Ex-judge gets Rs 5L relief for missed flight

Chennai: A former judge of the Madras high court, who missed a flight due to the negligence of the airline's ground staff, has been awarded a compensation of Rs 5 lakh. The state consumer forum also asked the airline to refund his airfare of Rs 4,682.

Justice S Jagadeesan, a former chairman of the Intellectual Property Appellate Board as well, was to fly from Chennai to Coimbatore on April 28, 2010 on a Spicejet flight. The flight was scheduled to leave at 8.45am.

After going through the security check, he was at the waiting lounge when the first announcement for boarding was made. As there was a long queue to board the flight, a member of the ground staff, on knowing Jagadeesan's identity, requested him to wait and assured that he would take him once the rush was over.

31/01/12 Karthika Gopalakrishnan/Times of India

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Rs 80cr taxiway for Boeing's 500cr unit

Nagpur: Maharashtra Airport Development Company (MADC) plans to spend Rs 80 crore to get Boeing's $100 million (500 crore) maintenance repair and overhaul (MRO) depot in Mihan-SEZ going. MADC has decided to build a taxiway to the MRO. Tenders for it may be floated in a fortnight. The American aircraft maker is setting up this MRO on behalf of Air India, as a part of the conditions in the 30,000 crore aircraft purchase deal with the national carrier.

Boeing has begun construction on MRO and needs a facility to bring the aircraft to MRO from main runway. This has to be provided by MADC, the SEZ developer. The access was to be through second runway that MADC planned. However, it has got delayed mainly because of land acquisition problem necessitating a 2.5 km taxiway from existing runway.

Boeing's investment in rupee terms is about Rs 500 crore and the taxiway would cost MADC almost 15% of the amount. MADC is facing tough times due to lack of fresh investment in SEZ. The state government will also have to refund the company 300 crore cost of acquiring remaining land needed for the project.

31/01/12 Shishir Arya/Times of India

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Gulbarga, Shimoga airports to be operational by July

Bangalore: Minor airports at Gulbarga and Shimoga would be operational by July, and the 11 km northern corridor of Bangalore Metro by year-end, Karnataka Governor H R Bhardwaj said today.
Delivering his address to the joint session of the state Legislature, he said minor airports at Shimoga, Gulbarga, Bijapur and Hassan are being developed on public-private-partnership basis.
"Expansion work in the Bangalore International Airport will increase passenger handling capacity to 17.5 millions per annum," the Governor said.
30/01/12 PTI/Economc Times

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First SpiceJet flight at Surat to get grand welcome

Surat: Excitement is running high in the diamond city as the countdown for the flight services connecting Surat with Mumbai, Mangalore and Delhi has begun. The 189-seater Boeing 737 aircraft of SpiceJet is scheduled to arrive at Surat airport from Delhi at about 8:00 am on February 1.

Facebook (FB) fan club has chalked out plans to accord a grand welcome to the first Surat-Delhi-Mumbai-Mangalore flight. Surat airport authorities too have decided to welcome the aircraft. It would get a grand water cannon salute from Surat airport authorities.

FB fan club will reach the airport donning red caps with a message 'Surat loves SpiceJet' and crew members, ground staff and passengers travelling toward Mumbai and arriving from Delhi will be distributed Surti delicacies - fafda and jalebi - along with flowers and balloons.

30/01/12 Melvyn Thomas/Times of India

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Immigration clearance time to be cut by half at Ahmedabad airport

Ahmedabad: International passengers passing through Ahmedabad airport will be able to get immigration clearance in half the time it currently takes, once the Union home ministry’s Bureau of Immigration takes over the airport’s immigration desk.
Sources said that, by February 22, 2012, the bureau will have taken over the immigration desk at the city’s Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel international airport. After the takeover, the bureau is likely to double the number of police officers posted at the airport for immigration-related work.
The sources further said that currently the number of officers and constables deployed for immigration-related work is around 60, all of whom are from the special branch of Ahmedabad police. But their number is likely to increase to 120 once the bureau takes over, the sources said. “Currently there is one sub-inspector and two inspectors posted at the immigration desk,” a source said, adding that the number of the PI and PSI-rank officers will also double by February-end.
31/01/12 Roxy Gagdekar/DNA/Daily Bhaskar

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Imran loses luggage during 'Ek Main...' promotional tour

New Delhi: Bollywood actor Imran Khan lost his bag at the Dubai airport while in transit for the promotional tour of his forthcoming romantic comedy "Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu".

Imran and Kareena have been travelling abroad to spread the word about the Dharma Productions and UTV Motion Pictures co-production. But Imran ended up in a bit of a mess in Dubai last week.

"It turns out that somebody else on the flight had the exact same bag as mine and naturally he took my bag with him. I have managed to buy some fresh pairs of shirts and socks from the Dubai mall and at least I won't be with the same clothes for the next few days," said Imran who retrieved his bag after 24 hours.

30/01/12 IANS/Deccan Herald

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Six fall in cheap foreign holiday net, held at airport for smuggling

Five-days and four-night tour to Thailand and Hong Kong, complete with all expenses paid and even some freebies like massage at Pataya thrown in, just for Rs 24,000. There had to be a rider. And six travelers, who fell for the scheme, learned it only when they were detained by customs officials at Ahmedabad airport on Sunday morning. Four travel agents were also arrested with them.
Ten 55-inch LED 3D TVs and 32 bottles of liquor, worth totaling Rs 8 lakh, apart from 70,000 drug tablets and over $10,000 were seized from 10 people. The tablets, suspected to be steroids and health supplements, along with foreign currency and other imported items like perfumes and watches were concealed in silver foils inside the TV boxes to smuggle them into Ahmedabad.
All 10 people had come back from Hong Kong onboard a Bangkok-Ahmedabad Air India flight at 7 am when they were intercepted with electronic items and other prohibited goods. "Travel agents gave these items to the six passengers just before departure. The agents said that the passengers should declare these as their own. This was the basis for tour to Thailand at discounted rates organized by an Ahmedabad-based travel agency jointly with a Rajkot tour operator," said a senior customs official.
30/01/12 Ankur Jain/Times of India

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Airport retail business tops $1 billion revenue

Mumbai: Airport retail business in India topped $1 billion in revenues during 2011, on the back of robust growth in passenger traffic and more people shopping on the go, according to a boutique retail consultancy. The business is growing at 17-18 % annually, emerging as a viable platform for retailers and operators of the new airports, according to Bangalore-based consulting firm Asipac Projects.
Beauty, personal care, alcohol and tobacco emerged as the top three categories in the dutyfree section, while food & beverage , books, periodicals and stationery took the top spot within the duty-paid segment. Globally, airports registered approximately $43 billion in sales, with the likes of London Heathrow and Seoul's Incheon being the most lucrative ones.
"Airport stores are twice as productive for us compared to stores outside, in terms of sales per sq ft, though operational costs go up substantially at airports . Internationally, sales per sq ft are four to five times more compared to street stores at some of the busiest airports. We have a long way to go to go to reach those numbers," said Dipak Agarwal, chief executive (operations and strategy), DLF Retail, which runs retail stores like Mango and Boggi Milano at Delhi's IGI Airport.
30/01/12 Samidha Sharma/Times of India

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Buddha Air flying to Varanasi from March

Kathmandu: Buddha Air -- one of the leading domestic carriers -- is operating scheduled flights to Varanasi of India from March 1, 2012.
The airlines will operate four flights a week -- on Sundays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays -- between Kathmandu and Varanasi. The one way fare for the route has been fixed at Rs 5,031.
“There exists a huge potential for pilgrimage tourism between Kathmandu and Varanasi,” Buddha Air said in a statement on Sunday, adding that the flight would be useful for students and business travelers.
The one-hour flight to Varanasi will leave Tribhuwan International Airport (TIA) at 3 pm.
29/01/12 Republica

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Radar to help reschedule flights

Jaipur: Delayed flights and endless wait for passengers outside the airport owing to lack of information will be a thing of past in the state. A C-Band Doppler Weather Radar (DWR), capable of weather surveillance of up to 300 km, was installed at the Met office in Jaipur on Saturday.

The radar, a first in state and second in the country, can accurately forecast monsoons, thunderstorms, velocity of winds and other weather-related phenomena. It also has a unique feature to identify electrically-charged clouds which are a major cause of flight delays.

"The accurate information on the formation of these clouds will help in re-scheduling the flights," said RK Singh, Jaipur airport director who was present at the inaugural ceremony of the radar installation.

Earlier, weather experts would forecast the formation of these clouds, which lacked accuracy. The radar will cover the entire state including Udaipur and Jodhpur airport.

The machine generates pictures depicting location of clouds, expected time of rain and its volume, wind velocity, cloud intensity and wind shear. The pictures form the basis for weather analysis. The radar takes 10 minutes to provide information, which is much faster compared to previous radar.

29/01/12 Times of India

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DGCA initiates probe into Cong aircraft incident

Lucknow: The Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Saturday, initiated an inquiry into the incident in which a landing chartered aircraft carrying Congress leaders came close to a waiting aircraft on the runway ready to take off. At the same time, the Airport Authority of India (AAI) sought a detailed report from the air traffic control (ATC) to ascertain the possible coordination lapse.
On Friday, the chartered aircraft carrying Congress leaders, Pramod Tewari and Jairam Ramesh, had a close shave when it reportedly came dangerously close to a waiting aircraft of Saudia airlines.
While AAI officials refused to comment, sources said that the authority is likely to submit its report with the DGCA in a day or two. Sources said that prima facie it appeared that there was some lapse in judging the arrival of the chartered aircraft. AAI sources affirmed that, at times, smaller aircraft use a shorter route than expected. In case of the one carrying Congress leaders, the aircraft probably arrived at least two to three minutes earlier than expected. AAI officials, too, did not rule out the possibility of the pilot taking an alternate route which may have resulted in its arrival relatively earlier.
Significantly, while both Pramod Tewari and Jairam Ramesh lodged their complaint, the pilot didn't. Sources said that it could be the company to which the aircraft belonged may file a complaint.
29/01/12 Times of India

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Hundreds of Russian tourists stranded at Goa airport

Panaji: Around 500 Russian tourists have been stranded at Goa airport as a result of a sudden suspension of operations by Russia's biggest tour operator Lanta Tur Voyage due to its "financial collapse", officials said today. The tour operator has announced the stoppage of operations, airport officials said adding that many tourists have been stranded at the airport since last night, while many others are hauled up in various hotels. "Many tourists had arrived in the state a fortnight ago and are waiting to fly back home," an airport official said. The Russian Consulate in Mumbai has been informed about the situation. Consulate's Goa representative Vikram Varma said that they have received the information about the tourists stranded in the state. "We have been informed that there are 500 Russian tourists, who are stranded. All the efforts are being made to assist them in their return to Russia," he said.
28/01/12 PTI/IBN Live

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Man conceals 6 gold bars in his body, caught

Chennai: Air customs on Saturday seized 600gm of gold bars worth 17 lakh from a passenger at the Chennai airport who arrived from Colombo.
Kader Mohideen Syed Mohamed Buhari, an Indian national who concealed six gold bars in his rectum and tried to pass through the green channel, was arrested.
Customs officials had increased surveillance of passengers arriving from sensitive airports. As Colombo was classified as sensitive, officials were monitoring passengers who arrived by a Jet Airways flight when they saw Kadar Mohideen passing through green channel. When questioned, he appeared to be nervous. He later confessed to carrying gold bars hidden in his rectum.
The gold bars had foreign markings saying they were 999.0 pure. "The passenger, in his voluntary statement, confessed he was a carrier and concealed six gold bars in his rectum for a pecuniary consideration and with an intention to avoid Customs duty. The passenger was arrested under the Customs Act, 1962," said a press release.
29/01/12 Times of India

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Airfares to soar as AAI wants charges hiked

New Delhi: Flying is likely to become costlier this year as the Airports Authority of India is planning to demand that landing and parking charges for airlines be "at least" doubled. This comes close on the heels of the 774% hike sought by the Delhi International Airport Pvt Ltd (DIAL), with the regulator approving a 334% increase from April. Mumbai airport is also learnt to be in the process of demanding an increase in charges.

