Ailing Aviation Industry Gears Up With Capacity Expansion

Bangalore: Mounting losses apart, the year 2013 has been one of the more interesting years for the civil aviation in India. With three major deals — Jet-Etihad,  Air Asia and Tata-Singapore Airlines ­—  the capacity expansion in the Indian skies will prove beneficial to the ailing sector.
However, all is not well and good as major domestic players have reported mounting losses amid increase in taxes and ATF (aviation turbine fuel) prices among other operational expenses.
Interestingly, carriers have started to connect Tier II and III cities to major domestic and international destinations promoting flying as a viable mode of transport.

Indian civil aviation finds comfort in overseas investment deals

India's civil aviation industry, which faced turbulence due to high operating costs in 2012, found some comfort this past year due to a slew of overseas investment deals that helped restore confidence in the sector.
"This has been a flat year with minimum growth. However, with the intent of the Tatas and AirAsia on entering the Indian market has definitely paved the way for future growth in the sector," Ankur Bhatia, executive director, Bird Group, told IANS.
"In 2014, we are looking forward for establishment of a civil aviation policy, rationalisation of taxes on jet fuel and growth in the regional aviation space," said Bhatia, who is also a member of the Confederation of Indian Industry's panel on civil aviation.
Abu Dhabi-based Etihad Airways became the first foreign carrier to invest in the Indian sector. It bought a 24% stake in Jet Airways for Rs.2,069 crore ($380 million).
Read news in full 27/12/13 IANS/Business Standard

Joint secretary Kumar proposed as new DGCA

New Delhi: The aviation ministry has proposed the name of its joint secretary Prabhat Kumar as the next Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to PM Manmohan Singh-headed cabinet committee of appointments (ACC). Kumar is a 1985 batch IAS officer of UP cadre. Current DGCA Arun Mishra will demit office after four days.
The ministry's last-minute action of finally proposing a name for the post, that will otherwise fall vacant on December 31, came after realizing the fact that leaving DGCA headless and giving joint charge of it to an official at this stage could lead the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) downgrading the Indian aviation safety oversight system. The FAA just finished auditing the DGCA and will decide next month if India should retain its top billing or be downgraded to sub-Sahara Africa levels.
Read News in full 27/12/13 Saurabh Sinha/Times of India

19-year-old trainee pilot dies in crash

Nagpur: Nineteen-year-old trainee pilot Sohail Ansari died after the single engine Diamond 40 aircraft he was flying crashed near Chhindwara. The aircraft owned by Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Uran Academy (IGRUA) was reported missing on Tuesday.
IGRUA, which is based in Fursatganj airfield, Uttar Pradesh, brings its students and aircraft to Gondia every winter due to unfavourable flying conditions in the northern part of the country during this time. Ansari was flying solo from Gondia to Pachmarhi when the accident happened.
The remains of Ansari's body were found in the buffer area of Satpuda Tiger Reserve. According to sources, Ansari, who had 140 hours of flying behind him, was on his first cross country solo flying on Tuesday afternoon when his plane crashed.

Promotional offers may not improve margins of airlines

Mumbai: It is that time of the year when the domestic airlines have again come up with offers to attract passengers during the lean season beginning January 2014. While it may boost sales during the period, however, it will not help much in easing out the pressure on the margins, feel the industry.
SpiceJet has announced the launch of 30 days advance purchase offer on a million seats by giving discounts up to 65 per cent with fares starting from Rs 2,157. GoAir also has come up with a similar 30-day advance purchase Christmas offer starting from Rs 3007. Even Air India has introduced attractive 5 discounts on all domestic fares sold by website valid till January 15, 2014.
Read news in full 26/12/13 Soumonty Kanungo/mydigitalfc.com

Jet Airways to start two more flights to India from Qatar

Doha: Jet Airways, India’s second largest carrier, will resume its Calicut flight and start an additional flight from Doha to Mumbai. But these flights will probably be possible only with the opening of the new airport (Hamad International) as there are no free-time slots in the existing airport, a senior official of the airline said yesterday.
“We have three daily flights from Doha to India’s three strategic cities — Delhi, Mumbai and Cochin, and with the latest announcement, Mumbai will get an additional frequency from Doha and the second one will fly to Calicut, which will be our fourth destination in India from Doha, and second in the southern Indian state of Kerala,” Anil Srinivasan, Country Manager (pictured), told The Peninsula.
Asked about the date of these additional flights, he said: “This can be any day. In fact, we have been waiting for time slots for long. But I think this will be possible only with the opening of the HIA or if we are allotted evening slots in the existing airport.”
Read news in full 26/12/13 Mohammad Shoeb/The Peninsula

Father of Indian killed by hijackers seeks justice

Gurgaon: The father of an Indian killed by terrorists who hijacked an Indian plane to Afghanistan on this day in 1999 wants the killers to hang -- and wonders why it has not happened so far. "We want the hijackers to be prosecuted in India and hanged under Indian law," said an emotive C.P. Katyal, who lives with his wife here in Haryana. And Katyal feels that the Indian political class has failed him -- and similar victims of terror attacks. His son Rupin Katyal was one of the passengers of the Indian Airlines flight 814 which terrorists linked to Pakistan hijacked Dec 24, 1999 after it had taken off from Kathmandu.
Rupin Katyal and his wife Rachna, who married only earlier that month, were returning from their honeymoon when the Pakistan-based militant group Harkat ul-Mujahideen took over the aircraft with 176 people on board.
Read news in full 25/12/13 First Post

AI gets nod to sell 5 Boeing aircraft to Etihad

New Delhi: The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA), on Thursday, approved the proposal by the Civil Aviation Ministry to allow Air India (AI) to go ahead with the sale of its five long-haul Boeing 777 aircraft to Etihad Airways.
The proposal is part of the national carrier’s turnaround plan. Air India had earlier finalised the deal with the Abu Dhabi-based carrier, which has also picked up 24 per cent stake in Jet Airways worth over Rs.2,000 crore.
There was no official word on the approval, but sources in the Cabinet informed that the deal had been given the final go ahead, and was estimated to be around $300-350 million.
However, Air India and Eithad have not revealed the size of the deal. The sale proceeds would be utilised by Air India to partly retire its huge debt and liabilities of over Rs.20,000 crore.
Read news in full 26/12/13 Sujay Mehdudia/The Hindu

Gardens, water fountains set to welcome you at T2 at Mumbai airport

Mumbai: The much-awaited Terminal 2 at Mumbai airport, which will be inaugurated on January 10, has been designed on the theme of ‘gardens in airport’.
About 5,000 square feet of landscape which covers arrival, departure, parking, shopping areas are green areas. The water fountains dotting the areas give a feel of serenity and space to passengers.
In contrast, the Bangalore airport, developed by the same operator, has been built as ‘airport in garden’, because the city is known as the city of gardens.
The officials involved with the development of the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (CSIA)  said green cover starts with palm trees lined on both side of the elevated road connected to the airport.
Read news in full 25/12/13 Shahkar Abidi/Daily News & Analysis

Crunch in seat capacity behind high domestic air fares

New Delhi: year after Kingfisher Airlines discontinued operations, the combined capacity of all airlines in India has barely recovered to 2,30,000 seats, still 10,000 adrift of the number offered when Vijay Mallya’s airline was in operation.
The low pace of expansion of capacity by the airlines even in a year when the domestic passenger demand has risen an anemic 6 per cent is the reason for the high fares in the industry.
“Currently, average fares in the domestic sector are about 25 per cent higher than last year. We would see fares in the domestic sector rationalising, if airlines increase capacity (more). An aggressive capacity addition by the airlines would have offset up to 10 percentage points hike in fares,” said Sharad Dhall, president at Yatra.com, an online travel portal.

