SpiceJet offers end-to-end travel solutions platform, SpiceVacations.com

SpiceJet, India’s favorite budget airline today rolled out an end-to-end travel solutions platform, SpiceVacations.com, offering customized travel packages thereby rendering a more suave experience to customers who can avail various services while planning their holiday, at no added cost to make it a Red.Hot.Spicy experience! SpiceVacations.com offers a comprehensive platform for customers to choose from thousands of travel packages, spread over a vast network of domestic and international destinations. The deals packs have been specifically designed in consultation with holiday experts thus easing the holiday planning exercise and adding finesse to the end holiday experience. Customers need to simply decide on the theme of their vacation, say – pilgrimage, honeymoon or a wildlife tour and the platform throws open a wide variety of deals in terms of the location, hotel arrangements, local sight-seeing tours, car rentals among others. Customers can also hand-pick the service features to customize their deal packs to best suit their needs and preferences. The launch of pilgrimage deal packs has been a pioneering initiative by SpiceVacations.com as the avenue has been explored for the first time in the air travel industry.

India needs four new modern airports: Ashok Gajapathi Raju

Union Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju on Monday said India requires four more modern airports, two on the West coast and the two on the East coast, keeping in line with the country's size. "At present we only have three modern airports- the airports that have parallel runways- at Delhi, Hyderabad and Bangalore. With the size of a country like India, we need more modern airports, at least two on the West coast and the two on the East coast. Things are moving... (in that direction)," the minister said while interacting with the media after formally launching the E-Boarding system at Rajiv Gandhi International Airport(RGIA) here. The minister responded on the need for new airports when a reporter asked about the new international airport being proposed at Bhogapuram, just about 28 nautical miles away from the existing Visakhapatnam Airport in Andhra Pradesh. Gajapathi Raju said his ministry would consider the new airport proposals where ever the state governments come forward to provide land to set up such facilities as land was a state subject. As Hyderabad was an important city for the country, Visakhaptnam too was an important city to have one more airport facility like the RGIA which was being operated by GMR-led consortium. This airport is coming up in the Minister's home district of Vizianagarm in a 5,311-acre site similar to the size of RGIA. The state government had tentatively decided to complete the process of selection of the developer of this project by April, 2016.

Co-pilot accidently triggered jet flight's plunge over Turkey

The co-pilot of a Jet Airways flight that plunged 2,251 feet over Turkey before correcting course last year "inadvertently manipulated" the controls, resulting in the incident, according to an inquiry by aviation regulator DGCA. The Mumbai-Brussels flight, with 280 passengers aboard, suddenly lost altitude on August 8, 2014, when the 46-year-old co-pilot was in charge. The 40-year-old flight captain was sleeping as permitted under cockpit rules. The Air Traffic Control in the Turkish capital of Ankara cautioned the co-pilot when the plane began to drop altitude, flying below 32,000 feet. Most passenger planes cruise at an altitude in the range of 30,000 feet to 40,000 feet, and the Jet flight was cleared to fly at 34,000 feet. The aircraft, a Boeing 777-300 ER, had flown 4 hours and 43 minutes when the incident took place. Initial reports after the incident had said that the plane plunged 5,000 feet, but investigations showed that it fell 2,251 feet before corrective measures were taken. The reports had also said that the co-pilot was busy using a tablet computer, called an electronic flight bag by airlines, but the DGCA report has no mention of it. The final-investigation report by Sanjay Bramhane, DGCA's deputy director for air safety (western region), states that the flight started to lose altitude after the co-pilot accidentally changed controls while working on some other settings.

