Ebola: Six 'high risk' passengers from west Africa quarantined at Delhi airport

New Delhi: Six people deemed "high risk" Ebola suspects were on Monday admitted to a quarantine facility at Delhi airport, health ministry said.

The suspects were among 181 passengers who arrived in India from the affected western African countries.
As of today, the ministry said, as many as 816 passengers were being tracked by authorities under Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme.

These passengers are those who carried certain risk because of suspicion that they might have come in touch with Ebola victims and are being monitored to ensure that they are attended to in case they develop symptoms of the dangerous disease.
"Report has been received from state IDSP units of 18 of the 20 states about 80 passengers being monitored. One passenger, who is being tracked and monitored in West Bengal has confirmed to be having Malaria...," it said.
01/09/14 PTI/Times of India

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Air taxis to help airlines meet small-town quota

New aviation norms will dramatically affect the way airlines operate — as well as their bottom line — as they mandate that, in another two years, airlines have to fly as much on regional routes as they do on trunk routes.
In the process, a new formula has been suggested to achieve this, one which will give a fillip to non-scheduled airlines like Invision Air and Freedom Airways which could now have code-sharing arrangements with the likes of Air India, Jet Airways, SpiceJet and Indigo.
While airlines are still studying the impact of the guidelines — an executive of one of the top three domestic airlines said implementation would be a challenge given the losses they made — KPMG’s India head of aerospace Amber Dubey said that “the draft policy shows greater understanding of the genuine problems being faced by airlines”. Amber added the obligations — an equal capacity has to be deployed on trunk and non-trunk routes by winter 2016 — seemed “a bit excessive”.
The industry has accumulated losses of R49,000 crore — only IndiGo and GoAir are currently recording profits, while both Jet and SpiceJet reported losses of over R4,000 crore and R1,003 crore in FY14.
The term Category I/II /III airports has been given up in favour of trunk and regional routes, so an apples to apples comparison is difficult. Broadly speaking, if airlines fly around a third of flights in regional routes right now, this has to be increased to half by winter 2016. If an airline has 100 available seat kilometres (ASKMs) deployed in trunk routes by winter 2016, a similar amount have to be deployed in regional routes.
30/08/14 Indian Express

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Airlines claim some airports charging for landing small planes

New Delhi: Some Indian airlines have claimed that they had to pay landing charges for small aircraft at several airports where rules do not permit such payments and urged the government to look into the matter and help them improve connectivity to non-metro cities.

According to aviation sources, some airlines have already raised the issue with the Civil Aviation Ministry and Airports Authority of India ( AAI) in the recent past.

They have stated that they had to pay between Rs 8,000 and Rs 10,000 per landing at several airports where these payments are not permitted according to rules.

The airports include all major metro airports as well as almost two dozen non-metro ones.

In this regard, the sources also quoted AAI's 2014-15 document on 'Charges for Airports and Air Navigation Services'.
30/08/14 PTI/Economic Times

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CIAL to go for 4:1 rights issue

Kochi: The 20th Annual General Meeting of Cochin International Airport Limited held in Kochi on Friday decided in favour of the airport company going for a rights issue.

“The State government has a very open mind to the demand for a rights issue. Considering the recurring demand from the share holders, steps will be taken to issue shares to the existing shareholders at a proportion of 4:1 and at a price of around Rs.50,” Chief Minister Oommen Chandy said after the 20th Annual General Meeting of the company. The announcement came even as the minority shareholders were gearing up to corner the company director board for not considering the long-pending demand.

Company officials pointed out that the proposal for rights issue at 4:1 (one for every four shares) required a green signal from the company AGM.

Devasikutty Padayatil, general secretary of Shareholders’ Organization of Cochin International Airport Limited (SOCIAL), said minority shareholders were demanding issue of shares at par (1:1).
30/08/14 Hiran Unnikrishnan/The Hindu

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Not Delhi Or Mumbai, Bangalore Is Airlines' Favorite Hub

Bangalore: Bangalore is the IT hub of the country, a city where one can find people from around the country and also from around the globe. The industry most flourishing from this exodus of people is the airlines.

Bangalore Airport is becoming the busiest and most-sought after destination for airlines to fly their aircrafts from, apart from Delhi and Mumbai.
The two airports, Delhi and Mumbai are already holding the prestigious place constituting over 35 percent of all domestic traffic and is barely left with any capacity left with low-cost carriers utilizing the space. This is making the low-cost carriers turn towards Bangalore; with AirAsia deciding upon making Bangalore its hub of operations in the country, reports Rediff.

AirAsia challenged the domestic market leader IndiGo by operating most of its flight with cheap rates from the main hub Bangalore. With small carriers making its way to Bangalore, full-service carries and big airlines are following suit. Air Costa, a regional airliner has also joined the line-up. From June to the end of the year, as many as 64 additional flights will connect the city to existing as well as new destinations. According to Bangalore International Airport officials, the airport witnessed 12 percent growth in traffic between January and May this year as compared to the same period last year. Mittu Chandilya, the CEO of AirAsia India, says the decision to locate the airline's hub to Bangalore instead of Delhi or Mumbai was driven by the latent potential in the city. Bangalore known as the country’s Silicon Valley is experiencing high diversity of people and providing a great potential for Airlines to expand their wings to start new popular and in-demand prospective destinations like Chandigarh, and Patna, which have no direct flights available.
30/08/14 Indolink

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Maharashtra extends proposal date for Navi Mumbai airport

Mumbai: The Maharashtra government has extended the last date for submission of 'Request For Proposal' (RFP) for the proposed Navi Mumbai International Airport till Oct 30, an official said Friday.

The RFP, floated in February this year, was amended by the project management committee comprising officials of the central and state governments. The RFP outlines the bidding process and contract terms.
After incorporating a fresh set of conditions and other requirements for the bidders, the last date for submitting the RFP has now been extended to Oct 30, said the official connected with the project.

The Navi Mumbai International Airport (NMIA) on mainland across the harbor is one of the flagship mega-projects in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region. It is designed to decongest the existing Mumbai International Airport.

Slated to be the one of the biggest 'Greenfield' international airports in the world, the NMIA will offer world-class facilities for passengers, cargo, aircraft, airlines and allied services.
30/08/14 IANS/Economic Times

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New demands take flight

Pune: Taking into consideration what looks like increasing demand from Pune-based commuters to reach varied tourist destinations in minimum time, it appears airline companies have recently started providing several domestic flights from here, connected via well-frequented metro cities.

Over the last two months, airline companies introduced around nine such connected domestic flights — all of which have been getting an overwhelming response, they say.

In August, Spice Jet launched its first Pune-Mysore flight via Bangalore — it facilitates reaching destinations like Ooty, Kodaikanal, Coorg and others. Previously, to reach these locations, a Bangalore flight would generally be followed by road transport — this, however, was inconvenient because of heavy Bangalore traffic.

Nilesh Bhansali, director of the Travel Agents Association of Pune (PAAT), explained, "To tackle this problem, Spice Jet introduced the Pune-Mysore flight via Bangalore some days ago. This departs early in the morning and reaches by afternoon, after a one-hour halt at Bangalore airport. People prefer to halt at the airport rather than getting stuck in traffic, as it saves their time and energy."
30/08/14 Sukirt Gumaste/Pune Mirror

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Mobiles top items left at Kolkata airport

Kolkata: hould you ever feel bored, simply go to the lost and found section of the Central Industrial Security Force's website and look up Kolkata airport. The list of items that passengers leave behind at the airport is certainly worth a read. Mobiles, including I-Phones, top the list of items left behind by passengers.

A couple of months ago, the CISF took the trouble to list even a yellow 'wedding garland', probably left% behind by newly-weds. It cannot be said for sure whether somebody returned to the airport to collect it but people certainly do when they leave behind their expensive laptops, cameras and mobiles.

"Nearly 80% of people come back to claim their goods. Our efforts have been very successful. A large number of items are left behind by passengers. We don't decide what is important and what isn't. We simply inform people of the things left behind. That is why we started uploading lists on the CISF website," a senior official of the Kolkata airport said.
30/08/14 Jayanta Gupta/Times of India

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Nagapattinam man held for hoax calls to city airport

Chennai: The airport police have apprehended a 36-year-old man who made calls to Chennai airport, claiming Pakistan-trained terrorists would attack the terminal.

The police said he is a habitual offender who has been booked on earlier occasions too, including in 2007, when he claimed a bomb would go off at Tiruchi airport.

Abdul Karim, a resident of Thittachery in Nagapattinam district, made two telephone calls to the office of the manager of Chennai airport on Monday and Wednesday.

“The first time, he identified himself as Stephen from Bangalore, and threatened that Pakistani terrorists would blow up the place,” said an investigating officer.
30/08/14 The Hindu

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Man held with 1.8 kg gold at IGI airport

New Delhi: The Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) Saturday arrested a passenger for illegally carrying 1.8 kg of gold at Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport here, an official said.

Nadim Ali, in his 40s and a resident of Muzaffarnagar in Uttar Pradesh, was arrested after the gold was recovered from him Saturday morning, the official said.

“Nadim arrived at IGI from a Kuwait flight. He was seen entering a washroom located near the international arrival de-boarding gate-15 of terminal-3. Suspecting his activities, the washroom was checked from where a wallet was recovered,” said a CISF official.
30/08/14 Odisha Sun Times

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Air taxis might get fixed flights to small towns

New Delhi: In an attempt to incentivise airline operators so that they fly to cities and towns with poor or no air connectivity, the government is planning to permit non-scheduled operators (NSOPs) to publish their schedules and operate regular flights, provided they operate within the 87 identified small cities and towns. They have been allowed to operate to any one metro city but they cannot have a base or hub there.

Under the current policy, NSOPs can fly to various destinations in the country but cannot publish a schedule.

The government has also decided to liberalise the policy for conversion of regional scheduled airlines, like Air Costa, to national scheduled airlines within a period of three years, provided they connect to regional and remote destinations.

