Showing posts with label Airports Jul 2011. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Airports Jul 2011. Show all posts

Sunday, July 31, 2011

AAI to extend runway safety area at airports

In a major move aimed at enhancing aviation safety at airports across the country and preventing accidents such as the Mangalore crash, the state-run Airports Authority of India (AAI) is planning to extend the runway end safety area (RESA) beyond runways at its airports from the current 90 metres to 240 metres. The initial focus will be on elongation of the RESA at the 11 “critical” airports in the country, including Mangalore and Kozhikode. Top AAI sources told this newspaper that the elongation of RESA could cost about `30 crores per airport.
The AAI is consulting aviation experts in the United States currently and is assessing the type of material that should be used for elongation of the RESA. The RESA essentially comprises of soft ground arresters (SGAs) — a special type of sand-like material with gravel — that is capable of stopping the movement of aircraft at high speed within 30 metres. The SGAs are capable of arresting the aircraft movement effectively since the aircraft tyres sink into the SGAs, bringing the aircraft to a rapid halt without damage to the airframe of the aircraft.
31/07/11 Sridhar Kumaraswami/Deccan Chronicle

"Lucky to be alive," say passenger of crashed Caribbean plane

Washington: "I am in pain, but very thankful to be alive," says Geeta Ramsingh, a 41-year-old Indian-origin woman who was among the 163 passengers who miraculously survived a Caribbean Airlines jet crash in Guyana.
Thirty-five of those on board flight BW523 were injured as the Boeing 737-800 plane crashed in Guyana''s Cheddi Jagan International Airport amid rain yesterday.
Recalling the events before the crash, Geeta, who is originally from Guyana but now lives in Philadelphia, said the plane made a hard landing and split into two right behind the first class cabin area.
Geeta said they had begun to applaud the pilot''s landing just after midnight when suddenly things went wrong, Trinidad Express reported.
There were 157 passengers and six crew members on the flight which came from New York, stopped off in Trinidad and was en route to Guyana.
"The plane sped up as if attempting to take off again. It is then that I smelled gas in the cabin and people started to shout and holler," Geeta said.
"A fellow who was trying to escape as well mistakenly jumped on my back and that is why my knees are bruised," she said. "So I am in pain, but very thankful to be alive," she was quoted as saying by AP.
31/07/11 PTI/msn news

Import of aerobridges from China awaits MHA nod

While the new terminal at Indore airport is to be made operational in the first week of August, the one at Lucknow would be operationalised in September with Raipur following closely, the sources said.The Airports Authority of India (AAI) has already completed upgrading of 25 of the 35 identified non-metro airports. The new terminal at Chennai airport is slated to be ready by December, while the one in Kolkata is scheduled to be completed by March next year. The total valuation of the Chennai airport project works is estimated to be about Rs 2,015 crore, while that of the Kolkata modernisation project is Rs 2,300 crore. With airlines ordering more aircraft and air traffic estimated to double in the next few years, the capacity of airports have to be enhanced at a fast pace. The officials said the country needed to at least double the airport and runway capacities in the next three years to support these trends.
31/07/11 IBN Live

AAI pitches in to help develop second phase of Jaipur airport

Jaipur: The Airports Authority of India (AAI) has agreed to give 50 per cent compensation for the land to be acquired for the development of Jaipur Airport terminal building. For this purpose the authorities will be acquiring 60 acres of land in the second phase.
The information was given at a meeting organised to discuss developmental work of airports in the state on Friday.
The meeting was chaired by chief secretary Salauddin Ahmad and attended by chairman of AAI VP Agarwal, principal secretary of industries Sunil Arora, principal secretary of civil aviation Kiran Soni Gupta, commissioner of bureau of investment Purshottam Agarwal, district collector Naveen Mahajan and director of airports RK Singh along with other senior officers. AAI requested to transfer the land to the authority at the earliest so that extension work of runway can be completed.
31/07/11 Daily Bhaskar.com

Flight sheds woman after row over baggage

Ahmedabad: Lata Bhatt had hoped to fly to Delhi from Ahmedabad on Saturday morning, but instead landed in a disagreeable situation. Bhatt had booked a ticket on Air India IC817 Ahmedabad-Delhi flight that departs at 8.10 am. However, she was unable to board the aircraft after she got into an argument over excess baggage with airline officials. Bhatt moved to Osaka, in Japan, from Ahmedabad 10 years ago and had booked a connecting flight to Osaka from Delhi on Saturday night.
Bhatt said that she was carrying around 15 kg more than permitted, for which airline officials asked for more than Rs 10,000. "I am a frequent flier with Air India and am allowed to carry 10 kg extra and was ready to pay for the additional 5 kg," she said. "But they made an unreasonable demand of Rs 10,000. I told them I had a connecting Air India flight from Delhi to Osaka at 10 pm on Saturday. But they refused to heed my concerns and didn't allow me to board the flight."
"I contacted airport manager R Bagde who got a ticket on an Indigo Airlines flight that departs at 10.30 am. I paid Rs 1,500 to Indigo Airlines for the 15 kg extra baggage," Bhatt said.
31/07/11 Times of India

Airport crash victim a devoted father and husband

The cabdriver who died after a horrific crash at Victoria International Airport is described as a devoted father and husband who worked hard to make sure his three children had a good education.
Ramesh Sharma, 57, died Friday night from injuries received in the crash earlier that day.
“He was the person who always worked hard,” said Sushil Hira, one of the owners of Yellow Cab where Sharma had driven for the last 15 years. Sharma was his closest friend.
Sharma’s 23-year-old son and 24-year-old daughter are in university. A 17-year-old daughter is in high school. He and his wife own a home in Saanich.
Sharma was in the middle of his usual 11-hour work day when the group, chatting and playing cards at a picnic table, was hit by an out-of-control white sedan just before 1 p.m. Friday.
The car sped in a straight line from the airport’s short-term parking lot, jumped a curb, crossed Electra Boulevard (the terminal access road), jumped another curb onto a raised berm and smashed through a wood-and-concrete picnic table where the Yellow Cab drivers often sit.
The car clipped a luggage-cart stand and shot through the airport’s staff parking lot exit before running into the corner of the security building, some 40 metres from the picnic tables. The tables are on a high median to the east of the airport building and short-term parking.
What caused the crash is under investigation by Sidney RCMP as well as RCMP traffic reconstruction officers.
30/07/11 Kim Westad/Timescolonist.com/Vancouver Sun

New Delhi-Kolkata flight arrives

Kanpur: The New Delhi-Kanpur-Kolkata flight arrived at Chakeri Airport on Saturday after remaining cancelled for first five days.
The flight reached 10 minutes late. It then flew for Kolkata, the next destination. Only 18 passengers boarded the flight from Delhi for Chakeri. This shows that their is a dip in the number of passengers boarding the flight. When the New Delhi-Kanpur-Kolkata flight was regular, the number of passengers used to go beyond 30. An Air India official said that the cancellation of flight for so many days has adversely affected the clientele.
31/07/11 Times of India

Man goes missing from IGI

New Delhi: A man, who was reportedly offloaded from a New York-bound Air India flight in the wee hours of Saturday, mysteriously disappeared from the terminal, leaving the police and airport staff in a tizzy. He was offloaded at 1.30am, but the police officers were alerted about this at 2.30pm only. Sources said the man was offloaded for allegedly possessing a forged passport.
30/07/11 Times of India

13/7 cited to demand flights for Surat

Surat: The 13/7 blasts of Mumbai have lent urgency to Surat's demand for better air connectivity. Most of Surat's small and medium-sized diamond polishers and traders operating from Mumbai say they would relocate to Surat if it gets regular flights to Mumbai and other metros. As of now, the diamond city has only one flight a day, to Delhi and back.
Devsinhbhai Bhadiyadra, a medium diamond manufacturer who owns a small trading office at Shreeji Plaza in South Mumbai's Opera House, said, "As Surat lacks proper air connectivity, we have no other option but to set up trading offices at Opera House where polished diamond buyers from across the world converge."
According to him, 80 per cent of small and medium diamond traders would shift to Surat if it got direct flights from Mumbai, also for the reason that real estate is too costly in Mumbai; owning a decent office and residence in Mumbai costs anywhere between Rs 5 crore and Rs 6 crore.
Of course, there is the option of shifting to the fortress-like building of the Bharat Diamond Bourse in Mumbai's Bandra-Kurla Complex, but small diamond traders, who have an annual turnover of Rs 50 crore to Rs 100 crore, find it unaffordable.
30/07/11 Melvyn Thomas/Times of India

Saturday, July 30, 2011

Airports for Gujarat's Dwarka, Ambaji soon

Ahmedabad: The state government is set to start developing four new airports in the state. The Airports Authority of India (AAI), New Delhi, is said to have cleared the techno-economic feasibility report for the airports, which will be constructed at Dwarka, Ambaji, Palitana and Ankleshwar.
According to highly placed sources, after August 15, the state civil aviation department will appoint consultancy firms to analyse the various aspects of developing these airports. Officials said that there are 16 consultancies out of which a couple of firms will be short-listed for the purpose.
“Prima facie the AAI officials have given the green signal of airfields at these four locations. There are other formalities that we have to seek including the design and cost of construction for which we will be relying on the consultancy firms,” said an official.
Chief minister Narendra Modi had announced the development of 11 new airports across the state in the near future at major tourist destinations, especially religious destinations like Palitana in Bhavnagar, Dwarka in Jamnagar and Ambaji in Banaskantha district.
30/07/11 Satish Jha/Daily News & Analysis

Some time to go before ATCs can breathe easy

Mumbai: For overworked Air traffic controllers (ATCs), the reworking of their rest rules by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation ( DGCA)) might have spelt relief, but due to staff shortage, they will have to wait till the end of the year before the n e w norms are implemented. At present, 210 ATCs work at Mumbai airport against a required strength of 400. At Delhi airport, too, ATCs are half the required strength. As per an internal assessment done by the Airports Authority of India (AAI) in 2009, the c o u n t r y needed 4,600 ATCs. But at present, the number working is only about 1,500. Unless the shortfall is met, the reworked ATC rest norms like an increase in shift, compulsory weekly offs and work on rotation cannot take effect.
"It will be impossible to implement the reworked norms without sufficient manpower. In Mumbai, we will need at least 40 more ATCs to even set the ball rolling. To improve the efficiency of ATCs, and of the airport in general, we need 250 additional people. The staff requirement for an optimal functioning of the airport is larger," said a senior ATC. "Because of the staff shortage, ATCs do not get a clear day off at present. It must, however, be said that they (ATCs at Mumbai airport) get a due number of hours of rest between shifts."
30/07/11 Times of India