Indian aviation in 2015 highlights

If the revival of an airline and return to profitability of some others marked the highlights in 2015 in Indian aviation, the year also went by without the government spelling out its long-awaited policy for the sector. All that the civil aviation ministry managed in the last 19 months was to come up with a draft national civil aviation policy (NCAP) which, nonetheless, has some far-reaching implications. Among the proposals is one to scrap the 5/20 norm, which stipulates a minimum five years of operations and a fleet of 20 aircraft for oversees flying rights, and to peg a minimum tariff of no more than Rs.2,500 per ticket for each flying-hour. The grand scheme, however, still hangs in the balance and awaits the union cabinet's approval. "Draft NCAP has contemplated many interesting proposals to promote growth in the aviation sector," Amber Dubey, partner and head of aerospace and defence at global consultancy KPMG, told IANS. "Its vision to enable 300 million domestic ticketing by 2022, although ambitious, highlights the potential of the Indian aviation sector." In addition, aviation was among 15 industries in which foreign equity norms were eased in the year gone by. Moreover, India's passenger traffic demand grew at a stellar pace. Official data from the Ministry of Civil Aviation showed that passengers carried by domestic airlines between January and November 2015 grew by 20.41 percent at 73,382,000. Sector-based experts pointed out that low crude oil prices helped to bring down fares which supported the rise in passenger traffic.

Air traffic controllers to earn more for extra duty

The Airports Authority of India (AAI) has raised overtime allowance to encourage air traffic controllers to work extra hours. The move comes in the wake of International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO)'s inspection of airports in India. During its inspection last month, ICAO had raised concerns about the shortage of air traffic controllers in India. While there is a requirement of 3,500 controllers, there are only about 2,300 controllers supervising air traffic movement in Indian skies. Because of the shortage, controllers are made to do extra shifts. Till now, they were paid Rs 400-500 for extra duty. The allowance has now been revised and controllers would get an additional amount of Rs 270-1,800 for an extra shift. The additional amount would be equivalent to the pro-rata payment of allowances, which are part of the regular salary package.

AirAsia and Vistara pitch for complete abolition of 5/20 rule

Vistara, AirAsia India and Air India officials met the Union Civil Aviation Secretary, R. N. Choubey on Wednesday, to discuss the draft civil aviation policy. The incumbent airlines represented by its body Federation of Indian Airlines (FIA) didn’t turn up for the meeting and asked for another extension to express their views on the draft civil aviation policy, sources said. The civil aviation industry is divided in their views on the international flying norms, also known as the 5/20 rule. While the new airlines have demanded complete abolition of the 5/20 rule, the private incumbent airlines, including IndiGo, SpiceJet, Jet Airways and GoAir, have opposed any move to relax the rule. According to the 5/20 rule, any airline with five years of domestic flying experience and 20 aircrafts in its fleet is allowed to fly on international routes.

FIA seeks meeting with aviation ministry on aviation policy

The Federation of Indian Airlines has sought a meeting with the aviation ministry to present its views on the draft civil aviation policy (DCAP). The ministry's meeting with FIA heads is scheduled for after January 6. "DCAP 2015 proposes certain concepts such as auction of sovereign bilateral rights to foreign airlines, substantial ownership and effective control of Indian carriers by foreign airlines all of which are not even permitted in mature global aviation markets such as the US... To the best of our knowledge, no other progressive country in the world has adopted such self-defeating policies," FIA's associate director Ujjwal Dey has written to aviation secretary R N Choubey.

DGCA grounds IndiGo pilots for Jammu near miss

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has grounded two IndiGo pilots, who allegedly did not maintain the level assigned to them while taking off from Jammu on Monday. Their plane had come perilously close to a landing Air India aircraft and action against them came a day after TOI reported this serious near miss. "The airline (IndiGo) has been advised not to use the pilots pending investigation," DGCA chief M Sathiyavathy, who has ordered a probe into this incident, said on Wednesday. The problem arose when an Air India Airbus A-320 was approaching Jammu to land and IndiGo A-320 was taking off. The two aircraft breached the minimum separation of 1,000 feet and were just 400 feet apart. The traffic collision avoidance system (TCAS) alarm went off in cockpits of both the aircraft, signaling another plane was dangerously close. The AI commander, a veteran of hill flying, had turned the plane at the last minute and climbed when he saw the other plane coming right in his direction

