DGCA to act against pilots quitting without proper notice

New Delhi: With a large number of senior pilots quitting jobs in Indian carriers for greener foreign pastures, aviation regulator DGCA today warned of stringent action, including cancellation of licences, against those leaving without serving proper notice.

Attrition of senior pilots and commanders "may leave a vacuum of trained and qualified pilots with the scheduled domestic airlines which may result in last minute cancellation of flights and harassment to travelling public," a top DGCA official told PTI here.

Jet Airways, SpiceJet Start Another Round of Fare-war

Mumbai:vJet Airways Group today announced up to 50 per cent discounts, with SpiceJet following the suit.
The Jet offer for pan-India sales begin as low as Rs. 1,499, on all its economy class domestic networks.
"Flyers will be able to enjoy substantial discount of up to 50 per cent on the base fare and fuel surcharge, across all direct destinations on the airlines' domestic networks," Jet Airways' senior vice-president, Gaurang Shetty said.
The four-day special fare offer from Jet will be open from August 1-4, with travel effective from September 1 onwards for all Jet group flights.
The SpiceJet offer opens on August 1 and will run up to August 3, for travel between September 1 and December 15.

Jet Airways joins fare war, offers tickets at 50% less

Mumbai: Jet Airways on Thursday announced discount on fares up to 50% of the base price fares and fuel surcharges.

The fares starts from Rs 1499 across all destinations on the airline's domestic network.

The four-day special fare offer will be available for sale from August 1-4 with travel effective from September 1, 2014 onwards for flights.

FIPB gives conditional nod to IndiGo's FDI proposal

New Delhi: FIPB on Friday gave conditional approval to the proposal of InterGlobe Aviation which would pave the way for fresh foreign direct investment in private air carrier IndiGo.

"IndiGo's proposal has been cleared subject to approval of High Court," an official said after a meeting of the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) headed by Finance Secretary Arvind Mayaram.

InterGlobe Aviation is the holding company of IndiGo.

As per the proposal, equity holding of IndiGo's promoter Rakesh Gangwal through Caelum

Investments will be classified as NRI investment and free the FDI limit for fresh investment.

Government plans no-frills airports to bring down flying costs

New Delhi: The government is planning to build small airports with rudimentary facilities, in order to bring down the cost of flying.

Such airports will be a world apart from the swanky ones at Delhi and Mumbai. As per a blueprint being prepared by the Airports Authority of India (AAI), these airports, which will be located in small towns, will lack conveyor belts, arrival lounges and even air-conditioning. Luggage will have to be checked in manually. One air traffic control (ATC) tower will cater to a number of such airports.

Waiting for Dreamliner fixes, Air India stuck in a bad dream

Mumbai/New Delhi: Boeing's Dreamliner 787 planes, touted as a turnaround vehicle for Air India, are becoming a technical nightmare with numerous problems in the airframe and software, although some say the carrier's engineers and crew are partly to blame.

More than six airline executives that ETspoke to squarely blamed Boeing for being "slow" in rectifying the problems, including windshield cracks.

Why bailing out private airlines by the government isn't a good idea

Mumbai: If one has to be find sectors in the economy that are in serious trouble, the aviation sector might be right at the top. The combined accumulated losses of the airlines sector stands at Rs 49,000 crore, and now the government is reportedly planning for a bail out package for the sector including private carriers like Spicejet, Jet Airways.
Financial Express reports that the government might be drawing up a plan that will offer working capital loans to the companies at a lower rate of 7-8%. The government might allow the companies to get more funds from abroad, and even allow easier policies for FDI.
But the real question remains so why are the airlines making losses? The common answer would be high taxes of aviation fuel, high airport taxes, expensive loans and very heavy debt burden on their balance sheets.

‘Satyam model’ to rescue airlines losses

New Delhi: The civil aviation ministry is considering the “Satyam model” for rescuing loss-making private airlines in future that are headed the Kingfisher way. Officials will discuss this soon with civil aviation minister Ashok Gajapathi and see if it is feasible. Sources said the objective was to save jobs in financially-strapped airlines and ensure that thousands of jobs are not lost, such as when Kingfisher Airlines shut down operations.

