Iran Temporarily Denies Merkel Overflight Rights

For German Chancellor Angela Merkel, it should have been a routine trip abroad. But her flight to India was disturbed by a diplomatic incident that could further sour relations between Berlin and Tehran.

In the early hours of Tuesday, Iran denied Merkel's government aircraft overflight rights at short notice. The chancellor's plane, which had a large delegation of politicians and journalists on board, had to circle over Turkey for around two hours. It was finally allowed to pass through Iranian airspace following a lengthy negotiation with Tehran which was mediated by Turkey and involved the Foreign Ministry in Berlin.

Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle protested strongly against Iran's action. Speaking on Tuesday during the start of his visit to Australia, Westerwelle said it showed "a lack of respect toward Germany that we cannot accept." The Foreign Ministry in Berlin responded by summoning the Iranian ambassador to Germany on Tuesday. It would be made clear to him that "such a breach of international protocol against Germany would absolutely not be accepted," Westerwelle said.

31/05/11 Spiegel Online International

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Air India put on Yemen alert

New Delhi: National carrier Air India on Monday was put on alert by the government for possible operation of special flights to the west Asian nation of Yemen which has been facing turbulence and internal violence. “AI has been sounded out and asked to be ready for possible operation of special flights to Yemen,” aviation sources confirmed to this

newspaper on Monday. Air India had earlier operated special flights to Egypt and Libya (during turmoil there) to transport desperate Indians back home.

31/05/11 Deccan Chronicle

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Air India staff protest against foreign firm

Thiruvananthapuram : The decision to hand over the ground handling charge of the Thiruvananthapuram Airport to a foreign agency has sparked severe criticism. The staff of Air India Air Transport Services Limited (AIATSL) have written to Chief Minister Oommen Chandy to immediately intervene in the issue as the Air India staff have been urged to report for duty under this foreign agency.

The Air India Limited and Singapore Airport Terminal Services Limited (SATS), a foreign private company, have signed a joint venture agreement for providing ground handling services and the latter is in the process of taking over ground handling from Air India in most of the airports in the country.

However, the AIATSL staff here claim that the policy is not acceptable at the Thiruvananthapuram airport since it does not come under the metro airports. In their complaint to the Chief Minister, the staff said that the Air India management has brought AI-SATS handling to Thiruvananthapuram airport before it has taken shape in the metro airports in the country.

31/05/11 New IndianExpress/IBN Live

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GoAir may place order at Paris Air Show

New Delhi: Wadia group-owned low-cost airline GoAir (India) Pvt. Ltd is in talks with European aircraft maker Airbus SAS to place a fresh order for Airbus A320 aircraft at the Paris Air Show that starts on 20 June.

If the order materializes, it would be the second such by an Indian carrier this year after InterGlobe Aviation Pvt. Ltd-run IndiGo ordered a record 180 aircraft worth $15 billion (Rs.67,800 crore) in January to meet its expansion plans till 2025.

GoAir, currently the smallest passenger airline in the country, may also become the second Indian carrier to order the fuel-efficient A320neo, which will make its debut this decade.

The six-year-old discount carrier is planning to place an order for A320neo aircraft to drive expansion plans and the details of the order are currently being worked out, said a person familiar with the matter who declined to be identified.

GoAir could place an order for anywhere up to 50-70 aircraft, which may include several options, this official said. Airlines usually place an order with options, which they can later firm up. It’s last order was in 2006 for 10 Airbus A320 aircraft.

GoAir said it will make an announcement shortly, without specifying further details.

30/05/11 Tarun Shukla/Live Mint

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Wadia Group appoints Giorgio De Roni as CEO of GoAir

Mumbai: The textiles-to-aviation conglomerate Wadia group has appointed Giorgio De Roni, a former chief revenue officer of Italian airline Air One, as the CEO of the low-cost carrier GoAir, according to two industry officials close to the Wadia group.

He will replace the Wadia group old-timer Kaushik Khona who will move to a new role within the group. Roni will spearhead an aggressive expansion plan of low-fare air carrier. ET was the first to report on April 7 that the Wadias plan to bring a new CEO for Go Air.

Jeh Wadia, the younger son of Wadia group chairman Nuslia Wadia, will make a formal announcement on the appointment of the new CEO next week.

30/05/11 Anindya Upadhyay/Economic Times

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Airbus to partner Indian firms for Offshore Centre

Bangalore: To improve offshoring capability and to build a strong engineering talent pool in India, Airbus is set to start an ODC (Offshore Development Centre) model. This is being tried by it for the first time anywhere in the world.

The ODC model includes a commitment by Airbus to partner with Indian suppliers, handhold them in training and execution, and depute technical managers to manage these ODCs until they reach a level of maturity. This process may take at least two years for each such unit.

As a part of this process, Airbus has selected Bangalore-headquartered CADES as their ODC partner for fuselage design activities.

Said S Ravi Narayanan, chairman & CEO of CADES: “It is a great honour not only to us but to the entire Indian engineering community. We would do our best to utilise the opportunity and model to create a world class aerostructure design eco-system with the help of Airbus,” he added.

30/05/11 Raghuvir Badrinath/Business Standard

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SIA takes bold gamble with new budget carrier

Singapore: Singapore airlines' decision to launch a long-haul budget carrier is a risky but necessary gamble as it comes under growing pressure at both ends of the market, aviation analysts said.

SIA, one of the world's most profitable premium airlines, surprised the industry on Wednesday by announcing plans to tap into the region's growing appetite for budget air tickets on medium- to long-haul destinations.

The sector is currently dominated by neighbouring Malaysia's AirAsia X, which was was launched four years ago and flies to 14 cities including London, Tehran, Paris, Seoul and Tokyo as well as destinations in China, India and Australia.

29/05/11 Straits Times

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GoAir ranked the Best Performing Airline by Airbus

IOSA program is an internationally recognized and accepted evaluation system designed to assess the operational management and control systems of an airline.

GoAir, India’s smart low-fare domestic airline has been ranked by Airbus as the “Best Performing Airline” in the Airbus A320 category operator in Asia Pacific / Middle East/ Africa. The award is presented every two year by Airbus based on both fleet utilization and performance achievements in each region and worldwide and for two categories of fleet size. Their metrics take into account On-time performance as well as severity of the operational interruptions (based on the Airbus Severity Index calculation). Along with the Best Performing Airline recognition, GoAir has also been registered with IATA Operational Safety Audit (IOSA) program.

30/05/11 India Infoline

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Two hostesses posted for minister flying AI

Mumbai: Two air hostesses were posted in the first class section of an Air India flight from Delhi to New York on May 26, as opposed to the airline’s standard operating norm of one. The only occupant of the four seats in the section was a minister, said on-flight cabin crew members. “It is clear that senior airline officials made the last minute change in the crew distribution to please the minister. The minister is likely to feel that the airline offers such services to all first class passengers,” said a cabin crew personnel with the airline requesting anonymity.

Sources told the Hindustan Times that a few minutes before take off, Trupti Shah, the crew-in charge, received a call from Captain AS Soman, director of inflight services, to make the change in the allocation of crew on board.

The cabin crewmember added that five air hostesses were struggling to cater to 100 economy class passengers because the airline deputed one extra airhostess at the minister’s duty.

A section of the crew is planning to write to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, the aviation regulator.

29/05/11 Soubhik Mitra/Hindustan Times

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Kingfisher in no hurry for A380 delivery

Monaco: Kingfisher Airlines is in no hurry to take delivery of five Airbus A380 superjumbos it has on order and could push their arrival beyond 2016, Kingfisher Chairman Vijay Mallya told Reuters.

India's second-busiest airline is also holding off making a decision on which engines to put on the world's largest jetliner, postponing a choice between Rolls-Royce and a group led by General Electric and Pratt & Whitney.

"We haven't decided the delivery dates yet," Mallya said in an interview, asked when the $350-million jets would be in service.

Pressed on whether it would be in 2016, he said: "That, I would say, is the earliest. We don't really need that kind of capacity right now. Five is a lot of seats to fill."

27/05/11 Economic Times

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Boeing offers Air India $500 million for Dreamliner delay

New Delhi: US aircraft maker Boeing has offered to pay $500 million to Air India as compensation for the delay in deliveries of new-age B-787 Dreamliner aircraft. The package is more than three times what Boeing was willing to pay earlier, but the civil aviation ministry says it is still inadequate.

"It appears now that Boeing intends to offer half-a-billion dollars as compensation to Air India," a senior civil aviation ministry official told ET. "But this is too less and we are trying to ensure better compensation." Boeing India President Dinesh Keskar refused to give details.

"Air India is our valued customer and we will not discuss the issue of compensation in media," he said. Air India had ordered 27 Dreamliner jets in 2006, which were to be delivered by September 2008. But Boeing says it can hand over the first of these planes only in the quarter beginning July.

27/05/11 Anindya Upadhyay/Economic Times

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CBI to probe Davy's daring escape from Mumbai airport

New Delhi: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) wishes to write "the last chapter" of the Purulia arms drop case as it wants to know the name of a politician who might have helped the main accused Kim Davy escape from the Mumbai airport.
A source in the agency said CBI is keen to probe Davy's mysterious escape from the airport since he has been making claims to the media that he was helped by a politician to leave the country.
"The last chapter of this mystery has to be scripted by Davy. So far, CBI hasn't found the involvement of any politician in the Purulia arms drop conspiracy," said an officer.
He added, "The details about the escape can only be provided by Davy. Let him come to India, and say in court whatever he is claiming through media interviews. Once he gives his statement in the court, we are ready to probe every possible lead provided by him."
27/05/11 Times of India

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Boeing offers Air India $500 million for Dreamliner delay

New Delhi: US aircraft maker Boeing has offered to pay $500 million to Air India as compensation for the delay in deliveries of new-age B-787 Dreamliner aircraft. The package is more than three times what Boeing was willing to pay earlier, but the civil aviation ministry says it is still inadequate.
"It appears now that Boeing intends to offer half-a-billion dollars as compensation to Air India," a senior civil aviation ministry official told ET. "But this is too less and we are trying to ensure better compensation." Boeing India President Dinesh Keskar refused to give details.
" Air India is our valued customer and we will not discuss the issue of compensation in media," he said. Air India had ordered 27 Dreamliner jets in 2006, which were to be delivered by September 2008. But Boeing says it can hand over the first of these planes only in the quarter beginning July.
AI Claims $1-Billion Loss
Dreamliner is a 250-seater aircraft made of composite materials and is considered very fuel-efficient. The multi-version aircraft has a list price between $140 million and $200 million. Air India says the delay in handing over the jets has caused the airline both opportunity and operational losses amounting to over $1 billion.
27/05/11 Anindya Upadhyay/Economic Times