Indian aviation sector to fly high in 2016

Indian and South East Asian airlines are likely to see improved earning prospects in 2016, primarily driven by higher demand and lower fuel costs. However, the rating agency said the operating environment will be challenging as there is strong competition and capacity expansion. Noting that macro-economic growth should help bolster demand and top-line growth for the region's airlines, Fitch said there has been a strong domestic growth in India. Citing data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA), the agency said revenue passenger- kilometer growth topped 19% year-on-year in India over the first 10 months of 2015, which is seen 12.4% in China, Russia (8.5%) and Brazil (2.3%). "Higher demand, lower fuel costs and ongoing industry restructuring suggest an improving earnings outlook for the Indian and South East Asian airline sectors in 2016," Passenger load factors (PLFs) in India and south-east Asia have risen steadily and improving GDP growth should continue to support it GDP growth in India and most parts of south-east Asia to accelerate next year

Air India Begins Daily Direct Flight From Ahmedabad To London

National carrier Air India today started its direct daily flight from Ahmedabad, the economic and industrial hub of Gujarat, to London. Air India flight AI-131, a B-787 Dreamliner aircraft, with 247 passengers onboard, took off from the Sardar Vallabh Patel International Airport here at 0430 hours this morning. With the commencement of this flight, Air India became the first airline to offer direct flight between Ahmedabad and London, a release said. Gujarat Civil Aviation Minister Saurabh Patel along with Law Minister Pradeepsinh Jadeja, who handles the NRI department, greeted the passengers of the inaugural flight at the airport by handing over them boarding passes, it said. All the passengers of the new flight were also presented with rose at the time of check-in. "This flight will benefit lakhs of Gujratis living in London as well as numerous people here who are fond of travelling. I thank Narendra Modi-led Central government for starting this new service," Mr Patel said.

Psycho tests for airline pilots from next year

Psychometric tests for pilots of Indian airlines are all set to begin early next year. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has asked the Air Force-run Institute of Aerospace Medicine (IAM) to finalise the details of these tests — the tests to be conducted and at what intervals — within three months. "Once we get the final modalities from them and the government approves, the psycho tests for pilots should start within the first half of next year," DGCA chief M Sathiyavathy said. The aviation regulator had started contemplating these tests after the Germanwings crash of March 24, 2015. The aircraft was on its way from Barcelona to Dusseldorf when its co-pilot reportedly 'deliberately' crashed the plane in the French Alps. Following this, Sathiyavathy set up a panel of experts to decide on psychometric tests for pilots. This panel recommended four-level tests for pilots, starting from the time a student wants enrol for a flying school. The other three stages at which pilot were recommended to undergo and clear the tests are: at the time of joining an airline or charter company; at the time of being promoted to commander and whenever they exhibit any abnormal behaviour like picking fights in the cockpit.

Operate only Cat-III aircraft with trained flight crew during fog hours, instructs DGCA

Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has issued instruction to all schedule domestic airlines to operate only Cat-III aircraft along with CAT III trained flight crew as per visibility condition/RVR (Runway Visual Range) during fog hours. All airlines will have to ensure that aircraft deployed to/from Delhi during low visibility conditions are CAT-III compliant and both the commander and co-pilot are also CAT-III trained. Only CAT-III flight crew will operate the flights to/from Delhi in case weather predictions of CAT-III conditions are made by India Meteorological Department (IMD). Failing to do so, such operations of the defaulting airline will be stopped to/from Delhi during low visibility conditions. Airlines must take adequate care of providing basic amenities of water and refreshment to passengers during such conditions if the flights are delayed. All stakeholders should have better communication procedure so that level of intrection with passengers increases during the fog and they are aware of flihgt delays. One representative each from DGCA and IMD will be positioned at Airport Operations Control Centre (AOCC), Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL) who will interact with airlines, Airports Authority of India (AAI) and DIAL.

