New Daytime Bengaluru-Madurai Flight

Madurai: With Jet Airways launching a new day-flight to Bengaluru, Madurai residents are now better connected to the electronic city with two flight services between the destinations.  Earlier, only Air Pegasus was operating a flight to Bengaluru.

With only two night express train services to Bengaluru, passengers from Madurai were forced to rely on omni buses which used to charge exorbitant rates of around Rs 1,500 for a one-way trip.

The new flight service is expected to provide major relief to the passengers as there is a huge demand for transportation between Madurai and Bangalore. With the new flight service, passengers can reach Bengaluru within 90 minutes by paying around Rs 2,000 to Rs 2,200.

R Selva Ganapathy, who travelled on the first flight service from Bengaluru on Sunday, said that a large number of IT professionals and industrialists from Madurai had shifted to travelling by car because of a lack of adequate bus and train facilities.
31/03/16 B Anbuselvan/New Indian Express

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Demand soars for more international, domestic flights

Visakhapatnam: Visakhapatnam, which has the only international airport in residuary Andhra Pradesh, is seeking more international and domestic flights to cater the needs of the North Andhra region and also parts of Chhattisgarh and Odisha.
The Andhra Pradesh Air Travellers Association feels there is a need for the development of the Vizag airport by providing necessary amenities to passengers as the city has a huge potential for development of industries, tourism and other business investments.
Various airliners have been operating more than 32 flights daily, including three international flights to Dubai, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur from the Port City, which has night landing facility. "The city needs more domestic flights. Air travellers need a flight to Chennai in the morning and Kolkata in the evening to facilitate international air connectivity. Likewise, we need direct connectivity to Colombo and Bangkok and in the absence of it, most air travellers from this region depend either on Chennai or Kolkata airports to fly out," said DVS Varma, a senior member of the AP Air Travellers Association.
At present, Air India operates a Vizag-Hyderabad-Dubai daily flight. "Instead of running the Air India flight from Vizag-Hyderabad-Dubai, the government can convert it to Vijayawada-Vizag-Dubai. This would then connect the new capital region and other parts of the state. We have many flights for Hyderabad from here already," AP Air Travellers Association vice-president O Naresh Kumar said.
29/03/16 Siva G/Times of India

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Brussels Attack: Stranded Jet Airways passengers moved to Amsterdam

Passengers from India stranded in Brussels following multiple bomb blasts in the Belgium capital are on their way to Amsterdam in about 15 buses from where flights will take off for Delhi and Mumbai on Thursday afternoon.
According to a Jet Airways spokesperson, while one flight is scheduled to depart at 2.00 pm GMT (6.30 pm IST) for Mumbai, a second flight will leave Amsterdam at 4.00 pm GMT (8.30 pm IST) for Delhi (Flight details below).
“Our guests are currently on their way from Brussels to Amsterdam by road transport. They are being accompanied by Jet Airways staff. The airline has made hotel arrangements in Amsterdam for their overnight stay, before they continue onward journey to their destination,” a statement from the airlines said.
Several blasts had rocked Brussels on Tuesday leading to the death of over 30 people. Two Indians injured were Jet employees — in-flight supervisor Amit Motwani and in-flight manager Nidhi Chapekar. Among the Indians witness to the attack is 24-year-old Natasha. The family was heading to the United States via Belgium. On Tuesday morning, when the blasts took place at Zaventem Airport , they were evacuated to a convention centre 30 miles away from the airport where they spent the night. They are currently on a four hour drive from Brussels to Amsterdam.
24/03/16 Tabassum Barnagarwala/Indian Express

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Family members of injured crew to travel to Brussels: Jet Airways

New Delhi: Jet Airways on Wednesday said that it has made travel arrangements for the family members of its injured crew in Brussels to travel there. "We have made arrangements for family members of the injured crew to travel to Brussels," the airline said in a statement. Two members of the airlines staff were injured in the bomb blasts that rocked Brussels' Zaventem airport on Tuesday morning. According to the airline, the injured crew are safe in hospital.
"Our staff in Brussels is co-ordinating with the local authorities and hospitals to ensure that all the required medical care is provided to them," the statement said.
"Jet Airways continues to closely monitor the situation in Brussels. The airline's emergency response centre in Mumbai and the local incident control centre in Brussels are working round-the-clock to provide all possible support to our staff and guests."
23/03/16 IANS/Sify.com

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Ethiopian Airlines to launch additional flight from Delhi

African carrier Ethiopian Airlines will start an additional daily flight from the national capital to Addis Ababa, taking the total number of departures from the country to 28 per week.

Besides, the airline is looking to start operations from Chennai or Bengaluru in the near future, a senior official said today.

At present, the carrier operates two daily flights from Mumbai and one from the national capital.

All the flights fly to Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia.

“We have great interest in India. We will be launching our second frequency from Delhi in the coming summer season, that is end of March.

“This will make the total frequency to 28 (per week), 14 each from Mumbai and Delhi,” Ethiopian Airlines Regional Director (India Sub-Continent) Tadesse Tilahun told reporters here.

The airline has seen over 77 per cent load factor — an indicator of seat occupancy — on its Delhi flight and also improved demand.
18/03/16 Geeska Afrika Online

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Cidco to invite RFP for Navi Mumbai

Mumbai: The City and Industrial Development Corporation of Maharashtra (Cidco) plans to invite the request for proposal (RFP) after March 20 from three qualified bidders - GVK-led Mumbai International Airport, GMR Delhi and consortium of MIA Infrastructure of France with Tata Realty and Infrastructure.

Cidco is likely to get Maharashtra Cabinet’s approval during the Budget session beginning on March 9.

Hiranandani Developers and Zurich Airport were also among qualified bidders. But, they won’t be able to file RFP as the Union ministry of home affairs (MHA) rejected their security clearance on January 22.

The project monitoring and implementation committee headed by the Maharashtra chief secretary Swadhin Kshatriya had on Thursday approved Cidco’s proposal allowing inviting RFP from three qualified bidders.
05/03/16 Sanjay Jog/Business Standard

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MIA authorities asserts all operations running smoothly at airport

Mangaluru: Mangaluru International Airport (MIA) is in fifth position in overall customer satisfaction index out of 55-tier II airports. Off late, it is observed that some people are spreading wrong message with respect to functioning of customs/immigration/security/airline functioning. J T Radhakrishna, director, MIA said all the operations are running smoothly and there is no ambiguity in the scrutiny and checking of passengers.
If any passenger(s) come across any emergency situations/trouble, they may report immediately to terminal duty manager in the terminal building, who is available 24-hours at the AAI terminal counter) and or CISF duty security, (who are also available 24-hours in the terminal building) of the airport located at Kenjar. This will enable the airport authorities and or CISF teams to come and help the passenger without any delay and take up the issue with authorities concerned.
02/03/16 aideep Shenoy/Times of India

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Bomb scare, Jet Airways plane held up at IGI

New Delhi: A Gorakhpur-bound flight of the Jet Airways was on Thursday held up at Delhi Airport following a hoax call that claimed there was a bomb on board.
“A call regarding a bomb in the Jaipur-Gorakhpur Jet flight was received at around 12.08 p.m. at the office of Gorakhpur Air Director. The Jet flight No.9W 2647, which was scheduled to land at 3.30 p.m. in Gorakhpur, was detained at Delhi airport and thoroughly checked,” said Deputy Commissioner of Police (IGI) Dinesh Kumar Gupta.Gupta said that following the phone call, the flight landed at Delhi Airport and all the passengers were deboarded and the necessary checking was done.
03/03/16 India.com

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Delhi Police registers FIR against airport official for harassment of a woman

New Delhi: A First Information Report (FIR) has been registered by the Delhi Police against airport official under sections 354 A, 354D and 506 for harassment of a woman.

A homemaker in Bengaluru has alleged that she was verbally sexually harassed by an immigration officer at the Delhi airport on March 18 when she was flying to Hong Kong via Delhi.

The woman claimed that the immigration officer harassed her by asking her several uncomfortable personal questions. The incident took place when the woman was at the immigration counter before she boarded the flight for Hong Kong where she had to meet her husband.
According to the complaint, the officer not only harassed her during the immigration process at the desk, but also by following her along at the escalator, between the domestic and international transfer.

According to the complaint, she was asked questions like, how many children do you have, do you drink, do you smoke, do you eat chicken, do you sleep with other men when your husband is at work. Not once or twice, but he asked her four times if she had undergone a surgery for birth control. He even asked her whether she would like to have her third child with him.
31/03/15 Shylaja Varma/CNN-IBN/IBN Live

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Alliance Air to fly from Puducherry

Puducherry will return to the aviation map of the country with Alliance Air, a subsidiary of Air India all set to operate flights from Bengaluru to Puducherry from April 14. Chief Minister N. Rangasamy made the announcement after a discussion with officials of the carrier on Tuesday.
Alliance Air had agreed to operate an ATR type aircraft on the Bengaluru-Puducherry sector on all days except Wednesday. The plane which could carry 48 passengers would leave Bengaluru at 3.45 p.m. and arrive in Puducherry at 4.45 p.m.
The flight will leave Puducherry Airport at 5.05 p.m. and arrive in Bengaluru at 6.05 p.m. The commencement of flight services from Puducherry would be a big boost to tourism sector, Chief Minister N. Rangasamy told reporters.
A senior official of Alliance Air told The Hindu the carrier will operate flights on the Bengaluru-Puducherry sector on a No profit No loss basis.
31/03/15 S Prasad/The Hindu

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Indore airport to become Wi-Fi zone

Indore:  If sources are to be believed, passengers at Devi Ahilyabai Holkar Airport will soon be able to enjoy a Wi-Fi facility. Indore airport manager Vivek Atre said, "We have sought nod from Airports Authority of India (AAI). Once we get approval, tenders will be floated for the same.
31/03/15 Nyooz

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MAHB confirms planned sale of stake in Delhi international airport

Malaysia Airport Holdings (MAHB) has confirmed that it is to sell its entire 10% stake in Delhi International Airport operator, DIAL, to GMR Airports for around $80 million.

It is believed to be selling the stake due to frustrations with the Indian legislation that limits foreign ownership of domestic companies to 49% – a law that ensures that MAHB can never exercise any control over the management of the company.

