Boeing keen to develop India's aerospace industry

New Delhi: Leading U.S. aircraft manufacturer, Boeing Co is looking to bid for defence projects worth up to $20 billion over the next 10 years in India, a top official said.
The company is also submitting a detailed proposal to the Indian government on Aug. 4 to help build the country's aerospace industry and transfer defence technology to meet government conditions for defence contracts.
"The opportunity the way we look at is tremendous in India in the next few years, in terms of growing industry and partnership," Vivek Lall, India country head of Boeing's Integrated Defense Systems (IDS) said on Wednesday.
"I think it is a win-win and I think we can bring the best of Boeing in India and best of India to Boeing," Lall told Reuters.
India is fast becoming one of the world's biggest arms importers. The country is looking to spend $50 billion on imports over the next five years to modernise its largely Soviet-era arms.
India is also keen to strengthen its own aerospace industry and has asked major weapon exporting countries to transfer defence technology to India.
As a condition of granting defence contracts, India has said 30 percent of all defence deals valued at over $3 billion have to be reinvested in the country -- either through purchase of components from Indian companies or establishing joint ventures to make parts in India.
16/07/08 Bappa Majumdar/Reuters/Forbes, USA

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Items missing from registered luggage

Calcutta: The Chaudharys’ trip to celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary turned sour even before it began when they discovered their cash and a handycam missing from their luggage shortly after checking into a Bangkok hotel.
• NRI couple Shreelina Ghosh and Kaustav Mukherjee, visiting the city after two years, found that cosmetics, chocolates and clothes were stolen from their registered bags.
These two are not isolated incidents. Complaints of cash and valuables going missing from the registered baggage of air passengers travelling to and from Calcutta are on the rise.
In both cases, the locks and security tapes of the baggage were intact.
“We were carrying Baht 14,200 (about Rs 18,500). In the hotel, we found the envelope in which the money was kept and even the currency conversion receipt, but the cash was gone,” said Suresh Chaudhary, a Burrabazar-based trader who reached Bangkok with his wife on July 1 on a Thai Airways flight. Their handycam, too, was stolen. It was worth Rs 15,000.
The couple’s daughter, Sweta, a college student, had to send them money from Calcutta. When she went to lodge a complaint with Thai Airways on July 1, she was asked to send an email. Sweta is yet to hear from the airline. A Thai Airways official confirmed having received the mail. “An inquiry is on.”
Aviation officials said cash and valuables should be carried in handbags. “If anyone carries them in the registered baggage, he has to declare that during security check,” said an Airlines’ Operators Committee member.
10/07/08 The Telegraph

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Investigation of Cassa crash to involves "KNKT"

Tenjolaya, Bogor: An investigation team formed by the Indonesian Air Force to probe the cause of the Cassa crash in the slope of Mount Salak in Bogor district, West Java province will involve the National Committee for Transporation Safety (KNKT).
The remark was made by the Air Force Deputy Chief of Staff Rear Mashal I Gusti Made Oka during the evacuation of the crash victims in Curug Luhur village, Tenjolaya sub-district, on Sunday afternoon.
The involvement of the national committee for transporation safety was prompted because the air force may not have some skills which it has, and the plane was in a good condition, weather was also favorable.
"There is no problem with the ill-fated aircraft. Therefore, the air force will have to evaluate this case, because there are some strange matters because aircraft was in a good condition, but crashed," he said.
It was reported that the plane was on a mission of testing a new aerial camera when the plane went down. As no black box was found in the crash site, I Gusti Made Oka said some aircrafts are not equipped with a flight recorder like the ill-fated Cassa. With regard to obstacles posing the investigations, he said they included bad weather, the plane wreck was hardly recognizable, and no witness, because all the 18 people (including an Indian)on on board the plane were killed, he said.
30/06/08 Antara, Indonesia

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Bodies of 18 plane crash victims flown to Indonesian air base

Jakarta: The bodies of 18 people killed when an Indonesian air force plane crashed into a mountain were flown Sunday by helicopter to a military base in the capital, an official said.
Three foreigners _ a Singaporean, an Indian and a Briton _ were among those on the Casa-212 plane, which went down
Thursday while on an aerial surveillance mission, leaving no survivors.
It took two days for search and rescue teams to reach the crash site, on the side of the rugged and heavily forested Salak Mountain, 60 miles (100 kilometers) south of Jakarta.
Air force spokesman Chaeruddin Ray said the bodies were being taken to the air force hospital at the Halim Perdanakusuma air base, where they would be collected by family members or sent back home.
29/06/08 AP/PR-Inside.com (Pressemitteilung), Austria

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Gulf Air is all set to begin services to Hyderabad

Airline’s eighth Indian destination marks successful bilateral relationship between India and Bahrain Gulf Air, the sole national carrier of the Kingdom of Bahrain, is all set to begin its services to Hyderabad from 1 July 08 with its inaugural flight taking off from Bahrain International Airport at 00.05 am.
This follows the airline’s successful launch of its services to China’s commercial capital Shanghai on 16 June 2008.
“Hyderabad has been one of our favourite destinations in our expansion plans for quite sometime and I am glad we were able to link Hyderabad- the emerging IT and bio-tech hub with “Business Friendly” Bahrain,” says Gulf Air Chief Executive Officer Mr Björn Näf, on the eve of the launch.
The daily non-stop service between Bahrain and Hyderabad will be served by an Airbus A320-200 with business and economy class providing two-way connectivity to many other major markets within the region.
Gulf Air operates over 275 flights per month offering as much as 50,000 seats to eight Indian destinations- Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kochi, Kolkata, Mumbai and Trivandrum.
29/06/08 Al-Bawaba, Jordan

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Want to study abroad? Consult overseas affairs ministry

New Delhi: Some of the fly-by-night agencies which try to dupe Indian students with promises of visas and admissions into colleges overseas have come under the scanner of the ministry of overseas Indian affairs (MOIA). Read On >>

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California ‘Prince’ dupes aspiring pilots

Washington: More than 100 Indian students of American School of Aviation who shelled out about $40,000 each in the hope of finding jobs as pilots in India’s booming civil aviation industry, were evicted from their accommodation yesterday. Read On >>

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Indonesia battles to recover plane crash bodies

Jakarta: Indonesian rescuers battled fog and thick jungle Saturday to recover the bodies of 18 people, including three foreigners, killed in a plane crash at the base of a mountain, officials said.
The Casa C-212 transport plane disappeared from radar screens at 3:03 pm (0803 GMT) on Thursday around Mount Salak in West Java about 40 kilometres (25 miles) south of Jakarta near the town of Bogor, officials said earlier.
"The team is already at the location, but it's a gorge... it's quite difficult to go down and come up," air force spokesman Chaeruddin Ray said.
Low fog and slippery ground had slowed the progress of air force personnel and police at the crash site, Ray said.
The head of the search and rescue team, Hadi Tugiman, told AFP by telephone from the mountain that rescuers had already collected 15 of the victims and were readying a makeshift helipad to evacuate the bodies.
Rescuers will attempt to carry out the bodies by foot along an arduous path through the forest if the weather fails to clear, he said.
The three foreigners-from Britain, India and Singapore-were among six civilians on board the military plane when it took off from a Jakarta air base on a short flight to test ground imaging equipment, but it never returned.
The other 12 on the plane were from the military.
The wreckage was reached for the first time early Saturday morning after two days of uncertainty over its fate.
The foreigners reportedly worked for Credent Technology offering services in high-resolution satellite imagery and laser scanning for mapping.
Officials plan to return all bodies from the crash to Jakarta's Halim Perdanakusuma airbase, where the plane originally departed from.
The foreign office in London and the Singaporean foreign ministry confirmed that British and Singaporean nationals were on board. An Indian diplomat in Jakarta confirmed an Indian was also on the flight.
29/06/08 Associated Press of Pakistan/The Post

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Lufthansa Moves Out of MRO Deal With GMR

New Delhi: The slowdown in aviation and poor financial health of airlines are now casting its shadow on big deals that Indian companies had stuck with global majors.
German carrier Lufthansa's $5 billion technical support arm, Lufthansa Technik, has pulled out of a tie-up with GMR Group, inked in April 2007, to set up a $20 million maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) facility at the new airport in Hyderabad. The GMR Group is now talking to some leading Asian carriers for the proposed MRO.
The deal aimed to ready the MRO facility by this year-end, with Lufthansa arm contributing 75% of the investment and Indian carrier the rest. Sources close to the deal said Lufthansa Technik was in talks with a leading Indian carrier to maintain their fleet of Boeing 737s and Airbus A 320s at the proposed site so that it has an assured fleet to service. But in this cost-hostile environment, this did not happen and the MRO deal fell through.
A GMR official said they had to do land leveling and prepare parking bays at the airport.
28/06/08 Saurabh Sinha/RedOrbit, USA

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AI Express announce Kuwait - M'lore schedule

Mangalore: Air India Express has announced the schedule of Kuwait-Muscat-Mangalore sector on its official website www.airindiaexpress.in and expected to open its online bookings shortly. The Mangalore Station Manager Chellam Prasad had relayed the news to the media a few days ago, however, Air India office in Mumbai had also expressed that there was a likelihood of the dates being changed. Both the Air India offices in Kuwait and Muscat have reiterated that unless online booking opens, the dates are not considered confirmed. However, the news has appeared in one of the national dailies and later re-routed to local dailies in Mangalore as well.
According to the schedule published on its website, the maiden AIE flight will depart from Mangalore on 17 July 2008 at 19:35 and arrive at Kuwait International Airport at 23:05. The same flight will arrive back in Mangalore from Kuwait next day in the morning. According to the sources in AIE, the flight operations between Mangalore and Kuwait would be initially via Muscat and maybe extended to Abu Dhabi in future.
28/06/08 Mangalorean.com

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Wreckage of Indonesian military plane found; Indian passenger identified

