Four killed in Bangalore air crash

Bangalore: A six-seat private aircraft crashed into a dry lake bed here on Saturday afternoon, killing four commercial pilots, three of them on the spot.
The aircraft, owned by Kerala-based Joy Alukkas Group, had taken off five minutes earlier from the HAL Airport before it crashed into the Gowdanapalya lake in Padmanabhanagar, about a kilometre from the residence of the former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda. There were no survivors.
The victims, Sunil Joseph (37) from Ponkunnam near Ernakulam in Kerala, Mohammed Shabeer (27) of Royapettah in Chennai, Santhosh Kumar of Patna, Bihar, and Shanmugam of Tamil Nadu, were all licensed pilots, according to Deputy Commissioner of Police (South) Alok Kumar. The aircraft was piloted by Flying Officer Santhosh Kumar while Shanmugam was the co-pilot. Sunil Joseph, as Krishna Prashanth of the Jakkur Flying Club told The Hindu, was the latter’s senior at the Thiruvanan thapuram Flying School. He was trained in the United States.
The four had taken off with the aircraft from the Jakkur Flying Club hangar, fuelled it at the HAL Airport and were headed for Kochi. The Italian-made Vulcanair Partenavia (P-68C) took off from HAL Airport at 3.35 p.m. but within five minutes the pilot radioed the Air Traffic Control (ATC) about a technical snag and wanted to return immediately. Apparently, he had complained about bad weather. However, the ATC lost track of the aircraft. The plane had disappeared from the radar. The ATC despatched a helicopter to search for the aircraft but then it received a call from the police control room informing about the crash.
Flying low, the aircraft had hit a coconut palm before it nosedived and fell upside down into the lakebed. The aircraft’s front wheel got detached and fell on the terrace of a house close by. Jagdish, a businessman who was an eyewitness, told The Hindu that he saw the aircraft wobbling as it flew over a school before hitting the tree. “I feared that it had crashed into a building next to the tree. We found it stuck deep in the marshy lake.”
A spokesman of the Joy Alukkas Group said the aircraft was to pick up the group chairman, Joy Alukka, from Kochi and take him to Thiruvananthapuram to attend a function.
The airplane was purchased eight months ago to take Mr. Alukka to the group’s branches spread across the country.
Registered as a private aircraft with number “VT-JOY,” the ill-fated P-68C was imported by the Kochi-based Joy Alukkas Traders (India) Private Ltd. The twin-engine, high wing aircraft with fixed landing gear was built in 2005.
08/09/07 K.V. Subramanya and Rasheed Kappan/The Hindu

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Rs 2,000 cr makeover for Kolkata airport

Kolkata: Kolkata airport is headed for Rs 2,000 crore makeover by 2010. Though there is no private participation, Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel assured that the airport would not be inferior in any way to Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad and Bangalore.
A new airport at Andal near Durgapur also got the ministry's nod. Work on the Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport is expected to begin in January next year.
The airport, which currently handles five million passengers, will be able to cater to 20 million by 2010 and eventually 60 million.
"Kolkata airport will be the hub for the entire eastern and north eastern region and the government of India is committed for building up the traffic from Kolkata within the country as well as overseas," Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel said. While a greenfield airport near Kolkata seems to be shelved, Rs 10,000 crore township near Durgapur has been sanctioned. There will be private participation in the project which includes an airport over 2,300 acres. Land acquisition has already begun.
08/09/07 Monideepa Banerjie/NDTV.com

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Aviation industry flays govt policy

New Delhi: The aviation industry is unhappy with the government’s proposal that it would examine applications for overseas service on a case-to-case basis instead of going by the uniform five years domestic flying experience.
The Union civil aviation minister, Mr Praful Patel, has stated that he wants the Indian airline industry to reach parity with foreign airlines flying to India and urged national carriers to start considering new international routes for service.
However, most private airliners are fuming at the new proposal as they feel the government’s approach is to benefit only a few big private airlines and deprive other competitors. A civil aviation ministry official also admitted that it is meant to facilitate some private airliners who have been in the flying business for less than three years.
Kingfisher Airlines is less than three years old, but is the key contender for flying West. This was made clear when Kingfisher displayed the A-380 airbus, the largest aircraft in the world on 7 May. Kingfisher has said it would fly this plane only on international routes.
Perhaps coincidentally, several Indian carriers have made new foreign route announcements.
07/09/07 Sanjay Singh/The Statesman

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Buddhadeb shelves plan for second airport