Elsewhere in India MAHB currently has an 11% interest in Hyderabad–Rajiv Gandhi International Airport operator, GHIAL, where GMR has a controlling 63% stake.

If the DIAL deal is ratified, GMR’s stake in India’s capital city gateway will rise to 64% where the other stakeholders will remain the Airport Authority of India (26%) and German airport group, Fraport (10%).
30/03/15 Airport World

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Tiruchi non-major airport the best in the country

Tiruchi: The Tiruchi international airport has emerged on top among “non-major” airports in the country in a nationwide survey conducted in 2014.

The airport was adjudged the best based on various parameters taken into account during the course of the airport services quality survey that was conducted twice last year. The Airports Authority of India (AAI) had commissioned two independent agencies to carry out the annual survey in all the airports across the country.

While one agency was entrusted with the task of carrying out the survey in major airports, the other agency was given the job of executing the exercise in non-major airports.

Accordingly, the customer satisfaction survey was done twice – one between January and June and the second between June and December. A team from the agency inspected non-major airports including Tiruchi during this period and looked into various parameters to eventually judge the best one.
30/03/15 The Hindu

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We may look at some selective opportunities in the Airport sector: Madhu Terdal

Mumbai: GMR Infrastructure Ltd is a Bangalore headquartered Infrastructure group with interests in Airports, Energy, Highways and Urban Infrastructure sectors. It has successfully employed the public-private partnership model to build a portfolio of high quality assets. The Company has 15 Power generation assets of which 8 are operational and 7 are under various stages of development. In the Highways sector the Group is operating 9 assets (including 2 in which the Group holds minority interest) across the country. In the Airports sector, the Company operates India’s busiest airport, the Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi, where it has built a brand new integrated terminal T3. It has also developed and commissioned the Greenfield international airport at Hyderabad as a gateway to south and central India. The Group has taken over the Mactan-Cebu International Airport project in the Philippines for renovation, operation and maintenance with a concession period of 25 years.
30/03/15 India Infoline

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International flight terminal likely to be ready by March 2016

Vadodara: A new terminal for starting international flights from Harni airport in the city is likely to be ready by March 2016, a senior official has said.

"About 50 per cent construction work of the new terminal is over and the remaining work will be completed before the end of this year. The work for creating other facilities as per international standards will be done by March next year," Director, Airport Authority of India, Vadodara Airport, Santosh Dhoke told PTI here today.

The project is part of the Centre's efforts to modernise the existing airports and develop them on par with international airports.

The existing domestic terminal at Vadodara airport is small and cannot handle a large number of passengers.
30/03/15 PTI/Economic Times

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2 new Indigo flights for Delhi, Mumbai

Indore : One of the biggest private airlines, Indigo, rolled out two new flights on two important routes– Mumbai and Delhi– from Sunday. On the Day-1 itself, both the flights took off with full capacity. To break the domination of Jet Airways, which is charging up to Rs 15,000 fro new Delhi in the absence of any other flights in the evening, the Indigo Airlines rolled out its fight for the national capital from Sunday evening. The new flight is expected to provide better connectivity for International flights from New Delhi.

After termination of Spicejet flight a few months ago, Jet Airways with its 68-seater ATR aircraft was the only flight for New Delhi in the evening. From Sunday, the passengers two options.
30/03/15 Free Press Journal

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Man who jumped off Mumbai plane was depressed

Mumbai: Akash Jain is sent to judicial custody after no one came forward to give bail surety for his release after he jumped the emergency door of a domestic flight and walked through the flight wing to jump 10-feet down to exit through arrival terminal of the airport on Friday. The Jalandhar resident, Akash Jain, claimed that he ran from his home after he is depressed of looking after the business chores of his father who runs soda manufacturing unit there, said the Domestic Airport police.

Jain was produced before the Bandra Holiday Court on Sunday. He has been booked under the Indian Penal Code section 336 (act endangering life or personal safety of others). He is also charged with section 29 (acts likely to imperil the safety of aircraft) of the Indian Aircraft Act, 1937. Deputy Commissioner of Police (Zone VIII) Virendra Mishra said the court sent Jain to judicial custody after nobody came to take his bail.
Jain has been is arrested on Saturday a day after he opened the emergency exit of a Chandigarh-Mumbai Jet Airways flight after the plane landed at Mumbai airport on Friday and jumped off the aircraft's wing on the tarmac.
30/03/15 Times of India

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Two men booked for ruckus in flight

Ahmedabad: In a first, two Morbi based men were booked by police for creating ruckus and misbehaving with crew members during the flight from Mumbai to Ahmedabad on Sunday evening. Sardarnagar police registered offence against Deepsinh Gadhvi, 38 and Indrajeet Trivedi, 44 for indecent behavior in public under prohibition act.

According to police, Gadhvi and Trivedi were drunk when they boarded Indigo 6E-243 Mumbai- Ahmedabad flight at Mumbai airport on Sunday evening. During the flight they had argument with crew members including air hostesses on the sandwich served and overall services. The duo also misbehaved with crew members.
30/03/15 Piyush Mishra/Times of India

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Gold worth Rs 80 lakh seized from SpiceJet aircraft in Ahmedabad

Ahmedabad: Three gold bars worth Rs 80.32 lakh were seized from under a seat of a SpiceJet aircraft at Ahmedabad's Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport.

"The gold bars were found hidden beneath a seat of the flight SG 016, which landed here from Dubai last night, by the air intelligence unit of customs," a customs official said on Sunday.

The AIU swung into action after it was alerted by the flight crew about some "suspicious object" lying under the seat.

The flight, after its stop-over at Ahemdabad, was scheduled to operate as a domestic flight on Sunday, the official said.
29/03/15 Times of India

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Gold seized at airport

Kochi: Officials of the Customs Air Intelligence Unit at the Cochin International airport here on Sunday seized about 400 grams of gold, 11 cell phones and SD cards valued at Rs.15 lakh from two passengers who landed here from Colombo. The metal, in the form of eight gold bars, were concealed in their rectum.

The accused, identified as Abdullah and Muhammed Hussain, both hailing from Tamil Nadu, had landed here by a Sri Lankan Airlines flight from Colombo and were intercepted at the exit gate of the arrival hall while attempting to escape through the green channel.
30/03/15 The Hindu

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One bird hit a month grounds aircraft in Coimbatore

Coimbatore:  Coimbatore airport has reported at least one bird hit every month over the last year. Bird strikes do not cause many air accidents but they do cause hours of delay and expensive repairs for airlines. An RTI reply received by TOI has found that the number of bird hits rose from six in 2013 to 12 in 2014.

The RTI reply from the director general of civil aviation (DGCA) also revealed that the number of bird hits has been increasing over the past five years, but 2014 saw the highest number of incidents. While the airport saw seven bird hits in 2010, it went up to nine in 2011. The number dropped to five in 2012, but again increased to six in 2013 and 12 last year.

Officials say the numbers are surprising because last year the airport acquired six zon guns, which are supposed to fire every few minutes and produce loud noises to scare birds away. Six people are on duty on the runway to scare away birds during the day and 10 at night. They set off firecrackers to scare away birds.
29/03/15 V Ayyappan & Pratiksha Ramkumar/Times of India

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Man who jumped off plane at Mumbai airport arrested

Mumbai: A day after midday wrote about a passenger aboard Boeing 737 Jet Airways flight jumping off the emergency exit door and walking out of the airport without being noticed, this passenger was finally arrested late on Saturday evening. The passenger Akash Jain has been booked under section 29 (acts likely to imperil the safety of aircraft) of the Indian Aircraft Act, 1937.
“After investigating about his background, we found out that Jain was supposed to board a connecting flight to Goa from Mumbai but instead, he walked out of the exit doors and took a bus to Pune. Today while he was on his way back from Pune, we arrested him at around 8.30.” said an officer from the Airport police station. He added that initial inquiry also shows how Jain, originally from Jalandhar, was jobless at present and had not informed his wife or other family members about his trip to Mumbai/Goa. “We caught him in a nakabandi between Vakola and Kalanagar when the Volvo he was returning in was made to stop. He seems to be a bit unstable,however the entire episode will be clear only once he is brought to the police station.” added the officer.
The said incident took place on Friday when a Chandigarh-Mumbai Jet Airways Boeing 737 flight carried 144 passengers and 5 crewmembers as it landed safely at the domestic terminal of Mumbai airport. With no patience to wait for people to make way to the exit door, Jain, jumped off the emergency exit door, placed right in the middle of the aircraft. This happened right after the aircraft came to standstill just meters away from the ‘Arrival’ terminal building.
29/03/15 Neha Tripathi/Mid Day

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Despite nod, AI Express fails to operate flights to Abu Dhabi

Trichy:  The number of people travelling from the central districts to the Middle East is increasing but Air India Express has not operated flights to Abu Dhabi from the international airport here for the past two years, despite having obtained slots.

A Right to Information (RTI) Act petition filed to the director general of civil aviation on specific operations of Air India Express flights revealed that the airlines had obtained approval to operate 24 services from Trichy, out of which 10 were never run.

The Chennai- Trichy - Abu Dhabi and Trichy - Colombo flights are supposed to fly three and seven services respectively from the city but they have been totally neglected. A senior official of Air India Express here said, "The flights to Abu Dhabi were suspended two years ago after Air India Express did not find it feasible to operate it from here."

Information about the approved slots for Air India Express from Trichy to Colombo reportedly surprised even the airport officials here, who claimed they had had no knowledge of it.
29/03/15 Harish Murali/Times of India

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China keen to invest in Mihan: MADC

Nagpur: China has expressed its interest towards future investments as well in the multi-modal international cargo hub and airport at Nagpur (Mihan) project.

  A business delegation from China headed by Consul General Zhang Xiyuan today visited the project and had a meeting with the officials of the Maharashtra Area Development Company (MADC), the nodal agency for the project.
29/03/15 NITI Central

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67 of 82 farmers give consent to sell land for civil airport to authorities

bareilly: About 67 out of 82 farmers, who own land where the new civil airport is set to come up, have given consent to hand over their property to the district authorities.

After attending a meeting with the local authorities, farmers have agreed to sell the land to the state government at a rate fixed by the officers who would take into account the prevailing circle rate of the said land.

