'Aurangabad airport can be utilised for parking'

Aurangabad: The Aurangabad airport is under utilized and hence the idea of provision of parking slot here will be promoted. The government would also like to give concession and incentives for the airlines preferring Aurangabad airport for parking their airplanes, said Union Minister for Civil Aviation Ashok Gajapathi Raju, while interacting with the media at the Aurangabad airport on Friday afternoon

He said that the allotting of parking slot will increase employment in the city. "The aircraft and aviation is a continuous process. Airport is like a road which is used by various air crafts. The Aurangabad Airport has very less conjunction. The request for using the empty space at the airport for the parking slots will be forwarded by the ministry. Concession will be offered to those using it as parking." He also said that the turbo company wanted to connect the Tirupati with Shirdi. But later they chose Aurangabad airport for landing. The city airport has the capacity of 1,400 ton as cargo and to develop more facilities like cargo and runway more land will be required.
29/08/15 Times of India

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Hopping into an app-based cab in airport? Pay more!

Mumbai: Passengers hiring popular taxi services like Uber and Ola to and from Mumbai airport will now have to pay Rs110 extra. The airport authorities have recently started levying this amount on these vehicles.

Earlier, these app-based cabs parked themselves inside the airport premises and congested the area. Even then, it was not easy for passengers to get an Uber or Ola near the airport as the security staff would drive them out to clear the congestion. The passengers were then forced to walk for a distance in order to board their hired cabs.
29/08/15 Shahkar Abidi/Daily News & Analysis

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Gurezi sees off Hajj pilgrims at Srinagar Airport

Srinagar: Deputy Speaker, Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly, Nazir Ahmad Gurezi gave a warm send off to the Hajj pilgrims who left for the holy city of Medina in 17th special flight from Srinagar International Airport today.
As many as 5779 pilgrims of the State have left for Medina to perform Hajj till date, the Deputy Speaker was informed.
29/08/15 Kashmir Images

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Bank loan for airport project affected persons

Navi Mumbai: The Navi Mumbai International Airport project has provided an opportunity for the airport project affected persons (PAP) to avail loans from banks or exploit the developed plots under the 22.5% scheme allotted to them at Pushpak Nagar, Cidco joint M D, V Radha said.

PAPs can also opt for pooling their land and constructing bigger buildings to make more money on sale of flats. She talked about this at the Cidco investors meet held on Friday at Cidco exhibition centre in Vashi, where 16 banks and airport PAPs participated.
29/08/15 Times of India

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GMR puts airport hotel on the block yet again

Hyderabad: Infrastructure major GMR Group has put its hotel property at the Hyderabad International Airport on the block as a part of its asset light and asset right strategy. The 304-room Novotel Hyderabad Airport Hotel is expected to fetch anywhere between Rs 300-400 crore.

This is second time that GMR Group has put this luxury hotel property on sale under the Swiss Challenge model as it could not finalise the sale despite receiving some bids in 2013-14 fiscal.

“The GMR Hyderabad International Airport Limited (GHIAL) a step down subsidiary of GMR Infrastructure Limited (GIL) had initiated the process of divesting its equity stake in GMR Hotels and Resorts Limited or GHRL (that owns and manages the Novotel Hyderabad Airport Hotel), in the year 2013-2014 itself,” the infra major said in a release.
29/08/15 Hans India

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Goa customs foil gold smuggling bid

Panaji: The air intelligence wing of the commissionerate of customs in Goa on Friday found three persons smuggling 3.5kg of gold worth 90 lakh. The trio was travelling to Bengaluru, on a Dubai-Bengaluru flight via Goa. The passengers were detained after landing in Bengaluru.

Commissioner of customs, Goa, K Anpazhakan said that the three passengers boarded the flight in Dubai and were travelling to Bengaluru. When the flight landed at Goa international airport, Dabolim, at around 4.16am on Friday, the three passengers were found in possession of gold during a random search by customs officers. The gold was in form of biscuits and gold ornaments, he said.

"The passengers were not entitled to bring the gold as they had not paid the duty to do so," Anpazhakan said.
29/08/15 Times of India

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Qatar Airways to revive Doha-Nagpur direct flight by December

New Delhi: Gulf carrier Qatar Airways plans to resume a direct flight to Nagpur from Doha by December, which it had discontinued over six year ago due to poor passenger traffic on the sector at that time.

The reinstated flight will be serviced by a 144-seater Airbus A320 in two class cabin with 12 seats in business class and 132 in economy class, Qatar Airways said in a release today.

Qatar Airways had previously operated air services to Nagpur from Doha between January 2008 and May 2009.

28/08/15 PTI/Economic Times

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ILS trial run at airport Thiruvananthapuram

Thiruvananthapuram:The US-made Instrument Landing System (ILS), installed in the Thiruvananthapuram international airport to guide aircraft to precision landing will be subjected to trial run from Friday.The calibration of the ILS was carried out using the calibrating aircraft of the Airports Authority of India (AAI) that was rushed here following last Tuesday’s “near crash” of a Jet Airways flight from Doha, with 155 on board, when it was diverted from Kochi to Thiruvananthapuram due to inclement weather.
28/08/15 Nyooz

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Court warns of terminating licence of Nagpur airport if aeroplane not removed

The aeroplane of Continental Airlines that is stranded on the runway of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar International Airport for many years has been asked to be removed from the place as soon as possible. An order to this effect was pronounced by the court. The court has also warned Mihan India Limited (MIL) that if the plane is not removed as directed, then the license of the airport will be cancelled.
After the MIL failed to move the plane to a safer place, the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) had approached the court which ordered that the plane should be removed immediately.
The plane being stranded near the runway of the airport is a grave danger to the taking off of planes from the airport. However, the DGCA has now taken a stern view of the matter now. It may be noted that the Continental Aviation Limited had started Mumbai-Nagpur-Bhopal flight about 25 years ago.
28/08/15 Nagpur Today

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Nepal Airlines to resume direct flights to Kolkata

Kolkata: Nepal Airlines is likely to resume direct flight operations between Kolkata and Kathmandu around October-November this year.

Flight services had been stopped some three years back for want of aircrafts. As of now, Air India is the only carrier to have direct flights between the two cities.

According to Deep Kumar Upadhyay, Ambassador of Nepal to India, the flight services will resume around Durga Puja or latest by Diwali, later this year.
28/08/15 Business Line

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AirAsia launches 8th route to India

AirAsia has expanded its route network from its main base at Kuala Lumpur (KUL) with the addition of a new service to Goa (GOI) in India. The thrice-weekly service (Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays) on the 3,360-kilometre route launched on 27 August and will be flown by the carrier’s A320s. The route is not served by any other carrier. Goa becomes AirAsia’s eighth route to India as it already serves Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kochi, Kolkata, Tiruchirappalli and Visakhapatnam. In total AirAsia now serves 68 destinations non-stop from the Malaysian capital.
28/08/15 Anna.aero

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Delhi airport to expand facilities to reduce overcrowding

Mumbai: Delhi International Airport Limited which runs the country's busiest airport, is working on a detailed plan to de-congest its domestic terminals 1D and 1C (used by low cost airlines) and expand facilities to meet the projected traffic growth of 100 million by 2033.

These measures were discussed in a meeting between airport officials and airlines on Thursday, following passenger complaints on overcrowding at Terminal 1 (which includes 1D for departures and 1C for arrivals).

Delhi airport handled 41 million passengers in FY15. Over 26 million passengers were handled at T3 and the remaining by T1. While T3 has a design capacity of 34 million passengers, Terminal 1 can handle 16 million passengers. Terminal 1 is used by IndiGo, GoAir and SpiceJet is reaching a saturation point as it .
28/08/15 Business Standard

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Govt scraps plan to corporatise AAI

New Delhi : The Centre has scrapped the plan to corporatise the Airports Authority of India (AAI), which would have allowed it to raise funds from the market to modernise airports. According to sources, the long-pending plan to hive off Air Navigation Services (ANS), which handles air traffic control operations, from AAI has been put in the cold storage. This means the government's plan to list AAI on the stock exchanges will not take off.

Earlier, the government had halted the process of privatisation of airports at Kolkata, Chennai, Jaipur and Ahmedabad. Listing of the AAI on stock exchanges along with the development of the four airports under a public-private partnership model were part of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA)'s draft civil aviation policy.

"If you create a separate entity, a huge bureaucratic setup will have to be created and the air traffic controllers will have to be licensed. In the current setup, if all the conditions of International Civil Aviation Organization are met, no such requirement is there. Further, Indian ANS is rated to be quite high on global standards," said a senior civil aviation ministry official.
26/08/15 Somesh Jha/Business Standard

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Vistara to offer daily flight between Delhi-Bhubaneswar

New Delhi: Vistara on Wednesday announced plans to connect Bhubaneswar in Odisha to its network. The flights between Bhubaneswar and Delhi will commence from October 1, 2015 and opened bookings for the sector.

"Starting October 01, 2015 Vistara will offer daily flight on the Delhi-Bhubaneswar-Delhi route. The introduction of Bhubaneswar, Vistara's third destination in the east, coincides with the airline's next phase of expansion, where the focus will be on scaling up operations and strengthening  the value proposition to suit customers' demand," the airline said in a release.

Vistara is a joint venture company between the Tata Group and Singapore International Airlines.
26/08/15 Mihir MIshra/Economic Times

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No change in airport tariff at Chhtrapati Shivaji International Airport

New Delhi: The GVK-run Mumbai International Airport Ltd (MIAL), which is seeking an upward revision in airport charges, would have to wait for the same till November as the tariff regulator has decided to continue with the existing rates for another three months.

The Airports Economic Regulatory Authority of India (AERA) said in an order yesterday that rates approved in its order of January, 2013, are to continue till the end of November this year or till the time that tariffs for the second five-year control period (2014-2019) are determined.

"Aeronautical tariff(s) approved by the Authority vide order dated January 15, 2013, shall continue up to November 30, 2015, or until the final determination of the tariffs for the second control period (2014-2019), whichever is earlier," AERA said in its order.
25/08/15 PTI/Economic Times

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GMR subsidiary offers training to team from Oman airport company

Hyderabad:  GMR Airport Developers Ltd (GADL), a subsidiary of GMR Infrastructure Ltd, has started providing training to the first batch from Oman Airport Management Company at the GMR Aviation Academy.