DGCA pill for sleepless ATCs

Mumbai:: Air traffic controllers (ATCs), the overworked, unsung heroes of aviation, have at last a reason to smile. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has reduced the working week for ATCs from 42 to 36 hours and reworked their rest rules, to be followed at all airports in the country. But the reworked norms are unlikely to be implemented before next year because of staff shortage.
The new norms are on a par with those of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). They stipulate work in five shifts against the current practice of four and mandatory weekly offs as opposed to no specifications for offs at present. An official of the Airports Authority of India (AAI; the DGCA reworked the ATC norms along with it) said the rules intend to give breathing space to overworked ATCs who go without proper rest. He said ATC fatigue is a major cause of accidents and so the new norms translate into passenger safety. "ATCs in Australia, the UK and the US follow rules similar to the DGCAs reworked norms. That ATCs in Western countries enjoy better work conditions has always been a matter of discussion for the AAI and the DGCA."
Explaining the rule for shifts, he said: "Let's say that on day one, one batch does afternoon duty, from 1 pm to 8 pm. On day two, this batch will be on morning duty, from 8 am to 1 am. On day three, it will be on night duty, from 8 pm to 8 am the next day. Day five will be off, when another batch will be working.
30/07/11 Chinmayi Shalya/Times of India

Nizam-era airport faces neglect

Mamnoor (Warangal): The largest pre-Independence era airport, built by the Nizams at Mamnoor in Warangal district may be now set to do a vanishing act soon, thanks to the apathy of the authorities.
While local residents continue to battle for the development of the airport, to bring it to current AAI specifications, political leaders and other public representatives are allegedly conspiring with corporations to use the land for other purposes.
The Warangal MP is also recommending handing over of the land to Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) to build a facility for helicopter manufacturing, a move that is creating no small tension in the district.
District collector B Rahul confirmed that the Warangal MP had requested him to forward the letter to the principal secretary of industries for transferring the land to Hindustan Aeronautics Limited. On Thursday, hundreds of women participated in a rally to the Mamnoor airport runway, in a protest where they also used 'rangolis' to express themselves against the move.
30/07/11 Times of India

BJP protests poor connectivity at Surat airport, blocks runway

Surat: Air-India's Surat-Delhi flight was delayed by an hour here after BJP MPs and party workers sat down on the runway in front of the flight protesting against poor air-connectivity to the city, police said.Two BJP MPs, Surat city Mayor and hundreds of party workers entered the airport and sat down on the runway of the airport here, they said.So far political parties and other groups used agitational programmes like rail blockades and road blockades as a form of protest, this might be for the first time that air-plane blockade programme was used as a form of agitation, police added.The BJP workers were detained by the police to clear the runway and to facilitate takeoff of the Delhi-bound flight which was delayed by over an hour, Airport Authority of India officials said.
29/07/11 IBN Live

NRI doc gets back lost bag at Patna airport

Patna: An airport staff at the city's Jayaprakash Narayan International airport found and returned a bag containing gold ornaments to a UK-based NRI doctor. The incident took place late on Friday evening.
Syed Nayyar Afaque, who is a native of Muzaffarpur district, took the JetLite S2-289 Patna-Delhi flight, to take a connecting flight to London. But due to rush, Nayyar forgot to collect one of his bags post X-ray at the Jet Airway's counter. Unaware of the loss, Nayyar boarded the flight at 7.30pm and reached Delhi.
Soon, an Airports Authority of India staff saw the bag lying unclaimed at the airport terminal building and handed it over to Airport Terminal Manager Awadhesh Kumar.
"When we opened the bag we were surprised to see that it contained several gold ornaments," Awadhesh, who personally informed Nayyar about it, told TOI.
30/07/11 Alok K N Mishra/Times of India

Friday, July 29, 2011

SpiceJet plane hits parked IndiGo

New Delhi: An IndiGo Airbus 320 was damaged after a SpiceJet Boeing 737 hit its fuselage while taxiing out from the parking bay of the Indira Gandhi International Airport early Thursday.
There were no passengers on board both aircraft at the time of the incident. A probe has been ordered to pin-point responsibility.
The incident took place around 2 am when a SpiceJet aircraft, while taxiing out from Bay 15, struck the IndiGo plane parked at Bay 1.
The right side of the IndiGo aircraft’s fuselage was hit, resulting in a structural damage of the flight recorder access door area, a spokesperson for IndiGo said.
SpiceJet’s Boeing 737, which was being taken out for maintenance, also suffered damage. Sources said the aircraft’s winglet was damaged.
29/07/11 Indian Express

AAI reviews security after breach at Juhu aerodrome

A security breach at the Juhu aerodrome last week — where at least two people were found in the operational area in the dead of the night without any identification or entry pass — has prompted the Airport Authority of India (AAI) to review its security cordon around the facility and replace some of the guards at the entrance.
“As of now, the guards have been taken off duty from the main gate and shifted to a location inside, but we have informed the Maharashtra State Guard Board, which is responsible for the security at Juhu airport, that some of the guards may have to be removed,” an official said. The incident occurred last Monday when an actor and two others, one of whom is an employee of a helicopter company based out of the Juhu aerodrome, reportedly gained access without any entry pass or a vehicle permit.
They were allegedly driving around the runway and the operational area in a vehicle a little after 2 am, despite the heavy downpour. This caught the attention of the guards near the ONGC helipad, who swung into action and questioned them.
29/07/11 Indian Express

Jet Airways to begin Sharjah-Thiruvananthapuram daily services

Dubai: Jet Airways has announced daily flights from Sharjah to Thiruvananthapuram from October 30.
The airline currently operates a daily flight from Sharjah to Kochi and the addition of another daily service will further enhance its growing international network.
The flight 9W 569 will deploy Boeing 737-800 aircraft on this new route, offering 16 Premiere and 138 Economy seats.
Jet Airways currently operates to 24 international destinations.
With this additional flight between Sharjah and India, business customers of Jet Airways can avail themselves of the choice of timings throughout the day between UAE and India, the airlines said.
29/07/11 PTI/Business Line

Fliers a harried lot

Kanpur: Despite the fact that the New Delhi-Kanpur-Kolkata flight would arrive at Chakeri on Saturday, the passengers are not benefited.
It already remained cancelled for two days in the last week (on Thursday and Friday) due to the mishap which had taken place on Wednesday. In the ongoing week, the flight did not come on the first five days. On Sunday, there is no flight and its arrival on Monday is also doubtful, the passengers have to bank upon other flights from Amausi Airport for reaching their destinations.
This is not only causing revenue loss to Air India, but also to the passengers, who now seem to be convinced that there is still some time to go for the New Delhi-Kanpur-Kolkata flight to get regular.
Faraz, a frequent traveller between Kanpur and New Delhi, expressed dissatisfaction over the cancellation of the AI 9801 flight for so many days.
29/07/11 Times of India

Aviation regulator freezes helicopter operations at Mumbai's Racecourse

Mumbai: The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has suspended all helicopter operations at the Mahalaxmi Racecourse here, after a safety audit revealed it lacked fire-fighting facilities and was functioning without required regulatory approvals.
On Monday, DGCA officials and the Rotary Wing Society of India regional president, Uday Geli, had inspected the helipad. It is widely used by companies such as the Reliance, Raymond and Bajaj groups. Both the Ambani brothers use this helipad daily to travel to their offices in Navi Mumbai. It sees 15-20 flights daily.
Helicopter operations are not permitted at Mumbai airport. Most operators use ferry flights from Juhu to Mahalaxmi. “They pick up passengers from Mahalaxmi and transport them to the destination,’’ an aviation source said.
28/07/11 Business Standard

Bad weather in Pink City delays chopper take-off

Jaipur: Pakistan's foreign minister Hina Rabbani Khar, who was on her way to the Ajmer dargah, had to wait at the Jaipur airport for at least 45 minutes on Thursday afternoon due to bad weather in city.
"Her aircraft landed at 12.25 in the afternoon. There was poor visibility due to rain and there was also formation of electrically charged clouds at the international terminal. It lasted for 20 minutes. Later when it was cleared, similar conditions were found at Ajmer for the next 25 minutes. Thus, her chopper could not took off for the initial 45 minutes," said R K Singh, director, Airports Authority of India, Jaipur.
The poor weather initially made the authorities attending the eight-member Pakistani delegation to work out something like a short visit to Jaipur city.
29/07/11 Ashish Mehta/Times of India

Man hides swanky watches, but alert customs flush it out

New Delhi: A man hid five Breitling for Bentley dials in his rectum after landing at the IGI Airport - a desperate attempt to smuggle expensive watches into the country. However, airport authorities saw through the trick and intercepted him before he could exit the terminal.
Customs officials said they had specific information that a passenger named Shadab Khan would be carrying watches and memory cards. Khan, described as a tall, lean man, flew down from Hong Kong on an Air India flight (AI-315) on Wednesday.

