Air India, Jet flights diverted from Bangkok due to protests

New Delhi: Four flights of Indian carriers to Bangkok were diverted today as Thai anti-government protestors stormed the Suvarnabhumi International Airport disrupting flight operations there.
Two Air India flights to Bangkok, one from Delhi (IC-853) and another from Mumbai (IC-693), were diverted and landed at Utapao airport, about 90 nautical miles off Bangkok.
An Air India spokesperson said the passengers were then transferred by road to Bangkok.
Jet Airways flights from the two cities to Bangkok, 9W-064 and 9W-062, were, however, diverted back to Kolkata, from where they returned to their originating points of Delhi and Mumbai, an airline spokesperson said.
Outbound flights at the Bangkok airport were also affected since last night as hundreds of demonstrators -- some masked and armed with metal rods -- broke through police lines and spilled into the passenger terminal, reports said.
25/11/08 Press Trust of India

Read More

AI's 'humanitarian gesture' raises security concerns

Mumbai: A day after Air India (AI) called back its Mumbai-Nagpur flight to accommodate a passenger on humanitarian grounds on Friday, questions were raised about how dilligent airline officials are while conducting checks on passengers boarding an aircraft.
The AI flight IC 629 took off from Mumbai without a checked-in passenger and had to return to take him back. According to AI claims, the flight was called back on humanitarian grounds as it was urgent for the passenger to reach Nagpur.
However, the fact that the passenger, who finally did take the Nagpur flight, had earlier boarded an Ahemdabad-bound flight by mistake, clearly indicated that neither the boarding passes were checked properly by airline employees nor was their head count accurate, a source said. Moreover, though the AI claimed to have turned the flight back to accommodate only one passenger, the load count their pilot gave to the Air Traffic Control (ATC) indicated an addition of seven more passengers.
All these things pointed at a skewed calculation on the part of AI employees, said security officials. These officials as well as traffic controllers said the incident showed that boarding passes were not properly checked while allowing passengers on board.
On Friday, Jitendra Bhargava, executive director, AI had told TOI that they did not conduct a head count of passengers on all flights. Security officials, said it wouldn't have been hard to spot a missing passenger if the count was conducted properly.
The passenger load figure provided by the Nagpur flight pilot raises further doubts. Usually, before a flight is given clearance for take-off, the pilot has to specify the number of passengers onboard. According to ATC sources in Mumbai, the flight took off with 91 passengers initially. The second take-off it made was with 97 passengers.
23/11/08 Chinmayi Shalya/Times of India

Read More

Air India calls back flight to carry passenger

An Air India flight for Nagpur was called back to Mumbai, when it had gone half way, to accommodate a passenger, who was travelling to Nagpur to attend his ailing wife but missed it due to a goof-up at the Mumbai Airport on Friday .The flight was called back purely on humanitarian grounds as the passenger's wife was in a 'serious condition' and the flight was the last one in the day, an Air India official said. “We called back the flight, IC 629, only on humanitarian grounds as the passenger told our staff that his wife was seriously ill and it was important for him to reach Nagpur," the official said.
The passenger, whose identity has not been revealed, missed the flight after he mistakenly boarded the bus at the airport, meant for Ahmedabad flight. "When he reached the aircraft and displayed his boarding pass, staff told him it was for Nagpur flight and which had already left," the official said.
The flight which had originally taken off from Mumbai Airport at around 7 PM, left at 8.40 PM after picking up the passenger.
22/11/08 Times Now.tv

Read More

Airline offers low fare to Indian destinations

Dubai: Air fare to two Indian states by the Indian national carrier has been brought to rock bottom in the M-class. Expatriates from the states of Kerala and Karnataka can now travel with Indian on fares that are more or less equivalent to the no-frill budget airlines starting from today to March 31, 2009
M-class one-way fare will now cost Dh259.
"This is the lowest of the fares by us. I had meeting with different Indian associations in the UAE and this demand came considering the fact that the cost of living has gone up," said Anand Kumar Pandey, Country Manager, Indian Airlines.
The fares are introduced under the category of Slim Fares and comes along are with all frills and inclusive of a 40kg free baggage allowance.
The Slim Fares are priced at Dh259 for M-class one-way and Dh519 for round-trip. One can also get these fares subject to availability during the upcoming festive seasons Eid Al Adha and Christmas. Necessary information on the rates and seats are available at the Indian office and nearest travel agencies.
Cross section of Indian expatriates were trilled with the reduction of fares and said that it could not have come at a more appropriate time.
The one-way fares for Kerala and Bangalore by Indian Airlines:
* Dh 259 -M class (35 seats out of 145 seats)
* Dh 310 - E class
* Dh 360 - U class
* Dh 410 - L class
* Dh 610 - O class
16/11/08 Sunita Menon/GulfNews, United Arab Emirates

