Punjab signs MoU with IHS to establish MRO for helicopter

Chandigarh: Punjab will soon have maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) hub for helicopter at Sri Anandpur sahib.
A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to this effect was inked here today between Punjab State Industrial Development Corporation (PSIDC) and Interrelated Helicopter Services Pvt. Ltd (IHS Pvt Ltd) through a joint venture between JSC Russian Helicopter of Russia and Vectra Group of India.
The MRO would be developed over an area of 50 acre near Sri Anandpur Sahib at a cost of Rs 30 crore, an official spokesman said.
The company is also actively considering a proposal to undertake the construction of Air Strip and a Flying Training Institute at a cost of Rs 100 crore.
01/10/09 PTI/Indopia

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Thousands wait at lounges for flights

New Delhi/Mumbai/Kolkata: Long waits at lounges, sudden announcements on cancellation or departure of flights and endless trips to the airline inquiry counters -- it was another harrowing day of uncertainty and despair for thousands of Air India passengers across the country and abroad as the pilots' strike continued unabated.
In Mumbai alone, where 24 flights were either cancelled or combined, around 2,700 passengers spent the better part of Tuesday trying to get information on when they could fly. Meanwhile, hundreds of tourists on puja vacation to Andaman & Nicobar have been stranded on the islands for three days after special AI flights got cancelled and two other flights could not land at Port Blair due to bad weather.
The plight of a group of 10 travellers at Delhi's IGI Airport typified the situation. The group, comprising workers on their way to Bihar from Dubai, was booked on an Air India flight slated to take off from Dubai at 12.04am (Dubai time) on Tuesday. After it got cancelled, they were placed on the 4:30am flight. They hung around at the airport but that didn't help. Finally booked onto an Emirates flight, they arrived in Delhi at three in the afternoon (local time), only to find their flight to Patna cancelled.The group was given seats on another plane scheduled for 7.20pm on Wednesday.
Meanwhile in Kolkata, following a plea by passengers stranded in Andamans, Union railway minister Mamata Banerjee urged her partyman and Union minister of state for shipping Mukul Roy to arrange for a ship to transport those stranded to Kolkata.
At Mumbai, though AI was able to accommodate all stranded passengers on other carriers, lack of cancellation alerts on the airline's website left fliers in the lurch. Even AI's booking counter at Mumbai airport wore a desolate look.
Meanwhile, wary passengers have already started shifting carriers. Travel agents, too, were flooded with calls from national and international clients who were anxiously looking for alternatives.
30/09/09 Times of India

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Pilots across carriers planning single union

New Delhi: Pilots of various airlines are looking at forming a single union to collectively air their grievances.
"We are looking at forming a single union and are in touch with pilots of other airlines," Kaushik, who was one of the negotiators on behalf of Jet Airways pilots during the five-day stand-off at the carrier earlier this month, said.
Jet pilots had gone on mass sick leave Sep 8 after two of their colleagues were sacked for their involvement in forming a pilots union. The five-day strike, which ended Sep 13 midnight, is estimated to have entailed a $40-million (Rs.200-crore) loss for the carrier.
When contacted, a senior Air India pilot confirmed they were in talks with their counterparts at other airlines.
29/09/09 Times of India

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World's first chopper city in Gujarat

Ahmedabad: India will soon be home to a hi-tech Helicopter City that promises to be a one-stop shop for all chopper-related services —
maintenance, hire, overhaul, R&D, aerospace training, design and avionics.
The project will come up near Surat in Gujarat and is touted as world's first integrated complex for chopper services. Australia-headquartered Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation (CAPA), world's leading provider of independent aviation market intelligence, will invest around Rs 1,000 crore to develop the Helicopter City that will be part of the Rs 11,500-crore Gujarat Vittal Innovation City (GVIC), a multi-product SEZ that will come up at Umargaon near Surat.
The project will also draw global investments as talks are on with US-based and Middle East-based companies. The project will include a general airport and is part of the largest single-location aviation project in the country.
With India Inc expanding operations, chopper services are gaining popularity. As per an estimate, India can produce 125-150 choppers yearly if policies and regulatory requirements are suitably amended and procedural barriers removed. This can attract an investment of about $350 million. At present, companies charge Rs 75,000 per block hour, depending upon the package of the service, CAPA sources said. CAPA CEO, South Asia, Kapil Kaul said in addition to providing maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) services, the project will also have an aviation institute with facilities of R&D, aerospace, design and avionics.
30/09/09 Himanshu Darji/Economic Times