Kolkata: Faced with land acquisition hurdles across the state, chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee has shelved the ambitious plan to set up a greenfield airport near Kolkata. The state would have needed more than 2,000 acres for this proposed airport.
Emerging from a meeting with civil aviation minister Praful Patel and AAI brass, Bhattacharjee said the revamped NSCBI Airport would cater to the city’s traffic requirement for decades.
"The present airport will be upgraded to comfortably handle traffic projected for the next 20-25 years. There is a plan for further expansion. If the need for a second airport arises in the distant future, we’ll consider the proposal," he said.
08/09/07 Times of India

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Stock options on cards for AI, Indian staff

Kolkata: The Ministry of Civil Aviation expects the aviation industry to attract investment of $120-150 billion over the next 10 years in hardware, infrastructure and other segments, according to Praful Patel, Union Minister for Civil Aviation.
On IPO plans of the Air India-Indian merged entity, Patel said: “It will take another six months to one year. In between there is a plan to offer ESOPs (Employee Stock Option Plan) to the 33,000 employees of the merged entity.” He also maintained that the Government has offered no tax sops in the Air India-Indian merger process.
The Ministry of Civil Aviation also favours relaxation of regulations to allow Indian carriers with less than five years’ domestic flight operation experience to fly overseas in a bid to increase share of Indian carriers in inbound and outbound air traffic. The Inter Ministerial Group (IMG) is currently looking into this issue.
08/09/07 Sify

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Domestic air fares set for hike

New Delhi: Domestic air travel will cost more in the coming days.
Jet Airways in a statement to travel agents said that domestic fares were being revised, effective from September 6. An airline spokesperson said that the average increase would work out to around Rs 200 per sector.
The increase in fares of Indian would range from Rs 45 to Rs 400.
A Kingfisher Airlines spokesman, however, said that the airline was not raising fares.
SpiceJet, while refusing to term the increase as a fare hike, said that it follows a dynamic pricing policy that automatically helps the airline adjust fares when demand is high. IndiGo, would take a decision on fares after evaluating demand on individual routes.
The rising cost of aviation turbine fuel, which accounts for between 30 and 35 per cent of the operating cost, is the primary reason for the fare increase, airline officials said.
07/09/07 Business Line

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Minister on road, plane in the sky

Calcutta: Indian aviation has broken free of the Maharajah mindset, at least for a day.
A Jet Airways flight scheduled to ferry civil aviation minister Praful Patel to Calcutta left Delhi without him today as he was late in reaching the airport.
Patel was booked on the Delhi-Calcutta Jet Airways flight, 9W 922, scheduled to take off at 9.45am.
“The minister started for the airport on time. But he was stuck in a traffic jam caused by a college event and knew he would not make it in time for the Jet flight. So he had to change to an Air Deccan flight that left shortly after Jet,” a civil aviation ministry official in Delhi told The Telegraph.
A Jet Airways official said the airline got in touch with the minister when it became apparent that he would be late. “Since he was stuck in traffic, we decided to take off after informing him,” the official said in Calcutta. “The minister appreciated this (the airline’s punctuality record) and took it in good spirit.”
The flight took off on time and reached Calcutta at noon. Patel took the Air Deccan flight, DN 702, and landed soon after.
07/09/07 Sanjay Mandal/The Telegraph

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Jet's Kolkata-Dhaka-Delhi flight from mid-Oct

Kolkata: Jet Airways is to launch its second international flight from here to Dhaka en route to Delhi from mid-October this year.
"We have planned a second international flight from here on the Kolkata-Dhaka-Delhi sector from October 14 or 15 to connect to the London flight," company Senior General Manager (Sales - Eastern India) Sudhakar Rao said today.
This would be a daily flight and would be operated by Boeing-737-800 aircraft, Rao told a press conference which showcased the latest seating arrangements on its international flights.
Jet Airway's international flight on the Kolkata-Bangkok sector was launched in January this year and its Delhi-Toronto flight via Brussels took off on September five.
The airline also operates flights to other international destinations like New York, London, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Colombo and Kathmandu.
07/09/07 PTI/Economic Times

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A-I services to Kuwait from October 29

Thiruvananthapuram: After a gap of 12 years, Air-India is resuming services to Kuwait from here on October 29.
According to sources, there will be three weekly services to Kuwait, on Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays. The scheduled departure time from Thiruvananthapuram is 10.35 am and the arrival time in Kuwait is 1.15 pm local time.
The departure time from Kuwait is 12.30 am local time and he arrival time here is 9.35 am.
08/09/07 Newindpress

