Air India arm plans MRO unit in Muscat, to service other carriers’ aircraft too

New Delhi: Disinvestment-bound Air India’s subsidiary Air India Engineering Services Ltd (AIESL) has firmed up plans to open a maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) unit in Muscat, Oman, from where it expects to generate labour revenue of at least $500,000 per annum, tender documents issued by the company showed. Despite being a 100 per cent subsidiary of Air India Ltd, AIESL is not a part of its parent’s disinvestment process and will be hived off through a demerger or other mechanism before the close of the exercise.

In the tender document for appointment of a sales and marketing agent in Oman, AIESL said that the MRO unit had received an approval from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation in India but was awaiting a clearance from the Public Authority for Civil Aviation, Oman. At this MRO facility, AIESL will not only conduct line maintenance of Air India aircraft operating on routes to Muscat but will also target other airlines having operations in the gulf country.

The Muscat MRO will be a part of AIESL’s overseas expansion plan under which it first opened an international branch in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates (UAE). “Based on the experience and backed by cost benefit analysis, the opportunity to expand to other international stations will also be explored. At present, the report for Abu Dhabi, Ras Al Khaimah, Muscat has been prepared to start AIESL line maintenance operations and achieve profitability,” the company had noted in its annual report for 2016-17 released in September.
31/05/18 Pranav Mukul/Indian Express

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HC stays RBI's rejection of PIA request for regularising Indian branches

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court today stayed Reserve Bank of India's rejection of Pakistan International Airlines' request for regularisation of its branches in India.

Justice Rajiv Shakdher put on hold the decision of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) as it did not disclose why the PIA's request to regularise its branches was rejected.

The RBI's lawyer orally told the court that the decision was taken based on a November 2017 letter from the Ministry of Finance (MoF) that PIA's request has been rejected.

The judge, however, said, "According to me, it (MoF letter) does not lead to any clarity as to why the request was rejected."

The court, thereafter, asked the Centre, the RBI and the Citibank, PIA's banker, to file their responses to the airline's plea challenging the RBI letter and listed the matter for further hearing on July 6.

It also directed the RBI to send a communication to Citibank to allow the airline to operate its accounts.

PIA had sought directions from the RBI to Citibank to allow it to continue using its bank accounts.

The airline, in its plea, has contended that Citibank had written to it that in the absence of permission to regularise the airlines' branches, PIA would not be allowed to operate its bank accounts.
31/05/18 PTI/Business Standard

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MP Dhesi meets Air India London head for resuming Heathrow-Amritsar flights

British Sikh MP Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi today met the new head of Air India for UK and Europe operations Debashis Golder at their UK headquarters in London to discuss the reintroduction of direct flights between London and Amritsar.Disclosing this MP Dhesi said, “I updated him on my meetings over the last year with his predecessor Ms Tara Naidu, along with those in Delhi and the Punjab Ministers about the long-pending demand of the Punjabi diaspora for direct flights between the Heathrow (UK) and Amritsar airports.“All in all a very positive meeting, wherein I was assured of Golder’s strong cooperation to liaise with senior people in Delhi, to get clearance for the Heathrow- Sri Guru Ramdas Amritsar international airport Amritsar flights to commence as per the community’s legitimate demand.  Air India will hopefully soon deliver us the good news", he added.In a statement first turbaned Sikh MP from Europe Tan Dhesi, as called in Britain, stressed that he was aggressively pitching for ensuring direct contact with UK and Punjab, a crucial demand of the Punjabi diaspora since direct flights to holy city were cancelled years back.Dhesi informed her that the Punjabi diaspora as well as business persons from both sides have been longing for direct air connectivity to their native lands. He suggested to the Air India representative that there are three daily direct flights between Heathrow-Delhi and one of these could be extended to Amritsar so that people from the Northern States could also benefit from direct connectivity with Europe.He further informed that earlier he had a meeting with London based aviation firm Virgin Atlantic's senior manager David Hodges also and presented various facts and figures about the potential of very lucrative air route for global tourist capital Amritsar which being visited by millions each year. Dhesi told that to serve the community on both sides he would leave no stone unturned to reintroduce the international connectivity between Britain and Punjab.
30/05/18 5 Dariya News

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Air India pilot found dead in Riyadh

Mumbai: Mystery shrouds the death of a 27-year-old Air India pilot whose body was found in the washroom of a health club at Holiday Inn Hotel in Riyadh, where he was staying during the layover period after operating a flight from New Delhi on Tuesday.

Captain Rithwik Tiwari, a first officer on the Airbus 320 fleet, is believed to have suffered a cardiac arrest. Post-mortem will be carried out shortly. Colleagues said that the pilot, son of Captain U.S. Tiwari, a senior training pilot with Air India, was all set to get engaged in a few weeks.

Air India officials said Captain Tiwari was found lying sideways in a toilet of the health club. “The police were called in after there was no response from the locked toilet room. The door was opened by police,” an airline official in Riyadh said. Flight commander Captain Renu Maulay helped in identifying the first officer.
30/05/18 The Hindu

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US aviation body to audit DGCA third time since 2013

New Delhi: The regulatory oversight of Indian aviation — whose job is to ensure people fly here safely — seems to be constantly under the scanner of leading international agencies. America’s Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is going to audit the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) for the third time since 2013. And the latest FAA audit comes soon after the Indian regulator underwent an audit by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) last November.
Confirming the FAA move, a senior DGCA official said: “It is a routine verification which FAA wishes to do. The fact that it is coming immediately after ICAO’s regular audit is a matter of comfort because ICAO audit has not thrown up any safety issue whatsoever. We would have preferred FAA to come a little later because of various other pressing administrative initiatives with which DGCA is currently engaged (such as e-GCA or making available most services of the regulator online). However, we will work out a mutually convenient time for FAA’s verification process.”
While FAA reportedly wants to come in a month or two, the Indian agency is learnt to be in favour of deferring the visit for some time as it is still implementing some changes recommended by the latest ICAO audit and the fact that ICAO audit did not express any serious safety concern.
29/05/18 Saurabh Sinha/Times of India

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GMR, GVK in the race for airport contract in Philippines

GMR and GVK are among other firms in the race for a contract of Clark International Airport (CIA) in the Philippines. The contract bids are for operations and maintenance (O&M) of the airport. A pre-bid conference was held on May 21 to find prospective bidders in Taguig city, according to a statement released by Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) of Philippines. A total of 30 prospective bidders reportedly attended the pre-bid conference. Clark International Airport, formerly known as the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport, is about 100 kilometre from the capital Manila.

Clark International Airport last year awarded a GMR group company, along with its partner, a $250 million EPC (engineering, procurement, construction) contract. BCDA in a statement said, “Among those procured bid documents for the airport’s O&M include Megawide-GMR Consortium, Metro Pacific Investment Corporation (MPIC), Filinvest Development Corporation, GVK Airport Developers Ltd, and Groupe ADP.”

GMR is a major player in the Infrastructure Sector, with many big projects in India and abroad. Headquartered in New Delhi, the infra major has been developing projects in high growth areas such as airports, energy, transportation and urban infrastructure. GMR Group currently owns and operates Delhi International Airport and Hyderabad International Airports. The Group is developing Goa’s greenfield airport at Mopa. GMR Group is also the only Indian airport developer to have developed and operated airports outside India.
28/05/18 ZeeBiz

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Sri Lankan flight carrying 227 passengers hit runway lights during take off at Cochin airport

New Delhi: A major mishap was averted after a Sri Lankan flight made had a close shave on the runway on Sunday. Flight number UL-168 had a narrow escape after hitting the runway at Cochin airport during taking off. Following the incident, the Sri Lankan airline got cancelled as the wheels had to suffer damages, according to a report by ANI. The airport authority had closed the runway for operations for a short period. No passengers were injured in the mishap, the report added. The runway was closed for a brief period of time, after which the operations were resumed. No passengers were injured in the incident.

Earlier, last week, an Air India flight en route from Goa to Mumbai made an emergency landing at Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport, Mumbai. The aircraft made an emergency landing due to snag in the hydraulic at 08:36 PM.  The aircraft landed safely at 09:18 PM and the runway was handed over for operations at 09:40 PM. A spokesperson from Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport spokesperson commenting on Air India‘s emergency landing said: “Everyone is safe, no injuries reported. Aircraft is parked safely.”
27/05/18 Financial Express

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Air Astana’s Indian passengers to enjoy visa free stopover in Kazakhstan

Air Astana is allowing passengers to 72 hours visa-free stopovers in the central Asian country of Kazakhstan with an aim to increase outbound traffic in the region. Passengers with Air Astana flights transiting in Almaty and Astana simply need to notify check-in staff at the point of departure in order to enjoy the benefit of a visa free visit. Air Astana offers Delhi – Almaty daily flights and a Delhi – Astana service three times a week operated by modern Airbus and Embraer aircraft. The direct flight connecting the capitals of India and Kazakhstan was introduced on July 2, 2017.
“Air Astana has been enjoying significant growth in transit traffic through the Almaty and Astana over the past two years, particularly from New Delhi,” said Richard Ledger, vice-president marketing, and sales, Air Astana. “I’m in no doubt that the introduction of 72 hours visa free entry to Kazakhstan for Indian passport holders will further boost transit traffic. We look forward to welcoming more Indian passengers on Air Astana flights and hope they enjoy the attractions of Almaty and Astana; particularly given our USD 1 Stopover Holidays program that offers one night accommodation with breakfast and return airport transfers,” he further added.
Air Astana is Kazakhstan’s national air carrier and is a joint venture of Samruk Kazyna Sovereign Wealth Fund (51 pc) and BAE Systems PLC (49 pc).
Air Astana, CEO, Peter Foster said, “We are promoting the two Kazakh cities of Almaty and Astana as stopover destinations through one-dollar stopover programme. The key is a more liberal visa regime. What we have demanded is allow free visa for Indian passengers for 72 hours. We have a lot of new hotels coming up at Astana. The economy needs to diversify. So, the transit passengers will be crucial for us.”
28/05/18 Shalini Dasgupta/Media India

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Three Taiwanese nationals held for smuggling Rs 1.75-cr gold at Mumbai airport

Mumbai: The Air Intelligence Unit of Mumbai Customs on Saturday arrested three Taiwanese nationals including a woman at the Mumbai airport for allegedly smuggling six kilogram of gold worth Rs 1.75 crore.

