Airport will be built at Burnapur: Jigajinagi

Vijayapura: Ramesh Jigajinagi, MP and former Union Minster, has said that the proposed airport will be constructed at Burnapur village in Vijayapura taluk in the district.

There was confusion after Public Works Minister Govind Karjol, who represents Mudhol in Bagalkot district, recently circulated a letter stating that he had urged the government to shift the project to the newly acquired land near Mulawad village in Vijayapura district.

“Let me make it clear here that the site for the airport will not shifted. It will come up at Burnapur village in Vijayapura taluk where over 700 acres have been set aside for the purpose. I have already conveyed this message to Mr. Karjol also,” he said here on Friday.
Mr. Jigajinagi also said that the work would start soon.

He also blamed the previous Congress government for not granting funds for levelling the land sought by the Airports Authority of India.

He also accused the private agency, which withdrew from the project, of demanding ₹100 crore to level the land. “The private agency which was not interested to take up the project created this misconception that this much money was needed,” he said.
He said that he has written to the Union government to take up the work on priority and complete it.
22/09/19 The Hindu

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Six locations shortlisted for city’s second airport

Chennai: After dilly-dallying for years on a second airport for the city, the State government has now shortlisted six locations.
Highly-placed sources told The Hindu that Thiruporur, Vallathur, Thodur, Cheyyar, Maduramangalam and Mappedu are on the shortlist.
In a few days, the State government is likely to hold talks with officials of the Airports Authority of India (AAI) to see which site would be feasible to build the new airport. A field visit will also be conducted.
“There are several locations on the radar. We have shortlisted six from them. In fact, one of the locations was identified two months back. But AAI officials felt it was not suitable, in view of technical factors,” said a senior government official. The land requirement for the second airport will be around 2,000-2,500 acres, said AAI officials.
“There is a dire need for a second airport as the existing facility is already getting saturated,” said an AAI official.
22/09/19 Sangeetha Kandavel/Sunitha Sekar/The Hindu

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Nok Air launches Guwahati-Bangkok flight service

Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal on Sunday flagged off Nok Air's Guwahati-Bangkok flight here and hoped that the introduction of the service will help in strengthening bilateral relations between Assam and Thailand.

The introduction of the flight is not just an extension of airline route but more importantly a futuristic gesture, which will go a long way in strengthening bilateral relations between Assam and Thailand, Sonowal said at the flagging off ceremony at the Lokapriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport here.

The Nok Air flight will reach Don Mueang Airport near Bangkok in three hours time and offers a convenient connection twice a week for both business and leisure travellers.

"Connectivity has always been a major bottleneck in optimum realization of the growth prospects of the region and with this in view, the Centre has taken up steps to connect six South East Asian destinations from Guwahati under UDAN scheme", Sonowal said.

The first Guwahati-Dhaka flight by Spicejet under International Air Connectivity Scheme was flagged off on July one this year and this flight marked the roll-out of UDAN- International, pioneered by Assam Government with Viability Gap Funding of Rs 100 crore.
22/09/19 PTI/India TV

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‘Business providing fillip to Birsa Munda airport revenue'

Lower tax on aviation fuel and the Government’s impetus to enhance Birsa Munda Airport’s feasibility for industrial transportations has boosted air traffic as well as commercial revenue generated from Jharkhand’s largest airport. In a tete-a-tete with The Pioneer, Airport Director Vinod Sharma gave an insight on the current situation of the airport and the plans in the pipeline. Sharma –a man who seemed visibly busy signing documents and holding impromptu discussions with his subordinates at the airport office on Friday—feels that promoting business in the airport premises will be the most effective way of adding a fillip to the commercial revenue generated here.
Excerpts from the conversation >>

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ILS to be operational at Odisha’s Jharsuguda Airport by December

Jharsuguda: Instrument Landing System (ILS) will become functional at the Veer Surendra Sai Airport in Odisha’s Jharsuguda by December, said airport’s director Sudesh Kumar Chouhan.
Speaking to mediapersons on the sidelines of an event at Sambalpur IIM yesterday, Chouhan further said that the number of parking lots at the airport will be increased to six from the existing two.
The official also informed that flight services between Jharsuguda and Bengaluru will start this winter season. An 198-seater Boeing-737 aircraft of SpiceJet airlines will commence flight service from the airport to Bengaluru on October 27, he added.
Initially, Jharsuguda Airport was only meant for Visual Flight Rules (VFR) operations. Since the city witnesses low visibility and bad weather during most part of the year, this leads to delays and cancellation of scheduled flights.
With new navigational facilities, the airport will become an all-weather airport and will enhance connectivity. This will ensure more regular service which will benefit both airlines and passengers.
22/09/19 Odisha Sun Times

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Doha bound flight returns to Chennai due to glitches

Chennai: A Doha bound flight of a private carrier carrying 240 passengers and a crew of five, on Saturday returned to the airport here, about 40 minutes after its departure due to technical issues, officials said. As soon as the glitches were noticed when it was airborne, the pilot got the nod of authorities to return and safely landed the aircraft at the airport here, they said.

The passengers of the early morning aircraft were provided accommodation at a nearby hotel and the flight resumed its journey hours later. Following a similar episode, involving the same carrier days ago, the civil aviation authorities have asked the airline to look into such matters and submit a report.
21/09/19 Free Press Journal/Yahoo!

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AAI orders probe into Imphal Airport building collapse

Imphal: A day after an under-construction building collapsed at Manipur’s Bir Tikendrajit International Airport in Imphal on Wednesday evening, the Airports Authority of India (AAI) asked the state government’s Planning and Development Authority (PDA), an agency which executes the infrastructural works, to undertake an inquiry into the incident.

Speaking to reporters on Thursday at his office, director of Bir Tikendrajit International Airport, S Senthil Valavan, said that the AAI has advised PDA to conduct the inquiry and submit the report to them.

Meanwhile, the regional headquarters (NER) of the AAI in Guwahati will also conduct a separate investigation into the incident to ascertain the cause and bring out the report accordingly, Senthil said.

The director also disclosed that the project, supposed to be an electrical and mechanical workshop for the international airport, had started its initial work this year after signing a pact between AAI and state agency PDA in November 2017.

Of the estimated total budget of Rs 8.65 crore for the ambitious project, so far, as per the director, Rs 3.45 crore have already been released for the deposit work.
According to reports, a total of 50 workers were engaged at the site when a portion of the ground floor was collapsed right after completion of concrete layering of the single floor cargo terminal building at around 5:45 pm. The incident left eight labourers were injured, including one in critical condition.

Soon after the incident, rescue teams, including the Indian Army and Assam Rifles rushed to the site and rescued the injured workers from the accident spot. Later, the injured persons were taken to the Regional Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) for first-aid.
“We were worried about the concrete debris and we used the JCBs to cut the steel and remove the debris. During the search and rescue, we also used the live detecting machines to find out if any person was left under the debris but everything was fine,” added Senthil
20/09/19 Vangamla Salle KS/East Mojo

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Air Asia to start services in Tripura from October 20: Official

Low-cost carrier Air Asia would begin operations in Tripura from October 20, a senior official said on Thursday.

"Air Asia has got approval from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation to start services from the Maharaja Bir Bikram Airport here from October 20. Initially, the route would be Imphal, Guwahati, and Kolkata," airport director V K Seth said.

Seth said preliminary activities like recruitment of supporting and ground staff would be completed soon.

Earlier in the day, Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb, in a tweet, had announced that the carrier would soon start its services from the state.
20/09/19 PTI/Moneycontrol.com

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AAI opts out of race to buy shares from Bidvest, ACSA

Mumbai: Airports Authority of India has decided not to exercise its right to bu y shares from its partners Bidvest and Airports Company South Africa (ACSA). The two South African companies have been trying to sell their combined shareholding in Mumbai International Airport Ltd (MIAL) and exit the 13-year old joint venture.
The arbitration court has also given GVK, which operates Mumbai airport, time till October 30 to deposit the purchase price of the shares (Rs 1,248 crore) in an interest bearing escrow account failing which Bidvest has the freedom to sell shares to any third party they wish to after securing necessary regulatory approvals.
As per the original shareholder agreement between MIAL’s partners, AAI has right of first refusal over the Bidvest and ASCA stakes. “The matter was deliberated at the appropriate levels and finally AAI has decided not to purchase the shares which are subject matter of the present proceedings, pending before this Arbitral Tribunal either from Bid Services Division (Mauritius) or of M/S ACSA Global Limited,” said the interim order of the arbitration panel that ET has reviewed.
In April, GVK informed the stock exchanges that it had entered into a non-binding agreement with NIIF-ADIA for its airports business at a valuation of around Rs 12,500 crore.
A deal was to reduce debt of up to Rs 5,750 crore. Canadian pension fund PSP Investments later joined the NIIFADIA consortium. The transaction to ringfence GVK’s crown jewel is yet to be completed. Sources said that the prospective investors have been insisting on a co-control deal with GVK, irrespective of the economic interest, and the right to appoint MIAL’s CFO.
AAI’s decision removes a potential hurdle for Adani Group that had made a play for India’s second busiest airport since January pitting them directly against GVK, the incumbent operator. The Hyderabad based infrastructure company needs to find a partner within the next one and a half months to stall the ongoing takeover attempt.
19/09/19 Mihir Mishra/Arjit Barman/Economic Times

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Hyderabad airport to double its capacity after ministry approval

GMR Hyderabad International Airport Limited (GHIAL) has secured clearance from an environment ministry agency to double the capacity of Rajiv Gandhi International Airport in Hyderabad.

The Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC) in the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change has recommended the airport’s expansion project for environment clearance, The Hindu Business Line reported.

Following the expansion, the airport will be able to handle up to 50 million passengers each year.

The project is expected to entail an investment of approximately Rs85bn ($1.19bn), the publication added.
Rajiv Gandhi International Airport in Hyderabad is the second-fastest-growing airport in India, in the ‘over 15 million passengers per annum’ (MPPA) category.

The greenfield airport handled 18.3 million passengers last year. It was constructed to handle 12 MPPA but was expanded to cater to 25 MPPA.

