Akasa Air to operate in Agartala sector from Aug

Agartala: A newly launched low-cost airline Akasa Air is all set to start its flight operations in Agartala-Guwahati and Agartala-Bengaluru routes at the end of August, Airport Authority of India (AAI) officials here said on Friday.

Sources said a three-member team of Akasa Air had visited Agartala airport last week and held discussions with AAI officials to assess the feasibility and frequency of flights in both the routes.

Akasa Air, a brand of SNV Aviation Private Limited, is an Indian low-cost airline headquartered in Mumbai. It acquired its first Boeing 737 MAX aircraft in this month. Akasa aims to have 18 aircraft by the end of 2022 and to add at least 12 aircraft every year, airline officials stated.

The airline will initially launch services from metro cities to tier-2 and tier-3 cities, which has received its Air Operator Certificate from DGCA after completing the required proving flights.

30/07/22 Times of India

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How timely help from medical team at Mumbai Airport saved a passenger's life

The discipline of practicing medical care in the aviation space is a special area of practice which isn’t often highlighted in the mainstream discussions. It involves the clinical care and operational support provided to the passengers and the crew members. In this regard, the distinctive role of the resident doctors at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA) deserves to be highlighted, in terms of keeping the healthcare machinery at one of one of the busiest Indian airports up and running. Not just CSMIA, but medical professionals across airports in India act as unsung heroes.

There have been several instances where doctors of CSMIA have given timely aid to passengers in need. One such recent example would be of a 67-yr-old male passenger, who was travelling from Mumbai to Dubai. The passenger complained of having episodes of fainting along with uneasiness and profuse sweating. The medical history revealed that the passenger had Diabetes, Hypertension & Ischemic Heart Disease and had undergone angioplasty surgery 12 years ago.

Post careful clinical examination by the CSMIA Medical team, the passenger was suspected to have Acute Heart Attack (Acute Inferior wall Myocardial Infarction) along with high blood sugar levels and heart failure. Immediately emergency medications were administered to the passenger, and he was advised urgent hospitalisation along with a consultation from a Cardiologist.

Since the passenger was travelling alone, his son was contacted and informed about his condition. After his son’s consent, the passenger was shifted to Nanavati hospital through Airport Cardiac ambulance, and he was accompanied by the airline staff & Airport Medical team. Early Investigations at Nanavati Hospital revealed that the passenger had 100% blockage in the Right Coronary artery along with a few blockages in the Left Circumflex coronary artery for which angioplasty was conducted timely. The passenger post-surgery recovered well and thanked CSMIA’s medical team for their early diagnosis and their prompt decision making skills which helped save his life.

30/07/22 Zee Media

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Jharkhand to have 3 more airports: Scindia; IndiGo starts Delhi-Deograh flight

Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia on Saturday said the government was working on three more airports in Jharkhand, after the first direct flight between the national capital and Deoghar was flagged off.

Budget airline IndiGo will operate daily flights between Delhi and Deoghar, and the flight on Saturday was captained by BJP leader and former civil aviation minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy.

IndiGo will deploy its A320 neo, the 180-seater twin turbofan engine passenger aircraft, on the route. With the new service, there will be 11 departure flights from Deoghar daily, according to an official release.

The Deoghar airport was constructed at a cost of Rs 400 crore, making it the second airport in Jharkhand after Ranchi.

“We are also working on three more airports in Jharkhand — Bokaro, Jamshedpur and Dumka — taking the total number of airports in Jharkhand to 5. We have announced 14 new routes connecting Jharkhand,” Scindia said in the release.

Out of the 14 routes, flights from Kolkata and Delhi to Deograh have commenced. In the coming days, Deoghar will be connected with Ranchi and Patna.

“Along with this, we will connect Dumka with Ranchi and Kolkata. Bokaro airport once completed will be connected with Patna and Kolkata,” the minister said.

“Baba Baidya Nath Dham in Deoghar is an international religious heritage, and it gives me immense pleasure to state that my ministry has helped millions of pilgrims to visit Deoghar…,” he added.

30/07/22 PTI/Financial Express

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List steps to raze 48 obstacles in flight path: Bombay HC to collector

Mumbai: The Bombay high court on Friday directed the collector (suburbs) to list steps for demolition of 48 obstacles in the aircraft approach path to the runway at the airport in Santacruz in less than a month.

These include upper floors of houses, structures like huts on hills and even a light on a hoarding on a footbridge. The approach path is an aerial space earmarked near airports for safe takeoff and landing of aircraft.

"Let us begin with 48 obstacles from 10 years ago," said Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice Makarand Karnik. These were among 137 identified in a 2010-11 survey by MIAL, the airport operator. The DGCA, after hearing the owners, had passed final demolition orders for 63. Owners of nine appealed and six complied. DGCA sent the remaining 48, at Vile Parle (E), Kurla (W) Santacruz (W) and Ghatkopar (W), to the collector for necessary action but they are yet to be removed.

The collector (suburbs), in response to a Bombay high court poser on obstacles to the city airport approach area on July 25, 2022, said the BMC should carry out the demolition in Mumbai as it is the planning authority under the Maharashtra Regional and Town Planning Act, 1966. The BMC pointed out that under the Aircraft (demolition of obstructions caused by buildings and trees, etc) Rules, 1994, it is the collector's responsibility.

The judges agreed and said the 1994 rules empower the district collector to remove obstructions. Friday's HC instruction to the collector was passed after a 2019 PIL by advocate Yeshwanth Shenoy on the danger highrises near the airport pose to aircraft. Ironically, the Airports Authority of India's guesthouse is among them.

State's advocate Manish Pabale said it is the first time the BMC has said it's not authorised; it was not pointed out in the 2018 meetings where demolition was agreed on. Moreover, the collector does not have the necessary machinery in Mumbai.

The judges said nothing prevented the collector from taking action. "Start by disconnecting electricity and water... Where you get the machinery is your headache. Corporation will assist you," said the CJ.

In the order, the judges said once Rule 8 envisages that it is the district collector who would be responsible for demolition of obstacles, "we do not approve of the collector's attempt to pass on the responsibility to the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai". They noted that the BMC is willing to provide assistance. "We, therefore, hold that it is the district collector who needs to proceed with demolition of obstacles in accordance with provisions contained in Rule 8 of Aircraft Rules, 1994," the order said.

30/07/22 Rosy Sequeira/Times of India

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Aging air traffic system at Mumbai airport prone to snags

Mumbai: The automation system that helps Mumbai air traffic control handle a large volume of flights land, take off and overfly safely and efficiently has been prone to an unhealthy number of glitches and failures in the recent past.

In June alone, the automation system faced more than 70 subsystem problems, stated a letter by the Air Traffic Controllers Guild to its employer, the government-owned Airports Authority of India (AAI), on Wednesday.

AAI provides air traffic services over the Indian airspace. Among the issues plaguing the Mumbai air traffic control is sudden blackout or freezing of controllers' display screen, systems rebooting repeatedly, server failure, computerised workstations with keyboard and mouse that don't function properly, among others.

The hardware for the current automation system is over 16 years old; while the lifespan of the system is estimated to be 10 years, said the letter. The system was procured keeping in mind the air traffic scenario that existed over two decades ago. The traffic has increased manifold thereafter and the airspace structure has changed.

All the changes done through software, though, are being implemented on the same hardware components-comprising workstations, servers, recorders, among others, that is-which were already working at peak capacity way back in 2010.

"To put it in perspective, we have upgraded our laptops/system from 128 MB RAM to 5-8 GB RAM in the past 20 years. Had we been using the old system, we would not be able to even open a web browser or run a simple program," stated the letter, explaining the issue at hand.

Among the other major failures recorded in the recent past, the controllers' workstation that handles arrival, departure and overflying flights failed about 30-odd times in March and the workstation that handles flights over oceanic airspace failed about 10 times from March 20 and April 05, it said. Then, between March and April, there were about 25 failures of sub-systems, including the 'flight data processing system'. Remedial action taken included changing the RAM, replacing hardware machines with local spare parts and restarting the sub-system to sustain operations in all means, it said.

28/07/22 Manju V/Times of India

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Delhi: IGI footfall up over 30% from 2020, is now world’s 13th busiest airport

New Delhi: Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport jumped three spots to become the 13th busiest airport in terms of passenger footfall in the year 2021. According to Airports Council International, IGIA saw 3.7 crore passengers— 30.3% more than 2.8 crore in 2020 when it was the 16th busiest. Of the 12 airports that handled more passengers than the Delhi airport last year, 10 were in the US and two in China.

In 2019, IGIA had touched its highest ever annual figure of 6.9 crore passengers.

The busiest airports in 2021 were Atlanta at 7.6 crore passengers, Dallas Fort Worth 6.2 crore passengers and Denver 5.9 crore passengers. Guangzhou in China was the busiest airport in terms of passenger footfall in 2020 and it fell to the eighth spot last year due to continuing travel

26/07/22 Saurabh Sinha/Times of India In terms of aircraft movement, Delhi moved up seven spots to the 18th place in 2021 with 3.3 lakh planes flying in and out — 32% more than 2.5 lakh in 2020. The busiest airports in this category were Atlanta (7.1 lakh aircraft movements), Chicago (6.8 lakh) and Dallas Forth Worth (6.5 lakh).

ACI is the trade association of the world’s airports with 717 members, operating 1,950 airports in 185 countries. The latest data is for traffic at over 2,600 airports in more than 180 countries and territories.

With four runways, three mega terminals, and India’s first elevated taxiway (to be operational by next year), Delhi International Airport Ltd is preparing to handle traffic that the world’s busiest hubs do and consolidate its position as India’s biggest airport.

26/07/22 Times of India

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Site clearance given for Mandi airport

New Delhi: The Union Ministry of Civil Aviation has granted ‘site clearance’ to the Government of Himachal Pradesh for the development of an international standard greenfield airport at Nagchala in Mandi district, Minister of State for Civil Aviation Gen VK Singh said in a written answer in the Rajya Sabha on Monday.

The state government and the Airports Authority of India (AAI) signed a Joint Venture (JV) agreement on April 25 for the development of the greenfield airport in Mandi district.

The state government will hold 51 per cent equity and the AAI will have the remaining 49 per cent equity in the project, the minister said.

As per the provisions of the JV agreement, the state government will provide grant for all capital expenditure for the airport project, he added.

25/07/22 Tribune

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Noida airport’s terminal building and runway construction to begin in Aug

Noida: The Noida International Airport (NIA) is poised to enter the construction stage next month for its main terminal building and runway, which have to be completed within the next 25 months, with an October 2024 commissioning deadline set for the project. The building and the runway will be built by Tata Project Limited (TPL), which has been awarded the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract for NIA.