Jakarta: Search parties have spotted the wreckage of an Indonesian Air Force plane that crashed in a mountainous region of West Java.
According to Indonesia's MetroTV all 18 people aboard the plane were killed.
Air Force spokesman Chaerudin Ray told The Straits Times that a Singaporean, Mr Tan Hong King, was with two of his colleagues to test aerial cameras on the Casa N212 aircraft.
The other two foreigners were identified as Mr Mahendra Kumar, an Indian national, and Mr Kwong Ping Anthony of Britain. All three worked for IT firm Credent Technology (Asia Pacific) in Singapore.
Also aboard were seven Indonesian military personnel from the air force's mapping division, three Indonesian civilians from local firm Avio Gaya Perkasa, and five crew members.
Search parties found the wreckage of the 24-year-old aircraft in Curug Nangka near Gunung Malang yesterday afternoon but were unable to get close to it because of the thick jungle terrain.
Villagers who joined the search parties told local station TVOne that they saw bodies near the aircraft but no survivors.
The CasaN212 took off from Halim Perdana Kusumah air base in Jakarta at 9.23am on Thursday to test some digital mapping camera equipment. The aircraft went missing an hour after takeoff.
A security guard at the Curug Nangka camping site in Tamansari, Bogor, said that villagers heard a loud explosion above the forest at about 11.30am on Thursday.
Thursday's crash was the third involving an aircraft belonging to the Indonesian Armed Forces in six months.
28/06/08 Salim Osman/Straits Times, Singapore

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Mangalore Kuwait Flights to be introduced on July 17

Kuwait: Long-awaited dream of people from Coastal Karnataka and Northern Malabar region living in Kuwait , of flying direct to Mangalore airport is almost set to come true, as final preparations are on and within a week's time tickets will be available online.
Top sources of Air India Express told Rajesh Sequeira, Coordinator for Karnataka NRI forum in Dubai that Thursday July 17 has been finalized as the date for maiden Kuwait-Mangalore direct flight as of now. Authorities have presented the schedule to aviation ministry for approval. The schedule is expected to get the approval within a week's time.
Initially there will be two flights a week, on Sunday and Thursday via Muscat .
Sources also said that a brand new aircraft of AI Express arrived on Monday June 23 and the process of introducing direct flight has started after the arrival of new aircraft. Owing to smaller carrying-capacity of the aircraft, it may not be possible to fly direct Kuwait - Mangalore flight as of now. Hence flights have been scheduled to fly via Muscat for the time being.
26/06/08 Bhatkallys, United Arab Emirates

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`Start flight to Jeddah from Bhopal'

Bhopal: Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has urged Union Minister of State for Aviation Prafulla Patel to start Bhopal-Jeddah flight.
In his letter, the Chief Minister has said that a large number of Muslim pilgrims go to Jeddah from Madhya Pradesh for performing Haj. Due to lack of requisite arrangements, these pilgrims have to go to Mumbai and then take a flight to Jeddah from there. He suggested that if immigration and customs facilities could not be provided immediately at Bhopal, at least a direct flight to Jeddah from Indore should be introduced.
In the letter, the Chief Minister has also drawn attention of Minister of State for Aviation towards the application pending with him for waiver of Rs one crore 62 lakh against hangar charge of air wing units of NCC Directorate. He pleaded that this due amount should not be realised with the point of view of promoting NCC's air wing.
The Chief Minister urged Patel for early decision on allotment of about 1.5 acre additional land for state hangar by Airport Authority of India to the state government. The letter says that at present this land is under the use of State Aviation Department and therefore, allotment is only a mere formality.
27/06/08 Central Chronicle

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Indian among passengers of missing Indonesian air force plane

Jakarta: Three foreigners are among 18 passengers and crew who are missing after a military transport plane went down in thick jungle in West Java, the Indonesian Air Force spokesman said Friday.
"Twelve people are from the military and six are civilians including three foreign nationals from Britain, India and Singapore," spokesman Chaeruddin Ray he told AFP.
The Casa C-212 transport plane disappeared from radar screens at 3:03 pm (0803 GMT) on Thursday afternoon around Mountain Salak about 40 kilometres (25 miles) south of Jakarta, rescue coordinator Hadi Tugiman added.
"We deployed three air force planes in the search today and some 40 rescuers from the military and police," he said.
He said dense jungles and mountainous terrain were hampering the search.
"The jungle is quite thick and the weather is so foggy that it's making the search difficult."
Air Force spokesman Ray said the foreigners were from a company that sold aerial photography equipment and were on a trial flight when the plane disappeared.
27/06/08 AFP

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Airlines win pilot battle

New Delhi: Strong protest from leading Indian carriers today forced the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to withdraw a circular that would have raised the cost of flying abroad substantially.
A draft circular issued by the DGCA on June 17 had said that any pilot of a wide-body aircraft (these are used mostly for overseas flights) should have a flying experience of at least 7,000 hours, including 2,000 hours on a jet aircraft and 1,500 hours on a wide-body aircraft on international routes.
The current rule just requires the pilot to have flown around 100 hours on a wide-body aircraft as a co-pilot on any route. Since most Indian pilots do not have the experience of flying international routes, airlines would have had to employ expatriate pilots, thereby considerably inflating their salary bills. An expatriate pilot costs over 100 per cent more than his Indian counterpart.
The circular came at a time when the Indian carriers are desperately trying to reduce their salary costs by replacing their expatriate work force with an Indian one. They are expected to close the current financial year with a total loss of Rs 8,000 crore, almost double the last year's losses.
"The decision was taken after a heated meeting with the DGCA in which most airlines aggressively thumbed down the circular. One or two airlines, which would not have been impacted, supported it but were snubbed by others," said a source present in the meeting.
27/06/08 Anirban Chowdhury/Business Standard

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NAL looking for partners in its turbo-powered aircraft project

Bangalore: National Aerospace Labs (NAL), India’s only civilian aerospace lab, is looking for partners for its turbo-powered civil aircraft project.
Dr. A. R. Upadhya, NAL’s Director, said that they were looking for partners, domestic or international, who would be able to assist in the design, technology, production and marketing of the aircraft.
Named RTA-70, the 90-seater aircraft will cost around Rs. 2,500 crore and will be developed over the next five to seven years. Taking into consideration the ever increasing fuel costs, Dr. Upadhya was of the opinion that turbo propeller- powered aircraft are the way ahead for short- haul flights and regional air transport. Unlike the expensive and high maintenance turbo prop aircraft used today, the RTA-70 will be a low-cost aircraft with newer, cleaner and more efficient technologies.
Meanwhile, NAL’s other project, the 14-seater Saras aircraft, may go for flight certification by the middle of 2010. Two of the prototypes that have been built have completed more than 100 flights. The third version of the Saras aircraft ,which will be 500 kg lighter, will be ready for test flights by June 2009.
27/06/08 Anand/Machinist.in

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Thai-Indian duo ahead in airport race

A Thai-Indian consortium has emerged as the lowest bidder for the Rs 2,000-crore Calcutta airport modernisation project.
ITD of Thailand, which was involved in constructing Suvarnabhumi airport in Bangkok, and its Indian partner ITD CEM have quoted around Rs 2,000 crore, said sources in the civil aviation ministry, which completed examining the bids on Wednesday.
The highest bid was around Rs 2,400 crore. Three consortiums and one company had submitted the technical and financial bids on June 16.
The others were Pomerleu Inc (Canada)-CCCL, TAV Tepe Akfer Yatirim Insaatva Isleme AS (Turkey)-Punj Lloyd Ltd and India’s Larsen and Toubro.
Usually, the lowest bidder is awarded the contract but a ministry official said it would take around three weeks for the award to be announced.
“The bid will be evaluated by a technical committee, which will send its recommendation to the Airports Authority of India (AAI) board for approval,” the official said from Delhi.
Financial as well as technical experts will be members of the committee.
27/06/08 The Telegraph

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International flights may take detour for tanking up

New Delhi: Since Indian aviation turbine fuel prices are among the highest in the world, airlines were asked to consider flying to some nearby countries by taking some expensive fuel from here and then tank up in those economic countries.
The places where airlines could consider taking a technical fuelling halt include the Gulf states, former CIS republics and Iran. Although foreign flights get aviation turbine fuel (ATF) much cheaper than domestic ones in India, the base price of ATF is also very high here because of which airlines are considering this option.
A leading airline official said a nonstop India-US flights with a flying time of 16 to 18 hours requires nearly 150 tonnes of fuel which in India costs over Rs 60 lakhs. If the same plane goes via Dubai, it can do with nearly 16 tonnes of fuel from India at a cost of about Rs 8 lakhs. For the remaining 16-hour journey to US, the required 130-odd tonnes can be filled up in a place like Dubai for Rs 36 lakh. So the overall fuel cost is less by nearly Rs 16 lakh on each India-US flight. Multiplying this by two to three daily nonstop flights that airlines are already having or planning, the savings are enormous though the flight does not remain nonstop because of the technical halt," said a senior official of a leading airline.
26/06/08 Saurabh Sinha/Times of India

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After 2012, India demand will fall 50%, says Boeing

Aircraft manufacturer Boeing is reducing its forecast of the Indian market by half beyond 2012 as a result of the slowdown in the aviation sector.
"This is not the time when airlines would talk about booking new orders. If we were talking about an order size of 60 earlier, it would be between 25-30 for the next ten years from 2012," said Dinesh Keskar, senior vice president (sales), Boeing.
Keskar also said that airlines in India would have to cut existing capacity by at least 10-12 per cent to tide over the current crisis.
"Airlines in the US are cutting capacity by 10 per cent approximately. In India, they will have to sooner or later cut at least 10-12 per cent capacity," he said.
However, Keskar also pointed out that there has been no cancellation or deferring of orders by domestic carriers until now, despite their plea that there is need to trim capacity.
"We are not getting any indications of deferment of deliveries from our buyers," Keskar said.
Boeing assisted low-cost carrier SpiceJet to sub-lease its deliveries to other buyers, thereby insulating itself from a possible deferment of five aircraft deliveries that the airline was scheduled to get over five months beginning this month. Boeing has an order book of 161 aircraft between Jet Airways, Air India and SpiceJet with deliveries scheduled till 2012.
26/06/08 Manisha Singhal/Business Standard

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Jet Airways voted one of the world's best airlines