If approved, the project will build a new terminal (T2) and expand the current terminal (T1).

The cargo terminals will also be expanded, as well as the cargo satellite building and other associated warehouses, to cater to A 5.75LTPA capacity.
20/09/19 Airport Technology

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DMK leader Kanimozhi tweets about Chennai Airport roof leak, Twitter users slam her double standards

Chennai International Airport’s roof is in the news again. The city, that was in news for being parched for months, has received incessant rainfall in the past few days. On September 18, Chennai recorded the wettest day of the year after receiving 104 mm of rainfall.  And it seems, the city’s airport bore the brunt of the heavy showers as the staff there had to place plastic trays to collect the rainwater percolating through the roof.

The incident came to light when Dravida Munnetra Kazagham (DMK) parliamentarian Kanimozhi shared a Twitter post criticising the poor maintenance of the airport.

“First it was the ceiling falling. Now the roof has turned into showers. Plastic containers have been placed to collect the water dripping from above due to rains,” she tweeted.
Though the tweet garnered immediate attention, the opinion of the tweeple was divided. While some upheld Kanimozhi’s concern that the airport should be in a better condition, others reminded her about how her party, along with the United Progressive Alliance (UPA), had opposed plans to privatise the airport. They were of the opinion that privatisation would have given the airport its much-needed facelift.
20/09/19 Jagyaseni Biswas/Moneycontrol.com

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Mumbai airport awaits takers for international slots of Jet Airways

Mumbai: Five months after Indian carrier Jet Airways stopped operations, Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (MIAL) has finished allotting all domestic slots of the cash-strapped airline to various Indian carriers, but is still awaiting takers for the airline’s international slots.

A slot implies a specific date and time when a flight can depart or arrive at a specified airport.

An airport official told The Indian Express, “With most of Jet’s previous Boeing 737 aircraft being inducted by airlines like SpiceJet and Vistara and airlines being quick to capitalise on the opportunity, all domestic slots available are now full.”

“A number of international slots are still vacant and the process of plugging those gaps will take close to six months,” the official said, adding that 60 per cent of Jet’s international slots have been filled up at MIAL. Across India, 175 of Jet’s 346 international slots at AAI airports are still to be allotted to other carriers.

A number of foreign airlines are interested for the international slots at MIAL, officials said.

British carrier Virgin Atlantic has announced flights from London to Mumbai starting next month, US-based carrier Delta Airlines will connect New York and Mumbai starting December 24 and Russia’s Aeroflot and Ural Air are planning to begin services connecting Moscow to Mumbai from the second quarter of the next financial year.

Sources said the domestic slots were easily filled as many carriers had inducted Jet’s aircraft and had flying rights to those destinations.
20/09/19 Parth Khatau/Indian Express

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NGT directs Delhi airport to measure, display prescribed noise levels of aircrafts

New Delhi: The National Green Tribunal has asked the Delhi International Airport Limited ( DIAL) to measure and display the prescribed noise levels for aircraft at the international airport here.

A bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel noted that a notice to airmen (NOTAM) was issued by the Airports Authority of India, which has been incorporated in the Aeronautical Information Publication on October 11, 2018, regarding use of reverse thrust by pilots while landing.

"We suggest that DIAL not only measure and maintain the prescribed noise levels but also display the same in public domain," the bench said.

The DIAL told the tribunal that it has taken steps to control noise pollution as per the notification issued by the Ministry of Environment and Forests on July 6 last year that laid down certain requirements which are to be complied to by June 17 next year.

The tribunal's order came on a plea filed by an NGO -- Society for Protection of Culture, Heritage, Environment, Traditions and Promotion of National Awareness -- seeking execution of NGT's November 24, 2017 order, which directed authorities concerned to take all mitigating measures for reducing noise pollution expeditiously.
19/09/19 MirrorNowNews.com

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IndiGo decides not to stop B’luru flight

Trichy: IndiGo Air has retracted its decision to withdraw its flight between Trichy and Bengaluru despite high patronage, apparently after an uproar in the social media. The leading domestic carrier had closed bookings on Trichy – Bengaluru and Trichy – Kochi sectors in August.
TOI had carried a report on August 25 saying that both the services were going to be withdrawn from the last week of October, which IndiGo confirmed. Work to be executed at the Kochi airport was stated to be the reason for the withdrawal of the Kochi service. However, despite the Bengaluru service registering cent per cent seat occupancy, the airline closed bookings in that sector too without offering any reason.

Following the social media campaign against the move quoting the Times Of India report, the service provider has now come with a new time table resuming the service to Bangaluru from October 27, sources at the Trichy airport said.

According to the IndiGo booking site, the existing Bangalore timing (arrival at Trichy at 7.40 am from Kochi and departure from here at 8 am and arrival at Bangalore at 9.10 am) will continue till October 26. As per the new time table, the flight will depart from Bangalore at 5.30 pm and arrive at Trichy at 6.50 pm.
20/09/19 D Vincent Arockiaraj/Times of India

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Around 50% of Jet Airways slots at state-run airports still vacant

Five months after the temporary suspension of operations of Jet Airways, around 50 percent of its slots at state-run airports are still lying vacant, as per the officials aware of the development.

The airline grounded operations for a temporary but indefinite period on April 17 and vacated 346 slots at airports run by the Airports Authority of India (AAI) and over 400 at private-run airports, as per the documents reviewed by CNBC-TV18.

Out of the 346 slots vacated by the airline at AAI airports, 174 or 50 percent of the capacity is still to be allocated to other carriers and is lying unutilised.

Chennai, which is the fourth busiest airport in the country as per FY19 figures, has 30 vacant slots. This means that 65 percent of Jet Airways’ capacity at the airport, which stood at 46 slots, is sitting idle.

The issue is serious for non-metro airports like Guwahati and Indore which have a limited number of flight operations and hence, vacant slots to the tune of 10 for former and 16 for the latter are hurting the connectivity to these states as well.

Around eight slots of the airline are also lying unutilised each at Amritsar and Lucknow, as per the information reviewed.
18/09/19 Anu Sharma/CNBC TV18

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Finally, Night Flights at Chandigarh Airport to Become a Reality in October

In a first for the Chandigarh International Airport, a late night flight is set to take off October 5 onwards. This will be the first flight that will operate during the night hours after 7:50 PM. The development came in five months post declaration of round the clock operations at the Chandigarh airport.

First Night Flight Details
GoAir is going to operate the first night flight connecting Chandigarh and Ahmedabad making a halt in Delhi overnight. As per GoAir official, the flight will begin operations from October 5. It will fly six days a week.

The flight schedule is as follows:

Departure from Ahmedabad- 8:10 pm
Arrival at Chandigarh- 10:10 pm
Departure from Chandigarh to Delhi: 10.50 pm
Arrival at Delhi: 12.20 am

The flight will have overnight halt at Delhi airport. Next day schedule is:

Departure from Delhi to Chandigarh- 9:50 am
Arrival at Chandigarh- 11:10 am
Departure from Chandigarh to Ahmedabad- 11:50 am
Arrival at Ahmedabad- 1:55 pm
19/09/19 Times of India/ChandigarhX

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Rise in airport bird-hits poses higher risk to human lives: Report

Kolkata: The incidents of bird strikes have been consistently increasing at airports across the country, posing a higher risk to human lives.

In the past 30 days, the Indian aviation sector has witnessed over five bird-hit cases reported by airlines such as IndiGo, GoAir, AirAsia and Kalitta Air.

Unfortunately, such incidents are only reported; and proactive initiatives towards mitigating such incidents are largely ignored due to lack of regular monitoring and successful implementation of guidelines defined for airport operators, according to sources.

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has defined ‘reporting guidelines’ to the airline players on a bird-hit case, and has laid down guidelines for airport operators to mitigate bird-hit incidents at the airports.

However, there is a strong need to regularly monitor and implement guidelines defined for airport operators to proactively undertake risk assessment and examination of habitat in and around the airport that can reduce incidents; and enhance the safety of the passengers.
Recently, DGCA team visited Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport, 2 days after GoAir flight G8-149 carrying Rahul Gandhi and several opposition leaders was ready to land at New Delhi airport, on which the pilot opted for a go-around as a bird hit was suspected on one aircraft.
The DGCA team reviewed the measures taken by the airport operator to reduce cases of bird hit.
The airport operator informed that they have engaged wildlife consultant to understand aerodrome wildlife ecology and suggestive measures.
18/09/19 India Blooms

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Nine flights diverted, 3 grounded at Patna airport

Patna: Nine flights were diverted and three others were grounded at Jayaprakash Narayan International (JPNI) Airport in Patna on Wednesday afternoon after a fire tender was stuck near its runway. Flight operations at the airport came to a halt at 1.10pm and the runway remained closed till 3.30pm.
Airport director Bhupesh CH Negi said in a statement that the air traffic control (ATC) tower detected minor grass fire about 22 metres away from the runway edge on its northern side around 12.10pm. “The fire started due to the use of crackers by personnel deployed along the runway for scaring away birds as per the standard operating procedure to avoid bird hit,” he said.

Negi said the fire tender was sent near the runway to douse the fire. “During the process of extinguishing the fire, the fire tender tyres got stuck near the runway possibly due to soft surface because of overnight rain,” Negi said.

The airport director said the runway was closed as a precautionary measure and flight operations remained suspended from 1.10pm to 3.30pm. “The Crash Fire Tender was removed with the help of earthmovers,” he said.

While flight operations resumed at 3.40pm after proper inspections, a number of flyers were annoyed and voiced their frustration over lengthy delays and lack of communication from the airlines.

Several flyers tweeted their experience after coming to know that their flights had been diverted to a different airport.

“The Patna airport is a terrible, terrible place. It almost broke me, emotionally. The employees there are trying, but it is way too small for the number of passengers and it is highly disorganized in terms of process,” tweeted Guha Krishnamurthi, a law student.
19/09/19 Faryal Rumi/Times of India

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GoAir Launches Kannur - Kuwait Flights

GoAir is set to operate its maiden flight starting today from Kannur to Kuwait with a brand new Airbus A320 aircraft. The flight will take off from Kerala’s 2nd Greenfield and 4th International Airport that is built on Public Private Partnership in an area of about 2,300 acres. GoAir’s inaugural flight from Kannur to Kuwait has received fantastic response and the flights are fully booked.