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Integrated Passenger Terminal for Kolkata airport

The Minister for Civil Aviation, Shri Praful Patel today met the Chief Minister of West Bengal, Shri Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee in Kolkata today. They held discussions on the modernization of the Netaji Subash Chandra Bose International Airport at Kolkata. A presentation was also made to the Chief Minister in this regard.
Some of the important upcoming infrastructure at Kolkata Airport will be an Integrated Passenger Terminal Building at an area measuring more than 180 thousand Sq.mt. with 104 Check-in counters, 22 immigration counters for Arrival and 22 for Departure, 25 Security Gates - 9 for international and 16 for domestic passengers, 5 conveyer belts and 15 Aerobridges.
The consultants appointed for the modernization of Kolkata Airport are: M/s. Sikka Architect and Associates with consortium partner RMJM (Hong Kong) and Virendra Khanna and Associates with consortium partners ADPI (Paris).
At present the Kolkata Airport has a passenger handling capacity of 0.73 million international passengers annually and 4.7 million domestic passengers annually which is likely to saturate by year 2008-09 and 2006-07 respectively. In 2006-07 there were 65687 aircraft movements of which 9414 were international and 56273 domestic. The passenger traffic in 2006-07 was 5993058 of which 805191 were international (registering a growth of 12%) and 5187867 was domestic (registering a growth of 20%).
In view of these facts, the decision has been taken to develop a modern Integrated Passenger Terminal Building to handle 20 million passengers, which will be sufficient to meet the demand up to 2015-16. Work is already in progress for 9 domestic bays. Three cargo bays and 11 additional parking bays will be constructed along with the new Integrated Terminal Building. Automation will be introduced in the CNS/ATM operation and a new control tower will be built.
The Project of modernizing the Kolkata Airport envisages an investment of Rs. 2000 crore.
07/09/07 Press Information Bureau (press release)

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Industry strife to benefit foreign airlines

New Delhi: The current impasse over relaxation of rules for more Indian carriers to fly abroad may eventually benefit foreign carriers flying in and out of India. The rivalry between private carriers — namely Jet Airways and the Kingfisher-Air Deccan combo — may give national carrier Air India a fresh lease of life in the lucrative Middle East market. As a result, the share of private Indian carriers in the out-of-India market — currently pegged at just around 30% — may not grow on anticipated lines.
It is still early days for the group of ministers (GoM) set up to deliberate on the pros and cons of the policy guideline that mandates private carriers to operate in domestic routes for five years before allowing them to fly abroad.
Corporate rivalries have reached such a level in the airline industry that the Kingfisher-Air Deccan camp is pushing government not to relax the Gulf route till the time a call is taken by GoM on the issue of the five-year norm. The idea is not to give Jet Airways undue advantage. Jet Airways, on the other hand, is wooing Air India for an alliance on the international routes.
This, in effect, means that foreign carriers would continue to call shots for some more time in the fast-growing market of international routes, even as the government and domestic carriers try to untangle the mess they have created for themselves.
07/09/07 Sudipto Dey/Economic Times

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Aviation sector to generate three million jobs in 10 years: Patel

Calcutta: The Indian civil aviation sector is growing rapidly and can generate three million jobs in 10 years, Union civil aviation minister Praful Patel said at the 34th national management convention of the All India Management Association (AIMA) and the Asian Association of Management Organisations (AAMO). Read On >>

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“I’m on the plane”

“I’m on the train” became the phrase that summed up inflicting banal cell phone conversations on fellow passengers. Now, if some airlines have their way, “I’m on the plane” will follow. Kingfisher Airlines, an Indian low-cost carrier, yesterday became the latest operator to say it will introduce in-flight cellphone use.
The traveller who currently enjoys the enforced unavailability that comes with flying will not be grateful for the removal of this haven from the telephonic demands of work or family or both.
And for every passenger who relishes the chance to make a call, there will be several others who resent having to listen to irritating ringtones and personal details within the cramped confines of the aircraft cabin.
Of course, some of these points can be addressed. Passengers could be asked to put their phones to vibrate so they do not disturb neighbours when receiving a call or text. Pilots will control the service and are likely to switch to “silent mode” during night flying to minimise nuisance to those who want to sleep. In response to social concerns, airlines might segregate the cabin, creating “cellphone use” and “quiet” areas.
Fortunately, the desire to chat on the phone to family, friends and colleagues at 35000ft has its limits. Using handsets fixed in the cabin has not caught on as expected, because it is so expensive.
07/09/07 Business Day, South Africa

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