The move will help get more aircraft into the network to serve smaller cities and towns by bringing in planes that are used by NSOPs as charters. Now they can also publish a schedule and pick up passengers on a regular basis by taking a scheduled commuter permit. This permit will allow them to fly scheduled flights across the country, though they cannot have a hub or base in any of the six metro cities.

The draft norms have made major changes to an earlier policy cleared by the United Progressive Alliance government. That policy had identified only 52 cities and towns and had no clause on converting NSOPs into scheduled commuter airlines. It also had not specified a formula for NSOPs and regional airlines that wanted to trade in credits for flying to these routes with larger scheduled airlines.
29/08/14 Sharmistha Mukherjee/Business Standard

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Flights delay take-off for ‘stuck’ passengers

Margao/Vasco: About ten domestic flights delayed their departures and even relaxed their check-in time for passengers who were stuck for over four hours in a traffic blockade on both sides of the vital North-South link, the Zuari bridge, on Thursday afternoon.

Vasco traffic cell PI Sudesh Narvekar said trouble began when a car met with a minor accident on the bridge around 1.30pm. An hour later, just as police had begun sorting out the issue and clearing the piled-up traffic, a Kadamba Transport Corporation (KTC) bus travelling from Panaji to Vasco broke down in the middle of the bridge.

A tyre of the bus had burst and with no spare tyre on board, the driver had to requisition one from the KTC depot in Panaji, 16km away.

Since the accident and the breakdown occurred at what is peak time for domestic flights into and out of Goa, several passengers were caught in the gridlock that stretched up to 4km on both sides of the bridge.
Frantic calls from their passengers prompted SpiceJet, GoaAir and other airlines to delay their flights to Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore, said sources, adding that at Dabolim airport, about 300 passengers who had arrived were left stranded without taxis or coaches for close to two hours.
29/08/14 Times of India

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Why the Indian Health Ministry is wrong to focus on airport screenings to keep out Ebola

It has already claimed more than 1,400 lives, yet the Ebola virus continues to spread across West Africa. On August 8, an emergency committee of the World Health Organization unanimously agreed to declare the virus a public health emergency of international concern, calling for a coordinated international response to stop the spread of the disease. Consequently, India’s health ministry has put in place several elaborate precautionary measures, including extensive screening of all airline passengers arriving from Ebola-hit regions of West Africa.

Despite these efforts, India’s somewhat panicked response to Ebola is indication of the power of media-led hysteria – and how it can set the priorities of an otherwise fragile system of public health. A number of public health experts have argued in the wake of this global spread of news about the disease that attempts to build a more proactive approach to disease control are actually hampered by these bouts of overwrought interest in one disease or the other.
29/08/14 Udit Thakur/Scroll.in

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India should review airport regulatory model for investment: ACI

New Delhi:  India's prevailing airport regulatory model has yielded "poor returns" for investors, global airports body Airports Council International (ACI) said today and sought its review to attract investment to develop aviation infrastructure in the country.

Asserting that transparent economic regulatory processes must be put in place in India, ACI Director General Angela Gittens said, "The current regulatory model has yielded poor returns for investors and this could stifle development of India's airports in the long run."
Gittens, who met top government officials including those from the Civil Aviation Ministry here, said India needed the "right" economic regulatory framework in place to encourage the development of the much-needed airport infrastructure.

The government should "review their approach towards regulation....India really needs to think about how much economic regulation is necessary," she told reporters.

"It is outmoded to have a very prescriptive economic regulatory model," she said, giving the example of the United Kingdom which had "stepped away from such a system".

The ACI chief said the private investors came in to invest in airport infrastructure with "one set of expectations but got something different".
28/08/14 PTI/Economic Times

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Indian airports over-regulated: Global airports body

New Delhi: One of the key challenges for Indian aviation is the development of airport infrastructure which should not be subject to strict economic regulation in every case, Airports Council International (ACI) director general Angela Gittens told newspersons after interacting with senior aviation sector officials in New Delhi.

ACI has offered its support to India’s attempts to further develop its airport infrastructure and find the right regulatory framework. “Other countries have faced this dilemma and we will provide examples for the government to explore. India should be one of the three largest aviation markets in the world. ACI wants to see India take its rightful place in the aviation world,” Ms. Gittens said when asked about the interactions with Ministry of Civil Aviation officials.

In this regard, ACI discussed with Government officials the need for India to have the right economic regulatory framework in place to encourage the development of this much needed infrastructure. “The world is recognising that airports are businesses in their own right as they vie to gain air services for their communities. As such, the need for regulating every aspect is now outmoded and regulators tend to focus more on service quality rather than strict price,” added Ms. Gittens.
28/08/14 Sandeep Dikshit/The Hindu

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Code of conduct in sight, int’l airport plan fails to take off

Pune: With the model code of conduct to kick in, the proposed international airport for Pune will be pushed by another year, and taken up by the new government formed after the Assembly elections in October.
In November last year, the state gave in-principle nod for the airport at Khed taluka. However, with the government hesitating to give the final nod to the proposal, status quo has been maintained for the proposal.
“It is only after the government gives us the final approval that we can take the project forward. At present, with no approval and directive, we are at status quo,” said Tanaji Satre, chairman and managing director of Maharashtra Airport Development Company (MADC).
With the site being at Khed, the issue of land acquisition of SEZ land and compensation fell through which had the government asking the MADC to survey the old site in Chakan. “We have surveyed the site again as per demand, but as usual we have not found it suitable. The site was surveyed earlier and the undulation of the land is not suitable. We have submitted our report,’’ officials said after re-surveying the old site.
The site which was given an “in-principle” approval was found suitable with the Airport Authority of India too giving its clearance after survey. With the current air traffic, the urgency of a Green Field Airport is the need of the hour and the Pune International Airport Project will be the answer. After the formal approval, clearances from the ministries of civil aviation, environment, defence and home affairs, Bureau of Civil Aviation Security and India Meteorological Department will have to be sought.
29/08/14 Nisha Nambiar/Indin Express

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GoAir to give 30% concession to residents of Andaman and Nicobar Islands

Port Blair:  Private airline GoAir today announced 30 per cent concession on base fare of its flights operating to and from Port Blair throughout the year for residents of Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

"It is indeed very satisfying to make our humble contribution in the development of Port Blair ... by connecting it to several Indian cities on the mainland," GoAir Vice President (Airports, Customer Services & Nodal Officer) Kamal Kikani said here.
"There is an immense scope to increase tourist traffic to the islands leading to the development of the local economy, employment opportunities, support services and quality of life in general," he told a press conference.

The service would start from October 1. "The A&N Islands need to be given a special status like Jammu & Kashmir and also improved air connectivity for an all round development," Islands Lt Governor A K Singh said.
28/08/14 PTI/Economic Times

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Mumbai makes it to 'smart city' list on strength of its airport

Washington: A single big idea — its monumental new airport — has propelled Mumbai into the A-list of National Geographic's "smart cities" across the world, a catalog that includes familiar metropolises such as New York and London, newbies such as Dubai and Seoul, and outposts such as Halifax, Nova Scotia (Canada) and Tallinn, Estonia.

NG's "smart city" list isn't necessarily a chronicle of technologically accomplished cities. In fact, Mumbai makes the cut on account of its artsy airport. "Travelers might spot the peacock feather motif throughout terminal 2 of Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji airport. This and other lofty designs were unveiled earlier this year at the Jaye He Museum, now India's largest public art programme. Some 7,000 works pack the four-storey museum," the magazine says, noting that with that 40 million people passing through the airport each year, the exhibit rivals the Louvre in number of visitors.

But no other Indian city features in the 50-city list, in which San Francisco comes out on top simply on account of its reputation as the "global epicentre of big 'unrealistic' dreamers," that has produced an endless stream of innovations. In fact, the characteristics that form the basis of other cities making the list suggests that "smart cities" does not necessarily mean wired cities, as some Indian planners and the current Indian government are suggesting.
28/08/14 Chidanand Rajghatta/Times of India

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Swaraj's flight faces bad weather before safe landing

Bhopal: Bad weather and heavy rains forced an Air India flight with External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on board to head to Ahmedabad today.

The weather later cleared and it landed safely here at around 3.15 pm.

"The pilot announced that due to bad weather, he will have to divert the flight to Ahmedabad," Swaraj said at a function to launch Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan scheme, for which she had specially flown here.

"However, as on May 16, (when BJP-led NDA came to power at the Centre) the darkness vanished soon and the plane landed at Bhopal Airport," the minister said.
28/08/14 PTI/Business Standard

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PSUs May Oppose Small Investors’ Bid for CIAL Rights

Kochi: The annual shareholders’ meeting of the Cochin International Airport Ltd (CIAL) here on Friday is likely to see public sector undertakings (PSUs) opposing any move to offer shares through rights issue to minority investors.
The big investors, including some prominent non-resident Keralite businessmen who are directors of the CIAL, are also unlikely to allow such a proposal to go through, though they may not oppose the move publicly, it is learnt.
The rights issue proposal is not in the agenda of the AGM papers circulated among shareholders. However, the minority investors are hoping that Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, who is chairman of the CIAL, will make an announcement regarding the matter on Friday.    The proposal was to give rights to investors who own 2,000 or less shares.
But, the PSUs opposed the move at last year’s AGM, forcing the Chief Minister to make a promise that the issue would be taken up again at this year’s AGM. There are about 9,000 investors who own less than 2,000 shares in the CIAL.
“How can the government move a proposal, that is not in the agenda. Further, we cannot allow disproportionate rights as the public sector undertakings we are answerable to our shareholders and the CAG (Comptroller and Auditor General of India),” said an official of a PSU, which is a shareholder of CIAL.
29/08/14 New Indian Express

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CIAL considers various options to finance development projs

Cochin International Airport Ltd is looking at different options, including rights issue, to finance its development projects.

At the Annual General Body meeting held here, chief minister Oommen Chandy assured shareholders that they would get one additional rights share for every four shares they hold.