The accused people have been identified as Shu Hui Lai, 30, and her co-travellers Chuang Chun Chu, 30, and Tseng Chao-Wei, 33 — all holding a passport of the Republic of China Taiwan. Their interrogation revealed that they were to get $1,000 each as commission for the job.

According to the AIU officials, the accused had arrived at the city's international airport from Hong Kong on Saturday morning.

While they were passing the green channels, the officials got suspicious of Chu and Lai because of their body language, they said.

The officials said a search of both the passengers was conducted after which the officials recovered three kilogram of gold from each.

"The gold in the form of six gold bars weighing one kilogram each was concealed in two especially stitched cloth zipper pouches, with three pockets each. The duo had concealed the cloth pouch by tying it around their waist under their trousers. We then took them into custody and the gold bars with foreign markings were seized under the Customs Act," said an AIU official.

"On inquiring with the duo, they revealed that they had one more accomplice, Wei, who was supposed to deliver the gold to a foreigner in Mumbai and send the accused back to their country," he said.
27/05/18 Vallabh Ozarkar/DNA

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'Afghan man held at IGI with fake ticket'

New Delhi: An Afghan man was apprehended at the Delhi airport for allegedly using a fake ticket to enter the terminal area, a senior official said today.

O A Yama was intercepted by the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) personnel yesterday at 11 am as he was about to leave the Terminal-3 building of the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport, he said.

He was stopped and questioned as exiting the terminal area is not usually permitted for passengers, the official said.

The Afghan national told the security personnel that he used a "cancelled" ticket to enter the terminal area to see-off his wife and daughter, who were travelling to Kabul, he added.
26/05/18 Outlook

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After United and Air India, Delta to also launch US-Mumbai non-stop flights

New Delhi: Direct connectivity between India and the US is all set to improve from next year with Delta Air Lines going to begin nonstops flights America and Mumbai. Currently, Air India — which stares at an uncertain future — flies from Delhi and Mumbai nonstop to American destinations like New York, Newark, Chicago, San Francisco and Washington. United in the only American carrier which has daily direct flights from its Newark hub to Delhi and Mumbai. Delta will announce schedule details later this year.
Delta says the decision to restart nonstop to India “follows agreements between the US and the governments of the United Arab Emirates and Qatar to address the issue of government subsidies provided to state-owned carriers in those nations. The framework created by the agreement allows Delta to move forward with service to India, a market long impacted by government-subsidized Middle Eastern airlines. This move will mark a return to India for Delta, which was forced to exit the market after subsidized state-owned airlines made service economically unviable.”
Delta CEO Ed Bastian said: “It is exciting to be able to announce Delta’s return to India from the US as part of our vision to expand Delta’s reach internationally. We are thankful to the president for taking real action to enforce our Open Skies trade deals, which made this new service possible. We are looking forward to providing customers in the US and India with Delta's famously reliable, customer-focused service operated by the best employees in the industry.”
25/05/18 Saurabh Sinha/Times of India

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NCB arrests Tanzanian with Rs 15 cr heroin at IGI airport

New Delhi: A Tanzanian man has been arrested from the Delhi airport for allegedly smuggling in heroin worth about Rs 15 crore from Kenya, officials said.

This was an intelligence-based operation and the man was arrested, Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) Delhi zonal director Madho Singh said.

Marande M Azizi (40) was intercepted by the NCB sleuths at about 1:30 am after he landed at the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) airport from Hyderabad, an official said.

The sleuths were surprised to find 3 kg heroin in his baggage as the contraband is usually smuggled from Afghanistan and Pakistan into India.

The official said the estimated value of the seized heroin is about Rs 15 crore. They said the trafficking of heroin from African countries to India was a "new trend".

There had been a few similar instances in the past, the official added.

The Tanzanian revealed, the official said, that he was handed over the consignment of drugs by an African man in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi and and he was supposed to hand it over to another foreigner based in Delhi.
25/05/18 PTI/India Today

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Over 7 lakh foreign tourists visit India in April

Chennai: India continues to woo foreign tourists and this keeps increasing every year. According to Tourism Ministry, over seven lakh foreign tourists arrived in India in April 2018, registering a growth of 4.4 per cent over last year.

The Ministry compiles monthly Foreign Tourist Arrivals (FTAs) and FTAs on e- Tourist Visa on the basis of information received from Bureau of Immigration (BOI).

“FTAs in April 2018 were 7,49,477 as compared to 7,17,899 in April 2017, registering a growth of 4.4 per cent,” a statement released by the Ministry said.

FTAs during January-April 2018 were 38,76,021 as compared to 34,98,969 in the same period last year, registering a growth of 10.8 per cent.

The percentage share of FTAs during April 2018 among the top 15 source countries was highest from Bangladesh (24.32 per cent) followed by the USA (11.21 per cent), the UK (9.14 per cent), Sri Lanka (3.48 per cent), Australia (3.33 per cent) and Malaysia (3.06 per cent).

The percentage share of FTAs in India during April 2018 among the top 15 ports was highest at Delhi Airport (28.75 per cent) followed by Mumbai Airport (14.46 per cent), Haridaspur Land Check Post (11.40 per cent) and Chennai Airport (7.44 per cent).
23/05/18 News Today

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UAE Consulate in Kerala issues advisory over Nipah outbreak

The UAE Consulate of Kerala in Thiruvananthapuram has issued a warning on its official Twitter handle regarding the recent Nipah virus outbreak.

It reads: "Due to the outbreak of the rare Nipah virus in fruit bats in the southern Indian state of Kerala, the Consulate General of the United Arab Emirates in Kerala and South India advises its citizens to take precautionary measures and follow instructions issued by the concerned Indian authorities regarding their safety.
"Citizens can contact the consulate in the event of an emergency at 00919087777737 or the Foreign Ministry's call centre at 80044444 and register for the Tawajudi service."

While three members of a family at Perambara in Kozhikode died within weeks after what seemed to be common fever aggravated quickly, two more family members were being treated at the Medical College hospital and one of them has also tested positive.

A travel advisory was also issued by Bahrain.

"Due to the spread of the dangerous # NipahVirus in Kerala, South India, citizens are advised to be cautious, till situation is under control," a tweet from the consulate said.
24/05/18 Khaleej Times

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Leela Partners With Lufthansa For New In-Flight Menu

Lufthansa India this month unveiled a brand-new menu that has been curated in collaboration with The Leela Palaces, Hotels and Resorts and its Master Chef Vinod Saini. The new menu offers a selection of nutritious meal options, based on innovative recipes but still use traditional ingredients and bring out authentic Indian flavours to spoil flyers.

Starting immediately, passengers travelling on Lufthansa German Airlines to/from India are able to order from an array of delectable meal options offering a modern take on traditional Indian cuisine. Featuring exquisite dishes from across the country that have been created using freshest seasonal ingredients involving modern food techniques, the in-flight menu ensures that passengers have access to a healthier and exclusive dining experience.

Commenting on the launch of the new menu, Master Chef Vinod Saini, The Leela Palaces, Hotels and Resorts said:  “Exploring the world has led me to find my passion for being a chef. Working with Lufthansa means to explore the world further. To train chefs in India and Germany on such a high quality level has been very enriching for me too. Indian food is soul food! Yet, we have combined Indian culinary traditions with a creative approach to meet the needs of a modern traveller.”
24/05/18 T3

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DIAT yet to seal deal with Dassault

Pune: More than two months after Pune-based Defence Institute of Advanced Technology (DIAT) announced that it would sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with French aircraft manufacturer Dassault Aviation on March 12, the proposed tie-up is yet to take place.
“There are certain constraints from both the sides which are being addressed,” officiating vice-chancellor, DIAT, Hina Gokhale said.
“A delegation from the French company is scheduled to visit our institute soon and we will have a detailed deliberation. We are confident of signing the MoU soon,” she said.
The proposed tie-up envisages a two-year training, including a year-long stint in France, for select DIAT students who will then join the Dassault-Reliance aerospace manufacturing facility coming up at the Mihan SEZ in Nagpur.
The facility, set up under a joint venture between Reliance Infrastructure and Dassault Aviation, will manufacture several components of the offset obligation connected to the purchase of 36 Rafale fighters from France.
23/05/18 Sandip Dighe/Times of India

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Air India Express world's second cheapest airline; Indigo fifth, based on cost per kilometre

We may like to grumble about the cost of flights and the long distances we have to travel in order to get anywhere, but flying is pretty good value for money, new figures show.
The Global Flight Pricing report compiled by travel planning site Rome2Rio found that Australia's airlines are among the world's cheapest, based on price by distance travelled.

The world's cheapest international carriers

AirAsia X 0.07
Air India Express 0.08
Indonesia AirAsia 0.08
Primera Air 0.09
IndiGo Airlines 0.10
Etihad 0.10
Ryanair 0.10
Qantas 0.10
WOW air 0.10
Virgin Australia 0.10

Jetstar wasn't far behind Australia's Tigerair, coming at No. 4 in the global rankings at US9c per kilometre.
Air New Zealand comes in at US 13c per kilometre, along with the likes of Fiji Airways and Hawaiian Airlines.

When limited to international flights, AirAsia X came out on top, with an average cost of US 7c per kilometre. Surprisingly, Qantas was the top-ranking airline among international carriers, coming in at eighth place with an average cost of US 10c per kilometre, while Virgin Australia was 10th and Jetstar 22nd.

The cheapest full service airline turned out to be Etihad, with a cost of US 10c per kilometre. The airline flies from Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Perth to Abu Dhabi, but will be ending its Perth flights in October.

Rome2Rio's study analysed more than 1.5 million economy-class prices from 200 airlines. The company issued a disclaimer, of course, pointing out that the cost of flights can vary depending on a wide variety of factors, such as when a booking is made and the popularity of particular routes.

