Feasibility study for airstrip, heliport in Gurvayur

Kochi: The Airport Authority of India (AAI) has begun feasibility studies for setting up an airstrip and heliport in the pilgrim town of Guruvayur in Kerala's Thrissur district.
On Saturday, a technical team led by AAI general manager (Technical) R Rajasekharan arrived in Guruvayur and visited some sites where adequate open land was available. "We visited three sites Pavaratty, Pookkode and Kandanassery near Guruvayur where land is available for the airstrip. Now we have to collect their technical features like, wind direction, speed and obstructions," Rajasekharan told TOI.
The team also visited nearby Dwaraka Beach to see if it could hold a heliport. The Guruvayur Devaswom has about 12 acres of land and the proposal is to set up the heliport there.
"The idea is to promote high-class pilgrim tourism by launching heli-taxi services between Guruvayur and Kochi International Airport," said Thrisuur MP P C Chacko, who took the lead to persuade AAI for the study.
Chacko feels that the heliport can be set up without much delay, as it involves the construction of only a control tower and deployment of security infrastructure. It could even be built on public-private partnership model, he added.
31/10/10 T Ramavarman/Times of India

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Juhu runway extension may face green hurdle

Mumbai: As the Navi Mumbai airport project awaits environmental clearance, a plan to extend the Juhu airport runway into the sea may also face green obstacles. The Airports Authority of India has granted in-principle approval to the project to extend the Juhu runway from its current length of 1,143 metres to 2,020 metres.
The Juhu runway is proposed to be extended into the sea by cutting through the famed Juhu beach and an arterial road, for which an underpass tunnel would have to be constructed below the runway for road traffic, they said.
KPMG, which is the consultant selected by the AAI for the Juhu project, has suggested that the extension of the runway into the sea be done by using concrete stilts as was being done in case of the Chennai airport expansion project, officials said.
Such a plan would maintain smooth flow of sea water even during tides and go a long way to avoid environmental obstacles, they said.
A survey of the ocean bed has to be undertaken to see if pillars can be built and whether these would affect the underwater flora and fauna, apart from the ebb and flow of the water, the sources said.
As the project falls under the Coastal Regulation Zone, it has to be ratified by the Maharashtra Coastal Zone Management Authority. This body would have to study various aspects, ranging from pollution, effluent discharge, fishing and coral life to high and low tide activity.
31/10/10 Press Trust of India /Hindustan Times

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Facelift to tackle space crunch at Kolkata airport

Kolkata: Queue up to enter the airport. Queue up before baggage X-ray machines. Queue up again at check-in desks. And then join a serpentine queue to undergo security check. Jostle with fellow passengers to grab the elusive seats at the security hold lounge. Walk into the stinking washroom at your own peril.
The domestic terminal at Kolkata airport, one of the best in India till less than a decade ago, now resembles a railway station. The airport director is candid enough to admit that there are days when it is worse than a station platform, with three times the passenger pressure that what the terminal is equipped to handle.
But passengers will have to bear with the situation for at least a year more. For the airport staff, it will get more challenging as they attempt to fit more flights and passengers in a space that is already terribly cramped. It is only around the end of next year when the `1,600-crore integrated terminal opens that the space crunch will ease and, with it, most of the problems that currently dog the airport.
For the record, the domestic terminal has been handling over 13,000 passengers daily in recent weeks when it had been built for 5,000 passengers. This year, the domestic passenger count is expected to touch 9 million against the terminal capacity of 4 million. The new terminal will be four times larger than the existing one, enough for passengers to saunter in and out without bumping into each other for at least five to seven years more.
31/10/10 Times of India

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T3 shift: Airlines' winter schedule upset

