Roving agents to help you check in fast

Bangalore: "Check in as you walk in," is the latest concept for a speedy check-in for the jet-setting passenger. Roving agents, strapped with two mobile devices — a palm top to punch in the PNR number and a mini printer that prints the boarding pass — walk around the airport issuing people their boarding passes.
The pass looks similar to the one issued over the counter and these agents also allow the passenger to choose his seat.
Airlines have constantly been innovating processes to speed up check-in for fly by day-return passengers, as they constitute over 40% of the load factor on flights between metros. Though airport kiosks have not captured the fancy of these passengers, boarding passes off the internet have got a 20% traction, report some airlines.
Airlines would look to offer this check-in service (roving agents) at their club lounges for business class passengers. However, the number of roving agents will vary from airport to airport and departure traffic.
The equipment that each roving agent carries is estimated to cost between Rs 70,000 and 80,000.
31/07/07 Anshul Dhamija/Times of India

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‘Air India may look at acquiring equity in airports’

New Delhi: Air India could look at acquiring a stake in airports to ensure that the airlines operations are not hampered, the Chairman and Managing Director, Mr V. Thulasidas, has said.
“Airport is one of the new areas in to which the airline should enter. Especially now with airports passing into private hands, it is becoming increasingly necessary to venture into this area. In India, we cannot have a regime where we do not get adequate leverage at airports. We need to find a way to get into Delhi and Mumbai airports. Getting equity at an airport would help ensure that we do not face too many problems,” said Mr Thulasidas. The airline, however, has not yet initiated any move to acquire equity in airports in India or abroad nor set aside any quantum of funds for making such a foray.
At present, the airports in Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Bangalore are being modernised with private sector participation. A majority of Air India flights originate or pass through Delhi and Mumbai, where a consortium led by the GMR and GVK has won the mandate to modernise the airports.
The modernisation of Hyderabad airport is also being done by the GMR group.
30/07/07 Ashwini Phadnis/Business Line

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Controversy dogs India's biggest industrial project

Nagpur: The ambitious Multi-modal International Hub Airport at Nagpur (MIHAN), or cargo hub project as it is popularly known, is dogged by an exasperating blame game between Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel and top officials of the state-owned Maharashtra Airport Development Company (MADC) set up to run it.
While the infrastructural works of the multi-product Special Economic Zone (SEZ) to which the MIHAN project is aligned are apace, a question mark hangs over the conjoint project as such because of the central ministry's reluctance to hand over the Nagpur airport to the MADC.
The cold war between Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh of the Congress and Patel of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) over the Rs.100 billion (about $2.5 billion) project has perturbed several industrial giants including IT majors that have bought land in the SEZ.
The transfer of the airport to the MADC, crucial for the gigantic project's progress according to its executive head R.C. Sinha, is being delayed on one pretext or the other despite repeated promises made by the civil aviation ministry's Airports Authority of India (AAI) over the last three years.
Reiterating his "in-principle" agreement to hand over the airport to the MADC, Patel, at an interaction with the press here Friday, attributed the delay to the state government's failure to fulfil certain obligations.
Repudiating the minister's posers, MADC general manager Ramesh Yaul said the formation of a joint venture company of the MADC and the AAI as insisted upon by the central ministry was delayed because of the latter.
29/07/07 IANS/Economic Times

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Goa may lose second airport

New Delhi: If Goa doesn't make up its mind on a second airport fast enough, you may have to fly to Maharashtra and then drive to reach the state of famed beaches.
Maharashtra has submitted a proposal to build an airport in Sindhudurg, that's about 50 km from Goa. On the other hand, the proposal to build Goa's second airport at Mopa is embroiled in a bitter fight of business interests within the state. Now the aviation ministry is going to ask Goa for a final decision before deciding Maharashtra's proposal.
The existing Dabholim airport, a Naval base being used for civil flights, is in southern part of Goa while the proposed site for the second airport - a purely civilian one - is at Mopa in north Goa. So intense is the rivalry in business interests in these parts of the state that tourism industry in south Goa fears losing business if the civil airport is set up in north.
This factor, coupled with other local socio-economic factors, has stopped land acquisition. This indecision is happening at a time when Goa is experiencing a surge in tourism, thanks mainly to low-cost carriers but the current airport is proving to be totally inadequate. This despite the fact that the Navy has extended time for civil aircraft movement.
30/07/07 Saurabh Sinha/Times of India

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Purulia arms drop case: CIC dismisses RTI plea

New Delhi: The Central Information Commission has dismissed an application seeking information on complicity of government officers in the Purulia Arms Drop case after taking into consideration CBI's plea that such disclosure could impede the prosecution process.
"This Commission can not aspire to substituting its own judgement for the judgement of the authorised prosecuting agency, which in this case is the CBI," Chief Information Commissioner Wajahat Habibullah said in a recent order.
The Commission was hearing a Right to Information application of Jammu-resident B R Manhas who had sought from CBI information on various counts on the Purulia Arms Drop case including details on the public servants who have been prosecuted or chargesheeted in the case.
An application was earlier moved by Manhas with the CBI on July four this year seeking information on the agency's inquiry into the Arms Drop case to ascertain complicity of officers of various departments including the customs, immigration, Airports Authority of India, Directorate General of Civil Aviation and Indian Air Force.
30/07/07 PTI/The Hindu

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Peel-off peril on Calcutta Airport runway

The main runway of the airport has become more prone to damage after a Rs 10-crore revamp three years ago. The surface is peeling off with increased frequency, posing a threat to aircraft during touchdown and take off.
Last month, a 16-sq ft chunk of the runway peeled off, forcing its closure for three hours. A Jet Airways flight was about to land when the damage was detected. In November, a 10ftx4ft strip of the runway came off when an aircraft made a sharp turn towards the taxiing bay.
“The runway surface is mostly getting damaged in the touchdown zone, which can be dangerous,” said an airport official.
The runway surface seldom peeled off before the last revamp. “Since the resurfacing, such incidents have gone up alarmingly.”
A company undertook the resurfacing to maintain the load-bearing capacity of the runway. The process involves digging up and overhauling of the surface and several layers below it. The maintenance is performed every five to six years.
There could be a number of factors behind the increase in runway peel-off incidents. The aircraft often take a sharp turn on the runway, causing damage to the surface.
Use of low-quality bitumen for resurfacing could be another reason. Cheap material cannot withstand heavy rain and gets washed away.
30/07/07 Sanjay Mandal/The Telegraph

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Another daily flight to Dhaka

Come September, Calcutta will have its third daily flight to Dhaka.
Jet Airways will start daily operations between the two cities from mid-September, “subject to the delivery of aircraft”, said Sudhakar Rao, the general manager (east) of the airline.
This will be Jet’s second international flight from the city. In January, it had launched a flight to Bangkok.
The new flight, to originate from Delhi, will take off from Calcutta at 8am and reach Dhaka at 9.15am (local time). It will leave the Bangladeshi capital at 10am (local time) and reach Delhi at noon.
Another aircraft will take off from Delhi at noon and arrive at the Bangladeshi capital at 2.30pm (local time). From Dhaka, it will start at 3.15pm (local time) and arrive in Calcutta at 3.30pm.
“The passengers will be connected to our Delhi-London-Delhi flights,” Rao said. “It will also be linked with Jet Airway’s Delhi-Brussels-Toronto service, which will start from September 5.”
30/07/07 The Telegraph

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Aerius Aviation teams with Bermuda group

Portsmouth: John Contas, president and founder of Aerius Aviation Capital Partners Inc. (Aerius) of Portsmouth, announces that he, along with colleagues Patti Sullivan and Don Sterling, have joined forces with Aviation Resource Group International of Hamilton Bermuda (ARGI) to form a Structured Aviation Finance Division (ARGI-SAF).
Under a teaming arrangement with ARGI, the group will continue to offer its aviation financing services under the ARGI brand.
The ARGI-SAF group will provide aviation finance advisory services on behalf of clients in Europe, India and other emerging markets throughout the world with an emphasis on structuring and arranging loans and leases to fund the acquisition of private, corporate and commercial aircraft.
Aviation Resource Group International Ltd., a privately held company, is a recognized leader in international aviation consulting and advisory services, providing an array of strategic and financial, operational and managerial advisory services to FBOs, airports and aviation-service businesses throughout the world.
ARGI maintains offices in Salt Lake City, Miami, Boston, London, Warsaw, Istanbul, Riga, Latvia, New Delhi and Mumbai, India.
29/07/07 Portsmouth Herald News, US

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Pvt carriers up in arms over ground handling

New Delhi: Private carriers are up in arms against the government’s decision not to allow them to undertake their own ground handling under a new policy that is awaiting Cabinet approval.
They say this would increase the cost of ground handling four to seven times, depending on the airport, and that this additional cost will have to be passed on to customers.
Under the proposed new policy, only the national carrier, ground handling companies and airport operators can offer these services. Currently, Jet Airways, SpiceJet and GoAir are among the major airlines that look after their ground-handling at many airports.
The new policy, once approved, will be applicable immediately at new airports like Hyderabad and Bangalore which will be operational next year. In other cities, the policy will be implemented after January 1, 2009.
GMR Hyderabad International Airport Limited (GHIAL), which is developing the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport in Shamshabad, has awarded seven-year ground-handling contracts for third-party airlines to two consortia: Menzies and Bobba and the combine of Singapore Air Terminal Services (SATS), Indian Airlines and Air India.
Bangalore airport has given its ground-handling contract to two consortia — Air India and SATS and GlobeGround India.
Carriers say the government, in its attempt to ensure that airports make money, are forcing them to outsource ground-handling services, which account for 3-4 per cent of costs.
28/07/07 Anirban Chowdhury/Business Standard

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AI to form JV for ground handling services