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Lufthansa says A380 flight to India stuck for govt approval

India has appeared prominently on the Lufthansa German Airlines’ double-deck A380 plan but government hurdle could well push it off it.
The airline, which has been trying to get approval for introducing A380 flights from India over the last two years, says it has been frustrated in its effort with the Indian government being “unresponsive” to its request.
Carsten Sphor, chief executive officer of Lufthansa, said if the airline gets a nod from Indian authorities today, it would go so far as to remove an existing flight to start one from India.
“Many markets would love to serve it with (A)380 but the infrastructure is not ready. You are now ready in Delhi. If we get an approval to fly to India, we are ready to pull out flight from other destination to accommodate it,” he said.
Lufthansa currently owns seven of the Superjumbos, which it operates on five routes including Johannesburg, New York, Beijing, Tokyo and San Francisco. The airline has ordered a total of 15 A380s and is expected to receive eight of them over the next few years.
27/05/11 Praveena Sharma/Daily News & Analysis

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Kerala firm inks deal with Italian cargo airline

Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala-based software firm, IBS Software Services, has inked a deal with Cargoitalia, an Italian airline, for implementing its cargo management solution, iCargo.
The implementation is set to be completed by July. The solution will then manage the entire freight movement of this all-cargo carrier including core cargo operations from quotes and bookings through capacity and revenue management, track and trace, accounting and proof of deliveries.
‘A state of the art IT system is fundamental to our continuing success, and the selection of iCargo follows a lengthy and detailed study and evaluation. We are very excited about the benefits that the new system will bring to our business’, said Roberto Gilardoni, Commercial Director, Cargoitalia.
Available both in licensed and SaaS (Software as a Service) modes, iCargo has become one of the most definitive cargo management solutions in the global air freight industry with an impressive list of customers across six continents including names like All Nippon Airways (ANA), Jet Blue, Kingfisher Airlines, Nippon Cargo Airlines (NCA) and Qantas.
‘Moving to the iCargo platform will help Cargoitalia streamline processes, enhance efficiencies and productivity, and enable it to manage growth profitably. This contract strengthens our cargo presence in Europe, and underscores the value iCargo offers in terms of superior features and integration of functionality’, said Murray Kidd, VP and Head of Global Sales, Airline Cargo Services, IBS.
26/05/11 News One

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Lufthansa Cargo to use GMR Hyderabad airport as pharmaceuticals hub

Hydrabad: Lufthansa Cargo on Wednesday certified GMR Hyderabad International Airport Ltd. (GHIAL) to be one of its key cargo hubs in South Asia for transport of temperature-sensitive pharmaceuticals, making the airport India's first airport to enjoy such a status.
Addressing a press conference here after handing over the certificate, Christopher Dehio, senior manager, global key accounts, Lufthansa Cargo, said the airline would operate three wide-bodied freighters a week to Hyderabad. India was a key market and fast catching up in the cargo business. While textiles used to be the main export items earlier, half of the cargo carried by its freighters now consisted of pharma products, auto components and electronic goods. While the air cargo growth in Asia was 40 per cent between 2008 and 2010, it was as high as 169 per cent in India during that period, he said.
The dedicated pharma zone at Hyderabad airport, which became operational in January, can provide temperature-controlled handling for more than 30,000 tonnes of pharma products annually. The zone will have officials from the drug controller's office and the customs department. Lufthansa Cargo will provide the capacity for transport of temperature-sensitive cargo. The company will station its own fleet of cooling containers called, Opti-Coolers, at GHIAL.
Meanwhile GHIAL, after achieving a breakeven last year, is expecting to make a profit this year, according to GHIAL CEO Vikram Jaisinghani.
26/05/11 The Hindu

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Icelandic volcano: Kingfisher Airlines, Jet Airways & Air India meet to decide on their flights to Europe

New Delhi: In the wake of the flight disruption in Europe due to ash spewing from an Icelandic volcano , officials of major Indian carriers today held meetings to decide on diversion or cancellation of their flights. ( In pics: Hundreds of flights hit as ash reaches Britain )
Officials of Kingfisher Airlines , Jet Airways and Air India held separate meetings to take a decision on their flight schedules as hundreds of flights continued to be grounded for the second day today in the UK, Ireland and the northern parts of Europe.
The three Indian carriers have been asked by the Civil Aviation Ministry to draw up alternate routes to and from North America over the Mediterranean and the Atlantic and also to Western Europe, official sources said.
The airlines and the Indian authorities were seeking permission to have technical halts to pick up and drop passengers from Athens, Rome, Cairo and airports in unaffected European cities, they said.
However, no firm decision has yet been taken but the situation was being "very closely monitored", they said.
25/05/11 PTI/Economic Times

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Haze clears but flyers to US are still in the lurch

Mumbai: The volcano cloud from Iceland may be clearing out, but passengers bound for Europe are still on tenterhooks.
On Wednesday, as the ash cloud was abating, airlines started their services again. Operations to and from India to major European hubs like London, Paris, Frankfurt, etc remained uninterrupted.
British Airways, which had cancelled its flights to and from places like Edinburgh, Glasgow and Newcastle, resumed normal operations on Wednesday.
Even though, reports of the cloud spreading over Germany, Lufthansa continued to operate flights normally. However, Indians bound for Europe in the coming weeks remain nervous about their travel plans and flooded tour operators with queries about alternate routes.
"Travel plans to Europe have been kept in abeyance still. Since the impact of the ash cloud on flights was enormous last year, nobody wants to take chances this time," said Rajesh Rateria, managing director of Cirrus Travels.
"People have kept their plans to travel to Europe in abeyance still. Since the impact of the ash cloud on flights was enormous last year, nobody wants to take a chance this time,'' said Rajesh Rateria, managing director, Cirrus Travels.
26/05/11 Chinmayi Shalya/Times of India

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Boeing MRO facility work at Nagpur airport to end by 2012

Nagpur: The much-delayed Boeing Maintenance-Repair-Overhaul (MRO) facility to be raised at the Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar International Airport in Nagpur is likely to start by the end of 2012, as work in this direction has started.
The project, worth $100 million, which Boeing is setting up, will have two hangars to accommodate bulky aircraft like Boeing-777, 747-800.
President of Boeing India Dr Dinesh Keskar and Air India Board Member KM Unni told this to reporters during a press conference today.
They said that roughly five aircraft could be admitted every month at the facility for various maintenance work.
25/05/11 PTI/Daily News & Analysis

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Volcanic eruption: Indian carriers asked to draw up alternative routes

New Delhi: A fresh volcanic eruption in Iceland threatens to disrupt flights to western Europe in what would make for an eerie rerun of last April's travel travails. "Till 9pm, the ash cloud had spread up to 20,000 feet over Greenland, Iceland and UK. Britain has asked airlines to assess the situation before operating flights. As of now, it seems UK and other important European cities could get hit," said a senior official who attended a meeting called by aviation secretary Nasim Zaidi.

"We have asked Indian carriers to draw up alternate routes to and from North America over the Mediterranean and the Atlantic and also to western Europe. We will start work on getting them permission to have technical halts to pick up and drop passengers from Athens, Rome, Cairo and airports in unaffected European cities."

Airports such as Athens and Rome offer rail, road and sea connectivity to other parts of Europe, apart from a clear access to the Atlantic to fly to North America. When ash affects the usual polar route to North America and airspace over western Europe, vital hubs London, Paris, Frankfurt, Munich, Amsterdam and Brussels get crippled.

25/05/11 Saurabh Sinha/Times of India

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The ash effect: Fliers avoid tours via Europe

To improve the security environment at various airports in the country, the Airports Authority of India (AAI), in association with Central industrial security force (CISF), plans to frisk alighting passengers randomly in the concourse area, apart from installing more CCTVs in the airports.

The bureau of civil aviation security (BCAS) has approved the two committees proposed by the AAI for this purpose.

The plan is likely to be implemented by June this year at 10 hypersensitive airports in the country, including Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Delhi, Mumbai and Agartala.

“All airport directors have been asked to study the existing system and make improvements to strengthen available arrangements like augmenting CCTVs and increasing safety measures,” said a top BCAS official.

In India, all airports follow the ‘sterile holding area plan’ except at airports in Jammu and Kashmir, where ‘concourse plan’ is being followed.

In the sterile holding area plan, the CISF will be in charge of security inside one portion of airport which will be out of bounds for all people except passengers.

25/05/11 Hindustan Times

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Delhi airport's cargo handling capacity to rise

Istanbul: Delhi airport's cargo handling capacity is set to witness a major jump by 2012-end with the total overhauling of its existing infrastructure. Celebi Holding, the Turkey-based company that enjoys monopoly rights of cargo handling in Delhi at present, is working to completely modernize facilities with addition of automated systems, efficient equipment and systematic storage.

The company, which also provides ground handling services to some airlines in both Delhi and Mumbai, has bid for the same at Kochi and Ahmedabad airports . Announcing its intention to invest an additional around $100 million in India, Celebi Holding chairman Can Celebioglu said: "The company has already invested about $140 million in Delhi and Mumbai till the end of 2010. We have been in talks with several airlines for ground handling and will add Thai Airways to our list of customers this year. India has tremendous potential for growth in the aviation sector and while we are handling mostly international flights right now, we would also like to work for the domestic sector."

25/05/11 Neha Lalchandani/Times of India

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Air passenger dies, officials in blame game

Chennai: A 53-year-old passenger who landed in Chennai on Sunday died at the airport. While some officials claim that medical assistance was not renedered to the passenger in time, airport authorities maintain that the passenger was declared dead on arrival.

Jai Sheikh Hussain, a Bangladeshi national, came on the Jet Airways flight from Kolkata accompanied by his brother. The pilot had declared a priority landing owing to the medical emergency and when the flight landed at 6.30pm, Sheikh Hussain was attended by an airport doctor who declared that he was already dead.