New Delhi: With another delay in shifting of domestic airlines to Terminal 3, airlines might have to change their winter schedules. The winter schedule did not have much difference between two flights, keeping in mind the integrated terminal. But that will have to change now. The schedule was supposed to be
implemented from October 31 as the terminal shift date was October 30.
"The new timings was decided in a way that there was not much difference between two flights. The logic behind this was integrated terminal. We use the same aircraft for several destinations but at IGI Airport the time got wasted by sending aircraft from the domestic to international terminal. We were hoping to save that time after shifting to T3," said an Air India official on the condition of anonymity.
Jet Airways and Kingfisher Airlines and their low cost arms were scheduled will now shift to T3 on November 14.
The shifting is being delayed due to connectivity problem as a new link road and Metro is not ready yet.
30/10/10 Faizan Haider/Hindustan Times

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Damage: Two pilots off duty

New Delhi: The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has de-rostered two pilots of an Air India aircraft that damaged runway lights at the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) on October 26. The pilots have been taken off duty till an inquiry is complete. Sources said the DGCA investigating team is also taking down the pilots' statements.
"Both Sachin (known by his first name only) and Manjeet S Bodhi have been taken off from duty,” confirmed an Air India spokesperson.
Sources said the DGCA team has also taken out the flight's Cockpit Voice Recorder to look into the incident in detail. Also, details of the conversation between the Air Traffic Controller (ATC) and the pilots have been asked for by the agency.
The runway lights were damaged by Air India flight IC-415, that took off for Patna at 6.22 pm on October 26.
31/10/10 Faizan Haider/Hindustan Times

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AI moving 11 flights to new terminal on Sunday

New Delhi: While domestic operations are expected to shift to the integrated terminal T3 at IGI Airport only by the middle of November, Air India will be shifting 11 of its domestic flights to the new terminal on October 31.
With the winter schedule kicking in from Sunday, the airline will start several international flights that would operate via Delhi. Officials said that if they wanted to offer through check-in facility to passengers, it was necessary that they arrived at the same terminal from where they would have to change aircraft for the second leg of the journey.
Some of those aircraft have also been deployed on international routes and bringing them to T3 from the domestic apron would have been a time consuming and cumbersome task.
"We are starting flights like Hyderabad-Chicago, Hyderabad-Frankfurt, Bangalore-Chicago, Bangalore-Frankfurt, Kolkata-New York, Amritsar-Toronto and Jaipur-Dubai. All these flights are via Delhi.
31/10/10 Economic Times

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Bird hits ground flights in Coimbatore

Coimbatore: Bird hits have grounded four flights in the last three days in Coimbatore Airport affecting flight operations in the region. According to airport authorities, two flights each of Spice Jet and Air India were hit by tiny sparrows since Tuesday night.
The unexpected groundings have affected normal flight operations resulting in severe inconvenience to air passengers. The flights sustained no damage as the hits were not severe. Each flight resumed the onward journey after spending about one hour at the airport to check damages if any.
The airport authorities have constituted an expert committee to ascertain the reason behind the repeated bird hits. Surveillance jeeps are being used to chase away birds about three minutes before the landing and taking off of each flight. The officials have also decided to meet the Coimbatore district collector very soon asking him to take urgent steps to prevent dumping of garbage close to the western wall of the airport. The dumping of garbage there too is causing the high presence of birds in the region resulting in bird hits.
30/10/10 K A Shaji/Times of India

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Himachal to set up international airport

New Delhi: Himachal Pradesh chief minister Prem Kumar Dhumal has said that the first international-level airport in the state would be set up near Shimla under the PPP mode at an initial cost of Rs 1,000 crore. Speaking at an investment meet, he said that land for the purpose had been identified at three places in Shimla and Solan districts and a final decision would be taken soon. He also announced that that 10 more helipads would be set up in Sirmour, Kinnaur and Mandi districts thereby increasing the total number of helipads in the state to 70. He also said that heli-taxis services in the state would be started soon.
30/10/10 Times of India

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Thiruvananthapuram new terminal: Live trial run on Tuesday

