancellation, adding to the woes of travellers. However, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), has reportedly requested airlines to bring an “immediate and medium-term plan” to tackle the issue by adding more flights, PTI reported, citing unidentified government officials. The airlines have been requested to add new flights over and above the number approved in the summer schedule, the report added.

Meanwhile, airlines such as IndiGo and Vistara have already raised the number of flights on a temporary basis, sensing the need for additional carrying capacity. While budget carrier IndiGo recently announced that it has added 20 new domestic and three new international flights, Vistara had also said that 14 new flights have been added to cater to the peak summer season.

IndiGo’s 20 new flights are to and from Mumbai to 10 cities namely Vadodara, Patna, Hyderabad, Kochi, Nagpur, Varanasi, Bhopal, Indore, Bengaluru and Chennai. “This is an effort to make it easier for customers to find affordable fares during the busy season,” IndiGo had said in a statement.

Vistara, on the other hand, has added temporary new flights to Mumbai-Bengaluru, Mumbai-Hyderabad and Mumbai-Kolkata routes which will be operational during 16 April-15 July, it had earlier said. Also, Tata, SIA’s Vistara is going to fly Hyderabad-Pune route for the period 7 April-30 April 2019.
09/04/19 Prachi Gupta/Financial Express

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Election office enlists airlines, airports to encourage voting

“Ladies and gentlemen, now is the time to enhance your future. This Lok Sabha elections cast your precious vote and contribute to the nation’s growth and your prosperity.” This was the announcement made on Tuesday on a Mumbai-Ahmedabad GoAir flight, as part of a new initiative of the District Election Office, Mumbai (Suburban), to encourage voting.

The suburban district election officer is enlisting the support of airlines and the Mumbai airport to promote participation in the elections. Mumbai goes to polls on April 29, a Monday, and there are fears of a low turnout owing to a long weekend.

The initiative is part of the Systematic Voters Education and Electoral Participation programme rolled out by the Election Commission of India. The city registered a turnout of 51% in 2014, and currently has more than 70 lakh eligible voters.

“We have held meetings with other airlines, who will soon join our effort. We will also be enlisting the support of Mumbai airport,” Sachin Kurve, Collector, Mumbai (Suburban), said. At the international terminal, promotional material will be beamed across 188 screens.
09/04/19 Ajeet Mahale/The Hindu

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Flights fewer, fares soar

Calcutta: The withdrawal of Jet Airways flights has made flying to at least two destinations from Calcutta costlier.

The airfare from Calcutta to Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore has skyrocketed despite this not being a tourist season, tour operators and passengers said.

A one-way trip to Mumbai on April 11 will cost between Rs 17,000 and Rs 26,000, according to travel portals on Tuesday. Usually, during this time of the year, the spot fares hover around Rs 8,000 for a one-way trip on the route, tour operators said.

The Mumbai-Calcutta route is no stranger to surge in fares but that happens mostly during the festive season such as the Puja, which sees a rush among people from the city working elsewhere to return home.

Once, ahead of the Puja, the airfare from Mumbai to Calcutta had touched Rs 50,000.

The last-minute airfare from Calcutta to Delhi was around Rs 13,000, compared with the average of Rs 7,000 that airlines charge during this period.

Over the past few months, Jet Airways has withdrawn six of its seven flights in the Calcutta-Mumbai sector and all three in the Calcutta-Delhi sector, sources said.

“The withdrawal of the flights has resulted in the reduction of around 1,000 seats in the Calcutta-Mumbai sector and around 500 seats in the Calcutta-Delhi sector. Hence, the surge in fares,” an aviation industry veteran said.
09/04/19 Sanjay Mandal/Telegraph

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Rafale: Modi govt. gave unprecedented waivers in offset agreements

The Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave exceptional and unprecedented waivers to M/s Dassault Aviation and M/s MBDA in the offset contracts they signed with the Indian government on September 23, 2016 as part of the €7.87 billion Rafale deal.
Read how >>

09/04/19 N Ram/The Hindu

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Airvan gets surprise visit from Nelly the Elephant. Anand Mahindra's reply is priceless

New Delhi: Chairman of Mahindra Group, Anand Mahindra, is at it again and his tweet of the day will leave you in splits.

Recently, Mahindra Aerospace posted a picture on Twitter of Nelly the Elephant standing in front of their airvans in Southern Africa.

They posted the picture with the caption, "#Airvans operating in Southern Africa fly guests in and out of remote airstrips and sometimes get up close and personal with VIPs like #Nellytheelephant. #weflyallover #bushpilots #Africa #Mahindra #Aviation #Aerospace #Aerostructure #Aircraft."
After the handle posted the picture, Anand Mahindra took to the social-networking site and posted a hilarious comment on it. And the internet is loving it.