Officials at the airport said that Sheikh Hussain could perhaps have been saved had the airport doctor arrived on time which didn’t happen. “We were told that in spite of the pilot’s paging in earlier, the doctor was not available on landing. He arrived only 10 minutes later. In such situations every minute counts,” a police constable said. On their part, the airport authority officials maintained that the doctor was made available and that the passenger was already dead on board. “The mistake could be blamed on the pilot also for he didn’t declare the pan-pan medical emergency as it should have been done. He just sought a priority landing,” an AAI official revealed.

24/05/11 The New Indian Express/IBN Live

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Russian Helicopters to be assembled in India

The MiG setback has been a humbling experience for Russian defence contractors. Now, the Russian Helicopter company is sweetening the deal by offering local production in the race for three Indian tenders worth $4 bn.

The Russian defence contractors have been trying to rid themselves of the arrogance that cost them major tenders for supplying MiG-35 fighters to India and T-90 tanks to Thailand.

In a move unprecedented in the country’s history, the Russian Helicopters, JSC announced it was ready to establish manufacturing of military equipment in India with the right to re-export to third countries. The helicopter builders are thus trying to gain the upper hand in three tenders for supplying the Indian Air Force with light highlander choppers, cargo carriers, and assault helicopters worth more than $4 billion in total.

“We may do the final assembly in India and enter other markets from the Indian market base,” Andrei Reus, CEO of United Industrial Corporation Oboronprom, said. The Russian Helicopters, JSC, an Oboronprom subsidiary, is responsible for the design and manufacturing of all helicopters in Russia.

India’s market is of strategic importance for Russian Helicopters Andrei Reus added: "This is a strategic market for us and the most dense in terms of the number of tenders in which we compete”, he noted.

24/05/11 Alexei Usov, Noviy Region/Russia & India Report

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Canadian pilot arrested in India after live ammo round found in luggage: report

New Delhi: A Canadian pilot working for a private air charter company in India has been arrested after airport screeners allegedly discovered a live round of ammunition in his baggage.

Local media reports say the pilot, identified as Rafael Jose Hubbard, was scheduled to fly a group of politicians from New Delhi to Nagpur, in the state of Maharashtra.

The Hindustan Times newspaper says security officials at Indira Gandhi International Airport detected a 7.62 mm shell in Hubbard's hand baggage during a routine security check.

The report says Hubbard has been living in India for the past 18 months and was working for Euro Charter Company.

25/05/11 The Canadian Press

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Airplane passenger with measles prompts “public health emergency”

State health officials have declared a “public health emergency” after a passenger on a flight from Chicago to Des Moines tested positive for measles. Doctor Patricia Quinlisk, with the Iowa Department of Public Health, says the resident of Dallas County may have exposed others to the disease. She says the person was likely exposed to the measles in India and started coming down with the symptoms on the way back to Iowa.

The American Airlines plane (Flight AA3965) departed from Chicago’s O’Hare Airport at 11:55 a.m. on May 11 and arrived in Des Moines at 1:05 p.m. “While it landed in central Iowa, the passengers on that plane could be from all over Iowa,” Quinlisk said. “The plane did go to Chicago, so there could be people in Illinois or came into Iowa on other airplanes.” Iowans or others who were on the plane are encouraged to check their vaccination records.

24/05/11 Pat Curtis/Radio Iowa

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Air India negotiating for 'just compensation' for Boeing-787 delays

New Delhi/Mumbai: National carrier Air India Monday said that it was in active negotiations with US aerospace major Boeing for securing "just compensation" for the delay in deliveries of 27 new-age B-787 Dreamliner aircraft, some of which should have joined the fleet by now.

"We are in active negotiation with them (Boeing) for getting just compensation for the delay in deliveries," a senior Air India official told IANS from Mumbai.

Deliveries were to have begun in the October-December quarter of 2010 but due to technical glitches at the manufacturers end, the aircraft had to undergo another series of tests before it was certified to fly. In February, Boeing said deliveries would begin in the fourth quarter of 2011.

According to the official, the delay has caused both opportunity and operational losses to Air India, which had planned to deploy the B-787s on long-haul international routes and re-deploy its B-777 aircraft on domestic routes, thereby regaining its lost market share in both sectors.

"This plan of ours has been badly hit (due to the delay in deliveries). Once we have the planes, we can easily redeploy our larger seat-capacity aircraft on the domestic sector and offer more seats at lower prices, thereby shoring up our market share," the official explained.

23/05/11 Times of India

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Volcano eruption in Iceland puts aviation sector on edge

New Delhi: The bad news: Icelandic volcanic eruptions have started impacting operations of Indian carriers with fears of a repeat of last year’s crisis looming large. The good news: it’s not all that bad — yet. Last year, the Eyjafjallajokull eruption had led to closure of European airspace for more than a week — the largest such closure since World War II.

On Saturday, Grimsvotn, Iceland’s most active volcano, erupted sending shivers down the spine of the aviation industry and flyers and putting Europe on high alert. Eyjafjallajokull had caused a loss of £2.5 billion (Rs18,000 crore) to the global aviation industry.

A Delhi-Chicago Air India flight had to take a detour on Monday due to flight restrictions over the European airspace. “As a result, we had to carry more fuel and had to offload some baggage,” said an Air India spokesperson.

Jet Airways has said it was a keeping a close watch on the situation in Europe.

“This is the peak travel period for Indians, both domestically and internationally,” said Kapil Kaul, South Asia CEO of Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation, an aviation consultancy and research firm. “So far, going by reports, it doesn’t look as if it would cause the kind of disruptions it caused last year.” He said aviation and meteorological agencies were “much better prepared” to handle the situation this year.

23/05/11 Tushar Srivastava/Hindustan Times

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Indian charter flights to begin ‘soon’

India’s leading travel agents and tour operators would welcome the launch of chartered flights to Macau, according to the Macau International Airport Company (CAM). According to a statement released on Friday, that could happen “soon”.

CAM representatives joined the Macau Mini Mart organised by the Government Tourism Office in the Indian cities of Mumbai and New Delhi last month, “to initiate further steps to opening direct air service to Macau”.

A number of Indian travel agents and tour operators already confirmed that they would bring tourist groups to Macau in the coming months, not only for leisure but also for Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions (MICE) and wedding tourism.

24/05/11 Macau Daily Times

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Fliers asked not to reschedule trips

Mumbai: Bandra resident Ankur Bakshi, is planning to cut short his vacation in Austria fearing flight disruptions owing to ash clouds strewn across the European skies following the explosion of Iceland's most active volcano, Grimsvotn, on Saturday. On Monday, the city-based businessman called his travel agent in anxiety. However, his agent asked him to wait till Wednesday before rescheduling his flight.

Hundreds of such panic calls kept city travel agents busy on Monday as weather bureaus in Europe said that the ash clouds could disrupt air traffic in the UK, France and Spain.

24/05/11 Hindustan Times

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AI to take Chicago-bound passengers to Newark first

Ahmedabad: Due to a volcano eruption in Iceland, Air India has decided to take its Chicago passengers to Newark first and then will provide the passengers local connectivity there depending on the conditions, officials said.

Earlier the route for Chicago-bound passengers was Ahmedabad-Delhi-Chicago will now be changed to Ahmedabad-Delhi-Newark-Chicago.

24/05/11 Ahmedabad Mirror

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Newark flight finally leaves after two days

New Delhi: Passengers of a Continental Airlines flight to Newark spent over 44 hours in the city after their flight got delayed due to a technical snag. The delayed flight CO83 was scheduled to depart from Delhi's IGI Airport at 10.50pm on Friday but finally departed around 6 on Sunday evening.

Dr Yog Raj Sharma, a passenger on the flight, said he and his family had been made to board and sat in the aircraft for about three hours before airline officials told them that the flight had been rescheduled for the next day. "The crew kept telling us that we would take off shortly but when even the air-conditioning stopped working, we were told that we would be shifted to a hotel as there was a technical problem with the aircraft. At 4am, we were shifted to a hotel in Vasant Kunj," said Sharma.

Ashish Pradhan, who had come to India with his wife for his sister's wedding and was scheduled to join work on Monday, said there was complete mismanagement on the airline's part as it kept lying to them about the flight's departure.

By this time, passengers were quite upset with the airline staff and a heated argument broke out between passengers and staff. At 2.30am, they were finally served refreshment and at 5am, they were given their luggage and sent back to the hotel.

"Around 3.30pm, we finally left for the airport again as the flight had been scheduled to leave at 6pm. For a day we went without clothes and even our toothbrush as the airline refused to give our luggage. We were made to go in for immigration and security several times and it was quite a frustrating experience," said Marissa Vaish, a US national who had travelled to India for the first time.

22/05/11 Times of India

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Menon in Indian civil aviation body

Prominent non-resident Indian entrepreneur and Doha resident C K Menon has been nominated to the Government of India’s Security Advisory Council to Civil Aviation (SACCA) as an ex-officio member, according to a communiqué received yesterday.

Menon in his new capacity can advise government on issues related to passengers’ basic security at different international airports in India, sources told this newspaper.

Apart from Menon, who is the CEO of Doha’s Behzad Group of Companies, well-known businessman and managing director of the Abu Dhabi headquartered Emke Group M K Yusuf Ali is also on the board. They are the only non-resident Indians in the committee.

23/05/11 Gulf Times

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Jet Airways to Deploy Boeing 777-300ER on Mumbai - HK/Newark Services

Mumbai: Jet Airways is to deploy its long haul Boeing 777-300ER aircraft between Mumbai and Hong Kong/Newark.

The widebody Boeing 777-300ER features a three class configuration. The airline currently operates Airbus 330-200 aircraft on these sectors.

Jet Airways’ guests to Hong Kong and Newark will soon be able to enjoy more luxury, privacy and comfort in the air with eight First Class suites. These first class suites possess one of the world’s longest airline beds, private closets, dining tables for two and 23” flat screens.

The aircraft change on the Mumbai to Hong Kong daily service will be effective 28 July 2011.

Flight 9W 76 will depart Mumbai at 0105 hrs and arrive Hong Kong at 0925 hrs local time. On the return leg, 9W 75 will depart at 1915 hrs local time and arrive Mumbai at 2300 hrs local time.

Effective 23 September 2011 Jet Airways will deploy a Boeing 777 -300 ER aircraft from Mumbai to Newark, via Brussels, twice a week (on Fridays and Sundays only).

