Snag delays SpiceJet flight

Mumbai: For passengers of the Spicejet flight from Varanasi to Mumbai via Delhi, it was a harrowing experience this morning. They alleged that the flight from Delhi was delayed for two hours, but neither did the airline inform them of the reason, nor did it provide any food or water.
The flight departed from Varanasi at 4.15 pm. It was scheduled to leave Delhi for Mumbai at 6.45 pm. However, due to a technical snag in the plane, the passengers had to wait and were later shifted to another aircraft. The flight finally left at 8.50 pm and reached Mumbai at 11.10 pm.
Angry passengers blamed the airline squarely.
31/05/10 Kranti Vibhute/MiD DAY

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US Exim Bank may give loan to SpiceJet for aircraft buy

Mumbai: US Exim Bank, the trade finance institution supported by the US government, may extend credit lines to SpiceJet, the low-cost air carrier, for its maiden purchases of Boeing aircraft.
“We are in preliminary discussions with SpiceJet to finance their proposed purchase of two new Boeing Aircraft,” US Exim chairman Fred P HoghBerg told media here on Friday. However, he refused to share more details. The Delhi-based air carrier which started operations in 2005, has a fleet of 20 lease aircraft. The deal to purchase two new aircraft is expected to be completed by 2011/12, he said.
With this deal, the trade finance institution will have exposure in three airline companies in India. It has given credit lines to Air India and Jet Airways. Recently, Mr HoghBerg met Union civil aviation minister Praful Patel to discuss ways to boost business in the Indian aviation sector.
US Exim’s India exposure is around $5 billion, a large part of which is in aviation. “One of the reasons for this visit is to expand our presence beyond Aviation. We are looking at food security, energy, road construction among others. We have had specific discussions with seven solar power companies,” said the Exim chief.
28/05/10 Economic Times

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SpiceJet gets nod to fly to 3 foreign destinations

New Delhi: Indian discount carrier SpiceJet Ltd has been cleared to fly overseas in June, starting with Dhaka, Kathmandu and the Maldives, after the airline completes five years of domestic service later this month.
The aviation ministry has, however, turned down its request to start flights to Sri Lanka for now, said two officials with knowledge of the matter.
The Gurgaon-based low-cost airline had shortlisted four overseas destinations for the first phase of its international operations, Mint reported on 18 January. The government requires that airlines complete a minimum five years of service before being eligible to fly abroad.
One of the civil aviation ministry officials cited above said the carrier has been granted rights for daily flights to Dhaka and Kathmandu starting 1 June. The Mumbai-Maldives service will start in the winter, he said.
13/05/10 Tarun Shukla/Live Mint

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Russian consulate may lodge protest

Kolkata: The Russian consulate is weighing the option of sending a note of dissent to the Indian government to ensure that its citizens are not harassed without reason.
The planned move comes just a day after a Russian couple Albi Evoasle Onara and her husband Asal Becov Artur was detained and grilled at Kolkata airport for hours after a panicky flight crew suspected them to be terrorists on board a Delhi-Kolkata flight. The chief point of suspicion was the fact that the woman was wearing a burqa and had her face covered throughout the journey.
The Russian authorities feel this problem could easily have been solved had the consulate been contacted. A translator would have been sent and the confusion would have been cleared up within minutes.
A Russian diplomat said they would write to the Indian government as such harassment was not expected in India, with which Russia shares friendly ties. He contended that the Russians were unnecessarily held and the consulate was not kept in the loop about their detention.
07/05/10 Times of India

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SpiceJet in talks with four state tourism boards to offer holiday packages

New Delhi: New-Delhi based, LCC SpiceJet is currently in talks with state tourism boards like Karnataka State Tourism Development Corporation (KSTDC) and Kerala Tourism, Jammu and Kashmir and Goa to promote holiday packages to end consumers. The holiday package offered will be an extension to the existing SpiceJet Privilege Pass Programme which was launched in September 2009. Currently the airline is in advance discussions with KSTDC and Kerala Tourism and the holiday packages are expected to go live soon.
07/05/10 Krupa Vora/TravelBizMonitor