This means the much awaited project may soon see light of the day as the major hurdle of land acquisition seems to be moving fast towards mutual settlement between local farmers and authorities.
28/03/15 Mrigank Tiwari/Times of India

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AAI union seeks Anna Hazare support on airport privatisation issue

New Delhi: Having failed in its efforts to stop the government from going ahead with privatistion of four more national airports, the AAI employees union has now turned to anti-corruption crusader Anna Hazare for help.
AAEU (Airports Authority of India Employees Union) leaders met the septuagenarian activist at Ralegan Siddhi (in Maharashtra) last week to solicit his support in its "fight" against government's attempt to hand over four more state- owned airports to the private corporates.

"We met Anna ji last week to seek his support in our fight over airport privatisation. We informed him how the government is handing over these airports to private corporate even after investing Rs 5,000 crore public money in their modernisation and development work," a source told PTI.
29/03/15 ZeeNews

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CIAL’s rights issue to open in July

Kochi: The Cochin International Airport Limited will start issuing the rights share for around 18,000 shareholders from July onwards. A decision in this regard was taken during a director board meeting of the airport company held in Thiruvananthapuram on March 27.

“The issue of rights share at a proportion of 4:1 (one share per holding of four shares) and at a price of Rs.50 will commence once the State Budget for the fiscal 2014- 15 is passed in the Assembly. This is because the government, a majority stakeholder in the company, has to make a contribution of Rs.138 crore towards the rights issue,” company sources said.

A formal decision with regard to issuing rights shares was taken during the 20th annual general meeting of the company held last year in Kochi.
29/03/15 Hiran Unnikrishnan/The Hindu

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Dubai Int'l T1 too congested, says Indian airline boss

The regional boss of Air India has said Dubai International Airport’s Terminal 1 is becoming too congested, which he said will begin to favour Emirates which has the entire Terminal 3 operation to itself.

Melwin D’Silva, Air India’s regional manager for the Gulf, Middle East and Africa, said congestion has become an issue at Terminal 1 and airport officials should introduce “better crowd management” in order to get passengers through as quickly as possible.

“With Dubai growing at the rate it is, they need to have more counters and staff to regulate the flow of passengers,” D’Silva told 7Days newspaper.

He said the congestion is so bad that he believes travellers “may start picking Emirates over Air India because passengers have begun caring more and more about their [airport] experience.”

He said the airline had no congestion issues with Terminal 2, where it operates the Air India Express flights.

“We have already seen a rise in preference for our Air India Express flights, which land at Terminal 2 and they are able to get out [of the terminal] much faster. So the overall experience does matter,” D’Silva told the newspaper.
29/03/15 Neil Halligan/Arabian Supply Chain

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Haj flights likely from Nedumbassery this year

Malappuram: The haj flights from the state are likely to be operated from Nedumbassery airport, this year. The tender for providing air travel services for haj pilgrims invited by civil aviation ministry on Saturday gives the embarkation point for pilgrims from the Kerala as Kochi.

But the state haj committee is yet to receive any communication from civil aviation ministry, regarding this. If the flights operate from Kochi, the haj committee would shift the haj camp also to Kochi and the state haj committee would have to find a location for setting up the camp there.

It was the following decision of the airport authority of India (AAI) to suspend operation of wide bodied aircrafts for 15 months from Karipur Airport for carrying out repair works of the runway, the state haj committee approached aviation ministry and haj committee of India to resolve the confusion regarding the haj flight operation and embarkation point of Kerala pilgrims.
29/03/15 TP Nijeesh/Times of India

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Gold smuggling racket suspected

Kochi: The probe into the seizure of 8 kg of gold from a passenger at the Cochin airport has pointed to the involvement of a Dubai-based gold smuggling racket that lures youngsters for smuggling in gold by offering up to Rs.50,000 for each successful attempt.

According to officials of the Department of Revenue Intelligence, Sainuddin Jamal, the person arrested in this connection, was a carrier and he admitted to have smuggled in 4 kg of gold on previous two occasions in December and January.
29/03/15 The Hindu

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Immigration officer allegedly harasses woman at airport; suspended

Delhi: A woman resident of Bengaluru was allegedly verbally sexually harassed by an immigration officer at Delhi's IGI airport, after which the Home Ministry placed him under suspension.

The immigration officer, Vinod Kumar, allegedly asked the woman some sexually explicit questions while checking the her passport and other travel documents after she reached the national capital from Bengaluru on her way to Hong Kong.

"I was verbally sexually harassed by an immigration officer at Delhi airport on March 18 night before I boarded a plane to Hong Kong," she told PTI in Bengaluru today.

The woman alleged that the immigration officer asked many unpleasant and private questions while clearing the decks at the immigration counter.
"Do you sleep with another man when your husband is away at work? Would you like to have your third child with me because my wife doesn't want to have the third child," the immigration officer allegedly asked the woman.

The officer also told her: "have you done birth control surgery?....Why are you going alone to Hong Kong? To have fun with your husband or with anyone else. Will you have fun with me?"
28/03/15 PTI/Daily News & Analysis

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Security scare at Mumbai airport after man jumps off plane, walks away

Mumbai: Jet Airways’ Chandigarh-Mumbai flight 9W469 had scarcely come to a standstill just metres away from the arrival building at the domestic airport when Jain opened the emergency exit right in the middle of the aircraft, and jumped off.
Landing from a height of nearly 15 feet, the 30-year-old casually walked away even as the other passengers inside were left shell-shocked by what had just happened. Before anyone could do anything, he had made his way out of the airport, raising serious questions about the security procedures that were followed.
The plane, a Boeing 737 flight with 144 passengers and 5 crew members onboard, was scheduled to land at 3.15 pm yesterday. It landed safely at the airport at 3.01 pm, however, and left the runway to halt at parking bay 1, which is barely a few metres from the arrivals building of Terminal 1B at 3.05 pm.
As soon as the aircraft came to a standstill, Jain, whose seat number was 20F, opened the emergency door and jumped down in the apron area. Sources said the shocked passengers raised their voices to inform the crew, but by the time the crew reached the emergency exit, Jain had already walked away.
He walked a few meters and then asked a loader from another flight where the closest exit point was. He was pointed to the arrival terminal, which was around 20 metres from the aircraft. Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) footage showed Jain, in black t-shirt and brown shorts, leaving the terminal at 3.16pm.
28/03/15 Neha LM Tripathi/Mid Day

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Bhutan's Paro airport's fate in limbo: IAF may relocate

Paro International Airport in the Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan, which acts as a global gateway to adjoining eastern India, will start limiting the number of flights from May due to a space crunch, hurting tourism and business prospects in the region.

A plan to expand the airport and its facilities has been stalled, pending the release of funds committed by India and the relocation of an Indian Air Force base from the air field.

"Curtailment of services through the airport will have a negative effect on commercial activity of adjoining Indian area. Paro is only a couple of hours' drive from eastern Indian tourism hubs like Guwahati and Siliguri and we have an open border between the two countries," said tourism consultant R Basu.

Paro airport offers convenient passage for both inbound and outbound tourists in the region, including eastern India. At least 40% of the premium foreign tourists visiting the eastern Himalayan region travel to Bhutan and eastern India, according to Basu, who is based in Siliguri.
28/03/15 Debasis Sarkar/Economic Times

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Airport: Probe Sought

Pathanamthitta: Aranmula Heritage Village Action Council patron Kummanam Rajasekharan has on Friday sought high-level probe into the conspiracy behind the authorities issuing possession certificate of Aranmula land to the KGS Group, promoters of the Aranmula airport project. Kummanam said there’s a hidden agenda behind the issuance of the certificate to the KGS Group. The land originally bought by Kalamannil Abraham, who sold 326 acres to the KGS Group, was yet to get the possession certificate, he said.
28/03/15 New Indian Express

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Air services from Durgapur to southern cities likely soon

Kolkata: Vijaywada based Air Costa is keen to start operations from West Bengal’s upcoming airport near Durgapur and has already begun talks in this regard. The move aims to help people going for medical treatment to the South.

Vivek Choudhary , Chief Executive Officer of Air Costa told The Hindu that exploratory level talks have begun on launching flights linking the new airport with Hyderabad and Bengaluru. The low cost carrier has also asked for certain concessions including underwriting of seats. Mr. Choudhary said that the flier runs 67-seater and 112-seater planes.

There is a sizeable volume of people travelling between these two cities and West Bengal, mostly for medical treatment. Facing considerable hardships owing to lack of convenient train connections from Durgapur to their destinations, they have to reroute their journey via Kolkata.
28/03/15 The Hindu

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New flights to operate from Mangaluru

Mangaluru: Two new daily flights would start operations from the International Airport here from March 29, Airport Director J.T Radhakrishna said.

An international and a domestic flight would be operational from March 29 from the Mangaluru International Airport (MIA), a release quoted him as having said.

The Jet Airways would introduce its daily flight between Mangaluru and Abu Dhabi which would arrive here daily at 1.45 pm and depart at 5.50 pm.
28/03/15 SahilOnline

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Pune airport on busy list

Pune: Despite major space constraints and time slot restrictions by the Indian Air Force, Pune International Airport made it to the list of 10 busiest airports in the country. While it came in at number 10, both airlines and commuters feel that a top 5 ranking is possible.

According to statics released last week by the Airport Authority of India (AAI) for 2014-15, more than 40 lakh passengers travelled through Pune airport. This is the first time Pune airport is on the list, partially due to the increasing number of flights over the last two years. According to AAI sources, Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore are the first, second and third busiest airports respectively.

"If we exclude private airports, Pune can definitely move up to number 5. With the support of the Indian Air Force, we introduced many flights over the last two years. Air Asia started their operations this year and from Sunday, a third international flight will be launched. Two years ago, there were 47 flights in a day, which has now increased to 64. We have introduced many new facilities and are also pursuing the demand of additional land for the airport," said Manoj Kumar Gangal, airport director, Pune.
28/03/15 Sukirt Gumaste/Pune Mirror

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Exemption for Code E Aircraft Opns Sought

Thiruvananthapuram: Criticising the decision of the Calicut Airport authorities to close down flight operations from May 1, against the backdrop of runway re-carpeting work, Confederation of Kerala Tourism Industry (CKTI), has urged authorities concerned to have a re-look into the move. The body has asked authorities to allow at least Emirates Airlines to operate A330-200 Code E aircraft to Calicut from various centres,in view of  heavy rush.