After a two-week training stint in India, the OAMC team would return to Muscat. The 22-member team from OAMC is currently undergoing a specially designed course on Airfield Rescue and Firefighting at Hyderabad. Next week, the team will continue their training at GMRAA, New Delhi.

GADL had signed a memorandum of understanding with OAMC in June this year for providing training and consultancy services. Under the MoU, the GMR subsidiary would provide services ranging from programme management, testing and commissioning of airport systems, to development of aeronautical and non-aeronautical revenue streams, according to a GMR statement.
25/08/15 V. Rishi Kumar/Business Line

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AirAsia pilot aborts takeoff at Trichy airport after noticing crack on plane's windshield

Trichy:  An AirAsia flight from Trichy to Kuala Lumpur has been delayed for several hours after the plane's windshield was found broken in the early hours of Tuesday.

Pilot aborted takeoff after noticing a crack on the windshield while the aircraft was moving on the runway.

The plane that arrived here at around 12.20am with 134 passengers was to take off at 1.10am with 161 passengers.
25/08/15 Harish Murali/Times of India

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CIAL All Set to Introduce Second ILS

Kochi: The Cochin International Airport Limited (CIAL) is all set to introduce the second instrument landing system, a first in the state, which will allow the aircraft to take off and touch down on the runway from both directions of the same runway.

It will not only reduce the fuel consumption of aircraft but also avoid major flight delays in monsoon and the winter seasons when  visibility is as low as 800 metres.

 This assumes greater significance in the wake of a recent emergency landing of Jet Airways aircraft with alarmingly low level of fuel at Thiruvanthapuram international airport after it was diverted from Kochi, where it had tried three failed attempts to land, due to inclement weather coupled with poor visibility.
26/08/15 Dhinesh Kallungal/New Indian Express

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Flyers’ safety at stake as ILS is on the blink

Safety of the flyers is at stake as the U.S.-made Instrument Landing System (ILS) installed in the premier international airport of the State here to guide aircraft to precision landing has not been calibrated.

The emergency landing of Jet Airways aircraft on Tuesday, diverted from Kochi due to inclement weather, at Thiruvananthapuram international airport after three attempts and the ‘May Day’ message (emergency) from Capt. Manoj Ramawarrier has exposed the laxity on the part of Airports Authority of India (AAI) to calibrate the ILS installed over a month.

“It was a crash like and 9/11 situation while the aircraft was hovering around in the city for over 10 minutes. The commander even said good bye after despatching ‘May Day’ message to the Air Traffic Control. The ATF had gone below the danger level and he was unable to land due to poor visibility. It was only god’s grace that saved the lives of 155 on board as the aircraft that was coming from Doha landed at 7.04 a.m.”, officials in the Airports Authority of India having access to the whole operation told The Hindu .

The existing ILS that was working was shifted to install the ILS procured from Selex ES US by the AAI without taking into account the ongoing inclement weather and monsoon, sources said.
22/08/15 S. Anil Radhakrishnan/The Hindu

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Yousuf Ali Woos International Airlines to Kochi

Kochi: M A Yousuf Ali, chairman and founder of Abu Dhabi-based LuLu Group is making big splash investment in Kochi to woo international airline companies to set up their southern hub and regional offices as the international airport is slowly emerging as the third largest in India in terms of international air passenger handling.
Yousuf Ali, ranked the 39th wealthiest Indian, told Express that the LuLu Group was also building its ‘Tech Park’ at Infopark, Kakkanad, which will be completed in less than a year. “Once completed, LuLu Tech Park alone would provide jobs to over 10,000 people, perhaps the largest in Infopark,” he said.
He said the deal with DLF to purchase 3.79 acres of Marine Drive plot will be used to build the company’s Indian headquarters, ‘Y Towers’. “Our global headquarters in Abu Dhabi is also named ‘Y Towers.’ Our plan is to attract international companies, especially airline and IT companies, to set up their southern hub and regional offices at ‘Y Towers.’ We hope to complete the construction of ‘Y Towers’ over a period of 18 months,” Yousuf Ali said.
22/08/15 Rajesh Abraham/New Indian Express

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Inclement weather forces AI flight to return

Vijayawada: Passengers travelling in Vijayawada-bound Air India flight counted tense moments after it failed to land at the Gannavaram airport and returned to the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (RGIA) at Shamshabad on Friday due to inclement weather.

The aircraft 544 with over 82 passengers, including Agriculture Minister P. Pulla Rao, was supposed to land at the Gannavaram airport at 4.40 p.m.

'The flight reached the airport, but owing to bad weather, it did not land on the runway and returned to the RGIA.

After getting clearance from the Air Traffic Control, the flight landed at Shamshabad around 7.50 p.m., Airport Director M. Rajkishore said.
22/08/15 The Hindu

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A tall problem for the Mumbai International Airport got taller

Mumbai: Two years ago, the Mumbai International Airport authorities identified a minaret of a mosque near the Milan Subway as a 'hazard' to the flight operations, saying it protrudes onto the glide path of the international airport as well as the Juhu airport. Even as the authorities passed the buck as to who should address the matter, the minaret has grown taller, after the mosque authorities installed a spire atop a few weeks ago.

The minaret now stands at least 37 mt tall - it was already 7.6 mt higher than the prescribed limit of 26.12 mt in 2013 - and the airport sources said that the mosque authorities never had a no-objection certificate from the Airports Authority of India (AAI) to construct it in the first place.

"A couple of years ago, the minaret was found to be 33.7 mt in height when it was measured by the Mumbai International Airport Ltd (MIAL) officials. The MIAL had submitted a complaint with the aviation regulator (DGCA). A few weeks ago, we spotted a spire which appears to be about 3 mt in height. This would take the minaret's height to about 37 mt," an airport official said.

The official said that the minaret posed an obstacle to runway 09 of the international airport and runway 34 of the Juhu airport. The DGCA officials were not available for comment but the airport sources said that the DGCA has asked the concerned airports to deal with the matter.
22/08/15 Aditya Anand/Mumbai Mirror

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AAI organised training program for employees working at BPI Airport, Bhubaneswar and Beharampur

Bhubaneswar: Airports Authority of India is emerging as one of the front runner in implementation of various infra-structure solutions in a way ahead for providing the best services to the passengers . As a part of it till now various IT solutions like ERP, SAP and E- tendering have been implemented to provide more transparent and fast services to its valuable customers, airlines, concessioners and other stake holders. Further step ahead has gone and now E-office and digitalization of the records has been started in AAI.
21/08/15 Odisha Diary 

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All efforts to be made to start international flights from MP

Indore: The Centre will make all efforts to start international flights from Madhya Pradesh to boost commercial and tourism potential of the state, Union Minister Mahesh Sharma has said.

"Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has requested me to start international air service from Madhya Pradesh. I assure that all out efforts will be made to connect MP with international air service," Sharma told reporters on the sidelines of a function here last night.

MP has immense tourism potential, the Minister of State for Civil Aviation and Tourism said, adding that the sector will get a boost when international flight services start from the state.
Earlier, speaking at the annual function of Indian Association of Tour Operators, Chouhan underlined the need for starting flight services to Sri Lanka and Gulf countries from MP as soon as possible.
21/08/15 PTI/Economic Times 

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AAI team inspects proposed airport site in Adampur

Jalandar: A technical team from the Airports Authority of India (AAI) visited the Adampur Air Force Station to ascertain the feasibility of the proposed domestic airport on Friday. The team included Debashish Khan, General Manager (Planning), SK Soni, Deputy General Manager (Operation) and Rajeev Handa, Deputy General Manager (Civil), who inspected the area. K K Yadav, Deputy Commissioner, also accompanied them. “At least 50 acres more is required. Since majority of this land belong to private persons, the government will have to acquire it,” said Khan.
22/08/15 Indian Express  

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Airport ATC gets capacity boost

Kolkata: NSCBI airport has implemented upper airspace harmonisation in Kolkata FIR (flight information region) as part of the safety and air navigation services improvement project.
It will bring improvement in operational efficiency of Air Traffic Management, safety of aircraft operations, fuel efficiency and savings in operating cost for airlines, and reduction in pilot/controller workload, Mr SS Bhaduri, regional executive director, Airport Authority of India, told newsmen Friday afternoon at the airport’s ATC tower. This system has been successfully installed and operationalised from yesterday, said Mr Bhaduri.
From now no. 4 Area Control Centre will operate instead of no. 12 Area Control Centre after surveillance capacity of the FIR has been increased.
The project incorporates state-of-the-art integrated Air Traffic System automation system, integration of multiple radar and ADS-B sensors, airspace restructuring with multiple sectors and remote operation of VHF from Kolkata using IP-based voice communication control system.
22/08/15 The Statesman

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Airports Advisory Committee urges AAI to start flight operations from Odisha capital to Dubai, Bangkok, Shilong, Qualalampur

Bhubaneswar: Airports Advisory Committee (AAC) meeting was held under the chairmanship of Dr. Prasanna Kumar Patasani,   member of parliament of airport constituency on 21-08-2015. In the conference hall of New Domestic Building at B.P.I.Airport, Bhubaneswar. Shree Sharad Kumar, Airport Director has convened the meeting.  The meeting is attended by the ex-officio members comprising the representatives from various departments like Odisha Tourism, IPICOL, State Police, Air India, Indigo, Go Air. HRAO,  Utkal University and the prominent citizens from social/ cultural/ welfare group. The chairman, MP and all AAC members unanimously passed a resolution to thank Minister of Civil Aviation,    Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Culture, Tourism and MOS for Ministry of Civil Aviation, Govt. of India and Odisha CM for their unforgettable efforts to start the International flight operations from Bhubaneswar.
21/08/15  Odisha Diary

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Drugs worth Rs 20 cr seized at B'luru international airport

Drugs worth about Rs 20 crore has been seized by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) from a passenger at the Kempegowda International Airport here.

NCB said 3.347 kg of cocaine, a hard party drug, was concealed in the checked-in luggage of a Paraguay national who arrived here by an Emirates flight.