A spokesperson for Yamuna International Airport Private Limited (YIAPL), the special purpose vehicle of NIA concessionaire Zurich AG, told TOI on Tuesday the terminal building and runway will be ready by the last quarter of 2024, in time for the scheduled operation of commercial flights. The precise deadline, according to the agreement signed by the state government and Zurich AG, is September 29, 2024. The agreement has a stiff penalty clause of Rs 10 lakh per day if the deadline is missed.

NIA, which will become the second international airport in NCR – giving the Delhi region that unique distinction – is meant to handle 12 million passengers annually. Besides the terminal building and the 3,900-metre-long runway, Tata Projects will also construct airside infrastructure, roads, utilities, landside facilities and other ancillary buildings.

The entire airport project is slated to be built over four phases by the end of 2061. The official added that by the end of the 40-year concession period of Zurich AG, there would be two terminal buildings and an equal number of runways. “The airport master plan is prepared to accommodate the demand throughout the 40-year concession period with two runways. The airport will open with a single runway and a terminal capacity to handle 12 million passengers per year. Up to the end of the concession in 2061, Noida International airport will be developed with two parallel runways and additional terminal capacity to serve 70 million passengers,” said the official.

27/07/22 Aditya Dev/Times of India

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Batik Air expands Indian network coverage to Amritsar and Kolkata

Kuala Lumpur: With its recently announced flights to the Indian cities of Mumbai, Kochi and Bangalore receiving encouraging response, Batik Air is now expanding its network to Amritsar and Kolkata effective Sept 9 and Sept 30 respectively.

The airline today said the first four times weekly flight to Amritsar would operate every Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday.

"Our flights to Kolkata will be five times a week, departing Kuala Lumpur International Airport every Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday," it said in a statement.

Batik Air is a subsidiary of the Lion Air Group. Other airlines under its stable include Super Jet, Wings Air, Batik Air Indonesia, Biz Jet, Thai Lion Air and Lion Air.

"Batik Air celebrates yet another milestone with the announcement of our new services between Kuala Lumpur and Amritsar; and Kuala Lumpur and Kolkata," the airline's chief executive officer Captain Mushafiz Mustafa Bakri said.

"We are also happy to announce that apart from having direct flights between Kuala Lumpur and Perth, Australia, Batik Air will launch on Sept 15, additional flights to Perth via Denpasar, Indonesia."

26/07/22  Marina Emmanuel/New Straits Times

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Delhi airport to send passengers with monkeypox symptoms to LNJP, Kerala on alert

New Delhi: Amid strict health screening at ports and airports to check the spread of monkeypox, the Delhi airport will refer international arrivals exhibiting symptoms of the viral infection to Lok Nayak Jai Prakash (LNJP) Hospital, PTI reported quoting sources.

The sources said travellers having symptoms like high fever, back pain and joint pain at Delhi's IGI Airport will be sent to the isolation ward at LNJP Hospital, which has a special 20-member team to deal with such patients.

The samples of suspected patients will be sent to the National Institute of Virology, Pune, while the district administration will quarantine the family members and carry out contact tracing of such suspected patients.

The decision was taken in a review meeting chaired by Delhi Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena on Monday, a day after the first case of monkeypox was detected in the national capital.

The Delhi government asked district authorities and officials concerned to adhere to the Centre’s guidelines on management of monkeypox. Further directions include establishing or strengthening referral arrangements from airport/port to identified link hospital.

26/07/22 India Today

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No night landing facility at 25 airports in India

New Delhi: There are 25 airports across the country which don't have night landing facilities. Kushinagar airport, Shimla airport and recently inaugurated Deoghar airport in Jharkhand are among the list of 25 airports.

The ministry of civil aviation on Monday said in the Rajya Sabha that the upgradation or modernisation of airports, including provision of night landing facility is a continuous process and is undertaken by Airports Authority of India (AAI) and other airport operators from time to time depending on the availability of land, commercial viability, socio- economic considerations, traffic demand and willingness of airlines to operate to/from such airports etc.

"Presently night landing facility which is purely demand and need based on operational requirement of airlines and availability of land is not available at 25 operational airports with scheduled flight operations," said the ministry.

The list of airports not having night landing facility also include airports like Kullu and Dharamsala in Himachal Pradesh, Bilaspur and Jagdalpur in Chhattisgarh, Kalaburagi in Karnataka, Kolhapur and Sindhudurg in Maharashtra and and Ludhiana in Punjab among others.

AAI has undertaken installation of a night landing facility at Kolhapur airport. A team of Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has carried out the inspection of the airport on June 10, 2022. AAI has already initiated action for compliance of the observations made by DGCA during the inspection.

The country has over 100 operational airports and officials said that the airports not having night landing facilities are mostly those recording lower air passenger traffic. Airports Authority of India, which manages most of the airports in India, takes up a particular one for consideration for providing night landing facilities, when airlines show an interest during night operations.

25/07/22 IANS/Daijiworld

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No AC, no food: Kolkata airport rejects Biman’s claim of not letting onboard passengers disembark

The authorities at the Kolkata airport have rejected Biman's claim that they did not permit the deplaning of passengers from a Biman flight left stranded at the airport for four hours on July 18 due to a technical glitch.

The airport authorities said there was no provision that prevents or disallows boarded passengers to deplane.

"But it has to be requested and it has costs. The request was never made by the Biman pilot or their ground duty manager posted at the airport," said the Kolkata airport authorities.

Earlier, Biman alleged that the Kolkata airport authorities were responsible for the sufferings of its passengers on the Dhaka-bound flight.

Flight BG 396 remained stuck with around 150 onboard in Kolkata from 9:00pm local time on July 18 at the Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport as the Boeing 737 aircraft suffered a technical glitch in its landing gear, said Biman sources.

Biman Managing Director and CEO Zahid Hossain earlier told this newspaper that the passengers were not allowed by the Kolkata airport authorities to disembark.

During the four hours, the passengers were left without food and air conditioning. The Biman MD said they couldn't serve food or turn the AC on as repair work was ongoing.

After the fix, the flight, however, landed in Dhaka at 1:42am on Tuesday.

"Food was stored in the aircraft as per our information. In the worst case scenario, if there is insufficient food or water, they can be delivered from local agencies like Taj Stats on short notice," said the Kolkata airport authorities.

Several passengers who went to India for medical purposes started feeling unwell as the air condition system of the aircraft was not working due to the unavailability of ground electricity.

The Kolkata airport authorities said Air India ground handling provides support to Biman at Kolkata. Ground-based power units can be connected to aircraft for the AC to be powered. Ground-based AC units are also available but the Biman pilot did not request any of them.

Asked about the claim made by the Kolkata airport authorities, the Biman MD said he is currently out of Dhaka and could not comment on this issue instantly. He also asked this correspondent to contact Biman's customer service department.

25/07/22 Rashidul Hasan/Daily Star

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Amritsar airport security nabs passenger for molesting IndiGo air hostess

On Saturday (July 23), the security deployed at the Amritsar airport nabbed a passenger for molesting an air hostess onboard a flight.

As per reports, the accused was identified as Mohammed Danish. A resident of Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh, Danish had boarded an IndiGo flight (6E 6075) from Lucknow at 6:15 am.

The flight was bound for Srinagar with a 1-hour halt in Amritsar. During the journey, the passenger got into a heated argument with an air hostess and then resorted to sexually inappropriate behaviour.

When things turned ugly, the victim notified the Amritsar control room about the matter. When the flight landed at the Sri Guru Ramdas Ji International airport, security officials barged into the flight and nabbed Danish.

An official complaint was filed against the accused with Amritsar Airport Sub Inspector Pargat Singh, following which a case was registered against the accused by the airport police under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) Section 509 (intending to insult the modesty of any woman).

A probe was soon initiated into the incident. Given that IPC Section 509 is a bailable offence, Danish was soon released on bail. Owing to the chaos that transpired at the airport, the Srinagar-bound flight was delayed for about 15 minutes.

24/07/22 OpIndia

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Mysore Airport To Be Named After Nalwadi

Bengaluru: The State Cabinet has decided to name the Mysore Airport at Mandakalli after the late Maharaja Nalwadi Krishnaraja Wadiyar.

Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister J.C. Madhuswamy said yesterday that the Government has taken a decision recognising the contributions of Nalwadi to the growth of the Mysuru region. Nalwadi Krishnaraja Wadiyar was the 24th Maharaja of the Kingdom of Mysore, from 1894 until his death in 1940.

The Cabinet also approved the acquisition of 240 acres for upgradation of the Mysore Airport and the land would be handed over to the Airports Authority of India.

During Nalwadi’s rule, several irrigation projects, including the Krishnaraja Sagar (KRS), educational institutions and industries were established. Seeing his pro-people administrative reforms and achievements, Mahatma Gandhi called him ‘Rajarshi’.

There has been a demand in Mysuru by various groups and associations who had argued that it is apt to name the Mysore Airport after Nalwadi Krishnaraja Wadiyar as the late ruler has contributed immensely to the development of the region.

Welcoming the Cabinet decision, Health Minister Dr. K. Sudhakar wrote on Twitter: “I wholeheartedly welcome the decision of the State Cabinet to approve the naming of Mysore Airport after Rajarshi Nalwadi Krishnaraja Wadiyar. The foresight, efficient administration and social concern of Rajarshi Nalwadi Krishnaraja Wadiyar, the pioneer of Mysore’s development, have always inspired us.”

Thanking Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, Housing Minister V. Somanna and Mysuru District Minister S.T. Somashekar, Mysuru-Kodagu MP Pratap Simha said that the Government has fulfilled the request of the people of Mysuru.

23/07/22 Star of Mysore

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CISF personnel shoots himslef dead at Kolkata airport

Kolkata: A CISF personnel has allegedly shot himself dead at Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport in Kolkata, police said. The body of Pankaj Kumar, a sub-inspector, was found lying in a pool of blood around 7.45 pm on Friday at the basement toilet meant for airport staff, they said.

His body was found after airport security personnel rushed to the toilet on hearing a gunshot, they added. He has a gunshot wound on the forehead and his service pistol was found lying beside the body, police said.

The body has been sent for post-mortem examination, and police are questioning his colleagues and other airport staffers to ascertain why Kumar took his life.

A case of unnatural death has been registered, police said. As the incident happened away from the passenger movement area, it did not cause any hindrance to airport operations, officials said.

23/07/22 PTI/India TV

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Bomb scare on IndiGo flight hits Patna airport

A bomb scare on an IndiGo airlines Patna to Delhi flight caused panic and brought the operations to a standstill at the Jay Prakash Narayan International Airport in Bihar capital here on the intervening night of Thursday and Friday.

The incident occurred when passengers had boarded flight 6E 2126 and it was ready to take off at around 8.55pm on Thursday. One passenger was heard claiming that he had a bomb in his bag and would explode it.