He wrote, "Prakash, Arvind, Nelly looks very gentle but I hope our customer for the aircraft has insurance for Pachyderm Problems?" proving once again that his comic quotient is incomparable.
After Mahindra commented on the picture, many of his followers praised him for his hilarious reaction to the picture.
09/04/19 India Today

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Pak Airspace Shut Down Hits Mumbai ATC, Guiding System Crashes Twice

New Delhi: For around two minutes on April 5, dozens of passenger aircraft flew blind over Mumbai, as a workstation of the air traffic system that coordinates flights crashed twice. Air traffic controllers said the system, one of four machines part of the guiding system called Lower Area Control (LAC), crashed because the Mumbai airport is managing a 60% rise in air traffic following Pakistan's closure of its airspace in February. Pakistan shut its airspace after India's retaliation to the Pulwama attack, and has not fully opened it. Hundreds of more flights from the east are flying over Mumbai every day.

If a systems crash is not alarming enough, consider this. The Mumbai air traffic control (ATC) is using a decade-old system with no backup if it fails to restart. For four months, the system has been running without maintenance, as the contract with the firm that developed it ended in December 2018. Airports Authority of India is yet to appoint a new maintenance contract. When systems were down on April 5, the ATC simply waited for it to restart. If that didn't happen in 10 minutes, ATC would have switched to the manual Procedural Control system, less efficient as it does not display floght movements. Controllers said they faced a crash for the first time on March 30, and were worried about the overloaded system crashing again.

"Once the system crashes, we are not sure if we can handle the traffic manually. It could lead to a total shutdown of the Mumbai airspace," said an AAI official, not wishing to be named. On Saturday, a day after the crash, the Air Traffic Controllers Guild (western region), wrote to their general secretary in Delhi. HT has a copy of the letter, which points out that the maintenance contract ended in December and that the system in its current form is a threat to aircraft safety.
09/04/19 Neha LM Tripathi/Hindustan Times/AviationPros

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Moneycontrol Flight Price Tracker: Check average airline ticket prices for Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad

Airfare between Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru and Kolkata is set to rise in the coming two weeks as school vacations approach and the recent jet fuel price hike. Major airlines like Jet Airways and IndiGo may bounce back from numerous flight cancellations and ongoing runway repair projects.

"Fares on major domestic routes have witnessed a hike in spot airfares as compared to last year due to a decrease in seat capacity and increase in demand as we move closer to peak travel season of summers. We expect a hike in passenger load factor as travelers plan their domestic and international trips to various destinations. These prices are expected to spike further and airlines are expected to tap into this growing demand." Sharat Dhall, COO (B2C) at Yatra.com said.

Here's an overview of the spot airfares and flight prices trends to help you find the cheapest flights for airlines such as Jet Airways, IndiGo, Air India, GoAir, Vistara, AirAsia and SpiceJet and also international carriers.
08/04/19 Moneycontrol.com

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A320 NEO Full-flight Simulator opened in Hyderabad

Hyderabad: The Flight Simulation Technique Centre (FSTC), a registered standalone Approved Training Organisation (ATO), has received a state-of-the-art full-flight Airbus A320 NEO simulator at its newly-opened facility here on Sunday.

A second Airbus A320 NEO Full-flight Simulator (Level D) would also be delivered by Canada’s CAE Inc later this year. The CAE would deliver a number of complementary lower-level training devices too, including an IPT-Integrated Procedures Trainer, that would be ready for training.

The FSTC has already installed the region’s first Bombardier Q400 simulator and is ready for training to extend simulator services to operators in India and also to international carriers operating the Bombardier’s Dash8 in the region, said Sanjay Mandavia, founder and director of FSTC.

“We are expanding our training infrastructure to address the demand for Airbus A320 NEO training to be provided in India,” said Capt. Mandavia. Co-founder D.S. Basraon said: “With this new delivery from the CAE, the FSTC will be the first independent operator to offer a range of new training solutions and equipment for the rapidly expanding Airbus A320 NEO fleet”.
The FSTC aims to become Asia’s leading ATO for training pilots both locally and abroad. The A320 NEO Simulators being ready for training in the second quarter of 2019 are perfectly timed to address an increasing requirement for training infrastructure to support the growing installed base of A320 Neo aircraft in the region, they said.
07/04/19 The Hindu

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Odisha Cadre IAS Officer Usha Padhee To Helm Pawan Hans

New Delhi: Usha Padhee, the 1996-batch Odisha cadre IAS officer, has been given additional charge of disinvestment-bound Pawah Hans Ltd.