“The travel industry and the expatriate Keralites in the Gulf countries will face a lot of difficulties by this. Already the expatriates are very much concerned as the restriction might spoil their long-awaited holiday dreams”, E M Najeeb, president, CKTI, pointed out in a memorandum submitted to Asok Gajapathi Raju Pasupati, Union minister for Civil Aviation.

He said that Emirates (EK) currently operates 11 frequencies per week to Calicut, out of which six are operated with 777-200 and five with A330-200 aircrafts. The entitlement per week is 3,400 seats in a single direction.

Both 777-200 and A330-200 are Code E aircraft.
28/03/15 New Indian Express

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Separate structure for cargo at airport

Trichy: To protect and stock the goods meant for export, the Airports Authority of India (AAI) has began construction of a huge canopy in front of the cargo complex at the Trichy International Airport. A sum of Rs 50 lakh has been allocated by the AAI for the project.

With the construction having begun 15 days ago, airport authorities have set a target of three months to finish the work. Authorities are confident that the project could be completed earlier as work is moving at a steady pace.

Exporters for long have been complaining that perishable goods stocked at the airport go waste due to the absence of any facility for protecting them.
28/03/15 Times of India

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Tiruchi airport canteen to function in a month

Tiruchi: Lack of canteen facility at the Tiruchi international airport to serve passengers, visitors, and airport staff besides other stakeholders will soon become a thing of the past.

The Airports Authority of India (AAI) has awarded the contract to a private agency for running the canteen at the city side of the international airport thereby setting the stage for the opening of this long-felt facility.

A Thanjavur-based agency has been given the contract for five years to run the canteen which has been a persistent demand from air travellers and other agencies connected with the airport.

With the building for running the canteen already in place, the AAI has provided other basic amenities such as electricity and reverse osmosis water cooler required for the operation of the canteen, Airport Director B.C.H. Negi told The Hindu on Friday. The private agency would bring in necessary paraphernalia, including utensils and gas stoves, besides engaging manpower to run the eatery.
28/03/15 R. Rajaram/The Hindu

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US couple held for carrying Sat phone, released

Udaipur:  An American couple were arrested at Dabok airport in Udaipur on Thursday morning for carrying a satellite phone without proper documents and necessary permission. However, during inquiry it was found that the man had filed details about the phone in the immigration form after landing in New Delhi. The couple were released and also got back their phone. Later, they left for Delhi by the evening flight.

According to sources, Richard Walk (51), a resident of Florida in US and his wife had come to India along with 11 friends in a tourist group. They had visited Agra, Ranthambore, Kumbalgarh and other places before arriving in Udaipur on March 23, sources said.
27/03/15 Geetha Sunil Pillai/Times of India

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10kg gold seized from duo at Cochin airport

Kochi: In separate seizures, 10kg gold worth Rs 2.7 crore was seized from two passengers on Friday. Directorate of revenue intelligence officials seized eight kilogram gold valued at Rs 2.2 crore from a passenger who had arrived from Dubai at the Cochin International Airport Ltd (Cial) at 6pm.

Acting on specific information, officials intercepted Jamal, a resident of Perumbavoor, after he walked out through the green channel. He had hidden the gold bars, weighing one kilogram each, in his baggage, officials said. The gold was meant to be handed over to someone in Andhra Pradesh, officials said. Jamal was a carrier and was paid for smuggling gold. Officials were interrogating Jamal at the time of going to press.
In the second case, customs officials seized two gold bars, weighing two kilograms, valued at Rs 55 lakh. The bars were concealed in the rear toilet in a recess under the wash basin of a flight that arrived from Dubai. The gold was recovered during the routine rummaging of flight. An examination by the gold assayer showed that the gold bars were of 24 carat purity.
28/03/15 Times of India

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Kolkata native held with fake passport

Vasco: The Dabolim airport police arrested a Kolkata native for travelling with a fake passport. Vinay Omprakash Kumar arrived at Dabolim airport with a fake passport disguising himself as Balraj Singh.

Kumar arrived on a Qatar Airways flight from Oman at about 3am on Friday. The bureau of immigration suspected his passport to be a fake one. He was then detained and handed over to the police.
28/03/15 Times of India

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2 kg of gold seized at Kochi airport

Kochi: The Air Customs Intelligence Wing at Cochin International Airport Limited seized two kilogram of gold worth Rs. 55 lakh from an Indigo Airlines flight from Dubai, which landed here at 4.30 a.m. on Friday.

The gold in the form of two biscuits were found wrapped beneath a wash basin in one of the toilets inside the aircraft. The seizure was made during a routine flight rummaging operations carried out by the customs.
28/03/15 The Hindu

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Police, airline officials asked to crack the case

Indore : DIG Rakesh Gupta gave strict instructions to the Aerodrome Road police to investigate the case of Rs 43,000 stolen from the Jet flight. He also instructed them to solve the matter as early as possible.

After some cases of stealing of cash and jewellary from Jet Airways and apathetic attitude of PS Aerodrome Road of not registering cases, DIG Rakesh Gupta summoned two officials from Jet airways including security in-charge Hemendra Mehta, IT KL Dangi and complainant Prakash Rajdev to his office, on Friday.
28/03/15 Free Press Journal

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Air India Delhi flight to depart from international terminal

Thiruvananthapuram: The Airports Authority of India will from Saturday permit Air India international flight AI 048 (Delhi-Kochi-Thiruvananthapuram) that arrives here at 10.40 p.m. to operate its services from the international terminal the following day as AI 466 Thiruvananthapuram-Kochi-Delhi flight.

Hitherto, the airline was spending money to tow the aircraft every night from Chakka to the domestic terminal near Shanghumughom. The services of two engineering staff and a ground-handling operator were needed.

S.B.S. Jacob, station manager, AI, Thiruvananthapuram, said this could be avoided from Saturday as the airport authorities had given permission to operate AI 466 from the international terminal from March 29.
27/03/15 The Hindu

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How T2 is being transformed into an integrated passenger terminal

The shifting of domestic airline operations to Terminal 2 - which since its opening had largely been operating as international airport for the city - continues, with Air India next in line to be moved to it by the middle of this year.
Vistara, the newly launched carrier, became the first airline to start operations from T2 in January. Before T2, all international airlines operated from Sahar while the domestic ones worked from the terminal near Vile Parle.
Officials say moving all airlines under one roof will eliminate the need for the transfer of passengers, and improve efficiency by integrating all operations at a single terminal. It also makes for better economics, they said.
At the end of last month, airport operator Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL) issued a tender to start the bidding process to open up retail stores such as apparel, jewellery, accessories, beauty & cosmetics, Indian sweets & souvenirs, wine & liquor, convenience goods and so on for T2's domestic segment.
27/03/15 Daily News & Analysis

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IndiGo to start operations from Dimapur

IndiGo Airlines will begin its operation from Dimapur on April 15 with daily direct flight between Kolkata and Dimapur. The flight will be an extension of the Delhi-Dimapur flight via Kolkata.
IndiGo Airlines also announced Dimapur as its 33rd domestic and 38th overall destination, catering to various segments such as business, leisure passengers and students travelling to and from Dimapur.

Meanwhile, Nagaland Lok Sabha MP Neiphiu Rio has highlighted in the Lok Sabha the problem of poor air connectivity in the State and the Northeastern region. The MP had also taken up the matter with the Civil Aviation Ministry and the Prime Minister.

Rio informed the House that Dimapur with an operational airport since 1972 has only five flights in operation. He lamented that even these flights are shared with Dibrugarh in Assam. In November 2013, Air India had introduced Monday flight service. However, the same was discontinued, he added.

With Air India being the only airline operating in Dimapur, Rio urged upon the Civil Aviation Ministry to ensure that private airlines also extend their services to Dimapur as part of their social responsibility in the difficult areas.
26/03/15 Assam Tribune

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Gulf NRI Forum, Kuwait urges expats to fly by AIE direct flight to Mangaluru

Kuwait: Gulf NRI Forum president Pascal Pinto, appeals to the people of Karnataka, Kerala and surrounding region to support the ailing Air India Express (AIE) to ensure survival of the only direct flight service to Mangalore.

Addressing the media persons here on Thursday March 26, Gulf NRI Forum, Kuwait president Pascal Pinto, a well known community leader, social worker in Kuwait and India, revealed details of the efforts and hard work that went into ensuring commencement of direct flight service from Kuwait to Mangalore, a long seen dream of flying directly to our home land. He expressed his thanks and gratitude to all people involved in realization of this dream with special mention of leaders – former union minister Veerappa Moily, Kasargod MP Karunakaran and MUDA former chairman K Thejomaya for their whole-hearted support and the instrumental role they played to ensure Mangalore airport gaining international status and also direct flight from gulf to Mangalore. It is well known and can be proudly said that their constructive pressure to central government has yielded positive result. Please note that otherwise for international Airlines, we have to wait 2 or more years to complete needed runway to land the aircrafts.
 27/03/15 Bellevision.com

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Air connectivity to Mysuru remains grounded

The city’s air connectivity with the rest of India continues to remain grounded even as the local start-ups in the airline industry have ignored Mysuru whose long wait for the re-launch of commercial flights continues without any respite.
In the latest setback, the Bengaluru-based regional carrier, Air Pegasus, which secured permission to operate from the Director General of Civil Aviation this week, has ignored Mysuru in its flight plans and will instead fly to Hubbali and Thiruvananthapuram.
Mysuru fell off the air map of India during October last year when SpiceJet, which was the sole service provider, withdrew operations citing lack of patronage. However, local airport officials averred that air passenger traffic originating from Mysuru was very encouraging and SpiceJet’s withdrawal from Mysuru was part of re-jigging their fleet schedule.
Prior to SpiceJet providing air connectivity for a hop-on flight from Bengaluru to other destinations, Kingfisher provided a similar service before it folded wings and withdrew from the fray.
C. Manjunath, officer in charge of the Mysuru airport told The Hindu that he had already spoken to the Air Pegasus management but their initial flight plans were for Hubbali and Thiruvananthapuram.
27/03/15 News Hub

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Aviation ministry seeks rationalisation of security force cost

New Delhi: There is a new thinking on airport security in the ministry of civil aviation (MoCA), which views it as a sovereign function and believe that air passengers should not be charged for it.