"We had information that he would try and bring watches and memory cards into Delhi. Accordingly, our men started trailing him from the aircraft itself. Once out of the plane, he walked into a toilet instead of heading for the immigration counters," said Ashutosh Baranwal, additional commissioner, customs, IGI Airport.
He added: "When he walked out, our officials went inside and found butter paper. From that, we concluded that he must have crammed the watches up his rectum using butter and soap."
29/07/11 Times of India

Thursday, July 28, 2011

Now, SpiceJet plans intrastate flights

Ahmedabad: After Deccan Charters Ltd's (DCL) plan to offer connectivity between Gujarat cities landed in trouble over permissions, SpiceJet - India's second largest low-cost airline - is planning to start intercity flights in the state.
SpiceJet is currently surveying road, rail and air traffic between Gujarat cities. DCL had announced air connectivity between Gujarat cities with non-scheduled flights, with Ahmedabad and Surat acting as hubs. SpiceJet, however, plans to start scheduled flights with 90-seater Q400 Bombardier planes.
"Once the survey is complete, we will decide on the routes, carry out some research on business figures and begin operations," said SpiceJet's official spokesperson. The airline has already selected Hyderabad as the base for its regional operations.
28/07/11 Ankur Jain/Times of India

Now, land here and get instant tourism tips

Indore: Tourism department has been allotted space at the upcoming international air terminal for dispensing information not only on state but on all tourist destinations of India.
Madhya Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation (MPSTDC) regional manager Vivek Mathur said, "After the recent visit of high ranking officials from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), we were called and asked to select space for setting up a booth office." Continuing, he added the initiative, in this direction, had come as part of a scheme from the Union tourism ministry for setting up such centres for facilitating tourist travel.
As per sources, apart from information on all tourist destinations, facilities of online hotel booking would be available. MPSTDC has tied up with private hotels where it does not have its own hotels. Emphasis would be on star rated hotels providing luxury amenities and western dining.
29/07/11 Daily Bhaskar.com

Noise levels in and around airport fixed by regulator

New Delhi Following Delhi High Court’s intervention, the air safety regulator has prescribed maximum permissible noise levels in the vicinity of the Indira Gandhi International Airport. It has also put the onus of monitoring and reporting of erring airlines on the airport operator, on a monthly basis.
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has capped the maximum noise levels created by aircraft during day at 105 decibels and 95 decibels during night, according to a circular issued by it a fortnight ago. These limits will be enforced till the Central Pollution Control Board — the nodal government body for specifying noise levels — notifies new ones. The levels will be applicable to foreign carriers too, the circular has specified. Earlier, Residents’ Welfare Associations of Vasant Kunj and the Indian Spinal Injuries Centre had petitioned the court that the noise created by approaching aircraft was disturbing them.
28/07/11 Smita Aggarwal/ExpressIndia

Panel formed to inspect areas close to IGI

New Delhi: In a move that could spell more trouble for IGI Airport management Delhi International Airport (P) Ltd (DIAL), the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) has set up a 10-member committee to carry out security inspection of the hospitality sector and other areas in close proximity of the airport. The review with suggestions from the committee has to be submitted to BCAS at the earliest.
The committee comprises the commissioner of security (civil aviation) chairman, CISF DG, a director from the ministry of civil aviation, one BCAS representative from the headquarters, a representative each from the information bureau, RAW, Air Force, Delhi Police and Airports Authority of India, general manager (security) BCAS and if and when needed, a representative from DIAL.
28/07/11 Times of India

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

AAI defends joint venture deals at Delhi airport

The creation of joint ventures by Delhi International Airport Ltd (DIAL) has not impacted its revenue share, says the Airports Authority of India (AAI).
It has written a letter saying so to the civil aviation ministry and the Airports Economic Regulatory Authority (AERA).
"Our non-aeronautical revenue never included any share in the revenue earned from the sale of goods inside the terminal. All we got was the rental for using that space, which has not impacted yet," said a senior AAI official, who did not want to be identified.
The clarification comes at a time when questions have been raised on whether the formation of a JV by DIAL led to revenue losses for AAI. Both AERA and the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) have raised concerns on the issue.
Delhi airport is owned by a consortium. The GMR Group owns 50.1 per cent, AAI owns 26 per cent, Fraport AG and Malaysia Airports hold 10 per cent each, and India Development Fund owns 3.9 per cent. DIAL (run by GMR) is supposed to share 46 per cent of total revenue with AAI.
DIAL has created 11 JVs to operate various non-aeronautical businesses. Its share in the JVs range from 26 to 50 per cent and the revenue share is 15 to 25 per cent.
27/07/11 Business Standard/Rediff.com

AAI seek Navratna status

New Delhi: MMTC and Airport Authority of India are the new PSU aspirants for the coveted Navratna status which gives greater operational autonomy, a senior official has said.
The criteria for granting the Navratna status is based on a composite score system. The PSUs are accorded scores on different performance parameters like net profit, networth and manpower cost to total cost of production.
Though the AAI, which was set up under an Act of Parliament, does not qualify for the status, the parameters themselves may be rationalised, DPE Secretary Bhaskar Chatterjee said here yesterday.
27/07/11 Economic Times

Delhi airport’s T3 completes one year

New Delhi: India’s swankiest and largest terminal — T3 — at the Indira Gandhi International Airport here completes one year of operations Thursday.
Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL), the company which operates the airport, said the completion of one year of successful operations would be commemorated by various events.
‘To commemorate the event, a grand shopping festival is being held inside the terminal where passengers can avail offers and discounts up to 50 percent at the retail and food and beverages outlets,’ DIAL said in a statement.
The festival will be on till Aug 8. Besides, a live musical performance will also be organised inside the terminal to mark the occasion.
27/08/11 IANS/News One

Emirates flight makes emergency landing in Mumbai

A Dubai-bound Emirates flight with 202 passengers and crew onboard on Wednesday made an emergency landing in Mumbai, more than 20 minutes after takeoff following a technical snag
Dubai: A Dubai-bound Emirates flight with 186 passengers on board was forced into making an emergency landing Wednesday at Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport shortly after take-off owing to technical problems with one of its engines.
Confirming the incident, an Emirates spokesperson told Gulf News in a statement: "Emirates flight EK507 Mumbai to Dubai returned to Mumbai airport shortly after take-off due to a technical issue. The A330 aircraft landed at Mumbai airport without incident shortly after its initial departure."
27/07/11 GulfNews

Jaipur Aerotropolis to get new cargo airport and higspeed rail link

India’s Jaipur airport city is continuing its expansion with a new international cargo airport being built near the town of Alwar, along the Delhi–Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC).
The new cargo airport will be located in Neemrana on the Jaipur–Delhi highway and will be linked up to a high–speed train service running between Alwar and Delhi.
According to reports in the local media, a government source said the airport would be built between the villages of Ajarka and Kotkasingh which “would allow industries to along the DMIC freight corridor, as well as businesses in Neemrana, Shahjahanpur, Bhiwadi and Behror, to ship their cargo directly to foreign countries.”
Sunil Arora, chairman of Rajasthan State Industrial Development and Investment Corp Ltd (RIICO), said that the investment in infrastructure would propel Alwar forward as a major business hub of India.
27/07/11 Global Airport Cities

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Delhi airport a sitting duck for terror attacks

New Delhi: Breaches in the perimeter fence of the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) and the construction of a hospitality zone close to one of the runways make the busy city airport vulnerable to a high-profile terror attack.
A portion of the airport's boundary wall has been razed to facilitate transportation of construction material to a 45-acre hospitality hub called Aerocity inside the airport premises. A cluster of luxury hotels is coming up on the site barely 150-200m from the main runway.
Terrorists can easily sneak into the airport through this opening, left unguarded, and blow up aircraft or critical installations. The Headlines Today team managed to reach the site without once being challenged along the way. With more than 10 five-star hotels and malls being constructed there, nobody checks who is coming in or going out.
The site is dangerously close to some highly sensitive areas of the airport such as the localiser, an aircraft navigation aid located near the runway. From this spot, a terrorist can have a direct shot at a landing aircraft.
Besides, the Delhi Police fear terrorists would be able to launch attacks on the airport from rooftops or rooms of hotels coming up in Aerocity. The police say security clearance has not been given to the hospitality zone.
But the Delhi International Airport Ltd (DIAL), a consortium which is modernising the city airport led by GMR Infrastructure Limited, claims all necessary permission has been obtained.
26/07/11 Atir Khan/India Today

Monday, July 25, 2011

Kerala govt to take call on second airport in Kozhikode: AAI

Kozhikode: The Airport Authority of India is ready to conduct feasibility study on the demand for a new international greenfield airport in Kozhikode district if the Kerala government comes up with the proposal, a top AAI official said here.
"There is reasonable growth potential available even in the present airport. But always another airport, if possible, in the country is welcome," V P Agarwal, Chairman, Airport Authority of India, said.
"The call is to be taken by the state government whether they want it and how they want it. If the state government wants us to do the study, we will do the study," he said.
The existing Kozhikode International Airport at nearby Karripur, is a 'critical' airport, he said, adding that does not mean the airport is unsafe to operate. "By no standard, it is unsafe we are having sufficient protection for the safe operations at the Kozhikode airport," he said.
Kozhikode airport is presently operating at 2.2 million (passenger) capacity and comfortably could go upto 20 million. "There is reasonable growth potential," he said.
24/07/11 Zee News

Air services to Kargil set to take off

Jammu : The civil aviation ministry has approved a proposal for operating flights between Srinagar and Kargil in Jammu and Kashmir -- a move that will help the residents of the mountain-locked town connect to rest of the world, an official said Monday.
Sources in the civil aviation ministry said the ministry and Air India officials met the state government representatives last week, and decided to start the service at the earliest.
Air India will operate small aircraft on the route, especially during the winter months when the close of Zojilla pass on the Srinagar-Leh highway leaves the entire Ladakh division cut off from rest of the world for almost six months.
Kargil, in Ladakh division, was in the news in the summer of 1999 when Pakistani troops entered into the Indian side and occupied the bunkers overlooking the strategic 434-km long Srinagar-Leh highway. The Indian troops took 50 days to evict the Pakistanis from the Himalayan heights.
25/07/11 IANS/TwoCircles.net

Clouds darken for Kingfisher, AAI may encash dues cheques

New Delhi: Kingfisher Airlines, which has been struggling to pay mounting dues to airports and aviation turbine fuel (ATF) suppliers for some time, has a new problem at hand.
Last week, some of its flights were suspended during the evening rush hour from Delhi and other airports due to alleged non-payment of dues to Hindustan Petroleum Corp (HPCL). And now, the Airports Authority of India (AAI) is threatening to encash undated cheques worth Rs130 crore from Kingfisher unless the airline pays up its dues. While some government officials put the AAI dues at Rs196 crore, others said it’s more like Rs205 crore.
A top government official said a recent AAI board meeting even discussed grounding Kingfisher flights for non-payment. “Some members felt flights should be grounded. Unlike other airlines, Kingfisher has not even given bank guarantees which can be encashed. But grounding flights is a harsh move. Unless something is done urgently, AAI is likely to enchash the cheques.”
25/07/11 Sindhu Bhattacharya/Daily News & Analysis