Once the AAI demand is approved by the Airport Economic Regulatory Authority (AERA), the enhanced charges will be passed on to passengers in form of higher fares. This will be in addition to new charges at places like Delhi and the general increase airlines are contemplating to cover their massive losses.

While airlines are opposing any hike in airport charges and asking operators to increase cash flow by lower tariffs to get more footfalls, airports have also begun citing massive losses and non-payment of dues from nearly bankrupt airlines.

"Airlines are in a very bad shape with Air India and Kingfisher running up huge past dues that they are unable to pay. We were avoiding seeking a hike in airport charges at this juncture, but now it has become unavoidable for us too as AAI has been augmenting infrastructure in form of new terminals and runways across the country. We need at least a 200% hike and will move AERA soon," said a senior AAI official.

28/01/12 Saurabh Sinha/Economic Times

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2 emergency landings at Ahmedabad airport in two days

Ahmedabad: Two emergency landings were reported at Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport on January 26 and 27. In the first incident, a private Falcon-2000 with eight people on board landed at the city airport after the pilot reported some false indication in the left engine. Five of those on board were employees of European Project Private Ltd, a company based in Mumbai.
The pilot had requested for landing at the city airport as the engine was shut down following the false indication. The flight, which was on its way to Mumbai from Chandigarh, landed in the city at 3.05 pm. It was parked there when last reports came in.
The second emergency landing was requested on Friday morning following a medical emergency. The Orbit Airways flight from Goa to Moscow, requested the Ahmedabad ATC for an emergency landing after a passenger on board suffered a cardiac problem.
28/01/12 Daily News & Analysis

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ILS equipment calibrated at Gannavaram Airport

Vijayawada: The Instrument Landing System installed at the Gannavaram Airport near here has been calibrated after a two-day trial and testing conducted by a team of flight inspector and ground staff on Friday.

On the second day the AAI special aircraft equipped with the analyser and ILS equipment signal tracker took off at 8 a.m. and completed its technical observations and fine tuning of the equipment within one and a half hours and flew back, according to Airport Director C. Pattabhi.

Now the ILS is ready for trial by the commercial pilots once the report of the testing and calibration data is sent to the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) seeking his permission for allowing trials by the DGCA approved pilots in the commercial airlines. The feedback of the pilots would be taken for a period of one week to 10 days and the data sent to the DGCA again for seeking the final commissioning of the ILS.

Once commissioning approval is obtained all the aircraft can make use of the ILS and follow the distance norms fixed for visual sighting of the airstrip and then land depending on the weather conditions. This will help land more accurately and without hassles even in cloudy and fog conditions at this airport that is now equipped with CAT-1 ILS radio signalling systems.

28/01/12 The Hindu

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Neelgais, flights share space at Gaya airport

Patna: Close on the heels of a blue bull entering the campus of Patna airport, yet another antelope is giving nightmares to the officials of Gaya International Airport, some 100 km from here.
Every take off and landing of international and domestic flights in Gaya is fraught with danger as the neelgai (blue bull), which had once strayed onto the runway, is said to be hiding in the adjoining 50-hectare dense forest cover at the airport. The antelope, which has so far remained elusive, is beyond the reach of forest department officials, too, who are looking for the herbivorous animal with tranquilliser guns in hand.
“Efforts are being made to keep the blue bull away from the runway, but even then there is an element of risk during take off and landing of flights,” said the airport director SK Biswas, who has asked the Gaya district administration to take appropriate steps in this direction.
Till a fortnight back, nearly 20 flights landed at this international airport every day when Kalchakra Puja (the most revered religious function of Buddhists) was going on. Of them, Thai Airways (Thailand), Druk Airways (Bhutan), Lanka Airways (Sri Lanka), Vietnam Airways (Vietnam) were the prominent ones carrying Buddhist pilgrims from off-shores.
27/01/12 Abhay Kumar/Deccan Herald

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Aborted take-off by Air India Express pilot being probed: DGCA

New Delhi: Aviation watchdog Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Friday said that it is looking into an incident of aborted take-off involving an Air India Express flight from Singapore to Trichy carrying around 90 passengers.

The incident took place on Monday, when the pilots of Air India's low-cost international subsidiary went in for take-off procedures without receiving prior clearance from Singapore Air Traffic Control (ATC) at Changi airport.

The pilot was hauled up by the ATC, following which he aborted the take-off at very high speed, thus risking the lives of the passengers.

"We have started an investigation into the incident and we have to see in what circumstances did the pilots abort the take-off," senior DGCA official told.

According to the official, the aviation regulator is examining technical data to ascertain what all safety aspects were flouted in the process of the abortive take-off.

27/01/12 IANS/Economic Times

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GHIAL to focus on flyers from Central India

Kolkata/Raipur: GMR Hyderabad International Airport Limited (GHIAL) will now focus on the flyers from Central India and attract them to travel to and from Hyderabad in a bid to increase the traffic passing through the terminal.

The initiative will be part of company’s “Fly via Hyderabad” campaign that has been launched to make the GHIAL airport an important air traffic hub and an alternative to Mumbai airport for the flyers from Chhattisgarh. The air passengers travelling to South and other destinations are catching flights from Mumbai.

“After launching the programme in many cities including Pune, Aurangabad, Kochi, Madhurai, and Bhubaneswar, our focus will now be the Central India,” Vikram R Jaisinghani, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of GHIAL, said here on Friday. To start with, Raipur will be the first destination of the campaign.

Jaisinghani said after Raipur, they would launch the campaign in Indore (Madhya Pradesh) and Nagpur (Maharashtra).

28/01/12 R Krishna Das/Business Standard

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International drug dealer arrested at Kochi airport

Thiruvananthapuram: The Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) on Thursday arrested Solonorice Jimmy Vicenp, an Ecuador national considered to be an important link in the international drug mafia that operates in India,at the Nedumbassery International Airport in Kochi.

A huge quantity of cocaine was found in his possession. The consignment was concealed in condoms in his bags during a security check by officials of a private airline. Vicenp’s accomplice, a Nigerian national named Ossy, managed to give the police the slip.

Ossy, who had already acquired his boarding pass at the time of Vicenp’s arrest, slipped out of the airport after convincing the security personnel that he needed to withdraw money from an ATM.

According to the Kochi police, Vicenp is a leader of a gang which smuggles drugs through India.

27/01/12 Deccan Herald

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MAHB expects to close 2 new deals by year-end

Airport operator Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB) expects to close two new airport concession deals in Asia by the year-end in a drive to improve its earnings from overseas, its chief said.

Managing director Tan Sri Bashir Ahmad said MAHB is in preliminary discussions with local parties in China and Indonesia to form a consortium and bid for airport concessions in the two countries.

Bashir declined to reveal the parties involved. It is learnt that MAHB may rope in India’s GMR Group as its consortium partner. MAHB has been partnering GMR since 2002.

Its most revent tie-up with GMR is to develop and manage a resort terminal in Maldives, which is set to be opened in 2014.

The two are managing and developing three other airports internationally.

Bashir said as more and more airports get privatised, established airport operators like MAHB as well as those managing Changi and Frankfurt airports are looking at opportunites to be involved in the management and development of airports overseas.

“There is big potential in China and Indonesia and we are looking at growth in those areas. There are many airports that need upgrading. We think we could close two airport deals by year-end,” he said.

On funding for the potential concessions, Bashir said MAHB will use internally-generated funds.

27/01/12 Business Times

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Advanced aviation meteorological support for 46 more airports on cards

Mumbai: The integrated Airport Meteorological Instrument System (AMIS), which is currently operational at eight airports in the country, will be extended to another 46 airports as part of the India Meteorological Department's (IMD) modernisation programme. The AMIS is operational at the Amritsar, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Guwahati, Jaipur, Mumbai and New Delhi airports. This facilitates automatic acquisition, processing, dissemination and display in real time, of meteorological parameters affecting landing and take-off operations, according to a report by The Times of India.

S Krishnaiah, Additional Director General - Meteorology at IMD's Pune office, said, "State of the art meteorological instruments are required for measuring the Runway Visual Range (RVR), which refers to the distance over which the pilot of an aircraft on the centreline of the runway can see the surface markings delineating the runway." The RVR also plays a key role in determining the kind of visual aides like the Instrument Landing System (ILS), that are required to be installed at the airports for the pilots to effect smooth landings and take-offs.

The International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) has specified the RVR values, normally expressed in feet or metres, for ILS instruments, starting with CAT-I to III and the more advanced CAT-IIIA and CAT-IIIB equipment. The last named is installed at the New Delhi airport.

27/01/12 Travel Biz Monitor

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Govt to spell out its stand on airport equity returns by February

Mumbai: The Civil Aviation Ministry will make its stand clear on the rate of return that airport operators can seek to generate on the equity brought in by them by early next month. The ministry has asked the Airports Authority of India (AAI) to hold talks with investment banks such as SBI Capital Markets Ltd to recommend a plausible return, according to two government officials who did not want to be named.

The aviation ministry is considering working on two different slabs for returns on equity invested in existing airports and those built from scratch depending on the risk level, said one government official. The risk, for example, could be more for an airport built from scratch compared with an existing facility like Delhi, which has an existing revenue stream. A higher risk would merit a higher return, according to a report by Tarun Shukla of Mint.

