After SpiceJet Flight Diverted For Emergency Landing In Kochi, Customs Catch Gold Smuggler

Kochi: The Customs at Kochi airport on Friday caught a person trying to smuggle gold worth ₹ 70 lakh inside small packs after a Kozhikode-bound plane was diverted to Kochi following hydraulic failure.

Malappuram native, Samad, was arrested when the Spice jet flight from Jeddah was diverted to Kochi airport and Customs seized 1,650 g of gold from him.

When the flight landed in Kochi instead of Kozhikode, the passengers were disembarked and allowed to rest in the security hall.

Later, when security checks were carried out to reroute the passengers on a different flight of SpiceJet, Samad showed signs of anxiety.

According to the customs officials, the accused tried to transfer the gold from his waist where it was kept in small black bags of a grown-up-man's palm length, to the luggage.

He wanted to use the washroom, raising suspicion among the CISF personnel who were monitoring the passengers. That's when the customs were informed.

The Kozhikode-bound Spicejet flight from Jeddah was diverted to Kochi on Friday, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) had informed.

04/12/22 ANI/NDTV

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Singapore Airlines buys 25.1% stake in Air India, that helped it in its launch

Singapore Airlines, currently one of the best airlines in the world, will become a partial owner of Air India, the airline which once inspired and helped the former in formulating the launch plan. Popularly known as Maharaja, Air India was Singapore Airlines' role model when the carrier commenced operations in 1972.

According to reports, a delegation of Air India was sent by India's former prime minister Jawahar Lal Nehru to Singapore on request, at a time when the nation was making efforts to attract investment and was planning to launch an international airline.

In the early 1970s, the Singapore government under then prime minister Lee Kuan Yew was making efforts to establish an international airline which will be able to showcase Singapore's world-class capabilities to the global nations. India was requested to quickly send Air India's expert staff to Singapore.

Earlier reports also indicate that Singapore Airlines was willing to enter into a collaboration with Air India so that it can acquire the necessary know-how in service standards.

In the early 1970s, the global skies were dominated by Asian carriers like Thai Airways, Cathay Pacific and Singapore Airlines with their redefined concept of service. However, the first Asian airline which established a high standard of service and became an inspiration for other airlines in the 1940s was the Air India.

04/12/22 WION

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How Will Air India and Singapore Airlines Work Together?

This week, the Tata Group announced that it plans to merge Air India and Vistara, creating one full-service carrier for the market. After negotiations, Singapore Airlines joined the deal as well, taking up a 25% stake in the new, expanded airline and creating a new partnership with the flag carrier. So how will the two airlines work together and how will it benefit them?

Singapore Airlines (SIA) has had a successful partnership with Vistara in the last seven years, launching new routes to India and offering codeshares far beyond. However, pairing up with Air India will take this operation to a much bigger stage, with more international destinations on offer now and hence, more opportunities.

As Air India expands in the next few years, it will be hoping to take advantage of Singapore Airlines' strongly established network through Southeast Asia, East Asia, and Oceania, offering codeshare flights to the likes of Australia, New Zealand, Jakarta, Manila, and many more cities that it currently doesn't serve or have a larger market.

This will be made easy by Vistara and Air India's existing network to Singapore, which saw Pune as the latest city to join the route map. Once combined, SIA will be able to funnel even more passengers into its hub at Changi International Airport and take advantage of the growing and underserved market.

Europe is one market where Singapore Airlines and Air India do not overlap too much, with both offering robust networks to the continent. While SIA has a larger route map, it will struggle to attract much of the westbound traffic from India due to the additional time needed to fly and plenty of alternatives from the Middle Eastern giants.

However, the same cannot be said for North America, which may well be a big area of gain for both carriers. Singapore Airlines' strong network on the West Coast of the US could be advantageous to Air India, which currently doesn't serve cities like Seattle or Los Angeles.