Rocketing charges at airports on govt radar

New Delhi: Private airport developers will have to progressively reduce landing and parking charges for domestic and international airlines as they recover their investment from the projects with the civil aviation ministry preparing a proposal to amend rules.
"After initial investment, private developers would have to reduce airport charges as they are expected to get returns and benefits must kick in thereafter," an official told Mail Today on condition of anonymity." If we don't amend the rules, private airport developers would continue hiking airport charges, which would be detrimental to the aviation industry," said an official.
The carry- forward losses for a five- year period between 2011- 12 and 2016- 17 for airports due to expenditure on new infrastructure that have to be recovered are: Kolkata airport ` 600 crore, Chennai ` 100 crore, Jaipur ` 350 crore, Lucknow ` 150 crore, Guwahati ` 95 crore and Ahmedabad ` 47 crore. The ministry feels that all the airports that are to be privatised will over the period reduce their airport charges if its proposal is approved.
Read news in full 26/12/13 India Today

Delhi airport operator seeks status quo on tariffs

New Delhi: Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL) has sought a directive from an appellate tribunal to the airport regulator, asking it to put on hold the determination of user charges for the five-year period starting April 1, 2014, till pending appeals against the regulator's earlier tariff order are adjudicated.
Seeking a status quo on its airport charges, which civil aviation ministry officials had claimed would fall by 50% from next April, DIAL has told the tribunal that it has recently submitted its tariff proposal for April 2014 to March 2019 with the Airports Economic Regulatory Authority (AERA) of India.
The operator has urged the tribunal to ask the regulator to await its final decision on unresolved issues such as the return on equity the operator should earn, before setting new tariffs.
Read news in full 23/12/13 Vikas Dhoot/Economic Times

SpiceJet offers one million discount tickets

Mumbai: SpiceJet has launched thirty day advance purchase offer giving upto 65% discount on tickets. The airline is offering a million seats at prices starting from Rs 2,157 onwards, the airline announced today.
The travel season will end early in January and this will impact the airline load factors. The promotional offer is an airline's attempt to increase occupancy and encourage forward bookings. Airline load factors fall during February-March as this is not a travel season.
The travel validity of the scheme is from January 19-April 15. Lowest fares are available 90 days from booking date. The airline which has a fleet of 56 planes offers 40,000 seats on its domestic network.
Read news in full 23/12/13 Aneesh Phadnis/Business Standard

Diageo ruling boosts chances of Rs 6,000-crore Kingfisher Airlines loan recovery

Mumbai: What appeared to be a case of Rs 7,000 crore of public money gone down the drain with the collapse of Kingfisher Airlines, now appears recoverable after the Karnataka High Court declared guarantor United Breweries Holdings' share sale to Diageo Plc void.
The case of more than a dozen lenders, led by the State Bank of India and Punjab National Bank, got a boost when the Karnataka High Court last week annulled UB Holdings' sale of 6.9% stake in United Spirits to Diageo, saying bankers have a claim over guarantor's assets.
United Breweries Holdings, a Vijay Mallya Group's holding company with stakes in United Spirits, United Breweries (the makers of Kingfisher beer and Mangalore Chemicals), has guaranteed about Rs 6,000 crore of nearly Rs 7,000 crore loans of Kingfisher Airlines, said bankers.

AirAsia India may get SOP for domestic services by January end

Mumbai: AirAsia India is likely to receive the schedule operator permit (SOP), which will allow it to operate air services in the country, by next month, sources said. "We are working on the airline's application (for SOP). In all likelihood, the carrier will have it in place by January end," sources at the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) told.
AirAsia India, which is the subsidiary of Malaysia-based no-frills carrier AirAsia, had applied to the DGCA in September for SOP, days after it received no objection certificate from the Civil Aviation Ministry. The process of examining the application is almost over, sources said.
AirAsia owns 49 per cent stake while Tata Sons owns 30 per cent and Arun Bhatia of Telestra Tradeplace owns 21 per cent in AirAsia India.
Read news in full 22/12/13 PTI/Times of India

Airports: the next shopping destination

In 2005, I travelled to Singapore for the first time and I was stunned to see Changi airport. In fact, I didn’t feel like coming out since it had so much to offer travellers. The duty free shops were stacked with all manner of delights — from books to clothes to bags, to shoes, to watches to fragrances and food, the list goes on. Though not at par with Changi, today India too has some good airports that are also becoming great retail destinations for brands, both domestic and international. Yes, this concept is already a success at global airports and now it’s gripping India as well.
Brands such as Burberry, Bottega Veneta, Hermes, Tag Heuer, Gucci, Bvlgari, Montblanc, Ferrari and Chanel among others offer products related to fashion, jewellery and accessories. The reasons behind this phenomenon don’t need a detailed research. An average of one lakh travellers arrive or depart every day from the Terminal 3 of Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport. Even if one considers footfalls at a top shopping mall or market of the country on a Sunday or a national holiday, I doubt if the turnout comes to even half that figure.
Read news in full 23/12/13 Gautam Gupta/mydigitalfc.com

Airlines focus on innovating mobile payment offerings

Mumbai: Airlines are focused on innovating their mobile payment offerings to capture anticipated revenue potential, according to the Alternative Payment and Distribution Landscape: Airlines and Alternatives – The Facts whitepaper, launched by WorldPay, a leader in airline settlements and payments.
The whitepaper, based on a research study of 56 global airline carriers – from low cost to traditional – found that mobile payments (payments for transactions made on a mobile device) are now a key area of focus for airlines: 57 per cent of airlines said mobile has the greatest potential to drive revenue over the next two years – equal to credit cards (57 per cent).
The acceptance of mobile payments has already grown to 25 per cent in 2013, an increase from 10 per cent in 2012.

Jet Air in pact with Turkish Airlines

Mumbai: Jet Airways (India) Ltd has entered into a fresh aircraft leasing arrangement with Turkish Airlines for its Airbus 330-200 wide bodied jets.
The Indian company, which is 24 per cent owned by Etihad Airways, will lease out three of its idle A330s to the Turkish carrier for six years, according to sources.
A Jet spokesperson did not comment on the development, and the financial details could not be ascertained.
At the end of the second quarter, Jet said it had grounded five A330s and had initiated discussions with players for both an outright sale and long-term lease arrangements.
If the company is successful in an outright sale of these aircraft, its debt portfolio will shrink by $200 million, the airline's chief financial officer Ravishankar Gopalakrishnan had said then. Debt at the country’s second largest airline was at $1.9 billion as on September 30, 2013.
Read news in full 23/12/13 Adith Charlie/Business Line

Air India to reduce employee expenses, enhance productivity

New Delhi: State-owned Air India is set to clamp down sharply on staff costs over the next three years to sustain its improved financial performance through a rejig in organisation structure and implementation of monitoring systems to better performance parameters of employees.
While staff costs as a proportion of overall expenses are projected to decline to 12.9% from 14.7% in the last financial year, with the new monitoring systems in place productivity per employee is targeted to increase by 23% to Rs 85 lakh in FY14 as compared to Rs 69 lakh at the end of March 2013. According to official data, productivity per employee improved by 18% in the last financial year.

