DGCA examining AirAsia India's application for flying permit

New Delhi: Aviation regulator DGCA has begun examining start-up carrier AirAsia India's application for a flying permit after rejecting the objections it received from various quarters, including BJP leader Subramanian Swamy.
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation had set up a three-member committee to examine the objections raised against the proposal to grant Air Operators Permit (AOP) or flying licence to the no-frill airline launched by Malaysian carrier AirAsia, Tata Sons and Telstra Tradeplace.
The Committee, after going through the objections and their legal aspects, concluded that it found "no reasons to put on hold the processing of the application of M/s Air Asia (India) Pvt Ltd for issuance of Air Operator Permit (Sked), based on the above".

Lufthansa keen to fly A-380 to India

New Delhi: German airline Lufthansa is keen to bring the world’s largest passenger aircraft, Airbus 380, to India but the route on which it will operate and from when is yet to be firmed up, the airline’s Vice-President, Asia-Pacific region, Steffen Harbarth, said on Tuesday.
At the moment, Lufthansa operates 46 weekly flights to Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Pune and Chennai.

HC won't stop DRT proceedings against Kingfisher Airlines

Bangalore:  In further setback to Kingfisher Airlines (KFA), its owner Vijay Mallya and UBHL, the holding company, the Karnataka high court on Tuesday disposed of their petitions while refusing to interfere with the proceedings initiated before the Debt Recovery Tribunal (DRT), Bangalore by a consortium of banks.
The banks had sought a recovery certificate from the DRT under Recovery of Debt Due to Banks and Financial Institutions Act, 1993. A recovery certificate lists the debtor's assets, which can be sold by the lender to recover the dues.
Disposing of the petitions, Justice A S Bopanna, however, reserved liberty to the petitioners to approach the Debts Recovery Appellate Tribunal (DRAT), Chennai keeping open all their contentions.

Summer passengers hit in the pocket for flights to India

Muscat: Airlines flying to south Indian destinations have already increased the fares to cash in on the high demand for tickets from June 1 onwards, the data available with travel agents showed.
"The Indian schools will close for summer vacation in June first week. This is the time when Indians in Oman will fly back home for holidays. So, to make maximum profit, the airlines have already set high prices for tickets to the south Indian destinations," Raji Demonte, general manager at Universal Travel and Tourism Agencies in Oman, said.
According to the data available, the fares to Kerala and Mumbai for travel in June are three or four times higher than current prices.

US couple fined for smuggling chickpeas, popcorn from India

Washington: An American couple was fined for trying to smuggle into the US about 30 pounds of undeclared and prohibited food products from India. Customs and Border Police (CBP) seized 25 pounds of chickpeas and five pounds of popcorn with green curry leaves from the couple, who tried to sneak in these product unauthorisedly in seven of the eight bags they were bringing from India.
The couple, whose names have not been released by the US CBP, were coming from India and live in Pennsylvania. They have been slapped with a fine of USD 500.

Air India may lose additional revenue from Star Alliance if EU downgrades DGCA: Experts

Mumbai: Air India's hope of joining the Star Alliance this summer could get adversely affected if safety regulators in European Union (EASA), Singapore (CAAS), Japan (CAB), UAE (GCAA) and others follow the move of US regulator FAA of downgrading India's safety ranking to category 2 from category 1.

No plan to cap airline licences: Ajit Singh

Mumbai: The government has no plans to cap airline permits, Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh said on Tuesday. Singh, however, has asked the Directorate General of Civil Aviation to carry out a study of capacity and demand growth and wants the  aviation regulator to review some of the licencing norms including the minimum paid up capital requirement for starting an airline. This is being done to ensure financial health of aviation sector in India, he said.

10 Most Dangerous Airlines To Fly With

According to the JACDEC survey India's national carrier, Air India has ranked third in the list of most dangerous airlines. It is the flag carrier airline of India which operates a fleet of Airbus and Boeing aircraft serving Asia, Europe and North America. This airline has three hull losses with 329 people dead. One such incidents of massive lost of lives was on the Air India flight 182 that crashed on 23 June 1985, on board there were 268 Canadians, 27 British citizens and 24 Indians. Among Indian airlines, even Jet Airways have also come up in this list as the 24th most dangerous airline.
The world’s fifth-dangerous airline in terms of flying safety is Korean Airlines. This serves both the flag carrier and the largest airline of South Korea, with global headquarters located in, Seoul, South Korea. The Airlines have recorded nine hull loses and 687 people dead in the past 30 years. Two crashes between 2000-2013 and eight crashes in the 1990's.