With Kuwait becoming GoAir’s 4th destination in the Gulf region, close on the heels of launching Muscat, Abu Dhabi, followed by Dubai and now the princely state of Kuwait, reveals GoAir’s robust plans to expand its operations across the Middle East region. In doing so, Kannur has emerged as a strategic hub for GoAir’s domestic as well as international operations.  Kannur is a popular destination for both leisure and business travelers within the state of Kerala and the new route to Kuwait will provide more affordable flying options to the international travellers.
19/09/19 T3

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Dharmendra Pradhan bats for direct flight to Dubai

Bhubaneswar: Union petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan has urged his civil aviation counterpart Hardeep Singh Puri to launch a direct flight from Bhubaneswar to Dubai. Pradhan said 15,000 Odias worked in the UAE and would be benefited by a direct flight.
“I am made to understand that there are more than 15,000 Odias living in different parts of the UAE who are forced to take indirect flights. I also understand that the Odia society in the UAE had a meeting with the general manager, Air India (middle east and Africa), regarding the viability of a direct flight between Bhubaneswar and Dubai based on favourable traffic data between the two destinations,” Pradhan said in the letter.
He has also said Bhubaneswar was a hub of education, tourism and healthcare. “Keeping all these factors in mind, I request your intervention for a direct flight between Bhubaneswar and Dubai,” he said.
19/09/19 Times of India

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Construction of new terminal building at airport delayed

Construction of the new integrated terminal at the Chennai airport has been delayed, as there is excessive hard rock underground, hampering digging work.
Officials of the Airports Authority of India (AAI) said it had slowed down because it was very tough carrying out the excavation work, until recently.
“The construction of the basement was going on, and the contractor found it challenging to dig here, owing to geological conditions. So on two occasions, they had to carry out controlled blasting to break the hard rock. Now there is progress, and we hope to catch up the lost time and finish it by next year,” an official said.
Nearly 20% of construction has been completed so far, another official said.
Nearly 20% of construction has been completed so far, another official said.
It is hard rock that is found in the area where the Chennai airport is located, said experts at IIT-Madras. “If they don’t go too deep, then it may be relatively easier to excavate and build, because the deeper they go, it may get difficult,” a geotechnical expert at IIT-M said.
The new integrated building, being constructed at an estimated cost of ₹2,500 crore, is part of the phase II modernisation project of the airort, and the aim is to expand the passenger handling capacity from 18 million to 35 million.
It will also have a host of additional facilities such as e-gates, baggage drop-off counters and self bag-tag kiosks.
19/09/19 Sunitha Sekar/The Hindu

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India's Heritage Aviation to debut Hindon ops in early 4Q19

Heritage Aviation will launch the first scheduled route out of Hindon, a converted military airport designed to relieve congestion at Delhi Int'l, on October 8, 2019, the Times News Network agency has reported.

The regional specialist said it would launch daily services to Pithoragarh in the country's extreme north in October using a Beech (twin turboprop) King Air 350. Going forward, it plans to increase the frequency to double daily. For its part, Star Air (India) (OG, Belgaum) is planning to debut services to Hubli as of October 27.

Both routes will be operated under the UDAN (Regional Connectivity Scheme).

The Indian government hopes to see more regional traffic relocate from Delhi to Hindon. The new passenger terminal at the latter airport was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in March 2019, shortly before the Indian general elections, but has so far failed to attract scheduled traffic.
18/09/19 ch-aviation

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India, U.S. to end dogfight over ground handling

New Delhi: India is set to amend its ground handling regulations for foreign airlines to pacify the U.S., which in a retaliatory action recently barred Air India from performing ground operations on its own at American airports.

“We are adjusting ground handling norms and devising a mechanism to attempt to address their concerns without compromising security,” P. S. Kharola, Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation, told The Hindu.

On July 30, the U.S. Department of Transportation served an order amending Air India’s foreign air carrier permit, and barring it from performing its own ground-handling functions in the U.S., after India failed to allow U.S. airlines to “exercise their bilateral right to perform their own ground handling (to “self-handle”) at Indian airports”. Air India is the only Indian carrier that currently flies to the U.S.
“A special dispensation will be allowed to those countries with whom we have an air services agreement to perform ground operations,” said another official in the Ministry of Civil Aviation, speaking on condition of anonymity. The employees of these foreign airlines would, however, be subjected to stricter security monitoring, the official added.

It is reliably learnt that the Ministry will be seeking an in-principle approval from the Union Cabinet as the issue pertains to national security, before moving to modify the clause in the Airports Authority of India (Ground Handling Services Regulations), 2018, which forbids foreign airlines from carrying out security functions within ground handling services.

The amendment will provide relief to two other countries with which India has an air services agreement on ground handling — Australia and Canada. The restriction on security functions will continue to apply to foreign airlines of other countries, the official added.
19/09/19 Jagriti Chandra/The Hindu

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Kannur airport clears stand on audit row

Kannur:  In the wake of the row over the denial of permission for comptroller and auditor general (CAG) to conduct the audit of the airport, the authorities of Kannur International Airport (Kial) have said the decision to appoint a private auditor was taken by the shareholders of the company at their annual general meeting (AGM).
It was only after detailed legal scrutiny that the board of directors and the shareholders of the company decided this, said a press release. The accounts of the airport were being audited by private auditors appointed by the CAG till 2017-18.
The procedure for auditing the annual accounts of companies is laid down in Section 139 (1-4) of the Companies Act, 2013 (Act), said Kial, which said the auditor is to be appointed by the shareholders in their AGM.
Appointment of auditors for government companies and companies controlled by the government is laid down in section 139 (5&7) of the Act, and the CAG appoints auditors for such companies, it added. The statement also reiterated that Kial is not a government company, which has been clarified in the state government letter of January 5, 2018.
According to the Companies Act, a government company means any company in which has not less than 51% of the paid-up capital is held by the Central and state governments, it added. But the central government does not have any shares in Kannur airport, while the state government has 35% share in the company, it explained.
Further, as per the articles of Association of Kannur airport, the state government can appoint only one-third of the directors (including the chairman and the managing director) as long as it holds not less than 26% of the equity capital. It is therefore clear that the government cannot appoint a majority of directors, said Kial.
19/09/10 Times of India

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12 of top 30 airports in 2018 located in either China or India: ACI's World Airport Traffic Report

Trade association of the world’s airports, Airports Council International's (ACI) latest World Airport Traffic Report has revealed that most of the world’s fastest-growing airports are located in emerging markets, a significant proportion of them being in the Asia-Pacific region. As many as 12 of the fastest-growing top 30 airports in 2018 are located in either China or India.

India's Bangalore airport was the fastest growing airport in 2018 for more than 15 million passengers. Bangalore airport carried 32, 331,783 (29.1 percent) passengers, while Hyderabad airport took the third spot carrying 20, 903, 930 (21.9 percent) passengers. The 2nd, 4th and 5th positions were taken by Antalya airport in Turkey, Vnukovo airport in Russia and Jinan airport in China, respectively.
“India’s move towards a more liberalised aviation market and the nation’s strengthening economic fundamentals have helped it become one of the fastest-growing markets with its traffic growing rapidly in a relatively short time,” Angela Gittens, director general, ACI World said.

In the full list of top airports for passenger traffic, cargo and aircraft movements, New Delhi airport moved up four positions from rank 16 in 2017 to rank 12 in 2018, carrying 69,900,938 passengers (a change of 10.2%). However, no Indian airport made an appearance in the full list of airports for cargo movements.
19/09/19 India Transport & Logistics News

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KIA fastest-growing airport in the world

Bengaluru: With over 3.2 crore passengers passing through it in 2018, Kempegowda International Airport is the fastest-growing airport in the world, says the latest world traffic report published by Airports Council International (ACI) on Tuesday. KIA has registered a 29% growth in passenger traffic as compared to the previous year.

Apart from KIA, Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (RGIA) in Hyderabad is another Indian airport which has made it to the list of top five fastest-growing airports. Hyderabad stands at the third place, after Antalya airport in Turkey, and precedes Vnukovo airport in the Russian Federation.

According to the report, a m ajority of the world's fastest growing airports in terms of passenger traffic are located in the Asia- Pacific region. In fact, 12 of 2018's 30 fastest-growing airports across the globe are either in China or India.

However, in terms of the total number of passengers carried and aircraft movements, New Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport is the only one from India to have found a spot in the top 20 rankings. It has been ranked 12th in the number passengers (nearly 7 crore) carried in 2018 - it occupied the 16th spot in 2017 - and 13th in the number of aircraft movement (4.8 lakh), up from it's 21st rank in 2017.
19/09/19 Swathy R Iyer/Times of India

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Bengaluru, Hyderabad airports figure in top-5 list of fastest growing airports in 15mn category

Hyderabad: International airports here and in Bengaluru figure in the list of top five fastest growing airports in the world last year in the more than 15 million passengers per annum category, according to Airports Council International, a trade association.
Kempegowda International Airport in Bengaluru topped the chart with 29.1 per cent growth in passenger traffic over 2017 while and Rajiv Gandhi International Airport here with 21.9 per cent surge is in third position with Antlya Airport in Turkey in the second position.
Vnukovo Airport in Russia and Jinan Airport in China stood in fourth and fifth positions respectively, the release issued on Tuesday said.
Most of the world's fastest-growing airports are located in emerging markets, a significant proportion of them being in the Asia-Pacific region.
As many as 12 of the fastest-growing top 30 airports in 2018 are located either in China or India, it said.
"India's move towards a more liberalized aviation market and the nation's strengthening economic fundamentals have helped it become one of the fastest-growing markets with its traffic growing rapidly in a relatively short time," ACI World Director General Angela Gittens said.
18/09/19 PTI/Times of India

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GMR’s capacity doubling plan for Hyderabad airport set to get green nod

Mumbai: GMR Hyderabad International Airport Limited (GHIAL), the operator of the world’s third fastest growing airport in the 15 million passengers per annum (MPPA) or more category, has won approval from a key environment ministry agency to double the capacity to handle 50 million passengers a year with an investment of Rs 8,500 crore.