She is the first woman to head Pawan Hans, the state-run helicopter company which has 46 choppers in its fleet.

Her appointment was announced by Pawan Hans on its Twitter handle on Sunday morning.
Padhee is currently serving as joint secretary in the ministry of civil aviation and is looking after the government’s ambitious UDAN scheme that seeks to connect major cities and metros with unserved and under-served areas in the country.

She is being widely credited for the successful rollout of the UDAN phase III programme. Jharsuguda airport has reaped a rich dividend from this phase. The airport began operations from March 31 with SpiceJet launching operations from there. In all, six cities will be connected with Jharsuguda.
07/04/19 Odishabytes.com

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Straightened taxiway will ease operations

Chennai: In three months, flights will be able to reach the Guindy-end of the main runway quicker for take off as Airports Authority of India (AAI) will complete straightening of a taxiway. This will benefit flights that land from the Pallavaram-end of the runway to reach the terminals.
The taxiway, which has a bend, runs parallel to the old airport building which was being used as cargo area and connects the terminal with the Guindy-end of the main runway.
The curve at the taxiway slowed down planes and caused congestion and fuel burn on ground especially during peak hours.
The work was scheduled for completion last month. A senior AAI official said work was going on fast. “It will be ready by the end of July or early August,” he said. Work is being done under phase two of the expansion in which the airport is also building taxiways.
08/04/19 Times of India

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IRCTC offers air package for northeast trip

Bhubaneswar: The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), a public sector enterprise under the ministry of railways, has come up with an air package for holidaying in northeast(NE). The package of five nights and six days starts from June 11.
The tourists will board flight at Biju Patnaik International Airport in Bhubaneswar and reach Kalimpong after landing at Bagdogra airport via Guwahati International Airport. They will visit tourist places at Kalimpong before leaving for Gangtok.
They will visit Tsomgo Lake and Baba Harbhanjan Singh Memorial in Sikkim apart from Gangtok city, said a media release. Later, they will start sightseeing in Darjeeling and its nearby areas. The tourists will board flight from Bagdogra airport on June 16 for Bhubaneswar.

The will check in hotels in Kalimpong, Gangtok and Darjeeling. Cost of the trip is between Rs 23,800 and Rs 27,510. There will be no refund if a tourist fails to join the group at the commencement of the tour or join the group later or leave the group before culmination of the tour for any reasons whatsoever, said an IRCTC officer.
08/04/19 Hemanta Pradhan/Times of India

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Domestic Aviation Markets Sees 54th Consecutive Months Of Growth

India recorded its 54the consecutive month of double-digit percentage growth in the domestic aviation market. “Domestic capacity climbed 5.8%, and load factor edged up 0.5 percentage point to 82.4%,” the International Air Transport Association (IATA) said.

Globally, the domestic travel demand rose 6.4 per cent in February compared to February 2018, down from 7.4 per cent annual growth in January. All markets except Australia reported increases in traffic. 

“After January’s strong performance, we settled down a bit in February, in line with concerns about the broader economic outlook. Continuing trade tensions between the US and China, and unresolved uncertainty over Brexit are also weighing on the outlook for travel,” said Alexandre de Juniac, IATA’s Director General and CEO.

February international passenger demand rose 4.6 per cent compared to February 2018, which was a slowdown from 5.9 per cent growth in January. Capacity climbed 5.1 per cent, and load factor dropped 0.4 percentage point to 79.5 per cent.
08/04/19 T3

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Airlines save time, fuel as Pakistan partially opens airspace

New Delhi: With Pakistan opening its airspace partially from Thursday (April 4), national passenger carrier Air India has started saving on time and fuel for its US and Europe-bound flights, said an airline official on Saturday.

The national carrier re-routed some of its flights which had to take a longer flight path over Mumbai to reach the US and Europe.

"We are saving 15 minutes on our US and Europe-bound flights since Pakistan opened some of its airspace from last Thursday," a senior Air India official told IANS.

Pakistan had closed its airspace since the Indian Air Force (IAF) strikes in Balakot on February 26. The move has adversely affected international flights to and from India, with Air India being a major victim.

Flights from across the world have either been cancelled or re-routed since the closure was announced on February 27. Pakistan partially opened its airspace, only for the flights bound for the country.

Air India, which operates 33 weekly services to the US and 66 to Europe, has curtailed operations due to the airspace closure. It has clubbed together several US and Europe-bound flights.