Kirsteene Phelan, chief operating officer at Rome2rio said higher fuel prices had increased costs for airlines, forcing some carriers to find ways to save money.
Pity those looking to explore the spectacular mountains and culture of Nepal – they'll be faced with some of the most expensive flights on the planet. Of the 200 airlines covered by the study, the two most expensive commercial carriers were Buddha Air ($US1.18 per km) and Yeti Airlines ($US1.08 per km), both Nepal-based airlines.
Despite Australia's major carriers featuring heavily among the best-value flights, Australia only ranked as the 13th cheapest country on the list. The expense of regional flights by Regional Express (US59c) and JetGo (US46c) pushed the average prices up.
On this ranking, Chile was rated the world's cheapest country to fly in, followed by Indonesia, Turkey, India and Bulgaria.
23/05/18 Craig Platt/Stuff

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SIA flies to underperforming locations thru SilkAir merger

Singapore Airlines (SIA) is looking into the optimisation of its operations through its merger with regional wing, SilkAir. They do so by letting Silk Air take over underperforming trips to Kuala Lumpur and Penang that used to be too small for SIA's widebody flights.

SilkAir's fleet renewal started in 2014. As of now, additional planes have been used to launch new destinations, such as Luang Prabang and Vientiane (Laos), Fuzhou (China) in 2016 and Colombo (Sri Lanka) in 2017. SIA is also looking into transfering routes and aircrafts between different airlines within the SIA group. This is aside from the upgrades which are predicted to start by 2020.

CGS-CIMB analyst Raymond Yap compared the merger as “akin” to the Scoot-Tigerair merger that was completed in 2017. In the long term, Yap believes it will be positive for the SIA group as it will have Scoot as its low-cost carrier (LCC) brand, and SIA as its full service carrier (FSC) brand.

“It will save operating costs and merge the booking platforms, which are currently on two separate websites, as well as project a unified brand to customers,” Yap said.

The $100m merger requires SilkAir to make upgrades such as lie-flat seats in Business Class and install seatback in-flight entertainment (IFE) systems in both Business Class and Economy Class.
As SilkAir grows its network across Southeast Asia, India, and China, as well as ferries connecting passengers to longhaul SIA network, Yap thinks that it is critical and relevant for SIA’s FSC business to be offering a consistent product across the board.
22/05/18 Singapore Business Review

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Thai Lion Air flies Mumbai four a week

Bangkok: Thai Lion Air will increase its services between Bangkok and Mumbai in India to four weekly flights, effective 29 May.

According to Airlineroute’s timetable information the new flight to Mumbai will depart Bangkok every Tuesday, using a Boeing 737-800 aircraft.

The other three flights depart on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. Flight time is four hours and 25 minutes.
Flights depart Bangkok’s Don Mueang Airport at 0225 and arrive in Mumbai at 0540. The return flights depart Mumbai at 0655 and arrive in Bangkok at 1245.

Thai Lion Air is the only airline based in Bangkok’s Don Mueang Airport that offers flights to Mumbai.

Thai Lion Air’s cheapest fare on the Mumbai run is THB 14,426 with no competitor offering direct services.

Out of Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport there is plenty of competition on the route with THAI, Bangkok Airways, Air India and Jet Airways all offering daily direct flights.

Bangkok Airways sells a roundtrip ticket for THB 11,321, Air India THB 11,338, Jet Airways THB 13,360 and THAI THB 21,228.

Meanwhile in April, Thai Lion Air, which is a subsidiary of Indonesia’s Lion Air, increased its Jakarta to Bangkok service from a single daily to double daily.
23/05/18 Don Ross/TRweekly
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Domestic airlines to order more wide-body planes as more Indians fly overseas

Two Indian carriers are expected to place significant orders for wide-bodied aircraft, one of which could be significant, according to a latest assessment by aviation consultant CAPA.

Wide-bodied aircraft form a mere 1.5% of the current fleet of a total 550 aircraft of Indian carriers. About 1,000 aircraft are on order, most of which are narrow-bodied aircraft with single aisle that can accommodate a fewer number of passengers.

These aircraft are being acquired for domestic flights or short international routes.

The wide-bodied plane, on the other hand, has two aisles, more seats and is, therefore, used for long distance flights or on high-density domestic routes.

Aviation industry insiders said the demand for wide-bodied aircraft is arising as Indian carriers are now preferring to use them on heavily congested routes like Delhi-Mumbai, Mumbai-Bengaluru, etc, as the slots available are scarce and demand growth explosive.

But most importantly the carriers are eager to expand out in the international market, triggering demand for the larger planes.

CAPA expects the domestic aviation industry to grow 20% this fiscal.

Devesh Agarwal, a Bengaluru-based aviation expert said the Indian carriers will deploy wide-bodied planes on busy domestic routes such as Mumbai-Delhi purely for the lack of slot availability.

"Otherwise, it makes no economic sense," he said.

CAPA said the financials of airline companies will be impacted this fiscal due to rising fuel costs, weakened rupee and aggressive capacity inductions.
22/05/18 Shahkar Abidi/DNA

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Party drugs worth Rs 30 crore seized from Delhi airport, 4 held

Four men were arrested for their alleged involvement in an international drug syndicate and narcotics worth Rs 30 crore that was recovered from them, the police said on Monday.

Tablets of various drugs such as Mephedrone, Methaqualone, Diazepam, Lorazepam, Nitrazepam and Alprazolam, which are known as 'party drugs', were seized from them, they said.

More than 6.5 lakh tablets of various drugs, 2 kg of Mephedrone and 1 kg of Methaqualone were recovered from them. The members of this syndicate used to collect drug tablets and contraband sourced from various parts of India and send those to their clients in foreign countries including the UK, the USA, the UAE and other Middle-East countries.

The arrested accused have been identified as Ashish (29), Asim Ali (23), Parveen Saini (32) and Rajender (26).

The kingpins of the gang have been identified as Baljeet Singh alias Balli and Gajender Singh Rathore alias Gajju, who are currently in London. Saini was operating from Delhi and used to look after the entire network of this drug cartel in India.
The Special Cell of Delhi Police has been working on the drug cartel involved in the supply of tablets and synthetic drugs abroad for the last few months.

On 18th May, police received a specific information about Parveen Saini booking a consignment of various types of drug tablets and synthetic drugs to London (UK) from Custom Cargo of IGI Airport, Delhi.

These drug tablets were to be shipped off by hiding it in parcels of miscellaneous goods which were being exported to the UK.

Sharma, who is working as Custom House Agent in custom cargo of Indira Gandhi International Airport, was supposed to prepare the custom clearance documents for these goods.

The police learnt that Sharma was to manage clearance of this consignment with the help of people deputed on X-ray machines of cargo. Saini had contacts with the people deputed on X-ray machines of customs cargo.

Accordingly, the police team swung into action and laid a trap in the parking of customs cargo of IGI Airport, Delhi.
22/05/18 Tanseem Haider/India Today

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Ethiopian Airlines offers $500 Israel-India roundtrip fares

Ever since Air India began operating direct flights from Tel Aviv to Delhi in March, overflying Saudi Arabia, airlines have been offering cheaper flights to India with stopovers.

The latest this morning was Ethiopian Airlines, which is offering a flight to India for $461 with a 90-minute stopover in Addis Ababa, including up to 40 kilograms of luggage.

A "Globes" check of several dates shows that roundtrip flights actually cost $500, which is still definitely an attractive price. The bargain is valid for people ordering tickets by the end of June (the dates of the flights is not restricted, but the number of discount tickets on them is limited).

The flight from Tel Aviv to Delhi will take less than 13 hours, and the return flight from Delhi to Tel Aviv will take 14 hours. Ethiopian Airlines offers two daily flights from Tel Aviv to Addis Ababa: one morning flight and one late night flight.

Icelandic carrier WOW Air, which features trans-Atlantic flights to the US and Canada, is adding flights to the Far East by launching a route from Reykjavik, capital of Iceland, to Delhi. The new route will begin operating on December 5 using Airbus A330neo airliners. Fares from Iceland to India will start from $200 per passenger one way (excluding luggage and other accessories). To this must be added the cost of a flight from Tel Aviv to Reykjavik.

This route is less attractive to Israeli passengers in both price and length of the journey. The flight from Reykjavik to India takes 10 hours and the flight from Tel Aviv to Iceland takes 7 hours; it is aimed more at passengers flying from the US on the way to India. WOW Air operates flights from Tel Aviv three times a week.
21/05/18 Michal Raz Chaimovich/Globes

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SIA to leverage Vistara's international growth

Singapore: Singapore Airlines says that Vistara's pending addition of international routes will fit well in the group's route portfolio.

At its latest results briefing, SIA chief executive Goh Choon Phong says that "because of the traffic between India and Singapore, we know that there will be synergies".

This, Goh adds, is "for the obvious reason that they can actually tap into the traffic that we can feed from Southeast Asia and Southwest Pacific".
Vistara has previously said that it will operate its first international service in the second half of the year, after already having achieved the minimum fleet size of 20 as per Indian aviation regulations to apply for international routes.
21/05/18 Aaron Ching/Flight Global

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India set to overtake US aviation market, says minister

New Delhi :  India will become the world’s second-biggest aviation market by 2038 with 1bn passenger journeys a year, according to the country’s aviation minister.

Jayant Sinha believes rapid growth in passenger travel will see it leapfrog the US but lag behind China, whose own growth in passenger trips will see it overtake America by 2022, according to forecasts from the International Air Transport Association.

India’s aviation sector has boomed recently, with the number of passenger trips doubling to 200m over the past four years. Mr Sinha said he expected that growth to continue.

“We’ve set a target of 1bn trips [per year] in the next 15-20 years . . . At 1bn trips I suspect we will probably move past the US,” Mr Sinha said.

Iata’s forecast for Indian passenger trip growth would put it at a more modest 478m a year by 2036, but India’s aviation ministry officials stuck by Mr Sinha’s forecast.

India has the fastest growing domestic airline industry in the world. Last year, passenger volumes rose 17.4 per cent, ahead of second-placed China, which grew at 13.5 per cent, according to Iata.

However, the system is already running into capacity constraints. The strains on air-traffic control, for example, have led to an increase in the number of near misses between aircraft, as well as frequent delays. Last month, more than one-third of flights to and from Mumbai airport were late, airport authorities said.

The sector is growing so quickly that the country is also struggling to build enough airports, buy sufficient aircraft and recruit enough pilots to meet demand, although it is attempting to fix all three problems.