GHIAL which runs the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport located at Shamshabad in Telangana is a subsidiary of GMR Airports Ltd and a step-down subsidiary of GMR Infrastructure Ltd.

The greenfield airport, India’s second fastest growing airport in the more than 15 million passengers per annum category, was originally built to cater to 12 MPPA and is currently being expanded to handle 25 MPPA and 3 LTPA of cargo. The airport handled 18.3 million passengers in 2018.
GHIAL is expected to handle 49.1 million by FY 29, according to a traffic forecast by global consulting firm ICF International Inc.

The Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC) in the ministry of environment, forest and climate change has recommended the airport’s expansion project for environment clearance, according to a document reviewed by Business Line.
19/09/19 P Manoj/Business Line

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Rajiv Gandhi International Airport is third third-fastest airport in passenger growth

Hyderabad: The Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (RGIA) here has been listed as the world’s third-fastest growing airport in terms of passenger growth, according to the Airports Council International’s (ACI) latest World Airport Traffic Report, in the category of ‘ >15 million passengers per annum’.

The RGIA was also ranked second in the country, after the Bengaluru airport, in terms of passenger growth. The Bengaluru airport secured the first spot globally. The RGIA was also featured as the world’s eighth-best airport in the AirHelp Passenger Survey Score 2019, where it was the only Indian airport to feature among the top 10 global airports.

The Hyderabad airport registered a passenger growth of 21.9 per cent in 2018 over the corresponding year. ACI World director general Ms Angela Gittens said, “India’s move towards a more liberalised aviation market and the nation’s strengthening economic fundamentals have helped it become one of the fastest-growing markets, with its traffic growing rapidly in a relatively short time.” Currently, the airport is served by 29 passenger airlines connecting 69 destinations, both domestic and international.
It has experienced robust growth in passenger traffic over a period of time, with a four-year CAGR of around 20 per cent from the financial year of 2015 to the financial year of 2019. On an average, the airport handles close to 60,000 passengers and over 500 air traffic movements daily.
19/09/19 New Indian Express

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Air India grounds 2 pilots over runway incursion

Air India has grounded two pilots whose aircraft entered the active runway of Mumbai airport on Monday while it was taxiing to the end of the airstrip for take-off. Due to the inadvertent runway incursion, an incoming flight that was about of touch down had to do a last-minute go-around. The go-around was safe and the AI aircraft took off to its destination, with the crew being grounded after operating the return flight to Mumbai.
“The pilots have been grounded pending investigation, which will determine why the runway incursion took place. Did air traffic control give instructions correctly and our pilots misunderstood them? Or were the ATC instructions not clear? Only a probe will determine whose fault it was,” said a senior AI official.
The scare happened around 2.30pm when the AI669 was taxiing to take off to Bhubaneswar. Sources said the Airbus A320 aircraft was to reach the take-off point of the runway from T2 by crossing the airport’s main runway. It had to take a series of turns on taxiways to do that. But it instead entered the active runway due to a wrong turn.
Mumbai’s CSMIA has two cross runways due to which only one can be used at a time. With the AI plane on the runway, sources said alert air traffic controllers told the crew of a flight that was on final approach to land on that airstrip. The incoming flight had to do a take-off, go-around. Pilots are trained to handle such situations and the crew of the incoming flight also did so safely.
“The AI flight a few minutes later took off for Bhubaneswar. The crew was grounded pending inquiry when it returned to CSIA after operating the return flight. We will determine who was at fault and act accordingly,” said the AI official.
18/09/19 Saurabh Sinha/Times of India

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DB directives in PIL seeking upgradation of Jammu Airport

Jammu: In a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by Advocate Ravi Abrol seeking upgradation of Jammu Airport, Division Bench of State High Court comprising Justice Rajesh Bindal and Justice Sindhu Sharma today issued certain directions to the concerned authorities.
During the course of hearing, it transpired that part of land required for expansion had been acquired by the State. However, on 10 kanals of land there are some houses.
“It is not in dispute that the acquisition of the land has been upheld by this court in OWP No. 726/2007 titled as Residents of Areas around Civil Airport, Satwari, Jammu and Another versus Union of India and Others and the people, who had constructed their houses on the land, are still in possession thereon”, the DB observed, adding “the State came out with an offer to rehabilitate them though they may not have a legal right to enforce the same in court. The area has now been earmarked and rehabilitation site is in village Sunjwan”.
It was submitted by Advocate General D C Raina that out of 29 families living on 10 Kanals of land, 25 families had already taken possession of the plots allotted to them. They have even removed the doors, windows and other fittings from the houses constructed by them. The possession thereof is likely to be handed over to the authorities within a period of one week. Four families had not come forward to take possession of plots.
18/09/19 Daily Excelsior

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Maldivian airline establishes branch in India

Maldivian, the national carrier of Maldives, established an overseas branch in Thiruvananthapuram, India.
The airline's operator, Island Aviation Services (IAS), assured that Maldivian's new branch will provide booking services and relevant information, working closely with passengers.
"All of the services available from other Maldivian officers will be provided [in Thiruvananthapuram]", said IAS' Public Relations Manager Moosa Waseem.
Maldivian commenced operations to the southern state of Kerala in 2008. The airline currently operates daily flights to Thiruvananthapuram.
17/09/19 Fathmath Shaahunaz/The Edition

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Mumbai airport now has more domestic seats on offer than it did when Jet Airways was flying

Remember the capacity crunch in Mumbai after the grounding of Jet Airways? Turns out that the Mumbai airport now has more seats on offer on domestic routes than it had when Jet operated its complete schedule. This is despite the fact that the airport has not given away all the slots of Jet Airways – be it domestic or international.

There is no surprise then that last week, the government held talks with airlines on sustainability. Airline pricing is a function of capacity in the market and demand. And while there were fears of higher fares immediately post suspension of Jet Airways in April, the government-led mechanism with airports to give away slots for temporary period has not only matched the gap, but now exceeded the seats deployed. By June, the difference was down to only 11 departures a day and while there continues to be a slight lag in departures now versus when Jet Airways operated, the interesting turn of events have led to higher seats in the market.

The slots of Jet Airways were divided amongst incumbent airlines. However, the slots were linked to induction of capacity and airlines weren’t allowed to pull out of existing sectors and deploy the capacity to these newly acquired slots at Mumbai. In a scramble to add capacity, SpiceJet became the biggest beneficiary of the slots as it inducted aircraft which earlier flew for Jet Airways and also recruited B737 pilots. While the pilots and crew were absorbed across airlines, the A320 operators will take time to operationalise the pilots and crew as they undergo type rating and training. Vistara followed SpiceJet in inducting the B737s and adding capacity at Mumbai.

A Network Thoughts analysis shows that SpiceJet gained 38 additional departure slots, IndiGo gained 27, Vistara gained 21, while GoAir and AirAsia India gained 9 each. Additionally, Trujet and Star Air have obtained some slots for operations under UDAN.
18/09/19 CNBC TV18

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Flying from Mumbai? Know these flight operation changes

New Delhi: Budget carrier SpiceJet will shift its entire Mumbai operations to Terminal 2 of the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport from September 22, 2019. The transition is being planned and implemented by the airline with the support of Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL). It is to be noted that it is 20 minutes’ drive from T1 to T2.

The airline said in a tweet, "Effective 22 September 2019 the entire airline operation of SpiceJet will shift to Terminal 2 of Mumbai Airport." The transition is being done to enhance passenger convenience and improve the connectivity of international and domestic passengers, the carrier said in a statement.

The consolidation of operations will help SpiceJet service thousands of passengers travelling to and from Mumbai Airport across its domestic, as well as, international networks. According to the airline's official website, the entire flight operations of SpiceJet will be shifted to Terminal 2 (T2).

The website also mentioned that SpiceJet has sent emails, SMS notifications, social media updates well in advance informing passengers of this move. However, in case, there are customers who are still not aware of this move, SpiceJet has made special arrangements for passengers to be dropped at T2.

Currently, there are two of conveyance available to reach Terminal 2 from Terminal 1: taxi or private car or auto-rickshaw from T1 auto stand to T2 auto on the ground level.

The airline also mentioned that as long as the passengers reach SpiceJet’s airport counters 45 minutes prior to the time of departure of their flight, the airline will make every effort to connect them to their flight. However, if the passengers are not able to make it on time, SpiceJet will reschedule their flight without any additional charges for travel dates up to 7 days or refund their ticket in full.
18/09/19 ETNowNews.com

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Re-carpeting starts at Pune airport, first up taxiway

Pune: The first phase of the re-carpeting work at the city airport took off last week with the resurfacing of the taxiway, prompting temporary suspension of services of an AirAsia flight to Kolkata.
A source at the airport said the parallel taxiway of the facility was being resurfaced at present. The runway re-carpeting would be taken up next year in the second phase of the project.

The number of landings and take-offs per hour has dropped because of the re-carpeting of the taxiway. “The hourly flight movements from the airport has been hit. Aircraft are taking longer now to reach the runway from the parking bay because they are taking a longer route now. As the work progresses, the number of hourly landings and take-offs will decrease further. It means some more flights will be suspended temporarily,” another source at the airport told TOI.

Air Asia has suspended its flight from Pune to Kolkata for this reason. “The flight will resume in October last week,” an Air Asia spokesperson said.