GMR Infrastructure Ltd-led Delhi International Airport Pvt. Ltd (DIAL) has sought a return on equity investment from the Airports Economic Regulatory Authority (AERA) of about 24 per cent besides an 800 per cent increase in airport tariffs. The move could potentially put the government in direct conflict with the airport regulator. AERA rejected that request and granted it a 16 per cent rate of return besides a 340 per cent increase in airport tariffs spread across two years. The final order on the move is expected only after all stakeholders, including airlines, send in their views. An AERA official said the ministry has said it too will give its final views on equity returns by the second week of February after which the regulator will finalize its position on DIAL tariffs. “It is always good to have a clear and transparent view,” this official said.

27/01/12 Travel Biz Monitor

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AI Express pilot defies ATC for take-off, puts flyers at risk

Mumbai: In the span of about 30 seconds, an Air India Express aircraft with about 90 passengers on board created a double scare at Singapore's Changi airport on Monday. First, its pilot did not wait for the vital take-off clearance from the air traffic controller concerned. As the Boeing 737-800 aircraft sped along the runway for a take-off, the alarmed air traffic control officials hauled up the pilots and ordered them to stop. The jet had reached the critical speed of 260 kmph and was seconds away from lifting off the runway when the pilot pulled the throttle back to abort the take-off.

It was a highly controversial move, fraught with risk, as take-offs cannot be aborted at such high speeds without putting the aircraft and its occupants at risk. It did not end badly though, as the pilots could bring the aircraft to a halt before it reached the runway end. Had it been a short runway or a wet one, the aircraft could have gone off the runway. The airline has grounded both the pilots and an investigation is on. An Air India Express spokesperson confirmed the incident. The matter has once again raised questions about the training standards in Air India Express. The airline was lambasted by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation in a recent audit for its poor training practices.

"A Boeing 777 aircraft had just departed from runway 02 C and so take-off clearance to the next aircraft would have been given only after a span of two minutes," said a source. But the Air India Express pilots, operating the Singapore-Trichy flight IX-681, for reasons not yet known, decided to take off from the said runway before obtaining the mandatory go-ahead from the air traffic controller. "A Boeing 737 aircraft takes about 30 seconds to go from zero to lift-off speed, which would have been about 276 kmph, in this case," said a source.

26/01/12 Manju V/Times of India

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Flying in and out of Delhi to get costlier, DIAL mulls new fee

New Delhi: Flying in and out of Delhi is going to get a lot more expensive from April. The Delhi International Airport Pvt Ltd (DIAL) has proposed a new charge called user development fee (UDF) for all passengers - departing, arriving and even transiting.
This will be in addition to the existing fees levied only on departing flyers - passenger service fee (PSF of Rs 207) and airport development fee of Rs 200 and Rs 1,300 for domestic and international passengers, respectively.
The proposal is, on an average, for charging a UDF of Rs 1,300-1,400 from international passengers and Rs 600 from domestic passengers. The UDF for passengers in transit is Rs 800 and Rs 360 for international and domestic transit flyers, respectively, said GMR Airports' chief financial officer Sidharth Kapur.
The new fee is distancelinked. Three slabs have been created for international flights. Flights of up to 2,000km, between 2,000 and 5,000 km and above 5,000 km have been classified as short, medium and long haul. So long haul would pay more than the average of Rs 1,300-1,400 while short haul would pay less than that. The final rates would be determined by the Airport Economic Regulatory Authority (AERA).
26/01/12 Saurabh Sinha/Economic Times

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Indian with suspicious passport arrested at Detroit Metro Airport

The Department of Homeland Security arrested an airline passenger from India who arrived at Detroit Metro Airport Monday with a suspicious passport: His Saudi Arabian visa had been burned and torn out of the booklet.

Documents filed in U.S. District Court say Safdar Quddus told border officials he had held his Saudi Arabian visa over a fire to peel it out of the passport, and the visa burned, so he cut the page out.

He did not explain why he wanted to remove the page.

Quddus made an appearance in federal court in Detroit on Thursday. He is being held in jail after agreeing to detention.

According to an affidavit filed Wednesday in federal court, Quddus arrived from India via Frankfurt. He presented himself as a returning student visa holder. At primary inspection booth No. 29, he stated that he had been outside the U.S. since Dec. 15 and presented his Indian passport.

While in baggage control, another officer asked Quddus how many times he had been to Saudi Arabia, records show. Quddus said twice, but the officer noticed he didn't have stamps on his Saudi Arabian visa, records show.

27/01/12 Tresa Baldas/Detroit Free Press

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Airport operators want opportunity cost for land security deposits

New Delhi: Private airport developers have questioned the airport regulator's refusal to grant a 'reasonable return' on money raised by Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL) from leasing land allotted by the government for commercial use.

Airport operators like the GMR-led DIAL and GVK-led Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL) have argued that they could have invested the money raised in the form of security deposits from this land in any other venture they wanted. At a consultation meeting last week on Delhi airport's tariff hike demands, operators insisted that they must be compensated for the opportunity cost of deploying the funds in the airport project.

At the consultation meeting on January 18, DIAL CFO Sidharath Kapur told the regulator that 'if DIAL had not used the funds raised from these security deposits for the project, then additional funds would have been raised through equity or debt on which the authority would have provided a return.'

A MIAL representative concurred. "There should not be zero return on refundable security deposits. They should be treated on par with internal accruals," said Gautam Arjun of MIAL, the airport operator for Mumbai.

27/01/12 Economic Times

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Adjust AI dues against AAI’s: DIAL

New Delhi: Air India's financial distress is now threatening the revenues of airports as well. Dues of AI to Delhi airport have mounted to over Rs 340 crore and the airline has been unable to clear them for months. Claiming survival troubles, the GMR-backed Delhi International Airport Pvt Ltd (DIAL) has suggested to the government that its dues from the public sector airline should be adjusted against the revenue share that it pays to Airports Authority of India (AAI) every month.

DIAL pays about Rs 58 crore per month to AAI as 46% revenue share according to IGI Airport's privatisation agreement. "This amount could be gradually adjusted against the revenue shared monthly with AAI till AI begins making payments. Once the government infuses equity into AI, the aviation ministry may directly give the amount that is being proposed to be deducted, directly to AAI," said top Delhi airport sources.

DIAL put Kingfisher on cash-and-carry following which the troubled airline is making current payment and clearing dues very gradually, they added.

27/01/12 Saurabh Sinha/Times of India

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Out of bilateral air services pact, global terminal status eludes Madurai airport

Madurai: Non-inclusion of Madurai airport in bilateral air services agreement (BASA) with countries having potential for international passenger and cargo traffic from here has been a major bottleneck in converting Madurai airport into an international terminal. This has been holding back operation of international flights from Madurai to popular destinations such as Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Dubai, Muscat and Sharjah.

Traders and travel agents are looking up to the Union Ministry of Civil Aviation for including the airport in the bilateral agreement to realise the immense potential for international air services from Madurai and southern districts.

“Sri Lankan Airlines is likely to announce its schedule to Madurai any time. Madurai is listed among the airports in the bilateral agreement with Sri Lanka. But operation of flights from other countries cannot be done without the bilateral agreement,” Senior President of Tamil Nadu Chamber of Commerce and Industries S. Rethinavelu said.

While laying the foundation for the new terminal building in 2008, the then Civil Aviation Minister, Praful Patel, had promised that the first international flight would land on the day of its inauguration.

26/01/12 S Sundar/The Hindu

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CISF asked to take over airport boundary security system

New Delhi After several delays, the project to have an electronic surveillance mechanism in place to secure the boundary of the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) has hit another roadblock.

The airport operator Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL) recently requested the CISF to take over the 14-km stretch where the Perimeter Intrusion Detection System (PIDS) has been installed. The latter, in its reply, has asked the airport operator to provide technical specifications so that the force can take over the system.

The high-security system has been installed along the entire 27.6-km length of the airport boundary wall, but it is functional only on a 14-km patch. Airport officials cite unavailability of power as the reason behind its non-operation on the remaining 13.6 km.

“The DIAL has fully installed PIDS,” the airport operator said in a statement. The system is meant to detect, assess, neutralise and track potential or actual breaches along the airport’s periphery.

CISF sources, however, said the system is still full of deficiencies, such as a high rate of false alarms.

27/01/12 Geeta Gupta/Express India

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Flight delayed due to simian menace

Nagpur: Simian menace forced the Indigo airlines commander of the Mumbai-Nagpur-Kolkata flight to delay landing at the Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar International Airport on Tuesday evening.
The flight, which had 116 passengers, was to touchdown at 5pm but was diverted to Hyderabad. It finally landed in Nagpur at 8.15pm and took off for Kolkata 30 minutes later.
After deer, dogs and pigs, a troupe of 70-75 monkeys have started creating havoc in the operational area. They are seen in small groups, usually early in the morning and afternoon.
Three years ago, the then airport operator Airport Authority of India (AAI) officials had employed a monkey catcher to get rid of the menace which seems to have returned again.
26/01/12 Times of India

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Airports Authority of India scouts for agencies

The Airports Authority of India (AAI) has invited applications from advertising agencies for empanelment with the company for a period of one year.

As per the official tender document, the scope of work includes publicity campaigns at the local, national and international level. The advertising agencies will also be required to give inputs in terms of creatives, editorials, visuals, etc., to create the campaign for various print and electronic media, including TV, print, radio, outdoor, internet, conferences, exhibitions and stalls, etc.

The term of empanelment shall be for a period of one year, extendable by another one year, depending on the performance of the advertising agencies. The last date for submission of proposals is February 8, 2012.

27/01/12 Deepika Bhardwaj/Exchange 4 Media

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Air India Express pilot defies ATC for take-off, puts flyers at risk

Mumbai: In the span of about 30 seconds, an Air India Express aircraft with about 90 passengers on board created a double scare at Singapore's Changi airport on Monday.

First, its pilot did not wait for the vital take-off clearance from the air traffic controller concerned. As the Boeing 737-800 aircraft sped along the runway for a take-off, the alarmed air traffic control officials hauled up the pilots and ordered them to stop. The jet had reached the critical speed of 260 kmph and was seconds away from lifting off the runway when the pilot pulled the throttle back to abort the take-off.

It was a highly controversial move, fraught with risk, as take-offs cannot be aborted at such high speeds without putting the aircraft and its occupants at risk. It did not end badly though, as the pilots could bring the aircraft to a halt before it reached the runway end. Had it been a short runway or a wet one, the aircraft could have gone off the runway. The airline has grounded both the pilots and an investigation is on.