Indian context drives Delta’s new KLM-Jet partnership

SkyTeam carriers Delta and KLM announced a new codeshare arrangement with Jet Airways that will see the Indian carrier trade Amsterdam for Brussels as its European hub and cease its service to Newark. Delta and KLM flights to North America will have Jet Airways codes added to them, as will KLM’s existing service to Delhi which currently carries a Delta codeshare. The new setup will result in one-stop service to Delhi and Mumbai from 11 North American cities under the cross-codeshare agreement. Jet will provide further connections from these gateway cities to Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Kochi, Kolkata and Amritsar, plus Kathmandu, Colombo and Dhaka. On the US side, New York-JFK, Newark, Chicago, Washington DC, Houston, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Vancouver, Calgary, Montreal and Edmonton are included. It’s unclear why most of Delta’s largest hubs — Atlanta, Minneapolis, Salt Lake, Detroit, Seattle — and thus its largest markets, are missing from the deal. Jet also receives codeshares with KLM to a number of European destinations. The margins for ultra-longhaul flying are thin and complex. That’s particularly true in the Indian market, in which security, political, efficiency, capacity and flag-carrier issues swirl murkily, and where Delta has not been reluctant to stir the pot. Following Delta’s October cancellation of the ultra-longhaul Atlanta-Dubai route, the airline responded publicly to Air Transport World Editor-in-Chief Karen Walker’s column that questioned Delta’s true motives for canceling the route. Delta blamed the ME3 for the failure of its non-stop services to Mumbai. That route, operated at different times from New York and Atlanta, existed for fewer than three years, and was cancelled more than six years ago.

Air India ground personnel gets sucked into aircraft engine at Mumbai airport

In a freak accident, an Air India service engineer died after he got sucked into the live engine of an A-319 aircraft at Mumbai airport on Wednesday evening. The engineer, identified as Ravi Subramanium, was in his forties. At the time of going to the press, the body was yet to be recovered from the engine. The incident took place around 8.30pm when the aircraft which was to operate the Mumbai-Hyderabad AI flight 619 was being pushed back from the parking bay before take off. An aircraft can only move forward and so needs external help to reverse from the parking bay. A tow van is used to push back the aircraft and the process is carried out with an engineer positioned in front of the aircraft nose, so as to be visible to the pilots. The flight was being piloted by a new co-pilot and a seasoned commander A G Sharma. Subramanium, the technician (service engineer), was supervising the push back. "No one knew what happened. All of a sudden we hear that we heard that the technician has been sucked into the engine," said an airline source. A CISF official said "the body has been badly mutilated". Many of the around 100 passengers who were on the flight are said to have been traumatized by the incident. In an A-319 aircraft the distance from the nose to the engine is about 30 feet. "When an aircraft is being pushed back, the engine, even when if it has been started is on idle thrust, that's about ten per cent of its total thrust. During taxiing its never more than 35%. Ground staff and technicians know quite well the area that should be kept clear in front of the engines," said an airline official.

AirAsia India that started with lots of pomp is now struggling due to huge losses & top-level exits

Last Wednesday, two days before ET broke the story of deepening fissures between the three shareholders of AirAsia India, co-founder Arun Bhatia spoke by phone with the airline's CEO and MD Mittu Chandilya. "Are you a monkey who does whatever Tony tells you to do?" an angry Bhatia, a junior partner in the venture, asked Chandilya. Tony Fernandes is the group CEO of Malaysia's AirAsia Bhd, the largest shareholder in AirAsia India. "That's unfair," 36-year-old Chandilya retorted. "I too have raised the same issues several times in the past." Chandilya, a former headhunter whom Fernandes directly hired, was in Kuala Lumpur to attend the airline's board meet. He had just presented a five-year plan that calls for more money from the shareholders. The heated exchange illustrates that the deteriorating relationship between the three shareholders have come to a head. AirAsia Bhd owns a 49% stake, Tata Sons a little over 41% and Bhatia's company Telestra Tradeplace the rest in AirAsia India. ET's exclusive story brought the deep divide in the AirAsia India boardroom to light for the first time. In an hour-long interview to ET, Bhatia alleged that the airline has violated Indian laws because it is controlled by its Malaysian parent and he will go to court or the authorities. Bhatia also said he was promised the airline will make profits a year after launch. Bhatia's charges and the unwelcome spotlight on control have cast a cloud on one of the most prominent airline partnerships conceived two years ago after the government allowed foreign airlines to own up to 49% of Indian carriers. The partnership is now riven by personal animosity and cultural differences, according to half a dozen people intimately associated with the airline whom ET interviewed multiple times for the article over the past four months

