SpiceJet to diversify into freighter service with modified Boeing 737

New Delhi/Mumbai: Ajay Singh-owned SpiceJet is diversifying into the air cargo business, and will be the first among Indian airlines to start a dedicated freighter plane service. The airline, which will be using Boeing 737-800 BCF for freighter operations, will get its first plane in July.

“We plan to start operations by July between the metro cities. Gradually we will be spreading the business to other cities including international destinations,” a senior SpiceJet official said.
Sources said that retrofitting work in aircraft is underway at Boeing’s facilities in Shanghai and at Israel Aerospace Industries. “Two planes have already undergone conversion and will be joining our fleet by third week of July,” the Spicejet official said. The airline plans to have 20 freighter planes by 2022.

Through its freighter conversion program, US aircraft manufacturer Boeing transitions passenger airplanes into freighters. “The seats of the plane are removed creating space for cargo. Modifications also include installing a large main-deck cargo door, a cargo-handling system and accommodations for up to four non-flying crew members or passengers.

The 737-800BCF carries load of upto up to 23 tonnes and has a range of 2,000 nautical miles (3,750 km) which according to SpiceJet will help them to venture in new international markets. “The international destinations are still in planning stage but certainly we will expand gradually,” the official said.
30/06/18 Arindam Majumder & Aneesh Phadnis/Business Standard

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Mumbai airport: Now you can check in for flight, get boarding pass from these six hotels

To offer more comfort and option to fliers, Mumbai airport has now extended boarding pass, baggage tag and check-in facility to six starred hotels located outside the airport. The facility enables a flier to check in at the kiosks located at these hotels, print the boarding pass and the baggage tags. Post the process, he/she will just have to drop their baggage at the 'self-bag drop' and proceed for security clearance.

These hotel are Sahara Star, Hyatt Regency, Taj Santacruz, ITC Maratha, Hilton Mumbai International Airport and The Lalit. Three hotels/lounges located within the airport premises were among the first to have check-in kiosks. The move will help passengers save their precious time.

A Mumbai International Airport Pvt Ltd (MIAL) spokesperson said that five more hotels will be soon added to the list.

Terminal 1 of the Mumbai airport is the only terminal in India which have fully automated check-in system. All airlines including Indigo, SpiceJet and GoAir now offer self-bag drop facility.
28/06/18 Economic Times

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Desi airlines to jettison plastics and fly with green dishes, cutlery

Mumbai: The plastic ban order might not cover airlines, but Indian carriers have started moving to greener options like biodegradable cutlery, paper straws, etc.
A Vistara spokesperson said the use of plastic onboard is “minimal” and early this month, the airline pledged to further halve plastic use this year by adopting innovative, environment-friendly and cost-effective methods. Among the measures planned are replacing plastic casseroles with aluminium dishes, plastic straws and stirrers with paper or wooden ones, and disposable bowls in economy class with reusable ones.
A Jet Airways spokesperson said the airline “is committed to running its operations with an emphasis on environment’’ and so uses paper cups, bio-degradable bags, and insulated boxes for hot and cold items.
GoAir is the only low-cost carrier to announce its commitment to the plastic ban. “We now serve food and beverages that do not require the use of plastic cutlery. All banned plastic items have been removed from our aircraft. We are working towards extending this initiative countrywide,” said a GoAir spokesperson.
National carrier Air India is in the process of changing its plastic cups with bone china cups on all economy class domestic flights, except those operated by ATR aircraft, said a spokesperson. It remains to be seen if this would increase fuel burn. Airlines rely on plastic cutlery for its low cost, low weight and high utility.
28/06/18 Manju V/Times of India

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A multi-airport plan that can boost Indian aviation