Today, a large part of the Rs 147 per ticket a flyer pays as passenger service fee (PSF) consists of cost incurred by airports for the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) deployment. This is not the case for bus or train travels. In these mode of travels, the security cost is borne by the state.

A senior MoCA official said his ministry will take up the matter with the ministry of home affairs (MHA) and ask it to look at rationalisation of CISF costs at the 59 airports they are deployed at.

"We are telling them (MHA) to reduce cost of operation of CISF. We are also looking at whether security (at the airport) is a sovereign function. Why should the passengers pay for it? Why we cannot ask for it (rationalisation of CISF cost) is because of the perception that it is rich people who fly and so they can afford to pay for it," he said.
27/03/15 Praveena Sharma/Daily News & Analysis

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Delhi airport had most number of bird hits in 2014

Chennai: Bird strikes don't cause as many air accidents as they used to till a couple of decades ago, thanks to better resilience and backup mechanisms of aircraft, but they continue to be a risk.

Delhi airport tops the list with the most number of bird strikes reported in 2014 followed by Mumbai, Ahmedabad and Kolkata.

Information obtained by TOI through RTI from Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) shows that Delhi airport recorded the maximum number of bird hits, 146 which works out to almost 12 bird hits every month. It was followed by Mumbai (69), Ahmedabad (61), Kolkata (55), Hyderabad (34), Kochi (24), Chennai (22) and Bengaluru (18).
The number of bird strikes have increased year-on-year in Delhi. From 108 bird hits in 2011, the numbers rose to 129 in 2013.The number was 107 in 2012. Delhi airport is also at risk from animal incursions too. There were six animal incursions or strikes reported in 2014 at the airport.
27/03/15 Christin Mathew Philip & V Ayyappan/Times of India

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Jet Airways mulls domestic flights from Surat

Ahmedabad: In a bid to take its tally of operating points in the state of Gujarat, Jet Airways is mulling starting flight services from Surat now. The operator currently has seven operating points including Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Rajkot, Bhuj, Porbandar, Diu and Bhavnagar in the state.

Looking to tap the summer travel season, Jet Airways launched its first direct international flight from Gujarat between Ahmedabad and Abu Dhabi. Effective from March 29, 2015, the service will be offered at an all inclusive introductory return fare of Rs 12500 which will be later hiked to Rs 16000.

Talking about the plans, Rajeev R Nambiar, vice president - Sales, India of Jet Airways said, "There always have been requests to start flights from Surat. We are evaluating options to start a domestic flight service from Surat. We will get back later when we finalise something."
26/03/15 Business Standard

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Kuwait Air flights to Kochi

Kochi: Kuwait Airways will operate two flights daily between Kochi and Kuwait from March 30. The airways, which started operations from Kochi in 2002, said in a press release that it would fly A320 aircraft with 117 economy-class seats and 16 business-class seats. The flights from Kochi will leave at 5.50 am and 7.15 am. The return flights will arrive at 4.50 am and 6.15 am. Kuwait Airways also operates from Thiruvananthapuram, apart from Chennai, Mumbai and Delhi.
27/03/15 Business Line

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Airport offers budding artists ticket to fame

Lucknow: City's amateur and budding artists may soon find a new platform to showcase their talent—Lucknow airport. Union ministry of civil aviation has asked the Airport Authority of India (AAI) to set up a dedicated art gallery at the new terminal building of Amausi airport where upcoming painters and sculptors, may put up their creations for public viewing and even sale.

Airport director S C Hota confirmed the space will be provided free of cost to the artists. In case an exhibit gets sold, however, 10% of the cost will have to be paid to the AAI. "The decision is essentially aimed to improve the ambience of the airport," he told TOI.

AAI sources said a glass room near boarding gate number 4 on the first floor of the building has been identified for the purpose. "The site will not affect the passenger movement and airport operations," a senior official said.
27/03/15 Times of India

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1 Kg Gold Seized from Rectum of Passenger

Karipur: The Air Customs Intelligence (ACI) officials nabbed a passenger with one kilogram of smuggled gold at Calicut International Airport on Thursday. Edakkara native A P Shihab is the arrested in connection with the case.

Shihab arrived at the airport on board an Indigo flight from Dubai.

The eight pieces of gold were concealed inside his rectum. The gold was not found in the normal inspection of the Customs and Emigration at the  Calicut airport.

Later, the Door Frame Metal Detector inspection conducted by ACI helped to locate the gold hidden in his rectum.
27/03/15 New Indian Express

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Telangana govt to take up only three airports for now

Hyderabad: The Telangana government may have to rethink about its ambitious plans of building greenfield airports in all the districts due to lack of funds and other issues. The government has now asked the infrastructure and investment department to take up only three airports in the first phase - at Warangal, Kothagudem and Adilabad. Official sources said that the airports at Nizamabad, Nalgonda and Mahbubnagar may not materialise due to fund crunch and restrictions imposed on developing airports within 150 km radius of the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (RGIA) at Shamshabad.

In fact, chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao had announced a slew of new airports even at small places such as Shameerpet and Ghatkesar. But the agreement between the Chandrababu Naidu government in undivided AP and GMR (developer of RGIA) does not permit these new airports. Officials said that the development of Warangal airport is being given top priority.

The airport, located at Mamnur in the district, was constructed several decades ago and is defunct now. The previous Congress government had entered into an agreement with the Airports Authority of India (AAI) for redeveloping the airport along with one in Kadapa, but there was no progress due to paucity of funds.
26/03/15 Nyooz

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Hectic pace to Kannur airport work

Mattannur (Kannur): The undulating terrain of the vast extent of land near here where work is going on at a hectic pace for construction of the Kannur international airport is changing rapidly with large earthmoving equipment at work levelling the area and hundreds of labourers and technical staff working day and night to complete the project by the scheduled completion date of May next year.

Officials of Kannur International Airport Ltd. (KIAL) and Larsen and Toubro, which has been awarded the Rs.694-crore engineering, procurement, construction (EPC) contract for developing the runway and the Rs.498-crore passenger terminal building (PTB), were optimistic that the trial landing at the new airport will be in December-January as planned and that the commercial operation can begin in May next year.

Nearly 50 per cent of the earth work, including cutting and filling, involving 190 lakh cubic metres of earth has been completed and the work for constructing the airport apron is nearing completion.

“If the monsoon is proper and if there is no stoppage of works due to contingency situation, the project will be completed as per schedule,” KIAL Managing Director G. Chandramouli told The Hindu . The work is now progressing at a rapid pace to catch up with the loss of nearly 85 days when the blasting work had to be stopped at the site due to local protests, he said.
26/03/15 Mohamed Nazeer/The Hindu

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Top airports to see 8% growth in summer daily departures

Mumbai: The country's top airports would see eight per cent growth in daily departures, with airlines adding flights this summer.

Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad airports, which together handle over half of the Indian air traffic, handled 1,114 departures daily in the winter schedule. This will rise to 1,203 in summer.

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation approves the schedules of both domestic and foreign airlines; the summer schedule takes effect next week. The regulator, however, is yet to announce the approved schedules.

Domestic traffic grew 9.7 per cent in 2014 over the previous year and January saw a growth of 21 per cent in domestic traffic, fuelled by discount offers.

IndiGo, the largest domestic airline by market share, is introducing a Kolkata-Dimapur flight and additional ones from Delhi to Kolkata, Varanasi and Indore, plus flights between Mumbai and Indore and Mumbai and Raipur.
26/03/15 Business Standard

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Has government skipped PPP appraisal committee nod for 4 airport privatisation projects?

New Delhi: It's not just the HR matters but also the lack of in-principle nod of the Public-Private-Partnership Appraisal Committee (PPPAC) that is hampering the privatisation process of the four airports undertaken by the ministry of civil aviation, said an Airports Authority of India (AAI) source.

As per the government rule, approval from this committee formed for any PPP project is crucial before inviting expression of interest from the prospective investors.

The government has already floated the request for qualification (RFQ) for operation, development and management of Chennai, Kolkata, Jaipur and Ahmedabad airports.

"We had raised this issue (nod from the PPPAC before inviting expression of interest) with the ministry in our last meeting (about two months back) and were told that it would be taken in due course of time. How can they move ahead with the bidding process without the committee's in-principle clearance," said a source in the state-owned airport firm AAI, who requested not to be named.
26/03/15 Praveena Sharma/Daily News & Analysis

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GMR to buy Additional 10% Stake in Delhi Airport

New Delhi: Hiking its stake in Delhi International Airport to 64 per cent, GMR Infrastructure will acquire an additional 10 per cent equity for $79 million from Malaysia Airports Holdings Berhad (MAHB), which is exiting the venture.

It would be purchasing the additional shareholding in Delhi International Airport Ltd (DIAL) for $79 million (about Rs 492 crore).

At present, GMR Infrastructure holds 54 per cent stake. In a regulatory filing today, GMR Infrastructure said its subsidiary GMR Airports would acquire 10 per cent stake in DIAL from Malaysia Airports (Mauritius) Pvt Ltd.

Malaysia Airports (Mauritius) is a subsidiary of MAHB.

Post the proposed acquisition, GMR Infrastructure's stake would rise to 64 per cent.
 25/06/15 PTI/NDTV

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International airport PAP rehab project gets green go-ahead

Navi Mumbai: The State Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA) has given the environment clearance on Wednesday for Vadghar project, which is being developed for rehabilitation of the airport project affected persons (PAPs).

Meanwhile, Cidco is also expected to get approvals for the Pushpak Nagar project in the next two weeks.

The clearance for Vadghar was delayed as a part of the 43 hectares being developed fell under CRZ-II zone and Cidco had to seek approval from Maharashtra Coastal Zone Management Authority (MCZMA).

MCZMA sent the proposal to Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) for its approval. However, MoEF said that SEIAA was the competent project.
26/03/15 Times of India

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Chamber wants Calicut airport privatised

Kozhikode: The Calicut Chamber of Commerce and Industry has come out with a demand to privatise the Calicut International Airport, as the government had “completely failed” to ensure the development of the airport even after more than two decades.

The office bearers of the traders’ and businessmen’s body, which decided to submit a memorandum to Union Minister for Civil Aviation P. Ashok Gajapathi Raju, said privatisation seemed the “only way out” for the salvation of the airport now. “Making it a limited company will be ideal,” said P. Gangadharan, president of the chamber.