According to the sources the passenger, identified as one Rishi Chand Singh Bedi, apparently mentally disturbed, talked about the bomb apparently in an argument with his parents who were travelling with him.

Bedi’s words were enough to cause and alarm among the other passengers and the aircraft crew. His parents tried hard to convince others that he had spoken in anger and it should not be taken seriously, but it did not have much affect and everybody panicked.

“The Central Industrial Security Force control room received a call from Indigo Airlines at 8.55pm that one of their passengers — Rishi Chand Singh Bedi, 24 — mentioned about a bomb in Patna – Delhi flight 6E 2126, whose scheduled departure was at 8.20pm,” Patna airport director Anchal Prakash said.

It threw the airport into a tizzy with necessary standard operation protocol (SOP) being initiated and a meeting of the bomb threat assessment committee (BTAC) being convened to assess the situation. All the 134 passengers were quickly deboarded.  “No suspicious object was found in the anti-sabotage check. The IndiGo airlines cancelled the flight and Bedi was handed over to the police,” Prakash said.

23/07/22 Dev Raj/Telegraph

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Go First Plane Rejects Take Off After Dog Comes on Leh Runway

A Go First’s aircraft, which was heading to Delhi, rejected take off as a dog came on the runway of Leh airport.

Aviation regulator DGCA officials said that it was a routine incident which took place on Tuesday.

Earlier, on Tuesday, Go First’s Mumbai-Leh flight and Srinagar-Delhi flight faced technical glitches and both planes were grounded by the aviation regulator. Officials said that DGCA was investigating the incidents and both the planes were involved in engine snag incidents

Scores of flights have been diverted owing to multiple technical snags in Indian carriers’ aircraft during the last couple of days. Sources said that the aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia on Monday told each airline to take all necessary steps that are needed to ramp up safety oversight.

21/07/22 IANS/News18

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Digi Yatra: Check-in facility with facial tech to begin at Bengaluru, Varanasi airports from Aug 15

Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia recently announced phase one of the Digi Yatra project which will allow passengers to check in at the airport using facial recognition technology. He further added that this facility will be kicked off at airports in Bengaluru and Varanasi on August 15. Under the Digi Yatra project, a passenger will pass through various checkpoints at the airport through a paperless and contactless process, using facial features to establish the identity which would be linked to the boarding pass.

Scindia stated on Twitter that he chaired a meeting of his ministry's Consultative Committee, comprising members from various political parties, on this project on Monday. "Discussed the workings of "Digi Yatra", our maiden project to digitalise processing of travellers at airports. Kicking off phase 1 at Bengaluru and Varanasi airports on Aug 15," he added.

He said the privacy issues have been taken care of in this project. In a statement, the civil aviation ministry said Digi Yatra provides a "decentralized mobile wallet-based identity management platform" which is cost-effective and addresses privacy and data protection issues.

It said Digi Yatra Foundation (DYF) will be a pan-India entity and the custodian of the passenger ID validation process under this project.

DYF has been set up as a joint venture company in 2019 under Section 8 of the Companies Act, 2013, wherein the Airports Authority of India holds 26 percent shares while the private operators of airports in Bengaluru, Delhi, Hyderabad, Mumbai, and Kochi will own the remaining 74 percent shares, it noted.

DYF will also develop consensus amongst the aviation stakeholders in India regarding this project, it mentioned. The company would also define the criteria for compliance and guidelines for the local airport systems, it said.

20/07/22 ZeeNews

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Identify passengers with fever before landing, DC tells airlines

Mangaluru: Deputy commissioner K V Rajendra directed the cabin crew members of airlines, to identify passengers in their flight, who have symptoms like fever and swollen lymph nodes, before landing at the Mangaluru International Airport (MIA).

The DC chaired a meeting of officials from the health department, MIA, airlines, customs and CISF, at the airport on Tuesday, in the wake of two monkeypox cases reported in Kerala. The second monkeypox case, which was found in a 31-year-old man from Kannur, had travelled via MIA. The DC said that since large numbers of passengers from Kerala arrive at MIA, the airport staff and airline cabin crew members need to join hands with the health department, to prevent the spread of monkeypox. “Cabin crew members should identify passengers with symptoms, prior to a flight landing. Passengers with symptoms should be segregated, and meet the health officer. Suspected cases should be sent to the monkeypox isolation ward, reserved at the Wenlock District Hospital, in an ambulance immediately,” the DC said.

He said that information, education and communication (IEC) on monkeypox should be displayed in Kannada, Malayalam, Hindi and English, at various spots at the airport. “Pictures that create awareness on monkeypox should be displayed on the airport premises, and announcements should be made to alert passengers. Similarly, such information should be shared on WhatsApp groups. Awareness should also be created among cab drivers on the disease,” he said.

DHO in-charge Dr Rajesh B V, district nodal officer for Covid-19, Dr Ashok H, district surveillance officer Dr Jagadeesh K, MIA head of operations Srikanth Tata, and airport medical officer Dr Nishitha were present.

Dr Jagadeesh said that out of 11 passengers from Dakshina Kannada, who travelled with the 31-year-old hailing from Kannur district, who was infected with monkeypox, nine were traced. “We are trying to contact others as well. All the nine passengers are asymptomatic, and have been isolated. The health officials have visited their houses for verification, and all of them are found to be healthy. We have asked them to contact us, in case of any health issues,” he added.

20/07/22 Times of India

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Adampur airport: Wait gets longer for flights to resume

Chandigarh: The wait of air passengers from the Doaba region, which has a large number of NRIs, is not going to end any time soon as there is no clarity yet about the resumption of commercial flight operations from the Adampur domestic airport.

Responding to a question by AAP Rajya Sabha member Ashok Mittal about government’s efforts to start regular flights from Adampur airport, Union civil aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said, “Airlines are free to induct capacity with any aircraft type on markets and network they wish to operate based on traffic demand and commercial viability.”

After repeal of the Air Corporation Act in March 1994, the Indian domestic aviation market has been deregulated, he added.

The first commercial flight landed at the Adampur domestic airport from Delhi on May 1, 2018. The Union minister said the routes connecting Adampur with Delhi, Mumbai and Jaipur were awarded under the regional connectivity scheme of the ministry of civil aviation. He said the ‘Adampur-Delhi-Adampur’ route has been discontinued after completion of three years tenure. The other two routes commenced by SpiceJet are still valid but the operations are presently on halt by the airlines due to the Covid pandemic and commercial issues. He added said that all the five airports/civil enclaves managed by Airport Authority of India in Punjab at Amritsar, Ludhiana, Adampur, Bathinda and Pathankot are operational. There are a total number of 110 operational airports in the country, which include one in Chandigarh and three in HP, said Scindia. There are as many as 23 non-operational airports in the country, he added.

20/07/22 Sanjeev Verma/Times of India

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UPS to open airport gateway facility at BLR Airport

UPS is to develop an airport gateway facility at Kempegowda International Airport, Bengaluru (BLR) in India, to expand its smart logistics network.

With new flights scheduled to pass through BLR five times a week, and with six weekly flights coming into Delhi, the opening of the BLR gateway doubles the number of flight rotations for UPS in India. The 747-8 is the largest aircraft in the UPS fleet, which means more capacity with a payload of 139,253kg, translating to lower emissions with fewer flights needed. By using owned aircraft, UPS also intends to give businesses the peace of mind they need when dealing with supply chain complexity. The UPS air network features a fleet of almost 600 aircraft delivering to over 220 countries and territories around the world.

With this added capacity, a Boeing 747-8 flight is expected to connect UPS customers in India with international trade opportunities in Asia, Europe and the Americas. This is UPS’s second dedicated airport gateway facility in India after its Delhi airport gateway, which opened in 2020. The Bengaluru facility will provide in-house customs clearance and serve as a cross-border trade link for southern India, giving customers an extended pick-up time of up to two hours. It is also intended to strengthen the company’s supply chains for cross-border trade.

The flight and airport gateway follows the company’s launch earlier in 2022 of the Movin logistics brand for the Indian market, which is a joint venture between UPS and InterGlobe Enterprises to serve the needs and demands of the fast-paced Indian market.

Deepak Shrivastava, managing director for the Indian subcontinent at UPS, said, “Customers are at the core of our strategy and we’re on a mission to deliver what matters to them. According to the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, for the first time, in the financial year 2022, exports have surpassed US$400bn, demonstrating the strength of India’s supply chains and the resilience of its small businesses. We’re here to support that growth.”

20/07/22 Elizabeth Baker/Passenger Terminal Today

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DGCA asks airlines to depute engineers at all airports

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has ordered airlines to ensure qualified engineers are present at all airports to clear flights before departure after it discovered that technical glitches were being incorrectly identified and reported and airlines were relying heavily on junior engineers.

The latest order follows a meeting held by Minister for Civil Aviation Jyotiraditya Scindia on aviation safety issues following incidents on IndiGo, Air India Express, Vistara and SpiceJet. DGCA had already served a show-cause notice earlier this month on SpiceJet. The minister has sought stepping up of safety oversight on airlines.

“All aircraft base and transit stations shall be released by certifying staff holding AME [Aircraft Maintenance Engineer] Category B1/ B2 licence with appropriate authorisation by their organisation,” the DGCA order says. It adds that airlines may either position AMEs at base and transit stations or fly them to smaller stations as staff-on-duty.

The aviation safety regulator’s latest instruction follows spot checks it conducted, where it discovered “improper identification of cause of a reported defect and non-availability of required certifying staff to cater to multiple-scheduled arrivals/ departures”. The DGCA said that it has also noticed that airlines were frequently seeking relief from the mandatory requirement that all equipment on aircraft be operative.

AMEs are authorised to clear aircraft before every departure and upon rectification of technical problems by issuing a certificate for release to service. B1 category of AMEs carry out mechanical engineering works involving airframe and engine and B2 category engineers carry out work related to avionics like electrical elements, radio and navigation.

19/07/22 The Hindu

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Arunachal: Airports Authority of India successfully completes first flight test landing at Hollongi airport

Guwahati: The Airport Authority of India (AAI) on Tuesday successfully completed the first flight test landing at Hollongi airport in Arunachal Pradesh.

The Greenfield Airport at Hollongi near the state capital Itanagar is the first full-fledged airport in Arunachal Pradesh.

The airport is set to get operationalized on Independence Day this year.

The airport is, situated about 15 km away from Itanagar, will help in connecting the state by air.

The airport is developed by the Airport Authority of India and will be available for operations of A-321 category aircraft.

According to reports, the airport will also get its runway extended by 500 m to accommodate the A-321 type of aircraft.

19/07/22 North East Now

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Kochi airport offers self-bag drop facility

Kochi: In order to improve passenger experience and make baggage check-in service smoother and hassle-free, Cochin International Airport Ltd (Cial) has launched automated self-bag drop machines. It will complete the baggage check-in process within 60 seconds and passengers won’t have to stand in queues.