Flyers are predictably disappointed over the temporary suspension of the flight. “I had booked three tickets in July for my relatives on October 20. An email landed in my mailbox three days back stating that the flight has been cancelled due to operational requirements. I had to rebook their tickets on a different airline, which cost me Rs5,000 more,” said Vadgaon resident Snigdha Bhaduri.
O S Mukundan, another passenger booked in a SpiceJet flight from Pune to Chennai on October 12, is disappointed because the flight has been rescheduled to the next day. “The airline mentioned runway closure as the reason,” he wrote on social media.
18/09/19 Joy Sengupta/Times of India

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Vistara opens daily flight between Delhi, Indore

New Delhi: Vistara has announced daily flights between Delhi and Indore. The flight between Indira Gandhi International Airport (DEL) and Devi Ahilya Bai Holkar International Airport (IDR) is Vistara’s 30th destination in its network. The airline has also opened bookings for flights on Delhi-Indore route. Vistara has said that flyers from Indore can also connect through Delhi to several cities on Vistara’s network. Travellers also get to enjoy seamless same-terminal connections when connecting to and from international flights at Delhi, the airline stated.

Vistara airlines ticket prices, flights date, schedule
Vistara flights between Delhi and Indore will begin its commercial operation from October 26, 2019. Flight number UK 913 will depart from Delhi (Del) at 6.55 am and arrive in Indore (IDR) at 8.20 am on a daily basis. Flight number UK 914 will depart from Indore at 8.55 am and reach Delhi at 10.25 am on a daily basis. Vistara has announced introductory one-way fares starting Rs 3,399 for Economy Class, Rs 5,999 for Premium Economy and Rs 15,999 for Business Class.
18/09/19 Debjit Sinha/Financial Express

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Direct Flight To Dubai From Bhubaneswar Sought

Bhubaneswar: Following the operations of direct flight to Bangkok from Bhubaneswar, the demand for a direct flight to other international destination like Dubai has been increasing steadily.
Taking cognizance of the matter, Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan has requested Union Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh for his personal intervention towards the launch of a direct flight between Bhubaneswar and Dubai.
In a letter to Puri, Pradhan said that Odisha is emerging as a growth-engine for Eastern India and hence there is a need to improve direct international connectivity to the State’s Capital city which will further boost the region’s development prospects.
“There are more than 15000 Odia people residing in different parts of the United Arab Emirates who are forced to undertake an indirect route for travelling to Odisha. I also understand the Odia Society of UAE had a meeting with GM Air India Middle-East and Africa regarding the viability of a direct Air India flight between Bhubaneswar and Dubai based on favourable traffic data between these destinations,” he said in the letter.
18/09/19 Odishatv.in

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Delhi, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Kochi airports show interest in AAI's ACDM

The Delhi, Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Kochi airports have evinced interest in the Airport Collaborative Decision Making (ACDM) system developed in-house by the Airports Authority of India (AAI).

The airport officials met senior officials of the AAI to discuss the use of ACDM, which results in reduction of congestion at holding point at the runway of an airport. It also helps reduce fuel consumption, carbon emission and taxi time of the aircraft. Implementation of ACDM helps air traffic control officers (ATCO) by reducing cognitive workload and resulting in safe and orderly flow of aircraft due to reduced number of simultaneous aircraft movements.

In a meeting that took place in Mumbai on September 16, Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL), Hyderabad International Airport Limited (HIAL), Bengaluru International Airport Ltd (BIAL) and Cochin International Airport Ltd (CIAL) explored the usage of ACDM.

ACDM focusses primarily on reducing aircraft holding delays at runway holding point, which further results in substantial saving of aviation fuel and reduction in carbon emissions. This is achieved by improving the decision making process by sharing of relevant information among aviation stakeholders.
17/09/19 India Transport & Logistics News

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Delhi’s IGI Airport Among Top 20 World’s Busiest Airports 2018

New Delhi: India’s Indira Gandhi International Airport of Delhi ranked 12 in the list of world’s top 20 busiest airports, as per a world traffic report released by the Airports Council International (ACI). In fact, Delhi’s IGI airport has witnessed a 10.2 per cent surge in the passengers of domestic and international flyers in 2018 when compared to 2017, stated the ACI report.
While Delhi airport is the busiest airport in terms of passenger traffic, the Bangalore airport is the fastest-growing one, mentioned the ACI release.
18/09/19 India.com

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High drama enfolds at Srinagar airport as Yashwant Sinha refuses to leave

Srinagar: High drama unfolded at Srinagar airport on Tuesday as former BJP leader Yashwant Sinha was not allowed to leave the facility and was forced to return to New Delhi. The veteran politician had flown to Srinagar earlier in the morning, however, he was not allowed to leave the airport.

Speaking to India Today TV, Yashwant Sinha said that he was asked not to leave the Srinagar airport by the authorities there as he was a "threat to peace".

"When I landed, I was told that I could not leave Srinagar airport and venture in the Kashmir. The authorities told me I cannot leave the Srinagar airport as I am a threat to peace," Yashwant Sinha said.

The former BJP leader claimed that he had decided to visit Kashmir as the government said that the situation was normal. "I wanted to say hello to my friends and burst crackers on the streets to celebrate," he said.

Yashwant Sinha had travelled to Kashmir as a part of an NGO group called Concerned Citizens Group. Apart from the ex-BJP leader, the group included Kapil Kak, Bharat Bushan and Sushoba Barnad. They were stopped form venturing out of the airport after landing at 11:30 am, sources said.
17/09/19 Shuja-ul-Haq/India Today

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Kerala: Kannur airport company explains why it said no to CAG audit

Kannur: The Kannur International Airport Limited (Kial) authorities have clarified that the airport company does not come under the ambit of Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) as the state government has only 35% share in it.

The clarification came after the Congress demanded a CAG audit of the airport.
Kial countered that a company is considered a government company only if the total share holding of the central and state government is at least 51%. Here the central government does not have any share in the airport company, it said.

"So the conditions for the government establishments are not applicable for Kial, and it is the annual general body of the shareholders that decides the auditor. Sections 139 (1) to 139 (4) of the Company law have clearly specified this," the airport said in a press release.

The release also stated it was the auditor appointed by the CAG that audited the account till 2017-18 but later, the share holders appointed Delloitte & Touche, one of the four biggest auditing companies in the country, in accordance with the Company Law.

The Congress party had decided to strengthen protest against the airport company’s decision and also the allegations that there are widespread irregularities in the appointments made in the airport.

As the first step, the Congress would organise a dharna at the Kial office on September 21 and in the coming days the party would expose the irregularities, said DCC president Satheesan pacheni.

“If everything is transparent, why the authorities are afraid of a CAG audit?” he asked, reiterating that the Civil Aviation Department should intervene to probe the irregularities.
18/09/19 P Sudhakaran/Times of India

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Following JeM threat, mock drill at Jaipur airport

Jaipur: Following a recent JeM letter threatening to blow up major railway stations and temples in the country, a mock drill was held by CISF at the Jaipur International Airport on Tuesday.

Though airports were not mentioned in the letter, officials are taking precautionary measures.

“The drill was essentially a protocol which we follow in case something suspicious or hazardous is found in the passengers’ luggage. Mock drills are done regularly so we are prepared for all kinds of eventualities. For this particular kind of drill, airport evacuation is not required,” a CISF official told TOI.
18/09/19 Times of India

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Demolish structures near airport: Admn to violators

Mohali: The Mohali administration will demolish specified illegal structures around the Chandigarh Air Force station and the local airport 15 days from today. Notices to offenders were issued by the Deputy Commissioner as Collector under the Defence of Works Act, 1903, here today.
Following directions of the Punjab and Haryana High Court to remove illegal structures around the Air Force station and Chandigarh International Airport, 98 structures that had come up after March 3, 2011, were to be razed as they violated safety norms.
“The owners of the identified structured have been given 15 days time to either remove construction or to submit any claims or objections in writing,” said Girish Dayalan, Deputy Commissioner (DC), Mohali.
“In case no objections are received by us within the stipulated time period, the demolition of the said structures will be carried out without further notice,” the DC added.
A government notification issued in January 2010 stipulates that no building or structure is to be constructed or any tree planted with 100 metres from the outer boundary of the Air Force station. A public notice to this effect was issued by the local administration in March 2011.
“As per orders of the High Court, these 98 structures are to be demolished immediately without payment of any compensation after following due process,” the DC said.
The Mohali administration has identified 324 structures that have come over a period of time within 100 metres of the Air Force station’s boundary wall. These include houses, shops and godowns.
While structures that have come up after the public notice of March 2011 face immediate demolition, the High Court will take a call on the matter pertaining to those built before this date.
16/09/19 Akash Ghai/Tribune

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IndiGo requests aviation ministry for more flights to Turkey

IndiGo has requested the civil aviation ministry to increase the bilateral traffic rights with Turkey as the airlines have exhausted the current capacity, a senior official told CNBC-TV18.
IndiGo's co-founder Rahul Bhatia and Turkish Airlines chief executive officer Bilal Eksi called on aviation minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Monday and requested to enhance the foreign flying rights on the sector, people aware of the matter said.
As per the current bilateral arrangement between Turkey and India, airlines can operate 14 frequencies every week between the two countries or a total traffic of 3,000 passengers can be carried on a weekly basis from each side.

As of now, IndiGo operates two direct daily flights between Delhi and Istanbul. Turkish Airlines operates one direct flight each from Delhi and Mumbai to Istanbul.

"They have requested to enhance the bilateral air service arrangement. The ministry has not promised anything as of now," another official added.

IndiGo, the country's largest carrier, started daily direct flights to Istanbul in March from Delhi and the move is seen as a gateway for the airline's European ambitions.

"Istanbul holds immense potential for IndiGo, and this launch is part of organic expansion within Europe for us, as we complement our domestic network with international connectivity," chief commercial officer William Boulter had said at the launch of Istanbul operations in March.

IndiGo and Turkish Airlines are also codeshare partners since December 2018. Turkish Airlines is the first codeshare partners of IndiGo as part of its international expansion.
17/09/19 CNBC TV18

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Diaper station at Kempegowda International Airport men’s loo a hit online

Bengaluru: After a Maldivian passenger posted photos on Twitter of a baby diaper changing station inside the men’s washroom at Kempegowda International Airport (KIA), many netizens have hailed the authorities’ move as the right one in breaking gender stereotypes.