New Delhi: National carrier Air India will tie up with global companies to form a joint venture for taking up ground handling activities at airports in the country and abroad.
The airline, which already has a JV with Singapore Air Terminal Services (SATS) to provide ground handling services at Bangalore and Hyderabad airports, would soon seek Expressions of Interest for similar activities in India and abroad, airline sources said here.
Air India earns over Rs 550 crore annually through such activities. Along with Indian, which is being merged into it, the two airlines carry out over 80 per cent of these activities in Indian airports.
The state-owned carrier's move to go in for joint venture on ground handling comes in the backdrop of the government's decision to have only three agencies to perform the task in all airports across the country from January 2009.
27/07/07 PTI/Economic Times

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Gopinath to unveil new biz opportunities

New Delhi: Air Deccan founder Captain Gopinath is all set to 'unlock' several opportunities of the aviation business that aim at making India the hub of "aviation BPO" for the world. In the next three months, Gopinath is going to lauch four new businesses in association with his new partner, UB Group's Vijay Mallya. These are — a new charter company; airport construction; MRO and pilot training.
"We are going to hive off the charter business from Air Deccan and form a separate company. Together with Kingfisher, we have the largest fleet of 75 new aircraft in India with 150 more already ordered," Gopinath said.
Air Deccan is also in talks with some big Indian players to begin an airport construction arm. This JV will have four equal partners. "We will mainly be looking at low cost basic airports across the country," he said. With Air Deccan as a partner, the LCC airports won't have to worry about getting adequate traffic. "Air Deccan and Kingfisher will come up with a jointly-owned MRO facility in India. With our low costs, we should be able to offer the best services at competitive rates," he said. A pilot training institute is also on the radar. Gopinath said all these ideas will take shape in the next two to three months, without disclosing the finances required to implement them.
28/07/07 Saurabh Sinha/Times of India

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Amritsar Int airport to get ready by March 2008

Amritsar: Secretary Civil Aviation of Government of India Ashok Chawla announced that Rajasansi international Airport Amritsar would be ready as per the international standard by March 31, 2008.
Addressing press conference here Friday, Chawla said that first part of expansion’s work was already finished and now work for second phase of expansion going on war footing level and that would be completed by Next year March 31.
Chawla said that during the second phase of expansion Amritsar Airport required forty four acres land more for the extension of Aircraft runway and land would be provided by the Punjab Government.
Airport Authority of Indian has earmarked Rs. 225 crore for the completion of second phase of Airport Rajasansi, added Chawla.
Stating further Chawla said that in view of increasing domestic and international traffic Amritsar Rajasansi Airport would be required 400 acre more land with in the next few years but at the moment there was no such pan to acquire 400 acre.
27/07/07 Jagmohan Singh/PunjabNewsline.com

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Tirupati airport security under scanner

Tirupati: Primitive methods are being used to check baggage; making it a sitting duck for anyone harbouring plans to strike terror at Tirupati airport in Andhra Pradesh.
Security personnel have been brought in from Chennai to dig into every piece of check-in baggage because the luggage scanning X-ray machine has not been working for the last ten days.
''This is such a sensitive area and yet the X-ray machine is out of order for 15 days. This reflects an attitude of extreme carelessness.
''Some Air Deccan passengers went in to board the flight without even getting their luggage checked,'' said Sanjay Agrawal, passenger.
Everyday, at least six flights take off from Tirupati airport.
The airport manager at Tirupati was not available for comments.
28/07/07 Uma Sudhir/NDTV.com

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Cooch Behar airport to be opened next month

Kolkata: Cooch Behar airport, which was lying idle for about 15 years since the discontinuation of Vayudoot,will be opened to commercial flights from mid-August.
The airport is ready after renovation. AAI is scheduled to conduct a trial flight on 10 August. Air Deccan is likely to operate flights between Kolkata and Cooch Behar from the middle of August.Vayudoot, the subsidiary airline of Indian, operated 18-seater Dornier-228 to Cooch Behar back in 1992. Later, the airline had to wind up due to loss.
27/07/07 The Statesman

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Patel seeks meeting with Deshmukh over Nagpur airport project

Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel has sought a meeting with Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh to resolve a deadlock over the development of Nagpur's international airport.
Bugged by persistent criticism that he is coming in the way of development of the ambitious Multi-modal International Hub Airport at Nagpur (MIHAN), Patel told reporters here Friday that he was taking the initiative in the matter though the project is the baby of the Maharashtra government.
The state government-owned Maharashtra Airport Development Company (MADC), which is developing a multi-product Special Economic Zone (SEZ) around the Sonegaon airport at Nagpur along with the MIHAN project, is demanding handing over of the airport to it for the last four years.
While the civil aviation ministry's Airport Authority of India (AAI) has agreed to hand over the airport to MADC through an MoU and in a court affidavit, it has actually not done so yet.
Questioned on this, Patel said the state government has so far failed to acquire land in the immediate vicinity of the airport, submit a concrete plan for the airport development and call bids from competent companies for the purpose.
27/07/07 IANS/India eNews.com

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New terminal is opened at Calicut airport

Kozhikode: A 15,000sqm international arrival terminal has been thrown open to passengers at the Calicut Airport 26km from here. A similar terminal for outbound passengers was opened at the airport on May 14 as part of an expansion and modernisation project.
Three conveyor belts have been installed at the arrival terminal besides 800 chairs for passengers in the security hold area. Escalators and elevators have also been installed inside and outside the terminal building, the airport director Veeraswamy said.
Facilities like fast food counters, luggage room, jewellery shop, handicraft stall, traffic direction poles, restaurants, and cyber café are also in place.
The Airports Authority of India (AAI), which owns and operates the airport, undertook a major expansion and modification project three years ago at an estimated cost of Rs900mn. The work is now in its final stages.
28/07/07 Ashraf Padanna/Gulf Times, Qatar

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Deccan to buy stake in airport combine

Bangalore: Deccan Aviation, which runs low cost airline Air Deccan, is likely to pick up a stake in a consortium that will help identify and build low-cost airports in India.
Executive Chairman Captain G R Gopinath told Business Standard that they were in the "final stages" of forming the four-member consortium, of which Deccan Aviation is also included.
"The three others are corporate entities with interests in infrastructure. Our mission is to achieve equitable development across Karnataka and the rest of the country," he said.
In the recent past, Captain Gopinath has been an active spokesperson for the low-cost airport concept as a means to connect small towns and cities to the rest of the country.
"Development has to extend to the fringes of a country as well and not just the capital cities. Connectivity plays a crucial role in this," he said.
Several states including Maharashtra, Kerala, Assam, Tamilnadu, Orissa and Bihar are believed to have started identifying greenfield or unutilised airport projects for the low-cost venture. Private sector entities such as the Tatas and GMR Group, which have expressed interest in these projects, will eventually bid for them.
27/07/07 Meera Vankipuram/Business Standard/Rediff

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International grading to decide fate of airports

New Delhi: The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) will award licences for airport operations on the basis of the grades awarded by the Airports Council International (ACI), the largest airport body in the world.
The grading system would apply to all airports, including under private developers and the Airports Authority of India (AAI), Civil Aviation Secretary Ashok Chawla said at a seminar today.
The licence of any airport failing to get the required grades will be cancelled, according to a DGCA source. On a scale of 0 to 5, an airport has to score a minimum of 3.75 points.
The grading will be done on the basis of 34 criteria, including terminal facilities, check-in counters, Customs arrangements and baggage handling. Facilities like toilets will also be assessed.
The consultants have already begun the grading process for Delhi and Mumbai airports.
26/07/07 Business Standard

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Bajpe Airport handles over 3 lakh passengers

Mangalore: Bajpe Airport of the Airports Authority India (AAI) handled over three lakh passengers in the first half of this calendar year, according to M.R. Vasudeva, director of the airport.
As per an estimate, the airport is likely to handle over five lakh passengers by the end of calendar year 2007, he told The Hindu.
The airport handled 3,10,171 passengers from January to June, 2007. The number of passengers leaving through the airport was more (1,58,582 passengers) when compared to passengers who arrived (1,51,589 passengers) during the six months. There were 4,035 aircraft movements during this six months.
In May, which is a season for passenger movements, the airport handled 64,804 passengers. In June, though rainy season in Mangalore, the number of passenger movements stood at 56,702.
The highest aircraft movement was recorded in April with 819 (landing and take off). In May, it was 706 aircraft movements, he said.
27/07/07 The Hindu/Mangalorean.com

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Land handed over for Puducherry airport expansion

Chennai: The Puducherry State Government on Wednesday formally handed over 19.75 ha of land to the Airports Authority of India to take up expansion work.
K. Ramalingam, Regional Executive Director, Airports Authority of India (AAI), said with the local Government handing over the land, the AAI would soon begin the expansion work as per a memorandum of understanding signed between the AAI and the Puducherry Government.
The expansion work would be taken up at a cost of Rs 15 crore. The AAI would extend the runway by 260 metres. The existing runway measured 1,222 metres.
Dr. Ramalingam said the expansion would help in operating ATR-type aircraft that would carry less than 100 passengers.
An AAI source said this was only the first phase of the expansion. In the next phase, the Government planned to acquire more area.
27/07/07 P. Oppili/The Hindu

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Kerala expats decry Indian airport ‘fees’

Doha: A Keralite expatriate forum representative said he is considering a petition to the Kerala High Court, seeking its intervention to prevent the Cochin International Airport Limited (CIAL) from moving ahead with its plans to reintroduce the users’ fee at the airport.
Speaking to Gulf Times, Kareem Abdullah, patron of Indian Expatriates Cultural Association (Indeca) said it is “unfortunate” that the airport company’s board, which includes some prominent Gulf-based expatriates, is pushing its plans to “punish” ordinary expatriates with the reintroduction of a fee that was withdrawn two years ago.
Kareem was drawn in a decade long legal battle which ultimately led to the withdrawal of users fee at Karippur airport in Kerala’s Malappuram district in June 2005. He had filed the petition in 1995.
In separate statements issued yesterday Sanskriti, Friends of Thrissur and Friends of Tiruvalla (Fota) decried the move.
Urging airport authorities to explore other options for raising finances, the forums called upon the board to introduce “innovative” measures to raise finances.
27/07/07 Gulf Times, Qatar