Voluntarily report on hard landing: Air India

New Delhi: National carrier Air India has finally learnt some lessons from the Mangalore crash. The airline recently asked pilots to voluntarily report hard landings so that engineering action could be taken on the aircraft body for safety while assuring them that they wouldn't be punished for not gently gliding down.
AI had some years back warned its pilots against hard landings and used to take action against them for this. The commander of the ill-fated AI Express flight that crashed last May in Mangalore had also been pulled up for hard and then an attempted soft landing in Mangalore cost him a substantial length of the runway. The Boeing 737 could neither stop not take off again safely in the remaining length of the airstrip, leading to the crash that saw 158 casualties.
The corrective action, in fact, came on May 18, 2011, -- four days before the first anniversary of the Mangalore crash - when AI's ED-flight safety, Captain Subodh Nigam, wrote a letter to all pilots. "Several hard landings have not been reported by pilots. This neglect is detrimental to safety of all concerned... It is pertinent to highlight that punitive action has never been intended/recommended for hard landings... All pilots are advised to voluntarily report hard landings for appropriate follow-up action in interest of safety."
25/07/11 Saurabh Sinha/Times of India

Illegal high-rises up near runway

Hyderabad: Large scale unauthorised construction of high-rise buildings in the funnel zone of the Begumpet Airport is going on at Fatehnagar and its surroundings and the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation is doing nothing about it.
Buildings with three and more floors have come up in Fatehnagar, where the runway of the airport ends. Owners of various such buildings said they had got permission from GHMC to construct the buildings.
“These days, the aircraft do not take off or land on this side of the runway. And VVIPs’ flights land and take off mostly from the Paradise and Bowenpally-side runway,” the owners said.
However, VVIP aircraft arrive from both directions depending on the destination from which they approach the city.
Local residents, however, maintained that they had not violated the sanctioned building plans.
There are many buildings that have already been constructed and several more are coming up in the funnel zone.
25/07/11 Mohammed Shareef M.P/Deccan Chronicle

Wheels of aircraft replaced

Kanpur: An 11-member team of Air India continued the maintenance of the aircraft. The CRJ-700 flight had an abrupt landing at Chakeri Airport on Wednesday.
On Saturday, the wheels of the aircraft were replaced with the new ones. Several vital components were also changed in the aircraft. A senior Air India official said that these parts had been brought to Chakeri Airport from Delhi and Kolkata. Presently, the maintenance of the 70-seater aircraft was going on and possibly it would be flown to New Delhi on Monday for carrying out further tests.
It is expected that the maintenance work would continue on Sunday.
The aircraft skidded off the runway while landing at Chakeri Airport had and its wheels got stuck in the mud.
24/07/11 Times of India

Flight lands in the absence of ILS

Kanpur: Though the New Delhi-Kapur-Kolkata flight resumed from Saturday but it landed at Chakeri Airport in the absence of the Instrument Landing System (ILS).
The 70-seater CRJ-700 aircraft with 53 passengers and five crew members landed at Chakeri Airport but at that time the antenna of the ILS was not working. TOI had mentioned on July 22 that the ILS had got damaged when New Delhi-Kanpur-Kolkata flight had hit its antenna. This had happened when the aircraft had skidded.
24/07/11 Times of India

Sunday, July 24, 2011

Air taxi service to steel towns from August

Kolkata: Sometime mid-August, Kolkata will become the first city in the country to offer air taxi service to steel towns in the regions.
DTDS-a Bangalore-based tour travel operator-has tied up with Kolkata-based non-scheduled airline Spirit Air that has two business aircrafts to operate air taxi service to Bokaro, Rourkela, Durgapur, Burnpur and Jamshedpur. The company has already held talks with Steel Authority of India Ltd and Tata Steel, the two companies that have steel plants in these towns.
"We will be offering regular air taxi service to the steel towns from Kolkata with flying time of 40 minutes for Burnpur and Durgapur; 70 minutes to Jamshedpur and Bokaro and 90 minutes to Rourkela. While we will begin with three-four flights a week to each destination, the frequency will be increased if there is demand," a DTDS official said.While all other towns have airfields, flights to Durgapur will land at Panagarh, 15 km away.
There are two types of aircraft that can be deployed according to the requirement-Cessna Hawk (pilot plus three passengers) and Cessna Grand Caravan (pilot plus 9 passengers).
The first flights are expected to be Bokaro and Durgapur, followed by Jamshedpur, Rourkela and Burnpur.
24/07/11 Times of India

AAI may issue notices to Kingfisher on airport dues

New Delhi: Airports Authority of India may consider issuing notices to Kingfisher Airlines to expeditiously clear its dues for non-payment of airport charges, totalling around Rs 200 crore.
“We may consider issuing them notices to clear their dues fast,” senior officials said here when asked what the AAI wanted to do to get the Vijay Mallya-owned airline pay up.
The officials ruled out grounding of the airline on this count saying such a move would be “a very harsh decision” and hit the air travellers.
When contacted, a Kingfisher spokesperson said, “As a matter of policy, we do not comment on supplier and partner relationships.”
Kingfisher had last month paid Rs 20 crore to AAI as part-clearance of its dues for April and May, the officials said, adding its total dues stood around Rs 205 crore for services and facilities rendered during the past six months.
24/07/11 The Hindu

Airport ‘order’ plea

Calcutta: Calcutta airport authorities today requested the state government to ensure law and order, a day after six senior officials were gheraoed for six hours by a Trinamul Congress-backed staff union.
Airport director B.P. Sharma met home secretary G.D. Gautama and briefed him about yesterday’s incident. “We have also written to the North 24-Parganas’ administration requesting it to take steps to ensure law and order at the airport,” a senior airport official said.
The officials cited orders issued by Calcutta and Delhi high courts in 2000 and 2006, respectively, in which demonstrations and agitations within 500 metres of any international airport were banned.
Yesterday, 50-odd airport employees, all members of the Trinamul-backed Airport Authority of India Staff Workers’ Union, had gheraoed two general managers from 1pm to 7pm demanding that disciplinary action against five employees be revoked.
The agitators also demanded that two contract workers whose entry permits to the terminal buildings had been withdrawn following charges of pilferage, be allowed access to the cargo handling area.
23/07/11 The Telegraph

Site for Ahmedabad's tallest 60-level building may be changed

Ahmedabad: Will Ahmedabad get its first 60-storey building along the banks of the Sabarmati river?
Even as the Sabarmati Riverfront Development Corporation Limited (SRFDL) proposes the city's tallest building on reclaimed land under the project, there might be a change in the original location, Dudheswar.
The uncertainty of constructing a 60-storey building in Dudheswar comes after studying two aspects- necessary clearance from the Airport Authority of India (AAI) and auction of the land near Dudheswar where the building is planned under the Sabarmati Riverfront project.
A senior SRFDCL official told DNA that the plan of having Ahmedabad's tallest building would stay intact even as they seek to shift it to another location.
“First we need to see the response at the time of auction of the reclaimed land for commercial use. The decision on the location of the building will be decided according to buyers' choice. If they wish, the location for the tallest building will also be changed,” said the official.
23/07/11 Daily News & Analysis

Saturday, July 23, 2011

Plane spotting boys dialed 100 to report aircraft was on fire

New Delhi: Five friends who were partying on a rooftop at south Delhi's Shivalik area in the wee hours of Sunday morning got the shock of their lives when they spotted a small fire in the engine of an aircraft flying overhead. At first they couldn't believe their eyes but immediately called the police helpline to report the incident.
The aircraft, an Air India AI 101 from Delhi to New York, was already preparing to make an emergency landing at the airport. Airline officials, while claiming that there was no fire in the engine, said that the pilot had reported a technical snag in the right engine shortly after take-off and had asked to return to Delhi.
"This was a long haul flight and with respect to safety it made sense for the pilot to return. The flight landed without any problem," said an airline official. Airport sources explained that since the aircraft had taken off for a long distance flight it was full of fuel and the weight of the aircraft would not have permitted it to land. "As is normal procedure in such cases, the pilot had to jettison the fuel out of the aircraft to reduce its weight. Only then would it have been able to land," said an official. The five friends, Himanshu Soni, Manan Soni, Kartik Bhandari, Jaideep Basni and Moulik Ghelani, who reported the incident were called back by Delhi police to thank them for their quick thinking.
23/07/11 Times of India

Decongest bid at airport

Air India’s ATR operations at the Calcutta airport will shift from the domestic to the international wing from July 25 in a bid to provide more space to domestic passengers.
AI officials said the airline operates six ATR aircraft every day on an average, all flying to various destinations in the Northeast.
“Other domestic flights of Air India will operate from the domestic terminal as usual,” said a statement issued by the airline.
23/07/11 The Telegraph

Ill-fated AI aircraft sent for maintenance

Kanpur: After several hours of hard work, the New Delhi-Kanpur-Kolkata aircraft which had ploughed into the muddy field after skidding off the runway while landing at Chakeri airport on Wednesday, was brought back on the track and sent for maintenance on Friday.
A joint team of Air Force and Army personnel took out the stuck-up aircraft from the mud with the help of a crane.
The aircraft was then taken to apron and an 8-member team of Air India began its maintenance work.
It is expected that the maintenance work would continue till Sunday after which the aircraft would be flown to New Delhi.
The aircraft was moving at a high speed even after landing on the runway on Wednesday.
Had it not halted due to the mound of mud in the adjacent fields, the aircraft would have hit the boundary wall of the airport leading to some major mishap.
22/07/11 Times of India

Srinagar land scam: Over hundred acres of airfield sold

Srinagar: Shocking as it may sound, India's most security-sensitive airfield the Srinagar Air Force Station and International Airport has been on sale for four years, and till recently nobody knew about it!
NDTV has exclusive documents that show bit by bit more than 100 acres of the 2,300-acre airfield has been sold to private players by land sharks who bribed their way through the Defence Estates Office and the government's Revenue Department.
These corrupt officials cleared sale agreements in such a zone that could easily fall prey to cross-border terror; selling off pieces of an area, ironically, we are not even allowed to enter.
A R Hanjura, a lawyer, bought 1.5 acres of this land in Naaru Village in 2008. He bought it from Mrs. Fazi, who claimed to be the previous landlord, and had the papers to show for it.
Mr Hanjura says these were Revenue Department records that confirmed the land was still in Mrs Fazi's name, even though the area was being used by the Defence.
Mr Hanjura was told once the plot is his he could claim rent from the Defence.
The sale was cleared by the Defence Estates Office in Srinagar, whose permission was mandatory, since the plot fell in an area under its use.
It was also verified by the Revenue Department that it belonged to Mrs Fazi and not the Defence Ministry. Mr Hanjura bought the plot at a pittance for Rs. 20,000 which he thought to be a bargain, till he was told it was a fraudulent sale of Defence land.
23/07/11 NDTV

