New Mumbai airport terminal to open on January 15

Mumbai: The Mumbai airport’s new integrated terminal will open on January 15. Air India’s Newark-Mumbai flight will be the first to arrive at the new terminal.
On Saturday, Mumbai International Airport Ltd (MIAL)’s director of operations, Frank McCrorie, sent to all airlines a 45-day notice to prepare for shifting to the new terminal and changing their flight schedules. International operations will be suspended for a few hours during the transition.
The new terminal will have bigger areas for check-in, security check and baggage delivery. The new terminal, called T2, will initially handle only international flights; domestic operations might shift there later. The Mumbai airport handles 30 million passengers a year. The new terminal, spread over 439,000 sq metres, is expected to handle 40 million annually.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is expected to inaugurate the terminal this month so that the launch does not clash with the Election Commision’s code of conduct but operations will begin from January. Passenger traffic at the Mumbai airport is low on Wednesday and, hence, January 15 has been chosen as the launch date.
Read News In Full 02/12/13 Business Standard

Equity infusion in AI 'neither timely, nor adequate': Ajit

New Delhi: Government today acknowledged that equity infusion in Air India has neither been adequate nor timely and the cash-strapped airline would suffer additional interest burden as a consequence.
In the past three years, government has infused a total of Rs 12,200 crore into the national carrier but "there has been a shortfall in equity infusion to the tune of Rs 3,574 crore, leading to a liquidity crunch", Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh said.
"Equity infusion by the government has neither been timely, nor adequate. To meet its working capital requirements with the support of government guarantee, Air India has had to seek short-term working capital loans from the banks. This would result in additional interest burden to the company," Singh told the Parliamentary Consultative Committee at a meeting in Panaji.
Read News In full 02/12/13 PTI/Business Standard

IndiGo is preferred airline third year in a row

New Delhi: Budget carrier IndiGo has emerged as the preferred airline in domestic skies among 2,500 respondents surveyed by travel site TripAdvisor.
The respondents preferred IndiGo over other airlines due to its on-time performance, in-flight maintenance, landing and take-off quality and time taken to deliver baggage.
The respondents rated full-service carrier Jet Airways best in its ground handling services, website experience, check-in process at the airport, cabin crew appearance, in-flight experience in food, entertainment and comfort in terms of enhanced leg space.
National carrier Air India, however, emerged as the least favourite airline for the third consecutive year.
Emirates was voted as the best international airline, followed by German carrier Lufthansa and Singapore Airlines.
Read News In Full 02/12/13 Sharmistha Mukherjee/Business Standard

Kalanithi Maran’s stake in SpiceJet rises to 53.48%

Mumbai: Budget carrier SpiceJet Ltd on Monday allotted 1.5 crore equity shares of Rs 10 each to its promoter Kalanithi Maran following the exercise of conversion right attached to 1.5 crore warrants issued on preferential basis, at an issue price of Rs 36.18 each. As at the end of the second quarter (September 30), Maran’s holding in the company stood at 52.14 per cent with 27.12 crore shares.
Read News In full 02/12/13 Business Line

'Surat can be hub for aircraft repairs'

Surat: The Diamond City's wait for more flights may be longer. But the airport can surely be used to repair and maintain aircraft.
Some agencies working in the field of maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) of aircrafts have been eyeing the Surat airport to set up their facilities, officials told TOI.
Surat airport has three scheduled landing and take offs in a day by two airlines - SpiceJet and Air India. Hence it is free for operation throughout the day. Due to less congestion, various flight tests can be carried out within 1,000 feet and 5 nautical mile area without any Flight Information Centre (FIC).
SD Sharma, airport director, said, "Surat is strategically located and it is very close to Mumbai. Setting up MRO facility at the airport could be a huge success and this will be a step forward in ensuring that the city gets more domestic flights."
Read News In full 02/12/13 Melvyn Reggie Thomas/Times of India

US aviation manufacturers bullish on Indian market

New Delhi: Even as Indian civil aviation industry struggles in a tough operating environment, US based aviation companies are bullish on the sector's future prospects.
"We have had a long and successful partnership with India. We have been in India creating sustainable, aviation ecosystem," Pratyush Kumar, president, Boeing India, said at the ninth Indo-US Resurgence Summit held here.
Pratyush Kumar, who was speaking at the event organised by the Indo-American Chamber of Commerce (IACC), added that his company is in the process of building capacity and capability of the Indian aviation sector and is closely working with education and training institutes as well.
India in recent past has placed orders for maritime patrol aircraft P8I and C-17 heavy-lift military aircraft, apart from scouting for new attack and transport choppers in which US based companies are participating.
Read News In Full 02/12/13 IANS/daijiworld.com