Jet Airways, India's premier international airline, has been recognised for the excellence and quality of its service and in-flight experience in the ‘Airline of the Year Category’ at the second Annual awards ceremony, held at the British Museum in London on 17 June 2008.
It was for the first time that these awards, which honour individuals and companies that best serve the interests of consumers, included a category recognising airlines that have achieved high customer satisfaction scores for multiple service parameters, including cabin staff, pre-flight service, cleanliness, comfort, food and value for money.
The “Which?” Best Airline consumer survey, on the basis of which award winners were determined, drew on a stringent assessment of 71 airlines by over 30,000 “Which?” readers, based on their experiences with the same. Jet Airways achieved a total satisfaction rating of 84%, a percentage point behind winner Singapore Airlines.
Jet Airways, which flies daily from Delhi, Mumbai and Amritsar to London Heathrow, operates one of the youngest fleet in the skies and scored maximum marks for its exceptional onboard catering, in-flight entertainment, cleanliness, comfort and value for money.
Jet Airways’ General Manager for UK & Ireland, Duncan Gambrill, commented: “Jet Airways has served the UK for just two years and only launched its new cabin products last year, including our herringbone lie-flat Première seats and private First Class suites. So this is an enormous achievement, especially against other longer-established airlines. We are delighted to be recognised in this way. It is a testament to our belief that Jet Airways is India’s premier international airline, and is a tremendous boost towards achieving our goal of being one of the world’s top five airlines by 2010”.
With the acquisition of Jet Lite, Jet Airways now has a combined fleet strength of 108 aircraft and offers customers a schedule of over 525 flights daily. The airline currently offers four daily services from India to London Heathrow - an afternoon and early morning flight from Mumbai and daily flights from Delhi and Amritsar. For further information and flight schedules visit: www.jetairways.com.
25/06/08 PRESS RELEASE/Jet Airways

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Thai woman sent back with her dog squad

Mumbai: Pakvimol Thangtha, a Thai national, had apparently thought she could take her 31 pets out of Sahar airport for a walk. However, she would now have to board a flight on Thursday with all of them and head back to the place from where she came.
Thangtha landed in Mumbai with two full-grown Pugs and 24 puppies of the breed, four Chihuahuas and a golden retriever from Bangkok on Tuesday. She told the customs officials attached to the air intelligence unit (AIU) that she owned all the dogs. However, a senior customs official said, “The four-hour travel for the pedigreed canines, especially the month-old puppies, could have ended as the final flight as they were simply checked in along with other baggage items on the plane. Another passenger, S Rao, who owns a cinema theatre in the Jayanagar region of Bangalore and who accompanied Thangtha, was also detained. Both passengers were fined Rs75,000 each.”
Joint commissioner of customs (AIU) Satish Kumar said, “.. Dogs and other animals have to be declared on the load sheet of the airline as special cargo so that proper temperature is maintained during flight to ensure the safety of the animals.”
However, Jet Airways spokeswoman Srirupa Sen said, “The issue is between the customs and the passenger. The airline has no role in it.”
Later at night she said carriage of live animals was accepted by Jet Airways after verifying relevant documents by the check-in staff and at stations like Bangkok, by local health authorities.
26/06/08 Renni Abraham/Daily News & Analysis

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GMR Infra buys 50 % in InterGen for $1.1 billion

Mumbai: In the largest ever acquisition of a global energy utility by an Indian company, GMR on Wednesday announced the signing of a definitive documentation for the acquisition of 50 per cent stake in the U.S.-based InterGen N.V., a global power generation company.
The transaction is valued at $1.1 billion and GMR Infrastructure (Malta) signed the share purchase agreement with AIG Highstar to acquire the 50-per cent stake. The remaining 50 per cent is held by Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board (OTPPB).
GMR is an infrastructure company with a presence in energy, airports, highways and urban infrastructure. InterGen has power plants across the U.K., the Netherlands, Mexico, Australia and the Philippines, with a total capacity of 12,766 MW.
GMR has an ambitious international business strategy whose focus sectors are energy, airports and aerotropolis (real estate development around airports).
GMR is developing airports in New Delhi, Hyderabad and Istanbul. According to Ashutosh Agarwala, CFO, Strategic Finance, GMR Group, “by 2010-11 airport infrastructure will account for 45-50 per cent of group revenues.”
26/06/08 The Hindu

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Foreign flying schools on govt radar

New Delhi: Several flying schools in Asia may have run into troubled weather with the Indian government planning to withdraw recognition to at least some of them following a spate of accidents and reports of mismanagement. Read On >>

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Indian students stranded in U.S.

In California, more than 100 Indian students training to be pilots have been left stranded after their Aviation Academy abruptly shut-down. Read On >>

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UND Aerospace to Train More Than 200 Pilots From India

Grand Forks, North Dakota: UND Aerospace at the University of North Dakota (UND), announces a three-year agreement with Bharati Vidyapeeth University (BVU) in Pune, India to provide a one-year pilot training program for the BVU Aviation program. Read On >>

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GTAA hints at more fee cuts

In an effort to remain competitive and grow market shares, the Greater Toronto Airports Authority will effective January 2009 slash landing fees for cargo operators by 25 per cent.
The move will follow a three per cent cut in landing fees across the board announced in January this year.
“We’ve also embarked upon a three-pronged marketing development initiative aimed at boosting our global competitiveness while improving our corporate sustainability,” Lloyd McCoomb, the authority’s president and CEO, told members of the Mississauga Board of Trade last week.
More fee reductions are also in the pipeline, aimed at seeking to partly offset high jet fuel prices carriers are facing, while seeking to boost the airport’s own revenues through projected economies of scale, he said.
GTAA is the operator of Canada’s busiest airport, Toronto’s Pearson International, which accounts for a third of all airport movements in the country. Despite being among the few airport jurisdictions in the world that is heavily taxed and that has to pay a rent, and despite being recently named as being among the most uncompetitive airports worldwide— a charge the airport operator has disputed— the airport generated revenues of $26.4 billion.
At present some 76 airlines fly through the airport, with recent additions being Jet Airways, Emirates airlines and Icelandair, while others such as KLM, Lufthansa and Air China have added capacities on this route.
The event was presided over by Jake Dheer, chairman, MBoT, as part of the board’s ongoing executive speaker series.
The board leads a business mission to India from October 17-29, 2008, with cities on the itinerary including Bangalore, Chennai, Mumbai and New Delhi.
26/06/08 Sunil Rao/South Asian Focus, Canada

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Fuel spiral hits SAARC flights

New Delhi: The high price of oil is now all set to spoil your dream of catching a low cost flight to meet loved ones in Pakistan and other neighbouring countries. Naresh Goyal-owned budget carrier JetLite, which had earlier applied to launch flights on new routes like Mumbai-Karachi, Delhi-Lahore and Amritsar-Bangkok, has now decided to put them on hold. The soaring operating costs have instead led the airline to look closely at 25 to 30 short-haul domestic routes for rationalization.
Apart from keeping the proposed flights to Pakistan and the Amritsar-Bangkok sector on hold, low-cost carrier (LCC) JetLite has also decided not to start operation on Kolkata-Dhaka route.
At present, Air India Express is the only Indian LCC that flies abroad. But of its 12 destinations, eight are to the Gulf and the other four are — Singapore, Colombo, Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur. The Kingfisher-Deccan combine which will begin international operation from August-end has proposed budget flights to nearby places like Pakistan. While so far it has not given any application for rescheduling, whether it begins short haul international flights in this cost-hostile environment remains to be seen.
Gupta said JetLite is looking at curtailing short haul flights that are under an hour in duration. It has already withdrawn from Delhi-Chandigarh route.
Air connectivity on short-haul sectors is clearly going to the biggest casualty of the oil price crisis. SpiceJet is also withdrawing many flights on such routes, especially in the south.
24/06/08 Saurabh Sinha/Times of India

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HAL secures copter order from Peru

After several false starts, aircraft maker Hindustan Aeronautics (HAL) has finally hit pay dirt for its much-publicised defence project. The Bangalore-based PSU has bagged two orders for its Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH) from Peru, sources said.
The orders for the 5.5-tonne class (dry weight 3.3 tonne) ALH, christened Dhruv, are for two heli-ambulances to be used by the country's health services.
This is the first international civilian contract bagged by the PSU.
According to sources, the craft has been priced around Rs 40 crore apiece, 10-15 per cent lower than similar machines in its class.
The interiors of the ALH ambulances to be delivered to Peru will be done up in Europe. HAL is in talks with a few firms specialising in interiors and other accessories typically required by heli-ambulances.
Earlier, supply and service contracts with the Myanmarese and Chilean governments fell through either because of political pressure or competitor's lobbying.
24/06/08 Praveen Bose & Ravi Menon/Business Standard

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HAL secures copter order from Peru

After several false starts, aircraft maker Hindustan Aeronautics (HAL) has finally hit pay dirt for its much-publicised defence project. The Bangalore-based PSU has bagged two orders for its Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH) from Peru, sources said.
The orders for the 5.5-tonne class (dry weight 3.3 tonne) ALH, christened Dhruv, are for two heli-ambulances to be used by the country's health services.
This is the first international civilian contract bagged by the PSU.
According to sources, the craft has been priced around Rs 40 crore apiece, 10-15 per cent lower than similar machines in its class.
The interiors of the ALH ambulances to be delivered to Peru will be done up in Europe. HAL is in talks with a few firms specialising in interiors and other accessories typically required by heli-ambulances.
Earlier, supply and service contracts with the Myanmarese and Chilean governments fell through either because of political pressure or competitor's lobbying.
24/06/08 Praveen Bose & Ravi Menon/Business Standard

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Rain dance in foreign skies

New Delhi: There are some great deals on international sectors that holiday makers can avail off this season. For instance, Jet Airways is offering a return airfare of Rs 16,400 (including taxes) on the Mumbai-Singapore sector.
Similarly, Singapore Airlines has a return fare of Rs 35,555 on India-Perth sector while the average fare for most airlines on this sector is around Rs 50,000.
Traditionally, monsoon is a lean season for airlines when they offer cheaper fares to stimulate demand. Though in last few months, airfares have headed north, monsoon might be a good time to pack your suitcases without hurting the pocket.
Besides cheaper fares, some airlines are offering freebies to attract travellers. Emirates is offering free hotel stay in Dubai to it’s first and business-class travellers. The offer is valid from July 1 to August 31.
While on one hand domestic airfares have lost their sheen for leisure travellers, on the other hand, international airlines are offering some great deals for travel in June, July and August.
“There will be international travel momentum. Gulf and Far East carriers will be rolling out many attractive offers for the travellers, as they don’t have to pay fuel taxes that Indian carriers have to.
The value proposition of international destinations might turn out to be better than that of long-haul domestic sectors in many a cases,” says Ram Badrinathan, senior analyst, PhocusWright, a travel market research company.
24/06/08 Vishakha Talreja/Economic Times