The awful failure of the government, according to the chamber, to ensure acquisition of the required land for the airport was continuing for over 20 years now.
26/03/15 The Hindu

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Etihad Airways deploys Boeing 787-9 To Mumbai

Mumbai: Etihad Airways, the national airline of United Arab Emirates, has started flying its second Boeing 787-9 between Mumbai and Abu Dhabi. The aircraft operates on the daily EY206 which departs from Abu Dhabi at 10pm and lands in Mumbai at 3am. The aircraft departs Mumbai at 4.30am and arrives in Abu Dhabi at 6.25am, enabling guests to connect on to more than 50 destinations on Etihad Airways’ global network.          

The B787-9 is configured with eight First Suites, 28 Business Studios, and 199 Economy Smart Seats, offering superior levels of comfort, entertainment and inflight connectivity.

On board, décor and lighting has been inspired by contemporary modern Arabian design, complementing the new ‘Facets of Abu Dhabi’ design identity, recently introduced by Etihad Airways.

Neerja Bhatia, Etihad Airways’ General Manager for India, said: “Mumbai is the commercial capital of India and it is one of our key routes in the India Subcontinent.

“Operating our brand-new Boeing 787-9, we are able to carry business and leisure travellers into and out of Mumbai on board our three-class aircraft which has been customised with the world’s most innovative cabins.”

25/03/15 IndiaInfoline

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Indian airports to trial baggage kiosks

The Times of India reports that the Indian government has asked airport operators to create special kiosks that weigh a passenger’s checked bags and create luggage tags.

“We are working on the baggage self check-in machines. These would be installed at 10 to 13 of our major airports. Bengaluru airport will be experimenting this soon,” RK Srivastava, chairman of the Airports Authority of India (AAI) told the newspaper.

Unlike other baggage drop areas, some of the Indian facilities would have a payment facility. If a passenger’s baggage weighs more than the airline’s limit, passengers would be able to pay the extra baggage charges by credit card.
25/06/15 Travel Daily Media

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Airport to get an underground Metro station

Lucknow: Chaudhary Charan Singh Airport would soon get an underground Metro station, just about 300 metres away from the main entrances of the both terminals, domestic and international. Earlier, the plan was to construct an elevated Metro corridor from Amausi to the airport but later, it was felt that the elevated station would block the front view of the airport and also not be able to cater to passengers of both terminals alike.

Lucknow Metro Rail Corporation (LMRC) has hence decided to tweak the plan and construct an underground corridor of about 700 metres from Amausi to the airport to give an easy access to the Metro station from both terminals. The Metro track would go underground from near the elevated Amausi station and run up to the airport's underground Metro station. This station would be equidistant from both terminals.
26/03/15 Times of India

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Another daily international flight connecting Ahmedabad from March 29

Ahmedabad: City of Ahmedabad will be further connected to the world through launching of a new international flight.

Jet Airways is going to introduce daily new flights between Ahmedabad and Abu Dhabi from March 29, 2015.

Flight no. 9W 520 will leave Ahmedabad at 0505 hours and reach Abu Dhabi at 0650 hours.

Return journey of 9W 519 will take place at 2155 hours from Abu Dhabi. The flight will reach Ahmedabad at 0225 hours next day.
26/03/15 Desh Gujarat

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Malaysian Woman Dies of Cardiac Arrest at Chennai Airport

Chennai:  A 58-year-old Malaysian woman died due to cardiac arrest just an hour before she was scheduled to take a flight from here to Kuala Lumpur today, airport authorities said.

The passenger, identified as Esha Binti Veerasa, died around 5 PM in the security clearance area just before her scheduled departure at 6 pm in an Air Asia flight.
26/03/15 PTI/New Indian Express

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Board Cabs from Arrival Gate of Airport Again

Chennai: When you fly down to the metro in the near future, your cab driver could pick you up when you step out of the terminal instead of making you trek to the parking lot and try hard to detect his number plate.

Eight months after they stopped allowing cars to drive right up to the arrival gates of Chennai Airport’s Domestic Terminal, mounting pressure from passengers and bureaucrats has forced a reversal. Airports Authority of India (AAI) and the Chennai Traffic Police have agreed to re-open the lane adjoining the arrival gates for traffic on a trial basis.

“This decision has been taken jointly and the signage to indicate the change has been ordered. Police have some security concerns, so they will be bringing in some additional security measures during the trial run,” said Captain Deepak Shastri, Airport Director.
AAI has been flooded with complaints from elderly flyers, people accompanying disabled and stretcher-borne passengers.
26/03/15  Daniel Thimmayya/New Indian Express

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Sand mafia resumes mining at airport site

Navi Mumbai: Illegal sand mining activities are taking place in at least two spots within the proposed Navi Mumbai international airport area in Panvel taluka. Local activists informed TOI that the illegal sand mining groups have trespassed into the restricted site, near Karnala Sports Academy in Panvel. The locals and activists have also noticed use of suction pumps to extract sand from areas near Gadhi and Kalundre rivers.

Environmentalist Sumaira Abdulali of NGO Awaaz Foundation expressed surprise over the fact that illegal sand mining is also taking place inside the restricted zone where the international airport is slated to come up.

"I have complained to the Raigad district authorities in the past about illegal sand mining in areas like Panvel, Mansarovar and also at Mahad. However, the activity stops for a few days and later resumes, which further deteriorates our river banks and natural resources," she said .
26/03/15 Vijay Singh/Times of India 

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Airport Customs officer under scanner in M-Cat seizure case

Mumbai: In a major twist, a Customs officer working at the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (CSIA) at Sahar has come under the scanner of the police department for his alleged involvement in the Mephedrone (M-Cat) racket case.

The police, during their probe, have learnt that police constable Dharmaraj Kalokhe had received some part of the consignment of 112 kilograms of M-Cat from a Customs officer at Sahar. Kalokhe was produced before a court on Wednesday and remanded in police custody till April 1.

"Kalokhe, during the course of custodial interrogation, claimed that a Customs officer from Sahar airport had given him the consignment of M-Cat. We are interrogating him further about the officer involved. Kalokhe has also said that his associate Shashikala alias Baby Patankar too gave him contraband in order to dispose them of," said a police officer, requesting anonymity.
26/03/15 Daily News & Analysis 

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Indian customs seizes 1.5m gold, nabs 2 smugglers

Ahmedabad:  Indian Air Intelligence Unit of Customs Department has arrested two men for smuggling gold worth 1.5 million within two days at Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport.
Customs officials said that they has detected five cases of gold smuggling since Sunday.
Suleman who had arrived from Air India Mumbai flight AI-331 was caught with 355.290 gram gold worth Rs 9.29 lakh. “He was detained on the basis of suspicion and two gold bars concealed in his rectum were recovered. He was a domestic passenger and had picked up gold from an international passenger travelling in the same flight,” said an official.
In another case, Jay Batra coming in SpiceJet Mumbai flight SG-016 late on Thursday night was held with 233.28 gram gold worth Rs 6.13 lakh. “We recovered two gold bars from Batra which he had hidden in his shoes,” added the official.
25/03/15 Customs Today 

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3 kg gold recovered from passenger at Hyderabad airport

Hyderabad: Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) has seized 3 kg of gold worth Rs 79 lakh from a passenger at the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (RGIA) here.

Based on specific information, the DRI officers intercepted a passenger, who had come from Bengaluru here by a Jet Airways flight last evening. After a search, he was found carrying 30 gold bars (each weighing 100 grams), DRI (Hyderabad Zonal Unit) Additional Director General M K Singh said today.
25/06/15 Business Standard

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Govt gives nod to Bareilly airport; land acquisition process begins

Bareilly: With the state government giving a go-ahead to district authorities for purchasing and acquiring land to set up a civilian airport in the city, local residents' dreams for such a facility in their hometown has come a step closer to reality.

The airport is scheduled to come up at a spot near Madiya Ahmadnagar village where the process to acquire 10 hectares of land from locals farmers at rates agreeable to both the parties has already begun, said district magistrate Gaurav Dayal. The notification from the state government was received on Monday. The project of the civilian airport was awaiting the government nod.

Dayal said a meeting of stakeholders has been organized on Wednesday where the modalities for acquiring the land from farmers would be worked out keeping in mind their interests.
24/03/15 Mrigank Tiwari/Times of India

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Greenfield private airport set for takeoff

Durgapur: This passenger terminal should put most of the smaller airports in the region to shame: it can accommodate 450 passengers boarding or alighting four airplanes, simultaneously; work is on in full swing to complete the four km access road from NH-2; and at the air traffic control (ATC), technicians are busy getting everything in order.

Welcome to India’s first greenfield private airport -- named after Bengali poet Kazi Nazrul Islam -- at Andal, on the outskirts of Durgapur, that will start operations next month, exactly two years behind schedule. The project suffered time and cost overruns due to land acquisition problems.

Located nearly 180 kms from Kolkata, the ?650 crore airport is a part of India’s first airport-city project promoted by Bengal Aerotropolis Pvt Ltd (BAPL) with Changi Airports of Singapore as lead partner. Total investments, including city side development, have already crossed ?1000 crore.
“We are planning a big bang opening in April, with a host of scheduled and non-scheduled air services to different destinations,” Partha Ghosh, Managing Director of BAPL told BusinessLine.
24/03/15 Pratim Ranjan Bose/Abhishek Law/Business Line

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Indigo, SpiceJet, AirAsia to introduce new flights from Visakhapatnam

Visakhapatnam:  The Port City will get more air connectivity from March 28 as several airlines plan to introduce their service to various destinations across the country.

Vizag will have eight services to Hyderabad, three services to Chennai, four services to Mumbai and Bengalore, two services to Bhubaneswar and one service each to Ahmedabad, Kolkata and Trivandrum.

Indigo airlines, Spice Jet and AirAsia will operate these services. Spice Jet is reviving its Mumbai-Vizag-Hyderabad-Delhi-Hyderabad-Vizag-Hyderabad-Mumbai flight service.

AirAsia will run a new service between Bengaluru and Vizag from April 27.

According to Air Travellers' Association (India) president D Varada Reddy, Indigo airlines will introduce Ahmedabad-Hyderabad-Vizag-Chennai-Trivandrum flight from March 28.
25/03/15 Times of India

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Bengaluru airport emerges third largest in India

Bengaluru: Within seven years of opening, the Kempegowda International Airport (KIAB), Bengaluru, has emerged South India's busiest airport and third largest in the country.