Jet Airways flight 9W 228 will depart Mumbai at 0220 hrs and arrive via Brussels at Newark at 1230 hrs local time. On the return leg, 9W 227 will depart Newark at 1840 hrs and arrive Mumbai at 2240 hrs local time.

23/05/11 AsiaTravelTips.com

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Reports of near-misses in Delhi untrue: Airport authority

New Delhi: Slamming recent media reports of alleged lapses committed by the air traffic control (ATC) at the international airport here, the Airports Authority of India (AAI) Friday said aviation operations in the national capital were the safest in the world.
The reaction by AAI came after reports that the Delhi ATC had given permission to a Jet Airways flight from Mumbai to land even though an aircraft was present on the same runway it was supposed to land on.
'It was far away and had not received permission to land as we knew there was another plane on the runway. We are not blind or out of our mind to give this sort of permission,' a senior ATC official told IANS.
According to senior AAI officials, the two incidents on Wednesday and Thursday were caused by strong winds which prevented the landing of Jet Airways flight 9W309 from Mumbai and the Emirates flight EK516 from Dubai.
'If there is strong wind on the runway, we deny the approaching aircraft permission to land as it would cause major technical problems. This is all procedure which ensures safety, I do not understand why media is saying that by denying them landing we jeopardised the passengers safety,' V. Somasundaram, board member of the air navigation service (ANS) told IANS.
The senior ATC official said that all such reports were part of a malicious campaign run by private airlines.
20/05/11 IANS/Sify.com

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Highway in the sky

New Delhi: On Wednesday and Thursday, the Delhi airport could have been mistaken for Delhi roads. On these two days, around 300 passengers narrowly escaped serious mishaps. On Wednesday, a mishap was averted at the Delhi Airport, after a Jet Airways aircraft — with nearly 150 passengers on board — had to abort landing at the last moment because another aircraft was present on the runway.
The incident happened around 9pm, when the Jet Airways flight from Mumbai (9W 309) was descending to land on the runway of the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport. The airport at that moment was witnessing heavy congestion due to bad weather conditions caused by strong wind movement.
As the aircraft was preparing to land, the pilot found movement on the runway and informed the Delhi Air Traffic Control (ATC). The ‘movement’ was another aircraft, of an international airline, which was supposed to take off from the runway but couldn’t do so because of strong winds. It was trying to vacate the runway.
With the runway not clear, the ATC asked the Jet pilot to abort landing and make a 'go-around'. The aircraft climbed up again and landed later after hovering for some time.
Meanwhile, an Emirates flight carrying 153 passengers could not land at the IGI airport due to unstable wind, which resulted in air pressure on Thursday. Flight EK516, from Dubai, was scheduled to land at 2.40 pm.
19/05/11 Hindustan Times

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Hasan Ali got Rs 14 crore as kickback for a Boeing-Air India deal: ED

Mumbai: Hasan Ali Khan , said to be the country's biggest tax evader , had made a killing as a consultant when he had earned a commission of US $ 11.5 million for a Boeing deal with Air India in 1986-87. At the exchange rate then, the amount works out to over Rs 14 crore not a small sum considering that the Bofors kickback was of Rs 64 crore and brought down a government.
This startling information is part of a 2007 Enforcement Directorate (ED) Case Information Report filed as an annexure in the 1000-plus-page charge sheet filed recently by the ED in a special court under the Prevention of Money-Laundering Act against Khan and his associate Kashinath Tapuriah.
The civil aviation minister at that time was Jagdish Tytler. The report says that as consultants of Boeing Commercial Airplane Co, Seattle, USA, an amount of US $ 11.5 million was earned as commission from the sale of two Boeing 727 aircraft to air India in 1986-87. The deal was worth US $ 230 million.
The charge sheet mentions that the amount was not repatriated to India by RM Investments & Trading Co, a firm owned by Tapuriah. The charge sheet, however, does not specify who among the accused earned the commission.
There are clear-cut indications of corruption money involved in mega transactional deals representing commissions (which appear to be illegal) received on sale of Boeing Aircrafts held by Air India. It involves loss to the exchequer, the ED has said.
20/05/11 Rebecca Samervel/Times of India

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IA hijacker's name missing from most wanted list given to Pak

Jalandhar: Gajinder Singh, who was involved in the hijacking of an Indian airlines passenger plane to Pakistan in 1981, had figured in the most wanted list of 20 handed over by India to Pakistan in 2002, but his name is missing in the latest most wanted list of 50 terrorists.
After his name was mentioned by the government in the list of 20 most wanted terrorists, following the attack on Parliament, his party Dal Khalsa had written to the MHA demanding Gajinder`s name should be dropped as he had already undergone trial and sentence for 14 years, in Pakistan for the offence.
The Dal Khalsa spokesperson Kanwarpal Singh, when contacted, said: "We did not receive any reply from the MHA and now are surprised to see that this time his name has been dropped from the list of most wanted."
However ,it has never been explained that how his name was included in the earlier list and how his name has been excluded, said Singh.
Interestingly the name of Gajinder, who is reportedly staying in Pakistan, has been retained in the Sikh black list even as the names of other four terrorists in the most wanted list of 50 have been taken off the black list.
20/05/11 IP Singh/Times of India

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Learn from us, privatise AI, says Lufthansa CEO

San Francisco: As the country debates on whether Air India (AI) be privatised or the government continue to pump in oxygen to keep the ailing carrier afloat, Carsten Spohr, CEO, Lufthansa German Airlines, is of the view that national ownership "does not help". Lufthansa — Europe's largest carrier — was privatised
in 1997. "I have definitely good arguments to believe that national ownership does not help," Spohr said when asked for his views on government ownership of airlines. "Coming from German history of government involvement in Lufthansa a few decades ago, we know it doesn't always help to make an airline more flexible and cash rich."
"It does help to have a national attribute to the carrier. We call ourselves Lufthansa German Airlines but we are fully privatised. We can change our name tomorrow. Why don't we do it? Because we believe that "German" is something which helps Lufthansa. This industry is not like the normal industry so to have links with the country, with the culture, the style helps," said the former pilot who was regularly flying to Delhi and Bangalore and was incharge of "AI relationship" till two years back.
19/05/11 Tushar Srivastava/Hindustan Times

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Arrest at Cochin airport: police probe LTTE links

The Crime Detachment Wing of the Aluva Rural Police has launched an investigation into the antecedents of a suspected former LTTE combatant who was arrested from the Cochin International Airport here on Tuesday.
Jeevadass Marimuthu, 30, hailing from Jaffna in Sri Lanka, was detained by immigration officials while attempting to board an Oman Air flight to Muscat. He was found possessing an Indian passport with his name as Peter Savari Muthu, Tiruchi, Tamil Nadu.
Jeevadas said he had been on his way to Paris seeking political asylum. He confessed to obtaining the travel documents from a passport agent in Tamil Nadu.
Official sources said the investigating officials had taken him to a hotel in Kochi where he stayed on Tuesday and collected evidence. Investigation was also on to trace Guna, the Tiruchi-based agent who had given him the passport, and another person in Kochi who accompanied him to the airport.
19/05/11 The Hindu

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Lufthansa awaits govt nod to fly A380 to India

Lufthansa German Airlines which launched the inaugural flight of the Airbus A380 – the world's largest aircraft – to San Francisco on May 10, is disappointed that the Indian government's permission to fly the superjumbo to Delhi has not yet been forthcoming.
The company says that it is in a position to do a quick launch of the A380 to Delhi's T3 terminal, as soon as the government's nod is received. Speaking to a group of Indian journalists, who were on a trip to San Francisco sponsored by Lufthansa, Mr Carsten Spohr, CEO, Lufthansa, said: “We would love to fly the A380 to India, and are waiting for Delhi to open up”.
Up in the air
It has been around two years since the government of Germany first approached the Indian government asking it to allow Lufthansa to fly the A380 to India. Follow-ups including a recent meeting of the German transport minister with the Aviation Ministry has not yet had the desired results.
As things stand, the Indian government seems to be vacillating on whether to open up Indian skies to the A380. Earlier, in his interaction with journalists in Delhi, Mr Axel Hilgers, General Manager-South Asia, Lufthansa, said, “We have received neither a yes nor a no.”
Reports suggest that the government is not yet inclined to let the A380 fly into India. Industry watchers point out that this could be a result of fears that a superjumbo like the A380 could eat into the international load factors of domestic players such as Air India, Jet Airways and Kingfisher Airlines.
18/05/11 Anand Kalyanaraman/Business Line

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India Still Not Ready To Accommodate A380

International airlines are facing headwinds from the Indian aviation ministry following the administration’s decision not to allow the Airbus A380 to fly into the country.
The Ministry of Civil Aviation withheld permission for foreign airlines because the country’s airport infrastructure is not adequate to handle the movement of the A380. “It might cause chaos at the airports. The height of the aerobridge is not adequate; the taxiing stands also need to be widened,” a senior official at the ministry tells Aviation Week.
The government’s move has put Lufthansa’s route planning arrangements in jeopardy and has caused concern in the Gulf states, where airlines have designed much of their networks around servicing the long-haul travel needs of India’s growing population. “We applied for the ministry’s permission two years ago but still haven’t received a yes or a no,” a spokesman at Lufthansa says.
The airline, which had recently increased its flights from Frankfurt and Munich to New Delhi, was expecting to secure the permission soon as it had factored in an A380 for India in its route planning. Currently, Lufthansa has seven of these aircraft and was planning to deploy the new jet on the Indian route from May. The airline official has also rejected the ministry’s argument about the lack of proper airport infrastructure saying: “The Terminal 3 airport in New Delhi was constructed to accommodate the A380.”
17/05/11 Aviation Week

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New promotion from Malaysia Airlines

New Delhi: Malaysia Airlines has launched its mega sale promotion themed 'Global Deals, Dream Getaway', offering great air-fare bargains for over 14 Malaysia Airlines international destinations from India.
Customers will enjoy high discounts for their air tickets purchases during this promotion. These promotional fares are offered from 16 May 2011 till 31 May 2011 for travel from 1 June 2011 till 31 March 2012.
Malaysia Airlines executive vice president, sales & marketing, Dato' Bernard Francis said, "We are offering discounts up to 80% off the normal market fares during this promotion, covering all travel segments, for business and economy seats. This is indeed an extremely wonderful opportunity for everyone to take up these value deals for a romantic getaway with their loved ones, a family vacation or a group retreat amongst friends. Even business travelers who have a planned convention or seminar can purchase these deals and enjoy the Malaysian hospitality during their journeys on Malaysia Airlines."
16/05/11 Economic Times

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Court orders Rs 50k relief to harassed NRI

New Delhi: The Ministry of External Affairs will now have to pay Rs 50,000 as compensation to a man who lost his job in Spain due to his illegal deportation.