AirAsia India may get schedule operator permit by January-end: report

Mumbai: AirAsia India is likely to receive the schedule operator permit (SOP), which will allow it to operate air services in the country, by next month, according to sources.
"We are working on the airline's application (for SOP). In all likelihood, the carrier will have it in place by January end," sources from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) told PTI.
AirAsia India, which is the subsidiary of Malaysia-based no-frills carrier AirAsia, had applied to the DGCA in September for SOP, days after it received no objection certificate from the Civil Aviation Ministry.
Read News in full 22/12/13 PTI/NDTV.com

Secret of IndiGo's consistent profits: What makes it prosper despite a troubled industry

When IndiGo, India's largest airline by passengers carried, reported a profit of Rs 787 crore in the 2013 financial year, it stunned many in a manner unusual for an earnings broadcast. Aviation has always been a thorny industry, one as is said only half in jest that makes millionaires out of billionaires, but Indian aviation has stood out as notoriously brutal owing to high taxes and costly airport charges.
The year to March 2013 also happened to be the worst in recent years due to a steep increase in fuel prices and weakening rupee. During the year, Kingfisher AirlinesBSE 1.30 % shut shop and IndiGo's competitors made losses of more than $1 billion.

Is a Vancouver–India air link in our future?

It has always surprised me, given the large South Asian population in Canada (and especially Metro Vancouver), that air links between the two countries are almost non-existent.
After all, the South Asian community — at 1.6 million strong — is the country’s largest visible minority, outnumbering Chinese-Canadians (although, in Metro, the Chinese are the largest group).
It is a community whose members have excelled at every level of society, from politics to business and from entertainment to sports. Meanwhile, bilateral trade between the two countries has grown to more than $2 billion annually.
So it is strange that Canada, in its entirety, has only one daily air service to and from India (Jet Airway’s Toronto-Delhi flight, which makes a stop in Brussels). In comparison, Vancouver alone has about 10 daily flights to destinations in China.
Read News in full 22/12/13 Chuck Chiang/Vancouver Sun

A-380s await Ajit’s nod to start commercial flights from India

New Delhi: Superjumbo A-380s could soon land in Mumbai if Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh gives his nod, several years after some major foreign carriers started seeking permission to use these large Airbus planes. Issues like clogging of airport facilities like baggage handling and speedy immigration and clearance for over 500 passengers at one go were analysed and decisions to overcome them taken by a group of officials, led by civil aviation secretary KN Srivastava, ministry officials said.
The proposal would now have to be cleared by the civil aviation minister before it can be implemented, they said. The proposal is to start the flights of the aircraft, the world's largest commercial jets, from Mumbai and then from Delhi, they said, adding that one more airport is being readied for the operations of these aircraft.

'GoAir expects to sustain profitability in FY14'

Mumbai: Wadia group-promoted budget carrier GoAir today said it expects to sustain profitability in FY'14 because of strong growth in the April-June period and good performance expected in the current quarter.
"We delivered a profit last financial year. The first quarter (of 2013-14 fiscal) was the best in terms of profitability for GoAir. Certainly the second quarter was a challenging one. We are confident to deliver good result for the entire financial year," GoAir chief executive Girgio De Roni said here.
He was speaking at a function which was part of the 109th birth anniversary celebrations of JRD Tata, jointly organised by Air India and JRD Tata Memorial Trust.

Industry can ill-afford new capacity

It has been almost an year since the 49 per cent FDI holding in Indian airlines was allowed. Not surprisingly, there have been announcements of some major foreign players venturing into the Indian airline industry either by way of substantial stakeholding in an existing airline or in form of new joint ventures.
Apart from equity infusion that may reduce debt levels, the entry of major global players is expected to bring in operational expertise. Indian Airlines, by virtue of the fact that it may be part of a larger alliance, may get a favourable treatment in various international commercial negotiations.
Customers may also hope for better service quality and better prices due to higher competitions. Other stakeholders in the aviation sector such as airports, ancillary service providers, booking agents and the like may sense higher revenue opportunity.

GoAir mulls leasing planes to retain market share

Mumbai: GoAir is evaluating plans to lease planes over the next two to three years, to retain its market share as India opens to two new domestic airlines.
The Wadia group-run airline has 17 Airbus A320 planes now and will add three more aircraft by next July. It has no further deliveries scheduled till 2016, when Airbus rolls out its fuel-efficient A320neo.
GoAir has 72 of the A320neo on order but is now also looking at options to increase capacity till it begins receiving the former. AirAsia India, which is awaiting approval from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, has indicated it will import 10 planes in its first year of operations. Tata-Singapore Airlines also plans to launch services next year, raising the competition for existing airlines.
“We are in discussion with Airbus and leasing companies. No decision has been taken. We are evaluating plans,” GoAir’s chief executive officer, Giorgio De Roni, told Business Standard on Friday.
He said the  management was studying market growth and demand evolution. A decision in the matter was not easy, he said, with weak market conditions and uncertainties in the regulatory framework, dollar movement and the price of aviation turbine fuel. De Roni said he could not share a figure for the additional planes which could be taken on lease, as a decision was yet to be taken.
Read news in full 21/12/13 Aneesh Phadnis/Business Standard

Air India appoints 'biggest violator' as its operational head, pilots furious

Pilot union is furious after Air India appoints as its head of operations SPS Suri, a pilot with a long record of endangering passengers, turning up late (or not at all) and even falling asleep on flights.
Beleaguered national carrier Air India sparked a fresh controversy by appointing as it head of operations a pilot with a laundry list of operational violations. SPS Suri (58), who has been with the airline since 1983, has over a dozen violations to his name, including two in 2012.
Pilots' unions have strongly opposed the move. A senior member of the Civil Aviation Safety Advisory Committee (CASAC) has written to the chariman and managing director of Air India about Suri's appointment. "The biggest violator is now our boss. How the management and the ministry want to run the show is pretty clear. Now the only option is to quit the airline and look for another job," said a senior pilot from the Indian Commercial Pilots Association.   
Read news in full 20/12/13 Bipin Kumar Singh/Mumbai Mirror

Fly the way you choose

The one problem with an airline’s frequent flyer programme is that you cannot pick your choice of airline when you redeem your reward points. If you like to pick and choose your airline, then opting for specialised credit cards makes sense.
Citibank — which was associated with Jet Airways in the past — pulled out its co-branded card and introduced an ‘airline agnostic’ credit card which allows you to earn miles and redeem them across airlines of your choice. Many other banks offer such schemes linked to their specialised credit cards.
So, how do these cards work? When you book airline tickets using your credit card, you are rewarded with points or miles. After reaching a particular threshold, you can use these points or miles for purposes such as booking air tickets, hotels stays and car rentals, among others.
The catch, however, is that maximum points are earned only if you book through the bank’s specified Web site or channel. For example, while Citibank’s PremierMiles card allows you to earn miles for both your airline and non-airline spends, you earn 10 miles for every Rs 100 you spend on all airline bookings made at airline owned Web sites, airline counters or through premiermiles.co.in. But for all other purchases you earn only 4 miles for every Rs 100.
Read News In Full 21/12/13 Radhika Merwin/Business Line

