Air charter licence norms being reworked to prevent misuse

MDLR Airlines Pvt. Ltd, a regional carrier that has been flouting Indian aviation rules by offering commercial services on a charter licence, has removed the schedule of its flights from a company website even as the civil aviation ministry now plans to amend norms making it difficult for operators to bypass its guidelines.
Currently, 13 regular airlines in the country, such as Jet Airways and Air Deccan, are allowed to publish their flight schedules. But about three times that number, granted licences as non-scheduled operators, cannot do so. As a first step, MDLR, owned by realtor Murli Dhar Lakh Ram Developers and Promoters Pvt. Ltd, has agreed to deactivate a link with the schedule on its official website, www.mdlrairlines.in, said a senior civil aviation ministry official who did not want to be named. Indeed, late on Tuesday, the web link was generating, “the page cannot be found” message.
Before the advisory was issued on 14 May, the airline had renamed the link to ‘Time Schedule’ from the earlier ‘Flight Schedule’ and carried details of flights to its three destinations that the passengers could fly to.
Some confusion comes from provisions under civil aviation rules that have become redundant since they were prepared in October 1999 or did not take into account technological advances, such as e-ticketing, not available at that time, noted the ministry official. Such loopholes need to be plugged in the rules and they will be amended, he maintained.
About 14 new airlines, including MDLR, have asked for scheduled operator permits but these are pending approval, given the crowded infrastructure at airports.
23/05/07 Tarun Shukla/Livemint

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MDLR to build four hotels for Rs 1,000 cr

New Delhi: The severe hotel room shortage is attracting new players to set up hotels. The latest to join bandwagon is Rs 2,000-crore Gurgaon-based MDLR Group which will be opening four luxury hotels with a proposed investment of Rs 1,000 crore (excluding land price) in next three years.
The group which forayed into the aviation sector with MDLR Airlines, operating its first flight on Delhi-Chandigarh sector last month, will also start operations on Ranchi and Kolkata sector. The airline will be positioned as a regional airline serving only vegetarian food.
As far as the airline business is concerned, MDLR is starting its operations on Delhi-Chandigarh-Ranchi and Kolkata sector on 5th May. In its first phase it has acquired two aircraft from British Aerospace Systems (BAE). It is the first airline in India to operate four engine Avro regional jets on the domestic sector. The investment in the jets will be to the tune of Rs 50 crore (equity funded).
“By the end of next year we will be acquiring 10-12 more aircraft,” said Mr Goyal. The airline will be later expanding operations to Mumbai, Surat, Jaipur and Bhavnagar.
16/05/07 Vishakha Talreja/Economic Times

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MDLR told to stop non-charter flights

New Delhi: The civil aviation ministry has initiated action against MDLR Airlines Pvt. Ltd, the latest entrant into the Indian skies, for providing services of a commercial passenger carrier though it has been licensed to carry out charter operations only.
The ministry’s action, initiated after Mint called officials for comment on MDLR’s advertisements in the media and online sale of tickets on scheduled routes, is also intended as a direct warning to other airlines which might have planned to obtain charter licences but operate regular passenger services on them.
MDLR’s president (commercial and strategy) Kaustav M. Dhar said he hadn’t heard from the ministry but the airline will follow the requirements laid down.
Within half an hour of the call from Mint, changes were indeed made on the airline’s website. A section titled “Flight Schedule” was changed to “Time Table” and important instructions were hastily added: “Please check your flight timing before departure” and “Subject to DGCA approval.” But, late on Monday, MDLR’s website, www.mdlrairlines.in, was still allowing customers to search for and buy tickets online, like any other domestic airline.
Civil aviation norms for charter or ‘non-scheduled’ airlines do not allow for prior announcement of schedule and issue of tickets to passengers the way scheduled carriers can do.
14/05/07 Tarun Shukla/Livemint

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Ranchi’s veggie air route to Chandigarh