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Trial run of Rs 100-cr MRO facility at GHIAL in Dec

Hyderabad: The third party maintenance, repair & overhaul (MRO) facility coming up at the proposed GMR Hyderabad International Airport (GHIAL) will be the driving force for aviation business at Hyderabad, claims T Srinagesh, chief operating officer of the company.
Speaking to a select media here on Wednesday, Srinagesh said, "we are aspiring that Hyderabad become the 'aviation hub' at the earliest and in that direction the company is working along with the government." The company is planning to establish a training centre near the airport to impart training to the young engineers on aviation related trades, which may even be upgraded as a University at a later date, he pointed out.
This apart, the MRO facility, with heavy maintenance (D checks) facility, would further attract more airlines into the airport. As of now, about 10 airlines operate from the existing Begumpet airport and this will increase.
Revealing that the state government has provided VAT exemptions for the first five years operations to the MRO project, Srinagesh said that the civil works have already commenced at the site by Lufthansa Technik.
GHIAL has 24.5% stake in the MRO business, while the remaining is held by Lufthansa Technik AG.
26/07/07 Financial Express

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Centre, States discuss private investments in airport projects

New Delhi: The Government is considering attracting private investment to develop merchant airports and a large number of airstrips, mostly of World War II vintage, scattered in different parts of the country.
"There are many unused airstrips in different states. The commercial viability of some of these are being looked at by the respective state governments. The idea (to attract private investment) is at a formative stage," Civil Aviation Secretary, Ashok Chawla, said after inaugurating a seminar on airports here.
The issue was discussed at a recent meeting attended by State Government officials.
He said "We are encouraging State governments to identify the locations. Some States like Karnataka and Maharashtra are moving very fast in this direction."
Addressing the seminar, he said the Ministry was considering creating 'merchant airports', which would be developed solely by private operators, who would own the land as well. "We are in the process of consulting all stakeholders on the matter," Chawla said.
Maintaining that Airports Authority of India would modernise Kolkata and Chennai airports, he said 35 non-metro airports were also being developed through Public-Private Partnership (PPP) and it would be completed by March 2010.
26/07/07 PTI/The Hindu

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ITDC for duty-free shops at small airports

New Delhi: India Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC) will set up duty-free outlets at special economic zones (SEZs) and seaports. ITDC would also bid for duty-free outlets at smaller airports, officials of the company said. The company, once the undisputed leader in India’s duty-free business, is looking at Pune, Nagpur, Mangalore, Calicut and Gaya airports. The Airports Authority of India (AAI) is expected to invite tenders for operating duty-free outlets at these airports later this year. Duty-free space is expected to be made available at some other smaller airports next year and we will bid for them too, the officials said.
ITDC has teamed up with Aldeasa of Spain to launch duty-free outlets at the Mumbai airports. The 50:50 joint venture has signed an agreement with Mumbai International Airport Ltd (MIAL) and the outlets are to be launched soon in a much bigger way than the ITDC outlets which are being run at the airport now.
26/07/07 G Ganapathy Subramaniam/Economic Times

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Karwar airport in the offing

Karwar: It is learnt that the Airport Authority of India (AAI) has proposed to build an airport in Karwar. If every goes according to the plan, the people of Uttara Kannada district can fly to states' capital and other important cities of the country in coming days. In fact the AAI had identified other ll-tier cities in the state including Bidar, Gulbarga, Bijapur, Raichur, Bellary, Shimoga, Hassan and Kushalnagar to build airports.
Karwar provides greater advantage for an airport in the sense that state-of-art Naval Base was being developed here. The Navy has proposed to build its own airstrip at Hattikeri in Ankola taluk in the second stage of development of the Naval Base which was already in the pipeline. In fact the state government had been insisting the Navy to provide facilities to civilian aircrafts also in the proposed Naval air station. However, the Navy had sought an additional 75 hectares of land to extend the runway to 3,000 metres from proposed 2,000 metres to accomodate civilian aircrafts. Thus the ball was in the court of state government now.
25/07/07 SahilOnline, United Arab Emirates

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Airport update plan faces hurdles

New Delhi: While the Airports Authority of India faces impediments in upgradation of 35 airports in non-metro cities, the civil aviation secretary, Mr Ashok Chawla, today stated that the project currently underway will be completed by mid-2010.
Speaking at a seminar, Mr Chawla said, AAI has finalised air-side plans for 24 of them which will be through public private partnerships. “Efforts will be made to maximise non-aeronautical revenues,” he said. Space has been a major constraint for some non-metro airports, for which the AAI has written to state governments to provide land for expansion, modernisation and development.
However, some states are not very keen to acquire land adjoining non-metro airports, as these places have been encroached upon by people. Also, real estate prices at these places have shot up, making it impossible for the governments to reclaim it.
The Committee on Infrastructure constituted by the Prime Minister in June last year had approved modernisation, expansion and development of all the 35 non-metro airports by the AAI to a “world-class” standards at an estimated cost of Rs 4662 crore.
25/07/07 The Statesman

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Pune airport awaits IAF note on saturation

Pune: Pune airport director Deepak Shastri has said he is yet to officially hear from the Indian Air Force (IAF) about putting a cap on the number of civilian aircraft operating in and out of Lohegaon airport. Air Marshal K D Singh, air officer commanding-in-chief of the South western air command (Swac), had on Monday said that the IAF has decided to restrict the number of daily civilian flights at 70 from the Pune airport.
Singh, while speaking to reporters, had also said that a greenfield airport is the only option for further addition to air traffic from Pune. Singh was corroborating vice-chief of IAF Air Marshal Bhushan Nilkanth Gokhale's statement early this month that the IAF-managed Lohegaon airfield will not be in a position to accommodate further civilian flights in the future.
Shastri said about 30-35 flights operate out of Pune daily, including the two international operations to Dubai (thrice a week) and Singapore (twice a week).
25/07/07 Times of India

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Heavy aircraft a concern for IA

New Delhi: Airlines may be making money by leasing their planes but Indian Airlines can hope for no such solace from its 18-year-old A-320s that keep giving it sleepless nights with frequent hydraulic snags.
The government is finding that given their special wheel configuration - thanks to primitive runways here in 1988-90 when the first batch came - no one would be willing to lease them once the national carrier wants to ease them out of service.
As many as 18 of the 40 A-320s came in the first batch when Indian runways were much shorter and this big plane (by those days’ standards) would have to stop much faster. As a result, IA got Airbus to put four wheel each on either rear side, called bogey wheels, instead of two on each side. This plane was given 10 wheels instead of six (two under nose wheel and two each on either rear side) so that the landing gear was strong enough to ensure the plane stops in time at shorter airstrips.
“Now the possibility of leasing them out is very low as not many are willing to operate with such a heavy landing gear,” said a senior official.
24/07/07 Saurabh Sinha/Times of India

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Airports to turn into all-in-one aeropolises

New Delhi: Airports are vying with each other to go beyond flight operations. Call it an aeropolis or aerotropolis — that’s the buzzword in Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Nagpur. With city centres, plush hotels, convention centres and banks, the airport projects in these centres aim to become self-contained cities.
The airport city theme is gaining ground with greenfield airports at Hyderabad and Bangalore providing enough scope even as the proposed cargo hub at Nagpur plans to include a special economic zone besides logistics facilities and a township.
Not to be left behind, the joint ventures modernising Delhi and Mumbai airports are also planning to host hotels, retail space and entertainment options. A similar attempt is expected by smaller airports as the government goes in for upgrade of 35 non-metro airports.
24/07/07 Saurabh Sinha/Economic Times

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No hike in air passenger service charges

New Delhi: The aviation ministry has decided not to raise the passenger service fee (PSF) of Rs 225 that's collected from each flier to finance the upcoming 35 non-metro airports.
Instead, Airports Authority of India (AAI) will raise money as loans from open market in the fiscal 2008-09 and 2009-10, when the maximum of that work would be in progress.
This decision will come as some relief as domestic airlines have not removed congestion surcharge the Rs 150 and the fuel surcharge was recently hiked to Rs 950. Moreover, the ongoing consolidation in the industry is also expected to stabilise domestic fares at a higher level. The government has huge plans for modernising airports across the country but it did not want to burden passengers further for financing the new infrastructure. In fact, the user development fee of Rs 150 that was to be charged from outbound passengers in Trivandrum in addition to the PSF has also been shelved.
24/07/07 Saurabh Sinha/Times of India

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Star tortoises seized at airport

Chennai: Around 1,000 endangered star tortoises were seized from a Singapore-bound passenger at the airport here, three weeks after Malaysia returned to India hundreds of such smuggled animals.
The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence officials seized the tortoises from the passenger who had come to board a Chennai - Singapore Malaysian Airlines flight last night, airport sources said.
The passenger, whose identity was not revealed, was searched and arrested following a tip-off, they said.
The seized tortoises will be handed over to forest department officials.
Earlier this month, more than 300 star tortoises, seized by Malaysian authorities from a passenger from Chennai, were returned to India.
23/07/07 Chennai Online

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On a slippery slope

It is deplorable, the way pilots landing at Indian airports are being increasingly forced to come home on a wing and a prayer. According to a study reported in this paper, there were nine incidents in the last three months of passenger jets skidding off wet runways after landing at various airports. That these statistics come close on the heels of the Tam Airbus crash in Sao Paulo last Wednesday, which killed 200 people, makes them even more disturbing. For heavy rain and inadequate runway length apparently caused the Sao Paulo crash: a chilling reminder of the unsafe runways in use at our own international airfields. It is no secret that most airports here operate under conditions that date back to the time they were built. As a result, airliners often land on slippery runways originally designed to take such aircraft loads only in light rain.
The expansion of Indian aviation has led to a deterioration of infrastructure and an acute shortage of trained hands, which translates into a dilution of standards for pilots and engineers. The violation of norms in flight schools is alarming as they churn out rookie pilots who, with barely a couple of hundred flying hours and a short jet endorsement under their belts, become first officers on high performance jet aircraft.
24/07/07 Hindustan Times