New Delhi has plans to build 50 airports and helipads in the next five years, Mr Sinha said, and a further 50 in the decade after that.
21/05/18 Kiran Stacey/Financial Times

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Passenger alleges Air India failed to return his lost luggage with all of its contents

Chicago: An airline passenger has filed a class action lawsuit against Air India Ltd. and Air India, citing alleged breach of duty and negligence.
Tayabali Lokhandwala filed a complaint on May 2 in Cook County Circuit Court, alleging the defendants failed to properly handle his checked luggage.
According to the complaint, the plaintiff alleges, when he arrived at his destination, his luggage had been lost. Although his luggage allegedly was found three weeks after his flight, he claims his bag had been opened and some items had been removed. The plaintiff claims the defendants allegedly refused to compensate him for the lost items.
The plaintiff holds the defendants responsible for allegedly failing to properly handle his luggage and compensate him for the loss of his bag and personal items.
21/05/18 Noddy A. Fernandez/Cook County Record

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Man held for masturbating in front of woman onboard flight in Delhi

A Russian man was apprehended today at IGI Airport in New Delhi after an Indian woman claimed that he was sitting next to her on a Turkish airlines flight and masturbating in front of her.

CISF personnel guarding the airport reached flight TK-716 - which was flying from Istanbul to Delhi - as soon as it landed and were informed that the Indian woman had, in the meantime, made a distress call to the Delhi Police alleging sexual harassment by a co-passenger.

On enquiry it was learnt that the man, Krishna Ridzhal, had opened his trousers and started masturbating next to her. The woman complained to the airlines crew and he was shifted to another seat.

The man was later handed over to Delhi Police, who had also reached the Terminal-III area of the airport. He has been booked under Section 509 (words, gestures or acts intended to insult the modesty of a woman) of the IPC, police said.
20/05/18 Arvind Ojha/India Today

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Brazilian woman arrested from New Delhi airport for smuggling cocaine worth Rs 6 crore by swallowing 106 capsules

New Delhi: A 25-year-old Brazilian woman has been arrested by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) from the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) airport in New Delhi for allegedly smuggling cocaine in 106 self-swallowed capsules, officials said on Sunday.
The woman was apprehended by the NCB sleuths on 14 May, upon her arrival from Sao Paulo in Brazil, based on an intelligence input.

She was subsequently taken to the Safdarjung hospital, where an X-ray confirmed that there were cocaine-filled capsules in her body, the officials said.

A total of 106 capsules, containing 930 grams of pure South American cocaine, were recovered from the woman, they added. According to the Hindustan Times, the seized cocaine was worth around Rs 6 crore.

She was placed under arrest on Saturday under sections of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act and remanded to judicial custody by a court.

"She got the consignment from the South American drug mafia and was supposed to deliver it to African drug traffickers active in the National Capital Region," a senior NCB official said.
21/05/18 PTI/First Post

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UAE carriers could face new competition in India after US aviation deal

While disagreement rages over the text of the US-UAE aviation deal announced last week, Emirates and Etihad look set to face a new round of competition in the world’s third largest aviation economy.

US carrier Delta has said it will look to resume operations into India after “protections outlined in the agreement make it worth it,” he told The Wall Street Journal. “We can now go back into markets that we’ve been run out of.”

Citing low passenger demand, Delta ended its non-stop service between Atlanta and Mumbai in 2009 and its last flight to India via Amsterdam in March 2015. United Airlines is currently the only US carrier that flies into India.

Among operators flying to and from India, Emirates is the third largest, and largest non-Indian airline, with an 8.7 percent market share in October 2017.

Indian carriers, however, command a 64 percent share of frequencies between Dubai and India. The UAE-India circuit is also set to become the world’s most trafficked by 2030.

A scant presence in the Indian market could have more to do with India’s fast growing aviation economy. International passenger numbers are currently growing at a rate of 10 percent, while domestic passenger growth at 23 percent far outpaces a global passenger growth rates of 7.3 percent.
In terms of route growth into the US, Emirates, has denied any reports of “freezing” flights into the US via fifth freedom flights which allow an airline to stop in a second destination and carry passengers on to a third.

However, Emirates has also said “it currently has no plans to expand into the US” possibly giving other airlines an opportunity to tap into demand for trans-continental flights from India.
20/05/18 Arabian Business

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Tripura inks MoU with Spicejet, ‘Queen’ to hit Middle East markets

Tripura’s ‘Queen’ variety of pineapples are all set to hit the markets of other major cities of India as well as Middle East countries.

Tripura Horticulture Corporation Limited (THCL) signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Spicejet Merchandaise Pvt Ltd on Friday to boost the export of pineapple from the state.

The MoU was signed during a seminar on processing and marketing of horticultural produce of Tripura with a focus on pineapple.

Recently the new government led by Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb decided to export Tripura’s sweet pineapples not only in the domestic but also the international markets for the benefit of local farmers.

Keeping the queen variety of pineapple in focus, a high level seminar on processing and marketing horticulture produce was held at Pragna Bhawan on Friday.
State Agriculture and Tourism Minister Pranajit Singha Roy inaugurated the programme in presence of other officials.

Roy said, “Had there been the market, the farmers would not have moved away from pineapple cultivation. We have taken this initiative to encourage the pineapple farmers who produce more than 1.3 lakh MT of the fruit. Everyone outside the state can taste the Queen and Kue varieties of pineapples of Tripura. We have taken this initiative in war footing manner so that farmers never say that they do not want to produce pineapple. ”
19/05/18 Pinaki Das/Northeast Now

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SpiceJet to fly daily between Muscat and Ahmedabad

Muscat: Indian low-cost carrier SpiceJet is set to launch daily services from Muscat, Oman, to Ahmedabad, India, from June 7 to August 31, said a report.

The debut flight will depart depart from Muscat at 12:10am and arrive in Ahmedabad at 4.00am local time. The return flight will depart from Ahmedabad at 10.00pm local time and will arrive in Muscat at 11.00pm, said a report in Times of Oman.

“The service will be direct with one flight per day. Since June is a vacation period, the fares are a little more because of the demand, while the fares will be at the normal rate in July and August,” the report said citing an official from SpiceJet.
20/05/18 Trade Arabia

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Indian man crossed 11 countries to enter US; now deported

An Indian man who had reportedly travelled over 10,000kms across 11 countries in a month to enter the US illegally in 2016 has been deported back after he was caught staying illegally.

The man, identified as one Harpreet Singh, hails from Punjab's Kapurthala district and was deported back to India on Saturday night on a United Airlines flight.

Here's more about Singh's 'remarkable' journey.

On 20th August 2016, Harpreet Singh took a flight from the Indira Gandhi International Airport to Brazil on a valid passport.

From Bolivia, Singh arrived in Lima, Peru. From there, he reached Costa Rica passing through Ecuador, Columbia and Panama. Then, he entered Honduras and went to Guatemala and finally arrived in Mexico, the officer said.

The final leg of Singh's journey began in Mexico, from where he illegally took a boat into the US.

But why take all this trouble?

According to deputy commissioner of police (IGI Airport), Singh's original passport and belongings were stolen by local miscreants at some point during his journey.

Singh had then approached his agent in India, who managed to get Singh a fake passport.

Singh identified his agent as one Rana - a resident of Jalandhar in Punjab.

Police officials said that Singh had confessed that he had sneaked into the US illegally as he wanted US citizenship.

After reaching the US, Singh managed to work for 15 months at a departmental store in Louisiana before he was apprehended and deported for illegally staying in the US.

Several cases of cheating and forgery have been registered against him in India.
20/05/18 Shiladitya Ray/Yahoo

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Indian national arrested at Sri Lanka airport for smuggling gold

Colombo: An Indian national has been arrested by Sri Lankan custom officials at the international airport here for allegedly attempting to smuggle into the country 4 kilograms of gold biscuits valued at around Rs 40 million.

The suspect, who had arrived at Bandaranaike International Airport from Chennai, aroused the suspicions of custom officers at the airport.


Upon inspection the officers found forty 100 grams gold biscuits concealed in his trouser pockets, the Colombo Page reported today.

Further investigations are being conducted by the customs officials.
20/05/18 PTI/Business Standard

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Sudan national held at airport with ganja

Coimbatore: A Sudan national was detained at the city airport for possession of 50 grams of ganja. A first year BSc (IT) student of a private college in the city, Mohammed, 22, was later handed over to the Peelamedu police.
According to the police, Mohammed was scheduled to take the Air Arabia flight to Sharjah from the city airport on Saturday early morning.
During the security check at 4.15am, Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) police personnel found a suspicious item inside his travel bag and immediately asked Mohammed to hand it over to them. He did so and told the CISF personnel that he kept the contraband items for his personal use.
However, they alerted the Peelamedu (law & order) police, who took Mohammed to the police station, registered a case under various sections of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS)Act and arrested him. Later, he was released on bail.
20/05/18 Times of India

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Jet Airways Taps Indian Diaspora With Mumbai-Manchester Route

 Jet Airways India Ltd. will offer the first ever direct flights from Mumbai to northern England with services to Manchester starting in November.

The carrier will initially connect the cities four times a week using 254-seat Airbus SE A330-200s, with a daily service planned with the start of next year’s summer schedule in March, it said Friday. Jet currently serves London Heathrow three times daily from Mumbai and once a day from Delhi.

The Manchester operation will aim to tap a market of 500,000 people of Indian origin living in the north of Britain, as well as seeking to attract tourists and investors from the sub-continent to the U.K., according to the release. If the route proves successful a service to Delhi could be introduced and operations to cities including Amritsar are a possibility, Jet Chairman Naresh Goyal said.