British Airways to deploy Dreamliner on Mumbai route

British Airways will deploy the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner from the city beginning September next year, making it the second route in the country after New Delhi. The airline started flying latest version of the Boeing 787 on the New Delhi route from October this year. British Airways has 42 Dreamliners on order. It currently operates Boeing 787-9s on New Delhi, Abu Dhabi and Muscat routes. Apart from Mumbai, the airline will deploy these modern planes on Austin, Kuala Lumpur and San Jose California routes from London.

Overflowing drain, not Adyar, flooded airport

Last week, as planes floated around the flooded airport, Airports Authority of India officials thought the rising River Adyar nearby was the culprit. The real cause, some airport staff say, was that a drain linking Pallavaram with the Adyar (see pic) was filled with water from surrounding areas and, through openings on the tarmac, inundated the operation area. Along came tonnes of garbage. Airlines officials and other staff at the airport have for years been urging the AAI to talk to the local body concerned and get the drain sealed off. Many such drains, designed to carry rain water from Pallavaram, Meenambakkam and nearby neighbourhoods, run across the airport campus. The airport was flooded, AAI officials assumed, because of the second runway built across the river. In reality, water from the drain overflowed on to the taxiway, runway and apron in front of international terminal at the time the Adyar overflowed. Airport staff watching the water level in front of the international terminal rise said it was flowing from the Pallavaram-end of the main runway to the end where the domestic terminal is located. Water flowed into the basement of the terminals. "It was flowing slowly like a river flooding the entire area used for operating planes. The drifting garbage showed that the water was flowing from Pallavaram side. The water broke the compound walls and flowed into Adayar river," said an airport staffe

Stakeholders sceptical about draft aviation policy

The draft national civil aviation policy aims to promote growth of charter operations in the country and has been currently opened to receive feedback from stakeholders. It proposes to significantly deregulate charter flights into and within India. A meeting with stakeholders in the state has been scheduled for next week. People in the know are of the opinion that the policy in the making will be of very little use to Goa, as some of the features that find mention in the draft aviation policy are already part of the inclusive tour package (ITP) charter policy applicable to Goa. Cicerone Air Transport Services managing director, Joao Xavier Miranda, proposes special status to Goa airport instead of the state being made part of the ambiguity under the national policy. He justifies the special airport status for Goa as 98% charters are handled by Dabolim airport. "What benefits does Goa derive from this?" Miranda asked raising the pitch for special status that would entail handing over Dabolim airport to the state.

How does IndiGo continue to prosper despite troubled times? Even for an industry inherently tricky, Indian aviation has long stood out like a plainwreck due to its high cost structure and infrastructural bottlenecks. Some airlines in India are again making profits, but that is thanks largely to benevolent crude oil prices. Even so, they are not truly out of the woods. Indian airlines have lost more than $10 billion since 2009 while their debt stands at around $11.3 billion, according to aviation consultancy Capa India. The only Indian airline to have remained unaffected by the misery is IndiGo, the low-cost airline founded by Rahul Bhatia's InterGlobe Enterprises, an aviation and travel services firm, and former US Airways CEO Rakesh Gangwal in 2006. IndiGo has actually prospered in this troubled industry, consistently reporting profits from its third year of operations. It enjoys a nearly 40% share of the Indian aviation market, the largest for any airline. Investors have endorsed its steady, stellar performance. The airline had set prices between Rs 700 and Rs 765 a share for its recent initial public offering, which many analysts considered steep. But not only was its sale of shares subscribed more than six times, it also made a stunning debut on the market, gaining early 18% on listing. IndiGo is now valued at around $6 billion.