Malindo Air to start daily flights from Tiruchi

Tiruchi:Malindo Air, a Malaysian-based hybrid airline, will launch its commercial flight operations from Tiruchi, Delhi, Mumbai and Ahmedabad to Kuala Lumpur shortly.
The joint Malaysia – Indonesia airline, which is a member of the PT Lion Group, will start daily flights from Tiruchi on January 2. The flying time between Tiruchi and Kuala Lumpur will be three hours and 45 minutes.
The airline will start daily flights from Delhi on December 30.
The airline will operate daily flights from Ahmedabad and Mumbai on January 27 and February 15 respectively.
Addressing the media here on Friday, its Chief Executive Officer Chandran Rama Muthy said the airline would operate its Boeing 737 – 900 ER latest aircraft for its India operations with a 180–seat capacity, including 12 business class in every flight offering extra legroom and comfort.
Read news in full21/12/13 R. Rajaram/The Hindu

A Need for speed

India’s skies are crowded with too many airlines (even after the crash-landing of several), carrying neither too many fliers, nor making too much money. Most, in fact, not making any money at all.
And all of them are running scared, for next year will see the entry of new airlines, guaranteeing poaching of passengers, not to speak of staff (mainly pilots, not a very populous tribe in India, anyway). Be ready for the worst kind of aerial dogfights in which the downing of a few more carriers is very likely.
Everyone knows India is market full of promises. The civil aviation ministry never fails to tom-tom that by 2020 India will have the third largest aviation market with 336 million domestic and 85 million international passengers, and $120 billion invested.
Where do we stand today? Between January and November this year, airlines carried 55.8 million passengers, a traffic growth of 4.52 per cent over the same 11 months last year. In November domestic carriers flew 5.14 million, just 2.33 per cent more than in the same month last year. Those are official data from the directorate-general of civil aviation.
Read news in full 20/12/13 mydigitalfc.com

Mumbai airport gets to receive first A380s, world’s largest commercial aircraft, flying into country

New Delhi: The Mumbai airport is set to be the first airport in the country to see the world’s largest commercial aircraft — the Airbus 380, with the civil aviation ministry allowing A380 operations in the country by foreign carriers in a phased manner.
“We have decided to allow foreign carriers to bring in Airbus 380s in a phased manner. It has been decided that Mumbai will be the first airport, where operation by Airbus 380s will be allowed,” said a senior ministry official, who attended a meeting here on the issue.
He added that a decision in favour of Mumbai was taken as the city is getting a new international terminal that would be inaugurated in January.
Allowing carriers to operate Airbus 380s into India would be a change of stance by the government, which has, till now, stopped airlines from flying these planes into India. Lufthansa, Emirates and Singapore Airlines are three international carriers, who have shown interest in operating the jumbo aircraft into India.
Read news in full 20/12/13 Mihir Mishra/Financial Express

HC tells air carriers not to fly passengers without visas

Kochi: Air carriers, especially international operators, are obligated to prevent transportation of passengers without valid documents, the high court said on Friday while dismissing a petition by Kuwait Airways.
The air carrier had questioned the Rs 1 lakh fine imposed by the Bureau of Immigration (BoI) for transporting a Kuwaiti national from Kuwait International Airport to Kochi on September 5 this year without a valid visa.

Tata Sons-Singapore Airlines Begins Assembling Top Team

New Delhi:  Tata Sons Ltd and Singapore Airlines Ltd have started to put together a team that will execute their new joint-venture airline in India, the South-East Asian airline's third attempt to tap the Indian aviation market.
Tata-SIA has now appointed several members of its top leadership team, said two people familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified.
These include Phee Teik Yeoh, who is likely to lead the Tata-SIA project and is currently divisional vice-president (IT application services) in Singapore Airlines. Yeoh has been joined by Giamming Toh, who has shifted from his position of GM India for Singapore Airlines to the new team. Besides these, Singapore Airline's captain of the A330 fleet Mandesh Singh and Quah Lin, regional maintenance manager, will also help with the project, one of the two people said.
Read News In full 19/12/13 Tarun Shukla/Mint/Aviation Pros.com

‘AI staff party delayed flight by three hours’

Mumbai: An Air India flight to Delhi was delayed by three hours on Tuesday as its crew was busy attending a staff party, the airline's engineers have alleged in a complaint to the chairman.
AI flight 116, from London to Delhi, was diverted to Mumbai on Tuesday morning because of poor visibility caused by fog in the national capital. The aircraft, a Boeing 787 Dreamliner, was supposed to leave for Delhi at 9.30 am, but took off at 12.30 pm.
All-India Engineering Services Limited (AIESL), a body representing the airline's engineering staff, claims the delay resulted from unavailability of flight crew, who were busy celebrating a senior executive's promotion at AI's office in Medicon Bhavan.
Rerad news in full 19/12/13 Aditya Anand/Mumbai Mirror

Less flights from Bhopal burn holes in pockets of flyers

Bhopal: Madhya Pradesh government's move to make the state a hot investment destination and ensure good air connectivity to the state capital has hit an air pocket. The recent move to slash VAT on aviation turbine fuel from 23% to 5% has also failed to push flights from the state capital.
Bhopal currently is connected only to Delhi, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Raipur and Hyderabad with limited number of flights. It has practically no flight service to East and South India.
While government's move to invite private airlines to operate in the state had miserably failed in the past, the decision to lower VAT on ATF too made no difference.

Recurrent fog disruptions indicate gross mismanagement of Indian aviation

Dense winter fog over vast parts of north India has severely hit aviation across the country. On Tuesday, over 250 flights were delayed, 19 cancelled and seven flights meant to land in Delhi were diverted to other airports. With foggy airspace over the national capital, commuters in other parts of the country too felt the cascading effects of delayed connecting flights. While officials blamed sudden advent of fog for the chaos, it's difficult to understand the lack of preparedness. Winter fog conditions in north India are an annual phenomenon and shouldn't catch airlines and airport authorities unawares. Yet, every year commuters have to put up with flight delays during winter, leading to substantial losses to the economy.

