Thanks to more international flights by IndiGo and AI Express, foreign travel in Jan-March 2019 rises 3.3% despite Jet

New Delhi: It could well be the seesaw of Indian aviation. IndiGo, which now accounts for one of every two domestic flyers, is increasing its international capacity so rapidly that the rise in its foreign flyers this January-March quarter (5.2 lakh) was almost the same as the decline seen in number of by Jet Airways’ foreign flyers (5.1 lakh). Air India Express chipped in with an impressive 19% rise in foreign flyers and the quarter did not see any fall in international travel to and from India. In fact it saw a 3.3% increase.
Jet, which stopped flying on April 17, was having its aircraft repossessed by unpaid lessors since late last year leading to reduction of flights. While it did have a few flights to Europe and Toronto, the majority of its international operations were on single aisle Boeing 737s to neighbouring countries — mainly the Gulf.
IndiGo, AI Express and others added large number of flights to their single aisle-range destinations. To be sure, Jet’s disappearance from the skies will be felt in international numbers in April-June and perhaps July-September quarters. But the expansion plans of other Indian airlines like SpiceJet, Vistara and GoAir could at least numerically in terms of number of international flyers fill Jet’s void by the year-end. If Air India divestment is successful, that would further propel Indian aviation.
18/06/19 Saurabh Sinha/Times of India

Read More

Air India Express completes taxibot trials

Mumbai: After Jet Airways and Spicejet, Air India Express has become the third airline operator to complete trials for using Taxibot at the Indira Gandhi International airport on Monday.
 The trails were carried out from 8 am to 10 am at the airport in the presence of senior officials of Directorate General of Civil Aviation, Delhi International Airport Ltd, the Air traffic Control and KSU Aviation Pvt Ltd, which brought taxibots to India earlier this year.
The Air India Express Boeing 737-800 NG series aircraft taxied from Apron 3 towards Runway 29 and completed the pre-defined scenarios successfully and returned to the bay at the IGI Airport. With Air India Express successfully completing trials, all the major Boeing operators in India will now be using taxibots as an alternate taxiing solution at airports where this service is available.
Airbus has notified that it shall shortly be releasing a procedure-based use of the taxibot, which does not require any technical modification to the aircraft. Among Airbus operators, Indigo airline, which has the largest fleet of Airbus aircraft, has completed taxibot trials in February, and Vistara and Air Asia are also scheduled to undergo trials.
 “Each taxiing event of about 15 minutes with Taxibot attached saves about 200 litres of Aviation Turbine Fuel. In addition to this, it saves engine life plus emission of about 650 Kgs of CO2,” said Sanjay Bahadur, Head Corporate Communication & Compliance, KSU Aviation Pvt Ltd.
18/06/19 Satish Nandagaonkar/Mumbai Mirror

Read More

Air India Express Kochi-Mumbai flight suffers bird hit

Kochi: A Mumbai-bound Air India Express fight carrying 185 passengers on board was forced to return to the airport here Thursday due to a bird hit, an airline official said.
All the passengers escaped unhurt in the incident which took place around 1.45 pm and an alternative plane has been put in service to fly the stranded passengers to their destination, he said.
"Air India Express flight IX-435, operating on Kochi- Mumbai route experienced bird hit during take off. It departed at 1.25 pm from Kochi for Mumbai and landed back at 2 pm," the official said.
All the 185 passengers on board are safe, he said.
A team of Air India engineers along with some equipment has flown from Mumbai to inspect the aircraft and make it airworthy, he said.
13/06/19 PTI/Business Standard

Read More