The man held valid Spanish visa yet was prevented from going back to join work in Spain and was deported back to Delhi from Brussels and prosecuted for travel on fake documents.

Justice S Muralidhar slammed all the authorities involved for their "callousness" and said: "The conduct of respondents (foreign ministry, foreigner regional registration offices and regional passport officer) in the present case display utter callousness in dealing with the life and liberty of the citizen. The petitioner (Balwinder Singh) had valid travel papers and work permit for employment in Spain."

Singh had a valid passport and a working Spanish visa, but was not allowed to board a connecting flight for Spain at Brussels in Belgium on February 21 last year during his return journey from Delhi. He had taken up an employment as peon at a firm in Spain during 2007 and had come to India briefly.

As per his petition, officials at Brussels detained and later deported Singh alleging he was an "impostor" as he held a "fraudulent" visa and other documents. Instead of putting the record straight, officials of FRRO failed to verify his documents either with the Spanish embassy or with the regional passport office. Rather, he was booked for travelling on fake documents and prosecuted.

16/05/11 Times of India

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Smuggler may have to pay for plane damage

Mumbai: Parminder Singh, arrested by the directorate of revenue intelligence (DRI) for smuggling branded Swiss watches and white gold in an Air India aircraft toilet last month, faces more charges. Now, DRI wants Air India to take action against him for damaging the aircraft's roof panel.

Singh was caught by the DRI on April 15, when he arrived by a domestic flight from Delhi. Officers recovered 21 packets of chemicals used for cancer treatment, 60 white gold finger rings and 20 diamond-studded Franck Muller watches from him.

The DRI officials also found him carrying spoons and knives. Sources said he would return from abroad by hiding contraband in the aircraft toilet. "He would pretend to go to the toilet, break open electrical sockets or roof panels of the aircraft, using forks and knives, hide the contraband there, and walk through the green channel without fear. He would then wait for that aircraft to come into operation in the domestic sector. Once he knew the flight's detailed schedule, he would book a domestic flight to any destination. On the flight, he would open the panel of the aircraft toilet where he had hidden the contraband and then walk out with it," an officer said.

The DRI officials said that he may have damaged the aircraft while opening and closing the sockets with spoons and knives. "We fear the accused may have tampered with the structure of the aircraft to conceal the goods, and while doing so, he was endangering the lives of several co-passengers," said public prosecutor Francis Saldana, while opposing Singh's bail.

16/05/11 S Ahmed Ali/Times of India

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Celebi eyeing big share in cargo services in India

Istanbul: Celebi Holding, Turkey's first private ground handling services company, which began its operations in Mumbai and Delhi over the past two years, is eyeing a greater share in India's growing civil aviation sector.

“India is a fast emerging market in the civil aviation sector. We are keen to expand our operations and make our presence felt in other Indian cities. We have also bid for winning the contract for ground handling services at Kochi airport in Kerala,” the Celebi Holding's Chairman Can Celebioglu told a group of visiting Indian journalists at the company's corporate headquarters here earlier this week.

The Celebi Holding company is focussing on building on more than 50 years of strong know-how in ground handling as well as offering its expertise in the management of air cargo and warehouse not only in Turkey but also in Budapest, Belgium, Delhi and Frankfurt. Armed with state-of-the-art equipment, the Celebi is serving 25 airports in Turkey, covering nearly 99 per cent of passenger traffic.

15/05/11 The Hindu

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Turkish Airlines shuns GSA route

New Delhi: In its global expansion plans, Turkish Airlines has decided to open its own office in India instead of operating through a general sales agency (GSA). InterGlobe Aviation is the GSA for the airline in India.
“We are working out plan for expansion in India,” said Adnan Aykac, general manager of Turkish Airlines in India. Turkish Airlines is the national carrier of Turkey and operates in 139 international and 42 domestic cities of Europe, Asia, Africa and the US.
Aykac said the airline will take delivery of 22 aircraft by the end of the current calendar year and would not need leased aircraft. The airline has taken four Boeing 777s on lease from Jet Airways and the lease period will expire this year. “We will take delivery of 12 Boeing 777s and 10 Airbus 330s this year and may not need to continue operating with leased aircraft,” said Aykac.
Jet Airways, India’s largest carrier in terms of passenger carriage, said it has informed Turkish Airlines that the lease would not be extended. “Jet Airways will induct two Boeing 777 aircraft into its operations and has entered into an agreement with Thai Airways for the lease of the remaining two. The aircraft will be leased for two years with an option to extend for a year,” said an email reply from the airline.
15/05/11 Mihir Mishra/Business Standard

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United Sikhs want ban on wearing kirpan by airport staff revoked

Amritsar: United Sikhs, an international UN affiliated advocacy non government organization, has sought the intervention of the director general of Central Industrial Security Force, N R Dass, to revoke the ban on the wearing of the kirpan by airport employees at the airside of the Sri Guru Ramdas International Airport.
The Times of India on Thursday had highlighted the ban imposed by the security force on Sikh employees wearing a kirpan while performing their duties at the airside.
Director of United Sikhs, Mejindarpal Kaur, told TOI on Friday that the Sikh community understood the public's concern with national security.
"However, we cannot accept an abrogation of a Sikh's constitutional right under article 25 (2) (b) of the Indian constitution, under which a Sikh has a right to wear a kirpan at all times," she said.
She said that this right was reflected in the ministry of civil aviation's circular no.8/99 dated 28.4.99 (annexure-II) which even allows Sikh passengers to carry kirpan with them on board domestic flights.
14/05/11 Yudhvir Rana/Times of India

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Rejected MMRCA vendors fight to return

The elimination of four aircraft vendors from the $9.5-billion global competition to sell 126 medium multi-role combat aircraft (MMRCA) to the Indian Air Force (IAF) has not been accepted quietly. Business Standard has learnt the ministry of defence (MoD) has already got letters from all four, inquiring why their fighters were found unfit.
The first inquiry was from Russia, asking why the IAF had found the MiG-35 unsuitable. Next was the US embassy here, asking the specific reasons that had led to the elimination of the two American fighters, the Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornet; and the Lockheed Martin F-16IN Super Viper. MoD sources also confirm that Sweden’s Gripen International has written in, seeking details of why the fancied Gripen NG fighter was ruled out.
Earlier, on April 27, the MoD had written to the four vendors, briefly outlining but not detailing the reasons for their elimination. The remaining two vendors —Eurofighter GmbH and Dassault of France — were asked to extend the validity of their price bids, given two years earlier.
Vendor protests after elimination from a tender would usually be rejected as a pro forma exercise. This time, however, an MoD procedural error could provide the vendors a lever to claw their way back into contention. The MoD’s Technical Oversight Committee (TOC), which must review the IAF’s technical evaluation and flight trials to ascertain that procurement procedures were followed in full, had not completed its work before the MoD sent out the rejection letters.
It remains unclear why the MoD sent out its rejection letters before the TOC had ensured full compliance with procedures. Now, the three-man TOC — headed by the Scientific Advisor to the Raksha Mantri (SA to RM), V K Saraswat, with Bharat Electronics Ltd chief, Ashwini Datt and the IAF’s Air Marshal Anil Chopra as members — is scrambling to complete this mandatory review. Emailed a questionnaire by Business Standard, the MoD has not responded.
14/05/11 Ajai Shukla/Business Standard

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Mid-flight message to pilots gets MP’s mother-in-law an upgrade

Mumbai: On May 7, a passenger on board a Delhi-Newark Air India flight (AI 101) was upgraded to first-class allegedly because her son-in-law is a member of Parliament.

The incident came to light on Thursday after the flight supervisor's report on the matter.

According to the report, the passenger travelling on an economy class ticket created a ruckus before boarding the flight after the pilots, captain Suraj Prakash and captain AA Singh, turned down her request for an upgrade.

However, nearly three hours after the flight took off, the pilots received a telex on board from captain AS Soman, AI’s director of operations, ordering them to upgrade the passenger.

“The telex said that they could face severe consequences if the request was not honoured,” said a cabin crew member, requesting anonymity because he is not authorised to talk. “The AI management should seek an inquiry into why Soman ordered the upgrade.”

Captain Soman, too, allegedly had got an upgrade during his US visit in April. Sources said that Soman and his son were booked in the economy class of a Newark-bound flight from Mumbai (AI 199) on April 19.

13/05/11 Soubhik Mitra/Hindustan Times

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Reward for arriving early on flight from India to Chicago? A tarmac wait

Due to quirks of winds, weather and airspace restrictions on the other side of the globe, American Airlines Flight 293 from New Delhi lands chronically early at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport during winter and early spring, data show.

Arriving ahead of plan can actually mean a 30-minute or hour wait in a jet parked on the tarmac for passengers who have just endured a marathon flight of more than 15 hours.

That's because travelers aren't allowed to exit overseas flights if there aren't customs agents around to screen them. U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents who handle those duties at O'Hare don't begin work until 5 a.m., the New Delhi flight's scheduled arrival time in winter.

Flight 293's delays don't come close to violating new four-hour tarmac limits for international flights, which take effect Aug. 23. But its woes are rooted in the same red tape and staffing snarls that stranded more than 10,000 people aboard aircraft of foreign carriers for up to 11 hours at John F. Kennedy International Airport during a blizzard Dec. 26, prodding regulators to act.

Federal officials, airlines, airports and law-enforcement agencies are drafting plans to let travelers disembark from diverted or off-schedule overseas flights and into secure waiting areas. Since the Kennedy nightmare, the planning process has taken on greater urgency, government and aviation sources said.

But for now, international passengers are required to remain seated and behind closed aircraft doors at the point when most want nothing more than to get out of the giant aluminum tube.

"People get stir crazy," said Abby Alconcher, an American flight attendant who, until January, flew the New Delhi route every month for four years. Exhausted flight attendants are bombarded with pleas and complaints from passengers, some who speak little or no English. "You want to say, 'Oh, madam, I so want to get off this plane too.'"