04/12/22 Pranjal Pande/Simple Flying

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Vistara Launches Non-Stop Flight From Pune To Singapore

India’s full-service carrier Vistara launched a new international service, connecting Pune in western India with Singapore. The airline has been on an international expansion spree recently, particularly to shorter offshore routes in the Middle East. It has also increased frequencies to long-haul destinations in Europe after welcoming a third Dreamliner in its fleet recently.

On December 2nd, Vistara became the only airline to start non-stop service between Pune (PNQ) and Singapore (SIN). The flight will be operated by an Airbus A321neo aircraft four times a week. An inaugural event was organized at the Pune airport, which was attended by Gavin Roch, Vice Consul, Consul General of the Republic of Singapore, along with other officials and ministers, and was attended virtually by India’s aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia.

Vistara’s Chief Executive Office, Vinod Kannan, commented, “We are excited to be able to connect Pune and Singapore - two cities that were not directly connected thus far. There is a growing demand for air travel between the two cities especially from corporate travellers. We are confident that customers will appreciate having the option of flying India’s best airline on this sector.”

Vistara also flies to Singapore from Delhi (DEL) and Mumbai (BOM) and is one of many carriers flying to the Southeast Asian destination. Along with carriers like Air India, IndiGo, and others, Singapore Airlines, too, has multiple weekly departures from key Indian cities, including Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Bengaluru, and Hyderabad, among others.

Pune-Singapore is one of many international routes launched by Vistara recently. In August, it began flying between Mumbai and Jeddah in Saudi Arabia, becoming one of six airlines flying on this route.

03/12/22 Gaurav Joshi/Simple Flying

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2 foreign nationals caught with cocaine worth Rs 18 crore at Mumbai airport

 Two foreign nationals were apprehended at Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport on Saturday after authorities found cocaine worth Rs 18 crore inside their luggage. The two passengers - a man from Kenya and a woman from Guinea - arrived at Mumbai from Addis Ababa on an Ethiopian Airlines flight.

The two were intercepted at the Mumbai airport on the basis of information received by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) Mumbai. Upon examination of their luggage, authorities recovered four empty handbags. The handbags were cut open and two plastic pouches were recovered from each bag.

The contents of the bags were tested and it was revealed that all of them contained cocaine. The total weight of the recovered cocaine weighed around 1794 grams, which is worth approximately Rs 18 crore.

The two passengers are currently being questioned to find out whether they were selling the drug and, if so, to whom.

03/12/22 India Today

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Technical Glitch Detected in Qatar Airways Chennai-Doha Flight on Runway; Passengers Safe

A technical glitch was detected in a Chennai-Doha Qatar Airways flight while it was on the runway on Friday morning.

The QR529 flight flying from Chennai’s Anna International Airport was carrying 139 passengers when the mechanical fault was detected on the runway.

All passengers are reportedly to be safe.

The AOG (Aircraft on Ground) was declared at 8:37 am.

02/12/22 News 18

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Singapore’s Air India runway promises profit, potholes

For decades, Singapore Airlines Ltd has wanted to take pole position in India, tipped to be the world’s third-largest aviation market by the middle of the decade, if not sooner.

Now that the opportunity to be a 25% owner of the nation’s largest international and second-largest local carrier has come knocking, chief executive Goh Choon Phong is happy to write a US$250mil (RM1.11bil) cheque.

But India’s siren song can also be treacherous.

Its heavily regulated sectors, such as telecommunications and aviation, have a history of being unpredictable.

Singapore Telecommunications Ltd got lucky in its choice of partner. Bharti Airtel Ltd remains a solid No. 2 in the Indian wireless market after years of intense upheaval.

Goh would hope for the same stability from his partner, the 154-year-old Tata Group – perhaps even more, given the aviation industry’s natural tendency to destroy capital.

All that’s in the future, though. Right now, it’s handshake time.

Vistara, a joint venture of the Tata Group and SIA, is being merged with Air India.

The loss-making national carrier went to the local conglomerate when New Delhi sold it last year.