The AGM also accepted the decision to increase the borrowing limit of CIAL to Rs 1500 crore from the present Rs 300 crore. It also accepted the recommendation of the director board for 18 per cent dividend.
29/08/14 PTI/Business Standard

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LGBI airport to get three new hangars

Guwahati: The Union Cabinet has cleared the decks for the installation of three hangars at the Lokapriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport (LGBIA) here to meet the rising number of scheduled and non-scheduled aircraft in the northeast.
The Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Thursday approved the land-swap agreement between Save Our Soul (SOS) village in Borjhar and the Airports Authority of India (AAI) to set up the hangers, a government statement said.
According to the statement, Modi gave his approval for swapping SOS village's 2,397 sqm land with AAI's equivalent airport land measuring 2,397 sq m.
29/08/14 Times of India

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Indian airports need to be further developed

New Delhi: The Airports Council International (ACI) Thursday said India last year witnessed passenger traffic growth of 6.2 percent and the Indian airports sector needs to be prepared to handle increased passenger numbers and more cargo in the coming years.

"India is full of potential with a large population in a large country with a growing middle class. However it still has a long way to go in view of the fact that other countries with similar or lower population bases handle relatively larger volumes of passenger traffic," said Angela Gittens, world director general, ACI.

According to ACI, one of the key challenges for Indian aviation is the development of airport infrastructure and the economic regulators in the sector should focus more on service quality rather than strict price control.
28/08/14 IANS/daijiworild.com

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Surat trade body urges IOC to continue fuel supply at airport

Surat: Concerned over the ultimatum given by the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) to stop the ?On Wheel' delivery of aviation turbine fuel (ATF) at the Surat airport, the Southern Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SGoil and gas and civil aviation ministries to continue the supply of fuel at the airport till the permanent fuel filling station facility is not set up.

The IOC, which is the sole supplier of ATF/Jet A1 fuel at the Surat airport, has issued Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) to all airlines and non-scheduled operators wishing to fly to Surat stating that there will be no supply of fuel on wheels from September 1. This means that there will be no delivery of fuel by tankers to the aircraft arriving at Surat as the airport had failed in providing fixed fuel terminal to deliver fuel to aircraft through ducts-and-gate valve rather than on tankers.

If the supply stops, Surat airport will not be able to cater to the fuel needs of long-distance flights to Delhi, Kolkata and other destinations.
SGCCI president Mahendra Katargamwala told TOI: "It is a serious issue for the fliers and those arriving in the city from Delhi and Kolkata for business purpose. We have written to the civil aviation ministry, DGCA and the oil and gas ministry to continue the ?On Wheel' supply of fuel at the airport till the alternate facility is set up."
29/08/14 Times of India

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Mob controls DDA tank; IGI, Dwarka go dry

New Delhi: Large parts of Dwarka and IGI Airport went without water for most of the past week after a mob from Madhu Vihar and Rajapuri areas practically took over a command tank in Dwarka and forcibly diverted water to their colonies.

Locals reported that the residents of these areas, armed with thick wooden sticks, were visiting command tank 2 in Dwarka every day for the past week and threatening the Delhi Development Authority staff stationed there.

"Several of us witnessed this happening and were unable to do anything since the people were armed. They were forcibly diverting water meant for Dwarka and the Airport to their areas. We complained to DDA on several occasions and finally police had to be called. Due to this, most parts of the colony did not get any water since last week," said a resident.
29/08/14 Neha Lalchandani/Times of India

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High court directs civic body to pull down hoarding near airport

Mumbai: The Bombay high court recently directed the BMC to demolish a hoarding near Prabhat Colony in Santa Cruz (E) because it obstructs the flight path of aircraft at the airport.

The court gave the BMC a week to clear the hoarding.

A division bench of Justice Anoop Mohta and Justice A S Gadkari was hearing two petitions by Mumbai International Airport Ltd (MIAL), the airport operator, saying illegal hoardings posed a safety threat to aircraft landing and taking off.
MIAL said one of the hoardings was erected without permission of the Airports Authority of Indian (AAI) and the BMC. It said another hoarding had permission but violated the height limit.

The MIAL urged that the BMC be directed to take action against them.
28/08/14 Rosy Sequeira/Times of India

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Naidu vs Naidu on Nuzvid airport plan

Hyderabad:Difference of opinion has cropped up between the Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister, N. Chandrababu Naidu and Union urban development minister M. Venkaiah Naidu on the issue of having an international airport in the new capital of the state.

The CM wants the international airport in Nuzvid near Vijayawada on 2,000 acres. But Mr Venkaiah Naidu suggested developing the existing Gannavaram Airport near Vijayawada instead of having a new one. The CM was firm about the airport in Nuzvid on a ‘Build, Operate and Transfer’ basis. But the Union minister told him that it is very difficult to construct a new international airport on a BOT basis.

He said no private firm will come forward to build the airport in Nuzvid on BOT basis. He quoted the example of Shamshabad international airport in Hyderabad. Shamshabad, constructed by GMR is suffering losses. If Hyderabad airport is loss-making, how will it be feasible in Nuzvid, where air passengers are fewer,” he asked.

Mr Venkaiah Naidu suggested instead of having a new international airport it will be better to develop the existing Gannavaram Airport. He said by acquiring about 600 acres, the Gannavaram Airport can be expanded. According to sources he told this to some TD MLAs of Krishna district and asked them to convince the CM.
29/08/14 Deccan Chronicle

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Rs 39-L Worth Gold Seized at Airport

Visakhapatnam: The customs officials here Wednesday seized 12 gold bars weighing 1.4 kg, worth `39 lakh, from a passenger on his arrival in the Air India international flight (AI-952) from Dubai to Visakhapatnam via Hyderabad. The accused was identified as B Padmanabha Srinivasa Reddy alias BPS Reddy.
Reddy boarded the flight in Hyderabad and reportedly received the 12 gold bars from an unknown person who was travelling in the same flight from Dubai to Vizag.
The accused carried the bars in the pockets stitched inside his trousers. Based on a tip-off, the customs officials caught him uoon his arrival at the Vizag Airport, while he was passing through green channel, and sent him to Hyderabad for investigation.
29/08/14 New Indian Express 

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Govt open to allowing second airport within 150 km of an existing one

New Delhi/Hyderabad:  The Government is keeping an open mind on allowing a second airport to come up within 150 km of an existing one.

The current policy says that no new airport should be allowed within a 150 km radius of an existing airport.

Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju said the rule was “infructuous” right from the beginning. Officials said the rule was brought in after discussions with private players who threw up the idea.

“We want the private sector to have the confidence if we want them to make long-term investments. But that should not become an impediment to other development. Then what are the legal implications? The overall look is one angle. The legal implications are another angle. Keeping these two in mind we have to see what is in India’s interest as ultimately a decision should be in the interest of the country,” the Minister told BusinessLine.

Asked whether the Ministry was undertaking a study on the rule, the Minister said there has to be a study as there was a need to examine all options and reasoning for taking a particular decision.
27/08/14 Ashwini Phadnis/Amit Mitra/Business Line

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Passengers cry foul as Kerala-Dubai airfares skyrocket

Dubai: Airfares to Dubai from the Indian state of Kerala have skyrocketed by more than four times from now until the first few days of September as a result of the end of summer vacations and upcoming Onam festival.

Return airfare from Kozhikode, Kerala, to Dubai has gone up from around Rs19,000 (Dh1,150) a few weeks ago to as much as Rs78,500 (Dh4,790) around Onam (September 9), leading passengers in Kerala scrambling to other airports in India for cheaper options.

A Keralite who’s landed a job in the UAE changed his travel plans after he was told the airfare from Kochi to Dubai is a whopping Rs80,000. The jobseeker opted to travel from Thiruvananthapuram to Mumbai, and from there to Sharjah, paying altogether Rs60,000, thus saving Rs20,000 (Dh1,220).

“All return air tickets from Kerala, especially from Kozhikode and Kochi are very high up to September 10. These rates are four to five times more than the normal rate during other seasons,” said Abdul Rasheed, a Travel Consultant.
28/08/14 VM Sathish/Emirates 24|7

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Airlines fare hike to Gulf regions resented by Kerala CM

Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy today expressed strong resentment over the hike in airfare by airlines operating to Gulf regions and said the state's protest would be conveyed to the Union civil aviation ministry.

"The airline companies are creating an artificial demand for tickets by cutting down services and taking advantage of the Onam festival season," he told reporters during the cabinet briefing here.

"Kerala's protest in this regard will be conveyed to the Union Ministry for Aviation", he added.
27/08/14 PTI/Business Standard

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ATC averts major accident at airport

Kolkata: A disaster was averted at the Kolkata airport on Wednesday morning when an alert controller spotted a pilot error in the nick of time and took immediate corrective action. The plane, a Boeing 767-200 aircraft, could have overshot the runway and plowed into the airport wall, leading to a major catastrophe had the controller not acted on time.

According to sources, a non-scheduled passenger aircraft belonging to Jet Aviation was flying to Kolkata from Bangkok. When it approached from the Barasat side to the north of the airport, the controller asked it to land on the secondary runway as repairs were underway on the primary runway.

The plane slowly descended for landing, but when it was around 7 nautical miles from Kolkata airport, it suddenly veered to the left and continued to do so further away from the primary runway, towards the heavily populated Narayanpur to the south-east of the airport. It was around 10.59am.
28/08/14 Times of India

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India should review airport regulatory model for investment

New Delhi: India's prevailing airport regulatory model has yielded "poor returns" for investors, global airports body Airports Council International (ACI) said today and sought its review to attract investment to develop aviation infrastructure in the country.

Asserting that transparent economic regulatory processes must be put in place in India, ACI Director General Angela Gittens said, "The current regulatory model has yielded poor returns for investors and this could stifle development of India's airports in the long run."

Gittens, who met top government officials including those from the Civil Aviation Ministry here, said India needed the "right" economic regulatory framework in place to encourage the development of the much-needed airport infrastructure.