Pin numbers cut off card swipes on IndiGo

New Delhi: The central bank's recent move to safeguard your debit and credit card usage by making a pin number mandatory for validating a transaction now threatens to leave flyers high and dry in the air. India's largest airline IndiGo has stopped accepting credit cards for onboard payment as there is no technology to validate pin numbers in an offline mode.
The change came after RBI asked banks to issue cards with chips that need a four-digit pin number to be punched in for validating a transaction. This has been done to make card usage safer. Bankers say they are trying to work out a mechanism for re-introducing swipe machines in the air.
"An aircraft in air cannot verify pin numbers and hence cannot be used for transactions. We are seeing how this issue can be worked out," said a bank official. Sources say IndiGo, the only Indian airline to offer card swiping, has even offered to accept the risk of any mistake for in-flight swiping.
Read News in full 02/12/13 Saurabh Sinha/Times of India

Getting up from seat before plane stops annoys most: Survey

New Delhi: The habit of getting up before a plane comes to a halt after landing at an airport, though the seat belt sign is on, annoys a majority of the flyers. Men and women flyers also found it annoying when the passenger sitting in front rudely reclined the seat without thinking about the fellow passenger behind, a recent survey has found.
"For women, children kicking their seat back was the second most annoying habit, while men were irritated by fellow passengers not switching off their mobile phones until being asked to do so by the crew," the third edition of India Airline Experience Survey 2013 by travel portal TripAdvisor has found.
Flyers found books, iPad, tablets and iPods or any other portable music players as their best companions during a flight.
Around 59 per cent people loved to read a book during the flight, while 40 per cent preferred to spend their time on iPad or tablet and 31 per cent wanted to listen to music on iPod or portable music player.
Reading was the favourite pastime for most Indians flyers (60 per cent), while watching movies in flight was the second most favourite pastime (48 per cent) and 46 per cent flyers loved sleeping during a flight, the survey said.
Read News In Full 02/12/13 IBN Live

Check out the best & worst airlines in India

Flying is no longer a privilege thanks in no small measure to the presence of low-cost airlines such as IndiGo, SpiceJetBSE 6.93 % and GoAir that sell tickets at low prices, often forcing even full-service competitors like Jet AirwaysBSE 2.96 % and Air India to follow suit. But flying is yet to become mass market; less than 5% of Indians travel by air.
For that we need more than the five airlines (six if we include Jet's offshoot Jet Konnect) that we have, more and better-run airports and of course, cheaper tickets. That said, all indications — statistics, predictions and chaos at airports — are that more and more Indians are travelling by air. In that context and with the holiday season upon us, this is a good time as any to find out the most preferred airlines, the performance indicators that anoint them thus, things people carry on board and the like.
IndiGo and Jet come up tops as the most favourite airlines, a reflection of their market share positions, according to the survey by TripAdvisor. Air India surprisingly emerges the third favourite though the state-run airline fares badly in safety perception. IndiGo also leads the pack on punctuality and value for money, but cedes ground to Jet on appearance of cabin crew and overall experience.
Read News In full 01/12/13 Binoy Prabhakar/Economic Times

Most international airports are state-owned: IATA

New Delhi:  As the government proceeds with privatisation of six airports, global airlines body IATA has noted that most airports across the world are state-owned and aviation policy makers should take decisions in this regard keeping in view interests of airlines and passengers.
"The airport sector has not gone through the same process of structural transformation as the airline sector. Only nine per cent of European airports are in full private ownership, while 78 per cent remain fully publicly-owned," International Air Transport Association said in its latest report titled 'Airport Competition'.
According to the 2011-2015 National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems released by the US Department of Transportation and Federal Aviation Administration, there were over 19,700 airports in the US and, of them, 5,170 airports are open to the general public.
Read News in Full 01/12/13 Day After