Whopping Rs 1,000 Crore Loss To Aviation Sector

The Indian aviation industry has been severely hit due to the recent floods here. According to sector experts, the industry is believed to be staring at a collective loss of more than Rs 1,000 crore. Commercial operators are suffering losses both due to flight cancellations and grounding of aircraft. It’s the private jets that took a massive hit with at least 6-7 of them either partially or completely damaged. “This is the first such incident where multiple carriers’ fleets have been stranded for more than a week. The losses are not just due to flight cancellations, but also non-operation of fleets. The combined loss could be more than Rs 1,000 crore,” Prem Kumar Pandey, Assitant vice president, Truejet, a regional carrier, told Express. Typically, a 70-seater aircraft turns up a loss of Rs 8 lakh due to non-operation of a 2-hour flight. More number of seats implies more losses. “Cancellation of one route will have a multiplier effect on airline’s operations,” pointed out Mittu Chandilya, MD & CEO, Air Asia India, which runs 10 flights from Chennai. According to Chandilya, Air Asia counts a passenger load factor of 80 per cent and this being the peak season, losses could be significant. “Because of flight cancellations, we need to do a lot of forward planning to ensure that the rest of our operations are unaffected,” he said, adding that the airline is taking stock of the situation in Chennai. It’s no different for another regional carrier Air Costa, which parks four flights at Chennai, including two 112-seaters. Chennai accounts for nearly 20 per cent of its overall operations. “We took a timely decision to move our aircraft. They are currently parked at Hyderabad, Ahmedabad and Vijayawada. Our ground handling equipment is severely damaged,” said Vivek Choudhary, CFO, Air Costa.

Air India rolls out advance purchase scheme for economy class

Seeking to make flying affordable to the common man, national carrier Air India has rolled out an advance purchase scheme for the economy class, matching the fare with that of a 2AC train ticket price, including on key domestic destinations like Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata. The 90-day advance purchase fares (all-inclusive) starts at as low as Rs 2,865, sources said. These advance purchase fares have already been put in the system for sale on various routes operated by Air India, they said. As per the new scheme, a ticket price on Delhi-Mumbai route would cost Rs 2,865 while on Delhi-Bhubaneshwar the same would cost as low as Rs 3,470. Incidentally, the 2AC train ticket prices in these two sectors respectively are Rs 2,865 and Rs 3,325. "We have brought our economy class fares on key domestic routes at the level of 2AC train fares. The idea behind rolling out such low fares is to make the flying affordable for a common man," a source said. These fares are also in line with the government's plan to make air travel affordable for all in the draft national civil aviation policy, they said. The scheme targets all segment of travellers, youth, students and vacationers, among others, they said.

DHL to Invest $16.3 Mn and Introduce Drones in India

Global logistics provider DHL is planning to invest about $16.3 million in all its business segments in India and introduce new technologies, including drones, for deliveries and managing logistics, a senior company executive said. "We are investing in all divisions in India," said Matthias Heutger, senior vice president for strategy marketing and development. Speaking at the launch of DHL Asia Pacific Innovation Centre here, he said the group will be introducing new technologies including drones for deliveries and managing logistics in the Indian market in the future. "The use of drones in the delivering and managing logistics is becoming increasingly important globally, especially in the remote and disaster hit areas," he told PTI.

Hyderabad Airport capacity expansion work may start next yr: GMR

GMR group, which manages Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (RGIA) here, is likely to start the terminal expansion work next fiscal to accommodate 20 million passengers per annum against 12 millions at present, a top official said . S G K Kishore, CEO of GMR Hyderabad International Airport Ltd (GHIAL), said it will have a capacity to handle 100,000 tonnes of cargo by the end of the current fiscal as against 80,000 tonnes last year." We may start the expansion work during next year which will have 20 million passengers per annum," Kishore told reporters on the sidelines of a CII programme. RGIA was inaugurated on March 14, 2008, with an initial capacity of 12 million passengers per annum (MPPA) and 150,000 tonnes of cargo handling capacity per annum. The Project has the flexibility to increase capacity to accommodate over 40 MPPA and shall be developed in a phased manner.