Thiruvananthapuram: A live trial run will be carried out at the new terminal of the Thiruvananthapuram International Airport on Tuesday, with the Air India Express flight IX 605 from Chennai scheduled to arrive by 3.10 pm on that day. There will be passengers on board the aircraft.
The Airports Authority of India (AAI) had earlier carried out a trial run on October 18 with an Air India Express aircraft, but it had dummy passengers on board.
The decision to conduct the fresh trial run was taken at a meeting convened by the Joint Secretary and Financial Advisor in the Civil Aviation Ministry E K Bharath Bhushan with the new director of the Thiruvananthapuram Airport G Chandramouli in New Delhi on Thursday. There is also a move to allow domestic services of NACIL from the new terminal owing to operational reasons. However, sources at the airport said that such a move may invite protest from other domestic airlines, Kingfisher and Jet Airways.
Meanwhile, Air India (National Aviation Company of India - NACIL) has cancelled one more flight from here. The services that were earlier cancelled were also not restored in the winter schedule of the national carrier. IC 911, the Thiruvananthapuram- Bangalore- Chennai- Bangalore daily afternoon service, has been cancelled from November.
30/10/10 ExpressBuzz

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Sharjah flight returns to Kochi

An Air India Express flight bound for Sharjah returned to Kochi 45 minutes after it took off following a technical problem, reports Press Trust of India.
The flight with 142 passengers and nine crew members on board had taken off from from Nedumbassery International Airport in Kochi, Kerala, at 10:15am.
29/10/10 Emirates 24-7

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Kingfisher seeks $3.5 mn from Jet for damage to aircraft

Mumbai: Kingfisher Airlines has estimated the damage to its Airbus aircraft that was hit by a Jet Airways Boeing last weekend at Mumbai airport at around $3.5 million (Rs 15.6 crore) and expects Naresh Goyal’s airline to pay up. Aviation sources told The Indian Express that the amount was conveyed to Jet at a meeting involving the two airlines and the Directorate-General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).
The incident, classified as “serious” by DGCA, saw a Jet Airways aircraft, which had 122 passengers and was bound for Muscat, hit a parked Kingfisher Airlines aircraft while being tugged from its parking slot to the runway, damaging the left stabiliser of the Kingfisher Airbus. The damage was caused by the Jet aircraft’s left wing tip, which is made of glass fibre, and the the stabiliser would have to be replaced, the sources said, adding that the Jet aircraft hardly suffered any damage and was back in operation.
While insurance companies of the airlines are likely to end up footing at least a part of the bill, Kingfisher may have also taken into account the losses incurred due to the grounding of the aircraft to come up with the $3.5 million figure as a stabiliser is not expected to cost that much, aviation analysts said.
29/10/10 Ranjani Raghavan/Indian Express

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To bring down noise, AAI rotates runway use at IGI

New Delhi: In a bid to distribute the nuisance of approaching aircraft noise evenly for residents, Airports Authority of India (AAI) recently started rotational operations on the two runways at the IGI airport. At present, each runway is alternately used for an 8-hour duration for landings while at night, between 10pm and 6am, the time comes down to 4 hours.
Earlier, a night curfew had to be imposed on landing operations at the new runway 29/11 between 10pm and 6am after residents of Vasant Kunj approached the court over the massive noise pollution that was caused by approaching aircraft. Sources in AAI said that if such measures were to be taken, it was only fair that residents of other areas that fell in the approach path to runway 28 and 27 also benefited from it. "We understand that the noise of a landing aircraft can be quite disturbing but it wasn't fair that only residents of one area should be protected from it. For the past five days or so, we have been rotating arrivals between the runway 29 and runway 28/27. Each runway is used for 8 hours. At night, which used to be a blanket curfew on runway 29, we are now distributing traffic between 29 and 28/27 for 4 hours each,'' said a senior official.
28/10/10 Neha Lalchandani/Times of India

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MACL to transfer regional airports’ fuel and fire services employees to GMR