He was arrested on August 19 and sent to judicial custody by NDPS (Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances) Court the next day, an NCB release said.
21/08/15 PTI/Business Standard 

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Separatist Shabbir Shah Detained at Delhi Airport

New Delhi: Separatist leader Shabbir Shah who arrived in Delhi on Saturday for a meeting with Pakistani National Security Advisor Sartaz Ajiz ahead of NSA-level talks, was detained at the airport by the police.

Shah has remained adamant about meeting Aziz, saying the separatists will not back out of the talks between India and Pakistan.
"We will meet Pakistan NSA Sartaj Aziz ji at the Pakistan House this evening," Shah told the media here.

"We have been going since past 25 years to meet with Pakistan, be it the NDA Government led by Atal ji or the UPA," he added.
22/08/15 ANI/New Indian Express

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The untold story of Jet Airways Flight 9W555: How an airline and its pilot nearly crashed a passenger plane with 150 people onboard

By Jacob K Philip

An incident that was hardly noticed by the national media, though it was one of the gravest of the safety incidents ever occurred at any of the Indian airports, is bound to land Jet Airways, the operator  airline, in deep trouble in the coming days.
The DGCA is viewing the incident very seriously and by all indications, both airline and the pilot who was hailed by the local newspapers and the social media as a hero who miraculously saved the lives of 142 odd passengers and eight crew, are to face the music.
It was at Kochi airport, Kerala, a southern state of India, that the chain of events that culminated in the near-disaster, started on the early morning hours of Tuesday, August 18, 2015.
When Jet Airways flight 9W 555, a Boeing 737-800, arrived from Doha, the Capital of Qatar, over Kochi at 5.45 in the morning, there were not enough visibility for the aircraft to land because of the haze that followed a heavy rain during the previous night. After holding over Kochi for a almost half an hour, the pilot decided to divert to Trivandrum. When it reached Trivandrum, visibility at Trivandrum also was less than what required for a visual landing. (ILS was not available because of a calibration issue).
The captain of the aircraft informed the Air Traffic Control (ATC) that the fuel levels were running low and he should be permitted to attempt landings even though the visibility was insufficient. The pilot tried to land from the ’14’ end of the runway thrice. By the time fuel level dropped to alarming levels according to the pilot and he made a final attempt at the other end of the runway, almost blindly. In between, he made a May Day call also.
A full emergency was declared (even before the May Day call) at the airport and all the steps were taken as per the SOP. ( Getting ambulances ready, informing city fire services also and the alerting the hospitals in the pre-made panel etc.).
The pilot however could manage to land the aircraft. The landing turned out to be without any hitch, even though the captain himself had almost given up hope (He even had said “Good Bye” to the ATC people in between).
The whole incident would never have attracted not much of an attention, being one of the numerous diversion incidents during the inclement weather in Kerala airports, but for the grave issue of shortage of fuel involved and for the desperate frantic way the pilot behaved , making even a May Day call.
And it indeed was one of the most serious safety occurrences that could happen at any airport. And the government and the regulation authorities should be taking immediate actions, treating the incident at par with an actual air crash.

Read here why

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Jet Airways plane lands with 'insufficient fuel'; pilots suspended

New Delhi: As many as 142 passengers and eight crew members of a Jet Airways flight from Doha to Kochi had a narrow escape after the plane landed at Trivandrum airport without the mandatory reserve fuel requirement, leading to the suspension of both the pilots by the aviation regulator, sources said.

The directorate general of civil aviation (DGCA) has asked the Aircraft accident investigation bureau (AAIB), which functions under the civil aviation ministry, to probe the incident which took place on August 18, terming it "serious", they added.
The fuel in the Boeing 737-800 aircraft was on reserve with only 270-kg of air fuel left at the time of landing at Trivandrum airport as against a mandatory requirement of 1,500kg of fuel along with alternative fuel, the sources said.

Following the incident, DGCA is now reviewing the fuel uplift policy of the airline to examine whether it was carrying less fuel to save costs, they said.

The aircraft was scheduled to land at Kochi airport but, after failing to do so despite three go-arounds due to bad weather, the pilot sought diversion to Trivandrum airport citing a "fuel emergency" rather than taking it to the nearest airport, which was Bangalore.
21/08/15 PTI/Times of India

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Pilot lands Jet Airways flight between Doha and Cochin with only 250 kg fuel left

New Delhi: Passengers on a Jet Airways flight between Doha and Cochin had a close shave on Tuesday after the pilot landed the aircraft with only 250 kg of fuel left in it.

The minimum a Boeing 737 aircraft should have as fuel reserve after landing is about 1500 kg.

"We have grounded the pilots of the flight and will audit the fuel uplift policy of Jet Airways," said a senior DIrectorate General of Civil Aviation official, who did not want to be identified.

The flight between Doha and Cochin (9W 555) was operated with 141 passengers and eight crew members on board.

The official added that the flight could not land in Cochin due to poor visibility and did three go-arounds. The plane was then diverted to Trivandrum, where it landed after three failed attempts with only 250 kg of fuel left.
21/08/15 Mihir Mishra/Economic Times

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AAI may have to shelve plan to privatise 4 airports

In a major fillip for small aircraft and helicopter services, Juhu Aerodrome — the country's oldest airport — will soon be equipped with night landing facility and be able to conduct all weather operations. A proposal to this effect was sent by the Airport Authority of India authorities to the Centre last week.

At present, there is no night landing facility at Juhu and aircraft — both fixed wings and helicopters — have to land at the nearby Santacruz Airport after dark.

Juhu airport is used by several industrial houses besides big and small private charter operators, and the facility has for long been sought by ONGC which runs operations at Bombay High and at times requires 24x7 facilities. Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan has also taken up the matter with the civil aviation ministry.

IAF too want Juhu to have night landing facilities so that the aerodrome can be used after dark, and particularly during emergencies. In fact, last May the IAF had conducted a sortie to test whether Juhu could be used by landing an IAF C-130 J Hercules at the airstrip.
19/08/15 Yogesh Naik/Mumbai Mirror

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Ghost airports highlight risks as Modi spends to grow

Jaisalmer:  India Two-and-a-half years after the completion of a new $17 million terminal building, the airport in Jaisalmer, a small and remote desert city in India's western Rajasthan state, stands empty.
Not a single passenger has passed through the gates of an airport big enough to handle more than 300,000 travellers a year, with parking bays for three 180-seater narrow-body jets.
India has spent more than $50 million since 2009 on eight airports that do not receive scheduled flights - white elephants that are a reminder of the pitfalls for Prime Minister Narendra Modi as he bets on an infrastructure drive to fuel growth.
India's main hubs, meanwhile, are bursting at the seams, slowing airlines' ability to expand in a vast country where they should be supporting economic growth.
19/08/15 Reuters/First Post

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Rs2k cr for new Patna airport

Patna: The Centre's special package of Rs 1.25 lakh crore to Bihar includes Rs 2,000 crore for construction of a new airport in Patna, Rs 700 crore for development of existing airports at Gaya, Raxaul and Purnia and Rs 600 crore for development of seven tourist circuits in the state. A sum of Rs 600 crore will be spent on upgrading medical colleges at Patna, Bhagalpur and Gaya.

Road connectivity will be strengthened at a cost of Rs 54,713 crore which will be spent on widening of 2,775km of national highways and construction of 12 rail over bridges and bridges on the Ganga, Kosi and Sone. A sum of Rs 13,820 crore will be spent on 22,500km rural roads under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana.

A sum of Rs 21,476 crore has been allocated for the petroleum and natural gas projects under which the capacity of Barauni Refinery will be expanded from 6 million tonnes to 9 million tonnes for Rs 12,000 crore.
18/08/15 Vithika Salomi/Times of India

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Want international airport in Agra, no nod from Centre:UP Govt

Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh government today said that it wanted to have an international airport in Agra and has also offered land for the same, but did not get Centre's approval.

"Our government wanted international airport at Agra and had offered the land for the same, but the Centre is not approving it," state Tourism Minister Om Prakash Singh said in the state Assembly here.

Singh was speaking in the House during Question Hour in a reply to a question raised by BSP member Dharmpal Singh.

The member sought to know from the government about its policy to attract more tourists in the state.

"The number of tourists are decreasing day by day. The government should make attempts to ensure night stay of tourists so that its benefit could reach locals. An International airport is required at Agra," Dharmpal said.
19/08/15 PTI/Business Standard

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Why is the Rs 111-crore Jaisalmer airport not functional?

Two-and-a-half years after the completion of a new $17 million (approximately Rs 111.18 crore) terminal building, the airport in Jaisalmer, Rajasthan stands empty.

Not a single passenger has passed through the gates of an airport big enough to handle more than 300,000 travellers a year, with parking bays for three 180-seater narrow-body jets.

The government has spent more than $50 million (approximately Rs 327 crore) since 2009 on eight airports that do not receive scheduled flights - white elephants that are a reminder of the pitfalls for Prime Minister Narendra Modi as he bets on an infrastructure drive to fuel growth.
While the main hubs are bursting at the seams, slowing airlines' ability to expand in a vast country where they should be supporting economic growth.

"They (the government) need to realise it's not a case of 'build the airport and we will come'," said Sanjiv Kapoor, chief operating officer at SpiceJet. The private sector airline last year ceased flying to a new airport in the southern Indian city of Mysore because of insufficient demand.
19/08/15 Reuters/Daily News & Analysis

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India's Ghost Terminals: Rs 325 Crore, 8 Airports, No Passengers

Jaisalmer: More than two years after the completion of a new $17 million (Rs 111 crore at 1 dollar = 65.31 rupees) terminal building, the airport in Jaisalmer, the remote desert city in Rajasthan, stands empty.

Not a single passenger has passed through the gates of an airport big enough to handle more than 300,000 travellers a year, with parking bays for three 180-seater narrow-body jets.