Ground-handling firms oppose opening up of airport services

Airport ground-handling companies like Menzies Aviation, Cambata, Celebi and Indo-Thai Airport Management Services have cried foul at the aviation ministry’s proposed move to allow all domestic carriers to do self-handling that include baggage loading, cleaning of aircraft, passenger check-in and ground transport. The companies have claimed that the proposal differs from the present one under which they had bid for the airport services and invested about Rs 1,500 crore. They collectively employ 16,700 people and handle over 142,000 flights annually at various airports. “Ground handling entails substantial investments and operating costs. Any increase in supply beyond a point will lead to the environment becoming unreasonable and will eventually be counter-productive as such a scenario will not be sustainable and will lead to a collapse eventually,” ground-handling companies have told the aviation ministry. Departing from the principles of the ground handling policy notified in 2007, the aviation ministry has proposed to remove cap on number of ground-handling companies at metro airports allowing both scheduled and charter air operators to undertake pre-flight departure activities. The incumbent ground-handlers have made strong pitch for retaining the present rule that restricts number of such agencies to three at metro airports – Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad and Bangalore. The 2007 policy required air-carriers to outsource ground-handling services to only three authorised agencies – the airport operator itself or its joint venture partner, subsidiary companies of the national carrier Air India or their joint ventures specialised in ground handling services and any other ground handling service providers selected through competitive bidding on the revenue sharing basis by the airport operator. This was challenged by the federation of Indian airlines (FIA), airline industry trade body, in the court and as a result could not be implemented in totality. While the aviation ministry has been locked in legal battle with FIA defending the 2007 policy in the Supreme Court, the draft aviation policy released on October 30 this year took opposite position and proposed self-handling for domestic carriers. Ever since the litigation began, the ministry maintained that the decision to cap number of ground-handlers had been taken on security grounds.

After a 4-day break, Chennai airport bounces back to life

Normal flight operations, domestic and international, will resume at Chennai airport from Monday,. Domestic and international flights will start operating, said Airports Authority of India said on Sunday. The announcement came soon after partial operations were resumed at the airport, with five flights taking off almost a week after flooded runways caused the airport to shut down. The flights were handled after the runway and the instrument landing system were declared safe. The first flight to reach Chennai in a week - an Air India from Delhi - brought just 30 passengers in the afternoon. IndiGo also operated a flight from Delhi to Chennai and back. Directorate general of civil aviation (DGCA) had allowed the airport only a 12-hour window for operations, from 6am to 5.41pm. Flights arrived using visual and instrument guided landing. "Night operations will not be there on Sunday. More inspections will be done to certify the airport fit for night operation," airport director Deepak Shastri said earlier on Sunday. An airport official said an Air India flight to Port Blair took off with 150 passengers at 10.50am after Air India's proving flight landed amid a visibility of 2,000 metres in the morning. The proving flight is an aircraft which is flown without passengers as an operational test, in this case to certify whether the airport was fit for use. "Pilots informed us that the runway surface was good," the official added. "As of now, the airport is open for flights. Air India has started to operate, while Jet Airways has expressed interest in starting services. Domestic arrivals will be handled at the international arrival because the building is yet to be salvaged fully," the offical added. On Sunday, apart from the flight to Port Blair, Air India operated two others in the afternoon, to Hyderabad and Delhi, while Jet Airways operated one to Bengaluru. "The schedule of other airlines is awaited," a DGCA official said. Officials of DGCA and the civil aviation ministry will inspect the airport on Monday. The airport had to be shut down after the runway and taxiways got flooded at night on December 1. and the radar and instrument landing system were damaged. Operations at the city airport are limping back to normalcy with domestic flights expected to resume in one to two days. On Sunday, around three flights were handled till afternoon after the runway and the instrument landing system were declared safe.