Delhi-Kanpur-Kolkata flight to resume today

Kanpur: After remaining grounded for the past two days, the New Delhi-Kanpur-Kolkata flight will resume its services from Saturday.
A CRJ-700 aircraft with a seating capacity for 70 passengers would be flying between New Delhi-Kolkata via Kanpur as per its usual schedule.
Prashant Shukla, public relations officer, Air India, told TOI that the New Delhi-Kanpur-Kolkata flight will be flying on Saturday but its operations on Monday are still doubtful.
He said that as the maintenance of the flight 9801 is in process now, a separate aircraft would be flying between New Delhi-Kolkata and vice versa. The aircraft would be flying from IGI Airport at 10.20 am and reach Chakeri airport at 11.20 am. After halting for half-an-hour, the flight would leave for Kolkata. Likewise, it would be leaving Kolkata airport at 2 pm and reach Chakeri airport at 3.30 pm. At 4 pm, it will again fly for New Delhi, said Shukla.
22/07/11 Times of India

Destructive beetle spotted at Indy airport

Indianapolis: Inspectors at Indianapolis International Airport intercepted an invasive bug with a taste for corn, wheat and other grains with the potential to harm the state’s agriculture industry.
Agriculture specialists with U.S. Customs and Border Protection spotted the two tiny khapra beetles this month during a routine search of packages traveling through the FedEx Express hub at the airport, agency spokeswoman Cherise Miles said.
The beetle eats dried grains, cereals and rice and thrives in silos.
"We have a lot of grain stored right now,” Indiana Farm Bureau spokeswoman Kathleen Dutro told The Indianapolis Star. “You could have hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of grain in a silo. If it’s contaminated, you’re out that money and (had better) hope you have good insurance.”
Timothy Gibb, director of Purdue University’s insect diagnostic laboratory, said the custom agents staved off a serious threat to farmers by intercepting the beetles.
The Indianapolis inspectors found the beetles on July 6 in a small bag of barley seeds included in a package of personal items being shipped from India to North Carolina, Miles said.
23/07/11 Chesterton Tribune

Flight tech boost for region

Calcutta: Repetitive flight plans may sound like aviation jargon to a layman. But for airport officials and airline operators in the region, it is what they aspire to achieve. And it seems to be on the cards at the conclusion of a three-day ATS coordination meeting between India and Bangladesh here today.
If things work out, then the N-E skies will be much safer and civil aviation will be much more organised.
“All the details of a regularly-operated flight, its route, time and so on are submitted by a pilot in a repetitive flight plan (RPL). However, none of the airports in the Northeast have this system because of lack of approval from Bangladesh. In the meet, it was decided to give the RPL a seven-day trial run in the Northeast,” Malay Datta, general manager (ATM), Airports Authority of India, N-E regional headquarters, said at the conclusion of the meeting, which was held after eight years.
According to Datta, this system-generated flight plan will increase efficiency and improve communication between aviation authorities of India and Bangladesh.
“When the rest of the country is using this advanced technology, we are still lagging behind and are using age-old methods of manual data input. Unnecessary errors and mishaps can be avoided once it is activated,” Datta said.
23/07/11 The Telegraph

Security tightened at BIAL

Bangalore: In the wake of the triple blasts in Mumbai, the Bangalore International Airport (BIA) authorities have heightened security to prevent any untoward incident in the city.In an email response to Express, BIA officials stated that, "Airport has heightened security measures as per Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) directives." Added to this, the BIA has also stated that they have provided assistance and a 'vantage point and viewing platforms' for the plane spotters club at the airport. Though the spotters observe flight and make other analysis about flight path, they often play good Samaritans and also provide ground level assistance about suspicious activities and also keep a bird watch which is too close to the flight path.Recent incidentIt was sheer coincidence that a New York bound flight Air India flight AI101, carrying 339 passengers and a 16 member flight crew, accidentally caught fire when it took off from Indira Gandhi International Airport last weekend, and did an emergency landing when five school students, on a terrace saw it an informed the police, who in turn informed Air Traffic Control (ATC).
23/07/11 New Indian Express/IBN Live

Coming soon, spa service at city's Lohegaon airport

Pune: Soon, while waiting for your flights at the city's Lohegaon airport, you will get to relax and take off feeling fresh, for a modern spa is all set to go operational in a fortnight's time.
The airport, which handles around 7,700 passengers every day, will also introduce facilities such as an internet browsing centre; child care room; interactive voice response system (IVRS)-based real time passenger enquiry and an additional car rental service.
Speaking to TOI on Friday, Lohegaon airport director P S R K Sudhakar said, "We are waiting for the mandatory clearances from the bureau of civil aviation security (BCAS) for the spa services to go functional. The facility, including the resting cabins, is already in place at the security hold area on the first floor of the new departure lounge."
Tenders are being called for the other four proposed services, which will be outsourced to professional agencies, as is the case with the spa facility, said Sudhakar. "We had called for expression of interest (EOIs) from various agencies involved in spa services. The work has been allotted to one of these agencies," he said.
23/07/11 Vishwas Kothari/Times of India

Coming soon, spa service at city's Lohegaon airport

Pune: Soon, while waiting for your flights at the city's Lohegaon airport, you will get to relax and take off feeling fresh, for a modern spa is all set to go operational in a fortnight's time.
The airport, which handles around 7,700 passengers every day, will also introduce facilities such as an internet browsing centre; child care room; interactive voice response system (IVRS)-based real time passenger enquiry and an additional car rental service.
Speaking to TOI on Friday, Lohegaon airport director P S R K Sudhakar said, "We are waiting for the mandatory clearances from the bureau of civil aviation security (BCAS) for the spa services to go functional. The facility, including the resting cabins, is already in place at the security hold area on the first floor of the new departure lounge."
Tenders are being called for the other four proposed services, which will be outsourced to professional agencies, as is the case with the spa facility, said Sudhakar. "We had called for expression of interest (EOIs) from various agencies involved in spa services. The work has been allotted to one of these agencies," he said.
23/07/11 Vishwas Kothari/Times of India

Steps for safer flights

Calcutta: The civil aviation authorities of India and Bangladesh have agreed on several measures to make flights between the city and Northeast destinations safer.
The Calcutta-Agartala route, the busiest in the region, will be made one-way and another route will be created for flights moving in the opposite direction.
Currently both sets of flights move along the same route, sometimes separated only vertically.
Improvement of coordination between the air traffic controls of Dhaka and Calcutta, introduction of the repetitive flight plan system at the Bangladesh airport and preparation of a draft for cooperation in search and rescue operations are some of the other measures in the agreement signed by the civil aviation authorities after a three-day meeting in the city that ended on Friday.
Representatives of all the Northeast airports and pilots of a couple of airlines also took part in the meeting. The last such meeting was held in 2003. The number of flights has since doubled in the seven routes between Calcutta and the Northeast.
Around 5,000 people take the 70-odd flights between the city and various destinations in the Northeast every day.
23/07/11 Sanjay Mandal/The Telegraph

Friday, July 22, 2011

AI flight catches fire; catastrophe averted

New Delhi: A major mishap was averted due to the alertness of five Delhi University students as an Air India aircraft outbound to New York had to make an emergency landing minutes post take-off after its engine caught fire.
Air India flight AI-101 was travelling with 339 passengers and 16 crew members and took off from the Delhi Airport runway on the night of 16-17 July and at 1:45 AM, the engine of the carrier caught fire due to a technical snag when it was hovering over Delhi’s Malviya Nagar locality. Five students on board the plane immediately called the police and an emergency landing was possible after the police contacted Air Traffic Control.
22/07/11 Zeenews

Narrow escape for 70 Air India passengers, flight lands with jammed wheels

Bhopal: Nearly 70 passengers of Air India’s Mumbai-Bhopal flight, AI-633, had a narrow escape when tyres of the aircraft got jammed after landing at the Raja Bhoj Airport on Thursday.
The aircraft dragged with jammed wheels to some distance before it came to a screeching halt. However, none of the passengers or the members of the crew was hurt in the incidence.
The Air India administration cancelled the flight, which had to proceed to New Delhi from Bhopal, and the passengers were accommodated in Shyamala Hills situated Hotel Lake View. The flight could only take off at 9 pm with new set of tyres. Talking to Bhaskar News, Air India’s Bhopal station manager Wasim Khan said the company arranged another aircraft so that the regular Delhi-Bhopal service, AI-634, is not cancelled. Khan assured that both the flights will take off on time on Friday.
22/07/11 Daily Bhaskar

Another air tragedy averted: Chhattisgarh governor, 130 passengers escape unhurt

Raipur: Thursday was a day of air emergencies as three major tragedies were averted in various parts of the country. While a mid-air collision was reportedly averted over Patna, an Air India Mumbai-Bhopal flight landed at Bhopal’s Raja Bhoj Airport with jammed wheels. Raipur’s Mana airport also witnessed an emergency situation with Jet Lite’s Delhi-Raipur-Delhi flight developing some technical fault.
Nearly 130 passengers, including Chhatisgarh governor Shekhar Dutt Tiwary and several IAS and VIPs, had a narrow escape when the aircraft was stopped abruptly in the middle of the runway a few seconds before take off. Pilots aborted the take off following a technical snag.
Frantic passengers were de-boarded of the aircraft soon after it stopped while CISF men and fire tenders surrounded the troubled aircraft to handle any emergency.
22/07/11 Daily Bhaskar.com

New airport alert: IED in perfume bottle

Mumbai: Airport security officials are watching out for passengers carrying perfume bottles following an intelligence alert that warns of a “threat from a perfume bottle-based IED”. This alert, dated July 20, comes a week after the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport in Mumbai was put on high alert following the serial blasts. It directs all airport operators, aircraft operators and cargo operators to keep a special watch on mail scanners, parcel and x-ray scanners to identify perfume bottles.
“According to an input, a perfume bottle-based IED has been devised by Pakistan-based terrorists. Since these bottles are supposed to be sent through couriers as “gifts”, appropriate counter measures need to be undertaken immediately,” the alert message issued by the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security of India (BCAS) says.
22/07/11 Indian Express