“Saw this in Bangalore International airport men’s room,” read Maldivian national Ali Samhaan’s tweet on September 12 along with a picture of the diaper changing room.
@BLRAirport It's a wonderful gesture from #Bengaluruinternationalairport taking towards sensitizing gender equality… https://t.co/cIpNDx3YV2

— Pradeep Prakash (@ipradeepprakash) 1568622502000

Although the diaperchanging facility at the airport has come under the limelight only recently, Bangalore International Airport Ltd (BIAL), operator of the KIA, pointed out that it has been in place for more than five years. “The diaperchange station has been a feature of all washrooms — irrespective of gender — at the KIA for over five years,” said a BIAL spokesperson.
17/09/19 Times of India

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Congress demands CAG audit into KIFBI and Kannur airport

 Thiruvananthapuram: The Congress party in Kerala has approached the Governor Arif Mohammed Khan seeking his intervention to ensure that the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India''s audit takes place in two state-run organisations.
Speaking to the media here on Tuesday, leader of opposition and senior Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala said that he has briefed Governor Khan about the way the present CPI-M led Left government under Pinarayi Vijayan is keeping things under wraps regarding issues in the Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KIIFB) and the Kannur International Airport Ltd (KIAL).
"CAG is a constitutional body and it is duty bound to audit all those bodies where the state owns more than 51 per cent stake. But the Vijayan government has not adhered to it and have kept both KIIFB and KIAL away from CAG audit since they came to power in 2016," Chennithala said.
"It has now come to light that the CPI-M treats these two organisations as their milch cow and lot of irregularities have surfaced in these organisations and hence Vijayan is not interested in CAG audit," he said.
Addressing the media on Monday, Vijayan had pointed out that KIAL is a body similar to the Cochin International Airport Ltd( CIAL) and there is no CAG audit there.
Even though KIIFB came into existence in 1999 under the Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Act 1999 to manage the Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund, it was only after Vijayan assumed office in May 2016, that a comprehensive modification of the Act was made through an amendment Ordinance in August 2016 to widen its scope, and it has started raising money from the open market to fund infrastructure needs.
17/09/19 Outlook

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AAI to rope in more cab companies at Chennai airport

Chennai: Facing complaints from passengers about lack of choice in cab services, the Airports Authority of India (AAI) has decided to rope in more cab operators.
Currently, Ola is the only cab service licensed to pick up passengers from near the terminals. This is making passengers wait for long, especially at night. Travellers can also book Aviation Express cabs from inside the terminals.
Majority of the travellers do not prefer the prepaid black and yellow taxis or the premium Aviation Express taxis due to its high charges. The black and yellow taxis operated by a drivers cooperative has around 300 cars and gets around seven trips per day. The new cab services are likely to start from the middle of next month.
A senior official of AAI said, "We are planning to have three operators in total including an operator who will provide a luxury car rental service. A tender has been floated to identify an operator after Fast Tack's term is over. Another tender will be floated to identify a company for providing luxury car service."
He also said Fast Track has approached the court about their contract and the new cab operator will be decided based on the court order. On Friday night, people were seen waiting for more than half an hour for cabs hailed via apps to arrive.
As more than 100 people will be booking at the same time from the domestic terminal alone, the number of cabs available are not adequate to meet the demand.
17/09/19 Times of India

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Come October 5, fly to Delhi at 10.50 pm

Chandigarh: Night travellers to Delhi will soon have another option to fly to the Capital. In a first for the Chandigarh international airport, a late night civilian flight is being launched by a private operator that will touch down in New Delhi a little after midnight. The return leg of this circuit will offer a second flight to Ahmedabad for city residents.
Airport sources said a GoAir flight was being started from October 5 that would arrive here from Ahmedabad at 10.10 pm and depart for New Delhi at 10.50 pm. Its scheduled arrival at Delhi was 12.20 am. An Airbus A-320 would be used on this flight.
On the return leg, the aircraft would arrive here from Delhi at 11.10 am and proceed to Ahmedabad at 11.50 am. The other flight to Ahmedabad is also being operated by GoAir. “As of now, there are four flights operating from Chandigarh after sunset, but this is for the first time that a flight operating at such late hours is commencing,” an airport official said. The other evening flights, two each to Delhi and Mumbai, take off before 8 pm.
17/09/19 Tribune

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Bird-hit SL flight lands safely

Trichy: A Sri Lankan Airlines flight, which landed safely despite suffering a bird-hit at the Trichy international airport on Sunday, flew back to Colombo in the early hours of Monday after the snag was rectified. A total of 146 passengers including crew members had a miraculous escape when a bird hit the right engine of the flight minutes before its scheduled landing at 8.40 am on Sunday.
Subsequently, the pilot got in touch with the air traffic control and sought permission for emergency landing. Though fire tenders and other equipment were deployed to handle the emergency, the pilot managed to make a safe landing and the passengers were evacuated quickly.
Later, the airline flew in technical experts from Colombo who attended to the aircraft’s trouble. It took nearly 15 hours for the engineers to rectify the problem and the flight was able to take off to Colombo on Monday morning.
17/09/19 Times of India

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Expedite land acquisition for expansion of Karipur airport: Muraleedharan

 Kozhikode: The Vatakara MP and senior Congress leader K Muraleedharan here on Tuesday urged the State Government to expedite land acquisition formalities to facilitate the expansion work of Karipur airport.
 Speaking to the media here, the MP said it was unfortunate that the peoples representatives of the region were not invited for the meeting convened recently to review land acquisition and related issues of Karipur airport.
 The representatives will extend all possible help and support for all development activities, Mr Muraleedharan asserted. The Chief Minister should convene a special meeting to discuss further on this issue, he demanded.
 17/09/19 UNI

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Bees were using plane as pit stop while transiting airport: Experts

Kolkata: The belligerent bees that had forced a flight to turn back from the runway were actually transiting the airport and had chosen the Air India plane for a pit stop, say entomologists. While there are no flowering plants at the airport for the honeybees to refuel, the intoxicating vapours from aviation turbine fuel (ATF) may just have lured them to home in on the airport, say others.
“It appears that a queen bee and the colony of worker bees were moving base in search of a new hive and had stopped at Kolkata airport to rest. Since there are no trees in the vast grounds of the airport, the plane acted as a perching spot,” said Prabir Garain, honeybee researcher and protection specialist at Nimpith Krishi Vigyan Kendra.
Entomologist, Bulganin Mitra, said overcrowding could have prompted a queen bee residing with others in a large colony to move out with a breakaway group. “The group was probably travelling in search of a perfect spot to form a hive. During the search, they appear to have stopped at Kolkata airport to rest,” said Mitra who retired as senior scientist from Zoological Survey of India (ZSI).
Honeybees have different migrating patters. Wild bees (Apis dorsata) travel towards the Sunderbans when mangroves flower between March and June. Thereafter, they migrate towards villages where there are agricultural crops. The migration is in smaller numbers. In contrast, the other species of Indian bees (Apis cerana indica) found naturally shift base in large numbers. Earlier commercially managed for honey production, honey farmers have now shifted to Italian honeybees (Apis mellifera) that are more productive than the Indian variety. From the description provided by pilots who were in the cockpit of the Airbus A319 aircraft, on which the bees converged, entomologists said they were Indian honeybees. The bees that swarmed the plane were average sized and found hovering in gardens or shops selling sweets, an Air India ground staff told TOI. Garain deduced that the hive, from which the bees were migrating, were within 1.5km of the airport as the Indian honeybees usually don't travel long distances.
17/09/19 Subhro Niyogi/Times of India

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Air India to begin Varanasi-Dehradun flights from September 28

New Delhi: Air India is set to begin its services between Uttarakhand capital Dehradun and Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh from September 28. The development was confirmed by Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat said Monday.

Taking to Twitter, the chief minister said, "Iam happy to share the news that @airindiain is connecting Dehradun to Varanasi via Mum-Ded-Vns flight starting 28/9/2019. This is an important milestone in our bid to connect Uttarakhand to cities along Ganga ji by air and I thank AI Chairman Ashwini Lohani jee for this."
The new route is said to provide better connectivity to pilgrims in Varanasi in UP and Haridwar and Rishikesh in the hill state, Rawat said.

Aviation Advisor, Uttarakhand government, Capt Deep Shrivastava, in a press release, said the service will be operational on Wednesday and Saturday every week till October 26.
Meanwhile, Air India Monday posted an operating loss of around Rs 4,600 crore in the last financial year mainly due to higher oil prices and foreign exchange losses but the debt-laden carrier expects to turn operationally profitable in 2019-20.
Reflecting tough business conditions, the airline's net loss stood at about Rs 8,400 crore while total revenues touched around Rs 26,400 crore in 2018-19, one of the senior officials said.
17/09/19 India TV

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Vijayawada airport to have new flights from Nov

Vijayawada: Vijayawada international airport is likely to have a few new services by November this year with the state government having swung into action after some airline operators cancelled their services to various key destinations from the city. The airlines, however, agreed to restore flight services to Hyderabad, Delhi and Tirupati.
Meanwhile, some airlines cancelled their services to Delhi, Chennai, Cochin, Visakhapatnam, Tirupati and Singapore despite good occupancy. The state government had faced criticism from the opposition parties with the cancellation of services.
Vijayawada airport registered double-digit growth after the city became part of the capital region in 2015. A new domestic terminal building was built to meet the increasing demand and the runway was expanded to accommodate large aircraft.
Officials from the chief minister’s office (CMO) took up the issue and made a representation to the civil aviation ministry on the issue. In response, SpiceJet came forward to run direct flight services to Hyderabad from September 25. “There is no direct flight to Hyderabad till 11 am every day. Passengers face problems with this. SpiceJet will start operating a direct flight service in the morning and it will reach the city by 8 am every day. SpiceJet will also add another direct flight to Hyderabad in the evening. They have already started online bookings for these services,” said airport director, G Madhusudana Rao.
“Business circles were eagerly waiting for the Delhi-Hyderabad-Vijayawada daily flight. Air India has decided to restore this service from October 27. This aircraft had a good occupancy rate earlier and we hope to have a similar response from passengers in future,” the director said.
17/09/19 Venu Lanka/Times of India

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Night flight from October 5 in Chandigarh