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Airlines may have had best quarter in a while

Bangalore: Are airlines flying to better times? If you go by their performance in the September quarter, it looks like the countdown to better times has already begun.
The current quarter, which ends on September 30, has seen not only a surge in passenger traffic surge, but, according to industry experts,also improved financials at carriers, as aviation turbine fuel (ATF) prices have dropped to half of what they were during the same time last year.
So, even though yields (net revenue per seat) during the last three months were lower than last year, airlines are optimistic about improving their financial performance this quarter compared with the same quarter last year.
Today's crude prices at around $75 per barrel are much lower than last year, when they had peaked at $147 per barrel in August.
M Thiagarajan, managing director of Paramount Airways, expects his airline's margins to go up marginally due to a 20-25% savings in cost on account of lower fuel costs.
ATF constitutes 40-45% of an airline's operational cost. An industry official revealed that seat factor of airlines averaged around 70% in the September quarter compared to around 55% last year, even as yields slipped by 30-40% during the same period.
Analysts Mahantesh Sabarad and Vijay Nara of Centrum, in their report on Jet Airways brought out on September 24, view the improving fundamentals in the aviation industry as the much needed tailwind "after a turbulent phase."
Going by the emerging trend in the air traffic, Sabarad and Nara have raised their domestic passenger traffic growth estimate to 10% for FY10 and 13.5% for FY11 from their earlier 8% and 11% respectively. In FY09, passenger numbers fell 10.5% year-on-year (YoY) to 39.4 millon, mainly on account of higher air fares due to rising crude prices.
29/09/09 Praveena Sharma/Daliy News & Analysis

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India's first seaplane operations to take off in October

New Delhi: For the first time in India's aviation history, seaplane operations are likely to begin in Andaman and Nicobar islands in October this year, with state-owned Pawan Hans Helicopters Limited (PHHL) planning to launch its services.
"We plan to launch seaplane operations by October 15," PHHL CMD R K Tyagi said at a seminar on helicopter operations here, adding that the operations would be launched jointly by the public sector chopper firm and the island administration to operate sorties for tourists and inter-island movements.
The PHHL, which currently operates helicopter services in the group of islands, also plans similar services in Goa and Lakshadweep after the Andaman operations settle down.
The public sector chopper firm plans to wet-lease one seaplane, likely from a Mauritius-based company, for one year.
The cost of the project, which is to be shared 50:50 with the island administration, would be about Rs six to eight crore.
28/09/09 MSN.com

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Politicians are scared of flying

Pune: The tragic death of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S R Reddy in a chopper crash has instilled a fear of flying among politicians. Pilots admit that politicians are now wary of flying by private chartered choppers and act responsibly.
Arjun Bafna, vice-president, Bafna Aviation, said, "We have been flying politicians for quite some time now.
However, there is a huge difference in their attitude now. Their body language and the frequent questions they ask while flying indicates a sense of fear. But what's good is that they now stick to their schedules and do not pressurise pilots to fly in bad weather."
B Sivaj, secretary general of the Rotary Wing Society of India (RWSI), the national association of chopper pilots, admitted, "...But these fears are unfounded, as flying in a chopper is safe. Moreover, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation has put strict safety norms in place." Sivaj, who has flown prime ministers and presidents, said that the incident involving Reddy was a rare one.
29/09/09 Chandran Iyer/MiD DAY

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Air fares likely to go up as AI stir deepens