Govt. hands over 229 acres of land for Tirupati airport expansion

Hyderabad: The Andhra Pradesh government has handed over 229.34 acres of land to the Airports Authority of India (AAI) for expansion of the Tirupati airport.
In all, 701.96 acres of land are required for the expansion project. The remaining land is yet to be handed over, an official press release said here today. The land required for the airport was being acquired from five villages -- Kurukalva, Kothapalem, Anagunta, R Mallavaram and Vikruthamala and Rs 100.96 crores funds towards land acquisition has been sanctioned.
22/07/11 United News of India/Net India

Stapled visas prevent Arunachal karatekas to board Beijing flight

Itanagar: China has done it again. Just when it looked like that the Communist country has done away with its stapled visa regime, a team of karatekas from Arunachal Pradesh was not allowed to board a flight to Beijing at the Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi on Tuesday for not having regular visas.
The karatekas from the state include Likha Lej (52 kg cadet boys), Tage Saa (65 junior boys) and Rei Yadi (53 kg junior girls). The players were scheduled to represent India at the 11th Asian Karate-do Championship (junior and cadet) at Quanghou City in Fujjian province of China from July 20 to 25 next.
Earlier, the Chinese embassy in New Delhi, after a marathon discussion with the Indian authorities, had agreed to issue regular visas to the karate team.
22/07/11 Times of India

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Blue bulls, peacocks hamper safe landing and take off

Kanpur: Landing mishaps are not new at Chakeri airport. The 48-seater Air India regional flight had hit 'blue bull' (neel gai) while landing at the Chakeri airport in Kanpur on February 28, 2008.
The 47 passengers onboard and four crew members, however, had escaped unhurt. The Delhi-Kanpur-Allahabad flight, CD 7801, had just landed at Kanpur when the incident took place.
It might be noted here that the pilot had applied the emergency brake after he had noticed the blue bull on the runway, but the aircraft still hit the animal, killing it on the spot.
"Soon after the incident, the then district magistrate had convened a meeting of airport authorities to check the menace of blue bulls but nothing has changed," said an airport official.
And in December last year, a herd of blue bulls had damaged a cable of the instrument landing system (ILS).
According to airport officials, repeated complaints to the district administration and the forest department to keep the area free from blue bulls and peacocks have fallen on deaf ears.
21/07/11 Faiz Rahman Siddiqui/Times of India

Air India plane skids at Kanpur airport; passengers safe

A Kolkata bound Air India flight from Delhi skidded just before take-off at the Kanpur airport, about 83 km from Lucknow on Wednesday afternoon.
All 59 passengers aboard and the crew were unhurt and safe, civil aviation officials said.
Celebrated author Chetan Bhagat who was among the passengers put out a message on Twitter, following which the news about the mishap spread across everywhere.
"The flight (IC 9801) had arrived about 45 minutes earlier from New Delhi and was getting ready to take-off for Kolkata, around 12.55 pm, when some trouble with one of the tyres sent the aircraft skidding off the runaway into mud. Thankfully, the pilot managed to bring it to a halt," a civil aviation official told this scribe over telephone.
Kanpur Inspector General Chandra Prakash confirmed," All passengers as well as crew were safe and evacuated to the airport lobby."
20/07/11 Rediff.com

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Low-cost flights out of India may not use IGI's 1D

New Delhi: Low-cost carriers that were planning to start international operations from IGI airport's terminal 1D will probably have to rethink their plans. A joint committee of the Airports Authority of India and the Directorate General of Civil Aviation has told the airport management that it will be a 'waste of resources' to start international operations at 1D.
Despite these reservations, Delhi International Airport (P) Ltd (DIAL) is still carrying on with work at the terminal. Sources said the building will be partitioned into two, with four of the six baggage belts going to the domestic side and two to the international. While DIAL officials refused to comment, an airport source said: "DIAL has reportedly got clearance for construction work at the terminal and work has been going on for the past few months. We are not sure if permission has been granted for actually carrying out international operations."
Indigo Airlines has announced the commencement of its international operations from September this year while SpiceJet, that is already operating two daily flights to Kathmandu from T3, is planning to shift them to T1D as well.
20/07/11 Neha Lalchandani/Times of India

AAI signs MoU for implementing GBSA

Airports Authority of India today signed an MoU with United States Trade Development Agency (USTDA) for implementing its pilot study on Ground-Based Augmentation System, which would help increase the overall air traffic handling capacity at the Chennai Airport.
Civil Aviation Secretary Dr Nasim Zaidi exchanged documents with United States Trade Development Agency Lee Zak in the presence of Airports Authority of India Chairman VP Agrawal for the project, funded by the US Trade Development Agency, under the India-US Aviation Cooperation programme.
According to the MoU, the US agency would assist in training, certification and project implementation, an airport statement said.
19/07/11 Moneycontrol.com

Forget more flights, wait getting longer for cargo terminal

Surat: The wait for an air cargo hub is getting longer for importers and exporters in south Gujarat region, especially those connected with the agro sector, due to delay in making Surat a fully operational airport.
During their last visit in October 2010, Airport Authority of India (AAI) officials agreed that the city airport had the required land for the expansion of the airport for setting up of a cargo terminal for 50 aircraft.
Surat airport controller, Rajaram Talpe says, "For medium sized cargo aircraft, the city airport is well equipped. We could create the space for six more flights at a short notice apart from the four existing ones. At present we have 317 hectares of land at our disposal and if utilized properly hangars for more than four dozen aircraft could be set up easily."
A team of senior AAI officials had visited the city for the implementation of phase-I of the cargo terminal plan which was prepared in 2008. However, after every visit the official have come up with the same old story of feasibility and amount of business generation from the airport. "On one side we are deprived of air connectivity and on other side the cargo plan also is going nowhere. This has resulted in our businessmen suffering losses up to Rs 700 crore per annum," said Paresh Patel, vice-president of SGCCI.
When we look at the potential for Surat's cargo terminal, it is enormous. It has an annual export potential of Rs1,000 crore from the first year itself. Perishable items which find very high rating on the export list of Mumbai include horticulture, fruits, other agro based products and marine items from south Gujarat.
20/07/11 Melvyn Thomas/Times of India

Alwar to get cargo airport, bullet train

Jaipur: Rajasthan's first cargo airport and bullet train would debut in Alwar. The airport would come up in Neemrana on the Jaipur-Delhi highway.
The high-speed train would be a shuttle service that would run between Delhi and Alwar at speeds ranging between 160 and 180km per hour. Both projects have been lined up as part of an aerotropolis — a modern city modelled around airports to promote aviation intensive business — to facilitate exports and shipments along the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor passing through the state.
"The cargo airport will come up between Ajarka and Kotkasingh villages near Neemarana," a highly placed official in the industries department said. This would allow industries along the DMIC freight corridor and business units in Neemrana, Shahjahanpur, Bhiwadi and Behror to ship their cargo directly to foreign countries, the official said.
RIICO chairman Sunil Arora said infrastructure improvement would be a quantum leap in propelling Alwar as a major business hub of India. According to officials, the cargo airport will be a part of an aerotropolis. An aerotropolis is a new urban concept where economies of emerging cities are planned around aviation intensive businesses like manufacturing and exports, warehousing, telecommunications, business hotels and offices, industrial parks and exhibition centres.
20/07/11 DNA/Daily Bahaskar

Emirates’ A380 Awaits India Approval as Rules Block Flights of Superjumbo

Emirates Airline celebrated the opening of the new terminal at the New Delhi airport last year by flying in an Airbus SAS A380.
The plane has not returned there since. India’s government has not acted on requests to change regulations that bar overseas carriers, including Emirates and Deutsche Lufthansa AG (LHA), from flying aircraft bigger than the Boeing Co. 747 into the country. That rules out the A380.
The two airlines are eager to tap India’s growing travel market with the A380, the world’s biggest passenger aircraft. They have run up against policies that protect state-owned Air India Ltd., according to Rishikesha Krishnan, a professor of corporate strategy at the Indian Institute of Management in Bangalore.
“All these measures are to shore up Air India and they completely distort the market,” said Krishnan, who writes papers about India’s aviation industry. “They are all misguided restrictive practices and not in the best interest of Indian aviation.”
The rules deny more choices for passengers and reduce competition for Air India, Krishnan said. The carrier merged with state-owned Indian Airlines in 2007 and has received 20 billion rupees ($449 million) of public funds since April 1, 2009.
Cost Advantage
Nasim Zaidi, secretary at the Ministry of Civil Aviation, declined to comment when asked if the government was delaying A380 approvals to help Air India. An Air India spokesman declined to comment, and Air India Chairman Arvind Jadhav did not respond to two calls to his mobile phone, calls to his office and e-mailed questions.
20/07/11 Karthikeyan Sundaram/Bloomberg.com

Monday, July 18, 2011

Flight share plan for new Mumbai airport still up in the air

Mumbai: The bidding process for the Navi Mumbai international airport, which is expected to open in 2014, will start by August, but the government is yet to decide on how flight traffic will be shared between Mumbai’s old and new airports—an inadequacy that could hurt its prospects of attracting the interest of developers.
Traffic allocation is critical for the viability of a second airport that is being built within a 150km radius of an existing one. It will give developers a sense of the potential of the forthcoming airport.
T.C. Benjamin, Maharashtra’s principal secretary for urban development, admitted that it was important that the traffic allocation be done. “We want either a government mandate on traffic allocation or let the market forces decide. According to our estimate, the airport will break-even if it gets 10 million passengers in the first year,” said Benjamin, who also said that the initial bid document will be released next month.
Whether the government can allocate traffic between the old and the new airports is also unclear.
In New York and Chicago, the airports are owned by the same entity. In London, where the airports are owned by different entities, the airports regulator allocates the traffic.
19/07/11 P.R. Sanjai/Live Mint

Woman caught with 60 sex toys, lingerie; claims it was for daughter

Mymbai: It is not often that custom officials run out of words when questioning a passenger caught for duty evasion. But a middle-aged Indian woman returning from the United States of America rendered the interrogating officers speechless.
An interception by the team of assistant commissioner Sameer Wankhede at the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport initiated due to suspected evasion on excessive gold jewellery in her luggage opened a Pandora’s Box which left them red faced in embarrassment.
The woman was found carrying over 60 sex toys and provocative lingerie in commercial quantity apart from too much gold jewellery.
The explanation given by T Bachu Ali, who claimed to live in Los Angeles for the last 19 years, was bizarre. Ali claimed that all the sex toys and the lingerie in her luggage were a wedding gift for her daughter who would be tying the knot by this month end.
19/07/11 unchika B Pandey/Daily News & Analysis