The airport handled its 15 millionth passenger on March 22, 2015, which marked the graduation of the airport to the mid-sized airport category (15 to 25 million passenger airports) classification, KIAB said in a statement.

KIAB commenced its operations on May 28, 2008.

It had achieved its previous highest traffic record of handling 12.86 million passengers in the last financial year. Incidentally, the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (RGIA), Hyderabad, which commenced operations two months ahead of Bengaluru in 2008, achieved 10 million passenger mark on March 21, 2015.

Similar category airports around the world include Abu Dhabi, Berlin TXL, Brisbane, Brussels, Dublin, Seoul GMP, Stockholm ARN and Zurich among others.
24/03/15 Business Standard

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DIAL's Malaysian partner to sell entire 10 per cent stake for $79 million

Kuala Lumpur/New Delhi: Malaysia Airports Holdings today announced sale of its entire 10 per cent stake in Delhi International Airport for Rs 492 crore, saying a minority share did not give it any "influence" in the venture.

The Malaysian entity, which made its first investment in Delhi International Airport (DIAL) in 2006, would be reaping a profit of nearly USD 22 million from the proposed sale.

In a filing to the Malaysian stock exchange, MAHB said it would sell 245 million equity shares for a "total cash consideration of USD 79 million" to GMR Airports.
24/03/15 PTI/Economic Times

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Hercules has a smooth landing at Juhu

The IAF's Hercules C130J, one of its heavy cargo aircraft, landed and took off safely from the Juhu airport on Tuesday in an exercise planned to test whether its short runway could be used safely for flight operations in the event of an attack on the neighbouring, bigger Mumbai airport.

The aircraft, with two dozen IAF officials, landed before 2pm and departed in ten minutes. "A few departures at Mumbai airport were held over to allow the Hercules to land at Juhu. Once it landed, the departures were cleared," said a Mumbai airport official.

The exercise with this massive transport aircraft was crucial as the general norm is for heavier aircraft to require longer runways to land and take off. The Juhu airport's runway 08-26, on which the IAF aircraft landed is 3,750-ft-long, which is about one-third that of Mumbai airport's. But the Hercules C130J can do tactical landings on short runways and dirt runways and, hence, Juhu is eligible to play the role of an alternative airport. Earlier in August 2013, the aircraft had landed at the runway at Daulat Baig Oldie in Ladakh, one of the highest and difficult-to-land runways in the world.
25/03/15 Times of India

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Surat airport runway to be extended and re-carpeted

Surat: The much-awaited extension of airport runway has gathered steam with the Airport Authority of India (AAI) issuing a tender notice on March 21. AAI has invited tender applications for upgrading the runway at Surat airport from the existing 2,250 metre to 2,905 metre.

The extension would allow safe operation of wide bodied twin engine aircraft like Airbus and attract more airline companies to start operations from the airport. Sources said the AAI would be spending Rs 66 crore on 655-metre extension and re-carpeting.

Surat was the only city in the world till 2007 with a population of over 4.6 million people and without a functioning airport. Commercial services started from Surat on May 6, 2007 with an Indian Airline Airbus 319 flight. Indian Airlines began its operations with an ATR aircraft. It recently increased the frequency between Surat and Delhi from three days to six days a week, but that too in a smaller CRJ aircraft.
24/03/15 Times of India

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AAI to get 8-acre plot for aircraft parking bays

Pune: The Airports Authority of India (AAI), Pune, will receive eight acres of land from the Indian Air Force to develop two additional aircraft parking bays at the city airport.


"The proposal for the additional land, which was submitted to the IAF after the defence minister gave his in-principle nod, is in the final stages and we expect to get the land soon," a senior AAI official told TOI on Tuesday.

The additional aircraft bays are required to deal with the rising number of passengers and aircraft movement at the Lohegaon airport in the last few years. The issue had figured prominently at the Airports Advisory Committee (AAC) meeting presided over by Pune MP Anil Shirole, after which a meeting with Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar was held in New Delhi.
25/03/15 Times of India

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Div Com discusses Jammu Airport expansion

Jammu: Divisional Commissioner Jammu, Dr. Pawan Kotwal today chaired a high level meeting to discuss issues pertaining to expansion of Jammu Airport.
The meeting was attended by Deputy Commissioner Jammu, A.K. Sahu, Assistant Commissioner (C) Sachin Dev Singh besides senior officers of Army, Air Force and civil administration.
Threadbare discussions were held regarding expansion of Jammu Airport and issues impeding the expansion.
Underlining the need for early expansion of Jammu Airport, the Divisional Commissioner stressed that all agencies involved in the project should synchronize their working for timely completion of the prestigious project.
24/03/15 Scoop News

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Biju Patnaik International Airport, Bhubaneswar to develop an Art Gallery

Bhubaneswar: In an effort to encourage and promote Amateur/Budding Artists, Airports Authority of India, has decided to create/develop an Art Gallery in the Security Hold Area (SHA) of New Domestic Terminal (NDTB-T1), BPI Airport, Bhubaneswar. The mainstay of AAI is to achieve highest standards of safety and quality in air traffic services and airport management by providing state-of-the-art infrastructure for total customer satisfaction, contributing to economic growth and prosperity of the nation. To serve the social cause, a platform is being provided by AAI to facilitate the budding artists to exhibit their creations/artwork and make a reasonably significant mark in the Art world. AAI wishes to invite original creations including sculpture or any other form of Art but not limited to paintings, for display inside the terminal building. The artist shall have a right to put a tag “for sale” and the Art work shall carry price tag fixed on it. It is understood that this step taken by AAI will help create vocation and much anticipated prominence to the local talent.
24/03/15 Odisha Diary

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Not so safe: 2 bird hits a month at Chennai airport

Bird strikes don`t cause as many air accidents as they used to till a couple of decades ago, thanks to better resilience and back-up mechanisms of aircraft, but they continue to be a risk. And Chennai has had at least two bird hits every month last year. An RTI query by TOI has found that the number of bird hits at Chennai airport rose from 24 in 2010 to 32 in 2013, but dipped to 22 in 2014.

This February, there have been five such incidents at the airport. According to an airline official, the dip in numbers - from 32 in 2013 to 22 in 2014 - could be attributed to underreporting than to preventive measures. That is, though bird hits get reported at the airport, at times the directorate general of civil aviation (DGCA) is not intimated.

DGCA said 162 cases of bird strikes were recorded at Chennai airport in the last five years. The airport ranked fifth in the number of hits across the country since 2010.Throughout India, 71 airports reported 2,946 bird hits from 2010 to 2014.
25/03/15 Nyooz

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Fasten your seat belts, for a lesson in nerves

New Delhi: Delhi airport will no longer allow first-class and business-class passengers, on either international or domestic routes, to form a separate queue to go through security checks.

The move is the result of a quixotic circular that the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security put out in late February but started implementing this week at the T3 terminal of Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport.


The circular is being implemented only at Delhi airport though some passengers have complained that they have faced similar problems at other airports as well.

The ostensible reason for the circular is the heightened security at the country's busiest airport.
Officials said there would be separate check-ins for business and executive-class passengers at airline counters but not at security control.

The action flies in the face of worldwide trends where governments, airport authorities, security forces and airlines work together to fast-track the entry and exit of passengers who are ready to fork out more than three times the average economy-class fare on both domestic and international routes to ensure hassle-free travel.
First-class fares are usually six to eight times the economy fares. Business-class passengers pay three to four times more than those who fly economy class.
24/03/15 Telegraph

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492 tortoises seized at Trichy airport, 5 arrested

Trichy:  Five passengers, who were about to board a flight to Bangkok from the Trichy international airport were arrested by immigration authorities on Tuesday and 492 spotted black terrapin pond tortoises were seized from them.

All these years, Trichy airport has witnessed several instances of gold smuggling. But this was the first time that it witnessed smuggling of more than 400 tortoises. In 2012, 200 star tortoises were seized by the immigration authorities.

The seizure was handed over to the forest authorities. The arrested were booked under the Wildlife Act for trying to smuggle tortoises.

District forest authorities said the five were identified as Ahmed Kabir, 46, from Illaiyangudi in Sivaganga district, Ahmed Badhusha Marika, 40, from Madurai, Mohammad Salim, 28, from Avudayar Kovil in Pudukottai district, Sayed Ahmed, 58, from Illayankudi in Sivagangai district and Mohammed Iqbal, 42, from Thiruvadanai in Ramanathapuram district.

They were used as carriers as none of them were aware of the material they were carrying in their luggage. On scanning the luggage, the immigration authorities found the tortoises.
25/03/15 Times of India

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Airport security check robs flier of mobile phone

New Delhi: In a mysterious case, a mobile phone was stolen while going under the scanner at an X-ray machine installed at Terminal-3 of the Indira Gandhi Airport. The victim said that his iPhone, which he had kept in his bag's front pocket, could not be found in his bag when it came out of the scanner.

CISF personnel and policemen tried to find the phone inside the machine besides trying to search the bag, but were not able to retrieve it even after three days of the incident. The Delhi Police has registered a case of theft against unidentified persons.