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Lufthansa to offer private jets

Wolfgang Mayrhuber, chairman and ceo of German carrier Lufthansa says the airline has recently launched 16 new destinations and is not going to cut any of its current routes despite the rising price of jet fuel.
“Though it is becoming difficult to keep pace with increasing prices of jet fuel, some part of our requirement of fuel is also obtained through hedging. We have to see elasticity of market, depend on different markets, strategise our flexibility and fleet capacity and at the same time meet ecological challenges,” Mayrhuber said.
Lufthansa now offers 7,112 weekly frequencies to 207 destinations in 81 countries. In the Asia-Pacific region, the airline has 762 weekly frequencies to 63 destinations in 20 countries, including 58 frequencies to India.
It sees growth markets in China, India and Russia and is planning to enter the market of providing private jets to industrialists and private companies in China and India.
24/06/08 Aircargo - Asia Pacific, Australia

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Global MRO major Lufthansa Technik to set foot on Indian soil

New Delhi: Lufthansa Technik, the world’ s largest maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) company, will set up a facility in the country, in a joint venture with the Hyderabad-based GMR group. This will be the country’s first foreign-owned, airport maintenance facility.
In the joint venture, Lufthansa Technik will have a 75%, stake, while the rest will be held by its Indian partner. Both the Companies are expected to invest Rs 100 crore in the venture in the initial phase. The 20,000 square meter facility will be located at the New Hyderabad International Airport in Shamshabad, Andhra Pradesh.
The facility will provide base maintenance services (including C- and D-checks) for Airbus A320 family and Boeing 737 aircraft—including 737 Classic and 737 NG (next generation) and is expected to commence operations by the end of 2008. At present, Lufthansa Technik serves the Indian carriers through its facilities outside the country. The Indian MRO market is projected at around $100 million a year at present, and is expected to grow by at least 15% over the next three years.
An MRO ideally needs around 200 aircraft to be viable A report by Ernst & Young has stated that the aviation sector in India, is slated to draw an investment of more than $120 billion by 2020.
24/06/08 Shauvik Ghosh/Financial Express

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Air India memorial relocated

A plaque in memory of the victims of Air India Flight 182 has been rededicated and relocated to a quiet place in Commissioner’s Park.
The monument, a stone atop which sits a bronze plaque listing the names of the 329 men, women and children who died when bombs on the plane were denonated as it flew near the coast of Ireland on June 23, 1987, will now sit in a small area off the Queen Elizabeth Driveway near Dow’s Lake.
The monument is flanked by trees and flowers and faces east towards Ireland.
”Standing here, a certain sense of comfort comes over me that has eluded me for many years,” said Eric Beauchesne, whose father Gaston Armand Beauchesne was a passenger. “When my father and the other unfortunate victims of flight 182 perished, they perished alone in the night ... with no one to witness their final moments.”
Beauchesne said this part of the tragedy was always a difficult reality for him, especially as he felt there was little at home to connect him to it or his father’s death.
“Now, when I stand here ... I can feel that connection,” Beauchesne said. “I feel that we have finally truly brought our families home to rest, always to be remembered and honoured, no longer invisible or alone, and that gives me a great comfort and a sense of peace.”
Secretary of State Jason Kenney said the unveiling of similar memorials in other parts of the country such as Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal, is significant.
23/06/08 Terri Saunders/SunMedia/Canoe.ca, Canada

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Air India families outraged over B.C. temple memorial

Vancouver: The father of an Air India bombing victim is outraged that a Surrey temple held a weekend memorial for the victims while displaying a portrait of the alleged mastermind of the atrocity.
"These people worship him, the killer. That's wrong," said Rattan Singh Kalsi, whose daughter Indira, 21, was among 331 people killed on June 22, 1985. "The Canadian government should wake up and stop these things."
The Dasmesh Darbar temple held its first Air India memorial this weekend with around-the-clock prayers that began Friday morning and ended Sunday, while displaying a picture of Talwinder
Singh Parmar, alleged leader of the deadly plot.
Kalsi said the Surrey temple displays Parmar's photo because it considers him a "martyr, a very good man who did the right thing" to try to create Khalistan, an independent Sikh state.
"They can't achieve Khalistan in India but they certainly succeeded in Canada. There is no Khalistan in India, they'll never be able to achieve it. Here, yes."
Kalsi, of London, Ont. is to speak at an Air India memorial in Toronto Monday.Temple president Sudagar Singh Sandhu said the memorial was suggested by new members when the temple replaced its executive council.
Parmar - the founder of Babba Khalsa, a group that tried to establish Khalistan - was killed by the Indian government in 1992.
The temple considers him a martyr, and that's why his picture is on the wall, Sandhu said.
23/06/08 Katie Mercer and Joe Couture/Canwest News Service/Canada.com, Canada

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Bangladeshi plane's tyres burst, air passengers safe

Kolkata: Air passengers of a private Bangladeshi airlines plane had a close shave after landing at the N S C B International airport on Sunday when two of the aircraft's tyres burst, blocking a taxi track.
The GMG plane, with 48 people on board, was taxing towards the parking bay after landing when the tyres burst, Airports Authority of India (AAI) sources said.
However, all the passengers were safe.
As the airport staff swiftly took over the tyre repair job, with one tyre brought from Dhaka as replacement, the taxi track got blocked for about two hours.
After the repair job the aircraft, with 35 people from Kolkata, flew back to the Bangladesh capital.
AAI officials confirmed that the incident in no way affected air traffic to and from Kolkata.
23/06/08 Sahara Samay

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India-Japan weekly flights to be doubled

New Delhi: India and Japan have agreed to double the weekly flights between the two countries to 42. The move will be effective from March 2010. Under the new agreement, Japanese carriers will be entitled to operate 14 services each on Tokyo-Delhi and Tokyo-Mumbai sectors in 2010 from the existing 7 services each on these routes. The Indian carriers will also be able to operate up to 28 services a week from multiple points in India to Tokyo.
Currently, only Air India offers its services on the India-Japan sector. The public sector airline operates four flights each to Tokyo and Osaka. Two Japanese carriers — Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airways — offers its services to India.
“The Japanese government has agreed to allot 20 additional slots effective from March 2010 at the congested Narita international airport at Tokyo to Indian carriers. They have also assured that they shall be making sincere efforts to allot 28 additional slots at the Narita or Haneda airport in a timely manner for the Indian carriers to operate additional 14 services to Tokyo,” a civil aviation ministry statement said. The fresh round of negotiations would boost air traffic on the India-Japan sector.
23/06/08 Economic Times

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Kingfisher Airlines vie for Heathrow slots

London: Etihad, the Abu Dhabi-based airline, and Kingfisher Airlines of India are negotiating deals to gain access to more take-off and landing slots at London Heathrow.
Long-haul carriers are taking over more of the prized slots at Heathrow from short-haul services as widebody jets replace smaller aircraft and some incumbent carriers seek to cash in on the slot trade. The trend is allowing passenger numbers at Europe’s most congested airport to grow without an increase in flights.
Kingfisher is expected to make Heathrow its first long-haul destination when it starts international flights from India this year.
It has obtained an initial pair of slots from the Heathrow co-ordinator, but is negotiating to take over a second pair of slots from KLM. The Dutch subsidiary of Air France-KLM said it planned to suspend its Rotterdam-Heathrow service in order to lease out the slots. It was seeking “to maximise its slot portfolio” and was “talking to various parties”.
In the past year it has given up its Heathrow-Eindhoven service and cut its daily flights to Amsterdam to make slots available to its Northwest Airlines, its US partner, for new daily services between Heathrow and Detroit, Minneapolis and Seattle.
23/06/08 Kevin Done/Financial Times, UK

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Boardroom in the clouds

The country’s high net worth individuals (HNI) are acquiring their own private jets at record speed.
So how can the aircraft makers be far behind. US-based Cessna and Hawker Beechcraft are running neck and neck in their fight to dominate the Indian market. Other players, especially Gulfstream, Embraer and Bombardier, are fast catching up in their segments too.
All the major players have already announced or are preparing to launch major distribution and after-sales maintenance facilities in the country to expand and catch a major chunk of the Indian private aircraft market. Recently, Hawker Beechcraft opened its exclusive maintenance and distribution office through its exclusive franchise partnership with Gurgaon based Interglobe Aviation at the Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi. But India still has a long way to go in terms of developing the market.
The country’s more than 1,00,000 HNIs with assets worth more than $1 million are snapping up these mean flying machines at mind-boggling prices for their business and personal use without a thought for banalities like the environment.
So after the Bentleys and the Rolls Royces, India’s super rich are now looking at Gulfstreams and Aerion jets. From sleek VLJs (very light jets) that come with a price tag of around $5 million to Gulfstreams with a price tag of $50 million, travelling in style never got better. At least six HNIs from India have already placed orders for the supersonic Aerion jet priced at a whopping $80 million. The aircraft is expected to come into production in 2012, but already six Indians among 80 globally have put up around $5,00,000 to book their Aerion.
22/06/08 Shauvik Ghosh/Financial Express

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Oman Air’s Bangalore flight to promote tourism

Muscat: National carrier Oman Air will strive to promote Muscat as a hub for the increasing number of IT professionals travelling from Bangalore, India’s ‘Silicon Valley’, to the Gulf taking advantage of its newly-launched operations to the southern Indian city.
Key officials of the 100 per cent state-owned airline also predicted the new service to result in a big rise in tourist traffic between the two countries and revealed plans for more destinations in India, including Mangalore and Ahmedabad.
The five-times-a-week flight between Muscat and Bangalore, operated by Boeing 737-700 aircraft, leaves Muscat every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday at 9pm and arrives in Bangalore at 1.50am. The return flight, on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday, departs Bangalore at 2.50pm, landing here at 4.40pm. Balushi said besides “very cheap introductory offers”, the airline had also worked out special holiday packages in cooperation with hotels in Oman to woo tourists from the Karnataka state, of which Bangalore is the capital, to the Sultanate.
22/06/08 Ravindra Nath