Kingfisher flights held up as oil firms stop jet fuel supply

New Delhi: Passengers travelling on Kingfisher Airlines were in for a rude shock on Monday as many flights were delayed after Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) stopped jet fuel supply to the airline for a couple of hours on account of non-payment of dues. While the Kingfisher
spokesperson did not respond to calls from HT, sources said flights across the country were affected causing major inconvenience to travellers. Passengers who had boarded flights were stuck inside aircraft for hours and were told that the plane could not take off as it had no fuel.
The airline gets most of its fuel from HPCL and Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited. A senior HPCL official confirmed that jet fuel supplies had bene stopped to the airline. The supplies were resumed after payments were received, he said. “All oil companies are following the cash and carry model with airline companies,” an official said.
18/07/11 Hindustan Times

IL&FS to pick 10% stake in Bengal Aerotropolis

Kolkata: Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services (IL&FS) is likely to pick up a 10% stake in Bengal Aerotropolis Project Ltd (BAPL) which is setting up 10,000-crore airport city in West Bengal. BAPL is in the process of expanding its present equity base of 170.8 crore by another 75-100 crore.
At present, Singapore's Changi Airport International (CAI) holds a 26% stake in BAPL. West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation (WBIDC) enjoys a 1.48% stake and the rest 72.52% is held by Indian promoters namely Pragati Social Infrastructure Development, Pragati 47 Development, Citystar Infrastructures Ltd and Lend Lease Company (India) Limited.
The company will be issuing fresh equity shares shortly to expand the equity base. Post-expansion, the shareholding matrix of the company will change and the holding of the present promoters will come down.
Sources said, "The board of Changi Airport International has taken the resolution not to bring down its stake in BAPL below 26%."
" Therefore, CAI will infuse extra equity to maintain 26% stake in BAPL," the aforementioned source added.
19/07/11 Sutanuka Ghosal/Economic Times

AAI to refurbish Srinagar International Airport

Srinagar International Airport is all set to undergo a major facelift in a bid to ease out congestion and prepare for operation of international flights in near future.
In an exclusive chat with Greater Kashmir, the Srinagar-based AAI Director, Capt Raj K Malik, said the Airports Authority of India (AAI) has decided to go for remaking of the Terminal Building and Drop Gate to make the structures at par with international standards.
The AAI, he said, is also contemplating to establish a separate terminal building for the operation of international flights from the Airport—something on which the AAI is already working on. The AAI Chairman, VP Agarwal, had recently made this disclosure at a press conference in Srinagar.
“We are planning the revamping in a big way.
It shall start from Drop Gate No.1 at Humhama itself where a new structure shall come up. The fresh structure will house more X-ray machines and also ensure separate lining of cars for departure and arrival purposes,” Malik said. “The AAI is spending a large amount of money on the revamping to enhance overall air operations from the Srinagar Airport.”
According to sources, AAI is in the process of acquiring around 100 kanals of land near the drop-gate of the airport located adjacent to a cabinet minister’s newly constructed residential house in the area.
18/07/11 Faheem Aslam/Greater Kashmir

Cooch Behar will be back on air map

Kolkata : North Bengal town Cooch Behar will be back on the air map after a gap of 16 years and several failed bids with the launch of a commercial flight between Cooch Behar and Kolkata Tuesday. Ahead of the launch, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who was keen on restarting the air service, said it has been decided to subsidise the operation.
"Definitely this will soon turn into a profit-making venture," she said.
The state government has projected the area to be a prosperous industrial growth centre and a tourist destination.
Private carrier Northeast Shuttles will operate an 18-seater Dornier aircraft on the route and the fare has been fixed at Rs 5,000.
The state government would provide subsidy by reserving eight seats per trip, regional executive director of the Airports Authority of India (AAI) Goutam Mukherjee said.
Mukherjee said that on the inaugural day, a Northeast Shuttles flight from Guwahati would land at Cooch Behar at 11 AM and take off an hour later for Kolkata with new passengers on board.
The airport was lying idle after the lone Vayudoot flight was withdrawn in 1995.
The crumbling infrastructure at the airport was refurbished at a cost of Rs 40 crore by the AAI.
18/07/11 Press Trust Of India/Hindustan Times

Air India flight makes emergency landing at IGIA

An Air India Delhi-New York flight was delayed by nearly 12 hours on Sunday, due to a technical snag in the aircraft, which resulted in an emergency landing. The Air India flight (AI-101), left Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) for its destination — New York’s JFK airport— at 2am on Sunday. After flying for nearly half an hour, the pilot detected a technical snag in the right engine and requested Delhi air traffic control (ATC) if it could make an emergency landing.
The aircraft landed back safely at 3am under full emergency conditions. After a glitch was detected, the 339 passengers on board were shifted to another aircraft, which resulted in a delay. The flight then left Delhi again at 12noon on Sunday.
18/07/11 Hindustan Times

Man evades security and manages to hide in plane

Maintenance workers cleaning a passenger aircraft in Saudi Arabia to prepare it for take off stumbled across an Indian man hiding between the seats after he succeeded in breaking through all security systems.
The workers seized the man and called the police, who escorted him out of the aircraft at Riyadh airport, Sabq newspaper said on Sunday.
It did not identify the man or say why he sneaked into the aircraft, which belongs to the Saudi Arabian Airlines.
17/07/11 Emirates 24-7

'No communication from immigration bureau'

Panaji: There has been no communication from the bureau of immigration, which is under the Union home ministry, so far, after they informed the Goa police that they would take over the management of the immigration desks at Dabolim airport, the seaport and the FRO (foreigners registration office) in Goa by June 30.
Almost 150 Goa police personnel who had submitted applications to be posted on deputation at the immigration desks are waiting for the Union ministry of home affairs to take over the management of the immigration desks at Dabolim airport and the seaport at Mormugao.
"We were informed that the bureau of immigration would take over the management of the immigration desks at Dabolim airport, the seaport as well as the FRO in Goa by June 30. There has been no communication from them," said a senior police official.
At present, immigration services at major international airports in India and foreigners' registration work in seven major cities - Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Amritsar, Bangalore and Hyderabad - are handled by the immigration bureau. Sources said that as per the home ministry's instructions all airports in the country where international flights land are to be manned by immigration bureau officials.
18/07/11 Times of India

Calcutta airport is set to do a U-turn on congestion and chaos.

Calcutta: Check-in islands shaped like a U, each with 16 to 18 airline counters, are coming up in the first-level departure lounge of the integrated terminal as part of a crowd-management strategy that Delhi’s Terminal 3 has already adopted with success.
“This is a concept new to India. The U-shaped islands will be the crux of the integrated baggage management system at the new terminal,” airport director B.P. Sharma told Metro.
The integrated terminal will have as many as eight check-in islands from one end to the other, each equipped with an assistance counter for fliers. Officials say the system would allow up to 144 fliers to check in simultaneously, almost three times more than would be possible if all 50 counters at the existing domestic terminal were to be kept open.
The mammoth Terminal 3 in Delhi has six check-in islands with 168 check-in counters, barely 24 more than in the Calcutta blueprint. Mumbai airport has 118 counters.
“The technology is German. The modular check-in islands are expected to arrive by October and installation will start immediately,” airport director Sharma said.
The islands will be equipped with CUTE (common user terminal enabler) technology, which enables anyone manning a counter to switch between different airlines’ check-in systems at the touch of a tab.
18/07/11 Sanjay Mandal/The Telegraph

SCSP may resume airport auto service soon

Patna: The Easy Auto Service from city's airport may resume soon. The Patna High Court (HC) has, in an order on Friday, asked Smart Commuting Services Pvt Ltd, (SCSP) which used to run Easy Auto Service at the city airport to do so till further order.
However, a tussle was reported between airport duty officials and staff of the SCSP over starting the auto service prior to the submission of a written copy of the order of the HC.
Airport authorities on Sunday accused the SCSP staff of misbehaving with them. According to officials on duty at airport, the staff of the agency resorted to misbehavior when they were asked to remove their autos from the airport premises on Saturday morning. The contract of the SCSP, which was running auto service from October till March, was not renewed. After four months, however, the SCSP on Saturday resumed its auto service claiming that the HC has asked it to do so. When the Airports Authority of India (AAI) authorities did not renew its contract, the SCSP on May 13 had moved the HC filing a writ petition.
"We have moved the court to request it to allow us to resume auto service at the airport as it was necessary for the passengers," said SCSP director H B S Iyer.
17/07/11 Times of India

Sunday, July 17, 2011

Doubts over opening of Cooch Behar airport

Kolkata: Mamata Banerjee's eagerness to put Cooch Behar on the air map early next week may hit an air pocket with the Northeast Shuttles top brass caught off-guard by the chief minister's sudden announcement on Friday.
Mamata on Friday said the pact for flights between Kolkata and Cooch Behar would be signed on Tuesday, but the managing director of Northeast Shuttles, the airline that has agreed to fly to Cooch Behar, is currently hospitalized in Delhi. The next in charge of the non-scheduled chartered airline is in Southeast Asia at present.
With the CM set to travel to Darjeeling on Monday to sign a tripartite agreement, speculations are rife over a possible trip to Cooch Behar on Tuesday to inaugurate the airport and sign the chartered services pact. The speculation was further fuelled by transport secretary DP Gopalkar's call to the airline's managing director Captain Shoba K Mani, asking her to be present in Siliguri on Tuesday.
Mani, who has been advised complete bed-rest following a gall bladder operation in a Delhi hospital two days ago, is in a dilemma over how to comply with the protocol. "I had specifically informed the state transport department as well as the Airports Authority of India (AAI) that I would be unavailable till the end of next week. But now that something has to be done, I am trying to arrange for something," she said.
17/07/11 Times of India