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Four in net for flight fraud

Calcutta: Somnath Sadhukhan, a businessman from Behala, had lodged a complaint with airport police station on Saturday evening that three air tickets were fraudulently purchased against his credit card number.
“I got an SMS intimation at 11.54am on Saturday that two Air Deccan tickets to Delhi, costing Rs 5,498, were purchased over the Internet against my card,” recounted Sadhukhan.
He contacted the bank’s customer service personnel, requesting them to block the card. He then contacted a travel agent friend, who put him on to Air Deccan officials. Armed with the PNR numbers and the name of the fliers — provided by the airline — he set off for the police station.
Before Indrajit Roy, a resident of Tiljala Road, and S.K. Sahid of Rifle Range Road, could board the 7pm Calcutta-Delhi Air Deccan flight, the cops arrested the duo. On Sunday morning, the third passenger — Javed Akhtar Khan, a resident of Ghas Bagan, in Park Circus — was picked up as he was about to board the Calcutta-Bhubaneswar flight of the same airline.
According to the police, all three passengers pleaded innocence and said they bought the tickets from a travel agent — Imran Khan — in the Karaya area.
23/07/07 The Telegraph

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Cochin Airport posts impressive growth

Kochi: Cochin International Airport Limited (CIAL) at Nedumbassery has registered an impressive growth during the 2006-07 financial year.
The airport company registered a net profit of Rs.37.50 crore as against the Rs.31.60-crore during the previous fiscal, a growth rate of almost 20 per cent. The total turnover for 2006-07 stood at Rs.112 crore.
The gross profit for the same period was Rs.44.40 crore compared to Rs.38.50 crore in the previous fiscal, a growth rate of 15 per cent.
The 68th director board meeting of CIAL held in Thiruvananthapuram on Thursday reviewed the performance and approved the balance sheet and accounts for the year ended March 31, 2007.
Considering the financial status of the company, the director board decided to recommend a dividend of eight per cent to the shareholders for the 2006-07 period. This is a scale down from the previous fiscal when the rate was fixed at 10 per cent. The reduction was on account of the rights issue to shareholders in the ratio of 1:1 in August 2006, the director board said.
22/07/07 The Hindu

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ECB for upgrading Chennai, Kolkata airports

New Delhi: To fund the modernisation of Kolkata and Chennai airports, the airport authority of India (AAI) would borrow Rs 2,000 crore.
Debt would be mopped up from the domestic market or channeled through external commercial borrowing (ECB). Modernisation of the two airports is estimated to cost Rs 5,700 crore.
“We are open to both the routes for generating money. Wherever we would find better rate of interest we would go for that,” civil aviation secretary Ashok Chawla said on the sidelines of a conference of chief secretaries on public-private partnership (PPP).
Earlier the government had planned to develop both the airports on public-private partnership on the lines of Delhi and Mumbai. However, the government has decided that upgradation of both airports would be done by AAI.
22/07/07 Economic Times

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CIAL to donate Rs 7 lakh for Police Station

Kochi: The Board of Directors of Cochin International Airport Ltd (CIAL) on Saturday decided to donate Rs 7 lakh for a new police station at the airport, the construction of which is almost complete.
About 40 cents of land in front of the airport has been provided by CIAL free of cost for the construction of the police station. The land cost, as per market rate is Rs 4 crore.
A Circle Inspector, 4 sub inspectors and a lady Sub inspector, 10 head constables and 50 constables would man the police station, the release said.
21/07/07 PTI/Economic Times

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Cochin airport has not dropped user fee: MD

Kochi: The Cochin International Airport Limited, which runs India’s first corporate airport, has not dropped the idea of reintroducing the ‘user fee’ but only deferred a decision, according to its managing director S Bharat.
“The introduction of Airport Development Fee was considered and discussed at the Board meeting (held last week). However the issue has been deferred by the Board to a subsequent meeting. The Board wanted to elicit the views of all the shareholder of CIAL on this issue at the ensuing Annual General meeting of the shareholders of CIAL to be held Sept 10, before a final decision is taken,” CIAL managing director said in a statement here.There was widespread demand from the shareholders to reintroduce the Rs500 user fee levied on the international passengers, which was withdrawn in January 2006 at the instance of the previous United Democratic Front (UDF) government.
The state government is a minority stakeholder in the airport company.According to the shareholders, the airport, built at a cost of Rs3.15bn had been making an annual assured income of Rs240mn and by bringing domestic passengers also into the regime it would be able to collect Rs1.2bn, considering the current level passenger traffic.
22/07/07 Ashraf Padanna/Gulf Times, Qatar

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Man held at Sharjah airport as 'absconder'

Dubai: A 42-year-old businessman who was travelling with his family on a vacation was detained at Sharjah airport because his former company had declared him an absconder although it had issued him a release letter.
Gulf News learnt that Anil Sekharan, an Indian, was blacklisted a month ago by the company where he worked as a sales manager four years ago. The company had issued him a 'release' and a 'no-objection' letter in 2003.
A Sharjah immigration official at the airport told Gulf News that detainees are given the opportunity to tell their side of the story and rectify the situation.
Sekharan, who is currently running a furniture manufacturing business, said he got in touch with his previous company and had his name removed from the list. He said: "I still have the 'release' and the 'no-objection' letter with me and that bailed me out. It was utter carelessness on the part of the company to have blacklisted me." The incident took place on July 15. No one from his former company was available for comment.
This is the second such case in a week.
Gulf News had earlier reported that Ansel Thomas, an Indian, was also barred from travelling at Dubai airport recently for allegedly failing to repay a bank loan which he had settled in January.
21/07/07 Sunita Menon/Gulf News, United Arab Emirates

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Man held with 496 ‘good luck’ fishes

Chennai: An unemployed Indian national returning from Malaysia was held at Chennai Airport for smuggling in 496 ornamental fishes.
Customs officials asked Basheer Ahemad, 26, to open his two suitcases and found the fishes hidden in polythene containers.
Customs commissioner C. Rajan said a Malaysian in Kuala Lumpur paid Basheer to carry the suitcases to Chennai where another man would collect them at the airport.
Rajan said: "Basheer went to work in Malaysia recently but failed to get a job. So he decided to return to India but did not have money.
"He approached a Malaysian for help and was asked to carry the two suitcases to Chennai. He was told he would be paid 5,000 rupees (RM430) for each suitcase."
The species seized from Basheer were the Clown Loach, Arowana, Red Parrot and Tiger Barb. Each pair fetches 20,000 rupees in the market here .
Rajan said the fishes were meant for vasthu, an Indian version of feng shui.
22/07/07 Bernama/New Straits Times

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Cochin Airport may float budget carrier

Mumbai: Cochin International Airport (CIAL), India’s first international airport not controlled by the central government, may team up with some domestic airlines to launch a budget carrier for the Gulf destinations.
The new airline is likely to reserve 20 seats in each aircraft for poor NRIs who have been unable to come home for more than five years. They will be charged one-fourth of the fare.
“This may be the first venture in which an airport is partnering airlines to set up a budget airline. CIAL will talk to airlines that already have permission to fly overseas, including to the Gulf,” a source said.
Jet Airways and JetLite (formerly Air Sahara) have permission to fly to the Gulf, while Air Deccan is expected to get the go-ahead by next year.
The project in part revives the earlier proposed budget carrier, Air Kerala, which was shelved as only an airline with five years of domestic experience and a fleet of 20 aircraft can fly abroad.
21/07/07 P R Sanjai/Business Standard

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CIAL declares dividend

Thiruvananthapuram: The Cochin International Airport Limited (CIAL), which has some 10,000 NRIs as shareholders, has declared 8% dividend for the year 2006-07.
The decision was taken at a meeting of the CIAL’s board of directors. Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan presided. He is chairman of the company on behalf of the state government, the single largest stakeholder.
The company recorded a profit of Rs370mn during the last fiscal year as against the previous year’s Rs310mn.
The CIAL managing director S Bharat said boarding and disembarking time has been reduced by 30 minutes after opening of a new taxiway.
The CIAL board which rejected a proposal for user’s fee on passengers also decided to talk to various airlines to reduce airfares. Bharat and Abu Dhabi Chamber of Commerce director M A Yousef Ali, who is also a director of the company, will lead the talks.
21/07/07 Ashraf Padanna/Gulf Times, Qatar

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Jet Airways plane skid due to pilot error

New Delhi:The government has finally accepted that the Jet Airways plane skidding off the runway at Indore and the damage suffered by the ATR on July 1 was not just another mishap in this eventful monsoon.
After getting a report on this incident, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has termed it an accident caused by a mix of pilot error and degraded runway.
"The aircraft touched down just before the mid-point of the runway, leaving insufficient length to stop on the runway that had degraded to some extent because of heavy rains. The ATR bounced a couple of times before going off the runway and some passengers were injured. Prima facie it appears to be a case of pilot error," said highly placed sources. On its part, Jet Airways said it could comment only after seeing the report.
Meanwhile, acting on the spate of mishaps, the Sao Paulo crash and TOI highlighting the condition of Indian airtsrips, the DGCA on Friday reiterated its circular for monsoon operations to all operators and airports.
DGCA chief Kanu Gohain said that there are procedures laid out for everything and only deviation from the same can lead to problems.
21/07/07 Saurabh Sinha/Times of India

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Premium manufacturers benefit from increase in Indian air travellers

Prestige cosmetic manufacturers are predicted to begin adjusting their travel retail product ranges in an attempt to capitalise on increasing Indian consumers holidaying abroad.
According to new Euromonitor data the number of tourists travelling from India will more than double by 2011 - creating an opportunity for premium travel retail brands to increase sales in the lucrative industry sector.
The skin-whitening trend is something Dodson expects to see more of in light of the increased number of Indian consumers travelling through airports.
With prestige brands being careful to target product ranges towards key consumer groups, trends prevalent within the Indian market at present could hold a stronger presence among products aimed at the travel retail market.
With businessmen set to constitute much of the volume of Indian travellers, fragrance is predicted to sell as well with male consumers as with females - with the male grooming trend therefore expected to benefit from the increased consumer traffic.
20/07/07 Louise Prance/CosmeticsDesign-Europe.com, France