India is witnessing phenomenal growth in the aviation sector. Currently, we are the world’s third largest domestic aviation market behind the USA and China. International Air Transport Association (IATA), the premier trade association of world airlines, has forecasted that by mid-2020, India is expected to displace the United Kingdom as the third largest aviation market in the world.
But this skyrocketing growth is resulting in the country’s airports running out of capacity. Having aimed to achieve 1 billion passenger trips in the next 10-15 years, the government is aware that this cannot be achieved with existing airport capacities. Therefore, it has launched an initiative called NABH (Next-Gen Airports for Bharat) Nirman to expand capacities five folds — Rs 1 lakh crore will be invested towards this aim within the next five years.
This will usher in a new era of multi-airport system (MAS) in our country. MAS is defined as two or more significant airports serving commercial air traffic in a metropolitan area. That means development of greenfield airports (new airports on fresh land) in Delhi/Jewar, Mumbai, Pune etc. will result in these areas having flights from multiple airports.
The reasons for evolution of MAS vary across the world. In the US and Europe, this model emerged due to development of secondary airports. In Asia, it was due to capacity constraints at existing airports.
But world over, the MAS is being seen as an effective solution to airport congestion problems and to meet future demands. Even in Asia, cities of Osaka, Manila, Jakarta, Tehran, Islamabad, Colombo and Bangkok have MAS. Airports located within a distance of 125 km or a driving time of one-two hours from a city centre can also be a part of the MAS.
27/06/18 Times of India

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AAI, Honeywell to develop voice recognition software

The Airports Authority of India (AAI) has tied up with IT solutions provider Honeywell to prepare a unique software to help pilots and air traffic control (ATC) officers overcome communication problems because of varying local and foreign accents.

Comprehending instructions clearly can often be a problem in a country like India which has 112 major languages. In addition, there are several foreign pilots working for many domestic carriers apart from those from 86 international airlines operating to India as well as many more that overfly the country.

“The software will process and transcribe communication between a pilot and an ATC officer and display it on a screen before them,” said a senior AAI official on the condition of anonymity. “This will help avoid human error due to a problem in deciphering an unfamiliar accent,” said the official.

The AAI plans to present this concept at the Air Navigation Conference to be organised by UN aviation safety watchdog ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organisation) in Montreal, Canada, later this year.

The technology is expected to take two and a half years to develop.
23/06/18 Jagriti Chandra/The Hindu

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Now, common man may fly overseas with Udan scheme

Mumbai: Imagine state governments deftly stepping into the capital-intensive aviation sector and flying their own flights to international destinations in Asean/Saarc regions. It may not be too far-fetched when the civil aviation ministry flags off a new scheme soon, called 'International Udan', to give wings to their dreams. It could be to tap their tourism potential or to lend a hand to the hapless fliers troubled by ridiculously high airfare.
Senior civil aviation ministry officials held a meeting recently with all stakeholders, giving a detailed presentation on the plan. The ministry has asked them to submit their views.
During the meeting, the ministry officials made it clear that the difference between the national Udan and the international Udan would be that the latter would be funded entirely by state governments and not through the fee levied by the central government from fliers in the form of viability gap funding (VGF).
The scheme will start with the neighbouring countries.
Talks on the international Udan scheme first started in March when during an aviation event civil aviation secretary R N Choubey said the success of RCS has prompted the government to extend the scheme for international flights.
20/06/18 Shahkar Abidi/DNA

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Soon, you may not need to get boarding pass stamped

Domestic flyers out of Delhi, Bangalore and Mumbai could be among the first in India who do not need to get their boarding cards stamped “security checked” after clearing pre-embarkation frisking.
The Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) is approaching the Delhi and Bengaluru airports to carry out this pilot project and both these airports have agreed to do so. The Mumbai Airport will also start a pilot project in three months where boarding cards of domestic flyers will not be stamped.
“Hyderabad has already done a pilot for this. We are asking Delhi and Bengaluru to do the same. Boarding card stamping need not end only when the bigger diga-yatra (paperless biometric boarding for domestic flyers) project kicks off and it can happen earlier at some airports,” said a senior CISF official.
CISF and aviation authorities have in the last one year stopped stamping hand bag tags at several airports.
Hyderabad has an e-boarding gate. Airports Authority of India plans to start a pilot project of digi-yatra at three airports by the year-end that will see paperless boarding for domestic flyers.
Mumbai airport sources say they are replacing cameras at domestic departure terminal to high definition ones.
“Stamping is done to fix responsibility as to who frisked a passenger and also to ensure that everyone is frisked before being allowed to board the plane. This information is used in case some security lapse-related incident happens on a flight to then backtrack and check everyone on it to find which all flyers on board that flight could have been responsible for the same. The HD cameras allow us to do the same without any need for stamping. We will start a pilot project for domestic flyers in three months,” said the Mumbai airport official.
15/06/18 Saurabh Sinha/Times of India