Global flight ops from Biju Patnaik airport from early March

Bhubaneswar : The trial run of international flight operations from the Biju Patnaik airport in the city is set to take off from the first week of March.
This was decided at a high level meeting on Monday chaired by chief secretary J K Mohapatra. Global carriers like flydubai and Air Asia have submitted schedules to run commercial operations from Bhubaneswar. While flydubai will offer connectivity from Bhubaneswar to Dubai, Air Asia will run flights between Bhubaneswar and Kuala Lumpur.

Jet connects IT City to Gulf from March

Mangalore: Jet Airways will connect the IT city to the Gulf from March 1. The carrier has announced Bangalore's maiden flight to Abu Dhabi and a new daily direct service from Hyderabad to Abu Dhabi effective March 1. At present, it operates a daily flight each from Delhi, Kochi and Chennai and 11 flights a week from Mumbai to Abu Dhabi.
These two new routes will be serviced by the airline's next generation Boeing 737-800 aircraft.

23 airports developed in seven years remain un-operational

New Delhi: Two civil aviation ministers spent crores of rupees over construction of 23 airports during their stints. But all these airports non-operational with no scheduled operators to fly. They only prove useful for union ministers and other VVIPs for their personal use.
Praful Patel, who was civil aviation minister for over seven years, had approved five airports in his home state Maharashtra – one each in Gondia, Akola, Jalgaon, Sholapur and Kolhapur.
The current minister Ajit Singh too has given approval for nine such airports in his home state Uttar Pradesh. Singh said that these airports were approved after conducting a feasibility study.
Besides, 18 other such airports were built in the past ten years which so far have remained non-operational. They include Behara in West Bengal, Begumpet in Hyderabad, Kandla and Keshod in Gujarat, Kota, Jaisalmer and Bhatinda in Rajasthan, Pant Nagar in Uttarakhand, Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh, Lakhimpur and Tezpur in Assam, Pathankot and Bhatinda in Punjab, Salem in Tamil Nadu and Shimla in Himachal Pradesh.

Jet fuel price cut by about 3 per cent

New Delhi: The price of aviation turbine fuel (ATF), or jet fuel, has been reduced by about 3 per cent on softening international oil rates - the first reduction in two months.
ATF price at Delhi was reduced by Rs. 2169.13 per kilolitre, or 2.8 per cent, to Rs. 74,072.20 per kl, according to Indian Oil Corp, the country's largest fuel retailer.
The reduction follows two rounds of price hikes - Rs. 597.48 per kl, or 0.8 per cent, increase on December 1, 2013 and Rs. 2,036.59 per kl, or 2.74 per cent, hike on January 1, 2014.

India: If our airlines flying to US are harassed, we will do the same

The straining of Indo-US ties which saw Indian aviation safety ranking downgraded to Nicaragua level could now see India taking the unprecedented step of mounting checks on foreign airlines' aircraft. Top aviation ministry sources say India will take all steps red-flagged by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) by March-end and would then 'expect' to be restored to category I of aviation safety ranking.
"We quickly expect to be back in category I after being questionably downgraded last week. All the steps will be taken by then. If still the downgrade is not reversed and our airlines flying to US are harassed unnecessarily, we will retaliate doing the same," said a top source.

Bhutan's national airline Drukair to connect Mumbai with Thimphu

Siliguri: Indo-Bhutan air link is getting stronger with the plan of Bhutan's national airline Drukair to connect Indian city Mumbai with Thimphu. The connectivity with India's financial capital and gateway to outer world is expected to widen the path of entry for the foreign tourists to Indian as well as landlocked Bhutanese continent.
As the airline's plan goes, the connectivity is getting operational by 1st May 2014. According to Drukair sources, it will have twice in a week flight to Mumbai. The airline is finalizing the route from Thimphu to Mumbai, either via Nepal's capital Kathmandu or direct. Though yet to be announced, the fare is likely to be slightly higher than Thimphu-Delhi fare.
According to Drukair CEO, T Jamso, Drukair was working on Mumbai connectivity with a plan to start it in 2013 only.

European Union to discuss India's aviation safety next month

New Delhi: European Union (EU) is closely monitoring issues related to aviation safety in India and will discuss the factors which led to Federal Aviation Administration downgrading India's safety rank in an internal meeting next month. However according to EU's own findings there are no immediate or major concerns with regard to Indian aviation at present.
On Friday the US Federal Aviation Administration downgraded India's safety ranking from category I to II after an audit revealed deficiencies in safety oversight in India. The FAA's decision can lead to a ripple effect with other civil aviation authorities taking a tough stance, aviation experts had said.
"The European Commission (DG Mobility and Transport) has regular contacts with the Indian civil aviation authorities. The downgrade by the FAA of India's International Aviation Safety Assessment (IASA) status is of significant interest to the EU,'' European Commission spokesperson Dale Kidd said in an email response.