Usually, the baggage check-in is done by the staff of respective airlines, who collect the bags, check it in and send to the ground handling teams using conveyor belts and often this takes much time if the queues are long. The facility will help the passengers to drop the check-in bags on the conveyor belt themselves without the assistance of airline personnel.

The facility is currently installed at Terminal-1, which is the domestic terminal. The passengers can collect the printouts of the boarding pass and baggage tag print out from Common Use Self-Service (CUSS) kiosks at the terminal. Cial has around 10 CUSS kiosks. Once the baggage-tag is attached to their luggage, the passengers can proceed to the self-bag drop facility and drop them.

Also, the advanced feature module of the self-bag drop system will automatically scan the baggage tags instead of passengers manually scanning them. There are four self-bag drop systems, which are installed at the check-in counters 27-30 at T1.

19/07/22 Times of India

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Paperless biometric-based boarding to start at Bangalore & Varansi from August 15

New Delhi: The first phase of Digi Yatra — completely paperless boarding of domestic flights (international requires passports) — will be rolled out at the Bengaluru and Varanasi airports from August 15, 2022.

Five other airports — Pune, Vijayawada, Kolkata, Delhi and Hyderabad — will see Digi Yatra get operational by next March. The Airports Authority of India will identify other airports where this would be implemented in phases.

Union Aviation minister J M Scindia held a meeting on this project whose rollout as delayed by Covid. “Discussed the workings of ‘Digi Yatra’, our maiden project to digitalise processing of travellers at airports. Kicking off phase 1 at Bengaluru and Varanasi airports on August 15,” Scindia Tweeted.

Digi Yatra aims to achieve contactless, seamless processing of passengers at airports, based on facial recognition technology (FRT).

“The project basically envisages that any traveller may pass through various check points at the airport through a paperless and contactless processing, using facial features to establish the identity which would be linked to the boarding pass,” the aviation ministry said in a statement.

Scindia says privacy issues have been taken care of in the system. “It provides for a decentralised mobile wallet-based identity management platform which is cost effective and addresses privacy/data protection issues in implementation of Digi Yatra,” the statement said.

18/07/22 Saurabh Sinha/Times of India

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101 Lankan flights refuel at Thiruvananthapuram, pay Rs 75 lakh to land

Two more flights from Sri Lanka touched down at Thiruvananthapuram airport for refuelling on Friday, taking the number of such technical landings from the crisis-hit island nation to 101 since May.The stopovers, most of them by the country’s official carrier Sri Lankan Airlines, started after fuel shortage induced by the economic crisis hit refuelling at Colombo airport. The temporary halts have helped Thiruvananthapuram airport earn at least Rs 75 lakh in landing charges. This excludes refuelling charges.

Since May 27, 65 SriLankan Airlines flights have proceeded to destinations such as Melbourne, Sydney, Paris and Frankfurt after refuelling at Thiruvananthapuram airport. This apart, 11 flydubai flights headed to Dubai, 10 Air Arabia aircraft proceeding to Sharjah, nine Oman Air flights bound to Muscat and six Gulf Air flights flying to Bahrain have also made technical landing here in that period.

A source with the Thiruvananthapuram airport said all these flights were served a total ATF (Aviation Turbine Fuel) of 5,000 kilolitres. The 100th flight was SriLankan Airlines flight to Melbourne that arrived around 1am on Friday. It was closely followed by the same airlines’ flight to Sydney, the 101st.The source said the airport is considering this an opportunity to facilitate and help the struggling neighbouring country.

“Most of the flights for refuelling are coming during peak hours, between midnight and 6am. So we are providing assistance to them despite our tight schedule. They had approached us for this. So, we are acting as a facilitator rather than considering this a business opportunity,” said a source.

The arrivals have provided TIAL with an additional revenue stream though. “A wide-bodied aircraft has to pay Rs 1 lakh while smaller ones are charged Rs 30,000 as landing fee. At least Rs 75 lakh has been paid by all the airlines as landing fee,” said a source.

16/07/22 Krishnachand K/New Indian Express

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Full emergency declared at Cochin airport as Air Arabia flight with hydraulic failure lands

A full emergency was declared at Kochi airport on Friday after an incident of hydraulic failure was reported from an inbound Air Arabia flight from Sharjah, the Cochin International Airport Limited (CIAL) said. All passengers and crew were safe.

CIAL, in a communication sent to the media, said Air Arabia G9- 426 which was supposed to land at 19:13 hrs here reported a hydraulic failure following which a full emergency was declared at the airport.

“Aircraft landed safely at runway 09 at 19:29 hrs,” CIAL said, adding that only towing was required. The full emergency was withdrawn at 2022 hrs.

Meanwhile, CIAL MD, S Suhas, said a concerted effort and timely coordination helped CIAL to see through the airport emergency situation.

“Though such a situation occurred after a long period, it was proved that the safety systems worked effectively. We could resume the operations in 45 minutes,” Suhas said.

CIAL said two flights were diverted during the incident.

“GO FIRST G8 336 was diverted to Kannur at 1940 hrs and Air Arabia 3L125 was diverted to Coimbatore at 1950 hrs,” airport authorities said.

CIAL said that all, including 222 passengers and seven crew members, were safe. However, there was no immediate response from the airline.

16/07/22 PTI/Indian Express

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ILS equipment calibrated at upcoming Goa airport

Mumbai: GMR Goa International Airport Limited (GGIAL), a subsidiary of GMR Airports Limited (GAL), successfully completed calibration of the Instrument Landing System (ILS) for the newly built runway 28 of the upcoming New Goa International Airport in Mopa in Pernem on Thursday.

A special aircraft from Airports Authority of India’s Flight Inspection Unit (FIU) equipped with the analyser and ILS equipment signal tracker completed technical observations and fine-tuning of the equipment.

With this, the upcoming New Goa International Airport has achieved a significant milestone. Subsequently, the Instrument Flight Procedures (IFP) will be flown and validated by a commercial airline. Once formally approved by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), commercial pilots can fly on that procedure. IFP is developed considering various factors including the terrain, obstacles in the surroundings etc. for the execution of a safe landing, a spokesperson of GMR group said.

“Today, we have successfully completed ILS calibration. This ensures precise and safe landing of aircraft. This is a major step forward towards making the new airport commercially operational,” CEO-GGIAL R V Sheshan said.

“As an airport operator, GGIAL is constantly working to make New Goa International Airport, the airport of choice for airlines and fliers by unlocking the true potential of Goa. New Goa International Airport will offer a plethora of employment and tourism opportunities, promoting socio-economic development in Goa,” he added.

This ILS calibration process is carried out by FIU aircraft which are equipped with an Automatic Flight Inspection System (AFIS). The independent dual receiver configuration of the system ensures very high integrity and repeatability of the testing/calibration results. This FIU aircraft, which conducts ILS calibration, is operated by pilots and engineers of the AAI.

16/07/22 Vogesh Naik/Indian Express

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Sri Lankan flight makes emergency landing in Chennai airport

Chennai: A Sri Lankan Airlines flight made an emergency landing at the Chennai airport on Friday morning after the pilot detected a snag in the aircraft’s hydraulic system. The aircraft landed safely at 9.10am.

The Colombo-Chennai flight (UL121) developed the snag as it neared the city. A full emergency was declared, and crash tenders were positioned by the side of the runway as per protocol. The flight was given priority for landing.

As the landing gear was working, foam or other chemicals used to prevent fire was not sprayed on the runway.

An airport official said the landing was safe and it did not affect other services.

16/07/22 Times of India

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41 flights from Colombo made technical landings in Kochi last fortnight

New Delhi: During the course of a fortnight, 41 flights from Colombo made technical landings in Kochi.

"From June 29th to July 13th as many as 41 flights from Colombo made technical landings (mostly in Kochi). If we take a count of flights that landed since May 27 the number is 94,’’ say sources. 

These were basically for refuelling as Sri Lanka is undergoing an immense shortage of fuel. The airlines that came in for refuelling included mostly Sri Lankan Airways, and the remaining were Air Arabia, Air Asia, Fly Dubai, Gulf Air, Oman Air and Jazeera.

"We continue to stand with Sri Lanka in multiple ways. Airports in India like Kochi and Trivandrum allowed technical landings,’’ stated the Indian High Commission in Colombo.

The Minister of Civil Aviation, Jyotiraditya Scindia, also lauded the efforts made by India to support Sri Lanka.

"The airports have gone beyond their call of duty by allowing technical landings from Sri Lanka, The gesture will go a long way in furthering our ties with our neighbour,’’ said Scindia. The number of military aircraft from Sri Lanka that may have come for refuelling is not known.

14/07/22 Yeshi Seli/New Indian Express

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Patna: AAI initiates bidding process for parallel taxi track, isolation bay

Patna: After the state government has transferred around 26 acre of land for the redevelopment of the city airport, the Airports Authority of India (AAI) has initiated the bidding process to choose the agency for the construction of parallel taxi track (PTT), isolation bay and other facilities at the Jayprakash Narayan International Airport.The proposed facilities will improve the runway capacity, decrease flight delays and help to tackle the emergency scare.

Besides, the re-carpeting of runway, development of taxiway, shoulder and apron along with the construction of PTT and allied works like construction of boundary wall and security watch tower. If everything goes well, all the work will begin simultaneously by October this year and is likely to be completed by 2023.

As per the detailed project report, a 1,730-metre-long PTT will come up towards the boundary wall of BIT-Patna. It will increase the runway’s flight handling capacity as the airlines will quickly take the aircraft to bay through PTT after landing and clear the runway for other planes to take off or land. Presently, the pilots have to run the aircraft all the way to the end of the runway and take 180-degree-turn to come back to the apron.

According to the airport officials, the PTT will enable airlines to operate their flights on time, thereby reducing the wait for passengers to reach their destinations. The facility will increase the runway capacity to almost three times more than the existing capacity. At present, the Patna airport handles 10 flights per hour including five each of arrival and departure. It will be developed by utilising the fund to the tune of Rs 42 crore.

15/07/22 Faryal Rumi/Times of India

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Goa’s Mopa airport commissioning after August 15: CM Pramod Sawant

Panaji: Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant has said the Mopa international airport, which is expected to double the number of flights landing in the state, will be commissioned after August 15.

Speaking in the state Assembly during the monsoon session on Wednesday, Sawant said, “Almost 90 per cent of work on the project has been completed and trials at the airport are on.” The airport at Mopa in North Goa district would be commissioned “between August 15 and September 1 this year,” he said.

A Skill Development Centre has already started operating at the airport site where students are being trained for the purpose of employment in the project. More students would be enrolled in the coming days, the CM said.

After the commissioning of the Mopa airport, the existing Dabolim airport in the coastal state will not be closed and flight operations will continue there, he added.