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Meal under burqa sets off false alarm on SpiceJet

Kolkata: A Delhi-Kolkata SpiceJet flight made an emergency landing at the Kolkata airport on Wednesday afternoon, after a burqa-clad Russian woman passenger drew the crew’s attention for “suspicious behaviour”.
She and her husband were detained and questioned for long hours before and were set free, drawing in the process a diplomatic intervention from the Russian Embassy. Asal Becov Artur (58) and his wife Albai Evoafle Onara (50) were heading for Dhaka via Kolkata. They were scheduled to board a Kolkata-Dhaka Kingfisher flight in the evening, said a senior CISF official.
On being asked why the emergency landing was sought, the captain and crew members explained that the woman neither removed her veil when taking refreshments nor spoke throughout the flight. This, coupled with her height — 5 feet 8 inches — led them to suspect that there might be a man under the veil who was trying to hide his identity.
Onara told interrogators that her religion forbade her to remove the veil in public.
Interrogation revealed that they have visited India around eight times earlier. Thereafter, they were released and they boarded the Kolkata-Dhaka flight.
06/05/10 Indian Express

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"But they didn't wear burqas in Europe..!"

Kolkata: This was Russian citizen Albi Evoasle Onara's maiden visit to the country. Seems it will be her last. "This is really too much," her husband Asal Becov Artur repeatedly muttered in disgust after the couple was grilled for four hours on their arrival at the airport on Wednesday afternoon.
For Onara, it was sheer humiliation as she was first suspected of being a man disguised as a woman and then interrogated on why she wore a burqa when she was fair!
Onara and Artur boarded a SpiceJet flight from Delhi to Kolkata, from where they would fly to Dhaka in the evening. Artur, a 58-year-old carpet trader, had already been to India and Bangladesh seven times. This was the first time he had managed to coax his 51-year-old wife to accompany him for a taste of the Orient. Flight SG 208 took off at 9.55 pm with 123 passengers. Some passengers bought snacks that were on sale but Onara and Artur dug into their own stock of dry fruits. It was this that alarmed a hyper-alert steward. Onara, who was shrouded in a burqa, did not remove the veil while eating or even drinking water. The steward alerted the pilot, giving him a description of a "suspicious person in burqa" with skin "too fair".
The names appeared European, but they didn't wear burqas in Europe, the steward said. The captain agreed.
The plane was over Jam-shedpur when the pilot radioed Kolkata ATC to report "two possible terrorists", and sought clearance for priority security landing.
06/05/10 Times of India

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'Manly' Russian in burqa grounds SpiceJet flight

Kolkata: A Spicejet flight on Wednesday made a 'priority landing' in Kolkata after two Russian passengers, including a woman in a burqa, behaved "suspiciously" on board, an airport official said.
The pilot was given a priority landing after passengers reported the couple to air crew and the woman refused to take off her burqa for identification, Kolkata airport director R. Srinivasan said. The low-cost SpiceJet flight with 123 passengers on board was heading from Pune in the south via the capital New Delhi and on to Kolkata.
The plane was taken to an isolation bay at the airport for a search and was surrounded by CISF personnel, the bomb squad, fire brigade and the police, the sources saida. The two Russians have been detained by the authorities for questioning.
The burqa-clad passenger, however, turned out to be a woman, the sources said. Her large physique made the crew suspect that she was actually a man and since her identity could not be verified onboard, the pilot asked for permission from the ATC to make a priority landing, the sources said.
05/05/10 PTI/Times of India

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4 domestic carriers suspend cargo operations at IGI

New Delhi: Four domestic carriers have suspended cargo operations from today to protest against alleged "unfair practices" by the outsourced cargo service agency and the airport operator.
"Since neither DIAL nor the outsourced agency are listening to our problems, we have decided to suspend our cargo operations from this afternoon," an airlines official at the cargo terminal said.
From May 1, Kingfisher, IndiGo, SpiceJet and GoAir have shifted their cargo operations from domestic terminal to cargo terminal, while Air India and Jet Airways have been allowed to operate from their own warehouses at domestic terminal.
04/05/10 Press Trust of India

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