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Brussels airport pins hopes on Jet

Munich: With the imminent arrival of aircraft from Jet Airways, India's largest private airline, from Mumbai on August 5, low-key Brussels airport is hoping that the Indian carrier's daily Mumbai-Brussels-Newark service will bolster not only passenger but also cargo traffic with both India and the United States.
Brussels airport benefits from the huge presence of the Indian business community in and around Antwerp, the majority of whom are engaged in the diamond trade. Antwerp is an important diamond hub where billions of dollars in precious stones change hands in trade with India, Israel, South Africa and the United States. A large chunk of this diamond business passes through Brussels airport.
Brussels airport, which likes to portray itself as a "hub in the heart of Europe", is keen to come out of the shadow of its next door "big brother", Amsterdam's Sch-iphol airport, which has long dominated the Benelux region and has come close to challenging Frankfurt airport, Europe's leading cargo airport.
"We are also trying to get Jet Airways' freighters to fly to Brussels en route to the US, which is India's biggest market," Philippe Fierens, Brussels airport's cargo business development manager, told Cargonews Asia.
Jet Airways also has a co-operation deal with Lufthansa Cargo, the leading European carrier.
Brussels airport is upbeat about Jet Airways' ambitious plans to foray into North America from India via Brussels. The carrier will start a second service - Mumbai-Brussels-Toronto - from September 1. In 2008, Jet Airways plans to introduce three more routes from Bangalore, Hyderabad and Chennai via Brussels to Chicago, JFK New York and Los Angeles.
20/07/07 Manik Mehta/Cargonews Asia, Hong Kong

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Brazil runway disaster could've happened here

New Delhi/Mumbai/Indore: The Jet Airways plane descended, cutting through driving rain. The runway looked like a blur. The plane touched down with a mild thud but showed no sign of slowing down. It skidded off the runway, injuring five of its 49 passengers.
Seventeen days later, a plane landed in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and skidded, skipped over a busy road and crashed into a warehouse. Everyone on board died, and so did many of those caught unawares in the warehouse.
A study says there were nine incidents of passenger planes skidding off runways in India — wet in each case — after landing between May 1 and July 1.
Any of these could have turned into tragedy. Most Indian runways become tricky after rains. Captain A Ranganathan, a former pilot and instructor, said most airports were designed to remain operational under 3 mm of rain. "It is a benchmark set donkey's years ago," he said. "It needs to be updated."
There are other reasons why runways are trickier than they may appear to an untrained eye. Ranganathan said compared to a dry runway, the landing distance on a wet runway increased by 30 per cent — something not taken into account by safety agencies. 'Grooving' the runway — necessary for increasing surface friction — is hardly done in India.
20/07/07 Sidhartha Roy and Soubhik Mitra/ Hindustan Times

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It's a miracle planes land safely in India

Mumbai: The monsoon this year has caused casualties of a new kind. There have been nine aviation accidents or incidents at various Indian airports in the last three months - most of them caused by that fatal combination of heavy rain and short runways. It was these two factors that caused the Tam Airbus to crash in Sao Paulo on Wednesday, killing 200 people.
The consensus in the aviation industry is that the two most unsafe airports in the country are those at Pune and Patna. However, it's not as if the rest are up to standard.
The fact is that most of India's 200-plus airports have landing strips that fall short of the 9000-foot safety benchmark. During the dry months, this does not really make a difference - after all, thousands of flights arrive safely every day - but come the thundershowers and suddenly the lack of inches is acutely felt.
With so negligible a margin for error, an aircraft can easily overshoot the slippery strip of tarmac. Even the country's so-called long runways aren't up to scratch. Says an A320 check pilot,"In the Emirates Operations Manual, the example of a bad runway is Mumbai airport runway 27."
Singapore Airlines too does not land on Mumbai airport's runway 14 as it has been classified 'sub-standard'.
20/07/07 Manju V/Times of India

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'Our flights are like killer Bluelines'

Mumbai: Tuesday's plane crash in Brazil in which at least 186 people were killed has brought flight safety back into focus.
The airlines insist they take enough safeguards to operate flights as per norms set by the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) and that the fears are unfounded. But experienced pilots and aviation experts say the mindless growth of aviation — with no proper infrastructure and no enforcement of laws — has grossly compromised air safety norms.
"The current state of Indian aviation is just like Delhi's Blueline bus service. You allowed them to operate without enforcement by the police and they killed people on the road. You stopped them, you earned the wrath of passengers," said a senior commander on condition of anonymity as he is not authorised to speak to the press.
He said the current situation was a direct outcome of the government allowing the arbitrary import of aircraft without strengthening law enforcement agencies.
"It's a miracle we don't have mid-air crashes. The deregulation has caused heavy congestion in the air and Air Traffic Control (ATC) is unable to handle the pressure. Then you have the language problem of expat pilots. The shortage of pilots has prompted airlines to hire anybody. And with nobody to conduct flight safety audits, you are bound to have accidents," he added.
"The pressure is so much at the ATC tower that sometimes, it is difficult to repeat the message. Even if 15 aircraft land at an airport in an hour, ATCs communicate at least four times with each of them before they finally land," said an air traffic controller.
20/07/07 Lalatendu Mishra/Hindustan Times

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Runways to disaster

New Delhi: Each time simultaneous operations are on at IGI Airport and planes have to take off towards Dwarka, both the pilots and the ATC keep their fingers firmly crossed.
In the last few months, "procedural lapses" saw planes being allowed to take off within seconds of each other towards Dwarka. Since the runways converge, the planes found themselves climbing dangerously on a collision course. Only frantic last-minute communication exhorting them to take separate courses saved the day.
The authorities are now considering designating one runway for takeoff and the other for landing to avoid such incidents in the future.
The country's busiest airport, Mumbai, also has its share of hazards. According to International Air Transport Association (IATA), the "control tower is an obstruction to the safety surfaces" of the secondary runway.
IATA (India) country manager Robey Lal says that this issue has been taken up with MIAL and they have proposed a new tower in their master plan.
IATA points out that villagers have breached airport boundary walls at some airports so that their cattle can graze on the green spaces around airstrips. This incursion on the runways poses a serious threat to planes.
A senior pilot said that the danger of a bird hit as they approach runways is very high in places like Delhi and Ahmedabad.
In Delhi, the unsanitary conditions in Dwarka and flight path from the Vasant Vihar side attract birds, causing hits.
Drainage remains such a sore point that runways often get waterlogged. AAI officials insist all runways conform to ICAO standards and wherever there's an obstacle the required operating procedures have been set. But the problem persists as even a slight deviation from procedures can lead to a major trouble.
20/07/07 Saurabh Sinha/Times of India

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Runway blip affects airport schedules

Kolkata: Operations at the Neaji Subhas Chandra Bose International airport were held up for a brief period on Thursday morning as runway lights malfunctioned and an overcast sky played spoilsport.
Though the disruption was for barely 10 minutes, the roll-over delays triggered by the crucial stoppage during rush time sent flight schedules haywire for several hours.Around 9.55 am, a short-circuit led to runway lights shutting down. With the skies overcast, the air traffic control suspended operations to consult the Met office.
The Indian Airlines flight to Dibrugarh had just taxied down to the runway for takeoff when flights were put on hold.
Runway lights are switched on when visibility drops below 1,500 metre. Non-CAT II operations is allowed till 550 m. Thereafter, only pilots trained in CAT II operations are allowed to takeoff or land. Once visibility drops below 350 m, all operations are suspended.
20/07/07 Times of India

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AAI unsure of Cooch Behar demolition step

Cooch Behar: The Airports Authority of India is yet to send confirmation on whether certain constructions hemming the airport need to be downsized to make the facility operational or not, the people here expect that airport would start functioning from 15 August and according to many, the countdown has begun.
Even the Cooch Behar district magistrate Mr Rajesh Sinha is hopeful that if all goes well the air service would resume on the Independence Day. The belief is gaining ground in general.
The hearing for demolishing and downsizing of 42 buildings and constructions situated around the Cooch Behar Airport was completed in the first week of this month. According to the DM the AAI is yet to convey the outcome of the hearing to the district administration, and so a certain amount of uncertainty prevails on whether the identified constructions need to be downsized or not, to resume the air service. He, however, assured all co-operation to resume the air service.
Welcoming the possibility the Cooch Behar district Left Front convenor Mr Chandi Pal expressed hope that the AAI would keep its promise this time. He said he had talks with chief minister Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee recently over the matter and the CM too assured resumption of the air service.
19/07/07 The Statesman

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Plan to set up 25 low-cost airports

Mumbai: In a bid to encourage regional airlines and provide air links to small cities and towns, nearly 25 greenfield or unutilised airport projects have been identified by various states, which will be up for bidding by the private sector.
Planned in tier-II or tier-III cities, the airports would be in addition to the Ministry of Civil Aviation’s (MoCA’s) ambitious modernisation programme for 35 non-metro airports.
A no-frill airport is built at a minimum cost and allows operation of small jets as well as slightly bigger aircraft like Boeing's B737 or Airbus' A320. The investment in such an airport could range from Rs 40 crore to Rs 100 crore.
The places identified for the purpose include Hassan, Shimoga, Gulbarga, Bidar, Mysore (all in Karnataka), Shirdi, Jalgaon, Solapur, Akola (all in Maharashtra), Kannur (Kerala), Madurai, Tiruchirapalli (Tamil Nadu), Rupsi (Assam), Ajmer, Mount Abu, Kailashar (Rajasthan), Behala, Cooch Behar, Malda (West Bengal), Jharsuguda (Orissa), Muzaffurpur (Bihar), Kamalpur (Tripura) and Passighat (Arunachal Pradesh).
Low-cost airports are already catching the fancy of high profile airport developers and corporates, as well as budget carriers.
19/07/07 P R Sanjai/Business Standard