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Qatar Airways wants to launch an Indian airline

Qatar Airways will soon apply to launch a full-service airline in India for domestic operations, declared its chief executive Akbar Al Baker, according to a report from The Times of India.

The investment in the new airline would be made from the sovereign fund of Qatar’s official investment arm, and would be headed by Indians on the board, as well as its members, the article reported.

Qatar’s proposed airline will not have an Indian partner.

“Indian foreign direct investment rules clearly state that a foreign entity can own 100 per cent of a domestic carrier and we are going by that rule. However, it will be a carrier in India that will be managed by Indians. The entire board, minus one or two people, will be all Indians including the chairman,” Al Baker was quoted as saying.
11/06/18 TTG Asia

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Varanasi airport to soon have automated facial recognition system for passenger boarding process

The Varanasi airport will soon become the first airport to have an automated facial recognition system for passenger boarding process.

According to a Hindustan Times report, the installation process of the biometric access system in Varanasi's Lal Bahadur Shastri International Airport is underway. "Automated walkthrough security scanners equipped with facial recognition technology are being installed at the airport’s entry, security and boarding points," the airport director AK Rai said.

Earlier, the state-owned Airports Authority of India (AAI) chose three airports, including Varanasi, Vijayawada and Kolkata, to implement biometric access system for passenger boarding process.

The biometric access system project would be carried out on a pilot basis at the three airports.

The three airports were chosen under Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Digi Yatra initiative wherein passengers Aadhaar details could be used for biometric-enabled boarding process.

AAI's chairman Guruprasad Mohapatra said the changing profile of air passengers in the country along with safety is a challenge and technology would play a big role in meeting such challenges.
08/06/18 DNA

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U.S. Firm Developing Software to Decode Indian Accents to Improve Air Travel Safety

India will serve as a testing ground for a new software being developed by a U.S-based multinational firm for better understanding of Indian accents. The new software, being developed by Honeywell International Inc., will try to make it easier to understand Indian pilots who communicate in English with thick local accents, Bloomberg reported.

The software is being developed following a request by the Indian government to make air travel safer. The software would decode as many as 100 Indian accents and then transcribe automatically what is being said for the air traffic controllers.

“One of the biggest problems in India has been that we Indians don’t understand each other’s English because of the dialects. This, we thought, works very well for the regional connectivity scheme, because you have regional pilots coming in, people don’t know what he said and what he understood,” Neelu Khatri, president of Honeywell’s aerospace business in India, was quoted as saying in the report.

The Indian government’s UDAN (Ude Desh ka Aam Naagrik) scheme for regional connectivity has led to an increase in demand for pilots who may speak English in local accents.

The project will be implemented in India first, and Honeywell sees a possibility of expanding it in other countries, Khatri said, adding, “It’s a real time problem and therefore, these kinds of problems don’t have ready-made solutions. We just try to put our people who can understand the problem and then try to create something.”