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25% Of Aircraft Orders At Risk

A new analysis finds that a quarter or more of the commercial aircraft backlog at Boeing Co. and Airbus could be at risk as high oil prices continue to batter airlines.
The two aircraft builders have taken comfort that the hardest-hit segment of the industry--U.S. airlines--accounts for just 12% of their backlogs. But Robert Stallard, a director at Macquarie Capital, warns that orders from undercapitalized startups in Asia and Europe and carriers with overly aggressive growth plans also are at risk. He believes 25-30% of the backlog of commercial aircraft orders could be deferred or canceled.
Take SpiceJet Airlines, a low-cost Indian startup. Stallard questions whether the carrier has a strong enough balance sheet to secure credit for the 16 Boeing 737-800s it has ordered and says SpiceJet might not even qualify for a sale/leaseback. "The question that has yet to be answered is not whether there will be a downturn, but how bad it will be," says Stallard.
There are two schools of thought on how to answer. Optimists believe that with backlogs equal to seven years worth of production, Boeing and Airbus can afford to lose orders and still make it to the industry's next up-cycle with minimal pain. They argue that demand for air travel should continue to grow in places like China and India, making up for declines in other regions.
The second, more negative answer is that a step change in global energy demand has created a permanent era of high prices and sent the airline industry into uncharted territory.
20/06/08 Joseph C. Anselmo/Aviation Week, NY

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Canadian-Indian couple still don't know why infant son died in aircraft

New Delhi: A Canadian couple of Indian origin are spending a harrowing time here, awaiting the autopsy report of their four-and-a-half-month-old son child who died minutes after landing at the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA).
The parents are staying on in the capital for the autopsy report. "The doctors at Safdarjung Hospital have assured me that they will come out with the post-mortem report by June 23," said Mohan Babu. They were originally scheduled to go to Bangalore straightaway.
The child's body was taken to Safdarjung Hospital an hour after the doctors at IGIA declared him dead. The NRI couple were flying by Jet Airways from Toronto via Brussels. The flight landed at IGIA around 11.30 pm on Wednesday.
The cabin crew had asked the mother, Sujata Mohan, to feed the child during descent, a common procedure with infants. "My wife was asked to do the same when we flew from Toronto to Brussels. But when we were over Delhi's airspace, I could feel a drop in oxygen level in the aircraft," said Mohan Babu.
"We could feel the pressure in our ears while landing here. My child's death was an unusual incident. We just don't know why it happened. It could be due to choking. Is there any agency to look into it? The airline crew and officials were insensitive. There must be an international aviation rule which could deliver justice to us," Mohan Babu wondered.
Jet Airways spokesperson A Shivanandan said: "The child did not die in the aircraft. He died outside." He did not want to say anything else as the police were investigating the matter.
20/06/08 IANS/Sify

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After purser's death, AI crew blame stress

Mumbai: It was an opportunity of a lifetime for Avinash Mhatre (54) to be a part of a ferry flight, bringing in a new aircraft to join the existing fleet of a company. But it turned out to be a fatal ride for this Air India (AI) staffer.Mhatre was on his way from Hamburg to Mumbai when he died of a heart attack on Wednesday evening.
A day after his death, Mhatre's family said he was fit enough to take flight. While Mhatre's family kept silent on the circumstances that might have led to the heart attack, most crewmembers, who knew him as a “very jovial and fit person”, pointed at a “greater malaise”—work stress.
“Fatigue is gripping most of the cabin crew due to the shortage of staff,'' said a crewmember on condition of anonymity. “The policy has been to cut down on the number of cabin crew staff. However, with a rise in the number of flights, the burden is on the existing staffers,'' she added.The crewmembers also said the company had not recruited more staff to meet the mounting work pressure.
“They want smiling faces on flights. How do I smile when I am piled with so much work?'' asked another cabin staffer. “Due to stress factors, several crewmembers are developing high-blood pressure, migraine and back problems early in life,'' she added.
Though Mhatre's family refused to comment on the issue, those close to him told TOI that he was contemplating voluntary retirement, not because of medical reasons, but because he was “weary of consistent fatigue and internal politics'' taking prominence. “We undergo check-ups regularly and his diagnosis had shown no disorder or ailment,'' said a crewmember.
21/06/08 Chinmayi Shalya/Times of India

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Sikh temple holds memorial for bomb victims

A British Columbia Sikh temple will hold its first memorial service ever beginning today for 331 people killed in two 1985 bombings targeting Air India.
Inderjit Singh Bains, head of the Dashmesh Darbar temple in Surrey, B. C., said it's about time his congregation honoured the innocent victims of Canada's worst case of mass murder.
Three hundred and thirty-one people have died without reason," he said Thursday, referring to the June 23, 1985 bombing of Air India Flight 182 and an explosion in luggage from another Air India flight at Tokyo's Narita Airport.
Two baggage handlers died in the airport explosion and 329 passengers and crew were killed when Flight 182 went down off the coast of Ireland.
The temple is holding a three-day service, called an akhand path, that involves round-the-clock reading of the Sikh holy book.
After the reading is completed Sunday, Bains said at least two people will speak about the bombings that affected so many lives.
But the memorial service is stirring up controversy because on the wall of the temple dining room hangs a framed photo of Talwinder Singh Parmar, the man who allegedly masterminded the bombings.
20/06/08 Canadian Press/The North Bay Nugget, Canada

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Age bar may lead to freeze in air pacts

New Delhi: The government may put a brake on further liberalisation of bilateral traffic rights. The civil aviation ministry has said that if the Centre does not relax the five-year domestic flying eligibility criteria for domestic carriers wanting to fly abroad, it may be forced to freeze further negotiations on bilateral traffic rights.
Claiming that more access to foreign airlines would lead to their dominance in international air traffic to and from India, the ministry said this would make it difficult for domestic carriers to compete when they become eligible to fly abroad. The submission was also made to the group of ministers (GoM) deliberating on the draft civil aviation policy in its last meeting.
“If domestic carriers are not allowed to operate internationally without serving five years in the domestic market, foreign airlines would gain an unfair edge and expand their wings here. The domestic carriers could be rendered uncompetitive when they are eligible to fly abroad,” a civil aviation ministry official said.
If the GoM headed by external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee doesn’t decide in favour of startup airlines to fly overseas, the official warned that “there could be a freeze on further liberalisation of bilateral traffic rights”.
20/06/08 Nirbhay Kumar/Economic Times

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Japan, India Agree to Double Flight Services

Tokyo: Japan and India agreed to double the weekly number of round-trip flight services between the two countries in 2010, the Japanese transport ministry said Thursday.
Under the agreement, the number of flights will rise to 42, ministry officials said. The number of destinations will be doubled to eight in Japan and six in India.
Japan Airlines is considering opening a route between Japan's Narita, east of Tokyo, and Mumbai, and another between Narita and Chennai. All Nippon Airways is planning to start flights between Narita and Delhi, sources familiar with the matter said.
The agreement came after the two countries ended two-day bilateral civil aviation talks here Wednesday. Narita International Airport is slated to expand the number of departure and arrival slots in 2010.
19/06/08 Jiji Press/Japan Corporate News (press release), Japan

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Jet Airways Hong Kong Strategy Takes Flight

Hong Kong: Jet Airways is looking to shift perceptions of Indian brands in Hong Kong as the airline makes its debut in the city. The launch came after the the Hong Kong and Indian Governments broke a longstanding deadlock on bilateral air traffic rights by agreeing to increase services between the two countries to 27 new direct flight services for each side on India-Hong Kong routes last December.
Jet has tasked global agency-of-record M&C Saatchi, along with Starcom, with its Hong Kong launch campaign, which accompanies its first route to Mumbai.
"This is more than just a campaign to launch a new route but to debut Jet Airways as a new brand in Hong Kong and China, targeting current and potential frequent business travellers to India," said Sylvia Lee, managing director at M&C Saatchi Hong Kong. Jet Airways regional manager Koh Kay Yew said that the new campaign needs "to educate the Hong Kong public, as some may confuse us with the budget airline JetStar".
"They may have a misconception that Indian airlines are not so premium, so we are trying to set the mindset right with our corporate slogan 'Change the way you fly to India'," Koh added.
The campaign is based around outdoor executions that attempt to reinforce the airline's links to business travellers, via the tagline 'Big business has arrived'.
19/06/08 Li, Benjamin/RedOrbit, USA

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Infant dies on flight, NRI parents say he was healthy

New Delhi: Minutes from landing at the Indira Gandhi International Airport on June 17, Krishnamoorthy and Sujata Mohan noticed that their four-and-a-half-month-old baby, Aditya, had stopped suckling. He was declared dead on arrival.
Travelling on Jet Airways Flight 229 from Toronto to Bangalore via Delhi, the Mohans are Non Resident Indians living in Canada, where Krishnamoorthy, 37, works for a software company. Their baby, Aditya, was a Canadian citizen. He was the couple's first baby.
During the descent of the aircraft, Krishnamoorthy said the airline staff advised his wife to feed the baby to ease the air pressure in his ears. “But while feeding, he (Aditya) suddenly stopped suckling and went still,” said Krishnamoorthy.
The cabin crew was immediately alerted. The pilot made an announcement, requesting any doctor on board to help.
Even though one of the passengers was a doctor and came forward to help, he could not revive the baby. “He (the doctor) examined the baby, but didn't sound very positive,” said Krishnamoorthy. The cabin crew, meanwhile, alerted the ground staff to keep a doctor on hand, who, upon examining the baby, declared him dead on arrival.
The Mohans are in shock. “I don't know why it happened —whether it was the level of oxygen or the temperature in the cabin. Prior to travelling we had a medical check done on Aditya. The doctor said he was a healthy boy,” said Krishnamoorthy.
The couple alleged that the airline personnel were of little help when they entered the immigration hall carrying the baby.
20/06/08 Sobhana K, Preeti Jha/Expressindia.com

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Air India discusses reducing flights to New York, decision likely soon