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Flight averts Calcutta runway scar

Calcutta: A Delhi-Calcutta Jet Airways flight was preparing to land just after noon when the ground staff member posted to shoo away birds noticed that a portion of the primary runway had peeled off.
The bird watcher immediately sounded the alarm. The primary runway was promptly shut down and flight 9W-922 was told not to touch down.
“A chunk of around 16 square feet on the primary runway had peeled off. The Delhi-Calcutta Jet flight was preparing to land when this was noticed. Anything could have happened if the wheels would have hit that uneven patch.... A tragedy was averted,” said an airport official.
Flight 9W-922 remained airborne as the secondary runway was also congested.
“We informed the pilot about the congestion on the other runway. The plane was kept in the air for around 10 minutes before the secondary runway was cleared and the flight landed safely,” said an airport official.
The airport authorities have launched an investigation to ascertain why the runway surface had peeled off.
An airport official said that the runway might have been “softened” by the rains and the wheels of an aircraft could have caused the damage.
19/07/07 The Telegraph

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New `bird` in sky to help reduce flight time

New Delhi: By 2010, a flight from Delhi to Chennai could take just two hours, a full 45 minutes less than the current duration. And a Mumbai-Delhi flight could be only an hour.
This anticipated saving in time and money (in terms of fuel costs and airport charges for carriers) will be possible with the launch of GAGAN, or the satellite-aided geo-augmented navigation project being jointly implemented by the Airports Authority of India (AAI) and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).
A Rs 644-crore project to implant navigation software in existing satellites, GAGAN, which is currently undergoing feasibility tests, will do away with the need for aircraft to be navigated through ground navigation stations, which now send position signals to the aircraft.
When the project is implemented, the signals will come from the satellite to reference stations across the country, get corrected by them and uplinked to the satellite, which will then transfer the accurate signals to the aircraft. Apart from accuracy in position, the aircraft will be able to plot its way through much shorter routes.
In the current system, routes are determined by the location of the ground stations or aids, which are usually 150 km apart. So a Delhi-Chennai flight currently takes a zig-zag route over Farukhabad-Secundrabad-Banaras-Bhopal-Nagpur-Hyderabad-Chennai.
In time, the 80 air control towers across the country will be replaced with eight reference stations at Delhi, Kolkata, Guwahati, Port Blair, Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Jammu and Thiruvananthapuram, with a master control centre in Bangalore. Later, eight more stations and two more control centres might be set up in Bangalore and Delhi.
19/07/07 Anirban Chowdhury/Business Standard

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Laqshya Media bags Colombo' airport ad rights concessionaire

Outdoor media company Laqshya Media has taken over Vertigo Lanka, which has been the airport advertisement rights concessionaire for the Colombo's Bandaranaike International Airport since 2002. Vertigo had renewed its contract for an additional five years in the year 2005, so as, Laqshya will function as the airport's advertisement rights concessionaire till 2010.
Bandaranaike International Airport is located in Katunayake, 35 km north of Colombo. It is administered by Airport and Aviation Services (Sri Lanka) Ltd and is the hub of Sri Lankan Airlines, the national carrier of Sri Lanka.
Laqshya is the only Indian OOH company to have attracted private equity investment from UTI Venture funds for $10 million in 2006. Earlier, through its 100 per cent subsidiary Right Angle Media FZ LLC, Laqshya Media also won the contract of constructing 800 AC bus shelters in Dubai on a built operate transfer (BOT) basis.
18/07/07 Televisionpoint.com

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AAI’s Juhu property locked in rent dispute

Mumbai: A slice of prime real estate, which could fetch the Airports Authority of India (AAI) upwards of Rs 10 lakh in land rental, is sitting idle at the Juhu aerodrome, courtesy a longstanding dispute between two government agencies and an errant tenant.
AAI leased out approximately 800 sq m of land to Indian Airlines decades ago. On it, the airline constructed an enclosed structure, which it later sub-leased to a private tenant, Shobha Singh & Sons, when it shifted operations to the Santacruz airport. However, poor paperwork and a lackadaisical attitude meant that neither company collected rentals from their respective tenants over the years.
Now, Indian owes AAI Rs 80 lakh as outstanding dues and Shobha Singh— who was in the business of spraying pesticides using aircraft in the 70’s and 80’s— owes the airline Rs 16 lakh. Both parties are unwilling to cough up their respective amounts. The structure currently houses wreckage and storage material and has remained locked for several years.
18/07/07 Lekha Agarwal/Mumbai Newsline

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Emirates flight makes emergency landing

Chennai: A Manila bound Dubai-Manila Emirates flight with 446 passengers and crew made an emergency landing at Anna International airport here today, as one of its passengers suffered severe chest pain.
Airport sources said, as the flight was approaching Chennai, the passenger Paraso Mathew (43), hailing from Philipines complained to the crew members that he was suffering from severe chest pain. The matter was informed to the pilots, who in turn contacted the Air Trafic control (ATC) for their permission for emergency landing.
The flight landed around 1710 hrs.
Soon after the flight landed, the airport medical team rushed to the passenger and gave first aid. As his condition was critical, the immigration authorities issued a temporary visa to the patient.Later, he was admitted to a private hospital at Guindy.
17/07/07 UNI/NewKerala.com

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B'lore braces itself for spanking new airport

Devanahalli (Karnataka): The work at the new airport site at Devanahalli, 35 kilometres from Bangalore city is in progress. The runway is ready, and the interiors of the terminal building are taking shape.
The project, which is worth Rs 1,930 crore, promises to help Bangalore cope with its eight million passenger traffic.
It is India's largest privately owned and operated greenfield airport. BIAL, which will own and operate it, has signed contracts for cargo, ground handling and retail stores.
The initial phase includes a passenger terminal and runway, 42 aircraft stands and eight passenger bridges, parking for 2,000 cars, a fuel farm and flight kitchens. And phases two and three are even more ambitious. Once complete, BIAL will handle 40 million passengers a year.
But it's not just an airport. More than half the 4,030 acres of site area will house a hardware technology park, cargo terminals and cold storage facilities for horticulture. Airport City, as BIAL calls it, will also house a hotel, a convention centre and office and residential space.
17/07/07 Roshni Menon/CNN-IBN

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High Court stays state’s order on Birmi’s club

Chandigarh: The Punjab and Haryana High Court has stayed the orders issued by the Punjab government directing former Punjab Minister Malikat Singh Birmi to dispossess the hangar in Patiala. Read On >>

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King Khan scripts a brand new role

New Delhi: Bollywood’s King Khan has signed on the dotted line to speak out against illegal wildlife trade and for the forest guards as part of a new awareness campaign that will soon be “played” at all national and international airports across the country.
The nationwide campaign put together by non-government organisation Sanskara in collaboration with the Asian Conservation Awareness Programme is also being supported by Indian Broadcasting Foundation, leading television networks including Doordarshan, National Geographic Channel, Discovery and Animal Planet.
The Airports Authority of India, the Union Civil Aviation Ministry and Members of Parliament have also supported the wildlife awareness campaign that is slated to start with a broadcast of Shah Rukh Khan’s message across all international and domestic airports this week.
17/07/07 Bindu Shajan Perappadan/The Hindu

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Airport Bookstores cash in on flight delays

Mumbai: Book stores across Indian airports are offering books, usual and unusual, to travellers who bear the brunt of India’s bursting-at-the-seams airports. The six-month old bookstore at Mumbai’s airport run by Crossword, a 43-store chain owned byShopper’s Stop Ltd, does three times as much sales per sq. ft than the chain’s city book stores.
Traditionally, small and musty airport bookstores that stored magazines and tourist guides and little else have got a makeover with national book chains, including Crosswords, Sankars and HigginBothams taking over airport book stores across India—from Mumbai and Bangalore to smaller cities such as Cochin, Coimbatore, Panjim and Ahmedabad.
In 2006, Indian airports handled 33 million passengers. Even as the number of passengers has grown by 25% over the past three years, delays at the busy Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore airports have increased to at least half an hour for every flight.
For retailers, airports deliver high-spending shoppers who have time on their hands.
Typically, more people come in to these bookstores than city stores and a larger proportion of those who come in buy something because they have some time to spare and little else to do.
16/07/07 Saumya Roy/Livemint

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Kerala expat forum in Kannur airport appeal

Doha: Keralites’ expatriate forum Kannur United Welfare Association (Kuwaq) yesterday asked the Indian civil aviation authorities to expedite the work of the proposed airport in Kannur on a fast-track basis.
A resolution to this effect was passed at the executive committee meeting of the forum held a few days ago at the Indian Cultural centre (ICC).
The forum pointed out that the construction of the airport was essential for Kannur as it alone would help develop the cotton handloom industry in the region.
Steps are underway to acquire nearly 600 acres of land for the construction of the airport in Kannur.
16/07/07 Gulf Times, Qatar

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Tips on baggage security

Airlines are trying to educate passengers on carrying valuables, stung by an increasing number of complaints of theft.
Indian (airline) has started random check of baggage at various points where it is handled by the ground staff.
“In the X-ray area, if the baggage is found to contain cash, jewellery or other valuables, the passenger is requested to transfer them into the cabin baggage,” said an official of the airline.
If the passenger is not carrying a cabin bag or is unwilling to take out the valuables from the registered baggage, security officers request them to declare the assets.
Earlier, passengers often ignored general appeals made by various airlines not to carry valuables in registered luggage.
Jet Airways has directed its officials at the airport to guide passengers at the check- in points on how to carry valuables.
Singapore Airlines is working on plans to provide proper guidance at the check-in points at the airport on transferring valuables to hand baggage.Police officers at Calcutta airport suspect that a section of the ground-handling staff is involved in the theft of valuables.
16/07/07 The Telegraph