27/01/12 Manju V/Economic Times

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Now hoax bomb letter found near city Airport

Chandigarh A day after a letter was received that stated that bomb were being placed at prominent places, another threat letter of a bomb being placed at the Chandigarh Airport was found near the airport, on Wednesday.
According to the police, the letter read, “I have come from Pakistan and I have planted a bomb at the airport, which is my first target.” The letter reportedly also dared the police to trace him.
Following the claims of the letter, a bomb disposal squads and sniffer dogs checked the airport premises. Police have registered a case against unidentified persons at the Sector 31 police station on charges of criminal intimidation.
26/01/12 Express India

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Chikmagalur, Gadag, Raichur airport survey

Bangalore: Land acquisition controversies have dominated headlines for quite some time now. And in a bid to work around the controversies and shortage of land, the state? government is planning to build airports on land of just 100 acres. The Infrastructure? Development Department is currently carrying out surveys in three districts of Gadag, Chikmagalur and Raichur, for expanding air operations in the state. Officials said the proposals would be completed in the next two months. They also said small airports were conceived for operating chartered aircraft and other small 8-10 seater aircraft.
“Gulbarga airport will open by May and Shimoga airport will be opened by July this year,” Rajkumar Khatri, Principal Secretary, Infrastructure Development, Government of Karnataka, said. He told Express that the two airports would also be expanded since their capacity was on the rise and they promised fast connectivity to these regions. Connectivity to the airports in Mysore, Belgaum and Hubli had been impacted as the sole operator, Kingfisher, had cut the frequency and also stopped operations to these areas owing to their financial crisis.
25/01/12 New Indian Express

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Bangalore airport finalises schedule for phased closure from March 11

New Delhi/Bangalore: From March 11 to May 4 flying into and out of Bangalore, the busiest airport in South India, could be a tedious process.
The airline watchdog has approved a three-phased closure of the airport beginning March 11. “There was no other way. We have tried to minimise the difficulties to passengers. The period of closure has been shortened. We have also asked the airport operator to give a report on why the runway developed cracks so soon after it became operational,” the Director-General of Civil Aviation, Mr E.K. Bharatbhushan, told Business Line.
Sources indicated that not catering to the problem at hand could have disastrous consequences including a crash.
In a press statement, BIAL said that to ensure the airport is in the best operational condition at all times, it has decided to “go ahead with the maintenance work with immediate effect, so as to complete the activity before the onset of monsoons in May”. It added that the decision was arrived at in consultation with all key stakeholders including domestic and international airlines, Air Traffic Control, AAI and the DGCA.
25/01/12 Business Line

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30 more airports will be needed in next 5 yrs: Planning Commission

New Delhi: The growth projections for air passenger traffic suggest an additional requirement of 30 functional airports over the next five years and 180 in the next decade, according to Planning Commission estimates.
The passenger terminal capacity in all airports, expected to be 230-240 million this year, is likely to grow to 370 million, the estimates, drawn up in accordance with the investment plans of the airport operators, show.
While five private airports at Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Cochin handle 60 per cent of air traffic, state-run Airports Authority of India (AAI), which used to cater to the entire sector, now handles the rest.
As per estimates, the plan body has received from AAI and the industry, Indian airports would require a significant investment of about Rs 67,500 crore during the 12th Plan period (2012-2017), of which around Rs 50,000 crore is likely to be from the private sector.
24/01/12 PTI/Economic Times

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Instrument landing system for Gannavaram airport

Vijayawada: Instrument landing system (ILS) at Gannavaram airport is likely to be commissioned within one month. A calibration aircraft landed at Gannavaram airport on Wednesday evening.
Instrument landing system (ILS) at Gannavaram airport is likely to be commissioned within one month. A calibration aircraft landed at Gannavaram airport on Wednesday evening.
The aircraft will calibrate the functioning of ILS on Thursday and the officials will submit a report to the Director General of Civil Aviation for clearance of ILS commissioning. It may be noted that the ILS was set up at Gannavaram airport at a cost of Rs 3 crore. The works were completed two months ago and the officials are waiting for the nod of director general of civil aviation for the commissioning of the ILS here.
Once the calibration aircraft officials submit a report the officials here will send the report to director general of civil aviation. After getting permission from him the officials will start trial run of the ILS with the regular aircraft landing at Gannavaram airport. The landing of flights is getting delayed due to lack of ILS so far and the Air India’s airbus also cancelled it’s services in the beginning due to poor visibility.
26/01/12 Deccan Chronicle

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Air Mauritius adds frequencies to Mumbai and expands codeshare with Air France

It was learned late yesterday that Air Mauritius will offer additional flights between the island of Mauritius and Mumbai, India, from April this year, bringing the total number of flights to four per week. Increased investment and trade between India and Mauritius, along with the appeal of the island as a holiday destination, are the main factors seen in taking this decision.
Aviation analysts also point to the fact of increased frequencies by Emirates to Mauritius, offering daily convenient flights from all their Indian gateways via Dubai, and the fact that Air Mauritius really had no choice but to either increase their presence with nonstop flights between Mumbai and the island or else leave the market altogether.
A source from Port Louis said the four flights were “a step in the right direction but ultimately our airline has to fly daily nonstop or Emirates, with 12 flights a week from Dubai and multiple destinations in India, will simply sweep our national carrier aside.”
Lessons learned from neighboring Vanilla Island Seychelles perhaps where that flights from Frankfurt had to be dropped when Emirates started to increase frequencies in earnest, eventually followed by all the airline’s mainstream European ports of call like London, Paris, Milan, and Rome, unable to compete with the frequencies, the extensive network from other airports in these countries, and ultimately on fares.
25/01/12 Wolfgang H Thome/eTN

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Thai AirAsia to pull out from Delhi airport

New Delhi: After AirAsia and Air AsiaX, Thai AirAsia has announced it would withdraw flights from India in two months from now. The subsidiary of the AirAsia Group announced it would do so from March 24.
An AirAsia executive in India confirmed on Tuesday that the airline had announced withdrawal of its flights between New Delhi and Bangkok, owing to high operating costs that include high airport and fuel charges. Thai AirAsia operates a daily flight between the Indian and Thai capitals, besides a weekly flight between Kolkata and Bangkok. The Kolkata flight will continue to operate, the executive added.
Withdrawal of the service between Delhi and Bangkok will begin with a cutback to four flights a week on February 14, from what is seven now. On March 24, it would come to a complete suspension.
Recently, Air AsiaX, a long-haul subsidiary of AirAsia that operated flights from Delhi and Mumbai, also announced cancellation of flights from India, also owing to high operating costs. Air Asia, too, had announced it was pulling out flights from Hyderabad, owing to high user development fee at the Hyderabad airport.
25/01/12 Business Standard

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Biometric system trials may kick-off at IGI

New Delhi: Trials for the much-awaited biometric card system for prepaid taxi drivers at IGI Airport are expected to begin on Wednesday. The system - initially meant to be launched in January 2010 - will make travelling much safer for passengers, especially foreign nationals who frequently get a raw deal with airport cabbies.
Joint commissioner of police (traffic), Satyendra Garg told TOI that the system was reportedly in place and after Wednesday's trials it would be decided when the system would be rolled out. "Delhi International Airport (P) Ltd (DIAL) has everything in place. Once fresh trials are carried out in both peak and non-peak hours and if they are successful, we will inaugurate the system," he said.
Launched at the behest of L-G Tejendra Khanna, the system was conceptualized after reports of foreigners being harassed at the airport. Under the system, information of the cab driver will be fed into a biometric card which he will have to swipe before he exits the airport with a passenger. Thus, all passenger details, including name, drop address and the cab in which he/she left the airport will be available at one time.
25/01/12 Neha Lalchandani/Times of India

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Navy jet’s tyre bursts, runway shut for an hour

Vasco: Air traffic at Goa's Dabolim airport was disrupted for nearly an hour on Monday evening after a tyre of an Indian Navy Sea Harrier jet burst.
The tyre of the Sea Harrier burst on landing throwing air traffic out of gear for nearly an hour, an official said.
The Dabolim runway was closed from 4.30pm to 5.30 pm.
"As the evening slot is very crucial for domestic as well international fights many of them had to be delayed," sources said. Each of the flights were delayed for around 25 to 40 minutes.
24/01/12 Times of India

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GMR withdraws Croatia airport bid, looks to Brazil

GMR Infrastructure has withdrawn its bid to modernise and expand an airport in Croatia, but is preparing to bid on similar projects in Brazil, a company official said.

"Croatia, we evaluated, then we decided not to go ahead. Looking at the project's economics, they were not working out," the official, who declined to be identified, told Reuters.

GMR, which built and operates Istanbul airport in Turkey and is building an airport in Male, Maldives, said in August it had qualified to bid on the Zagreb Airport project.

The Brazilian government plans to modernise and expand Sao Paulo's Guarulhos airport, Viracopos airport near Sao Paulo,

The deadline for the bids is February 2, he added.

GMR is in discussions with construction and infrastructure firms in Brazil but has yet to decide on a possible joint bid, the official said.

24/01/12 Reuters India

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30 more airports will be needed in next 5 yrs: Planning Comm

New Delhi: The growth projections for air passenger traffic suggest an additional requirement of 30 functional airports over the next five years and 180 in the next decade, according to Planning Commission estimates.
The passenger terminal capacity in all airports, expected to be 230-240 million this year, is likely to grow to 370 million, the estimates, drawn up in accordance with the investment plans of the airport operators, show.
While five private airports at Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Cochin handle 60 per cent of air traffic, state-run Airports Authority of India (AAI), which used to cater to the entire sector, now handles the rest.
As per estimates, the plan body has received from AAI and the industry, Indian airports would require a significant investment of about Rs 67,500 crore during the 12th Plan period (2012-2017), of which around Rs 50,000 crore is likely to be from the private sector.
Noting these projections, the Planning Commission has suggested that support from the state governments to develop airports was "vital" as it would generate trade and tourism opportunities in the respective states.
24/01/12 Oneindia news

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Plan for four new airports takes off in Gujarat, 17 firms in fray

Ahmedabad: Seventeen top consultancy firms including Ernst and Young, Mott MacDonald, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Edges India are in the race for the four new airports to be built in Gujarat.

On Monday, these firms submitted their bids for these proposed airports that can handle mid-sized airplanes at Palitana, Ambaji, Dwarka and Ankleshwar.

Officials from state aviation department said this was a technical bidding and by February 15, the evaluation report will be out. Thereafter, financial bidding will be held.

At present, the state has 17 airports (excluding the two at Daman and Diu), which makes it the state with the largest number of operational airports in the country.

“Gujarat is going to be the first state to start developing four airports at one go. The purpose is to boost religious tourism as well as providing infrastructure for the industries,” said Ajay Chauhan, director of state’s civil aviation department.

The Airport Authority of India has already cleared the techno-economic feasibility report for the four proposed airfields located at Dwarka in Jamnagar and Ambaji in Banaskantha district, both famous destinations for Hindu pilgrims, Palitana in Bhavnagar district known for Jain pilgrimage and Ankleshwar, an industrial hub in South Gujarat.

According to state aviation officials, the construction of the airports will be done in phases. In the first phase in the next two years, the construction of the airports is likely to be completed to make them operational. Afterwards, the airports may be upgraded depending on the requirement.