Raj Kumar Mohabe was travelling to Allahabad from Delhi by an Air India flight on last Thursday when his phone went missing. "After taking the boarding pass at around 11.08 am, I kept my mobile phone in the front pocket of my bag pack and walked down to another Air India counter where my colleague Rajesh Sinha was waiting. Both of us were going to Allahabad. We walked down for a security check at X-Ray machine no. 13," Raj Kumar told the police.
25/03/15 Ankur Sharma/Mail Today

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6 held for ‘smuggling’ gold worth Rs 16.5 cr

Ahmedabad: In a major crackdown on a gold smuggling racket allegedly running in Ahmedabad, the Special Operation Group arrested six persons including a woman at the Ahmedabad International Airport on Tuesday and seized 60 kgs of gold worth Rs 16.50 crore. The accused are allegedly agents working for smugglers using Dubai port as base to sneak gold through Ahmedabad into the country.
The SOG officials were acting on a tip off that three persons including the alleged mastermind Cliford Anthony D’costa of Mumbai were coming in a flight from Dubai. The officials identified the other accused as Virendra Singh Sultan of Sultanpur in Haryana, Sapna Dipakbhai of Mumbai and Jayveer Singh and Jagdev Singh of Delhi who came to receive the consignment. The SOG also arrested the duo’s driver identified as Dinesh Harji Desai. When the bags of the accused were checked, they found, nine boxes containing 60 gold biscuits, cash of Rs 2,700, 2,500 Dirhams and US Dollar 71.
25/03/15 Indian Express

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9 kg cocaine worth Rs 50 cr seized at airport, 3 held

New Delhi: Two Nigerian nationals and a Delhi resident, Ghana national, were arrested on Tuesday at the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) with 9 kg of cocaine worth approximately Rs 50 crore. Reportedly, this is one of the biggest seizures at the airport.
The cocaine was concealed in rexin and carbon paper to avoid detection through an X-ray scanner. Airport sources said the seizure and arrests thereafter were made by a joint team of the Customs department and the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB).
A senior airport official said that two Nigerian women, who were traveling from São Paulo in Brazil to New Delhi, were intercepted on a specific input from the NCB regional office in New Delhi. The women, who according to officials are in the age group of 35 to 37 years, had arrived by an Emirates flight, EK 511, via Dubai on Tuesday morning.
25/03/15 Indian Express

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Gold worth Rs 39 lakh seized from air passenger

Kozhikode: About 1.5 kg of undeclared gold worth Rs 39 lakh was seized from a man who arrived from Dubai at the international airport at Karipur here today, customs officials said.

The gold in the form of a coil was kept concealed inside an iron box and came to light when customs officials checked the baggage of Mohammed Shafi of nearby Pudupaadi who arrived by an Air India Express flight.
24/03/15 PTI/Business Standard

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Air Pegasus to launch flight services to Hubballi soon

Hubballi: Even as SpiceJet is yet to resume flight services to Hubballi after the recent accident, Air Pegaus, another low cost airline, is getting ready to launch its services to the city.

As the SpiceJet aircraft was badly damaged and the Directorate General of Civil Aviation authorities had to hold an inquiry into the mishap, the flight services were temporarily suspended and Spicejet is operating its flights from Belagavi Airport.

“We cleared the runway on March 17 and gave a go-ahead for Spicejet to resume services. They were supposed to resume services from March 18 and now the word is that they might start from March 29,” Hubballi Airport director Shivanand Benal told The Hindu .

Mr. Benal said he had not received any official communication on Air Pegasus starting its services from Hubballi. However, he informed that Air Pegasus was keen on starting services from here. “In fact, they were to conduct trial runs at Hubballi. Since the mishap took place and runway was blocked temporarily, they shifted the trial run to Thiruvananthapuram,” he said. Air Pegasus has already mentioned on its website Hubballi as one of its destinations apart from Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram.
24/03/15 Girish Pattanashetti/The Hindu

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Privatisation of airports: Govt postpones bid submission deadline

New Delhi: The ministry of civil aviation has pushed back by two months the deadline for submitting bids for award of operations, management and development contracts of airports at Kolkata, Chennai, Jaipur and Ahmedabad to private parties due to human resources-related issues.
Airports Authority of India chairman RK Srivastava (AAI) said, “There are many issues relating to human resources. A concerted decision has to be taken… Whatever are the concerns of the employees, they have to be addressed.”
He added though AAI was trying to expedite the privatisation process, service conditions of employees will not be ‘compromised with’.
The AAI employees union have been opposing the privatisation programme on the grounds that the move would lead to a decline in revenues for the state-owned authority and result in massive retrenchment of manpower.
24/03/15 Indian Express

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AAI staff issue holding up airport privatisation

New Delhi: Privatisation of airports at Ahmedabad, Chennai, Jaipur and Kolkata had been delayed by furore over the future of the 2,000-odd Airports Authority of India (AAI) employees who worked in these, RK Srivastava, the authority's chairman, said on Monday.

"There are issues related to human resources. The concerns of the employees need to be addressed," said Srivastava explaining why the deadline for applying for privatisation auctions of these airports had been extended.

The AAI had in January invited bids to transfer the management, development and operation of the four airports to private companies on a revenue sharing model. This has drawn flak from airport employees.

"Tariffs are another issue. Prospective bidders have raised concerns and those related to employees is one of them. A concerted decision has to be taken," the AAI chairman said at a media briefing. Srivastava said employees were demanding their service conditions not be compromised with. There are around 2,000 AAI employees working at the four airports, according to a trade union official.
23/03/15 Business Standard

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Airports privatisaion: 'Government wants to address HR issues first'

New Delhi: Government had to push the bidding date for privatisation of four AAI-run airports as it wanted to address human resources issues first before they go into the private hands, even as the whole process was on fast track, a top AAI official said on Monday.

"There are many issues. There are issues relating to human resources. A concerted decision has to be taken (on such issues). Whatever are the concerns of the employees, they would be addressed by the Government," Airports Authority of India (AAI) chairman R K Srivastava said.

Srivastava said whatever are the concerns of the employees would be addressed by the Government, adding that "the service conditions of employees should not be" compromised with.

The Chairman also said that issues such as tariff fixation for these airports were also there but did not elaborate further. The AAI was trying to fast track the privatisation process, he said, adding that, "We have to now formulate the Request for Proposal. We are ensuring all timelines are met."
23/03/15 PTI/Daily News & Analysis

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Fired for smuggling, Jet staffer returns to work at T2

Mumbai: A ground staffer who had been previously fired and expelled from Mumbai airport for his involvement in gold smuggling, was found working at the international terminal of the airport recently. The man in question was found working as a duty manager handling sensitive flights of Air India and Emirates, raising concerns about security at the airport.
The staffer was identified as Pritpal Singh Kalsi, who used to work as a load controller for Jet Airways. On May 19 last year, Kalsi was arrested after he was found involved in smuggling. He, along with another Jet staffer, Hameed, was caught sneaking in 3 kg gold valued at Rs 76.4 lakh. The Air Intelligence Unit (AIU) had nabbed a passenger, Kunnil Abbas Muhammad, who had brought the gold from Dubai via Jet Airways flight 9W 537. While both employees had been fired, Kalsi was released on a personal and surety bond of Rs 50,000.
23/04/15 Neha LM Tripathi/Mid Day

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Jet Airways, Air India to shift domestic ops to Mumbai airport’s T2 by December

Mumbai: Mumbai’s Santa Cruz terminal, which currently hosts most of the domestic flights, will cater only to low-cost carriers such as Indigo, SpiceJet and GoAir once full-service carriers like Jet Airways and national carrier Air India shift domestic operations to terminal 2 (T2) by December.
“Both Jet Airways and Air India, which operate out of terminal 1B, will shift domestic operations to T2 by the end of the current calendar year,” a senior GVK official, who didn’t wish to be named, said.
Mumbai International Airport Pvt (MIAL), which operates Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (CSIA), is a joint venture between a GVK-led consortium holding 74% stake and Airports Authority of India (AAI) holding the rest.
At present, full service carriers like Jet Airways and Air India, along with no-frills carriers like IndiGo, SpiceJet, and GoAir, operate from terminal 1B of the Mumbai airport, while the newly launched full service carrier Vistara, a joint venture between Tata Sons and Singapore Airlines, operates out of T2.
24/03/15 Rhik Kundu/Financial Express

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Hercules to land at Juhu air-strip today in test drill

Mumbai: At 1.30 pm today, a Hercules C-130J, one of the largest cargo carriers in the world, will land at the Juhu aerodrome, which operates only helicopters and small aircraft.

The brief landing, sources told Mirror, will be carried out by the Indian Air Force as part of a terror preparedness exercise. The aim is to check if a C-130J, whose main purpose is to carry troops, can land in the short Juhu strip if Mumbai's main airport comes under attack.

The last time a fixed-wing aircraft landed in Juhu was in 1972, when a Japanese commercial airliner with 108 passengers and 14 crew members landed by mistake and overran the runway. (See pic on page 8) Eleven people were injured and the aircraft had to be written off.

The C-130J has a payload of 20 tonnes and is used to transport soldiers, armoured carriers and Humvees. The aircraft, operated by the Veiled Vipers or 77 Squadron, was chosen by the Indian Air Force as it can land and take-off from improvised or short runways like Juhu even without lights, whose maintenance and importance has been long ignored. Air Force sources in Mumbai confirmed the carrier will land from the seaside and not leave the 3,750-metre runway.
24/03/15 Aditya Anand & Yogesh Naik/Mumbai Mirror

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Government wants AAI to improve airport for investors’ meet

Chennai: The Global Investors' Meet is only two months away, and the state is worried about the first impression the visitors may get at the airport. Delegates from Japan, South Korea, the USA, the UK, France and Germany are expected to take part in the meet on May 23 and 24.

Sources said that senior officials of the government held a meeting with airport officials, customs, CISF, immigration and Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) last Friday to take stock of the state of affairs at the airport. And they were not amused with what found.

A government official said the meeting discussed that the international arrival terminal needs some urgent facelift. "It is going to be the first point of contact for foreign delegates. As the old building is not in a good shape and the new terminal's arrival hall is lying unused, the state government is worried about the image the guests will be getting when they land at the airport," he said.
04/03/15 Times of India

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Rajiv Gandhi International Airport crosses the 10 million passenger mark

Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (RGIA), Hyderabad on March 23 achieved a significant milestone by clocking 10 million passengers in one year. This achievement coincides with RGIA’s seventh anniversary which falls on 23rd March.

Ms. Bhanu Khannan arrived from a Chennai bound flight emerged as the 10th million passenger at RGIA today evening. Incidentally, another passenger Mr. Chandra Shekaran who arrived in the same flight had travelled in the inaugural flight which took off from RGIA on 23rd March.

During 2014-15, RGIA has witnessed remarkable traffic growth of 20% over last year led by 22% growth in domestic passenger traffic and 15% growth in International traffic. The traffic growth numbers are higher than the average growth witnessed by other major Indian airports, according to Rajiv Gandhi International Airport.

Despite the rapid growth, RGIA has ensured adequate focus towards service excellence, enabling RGIA to be consistently rated amongst the top 3 airports in the world in the 5-15 million passenger category as per the Airport Service Quality (ASQ) survey, conducted by Airports Council International (ACI).
23/03/15 The Financial

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