India has spent more than $50 million or Rs 326 crore since 2009 on eight airports that do not receive scheduled flights - white elephants that are a reminder of the pitfalls for Prime Minister Narendra Modi as he bets on an infrastructure drive to fuel growth.
19/08/15 Thomson Reuters/NDTV

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PM to open new airport on Sept 11

Chandigarh: It’s official now. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be in the city on September 11 to inaugurate the new terminal of the Chandigarh International Airport and hand over the keys of flats to allottees belonging to the economically weaker section (EWS) and the low income group (LIG) in the Sector 63 housing scheme of the Chandigarh Housing Board (CHB).
As part of his itinerary, the Prime Minister, who is visiting Chandigarh for the first time after the BJP came to power at the Centre, will also attend the convocation of the PGI here.
Beginning 10 am, the Prime Minister, after landing at the airport, will first go to the PGI, then visit the CHB project in Sector 63 and will later inaugurate the new terminal at the airport.
Officials in the Airports Authority of India (AAI) said they were ready with the facility, constructed at a cost of Rs 475 crore. The inauguration would pave the way for starting domestic and international flights from the new terminal, they said.
18/08/15 Rajmeet Singh/Tribune 

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Protest on tarmac after Spicejet flight to Goa is delayed by 7 hours

Mumbai: About 50 angry passengers sat on the tarmac with their cabin baggage, raising slogans and demanding answers, when a SpiceJet flight from Mumbai to Goa on Monday was delayed by seven hours. The flight scheduled for 4.05 pm finally left close to midnight.

Over 100 passengers of SG 455 reported for the flight around 3 pm. As they waited at terminal 1B, the display screen only indicated a delay. As the delay stretched on, passengers said the airline kept giving them varying excuses. "We were first told that the aircraft was yet to arrive from Bangalore," Bhandup resident Sneh Malhotra, 47, told Mirror. "Later, they said the flight was coming from Goa. Then we were informed that there was a technical issue with the aircraft."

Malhotra and others claimed that no passenger was given any snacks, even though there were women, children and senior citizens waiting for the flight.
19/08/15 Aditya Anand/Mumbai Mirror 

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Air travel from Kolkata to get faster

Kolkata: From Thursday, men and women seated in a windowless room in Kolkata airport will control nearly half of India's continental airspace. They are the air traffic controllers who will guide about 1,000 flights a day, ensuring the safety of more than 2 lakh passengers.

At present, Kolkata air traffic region (ATR) controls the skies between Yangon in the east and Bilaspur in the west and Janakpur-Biratnagar along Nepal border in the north and mid-Bay of Bengal in the south.

But from Thursday, the jurisdiction of Kolkata ATR will be expanded till Lucknow in the north, Khajuraho in the west and Visakhapatnam in the south. It will manage traffic on 15 international routes, 37 crossings and 10 converging points, making it one of the most challenging ATRs in the country.
19/08/15 Subhro Niyogi/Times of India

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HC asks ministry to consider renaming of Madurai airport

Madurai: The Madurai bench of the Madras high court on Tuesday disposed a PIL seeking renaming of Madurai airport after veteran freedom fighter Pasumpon Muthuramalinga Thevar.

The division bench, consisting of Justice R Sudhakar and Justice VM Velumani, directed the director general of civil aviation of the Union civil aviation ministry to consider the matter and pass appropriate order on it.

The PIL was filed by Desiya Forward Block president B T Arasakumar.

The petitioner's counsel said Thevar donated all his land to the freedom struggle and fought for the right of people of the SC community to enter the Meenakshi Amman temple in Madurai.His statue had also been installed in the Parliament to honour him.
19/08/15 Times of India

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International flight diverted to Coimbatore

Kochi: An Air Arabia flight from Sharjah to Kochi was diverted to Coimbatore International Airport due to bad weather at Cochin International Airport during the late hours of Tuesday.

Airport officials said that the flight with 175 passengers was supposed to land at Kochi at 7.30 p.m.
Heavy rain there affected the visibility and also left the runway flooded, due to which the flight was on air for some time, before it was diverted to Coimbatore.
19/08/15 Coimbatore/The Hindu

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SriLankan Airlines adds 3 flights on Chennai-Colombo route

Chennai: SriLankan Airlines has increased the frequency on Chennai-Colombo route by adding three more flights connecting the two destinations.

The addition has taken the total number of flights between India and Sri Lanka to a total of 89 per week.

"The additional frequencies operate from August 16 onwards - on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. The addition of flights brings the total flights between Sri Lanka and India to 89 flights per week", Sri Lanka's national carrier said in a statement.
18/08/15 PTI/Ecpnomic Times

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Will cut losses with new projects, airport revenues: GVK chief

GVK Power & Infrastructure Ltd hopes to stage a turnaround by the next fiscal, with several new projects having gone on stream and some more likely to follow suit during the year.

The diversified Hyderabad-based infrastructure company, with interests in power, airports, roads, mining, etc, managed to trim its losses during the first quarter following the commissioning of a hydel project and improved performance of the airport vertical.

In an interaction with BusinessLine here, GVK Reddy, Chairman of the GVK Group, spoke about why the company faced losses, and how it expects to step out of them. Excerpts:

How do you expect to drive out of the current tough business environment?

We are confident of overcoming this difficult phase.

With the commencement of operations of the 330 MW Alaknanda hydel project in June 2015, and the likely commissioning of the Goindwal Sahib thermal project in Punjab and the commencement of toll collection at the Deoli-Kota road project, things will get better.

The Goindwal project is subject to allocation of coal, and the road project, to toll collection. Further, during the current fiscal, we expect domestic operations will start at the new integrated Terminal 2 at Mumbai International Airport.

What are the main reasons for the losses? How will you address them?

The losses are mainly due to a significant drop in power generation from the gas-based plants and increase in interest burden on the funds borrowed to acquire airport assets.

The company is in the process of bringing down its debt this financial year, mainly through the divestment of stakes in airports.

The revenues from these projects, along with the efforts of the management to raise funds in the airport vertical, are expected to bring down the losses considerably from the next financial year.
19/08/15 V Rishi Kumar/Business Line

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Gannavaram ‘flies’ into international zone

Vijayawada:  Long runways, swanky terminals, assured footfalls and connectivity are some of the pre-requisites for any airport to get international status. With expansion works already under way, the Airports Authority of India (AAI) is trying to secure the same as far as Gannavaram is concerned in order to attract major airlines. Two surveys found that at least 500 people from the region travel to other countries every day.

According to an in-house survey conducted by AAI, around 1,000 natives of East and West Godavari, Krishna, Guntur and Prakasam districts board flights daily and of these, 500 passengers go abroad. AAI authorities collated the statistics supplied by Air India, Air Costa, Spice Jet, Indigo and other airlines to come to this conclusion. Besides, they took into consideration the baggage data to determine the approximate number of foreign-bound travellers.

The Infrastructure Corporation of Andhra Pradesh (INCAP) also did an exhaustive survey of passenger traffic at Gannavaram. INCAP confirmed that 400-500 passengers -- both in-bound and outbound -- take domestic flights with a view to reaching international airline hubs. Apart from the passenger survey, INCAP is also studying Gannavaram's cargo potential and the initial reports are reportedly favourable.
19/08/15 Aditya Parankusam/Times of India

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'Unstable' woman creating ruckus at Mumbai airport for last 10 days

A former Jet Airways temporary worker has been creating a ruckus at the airline's booking kiosks for the last 10 days, giving a harrowing time to the security personnel at Mumbai airport. No formal case has been registered with the police as of now, as the cops who questioned her suspect that she is not in a proper frame of mind.

The few witnesses said the woman, in her 30s, comes every day, disturbs the staff and passengers near the kiosk, and demands her job back. She says she wants to meet someone, but would not say whom. "Earlier this year, she was hired through a third-party contractor for a temporary assignment. The assignment ended," said a Jet official.
19/08/15 Shahkar Abidi/Daily News & Analysis

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At airport, auto drivers still fleece commuters

Mumbai: Commuters allegedly continue to be fleeced by errant autorickshaw drivers at the city's domestic airport.

One such commuter, Surindra Khubchandani, had a bitter experience on his way back to the city from Goa.

"I stood in a queue to catch an auto for Khar. Not a single auto appeared for 15 to 20 minutes. The traffic cops were also missing from the stand. As I walked ahead, I spotted some autos soliciting with passengers. They offered to drop me at Khar for Rs 250," he said.

On spotting some woman constables chatting nearby, Khubchandani apprised them about the errant drivers, but got a response only after he threatened to complain to their higher-ups. The constables immediately summoned an auto driver and ordered him to drop Khubchandani at Khar. "It was one of the errant drivers who had previously demanded Rs 250 from me. He dropped me mid-way at the Western Express highway junction and asked me to get another auto,'' he said. Though five autos were parked there, none agreed to go. Khubchandani finally called his daughter who sent a car to fetch him.
18/08/15 Somit Sen/Times of India

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Delhi airport immigration officer who allegedly harassed a woman passenger to be chargesheeted

New Delhi: A chargesheet will be filed on Thursday against an immigration officer at the Delhi International Airport after a woman from Bangalore accused him of sexual harassment in March 2015. The officer Vinod Kumar will be produced in a Delhi. He was arrested for verbally harassing the woman passenger Ramona Crasta who took a flight to Hong Kong on March 18 from Delhi.
The Home Ministry had already suspended the officer after the allegations.
According to the complaint, the officer not only harassed her during the immigration process at the desk, but also by following her along at the escalator, between the domestic and international transfer.
 The incident took place when the woman was at the immigration counter before she boarded the flight for Hong Kong where she had to meet her husband.
19/08/15 CNN-IBN/IBN Live

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Gold bars found abandoned on plane at Cochin International

Months after the Customs busted a gold smuggling racket with links inside the Nedumbassery airport, the route appear to be still in vogue among smugglers.

Officials of the Customs Air Intelligence Unit at the Cochin International airport here on Tuesday seized about two kilograms of gold worth Rs.53 lakhs, kept inside a flight from Abu Dhabi.

According to officials, the gold was seized from the Etihad flight, which had landed in Kochi at 3.30 a.m.

“The contraband, in the form of two gold bars in mobile phone pouches, was found hidden beneath seat number 64B of the aircraft’’, officials said.

It was first spotted by the cleaning staff while removing covers of the seat.
19/08/15 The Hindu 

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Work with DIAL to decongest IGI's 1D, aviation secretary tells Airports Authority of India

New Delhi:  The aviation ministry may soon come to the rescue of harried flyers at Delhi's hugely congested terminal 1D. Aviation secretary R N Choubey has asked Airports Authority of India chairman R K Srivastava to immediately work out an improvement plan with the GMR-led Delhi International Airport Pvt Ltd (DIAL).