The government should "review their approach towards regulation....India really needs to think about how much economic regulation is necessary," she told reporters.
28/08/14 PTI/Business Standard

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MIAL, Oasis ink Rs 580-crore land development deal

Mumbai: Mumbai International Airport (MIAL), a GVK-led consortium that operates the Mumbai airport, has inked its first commercial property development deal worth Rs 580 crore for a 5.5-acre land parcel in GVK SkyCity, a mixed use development planned around Chattrapati Shivaji International Airport, with a Mumbai-based developer Oasis Realty.
This deal marks the start of monetisation of commercial real estate by the company, which forms part of its airport development plan. The parcel will have a potential of 1.166 million square feet of commercial development, GVK said.
The transaction, according to GVK, has been finalised at the rate of around Rs 106 crore per acre, and at about Rs 5,000 per square foot of built-up area.
Speaking to FE, Sanjay Reddy, managing director, MIAL said, "This is just the start of the monetisation process. There is a plan to have an overall commercial development of 22 million square feet, which will be undertaken in phases over a period of 10 years. This will include hotels, retail and commercial development". The company has set a target of about 2 million sq ft of monetisation by December 2014.
28/08/14 Financial Express

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Five-hour haj flight delay forces Manjhi to fly back

Gaya: CM Jitan Ram Manjhi on Wednesday flew back to the state capital without flagging off the first batch of Haj pilgrims of the state as the inaugural flight was delayed by nearly five hours. Manjhi flew in shortly after 9am to flag off the first flight of Haj pilgrims scheduled for 10.50 in the morning. But the five-hour long delay forced the CM to fly back without performing the flagging off ritual. The long delay caused confusion and management problems at the airport. Quite a few pilgrims expressed resentment at the delay.

According to Dr Farasat Hussain, coordinator of health services to Haj pilgrims, said though the delayed departure of the pilgrims caused more inconvenience to the older pilgrims though doctors and para-medical staff remained in action mode to cater to their health requirements.

However, the CM individually met the pilgrims and offered them flowers and asked them to pray for the welfare of the state. Addressing the Haj pilgrims, volunteers and officials present at the airport, the CM promised to speed up the land acquisition work for the expansion of the runway to facilitate the landing and take off of A-310 type of planes with a passenger capacity of 250. On account of the existing shorter runway, only A-320 type planes with 140 seat capacity can make a safe landing and take off.
28/08/14 Abdul Qadir/Times of India

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Security enhanced at Tiruchi airport

Tiruchi: Security has been ramped up at the Tiruchi International Airport consequent to an anonymous call received on Wednesday that Chennai, Tiruchi, Coimbatore, and Madurai airports would be blasted by ‘human bombs.’
The telephone call was made to the office of the Chennai Airport Director on Wednesday.
The in Chennai and they would target Chennai, Tiruchi, Coimbatore, and Madurai airports.
An alert was immediately sounded to the Tiruchi airport authorities who convened a special security meeting at the airport. Personnel of the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), city police, immigration, various airlines and other agencies participated in the meeting presided over by the Officiating Airport Director K.Jebaraj, airport sources told The Hindu.
The threat message was conveyed to the officials and contingency response measures to be taken by each agency were outlined at the meeting.
28/08/14 R Rajaram/The Hindu

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Guwahati airport to soon have three more hangars

New Delhi: Guwahati airport would soon have three more hangars to park the growing number of aircraft operating from there, with the government today approving the swapping of land between the airports authority and a children's village of prominent NGO Save Our Souls (SOS).

The decision to swap 2,397 square metre land of the SOS village with equivalent land owned by the Airports Authority of India was taken at a meeting of the Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

An official spokesperson said the Secretary General of the SOS village has already given written consent for swapping of the village land with AAI land.

The land swap would facilitate the construction of the hangars at the Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport.
27/08/14 PTI/Economic Times

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After CIA, Tamil-speaking 'Lashkar Chief' Threatens Airport Director of Suicide Bombers

Chennai: Last time he was from the CIA. This time he has morphed into the Lashkar-e-Taiba chief. The man who placed a crank call to the Chennai Airport Director on Monday, gave a repeat performance on Wednesday, again at precisely 10 am.

Except this time he identified himself as Akhtar and went on to say that he was the chief of militant outfit Laskhar-e-Taiba.  "The person who received the call recognised his voice as the hoax caller from Monday and so alerted the law enforcement agencies as he transferred the call.

However, even he was surprised to hear a man who claimed to be a terrorist chief speaking in Tamil," said an amused airport source.

When the call was patched through, he apparently said that Pakistani suicide bombers had crossed Tambaram and were en route to Chennai and Tiruchy airports to cause destruction.

He warned them to save as many lives as possible.
27/08/14 New Indian Express

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Over 500 kg of gold seized at Mumbai airport in five months

Mumbai: Gold worth Rs 3 crore was seized in three separate smuggling cases by Customs officials at Mumbai airport on Tuesday. With the latest seizures, the gold seized this month has crossed 100 kg. From April to July, the Customs had seized 405 kg of gold as compared to the 62 kg seized during the same time period last year.

In the first case, the passenger, identified as Khalou Asmae, a Moroccon national who had arrived from Dubai, was found to be carrying eight gold bars weighing about 8 kg and valued at Rs 2.08 crore. "The gold was concealed inside the pocket of her pants. She had worn a burkha over it. Her friend, from Egypt, who is the owner of gold, was also apprehended," said a customs official.
28/08/14 Manju V/Times of India

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Man held for trying to smuggle 1 kg gold

Thiruvananthapuram: The Customs Air Intelligence Unit of Trivandrum International Airport intercepted a man who attempted to smuggle one kilogram of gold on Tuesday night.

The unit detained and later took into custody Noushad Kadavan (30) of Malappuram, who arrived from Dubai via Indigo flight 6E 38 at 5.15pm on Tuesday.

"The suspect, who was detained for questioning, exhibited violent behaviour toward nightfall, but was not cavity searched. It is suspected that he may have swallowed contraband. Following a court order, an x-ray was taken to determine the contents of his stomach. The x-ray revealed eight gold biscuits, worth Rs 25 lakh, in his rectum," said a source.
28/08/14 Times of India

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Sops likely for airlines flying to smaller towns

New Delhi: In an attempt to improve connectivity to remote areas, the Government plans to introduce a new category of 87 incentive destinations including Warangal, Vellore, Tuticorin and Hassan.

The plan includes offering concessions for operating to and from the incentive destinations.

Airlines will be given sops which include exemption from landing and parking charges, route navigation facilities charges,  passenger service fee, fuel throughput charges and any other charges levied by the Airports Authority of India.

These suggestions have been made in a draft on the revised policy on regional and remote area connectivity. The Ministry of Civil Aviation has invited comments from all stakeholders by September 4 before a final decision is taken.
26/08/14 Business Line

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Chennai airport gets another hoax call, checks intensified

Chennai: For the second time in two days the Airport here received a bomb threat call today, following which security was intensified and checks carried out at over 20 areas in the premises, police said.

The office of the Director of Chennai Airport received a call at around 5.30 a.m. today, stating that a 'human bomb' would explode there, they said.

The Bureau of Civil Aviation Security and police were immediately alerted and intensive checks carried out in over 20 spots within the airport premises, including the cargo section, but the call turned out to be hoax, they said.
27/08/14 PTI/Business Standard

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Air India plans to reintroduce Mangalore - Kuwait operations

Mangalore: Plan to reintroduce operations from Mangalore to Kuwait is taking shape. The flights that were cancelled ostensibly due to lack of leased aircraft on part of Air India Express is now all set to restart in the Winter schedule of the national carrier. Air India Express authorities have indicated the same affirmatively in their official e-mail sent to Dakshina Kannada MP Nalin Kumar Kateel. The flight will operate on the Bahrain-Kuwait-Mangalore route.

K Shyam Sundar, chief executive officer of Air India Charters Ltd, in an email communication to MP, has confirmed that the company has plans to reintroduce operations from Mangalore International Airport (MIA) to Kuwait.

"As I informed you over phone on Friday evening, it has been planned to reintroduce the link between Mangalore and Kuwait three times a week effective 27 th October 2014, i.e from the start of the Winter 2014 schedule. The routing of the flight will be Mangalore- Bahrain - Kuwait - Mangalore. The flight from Mangalore to Kuwait has been planned to be operated on Monday, Wednesday and Friday departing from Mangalore at 7.30am and reaching Kuwait via Bahrain at 11.15am (local time). In the return direction the flight from Kuwait to Mangalore will operate non-stop leaving Kuwait at 12.15pm local time and arrive into Mangalore at 19.25 hours local time," Sundar informed the MP through email.
26/08/14 Vinobha KT/Times of India

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Manipur presses for int’l air services

Guwahati: The Manipur government has asked the Centre to launch international air services from Imphal airport to Bangkok via Mandalay and Kunming.

Manipur parliamentary secretary for tourism and sports Mairembam Prithviraj told the Union minister of tourism, Sripad Yesso Naik, to take up the matter with the civil aviation ministry.

Speaking at the national conference of tourism ministers in New Delhi recently, Prithviraj said the Imphal airport has been converted into an international facility. Union minister for finance and defence Arun Jaitley was also present.

Organized as part of the government's 100 days' action plan, the objective of the conference was to initiate high-level discussions on important issues faced by the tourism industry.
27/08/14 Times of India

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ATC staffers work continously for 11 hours, puts life of fliers at risk

The lives of around 64 passengers on board a JetLite aircraft flying from Rajkot to Mumbai was put to risk recently when two air traffic controllers monitoring the flight operations at Rajkot airport were made to work for 11 hours continuously, as the flight was delayed due to a technical snag. Airport authorities, however, blamed manpower shortage for their inability to provide a back-up.

As per the aviation safety regulations set up by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), an air traffic controller cannot be made to work beyond seven hours, as fatigue creeps in after that, which may lead to lapse in judgement on his/her part which could turn catastrophic. A reliever is to be provided once the controller finishes his/her duty hours, the ATC manual says.