Air India to expand code share partnerships

Mumbai: Air India will begin discussions with Star Alliance member-airlines, including United, Air Canada and Lufthansa, for code shares on domestic and international routes. Last week, the Star Alliance board had decided to commence Air India’s integration into the 28-member alliance.
A code share is a marketing agreement between two airlines that helps enhance an airline’s revenue. It allows an airline to put its code on a flight operated by a partner airline and sell tickets on routes on which it does not have operations. With Air India joining the Star Alliance, the carrier’s frequent flyer programme will be integrated with other Star Alliance members’ loyalty programmes, an attractive option for business travellers. “We will be talking to Air Canada, United, Lufthansa, Singapore Airlines and other airlines for code shares. These discussions will happen concurrently, along with the integration process. We would like to code share with Air Canada because we have stopped our flights to Canada,” said an Air India official.
Read news in full 19/12/13 Aneesh Phadnis/Business Standard

Jet Airways Wins Top Honours At Global Traveller 'Wines On The Wing' Awards

Mumbai:  Jet Airways, India's premier international airline, has won the top honours in the prestigious 'Wines on the Wing' awards, instituted by the US-based Global Traveller magazine.
While two of the airline's wines - Puligny Montrachet Louis Jadot and Domaine Lous Moreau Chablis - occupied the first and second spots in the first-class white wines category, Billecart-Salmon Brut came in fifth in the business-class champagne category.In the first class category, the airline secured the third position in overall standings.
At the contest held in Los Angeles, 22 of the world's best airlines served their best white, red and sparkling wines to 31 expert judges in a blind-tasting session.
Read News in full 18/12/13 India PR wire

Etihad adds Jaipur to its India network

The Abu Dhabi-based carrier will fly daily services to Jaipur from 1 April 2014. Simultaneously, the airline has also announced the addition of daily services to Rome, Italy and four flights per week to Yerevan, Armenia. The new routes will join the previously announced daily service to Los Angeles, Zurich, Perth, Medina and three flights per week to Dallas, all of which are scheduled to commence in 2014.
Read news in full traveldailymedia

Iqbal Mulla is the new TAAI President Mukesh Patel joins the Managing Committee

In an official communiqué sent by Harmandeep Singh Anand, the new Hon. Secretary General and circulated to all Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI) members a short while ago, Iqbal Mulla has been declared as the Association’s President for the term 2013-15. The communiqué states that Mulla after obtaining legal opinion, has exercised his entitlement to a second or casting vote as Chairman, in addition to his own vote, which he is entitled to as a member as per the provision of Article 79 of the Articles of Association of TAAI in case of equality of votes. 

According to the communiqué all the elected members of the TAAI Managing Committee have assumed their respective offices including Mulla and Patel.

Oman, Abu Dhabi, and Dubai jointly promote cruise tourism in the Gulf

According to recent reports, the Ministry of Tourism Oman (Oman Tourism), Abu Dhabi Tourism & Culture Authority (TCA Abu Dhabi) and Dubai’s Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM) have announced a partnership to promote cruise tourism in the GCC and has launched this partnership with a Cruise Gulf Road Show.

This initiative was taken to increase the number of residents in the region who consider cruise as a holiday option; increase the awareness of the Gulf as a cruise tourism destination; and to train and motivate regional travel trade agents to sell cruises in the Gulf sailing out of Dubai.
Read News In full travelnewsdigest

CCI slaps Rs 1 crore fine on Etihad in Jet Airways deal

NEW DELHI: The Competition Appellate Tribunal (Compat) issued notices on Thursday to the competition regulator, Jet Airways and Etihad Airways on a plea against the approval of the acquisition of a 24 per cent stake in the Indian carrier by the United Arab Emirates airlines.

This followed former executive director of Air India Jitendra Bhargava challenging clearance to the deal by the Competition Commission of India (CCI). Compat will hear the case on January 9. It rejected Bhargava's appeal for a stay on the CCI approval for the proposed stake sale. "The tribunal would want... to hear both the parties on merits before deciding on the matter," the Compat bench said.

Separately, CCI has imposed a penalty of Rs1 crore on Etihad Airways under Section 43 of the Competition Act for completing parts of the deal even before the regulator could approve the proposed transaction. Bhargava had last week filed two separate appeals with the tribunal. One said the deal would have an adverse effect on competition in India.
Read News In full   ET Bureau | 19 Dec

Air traffic grows 2.3% in Nov

New Delhi: Domestic air passenger traffic grew moderately with the country’s six scheduled airlines together carrying 5.14 million passengers in November. This is an increase of around two% over the 5.02 million passengers who had availed of air travel services during the same period last year.
Data available with the Directorate General of Civil Aviation show even though overall capacity in the domestic market went up by 10.5% last month, demand increased at a much slower pace at 2.5%.
Interestingly, state-owned Air India overtook SpiceJet to become the second largest passenger airline in the domestic market with share of 19.3% in air traffic during the month. Budget carrier IndiGo continued to maintain a strong lead in the domestic market with nearly one out of every three travelers preferring to fly with the airline. Indigo recorded market share of 28.6% during the month, significantly higher than Jet Airways (which along with low-cost arm JetLite) accounted for 24.1% (Jet Airways 18.5% and JetLite 5.6%)% of the domestic air travel market.
Read News in full 17/12/13 Sharmistha Mukherjee/Business Standard

GoAir outsmarts IndiGo, is surprise market gainer in November

GoAir, one of the smallest domestic airlines, was the surprise gainer in November as it filled up planes and managed to notch up market share, at the cost of market leader IndiGo. For the first time in seven months, IndiGo lost share when GoAir notched up 8.8% against 7.7% in October. IndiGo came down almost two percentage points to settle at 28.6% versus 30.2% in October. Except IndiGo, all other airlines managed to fill up more of their aircraft compared to October, some with the help of discounts and yet others by nimble marketing methods. November also saw IndiGo's famed on-time performance slip.
In November, overall air traffic growth slowed with a month on month increase of just 2.33 percent against an almost 10 percent increase seen in October. A little over 5.58 crore passengers took to domestic skies this November against 5.34 crore in the same month last year. November saw all airlines except IndiGo improve their load factors - which measures the number of filled seats on a plane. IndiGo lost marginally to settle at 74.6 percent (74.8 percent) which means every fourth seat on its planes was empty
Read news in full 17/12/13 Sindhu Bhattacharya/First Post

Indian airlines flew over 550 lakh people in 11 months

New Delhi: Indian airlines flew over 4.5 per cent more passengers in the 11 months of this year compared to the same period last year, with IndiGo retaining its top position in market share, official data showed today.
In November alone, the domestic carriers flew 51.37 lakh passengers, registering a growth of 2.33 per cent over the 50.20 lakh passengers flown by them in the same period of the previous year.
Between January and November, the airlines carried 558.39 lakh people compared to 534.25 in the same period last year, registering a growth of 4.52 per cent, the data released by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation showed.
Read News In Full 17/12/13 PTI/Business Standard

Government may relax eligibility criteria for Indian carriers flying abroad

New Delhi: The government has begun consultations on relaxing the eligibility criteria for allowing Indian carriers to fly abroad, Rajya Sabha was informed.
"Consultations have been made with Directorate General of Civil Aviation ( DGCA) to explore the possibility to relax eligibility criteria based on international practices," Minister of State for Civil Aviation KC Venugopal said while replying to a question.
As per the prevailing norms, an Indian carrier can qualify to operate international services only after it has flown domestically for five years and has 20 aircraft.
Venugopal was asked by AIADMK member AW Rabi Bernard whether such consultations had begun and whether the move would benefit airlines like GoAir or new entrants like Tata- SIA.
To a question, he said no proposal was being considered by the Civil Aviation Ministry to privatise Air India.
Read News In full 17/12/13 PTI/Economic Times

Many missed link flights from Delhi, passengers allege airlines weren't co-operating