The directive came after aviation minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju took a round of the terminal on Monday morning. Raju was supposed to board a 9am IndiGo flight to Varanasi. He reached the terminal just after 7am and witnessed the peak hour chaos first-hand.

While only low-cost carriers IndiGo, SpiceJet and GoAir operate from terminal 1D, there is massive congestion at the security check area and boarding gates at peak hours. Things have got so bad that even normally reticent airlines have started speaking up.

"Every morning there is massive congestion and passengers have to suffer. Airports should be managed in a way where there is more distribution of facilities so that passengers do not suffer," IndiGo president Aditya Ghosh said.
17/08/15 Saurabh Sinha/Times of India

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Air India flight aborted after pilot detects 'deflated' tyre

Chennai: A Andaman and Nicobar Islands bound Air India plane with 75 passengers on board today had to abort take-off after pilot detected a "deflated" tyre while taxiing at the airport here.

The pilot of the flight, scheduled to leave for Port Blair around 11 am, was taxiing it when he noticed that one of the rear wheels had deflated, an Air India official said.

Immediately the aircraft was taken to a parking bay and passengers embarked safely.
17/08/15 PTI/Economic Times

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Air India flight stranded for three hours

Chennai: A Port Blair-bound Air India flight (AI-549) was delayed after one of its tyres burst, moments before it took off from the Chennai airport, on Monday.

The plane with 75 passengers on board was being taxied to the runway for takeoff at 10.20 a.m. when the right tyre on the rear burst.

The plane was stranded for close to 40 minutes and brought back to its bay.  The flight, originally scheduled to leave at 5 a.m, was rescheduled to leave at 10.20 a.m. due to non-availability of aircraft and the tyre burst delayed it by another three hours. Alternative arrangements
18/08/15 The Hindu

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Govt grounds PPP revamp plan for 4 airports

New Delhi: After extending the request for quotation (RFQ) submission dates for more than 5 times, the Civil Aviation Ministry has now decided to shelve plans to revamp airports in Chennai, Kolkata, Jaipur and Ahmadabad on the PPP mode as it was done for Delhi and Mumbai, sources told Bloomberg TV India on Monday.

The decision comes after a meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the two ministers handling civil aviation, sources said.

The government has already spent around Rs 5,000 crore in modernizing these airports, which was one of the reasons for not handing it over to private parties, said an official who requested anonymity.

The official added that the concerns of the employees who wrote to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah could be a major reason for scrapping the PPP revamp plan.
17/08/15 Bloomberg TV

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A safer airport coming soon

Kolkata: NSCBI Airport will have Isolated Aircraft Parking Position (IAPP) Rs special parking space created for an aircraft facing an exigency like hijack or bomb threat Rs by January 2016.
This bay will come up 100 meters away from the secondary runway and 200 meters away from the primary runway near Narayanpur in a remote location of the airport.
That is the buffer to protect operations at the airport in case an aircraft at the isolated position explodes. An aircraft with a bomb threat will be taken to the IAPP immediately so that the threat can be isolated and regular flight operations are not affected.
The cost of the project is Rs.24 crore and this is part of the second phase of modernisation, a senior airport official said. Airport Authority of India (AAI) has released the funds for the construction of IAPP.
Construction of IAPP has been started a month ago and will be completed by January 2016. The IAPP will be large enough to accommodate an Airbus A-380 and a Boeing 747, the largest civilian aircraft currently in use.
All necessary arrangements, including Bomb Detection and Disposal Squad, fire brigade, quick response team and ambulance with modern equipment will be available at the IAPP during a crisis situation to thwart any untoward incident.
18/08/15 Aparajit Chakraborty/The Statesman

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CIAL to Set up 15 New Aero-bridges

Kochi: The Cochin International Airport Limited (CIAL) will introduce 15 new aero-bridges, on a par with other Metro city airports in the country, at the new international terminal being built at a cost of Rs 1,000 crore, which would be completed this fiscal. According to V J Kurien, managing director,CIAL, the move is aimed at providing better facilities and connectivity to passengers inside the airport.

“We are planning to purchase 15 aero-bridges for easy and convenient transit of passengers from the terminal building to the aircraft and vice versa. At present, three are only five aero-bridges in the international terminal and the bulk order is being made by taking note of the leap to be made by CIAL in international passenger handling in the next 20 years, he said. At present the airport is the fourth largest in the country in terms of international passenger handling.

Besides, the move assumes significance in the wake of the Customs revelation that ground handling staff in the airport involved in the gold smuggling cases had misused the lack of enough aero-bridges inside the airport to source the contraband from international passengers when they were taken to the terminal by ferry buses inside the airport.
18/08/15 Dhinesh Kallungal/New Indian Express

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Kolkata airport gets green signal for solar farming

Kolkata: In a year's time, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport could become one of the greenest facilities in the country with a substantially smaller carbon footprint. Though the Airports Authority of India (AAI) on Monday sanctioned a 2 Mega Watt peak (MWp) solar project for Kolkata airport, the team in the city has much larger ambitions and has identified 50-60 acres to set up a 15MW solar farm that can generate nearly a quarter of its electricity requirement.

Speaking to TOI, Kolkata airport director A K Sharma said that Kolkata airport will install solar panels on the roof of the old terminal as well as other facilities to generate 2 MWp electricity by March 31, 2016 as part of the 50MW target that the ministry of renewable energy has set for airports by the end of this financial year. But Sharma wants something bigger: a 15 MW solar farm that can generate 225 lakh units and bring down its annual electricity bill by a whopping Rs 18 crore. Kolkata airport currently shells out Rs 72 crore a year on electricity bill.
18/08/15 Subhro Niyogi/Times of India

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Perishable cargo facility lying unused at Amritsar airport

Amritsar: Even as Shri Guru Ram Das Ji International Airport, Amritsar, boasts of impressive infrastructure, when it comes to perishable cargo facility, it is largely lying unused due to the lack of direct international flights to destinations such as London and Toronto.
Talking to The Tribune, Punjab CII former chairman Gunbir Singh, who is also a member of the Amritsar Airport Advisory Committee, said, “Despite efforts to popularise air cargo services from all quarters, the dearth of good direct connectivity has hampered revenue streams for the airport as well as Punjabis in this belt...
“Fresh vegetables and fruit, industrial products, trade and commercial consignments were being directly hauled by air to various destinations, thus providing opportunities for export to farmers and businessmen alike. However, presently the 80-tonne capacity cold rooms are gathering dust and lying idle. It is imperative that direct air connectivity to London, Toronto and Singapore are reinstated to this important destination.”
17/08/15 Perneet Singh/Tribune

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Airport to display work of budding artists

Coimbatore:  Young and budding artists in the city will soon have a new venue to display their works—the Coimbatore International Airport. In a bid to change the facade of the fast growing airport and make it livelier for passengers, authorities have decided to open an art gallery exclusively for young and amateur artists within the premises.

Fliers will be able to enjoy some of the local art after they check-in and wait to board their flight at this gallery, likely to open by the end of next week. The gallery will feature sculptures too, in addition to sketches and paintings.

"Preference will be given to artists from Coimbatore and western districts," said a senior airport official. "The presence of a colourful and eclectic collection of art work will jazz up the security hold-in areas that look bland now," he said.
18/08/15 Pratiksha Ramkumar/Times of India

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Customs seize gold bars worth Rs 1.82 crore from aircraft lavatory

Mumbai: The customs officials have seized eight bars of gold worth Rs 1.82 crore from the washroom of an Indigo Airlines plane that arrived from Dubai on early Monday morning after being tipped off by an airline security staff. Around 2 am, officials of the C batch deputed on night duty received information from security staff of Indigo airlines about something amiss during a routine security drill that was being carried out by them on the plane.

"The gold bars, weighing one kg each, were stuck to the washroom wall using white tape. It was hidden behind the toilet roll," a customs official said.
18/08/15 Mumbai Mirror

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PM jettisons plan to upgrade Chennai, Kolkata airports

New Delhi: Prime minister Narendra Modi has shot down the civil aviation ministry’s move to upgrade Kolkata and Chennai airports on public-private partnership (PPP). With this, the number of airports proposed for privatisation has come down to two – Jaipur and Ahmedabad.

With this, however, the scope of work at Jaipur and Ahmedabad would now be limited to maintenance and operation of terminal buildings.

State-run Airports Authority of India (AAI) would invite fresh request for qualification (RFQ) applications.

An official in the ministry said in a review meeting last month, the PM cold-shouldered the PPP model for the two metro airports, suggesting that AAI had already invested significantly in their modernisation. The official did not want to be identified.
16/08/15 Nirbhay Kumar/mydigitalfc.com

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Chennai-Port Blair Air India flight delayed after tyre burst

Chennai: A Chennai-Port Blair Air India flight was delayed after one of the tyres of the plane burst just before takeoff from the airport here on Monday morning.

The plane with 75 passengers on board was taxiing to the runway for takeoff at 10.20am when the tyre burst. The plane, which had been stranded at the taxiway near the runway for close to half an hour, was later towed to the parking bay.

A passenger, Satrajit Moitra, said, "We panicked when the tyre burst. Smoke started to come from one of the engines. The smoke was from the tyre and was getting sucked into the engine. We are in a shock." Moitra was going to Port Blair with his wife Sriparna.
17/08/15 Times of India

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Bonded trucking facility yet to gather pace at city airport

Trichy: At a time when several small airports such as Coimbatore and Madurai have caught up with the concept of bonded trucking for exporting cargo consignments, the Trichy International Airport that receives the maximum amount of cargo is yet to join them. With no dedicated cargo freighter service and all the passenger aircrafts being loaded fully in the belly space, airport authorities feel there is a need to push for bonded trucking service among exporters.

The Trichy Airport has been growing at a tremendous pace when compared to all the other airports in the country. Over 4,500 tonnes of cargo is airlifted from the airport in a year and it is all set to reach 6,500 tonnes in the current year. The cargo facility was introduced at the airport four years ago at a cost of Rs 45 crore by the AAI. The old terminal of the airport was changed into cargo terminals, measuring up to 4,000 sqm. It has the capacity to accommodate at least 250 tonnes.