Mumbai/New Delhi: A decision by Air India management to restore productivity linked incentives (PLI) of 7,000 of its employees failed to pacify the striking pilots, heightening the possibility of an increase in air fares in some of the country’s busiest routes.
More than 30 flights, including six international ones, were cancelled as Air India’s pilots reported sick for the second day running. “The fares could jump by up to 10% if the strike continues as many people are looking to rebook their tickets,” said a travel agent, requesting anonymity.
Executive with a private airline said private airlines would see an increase in bookings if the strike continues beyond the weekend. He also predicted a 5-10% hike in fares.
Air India’s executive pilots have been on sick leave since Friday midnight after the airline board approved a 25-50% cut in PLI for nearly a fourth of its 31,000 employees. Expat pilots and members of the Indian Commercial Pilots’ Association were spared the cut. Air India said the airline would resume normal operations on Monday.
28/09/09 Economic Times

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Centre against FDI in local helicopter service cos

New Delhi: The government has decided not to allow foreign airlines to invest in local helicopter service providers, which need only an extra permission to fly airplanes in India — an area where foreign airlines are not welcomed.
This is a tightening of the foreign direct investment (FDI) policy that allows unrestricted foreign investment in helicopter services without prior approval from the government.
India has many large helicopter service providers including Pawan Hans Helicopters, Global Vectra and Jagson Airlines. The move follows a clarification the civil aviation ministry recently made to the finance ministry and the industrial policy and promotion department, that helicopter service providers having non-schedule operator permit are not prevented from importing fixed-wing aircraft or airplanes.
They only have to take permission from the government before importing, said a government official, who asked not to be named. (Unlike scheduled operators, non-scheduled operators do not publish a time table or issue tickets to passengers.)
Hence, such helicopter operators should not be considered as merely providers of helicopter service, where full foreign investment is allowed. Their non-schedule operator permit entails scope for diversification into fixed wing service.
28/09/09 Gireesh Chandra Prasad/Economic Times

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Business class air travel still depressed

New Delhi: There is no reversal apparent in the big dip in numbers of air passengers travelling business class.
“The (number of ) people flying business class has seen a decline of over 40 per cent in the domestic routes and 20 per cent internationally,” said Ajay Prakash, general secretary, Travel Agents Federation of India.
Data from Cleartrip.com, a portal for ticket and hotel bookings, shows the occupancy rate for business class seats in the domestic sector has come down 50 per cent.
Corporate travel has not picked up after the economic slowdown and even the government has resorted to austerity. Also, airlines have cut capacity and are getting into more and more low-cost models, Prakash said.
An official with Cox and Kings’, the travel group, said business travel this year is down compared with last year, due to the recession.
“Overall business class travel, including domestic and international, is down. Corporate travel is down badly due to the downturn and swine flu. But the future looks a bit better,” said an official of Thomas Cook, a travel agency with international presence.
28/09/09 Mihir Mishra/Business Standard

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Preparing for a take-off

Mumbai: The recovery for the hotel and aviation sectors has been slow. While still not there yet, these two are the last off the blocks as spends on them are considered discretionary. However, the early signs of activity are visible. The airline data for August 2009 shows a 26 per cent jump in passenger volumes year-on-year to 36 lakh, the third month of double digit growth over the previous year.
While the hotel space is up on increase in occupancies and room rents, the airlines space has caught the investors’ fancy due to higher demand and plans of airlines to raise funds mainly to repay debt.
Going ahead, airline passenger volumes are expected to jump by 12 per cent for the current fiscal.
Says Sridhar Chandrasekhar, head, CRISIL Research, “Domestic demand is expected to grow by 12 per cent in 2009-10 driven by low ticket prices offered by carriers, improved economic environment resulting in increasing business and leisure travel.”
Analysts estimate a further 13.5 per cent increase in passenger volumes in 2010-11. The sector has also been improving its operational performance thanks to the reduction of aviation turbine fuel costs by half from a peak of Rs 72 per litre in August, 2008.
28/09/09 Ram Prasad Sahu/Business Standard