Male: Maldives Airports Company Limited (MACL) employees at fire services and fuel services of regional airports will be transferred to India’s GMR Infrastructure, the company said Thursday.
MACL Managing Director Mohamed Ibrahim said the decision was made, as the company should transfer all the employees responsible for airport operations.
“Employees at fire services and fuel services of regional airports are sent by us. They will be transferred to GMR within two days,” he said.
Ibrahim noted that the company employees remaining at regional airports are traffic control tower staff. While about 1,200 employees are being transferred to GMR, employees who received transfer letters are signing GMR’s employment agreement, he added.
28/10/10 haveeru online

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Dabolim runway to be restored by Sat: Navy

Dabolim: If all goes well and weather conditions remain favourable, the damaged link of the 3.43km Dabolim airport runway will be fully restored by Saturday morning, Indian Navy sources said, adding that an inquiry has been ordered into Saturday's mishap.
"The digging and clearing work of the 6,000 sq m damaged area is done, but there are still a few patches having kerosene seepage," INS Hansa commanding officer commodore Ravneet Singh said. Denying that the issue related to payment of costs for repairs by Indian Oil Company (IOC) had caused a hindrance to the restoration of the airstrip, he said work had started soon after the mishap.
A IOC fuel bowser carrying 6,000 litres of aviation turbine fuel (ATF) had overturned on Saturday at 9pm on the Dabolim runway, rendering 1.3 km of the stretch non-functional for the landing of flights. The Navy had carried out salvage operations, using specialized safety services, and cleared the strip by 2pm on Sunday.
Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Singh said that the hot mixing plant is expected to arrive on Friday. "The runway can be taken up for blacktopping work on Friday from 8pm onwards for ten hours," he said.
The Navy held a meeting with airline companies on Thursday to discuss the closure of the runway for about ten hours to complete the work.
29/10/10 Times of India

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Etihad to launch all-economy class aircraft next week

Dubai: Abu Dhabi-based Etihad Airways has said that it will operate its first all-economy class aircraft from October 31 to Alexandria, Colombo, Damascus, Calicut, Thiruvananthapuram and Peshawar.
The airline has announced that Airbus A320 will be re-configured to carry 162 economy class passengers, an increase of 42 from the current capacity.
To the Indian Subcontinent it will operate daily to Thiruvananthapuram, three times weekly on Calicut flights, twice weekly on flights to Peshawar in Pakistan, and four times weekly to the Sri Lankan capital, Colombo.
29/10/10 Economic Times

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Life-saver at Euro airports from Indian innovator

London: Kromek, the Durham (UK)-based technology company founded and headed by Kolkata-born Arnab Basu, has received the official European Union certification to provide its colour x-ray liquid detection system to all European airports.
By April 2011, liquid items will be allowed on board if the appropriate security measures are in place at the airports concerned. The results of the European Civil Aviation Conference (ECAC)-led trials prove the technology is ready to allow the 2011 regulatory deadline to be met by the airports. By April 2013, the ban will be lifted completely, allowing the carriage of liquids on flights across Europe.
The company is also in talks with the Indian civil aviation sector and hopes to have the the new product in place at Indian airports by the first quarter of next year. Kromek’s bottle scanner has qualified as a Category-B device (scan every single bottle without opening), that has achieved Type-1 (lower threshold to detecting threats) and Type-2 (higher threshold) 100 per cent capability and been officially tested, verified and authorised by ECAC. As of now, all EU airports are free to buy and implement Kromek’s bottle scanner product. The product, from drawing board to its final version, took a little over two years and was developed by a team of 55 at Kromek. It can handle up to the size of a two-litre Coke bottle and by itself measures three-fourth of a metre by three-fourth of a metre.
29/10/10 Business Standard

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‘Delhi’s T3 shows Rs 1k-cr overspend’