AAI plans to install full-body scanners at 2 airports in India

Mumbai: The national airports operator Airports Authority of India (AAI) will soon install millimeter-wave technology-based full-body scanners at two non-metro airports on a trial basis, sources have said.
So far, none of the 125 AAI-run and five privately-operated airports have such a crucial security equipment.
"We have received two full-body scanners from GE Corp of the US, which we are going to install at two airports on a trial basis," AAI sources told PTI.
These scanners, which work on millimeter-wave technology, do not compromise with the privacy of a passenger, the sources said, adding, "We want to gauge the acceptability level of passengers before installing them across all airports."
The sources, however, did not name the airports where these machines are being deployed or a timeline for the installation citing security reasons.
Read News in full 01/12/13 PTI/Business Standard

Sharjah company to invest Dh600,000 in India’s travel market

An online travel company in Sharjah is investing in India as growing numbers of Indian tourists visit the UAE.
Musafir.com, a six-year-old e-commerce platform which is part of Universal Travels and Tourism, is investing 10 million rupees (Dh590,000) over the next three years with a focus on increasing flight and hotel bookings, and visas for the UAE.
It has even roped in the Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar to boost its marketing efforts.
“It’s a great market with a number of players already, but the category [of online travel bookings] is barely seven to eight years old,” said Albert Dias, the marketing director of Musafir.com. “So we see a market in its infancy as well as a growing middle class providing more and more opportunities.”
The company entered India in 2010 to build partnerships and affiliations ahead of its launch in India last month. While its headquarters in India will remain in Mumbai, Musafir.com says it will open 12 retail shops in large and medium-sized cities.
Read News In Full 30/11/13 Sananda Sahoo/The National

India to mull increase in Qatar airline seats

India is reportedly poised to increase Qatar Airways' entitlement of airline seats for travel from Doha to the South Asian country.
Qatar is said to have sought to increase its weekly quota of seats to 72,600 from the current 24,800, which was nearly exhausted.
"Qatar would be the next country with whom we will revise the bilateral air service agreement," a senior official of the civil aviation ministry said in comments published in Indian daily Economic Times.
"We are just negotiating the final number for the enhancement in weekly seats, and it should be done soon."
The unnamed official did not give a timeline for the pact, the newspaper added.
Qatar Airways is the fifth largest carrier of India's international traffic, with nearly four percent share of the 45 million passengers travelling to and from India in 2012-13, according to data from Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation.
Read News In Full 01/12/13  Andy Sambidge/Arabian Business

India to up Qatar's airline seats quota under bilateral traffic rights

New Delhi:  India is set to increase Qatar's entitlement of airline seats under their bilateral traffic rights, a move that could help the Gulf nation develop Doha as a major regional hub for westbound traffic from India.
"Qatar would be the next country with whom we will revise the bilateral air service agreement," a senior official of the civil aviation ministry told ET. "We are just negotiating the final number for the enhancement in weekly seats, and it should be done soon." The official did not give a timeline for the pact.
Qatar has sought to enhance its weekly quota of seats under the pact to 72,600 from the current 24,800, which was nearly exhausted. Its national airline, Qatar Airways, is the fifth largest carrier of India's international traffic, with nearly 4% share of the 45 million passengers travelling to and from India in 2012-13, according to data from Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation.
"The demand for increase in seats with Qatar has mainly been from their side, as Qatar Airways has nearly exhausted its current entitlement, while Indian carriers only use around 10,000 weekly seats, so we will have to see what kind of an increase is actually required," the official said.
Read News In Full 29/11/13 Debabrata Das/Economic Times

In stagnant economy, aviation is soaring star

Mumbai: Two new joint ventures by the Tata group, expansion of India operations by foreign airlines, and smaller, regional and short-haul services are behind the mini boom.
Against the grey backdrop of stagnant corporate hiring in the country -- an expected fallout of the economic slowdown - the aviation industry is turning out to be a bright spot in contrast, although many airlines have been posting quarterly losses.
Two new joint ventures by the Tata group, expansion of India operations by foreign airlines, and smaller, regional and short haul services are creating jobs in a sector which, not too long ago, presented a picture of distress, when Kingfisher Airlines collapsed under a debt of Rs. 7000 crore, leaving 5000 employees high and dry.
The increase in FDI to 49 per cent is in part the reason. "FDI in aviation and reduction of fuel surcharge attracted investors despite the slowdown," said independent aviation expert Vipul Saxena. (The union government had appealed to state governments a few months ago to reduce the surcharge and taxation on aviation fuel).