Exporters from the city constantly complain that cargo shipments remain stagnated at the airport due to the lack of space in the passenger aircrafts. With BHEL located here, there is even a potential for sending industrial wares through the bonded trucking facility, says a top official attached to the cargo department of Airports Authority of India.
17/08/15 Times of India

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Septuagenarian falls from Kochi airport escalator

Kochi: A 71-year-old woman suffered injuries after she accidentally fell from an escalator at the International departure hall of the Cochin International Airport here on Sunday.

Officials said Mariya Joseph, a native of Vazhakkulam in Thodupuzha was due to board an Emirates flight to Dubai and proceeding to the security hall after checking-in when the incident happened. “The woman, accompanied by her son, was about to fly to the U.S via Dubai. She was on the escalator to the first floor when she fell’’, they said.
17/08/15 The Hindu

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Bhogapuram airport: CM for amicable way out

Visakhapatnam: Land acquisition for the Greenfield international airport at Bhogapuram in Vizianagaram district should be done in a way acceptable to the farmers, those who are going to be displaced, and other sections, Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu said after a review on the issue here on Saturday.

“The land acquisition method for the airport should result in less number of displaced and less land acquisition cost to the government. The method should also suit the technical aspects of the airport better and beneficial business-wise,” Mr. Naidu said.
16/08/15 The Hindu

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Committee to oversee immediate airport terminal expansion

Trichy: A special committee will be formed to oversee the immediate expansion of the Trichy international airport building, where the passenger traffic has spiked to around 1,000 people in the peak hours, chairman of Airports Authority of India (AAI) R K Srivastava said here on Saturday. The committee will discuss the overall development of the airport.

The linear expansion of the airport building- 80m on the departure side and 101m on the arrival side- is expected to cost Rs 232 crore and will double the existing capacity of five lakh people to about 12 lakh. The schedule for the expansion work will be drawn up, the official said. Once it begins, the work is expected to be completed in four years.
16/08/15 Times of India

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Man Walks Into Chennai Airport Without Ticket, Gets Arrested Trying To Leave

Chennai: Police have arrested a man who entered the Chennai Airport's domestic terminal allegedly without a valid ticket when the airport was on a high alert on Independence Day.

According to officials, the man entered the airport this afternoon by showing a cancelled ticket. He wanted to see off his wife and daughter who were flying to Hyderabad.

He was detained when he tried to leave through the entrance of the departure after Air India officials found no booking was made in his name at all.

The man also gave contradictory information, claiming that he lost his boarding pass and hence wanted to return and later that his father had met with an accident and wanted to rush back.
16/08/15  J Sam Daniel Stalin/NDTV

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Scrap Yavatmal airstrip pact: Min

Yavatmal: The controversy over the transfer of airstrip to Reliance company by the previous DF Govt resurfaced in a meeting held chaired by finance minister Sudhir Mungantiwar in Mumbai on Tuesday. District guardian minister Sanjay Rathod has demanded cancellation of the agreement signed between the state government and Reliance if the latter fails to develop the aerodrome and expedite the proposal for ensuring night landing facility at the airport.

After his return, Rathod told TOI that he demanded cancellation of the MoU as Reliance has not shown interest in making the airport operation in the last six years since the signing of the pact.

Mungantiwar has instructed the officers and representatives of the concerned companies to submit a report regarding the present status of the airport and if the company is interested in making the airport operational.
15/08/15 TO Abraham/Times of India

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Customer gets fungus-laden samosa at airport, files plaint

Mumbai: What should you do if you find that the food you have just bought is contaminated and unsafe for consumption? Whatever your reaction might be, if you want action to be taken against the vendor, you must register a police complaint immediately, ensure that the food sample is seized and sent to a laboratory
for testing.

A consumer learnt this the hard way, when the company concerned refuted his allegations. On Monday morning, Aslam Farooqui found fungus in the samosas he bought from a kiosk located outside the arrival section of international terminal 2 of Mumbai airport. "We bought 8-10 samosas from a stall located just outside the arrival area of T2," said Farooqui. A plate of two samosas cost Rs 50. "I bit into the samosa only to find it smelled rotten. When I emptied the stuffing on my plate, it was stinking and grey with fungus. It could have caused poisoning." he asked.
15/08/15 Times of India

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Kannur airport in take-off mode

Thiruvananthapuram: Code-B aircraft of the Indian Air Force (IAF) is likely to be the first aircraft to touch down at the 3,050-metre runway of the Kannur airport, coming up at Mattannur.

The Kannur International Airport Limited (KIAL) authorities are to submit a formal letter soon to the IAF seeking clearance for the landing of the Code-B aircraft without passengers under Visual Flight Rules.

Several airlines, including Air India Express, have evinced interest in operating the first test flight to the airport coming up at a cost of Rs.1,892 crore.

The commercial flight operations from Kannur would commence in mid-2016 once the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) issued the mandatory clearance, official sources said.

The KIAL authorities held discussions with Group Captain Bushan Kaushal and Group Captain Sunil Nair of the Southern Air Command and Captain Pankaj Chauhan of INS Garuda here recently on the proposed Defence Enclave in the Kannur airport.
15/08/15 S Anil Radhakrishnan/The Hindu

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Mumbai Airport takes Independence Day security seriously, denies senior officer entry sans pass

Mumbai: On the eve of Independence Day, as the city was covered by a security blanket, even the airport took no chances. Senior officials at the airport were not allowed on the premises without an authorized entry pass.

On Thursday, Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) personnel stopped one of the senior-most government officers, who has his office at the airport, and refused to let him in without an entry pass. This annoyed the officer as he expected the security staff to know him, said sources. However, the CISF personnel stayed firm and allowed him in only after he arranged for his entry pass.

"The airport is always a highly secured area and security agencies restrict visitors' movement for a couple of day before Independence Day. One needs to carry his/her entry pass to avoid any inconvenience," said an official.
14/08/15 Vijay V Singh/Times of India

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I-Day: Security beefed up at Raja Bhoj airport

Bhopal: Security has been beefed up at Raja Bhoj airport ahead of Independence Day celebrations. Increased vigilance will continue up to August 20.

According to director, Raja Bhoj airport, as per the high alert protocol, manual checking of hand baggage has been increased and several other measures are being taken to ensure fool proof security.
15/08/15 Times of India

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1.39 kg gold seized in two days

Trichi: In a string of gold smuggling instances detected at the Tiruchi international airport, officers of the Air Intelligence Unit (AIU) of the Customs seized gold weighing 1,399 grams concealed in different modes from six persons in the late hours on Wednesday and early hours on Thursday.

Of the six travellers who were detained upon detection of concealment of gold, three were domestic passengers who landed Tiruchi by an Air India Express flight from Chennai.

Airport sources said the AIU officials seized three gold biscuits weighing 300 grams concealed in a bread toaster from Abdul Jabbar, of Mudukalathur, who arrived by a Tiger Airways flight from Singapore on Wednesday night. The officials confiscated six gold biscuits weighing 600 grams concealed in a sandwich maker and hair straightener from Mohamed Sherif who came from Malaysia by a Malindo Air flight.

14/08/15 The Hindu

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Privatization fear gone, airport ready to fly high

Kolkata: Enthused by the government decision to retain Kolkata airport instead of handing it over to a private party, the Airports Authority of India (AAI) will go ahead with its ambitious plans to make Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport into India's finest facility.

Speaking to TOI, Kolkata airport director AK Sharma said plans that were either on hold or progressing in slow motion as the airport was to be privatized would now begin rolling in full steam. "We will move fast to sign contracts on retail, duty-free shops and advertisement that are pending for quite some time," he said.

Not only will AAI expedite the process so that the contracts are in place in two-three months with retail stores and duty-free shops starting operations by this year-end, it also plans to alter the contract period from short to long term to attract more bidders.
14/08/15 Times of India

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Independence Day security: Hawk eye on Air India flights, naval bases

Ahead of Independence Day, the government has issued a detailed advisory, directing states and Union Territories to beef up the security.

The seven-page advisory, which is little different from every year, has details keeping in mind the execution of Mumbai blasts convict Yakub Memon, who was hanged on July 30.

The government has mentioned the possibility of attacks by Pakistan-sponsored terror groups.

It states specific security threats including a Lashker-e-Taiba (LeT plan to hijack or blow up an Air India flight on the Kabul-Delhi-Kabul sector and al-Qaeda's designs to hit Indian naval facilities including the Karwar naval base (INS Kadamba), the Southern Naval Command in Kochi (INS Venduruthy) and Mumbai-based Western Naval Command.
14/08/15 Business Insider

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GMR Infrastructure Q1 net loss at Rs. 4294.50mn

GMR Infrastructure Ltd has posted net loss after taxes and minority interest of Rs. (4294.50) mn for the quarter ended June 30, 2015 as compared to net loss of Rs. (5932.00) mn for the quarter ended June 30, 2014.
Total Income has increased from Rs. 27963.70 mn for the quarter ended June 30, 2014 to Rs. 31135.80 mn for the quarter ended June 30, 2015.

EBIDTA improved to Rs. 855 Cr in Q1FY16 compared to Rs. 613 Cr in Q1FY15 - 39% growth in EBITDA
EBITDA in Energy Sector has increased 2.65 times from Rs. 43 Cr to Rs 114 Cr in Q1FY16
Increased EBIDTA in Kamalanga Power plant from Rs. 35 Cr to Rs. 66 Cr due to higher PLF (increased from 36% to 58%)
Increased EBITDA in EMCO Power plant  from Rs. 19 Cr to Rs. 42 Cr due to improved operational performance
EBITDA in Airport Sector has increased from Rs. 412 Cr to Rs. 543 Cr.
14/08/15 India Infoline

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NHRC Notice on Mistaken Identity Gaffe at TN Airport

Kochi: In a bizarre and shocking case of harassment caused to a woman passenger due to her illegal detention by the Immigration authorities at Chennai International Airport and subsequent action by Tamil Nadu and Kerala police, the National Human Rights Commission(NHRC) has issued notices to the authorities concerned asking them to explain why it should not recommend payment of monetary relief to the victim and disciplinary action against the erring officials.

 The NHRC has asked the Secretaries of Union ministries of External Affairs and Home Affairs, chief secretaries and director generals of Police, governments of Kerala and Tamil Nadu to submit a detailed report on the matter within four weeks.