Read More

Passengers fume at Air India callousness

Mumbai: On Friday afternoon, passengers on board the Mumbai-Delhi Air India (AI) flight were surprised when the plane didn’t take off even an hour after they had boarded. But their impatience soon turned to annoyance when they were informed that the runway was closed for its weekly maintenance.
“What amused me was that for the longest time the crew wasn’t aware that the runway was shut for maintenance,” said Dr Anjan Ray, a business leader with a multi-national company.
On Friday, Ray boarded AI’s Mumbai-Delhi flight IC 166 at 12.55pm. “Around 12.30 pm the airline announced that the flight would be taking off on time and then we started boarding,” said Ray.
“Around 40-50 passengers boarded the flight. However, even after we were seated, the doors remained open. After nearly an hour, the aircraft was still in the bay and was not pushed back. We were wondering why the flight was delayed when the captain of the flight walked in at 1.45pm,” he added.
The captain and the crew then informed the disgruntled passengers that the airport was closed for runway maintenance from 12.30 pm to 1.45 pm on every Friday.
An MIAL official said all airlines were aware that runway was closed for maintenance on Fridays.
15/11/08 Navita Singh/Daliy News & Analysis

Read More

Aircraft blocks flights

Passengers bound for Guwahati were stranded for several hours at Calcutta airport on Tuesday after an aircraft blocked the runway of Guwahati airport following a snag.
No flight could take off from Calcutta for Guwahati between 10.35am and 1.50pm. Six Calcutta-Guwahati flights were delayed by more than three hours.
A Delhi-Guwahati flight had to be diverted to Calcutta. It returned to Guwahati in the afternoon.
Air India’s Guwahati-bound flight took off from Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport with 90-odd passengers at 9.50am. But it was forced to return to Calcutta after the air traffic control at Guwahati airport informed the pilot of the runway block.
The passengers were accommodated on an evening flight for Agartala that was extended to Guwahati and Air India’s flight to Guwahati.
The passengers stranded in the Assam capital were brought back to the city on two flights late in the evening.
12/11/08 The Telegraph

Read More

Flight takes off leaving bonafide passengers

Kolkata: An Indian Airlines flight for Ahmedabad took off from here today leaving 11 bonafide passengers who engaged in a quarrel with the airlines officials in the airport.
The IC-269 flight has a capacity to accommodate 144 passengers but the airlines had booked 155 persons and so 11 passengers were not allowed to board the plane. Airport sources said those angry 11 passengers demanded an explanation from the airlines duty manager who said the over booking had been done as per the policy of the company.
Of the 11, eight bound for Jaipur were later sent in a flight to Delhi from where they would get a plane for the Rajasthan capital tomorrow morning, airlines sources said. The other three passengers were sent to Mumbai in a flight. Tomorrow they will catch an Ahmedabad flight.The company will bear the cost of their stay at hotels in Delhi and Mumbai, the sources said.
10/11/08 PTI/Economic Times

Read More

Aircraft's nose wheel bursts, passengers safe

Chennai: Ninety-two passengers on board the Chennai-Mumbai Air India (IC-971) flight on Friday had a narrow escape as a nose wheel burst while it was taxiing for takeoff at 8 am.
As the wheel burst with a deafening sound, the pilot applied the brakes and stopped the plane a few metres before the end of the runway. The passengers were asked to alight and taken to the terminal in a bus, while the aircraft was towed away to the hangar. Passengers were accommodated in another flight that took off at 9.30 am.
A pilot told TOI that the situation could have become serious had the pilot failed to notice it and continued with the takeoff. "A burst tyre, if pulled in, can damage the hydraulic system. It can also prove disastrous when the aircraft tries to land," he said.
An airport official said the plane was taxiing at a speed of about 20 nautical miles when the nose wheel burst. Officials rushed towards the aircraft on hearing the sound. Fire tenders and a rapid action team also reached the spot.
The pilot alerted the air traffic controller about the accident and assured passengers that there was no need for panic.
08/11/08 Times of India