Mohali: Five months after the announcement of 24x7 operations, the Chandigarh international airport will see night flying, as GoAir flight from Ahmedabad will enhance the watch hours. This flight will arrive at 10.10pm and depart for Delhi at 10.50pm. This will be first time that any flight will arrive or depart from the Chandigarh airport during the night hours after 7.50pm.
According to GoAir officials at Chandigarh, the flight will start operations from October 5 and it will be six days a week. It will depart from Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport, Ahmedabad, at 8.10pm and arrive at Chandigarh at 10.10pm. After a halt of 40 minutes, the flight will depart at 10.50pm to Delhi at 12.20am. The same flight with stay overnight at Delhi and will depart for Chandigarh at 9.50am to arrive at Chandigarh at 11.10am, and after a halt of 40 minutes, it will depart at 11:50am to reach Ahmedabad at 1:55pm.
17/09/19 Times of India

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15-day call for illegal buildings near airport

Mohali: Owners of 98 illegal structures within 100 meters of vicinity of the air force station here have been served final notice and demolition of such constructions will start after 15 days from now, said Deputy Commissioner Girish Dayalan said on Monday.
The DC said the government of India had issued a notification under Section 3(1) dated January 2010, whereby the it had notified that no building or structure shall be constructed, created or erected, or no tree shall be planted on any land within the limits of 100 meters from the crest of the outer parapet of the Air Force Station (AFS), Chandigarh.
A public notice was issued under Section 3(2) under the Works of Defence Act, 1903 by the collector on March 9, 2011 for Bhabat village. The Punjab and Haryana high court had also constituted a committee headed by chief secretary of Punjab last year to examine the status of illegal constructions within 100 meters of the periphery wall of the AFS.
Encroachments near airport: File claims in 15 days, says DC
The committee in its report said that structures were constructed before the date of publication of the notification in 2011. In line with the Act, the high court has ordered that these 98 structures be demolished immediately without payment of any compensation, after following the due process of law.
The DC’s notice reads, “That you are hereby given 15 days’ notice to either remove the structure or appear in person or through any authorized representative before the undersigned to submit any claims or objections in writing. In case no objections are received in this office within the stipulated time period, then it will be assumed that you have nothing to say in the matter, and the demolition of the said structure will be carried out without further notice.”
17/09/19 Times of India

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Safe skies: Air traffic controllers, aircraft engineers to undergo breath test by year-end

New Delhi: By the end of this year, airports across India will begin conducting breath analyser (BA) tests on aviation personnel like air traffic controllers (ATCOs), people driving vehicles in the operational areas, firefighters and aircraft maintenance engineers.

So far only pilots and cabin crew have to clear BA tests to ensure they are perfectly sober before being allowed to operate flights. But Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) chief Arun Kumar has now expanded the scope of this test to all aviation personnel providing critical services as it is essential they are not tipsy when on the job.

The tests will kick off by October 30 at ten of India’s busiest airports that include the six metros, Ahmedabad, Kochi, Lucknow and Guwahati. By November-end, 33 more airports including Jaipur, Vadodara, Srinagar, Mangalore and Juhu (Mumbai) will start conducting these tests. By the year-end all licensed airports will need to do so.

The categories of aviation employees who will now have to clear the tipsy test include aircraft maintenance engineers; drivers of fuelling and catering vehicles; aerobridge operators; rescue and fire fighting personnel (ARFF); ATCOs and flight dispatchers.

“At least 10% individuals involved in the above mentioned activities, employed in their respective organisations (category wise) shall be randomly subjected to BA examination on a daily basis… The (airport operator) management shall be responsible for the conduct of BA test on the personnel of the ground handling agency and aerodrome operational personnel, while airlines, air navigation service provider, maintenance organisations for their employees,” a statement issued by DGCA said.
16/09/19 Saurabh Sinha/Times of India

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PM Modi likely to open Kalaburagi airport on November 1

Kalaburagi: The airport that has been set up here under Public-Private Partnership with the Government of Karnataka at a cost of Rs 175.5 crore, is likely to be inaugurated on Karnataka Rajyotsava Divas on November 1.
This was disclosed by the Kalaburagi MP Dr Umesh Jadhav at a media conference on Sunday. 
Speaking to the media, Dr Jadhav said Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa was making efforts to see that the airport was inaugurated on November 1 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Barring a few civil works which are in the final stages, most of the works have been completed. The Deputy Commissioner B Sharath a couple of days back handed over 743.23 acres of land acquired for the project to  Airport Authority of India(AAI) officials.
The District IN-Charge Secretary Kapil Mohan and the Regional Commissioner Subodh Yadav, who chaired separate review meetings, have instructed the officials to complete all ongoing works by the third week of October.
It may be mentioned that the foundation stone for the project was laid by Mr Yediyurappa in June 2008 during his previous tenure as Chief Minister. 
The contract for building the airport was given to Gulbarga Airport Development Limited, a special purpose company.
But delays in completion led to the termination of the agreement in 2015 and the state government handed over the remaining work to the Public Works Department.
Initially the government had decided to limit the runway length to 1000 metres, but later extended it to 1970 metres to facilitate the landing of larger aircraft.
16/09/19 KN Reddy/Deccan Chronicle

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Pune airport to get facial recognition technology

Pune: Pune airport is planning to implement facial recognition biometric technology under the central government’s Digi Yatra scheme, which will make entry of passengers to the airport hassle-free and fast.

Pune airport is among the four airports across the country that have been selected by the Ministry of Civil Aviation to undertake the project.

A contract to set up and run the system has been awarded to a New Delhi-based company.

Under the ‘Digi Yatra’ programme, the Ministry of Civil Aviation is planning to start biometric boarding system at airports across the country. Initially, it will be installed at Kolkata, Varanasi, Pune and Vijayawada airports.
“Passenger entry will be automatically processed based on facial recognition systems at checkpoints like entry, security and aircraft boarding, thus facilitating paperless travel. The system will be operational by next year,” said Pune Airport Director Ajay Kumar.
“The tender has been awarded to M/s NEC Technologies India Private Ltd, based in New Delhi with its headquarters in Tokyo, Japan. The cost of the project is approximately Rs 14 crore for Pune airport. The firm will also be responsible for operation and maintenance for a period of seven years after the implementation of the project. The project is likely to be completed within one year,” he said.
16/09/19 Indian Express

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Karipur-Jeddah flight makes emergency landing at Taif airport in Saudi

Taif: A SpiceJet flight from Kozhikode to Jeddah made an emergency landing at Taif airport due to technical snag. The flight carrying 184 passengers landed at Taif international airport on Sunday around 8.40 am.
Among the passengers 101 were Umrah pilgrims. Others were returning to Jeddah after spending holidays in Kerala.
Passengers in the flight were taken outside the airport after immigration clearance.
Umrah pilgrims were taken to Mecca via bus around 5 pm from Taif airport. Bus service was arranged for other passengers to Jeddah.
16/09/19 Mathrubhumi

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After three-month lull, flyers’ footfall picks up at Pune airport

Pune: The Jet Airways crisis sparked a lull in domestic passenger traffic at the Lohegaon airport recently, but things seem to be on the up again.
As per data of the Airports Authority of India from January to July, there was a slowdown in passenger footfall at the facility between March and May. The report said Jet Airways’ folding, and the consequent empty slots, were partly to blame.

“While there are still some empty slots, we are quite upbeat about the upcoming winter schedule, as new domestic flights will be added. The domestic traffic was low for some months due to different factors, but things have now started to improve,” an airport official said.

“It happened mainly because of Jet Airways’ crisis, as the airline operated close to 20 flights at the airport. Since then, many slots have been taken up by other airlines, like Air India. With the winter schedule starting from October-end, we do expect a major jump,” another official said.

Early morning slots are hard to come by at the airport as commercial flight operations are suspended from 8am to 10.30am from Sunday to Friday to facilitate practice sessions of the Indian Air Force.

One official hinted that discussions were on to arrive at some sort of compromise. “If an agreement is reached, we could get close to 20 additional slots during the morning hours,” the official added.

Another official said the airport authorities were exploring the possibility of starting a direct flight between Pune and Mumbai.

“The lack of a direct flight is a concern, as the airport loses a major chunk of business flyers. Talks with airlines on this issue are ongoing and hopefully, a flight between the two cities will soon be started,” the official said.

Experts said the airport needs to concentrate on the low-cost UDAN scheme to boost domestic connections.
16/09/19 Joy Sengupta/Times of India

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IndiGo launches new service to Rajamahendravaram

Visakhapatnam: An IndiGo flight service has been introduced from Visakhapatnam to Rajamahendravaram and vice-versa under the regional connectivity scheme. With a maximum fare of Rs 2,500, the inaugural offer is for Rs 1,050. While the departure of flight to Rajamahendravaram is at 5:45 pm, arrival at Visakhapatnam is at 6:30 pm. Similarly, from Visakhapatnam, the flight will depart at 6:50 pm and arrives at 7:40 pm at Rajamahendravaram.
This flight will further proceed to Bengaluru. According to Andhra Pradesh Air Travelers Association members and airport advisor board members – D S Varma, O Naresh Kumar along with president of APATA K Kumar Raja, MLA Gana Babu and Airport Director Raja Kishore were part of the new service inaugural celebrations.
16/09/19 Hans India

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Kial says no to CAG audit, triggers controversy

Kannur: The decision of the Kannur International Airport Limited (Kial) authorities not to let comptroller and auditor general (CAG) to conduct an audit of the airport has led to controversy.
Though the CAG used to audit Kial accounts till 2016 and the general impression was that it was a company controlled by the government, the company claims that it is a public-private partnership firm with a 35% government stake and hence the CAG need not audit it.

“The CAG does not audit the airports that are not under the Airports Authority of India and we all know that the accounts of the airports, including Cial, are not audited by CAG, and this airport is also functioning in the same model,” said an official, who said this is a private company as per the Companies Act.

The official said that this decision was made after legal opinion was sought.

The managing director was not available to comment on the issue.

But there is something fishy about it and the civil aviation department should probe the irregularities associated with this, demanded the Congress.