Flights to the US and Europe are now diverted over Mumbai and then northwards over the Arabian Sea.
07/04/19 IANS/Khaleej Times

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ATF should be brought under GST to provide level playing field to airlines, says Union Minister Suresh Prabhu

New Delhi: Aviation turbine fuel (ATF) should be brought under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime as it will ensure a level playing field for the domestic airline industry, Civil Aviation Minister Suresh Prabhu said.

He said input costs should be competitive for any sector and the ministry has been of the strong view that the fuel should be brought under the GST regime. Different rates of taxes in states pushes the price of ATF, he said.
"Each state has a different tax. Due to this, the refuelling (for airlines) cost completely changes. We feel that it should be done. I hope the GST Council takes a call on that and we are pursuing this with the council continuously.
07/04/19 ETNowNews.com

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Why many airline seats are empty despite India’s booming air travel

Even in turmoil, India’s aviation industry has been adding new capacity faster than the growth in air passenger traffic.

The number of domestic passengers flown every month by Indian airlines has grown in double digits for four-and-a-half years till February, according to the Montreal-based International Air Transport Association (IATA).

Despite this growth, the industry’s passenger load factor (PLF), a measure of capacity utilisation, has been falling recently as carriers expanded their fleet. In fact, from October 2018 to February this year, Indian aviation’s PLF has been declining on a year-on-year basis, according to the latest IATA figures.

A high load factor means fewer seats on flights are being left empty. This is crucial for the price-sensitive industry, which has thin profit margins in India. PLF here is the highest among major aviation markets, including the US, China, and Brazil.

But since November, Indian airlines’ PLF has declined the fastest. This is due to a greater rise in capacity than air traffic, said Ashish Nainan, aviation analyst at CARE Ratings, even at a time when many of the Indian carriers are either stuck in or emerging from the red.

Deliveries have begun rolling in on the massive orders that carriers such as IndiGo, Air Vistara, and SpiceJet had placed with aircraft makers. The airlines have also been increasing the number of their flight routes and frequencies amid a push by the Indian government to expand regional air connectivity.

Meanwhile, though still in double digits, the rate of growth in passenger traffic has fallen 5% since October. The Indian government policies have forced airlines to raise their fares, leading to a drop in the load factor, said Mark Martin, founder and CEO of Martin Consulting.

“After GST, the government has increased airport charges. Then there’s been an 18-20% rise in service charges, from catering to fuelling services,” he said. “The costs have gone up, so the fares will also go up.”
05/04/19 Kuwar Singh/Quartz

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India's domestic air passenger traffic records double-digit growth in February: IATA

New Delhi: India registered double-digit growth in domestic air passenger traffic for the 54th consecutive month in February, global airlines' body IATA said Thursday.

In February, neighbouring China was the fastest-growing domestic market with revenue passenger kilometre (RPK) growth of 11.4 per cent while that of India stood at 10 per cent.

RPK is a measure of passenger volumes.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) said annual growth in industry-wide RPKs eased to 5.3 per cent in February, broadly in line with its long-run average rate of growth.

Noting that India and Russia also posted double-digit annual growth in February, the grouping said the two markets continue to perform strongly.

"For India, this marks the 54th consecutive month of double-digit domestic RPK growth. A generally solid economic backdrop combined with continued growth in the number of airport pairs have all contributed to this sustained growth performance," it said.

India is one of the fastest-growing domestic aviation markets in the world.
04/04/19 PTI/Economic Times

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IAF refutes US magazine claim, says it shot down F-16 fighter jet in skirmish with Pakistan

The Indian Air Force on Friday released a statement asserting it had shot down a Pakistan F-16 fighter aircraft on February 27 and thwarted a retaliatory attempt from the neighbouring country after the Balakot air strikes, PTI reported.

The Air Force said it had intercepted a “large force” of Pakistani aircraft and during the ensuing aerial engagement, one of its MiG-21 Bisons had shot down an F-16 in Nowshera, Jammu and Kashmir.
“Indian forces confirmed sighting ejections at two different places on that day,” the statement reportedly said. “The two sightings were at places separated by at least 8 to 10 km. One was an IAF MiG-21 Bison and other a PAF [Pakistan Air Force] aircraft. Electronic signatures gathered by us indicate that the PAF aircraft was an F-16.”

The IAF’s statement came a day after a report in the Foreign Policy magazine, citing two unidentified US senior defence officials, claimed that India’s assertion about shooting down the Pakistani aircraft was untrue. “US personnel recently counted Islamabad’s F-16s and found none missing,” the report said.