Ranchi: MDLR Airlines today extended its Chandigarh-Delhi flight to Ranchi. The state capital can now boast of five flights to Delhi but the first to Chandigarh and also the first flight to the national capital in prime-time. All the other flights take off in the evening hours.
But the MDLR flight, the 70-seater Avro, will take off from Chandigarh at 7.30 in the morning, landing here via Delhi three hours later. It will take off at 10.50 am and land in Delhi by Noon, claimed Kaustav M. Dhar, President (Commercial and Special Projects).
The airline plans to connect Jamshedpur with Calcutta by this winter and also introduce flights from the state to some of the southern states by December, he asserted.
The first vegetarian airline, he informed, will extend the flight to Calcutta in the first week of June. It also plans to operate the flight twice a day in the near future, he claimed.
He said the fares will start from Rs 1,000 and will always be 15-20 per cent lower than other full services airlines like Indian and Air Sahara. Tickets till May 26 have been sold out, he claimed.
He added unlike other airlines, MDLR is committed to remaining a regional operator that will connect state capitals and metros.
14/05/07 The Telegraph

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MDLR eyeing the regional market

Mumbai: The promoters of this new airline, servicing regional segments, think there's a market out there - where other airlines have gone kaput.
Promoted by the MDLR Group, an established name in the real estate sector, MDLR Airlines has started bookings for its flights between Chandigarh and Delhi.
The airline is planning a full service regional offering and is investing Rs 200 crore on the startup. (A regional startup needs at least Rs 125-150 crore to secure operations for two years.)
According to Gopal K Goyal, chairman, MDLR Airlines, the group is looking at building a fleet of 10-12 BAE 70 aircraft in the next one year and plans to break even within 16 months of starting operations.
In terms of strategy, MDLR is looking at the regional market, which is where the real gap is today, as smaller cities need point-to-point connectivity.
Apart from Chandigarh, places like Surat, Bhavnagar, Ranchi, and some parts of Orissa are on the airline's radar. "We might also enter the north-east depending on how it goes," says Koustav M Dhar, president, commercial and special projects, MDLR Airlines.
The airline plans to get in the luxury segment with better seats and improved leg space in a two-class configuration.
According to Goyal, their revenue model would be to tap into the non-metro to metro traffic, which has grown 48 per cent over the last two years.
08/05/07 Ravi Teja Sharma/Business Standard

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MDLR Airlines looks beyond metros

MDLR Airlines, the aviation arm of Gurgaon-based real estate and hospitality group MDLR, has chalked out ambitious plans to map a pan-India footprint connecting metropolitan cities with with Tier II towns through low capacity regional jets.
"The airline would connect Ranchi and Kolkata with Chandigarh six times a week, initially, and would be offering full-service, twin class configuration and special fares. At this point Ranchi and Kolkata are not connected by too many full-service airlines and the line is mostly serviced by low-cost carriers," Gopal Goyal, MDLR's chairman, told Hindustan Times.
The airline, which has already started commercial operations between Chandigarh and Delhi, plans to extend its operations to Mumbai, Surat, Jaipur, Bhavnagar and Goa and few other northern cities in the coming months.
"The flights to Jaipur should commence in the next couple of weeks," Goyal said.
The carrier currently operates with two four-engine Avro RJ70 planes made by British Aerospace Systems (BAe) and is looking at a fleet size of eight to ten aircraft by the end of 2007-08.
"We are expecting two more aircraft to come in by September this year," said Koustav M Dhar, President, Commercial and Special Projects, in the airline.
"We are planning to launch our exclusive loungess at different non-metro capitals and are also in the process of introducing a City Lounge check-in facility at Delhi, Gurgaon and Chandigarh," Goyal said.
06/05/07 Gaurav Choudhury/Hindustan Times

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MDLR Airlines have a smooth first flight

Chandigarh: The recently launched MDLR Airlines is finding wide acceptance among the people and its daily flight to Delhi and back is getting 90 per cent plus occupancy.
The airlines spokesman, Chander Popli said, the management is very happy with the response the airlines is getting and it would extend its Chandigarh - Delhi flight to Ranchi, before the end of this month. Popli said, “Ever since our launch on April 27, we have got good response. Ours is a AVRO RJ 70 seater plane. Till now every flight has got a minimum of 60 passengers on the board. We would link our flight to Ranchi very soon”.
The MDLR is plying between Chandigarh and Delhi and has a daily flight, except on Sunday.
02/05/07 Chandigarh Newsline

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