24/01/12 Indian Express

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Centre approves renaming of Mana Airport as "Swami Vivekanand Airport, Raipur".

The Union Cabinet today approved the renaming of the Mana Airport at Raipur as "Swami Vivekanand Airport, Raipur". This will fulfill the long pending demand of people of Chhattisgarh as well as the State Government of Chhattisgarh.
The Raipur Airport belongs to Airports Authority of India (AAI) and is suitable for operation of A-320 type of aircraft (VFR/IFR operations). Presently M/s Air India, Jet Airways/ Jetlite and Kingfisher are operating and approx. 85 domestic flights per week to/from Raipur Airport are operating.
Swami Vivekanand, one of the most renowned spiritual leaders, spent major part of his life in Raipur. Hence it will be apt to rename Mana Airport at Raipur in Chhattisgarh as "Swami Vivekanand Airport, Raipur'" paying homage to the spiritual leader.
24/01/12 Press Information Bureau

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Dibrugarh airport on alert ahead of celebrations

Dibrugarh: The domestic airport at Mohanbari, located 15 km east from here, has been put tight security following inputs from intelligence agencies about possible terror strikes before or on Republic Day. According to reports, Ulfa hardliners might try to launch strikes at vital installations, including airports.

Airport controller SK Mallick on Monday said security has been beefed up at the airport ahead of Republic Day. "We've temporarily suspended entry of visitors to the terminal building. Except passengers and authorized persons, no one is allowed inside. We're keeping a sharp eye on any suspicious movement with the aid of CCTV cameras," said Mallick.

With multiple layers of security in place, the airport, now, virtually resembles a fortress.

24/01/12 Times of India

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Fog hits on-time take-off by airlines

New Delhi: The fog has brought down the on-time performance (OTP) of domestic airlines. According to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), the overall OTP for domestic flights was just 77.9% last December, down from over 80-90 % earlier . Beleaguered Kingfisher, which has cut flights to survive , topped the list with its truncated schedule flying at 87.3% on time last month.

Kingfisher was followed by Jet, GoAir and SpiceJet (in that order in December), with OTP of over 80%. JetLite (78.5%) and IndiGo (74.3%) were the two airlines with OTP in seventies. The lowest performer was Air India-domestic at 63.7%.

While foggy December threw up its surprises, the DGCA on Monday made public the list of airlines in terms of punctuality for 2011 as a whole. Jet topped this list at 91.1% and Kingfisher being the only other airline in 90s with its OTP at 90.7%. IndiGo, JetLite, Go and SpiceJet (in that order) reported OTP in eighties.

24/01/12 Times of India

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Fog hits on-time take-off by airlines

New Delhi: The fog has brought down the on-time performance (OTP) of domestic airlines. According to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), the overall OTP for domestic flights was just 77.9% last December, down from over 80-90 % earlier . Beleaguered Kingfisher, which has cut flights to survive , topped the list with its truncated schedule flying at 87.3% on time last month.

Kingfisher was followed by Jet, GoAir and SpiceJet (in that order in December), with OTP of over 80%. JetLite (78.5%) and IndiGo (74.3%) were the two airlines with OTP in seventies. The lowest performer was Air India-domestic at 63.7%.
While foggy December threw up its surprises, the DGCA on Monday made public the list of airlines in terms of punctuality for 2011 as a whole. Jet topped this list at 91.1% and Kingfisher being the only other airline in 90s with its OTP at 90.7%. IndiGo, JetLite, Go and SpiceJet (in that order) reported OTP in eighties.
24/01/12 Times of India

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CM late, Indigo delays departure

Hyderabad: Passengers on a Bengaluru-bound Indigo Airlines flight had to suffer a 20-minute delay on Tuesday as the airline held up the flight until Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy and his retinue were aboard. The flight was scheduled to leave at 8.35 am. Indigo Airlines confirmed the delay but said they had bent the rules because they were given misleading information by the Chief Minister’s staff. “Most of the CM’s entourage or associates heading for Bengaluru had already boarded the plane. His liaison officer kept on misinforming us that he had reached the airport and would be there in just two minutes,” said an airline official, adding that the “two minutes” kept on stretching to a final count of 20 minutes or so.

25/01/12 Deccan Chronicle

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Navy jet’s tyre bursts, Dabolim runway shut for an hour

Vasco: Air traffic at Goa's Dabolim airport was disrupted for nearly an hour on Monday evening after a tyre of an Indian Navy Sea Harrier jet burst.
The tyre of the Sea Harrier burst on landing throwing air traffic out of gear for nearly an hour, an official said.
The Dabolim runway was closed from 4.30pm to 5.30 pm.
"As the evening slot is very crucial for domestic as well international fights many of them had to be delayed," sources said. Each of the flights were delayed for around 25 to 40 minutes. Only one domestic flight was diverted to Mumbai airport. A Jetlite flight which arrived from Bangalore was stuck on the runway for 15 minutes.
24/01/12 Times of India.

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MIL to deploy animal trappers at airport again

Nagpur: On Saturday evening, Indigo's Kolkata-Nagpur-Raipur flight crushed a rabbit on the runway of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar International Airport indicating animal menace is far from over.

Though airport officials claimed no such mishap occurred, sources confirmed that inspection staff recovered the carcass after the flight took off for Raipur.

This incident occurred just after civil aviation secretary Nasim Zaidi directed city airport operator Mihan India Ltd (MIL) to ensure that all issues related to airport safety, including runway resurfacing and intrusion of stray animals in operational area, were taken care of.

MIL, which had scrapped the contract of an animal trapper, has now decided to appoint other trappers who will also guard the runway and operational area round the clock. They will also trap and relocate the animals in nearby forest areas, said Abadesh Prasad, chief operating officer of MIL. MIL has called for offers in this regard on Monday.

24/01/12 Sachin Dravekar/Times of India

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Land acquisition for Tiruchi airport expansion in three phases

Tiruchi: The Airport Advisory Committee has recommended to the district administration to take up the land acquisition for the expansion of the Tiruchi Airport in three phases so as to complete the exercise expeditiously, according to committee chairman P.Kumar, MP.

The district administration has recently formed a special team comprising the Airport Director, Revenue Divisional Officer, Joint Director of Agriculture, officials of Public Works Department, and other agencies concerned to expedite the land acquisition process, Mr.Kumar said after chairing a meeting of the committee here on Saturday.

The committee is expected to inspect the land and set in motion the acquisition process shortly.

The Airports Authority of India has sought about 510 acres of land for the next phase of expansion of the airport, which includes expansion of the runway from 8,000 to 10,000 feet initially, and to 12,000 feet ultimately. Of the total land sought, about 186 acres were dry land, 116 acres wetland, 164 acres Defence land, and 40 acres poromboke.

22/01/12 The Hindu

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Bird-hit Indigo airlines escapes another tragedy

Indore: A Raipur-bound IndiGo flight averted another tragedy on Sunday, Jan 22 after a bird-hit forced the flight to stop on the runway minutes before take-off at Devi Ahilyabai Airport, Indore.
According to the airlines spokesperson, the 6-I-252 at round 3.15 PM was taking off when it was hit by a bird. He said that the crew and the passengers were safe. The plane was immediately stopped to avert mishap. The plane was examined by technical experts after the incidence, he said.
He further said that alternative plane was made available to the passengers to fly.
Meanwhile, IndiGo Airlines aircraft survived a tragedy on Jan 22 after the pilot of the plane applied emergency brakes on time to save 168 passengers while preparing for a takeoff as a bus ferrying people appeared on the runway at the Jammu Airport.
23/01/12 One India

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Ghana man arrested at airport with cocaine

New Delhi: A 32-year-old man from Ghana was arrested from Indira Gandhi International airport here allegedly with 200 grams of cocaine with street value of around Rs two crore, police said today. Paul Dika Acquah was apprehended last Friday from the airport parking soon after he came from Mumbai, Sanjay Bhatia, Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime), said. "The cocaine was concealed in two polythene packets and was kept in the sole of his shoe," Bhatia said. Acquah had come to to India in October 2010 on a business visa and started exporting clothes from Mumbai. "After some time, he travelled back to his country and returned to India in November, 2010. He again started dealing in garments and shoes. He visited Tiripur in Tamil Nadu and Mumbai for business purpose. In Mumbai, he came in contact with another Ghana national Timoti.
23/01/12 PTI/IBN Live

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Air India flights restoration to be taken up with Minister

Tiruchi: The popular demand for restoration of cancelled and curtailed Air India Express flights to various foreign destinations from Tiruchi will be taken up with Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh, said P. Kumar, MP and Chairman of the Airport Advisory Committee, here on Saturday.
With the withdrawal and cancellation of 10 flights a week, the total number of flights operated by the airline from Tiruchi has come down to 24 from 34 flights a week. Among the flights curtailed were those on the Tiruchi-Kuala Lumpur sector.
The airline has been intermittently announcing the cancellation of flights since December and recently announced the withdrawal and curtailments of various flights till the end of March. The travel trade and travellers have been demanding the restoration of the curtailed and cancelled flights.
Speaking to reporters here, Mr. Kumar said he had taken up the matter with the Civil Aviation Ministry and he would take it up with the new Civil Aviation Minister.
22/01/12 The Hindu

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Passengers protest rescheduling of Singapore flight

Passengers of the Air Inida (AI) 632 flight protested at the Kolkata airport against the cancellation of the Singapore-bound flight that originated in Dhaka. The flight was supposed to take off at 3.30 am on Saturday. Passengers boarded the aircraft at 3.10 am and at 4.35 am, they were asked to de-board when a technical snag was detected. “We have been made to wait at the lounge since then without any food or toilet facilities,” alleged one of the passengers.
Airport authorities, however, said passengers were provided with everything necessary. “We give utmost priority to passenger security and couldn’t take a chances till experts gave us a go-ahead. The flight has been re-scheduled at 3.30 am tomorrow and we have ensured that all the 130 passengers have been taken care of,” said an Air India spokesperson.
He added that Kolkata residents had been offered a to-and-fro taxi fare to return to their residences. Indian citizens were given hotel accommodation and for foreigners, proper arrangement for accommodation and food was been made at the airport.
22/01/12 Express India

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Land acquisition for Tiruchirapalli airport expansion in three phases

Tiruchirapalli: The Airport Advisory Committee has recommended to the district administration to take up the land acquisition for the expansion of the Tiruchi Airport in three phases so as to complete the exercise expeditiously, according to committee chairman P.Kumar, MP.
The district administration has recently formed a special team comprising the Airport Director, Revenue Divisional Officer, Joint Director of Agriculture, officials of Public Works Department, and other agencies concerned to expedite the land acquisition process, Mr.Kumar said after chairing a meeting of the committee here on Saturday.
The committee is expected to inspect the land and set in motion the acquisition process shortly.
The Airports Authority of India has sought about 510 acres of land for the next phase of expansion of the airport, which includes expansion of the runway from 8,000 to 10,000 feet initially, and to 12,000 feet ultimately. Of the total land sought, about 186 acres were dry land, 116 acres wetland, 164 acres Defence land, and 40 acres poromboke.
22/01/12 The Hindu