When contacted, RP Srivastav, Air Traffic Control (ATC) in-charge at Rajkot airport, admitted to a breach of DGCA rules on Saturday night. "It was due to staff shortage, and the issue has been taken to the higher authorities," he told dna.

According to sources, the incident happened after the flight, which was lined up at Rajkot airport for take-off around 8.30pm, faced a last-minute technical snag and had to be brought back to taxi bay.
26/08/14 Daily News & Analysis

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112 Indians Arriving from Ebola-Hit Liberia; Mumbai, Delhi Airports Gear Up

Mumbai: Elaborate precautionary arrangements have been put in place at the Delhi and Mumbai airports to screen 112 stranded Indians who will arrive today by various flights from and around Ebola-hit Liberia, authorities have said.

Some of these passengers, traveling by a South African Airways flight, arrived at the Mumbai Airport a few minutes after midnight.

"As part of the tentative plan, the aircraft will be first taken to a remote bay and all passengers will be screened at the step-ladder exit after the arrival of flights at the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (CSIA)," the Mumbai International Airport Limited or MIAL earlier said in a statement.

While the passengers without any symptoms will be cleared and shifted to the terminal for immigration and customs clearance, those with symptoms suggestive of Ebola Virus Disease or EVD will be directly shifted to the designated hospital in ambulances from the bay, it said.

These passengers would have been screened in at least three countries - Liberia, South Africa and United Arab Emirates or Ethiopia, where the flights would have halted on their way - before they land in India, said sources.
26/08/14  Tejas Mehta/Sanchari Bhattacharya/PTI/NDTV.com

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6 passengers isolated at Delhi airport over Ebola fears, 85 Indians clear screening test at Mumbai airport

New Delhi/Mumbai:  Six passengers who arrived at Indira Gandhi International airport on Tuesday morning have been isolated over Ebola fears.

The isolated passengers have been sent to RML hospital for further tests.

Meanwhile, 85 Indians from Ebola-hit countries reached Mumbai on Tuesday.

Fleeing west African nations amid the Ebola scare, all 85 Indians who arrived here from Liberia and Nigeria were cleared by the Airport Health Organisation as none had any symptoms of the deadly disease.

These passengers arrived in three batches with more to follow in the day, Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL) said in a statement.
26/08/14 Suhas Munshi/Times of India

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Intelligence Bureau issues warning to airports against Afghan men in leather jackets

New Delhi: Intelligence Bureau (IB) has warned security officials at Indian airports against a new threat, cautioning them to look out for passengers of Afghan-origin wearing leather jackets, which could be modified to carry explosives.

The bureau, last week, asked the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) that looks after security in 59 airports across the country to identify such passengers and ensure they are thoroughly frisked before boarding.

"Leather jacket is quite common with passengers of Afghan-origin," said a senior CISF official. "The input has been received by IB but originally, security agencies in USA have got to know about this modus operandi. Terrorists have developed jackets in which it is difficult to detect explosives. Suspicious passengers will be asked to remove the jackets and frisking staff has been briefed to check them through handheld metal detectors carefully."
26/08/14 Dailybhaskar.com

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‘CIA’ Warns Airport of Bombers

Chennai: A phone call made directly to the Airport Director’s office, offering information about the infiltration of 10 suicide bombers from Pakistan into Tamil Nadu, caused a security beef-up at the city airport. The only reason that it was patched through to the man in charge of the Chennai Airport was because the caller identified himself as an ‘officer with the Central Intelligence Agency’.

The board-line routed the call to the APD’s office in Airports Authority of India’s (AAI) administrative building in Meenambakkam, at 10.30 am. “The called identified himself as Stephen attached to a Central Intelligence Agency or department, calling from Bangalore. He said that they had information that 10 Pakistani suicide bombers had entered Tamil Nadu and were heading for Chennai Airport. Immediately after that, he hung up,” said an official at the airport.

Though bomb hoaxes to the airport have been commonplace, the AAI administration informed the Chief Security Officer who alerted both the TN Police and the CISF to step up security.
26/08/14 New Indian Express

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More air connectivity need of the hour

Visakhapatnam: Vizag is among the first few cities in India where we had expressed interest in launching flights from Dubai a few years ago. But, the Government of India had asked us to fly out of the airports from which flights were already operating to Dubai, says General Manager of Fly Dubai India Pran Satya Dasan.

“Vizag is now the key city in Andhra Pradesh and a natural hub for us as we have a large number of Indians working in Dubai not only from Visakhapatnam but also from Srikakulam, Vizianagaram, East and West Godavari districts. Vizag International Airport would serve their needs when there are direct flights. Fly Dubai, which started off as a low-cost carrier, still offers a large number of economy seats though it has introduced Business Class.”

Aviation industry has a multiplier effect on business, tourism and consumer economy and would contribute to the growth of the city.

“We have pressure from the expatriate Andhra community to operate direct services to Vizag.”
26/08/14 The Hindu

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GMR Infra finalises plan to develop rest of IGI Airport

Bangalore: GMR Infrastructure has developed a monetisation plan to develop the remaining 184 acres of Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport in four phases over 10 years. The airport developer's move to unlock value from real estate assets comes nearly five years after its first round of monetisation, which involved awarding development rights over 45 acres to create a hospitality zone.
At present, four hotels have started operations while others are in the process of being completed. The long term plan for the remaining land will include building office spaces, convention districts and cargo facilities, according to the company's annual report for FY14. “With Air India joining Star Alliance, IGIA is set to become an international hub for passenger traffic and cargo movement. To maximise this potential, DIAL has developed a commercial property development monetisation plan, including developing office space, F&B districts, convention districts and 5 star deluxe/budget hotel/service apartments in 184 acres in four phases,” the company said in its annual report. The Delhi International Airport (DIAL) is the GMR subsidiary that runs the airport.
26/08/14 Ajay Sukumaran/Financial Express

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Snag delays Jet flight by 80 minutes

Indore:  A Delhi-bound Jet Airways flight 9w2459/2254 was delayed by around 80 minutes owing to technical snag at Devi Ahilyabai Holkar Airport, Indore on Monday.

The flight which arrives at 11.50 am was scheduled to depart by 12.20 pm. A snag was detected in airplane's enginejust 15 minutes prior to the take-off for Indira Gandhi International Airport, Delhi. "The technical team took an hour to fix the snag," said sources.
26/08/14 Times of India

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Flight to Kuwait to resume on Oct. 27

Mangalore: Air India Express will resume its Mangalore-Kuwait flight service from October 27 when the winter schedule of the airlines comes into effect.

The flight will operate thrice a week on Monday, Wednesday and Friday from Mangalore to Kuwait via Bahrain. While the flight will stop at Bahrain in its onwards journey, on its return journey it would arrive here directly.

The flight would depart from Mangalore at 7.30 a.m. reach Kuwait via Bahrain at 11.15 a.m. (local time). On the return journey it would depart from Kuwait at 12.15 p.m. (local time) and arrive here at 7.25 p.m.

The Air India Express had suspended this flight service more than five months ago for operational reasons.
26/08/14 Sahil Online

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Part of false ceiling falls off at Nagpur airport due to leaking roof

Nagpur: The leaking roof in the arrival section of Nagpur's Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar International Airport caused a portion of the false ceiling over the conveyor belt to fall off. The incident took place on Saturday morning, according to airport officials, when there was no passenger movement and thus no one was hurt or their baggage damaged.

The airport officials also said that there was no damage to the conveyor belt either. The airport has been facing seepage problems for some time now, which, apart from Saturday's incident, are leaving blemishes all over the ceiling in the arrival section. Some readers had sent TOI photos of the leak too. "It's not a pretty sight, doesn't make a good first impression of the city," said the reader.

The officials said that the leak was happening due to the faulty sky light ceiling over the arrival section. "This section is not the part of the original airport building structure and was made additionally when the Airports Authority of India (AAI) was revamping the airport. It was then that this sky light ceiling was built and there is a basic design fault due to which we face the seepage problem every year," said P Anil Kumar, senior airport director.
26/08/14 Aparna Nair/Times of India

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4 City-bound Flights Diverted to B’lore

Chennai: As almost-torrential rainfall pounded the city airport through Sunday night, four flights had to be diverted to Bangalore. Though the flights made it back to Chennai within the next two hours, the cascading effect caused delays to almost all departures on a wet Monday morning.

The Meenambakkam and Nungambakkam observatories together recorded 89.3 mm of rainfall, which is substantial given that the window of the downpour was less than four hours (10 pm - 1.30 am). “It was almost like horizontal rainfall with strong winds were hitting the aerodrome. Take-offs were stalled and four planes that were scheduled to land were not even asked to circle but diverted to Bangalore instead,” said an airport source. The four planes diverted were a Lufthansa flight from Frankfurt, an Air India flight from Delhi, a Malaysia Airlines flight from Kuala Lumpur and a Thai Airways flight from Bangkok.
26/08/14 New Indian Express

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Airport privatization process under review

Ahmedabad:  The much-hyped privatization of six airports in the country is again under review as Airports Authority of India (AAI) is expected to invite fresh bids for the same. The privatization process which was initiated by UPA government last year has gone through various changes and postponement. The previous government had expressed certain reservations in the model concession agreement (MCA).

AAI is set to invite request for quotation (RFQ) again after a fresh MCA is decided upon. "The MCA was prepared in March but it was stalled as previous government wanted some changes in certain clauses. Now with the new government at the helms, we expect the process to be expedited," said a senior AAI official.