New Delhi: The swanky new terminal at Delhi airport, widely referred to as Terminal 3 , or T3, may have evoked widespread admiration but two consultants appointed by a body that regulates the country’s airports have said that some of the spending on it was not justified.
The external consultants, KPMG, an auditor, and public sector company, Engineers India(EIL), have found that spending of around Rs 1,000 crore appears to be excessive, say people familiar with the contents of reports submitted by them to the Airports Economic Regulatory Authority (AERA). The two firms have submitted separate reports. The overspending comes to around 8% of the project cost, the reports say.
The plush terminal built over a period of five years has seen spending of Rs 12,700 crore.
The reports are also not in favour of including what it referred to as “unincurred costs” in the total project cost. “There are unincurred costs of around Rs 350 crore towards facilities that have not yet come up. They should not be a part of the project cost,” the person said, citing the example of an ATC tower, which is yet to come up and whose cost is added into the Rs 12,700 crore.
One of the reports has also said that the new terminal has been “overbuilt” to handle the projected traffic.
“If GMR is not able to justify the total project cost, then it will have to suffer losses on that investment,” a person familiar with the airport regulator’s thinking said.
AERA had appointed the two firms earlier this year to review the cost of T3 when costs exceeded the estimated Rs 9,800 crore.
28/10/10 Anindya Upadhyay/Economic Times

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After emergency landing, flight stranded on runway

Kolkata: An IndiGo Airlines flight from Guwahati got stranded on the primary runway after making an emergency landing on Wednesday evening, forcing the airport to suspend operations till the landing strip was cleared. The Airbus 320 aircraft had to be physically towed by a push-back tractor after its surface steering control jammed. The latter allows a pilot to steer the aircraft to the left or right when taxiing on the ground after landing.
Around 7.30pm on Wednesday, the pilot of IndiGo Airlines flight 6E 291 from Guwahati to Chennai via Kolkata radioed the ATC at Kolkata and requested for an emergency landing as the aircraft had developed a hydraulic system failure. There were 169 passengers on board, including an infant. While the landing gear that is also controlled by hydraulics was all right, the problem was either with the wings or the ground steering control.
Following the SOS, full emergency procedures were rolled out at the airport. Fire tenders and ambulances were positioned next to the runway.
28/10/10 Times of India

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A-I failure is Bhutan's flying hope

Guwahati: Bhutan’s government-owned airline has adopted a loss-making international circuit that Air India abandoned eight years ago. Suicidal soar? No, insists Drukair or Royal Bhutan Airlines, not with the global dream riding on a local need – to provide the Himalayan country’s eastern half a faster way to reach capital Thimphu.
AI had in April 2002 launched the once-a-week Guwahati-Bangkok flight with a “viable” target of 60 per cent seat occupancy. Poor demand put paid to the service within 15 months.
“We studied the pros and cons for two years before deciding to launch our Paro-Guwahati-Bangkok flight from October 31,” said Drukair’s CEO Tandin Jamso here Wednesday.
Paro, at an elevation of 7300 ft, is Bhutan’s only airport 58 km from Thimphu.
Jamso hopes the Rs 1.6 billion Drukair, with plans to fly to Hong Kong and Singapore, can sustain its “global via Guwahati” operation unlike AI.
One reason is Drukair’s inter-regional focus with Kathmandu, Dhaka and major Indian metropolises on the radar. Another – more important to Bhutan’s internal affairs – is eastern Bhutan’s communication bottlenecks.
28/10/10 Rahul Karmakar/Hindustan Times

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Court asks airline to pay damages to two families stranded in airport

Mumbai: The consumer forum has pulled up a low-cost airline and asked it to pay a hefty compensation to the passengers who were stranded at Delhi airport after their tickets were cancelled by the airline in January 2009. Two families—Mumbai-based Doiphodes and Pune-based Alwanis— had booked their tickets on a Mumbai-Delhi Jetlite flight last year, but on reaching the airport, they were informed that the flight was cancelled owing to technical snag. They were on their way back from Leh, Ladak.
When the commuters requested Jetlite to accommodate them on another flight, the airline allegedly relied upon a clause printed overleaf of the ticket which stated it was entitled to cancel, advance, reschedule or delay its flights without assigning any reason, and thereby incurs no liability.
They were, then, forced to purchase tickets again on the same day for which they had to shell out Rs 51,492. Even though the airline made an attempt to refund the amount for the original tickets, it fell short by Rs 21,471.
28/10/10 Indian Express

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