The New Jersey-based firm has been working with Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) for over 40 years. In April this year, it announced that it is working to finalize some collaborations with Indian companies for local production of defense technologies, the Hindu BusinessLine reported.
The company is looking at a tie-up with Tata Power’s Strategic Engineering Division for domestic inertial land navigation systems. “We saw there was a big need for making inertial navigation system and hence we partnered with Tata. The ‘made in India’ Akash missile had Honeywell’s inertial navigation system,” Khatri had earlier said.
07/06/18 Little India

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Uber-like services in the sky may soon be a reality

New Delhi: Forget autonomous cars -- your next taxi might whiz you across town through the air.
Volocopter GmbH, a German startup backed by Intel Corp. and Daimler AG, has built a drone-like electric helicopter to ferry travelers across city skies. The company expects to offer its first commercial trips in the next three to five years, after completing test flights in Dubai and Las Vegas. It’s now seeking at least $100 million to gear up manufacturing of the flying taxis.
Volocopter is in talks with new and current investors to raise the funds “as soon as possible,” Chief Executive Officer Florian Reuter said in an interview, sitting inside a sleek white example of the drone parked in downtown Berlin. “We want to be the world’s first commercial air taxi service.”
Raising money is just one facet of the race to conquer local skies. Multiple aviation and technology companies, from planemaker Boeing Co. to a startup backed by Larry Page, are working on aircraft that could be used as robotic taxis, capable of landing on urban rooftops or special pods to pick up passengers who want to avoid traffic. Another hurdle is convincing regulators it’s a good idea to have these machines traveling over populated areas.
Volocopter says it’s furthest along with the technology and working with regulators -- it already has a provisional license from German aviation authorities and has completed an autonomous flight in Dubai, a city that seeks to make a quarter of its transport autonomous by 2030.
7/06/18 Bloomberg/Times of India

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Pune airport to try music therapy to calm down angry flyers, soothe frayed nerves

Pune: To calm the nerves of flyers — left angry and frustrated due to flight delays and other issues — the Pune airport will soon have some music therapy.
The Airports Authority of India (AAI) intends to start an exclusive radio service for 29 of its airports across the country, including in Pune. Sources said an expression of interest (EoI) had been floated and the service is expected to begin by the year-end.
“A private agency that specialises in the field is expected to be hired. With soothing music being played, passengers’ wait at the airport will become more pleasant. The airports chosen for the project have been selected on the basis of the footfall. As far as the song selection is concerned, the same will be finalized at a later stage, but we want the music to be soothing and calming,” an AAI official said.
Some of the other airports chosen for the service include Udaipur, Chennai, Guwahati, Goa, Lucknow, Ahmedabad, Bhubaneshwar, Ranchi, Raipur, Indore and Madurai. The Pune airport clocked a passenger traffic of more than 8 million in the last financial year.
05/06/18 Joy Sengupta/Times of India

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In a First, This Airport Will Have a National Highway Under Its Runway!

The Lal Bahadur Shastri International Airport in Babatpur, around 26 km from Varanasi, will be the first in India to have a national highway running along an underpass, under the airport’s runway! The Times of India reports that the underpass will help the airport’s expansion plans to allow for larger aircraft to land and convert the highway into a 4-lane road.

Germany’s Leipzig Airport has something similar, where part of the construction includes an overpass for aircraft over a major highway!
As of now, the airport’s runway is 2,750 km, which will be extended to around 4,075 km, so larger cargo and Boeing aircraft can land. Officials claim the runway expansion and underpass construction will begin simultaneously.

SB Singh, Project Director, National Highways Authority of India (Varanasi), told the publication that this would be the first highway to pass under an airport runway. The underpass would solve the issue of deciding the NH56’s alignment, which is being converted to a 4-lane road. AAI is yet to begin the runway expansion project, and the NHAI is working on the existing highway patch to facilitate smoother vehicular movement.

The project has come on track after a series of issues.

The approval of the proposal to convert NH 56 into a 4-lane system, was given by the UPA government in 2013. AAI’s Masterplan-2004 had proposed the highway extension. But the project hit a roadblock as a railway track runs on the runway’s eastern side.
Hence, expansion could only take place in the west.
05/06/18 Rayomand Engineer/Better India

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Govt to seal deal by Oct to procure 200 Kamov military choppers

The government is all set to conclude a multi-billion dollar deal by October to procure 200 Kamov Ka-226T attack helicopters through a joint venture between Russian Helicopters and state-run aerospace behemoth Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd.

Official sources said almost all the ground work to finalise the mega project has been completed as the government is eyeing to seal it within the next four months.