According to officials, potential bidders were ready with RFQs but AAI could not go ahead because central government had not approved MCA. "We have had discussions with the civil aviation officials and we are hopeful that the government will soon approve the new agreement and we can accept the new RFQs," added AAI official.
25/08/14 Piyush Mishra/Times of India

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No fuel for aircrafts operating from Surat airport from September 1

Surat:  Surat airport may not be able to cater to long distance flights starting from September 1, 2014.
The Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), sole supplier of ATF/Jet A1 fuel has issued Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) to all the airlines and non-schedule operators wishing to fly to Surat airport stating that there will be no supplies of fuel on wheels starting from September 1, 2014.
This, however, means that there will be no delivery of fuel to the aircraft arriving at Surat airport by tankers as the airport had failed in providing fixed fuel terminal to deliver fuel to aircraft through ducs and gate valve rather than on tankers.
Sources in Spice Jet and Air India said that it will not be viable or them to operate Delhi-Surat-Delhi as they will have to curtail number of passengers to carry excess fuel to go back to Delhi. The long distance flights towards Delhi needs to be fueled at Surat airport to ensure its return journey.
25/08/14 Melvyn Reggie Thomas/Times of India

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Two aerobridges installed at Raja Bhoj airport

Bhopal:  After missing the July-20 deadline, finally, aerobridges are being installed at the Raja Bhoj airport. Aerobridges will become operational after the approval from the committee of directorate general of civil aviation (DGCA), which is expected to happen by middle of September.

An Indonesian company has carried out construction work of the two aerobridges being installed at the airport.

After aerobridges become functional, passenger at Bhoj airport, Bhopal, will not be required to walk to the aircraft or airport building soon after landing. Passengers will be able to board the aircraft directly from the terminal building.
According to Ramjee Awasthi, who is an engineer supervising the construction, Bhopal will be the first in state to have aerobridge facility. "As many as 12 cities were selected for installation of aerobridges including Bhopal, Indore and Raipur. We have completed the trial run. It will be functional once DGCA committee approves it," Awasthi said.

He said, "The first floor of the airport will also become operational after aerobridges are in place".

A team of DGCA is expected to arrive in Bhopal in the next couple of days. "A team might visit if they feel it is imperative to inspect the structure. Otherwise, they will only go over the draft plan submitted by us," he said.
24/08/14 Times of India

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4 Flights Diverted, Morning Take-offs Delayed as Rain Pounds Chennai Airport

Chennai: s almost-torrential rainfall pounded the city airport through Sunday night, four flights had to be diverted to Bangalore. Though the flights made it back to Chennai within the next two hours, the cascading efffect has caused delays to almost all departures on a wet Monday morning.

Meenambakkam and Nungambakkam observatories together recorded 89.3 mm of rainfall, which is substantial given that the window of the downpour was less than 4 hours (10 pm - 1.30 am). "It was almost like horizontal rainfall with strong winds were hitting the aerodrome. Take-offs were immediately stalled and four planes that were scheduled to land were not even asked to circle but diverted to Bangalore instead," said an airport source. The four planes diverted were a Lufthansa flight from Frankfurt, an Air India flight from Delhi that was already delayed, a Malaysia Airlines flight from Kuala Lumpur and a Thai Airways flight from Bangkok.
25/08/14 New Indian Express

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AI engineer knocked down by CISF vehicle in airport

A senior Air India engineer was knocked down by a CISF vehicle in the premises of Chhatrapati Shivaji Domestic Airport on Saturday morning. S P Shukla, a senior maintenance engineer, was on his way to inspect an aircraft when he was knocked down by a Tata Indigo driven by CISF constable Dheeraj Kumar.

Shukla has been admitted to Seven Hills Hospital in Andheri. The incident took place at 10.35 am at Bay number Alpha 9, one of the designated paths for vehicles inside the airport premises. Cops said they are not aware exactly how the accident took place but they have seized the vehicle for RTO inspection.
According to eyewitnesses, who are Shukla's colleagues, his head was smashed against the windshield of the car following the collision. They told the Airport police that one of them then rushed Shukla to the hospital, whereas another person caught hold of Kumar, who was the only occupant of the car.

According to Shukla's colleagues, who requested anonymity, when Kumar got out of the car, he was holding a mobile phone, which indicates that he might have been talking on the phone while driving.

Cops have registered a case under Section 279 (rash driving or riding on a public way) and 338 (causing grievous hurt by act endangering life or personal safety of others) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
25/08/14 Aditya Anand & Mustafa shaikh/Mumbai Mirror 

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Decision on airports in A.P. after panel report: Ashok

Union Minister for Civil Aviation P. Ashok Gajapati Raju on Saturday scoffed at the speculation on probable sites for Brownfield and Greenfield airports in Andhra Pradesh and said the Centre would take a final decision after receiving the report from high-power committee which visited various cities and towns early this month.

In a chat with The Hindu here, he said the panel headed by Airport Authority of India Chairman Alok Sinha was evaluating various options and the report was expected by his ministry in a few days. He wondered why one should speculate where the new airports would be located.

There were reports in the media that the Ministry of Defence had objected to the studying of probable sites for new international airport in Visakhapatnam at Nakkapalli and Rambilli close to the Naval Alternate Operational Base project developed to park nuclear powered submarines.

The committee also inspected Bhogapuram in Vizianagaram where the district administration identified 2,560 acres. Mr. Raju represents Vizianagaram in Lok Sabha and the proposed site is about 40 km from Visakhapatnam.
24/08/14 Santhosh Patnaik/The Hindu

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Two aerobridges installed at Raja Bhoj airport

Bhopal: After missing the July-20 deadline, finally, aerobridges are being installed at the Raja Bhoj airport. Aerobridges will become operational after the approval from the committee of directorate general of civil aviation (DGCA), which is expected to happen by middle of September.

An Indonesian company has carried out construction work of the two aerobridges being installed at the airport.

After aerobridges become functional, passenger at Bhoj airport, Bhopal, will not be required to walk to the aircraft or airport building soon after landing. Passengers will be able to board the aircraft directly from the terminal building.
According to Ramjee Awasthi, who is an engineer supervising the construction, Bhopal will be the first in state to have aerobridge facility. "As many as 12 cities were selected for installation of aerobridges including Bhopal, Indore and Raipur. We have completed the trial run. It will be functional once DGCA committee approves it," Awasthi said.
24/08/14 Times of India

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Delhi International Airport Private Limited faces alleged service tax evasion charge

New Delhi: : The Delhi International Airport Private Limited (DIAL) has come under the scanner of central revenue department officials for allegedly evading service tax of about Rs 60 crore.

It is alleged that DIAL, operator of Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA), evaded service tax on the licences fee and development charges collected by it from private entities who are developing five star hotels under the Delhi aerocity project, official sources said.

A case of alleged service tax evasion against DIAL has been registered by the Directorate General of Central Excise Intelligence (DGCEI) here and the amount of alleged service tax evasion is about Rs 60 crore, the sources said.
They claimed that DIAL, which had been given about 5,000 acres land in and around the Delhi airport, leased out part of this land to private groups for development of hotel properties under the aerocity project without paying the service tax on the fees collected from them.
24/08/14 PTI/Times of India

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Tata group wants board seat for investment in Navi Mumbai airport

In a boost to the long-delayed Navi Mumbai international airport, the Tata Group has evinced interest to invest in the project. However, it has asked the aviation ministry for a modification of a restrictive clause before it can move ahead in the matter.

The Indian conglomerate already holds stakes in two Indian carriers, including a majority stake in Vistara which is to be launched soon.

The particular clause restrains airlines wanting to invest in the airport project from holding a seat on the board of management. "We request you to consider allowing at least associate companies of scheduled airlines or cargo airlines to appoint directors on the board in proportion to their equity," states the letter signed by senior officials of Tata Realty and Infrastructure Limited. A copy of the letter addressed to aviation secretary Ashok Lavasa is with dna.'

"Any schedule airline, cargo airline or its associate who would participate in the bidding process and infuse capital investment to the tune of Rs19,000 crore or more, would be interested to ensure that its investment is secured and, therefore, would require to actively participate in the company's affairs, including in day-to-day decisions taken by the board of the company," they said. The ministry has yet to respond to the letter.
24/08/14 Daily News & Analysis

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Flight cancellation prolongs family’s wait for son’s body

Mangalore: For the family of Mohammed Rafeeq in Pipla Borel, West Bengal, the agonizing wait for the body of their 19-year-old son, who died in an accident in Mangalore on Wednesday, has just become longer.

The cancellation of an Air India flight to Bagdogra from Delhi on Saturday raised fears if the family will be able to have a final glimpse of the body as it may be decomposed by the time it reaches them. Khairul Haq, 19, died on Wednesday after falling into a lift pit from a height of 90ft at a construction site.

Sources said the body has been kept in the air cargo complex in Delhi and not shifted to a morgue. And there are doubts over the body being flown out on Sunday. The body was sent by an AI flight to Delhi at 1pm on Friday.

A distraught Rafeeq said: "When we almost reached the airport, we received information that the body wouldn't arrive today. The airport is 130km away from our village. At 12.02pm, we received an SMS "Flight no AI 879 arrival at Bagdogra 13:00 hrs tomorrow Sunday''. Haq, the eldest of 10 children of Rafeeq and Bibi Sunera, came to Mangalore five months ago and was earning Rs 8,000 per month at a construction site.
24/08/14 Times of India/Stanley Pinto/Times of India

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Navy controls Visakhapatnam airport

Visakhapatnam: It was often accused that since the local airport was controlled by Indian Navy, it took many long years for it to get operational 24/7. After so many pleas from the local public representatives and threatening calls by locals of agitations, finally defence ministry agreed for 24/7 operations last year which helped the airport to connect to international destinations like Dubai and Singapore.
Though international carriers like Silk Air were ready to start flights to Singapore, they held back the proposal fro sometime since  the navy was not willing to run the airport 24/7.
24/08/14 Deccan Chronicle

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Rajahmundry airport will be renamed after Prakasam Pantulu: Naidu

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu has paid rich tributes to first Chief Minister of erstwhile Andhra State Tanguturi Prakasam Pantulu also known as “Andhra Kesari”, whose birth anniversary was celebrated as a State function across the State on Saturday.