The carrier also plans to add a second Delhi frequency from Heathrow, which with Air India Ltd.’s three services would use up the eight daily slots at Europe’s busiest airport available to the country’s airlines under an existing bilateral treaty. Flights from Manchester and London Gatwick, which Jet may also consider, aren’t affected by those curbs.
19/05/18 Christopher Jasper/Bloomberg

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Same-day nod for flights of foreign business jets to India soon

New Delhi: It will soon be easier for international business magnates to fly in and out of India in their private jets, without waiting for the clearance for a long time.
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has proposed same-day clearance for foreign-registered private planes and charter jets to fly to India and has sent this recommendation to the aviation ministry. Since security clearance for such flights is essential, the regulator's proposal will be referred to the committee of secretaries for clearance. Sources say this issue, long a bug bear with foreign business leaders, is likely to be cleared while taking care of the security implications.
This is the second move by the B S Bhullar-headed DGCA to make it easier for private planes and charter jets to fly in and out of the country. A few months back, the regulator had removed the pre-condition of taking clearance from the regulatory agency (called YA number) for Indian-registered charter flight or private jets to fly out of the country. Operators of Indian-registered charter planes now simply need to file the flight plan with air traffic control and operate their flights.
19/05/18  Saurabh Sinha/Times of India

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Sushma Swaraj assures help to Indians stranded at Bishkek airport

New Delhi:  External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Friday assured help to Indians stranded at the Bishkek airport in Kyrgyzstan after their flight was cancelled.

A man named Ajay Gupta said on Twitter that he along with 50 others was on group tour in Bishkek and while departing from the airport, their flight was cancelled allegedly without any prior intimation.

"And now they are not cooperating with us at all. Need your help asap," he said, requesting Swaraj's intervention.
Taking note, Swaraj asked the India Ambassador in Kyrgyzstan to send embassy officials to the Bishkek airport to help the stranded Indians.

Meanwhile, the minister also assured all assistance to the family of an Indian who had died in Ethiopia.
19/05/18 PTI/India.com

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Manchester Airport confirms route to India's economic capital

Manchester Airport has confirmed both its – and the North's – first direct flight to the economic capital of India.

Jet Airways will begin flying to Mumbai later this year, with the route tipped to yield a major economic boost to the northern economy. The four-times-a-week service will go live ahead of the annual Diwali festival.

India is the world's seventh largest economy, with more than 100 Indian companies operating bases across the North. The direct service is an early success for the Manchester-India Partnership (MIP), which was launched earlier this year in a bid to further economic and cultural collaboration between the two.

It is chaired by Manchester Airport chief executive Andrew Cowan, who said: "Securing a direct service to one of India's major cities is the product of a lot of hard work over a long period of time to forge closer ties between Manchester and this globally significant economy.

"Direct connectivity to the world's most important markets is key to creating a prosperous and internationally competitive northern economy, and a balanced and outward facing UK. We look forward to working with Jet Airways on launching the Mumbai service in the months ahead."

Vinay Dube, chief executive of Jet Airways, confirmed that there would be more than 8,000 seats on offer every week, making it "increasingly convenient for both business as well as leisure travellers".
18/05/18 Matthew Ord/Insider Media

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For an Indian tourist on WoW, how cheap is the cheapest flight to US?

Earlier this week, Iceland-based entrepreneur Skuli Mogensen announced that his baby, WoW Air, is all set to enter India. The airline left Indians in the air with a never-heard-of price for North American cities: Rs 13,499 one way. We Indians, with our love for everything discounted, saw our eyes widening at the ticket price.

Mogensen, who founded WoW in 2012, is now neck-to-neck with Iceland's legacy carrier Icelandair. He claims that he will overtake his formidable competitor in market share by next year. With its foray into the Indian market now, that doesn't really seem improbable for the air carrier.

For broke Indians waiting for that big trip to the US, air travel never looked more exciting. The word 'cheap' has worked its wonders yet again, and WoW is all over social-media trends and drawing room discussions. Every pair of eyes is set on December 2018.
17/05/18 Ananya Bhattacharya/India Today

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India's Zoom Air mulls int'l ops to Myanmar, Bangladesh

Zoom Air (India) (Delhi Int'l) is planning to launch its maiden international services connecting Kolkata Int'l and Guwahati in India's North-East with each of Chittagong in Bangladesh and Yangon in Myanmar, CEO Koustav Dhar has told the PTI newswire.

"We will be able to introduce international flights from Kolkata because from now on, we will park two aircraft in the city at night," Dhar has said.

The routes could be launched following the addition of the fifth CRJ-200ER to the carrier's fleet. Zoom Air has recently announced it has entered into an agreement with a fellow Indian operator Club One Air (Delhi Int'l) covering the dry-lease of the unit.

The carrier will most likely use Guwahati as an intermediate stop on the services out of Kolkata.

Currently, Zoom Air bases one CRJ-200ER out of Kolkata and deploys the aircraft on its route to Tezpur under the government's UDAN scheme. The carrier also plans to launch services out of Kolkata to each of Mumbai Int'l (via Durgapur) and Delhi Int'l on purely commercial terms.
Zoom Air's international ambitions would require government approval as India generally requires airlines to operate at least 20 aircraft domestically before venturing abroad.
15/05/18 ch-aviation

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Air India flight from Jeddah delayed by 10 hours

Mangaluru: An arriving from to Mangaluru via Mumbai on Friday was delayed by 10 hours, leaving the passengers in the lurch. The flight was ferrying many people who will be voting in the elections on Saturday, said sources.
According to a source in Air India, the aircraft was scheduled to arrive at the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport in Mumbai at 5am from King Abdulaziz International Airport in . However, it reached its destination only at 3pm.

According to the website, the connecting flight from Mumbai was scheduled to leave the airport at 10.25am and reach the at 12pm. However, as the passengers from Saudi Arabia reached late, they were given two options– either to travel to the Calicut International Airport, , and then take a connecting flight to Mangaluru or take the Mumbai-Mangaluru direct flight, both of which are on Saturday.

The flight from Mumbai is scheduled to leave at 6.50am on Saturday and reach Kozhikode at 8.45am, while the direct flight from Mumbai to Mangaluru is scheduled to leave at 10.25am and arrive at 12pm.
16/05/18 Kaplan Herald

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Latest Offers On Flight Tickets: Jet Airways Vs GoAir Vs SpiceJet Vs AirAsia India Vs Wow Air

Summer vacations are about to start and domestic airlines are leaving no stone unturned to make the most of this holiday season. Jet Airways is starting flights on new domestic routes and is offering flight tickets from Rs. 967. GoAir is offering flight tickets from Rs. 1,892 under its Low Fare Wednesday offer. SpiceJet is offering 10 per cent cashback via Paytm wallets every Wednesday, and AirAsia India is offering tickets from Rs. 1,399 in its mid summer sale. Meanwhile Iceland's carrier Wow Air is offering international flight tickets starting from Rs. 13,499.

Jet Airways has announced the launch of operations under the 'Ude Desh ka Aam Naagrik' (UDAN) scheme. Under the Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS), Jet Airways will launch operations on three new out of the four routes it was awarded, the airline said in a release. Starting from June 14, Jet Airways will fly three times a week on the Lucknow-Allahabad-Patna route. Commencing from June 15, Jet Airways will fly three times a week between New Delhi and Nashik. Effective June 16, Jet Airways will commence operations three times a week on the Nagpur-Allahabad-Indore route.

Under the UDAN scheme, the airline will be operating the new flights on the Lucknow-Allahabad-Lucknow route with RCS seats at INR 967* whereas the fare on the Patna-Allahabad-Patna routes would be INR 1,216* for RCS seats.

GoAir is offering flight tickets starting from Rs. 1,892 under its Low fare Wednesday offer, according to goair.in. The lowest fare on flight tickets under this offer is for Goa-Bengaluru route. Under GoAir's Low Fare Wednesday offer, a Hyderabad-Ahmedabad flight ticket will cost you Rs. 2,169, a Mumbai-Nagpur flight ticket will cost you Rs. 2,417 and a Bengaluru-Mumbai flight ticket will cost you Rs. 2,679.
AirAsia India is offering flight tickets starting from Rs. 1,399 under its mid summer sale offer. AirAsia's offer on flight tickets covers destinations like Kolkata, Chennai, Ranchi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, New Delhi, Jaipur and more, the airline said on its website, airasia.com. AirAsia's mid summer sale offer on flight tickets is valid till May 20, 2018. The travel period of AirAsia's mid summer sale is till August 31, 2018.

Wow Air, an Iceland-based airline, has announced flights from Delhi to select North American and European destinations. The low-cost airline has announced introductory one-way fares from Rs. 13,499 on these flights with effect from December 7, 2018.  Called 'Wow basic', the fare includes all taxes but excludes meal and check-in baggage, which will be charged separately, Wow Air said in a statement.
16/05/18 NDTV

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WOW air to enter India, offers Rs 13,499 fare for 15 North American cities

New Delhi: Serial entrepreneur Skuli Mogensen founded WOW air in 2012, four years after selling his last venture - Oz Communications - in the mobile software space to Nokia. Mogensen says that he was almost in the retirement mode when he decided to start an airline in his native country Iceland. In a span of six years, WOW air has reached a scale where it's almost neck-and-neck with legacy carrier Icelandair, an airline started in 1937. "We will overtake them by next year in market share," he says.

After disrupting the aviation market in Iceland, Mogensen is bringing his low-cost carrier to India - New Delhi to begin with - and offering one-way fares as low as Rs 13,499. The introductory fares would connect passengers from New Delhi to any of the 15 North American cities - New York, Los Angeles, Boston, Chicago, and Toronto - and London that are part of $484-million WOW's current network. There will be a stopover in Reykjavik (Iceland).

The services will start in December this year subject to getting slots at the Delhi airport. WOW is already negotiating with GMR to get five slots per week, preferably departure slots at around 6am, for its wide-body Airbus A330neos. "We are going ahead with the sales with the assumption that we will get the slots that we have requested."

About 20,000 people fly between India and North America every day. "We will be the first long-haul low-cost airline to fly into India. It's a huge market with a huge potential. I think India is underserved when you look at flights between India and North America. We are exploring possibilities to open stations in more Indian cities. Our target customers are smart travellers - people who are value conscious," says Mogensen.

WOW would offer four products; the basic product doesn't include check-in baggage and meals.

It flies to 35 European and North American destinations, and it would be competing with aggressive Middle-eastern hubs like Dubai and Abu Dhabi which are catering to a large international traffic originating from India. "We will offer a shorter total trip time than if you go to Dubai. Shorter flight time means less engine usage, less costs that translates into less ticket price. In our case, it takes 18 hours to reach East Coast (in the US) from India, including a two-hour layover in Iceland," he says.
16/05/18 Manu Kaushik/Business Today

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Lambert Airport's next international destination: India

WOW Air will launch a new route from the U.S. to New Delhi, India, later this year.