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Tourist visa on arrival: CIAL selected

Thiruvananthapuram: Cochin International Airport Limited (CIAL) is one among the four airports selected by the interministerial coordination for tourism sector to allow visa on arrival facility which will give a big boost to the tourism scenario in Kerala with regard to the flow of foreign tourists.
Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) would take steps to facilitate extension of tourist visa on arrival to Goa, Hyderabad, Kochi and Bengaluru airports within one year. This is as part of emphasising the need to give tourism a major fillip during the 12th Plan and double the number of foreign tourists arriving in India.
CIAL managing director V J Kurian welcomed the decision and said that CIAL would provide all facilities for introducing the system.
A final decision in this regard is awaited, he said.
Tourism secretary Rani George said that this was a great opportunity for Kerala to explore the countries where visa on arrival was permitted by the Ministry of Home Affairs, Foreigners Division. A request to introduce this facility was forwarded by the Tourism Department through Chief Minister earlier.
The tourist visa on arrival was allowed to citizens arriving from Japan, Singapore, Finland, Luxemburg, New Zealand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Philippines, Myanmar and Indonesia.
22/01/12 New Indian Express/IBN Live

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Vijayawada airport expansion at a standstill

Vijayawada: The inordinate delay in land acquisition has brought expansion of the Vijayawada airport at Gannavaram to a standstill. Except for a small portion, no major expansion work has been carried out even five years after launching the project.
The state government entered into a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Airports Authority of India (AAI) for expansion and development of the airport.As per the MoU signed in February 2007, a modern passenger terminal building and hangars were to be built by 2009. The expansion of the runway to 10,500 ft, construction of the terminal buildings, technical buildings, air traffic control (ATC) tower, isolation bay, fire station, mechanical and electrical section, new engineering section and expansion of the apron are yet to take off.
The AAI sought 491 acres of land for and survey of the land was completed but the state government is yet to release a notification for land acquisition.
According to sources, the vital instrument landing system (ILS) had been installed at the airport to facilitate smooth landing and take-off of planes.
But it has not become operational yet as the calibration procedures have not been completed by the AAI so far.
22/01/12 New Indian Express/IBN Live

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Aviation secy worried over bad condition of Nagpur airport runway

Nagpur: Some weeks ago, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation's ( DGCA) had warned Nagpur airport officials to immediately resurface the 3,200-meter runway at Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar International Airport. A few days ago, civil aviation secretary Nasim Zaidi too asked Mihan India Ltd (MIL), the city airport operator, to ensure that all issues related to airport safety are taken care, including runway resurfacing and checking intrusion of stray animals in the operational area.
Zaidi was on a daylong tour to the city airport on January 14, especially to inspect the new Indra-ATC automation system installed by Airports Authority of India (AAI) here. The latest equipment developed by Spanish information technology and defence systems company is part of AAI's ongoing project to upgrade air traffic management systems across 38 airports in the country.
However, Zaidi also took time and inspected the airport runway and operational area. TOI has been highlighting MIL's negligence in maintaining and resurfacing the runway.
A 300-400 metre patch of the runway, where aircraft land or brake hard, has been completely damaged and poses a potential threat to aircraft. At least 30 aircraft including Boeing 737, Airbus, ATR and Cessna land on this runway each day.
Though airport officials are tight-lipped over Zaidi's visit, and described it as confidential, sources at the airport said Nasim Zaidi specifically asked MIL not to turn a blind eye towards the pathetic condition of the runway.
21/01/12 Sachin Dravekar/Times of India

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Close shave for Srinagar bound passengers

Jammu: The passengers of the Delhi-Jammu-Srinagar flight (554) of IndiGo Airlines had a miraculous escape on Saturday when the pilot aborted the take-off at the last moment to avoid collision with a vehicle on the runway at Jammu Airport.
The flight was scheduled to take-off from Jammu Airport to Srinagar at around 9.45am, when an SRTC bus carrying stranded passengers to technical airport strayed on the runway. The airplane was carrying 160 passengers, while the SRTC bus was ferrying around 35 passengers.
Sources informed Greater Kashmir that the authorities were shifting the stranded passengers from Jammu Bus Stand to technical airport in SRTC buses through the Jammu airport route. “Two SRTC buses full of passengers had already crossed the runway of the Airport”, an eye-witness said.
He added that unaware about the IndiGo flight getting ready for the take-off, the third passenger bus strayed on the runway leading to a near collision.
21/01/12 Akshay Azad/Greater Kashmir

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Inaugurate Indore airport terminal at the earliest, say MPs

Indore: Two Members of Parliament (MP) from the region have taken up the issue of delay in inauguration of the new terminal building of the Indore Airport with the Union government and urged that terminal be inaugurated at the earliest.
In a letter to the Director General of Civil Aviation ( DGCA) and Union Ministry of Civil Aviation, MPs Sumitra Mahajan of BJP and Sajjan Singh Verma of BJP have alleged that the inauguration of the new terminal has been pending for the past eight months due to "non-availability of a VIP".
Mahajan said in her letter that, "I have written a letter to Union civil aviation minister Ajit Singh that the new terminal should be made operational even if he is not free to attend the inaugural function due to the forthcoming UP elections. The terminal was ready eight months back and it had been simply awaiting for a VIP to be dedicated for the public."
On the other hand, Verma appealed to Ajit Singh to depute some body on his behalf or the aviation secretary or director general of civil aviation for the inauguration of the new terminal. "People of the area should not be allowed to wait once the new facility is complete".
21/01/12 Times of India

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Delhi Airport Proposed Fee Hike Alarms International Airlines

Several international carriers are threatening to reduce or eliminate service to Indira Ghandi International Airport (IGI) because of a dramatic increase in fees proposed by the facility’s operator, Delhi International Airport Pvt. Ltd. (DIAL)
“The proposed multi-fold increase of landing charges at IGI airport is counterproductive, since India risks pricing itself out of the market for regional aviation hubs in Asia and the Middle East,” says Axel Hilgers, Lufthansa’s director for South Asia. Flights will be diverted from India and its new international gateway at Delhi for the benefit of competing airports in the region, Hilgers says. “Increasing flight traffic, not charges, is the only sustainable way to improve airport utilization and revenues,” he adds.
India’s Airport Economic Regulatory Authority [AERA] met Jan. 18 with stakeholders to discuss the 774% hike in landing, parking, navigation and other charges sought by DIAL, beginning April 1. AERA proposes an increase of 334.6%. According to a government official, almost all representatives of international airlines at the meeting opposed the increase, saying the time is not right for this “drastic step.”
The official says airlines like the British Airways, Air France-KLM and Lufthansa strongly opposed DIAL’s proposal.
20/01/12 Jay Menon/Aviation Week

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Kozhikode airport. CBI unearths more evidence of graft

Kochi: The CBI has gathered more evidence of corruption related to the construction of the runway of Kozhikode international airport. The CBI has found that the airport officials had presented a fake invoice of Rs 40 lakh from a non-existent shop in Manjeri for the cement purchased for the construction.
?The airport officials had presented a fraudulent bill before the auditing team of the Airports Authority of India (AAI), CBI sources said.
The CBI is also inquiring into the corruption charges in the purchase of paint during the same period. A case has been registered against Bino Babu K, assistant manager, AAI, and four officials of the airport for entering into a criminal conspiracy with B R Arora and Associates Pvt Ltd.
21/01/12 New Indian Express/IBN Live

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Airfares set to rise with higher airport fees

New Delhi: India's aviation sector is heading for a major hike in airfares as the Airports Economic Regulatory Authority (AERA) is consulting with stakeholders of major airports for revising airport charges, such as navigation, parking and fees for various airport facilities used by airlines, that have not been reworked since 2001.
India's state-owned airport developer Airport Authority of India (AAI) that operates 125 airports - with 86 operational airports - has filed a tariff proposal before AERA, demanding a hike in airport charges ranging between 100 and 400 per cent. Earlier this week AERA recommended a 340 per cent hike in airport tariffs for the Delhi airport, which is operated by Delhi International Airport Ltd (DIAL) - a GMR-led consortium.
A top industry official said that AERA is recommending a three-fold hike in airport charges at the Delhi airport, which will set the trend for other major airports as well and push up airfares further.
"It is not only the greenfield projects (new airports) at Bangalore and Hyderabad and the Mumbai airport that will see multi-fold hike in tariffs, other major airports operated by the Airports Authority of India (AAI) will also witness multifold increase in airport charges that have not been hiked since 2001," said the official on conditions of anonymity.
21/01/12 Sanjay Singh/Business Today

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Second Doppler likely for Mumbai

Mumbai: Hardly two years after Mumbai's first Doppler radar was installed in Navy Nagar, the city may get another one soon. The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) has sought a second Doppler radar for the city in the next five-year-plan.
"We have proposed an additional Doppler radar for Mumbai in the five-year plan," Dr Ajit Tyagi, director general of meteorology at IMD, Delhi, said at an event in Mumbai recently.
Explaining the need for a second Doppler radar, S G Kamble, director of Doppler weather radar in IMD, Mumbai, said this one will be necessary at the airport. "We need terminal Doppler weather radar for the airport so that we can get advanced warning of heavy rainfall spells and cyclones," he said.
"We are going to put up a C-band Doppler radar for the airport, which will be compatible with aviation signals and will also be able to provide city forecasts. Once the plan is approved, we will float a global tender and get the radar from t5he company that quotes the lowest price," said K S Hosalikar, scientist at the Regional Meteorological Centre at Colaba.
Incidentally, the older radar, which took about five years to be installed after the plan was approved, still has some technical glitches which have to be resolved before it can work to optimum capacity. The IMD says there is a signal interference in the radar. "The radar works with a circumference of 500 kilometers. The exisiting radar does give us weather conditions of Ahmedabad and Goa, with Mumbai at its point of center," explained Kamble.
21/01/12 Pratibha Masand/Times of India

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Tower triggers airport, police row

Hyderabad: A communication tower located at the office of the North Zone deputy commissioner of police (DCP) in Secunderabad has triggered a row between police and Begumpet airport authorities.
Two months back, the police department had installed a 60-metre high communication tower on its premises without first obtaining the permission of the Airports Authority of India (AAI).
"As per AAI norms, no structure above 30 metres can come up in the vicinity of a runway. The communication tower is around 60 metres high and in violation of norms. We have issued notices to the police to either remove the tower or reduce its height," a senior Begumpet airport official told TOI.
A pilot needs sufficient visibility to be able to safely manoeuvre after take off or before landing during an entirely visual approach or in the visual segment of an instrument approach. "We found the communication tower an obstacle to the safe operation of aircraft," the official added.
21/01/12 Sunil Mungara/Times of India