An inter-governmental agreement between India and Russia was signed for the project during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Moscow in December 2015.

In October 2016, India and Russia had finalised a broad agreement to set up the joint venture (JV) between HAL and Russian Helicopters which will co-produce the choppers.

India is procuring the choppers to replace its ageing Cheetah and Chetak helicopters.

Last month, the defence ministry issued a Request for Proposal (RFP) to the Indo-Russian venture for the project.

Officials said the HAL-RH joint venture will send a detailed response to the RFP by end of August and the final deal is set to be signed in October.

They said the government has already approved the technical configuration for the twin-engine multi-role helicopter which is known for its superior manoeuvring capabilities in mountainous areas.

The defence ministry has already approved the payment for setting up of the JV. A site in the vicinity of Tumkur near Bengaluru has been identified for setting up the facility to produce the choppers.

The Kamov helicopters will be supplied to the Indian Air Force and the Army. Both these forces have been pressing for early conclusion of the deal so that they could replace their ageing fleet of existing choppers within next three to four years.
03/06/18 PTI/DNA

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Can a homemade plane revolutionise manufacturing in India?

Mumbai: When a commercial pilot in India announced in 2009 that he would build a plane on top of the roof of his home, most people thought he was joking because he had no aeronautical engineering experience.

But nine years later, Amol Yadav, 42, from Mumbai not only fulfilled his dream of constructing the plane on top of his home, he also signed a 35,000 rupee-crore ($5.4bn) agreement with the Maharashtra state government to set up the country's first aircraft manufacturing factory.

Yadav, who works as a senior commander with Jet Airways and flies twin-engine turboprop planes, said it was his longtime dream to build aircraft.
"In 1998, I bought a six-cylinder petrol engine belonging to a truck for $160 and started building my first aircraft," Yadav said. "I abandoned the project after making a lot of mistakes in it."

But he didn't give up. The next year, he decided to build a new plane but needed a new engine.

Despite the fact his family's construction business was running a significant loss that year, they decided to fund his "dream" project. His mother used her Mangala Sutra necklace as collateral for a loan from a local jeweller.

Amol built a workshop and spent four years constructing a six-seat aircraft. Unlike his previous attempt, the plane was operational.

"I tested the aircraft successfully on a road but it was denied registration by the government," he said.
A few years later, Amol landed the job at Jet Airways. He began flying planes but his dream of building India's first indigenous aircraft still weighed heavily on his mind.

"Our construction business was doing well. Amol had a decent job, so it made him think why shouldn't I give it another try," said his brother Rashmikant Yadav.

In 2009, Amol started working on his third plane. This time, he announced he would build it on the roof of the five-storey building where he lived with his family of 19.

After his shift as a pilot ended, Amol would rush upstairs and get started on constructing the plane. He laboured for seven years with a small crew and in February 2016, his six-seat propeller aircraft was ready to fly.
"I spent about $800,000 of my own money and sold some family property to make this dream come true," he said.

Yadav wanted to show off his aircraft to people during the "Make In India" campaign, which was launched by the government in 2014 to encourage companies to manufacture their products in India. An exhibition was being held in Mumbai in 2016.

"I sought permission from the organisers but they told me there was no space available. It was frustrating," Yadav said.

Despite no permission to display the aircraft during the exhibition, the Yadavs disassembled the plane overnight and brought it down part-by-part using a crane.
"We then assembled the aircraft again and took it to the exhibition ground," Yadav said.

At the gate, security guards didn't pay much attention to them and they entered the exhibition grounds with the plane.

"The next morning, officials found out we had no permission to display the aircraft and detained me. But they couldn't remove the plane as it had by then made headlines in the local media," said Rashmikant. "The aircraft was the centre of attraction."

The plane has an engine powerful enough to climb up to 4,000 metres and its tank can hold enough fuel to fly a distance of nearly 2,500km.

In 2017, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation registered Yadav's aircraft. The plane is currently at Mumbai's airport, but hasn't received permission to fly yet.
01/06/18 Bilal Kuchay/Al Jazeera

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