Pakistan has consistently denied that it had deployed F-16 fighter jets on February 27 and said it had used the JF-17 Thunder combat aircraft on that day.
The Indian Air Force had conducted the Balakot strikes after the February 14 Pulwama terrorist attack in which 40 Central Reserve Police Force Personnel were killed. The Balakot strike was followed by heightened tensions between the two countries, including aerial skirmishes between India and Pakistan.
05/04/19 Scroll

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Boeing 737 Max grounding led to steep rise in airfares in India: Fitch

Fitch Ratings said on Friday the impact on the airline industry in Asia from the grounding of Boeing 737 Max jets has been muted so far but may worsen in the second quarter of 2019.

Boeing's top-selling aircraft has been grounded worldwide since the March 10 Ethiopian Airlines disaster, which killed 157 people, and came just five months after a Lion Air crash in Indonesia that killed 189.
The grounding of the model has had a limited impact on the fares and performances of airlines in most markets due to seasonally low demand in the first quarter, Fitch said in its report.

It added that there is limited flexibility for airlines to switch to alternatives from Airbus or Boeing.

The Indian aviation market, however, has seen a sharp rise in air fares in the recent months due to tight supply, partly worsened by the suspension of the 737 MAX, Fitch said.
05/04/19 Reuters/Business Standard

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Airfares surge near 40% in two months; Mumbai-Chennai route sees maximum hike

New Delhi: Airfares have increased by up to 40 per cent between February and March due to variouschallenges faced by the airlines industry, including the grounding of planes by Jet Airways, pilot shortage and safety issues of the Boeing Max 737 planes. The average rise recorded for metro and non-metro routes was 29 per cent and 9 per cent, as per the report, the Economic Times quoted Cleartrip as saying.

The highest average rise of 39 per cent was recorded on the Mumbai-Chennai route. It was followed by a 38 per cent rise on the Mumbai-Delhi route. Chennai-Madurai recorded the maximum hike of 24 per cent in airfares in the 'non-metro routes' category.

After the Directorate General of Civil Aviation decided to ground all Boeing 737 Max planes in India, Spice Jet had stopped flying 12 planes, which amounted to 17 per cent of its fleet capacity. Jet Airways had also grounded five Boeing planes.

Recently, an Indigo flight bound for Nagpur from Pune- an Airbus A320 Neo was grounded soon after take-off due to "excessive-engine vibrations", making it the sixth incident of midair glitches in the past two weeks alone.
04/04/19 Business Today

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How a woman officer helped IAF hit back when Pakistani jets targeted India after Balakot

New Delhi: The Indian Air Force is set to recommend the name of a young woman squadron leader for a medal for distinguished service after she showed “exceptional” courage to guide India’s response to the air raid attempted by Pakistan on 27 February.

Top defence sources said the officer, who is not being identified by ThePrint due to security concerns, took over the reins at the secure control room in Punjab.

She is the one who called for the scrambling of seven MiG-21 Bison aircraft and informed the pilots in the air about the presence of F-16s with AMRAAMs.

“She did an exceptional job and will be recommended for a distinguished service medal,” a source told ThePrint.
Multiple sources within the defence establishment have corroborated the role played by the officer.
Sources said around 8:45 am on 27 February, the first signs of a possible attack emerged — Pakistan had closed down its civilian airspace and stopped all commercial flights.

Half an hour later, IAF assets picked up multiple aircraft taking off from different air bases.

In total, about 25 aircraft took off, which included F-16s, Mirages and JF-17s.

Noticing the movement, the squadron leader first informed two Mirage 2000s flying Combat Air Patrol sorties north of the Pir Panjal range, and two Sukhoi Su-30 MKIs flying south of the mountains.

03/04/19 Snehesh Alex Philip/Print

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US approves sale of 24 MH 60 Romeo Seahawk helicopters to India

Washington: The US has approved the sale of 24 multi-role MH-60 ‘Romeo’ Seahawk helicopters to India at an estimated cost of USD 2.6 billion, the State Department has said

India has been in need of these formidable anti-submarine hunter helicopters for more than a decade now.

Designed for hunting submarines as well as knocking out ships and conducting search-and-rescue operations at sea, the Lockheed Martin-built helicopters would replenish India’s aging fleet of British-made Sea King helicopters.

The Trump administration on Tuesday notified the Congress that it has approved the sale of 24 MH-60R multi-mission helicopters, which will provide the Indian defence forces the capability to perform anti-surface and anti-submarine warfare missions.

In its notification, the State Department told the Congress that this proposed sale will support the foreign policy and national security of the US by helping to strengthen the US-Indian strategic relationship.