New Delhi: Commuters were stranded for hours at the airport on Monday morning with several flights delayed or cancelled due to the season's first dense fog. While many complained that the onset of fog had put a damper on their plans, some at the departure terminal were angry over the alleged lack of cooperation on the part of the airline authorities.
A group of British passengers from Jaipur said they were stranded at the airport for hours and even made to wait on the tarmac for nearly an hour. Their flight was three hours late and they missed the connecting flight to Varanasi. Airline officials were of no help and they were finally forced to buy fresh tickets.
A few passengers on a Delhi-New York flight said they were made to wait on the tarmac for over six hours without information on when the flight is going to depart. They were made to sit till 6am. The officials of the airliner said a technical difficulty resulted in delay.
Read News In Full 17/12/13 Somreet Bhattacharya, Tenzin Tsomo & Shivani Saxena/Times of India

Parliamentary panel opposes privatisation of AAI-developed airports

New Delhi: A parliamentary panel today opposed the privatisation of six AAI-developed airports including Kolkata and Chennai, and charged the Civil Aviation Ministry with doing "a great disservice" by "using public property for private profits".
Instead of giving away the airports to the private sector "on a platter", state-run Airports Authority of India (AAI) should form a subsidiary or a special purpose vehicle to grant management contracts to entities having expertise in the field, the Standing Committee on Transport, Tourism and Culture recommended.
n its report tabled in Parliament, the committee said it was "dismayed that instead of strengthening AAI by giving it much needed financial and administrative autonomy to enable it to take its own decisions without being influenced/advised by either the Ministry or the Planning Commission, a decision to give our airports on platter to private parties was taken.
Read news in full 17/12/13 PTI/Economic Times

SpiceJet-Tiger Air deal- What it means for Indian aviation

Mumbai: Airline sector is witnessing some interesting developments off-late. Even as AirAsia is yet to start its operations and Jet Airways is yet to formalise its relationship with Etihad, SpiceJet has signed an inter-line agreement with Singapore based low fare airline Tiger Airways Singapore Pte Ltd.
There is nothing much in the deal that deserves a 12 per cent rise in the stock price that was seen when the news hit the market. Inter-line agreement is nothing more than SpiceJet getting rights to sell tickets of Tiger Airways along with its own tickets and vice-versa. It will help passengers flying abroad to plan their trip better, taking services of two low cost airlines to complete their journey. The impact on SpiceJet's financials is unlikely to be significant, but the underlying message in the deal is.

CIAL exports Rs 1-cr-worth flowers to Qatar

Kochi: The Cochin International Airport Ltd on Monday exported a consignment of fresh flowers to Doha on the occasion of Qatar National Day, which falls on December 18.
The shipment of 10,000 packets totalling 53,000 kg of flowers from Kerala and Tamil Nadu has been despatched through a special Etihad freighter. The Rs 1-crore export order was executed by procuring flowers from different locations in the two States. They consisted of jasmine, lilies, polyanthus, tuberose etc.
The perishable centre at CIAL, which can handle highly perishable products, is the key selling point to attract this type of business to Kochi. The centre is capable of handling temperature sensitive products such as vegetables, fruits, flowers, marine and pharma items etc.
Read News In Full 16/12/13 Business Line

Inter-Ministerial Group for Aviation Hubs

The Minister of State for Civil Aviation, Shri K.C. Venugopal informed the Rajya Sabha today that the Union Cabinet in its meeting held on 9th May, 2013 had decided to constitute a standing Inter-Ministerial Group (IMG) to remove the bottlenecks and to provide the right coordination mechanism for the development of aviation hubs in India.
Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Kolkata and Chennai International Airports have been identified for development as international hubs.
Read News In full 17/12/13 Press Information Bureau

Etihad launches 8 new routes

Etihad Airways announced its route expanse plans to introduce three more destinations to its core international network in 2014.
The airline will commence daily services to Rome and Jaipur, together with four flights per week to the Armenian capital, Yerevan.
The new routes will join a previously announced daily service to Los Angeles and three flights per week to Dallas, plus daily services to Zurich (June 1), Perth (July 15) and Medina (February 1), all of which are scheduled to commence next year.
Jaipur, which launches on April 1, is part of Etihad’s India expansion plans, which will bring the total number of Indian cities served by Etihad to 10, with existing routes including Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kochi, Kozhikode, Mumbai, New Delhi and Trivandrum.
Etihad Airways has doubled the number of flights and tripled the number of seats to Mumbai and New Delhi, adding a second daily service and introducing wide-bodied jets on both routes from Abu Dhabi, effective immediately.
Read News in full 17/12/13 Emirates 24|7

SpiceJet, Tigerair sign 3-year interline agreement

Hyderabad/Pune: Budget airliners SpiceJet Ltd and Tigerair of Singapore have entered into a three-year interline agreement to offer greater connectivity between flights operated by both the carriers.
This alliance helps connect 14 destinations covered by Spicejet with Singapore.
As part of the introductory promotional fare, one can fly to Singapore one-way for Rs 4,699 and the return journey starts from Rs 9,998, all inclusive.
SpiceJet is the first Indian low-fare carrier to establish such an arrangement with a foreign airliner. This partnership will result in a major boost for tourism and business travel between the two countries, both the airliners said.
Operations through this alliance will begin on January 6, 2014. SpiceJet’s domestic network from 14 Indian cities can enjoy seamless connection through Hyderabad’s Rajiv Gandhi International Airport onto Tigerair’s Singapore-bound flights.
Read news in full 16/12/13 V Rishi Kumar/Alka Kshirsagar/Business Line

SpiceJet expects complete turnaround in a year

Hyderabad: India's low-cost airline SpiceJet expects to complete its financial turnaround in a year's time.
SpiecJet Chief Operating Officer Sanjiv Kapoor told reporters here Monday that it would take a year to have SpiceJet as a completely new airline.
"It doesn't mean we are going to be making losses for the next one year. It means that one year later we will be in a position where we will complete the turnaround. I expect the airline to start getting profitable before the (calendar) year is over," he said.
Kapoor said they were in talks with strategic investors but declined to go into the details.
"There are a few strategic investors we are talking to. It is not 20 and it is not two. We have our plans and we are executing them," he said. He was also hopeful that this would help the company wipe out all its accumulated losses.
Read news in full 16/12/13 IANS/daijiworld.com

Court permits Air India to pay part of compensation to Mangalore crash pilot’s kin

Mumbai: The Bombay High Court on Monday passed an order directing the labour court to disburse Rs 2.75 crore to the family of Captain Zlatko Glusica, the pilot of the Air India Express flight that crashed in Mangalore on May 22, 2010, killing 158 people.
The Glusicas had approached the labour court in 2012, saying that while families of the first officer and crew members of the ill-fated flight were paid the workmen's compensation due to them, they received nothing. Air India disputed the compensation amount claimed by the family.
On October 18, the labour court in Mumbai rejected Air India's claim and ordered it to deposit $7.45 lakh (Rs 4.63 crore) as per the workmen compensation package, plus 50 per cent of the compensation amount as penalty for delaying the payment, and 12 per cent interest per year on the compensation amount from the date of the accident till the date of depositing the amount.