Mumbai: Surging air turbine fuel prices and mounting losses may compel Air India to reduce the frequency some of its international flights including its recently-introduced New York flights from both Mumbai and Delhi.
The matter was understood to have been discussed at a meeting of senior Air India officials recently.
"The meeting discussed the issue of reducing the frequency of some of our flights, including the Delhi-New York and Mumbai-New York non-stop services. However, due to divergent views, no final call was taken," an Air India official told PTI today on strict condition of anonymity.
According to the official, one of the proposals discussed was to cut the New York flights by half from both the destinations.
Currently, there are seven flights a week from each destination. Apart from high operational costs, the load factor on both the routes is also understood to be below the air-carrier's expectations. "This is also weighing on the minds of the management," the official said.
The officials discussed reducing the flights to three from New Delhi and four from Mumbai in view of the not-so-encouraging load factor," he said.
19/06/08 PTI/Economic Times

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KF Airlines's int'l plans may hit severe turbulence

Kingfisher Airlines international plans may hit severe turbulence. The DGCA (Directorate General of Civil Aviation) has issued a draft circular to all airlines which seeks to increase flying experience requirements of the pilot and co-pilot from the current norm of 150 hours to 4000 hours.
Kingfisher's international operations may be grounded even before they take off, if a new draft proposal by the DGCA on flying experience requirements goes through. The draft proposal called "Operations Circular No.4 of 2008" issued by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation on the June 17 talks about implementing new rules for flying wide body aircraft.
Until now, airlines like Jet Airways and Indian airlines who fly internationally have pilots and co-pilots with a minimum 150 hours of flying experience individually, which is also the international norm.
The new draft circular now says:
* A Pilot in Command or PIC will need a minimum of 5000 hours of flying time. This includes a minimum of 2000 hours on a jet and another 1500 hours as a co-pilot on a relevant wide body aircraft on international routes.
*A co pilot will need atleast 4000 hours of flying of which 2000 hours should be jet experience
If this proposal is accepted, it will halt international plans of Kingfisher, slated to take off in August. Sources say, pilots with 4000 hours of flying will not agree to fly as co-pilots as they would have already assumed command. Moreover, it would be next to impossible to get co-pilots with this sort of experience.
CNBC-TV18 learns that Kingfisher Airlines has written to the Civil Aviation Ministry questioning the rationale of the proposed norms.
19/06/08 Swati Khandelwal, CNBC-TV18/Moneycontrol.com

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AI, Boeing MRO pact likely in 3 months

Air India and Boeing, according to industry sources, are seeking a majority stake in the proposed maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) venture that is supposed to come up at Nagpur.
The two firms are yet to find a third partner for the JV, sources said. Lufthansa Technik, Essar Group and SIA Engineering are said to be in the running.
Also, the memorandum of understanding may be signed within three months.
However, Jitendra Bhargava, executive director, corporate communications, Air India, told DNA Money, "All we can say at this moment is that we are making a steady progress. I regret we cannot share any more details on the MoU till it is finalised or sealed."
Once operational, the venture will be able to undertake the entire range of MRO activities, including structural repairs and interior modifications to aircraft.
Industry sources estimate Boeing's investment in the MRO venture could go up to $185 million. The aircraft manufacturer, say analysts, is keen on taking advantage of India's rising MRO requirement.
19/06/08 Madhumita Mookerji/DNA MONEY/Sify

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New private airlines likely to get international wings

New Delhi: Domestic airlines may get some help in getting more passengers and business.
Sources in the Civil Aviation Ministry have told CNN-IBN that it is in favour of scrapping a clause which says an airline must have operated in the domestic market before it can go global.
If the proposal is accepted by a Group of Ministers, it will now allow airlines like Kingfisher, Spice Jet, Indigo and Go Air to operate flights abroad. This move will put these airlines, now operating at a loss, on the fast track road to profit as they can fuel at the international rate, which is 35 per cent lower than the domestic rate offered. They can also divert aircraft sitting idle due to saturation in some domestic sectors on the international route. Also there are many international low cost carriers which are coming to india and flying out Indian passengers. This new move will allow Indian carriers to keep the outbound Indian passenger.
Only Air India, Indian and Jet Airways currently meet the minimum eligibility criteria to operate international flights.
18/06/08 CNN-IBN

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Plane good news: Board domestic, fly international

New Delhi: Travellers flying out of India could have a wider choice of airlines by the end of the year. SpiceJet, Indigo, GoAir, Kingfisher, even Paramount, could fly international.
CNN-IBN learns from top Civil Aviation Ministry sources that the minimum five-year domestic operation criteria for starting international flights is likely to be scrapped.
It will be replaced by technical criteria, the number and the kind of aircraft needed for international flights, pilots with the right flying experience and other personnel and international compliance norms.
The government has three months to clear it with the Empowered Group of Ministers. Any delay will make it difficult to push through as the election process starts kicking in.
18/06/08 Karma Paljor/CNN-IBN

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Druk Air cuts flights to offset fuel hike

Druk Air, Bhutan's national airline, has temporarily slashed its flight frequency on several routes to deal with the 25 percent average hike for the year 2007-08 in aviation turbine fuel prices and the lean tourist season.
Flights to Bangkok have been reduced to six from eight flights a week, with the Friday flight via Kolkata and the Saturday flight via Dhaka gone to the chopping block. The four flights a week on five routes from Paro to Dhaka, Delhi, Gaya, Katmandu and Kolkata, have been cut by a flight each.
Druk Air expects to make a cost saving of 28 percent of the operating cost, or Nu 6.5 million a week, from the reduced flying frequency.
It is also timely for the national airline as passenger numbers drop in July, August and September, the lean season for tourists visiting Bhutan.
The regular air timetable will, however, resume with the start of the autumn tourist season in October, said Druk Air officials.
Following the global crude oil price hike, state-owned oil firms in India have increased additional fuel surcharges by Rs 300 on short-haul routes and Rs 550 on long-haul routes per passenger to cushion the 18.5 percent increase in price of aviation turbine fuel in India
The fuel is transported from the Hashimara aviation fuel station in West Bengal, India.
A finance officer in Druk Air, Rinzin Dorji, said that aviation turbine fuel costs Rs 56.10 in Kolkata, Rs 51.88 in Delhi, Rs 65 in Katmandu, Rs 52.95 in Gaya, Nu 54.31 in Dhaka, Nu 43.80 in Bangkok and Nu 63.17 in Bhutan.
Druk Air also uplifts fuel from Bangkok, Delhi and Kolkata, where the prices are relatively lower.
19/06/08 Kuensel, Buhutan's National Newspaper, Bhutan

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Singapore Airlines may raise No of flights from India

New Delhi:A traffic between Indian and Singapore increasing by nearly 25 per cent in the past year, Singapore Airlines is looking at increasing the number of flights from the country, a top company official said.
“We are always open to expansion. We are looking at increasing our flights from sectors like Bangalore. But then, our plans are subject to government regulations and the slots that we get,” the airline’s North India Manager Manjit Grewal said, adding the airline was also planning to add more destinations in the country.
When asked why the airlines was expanding its operations when the industry as a whole is trying to prune its services, he said, “We are an international airlines and we go only to those places where we get the passengers. We see the Indian sector growing.”
Explaining the rationale behind the expansion, Grewal said the airline had always enjoyed a good load factor in its operation from New Delhi.
18/06/08 Expressindia.com

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Bangalore Airport gets French Connection!!!

French Connection, Britain’s leading hi-fashion brand entered Bangalore city with the launch of its first store at Lifestyle Oasis followed by its second store at the Bangalore International Airport. Launched in India by the Murjani Group in April 2007, French Connection, now has 10 stores across the country.
Announcing the launch of the first store, Bhavna Darira, Marketing Head, Murjani Group says, “Bangalore is an important city for us and we have aggressive plans for the brand which includes launch of 6 stores by the end of 2008 -09.
Being a fashion conscience destination, with the launch of French Connection, we are confident of creating a strong connect with the consumers who resonate with the brand in being edgy, stylish and discerning.”
With 800sq.ft of shopping space, French Connection at Lifestyle Oasis introduces the Spring Summer 08 Collection, the first of four collections for the year.
Women can indulge in decades of style inspired by the romanticism of the 70’s, casual sports layering of the 80’s to touches of modernism, reminiscent of the early 90’
18/06/08 Fibre2fashion.com

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Deccan Lanka bags global contract

Domestic airline Deccan Aviation Lanka has been awarded the crew rotation contract for First Choice Airways, which operates flights from Europe to Sri Lanka and the Maldives. For the second consecutive year, Deccan aircraft will be utilized to transfer crew and staff of First Choice Airways between Colombo and Maldives. The twice weekly rotation from May through October is being cited by industry sources as a strong signal of the long term commitment and interest in Sri Lanka by major charter airlines and tour operators.
Deccan Aviation Lanka has in recent years quietly emerged as a leading player in the domestic and regional general aviation market. Interestingly, Deccans largest shareholder, Deccan Aviation India, is now a part of Vijay Mallya controlled UB Group, which also owns Kingfisher Airlines. The company however did not wish to comment on whether the entry of the UB Group would have any impact on their plans for Sri Lanka.
Operating a fleet of 32 aircraft from 15 UK airports, First Choice is a UK based permier airline that flies six million customers on more than 30,000 flights to around 60 destinations world-wide every year, including the Maldives, Mexico and resorts across the Mediterranean. Founded in 1987, the airline is now a part of travel giant TUI Travel PLC.
Operating a Beechcraft 1900 for the operations, Deccan will transfer crew twice weekly between Colombo and Male' international airports for a 6 month period.
18/06/08 Daily Mirror, Sri Lanka

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Deccan Lanka bags global contract