The sale will improve the security of a major defence partner which continues to be an important force for political stability, peace, and economic progress in the Indo-Pacific and South Asia region, it said.

“The proposed sale will provide India the capability to perform anti-surface and anti-submarine warfare missions along with the ability to perform secondary missions, including vertical replenishment, search and rescue, and communications relay,” said the Congressional notification.
03/04/19 PTI/Tribune

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Indian flights will have WiFi soon — leaving only North Korea behind

Airlines flying through the Indian airspace will now be able to offer their passengers Wi-Fi connectivity in the air thanks to India's new “in-flight and maritime connectivity” (IFMC) license. Just not immediately.

India's state run telecom operator, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) procured the license from Inmarsat, a British telecommunications satellite company that offers global mobile services.

BSNL first indicated that flight passengers will be able to use internet on flights within the year in July 2017 after gaining the requisite approvals from the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) and the Department of Telecommunications (DoT). In May, last year, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) said that in-flight Wi-Fi would be live within the next 3 to 4 months.
Even now, despite attaining the license, the actual implementation of the technology will take a few more months.
Aside from India, North Korea is the only country to not allow in-flight connectivity so far which the Indian government maintains was due to national security reasons.
Once the service is available, it's unlikely to be cheap. TRAI also indicated that it would be the airlines that would set the prices for in-flight connectivity.
Meanwhile, since India didn't have a license, companies like Airtel found workarounds. For instance, it founded the 'Seamless Alliance' during the Mobile World Congress (MWC 2018) along with OneWeb, Airbus, Delta and Sprint to give flight passengers access to the internet.
03/04/19 Prabhjote Gill/Business Insider

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Airspace wars force detour of many flights

Across the globe, the world’s airlines are forced to take the longer route in light of political tensions, diplomatic feuds, and sudden escalations in decade-long conflicts.
Pakistan closed its airspace in February after a suicide bomber from militant group Jaish-e-Mohammed attacked a convoy in Indian-controlled Kashmir. Following the attack, both Pakistan and India carried out aerial bombings on each other’s territory, and their military jets engaged in a sudden battle in the skies above — a dramatic escalation in a long-standing conflict.
While some areas of Pakistan’s airspace has reopened — many of the airspace restrictions implemented over one month ago remain in place. The continuing restrictions have left international airlines, such as British Airways, avoiding overflying Pakistan, and entire countries, such as Afghanistan, unable to fly on routes to India without extreme detours.
Afghanistan’s civil aviation authority stated the country is suffering heavy losses following the new restrictions, which force commercial flights between Afghanistan and India (one of its largest trading partners) to fly back west, over Iran, continuing south of Pakistan, and into India.
It’s resulted in an additional three hours of flying time between Kabul and Delhi — a journey that would ordinarily take around two hours.
Consequently, airfares between Afghanistan and India have doubled in price over the recent weeks, predominantly due to the increase in fuel costs for airlines, having to adhere to the airspace restrictions.
Afghanistan-based airline Kam Air and Ariana Afghan Airlines are still offering direct flights to India, but are incurring losses by doing so. Ariana Afghan Airlines has lost $550,000 in the past month because of Pakistan’s restrictions, while Kam Air has lost $1mn in the same period “as costs rose and ticket sales fell” according to the airline.
The latest of airspace restrictions as a result of the Pakistan-India tensions have once again proven the industry’s reliance on Iran, for overflight. Major airlines, including Singapore Airlines, that would ordinarily fly on a more northerly route over Pakistan are now flying south of the country instead, before entering Iranian airspace and overflying much of the Islamic Republic country.
03/04/19 Alex Macheras/Gulf Times

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Air fares likely to go up after hike in ATF prices

ATF now costs Rs 63,472.22 per kilolitre in Delhi, up Rs 677 (over 1 per cent) from Rs 62,795 per kl last month, according to the notification by the Indian Oil Corporation. A similar hike in the prices was seen in Kolkata, Mumbai and Chennai.

"The 1 per cent increase in ATF price is expected to affect air travel especially ahead of the peak travel season," said Sharat Dhall, COO (B2C), Yatra.com.
"The prices may fluctuate in short to medium term. But with capacity expansion underway there might be stabilisation as we head further into the travel season," Dhall said.

The prices are revised on the first day of every month.

Aloke Bajpai, CEO and Co-founder, Ixigo, said, "With peak summer travel season round the corner and an ongoing capacity crunch due to grounding of planes, hike in ATF can lead to an increase in last-minute fares and aggrevate the increasing airfare situation seen since February."