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Tapering air-ticket commissions force agents to diversify

Kolkata: With the commission slab from airlines steadily decreasing, travel agents are looking to diversify their portfolio of services to increase margins.
There are around 2,900 agents in India under the International Air Transport Association (IATA) and around 50,000 non-IATA players. The industry is characterised by mom-and-pop travel agencies that depend on ticketing as their main revenue source.
But with 15 carriers deciding to go to a zero commission regime from October 2008, the agents have been badly hit. Commission from airlines has steadily fallen from a peak of 9% a few years back to 3%, and nil in the case of some carriers.
According to travel industry sources, the Directorate of Civil Aviation (DGCA) is slated to take a final decision on whether commission should be paid to agents and how much, on September 30, 2009.
Currently, 35-odd carriers work on a 5% commission model with agents. Three Indian carriers -- Air India, Kingfisher Airlines and Jet Airways -- offer 3%
28/09/09 Madhumita Mookerji/Daily News & Analysis

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Buying an air ticket could pinch your wallet this festive season

New Delhi: Making a trip from Delhi to Kolkata, could have been a definite wallet-pincher this Durga Pujas. The airfare for a return ticket could mean shelling out as much as Rs 40,000, especially if travel plans were conjured up at the last moment leaving you with little option but choosing a full-services carrier. And it isn’t just Kolkata. Spending the long weekend in Mumbai and Chennai could also require spending of up to Rs 36,000 and about Rs 41,000 respectively.
In fact, catching the last flight on Friday night from Delhi to Kolkata cost about Rs 14,000 for a last minute booking. And while the lowest return fare on Tuesday is pegged at about Rs 5,029, the higher return ticket was pegged at Rs 28,000.
In fact, industry watchers say that the last minute fare was almost six times that of the normal fare of Rs 6000 that would be charged for a Delhi- Kolkata return flight about three days back. However, Sabina Chopra, co-founder of Yatra.com feels that the high prices are largely applicable for those making last minute plans considering the fact that both the days were considered to be peak times to travel.
“Last minute fares on Delhi-Kolkata and Mumbai-Kolkata would be extremely high due to limited availability and yield management, because flights are mostly full. However, the majority of travellers for Durga Pujas had advance plans and managed to get good fares,” she adds.
Ankur Bhatia, executive director of the Bird group, adds that the sudden increase in fares could be explained in the case of certain sectors where the demand exceeded capacity.
27/09/09 Lisa Mary Thomson/Economic Times

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'Worried' DGCA wants audit of 'financially strained' airlines

New Delhi: Worried that sharp deterioration in airlines’ financial health may put a question mark on safe flying, Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has asked the government to prevent severely stressed Indian carriers from inducting more aircraft into their fleet. The restriction on getting new planes has been suggested for at least two big airlines and some smaller ones whose names figure on the worst financial condition list, till such time that they don’t meet all the safety regulations for existing fleet and their finances improve.
In addition, the regulator has also recommended a detailed financial audit of the severely strained airlines. This April, DGCA sent a detailed questionnaire to gauge the financial health of all Indian carriers. Based on that, highly placed sources say, airlines were scored on 35 parameters and then put into three categories — where no financial stress is visible; slightly strained, and severely strained.
‘‘We found this downturn has led to a mismatch in resources required for efficient and safe operations in some places. Following this, some decisions have been taken like having special checks for the deeply stressed airlines. This is not to say that they are unsafe to fly but that we are mounting special vigil on them to check their aircraft maintenance to ensure continued safe flights. However, both the ministry and DGCA are very concerned,’’ the sources said. Fears of airlines’ cutting corners came to fore when 2,500 checks led to detection of a whopping 3,000 violations.
27/09/09 Saurabh Sinha/Times of India

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Flying over Iran? First battle the fee