Domestic airline Deccan Aviation Lanka has been awarded the crew rotation contract for First Choice Airways, which operates flights from Europe to Sri Lanka and the Maldives. For the second consecutive year, Deccan aircraft will be utilized to transfer crew and staff of First Choice Airways between Colombo and Maldives. The twice weekly rotation from May through October is being cited by industry sources as a strong signal of the long term commitment and interest in Sri Lanka by major charter airlines and tour operators.
Deccan Aviation Lanka has in recent years quietly emerged as a leading player in the domestic and regional general aviation market. Interestingly, Deccans largest shareholder, Deccan Aviation India, is now a part of Vijay Mallya controlled UB Group, which also owns Kingfisher Airlines. The company however did not wish to comment on whether the entry of the UB Group would have any impact on their plans for Sri Lanka.
Operating a fleet of 32 aircraft from 15 UK airports, First Choice is a UK based permier airline that flies six million customers on more than 30,000 flights to around 60 destinations world-wide every year, including the Maldives, Mexico and resorts across the Mediterranean. Founded in 1987, the airline is now a part of travel giant TUI Travel PLC.
Operating a Beechcraft 1900 for the operations, Deccan will transfer crew twice weekly between Colombo and Male' international airports for a 6 month period.
18/06/08 Daily Mirror, Sri Lanka

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Jet Airways eyes code sharing in China

Shanghai: Jet Airways is working on plans to ambit in China by entering into code sharing deals with local airlines to connect Mumbai with more cities including Beijing. It is in talks with three major Chinese airlines on deals for exchanging seats and connectivity to different cities in India and China.
“We can offer the whole of India to Chinese carriers. Similarly, we expect them to offer us access to different cities in China,” Sudheer Raghavan, Chief Commercial Officer of Jet Airways said after a function to mark the launch of Mumbai-Shanghai-San Francisco service making Jet the first Indian carrier to connect the three commercial hubs across the world. Talks with Chinese carriers- Air China, China Eastern and Shanghai Airlines-are in different stages of progress and a final decision is awaited, he said.
Jet Airways will also invest as much as $15 million in setting up its own air-cargo unit. The carrier expects to begin flying freighters by the middle of next year.
Jet wants to join state-owned Air India in flying freighters as surging fuel prices and cutthroat competition squeeze margins on passenger flights.
17/06/08 Saibal Dasgupta/Times of India

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Qatar Airways eyes more destinations in India

Qatar Airways seeks more opportunities in India and looks forward to opening up of further routes in the country, chief executive officer Akbar al-Baker has said.
Qatar Airways currently operates 58 flights a week from Doha to nine cities in India - Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram, Hyderabad, Kozhikode and Nagpur.
Kozhikode is the airline’s second route launch of 2008, following the launch of non-stop flights between Doha and the southern Chinese industrial city of Guangzhou in March.
On November 10, Qatar Airways begins non-stop scheduled flights to Houston.
Al-Baker said the airline plans to take delivery of its third Boeing 777 aircraft this summer, which will be the start of a fleet expansion programme over the next few years with an average of one aircraft joining the airline every month.
Deliveries will include first Boeing 777-200 Long Range version from November, which will be capable of flying non-stop to any key international destination from Doha. Qatar Airways currently has outstanding orders for more than 200 aircraft worth over $30bn.
18/06/08 Gulf Times, Qatar

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Seven Star Aviation to promote Romania to India market

Mumbai: In a bid to promote offbeat destinations that have a potential in India, inbound and outbound tour operator Seven Star Aviation Services has announced that it will promote Romania and its products in the India market. This will perhaps be the first concentrated effort by an Indian operator to sell Romania in India. The company has been in talks with United European Airways to commence direct flights from Bucharest to Ahmedabad and New Delhi. The deal is expected to come through in August 2008. Speaking about the products that Romania has to offer, Nailesh Mashru, chairman and MD, Seven Star Aviation Services said, "Romania has a mixture of beaches, hill stations and spas. In fact it is very popular for its mud therapies. In 2006-07, about 2000 tourists from India visited Romania, mostly for its spa and wellness therapies that last from seven days to 45 days." He added, "We have been in talks with the tourism board and the consulate of Romania to iron out visa-related issues, and everything should be in place by August this year. Our office in Bucharest should be operational in July 2008."
18/06/08 Andrea Lopez/Express TravelWorld

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Emirates to hire Indian crew, ties up with air hostess academie

Mumbai: The Dubai-based Emirates airline, the largest customer of Airbus including the A380, is hoping to employ more airhostesses and staff from India, heightening competition in a market where local airlines are finding it hard to secure talent. Read On >>

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Int’l carriers find India operations profitable

Mumbai: At a time when air-carriers across the globe are cutting down on unprofitable routes, airlines like SriLankan Airlines, Gulf-based carriers like Emirates and Etihad Airways amongst others are upbeat about getting access to newer Markets in India.
Senaka Fernando, regional manager, Indian sub-continent and Maldives, SriLankan Airlines, told FE, “The upcoming India-Sri Lanka cricket series in July-August will attract thousands of Indian tourists to Sri Lanka. In lieu of high fuel prices, we are mitigating our operating costs, but Indian destinations have a huge potential in terms of passenger volumes and hence, we cannot ignore India as a destination.”
Orhan Abbas, vice-president of India and Nepal, Emirates, adds, “Though fuel costs are high, we as airlines have to face the situation and deal with it accordingly. The Indian market is a huge pie, so we shall be introducing 18 additional flights which takes the strength to 132 flights every week to and fro India.”
Similarly, Etihad Airways has recently signed a codeshare agreement with Jet Airways to have greater access to fliers across India. The codeshare agreement which comes into effect from July 1, between Abu Dhabi and the Indian cities of Delhi and Mumbai will provide additional connection opportunities from key destination, including Damascus, Beirut and Jeddah in the Middle East as well as Geneva, Munich etc.
18/06/08 Shaheen Mansuri/Financial Express

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Traditional Keralite reception for Doha-Kozhikode flight

Kozhikode: Qatar Airways Flight QR 1284 took off from Doha yesterday at 1.10am Doha time and landed in Kozhikode (formerly known as Calicut) at 8am to a traditional Keralite reception, marking its inaugural flight to the bustling south Indian city.
It is the third destination of the airways to the state, ninth to India and 83rd worldwide.
Akbar Al Baker, CEO of Qatar Airways flew with the international media on its maiden flight to Kozhikode. The Airbus A-320 also carried its first batch of passengers. The aircraft can accommodate 132 economy class and 12 business class passengers.
The four-hour non-stop flight connecting yet another destination in Kerala to the region will fly daily. The airline, in its endeavour to make Doha a major aviation hub in the region, is planning to add new aircraft to its fleet.
There was festivity in the air as Captain Alvaros made a perfect touchdown. Young women clad in Kasavu saris of cream and gold, with jasmine flowers adorning their hair welcomed the invited guests and dignitaries. The hall at the airport where the ceremony took place was decorated with 'poo kalam' – the traditional carpet of fresh flowers Kerala is famous for.
17/06/08 Pratibha Umashankar/Khaleej Times, United Arab Emirates

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Jet Airways shelves JV plan for cargo unit

Mumbai: Jet Airways India has reportedly scrapped a plan to form a joint venture (JV) for its proposed cargo airline. The company is learnt to be considering setting up its own air-cargo unit with an investment of up to US$15mn.
Talks with Deutsche Lufthansa on forming a cargo JV didn't work out, Chief Commercial Officer Sudheer Raghavan was quoted as saying in Shanghai today. The carrier expects to begin flying freighters by the middle of next year, he added.
Jet's cargo unit will be equipped with at least three leased Boeing 737 passenger planes converted into freighters, Raghavan said. The planes will be taken from JetLite, the airline's low-cost unit. The carrier needs to get permission to transform the planes from the aircraft owners, he said.
The company made its maiden flight to Shanghai from Mumbai. The service, the carrier's first to China, continues onto San Francisco. Jet plans to start more routes between China and India, to possibly include flights to Beijing and Guangzhou, Raghavan said.
16/06/08 India Infoline.com

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Oman Air launches Bangalore-Muscat flight

Bangalore: As part of its expansion plans, Oman Air on Monday announced a five-times-a-week flight to Bangalore from Muscat.
Close on the heels of connecting Kozhikode, Oman Air began operations to IT hub Bangalore, making it as its tenth destination in India and the 12th in the Indian sub-continent, the Airlines Country Manager Muhammad Salem told a press conference here.
Oman Air after pulling out of Gulf Air and operating independently with its government support also charted a fleet expansion plan, he said. It would add two 737 Boeing this year and five similar aircraft next year.
Besides this, five Air Bus 330, 200 and 300 will also join the fleet next year, he said.
The carrier, which currently operates 73 flights into India, was looking at expanding to destinations such as Mangalore, Ahmedabad, Amritsar, which it considers as high density areas, Salem said.
16/06/08 PTI/The Hindu

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Chandrika Kumaratunga ‘detained’ at Srinagar airport

Former Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga faced an embarrassing situation when she was ‘detained’ at the Srinagar airport after officials failed to identify her on arrival to take part in a SAARC cultural event, the Kashmir Times reported yesterday.
According to the report security officials had refused to allow Ms. Kumaratunga to leave the Srinagar airport on May 24 as she did not have a special visa and prior Home Ministry permission to participate in the event organized by the South Asia Foundation.
Her repeated pleas that she was a former president of Sri Lanka and that she was in Kashmir on the invitation of the Indian government had fallen on deaf ears.
Later the Sri Lankan High Commission in New Delhi intervened on her behalf and obtained a directive from the Home Ministry for Ms. Kumaratunga to exit the airport.
The newspaper also reported similar incident that also occurred last month when former Pakistani minister and human rights activist Ansar Burney deported him back to Dubai after he arrived in New Delhi to attend a conference on terrorism.
16/06/08 Daily Mirror, Sri Lanka

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Jet Airways touches down in China

Shanghai: Jet Airways on Saturday became the first Indian private airline to launch flights to China, starting a service that will connect the thriving financial hubs of Mumbai, Shanghai and San Francisco.
With trade between India and China growing by more than 50 per cent last year to $38 billion, the airline was looking to tap the rapidly expanding business traffic between the two countries, Chief Commercial Officer Sudheer Raghavan told The Hindu. He was speaking hours before the airline’s first flight from Mumbai touched down at Pudong airport here late on Saturday night. Mr. Raghavan said Jet Airways was also looking to establish a strong presence in China beyond Shanghai. The airline is currently in talks with several Chinese air carriers, including China Eastern Airlines, Air China and Shanghai Airlines, to set up codeshare arrangements to other destinations in China, and also to the United States.
“We are definitely not going to stay in one city,” he said. “Subject to the availability of air services rights, we ourselves will seriously look at cities like Beijing and Guangzhou. As China’s second-tier cities become successful financial and commercial centres, we certainly will look at opportunities to fly there.”
Mr. Raghavan stressed that the airline was not relying on traffic from India to fill the seats.
16/06/08 Ananth Krishnan/The Hindu