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Hiranandani mulls developing airports

Mumbai: City-based realty major Hiranandani Constructions today said it is not averse to enter airport development space in future.
"We never know what we are going to do after three months. Entering into the airport development space is not in the anvil today. We may do it tomorrow," Group founder Niranjan Hiranandani said.
India is rapidly expanding its airports, ports and city infrastructure. Many real estate players are entering into the space sensing huge opportunities.
"We are not entering into the area in the short-term but there is a possibility in the long-term," Hiranandani said while declining to give an exact time-frame.
To a question if the company wants to tap the capital market, he said there are no immediate plans but it may look at tapping overseas markets.
15/07/07 PTI/Economic Times

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ATCs upset over transfer of officers

Nagpur: Air Traffic Controllers (ATCs) at city airport are upset over the transfer of 11 officers, claiming that it put extra burden on the already short-staffed area control centre.
A few days back, the Airport Authority of India (AAI) transferred 11 controllers including senior officers in the department to other airports.
While the transfers are routine, it has led to uneasiness in the department as only seven new controlled are deputed to the city in replacement.
"Already, we are short-staffed. We have a strength of 41 officers although our sanctioned strength is over 50," said an officer who on condition of anonymity.
16/07/07 Times of India

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‘Monk’ held on Bangkok way

Calcutta: A Bangladeshi in the disguise of a Buddhist monk and carrying a fake Indian passport tried in vain to hoodwink immigration officials at Calcutta airport this morning.
Piyush Barua, 27, of Chittagong was about to board a Jet Airways flight to Bangkok with a passport in the name of Shyamal Barua.
He reached Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport around 10 am, two hours before the flight’s departure.
After checking in, Barua, in a resplendent red-and-yellow attire, went for immigration clearance. His papers raised the suspicion of the official posted there.
“Barua claimed he was an Assamese and a monk,” an official said.
He was detained for questioning, during which he could not follow queries in Assamese.
After several hours of grilling, the man broke down and admitted to travelling with fake documents. Barua told officials that he had forged his documents to get the passport.
15/07/07 The Telegraph

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Aircraft skid: Cochin airport passes the buck to AAI

Kochi: The Cochin airport authorities have blamed the Airport Authority of India (AII) for poor air traffic management that resulted in two aircraft skidding off the runway early this month.
“The AAI has to install the Approach Surveillance Radar (ASR) at the airport and the same is being continuously pursued by the CIAL. The early installation of ASR would definitely improve the quality of the air traffic management,” Cochin International Airport Limited (CIAL) managing director S Bharat said. About 60 passengers and the crew of an Air Sahara (Jet Lite) Delhi-Bangalore-Kochi flight had a miraculous escape after it skidded off the runway on July 3.
On July 9 an Air India Express (AIE) aircraft that arrived from Muscat with 61 passengers including an infant onboard. The Air Sahara flight landed with its right wheel on the edge of the runway but the pilot managed to bring back the aircraft to the runway.
, the AIE’s Muscat-Thiruvananthapuram-Kochi flight skidded off the runway and went off some 200m, damaging its nose-wheel while its left engine sucked in mud and grass.
Bharat said the incidents were not due to any technical fault in the runway construction, runway lighting or the air navigations systems installed at the airport. The communication navigation system and air traffic management are the responsibilities of the AAI.
“In fact, on both the occasions the pilots could not see the runway at the time of landing due to the sudden heavy downpour of rain on their wind shields at the last moments of landing, and that could have been the most probable cause of the incident,” he said in a statement.
Bharat said, in both cases, the pilots never blamed the airport systems or infrastructure set up at the airport. Rather, they said the aircraft were manoeuvred and brought back to the runway because of the strength and upkeep of the side strips of the runway, which resulted in the safe rolling of the aircraft to the runway and then to the parking bay without any structural damages.
15/07/07 Ashraf Padanna/Gulf Times, Qatar

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No immunity, Nigerian diplomat will pay for 'crime'

New Delhi: Captain G A Ojedokun, defence advisor to the Nigerian envoy in India, has earned a dubious distinction: he will become the first diplomat in the country to be penalized for a crime.
Ojedokun was detained at the New Delhi international airport on May 21 after he was caught with $2.27 million (around Rs 10 crore) in his personal luggage while trying to board a flight for Lagos. He was detained but later released.
After Prime Minister Manmohan Singh spoke to Nigerian President Alhaji Umaru Musa Yaradua at the sidelines of G-8 summit at Berlin in June, Captain Ojedokun was asked to come to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) headquarters in Delhi last week and give a confessional statement.
CNN-IBN has now learnt how Captain Ojedokun collected the dollars illegally in India. Over a period of 10 days, starting from last week of April, he withdrew Indian currency from his account in the Bank of Tokyo. Then he purchased the dollars from several hawala operators in Delhi. Questions are now being raised why the Nigerian diplomat was buying US dollars through hawala channel.
Sources in the ED indicate that officials are investigating Ojedokun was carrying drug money or whether he part of an international money laundering operation.
15/07/07 Sumon K Chakrabarti/CNN-IBN

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DIAL inks Rs 5,400 cr insurance deal

New Delhi: Delhi International Airport Private Limited (DIAL) has signed an insurance deal worth Rs 5,400 crore with a consortium comprising three major insurance companies in India.
The deal will provide insurance cover for upgradation of the existing terminals, construction of new runway and an integrated passenger terminal (T3).
Sources familiar with the deal said, DIAL, a joint venture company comprising of Bangalore-based GMR Group, Airports Authority of India (AAI), Fraport, Malaysian Airport and India Development Fund, is paying Rs 8 crore as premium charges for the insurance cover of its project during the construction period.
“The consortium includes the Oriental Insurance Company, the National Insurance Company and ICICI Lombard. Oriental Insurance is a major stakeholder, insuring two-third of the whole project," the source told SundayET.
In the aviation sector, Oriental Insurance already provides insurance cover for Jet Airways, Air Sahara and Kingfisher.
15/07/07 Aman Dhall & Dheeraj Tiwari/Times of India

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New arrival hall at Chennai airport operational

Chennai: The new arrival hall at the Anna international terminal of the Chennai airport became operational on Saturday.
The 600-sq.m facility has a dozen immigration counters, 15 Customs counters, two elevators and four slope-type conveyors, besides a fire alarm system, fire fighting systems with sprinklers, centralised air-conditioning and frameless glazing.
The slope-type conveyors, installed for the first time, will help passengers pick up their baggage without strain, Airports Authority of India officials said. The conveyor belts were imported from the Netherlands at a cost of Rs. 3 crore.
The hall construction began in October 2005 and was completed at a cost of Rs. 28 crore.
A passenger, who arrived by an Air India flight from Kuala Lumpur, termed the facility good.
Earlier, the Customs had 12 red counters, while 14 immigration counters functioned at the arrival hall. The Customs and immigration counters remained the same in the new hall, officials said.
15/07/07 The Hindu

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Jet Airways aircraft returns with damaged tyre

Kolkata: A Port Blair-bound Jet Airways flight — 9W 629 — was forced to return to Kolkata after airport authorities there refused permission to land with a deflated tyre.
The tyre had burst during takeoff from Kolkata. The air traffic control here alerted their counterparts in Port Blair after rubber debris were found on the runway by Airports Authority of India staff.
The plane hovered over Port Blair for more than an hour, before returning to NSCBI Airport for an emergency landing at 11 am. The 164 passengers on board were back in Kolkata after nearly six hours in air.
"The captain noticed a problem in tyre pressure when he activated the landing gear on reaching Port Blair on Friday morning. On informing the Port Blair ATC, he was asked to turn back as the short runway could have posed a threat to the plane’s safety in case it skidded on landing," an airport source said.
On returning to Kolkata, the captain was asked to perform low flypast operation so that the condition of the wheel could be assessed by DGCA, AAI and ATC officials. Full emergency procedures were then rolled out and the aircraft asked to land. Everyone held his breath as the aircraft approached and breathed a sigh of relief after it touched down.
14/07/07 Times of India

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Friday 13th: Vasco’s day of accidents Airport building gutted

Vasco: A major fire broke out in the terminal building at Dabolim airport on Friday morning, causing heavy loss of property.
The fire broke out at about 8.30 am in the first floor building of the Go-Air Airlines administrative office and quickly spread to the administrative offices of Spice Jet, Indigo Airlines and the empty passenger lounge of Sahara Airlines, which were located in a row.
The Go-Air and Indigo offices were destroyed, while the Spice Jet and the passengers lounge sustained minor damages.
“To our luck, no operations — take off and landing of civilian flights — were in progress at the time of the fire mishap and staff at the airport was considerably less,” said Navy PRO Com Kesari.
Fire brigades from the Navy, Goa Shipyard, Zuari Industrial Ltd, MPT and Goa State Fire Service were pressed into service to quell the flames.
Three crash fire tenders, normally deployed for an aircraft in distress, were rushed to the scene at the civil airport apron to put the fire off.
14/07/07 Herald Publications

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BIAL signs pacts with service providers

Bangalore: Ten months ahead of the formal launch of the new international airport in Devanahalli, the Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL) has inked the key agreements with service providers.
The partners were selected after an extensive technical and financial evaluation, according to BIAL CEO Albert Brunner.
On the Aviation Fuel Facility front, a consortium of Skytanking and IndianOil will build and operate the Fuel Farm and Hydrant System of the airport on an open access basis.
For Ground Handling, a consortium of GlobeGround India and Air-India/Singapore Air Terminal Services (SATS) will provide the services and procure the ground-handling equipment required for operation at the new airport.
BIAL inked another deal on Cargo Facility with two consortia consisting of SATS/Air-India and Bobba Group/Menzies Aviation to build and operate a state-of-the-art general cargo warehouse for both domestic and international cargo.
14/07/07 The Hindu