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Dirty toilets, no water for passengers to Singapore

Calcutta: The 130 passengers of a Singapore-bound Air India Express flight were kept waiting for over 12 hours today on the plane and at Calcutta airport, with its “overflowing” terminal lounge toilets and “non-existent” drinking water facilities, before the flight was cancelled.
The Boeing 747-800 was scheduled to take off at 3.25am but developed a snag. By the time it had been rectified, the pilot’s flying time was over.
As Air India Express, the low-cost wing of government carrier Air India, does not have an engineering base at the airport, equipment and technicians had to be flown in from Mumbai, an Air India official said tonight. He said the flight would take off at 3.25am on Sunday.
“Once the repair was over by 1pm, the flight duty time limitation period of the pilots was over and so the plane couldn’t take off,” an airline spokesperson said.
The passengers alleged they had been kept on board for two-and-a-half hours and that even after disembarking, the airline’s staff did not provide them with proper information on when the flight might take off.
“We had boarded the aircraft at 2.30am. Initially, the pilot announced that the flight was delayed because of bad weather in Singapore but later, he said there was a technical problem,” said Santanu Sanyal, a Calcutta-based general surgeon who was going to Singapore on a vacation with four other doctors.
He said the passengers were asked to disembark around 5am and brought to the transit lounge of the airport’s international terminal building.
21/01/12 The Telegraph

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Airport panic over Lankan’s no-show

Chennai: Tanuja Kamaleshwara, 26, a Sri Lankan refugee who was to board an Air India flight to Colombo on Friday, made a no-show at the boarding gate creating panic at the airport.
The flight with 141 passengers left the city 15 minutes late at 7.15 am, with officials of the national carrier offloading her checked-in baggage and calling for the bomb squad, only to find clothes in the baggage.
“It created a sense of panic in the airport as we were not sure of the reason for her no-show, especially after checking-in her baggage,” said an eyewitness, adding that the officials doubted that her baggage could contain some dangerous items.
A senior airline official said she had left the security-hold area after leaving the boarding pass and ticket with the CISF, who take care of security at the airport.
21/01/12 Deccan Chronicle

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Rupsi airfield may get new lease of life

Guwahati: Rupsi airfield, which has been forgotten and ignored for long, could be back on the radar of air traffic. If the Assam Government and the Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) do their bit, the Airports Authority of India (AAI) and Indian Air Force (IAF) are willing to revive Rupsi as an airport catering to civilian as well as defence needs.
The development is significant as the proposed airport will be able to cater to the needs of a large population of western Assam that has remained unserved by civil aviation for several decades after the country’s independence. Guwahati’s LGBI Airport is the only entry and exit point for a large number of air travellers who have to journey several hours from western areas of the state.
Development of the Rupsi airfield, which is located at a strategic site, will be an advantage for the IAF, especially when it comes to fulfilling its logistical requirements. As a base it can add much needed muscle to its transport operations, an emerging need in the backdrop of Chinese military build-up in the eastern Himalayan region.
21/01/12 The Assam Tribune

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Icy north winds add to chill, fog wreaks mayhem at airport

New Delhi: The season's third most severe fog cover kept the city's maximum temperature below 14 degrees Celsius through out Friday. Icy northerly winds blowing at 20kmph during the afternoon added to the wind chill factor, making it seem colder than it actually was. The minimum temperature was down to 4.5 degrees Celsius, three below normal.
"The runway visual range at IGI fell from 600m to 50m at 2.30am on the new runway and to 75m on the main runway an hour later. From then till about noon, the RVR fluctuated between 75m and 175m on both runways. Between 7am and 9 am, when RVR was 75 m and 150 m, departures came to a standstill. After that, between 11.15 am and 12.15 pm, all operations were stopped due to air space closure. Once that lifted, there were three VVIP movements, including that of the PM and Vice-President," said an airport official.
21/01/12 Neha Lalchandani/Times of India

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Memory cards seized from air passenger

Thiruvananthapuram: The Air Intelligence Unit of the Air Customs has seized 10,500 memory cards from a passenger, hailing from Tamil Nadu, who arrived at the international airport here from Singapore on Wednesday night.
Murugan Ramar, 29, a native of Ramanathapuram, was arrested on Thursday morning and produced in the Economic Offences Court at Kochi, Customs officials said.
The passenger, who arrived from Singapore, was questioned by AIU investigators as his passport showed that he was a frequent traveller through Chennai airport.
20/01/12 The Hindu

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4 arrested for illegal trafficking after IGI passport seizure

New Delhi: : Four persons have been arrested in connection with recovery of 105 passports from an unclaimed baggage at Indira Gandhi International Airport here with police today claiming to have smashed a human trafficking racket. A case was registered early this month after Customs officials handed over the baggage which came in a Turkish Airlines flight a year ago and was seized during checking. Investigators claimed that the racket used Qatar, Turkish and Emirates airlines for trafficking people to the United States. They used to make people come to Delhi and take them to Istanbul and then Guatemala. The illegal immigrants were made to enter the US through forests, they said. Sawan Rajnikant Trivedi from Ahemedabad, Guramrit Pal Ahmedabad from Punjab, Shashi Kiran Reddy from Hyderabad and Sujeet Kumar from Delhi were arrested following investigations into the seizure of the baggage containing passports. Investigators had suspected these passports could have been used by a human trafficking racket.
20/01/12 PTI/IBN Live

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Fog hits operations at IGI, over 200 flights affected

New Delhi: Flight operations were once again badly hit as dense fog enveloped IGI airport here today affecting the schedule of over 200 domestic and international flights, causing inconvenience to the travellers. Over 200 flights were delayed, 28 were cancelled and 19 domestic and international flights were diverted to Jaipur, Lucknow, Ahmedabad and Mumbai, an airport official said. Most of the flights were delayed as the fog reduced the runway visibility below the prescribed limit for low visibility take-off of 125 metres and 150 metres for small and big aircraft. The fog started to descend at the airport around 2.30 AM, though shallow fog was there since late last night. The fog was so dense that general visibility dipped to almost zero, while the runway visibility hovered between 75 and 50 metres between 2.30 AM and 3.30 AM, the official said. Due to this, a Jet Airways flight from Dubai and an Air India flight from Muscut had to be diverted to Jaipur. The Boeing 737 Jet Airways plane (9W 547) was approaching to land but the pilot reported to the ATC tower that he was unable to see the runway and was diverted to Jaipur.
20/01/12 PTI/IBN Live

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AP man grounded for bid to smuggle idols

Chennai: Sleuths of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence arrested a 51-year-old man from Andhra Pradesh at the Chennai Internatioanl Airport and seized five statues including three 16th century panchaloha idols worth lakhs that he had attempted to smuggle to Hong Kong for sale on Thursday.

Officials suspected that a large network could be operating behind the smuggling attempt. Acting on a tip off, DRI officials intercepted Govindarajulu (51) of Vettipalam, Prakasham district in AP, when he was about to board a flight to Hong Kong early Thursday morning. When his baggage was inspected, the officials said they found three 16th century idols of Mahaveer made of panchaloha (each half a foot in height), one sandalwood statue of Buddha, a rosewood statue of a Chinese god and a few ancient writing instruments.

20/01/12 IBN Live

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Tourists in trouble, Mum main airport to shut for 8 hours

Mumbai: Mumbaikers are going to face trouble as the main Mumbai airport runway will be shut from Friday till May 20 during the non-weak hours. Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport is going to operate taxiway construction which will kickstart soon.
The construction will facilitate smooth operation and reduce the traffic. The construction will be operational between 9am to 5 pm.
Visitors have to use the secondary runway during that period, but the officials claimed that it is not possible to accommodate the traffic in that runway.
20/01/12 One India

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Fog hits flight operations in Delhi

New Delhi: Dense fog disrupted flight operations at the IGI Airport in New Delhi on Friday morning with 40 flights delayed and four others cancelled.
Five international flights were diverted to nearby airports due to poor visibility.
The visibility at the main runway was between 150-175 metres, while at the new runway it was between 75-100 metres.
General visibility was less than 50 metres and some of the flights landed using CAT-IIIB instrument landing system, an airport official said.
With visibility dipping below the prescribed limit of 125 metres and 150 metres for different types of aircrafts, flights were not able to take off and were delayed by up to 5 hours.
20/01/12 PTI/The Hindu

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Four workers suffer burns in BIA fire; flyers escape

Bangalore: Hundreds of travellers had a narrow escape when a fire broke out at the Bengaluru International Airport around Thursday noon. The fire erupted after sparks that flew from a welding worksite set tarpaulin sheets ablaze near the VIP lift in the departure terminal. Four workers are in a critical condition with 80% burns.

The travellers were waiting at the check-in counters, a mere 30 metres away. Seventeen flights were scheduled for departure around the time of the mishap.

20/01/12 Times of India

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Radars at Delhi and Mumbai airports are functioning on borrowed time

The US-based company responsible for repairing these vital pieces of aviation equipment has allegedly been goofing on the repair job of its components and the Airport Authority of India (AAI) is on the brink of running out of spares.

A possible breakdown of these parts has the potential to cause a radar blackout, slowing down air traffic movement.

A letter written by AAI's Delhi-based joint general manager (Com) Shakti Dev to his executive director (operations and maintenance) gives an indication of the current state of chaotic affairs.

The missive that was dispatched on January 5 raised an alarm over poor maintenance of the Sband radar.

This device sends signals to approaching aircraft when they are as far as 120 nautical miles from the airport.

The S-band radar parts installed at the Delhi airport were sent to the workshop of radar development major Raytheon of the US.

Appallingly, the devices failed to function upon being installed after repair because the fault had not been rectified, Dev stated.

He also alleged that 'every time Raytheon has assigned a new SAR (site anomaly report) number to the same old part which failed to work after repair and had to be returned to the workshop'.

17/01/12 Yatish Yadav/Mail Online India

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Stranded passengers throng Jammu airport

Jammu: With the Jammu-Srinagar highway cut off due to snow, hundreds thronged the airport here on Wednesday desperately seeking to fly to the Kashmir Valley, leading to chaotic scenes.

The highway has been closed since Sunday morning.

Shamim Ahmad is one of many who has been visiting the airport for three days, begging for a ticket to reach Srinagar. But no ticket is available.

Officials of Air India, which is operating extra flights to help the stranded passengers, are a harassed lot.

"The weather is not clearing up in Delhi and the flights have got delayed. What can we do? We want to help people but the weater is not helping us," an airlines official said.

Aircraft which fly between Jammu and Srinagar come from Delhi.

18/01/12 ZeeNews

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Dubai - Mangalore AI Express Cancels Wednesday Flight

Mangalore: With the Indian aviation industry battling economic crisis, domestic as well as international passengers continued to face inconvenience due to cancellation, delay in flights.