Beginning Dec. 5, travelers can take off from St. Louis Lambert International Airport and eight other airports to Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi, India, with a stop in Iceland. One-way fares will start at $199.

"We are passionate about continuing our mission of enabling everybody to fly by making international travel accessible and affordable for all and look forward to expanding our global service to provide travelers with the opportunity to see many parts of the globe, whether for business or pleasure," Founder and CEO Skúli Mogensen said in a statement.

WOW Air, a budget airline based in Iceland, announced last year that it would service Lambert and become the airport's only carrier flying to Europe. WOW's first flight is slated for Thursday, according to a previous report. In January, the airline announced it would add additional flights for the peak summer and early fall travel season with a fifth weekly flight between St. Louis and Iceland.

Flights to New Delhi are scheduled from December to the end of March 2019, the airline said. WOW Air also will launch the route from Boston, New York, Washington D.C., Chicago, Pittsburgh, Detroit, San Francisco and Los Angeles.

WOW Air will use new Airbus A330neo aircrafts that feature premium seats offering at least 37 inches of legroom for one-way tickets beginning at $699.

St. Louis Lambert International Airport recorded a 4.2 percent growth in overall passenger traffic through the first quarter of 2018 to 3.4 million passengers.
16/05/18 Steph Kukuljan/St Louis Business Journal

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From Turkey, with love: How Celebi Aviation landed in India

It is rare to find people shaping their careers out of their interests and hobbies. Even rarer are those who do it successfully. Canan Celebioglu, Board Member of the Turkish ground handling company Celebi Aviation Holding Inc, is one such person.

As a child, she was fascinated by what Herman Hesse wrote about Asia. She was equally fascinated by Mahatma Gandhi’s writings. “He fought for the freedom of the country based on his belief. I am also stubborn just as he was. If I believe in something I like to push to make it happen. If there is something that you believe in, then it is easy to convince others also about it,” she tells BusinessLine.

Not that it was easy for Celebioglu to convince her company to look at business interests in India. Celebi was started by her father in 1958. He passed away in 1982 when she was 16 and her brother was 19. The siblings took over the company.

When Celebi, which today provides ground handling services in Turkey, India, Austria and Hungary and also cargo and warehouse facilities in Turkey, Hungary, India and Germany, started looking at expansion, it had eyes on India, China and Brazil as it felt that they were going to develop and be important world economies. Brazil was very far from Turkey, so that was not such a viable option.

Celebioglu was keen on India but others in Celebi were not. “Most of the company members said ‘we do not want to go to India as it is too risky, too crowded and too dirty.’ I said that is your choice; if you do not go, you leave the company,” she laughs.

Celebioglu was persistent and she did manage to convince the others. However, success didn’t exactly come knocking. Celebi was approached by an American construction company keen to participate in the privatisation of Hyderabad airport but they lost the bid.
16/05/18 Ashwini Phadnis/Business Line

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American woman deported from India: HC asks Centre about criteria for holding business visa

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court today asked the Centre to apprise it about the criteria and list of activities allowed to be carried out by a person holding a business visa. The court sought to know the details from the government while hearing a plea by a 48-year-old American woman entrepreneur, who has been blacklisted and was denied entry to India, where she had been residing for over a decade prior to her deportation on January 5. Justice Rajiv Shakdher also sought the response of the central government on a plea by the woman seeking an interim relief that she be allowed into India during pendency of the main petition.

In her main petition, Kasha Elizabeth Vande has challenged her deportation to the US and denial of entry in to India despite having a valid business visa. During the hearing, advocates Shoumendu Mukherji and Raghav Awasthi, appearing for Vande, said the woman should be allowed to come here as an interim relief as there was an urgency as she was the organiser of a popular photo exhibition ‘PondyPHOTO’, scheduled to be held this year in Puducherry. The photo exhibition was widely popular around the world attracting various artists, high sponsorship, as well as partnership by the Puducherry government, positively impacting tourism and economy of the union territory, the counsel said in the plea.

Central government counsel Aseem Sood said the petitioner should explain the fresh ground for seeking the relief and claimed that the woman was running an NGO here which was prohibited under the visa norms. The court listed the matter for further hearing in the matter on May 22. The woman’s counsel said that she has never violated her visa norms and she was black listed and deported out of India without giving a chance of a hearing and detailed ground. A division bench of the high court had on recently directed the Centre to inform the woman the reasons for blacklisting her and denying her entry into India, within five days.
15/05/18 PTI/Financial Express

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Indian Civil Aviation Minister Suresh Prabhu and Secretary Rajiv Choubey at US-India Aviation Summit in Mumbai

In a recent week-long visit to India, Thomas R Hardy, Director of Congressional and Public Affairs held high-level meetings with public and private sector decision-makers to discuss ongoing projects in India and future collaboration.

Core to the visit was co-hosting the US-India Aviation Summit with Union Minister Suresh Prabhu, Minister of State Jayant Sinha and Secretary Rajiv Nayan Choubey of the Indian Ministry of Civil Aviation and the US Ambassador to India, Ken Juster. The summit provided an opportunity for US industry to conclude more than $300 million in new commercial contracts that will strengthen the safety and security of the Indian aviation market. The contracts will introduce innovative US technology solutions to meet the increasing demands on India's expanding aviation ecosystem. Additionally, the summit provided a forum for high-level government and industry leaders from both countries to engage in discussions to lay out a roadmap for future cooperation. At the opening of the summit, United States Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) announced that it will host a series of visits to the United States for public and private sector decision-makers from India's civil aviation sector. The visits will connect delegates with leading US technologies and solutions that can support India's aviation infrastructure development goals.
15/04/18 STAT Times

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Air India bomb maker no longer required to attend counselling

The only person ever convicted for a role in the 1985 Air India bombing that killed 331 people will no longer have to attend psychological counselling as a condition of his parole.

National Parole Board documents state that the counselling, which was ordered as part of Inderjit Singh Reyat's statutory release in 2016, is no longer advancing his correctional plan.

Reyat was sentenced to a seven-year sentence after he was convicted of perjury in 2010 for repeatedly lying during his testimony at a trial into the bombing deaths. The parole board said that resulted in his co-accused not being convicted in Canada's worst mass murder.

The Parole Board of Canada documents reveal that Reyat has been co-operative in attending the counselling sessions, but that he has appeared "uncomfortable generally discussing issues" with the psychologist.
A psychologist report from February said that Reyat has been reluctant to discuss his personal failings.

The report indicated that Reyat has described his role of "'supplying materials' for the bombs as 'an act of kindness,'" and that he has been "eager to show [himself] as innocent of any wrongdoing."

According to the psychologist, Reyat has made minimal gains in therapy.

"You have presented as guarded, denied your involvement in the Air India tragedy, and denied that you are a person of strong political beliefs," the documents, dated April 29, read.
14/05/18 Rafferty Baker/CBC News

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More air entry routes from India sought

Kathmandu: Nepal and India have agreed to start a technical study to open four new air routes between the two countries within September. During the two-day state visit of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Nepal, Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli and his Indian counterpart agreed to finalise the technical study of opening air entry routes at Nepalgunj, Bhairahawa, Janakpur and Biratnagar.

The joint statement released by both the prime ministers includes the issue regarding opening more air routes. “Recognising the vibrant people to people contacts and friendly bilateral ties, the two prime ministers directed the respective officials to expand cooperation in civil aviation sector, including early technical discussion on additional air entry routes to Nepal by respective technical teams,” the statement reads.

Meanwhile, PM Oli during his address to the federal parliament today stated that the issues mentioned in the joint statement will be implemented as scheduled.

Point number seven in the joint statement which talks about the new air routes mentions that ‘The two prime ministers underlined the catalytic role of connectivity in stimulating economic growth and promoting movement of people. They agreed to take further steps to enhance the economic and physical connectivity by air, land, and water’.
13/05/18 Umesh Poudel/Himalayan Times

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Sri Lankan Prez hails Air India, crew

Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena has appreciated the services of the state-run carrier Air India and hailed its cabin crew for being "extremely courteous and efficient" during his trips in March to New Delhi and Japan on a state visit.

The President's appreciation was conveyed to Air India's country manager for Sri Lanka in Colombo Alice Joe Paul in a letter on May 11 by chief of protocol for secretary(foreign affairs) M R Hassen.

"The President has instructed me to convey his sincere appreciation and thanks to you and your able and efficient staff in Colombo as well as general manager of Air India, New Delhi and his staff for the excellent courtesies and assistance extended to Maithripala Sirisena and the delegation. It was the President's first time to travel with Air India and it was fantastic," Hassen said in his letter.

"The Air India flight cabin crew was extremely courteous and efficient and kept our delegation comfortable during the flight to New Delhi and Narita, Japan," he added.

The President flew to Delhi on March 10 in AI 282 and from Delhi to Narita on March 11 in AI 306.

The appreciation from a head of state comes at a time when the ailing disinvestment-bound airline is seeking to improve its passenger-friendly image.
14/05/18 PTI/Business Standard

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AI Express to connect Surat with Kochi, Sharjah

Surat: Air India Express, a wholly owned subsidiary of Air India, has committed to launch flight services from Surat to Kochi and Sharjah within two months of Surat airport getting the customs notified status.
Surat Airport Action Committee (SAAC) president Sanjay Ezhawa had gone to Kochi to meet Air India Express chief executive officer Shyam Sunder to discuss the launch of flight services from Surat on Monday. SAAC president Sanjay Ezhawa told TOI, “Air India Express is positive on the launch of Surat to Kochi and Surat to Sharjah flight services. But, they are waiting for Central Government to approve the customs notified status for Surat airport. Within one month after the customs notified status is given to the airport, Air India Express will launch Surat to Kochi flight and in two months from Surat to Sharjah.”
Ezhawa added, “Air India Express CEO was given a detailed presentation on the current passenger load in the airlines operating from Surat. He was convinced that the city of 50 lakh population is deprived of flight services.”
According to Ezhawa, Air India Express plans to operate morning flight from Kochi at 6.15am to reach Surat at 8.25am. In the return journey, the flight will depart from Surat at 9.15am to reach Kochi at 11:30am. Likewise, the flight from Surat will depart at 9.30am to reach Sharjah at 11.55am and in the return journey the flight will depart from Sharjah at 12.50pm to reach Surat at 5.20pm.
15/05/18 Times of India

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2 foreigners nabbed from Mumbai International Airport for smuggling gold worth Rs 2.11 crore

The Air Intelligence Unit of Customs, on Saturday, arrested two foreigners from the Mumbai International Airport for allegedly smuggling 7.37 kilograms of gold biscuits worth Rs 2.11 crore.