After garlanding the Prakasam Pantulu’s statue in the road-junction in front of the Assembly and attending an official function on his birth anniversary here, Mr. Naidu announced in the Assembly that his government would rename the Rajahmundry airport after Prakasam Pantulu.
24/08/14 The Hindu

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Govt mulls new strategy to boost performance of domestic airlines

New Delhi: Concerned over “unsatisfactory performance” of Indian airlines in taking on foreign competition, the Government is considering a new strategy to motivate them to perform and take away the overseas flying rights of those who fail to do so.
“We have to work out a strategy that will motivate our players to perform. The reality is that Indian players are not able to perform — neither the public nor the private sector (airlines),” Civil Aviation Minister P Ashok Gajapathi Raju told PTI here.
He was replying to questions on the performance of Indian carriers vis-a-vis the bilateral air traffic rights granted to them and foreign carriers to fly to each others’ countries.
To a question on the air traffic rights between India and countries like Dubai, Raju said, “Nobody believes that the (air service) agreements were done with any commercial analysis in mind.”
So, decisions at very high levels still raise questions of integrity which, at those levels, should not happen. Now, in the event of this being a fact, then it becomes very unbecoming,” the Minister said in an interview.
24/08/14 Business Line

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Kochi airport to have robotic security system

As part of measures to enhance passenger safety, Cochin International Airport is all set to introduce a high-end robotic security system capable of remote handling of explosive devices and fire fighting and hijack situations among others.

The system, costing around Rs 12 crore, would be introduced next month, making the airport the first among the southern states to have such a facility, a CIAL press release said today.

It comprises safety robots developed by Canada-based Pedsco Ltd and threat containment vessel (TCV) and sophisticated luggage containment vehicle (both developed by Nabco, USA).

These equipment have already reached the airport and were in calibration phase, it said.

The robot -- Remote Mobile Investigator (RMI-9WT) -- is the front-runner in the robot family and was used in the West and Americas by Police, fire departments, military and nuclear and industrial institutions.
24/08/14 PTI/Business Standard

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Pharma cold zone opened at Bangalore airport

Bangalore: Menzies Aviation Bobba, which operates a cargo terminal at Kempegowda International Airport here, has opened a pharma cold zone for the handling of pharma products.

The temperature controlled cargo handling facility is expected to assist the pharma companies based in South India in enhancing their business and meeting the stringent requirements of global regulatory authorities.
24/08/14 Business Line

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Suspected Ebola patient sent to isolation ward

Mumbai: A 32-year-old man was admitted to civic-run Hindu Hriday Samrat Balasaheb Thackeray trauma care hospital on Sunday following an alert from the International airport authorities that he may be a case of suspected Ebola virus disease.
Manoj Maurya, who arrived from Nigeria, was admitted in the hospital’s isolation ward. The hospital’s medical superintendent, Dr Shashikant Wadekar, said, “There are no strong symptoms. But we will conduct the required tests.”
24/08/14 Indian Express

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Sudhir Raheja to temporarily serve as Chairman of AAI

Mumbai: Sudhir Raheja, a board member of the Airports Authority of India (AAI), has from today taken over as its Chairman, after the government, for the second time this year, granted temporary charge to an executive to head the country’s largest airport owner, Tarun Shukla reported for Mint.

The government has been struggling to fill the post since abruptly terminating then Chairman, V P Agarwal’s extension six months ago. Alok Sinha, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation, Government of India, who was then given temporary charge, will be returning to his state cadre Uttar Pradesh today.

“Raheja is a clean and honest man which is the focus of the new minister. We hope to get someone in the next six months permanently,” said a Ministry official.

Raheja took over as member, planning, of AAI earlier this year and, like Agarwal, has moved up the ranks in the organisation. He was among fewer than a dozen candidates, including other public sector unit officials, to be interviewed for the post.
22/08/14 Travel Biz Monitor

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‘Depressed’ Mumbai student creates ruckus, delays flight by an hour

Mumbai: A 21-year-old student from Mumbai, reportedly suffering from depression, created ruckus on an Indigo Airlines flight from Delhi on Friday afternoon, delaying the flight for an hour. He was later asked to get off board.

As the flight started to move towards the runway for takeoff at 2.30 pm, Rishabh Sethi ran to the cockpit door and started banging on it, demanding to see the captain. When prevented, he started screaming and had to be overpowered by passengers in an exercise that lasted about 20 minutes.

Airline crew said they tried to talk to Sethi but he refused to budge. He manhandled a crew member when she tried to call the captain using the intercom. "He snatched the handset from the crew member and tried to speak to the captain," an airport official said. As Sethi got more aggressive, some passengers intervened and overpowered him.

In the interest of passenger safety, the pilot took a call to reject the takeoff and returned to the aircraft bay, where Sethi was handed over to the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) personnel, who had been alerted by the Air Traffic Controller (ATC).

Since Sethi had two checked-in bags that also had to be offloaded, the flight was delayed for an hour and took off only at 3.39 pm.
23/08/14 Aditya Anand/Mumbai Mirror

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Frankfurt-bound flight returns to Mumbai due to technical problems

A Mumbai-Frankfurt Lufthansa flight with about 350 passengers on board had to return to the city 150 minutes after take-off as when it developed a technical snag while overflying the Pakistan-Afghanistan region.

After initially considering landing at a Pakistani airport, the pilots of flight LH-757 that had taken off from Mumbai at 3 am decided against it as getting the faulty part serviced there could have been an issue. Instead, the pilots opted to dump fuel to reduce the aircraft's weight. Aircraft are designed to land at a maximum weight lower than their maximum weight.

"In order to be below that maximum landing weight, they must either burn that fuel during flight or dump it. The pilots opted for the latter by hovering over the Arabian Sea," a Lufthansa official said.

The aircraft, a Boeing 744, landed in Mumbai at 5.30 am. Upon inspection, engineering staff found an issue with the flaps, and spares are being flown in from Frankfurt.
23/08/14 Aditya Anand/Mumbai Mirror 

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Mumbai airport to implant special grass which deters birds

In order to address the problem of bird hits which endangers flight safety and causes huge loses, city airport will soon implant special variety of grass which will keep away insects and birds.

The authorities at Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (CSIA) have sanctioned a year-long study to a Pune-based NGO, Ela Foundation, to survey the behavior of birds, including the migratory ones, in and around 10 km of the airport (risk zone).

The survey by the NGO also includes the bird movement during the night. "Once the study gets complete, then the airport authorities at CSIA have plans to implant specially modified grass which is not to the liking of insects. Birds wont frequent the area in the absence of the insects," said an airport official. The specialized grass, also called as an 'avian-deterrent' grass, has natural fungus in the form of endophyte which produces chemicals not conducive for growth of insects.

According to data available with Air Traffic Control (ATC), so far 65 cases of bird hits have been reported during the year 2013-14 and 52 cases during 2012-13. According to an estimate prepared by Aeronautical Society of India, as much as Rs 18 crore of loses were incurred by airlines in 2011, which was Rs 22 crore a year before.
23/08/14 Daily News & Analysis

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Agency to help fight bird-hit menace at Chennai Airport

Chennai: With rainy days just ahead, the number of birds lurking around the airport for prey is bound to increase. Pilots have already reported to air traffic controllers in the last two months about as many as 10 bird-hit cases. To overcome this problem, the authorities have now decided to commence a study and take precautionary measures.

“We are in the final stage of appointing an agency, which will study the various aspects for eradication of the hazard of birds over Chennai airport.  This will include new technologies of sound and waves of special nature for scaring away the birds. At present, crackers and apron jeeps are used for this purpose,” said Chennai airport assistant general manager (PR) Harbhajan Singh.

According to him, the proposed agency would also study the behaviour of big birds that are generally attracted to open areas like the runways and so on. “We will take effective remedial action with an aim to get 100 percent results,” Mr Singh added. It is natural for insects to come out after rain thereby attracting birds, which are potential threat when found in the path of the aircraft.
23/08/14  S. Sujatha/Deccan Chronicle

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Engine failure forces AI flight to land at Jaipur

Ahmedabad: As many as 104 passengers had a narrow escape when the Air India flight from Delhi to Ahmedabad was forced to make an emergency landing in Jaipur on Friday morning after its left engine stopped working. All passengers were safe.

The AI-019 Delhi-Ahmedabad flight left Delhi at 6 am but landed safely at Sanganer Airport in Jaipur at 7:25 am after the pilot complained of a snag in one of the engines. "The pilot informed Jaipur air traffic controller (ATC) about some technical problem in the aircraft after which it was diverted," said an ATC official.

Such was the fault in the engine that Airbus-321 had to be grounded at Jaipur airport and, until Friday night, it was still being repaired.
23/08/14 Times of India

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‘Air Asia planning Vizag-KL flight’

Visakhapatnam: Air Asia is planning to launch a direct flight from Vizag to Kuala Lumpur during its winter schedule from November this year. IndiGo is also planning a morning flight from New Delhi to Vizag and back in its winter schedule, according to president of the Air Travellers Association (India) D. Varada Reddy.

SpiceJet is planning morning flights to Bangalore and Chennai. These additions will take the total number of flights from Vizag to 42. The routes in high demand from Vizag are Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Chennai, Mr. Reddy told a media conference here on Friday.

On the facilities required at the cargo terminal at Visakhapatnam International Airport, he said that a big scanner and a fork lift should be provided. There was a slight difference in the level of ground between the old terminal and new terminal at the airport and this should be levelled to allow the aircraft to move to the old terminal without any problem.
22/08/14 The Hindu

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Gannavaram airport expansion plans to get impetus

Vijayawada: The long-pending expansion plans of Gannavaram airport may get impetus, with the Krishna district administration setting the land acquisition process in motion soon.
The administration is contemplating to send proposals to State government, seeking permission for acquiring more than 460 acres land from three villages abutting the airport. A senior official on condition of anonymity told The Hindu that the land acquisition process would begin only after getting clearance from the government.
“After getting clearance from the government, we will initiate the process according to the procedures,” the official explained, adding that a notification to this effect was issued last year. Rehabilitation and resettlement (R&R) would be taken up according to the provisions of the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013.
According to the official, an inquiry was conducted in January last year during which objections and concerns raised by the land owners were taken into consideration. These issues were also discussed with the officials from Airports Authority of India (AAI) and Directorate General of Civil Aviation.
23/08/14 M. Srinivas/The Hindu

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Bad weather fogs over AAI vows as five flights diverted

Pune: After taking three months to implement the Modernisation of Airfield Infrastructure (MAAFI) project at the Pune International Airport, the Airport Authority of India (AAI) had assured that flight cancellations and diversions due bad weather conditions such as heavy rain or fog would cease, following installation of the advanced version of the Runway Visual Range (RVR) system.