"But average domestic fares might normalise and even dip 15-20 per cent if attempts to get some grounded planes operational come through," Bajpai added.

The aviation sector is already seeing flared-up fares due to capacity constraints caused by reasons like shortage of aircraft in the wake of grounding of Boeing MAX 737 globally over safety concerns and Jet Airways grounding several flights due to non-payment of dues.
02/04/19 IANS/News Minute

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Why leading an airline in India requires unique management capabilities

Two of the three full-service carriers are in significant financial distress and there is increasing pressure on the low-cost airlines. Collectively, the airline industry will register a loss in the range of $1.5– 1.7 billion dollars for 2018-19. There has been much debate about structural changes but these are yet to happen. In such a situation, leading an airline in India requires unique capabilities. Some of these are highlighted below:

Towards predictable cash outflows by managing the largest expense item — fuel

The largest operational expense item for any airline is aviation turbine fuel (ATF). For Indian carriers, ATF constitutes 35-40 percent of an airline cost base. Unfortunately, the pricing of ATF in India is based on import parity rather than on the basis of actual cost (including refining and marketing). The industry has long demanded that ATF taxation is rationalised but no such move has been initiated yet.

In spite of the goods and service tax (GST) implemented in 2017, ATF continues to be out of its purview, leading to incredibly thin margins of 2-4 percent in the industry. Compare this to putting one’s money in fixed deposits, which are yielding 7-8 percent and the gravity of the situation can be gauged.

Hedging via financial instruments is not an option as that requires expertise and carries additional risk. However, there are other aspects of hedging that can be initiated. Specifically, volume discounts from the oil marketing companies; pre-payment commitments towards an even higher discount; leveraging lower tax rates in states towards fuel uplift (known as tankering); efficiency procedures both on the ground and in the air; and creating a cost focussed culture. Other more complex measures include the direct import of fuel, network optimisation.

The goal is not only to minimise cost but also to have a more predictable cash outflow which then can be addressed via tactical interventions.

Collaborating with stakeholders to drive airport efficiency

From 44 million domestic passengers in 2008 to 121 million domestic passengers in 2018, Indian aviation has come a long way. This growth is forecast to continue with India becoming the 3rd largest aviation market by 2030. But to sustain this growth, airport capacity is required. And airport expansion is lagging far behind.

Airport capacity now poses an imminent threat to Indian airlines. The country has a total of 449 airports but metro airports continue to be key to aviation traffic with about 61 percent of the domestic traffic and about 73 percent of international traffic still originating from the 6 metro cities of Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Chennai. With the exception of Bengaluru which will see the addition of an additional runway this year, the capacity expansion at other airports lags or is non-existent. Airlines are wanting for peak slots to fly aircraft and for parking infrastructure. Use of dynamic parking on a network basis is not sustainable.

For airlines, this means: optimising existing slot portfolios towards generating yield premiums from prime-time slots. Additionally, a re-evaluation and rethink of simply flying unviable routes. Airlines that do not have the required marketstrength will be forced to pull out of some markets completely or move towards a more connected network to generate traffic. Larger aircraft may also be an option but the challenge is filling these up during non-peak hours, which is not done is a cash-drain (think of filling up 22 percent more capacity with a marginally higher cost base but without an uptick in fare levels).

Above all airlines have to work collaboratively with stakeholders including airports, air traffic control and government to see how more capacity can be delivered from the existing resources.
02/04/19 Satyendra Pandey/CNBC TV18

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Boeing offers to build 21st century aerospace ecosystem in India

Eyeing India's multi-billion dollar fighter jet market, Boeing has offered to build a 21st century aerospace ecosystem in India for co-developing F/A-18 Super Hornet upgrades as part of the country's advanced medium combat aircraft (AMCA) programme.

Two major American fighter jets manufacturers - Boeing and Lockheed Martin - are in the race for the Indian fighter jet market. Lockheed Martin has offered to shift its entire F-16 manufacturing base from US to India.

"What we're talking about is a complete ecosystem of capability – it's building up supply chain, it's building up engineering capacity, technical mechanical capacity. It is bringing the build, not the kit, to India," Marc Allen, president of Boeing International and a member of the Boeing Executive Council, told PTI.
Last month, Allen was named senior vice president of Boeing and president of Embraer Partnership and Group Operations.

Boeing has offered that future F/A-18 Super Hornet upgrades can be co-developed with India, maximising performance, affordability, indigenisation for decades.

The McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet is a twin-engine, supersonic, all-weather, carrier-capable, multirole combat jet, designed as both a fighter and attack aircraft.