The accused have been identified as Yoguy Rafidison from Madagascar and Rajeev Santilal from France.

According to the police, the accused had arrived at the Airport from Dubai. While they were proceeding towards the exit, the officials stopped them to conduct a search. The gold bars bore foreign marking and were concealed in specially made pockets of a jacket.

"We are now trying to ascertain on whose behest they smuggled the gold in the country and whether they are carriers," said an AIU official.
14/05/18 DNA

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Canadian held at airport for carryig 5 live bullets

A 60-year-old Canadian man was apprehended at the Delhi airport for allegedly carrying five live bullet rounds in his baggage, an official said on Sunday

  A S Dhaliwal was intercepted by a CISF officer who detected the bullets on the x-ray monitor last night while scanning the baggage at the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA), he said.

Five bullets of .32-mm calibre were recovered from the passenger who had a Canadian passport and was travelling to Guangzhou in China from here, the official said.

"The man was not allowed to take the flight and was handed over to the police by the CISF authorities as he could not produce any documents for carrying the ammunition," he said.
14/05/18 Pioneer

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Good news for foreigners visiting India: Get immigration clearance seconds from January; details here

New Delhi: Come January 2019, low-risk foreign travellers will not have to wait in long queues at airport immigration counters as the government plans to install special automated kiosks for speedy document and identity verification. Low-risk travellers from select countries from January 2019 can enter India without standing in long queues at immigration counters as the government has plans to install these automated kiosks, officials said today. These kiosks will ensure smooth entry of foreigners in seconds after verification of antecedents, they said. Electronic gates or e-Gates will be put in place at the arrival wing of international airports where foreigners can present their machine-readable passports, place their fingerprints on the scanner for verification and complete a customs declaration.
Without any human intervention, e-cameras will clear the travellers who present approved biometric. They can then go straight to the baggage claim area after de-boarding the plane and then to the exit, a Home Ministry official told PTI. The whole exercise is expected to be completed within a minute a traveller hits any e-Gate kiosk. The foreigners division of the ministry is working on the plan and putting up all logistics before its formal launch sometime later this year, the official said. However, a final decision is yet to be taken on the countries whose citizens the facility would be offered. “Initially, we are planning to roll out the service only to the low-risk travellers of a select few countries,” another official said.
The plan may be a replica of the Global Entry programme of the United States, which also allows low-risk citizens of about a dozen countries, including India, to go through such a hassle-free service. Under the US programme, the traveller just needs to visit the global entry kiosks, present their machine-readable passport, place their fingerprints on the scanner for verification and complete a customs declaration. At the end of the process, travellers are issued a transaction receipt by the kiosk after which they are directed to the baggage claim and then to the exit. However, travellers must be pre-approved for the US Global Entry programme. The applicants undergo a rigorous background check and in-person interview before enrolment. In 2017, more than one crore foreigners had visited India.
13/05/18 PTI/Financial Express

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Canadian held with 5 bullets at IGI airport

New Delhi: A 60-year-old Canadian man was apprehended at the Delhi airport for allegedly carrying five live bullet rounds in his baggage, an official said today.

A S Dhaliwal was intercepted by a CISF officer who detected the bullets on the x-ray monitor last night while scanning the baggage at the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA), he said.

Five bullets of .32-mm calibre were recovered from the passenger who had a Canadian passport and was travelling to Guangzhou in China from here, the official said.

“The man was not allowed to take the flight and was handed over to the police by the CISF authorities as he could not produce any documents for carrying the ammunition,” he said.
13/05/18 PTI/India.com

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Hijackers accused of waging war against India move Delhi HC, seek quashing of charge

New Delhi: Two of the hijackers of an Air India flight in 1981, Satnam Singh and Tejinderpal Singh, moved the Delhi High Court on Friday with a plea that the charge of waging war against India, framed against them by a trial court, be quashed. The plea came up for before Justice Sanjeev Sachdeva, who issued notice to Delhi Police and asked them to file a status report by July on the plea.

The two — along with Gajinder Singh, Jasbir Singh and Karan Singh — had hijacked the New Delhi-Srinagar flight to Pakistan on September 29, 1981. All five belonged to pro-Khalistan radical outfit Dal Khalsa and were demanding release of jailed Khalistani leaders.

Satnam and Tejinderpal have challenged the charge of waging war against India, which entails a maximum punishment of life imprisonment. Both are out on bail.

The two returned to India in 1999 after undergoing 14-year imprisonment in Pakistan, where they were convicted and sentenced for kidnapping and hijacking. On return, a case was registered against them in India under IPC Sections 124-A (sedition), 121- A and 121 (waging war against nation) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy). The trial court dropped the sedition charges.

After their deportation, the two sought discharge from the case registered here. Subsequently, Satnam was discharged in the case. After Tejinderpal sought the same relief, cases against both were reopened.
12/05/18 Pritam Pal Singh/Indian Express

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AAI inks Rs 945 crore deal with US firm for air navigation infra

The government-owned Airports Authority of India (AAI) has signed a Rs 945 crore deal with the US-based Harris Corporation, which would address the safety and efficiency concerns that lack air navigational infrastructure in the country.

The development will also enhance the regional connectivity by providing remote towers and cut down navigational costs for the airlines and subsequently the fliers.

Guruprasad Mohapatra, chairman, AAI, said that India’s exponential air traffic growth is creating demand for new aircrafts, air navigation technologies, airport security equipments and infrastructure.

AAI in a statement said that this initiative will upgrade network operations, enhance security, and improve the performance, reliability and quality of India’s air traffic management communications network, while reducing the telecommunication costs.

This communication backbone infrastructure will also play a pivotal role in deployment of remote towers for managing air traffic services at Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS) airports. In the long run the implementation of Futuristic Telecommunications Infrastructure (FTI) network would result in enhanced air traffic safety, increase in airspace capacity by allowing the controllers to reduce the separation limits and accommodating the aircrafts to more economical and environment friendly flight levels thus reducing the overall carbon footprint,” the statement added.

Commenting on the development, Rick Simonian, VP & GM, Harris Electronic Systems, said “The new secure, purpose-built network will meet the demands of India’s rapid aviation growth and lay the foundation for future ATM opportunities for Harris in other geographies with high air traffic growth.”
11/05/18 DNA

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WOW Air Set to Start Operations to India

The Iceland-based low-cost-carrier WOW Air is expected to announce on May 15 the beginning of its long-haul operations to Delhi, India, showing the strength of its Reykjavik hub.

Initially planned to start in 2019, the company will announce the opening of up to 15 routes to Asia, taking advantage of the geographical location of the hub. Selecting Iceland as a middle point, the flying distance can be reduced significantly, compared with continental European hubs such as Frankfurt or London.

The combination of this geographical advance with the increasing demand on U.S. to India connections, places WOW Air in a good position to operate the Delhi route, and others in southern Asia. The hub and spoke approach for the service to India will provide WOW Air the flexibility that the current carriers serving the routes don’t have.

Air India operates flights to five US cities (San Francisco, Newark, New York, Chicago and Washington), while United operates both New York to Delhi and New York to Mumbai. WOW Air, with the free stopover in Reykjavik, accomplishes three things: provides the passenger a chance to visit the beautiful Iceland, obtains additional revenue on cheap hotel bookings, and, most importantly, gains flexibility on the load factor for the second leg of the trip.
11/05/18 AirlineGeeks

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Canadian minister asked to take off turban at US airport

Toronto:  A Canadian Cabinet minister said on Thursday he was subject to a discriminatory security check at Detroit's airport that caused Canada to complain to US government officials.
Minister of innovation, science and economic development Navdeep Bains said he was asked to remove his turban at Detroit Metro Airport on his way back to Canada last year.
He said there were challenges with the swab machine and he was recalled from the gate and brought back to security where he was asked to take the turban off. He said when they realized who he was they allowed him to travel and not take it off.
He told the Canada's French-language newspaper La Presse that "the experience made me uncomfortable," describing the agents as "very insistent and very difficult."
Being said asked to remove his turban is akin to "being asked to take off my clothes," he was quoted as saying.
He said US officials expressed regret and apologized and he's accepted the apology.
"I was very frustrated and disappointed that this occurred but ultimately I was allowed to fly," Bains said. "But it was because of who I was and that should not be the case. It doesn't matter what your status is and what your position is."
Bains said it's the first time he's been asked to take his turban off while travelling in the US. In the Sikh religion men are required to wear the turban.
Canada verbally protested to Washington over the incident, and received an apology. US authorities also ordered Detroit airport security staff to undergo further training.
11/05/18 Times of India

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Kochi start-up launches NDC booking for Lufthansa

Kochi-based travel start-up Verteil Technologies has launched “live direct connect booking” for Lufthansa through IATA’s NDC specification.

The company had launched NDC in India earlier with British Airways. It offers IATA’s NDC (New Distribution Capability) specification via the Verteil Direct Connect platform.

Jerrin Jos, Verteil founder and CEO, said that with additional airlines getting NDC enabled, the use of the platform will increase rapidly in India. Airlines are offering unique benefits to travellers in specific markets on their NDC channel, as it gives them full control of the offers in addition to providing real time and competitive fares, he added.