“We suspect something dubious because the company which was registered as a private limited company was converted into a public limited one and auditing was held till 2016, but the CAG has been denied permission since 2017, and we suspect it was after the intervention of the chief minister,” alleged DCC president Satheesan Pacheni, who said that this was against the Companies Act.

The BJP had also earlier raised similar allegations.
16/09/19 Times of India

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Security at Indian airports to be on par with US soon

New Delhi: New changes are coming to the Indian airports and very soon, the screening would be on par with US standards. There is a tie-up between the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security and the US Transport Security Administration for this purpose.
Training for the second batch of 50 Indian officials has begun. The training for the first batch of 50 Indian officials was completed recently and the move aims at making India more travel secure.
The officials were trained on how to study body language. This means that security officials would mingle with people in the waiting areas to interpret body language. Another level of security personnel would also converse with passengers.
Further, the movement of staff of other agencies who operate in the airport would be restricted. In the US, additional layers of security for persons working within the airport were introduced. These staffs include airlines staff, luggage loaders, vendors and service support personnel.
16/09/19 Vikash Aiyappa/One India

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Vistara announces a daily direct flight between Delhi and Indore with fares starting at Rs 3,399

Vistara airlines has added Indore as its 30th destination by launching its daily direct flight between Delhi and Indore from 26th October, 2019. The one-way all-inclusive fares start at INR 3,399. Being the biggest industrial city in Madhya Pradesh, Indore is known as the financial capital and heart of the state.

Bookings for these flights are now being opened progressively on all channels, including www.airvistara.com, Vistara’s iOS and Android mobile apps, and through Online Travel Agencies (OTAs) and travel agents.

The airline currently connects 27 destinations, operates over 1200 flights a week served by a fleet of 23 Airbus A320 and seven Boeing 737-800 NG aircraft, and has flown more than 16 million customers since starting operations in 2015.
16/09/19 Scroll.in

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Two batches of Hajis arrive at RGIA

Nampally: Two batches consisting of 684 Haj pilgrims hailing from AP, Telangana and Karnataka arrived at the Haj Terminal of Shamshabad International Airport on Saturday.
The first flight Al-5404 with 342 Haj pilgrims of Andhra Pradesh arrived at 2.45 pm, and the second flight Al-5398 with 342 Haj pilgrims, including 213 Haj pilgrims of Karnataka, 117 of Andhra Pradesh and 12 of Telangana State, arrived at 5.25 pm.
According to Haj Committee, Chairman at Telangana State Haj Committee Md Masiullah Khan, along with B Shafiullah, executive officer at TS Haj Committee, received the Haj pilgrims at the airport and congratulated them on fulfilling their lifetime desire of performing Haj.
16/09/19 Hans India

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International in name, but no overseas flights

Vijayawada: The State government is exploring all possible ways to have the much-needed international connectivity to the Vijayawada International Airport in Gannavaram.

According to officials, proposals were sent to several international and domestic airlines highlighting the projected patronage and demand for direct flights between the city airport and various international destinations.
“Letters have been sent to international and domestic airlines like Air India, Indigo, SpiceJet, Emirates and Etihad Airways through the State government a week ago. The airlines are yet to respond,” said airport Director G. Madhusudhan Rao.

It may be recalled that the only international flight from the city airport to Singapore by IndiGo had been withdrawn recently following the State government’s decision not to renew the six-month agreement between IndiGo and the AP Airports Development Corporation, a special purpose vehicle.

The State reportedly incurred losses and paid crores of rupees to IndiGo towards Viability Gap Funding as per the State’s aviation policy.

On the other hand, the State government is pursuing with the Centre to get the city airport designated as a Point of Call (PoC) destination.
16/09/19 Tharun Boda/The Hindu

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Poor visibility disrupts flight movement at Bhopal airport

Bhopal: Poor visibility due to rain disrupted flight operations at the Raja Bhoj Airport on Sunday morning giving passengers a tough time. The poor weather affected arrival as well as departures of all airlines operating at Bhopal airport, delaying most of the flights.
The worst affected were the flights in the morning hours. Poor visibility made landing difficult. IndiGo Delhi-Bhopal flight 6E-2035, scheduled to arrive at 8 am, had to be diverted back to Delhi after the pilot could not land the aircraft.

IndiGo Mumbai-Bhopal flight 6E-5301 had to be diverted after it could not land. The flight was diverted to Indore. Haj flight was also affected due to the poor visibility at the airport. Air India flight 5461 had to be diverted to Nagpur. Later, all flights reached Bhopal airport after a delay of 2 to 3 hours.

The disruption of flights due to poor visibility has brought to fore the need for higher version of Instrument Landing System (ILS). Passengers who faced the delays also raised the demand for technological upgrade at the airport.

The Raja Bhoj airport is equipped with ILS CAT 1 facility. It is a basic system of precision instrument for approach and landing with a decision height not lower than 60m (200ft) and with either a visibility not less than 800m or a runway visual range not less than 550m.

In simple terms, it provides precision guidance to an aircraft approaching and landing on a runway, using a combination of radio signals to enable a safe landing during instrument meteorological conditions (IMC), such as low ceilings or reduced visibility due to fog or rain.
16/09/19 Times of India

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Hilton Mumbai International Airport Appoints Grace Pavaskar as their Learning and Development Manager

Hilton Mumbai International Airport has appointed Grace Pavaskar as its new Learning and Development Manager, who comes over with 7 years of notable experience in working with varied hotels in India.
In her new role at Hilton Mumbai International Airport, Grace Pavaskar will be responsible to develop and implement strategies & programs for the employees. Her expertise lies in providing the team members with appropriate training and a skilful approach in order to elevate the guest relations and feedback.
Sudhir Babu, Director of Human Resources, Hilton Mumbai International Airport said, “We are delighted to have Grace Pavaskar on board with us. She is a talented resource and an important factor in ensuring our team members are well trained, guest-focused and contribute to the success of our company by growing within the brand.”
16/09/19 BW Hotelier

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Aviation Sector: Bangalore International Airport profit after tax falls 22.5 pct

The Bangalore International Airport (BIAL) posted 22.5% year-on-year decline in profit after tax (PAT) to Rs 656 crore for the financial year 2018-19 due to lower user development fee (UDF). The airport operator had reported Rs 846 crore profit in FY18, according to the data available with the ministry of corporate affairs. While passenger footfall at Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) jumped 23.8% y-o-y in FY19, operating revenues were down 3% y-o-y to Rs 1,505 crore as Airport Economic Regulatory Authority (AERA) slashed UDF for domestic and international passengers by 67% in August 2018.
The UDF for domestic passengers came down to Rs 100 from Rs 306, and to Rs 400 from Rs 1,226 for international passengers. While GMR-owned Delhi International Airport reported Rs 112-crore loss for the year ended March 31, 2019 against PAT of Rs 38.3-crore in FY18 due to sharp reduction in aeronautical revenues, GVK’s Mumbai International Airport more than doubled its PAT to Rs 96 crore in FY19 on the back of higher passenger count. Delhi and Mumbai airports witnessed passenger traffic growth at 5.4% y-o-y and 1% y-o-y, respectively, in FY19.
16/09/19 Arun Nayal/Financial Express

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Occupancy rate picks up well in commercial flights to Mysuru

Mysuru: In a boost for both domestic and tourists air travel, occupancy rates increased from the Mysuru airport with more destination flights connected to other cities under UDAN 3 scheme.
The occupancy rates of both incoming and outgoing flights from Mysuru have reached a new high triggering interest among private airlines scouting to operate more schedules from and to the ‘City of Palaces.’
15/09/19 B S Prabhurajan/UNI

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Goa Survives A Turbulent First Half Of 2019

First half of (January to June) 2019 has been a tough period for Goa, wherein room night demand dropped by 4.4% as compared to the corresponding period in 2018. Major contributors to this slowdown have been the grounding of Jet Airways in April, grounding of Boeing 737 Max aircraft, a long drawn general election and reduced international charters primarily from Russia due to the weakening of the Russian Ruble. Another factor that contributed to the drop in the occupancy of branded hotels in Goa is the rise of a variety of affordable lodging formats such as Airbnb and private villas/holiday homes, which has gained popularity among the domestic clientele.

International air passenger traffic in Goa declined from 0.48 mn in H1 of 2018 to 0.46 mn in H1 2019 according to Airports Authority of India (AAI) in their monthly passenger traffic reports. International charter flights during the season months (October to May) of 2018-19 dropped by 17% as compared to 2017-18 to 813 flights with the number of passengers dropping by 12% in the same period to 0.21 mn. On the other hand domestic air passenger traffic in goa has continued to grow almost touching 4 mn passengers in H1 2019, which has proved as the only silver lining in the hotel demand landscape.

Despite the dip in demand, Goa’s hospitality market performance remains stable primarily on the back of room rates. This is evident from the 1.9% growth in ADR in H1 2019 over H1 2018. Goa ranks second in ADR next only to Mumbai. With increasing Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions (MICE) business and growing domestic tourism due to a rise in disposable income, the market is expected to remain stable in the short term.

In the medium to long term, development of Mopa Airport will be a game-changer for the leisure market. It will enable a larger inflow of tourists, both foreign and domestic with an expected handling capacity of 5 million passengers annually. On completion, this development will benefit the entire Goa tourism industry and in particular, will help develop the hospitality market in North Goa and even Sindhudurg district in Maharashtra.
16/09/19 Accomodation Times

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Kasaragod resident booked for trespass at airport

Mangaluru: The Bajpe Police arrested Arif Kothikkal, a resident of Kasaragod in Kerala, for alleged criminal trespass into the international airport here on Saturday night.

According to a press release, Central Industrial Security Force personnel found Kothikkal using a fake e-ticket to gain entry to the departure gate of the airport.

Kothikkal reportedly fabricated the e-ticket of a SpiceJet flight to Dubai and entered his name along with four of his family members who were to board the flight. He produced the fabricated e-ticket to enter the departure gate and was caught by CISF personnel while he was exiting, the release said.
16/09/19 The Hindu

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