Mihin – to fly high or crash land?

The much-hyped Mihin Air finally made its maiden flight last Sunday but not before several hiccups. The first flight of the fully government owned budget airline flew to the closest international destination from Colombo-Trivandrum, India. The plane was due to take off from the Bandaranaike International Air Port, on the 45 minute flight at 9.30 am on the 4th but only took off that evening due to many technical problems.
Mihin Air in its business plan proposed to the Civil Aviation Authority has specifically stated that it will acquire five Airbus A320 aircraft at the beginning of its operation. This particular aircraft is a short-to-medium range commercial passenger plane capable of carrying 150 passengers and has a range of over 5000 Kilometres. That allows such a plane to fly to destinations in the Middle East, whole of India, Singapore and Malaysia.
However it is reported that Mihin Air has been unsuccessful in acquiring a single Airbus A320 let alone five so far and has been forced to lease out a Fokker F 27 plane from Expo Aviation. (The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has reportedly refused a proposal by Mihin Air to obtain a 20 year old Airbus A320 from Russia).
It is this Expo Aviation owned Fokker which flew to Trivandrum on March 4 on the much anticipated maiden flight of Mihin Air. The Fokker has very limited capabilities compared to the Airbus A320 described in the Mihin Air business plan. The aircraft has a maximum range of 1940 kilometres which limits its operations mainly to South Indian destinations and possibly to Male, Maldives. Also the plane is only capable of carrying 50 to 60 passengers.
It is only for this Fokker that Mihin Air has obtained a license after the “proving flight” which took place last Sunday. Therefore if the company intends to introduce any new aircraft they too need to get a separate licence after a “type proving flight”, CAA officials told The Nation.
11/03/07 Dharisha Bastians and Gihan Indraguptha/Nation on Sunday, Sri Lanka

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Categories: Foreign Mar 2007