Now, Tata will hold 74.9% of the merged entity; Singapore Air will fork out a little over US$250mil (RM1.11bil) for 25.1%.

An expansion is also on the cards. Air India CEO Campbell Wilson – a Singapore Air veteran – wants to triple his fleet in five years. That purchase, among the most aggressive in the industry after the pandemic, may increase SIA’s investment by another US$615mil (RM2.75bil).

The Indian side will bring in proportionately more.

Covid-19 has underscored the danger of relying too heavily on a single market.

A multi-hub strategy, in which airlines owned by Singapore Air will benefit from demand outside the small city-state, may not offer foolproof insurance against a global pandemic when everything shuts down at once.

But it does offer risk mitigation in the reopening phase. The company enjoys the backing of a triple-A-rated government and was fortunate: Authorities in its home market were keen to drop travel restrictions as soon as they could.

Hong Kong-based rival Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd and Chinese carriers weren’t as lucky.

As a result, SIA is in an expansionary, deal-making mode, while Cathay is only now seeing “a bright light at the end of tunnel.”

New Zealand native Wilson is new both to the job and the terrain – he arrived in June as the first foreign-born boss in Air India’s history.

Even as he wraps up the merger with Vistara, his two shareholders will look to him to repeat his success at Scoot, the Singaporean short-haul carrier.

The immediate task is to shake InterGlobe Aviation Ltd’s Indigo, which has a 57% share of India’s domestic aviation market.

Middle East carriers like Emirates and Etihad Airways PJSC dominate travel to and from the nation through their hubs in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, respectively.

Wilson’s other challenge will be to manage different cultures.

As a 75% shareholder, Ratan Tata, the group patriarch, will want his executives to be in the cockpit, if not the pilot’s seat.

After all, a more passive approach hasn’t gotten the 84-year-old aviation enthusiast anywhere.

02/12/22 Andy Mukherjee/The Star

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India is a very crucial market for Cathay Pacific, says company's new incoming boss

Cathay Pacific remains highly optimistic about India as a destination. The Hong Kong-headquartered airline sees a significant upside in its business with an easing of pandemic-related restrictions. 

“We are in a much better position today and can confidently speak of ramping up our operations,” is the view from Ronald Lam, Cathay Pacific’s Chief Customer & Commercial Officer. The airline was established in 1946 and Lam, who will take over as CEO starting 1 January next year, believes it has a strong reputation apart from being a premium brand. “We offer a very convenient network to Hong Kong and beyond. That includes destinations such as the Chinese Mainland, Australia, and the United States," he says.

To him, India offers a huge opportunity with Hong Kong being a highly attractive destination. Today, there are a host of airlines out of India, among which are Air India and the Middles Eastern carriers, offering connectivity to the US and Australia. Lam, while acknowledging that fact, is clear that his airline’s strong network and multiple frequency will be a difference. “India has been with us for the most part of our history and that will continue for a long time,” he adds.  

It is expected that the third runway at Hong Kong airport will be ready for use in 2025. “That opens up more possibilities. By then, we expect a lot of traffic from the neighbouring regions to take off,” says Lam. The concern on high fuel prices remains to Lam, the approach is to closely monitor the situation. “There is not very much we can do otherwise and it is important for us to be cost-efficient.”  

02/12/22 Krishna Gopalan/Business Today

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Air India to resume service between Vienna and Delhi from February 2023

Vienna Airport will welcome the further expansion of its long-haul offering when Air India resumes services to Delhi from 18 February 2023. The route will be operated three times weekly, on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, with the 787-800.

“Long-haul flight service is being further expanded,” said Julian Jäger, Joint CEO and COO, Vienna Airport. “The resumption of direct flight connections in the capital city region of India is now ensured, which represents a gratifying success. Delhi is not only the most important business centre in all of India but is also an attractive destination from a tourism perspective. Moreover, Vienna is a significant market for Indian tourism. We are delighted to be able to continue our good partnership with Air India.”

01/12/22 anna.aero

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