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Jet Air Plans $15 Million Cargo Unit After Axing Venture Plan

Jet Airways (India) Ltd., the nation's biggest domestic carrier, will invest as much as $15 million in setting up its own air-cargo unit after scrapping plans to form a venture.
The carrier expects to begin flying freighters by the middle of next year, Chief Commercial Officer Sudheer Raghavan said in an interview today in Shanghai. Talks with Deutsche Lufthansa AG, Germany's biggest carrier, about forming a venture ``didn't work out,'' he added without elaboration.
Jet wants to join state-owned Air India in flying freighters as surging fuel prices and cutthroat competition squeeze margins on passenger flights. The country, home to about a sixth of the world's population, has less than 10 all-cargo planes at present, according to Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation.
``That's a miniscule number'' so ``there is space for more cargo carriers,'' said Binit Somaia, the aviation advisory company's Sydney-based director for India and the Middle East. Still, ``it would help to have a partnership with a global operator.''
The airline's cargo unit will be equipped with at least three leased Boeing Co. 737 passenger planes converted into freighters, Raghavan said. The planes will be taken from JetLite, the carrier's low-fare unit. The carrier needs to get permission to transform the planes from the aircraft owners, Raghavan said.
16/06/08 Irene Shen/Bloomberg

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Emirates adds 5,900 new seats a week into India

Emirates is to add 18 new flights a week into India. The increased frequencies, starting July 1 in time for the holiday season, add an extra 5,900 seats a week, and mean Emirates will offer 132 flights a week to India, the highest of any international carrier in to the country.
The ramping up of services, in the face of rising fuel costs and cost-cutting in European and North American carriers, threatens a price war on routes between India and the Gulf routes. Emirates is not alone in adding new flights: Etihad currently has 28 flights a week into India, and will add Calicut and Channai in August. The UAE and Indian governments have nee discussing a new open skies policy between the two countries.
Air Arabia and Jazeera Airways, the region's two established low cost carriers, are also adding new routes, and will be joined by new operators. India's Jet Airways is reported to be launching its Jet-Lite brand into the Gulf, and Air-India Express plans new routes. Emirates, the elephant in the room, should have its own low-cost brand up and running within the year.
15/06/08 Kipp Report, United Arab Emirates

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6-hr delay in take-off creates ruckus

Chennai: Passengers had a harrowing experience after a Chennai-Bangkok Indian flight was delayed by more than six hours at the Anna International terminal of the airport, on Sunday. The flight was scheduled to depart at 10.30 a.m, but left only at 5 p.m.
Irritated by the prolonged delay, many of the passengers picked up a quarrel with the airline and airport staff from 12 noon. Some of the 87 passengers kicked up a ruckus and even abused the airline and airport staff alleging that the airline failed to inform them about the delay in advance.
The passengers had completed the formalities and were waiting for the flight, when Indian announced at 9 a.m. that the flight would be delayed and has been re-scheduled to 3 p.m.
However, some of the passengers, who were already upset that the airline did not inform them before 7 am about the delay, were further peeved when Indian again re-scheduled the flight to 5 p.m.
One of the passengers flung a plate filled with food and started to quarrel with the airline and airport staff alleging that the airline was putting the passengers in trouble. He had to be pacified after much struggle, said an eyewitness at the airport.
16/06/08 V Ayyappan/Times of India

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Liquor the most imported item at Kerala airports

Thiruvananthapuram: Gone are the days when non-resident Keralites returned home with a bagful of goodies, most notably electronic gadgets. Today, that is passe. The only article that continues to be brought in - and in an increased flow - is liquor, ranging from the expensive scotch to the inexpensive rum.
Thanks to the latest amended rules, people arriving aboard an international flight can bring along two litres of “spirits”.
“India and Sri Lanka are the only two countries where an international passenger can bring in two litres,” said Mohan Kumar, a senior customs official at the Thiruvananthapuram international airport. Elsewhere, passengers are allowed only a litre.
Kerala has more than two million Keralites working abroad, 90 percent of them in West Asia.
The state has three international airports, and on an average about 4000 passengers arrive daily. Of these, close to 90 percent are Keralites returning to their home state. Said a customs official who has served at Kerala’s all three international airports: “The rules are very clear, and it states that for every passport, irrespective of the age, one can bring in two litres of spirits. There are only a handful who do not arrive with liquor. So calculate for yourself the amount of liquor that arrives every day at the airports in Kerala.”
15/06/08 IANS/Thaindian.com, Thailand

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Air India documentary moves audience to tears

Vancouver: There were a lot of tears shed at the Vancity Theatre Saturday as Sturla Gunnarsson premiered his documentary - Air India 182 - about the bombing that changed so many lives and put Canada on the international terrorism map.
Family members of victims, police, former CP employees were unwittingly caught up in the heinous plot to bomb two Air India jetliners back in 1985. Even Jack Hooper, the retired deputy director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, slipped out of the room before the lights came up, tears in his eyes.
"I was crying. It was very moving," said Surrey MLA Dave Hayer, who lost his father in a 1998 assassination, believed to be linked to Air India. "Most of the people in the room were crying."
Hayer said the 96-minute film was the "best documentary I have ever seen" and he thinks it should be mandatory in all B.C. schools so that the sordid chapter in Canadian history that cost 331 lives is never forgotten.
While the film had already been shown at the Toronto Hot Docs festival in April and is due to air commercial-free on CBC on June 22, Gunnarsson said it was important to screen the documentary in Vancouver - "ground zero" for the terrorist plot hatched in B.C. 23 years ago.
Martine Donahue, who took the original telephone bookings for the targeted flights when she was a CP ticket agent, said the film shows the human side of the tragedy more than anything.
Jeanne Bakermans, who unknowingly checked in the bomb-laden bag at Vancouver International Airport, said she had to pull a box of Kleenex out during the film.
Many of those who lost loved ones and poured their hearts out for the film were in the room watching Saturday.
Perviz Madon, who lost husband Sam in the bombing, said the movie will "make it real" for all Canadians who watch it.
Retired RCMP Sgt. John Schneider first worked on the Air India file right after the bombing in 1985. He later headed the Air India Task Force that brought Ripudaman Singh Malik and Ajaib Singh Bagri to trial. Both were later acquitted.
Schneider brought his wife and daughter to see the film in which he explains the difficulties of advancing the investigation of Canada's worst terrorist attack.
Several watching the film, like Liberal MP Ujjal Dosanjh and Ross Street Sikh Temple president Kashmir Singh Dhaliwal, have continued to receive threats for speaking out.
15/06/08 Kim Bolan/Vancouver Sun/Canada.com, Canada

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AirAsia to fly to sounth India by year end

Kuala Lumpur: AirAsia, the region's largest low-cost carrier, said Sunday that despite surging fuel prices it will not scale back growth plans and will press ahead with an ambitious route expansion program.
"We will continue to put on new routes. As long as we can make a profit from our operations, we will not hold back our growth plans," chief executive officer Tony Fernandes told AFP.
"I am taking a contrarian view. There is a limit to how much I can cut costs. If I cut my routes, where is my growth going to come from? In our case, we still can make money from our routes," he said.
Airlines worldwide including Virgin Blue, Qantas Airways and US Airways have cut back their growth plans and axed loss-making routes to weather spiralling fuel prices.
AirAsia recently launched three new routes -- one to Kuantan in central Pahang state, Malaysia and to Haikou (China) and to Hong Kong.
"By year-end we will fly to south India, new destinations in India and mount more flights to Singapore," the aviation tycoon said.
15/06/08 AFP

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Etihad passengers spend 23 hours for four-hour journey

New Delhi: Some 250 passengers including children travelling by Etihad Airways from Abu Dhabi to Mumbai had to endure a six-hour wait inside the aircraft here without food or water, after a harrowing, nine-hour delay in departure from the UAE capital. The passengers, mostly Indians coming from Europe and the US, boarded the flight at 7.30 p.m. Friday in Abu Dhabi after a nine-hour delay but had to wait another six hours at the Indira Gandhi International Airport here, before taking off for Mumbai.
The airline expressed regret for the inconvenience caused and said the aircraft was diverted to Delhi because of bad weather.
Officials of the UAE carrier told passengers that the delay in Abu Dhabi was due to “technical problems”.
Once over India, the passengers were informed that the flight did not get permission to land in Mumbai due to congestion. As a result, the flight was diverted to the Indian capital.
Neerja Bhatia, an Etihad spokesperson based in Mumbai, first told IANS that she was not aware of the incident but responded later by saying: “Our flight was diverted to New Delhi due to heavy rain and bad weather conditions in Mumbai.
15/06/08 IANS/Thaindian.com, Thailand

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Baggage handler hero John Smeaton snubs Bollywood movie of airport attack

Hero baggage handler John Smeaton has turned down a role in a Bollywood movie about the Glasgow Airport terror attack.
Smeaton rejected the offer to star in Beyond Belief - made by Dundee businessman Tony Hussain - because he believes the idea is "tasteless".
The 32-year-old, of Erskine, Renfrewshire, who shot to global fame after grappling with airport terror suspects last summer, said: "I have spoken to Tony Hussain but I have told him that I'm not doing it because it's a bit tasteless."
Director Nileish Malhotra was due to begin shooting the multimillion pound song-and-dance thriller in Scotland this month.
Despite Smeato's comments, Hussain last week claimed he was still on board. He said: "He's going to play himself."
Smeato's snub comes as the Sunday Mail can reveal Hussain's controversial business history.
Behind the boasts, BMW car and designer suits, self-publicist Hussain, 42, has a chequered past.
He says he is an "entrepreneur, restaurateur, property investor, developer, business angel, screenwriter and occasional actor".
But the former bankrupt has a string of failed firms behind him and has served a seven-year company director ban.
Hussain, who ran Indian restaurants in Edinburgh and Dundee, says his firm SHK Property & Investments is backed by the Bank of Ireland and "makes the impossible, possible".
15/06/08 Marion Scott/Glasgow Sunday Mail, UK

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