14/07/22 PTI/Tribune

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Mumbai International Airport Ltd stakes claim over Air India sports club; airline, airport staff argue over ground use

Mumbai: In letter sent to Air India on Wednesday, Mumbai International Airport Ltd (MIAL) said that it had taken over the possession of the Air India Sports Club in Kalina. The ground is located in the vicinity of Air India staff colonies. Later in the evening, the airline and the airport staff had an argument over the rights to use the ground.

“Please note that the land of the sports complex has been demised by Airports Authority of India (AAI) to MIAL and we have taken over possession of the same,” said the letter. “No activity whatsoever is permitted to be undertaken on this land. Any force for attempt to use the land will lead to legal consequences as per rights of MIAL.”

George Abraham, general secretary, Aviation Industry Employees Guild, an Air India union, said around 4.30 pm, eight to 10 people from MIAL, including a security manager in a red-and-white striped shirt, reached Air India Sports Club and informed the staff that from Thursday, no one can enter the ground as they have taken possession. “Thereafter, the staff and managers came on the scene and questioned them and told them that the matter is in court. After stiff opposition from employees they left,” Abraham said.

Air India confirmed receiving the MIAL letter. “However, there was no confrontation at any stage regarding this and the issue is being sorted out,” said an AI spokesperson. MIAL did not respond to a query sent by the TOI.

On Thursday morning, the ground stayed open to the public. Said a source: “Yashasvi Jaiswal, who opens for Mumbai in domestic cricket and Rajasthan Royals in the IPL, honed his cricketing skills on this ground.” Current Mumbai captain Prithvi Shaw also trained at this ground during his teenage years. “Several current and former India players, including former India skipper Ajinkya Rahane, Yuvraj Singh and Suresh Raina have trained on this ground. It is one of the best cricket grounds in Mumbai suburbs. MCA tournaments, including the Times Shield and Kanga league, take place on this ground,” the source added.

The Kalina land on which this sports complex stands belongs to the state government, which leased it to the Centre-owned AAI, which further handed over the lease to MIAL—currently under the Adani Group—when the airport was privatized.

15/07/22 Gaurav Gupta/Times of India

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Straightened taxiway will help flights save runway time

Chennai: Flights will no longer need to taxi for 10 to 15 minutes to reach the Guindy-end of the main runway for take-off as the Airports Authority of India (AAI) is commissioning a straightened taxiway at Chennai airport on Thursday.

The taxiway, which runs parallel to the main runway linking the terminals to the Guindy-end of the runway, had a bend near the cargo terminal from where it used to run too close to the runway, leading to a bottleneck that increased the taxiing time of flights.

The straightened taxiway will reduce the time taken for taxiing and help airlines save time and fuel. This apart, the airport will be able to handle more flights during peak hours.

A senior official of AAI said, "There is no need to hold planes on the taxiway, which is used by 90% of domestic, international and cargo flights. The peak hour aircraft handling capacity will increase from 36 flights per hour to 45-50 flights per hour. The two rapid exit taxiways to be completed soon will also help the airport increase its handling capacity."

Planes will also be able to taxi along the last stretch of the taxiway where it connects to the end of the runway without affecting landings and take-offs. This was not possible earlier because this part of the taxiway was too close to the runway only 123m from the centre of the runway instead of the stipulated 172.5m.

14/07/22 Times of India

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Phone Access For Outsourced Staff Revoked At Airport

Two days after the DRI busted a gold smuggling racket at Terminal 2 of SVP International Airport in Ahmedabad, the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) on Tuesday called an all-party meeting to discuss strengthening vigilance and security in light of recent developments.

The DRI had arrested six persons including a terminal manager and three outsourced employees (cleaners) of Bharat Vikas Group (BVG) along with the two carriers (passengers) who transported the gold from UAE to India, in the case.

Mirror first reported on Tuesday how the VIP lounge at the international terminal, located before immigration counter, had been used by smugglers to sneak in gold by evading Customs duty due to alleged involvement of airport staff.

Sources said the meeting had representatives from the airport management company, the Airports Authority of India (AAI), CISF and Customs Department among other stakeholders.

Mirror learnt that two major decisions had been taken in the meeting that are allegedly meant to curb the smuggling of illicit items and bring greater vigilance against Customs duty evasion of expensive items such a gold through organised rings with the involvement of airport staff, which is currently under investigation by the DRI.

One decision was to revoke the phone access of all outsourced airport workers below the rank of supervisor, in the terminal premises. Sources said the alleged involvement of three cleaners in the latest gold smuggling, running at Ahmedabad airport for several months if not more, led to this decision.

14/07/22 Ahmedabad Mirror

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90 pc work of Goa’s Mopa airport complete, commissioning after Aug 15: CM Sawant

Panaji: Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant had said that about 90 per cent work of the Mopa international airport in the state has been completed.

Speaking in the state Assembly during the monsoon session on Wednesday, Sawant also said the airport at Mopa in North Goa district would be commissioned “between August 15 and September 1 this year”.

“Almost 90 per cent of the work on this project has been completed and trials at the airport are on,” he said without elaborating further.

A Skill Development Centre has already started operating at the airport site where students are being trained for the purpose of employment in the project. More students would be enrolled in the coming days, the CM said.

After the commissioning of the Mopa airport, the existing Dabolim airport in the coastal state will not be closed and flight operations will continue there, he added.

The Dabolim international airport,located in South Goa district, operates as a civil enclave in a military airbase named INS Hansa.

CM Sawant on Monday said in the Assembly that many countries were waiting to sign an agreement with Goa for operate their flights here, which would be possible only after the commissioning of the greenfield airport at Mopa.

In the wake of the existing infrastructure at the Dabolim airport, the state has an agreement with only 18 countries, he had said.

14/05/22 PTI/Print

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Alliance Air Looking To Connect Delhi With High-Altitude Shimla Airport Again

New Delhi could soon have a direct flight to the popular hilly destination and the capital of the state of Himachal Pradesh, Shimla. Located more than 2,000 meters above sea level, it is considered a tricky airport for landings and takeoffs. Currently, it is undergoing runway extension so that commercial flights can start again.

India’s Ministry of Civil aviation is planning to launch several regional routes in the next 50 days, and the Delhi-Shimla route is on the list. Part of the Himalayan Range, Shimla is a popular tourist destination and sees plenty of travelers from Delhi and the larger North Indian region. A direct flight from the Indian capital will further boost its travel industry.

Alliance Air’s Delhi-Shimla flight was started in 2017 but had to be stopped in 2020, as the airline’s lease for the smaller ATR 42 aircraft expired. Since then, the airport only sees non-scheduled heli-taxi services. Now that the planes are expected to join its fleet soon, Alliance Air is eyeing the route again.

The Business Standard quotes Vineet Sood, Alliance Air’s CEO, as saying,

“We will receive our first new ATR 42-600 aircraft by July-end and another in September. We hope to start service between Delhi and Shimla, and Delhi and Kota from August 15 with the new aircraft. However, that depends upon the readiness of the airports.”

14/07/22 Gaurav Joshi/Simple Flying

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Khadim opens 1st flagship airport store at Kolkata

Khadim India Ltd, among the largest retail footwear brands, launches its first flagship airport store in the domestic departure terminal at Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport, Kolkata, to mark its foray into travel retail. The store is a very special part of the company’s strategic growth plan of retail expansion as the brand has witnessed substantial demand for its products across the markets in India, says the company statement. 

Over the years the airport retailing market has evolved significantly due to the increase in passenger traffic. People are also spending more time before boarding their flight due to early check-in times in the airport. The brand store will capitalise on the opportunity of a high volume of assured customer base travelling round the clock. The company’s focus efforts will be to provide travellers with an enhanced footwear shopping experience.

With this, the home grown brand strengthen its retail presence by opening 206 Company Owned Stores across India.

The transit store is conveniently located near Departure Gate 21, First Floor at Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport (Domestic Terminal), Kolkata. 

14/07/22 Retail4Growth 

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Mangaluru International Airport procures two electric vehicles

Mangaluru: In its efforts to reduce carbon footprint, Mangaluru International Airport has procured two SUV electric vehicles.

These SUVs will be used by the engineering and maintenance and landside operations team at the airport for their routine work. The airport has also drawn up a plan to procure either an electric bus or an SUV by the end of the current fiscal.

According to MIA spokesperson, the airport aims to become carbon neutral by 2024 and go ‘net zero’ by 2029. Receiving the keys to the electric SUVs from the dealers at the airport on Tuesday, the airport leadership team also outlined the plan to make two electrical charging stations operational in the parking area. “Work on setting up the charging station is nearly complete. Stakeholders – internal and others will be allowed to access this facility,” the spokesperson said.

13/07/22 Times of India

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Kolkata airport cautions against job fraud

Kolkata: The Kolkata airport authorities issued a caution on social media against fraudulent job advertisements after multiple instances surfaced of fraudsters targeting job seekers looking for opportunities at multiple airports in the country, including Kolkata, in exchange for money.

“It has come to our knowledge that fraudsters have been trying to dupe young job aspirants by promising to provide them with secured jobs at Kolkata and other airports in the country in exchange for money. We just want to reiterate that none need to pay anything for a job with the Airports Authority of India and the job openings are available in the public domain in our official website. Hence, job seekers need to be more careful and should always crosscheck all such advertisements with the AAI website,” said a senior official at Kolkata airport. Airport jobs-related information is available on the “careers” section of its website.

13/07/22 Tamaghna Banerjee/Times of India

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Sri Lankan crisis: Over 120 aircraft made technical landing in Kerala airports

Kerala airports lent a helping hand to crisis-ridden Sri Lanka by providing technical landing facilities for the airlines bound for Colombo and flying out to West Asian and European destinations from Colombo, for refuelling and crew exchange.

Over 120 aircraft have made technical landings in Thiruvananthapuram and Kochi airports since the political turmoil and shortage of aviation turbine fuel (ATF) gripped the country. Apart from Kerala airports, a good number of flights are also opting for Chennai airport for refuelling according to their convenience.

Since the last week of May, 91 aircraft made technical landings at the Adani group-run Thiruvananthapuram airport, which is closer to Sri Lanka in terms of aerial distance compared to other airports, to fuel up, while the Cochin International Airport (CIAL) facilitated the technical landing of 30 aircraft so far. Further, these two airports together have around 120 requests for technical landings till July 31 in view of the crisis in the island nation.

Speaking to The Hindu, a senior official close to Thiruvananthapuram airport said: “though the crisis is a blessing in disguise for the south Indian airports, we have been providing landing facility here more on a humanitarian ground as the majority of the technical landings are made here during the peak hours of the airport. However, we are doing our level best to offer the facility for all the aircraft bound for or from Lanka without upsetting our peak-hour traffic” .