Fog disrupts operations at Delhi airport 140 flights affected

New Delhi: Dense fog at the Delhi International Airport (DIAL) today disrupted operations for over two hours leading to delays and diversions of around 140 flights causing inconvenience to passengers.
While schedules of around 131 domestic and international flights were delayed from half-an-hour to three hours, nine flights had to be diverted to Jaipur, Ahmedabad and Lucknow as visibility at the runway dipped below 50 metres.
Of the nine flights, six were diverted to Jaipur, two to Ahmedabad and one to Lucknow. The minimum visibility required for a CAT-III B compliant aircraft to land using the instrument landing system (ILS) is 50 metres.
A senior airline executive informed, “Usually the visibility required for landing at and departing from Delhi airport is 75 metres and 125 metres respectability. With visibility dropping below 50 metres, operations were affected till around 9.30 am.” Fog started to envelop the airport soon after midnight but it thickened around 6.30 am. No planes could either take-off or land at the airport between 7 am and 9.30 am.
Read news in full 16/12/13 Sharmistha Mukherjee/Business Standard

I-T is the new suitor for Kingfisher House

Bangalore: The I-T dept has repeated its claim after the Karnataka high court rejected a plea from the airline seeking to prevent its lenders from seizing the property
Even as Kingfisher Airlines wrangles with its lenders over its Kingfisher House property in Mumbai, the income-tax department has staked the first claim to the property based on its claim to dues of Rs 350 crore from the company.
The I-T department has issued an advertisement in newspapers saying any person transacting in the property would be held in violation of the second schedule of the Income-tax Act, 1961.
The I-T department has repeated its claim after the Karnataka high court rejected a plea from the airline seeking to prevent its lenders from seizing the property. SBICAP Trustee Company had last month moved to seize the property to recover some of its dues to the defaulting airline.
Read News In full 16/12/13 Business Standard

Air India integration with Star Alliance: Many miles to go yet

New Delhi: A team of Star Alliance, which has decided to restart Air India's integration process suspended since 2011, will arrive here on Wednesday to assess the steps needed to be taken by the national carrier to blend its network with that of the global airlines' grouping.
"A Star Alliance Team will arrive here on December 18. They will carry out gap analysis. I am working on a very tight schedule on a day-to-day basis. The entire process is likely to take three-four months but it will depend on what they would require," Air India CMD Rohit Nandan said on arrival from Vienna today.
The team will be staying here for a couple of days to carry out gap analysis.
Gap analysis is a technique that businesses use to determine the steps needed to be taken to move from the current state to the desired future state. In this case, it would be blending Air India's network with that of the 28- member Star Alliance.
Read News In full 15/12/13 PTI/Financial Express

Jet Airways announces additional flights to Dammam from Kochi, Chennai

New Delhi: Private carrier, Jet Airways on Monday announced addition of two daily flights from Kochi and Chennai to Dammam in Saudi Arabia from January 15 next.
While the Chennai flight will be operated via Abu Dhabi to Dammam, the Kochi-Dammam will be served by a daily direct flight.
Jet Airways flight 9W 570 will depart Kochi at 0620 hours and arrive into Dammam at 0920 hours (local time). The return flight 9W 569 will depart Dammam at 1020 hours (LT) and arrive at Chennai at 1720 hours (LT). Jet Airways offers its guests from Kochi an evening option to Dammam via Abu Dhabi. 9W 576 Kochi to Abu Dhabi will be rescheduled to depart Kochi at 2040 hours and arrive into Abu Dhabi at 2330 hours, which in turn connects to 9W526 Abu Dhabi-Dammam.
From Chennai the daily flight 9W 526 will depart at 2015 hours and arrive into Abu Dhabi at 2325 hours. On the return leg, 9W 525 will depart Dammam at 0650 hours and arrive at Abu Dhabi at 0915 hours (LT), and depart at Abu Dhabi at 1045 hours to arrive at Chennai at 1615 hours (LT).      Read News In full 16/12/13 Sujay Mehdudia/The Hindu 

Abu Dhabi to become Jet’s global hub from Jan. 15

Mumbai: Jet Airways will start using Abu Dhabi as its gateway for international operations starting January 15.
India’s second largest passenger carrier, which recently concluded the process of selling a 24 per cent stake to Etihad Airways, has started two new flights to Dammam in Saudi Arabia from Kochi and Chennai.
The new flights are part of the two airliners’ blueprint of connecting 23 cities in India to Abu Dhabi.
The Chennai-Damman flight will be operated via Abu Dhabi to Dammam, while the Kochi-Dammam route will be serviced by a direct flight, according to a press statement. The airline will deploy a Boeing 737-800 aircraft on these two new services, offering economy and business classes.
Read news in full 16/12/13 Business Line

Fliers from Kolkata, Chennai airports to pay high user fees

New Delhi: Even as the government auditor has cribbed at the high cost of constructing Delhi and Mumbai airports, it has approved a far higher set of costs for the government-run Kolkata and Chennai airports, but which will have to be borne by the passengers.
Worse, the generous cash padding leaves the owner, in this case the Airports Authority of India (AAI) with far less money to finance the 32 other airports it is supposed to bring up to standards to allow for the expansion of the aviation market in India.
At the same time the private sector BIAL has built the Bangalore airport using cash far more efficiently.
At the heart of the excessive cost padding for the AAI-run public sector airports is the percentage of equity that has been built into them.
For instance while the privately built Bangalore airport has a debt-equity ratio of 70:30, the two public sector airports have an equity share of 92 per cent.
Read News In full 16/12/13 Subhomoy Bhattacharjee/Mihir/Financial Express

Gulf carriers worst visa offenders

Kochi:  International airlines operating in the gulf sector are the worst offenders when it comes to flying in passengers without valid visas, the Bureau of Immigration (BoI) has informed the high court.
In an affidavit filed to the court through senior central government counsel T Sanjay, BoI said a central law making air carriers liable for transporting passengers, who don't have visas, was strictly implemented at Cochin International Airport in February last year.
The law, Immigration (Carriers' Liability) Act, was implemented based on instruction from the home ministry and BoI headquarters to streamline the security measures put in place to ensure that only genuine passengers travelled through the airport, the affidavit said.
Human trafficking through Nedumbassery airport, allegedly with the aid of senior police officers, was revealed last year, and a CBI probe is going on.
Read News In Full 16/12/13 eTurboNews

'Stuck at T3 as season's first fog descends on Delhi'

New Delhi: The first fog of the season has disrupted flight operations in Delhi. While the fog is not too intense in the city, as one moves towards the airport, the visibility gets lower.
One Air India official told NDTV that no flight had taken off since 6 am and that most flights were being diverted to Jaipur. Extending its generosity in the winter chill, the domestic airline is giving breakfast to its stranded passengers.
A major problem being experienced by people at Terminal 3 of the Indira Gandhi International Airport is that the display boards are reflecting little information on flight delays.
Read News In Full 16/12/13 NDTV.com

Proposed privatization of Amausi airport fails to attract bidders

LUCKNOW: The proposed privatization of Amausi airport hangs in balance with not many private companies showing interest, apparently due to low profit margins given the less aircraft movement at the airport. But the civil aviation department is still hopeful of sailing through the process in the new year. The department has once again invited bids from private parties by January 7. This, despite strong opposition from the Airports Authority of India (AAI) employees and the standing committee of the Rajya Sabha which has criticized the move while accusing the government of doing "disservice by using public property for private profits".