As a result, Allen argued, the impact will be transformational - building a next gen warfighter in India and a 21st century aerospace ecosystem with Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) and Mahindra along with Boeing industry's partners (GE Aviation, GKN Aero, Northrop Grumman and Raytheon).
02/04/19 PTI/moneycontrol.com

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Ajit Doval pressured government to increase Rafale aircraft price: Prithviraj Chavan

Pune: Former Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan on Monday claimed that National Security Advisor Ajit Doval had put pressure on the central government to increase the price of the Rafale aircraft. “NSA Ajit Doval pressured the government to increase the price of aircraft by 3.2 billion. There was no need and even he being an advisor had no role to play in price matter. There was a committee of price negotiation to look after,” Chavan said at a book launch here.

At the event, Chavan claimed that Dassault Aviation had promised UPA to transfer the technology to Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL). “As per the agreement, it was decided that only 18 aircraft will be manufactured with Dassault and other 108 aircraft will be manufactured in India’s HAL for which the technology will be transferred by Rafale. We have video proof of same being said by Rafale CEO. Later on, when they smelled that the government is about to change, they started avoiding technology transfer factor with us,” Chavan said.
02/04/19 ANI/Free Press Journal

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HAL posts record Rs 19,400 crore turnover, IAF still to pay bills

Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), which has faced concerted criticism over the past year from both the defence ministry and the Indian Air Force (IAF), has announced a record turnover of over Rs 19,400 crore (provisional and unaudited) for the financial year that ended March 31.
This amounts to 6 per cent revenue growth over the previous year’s turnover of Rs 18,284 crore.
That comfortably beat the revenue growth of 3.8 per cent during 2017-18.
However, the IAF still owes HAL about Rs 20,000 crore in unpaid dues for aircraft delivered and overhauled and for milestone payments due, Business Standard has learnt.
In January, HAL had to take a bank loan of Rs 781 crore to pay salaries to its 29,000 employees.
At the time, HAL Chairman R Madhavan had told Business Standard: “The IAF owes HAL money for aircraft, helicopters and services that we have already delivered. Current dues are at Rs 15,700 crore and will rise to Rs 20,000 crore by March 31.” Madhavan’s projection has turned out to be accurate.
On Monday, a HAL statement said: “In FY18-19, HAL has produced 41 new aircraft/helicopters and 98 new engines and has carried out overhaul of 213 aircraft/helicopters and 540 engines.”
HAL sources say they built 11 Sukhoi-30MKI and seven Tejas fighters in the year just gone by, as well as five Dornier-228 aircraft, three Cheetal light helicopters and 15 Dhruv advanced light helicopters, totalling 41 aircraft.
In addition, it has overhauled 15 Sukhoi-30MKI (up from 11 the previous year) and several Mirage 2000 and Jaguar fighters, Kiran trainers and a large number of helicopters.
Amongst the research and development (R&D) projects under way in HAL are the Tejas Mark 1A fighter. HAL is also claiming a breakthrough with the HTT-40 basic trainer aircraft, which it expects to certify this year.
“HAL’s R&D projects are on track and are tailor made for the requirement of the armed forces,” the company said on Monday.
HAL said it “expects continued ‘excellent’ MoU rating for the FY18-19 from government of India for meeting all the relevant parameters related to its performance.”
Senior HAL executives say that more than an ‘excellent’ rating, the company requires cash to meet its monthly running expenditure of Rs 1,300-1,400 crore.
01/04/19 Prime Time Media

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Jet fuel price hike amid aircraft crunch may lead to spot fare shocks this summer

New Delhi: Brace yourself for steep spot airfares this summer holiday season. Oil marketing companies have increased jet fuel prices by 1% for April. The hike comes at a time when the peak summer travel season is beginning amid sharp reduction in domestic airlines’ capacity due to grounding of large number of aircraft for different reasons.

After the 1% hike in aviation turbine fuel (ATF), a kilo litre (KL or 1,000 litres) will cost Rs 63,472.22 and Rs 63,447.54 in Delhi and Mumbai, respectively. Jet fuel prices had touched four-year high last November (Rs 76,378.8 per kl in Delhi for instance) and had been falling since then due to cooling of crude. But after February, they have been rising again.
The problem aggravated as Jet Airways lessors started grounding planes due to non-payment of rentals. Jet currently operates about 35 planes, out of its fleet of 119. The airline hopes to be operating 75 planes by end of this month if lessors agree.
The aviation ministry and DGCA have called several meetings with airlines to discuss the issue of high spot fares.
01/04/19 Saurrabh Sinha/Times of India

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