Many airlines have committed to moving 20 per cent of their ticketing to the direct connect way by 2020. Verteil is now working with several airlines to bring offers directly from the airlines to IATA agents in India, West Asia and APAC region, said Jos. Offers coming directly from airlines are the biggest change the airline industry has witnessed since the e-ticket migration, he added.
11/05/18 Business Line

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Government looks to invite US firms for airport development

Mumbai: The government is looking for participation from American companies in the development of airports as it seeks to make the segment more competitive, a top civil aviation ministry official said today.
The US companies are present in a large way in the area of aviation technology in the country, particularly in safety and security.
"One area of cooperation with the US is airport development. We are also looking at inviting the US companies and to provide competition in development of airports," civil aviation secretary RN Choubey said.
The government had recently said it plans to invest close to Rs 1 lakh crore in the next five years for capacity augmentation and development of greenfield airports.
As the civil aviation ministry firms up plans to achieve one-billion passenger trips per annum over the next 15-20 years, junior minister for aviation Sinha had last week said the Airport Authority of India alone would infuse Rs 20,178 crore in the next four to five years for development of infrastructure at 21 airports.
In addition, a capex outlay of Rs 50,000 crore is expected to be infused for the development of greenfield airports such as Navi Mumbai, Jewar in UP and Mopa in Goa, he had said.
10/05/18 PTI/Economic Times

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Indian journalist held in Australia on people smuggling charges

An Indian journalist, charged with an aggravated people smuggling offence by Australian authorities for facilitating the travel of a “fake media contingent” to attend the Commonwealth Games, will stay in custody for six more weeks, a media report said on Friday.

Rakesh Kumar Sharma, 46, was detained along with eight others Indian nationals by Australian Border Force (ABF) officers at the Brisbane Airport in March because his companions’ accreditation were not genuine, Brisbane Times reported.

The Commonwealth Games were held on the Gold Coast south of Brisbane from April 4-15.

The eight, aged between 20 and 37, were allegedly holding temporary activity visas and claiming to be accredited media representatives, the report said.

Sharma is described in court documentation as a journalist with a Hindi language newspaper. Prosecutors claim his accreditation was genuine but he “facilitated” the group’s travel, the report said.

Sharma, who is from Haryana, appeared in Brisbane Magistrates Court and charged with an aggravated people smuggling offence, which carries a minimum five-year sentence if convicted.

The charge applies to anyone accused of smuggling five or more people and carries a maximum sentence of 20 years.

Sharma is also accused of causing “false or forged” documents to be presented on behalf of his eight fellow travellers in relation to a visa application, between December 2017 and March this year.

Legal Aid solicitor Axel Beard used Google Translate to communicate with the accused as he stood in the dock during the first brief hearing.

Sharma was remanded in custody in Brisbane Magistrates Court on Friday, with his matter adjourned to June 22 at the request of commonwealth prosecutors.

In another blow to his legal cause, he will no longer be represented by private law firm Legal Guru after failing to satisfy the terms of his retainer. He will instead by represented by Legal Aid. His case has been delayed as Australian Federal Police continue preparing their brief of evidence, with time being taken to examine a laptop and nine mobile phones.

The ABF confirmed the other eight had been taken into immigration detention.

Local authorities had been tipped off by officials in Bangkok that the group might not be genuine, the ABF had said in a statement describing the group as a “fake media contingent”.

All nine people were found to be carrying ‘false or forged’ documents.

Australian Border Force Queensland regional commander Terry Price said any attempts to exploit the Commonwealth Games and Australia’s visa program would not be tolerated.
11/05/18 PTI/Indian Express

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CISF apprehends Bangladeshi at airport with fraudulently obtained Aadhaar

Kolkata: The CISF today apprehended a Bangladeshi man at the airport here with an Aadhaar card that was allegedly "fraudulently obtained" by him from the border state of Mizoram, officials said.

They said S Hossain was held at the Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose international airport at about 11.30 AM after he landed here from Delhi and was on his way to catch a flight to Agartala.

The passenger, who was intercepted on suspicion, revealed that he travelled to Kolkata using an Aadhaar card in the name of Shuaib Ahmed which was "fraudulently" obtained by him from Mizoram, a CISF spokesperson said.

"He also revealed that he was holding a Bangladeshi passport in the name of Md Shuyaeb Hossain which was concealed by him in his registered baggage," he said.�

The Indian visa stamped on his passport had expired on April 11 this year, he added.
11/05/18 India Today

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Suresh Prabhu seeks US help to locally manufacture aircraft

Mumbai: Aviation minister Suresh Prabhu today sought cooperation from the US to locally produce civil and defence aircraft in the country. “The US is a leader in the aviation space and we will be very happy to collaborate with them to locally manufacture civil and defence aircraft,” Prabbu told the sixth Indo-US aviation summit here. The minister also said such cooperation will offer great business opportunities to American companies already present in the country. “There are many areas of mutual interest that we need to discuss such as how do we make passenger and defence aircraft here locally; how do we make drones by collaborating with our US partners,” he said.

Prabhu said he has set up a task force to suggest a roadmap for producing drones locally and will soon form a similar panel to guide government on locally producing aircraft for both commercial and defence purposes. Addressing the summit, US ambassador Kenneth Juster said the two nations have made tremendous progress together in many fields, including in the aviation sector.

The Indo-US aviation cooperation programme has grown now with more than over 30 members from only 10 when launched 10 years ago, he said. “We look forward to further measures to increase ease of doing business and enable US companies to make even greater contribution,” Juster said. The US is committed to deepening and expanding its work with India to private and government areas, he added.
10/05/18 Financial Express

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Tier-II cities recorded sharp jump in international aircraft movement: AAI report

Tier-II cities have seen a sharp jump in international aircraft movement in recent months, with the city of Varanasi recording an impressive growth of 98.6 per cent in March this year as compared to 2017, an AAI report has revealed.

The growth rate of Delhi and Mumbai airports stood at 5.6 per cent and 7.3 per cent, respectively, even as both the airports continue to face capacity constrains, thus limiting the growth of traffic movement.

According to the Airports Authority of India (AAI), the international aircraft movement in the country witnessed a 9.4 per cent growth during April-March 2017-18 fiscal as compared to April-March 2016-17.

International passenger traffic also saw a 10.4 per cent jump during the above period, it said.

Among the tier II cities, the report said Coimbatore saw a 83.1 per cent growth in international aircraft movement and Guwahati recorded 23.5 per cent growth in March this year as compared to last year.
10/05/18 PTI/Financial Express

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Indian in coma for 52 days to be airlifted home to Kerala

Abu Dhabi: An Indian expat who was in a coma for 52 days following a stroke will be airlifted to India on Thursday.
Mustafa Kandath Vallapil, 53, who worked as a supervisor with LuLu Hypermarket in Abu Dhabi, will be sent to Kerala in an air ambulance arranged by the LuLu Group.

His son Sabil Mustafa told Gulf News that his father had collapsed while on duty at the vegetable section of the hypermarket in Khalidiya Mall on March 16.
He was admitted at Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi where he has been undergoing treatment. However, doctors and family decided to move the patient to his home town Kerala, for which the air ambulance had to be arranged.
“We do not have to pay hospital bills because he has insurance coverage. Now, the air ambulance which will cost Dh140,000 is sponsored by his company,” said Sabil.
A medical team will accompany Mustafa, who is now on a ventilator. The air ambulance is scheduled to leave Al Bateen Airport at 10 to Kochi International Airport in Kerala.
10/05/18 Sajila Saseendran/Gulf News

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Jazeera Airways starts services to Mumbai

Mumbai: Low-cost Kuwaiti carrier Jazeera Airways, which commenced its India operations last November, will start flight services to Mumbai from May 10.

The Middle East-based airline will fly seven-times a week on the Kuwait-Mumbai route with its dual-class Airbus A320 aircraft, the Mumbai International Airport (MIAL) said in a release today.

The Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (CSIA) is set to receive Kuwait’s Jazeera Airways, which will start flight services to Mumbai from May 10, the release added.

By commencing operations to the CSIA, Jazeera Airways has become one of the largest carriers into India from Kuwait, it said.

MIAL is a joint-venture company that operates the city airport.

Set up in April 2004 as the first private airline in the West Asia, Jazeera launched India operations with a direct flight to Hyderabad from Kuwait on November 17 last year.

The Mumbai airport has 53 passenger airlines operating to 96 destinations in the country and across the globe, accounting for 17 per cent of the overall air traffic in India, the release said.
09/05/18 PTI/India.com

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Passengers on 15-hour flight from India get diverted, stranded in Milwaukee

Milwaukee: Passengers on a 15-hour Air India flight from New Dehli to Chicago were diverted to Milwaukee on Wednesday morning, where they sat on the tarmac for several more hours, unable to deplane.

The Boeing 777 had to land after thunderstorms forced the diversion because of a fuel shortage.
Air India 127 touched down shortly after 8 a.m. and was still on the tarmac with most passengers inside as of 12:15 p.m.

One passenger who spoke with WISN 12 NEWS, who was returning to the United States after his cousin's wedding in India, said passengers weren't allowed off the plane.

"It's mixed," he said of the mood on the aircraft. "Some people haven't eaten... Some people are upset. Some people aren't as much. ... Some people just want to get home. Its been a long flight. They've been flying for about 24 hours. They had to connect in New Dehli," he said.
Airport spokesman Harold Mester later said that passengers were offered the opportunity to deplane. Those that chose to do so were bused to a secure area at the International Terminal where they were held.
09/05/18 WISN

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Iceland’s WOW Air poised to announce flights to India

Icelandic LCC WOW Air appears to be on the verge of announcing flights to India, firming up plans for a strategic shift toward Asia, as reported by ATW in April.

WOW Air currently serves 38 destinations across Europe, North America and Canada.

Speaking during a recent Aviation Club UK lunch in London, WOW Air CEO Skuli Mogensen said he would be announcing new flights to Asia in May.
A WOW Air press conference invite has now been shared to social media site Airliners.net, giving May 15 as the date for the Indian launch announcement. A related Twitter post suggests that WOW Air’s initial Indian route will be Reykjavik-New Delhi.

“Unfortunately, we can’t disclose any details regarding WOW Air’s plans to expand to Asia at this time. There will be an official announcement regarding this early next week,” a WOW Air spokesman told ATW.

During the lunch on April 26, Mogensen said he sees WOW Air serving 14-15 destinations in Asia, matching the airline’s 14 North American destinations, as he seeks to position Iceland as “the Dubai of the north.”
09/05/18 Victoria Moores/ATW

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