Fastidious passengers who obsessively compare inflight services –– does Air France offer more leg room? Is the smoked salmon more succulent on Lufthansa? –– should perhaps learn a little more about the terms of passage. Simply put, the overflying fee is the whopping charge levied by a sovereign nation for allowing foreign aircraft to use its airspace. It's like a toll tax in the sky, ostensibly to cover the cost of providing navigational aid to aircraft, but that's just a handy excuse to make airlines pay.
Each country has its own unique way of deciding how much to charge. While some levy a fixed fee, others resort to more complex calculations. If a strip of land is sandwiched between two strife-torn countries, an airline has to pay more to use this ‘safe' corridor. Iran, for one, squeezed between Iraq and Afghanistan, charges a bomb — in 2006, it had an average of 350 over-flights a day, which earned it a neat $650,000 to $700,000 daily. The average cost per flight over Iran works out to Rs 92,590.
If it isn't geopolitics, it's the strategic location of a country that gives it leverage. Chile charges planes on the basis of their entry and exit points – since most planes enter its airspace from the north, all northern entry and exit routes are charged almost double of those flying in from and out to the east. Iceland has raised direction-sensitivity to a fine art, with different rates for the latitudes and longitudes that an aircraft flies past. China charges in US dollars: in 2002, the fee was $1 per km. The US levies a toll of about $33.72 per 190 km. India, Indonesia and 30 nations in Europe that are jointly under Eurocontrol have their own formula based on the weight of aircraft and distance travelled.
India-Europe flights have three route options. The first is a northern route that takes you over Afghanistan and the CIS countries, the second is over Pakistan and Iran, the third over Dubai and Turkey. For an India-US flight across the Atlantic, there are six potential routes, one of which is suggested every day by the US authorities, depending on the weather. "This route is provided to pilots a day in advance and gives the best fuel savings,'' said a senior commander.
National carrier Air India will have a new flight-path system in place next year whose wisdom, it hopes, will save it $15 million annually.
26/09/09 Manju V/Times of India

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Aviation industry undergoing a tough time, says Civil Aviation Secretary

Kochi: Civil Aviation Secretary M Madhavan Nambiar on Friday said that the Aviation industry was going through a very difficult phase turning thousands of pilots and other specialized staff jobless in the country. Nambiar was addressing the Cochin International Airport Ltd (CIAL) aviation academy in Nedumbassery district.
The aviation sector has been hit by a slowing economy triggered by the global financial slowdown, reducing business and leisure journeys of most passengers. Also costlier oil, pushed up airfares last year, are sending many passengers to trains.
The Indian industry's woes have been highlighted by a slump in passengers and have hit losses around nine billion dollars in the year 2009.
Nambiar said that thousands of trained commercial pilots in India are still looking for jobs even if they have spent huge amounts of money to procure their licenses in the country.
26/09/09 ANI/Sify

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Festival weekend sees scramble for plane seats

New Delhi: The long weekend is bringing smiles to the faces of most promoters of domestic airlines.
From the state-owned Air India (domestic) to India’s first five-star airline, Kingfisher — all are reporting a “huge demand” for travel over the festive season.
Sources told Business Line that passengers wanting to fly AI (domestic) from the Capital would find it difficult to get seats to Goa, Bagdogra, Kolkata, Bhubaneswar and Srinagar till Monday at least.
From Chennai, the preferred destinations on Air India (domestic) include Kuala Lumpur, Delhi, Port Blair and Madurai, while Bangalore residents seem to be heading for Thiruvananthapuram, Kolkata and Goa, sources added. The airline is receiving close to 30,000 booking requests daily and is now carrying more than 27,000 passengers a day during the festive and long weekend period.
Jet Airways is reporting heavy passenger demand on several routes including Delhi-Chennai, Bangalore-Kolkata, Mumbai-Chennai and Mumbai-Bangalore among others.
“There has been a system-wide increase in passenger loads.
“On the weekend of the 17th and 18th this month, the average number of passengers carried was 50,000. Over the forthcoming weekend, we should cross that figure, going by present trends,” a spokesperson for Jet Airways told Business Line.
A Kingfisher Airline spokesperson also confirmed that it was seeing a “healthy increase in demand” for seats not only over the next three days but also previously and in the weeks ahead.
26/09/09 Ashwini Phadnis/Business Line