The spokesperson of CIAL said a discount of 25% in landing fee is offered for flights in international routes for refuelling at the Cochin airport, which has an in-built hydrant fuelling system to meet the quick turnaround requirement of international carriers.

In a facebook post, Bharat Petroleum said “We are pleased to support Sri Lankan Airlines with refuelling of their long-haul flights at Indian airports. To overcome the jet fuel shortage there, more than 100 flights have been refuelled at Thiruvanathapuram, Chennai and Kochi airports, over the last fortnight by mobilising the assets and manpower for the on-time service, at a very short notice,” it said.

12/07/22 Dhinesh Kallungal/The Hindu

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PM inaugurates Deoghar Airport; to provide direct air connectivity to Baba Baidyanath Dham

Deoghar: The Prime Minister, Narendra Modi inaugurated and laid the foundation stone of various developmental projects worth more than Rs 16,800 crores in Deoghar today. Governor Jharkhand,  Ramesh Bais, Chief Minister  Hemant Soren, Union Minister  Jyotiraditya Scindia, State ministers and people's representatives were among those present on the occasion. . 

Addressing the gathering, the Prime Minister said that with the blessings of Baba Baidyanath, projects worth more than Rs 16,000 crore have been inaugurated and the foundation stone has been laid today. These are going to give a huge impetus to Jharkhand's modern connectivity, energy, health, faith and tourism. 

The Prime Minister remarked that the country has been working with the thinking of development of the nation by the development of the states since last 8 year. In the last 8 years, in the efforts to connect Jharkhand by highways, railways, airways, waterways, in every way, the same thinking and spirit have been paramount. All these facilities will positively impact the economic development of the state. 

The Prime Minister said that today, Jharkhand is getting its second airport. This will lead to tremendous ease for devotees of Baba Baidyanath. In the context of making air travel affordable for the common man through the UDAN scheme, the Prime Minister noted that today the benefits of the efforts of the government are visible across the country. About 70 new locations have been added through airports, heliports and water aerodromes in the last 5-6 years under the UDAN scheme. Today, ordinary citizens are getting the facility of air travel on more than 400 new routes. More than 1 crore people have experienced very affordable air travel, many for the first time. The Prime Minister expressed happiness that the flight from Deoghar to Kolkata started today and flights for Ranchi, Delhi and Patna will start soon. Work is on for airports in Bokaro and Dumka, he said.  

The Prime Minister said along with connectivity, the central government is also focusing on the creation of facilities at important places related to faith and spirituality in the country. Modern facilities have also been expanded in Baba Baidyanath Dham under the PRASAD scheme. When a holistic approach guides the projects, new avenues of income come for various segments of the society and new facilities create new opportunities. 

12/07/22 Press Release/PIB

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Udan spreads wings, Delhi-Shimla and Kolkata-Deoghar among new routes

 Mumbai: In April 2017, Prime Minister Narendra Modi flagged off Alliance Air’s Delhi-Shimla flight heralding a new era in regional air connectivity. The flight, however, was suspended in March 2020 and Shimla virtually fell off the aviation map.

But there is good news for travellers. The Delhi-Shimla route is among nine that airlines plan to launch in the next 50 days under the civil aviation ministry’s Udan scheme. On Tuesday, IndiGo launched its service between Kolkata and Deoghar in Jharkhand after the PM inaugurated its new airport, built at a cost of Rs 401 crore.

“We will receive our first new ATR 42-600 aircraft by July-end and another in September. We hope to start service between Delhi and Shimla, and Delhi and Kota from August 15 with the new aircraft. However, that depends upon the readiness of the airports,” said Alliance Air’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Vineet Sood.

Shimla has a tabletop airport and a new runway end safety area is being built as an additional safety measure. According to an Airport Authority of India official, the work is expected to be completed by July 15 and would need approval from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation.

Additionally, Alliance Air plans to deploy the new aircraft on existing routes between Delhi-Kullu and Delhi-Dharamshala. These routes are currently served with ATR 72 aircraft, which seats 70 passengers.

“The ATR 42-600 route is more suitable than the ATR 72 for operations at airports with short runways or with high elevation. Its operating costs are lower. Also, at such airports, there are restrictions on maximum takeoff weight. So it is more profitable to deploy ATR 42 aircraft,” Sood said.

“Currently, we serve 52 destinations. Overall, our performance has been good and we will be adding new flights in northeastern states under the scheme. After the delivery of our second ATR 42 aircraft we will have more than 20 aircraft in the fleet and we will gradually commence operations to neighbouring countries,” he said.

12/07/22 Aneesh Phadnis/Business Standard

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Sabarimala Airport To Have The Longest Runway In Kerala, Expected To Handle 17 Lakh Passengers In 2026

As per the revised Techno-Economic Feasibility Report (TEFR) submitted to the Ministry of Civil Aviation recently, the proposed Sabarimala airport would have the longest runway of Kerala’s four international airports (Thiruvananthapuram, Calicut, Cochin, and Kannur).

The runway at the proposed Sabarimala airport will be 3500 metres long, 45 metres wide, and will have 7.5-meter off-shoulders on both sides. Whereas the current runways in Thiruvananthapuram and Cochin are each 3400 metres long, Calicut's is 2860 metres long and Kannur Airport's runway is 3050 metres long, with room to expand to 4000 meters.

Sabarimala International Airport is a proposed greenfield airport project to be built in Erumely, in the Kottayam district of Kerala. The proposed airport's location is Cheruvally Estate, once the site of a rubber plantation.

The Sabarimala temple is part of the Western Ghats and is one of India's holiest shrines. Currently, the hill shrine can only be reached by road. The temple receives nearly 50 million pilgrims each season. Hence, the airport is considered a solution to ease traffic during the pilgrimage season.

According to The Times of India, once the project is finished, the airport will see an increase in traffic from 16.9 lakh (domestic and foreign passengers included) in 2026 to 32.9 lakh in 2035 and 64.2 lakh in 2052. In terms of cargo, the airport would handle 4.45 metric tonnes in 2026; this amount would rise to 7.85 metric tonnes in 2035; and 14.81 metric tonnes in 2052.

The project's anticipated cost is Rs 3,900 crore, which includes Rs 260 crore for land costs and Rs 3,400 crore for capital expenditure.

The TEFR and social impact assessment reports for the project were initiated in 2017 and were conducted by Louis Berger’s consultant agency. However, the Centre has returned the TEFR, citing technical shortcomings.

12/07/22 Swarajya

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Airport official among 6 held over gold smuggling

Ahmedabad: The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) arrested six persons, including a terminal manager at the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International (SVPI) airport in Ahmedabad, over gold smuggling from Dubai.

The DRI team also confiscated smuggled gold bars weighing 3.8 kilograms worth Rs 2.02 crore from two passengers who arrived from Dubai who are among the six arrested in an operation conducted on July 9.

DRI officials said that the two passengers worked in syndicate with a terminal manager and three cleaners employed at the airport. “Intelligence was developed by DRI that two passengers would be travelling from Dubai to Ahmedabad with the smuggled gold and the same would be handed over to the persons working in airport…,” read a statement from the DRI Ahmedabad Zonal Unit.

“The DRI identified the two passengers and intercepted immediately… The report on purity and value of gold certified that the gross weight of the said gold bars was 3,849.120 grams and market value @ Rs 52,650 per 10 grams was Rs 2,02,65,617 and tariff value @ Rs 46,741.50 per 10 grams was Rs 1,79,91,364,” read the statement.

11/07/22 Indian Express

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Million Wings To Fly: Deoghar Airport Set To Bring New Dawn In Bihar-Jharkhand

People of Deoghar, Jharkhand will wake up to a new dawn as the much-awaited Baba Baidyanath Dham international airport, built at an estimated cost of around Rs 400 crores will be thrown open to the public on July 12, Tuesday. The airport won’t come as a boon only for the devotees and pilgrims who visit Baidhyanath Dham darshan (one of the twelve jyotirlingas) but would also help people from the North-Eastern side of Jharkhand and South-Eastern districts of Bihar such as Jamui, Banka, Dumka, Godda, Giridih and Deoghar. The airport was a long demand for locals as currently there are only 2 main airports serving the two states—Bihar and Jharkhand. People have to travel almost 8 to 10 hours by road to reach Deoghar from Patna or Ranchi.

Spread over 654 acres, the airport has been primarily developed to serve the region (North-Eastern part of Jharkhand) and some districts of Bihar. This will be the second international airport in Jharkhand after the Birsa Munda International Airport, Ranchi.

11/07/22 India.com

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The elegant whale is here! Airbus Beluga cargo plane lands at Chennai airport for first time

Chennai: A giant Airbus Beluga cargo plane (A300-608ST) made a brief stopover at Chennai airport on Monday for refuelling. This is the first time that the aircraft is touching down at the airport.

The Airports Authority of India (AAI) tweeted that "The elegant whale is here and with such awesomeness! The mighty #Beluga No.2 (A300-608ST) landed at Chennai airport for the first time, today. The cargo transporter is a rare visitor in this part of the world and a marvel to behold."

The aircraft, which is not carrying cargo, is on its way to Thailand, said an AAI official. Known as super transporter, the aircraft is a version of wide body A300-600 aircraft of the Airbus and is usually used to carry aircraft or machine parts and huge cargo.

11/07/22 V Ayyappan/Times of India

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GMR Hyderabad Airport Saves Rs 10 Cr By Employing Solar Power

As per GMR Hyderabad International Airport Ltd (GHIAL), it has saved Rs 10 crore in the last one year since it has employed solar power to power airport operations.

According to the information tendered, GHIAL owns solar power capacities totaling 10 MW. The entity had commissioned a 5 MW solar power plant meant for the captive consumption of the airport. In 2021, GHIAL expanded this solar capacity to 10 MW.

GHIAL said that the facility sprawls out to over 45 acres and has more than 30,000 solar power panels in place, sufficient  to generate 10 MW of electricity. The solar power facility is fitted with advanced ABB central inverters and polycrystalline PV panels.  They are said to be of superior quality than the mono-crystalline solar panels.

Pradeep Panicker, CEO, GHIAL said, “As a sustainable airport operator, we have rolled out many initiatives to actively reduce the carbon emissions. As a member airport of the Airports Council International, we are aiming to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050.”

11/07/22 Saur Energy

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ATF crisis in Sri Lanka turns opportunity for South India airports

The ongoing turmoil and fuel shortage in Sri Lanka have boosted aviation turbine fuel (ATF) sales in South Indian airports like Thiruvananthapuram, Cochin and Chennai.

Several flights of Sri Lankan Airlines, Air Arabia, Jazeera Airways, Gulf Air, and Air AirAsia Malaysia are halting at Indian airports for ATF since May. This is giving additional revenue to oil marketing companies (OMCs), airport operators and respective state governments.