According to the latest report, Mangalore - Dubai Air India Express flight scheduled to leave at 9.30pm on Wednesday January 18, stands cancelled due to 'technical' reason. The same aircraft which was scheduled to leave Dubai airport at 1.15am on Thursday, Jan 19 is also cancelled.

All the Mangalore passengers will be accommodated on Thursday noon and evening flights. Same will be done for Dubai passengers.

18/01/12 Daijiworld

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Netas’ sons held for Rs 50 lakh duty evasion

The sons of Uppal MLA Bandari Raji Reddy and state housing minister Kanna Lakshminarayana were held along with two others at the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport when they alighted from a Dubai-Hyderabad flight early on Wednesday morning. Between them the four carried undeclared watches, sunglasses and liquor worth more than Rs 50 lakh. The minister, however, was quick to point out that his son had nothing to do with the other three and the seized goods were also not his. The detained are Bandari Laxma Reddy, Kanna Phaneendra, Goduru Prasad and Maraboina Ravi Kumar.

The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence was apparently tipped off by the Dubai authorities and the four were apprehended and the goods seized when they landed at 3 am. Officials also said that one of those held is a big shot from a local TV channel. Interestingly, minister Kanna Lakshminarayana told this newspaper that his son Phaneendra had nothing to do with the case. Refuting allegations that he had rushed to the airport to his son’s rescue, the minister said that he was in Amaravati mandal in Guntur when he received the call and had actually snubbed his son.
18/01/12 Deccan Chronicle

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Gujarat airport boosts armoury to fight bird hits

Ahmedabad: The Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International (SVPI) airport is all set to upgrade it armoury to battle the feathered menace. To eliminate bird-hit problems, the airport has upgraded the 'zone guns' it procured in 2010 for keeping the sky over the runway free of birds.
The 'zone guns' create a loud shot-like sound to scare away the birds. The volume of the noise and interval between detonations for the guns can be adjusted. The new guns will have more options with the kind of sounds and its reach.
Besides firecrackers, Ahmedabad airport authorities currently use two laser guns costing Rs 1.5 lakh each and seven zone guns, a six-shot launcher and a LPG cylinder-operated device which generates loud noise at regular intervals. It spends Rs 30 lakh annually to check bird hits.
"We have been able to bring down the number of bird hits with the use of the guns and regularly cutting grass and keeping the area around the airport clean. However, the incidents haven't stopped and to manage it effectively we will get six new zone guns from Delhi," said airport officials.
18/01/12 Ankur Jain/Times of India

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Gliding Centre now says PHHL helipad will divide its runway

Pune It seems that the Gliding Centre Pune (GCP) and Pawan Hans Helicopters Limited (PHHL) have locked horns over the proposed Helicopter Training Institute and Heliport from the word go. As construction started for the 14.6-crore Helicopter Pilot Training Institute of PHHL, the gliding centre authorities are angry over the fact that one of the helipads is intersecting the proposed runway meant for gliders.

“We at the gliding centre have been given the copy of the proposed layout by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation wherein three helipads are shown in a row and are not intersecting the runway proposed for gliders. However, the excavation work for the three helipads is being done not in line with each other. Instead, helipad number three divides the proposed glider runway,” said Srinivas Nyayapathi, instructor, GCP. The gliding centre authorities have been claiming that they were not kept in the loop about any changes in the proposed layouts.

18/01/12 Pranav Kulkarni/Express India

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250 flights hit due to dense fog at IGI airport

New Delhi: The first spell of dense fog this year wreaked havoc on air operations at the IGI airport on Wednesday hitting over 250 flights and causing inconvenience to flyers.
Atleast 207 domestic and international flights were delayed by five to six hours as the runway visibility remained below the prescribed minima for low visibility take-off of 125 and 150 metres for different types of aircraft.
Four flights, two each of Jet Airways and SpiceJet, were diverted to Jaipur, Ahmedabad and Indore while 17 flights were cancelled, an airport official said. Though the airport was witnessing shallow fog since 8.30 PM last night, the flight operations were not affected.
But the situation started to deteriorate after 1.40 AM, when blinding fog enveloped the airport, reducing the runway visibility to less than 100 metres. The situation remained same around 10 AM, when the fog dissipated and visibility increased.
Virtually there was no flight operation between 1.40 AM and 9.40 AM as the runway visibility hovered between 75 and 100 metres for new runway (29/11) and between 100 to 125 for main runway (28/10), below the prescribed norm. However, flights arriving here were able to land using the CAT-III B instrument landing system (ILS).
18/01/12 PTI/Economic Times

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Airports Authority okays parallel taxiway at Mangalore airport

Mangalore: The construction of a parallel taxiway at Mangalore airport has got the approval of the board of Airports Authority of India (AAI).

Mr M.R. Vasudeva, Airport Director, AAI, Mangalore, told Business Line that the 146th board meeting of AAI, chaired by its Chairman, Mr V.P. Agarwal, has approved the construction of a parallel taxiway at Mangalore airport.

The new taxiway, which is proposed to be built at a cost of Rs 45.36 crore, will connect the apron at the new integrated terminal building with the runway. The existing taxiway at the airport, which connects the apron to runway, is around 250 metres.

Asked about the advantages of having a parallel taxiway, he said that it will help reduce runway occupancy time and provide more safety. Operations will be smoothened and departure and arrival of aircraft will be more efficient, he said.

17/01/12 AJ Vinayak/Business Line

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Lawyer strike: Airport taxis stranded; many miss flights

Bangalore: Air commuters were also at the receiving end due to the six-hour-long protest called by lawyers on Tuesday.

Several passengers missed their flights due to the massive traffic jam at the Mysore Bank Circle and the surrounding areas.

Rajashekar, who was scheduled to travel New Delhi on a business trip, missed his flight as he was held up for about two hours near Mysore Bank circle.

“Though I left home well on time to board my flight, which was scheduled to depart at 1.30 pm, my cab did not move an inch for about two hours,” he said.

Another New Delhi-bound passenger, Sashikanth, said he could not make it on time to the Bengaluru International Airport (BIA) as he was stuck in traffic for four hours.

18/01/12 Hemanth CS/Daily News & Analysis

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Navi Mumbai airport yet to get forest clearance and HC nod

Mumbai: The wait for the Navi Mumbai international airport is getting longer. The state-run City and Industrial Development Corporation (Cidco), nodal agency for the project, is yet to get forest clearance and approval of the Bombay High Court.
Though the project had received environment clearance on November 22, 2010, the acquisition of 475 hectares of private land continues to be a major hurdle, as Cidco and the villagers, who are now demanding a compensation of Rs 20 crore per acre, are yet to arrive at a consensus. Of the 2,042 hectares required for the project, nearly 1,400 hectares (68 per cent) was in Cidco's possession, 150 hectares (eight per cent) belongs to the government and various departments, and 485 hectares (24 per cent) is private land that needs to be acquired.
Cidco's official website, however, continues to show that the first phase of the airport that will handle 10 million passengers will be operational in 2012. In contrast, Cidco, which is yet to issue a request for qualification (RFQ), actually hopes the first phase will be commissioned in 2015 with an investment of Rs 9,150 crore. The total project cost has been pegged at Rs 14,573 crore.
18/01/12 Sanjay Jog & Aneesh Phadnis/Business Standard

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Jewellery stolen from Air India office

Indore: Jewelleries worth lakhs of rupees belonging to local jewellers was stolen from Indore office of the national carriers Air India on Monday. The airline claims that the jewellery, as per the declared value, is worth Rs 1.15 lakh.
The jewellers, on the other hand, have contested and said the value of stolen jewellery was much higher than what is being quoted in the FIR lodged by Air India with the Tukoganj police.
Police inspector Ashok Tiwari said the airline has mentioned that the jewellery worth Rs 1.15 lakh went missing from their office. However, the jewellers have contested the worth of the ornaments. "Our jewellery is worth Rs 7 lakh, approximately," the managing director of Punjab Jewellers Darpan Anand said.
18/01/12 Times of India

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Serve prasad in bags: Airport to temples

Ahmedabad: The temples around the city's airport runway will now have to serve prasad to devotees in bags. For the Ahmedabad airport and Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) officials will soon start approaching temples in the area to make them aware of the new norm.

The decision, aimed at checking monkey menace and bird hit incidents, was taken during the Airfield Environment Management Committee's ( AEMC) quarterly meeting on Monday. The meeting was attended by officials from the forest department, airport, Air Force, AMC, CISF and Camp Hanuman Mandir.

"We have begun the process of identifying temples around the airport and will soon write to them asking them to start serving prasad in bags. Last year, army officials served a notice to Camp Hanuman Mandir Trust over garbage disposal and feeding prasad to monkeys by devotees. The temple authorities then started serving prasad in bags. Similarly, we will ask all temples to strictly pack prasad in bags as the sweet inside attract monkeys and birds," said a senior airport official.

Forest officials said that morning walkers feeding birds and monkeys near the airport also add to the problem.

17/01/12 Times of India

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Bird hits down, now monkey menace grips airport

Ahmedabad: Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport (SVPI), known for incidents of bird hits, now faces another problem — of monkeys hopping around on the runway and disrupting flights.

According to Airport Authority of India (AAI) officials, 56 flights were delayed in 2011 (January to December) due to the monkey menace at the airport, compared to just two cases in 2010. No dog menace was reported in 2011, as against eight incidents in 2010.

This data was disclosed at the meeting of Airfield Environment Management Committee (AEMC) comprising members of from state forest department, Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC), Air Force and Cantonment Board, among others, at the airport on Monday.

According to AAI officials, the monkeys would hop on the aircraft dangerously and sit there in groups, delaying flights.

On many occasions, a group of monkeys would be spotted jumping around the runway and delaying landings.

17/01/12 Indian Express

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Airport staff oppose AI bid to steal their jobs

Thiruvananthapuram: The employees' union of the Air India Air Traffic Services Limited (AIATSL), which handles ground handling services at the Trivandrum international airport, are on protest path. They have opposed the move to takeover their services by Air India-Singapore Airport Transport Services (AISATS PVt Ltd), a joint venture company. The AIATSL employees in a letter to Union civil aviation minister Ajit Singh (dated January 15) has alleged that AISATS is being positioned to siphon off a major share of Air India's revenue. Formed in 2004, the AIATSL is a fully owned subsidiary of AI which handles all the ramp services. It also handles the terminal activities of Air India, Air India Express, and the customer airline Tiger Airways.
AI's ground handling activities earn Rs 43 crore a year at the Trivandrum airport. The union members say that if the takeover succeeds, the AISATS will get its hand on this amount. Meanwhile, AISATS recently recruited new staff as counter managers, cleaners and loaders. But AIATSL employees in the letter to the Union minister has stated that AISATS hired people without following any recruitment policy.
17/01/12 Times of India

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