Read More

IAS officer sues Air India for compensation

Mumbai: He failed to meet his brother at death bed because of an error committed by Air India (AI) staff. When he brought it to the notice of airline authorities, the erring officials were issued “caution letter”.
Peeved by AI’s insensitivity, principal secretary, revenue, M Rameshkumar moved the State Consumer Redressal Commission, seeking compensation of a substantial amount. His lawyer, Uday Wavikar, argued the case on October 23, and it was admitted by the state commission, which handles cases where the compensation sought is over Rs20 lakh.
Rameshkumar’s brother, Satish, 48 — a Public Works Department (PWD) executive engineer in Trivandrum — died of multiple miloma (bone marrow cancer). He battled with it for two years before his death on October 7, 2007.
“I used to visit him regularly. I had last met him just 10 days before his death. His condition was stable then. But, on October 7 last year, I got a call from my relatives that he was battling for life, and decided to rush back,” said Ramesh kumar.
He reached the domestic airport around 11 am and booked a ticket on the 11:55 am AI flight to Trivandrum. The IAS officer stated in his complaint that he checked in immediately and waited for the boarding call in the departure area.
Around 11:30 am, the monitor flashed the ‘boarding’ sign. “Unfortunately, I went to the ground floor which was not the boarding area. Realising my mistake, I immediately went to the counter at Gate 7, but was told that the flight had left. It was 11:35 am then, 20 minutes before time...,” said Ramesh kumar.
07/11/08 Menaka Rao/Daily News & Analysis

Read More

It’s for airlines to ensure connecting flights

George Varghese had a confirmed booking from Kochi to Abu Dhabi via Mumbai on Air India. The ticket involved changing to another aircraft at Mumbai. However, when he reached the layover destination at 3.30 pm from Kochi, Varghese was told that the flight to Abu Dhabi was not scheduled for that day and he would have to catch a flight on the following day. Despite protests by Varghese no alternative flight was arranged. He was also denied the privilege of accommodation for the 24-hour wait before his flight.
Varghese filed a complaint in the Consumer Dispute Redressal Forum at Kottayam.
Following the case hearing and a notice to Air India, the forum passed an order asking the airline to pay Varghese a sum of Rs25,000 as compensation for the mental agony and deficiency of service in addition to Rs1,000 as costs of litigation.
Air India appealed against the order. Their main contention was that the forum had no jurisdiction over the complaint and that the consumer was not given accommodation in Mumbai as he was an Indian travelling on a ticket purchased from India.
Rejecting their contention, the state commission held that the consumer was put to severe discomfort and that he had faced a traumatic situation based on the facts and circumstances of the case.
Further noting that the complainant had not quantified how much he had spent for taxi fare, hotel accommodation and his food bill, the commission held that the reimbursement was calculated as likely expenses in a strange city. The Commission however found no merit in affording him any compensation for mental agony as directed by the lower Forum.
03/11/08 MS Kamath/Daily News & Analysis

Read More

Nine years after hijack of IC-814, New Delhi’s concerns remain

New Delhi: Nearly nine years have lapsed since an Indian Airlines flight outbound from Kathmandu was hijacked, but New Delhi still remains concer
ned regarding the security of its flights operating in and out of Nepal. The apprehensions of the Indian security agencies regarding the security systems in place at the Kathmandu airport, especially access control and passenger/baggage screening, were once again shared with Nepal during the home secretary-level talks here on Friday and Saturday.
“We have raised the issue (of aviation security) that is our concern...the Nepalese home secretary has assured us that his country will do whatever is needed to address these concerns,” Union home secretary Madhukar Gupta told newspersons after conclusion of talks with his Nepalese counterpart Gobinda Prasad Kusum.
Mr Gupta said Mr Kusum had taken note of New Delhi’s concerns —heightened by intelligence inputs that terror outfits may once again try to hijack flights to secure the release of Parliament attack convict on death row, Mohammad Afzal Guru — and assured him that he would discuss the same with the government of Nepal for possible action.
When asked for details on what aspects of security would be strengthened by Nepal, Mr Gupta indicated that it could relate to both security of the aircraft as well as the Kathmandu airport in general, though the finer details would have to be worked out by the civil aviation ministries on either side.
02/11/08 Economics Times

Read More

AI flight makes emergency landing at IGI airport

New Delhi: An Air India Tirupati-bound flight with 66 passengers on board had to make an emergency landing here after an hour of its take off due to some technical fault, airport officials said.
"Air India's Delhi- Hyderabad-Tirupati flight (IC 942) had to make an emergency landing after an hour of its take off from the Indira Gandhi International airport here around 10.15 am due to some technical fault," officials said.
An emergency was declared around 11.15 am and all emergency procedures were followed.
The plane landed safely and all 66 passengers and six crew members were safe, they said.
The airlines accommodated all the passengers in another aircraft around 12.30 pm which flight finally took off for its destination around 1 pm, an airlines official said.
31/10/08 PTI/The Hindu

Read More