With the crisis intensifying in the island nation, more players have informed OMCs that they will start landing in Indian airports. Etihad Airways plans to start landing in Cochin from July 15.

According to a source from Bharat Petroleum Corporation, SriLankan Airlines itself operated 110 additional flights and lifted 9,300 kilo litres (kl) of additional jet fuel from Indian airports.

The number of flights diverting to India for refuelling has increased from June 29 after the Lankan authorities informed airlines that no ATF will be available.

In addition, flights from other countries are also opting for technical landing and refuelling from South Indian’s airports.

Sources said Air Arabia and Gulf Air have started technical landing at Thiruvananthapuram and are operating one flight a day, lifting up to 30-40 kl of ATF a day.

According to media reports, technical landing for refuelling is expected to bring additional revenue of around Rs 1 lakh per flight for the airport operators. The state governments also get revenue from taxes on ATF. Mainly aircraft from West Asia and those en-route to Europe are depending on Indian airports for refuelling.

The Adani group-run Thiruvananthapuram airport has been serving as a refuelling hub for Sri Lankan and West Asian Airlines since May-end. Until now, the airport handled 90 flights, which included 55 flights of SriLankan Airlines bound for Sydney, Melbourne, and Paris. In Sri Lanka, ATF was available only for air ambulances and flights making emergency diversions. This restriction would be in place till July 13. Kochi airport handled 28 flights since June 29, including those operated by SriLankan Airlines, Air Arabia, Jaze¬era Airways and Air AirAsia Malaysia.

10/07/22 Shine Jacob & Aneesh Phadnis/Business Standard

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Dubai flight to Mangaluru diverted to Cochin

Mangaluru: Though the entire day had almost normal operations at Mangaluru International Airport on Friday despite the incessant rains, the late-night flight from Dubai, which was scheduled to land at the airport at 9.15pm, has been diverted to Cochin.

Airport sources said that low visibility due to rain forced the flight to divert to Cochin.

Airline sources said the flight may land at MIA in another three hours, depending on weather conditions.

Consequently, the same flight had a departure time back to Dubai at 11.30pm, which now will be delayed by at least five hours, in case the flight makes its way back to the airport in another three hours.

08/07/22 Stanley Pinto/Times of India

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After Delhi and Hyderabad, India's GMR Group starts operating Indonesia's Medan Airport

GMR Group has announced that the Kualanamu International Airport in Medan, Indonesia has begun to be run by its joint venture, Angkasa Pura Aviasi. PT Angkasa Pura II, the state-owned airport operator in Indonesia, and GMR Airports Ltd. have partnered to become Angkasa Pura Aviasi (APA). The project will span a 25-year term of cooperation, and with it, GMR Airports, a division of GMR Infrastructure, will enter the expanding Indonesian aviation sector.

The joint venture formally took over the operations of Medan airport in the presence of Budi Karya Sumadi, Minister of Transportation; Erick Thohir, Minister of State-Owned Enterprises; Edy Rachmayadi, Governor of North Sumatra, and Muhammad Awaluddin - President Director, Angkasa Pura II, the release said.

Currently, GMR Group is operating Delhi and Hyderabad airports as well as the Mactan Cebu International Airport (MCIA) in the Philippines. It also recently finished the construction of Clark Airport in the Philippines and is also coming up with a new airport at Crete in Greece.

GMR Airports had bid for the development and operation of Medan airport, and the international selection process was conducted by PT Angkasa Pura II to select a strategic partner.

In November 2021, GMR Airports was announced as the winning bidder. The Shareholders' Agreement (SHA) and Share Subscription Agreement (SSA) with PT Angkasa Pura II was signed in December 2021. For the project, GMR had entered into a 49:51 partnership with PT Angkasa Pura II.

08/07/22 Zee News

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3rd SpiceJet Incident Yesterday: Cargo Plane's Weather Radar Failed

New Delhi: A SpiceJet cargo plane flying to China yesterday had to come back to Kolkata for a fix after its weather radar developed a snag, sources said. After repairs, the plane — from the airline's freight unit SpiceXpress — took off again for Chongqing, it is learnt.

For SpiceJet, this was one of three incidents related to malfunctions in a day. None of these was a flight risk or emergency as such, though the pilots took precautionary measures. Counting these in, the private carrier has seen eight reported incidents of malfunctions in the last three weeks -- none caused serious harm to crew or passengers.

As the regulator issued a show-cause notice to the airline, Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia asserted that passenger safety was paramount. The airline has reacted saying "no aircraft will ever fly unless it is 100 per cent safe". 

In the first reported incident yesterday, a flight from Delhi to Dubai had to make an unscheduled landing at the airport in Karachi, Pakistan, after its fuel indicator malfunctioned and showed rapid depletion. Pilots suspected a fuel leak and opted to make a landing to be safe. The 138 passengers had to wait for nearly 11 hours at Karachi before an alternate flight sent from India took them to the UAE.

Also yesterday, a SpiceJet flight from Kandla (Gujarat) to Mumbai had to make a priority landing at its destination after its outer windshield developed a crack mid-air. A flight is given priority in landing if it can't wait its turn. 

The other incidents over the past three weeks — all of which have been brought to the attention of the aviation regulator — include two-door warnings, a bird hit, oil leakage from an engine, and a pressurisation problem.

"We are concerned over passengers' safety. A team has been formed to investigate all the incidents thoroughly and submit the report at the earliest," a senior official of the Directorate General Of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has said.

06/07/22 NDTV

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Bhogapuram airport in Andhra Pradesh yet to get NoC

Visakhapatnam: Though the state government is ready to hand over the land of the proposed greenfield international airport at Bhogapuram, there is no site clearance from the Airport Authority of India (AAI).

Without a No Objection Certificate (NOC) from AAI, the construction works of the first phase of Bhogapuram airport would not take place.

It is recalled that the GMR group got the construction bidding. The greenfield airport at Bhogapuram would come up in 2203 acres. The land was not handed over to the GMR group to date as the GMR group is wishing to take over the land with all clearances including legal. Around 50 acres of the land issue is still pending in court. There is a rule that there should not be two international airports within a distance of 150 km.

The new terminal building constructed with Rs. 70 crore by AAI is ready for inauguration now. It has spent money on various facilities in recent times including a new Taxi track and others. More than 20 lakh air travelers are using the present Vizag airport per annum. With these facilities, the present airport can handle double the traffic of the present day.

Sources in the AAI said that the organization had spent money on various facilities and getting passenger fees, and UDF fees. “It would naturally seek a share in the form of royalty from the new airport as it is losing the revenue once the present airport was shut down,’‘ the sources said. The AP Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy and Vizianagaram MP Bellana Chandra Sekhar have repeatedly requested Prime Minister, Defence Minister and also Civil Aviation minister to provide unconditional NOC to the Bhogapuram airport.

05/07/22 Siva G/Times of India

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India’s Kochi Airport An Important Link For Flights To and From Sri Lanka

The airport in the South Indian city of Kochi announced on July 2nd that it has started accommodating ‘technical landings’ for refueling flights to nearby international destinations. The arrangement has been made keeping in view the needs of several carriers operating flights to and from fuel-starved Colombo airport in Sri Lanka.

For the first time, Cochin International Airport (COK) has started facilitating technical landing for refueling flights operating to Colombo, Sri Lanka. The airport can handle large twin-engine jets such as the 777, A330, A350, and 787.

In the last few days alone, several aircraft operating on the Colombo-Europe and Colombo-Middle East sectors have stopped at Kochi for refueling. As of July 2nd, Kochi airport has supplied 4,75,000 liters of fuel to such flights.

According to the airport, since June 29, 6 SriLankan Airlines flights bound for Sharjah, London Heathrow, and Frankfurt, two flights operated by Air Arabia to Abu Dhabi, and one flight operated by Jazeera Airways bound for Kuwait used the technical landing facility.

The airport is in talks with several airlines flying to Colombo and offering to use this facility. Kochi’s proximity to the Sri Lankan capital and its ability to handle big aircraft make it an ideal fuel stopover location. The Financial Express quotes the airport’s Managing Director S Suhas as saying,

“When we have foreseen the change in fuel distribution dynamics in the region, we upped the ante by recalibrating our apron management systems. Now more airlines have started contacting us and we are sure that this will boost our revenue potentials.”

Several airports around the world generate extra revenue by offering technical landings over and above regular operations. The airport in Kochi sees this as a good opportunity to bring in more cash while assisting air operations in and out of Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka is going through its worst economic crisis, with inflation moving beyond 50%, with everything costing a lot more, including food items. The country’s fuel reserves have also taken a massive hit, with the Civil Aviation Authority of Sri Lanka issuing a notice asking all airlines to carry extra fuel for their return journey.

However, this move will likely come at a cost for some carriers, particularly those that deploy smaller aircraft to the country. The problem is acute in the short-haul sector using narrowbody aircraft like A320 and A321, which have a smaller fuel carrying capacity. When these planes have to land at a third airport, the costs go up.

03/07/22 Gaurav Joshi/Simple Flying

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Mangaluru International Airport improves connectivity to coast this July

Mangaluru: Mangaluru International Airport (MIA) will be improving the connectivity to the coastal city in July. On Friday, MIA resumed the IndiGo flight to Delhi. The Mangaluru-Coimbatore-Mumbai flight launched on Friday, with Go First airline offering the much demanded service. On July 8, Mangaluru will get a flight to Belagavi.

On the first flight of the Delhi-Mangaluru sector, 77 passengers reached Mangaluru on flight 6E 2164, and 140 passengers travelled to Delhi on board flight 6E 2165. Captain Anubhav Banerjee helmed this flight.

Flight 6E2164/6E 2165 will operate on Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Flight 6E2164 leaves Delhi at 7.40am, with scheduled arrival of 10.15am at MIA.

Flight 6E 2165 will leave Mangaluru International Airport at 10.45am, and reach Delhi at 1.20pm. IndiGo also operates a transit flight 6E 671/6E 6431 from Delhi to Mangaluru via Pune, on these very days.

The Mangaluru-Coimbatore-Mumbai (flight G8 369) service is a daily flight operated by Go First. The flight departs every day from MIA at 1.30pm, reaches Coimbatore at 2.15pm and takes off to Mumbai around 2.50pm, and reaches Mumbai at 4.50pm. “This is a schedule planned till August 11,” said an airline official. Sources from the MIA added that earlier, a similar air route was available, and operated by Air India.

02/07/22 Times of India

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Gujarat: Airstrip at Surat airport to be strengthened using steel slag

Surat: The Surat airport will strengthen its airstrip using steel slag as per the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) recommendations and Civil Aviation Requirements (CAR), according to airport authorities.