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MPCC chief, two others escape YSR fate

Nagpur: Maharashtra Congress Committee President Manikrao Thakre, All India Congress Committee secretary and incharge for Maharashtra Mohan Prakash, and former MP from Yavatmal Haribhau Rathod had a providential escape when an engine of helicopter they were traveling in suffered failure and made an emergency landing at Nagpur airport on Friday afternoon.
They were flying from Nagpur to Darwha in Yavatmal district. There was panic at Nagpur airport when the news spread that Congress leaders' helicopter had made an emergency landing here.
Airport sources said the brand new (just 48 days old) twin-engined German-made Eurocopter EC 15 helicopter was being operated by Mumbai based Global Vectra Helicorp Company. It had taken off from Nagpur Airport at 12.25 pm and was on way to Darwha in Yavatmal district.
Some 20 minutes into the flight, when the helicopter was flying over Wardha city, 48 nautical miles away from Nagpur airport, pilot V Singh noticed that one of the engines had failed. He decided to return to Nagpur and contacted Nagpur ATC to seek permission for emergency landing, sources added.
The ATC officials alerted the airport staff. Emergency vehicles, including fire fighting personnel, ambulance and security staff, had lined up the runway for landing as a precautionary measure. The chopper safely made it to the airport on one engine but efforts by pilot, it could not make a normal landing. Instead, it banged on runway at about 12.57 pm. Though landing was hard, no one was hurt, they added.
26/09/09 Times of India

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'Breathalyzer test mandatory for pilots'

New Delhi: Festive season cheer may have set in, but pilots better beware from getting too high. Following several cases of pilots found inebriated before operating a flight, whenever special drives were launched around festivals and New Year Eve, aviation ministry is now planning to make 100% breath analysis test mandatory for pilots before every flight.
Airlines will be made responsible for conducting these tests and penalized if they fail to do so.
‘‘We have intensified our surveillance programme and cockpit and crew inspection will be its integral part. Once we make these tests mandatory for all flights, pilots would be asked to produce the pre-boarding certificate. If they fail to do so, we will take action,’’ said a senior ministry official. When contacted, Directorate General of Civil Aviation chief Nasim Zaidi confirmed the plan — the drive is reported to be his brainchild. ‘‘We are planning to make alcohol tests mandatory and the onus could be on airlines,’’ he said.
Since hundreds of flights operate in India daily, and the tests could only be random, the local wings of DGCA will be made a part of the breath analysis tests to ensure airlines do not hide cases of pilots being caught drunk.
26/09/09 Saurabh Sinha/Times of India

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Aerofest 2009 edition in Manipal starts from Oct 1

Manipal: The country's premier aerospace and R and D institution, National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL), Bangalore and the Manipal Institute of Technology, Manipal together will host Aerospace 2009 at the MIT campus here from October 1 to 3.
In a release, Dr A.M.Chincholkar, Associate Director, Student Welfare and Professor Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, MIT said that the three-day event was the second among the series of programmes designed by NAL to showcase its technologies to the public and student communities in general and particularly to the engineering students.
The entire exercise is aimed mainly at introducing the youth to the world of aviation. Flight Demos by NAL- developed MAVs will be shown to the students on all three days. Also, on all the days, there will be an exhibition of NAL's technologies with recent contributions and achievements. The exhibition will also address NAL's programmes highlighting societal missions.
Some of the exhibits will cover wind energy, power generation from solar ponds, weather forecasting, support to India's space programme, smart materials and structural health monitoring, composite materials and design and development of small civil aircrafts.
While on October 2, there will be a one-day workshop on aerospace science and technologies, including a series of lectures by scientists from NAL
25/09/09 Mangalorean.com

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