12/05/11 Julie Johnsson/Chicago Tribune

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Turkish firm Celebi to invest $80-100 m in India

Istanbul: Celebi Holding, the Turkey-based ground handling and cargo services provider, is planning to invest $80-100 million in the next 18 months in India.

The firm is eying a 50% year-on-year growth in revenue from ground handling operations in India while in the cargo business it hopes to maintain its existing revenues this year.

“We will be doing an investment of around $40-50 million on the cargo side. On the ground handling side it will depend on the size of the services that we are going to provide. That investment can be between $20 million and $30 million,” Can Celebioglu, chairman of Celebi Holding told DNA.

Amber Dubey, director-KPMG Advisory, sees the investment as an excellent move on the cargo handling side. “There is a huge potential for cargo handling in India. Some of the airports in the world handle much more than what India together handles. On the ground handling there is some amount of uncertainty due the current issues. But a solution could still be worked out,” he said.

13/05/11 Neelasri Barman/Daily News & Analysis

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TCS, IBM in Rs.750 crore airports contract race

India’s biggest software services company Tata Consultancy Services Ltd (TCS) and IBM India Pvt. Ltd are the contenders for an Airports Authority of India (AAI) contract to upgrade technology systems at 10 airports and improve information flow among them.

The two companies on 2 May submitted commercial bids for the order that is likely to be worth Rs.750 crore, although at least five firms had submitted expressions of interest for the contract, said two senior officials involved in the tendering process.

TCS and IBM declined to comment. Mint could not independently confirm the names of companies that submitted expressions of interest.

The seven-year contract will involve building a database and control centre for operations at 10 airports—Kolkata, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Pune, Calicut, Trichy, Mangalore, Thiruvananthapuram, Guwahati and Jaipur, said one of the officials mentioned above.

13/05/11 Surabhi Agarwal & Tarun Shukla/Live Mint

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Empire Aviation Group expands operations

Empire Aviation Group (EAG), the Dubai-based private aviation specialist, has announced plans to expand into India with a new Mumbai branch office opening by mid 2011. The company aims to replicate its success in the Middle East, where EAG manages one of the region's largest managed fleets of business jets and which continues to grow with the addition of Dassault Falcon 7X jets.

The senior management team from EAG will attend EBACE 2011 as the company looks to develop its regional position and accelerate its expansion within and beyond the Middle East.

EAG's new branch in Mumbai - the company's first operation outside Dubai - will eventually offer the full range of Empire Aviation Group services in the subcontinent, and will have an initial focus on aircraft sales and management. The expansion into India comes as the Middle East market shows increasing levels of confidence and activity - and where EAG has just added two Falcon 7Xs to its managed fleet with a third set to join the growing fleet of more than 20 aircraft, based at Dubai International Airport.

The Falcon 7X offers 15-30% greater fuel efficiency than other aircraft in the large cabin, long range class. The range of 5,950 nm means the aircraft can comfortably connect 95% of the commonly used business aviation city pairs worldwide, such as Beijing-Paris, New York-Riyadh. It can also connect Shanghai with Auckland and Seattle with London City Airport.

12/05/11 AMEinfo.com

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Air Seychelles to stop service from Chennai

Chennai: Flying to Seychelles is going to be expensive by at least 50% as Air Seychelles withdraws its weekly flight from Chennai to the island nation from June 1.

Air Seychelles started a flight from Chennai to Seychelles in November 2010 and is operating a service every Wednesday. The airline also had plans to make Chennai a hub for Asia.

The move to withdraw its flight will affect Seychelles citizens who fly to Chennai for medical treatment and travellers from Chennai who used to fly to the island for leisure. The archipelago in the Indian Ocean is a favourite honeymoon destination.

"A couple travelled today to Seychelles on honeymoon. The direct flight made the world famous honeymoon destination affordable for Chennaiites. After the flight is withdrawn, travellers will have to fly via Dubai or Singapore. This will push up the cost by over 50%," said M K Ajith Kumar, president, Asia Pacific Tours. Currently a return ticket costs Rs 25,000.

Air Seychelles was operating Singapore-Chennai-Seychelles and Seychelles-Chennai-Singapore. But the airline did not have rights to pick up passengers from Chennai to Singapore and vice versa.

Sources say that this was a disadvantage to the airline which dented its profitability in the sector.

12/05/11 V Ayyappan/Times of India

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Indian dies in Ottawa during first solo skydive

Karthik Balakrishnan was to return to his native India next week to help support his parents.
But before he left, the software engineer wanted to follow his passion and parachute solo for the first time.
“None of us liked it because we knew the dangers involved,” said his brother-in-law, Rajalingam Arunachalam. “But he was very passionate about it.”
His worst fears were realized when the 30-year-old Balakrishman died Sunday after encountering trouble shortly after his chute opened in the skies over downstate Ottawa. Witnesses say Balakrishnan went into "several radical turns" before he lost control and slammed to the ground, according to the LaSalle County sheriff's office.
Balakrishnan had skydived several times, but always in tandem with an instructor, Arnachalam said. Sunday was his first solo outing.
Balakrishnan had come to the United States about five years ago to further his career, but he wanted to return home to help his brother support their parents, Arunachalam said.
Arunachalam said he’s concerned for the safety of other skydivers, and hopes to learn more about his brother-in-law’s accident.
The accident happened about a mile east of the Skydive Chicago Dayton facility, Lake County sheriff’s officials said. He had flown out of the Skydive facility in Ottawa.
10/05/11 Kate Thayer and Carlos Sadovi/Chicago Tribune

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Airbus deal: Small rivals beat Infy, MSatyam

Two of India's biggest software firms -- Infosys and Mahindra Satyam -- have been outbid by smaller, niche rivals QuEST and Cades for an outsourcing contract potentially worth over $300 million from the world's largest commercial plane maker, Airbus. According to at least three people involved with the discussions, Airbus plans to outsource more design projects for its 380, A350 and A320 series of planes to vendors based in India to slash costs by up to 40% and focus better on competing with rivals such as Boeing.
These projects involve designing wings and other avionics systems for the planes and are more complex and better priced than traditional outsourcing work that include back office operations and writing software codes. "Airbus' strategy is two-fold -— give more work to hungry niche suppliers and develop a much bigger base of vendors in India for addressing the defense offset clause," said a person familiar with the aircraft maker's outsourcing strategy. He also confirmed that both QuEST and Cades have been given letter of intent (LoI) for this contract by Airbus.
Airbus and other Indian service providers had not responded to an email query sent by ET last week. By 2012, when Airbus readies its A350 planes, the company plans to send as much as 20% of all its projects to India. Much of this growth in outsourcing to India can be attributed to the country's defense offset clause that makes it mandatory for companies to source at least 30% of the value of contracts awarded from local suppliers.
10/05/11 Times of India

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‘Evasive Canada cops almost derailed Kanishka probe’

Chandigarh: ...The RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) were reluctant to share evidence. At that point of time I wanted to shut the inquiry... Then it started coming. It was not easy to get information,” recalled Justice John C Major, who was Chairman of Commission of Inquiry into the Investigation of the Bombing of Air India Flight 182 (Kanishka). It was the largest mass murder in the history of Canada.
“The bombing was clearly preventable. It could have stopped at the desk of CSIS (Canadian Security Intelligence Service) desk. There was an input that terrorists would seek revenge in June, 1985. Air India had also sent a message to all airports on June 1, where they were operating flights,” said Major.
“At the time of blast, Canadian ambassador was recently replaced and there was no one at that time. Canada’s response was slow at that time, but the Irish people did an excellent job,” said Major. In his report, he had commented on racism angle, “While the Commission does not feel that the term “racism” is helpful, it is also understandable that the callous attitude by the Government of Canada to the families of the victims might lead them to wonder whether a similar response would have been forthcoming had the overwhelming majority of the victims of the bombing been Canadians who were white. The Commission concludes that both the Government and the Canadian public were slow to recognize the bombing of Flight 182 as a Canadian issue.”
According to Major, the plane was two-and-a-half hours late. The manager (of Air India) was anxious to get off the ground. The X-ray screening machine broke down after checking part of the luggage and PD-4 sniffer device had to be used, but Air India security staff were not trained to use it.
He said, “It was around 3 o’ clock in the afternoon. M Singh got off the plane unobserved. He could go off so easily.”
He added that terrorists wanted to take revenge for “invasion of Golden Temple” as “assassination of Indira Gandhi was not enough”. It had come out that they had warned Sikhs not to fly Air India.
11/05/11 Bhartesh Singh Thakur/Indian Express

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SVPI rolls out red carpet for international airlines but none have started flights from Ahmedabad

Ahmedabad: When will new international flights start operations from Ahmedabad airport? This is the Rs400 crore question on the top of the minds of Ahmedabad airport officials and the Airports Authority of India(AAI). AAI has invested nearly Rs400 crore for improving infrastructure at the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport (SVPI) in the past couple of years.

A large part of this money - Rs300 crore - was spent on building the new terminal building, which is of international standards. Large sums were also spent for the airport's makeover, including improving passenger and operational facilities. Infrastructure at the airport is fully in place and it is all ready to welcome more international airlines.

International airlines have been regularly visiting the airport to check the possibility of launching flights. In fact, over the past couple of months, officials of KLM Royal Dutch Airlines and Air France have visited and shown interest in starting their operations from Ahmedabad.

During their visits, the airlines collected data related to international and domestic flight movements at the airport, passenger movement, ground and air facilities, among others. But, their plans have not taken any concrete shape as yet.

"The airlines have shown interest, but they are yet to take a concrete decision with regards to starting flights," said Ahmedabad airport director, Anuj Aggarwal.

In terms of infrastructure, the airport now provides the facilities international airlines would need.

09/05/11 Satish Jha/Daily News & Analysis

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Senai Airport at Johor Bahru, Malaysia to Go International Again

Mumbai: International flights are to resume from the Senai Airport at Johor Bahru, Malaysia here after a lapse of almost a year. Firefly Sdn Bhd, the low cost carrier, has confirmed that it will introduce it's maiden flight to the Indonesian cities of Surabaya and Bandung on Aug 12 and Aug 16 respectively. It will also fly to Bangkok, at the end of theyear.

The Senai Airport used to be the southern hub of budget airline AirAsia's international operations, with flights to Macau, Bangkok and Jakarta until it halted the services in the middle of last year. Sriwijaya, the Indonesia-based airline, also operated a flight to Surabaya from Senai but stopped doing so in August last year.