As per ICAO, the basic strip at a code C airport has to be 140 metres wide, well graded area with a minimum 15 per cent California Bearing Ratio (CBR) — strength of subgrade soil — at a depth of 150 millimetres from the top ground level. The strip at Surat airport is of size as recommended by ICAO, CAR and the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). However, in order to fulfil the criteria of recommended strength, the ground improvement of basic strip needs to be done as the area consists of highly expansive soil (black cotton soil) with very low CBR.

Work of stabilisation of basic strip will be taken up to raise the CBR value to the required level in order to ensure safety of an aircraft in emergency situations if it steers off the runway. The desired strength at 150 mm below ground level shall help the disoriented aircraft to stop in gradual manner, without causing major damage.

02/07/22  Kamaal Saiyed/Indian Express

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Revised feasibility report on Sabarimala airport submitted to Union ministry

 In a major development, the state government has submitted a revised design and techno-economic feasibility report on the proposed Sabarimala Greenfield International Airport project in Erumeli to the Union Ministry of Civil Aviation.

The new report has been submitted as the earlier report prepared by Louis Berger, a private agency appointed by KSIDC, was rejected by DGCA citing technical faults. According to authorities, the new report was prepared by the same agency correcting the faults pointed out by the Civil Aviation Ministry.

“The new report predominantly focuses on the length and orientation of the runway. In the new report, which was prepared after conducting a topographical survey and the runway-specific Obstacle Limitation Surface Survey (OLS), the length of the runway has been extended from 2.7 km to 3.5 km.

Moreover, changes have been made in its orientation as well,” said V Thulasidas, special officer of the airport project. The report also includes details such as the need for an airport, expected passenger traffic, and financial viability of the project. “Though Sabarimala pilgrims will be the main beneficiaries of the project, a good number of passengers will be non-resident Indians from Central Travancore, especially people in Kottayam and Pathanamthitta districts, who work in Europe and the US.

Taking into account the proximity to major tourism destinations like Kumarakom, Munnar, Thekkady and other small tourist centres, there will be a sound passenger traffic once the project is completed,” Thulasidas added.

The officer also played down the issues cited by the DGCA with regard to the aerial distance between airports as per Greenfield Airports Policy. The site identified by the government for the project in Erumeli has an aerial distance of approximately 88 km and 110 km from the Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram airports respectively. However, as per existing policy, greenfield airport can’t be allowed within an aerial distance of 150 km of an existing civilian airport.

“Airport projects are usually sanctioned taking into account their requirement in a particular place. The rules were relaxed while sanctioning the second airport in Delhi and Mumbai. Similar is the case of Kannur airport. We hope aerial distance won’t be an issue in the case of Sabarimala as well,” he said.

02/07/22 Abhilash Chandran/New Indian Express

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Kashmiri journalist stopped from flying to Paris by Delhi airport officers

Sanna Irshad Mattoo, a Pulitzer price award-winning Kashmiri photojournalist, wasn’t allowed to fly to Paris from the Delhi airport, today (July 2), she said in a Twitter post.

“I was scheduled to travel from Delhi to Paris today for a book launch and photography exhibition as one of 10 award winners of the Serendipity Arles grant 2020. Despite procuring a French visa, I was stopped at the immigration desk at Delhi airport,” she wrote on Twitter.

Sanna also shared a picture of her cancelled Air India boarding pass on her Twitter page.

The Kashmiri photojournalist further said she wasn’t given any reason as to why she was stopped at the airport, but was only told that she wouldn’t be able to travel internationally.

The post by Sanna, attracted various comments by other Twitter users. One comment by @takethecanollli, said: “this the democracy they talk about.”

Media reports pointed out this isn’t the first time a Kashmiri journalist has been stopped at the airport unjustifiably. In 2019, journalist Gowhar Geelani was stopped at the Delhi airport from travelling to a journalists’ conference in Germany.

02/07/22 Federal

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Mangaluru International Airport improves connectivity to coast this July

Mangaluru: Mangaluru International Airport (MIA) will be improving the connectivity to the coastal city in July. On Friday, MIA resumed the IndiGo flight to Delhi. The Mangaluru-Coimbatore-Mumbai flight launched on Friday, with Go First airline offering the much demanded service. On July 8, Mangaluru will get a flight to Belagavi.

On the first flight of the Delhi-Mangaluru sector, 77 passengers reached Mangaluru on flight 6E 2164, and 140 passengers travelled to Delhi on board flight 6E 2165. Captain Anubhav Banerjee helmed this flight.

Flight 6E2164/6E 2165 will operate on Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Flight 6E2164 leaves Delhi at 7.40am, with scheduled arrival of 10.15am at MIA.

Flight 6E 2165 will leave Mangaluru International Airport at 10.45am, and reach Delhi at 1.20pm. IndiGo also operates a transit flight 6E 671/6E 6431 from Delhi to Mangaluru via Pune, on these very days.

The Mangaluru-Coimbatore-Mumbai (flight G8 369) service is a daily flight operated by Go First. The flight departs every day from MIA at 1.30pm, reaches Coimbatore at 2.15pm and takes off to Mumbai around 2.50pm, and reaches Mumbai at 4.50pm. “This is a schedule planned till August 11,” said an airline official. Sources from the MIA added that earlier, a similar air route was available, and operated by Air India.

02/07/22 Times of India

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AAI signs agreement with UP Govt. for Operation & Management of Aligarh, Azamgarh, Chitrakoot, Muirpur, Shravasti Airports

 Airports Authority of India (AAI) today signed an Operation & Management agreement for operationalization of five airports owned by the Government of Uttar Pradesh for a period of 30 years. These five airports are Aligarh, Azamgarh, Chitrakoot, Muirpur & Shravasti.

The agreement was signed by Shri N V Subbarayudu, ED (SIU) on behalf of AAI and Sri Kumar Harsh, Special Secretary, Civil Aviation Department, Government of Uttar Pradesh on behalf of the State Government in presence of Shri Yogi Adityanath, Chief Minister, Government of Uttar Pradesh. The MoU was exchanged by Shri Sanjeev Kumar, Chairman AAI and Shri SP Goyal Additional Chief Secretary, Uttar Pradesh. Shri DS Mishra, Chief Secretary of UP, Shri AK Pathak, Member Planning (AAI) were also  present.

As per the agreement, AAI will operate and manage the airport and provide all necessary services. Communication Navigation Surveillance/Air Traffic Management (CNS/ATM) services  will also  be provided by AAI, for which State Government will enter into a separate agreement. Further, Reserved Services will be provided by respective GoI for which GoUP shall enter separate Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA), GoI. AAI will also be responsible for obtaining and maintaining of aerodrome license for these five airports.

As per the agreement, the Government of UP will complete the initial capital works for making airports ready for commercial operation and hand over all moveable and immovable assets along with relevant approvals, documents to AAI for operation & management. The government of Uttar Pradesh will provide dedicated infrastructure for utilities like water, electricity and drainage connection etc. at the airport (to & within).

This is the first time AAI is entering into an O&M Agreement with the State Government for Operationalization of State Government owned airports. AAI being the largest airport operator and sole air navigation service provider is committed towards providing air connectivity across the country.

02/07/22 Statesman

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Airports Authority of India inks pact with UP government to operate 5 airports

The Airports Authority of India (AAI) signed an agreement with the Uttar Pradesh government on Friday to operate and manage airports in Aligarh, Azamgarh, Chitrakoot, Muirpur and Shravasti for a period of 30 years, an official statement said.

According to the agreement, the state government will complete the construction, ready the airports for commercial operations, and then hand them over to the AAI for operation and management, the AAI's statement noted.

The Uttar Pradesh government will provide dedicated infrastructure for utilities like water, electricity and drainage connection at the airports, it mentioned.

01/07/22 PTI/Economic Times

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Air India threatens to end contract with ground handling unit

Air India has threatened to end its contract with its earlier ground handling unit due to the latter’s alleged deteriorating service standards which are delaying more of the carrier’s flights every month.

Ground handling includes the whole range of airport services–ramp, baggage, cargo handling and cabin cleaning–between passenger and cargo check-in, boarding/loading and deplaning/unloading from the plane.

The erstwhile state-run airline was acquired by the aviation-to-automobile conglomerate Tata Sons last year. Before the government sold it, it hived off its business units such as ground handling. The entity is named Air India Air Transport Services Ltd (AIASL). The units were transferred to a holding entity called Air India Asset Holding.

“AlASL services have continued to deteriorate progressively,” Rajesh Dogra, Head Customers Experience & Ground Handling Operations at Air India wrote to Vikram Dev Dutt, chairman of the asset holding unit. ET has seen a copy of the letter.

The letter said the ground handling unit was “perennially” short of manpower. Other problems included inadequate training, the staff’s “behaviour with customers”, “old, inadequate, and dysfunctional ground handling equipment owing to ineffective maintenance” and “baggage mishandling” among other issues.

The percentage of delayed flights out of total has increased to 12% in May compared to 3.7% in October last year. Air India operated a total of 5,203 flights in May, 2022 and 5,398 flights in October 2021, according to the letter.

The Tatas are desperately trying to improve Air India’s service standards, putting flights on time, making customer service more efficient and booking processes more seamless.

“As you would appreciate that for any airline to be able to deliver enhanced customer experience, ground handling operations such as check-in, boarding, baggage handling and ramp side activities are extremely critical,” wrote Dogra in the letter.

“While we are working towards exponentially improving our customer experience, AIASL is unable to match the requisite pace of change and we continue to face several challenges at the airports managed by AlIASL as ground handling services provider for Air India,” he added.

01/07/22 Anirban Chowdhury/Economic Times

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Air India Not Happy With State-Owned Ground Handling Service Provider

With Air India on a course-correction mode, it is doing everything it can to improve customer-facing operations and the on-time performance of its flights. Now, the airline has voiced its disappointment due to the inefficiency of its ground-handling service provider, which is still under government ownership.

Six months into the job, the Tata Group is discovering the many layers of the problems that are troubling Air India. The latest to be identified is the sub-par ground handling services provided by Air India Airport Services Limited (AIASL) to its flights.

Rajesh Dogra, who is Air India's Head of Customer Experience and Ground Handling Operations, has sent a letter to AIASL Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) Vikram Dev Dutt, explaining that the carrier will be forced to either discontinue or scale down AIASL ground handling ops for AI flights and look for arrangements.

Dogra stated, “While we are working towards exponentially improving our customer experience, AIASL is unable to match the requisite pace of change and we continue to face several challenges at the airports managed by AIASL as ground handling services provide.”

Flight delays have deteriorated in the last few months compared to the previous year. The number of flight delays due to ground handling in December 2021 and January 2022 was 284 and 89, respectively. The months of February, March, April, and May have seen a steady climb in ground-handling induced delays to 271, 386, 520, and 620, respectively.

01/07/22 Gaurav Joshi/Simple Flying

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