However, the AAI had to eat its words on Friday following the diversion of five flights — Air India's Delhi-Pune flight, Spice Jet's Chennai-Pune and Sharjah-Pune flight, Indigo's Delhi-Pune flight and Go Air's Bangalore-Pune flight — between 7 am to 8 am to Mumbai and Ahmadabad due to poor visibility on the runway.

According to airport officials, all five flights returned to Pune after 10 am, after being delayed for over four hours.
23/08/14 Sukirt Gumaste/Pune Mirror 

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Biju Patnaik airport authorities to provide 25 types of services to passenger

Bhubaneswar: In-order to provide adequate facilities to passengers and to attract more tourists, the airport authorities of Biju Patnaik airport have decided to provide 25 types of services. This was informed by director of the airport Mr Sarad Kumar. These services would include ice-cream parlour, baby center, food store, herbal shop, pharmacy center, business center, car parking and other services.
22/08/14 Odisha Diary

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AirAsia India CEO supports reopening of HAL Bangalore Airport

Mittu Chandilya, CEO, AirAsia India, has said that he would support the reopening the HAL Bangalore International Airport for commercial operations, and also urge the Centre to focus more on low-cost airports. He was interacting with management students of a college in the city yesterday, as per a report in Business Standard.

While there have been many such instances of various stakeholders in the society urging the Centre to open the HAL Airport again for civilian use, the water-tight clause in the agreement, which has been entered into by the GVK-led Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL), which runs the expansive international airport on the outskirts of the city, will make it difficult for a second airport within a 150-km radius.

While Chandilya also voiced aviation industries’ main concern on the high taxation on aviation turbine fuel, he said, he is bullish on the Indian aviation industry as the number of people flying for a population of 1.2 billion is just 100 million. He believes it’s the right time to invest in aviation as the industry is at rock bottom and it’s only going to grow from here.
22/08/14 TravelBizMonitor

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AirAsia India to launch flights to Chandigarh in two months

Singapore:  New no-frill carrier AirAsia India will fly to Chandigarh in two months as part of its expansion plans to north India, its chief Tony Fernandes announced today.

"In two months we are going to Chandigarh," Fernandez told PTI on the sidelines of the IIMPACT 2014 conference organised by the Singapore-based alumni of Indian Institute of Management.
Air Asia's second plane for the Indian operations would be there next week and another in September, he said.

"We are going to put six planes in India," said Fernandes, adding that expansion was underway to many destinations in India including Jaipur.

Fernandes said he was also getting good response from many other state governments in India as they see what Air Asia "can do".
22/08/14 PTI/Economic Times

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Indian project on bond runway

A proposed US dollar bond from the operator of Delhi Airport is shaping up as a test case of international appetite for Indian infrastructure projects.

A successful debut from GMR Group-controlled Delhi International Airport, better known as Dial, could provide a new funding avenue for project financiers, easing some of the pressure on India’s overstretched banking system.

It will also underline the rebound in international confidence in India since Narendra Modi’s pro-reform government swept to power in a landslide election victory.

“India needs this kind of confidence to fund its infrastructure. Any offshore bond from an infrastructure company will be a very big positive for the sector,” said Ray Tay, vice president and senior analyst, project and infrastructure finance, Moody’s.

HSBC, Citigroup, JP Morgan and Standard Chartered have been mandated on Dial’s offering of up to US$350m, expected to come with tenors of 5–10 years.

Other infrastructure companies, including Mytrah Energy and Jindal Steel and Power, are already working on potential dollar bonds.
23/08/14 Manju Dalal/IFRAsia

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ATA Seminar on Issues of Vizag Airport

Visakhapatnam:  The Air Travellers’ Association (ATA) is organising a seminar at Hotel Four Points Sheraton in the city at 10 am Sunday in which 250 delegates related to Indian and International airlines, tourism sector and other departments aside from bureaucrats from in and around Visakhapatnam would participate. The seminar would focus on Visakhapatnam Airport’s regional connectivity and cargo exports.

Divulging the details to the mediamen here Friday, ATA president S Varada Reddy said that there was a dire need to focus on the issues of Visakhapatnam Airport even though the state government initiated steps for developing regional airports.

“Even as Vijayawada and Tirupati are in the race for setting up international airports, Vizag needs a push since it already has an international airport and is being safely run by the Indian Navy.”
23/08/14 New Indian Express

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Tighter security for Biju Patnaik International Airport

Bhubaneswar:  To augment security at Biju Patnaik International Airport, the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) has decided to go for tactical deployments besides installing video analytic system.

Talking to TOI here on Friday, additional director general (airport sector) O P Singh said a recent survey has indicated that Bhubaneswar was among the 18 sensitive airports in the country. "We will have an unobtrusive (hidden) deployment of CISF personnel at the Bhubaneswar airport," said Singh.

He said there would be "tactical profiling" of passengers' behaviour to enhance detection capability. "The CISF personnel will soon be trained in behavioural detection. The training will help CISF men easily detect suspicious movement among passengers," said the ADG said, without divulging the details.
He said more CISF personnel would be recruited in future after the international terminal building of the airport becomes fully functional. "There would be more personnel in our Quick Reaction Team (QRT)," he said.
23/08/14 Times of India

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Prithviraj urges for starting Imphal-Bangkok flight service

New Delhi: Mairembam Prithviraj, Parliamentary Secretary (Tourism and Sports), Manipur has drew the attention of Union Minister of Tourism Sripad Yesso Naik for putting pressure on the Union Civil Aviation Minister for allowing flight service from Imphal to Bangkok via Mandalay and Kunming.
He informed that the Imphal airport had already been converted into international airport.

He was speaking at the National Conference of Tourism Ministers held at ITC Maurya, Diplomatic Enclave here on Thursday.

Union Minister for Tourism Shripad Yesso Naik chaired the National Conference of Tourism Ministers which was inaugurated by Union Minister for Finance and Defence Arun Jaitley as Chief Guest.

Organized as part of the 100 days action plan of the Government, the objective of the conference was to initiate high-level discussions on important issues faced by India's Tourism Industry.
22/08/14 E-Pao

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Drunk NCP leader thrown out of Jet flight

Mumbai: A drunk NCP leader was asked to get off a Jet Airways plane in Mumbai on Thursday night after he started misbehaving with the cabin crew.

The leader has more than a dozen criminal cases registered against him, including a case of attempt to murder. Most of his close family members also hold prominent positions in the party and are into real estate business.

Confirming the incident, a Jet airways spokesperson said: "A guest booked for travel on 9W 76 (August 21, 2014) from Mumbai to Hong Kong was offloaded in an inebriated state as he was seen to be conducting himself in an inappropriate manner with cabin crew members aboard the flight."

The Jet Airways flight to Hong Kong was delayed by an hour.
23/08/14 Daily News & Analysis

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'Fake' gun haul mystery solved, trader arrested

This Delhi builder would travel to France, Austria and Germany and return with unusual souvenirs. These were dummy pistols and revolvers that were almost impossible to differentiate from real ones. If he is to be believed, he smuggled the weapons out of the airport exactly like they do it in the movies. He claims he would first fly into Amritsar, and then to Delhi with his aide, who would join him in Amritsar. While he, himself, walked out hassles- and baggage-free, his aide would make it out of IGI with the dummy pistols, using his "connections".
Their free run ended when, in the run-up to Independence Day, police stumbled upon one of the consignments during heavy security checks in southwest Delhi. On Friday, the special cell rounded up Manjeet Singh from Paschim Vihar. He was arrested.
Special commissioner of police S N Shrivastava said his team had received an input that Singh would come to a five-star hotel in the area. A trap was laid and Singh was apprehended. On August 12, police had recovered a cache of 146 pistols, 40 revolvers, 8,700 cartridges, one 12 bore gun and nine daggers from a white Nano car. Vijay Kumar and Ranjan Paswan, who were carrying the weapons in the Nano, were arrested and booked under Arms Act.
24/08/14 Times of India

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HPCL executive held for sexual assault

Hyderabad: A Mumbai-based oil major executive was arrested by the Cyberabad police on Friday night for sexually assaulting an employee of Novotel Hotel at the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (RGIA).
Around 11.45 pm, Mukesh Pachuri, an oil company executive, called up the reception and asked for toothpaste and soap. The requested articles were delivered in his suite by a 20-year-old woman room service attendant, RGIA inspector T Sudhakar said.
Later, Mukesh, aged around 45 years, came up with another request, this time asking for a towel. "The employee brought the towel and Mukesh asked her to keep it in the room. After she left the towel at the designated location and was leaving the suite, he grabbed her hand and pulled her towards himself,'' the inspector said.
24/08/14 Times of India

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2 Kg of Gold Seized at Airport

Kochi: Officers of the Air Intelligence Unit under the Air Customs seized 17 gold bars of 10 ‘tolas’ each from a passenger at the Nedumbassery airport.
  The value of the seized gold, which has a total weight of 2 kg, is around `57 lakh.
The 32-year-old passenger, hailing from Kasargod, had arrived from Dubai by Emirates Airlines flight EK-532 at 4 am. He was caught while trying to pass through the green channel. The passenger was intercepted at the exit gate of the Arrival hall, on suspicion that he was carrying gold. The contraband was seized when the officials conducted a personal search of the passenger. Initially, three gold biscuits each were recovered from the two pockets of the jeans he was wearing. When the passenger was questioned, on suspicion that he was hiding more gold biscuits, he confessed that he was concealing 11 gold biscuits inside his rectum.
23/08/14 New Indian Express

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