 The complainant Sarah Thomas, a native of Ranni, alleged that on October 29,2014, she was illegally detained for about 12 hours at the Chennai airport and thereafter taken into remand, imprisoned and subjected to mental and physical torture because of negligence and procedural irregularities by the officers of Immigration Department, Tamil Nadu police and Kerala police.

 The authorities committed the gaffe after assuming that she was Sara Williams who was absconding for 13 years after faking her death while working in London in 2000 so that her husband could claim insurance worth Rs 20 million.
14/08/15 New Indian Express

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Visitors entry to Raipur airport closed

Raipur:  Due to heightened security in wake of Independence Day celebrations, entry of all visitors has been banned into the terminal building of Swami Vivekanand Airport, Raipur, till August 20.

Officials said sale of visitor tickets and issuance of passes has been stopped due to intelligence reports about possibilities of terror strike during the Independence Day celebrations. The decision to impose the ban was taken by Bureau of Civil Aviation Security.
14/08/15 Times of India

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Old Chennai Airport Terminals to be Torn Down, to be Rebuilt Again

Chennai: The old Kamaraj Domestic Terminal and the Anna International Terminal, which have served the city’s aviation needs for almost three decades, will be knocked down and rebuilt as modern airport terminals.

Announcing the decision, Airports Authority of India (AAI) Chairman R K Srivastava said, “We have decided that the old terminals will be upgraded through reconstruction and will be merged with these new ones. They will be linked with the terminals commissioned three years ago and the movement will be seamless.” The project is expected to set the exchequer back by at least `1,000 crore, which is half of what the last modernisation drive cost them.
14/08/15 Daniel Thimmayya/New Indian Express

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HC rejects PIL against Akola airport expansion

Nagpur: The way for the much-needed expansion of Akola airport was cleared on Thursday after the Nagpur bench of Bombay High Court rejected a PIL opposing it. A division bench comprising Justice Bhushan Gavai and Justice Indira Jain refused to interfere into Maharashtra government's move to expand the existing Shivni airport and acquire Panjabrao Deshmukh Krishi Vidyapeeth's (PDKV) land for it making it clear that it was "policy decision".

The court made it clear that no public interest was involved in the petitioners' case.

The court also accepted associate advocate general Rohit Deo's contentions that centre's policy of no airport between distance of 150 kms can't be applied in this case as the present one at Akola was old and operational. It clarified that such policy can only be applied to new airport like one coming up at Belora in Amravati.
14/08/15 Times of India

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Nagpur airport has leaking roof problem

Nagpur: The Nagpur airport move to get some sunlight has left it with a leaking roof. In 2008, when the airport was revamped, it was planned have skylight systems in the roof of terminal building. The objective was to save power during daytime by using sunlight instead of electricity.
Skylight is a system in which open patches are left in the roof to be covered with a transparent polycarbonate sheet so sunlight passes through it. This does away with the need of switching on electric lights during day. However, unless the material is of standard quality, it expands during summer, leaving gaps for leakages after eventual contraction.

Officials at Mihan India Limited (MIL), the state government company that manages the airport admit the leakages are due to the inferior quality material used in the sheet. "This leads to leakage during every rainy season and the airport management has to scramble for repairs. It leaked when it rained on Wednesday night and also on Thursday. Sometimes there is no choice but to keep buckets below the leaking patch till further repairs are undertaken," said an airport source.
14/08/15 Shishir Arya/Times of India

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Flight carrying CM trapped in sky

Kochi: Heavy fog forced a flight carrying Chief Minister Oommen Chandy to hover over 30 minutes before it landed safely at Nedumbassery, giving some anxious moments. AI466 flight was not able to land at its scheduled time at 6.31 am as there was no clear visibility.
14/08/15 Kaumudi Online

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Will New Terminals at The Chennai Airport Get Former CMs' Names?

Chennai:  The AAI has been given the nod by the government to go ahead with development plans, but it remains to be seen what the new terminals will be named.

“Over the last few years we have not been decided about whether to go ahead and develop or pull in a private player. Now the government has asked us to go ahead with the development plans. So there is a planning team that will undertake the work that needs to be done immediately,” said Member (Planning) S Raheja. This will increase the capacity of the airport from 14 million passengers per year to 23 million passengers.
With the development of the terminals to go ahead, the question again arises over whether the soon to be rebuilt terminals will retain the names of the former Chief Ministers of TN.
It is to be noted that AAI had redesignated the name of the Kamaraj and Anna terminals as T3 and T4 and boards to those effect were erected some time ago.
14/08/15 Daniel Thimmayya/New Indian Express

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2 held for attempt to smuggle protected wildlife from India

Bangalore: Two people have been arrested for trying to smuggle protected tortoises and terrapins from the Kempe Gowda International Airport to Malaysia.

The CISF and airport police seized 59 Indian Star Tortoises and 20 Spotted Black Terrapins at the airport.

The animals being protected under the Indian Wildlife Protection Act, 32-year-old Udman Ali Bilal and 37-year-old Raju Venugopal were booked under the provisions of the act for illegal possession of wildlife and attempting wildlife trade. They were also booked under section 379 of IPC for theft.

The animals were shifted to PFA (People for Animals) wildlife rehab centre. The seizure and arrest were carried out on a tip off by the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB on Sunday night.
14/08/15 Chetan R/Bangalore Mirror

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1.39 kg gold seized in two days

Tiruchi: In a string of gold smuggling instances detected at the Tiruchi international airport, officers of the Air Intelligence Unit (AIU) of the Customs seized gold weighing 1,399 grams concealed in different modes from six persons in the late hours on Wednesday and early hours on Thursday.

Of the six travellers who were detained upon detection of concealment of gold, three were domestic passengers who landed Tiruchi by an Air India Express flight from Chennai.

Airport sources said the AIU officials seized three gold biscuits weighing 300 grams concealed in a bread toaster from Abdul Jabbar, of Mudukalathur, who arrived by a Tiger Airways flight from Singapore on Wednesday night. The officials confiscated six gold biscuits weighing 600 grams concealed in a sandwich maker and hair straightener from Mohamed Sherif who came from Malaysia by a Malindo Air flight.
14/08/15 The Hindu

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Kolkata, Chennai airports taken off privatization list

Kolkata: The airports in Kolkata and Chennai will not be privatized. The decision was taken at a meeting at the Prime Minister's Office on Tuesday.

Confirming the development, Airports Authority of India chairman RK Srivastava told TOI on Wednesday that both airports would continue to be developed, operated and managed by AAI.

Sources said AAI could offer management contracts to private parties to run certain operations at Kolkata airport for a fixed fee but there would be no lease agreement. The AAI has already spent over Rs 5,000 crore in modernizing the two airports.

The government's decision seems to have been influenced by fears of a massive hike in airport charges following privatization. Airlines and trade unions had vehemently opposed %the move saying it would be detrimental to passenger growth in the country. The Bengal government's opposition to privatization of the Kolkata airport also seems to have played a part.
13/08/15 Subhro Niyogi/Times of India

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GVK likely to raise Rs 4,000 crore for the airport vertical

Hyderabad: Hyderabad-based infrastructure major GVK Power and Infrastructure Limited is mulling over raising about Rs 4,000 crore from capital markets for its airport vertical.

The company is expected to file the draft red herring prospectus for the proposed initial public offering (IPO) of GVK Airport Developers Private Limited in a week or two, sources said.

Since March this year reports about the company's ongoing plans for the IPO were doing the rounds hinting at an offer size of about Rs 2,500 crore. “But what the company was planning to raise was up to Rs 4,000 crore. They were also talking to investors for private placement,” sources in the know said.
13/08/15 Business Standard

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Land purchase for airports put on hold

Meerut: The Uttar Pradesh directorate of civil aviation has instructed the Meerut district administration to stop the purchase of land for construction of the Bheem Rao Ambedkar Airport here till fresh orders are given. The district administration has also been asked about the status of the land already purchased.

In a letter to the district magistrate, the state deputy director of civil aviation, Nujhat Ali, has said that for purchase of farm land for the airport at Meerut, in addition to Moradabad and Faizabad, must stop with immediate effect.

This follows a letter from principal secretary Anita Singh to the director of civil aviation, which questions why the Airport Authority of India (AAI) did not keep up its end of the bargain regarding the airports. "For developing better air connectivity in Uttar Pradesh, an MoU was signed with AAI in 2014 by the state government. For upgrading and expansion of the airstrips into domestic airports, required land had to be given to the AAI free of cost. For purchasing land to give AAI, the government has released money from time to time to the respective district magistrates. But even after a whole year, AAI didn't provide the requisite arrangements like deploying the permanent staff at airstrips," the letter points out.
13/08/15 Pankul Sharma/Times of India

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AAI draws new plans for four airports proposed for PPP earlier

Chennai: With no bidding taking place under the public-private partnership (PPP) plan for four airports, the Airports Authority of India (AAI) has decided to go for the expansion and maintenance of the Chennai and Kolkata airports on its own; the Jaipur and Ahmedabad airports would be put through the operation and maintenance (O&M) contract route.

The AAI is planning to invest around Rs 1,400 crore in the expansion and maintenance of the Chennai and Kolkata airports, said an official. "We have decided to go with the O&M route for the Jaipur and Ahmedabad airports. Singapore Changi Airport and Zürich Airport (Switzerland) have expressed interest. The request for quotation (RFQ) route will apply," said Sudhir Raheja, member, planning, AAI. The authority will be investing around Rs 400 crore and Rs 1,000 crore in the development and management of the Kolkata and Chennai airports, respectively.
13/08/15 Business Standard

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Aurangabad airport authorities order probe inti trishul on plane

Aurangabad: : The airport director at Aurangabad on Wednesday ordered a probe into the incident of self-proclaimed godwoman Radhe Maa carrying a foot-long metal trident, on a flight.

Frequent fliers had raised objections to Radhe Maa being allowed to carry the 'trishul' on board the Jet Airways' Aurangabad-Mumbai flight on Sunday at 6.50am. However, the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) officials had said none of the rules were violated and that Radhe Maa was allowed to carry the trishul because it was "blunt."

On Wednesday, airport director Alok Vershney told TOI, "It is a serious security lapse and an unfortunate incident. We are definitely going to reach to its depth and have ordered a probe. Accountability would be fixed and action would be initiated against the guilty."