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Punjab offers land to AAI

New Delhi: Punjab is all set to reap the benefits of a booming aviation industry. The state wants to have new airports at Chandigarh and Ludhiana. It has offered 200 acres of land in the capital city to Airports Authority of India (AAI) for developing the international airport and wants to use half of the land for commercial development. A team of senior aviation ministry officials will visit both the sites this month-end to take a final decision.
"The alignment of existing runway at Ludhiana has to be changed for the development plan to allow movement of bigger planes. The state wants the new airport there to be an essentially cargo one," said a senior official. The combined cost of developing new airports in Ludhiana and Chandigarh is expected to be about Rs 1,000 crore as the land is being offered by the state.
The existing airport at Chandigarh is on a mere 15-acre site and has no scope for further development. That's why the state has offered a new site at Mohali. The AAI is also exploring the possibility of making the Amritsar airport capable of handling the A-380.
14/07/07 Saurabh Sinha/Times of India

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Indian’s Airbus A320 touches down in Visakhapatnam

Visakhapatnam: State-owned air carrier Indian operated its maiden Airbus A320 flight to Visakhapanam on the Mumbai-Hyderabad-Visakhapatnam route on Thursday morning.
This is the second launch of A320 service to the city as it was only on Tuesday Air Deccan introduced a similar brand new aircraft to Kolkata.
Indian’s station manager here R. Rajasekaran said the advantage of the A320 is that it has more seats – 125 economy and 20 business class seats unlike Boeing 737 hitherto operated in this route. The Boeing 737 has only 119 all-economy seats and there is no business class.
Country’s first low cost airliner Air Deccan is operating A320 to Kolkata by removing the business class seats and making the aircraft of all economy class with increased seating capacity of 180.
13/07/07 Agencies/Siasat Daily

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India`s airport charges second highest in Asia

Mumbai: India's airport charges are the second highest among Asian and Gulf airports, after Hong Kong, which is a world-class airport.
International flights pay 33 per cent more than domestic flights landing at the same airport in India while airports of other countries do not have differential tariff.
According to the International Air Travel Association (IATA), aeronautical charges should be cost-based with charging systems that extract only reasonable profits supported by complete, transparent accounts based on standard business prinicples.
For instance, Kuala Lumpur airport charge about $203 for handling a small Airbus A320 aircraft for a three-hour turnaround while Indian airports charge four times more at $1,060 for the same. Airlines will have to pay $2,331 for handling a long haul flight of a Boeing B777 while Kuala Lumpur charges only $753, which is three times lower.
For a Boeing B747 jumbo jet, Indian airports charge $3,471 for for three hour turnaround while Singapore airport charges are 40 per cent lower at $2,476. While Dubai airport charges $1,341 to handle a bigger Airbus A340 plane, Indian airports levy $3,282.
The airport charges include landing, navigational, route and facilitation and parking charges.
13/07/07 P R Sanjai/Business Standard

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Ranchi airport denies ambulance to critically-ill girl

A girl travelling on a Kolkata-Ranchi flight was denied an ambulance by the Birsa Munda Airport officials after she became critically ill. The airport authorities said their rules did not permit them to take her to the hospital outside the premises.
Shruti Bajaj was on Air Deccan Flight SN 573 with her father Suresh Bajaj, when she fell unconscious due to anaphylaxis and was in acute respiratory distress.
Co-passenger Dr Pritish Singh tried to revive her with medicine and oxygen from the aircraft's first aid box. But when the plane landed, the airport ambulance was refused to her.
The airport even lacked life-saving adrenalin, the doctor said.
The Birsa Munda Airport officials blamed Air Deccan for failing to extend proper medical services. The Indian Medical Association has written to Union Civil Aviation Minister Prafulla Patel about the episode.
IMA National vice-president, Dr Ajay Kumar Singh faxed a letter to the Union Minister saying "the ground staff at Birsa Munda Airport was informed about the health crisis in the aircraft. But, the ambulance refused to take the patient to hospital. The doctor attending to the patient asked the airport staff to open the first-aid room but was surprised to find only an oxygen cylinder was available. There was no IV fluid or emergency medicine ".
13/07/07 Namita Tewari/Hindustan Times

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More global airports up for sale

Mumbai: Airport privatisation programmes in several countries, particularly in eastern Europe and central Asia, are throwing up opportunities for Indian airport companies that are widening their areas of operation. The GMR group’s award to operate and build the Sabiha Goksen airport in Turkey may soon be followed by other similar cross-border deals.
According to the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation, an aviation industry think-tank, about $60 billion investment funds is currently chasing airport assets as they become available. The value of an airport is traditionally measured by its Ebitda (Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation) and its sale price is measured as a multiple of the Ebitda.
Recently, airports have been changing hands on Ebitda multiples of up to 30 times, as was the case at Leeds Bradford, which was sold for 145.5 million pounds. Some airports like Hungary’s Budapest Airport have changed hands twice in the last two years, going for 1.5 billion pounds on the first occasion. Apart from traditional airport operators and construction companies, private equity players too have played a significant role in the M&A action at airports.
In India, the two private companies involved in airport modernisation, the GMR group and GVK, are looking to expand their business.
13/07/07 Cuckoo Paul/Economic Times

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No takers for aircraft parking slots at Bajpe

Mangalore: Airlines are not using the Bajpe airport of the Airports Authority of India (AAI) here for overnight parking of aircraft although it was the second customs airport in the State after Bangalore, according to official sources.
Authorities of some airline operators contacted by The Hindu said of the four parking slots at Bajpe three could be easily provided for overnight parking. As there was good passenger traffic to Bangalore and Mumbai, no operator woul d suffer loss because of overnight parking. But no operators came out with the reasons for not using the Bajpe airport, they said. They were not the decision makers.
An authority of a State-owned airline company said approximately 1,000 passengers travelled between Mangalore and Mumbai every day. There are five flight services. Approximately, 650 passengers travel between Mangalore and Bangalore every day as there are four flight services (eight movements). With this passenger traffic, it was profitable to operate late evening or early morning services to Mumbai and Bangalore. Overnight parking would definitely increase the passenger traffic, he said.
13/07/07 The Hindu/Mangalorean.com

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Air India eyeing partner for ground handling

New Delhi: Air India is to tie up with international companies to form a joint venture for taking up ground handling activities at airports in India and abroad, the airline Chairman and Managing Director, Mr V. Thulasidas, has said.
“We already have a joint venture with Singapore Air Terminal Services (SATS) for doing ground handling activities at Hyderabad and Bangalore airport.
“The airline will seek expression of interest for similar activities not only at Indian but also international airports.
The EoI should be issued either this week or the following week,” Mr Thulasidas told Business Line. SATS is a subsidiary of Singapore Airline that provides services including catering, passenger baggage, cargo and ramp handlin g, aircraft interior cleaning, aircraft security and aircraft linen laundry.
Currently, Air India earns more than Rs 550 crore annually from ground handling activities and along with Indian, carry out more than 80 per cent of such activities at airports within the country.
12/07/07 Ashwini Phadnis/Hindu Business Line

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Bangalore’s new airport will build a second runway by 2014

Bangalore: Bangalore International Airport Ltd (Bial), the company that is building a new international airport in India’s tech capital, will construct a second runway as early as 2014, more than a decade before its planned date.
“The second runway was initially planned 10 years later. The traffic is growing so fast, we have revised our estimates and hope to touch 18 million passengers (annually) by 2014,” said Albert Brunner, chief executive of Bial, the holding company for the project.
Bial had earlier projected 10.19 million passengers at the airport by 2010 and 13.92 million passengers by 2015.
Globally, a four-km runway, similar to that of Bial, is designed to handle 18 million passengers, with the exception of the Stansted airport in London, which can carry 26 million passengers.
Bial is a consortium of Siemens Projects Ventures, Larsen and Toubro Ltd, India’s largest engineering company, and Unique Zurich Airport, which operates the international airport at Zurich, Switzerland.
13/07/07 K. Raghu/Livemint

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Indian flight hit by birds in Chennai airport

Chennai: An Indian flight was hit by birds while landing at the airport here Friday morning, delaying its departure to Delhi for nearly two hours.
The aircraft, however, did not suffer any damage due to the bird hit, airport sources said.
The Delhi-Chennai-Delhi flight, hit by two crows, would leave for Delhi two hours behind the schedule of 1010 hours after cleaning and a thorough check, the sources added.
13/07/07 Zee News

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DGCA orders enquiry into Jet Airways landing mishap

New Delhi: The Director General of Civil Aviation has ordered an inquiry into the skidding of a Jet Airways flight from Delhi at the Indore Airport runway. 49 passengers were on board that July 1st flight when the accident occurred.
A Jet Airways airhostess suffered injuries to her spine and 6 other passengers received minor injuries in the accident. The aircraft had skidded off the runway of Indore's Holkar airport, after its wheels broke while landing during heavy rains in the city.
“We are taking the incident seriously as we don’t want to make any compromise on safety measures,” said officials of the Quality Control and Air Safety departments of Air India, along with the DGCA who are to conduct a detailed probe.
Preliminary investigations showed that the aircraft’s wheels and the anti-skid system were fully functional, as it was relatively new with only two years of operation.
12/07/07 CNN-IBN

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Flyer misses plane after check-in

Kolkata: Within 10 days of a Chennai-bound passenger missing his flight after taking the boarding card, there was an encore at the airport yet again on Wednesday evening. Only this time, it was a Bhubaneswar-bound passenger. Both were booked on Air Deccan flights.
Manas Das Pattanaik arrived at the airport at 3.45 pm on Wednesday, in time for the 4.20 pm flight to Bhubaneswar. He registered his baggage and collected the boarding pass — but still missed the flight.
"I had trouble locating the security check counter. There was no Air Deccan staff to help out. By the time I managed to locate it, boarding had already been completed. Though I pleaded with the airline authorities, I was not allowed to board," Pattanaik complained. Now, he plans to move the consumer court.
Air Deccan refuted the claim and said Pattanaik was hanging around the coffee counter at the departure lobby.
13/07/07 Times of India

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