Sources said there are only 40 aircraft movements (take off plus landing count as one movement) in 24 hours at Amausi airport, in comparison to four movements per minute at airports like Delhi and Mumbai. "This makes the profit margins relatively lesser for any private party. That has been the reason the companies have been citing with the civil aviation ministry in the past," a senior AAI official told TOI.
Read News In Full Dec 17, 2013,Times of india

 

Now, foreign airlines offer up to 40% discount to lure overseas travellers

Early New Year may be a good time to take that dream holiday overseas as foreign airlines, which are facing a drop in demand due to depreciating rupee and rising fuel costs, have significantly stepped up offers to lure the Indian traveller back.
Airlines including Emirates, Qatar Airways, AirAsia and Etihad Airways have lined up attractive offers to customers for the travel period between January and March, which is generally a lean season for the aviation industry.
According to online travel companies and agents, the number of promotional offers by the foreign carriers this years are at least 50% higher compared with the last year.
For example, Etihad Airways ran a scheme for three days, wherein it offered fare to Europe at Rs40,000, while the usual fare to the continent are around Rs60,000.
Read News In full 16/12/13 Yuga Chaudhari/Daily News & Analysis

Bangalore airport may hike UDF by next April

Bangalore: By next April, passengers flying out of the Kempegowda International Airport Bengaluru (KIAB) could pay a higher User Development Fee (UDF) as the Airports Economic Regulatory Authority is reviewing a new fee proposal by the airport's operators. The Bengaluru International Airport was formally renamed KIAB here on Saturday.
"We have submitted a proposal to the regulator and, hopefully, in the next two to three months, it'll announce the new UDF," said GV Sanjay Reddy, MD, BIAL, the promoters and operators of KIAB. Reddy refused to divulge details of the proposed hike, but added the regulator could either agree or disagree with the proposal.
Currently, while each departing domestic passenger pays Rs 260 per head as UDF, an international passenger is charged Rs 1,070. These are ad-hoc fees that BIAL has been charging since the airport began operations in May 2008.
Read News In full 15/12/13 Times of India

Move over Jet-Etihad, Air India to get Star Alliance edge

New Delhi: The national carrier today announced that it is once preparing to join Star Alliance, the most prestigious airline grouping in the world. This means it can now use the wide Star Alliance network, which includes successful airlines such as Singapore Airlines, Lufthansa, THAI and Turkish Airlines as its members, for enhancing overseas operations. In a big way. In fact, if Air India manages to integrate itself with the Alliance in a short span of time, it may also be able to counter stiff competition otherwise coming its way from the Tata-Singapore Airlines alliance. Any which way ones looks at it, the Star Alliance entry can only be good news for Air India. "In a major decision in Vienna today, Star Alliance has unanimously decided to lift the earlier suspension of the process for Air India entry into the alliance. With this decision, final process for eventual entry of AI has begun," Air India said in a statement.
So what exactly will Star Alliance bring to the table? Now, instead of looking for a flight into the Gulf with either Emirates or Jet-Etihad, a passenger wanting to fly international from almost any city in India gets seamless transfers on a single boarding card in some cases. The passenger can book flights to the final destination at one time and hop on to a flight operated by a Star Alliance member anywhere on the route. So even if AI does not directly to fly to a destination, it can now offer flights to that destination on the strength of this alliance.
Read News In full 14/12/13 Sindhu Bhattacharya/First Post

'India to become 3rd largest aviation market in world by 2020'

Bangalore: India is expected to become the third largest aviation market by in the world by 2020 after the US and China, Civil Aviation Secretary K N Shrivastava said here today.
"India is among the fastest growing and currently the ninth largest civil aviation market in the world," he said, speaking at an event here to rename Bengaluru International airport as Kempegowda international airport.
Shrivastava said the country's aviation market is expected to see a major upsurge in traffic in the next 10 years, with 337 million domestic and 84 million international passengers.
At present, the Indian aviation market is witnessing 117 million domestic and 43 million international passengers, he added.
Read News In full 14/12/13 Financial Express

DGCA confident of avoiding downgrade by US regulator

New Delhi: The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) is confident of avoiding a downgrade after the US Federal Aviation Administration completed its audit and most of the 33 issues raised by it in September were found to have been addressed by the Indian aviation regulator.
"There are around 5-6 points which will take some time to get addressed and that has been informed to the FAA," said a senior DGCA official. "Overall, they were very satisfied with the work that has been done and there shouldn't be a downgrade based on the progress since September, but the final decision will be taken in Washington."
The DGCA will find out whether it has done enough to avoid a downgrade after a month when the FAA compiles its report.
Read News In Full 14/12/13 Economic Times

I-T dept stakes claim to Kingfisher assets

Bangalore: The Income Tax Department has said a consortium of banks cannot stake any claim to the assets of Kingfisher Airlines until the department’s dues of over Rs 350 crore are settled.
Early this week, the Karnataka High Court had dismissed a plea by the promoters of the airline to restrain the consortium from getting hold of its building in Mumbai.
“It is a settled proposition of law that the amount due to the Government under any statue and, in this case, under the provisions of Income-Tax Act, 1961, will have priority over other debts and as such the dues of Income-tax Department will have to be settled first before the lender consortium of banks can stake any claim to the property,” the IT department said in a statement.
It further said the airline had deducted tax at source from employees’ salaries and other payments for many years but had failed to remit them to the government account.
The company owes the Department over Rs.350 crore of tax dues, it added.
In this connection, the Department has attached all the assets of the company and is in the process of recovering its dues by sale and attachment of assets and properties of the airline.
Read news in full 14/12/13 Business Line

Bangalore Airport to handle 2 crore passengers, earn Rs 23,000 crore yearly

Bangalore: The new terminal - Terminal 1A -- at the Bengaluru International Airport (BIA) is expected to handle upto 2 crore passengers a year from the present 1.14 crore.
Besides throwing open T1A on Saturday by chief minister Siddaramaiah, the BIA will be renamed as Nadaprabhu Kempegowda International Airport (NKIA) after the founding father of Bangalore.
With the expansion, the airport will be able to earn huge revenues from the passengers. Infrastructure development minister SR Patil told reporters on Friday that the survey conducted by the National Council of Applied Economic Research has estimated that the average income to the state from every passenger is about Rs 11,500. "Taking this as a base, the state is expected to earn Rs 23,000 crore a year from 2 crore passengers," he said.
Read News In full 13/12/13 Anil Kumar M/Times of India

Windshield of Air India Dreamliner cracks

New Delhi: In another Dreamliner scare, the windshield of an Air India Boeing 787 cracked on a flight from Mumbai to Delhi on Saturday. This is the second time in just over a month that such an incident has been reported.
In the latest incident, the aircraft (VT-ANJ) also had a badly damaged landing gear door. The damage was discovered when the aircraft was being prepared for a flight to Frankfurt.
AI sources say the windshield cracked while landing in Delhi and there was no risk to the aircraft. "The landing gear door was damaged by a foreign object. We are investigating what caused the windshield to crack. We will contact Boeing regarding this," said a senior official. The DGCA has ordered a probe into Saturday's incident.
Read News In Full 14/12/13 Saurabh Sinha/Times of India