He also said that all efforts would be taken to ensure that no such security lapse would happen again.
13/08/15 Mohammed Akhef/Times of India

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Speeding airport buggy hits, injures passenger at T2

Mumbai: Florence Langkan, 38, was injured after being knocked down by a buggy - used to ferry passengers - that was allegedly being driven rashly at the integrated terminal, T2, of Mumbai airport on Wednesday morning. The incident occurred around 2.30 am when Langkan and others who had arrived by Emirates flight EK-500 from Dubai were walking towards the immigration counters.

Fellow passenger Greta Lewis told Mirror: "We were all walking when we first heard a honk [of the buggy] and this lady fell next to me. While we all rushed to help the victim, the buggy driver sat watching."

Lewis, who works in the movie industry, said most passengers had been on connecting flights and were tired. "The ladywas screaming in pain," said Lewis, adding that her family of five, including two wheelchair-using senior citizens, was lucky to not have been injured.
13/08/15 Aditya Anand/Mumbai Mirror

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Dabolim airport has best security, claims Coast Guard DIG

Vasco: Stating that security has been always the prime concern at all international airports, Coast Guard DIG Manoj Baadkar claimed that Dabolim International Airport, manned by Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) personnel, has the best security.

He was speaking at the sidelines of a workshop on aviation security and safety organised by the CISF unit at Dabolim airport on Wednesday.
“Aviation security is not the responsibility of only CISF, Airport Authority of India (AAI) or Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS), but also of the citizens of this country, especially passengers, cargo movers and organisations, firms or individuals involved in work related to airports,” said Baadkar.
He said, “The international community has made continued efforts to safeguard civil aviation from acts of unlawful interference. However, hijacking of airplanes by terrorists and hostage/homicides related to hijacking incidents have happened frequently.
13/08/15 Goacom

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Shoppers Stop may exit airport duty-free venture

Mumbai: Shoppers Stop is mulling exiting the airport retail business. It may dissolve its JV with Nuance Group, having taken impairment in the value of its investment in its duty-free airport retailing venture for the first time this quarter.

Its standalone net loss of ₹21.43 crore for the first quarter this year was attributed to the one-time provisioning of ₹23.81 crore in its joint venture company with Nuance India.

“When we forged the JV in 2006, there were plans to open stores at five-six international airports, but we are operational in only a couple of airports today. Duty-free retailing is an expensive business. Having taken a one-time impairment, we will re-evaluate this business,” said Govind Shrikhande, Managing Director, Shoppers Stop.
13/08/15 Purvita Chatterjee/Business Line

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Passenger Held at Hyderabad Airport for Carrying 3 Kilogram Gold Bars

Hyderabad: About 3 kg of gold worth Rs. 75 lakhs was seized by Customs officials from a passenger at Rajiv Gandhi International Airport in Hyderabad.

The officers of Air Intelligence Unit intercepted a passenger who arrived from Dubai by Emirates Airlines Flight EK-528 last evening, a senior Customs officer said today.

"The passenger was carrying a hand bag and opted to pass through the Green Channel by not declaring any dutiable goods. On questioning by the officers about possession of any dutiable/prohibited goods, he denied it and replied in negative," he said.
12/08/15 Press Trust of India/NDTV

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Spicejet to add 3 new flights, 137 connections

Mumbai: Country's second largest low-cost carrier Spicejet today said it will add three new flights and 137 routes from August 29 to its give passengers more domestic and international travel options.

The new flights are Delhi-Guwahati-Agartala, Bengaluru- Kolkata-Guwahati (both daily), and a third frequency will be on Bengaluru-Kolkata route (Saturdays only), the airline said in a statement, adding that out of 137 new services, six will be international operations.

The new frequencies on the international sector are Delhi- Bangkok, Chennai-Maldives, Hyderabad-Dubai, Madurai-Muscat, Mumbai-Kabul and Port Blair-Colombo.
12/08/15 PTI/Economic Times

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Night landing facility at Saifai airstrip soon

Kanpur: The night landing facility at the air-strip in Saifai in Etawah is expected to be operational soon so that aircraft can land and take off at night.

District magistrate Nitin Bansal said that the work of installation of lighting instruments at Saifai air-strip is underway at war-footing. "The installation of night landing instrument costs around Rs 8 to 10 crore and it may become operational within three months," he said.

Sources informed that a meeting between chief secretary Alok Ranjan and a private organization took place in Lucknow recently to discuss the issue.

After a letter from the civil aviation department recently, a team of AAI officials had inspected the airstrip. They were accompanied by senior officials of civil aviation in state government and officials of Rail India Technical and Economic Services (RITES) Limited that is re-carpeting the airstrip.
12/08/15 Faiz Rahman Siddiqui/Times of India

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GMR Hyderabad airport gets nod for e-boarding

Hyderabad: GMR Hyderabad International Airport has become India’s first airport to get approval for implementation of the E-boarding facility for domestic passengers.

The facility will enable paperless and hassle free travel for passengers transiting through Hyderabad Airport.

Following thorough assessment of the pilot e-boarding project, the Commissioner of Security Civil Aviation (CoSCA), Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS), under the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA), has given the approval for the same.

SGK Kishore, CEO, GHIAL said, “Our E-boarding solution is in line with the ongoing ‘Digital India’ initiative envisioned by the Prime Minister. The seamless collaboration with cross functional teams and our stakeholders - Jet Airways and CISF - enabled us to move from concept stage to the implementation in the shortest possible time.”
12/08/15 Business Line

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Surat airport to install aerobridges

Surat: Procured at a cost of five crores, the aerobridges at Surat airport have been long awaiting their flight. Now, with Air India's promise of an Airbus 319 and Airbus 320 to begin functioning from Surat airport, the aerobridges that are suitable for these airplane models be made functional.

These aerobridges were gathering dust since seven months at the DGCA office, Delhi.

Manoj Singapuri, co-chairman of Aviation Committee at SGCCI said, "Since a year now, the SGCCI has been following up for the aerobridges. The entire first floor of Surat airport will get into action with the installation of the same."

Fortunately, as Surat awaits the Airbus version to begin from September, as promised by its politicians the aerobridge issues too seem to have sorted out.
12/08/15 Ashleshaa Khurana/Times of India

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Complaints about airlines have soared in 2015: US agency

Complaints about airline service grew during the first half of this year as consumers reported more concerns about airfares, according to a report released Tuesday by the US Bureau of Transportation Statistics.
The report said the US Transportation Department received 9,542 complaints about US airlines, foreign carriers and others in the travel industry from January to June 2015, a 20.3 percent rise from a year earlier. Complaints nearly tripled to 870 about fare levels and about the information carriers provide on fares during booking, marking the largest jump.

Some travelers have expressed frustration as airlines increasingly profit from fees for checked baggage, reservation changes and other ancillary services. The latest data from the bureau shows that revenue from baggage fees grew more than 9 percent in the first quarter to nearly $864 million compared to the prior year.
11/08/15 Reuters/Economic Times

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CIAL Set to be First Solar-powered Airport in World

Kochi: Scripting a new chapter in tapping the renewable energy sources and treading a new path in the green drive, the Cochin International Airport Limited (CIAL) is all set to become the first solar-powered airport in the world by commissioning a 12MWp solar power project set up on the airport premises.

 CIAL airport director A C K Nair told ‘Express’ that the work on the first solar power station set up at a airport, aimed at achieving power neutrality, has almost been completed and it would be officially commissioned by Chief Minister Oommen Chandy next Tuesday.

 The CIAL would now be able to cut carbondioxide emission from coal-powered power plants by 3 lakh metric tonnes over the next 25 years, which is almost equivalent to planting 30 lakh trees or not driving 750 million miles, said CIAL authorities, adding that 18 million units of power to be generated from the sun annually is also equivalent to feeding 10,000 homes every year.
12/08/15 New Indian Express

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Sikkim M.P. vocal against plans to shift Bagdogra airport

Kolkata: Lok Sabha M.P. from Sikkim P. D. Rai has urged the Centre not to relocate the Bagdogra airport, underscoring the importance of the airport to the people of Sikkim and north Bengal, according to a Press release issued by the office of the M.P. on Tuesday. Speaking in the Lok Sabha on August 4 during the zero hour, he said the airport was the only one serving a large area, including Sikkim, north Bengal, Bhutan, lower Assam, eastern Bihar and eastern Nepal.
11/08/15 Echo of India

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Hoteliers' body seek airport upgrade

Chandigarh: Apprehending that the new international terminal of Chandigarh airport would not serve any purpose until upgradation of runway and instrument landing system (ILS), the Hotel and Restaurant Association of Northern India (HRANI) has sought the intervention of union tourism minister to speed up the process.

"Airports Authority of India (AAI), Punjab and Haryana have jointly spent more than Rs 1,100 crore for the terminal building in anticipation of making Chandigarh the next big international destination for aviation after New Delhi. The new terminal cannot be put to use for since it will have the same undeveloped runway at the disposal," said the apex body representing around 1,700 members, including hotels and restaurants, and associates of nine states of north India.
12/08/15 Times of India

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TN Revenue Officials Inspect Land for Kovai Airport

Coimbatore: As part of the valuation process, a team of officials from the Revenue Department on Tuesday visited the land near the Coimbatore International Airport (CIA) to be acquired for the expansion of the airport to fix the value of land.

Gunashekharan S, Special District Revenue Officer, Airport Land Acquisition, Tahsildars Jayapal A and Gandhimathi V, and surveyor Subrahmanyan P, were part of the team. The team cross-checked the survey number of the land, its structure and market value.

The valuation process of the 3 & 4 blocks of Uppilipalayam will be over in 10 days and the first valuation report will be submitted to the government once it is over. Valuation process is going on in 19 blocks, and in a phased-manner the valuation report of other blocks will also be submitted.
12/08/15 New Indian Express

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Security up for Independence Day, flyers must report early

New Delhi: Air travellers will have to report at airports in advance - at least two hours before departure time for domestic flights and much earlier for international flights - this week. Airlines have issued this advisory to passengers.

Security at airports across India has been spruced up in the run up to I-Day like every year,but the recent terror attack in Punjab and spurt in terror activities in recent days has led to more than the usual security checks that happen before I-Day and Republic Day.
12/08/15 Times of India

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