Since then, the Senai Airport has only catered to domestic flights but with Firefly's latest confirmation, the Johor state government's efforts to turn it into an international destination, is picking up pace. The Johor Tourism Department Director, Dr Shaari Mohd Nooh said that Firefly, a subsidiary of Malaysia Airlines, is serious in wanting to make the Senai Airport its

southern hub. "Firefly will have two planes for the international flights and a set of crew permanently stationed here," he added.

Shaari also said that China Airlines is interested in flying to Senai from the southern city of Guangzhou and is now in talks with the Malaysian Department of Civil Aviation for landing rights.

"Many Chinese citizens apply for visas at the Malaysian Consulate in Guangzhou. So, it's natural, that they want to fly out from Guangzhou airport.

"Having more international flights into Senai Airport will only increase tourist arrivals into Johor," he added.

08/05/11 PRESS RELEAE/Senai Airport, Malaysia

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Makemytrip.com ties up with Thai tourism

New Delhi: Online travel company Makemytrip.com has tied up with the Tourism Authority of Thailand to operate direct charter flights to Phuket.

The direct flights from Delhi to Phuket will be operational from May 10, the company said here today.

“Indian travellers have developed a keen sense of adventure and want to explore newer destinations. Thailand is a key attraction for Indians,” MakeMyTrip CMO, Mr Mohit Gupta, said here.

10/05/11 PTI/Business Line

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Elusive ‘Star’ turn costs Air India Rs2 crore per day

New Delhi: A delay in joining the global airline grouping, Star Alliance, is costing Air India (AI) Rs1.5-2 crore a day in revenue.
Officials say the airline’s inability to offer domestic connections in important markets like the US — where AI operates direct flights to New York but not to the West Coast — have hit revenue generation significantly.
The officials are hoping the airline woauld be able to join Star Alliance by July 31, the latest deadline set by the international body.
Star Alliance has already given AI three extensions to complete all formalities over the last two years, in a scenario where some private Indian carriers are also keen to join the airline grouping.
But Air India has faced several problems on this issue, the biggest being the absence of a single code till a few months back.
Erstwhile Air India and Indian Airlines flights were earlier being operated separately on ‘AI’ and ‘IA’ codes, which meant separate ticketing, among other things.
Star Alliance had made it clear from the beginning that in order to join it, India’s national carrier will have to first get a single code and an integrated passenger service system, or PSS, which includes integrated bookings.
An airline official said an AI team will be going to Frankfurt next month to conclude negotiations on joining the Alliance.
09/05/11 Sindhu Bhattacharya/Daily News & Analysis

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In a first, NRG businessman buys flying car

Ahmedabad: In 2008, NRG businessman Subhash Shihora has become the first Indian to buy the world's first commercial flying car called 'Transition' from a company in Massachusetts, US.
Shihora now wants the car to be parked at his farmhouse off SG Road in Ahmedabad. But he fears getting permission may not be easy. He will need clearances from not just aviation agencies, but security agencies as well and has already started talking to officials.
"I fly down to Ahmedabad at least six times a year and then fly to Mumbai and Rajkot. I had taken a test drive of the flying car. By pressing just one button, the car turns into an aircraft. I have started taking flying lessons to get the licence," says Shihora.
The car, designed with foldable wings, successfully completed its first flight on March 5, 2009 and recently got clearance from the US Department of Transportation's Federal Aviation Administration. The two-seater vehicle falls in the light aircraft category and requires a private pilot licence to fly it. The vehicle, which is big enough to fit into a home garage and runs on unleaded petrol, can travel up to 450 miles and can fly at 115 mph.
"With all taxes and duties paid, the car will cost me around Rs 6 crore in Ahmedabad," says Shihora.
09/05/11 Times of India

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Airport architect David Holm joins Cox Richardson

Cox Richardson has announced that airport design specialist David Holm has joined the Sydney architecture and planning practice as Director.
Holm has over 20 years experience in the transport design sector, specifically airports and airport retail design having worked on projects including: Singapore’s Changi Terminals 1 and 3; Sydney International Airport “Forum”, the retail development of Sydney Airport’s Terminal 2; East Hall retail at Chek Lap Kok International Airport in Hong Kong and New Delhi International Airport in India.
Holm is also known for authoring two books: "Drawing Italy" and "Drawing Paris" and for working closely with several institutions tutoring, mentoring and presenting master classes.
Cox Richardson founder Director, Professor Philip Cox, said, “David’s work is exhilarating and ambitious. We share a common passion for and sensibility around drawing - the cornerstone of design.”
09/05/11 Architecture Design

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Calcutta set to get second direct China flight

Calcutta will have a second direct flight to mainland China next month, when Hainan Airlines starts its service to Shenzhen in the southern province of Guangdong.
“We will start our operations before June 30 with three flights a week from Calcutta to Shenzhen, and based on the response, we are open to increasing the frequency,” Li Li, the general manager of the airline’s city office, told Metro.
The flight will leave Calcutta at 2.15 in the afternoon on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, and reach Shenzhen at 8.25pm (local time). From Shenzhen, the flight will leave on the same days at 11.40am (local time) and touch down in Calcutta at 1 in the afternoon.
The only direct air link to mainland China from the city now is China Eastern Airlines’s daily flight to Kunming.
09/05/11 Subhro Saha/The Telegraph

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Air India resumes flights to Maldives

Male: Indian flag-carrier, Air India today resumed its flights from Trivandrum to the Maldives as pilots Friday ended a 10-day strike that cost the ailing airline millions of dollars in lost revenues.
Maldivians travelling to Trivandrum faced difficulties and some were stranded as some 700 pilots working for the domestic service of state-run Air India launched the strike to demand wage parity with colleagues flying international routes.
The strikers, who climbed down from demands for immediate pay parity with pilots flying international routes and accepted government promises to look into their complaints, were all from the former state-run domestic carrier Indian Airlines, which was merged in 2007 with international carrier Air India in a bid to create a more cost-efficient national carrier.
Air India posted losses of 34.5 billion rupees (US$771 million) in the first half of the last fiscal year on top of a loss of 55.5 billion rupees (US$1.23 billion) during the previous 12 months, according to government figures.
The walkout forced Air India to cancel 70 to 80 percent of its domestic flights, costing it about 150 million rupees (US$3.35 million) a day in revenues, an Air India official told AFP.
08/05/11 haveeru online

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Pilot Refuses To Fly With Muslim Men On Board

Two Muslim men were removed from a Delta commuter flight operated by Atlantic Southeast Airlines Friday after the pilot refused to fly with them on board.

Masudur Rahman, an Arabic-language instructor at the University of Memphis and Mohamed Zaghloul, a religious leader in the Islamic Association of Greater Memphis told the AP they were removed from a flight leaving Memphis International Airport, heading for Charlotte, after the pilot refused to takeoff.

According to Charlotte-area station WBTV, the men have "retained counsel and the US attorney's office has already been contacted about the incident."

Rahman told the AP he "was dressed in traditional Indian clothing" and Zaghloul "was dressed in Arab garb, including traditional headgear" when they boarded the 8:40 AM flight to Charlotte.

The plane had left the gate and was headed for the runway when the pilot decided to turn back. Rahman said the pair were "ordered off by a Delta Supervisor." From WBTV:

"He said 'Mr. Rahman, sorry the pilot is not allowing you to enter the plane.' I said 'For what reason, TSA had a problem and we were cleared, we don't have anything and we are respected people in our community'."

But, according to Rahman, the pilot said, "I'm not going to take to you."

"For what reason, he said some 'passengers might be upset or uncomfortable'," Raham said the pilot told him.

06/05/11 Evan McMorris-Santoro/TPM

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Turkish Airlines to set up sales office in Gurgaon

Mumbai: According to a Financial Chronicle report, Turkish Airlines has decided not to extend its ticket bookings contract with InterGlobe Air Transport for Indian market which ends in June this year. The airline is now planning to set up its sales office in Gurgaon and tie-up with various travel agents to service the Indian market.

“Our contract with Inter- Globe ends in June this year. We have decided not to extend it as we are setting up our own office in Gurgaon. We’ll have separate teams for marketing, sales and ticketing. About 25 per cent of our sales are out of Delhi and for that we will tie up with travel agents,” said Adnan Aykac, General Manager, Northern & Eastern India, Turkish Airlines. The carrier, which has been in India for the last eight years, operates a daily flight from Delhi and Mumbai to Istanbul with a load factor of 75 per cent.

Aykac said the company was studying other potential markets in India and would consider adding new flights soon. “India has huge potential in terms of two way traffic. We want to have a load factor of 80 per cent, which is quite easy to achieve,” he said.

06/05/11 TravelBizMonitor

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Arunachal announces Rs 10 lakh for info on Dorjee Khandu

Guwahati/Itanagar: The Arunachal Pradesh government has announced a reward of Rs 10 lakh for anyone who can give specific information about the Pawan Hans chopper that went missing with chief minister Dorjee Khandu and four others on board on Saturday.
An NGO named Cultural Society, Tawang, has offered an award of Rs 5 lakh. Tawang is Khandu's native place.
On Tuesday, Union ministers V Narayansamy and Mukul Wasnik, AICC general secretary Dhaniram Shandil and secretary Sanjay Bapan monitored the situation. "Both the Centre and the state government are trying their best to gather information about the safety of the chief minister," Shandil said.
Inclement weather and snowfall hampered search operations by IAF choppers. Kiren Rijiju, adviser to Khandu, said rescue workers were focussing on a dense jungle where Isro images and Sukhoi aircraft mappings earlier showed metal pieces. The area lies in West Kameng district bordering Bhutan.
Narayansamy said, "Seven locations situated at about 13,000ft from sea level in Arunachal and Bhutan have been identified by the search teams. Two locations have been searched without any result."
Wing Commander Ranjib Sahoo, PRO of the IAF's eastern command, said, "At 6 am, two MI-17 helicopters took off from Tawang but returned to base after about 45 minutes because of snowfall and bad weather."
Kuensel, Bhutan's state-run newspaper, said search and rescue teams from the Buddhist kingdom were marching towards Paptra where satellite pictures on Monday indicated the presence of aircraft-like metallic pieces. Paptra is a pasture land located at about 12,000 ft above sea level in Bhutan.
04/05/11 Times of India

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China help sought in copter rescue