But there will be no financial bailout of private carriers by the government.In the Satyam Computers case in 2009, when there was a real danger of it going bust, the then UPA-1 government stepped in and had asked government-picked nominees to take over its board. The eventual sale of the company to a new owner saved thousands of jobs.

‘Fasten seatbelt’ sign is now on for all airlines

Two days after the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) announced a three-member committee to conduct an 'engineering audit' of low-cost carrier SpiceJet, the aviation regulator said on Thursday that all Indian airlines, including the national carrier Air India, will be audited to ensure they comply with safely requirements.

The DGCA joint director general, Lalit Gupta, told this newspaper: "Financial details of all airlines will be scrutinised. We'll also seek details about spares purchase, cannibalising aircraft (interchanging of parts), payment of salaries and issuance of tax deduction at source (TDS) certificates in the case of Spicejet and other carriers."

SpiceJet to resume flights to Kabul from tomorrow

New Delhi:  Almost a month after a rocket attack on the Kabul airport, no-frills carrier SpiceJet today said it would resume its operations to the Afghan capital from tomorrow.
The airline had suspended its operations after the July three attack by militants at the airport just when a Boeing 737 aircraft of SpiceJet was about to take off for Delhi with almost 100 passengers on board.
Read news in full 01/07/14 PTI

Vijay Mallya appears before court

Bangalore: Liquor baron Vijay Mallya on Thursday appeared before Special Economic Offences Court in the City following summons by the court seeking his personal appearance in a case pertaining to non-payment of taxes.
Mallya appeared before the court in connection with a complaint filed by the Income Tax department for not paying Rs 266 crore in form of tax dues of Kingfisher Airlines. He explained the reason for delay in remitting the tax dues. Mallya also applied for bail in this connection. The court, which heard his bail plea, granted him conditional bail.

Business, tourism sectors want Mysore air connectivity to stay

Mysore: Stakeholders in the region are keen to ensure that air link to Mysore is not severed following the announcement that the lone commercial service to the city provided by SpiceJet may suspend its operations from September.
Members of Mysore Industries Association, Confederation of Indian Industry and the Mysore Chamber of Commerce and Industry will meet the Union Minister of State for Aviation G.M. Siddeswara in the city on Saturday in this connection.
They will seek government support for additional flights to Mysore so as to give a fillip to the region’s business and tourism prospects.

Alliance Air resumes flights from Kolkata to the northeast

Kolkata: Alliance Air will resume its ATR flights to Tezpur/Lilabari and Shillong from Kolkata after two months. The airline stopped services in these routes from June 1 due to irregular payment of the viability gap funding by the North Eastern Council (NEC). The decision to resume services was taken after discussions between Alliance Air and NEC.

Indian passengers seek rights similar to European Union fliers

Air passengers in India will have the right to compensation similar to their counterparts in Europe if the civil aviation ministry implements a proposal to this effect submitted by APAI (Air Passengers Association of India).

APAI has been taking up the cause of fliers with civil aviation ministry, aviation regulator and airlines among others. It recently submitted a white paper to the civil aviation ministry seeking formulation of rules that provide passengers rights similar to those granted by airlines operating in European Union (EU) countries.

Singapore Airlines & SilkAir introduce special fares to Australia

Kolkata: Singapore Airlines and SilkAir have announced special fares to Australia starting from Rs. 55,000.
On sale till August 14,  these fares are valid for Economy Class travel, for a minimum of two people travelling together from Aug 1 - Oct 15.
 Bookings can be made from 11 cities in India – Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Coimbatore, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kochi, Mumbai, Thiruvananthapuram and Visakhapatnam.
 Transit passengers can also collect a complimentary SGD 40 Changi Dollar Voucher for use at all participating shops, restaurants and lounges at Singapore’s Changi Airport.