Patil was stuck on flight when terror struck city

When three blasts shook Mumbai on July 13, Home Minister R R Patil felt as helpless as a common citizen struggling to get back home that evening.
Patil was on board a Nagpur-bound flight and he could not attend to the crisis immediately because the pilot denied him permission to get off the plane while it was still at the Mumbai airport.
He was forced to travel to Nagpur and take a return flight after landing there post 8 pm.
Patil had planned to visit Nagpur to offer condolences to the family of social activist Sadhana Amte, who died a few days ago. He learnt about the blasts after boarding Air India flight IC629 with his assistant, Sunil Bhajnavale.
“Minutes after the explosions on Wednesday evening, my personal assistant called up on Bhajnavale’s cellphone. By that time, the plane had already started taxiing for take-off, and the cabin crew asked us to switch off the mobile,” the minister said.
“Just when we were turning off the phone, we received an SMS from my PRO (Kishor Gangurde) that blasts seem to have occurred in the city.”
Patil said that through the cabin crew, he informed the pilot that he wanted to get off the plane. “The pilot, however, said that this was not possible,” he said. The flight was supposed to depart from the Mumbai airport at 6.40 pm, but it was slightly delayed.
Air India spokesperson and deputy general manager Swaminathan refused to comment on what transpired in the plane.
17/07/11 Yogesh Naik/Mumbai Mirror

Technical Snag in Aircraft Scares Passengers, 14 Alight Before Take-off

Mangalore: Passengers on the Mangalore-Mumbai Jet Airways flight on Saturday July 16 were in for a scare as the aircraft's automatic siren went off even while it was on the runway with seconds to take off.
A technical snag is said to have occured at the last moment, forcing the pilot to bring the aircraft to a halt immediately. Thankfully, the siren went off at the right moment and nothing untoward happened.
Nevertheless, it was enough to scare 14 passengers who decided to alight and abort their journey even before it began. They will take Sunday's flight.
17/07/11 Daijiworld

First Chennai-Jakarta flight likely by year-end

Chennai: Indonesian national airline Garuda’s first Chennai-Jakarta flight is likely to start by this year end, a top envoy of that country said here today.
Currently, passengers to Indonesia have to fly via Singapore or Malaysia.
“We have been discussing it many times. Our plan was to connect the cities of Kolkata, Chennai, Mumbai and Delhi. My first preference is to have connectivity between Chennai and Jakarta”, Indonesian Ambassador to India, Mr Andi M. Ghalib said here.
Addressing members at a luncheon meeting organised by the CII here, Mr Ghalib, a retired Lt General, said the plan for direct connectivity between the two nations did not fructify due to various reasons.
He replied in the affirmative when later asked whether it would be launched by this year end, saying Indonesian President (Dr Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono) had spoken to Garuda (officials) in this regard.
16/07/11 PTI/Business Line

Saturday, July 16, 2011

Indian air traffic control move to support more efficient flight paths

Mumbai: Indian air traffic controllers will participate in a 16 July demonstration flight that seeks to determine new air routes that are more fuel-efficient than the current ones. These next-generation air routes are expected to result in savings on fuel and flying time, besides lowering carbon dioxide emissions and saving money.
“This experiment will lead to flexible, user-preferred routes, which may not necessarily be shortest (as the crow flies), but certainly more efficient in terms of fuel use and lower emissions,” said a consultant to airlines who did not want to be named. “It will allow the airline to maximize use of winds, on-board avionics and meteorological updates to chart and file the most efficient flight path.”
Flexible routes: Indian airlines will welcome any move to any savings they can make on fuel, which accounts for up to 40% of their operating costs. Sales tax on the fuel can be as much as 24%. Photo Vijayanand Gupta/Hindustan Times
The Perth-Dubai demonstration flight is being operated by Emirates and will be supported by a senior Mumbai air traffic control (ATC) team. Senior officials in Mumbai confirmed the development, but did not elaborate.
India’s airlines will welcome any savings they can make on fuel, which accounts for up to 40% of their operating costs. Sales tax on the fuel can be as much as 24%. The country’s three listed airlines may have made losses in the quarter ended June, owing to high jet fuel prices, excess capacity and fierce competition for passengers, according to analyst estimates.
The June quarter is considered the second best for domestic airlines, next to the October-December period, which is dominated by the holiday season. The companies have not reported their earnings yet.
16/07/11 P.R. Sanjai/Live Mint

Isolated rain at IGI disrupts air traffic

New Delhi: The rest of the city might have remained either dry or saw only a slight drizzle but a heavy downpour at IGI airport on Friday morning disrupted aircraft movement and led to the diversion of eight flights. Several other flights were delayed by 30 minutes to an hour; for about 25 minutes, there were no arrivals.
Airport officials said that between 9.50am and 10.15am, the wind was so strong that several aircraft were forced to hold over the airport. "The weather turned suddenly and there were heavy showers and very strong winds. For about 20 minutes, no arrivals were possible and several aircraft were forced to hold over the city in wait of more stable weather conditions. Even departures were affected. This was peak time for domestic arrivals and, hence, schedules were hit significantly," said an official.
The clouds came in from the Dwarka side of the new runway and moved eastwards. "Frequent changes in wind direction and speed also caused problems as runway usage depends largely on wind direction. Flights would be lined up to land from one direction but the wind would change in a few minutes and the entire line-up would have to be changed," said a source. The weather conditions were highly localized as most nearby areas did not experience any rainfall.
16/07/11 Times of India

Airport city crosses last hurdle

kolkata/Durgapur: Promoters of the airport city at Andal near Durgapur have given up the quest for the final tranche of land that was yet to be acquired and decided to accommodate the ambitious project in an area that is 144 acre short of the original plan.
Speaking to TOI, a senior official of project promoter Bengal Aerotropolis Pvt Ltd (BAPL) said the decision to make do with 2,201 acre that had been acquired was taken at a crucial board meeting on June 28. Apart from the BAPL top brass, honchos of co-promoter Changi Airports Singapore were also present. The decision has been conveyed to the West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation ( WBIDC).
Last week, senior BAPL officials met industries minister Partha Chatterjee and apprised him of the latest development. Not only does the development remove the biggest stumbling block in the way of the Rs 10,000-crore project, it is also poised to become the showcase project of the Mamata Banerjee government, when the airport takes off in September 2012.
"Given the present political dispensation, we decided to be pragmatic and take the project forward. Though the project has to be modified to accommodate all components within the curtailed area, there was no other option, given the state government's outlook on acquisition. Now that we have removed the hurdle, the project will be able to move ahead full steam," said BAPL director Partha Ghosh. An objection by Coal India that had surfaced in the initial days of the project was resolved after a realignment.
14/07/11 Subhro Niyogi & Debajyoti Chakraborty/Times of India

Thursday, July 14, 2011

AAI, CISF carry out inspection, strengthen airport's security

Lucknow: Security was tightened at the Lucknow's Amausi airport on Thursday after government declared high alert across the country following triple blasts in Mumbai on Wednesday.
Officials from the Airport Authority of India (AAI) and Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) carried out an intense inspection of the terminal late on Wednesday evening itself.
On Thursday, CISF personnel were deployed at all strategic points around the terminal building, as well as near the Air Traffic Control (ATC) tower. Emphasis was essentially laid on the circulating area, where movement of people is continuous.
Some of the jawans were also deployed in civvies to keep a close watch on movement of people. Irregularly parked vehicles were asked to move away. Vehicles at the parking lot too were checked. CISF and police jawans were also deployed close to Kanpur Road to keep an eye over the movement of people into the airport area.
Passengers were frisked at the entry point and their identity cards were screened by the CISF. Airport director, Atul Dikshit said, "We are taking all the precautions."
15/07/11 Times of India

Dreamliner skips Mumbai but it’s business as usual otherwise

Mumbai: Wednesday’s Mumbai blasts have an unusual casualty. The Boeing 787 Dreamliner plane will skip its maiden Mumbai flight and will instead fly back to Seattle from Delhi, where it landed on 13 July.
National flag carrier Air India will receive Dreamliner, one of the world’s largest aircraft by seating capacity, shortly. Typically, ahead of commercial operations, plane makers fly the aircraft to the main airports of the country where their customers are based. In this case, Dreamliner planned to touch down in Delhi and Mumbai.
Dinesh Keskar, Boeing Co. of the US’ India president, said security concerns were not the reason behind the change in plan. “It’s about cultural sensitivity. I am a Maharashtrian; I know the pain of the city that has witnessed three blasts. I can bring Dreamliner on another day,” Keskar said.
15/07/11 P.R Sanjai & Sneha Shah

Posterscope India soars with airport advertising vertical, PSI

Mumbai: Premium airport ad space sees brands clamour to connect with both domestic and international passengers who are on the move for business and leisure.
Not surprisingly then, Posterscope Group's specialised airport advertising vertical 'PSI Advertising', launched eight months ago, has witnessed a fruitful first-half of 2011, handling about 12 airport-specific campaigns.
The most recent of these campaigns handled by PSI include projects for DBS Bank, Mont Blanc and the Renault Fluence launch, including brand launches, product displays, and larger-than-life innovations.
With PSI, the Posterscope Group, which operates in 25 countries, offers clients the platform for multi-country campaigns in international airports, as well. In India, PSI is headed by Vinay Goel, business director, Posterscope India.
Goel says, "Our focus towards airport advertising is primarily because the medium can target the consumer in the right environment, where we have high dwell time to engage. Secondly, airport as an ambience also brings in high quality, aesthetics and largeness."
15/07/11 afaqs!

787 may face old apron ignominy

Chennai: A Boeing 787 Dreamliner landed at Delhi’s IGI Airport on Wednesday for tests ahead of the arrival in December of the first of 27 of the jets that Air India has ordered from the aircraft manufacturer. But if you’re hoping to fly the most advanced commercial airplane in the world from Anna International Airport, be prepared for the ignominy of using the antiquated stepladders to climb into the jet. This is because the new airport ramp does not have adequate space to park the wide-body, superefficient aircraft, say officials.
After assessing the existing facilities, airport officials in Chennai have decided to park the 787 in the old apron, where loading, unloading and refuelling of the aircraft will be done. Aviation experts say operating a flight from old ramp will mean that passengers will not be able to use the aerobridges at the new terminal but will have to climb up and down stepladders that belong to an older era in aviation. “The Dreamliner can operate oeut of 4F category airports but the Chennai airport is in the 4E category. If we park the 787 in one of the existing parking bays, then we will not be able to use the two adjacent bays on either side,” said a senior airport official.
14/07/11 Deccan Chronicle