Itanagar: With four days of search for the missing Pawan Hans chopper with Arunachal Pradesh chief minister Dorjee Khandu and four others on board drawing a blank, a section of apparently agitated groups and individuals today went to the extent of suggesting that the Centre seek China’s help as it was a “matter of life and death”.
Among those to have sought Chinese help was Takam Tatung, the president of the influential All Arunachal Pradesh Students’ Union. “Now that our technology and effort so far have failed, we should seek Chinese help as a neighbour to locate the chief minister and the others with him. The Centre should also paradrop troops in the shortlisted locations,” Tatung said.
Fear of the possibility of having lost a man whom local residents described as “very amiable and helpful” is giving way to anger, feel those tracking the developments since the disappearance of the chopper soon after taking off from Tawang with five persons on board on Saturday morning.
China and Arunachal Pradesh share a 1,080-km border with the former claiming the frontier state as its own. China and India even fought a bitter war in 1962 and still bicker over the frontier state.
Even a member of the ruling Congress made similar demand, summing up the mood among the locals. “We are not blaming the Centre but isn’t it shameful that we have not been able to locate the chopper and our beloved chief minister even after four days? Since it is a matter of life and death, we do not see why we cannot seek help from other countries, including China. It is about time,” Likha Maj, a member of Arunachal PCC, said.
“India claims to be prepared to face any eventuality in this sensitive frontier state but that has not been reflected in this case. Simply blaming the weather and terrain will not help matters. Will India say the same thing if China attacks us? If we cannot locate a chief minister, what will be the fate of the common man?” The chairperson of Arunachal Citizens’ Rights, Maj. Bamang Tago said.
“Personally, I do not see any harm in seeking help from any country, including China, in such situations. Nothing wrong, we will support it,” said Toko Teki, the general secretary of Arunachal Pradesh Christian Forum.
04/05/11 Umanand Jaiswal/The Telegraph

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Another 5 areas, including 1 in Bhutan searched to find Dorjee Khandu's missing chopper

Itanagar: Search operations have been mounted at five high altitude places in Arunchal Pradesh's West Kameng district and one area inside Bhutan today to find the helicopter of Arunachal Pradesh chief minister Dorjee Khandu and four others missing since Saturday.
The aerial search was called off for the day because of bad weather. The five new areas including Putujiji in Bhutan, were being searched after those at Bangajanga and Nagarjiji in the same district drew a blank, Union minister of state V Narayansamy told reporters here after a high-level review meeting of the Crisis Management Committee.
Earlier, infra-red images from IAF Su30s detected an 'aircraft-like' object at Nagajiji near Sela Pass. Asked how helpful were the images received from ISRO and the aerial mapping by Sukhoi fighters from Bareilly, Narayansamy said they were much more clearer than the ones received from a Canadian satellite.
Quoting Major General Ojha, monitoring and supervising the rescue operation at Dirang, he said a 30-member National Disaster Responce Force team despatched by the home ministry has joined the 3000 personnel engaged in the ground operation with full support of the Bhutan government.
The ground search was being conducted by 3,000 personnel from Indian Army, ITBP and SSB with the assistance of the state police.
Asked if the party was considering appointment of a caretaker chief minister, Narayansamy said, "the leadership is fully aware of the issue and act accordingly."
Questioned why China's help was not sought to locate the chopper, he said the crisis management committee has ruled out the possibility of its flying to that country as the hills there were much higher for it to cross.
03/05/11 Daily News & Analysis

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Search focus for Khandu shifts to Bhutan

Guwahati: After satellite images failed to lead rescuers to the missing chopper of Arunachal Pradesh chief minister Dorjee Khandu four days after he went missing, the search mission shifted focus to Bhutan. "Torrential rains and steep inclines slowed down the pace of the well-trained rescuers who began trekk
ing early morning, but they got nothing when they reached the two spots well past noon," said Union minister V Narayanasamy in state capital Itanagar.
The 'disappointment' made other search parties shift focus to five other spots - four in West Kameng district of Arunachal Pradesh, and the fifth in the Paktujiji area in the adjoining Trashi Yangtse district of Bhutan.
03/05/11 Rahul Karmakar/Hindustan Times

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Lost copter trail leads to Bhutan

New Delhi: The missing chopper with Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Dorjee Khandu and four others could have possibly landed or crashed at Ptag in Bhutan.
“A search team of Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) has left for Bhutan at 9.30 on Tuesday morning,” official sources in the force told Deccan Herald. They scotched speculation that the helicopter may have crossed into the Chinese air space.
Local intelligence gave information of “blasting sounds” heard from the region where foot-search will shortly be launched. “Satellite imagery has corroborated flight path there,” sources said.
The ITBP team would comb the area early Wednesday to verify “the status of the evidence” there. They will be climbing about 3000 to 4000 metres to reach the area where the helicopter is suspected to have landed or crashed.
03/05/11 Deepak K Upreti/Deccan Herald

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Search failure resented

Itanagar: A wave of strong resentment grips the civil society in Arunachal Pradesh as the helicopter with Chief Minister Dorjee Khandu and four others still remained untraced for the fourth day on Tuesday.
Local people, including pressure groups, started questioning the “sincerity” of the Central Government and the “effectiveness” of its machineries in locating the chopper.
“The Central authorities are just maintaining that bad weather was hampering search and rescue operations, citing that the terrain is rugged and inaccessible. Everybody knows it well that the terrain is rough and mountainous and it rains heavily most of the time, but is that an excuse on the Government of India’s part?
“Bad weather and difficult topography can not be the lame excuse on the part of Central Government. Is not it a failure of Indian technology to trace out the democratically elected Chief Minister of Arunachal Pradesh?” asked Bamang Tago, the chairman of Arunachal Citizens Rights (ACR), adding: “What would the Government of India do if any outside enemy and even China, which stakes oft-repeated claims on Arunachal territory, invades in this strategically located frontier state.”
“If India is not capable of tracing the helicopter, they should not hesitate to take help from other countries, including China, so that we could get technological support from them in locating the missing chopper and the Chief Minister,” remarked the ACR chairman.
03/05/11 The Assam Tribune

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Arunachal CM: Search narrows to 66-km area in W Kameng

New Delhi, Guwahati: Over 48 hours after a Pawan Hans helicopter carrying Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Dorjee Khandu and others went missing, there was still no news about its whereabouts, even as the government has requested the French investigative agency, BEA, to assist it in locating the chopper.

After fresh satellite imagery showed metallic objects on the ground, it was decided that the search operations would now be confined to a 66-sq km area in West Kameng district.

Sources said two teams — one from India and one from Bhutan — would trek to a point east of Tashigong in Bhutan where some locals claimed to have heard a loud blast around the time the chopper went missing.

Border Road Organisation employees in the surrounding area claimed they heard a big explosion from the nearby forests. A similar claim was made by a driver who was travelling at that time.

Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) chief EK Bharat Bhushan said the French helicopter maker, Eurocopter, has been roped in to help search and rescue operations.

03/05/11 Indian Express

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Rescue operations intensified

New Delhi: At first light on Tuesday, a group of 60 climbers will scale a 14,000-foot peak in Arunachal Pradesh to look for a missing AS350 B3 Eurocopter.

But it is not the only peak to be scanned, either through the eyes of an Isro satellite or Bhutan’s schoolchildren or Sukhoi 30 cameras. There are at least four sites, two each in Arunachal Pradesh and Bhutan, all in cloud-covered forested mountains, where chief minister Dorjee Khandu’s missing chopper has either been reportedly seen flying, heard crashing or “sensed” by satellites.

Rescue teams are leaving no stone unturned to search for the Pawan Hans chopper, even as multiplicity of inputs is making the job tougher than it already is on the treacherous terrain.

The Pawan Hans Helicopters Limited (PHHL) has also announced suspension of all operations in the Northeast for the time being in order to help in the search-and-rescue operations.

Yesterday, mountain scans in West Kameng district through two sorties by the Indian Air Force’s Sukhoi-30s showed what could be the wreckage. Incidentally, images received from Isro’s satellite also highlighted the same coordinates, differing only by “a few seconds”.

The coordinates — 27 degrees, 29 minutes, 28.87 seconds North and 92 degrees 0 minute 38 seconds East — point to an area within the Sakteng wildlife sanctuary in Trashigang, Bhutan. “A joint team of army and Indo Tibetan Police Force (ITBP) will begin scaling the snow-clad mountain tomorrow morning,” said an official.

It will be after more than 56 hours — the helicopter went missing on Saturday morning — that one potential accident site may be reached.

Another team is scaling 8,000 feet to reach Birla Top above “Eagle’s Nest” in the same district. A driver — Tamang — informed the Arunachal Pradesh police yesterday about an “explosion” on the mountaintop, leading to formation of the search party.

Then, during the interactions between Indian and Bhutanese officials, the latter said a schoolboy from the Bhutan-Arunchal border had reportedly seen a helicopter hovering.

“Here, the schoolchildren have seen the chopper going towards a high mountain — Tsongsong — in Bhutan,” sources told The Telegraph. The red chopper apparently hovered for a while, attempting to land in the hills underneath and on failing, crossed the Tsongsong peak.

03/05/11 The Telegraph

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Kaveri engine completes tests in Russia

New Delhi: The India-made aircraft engine Kaveri has successfully completed its first phase of testing at a Russian centre, in a step towards its operationalisation on the indigenous fighter jets.

The engine, integrated on a Russian IL-76 transporter at the Gromov Flight Research Institute in Russia, completed its 11 trials of over 20 hours till April, the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRD0) said.

‘Kaveri engine was integrated with IL-76 aircraft, which is a well established flying test bed for engines… Eleven flight tests for about 20 hours duration have been completed till April,’ the DRDO said.

Kaveri was one of four engines on the flying test bed platform. It was flight tested for up to 12 km maximum altitude and a maximum forward speed of 0.7 Mach (0.7 seven times the speed of sound) and engine performance under different operating conditions.

‘With this, the first phase of Kaveri engine flying test bed trials completed successfully,’ a DRDO statement said. ‘Further tests will continue from May.’

Kaveri is being developed for indigenous light combat aircraft at the Gas Turbine Research Establishment (GTRE) in Bangalore with the active support of several DRDO labs, academic institutions and industry partners.

During development phase, Kaveri engine has successfully completed various stages of development including component testing, safety tests, ground-based engine tests, and endurance tests.

02/06/11 News One

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