State pushes for abolition of ‘5/20’

The State has sought scrapping of the 5/20 rule for commencing the flight operations of Air Kerala and extension of the open sky policy to all international airports based on their infrastructure facilities and flight-handling capacity. In its suggestions to the draft Civil Aviation Policy unveiled by the Civil Aviation Ministry for discussion with stakeholders, Kerala has pointed out that limiting the open sky policy to major international airports is discriminative. Considering the sustainability of the existing government and public-private-partnership airports, the State has suggested that no future airports be permitted within 150 km radius of these airports. A three-member committee headed by Chief Secretary Jiji Thomson has been set up to study the draft policy and submit suggestions. Additional Chief Secretary, Aviation, V.J. Kurian and Managing Director of Kannur International Airport Limited (KIAL) G. Chandramouli are the other members. The committee is to submit the suggestions soon. The demand for abolishing the 5/20 rule is seen as the last attempt by the State to commence flight operations of Air Kerala, the airline start-up conceived by the State to provide Non-Resident Keralites (NoRKs) better connectivity to West Asia at affordable fares. The State has been knocking at the doors of the Ministry to overcome this hurdle.

Vistara inducts ninth aircraft in fleet

Launched this January, the Tata Sons-Singapore Airlines JV full service carrier Vistara on Monday inducted its ninth aircraft in the fleet. Vistara CEO Phee Teik Yeoh said, "We are delighted to announce the arrival of our ninth aircraft. The new aircraft will allow us to further enhance our capacity on our key routes and allow many more customers to fly a new feeling with Vistara. With this addition, our fleet induction for the year is complete." Vistara currently flies to 12 destinations and has 297 weekly frequencies. The Airbus A-320s in its fleet have 148 seats — 16 in business; 36 in premium economy and 96 in economy.

Karnataka woos aerospace firms for MRO in Bengaluru

Karnataka on Tuesday exhorted global aerospace firms to set up a maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) facility in the Aerospace Park near the international airport on the city's outskirts. "In the 1,000-acre Aerospace Park at Devanahalli, we have a special economic zone (SEZ) for setting up aerospace related facilities, including an MRO to capitalise on the growing civil aviation traffic at the adjacent international airport," state's Principal Secretary, Infrastructure Development, Vandita Sharma said here. As the third busiest airport in the country after New Delhi and Mumbai, the Kempe Gowda international airport has about 450 passenger and cargo aircraft movements daily through the year. "With domestic and international passenger traffic projected to touch 18 million per annum by 2020 from 15 million annum in 2015, potential for aircraft service, including MRO is immense, as the airport is a strategic hub for South Asia," Sharma said at the fourth edition of the 'India MRO -Aerospace & Defence' meet.

HAL stresses the need to develop indigenous aerospace technology base

Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) organized a national seminar on "Indigenous Technology Base for Growth of Aerospace Ecosystem" by bringing together various stakeholders in aerospace on a common platform as part of its 75 year celebrations on November 28 Dr V M Ghatge Convention Centre, Bengaluru. "This seminar is an opportune mechanism for creating a confluence of knowledge on recent advancements in indigenous cutting-edge technologies," said T Suvarna Raju, CMD (chairman-cum-managing director), HAL. "It is our constant endeavour to lead the sector in providing collaborative support to the aerospace community and creating an ecosystem for aviation technology," he added. Ajay Shankar, Chairman Expert Committee on Regulatory Approvals, Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) complimenting HAL on completing landmark 75 years and said that the nation should be proud of HAL's contributions. He said, "Aerospace is the frontier technology and we have acquired core strength of system design and system integration in the past three decades. We have the ability to innovate things and we could have the enormous success that we are capable of achieving."

Airbus Group upbeat on India, to boost local sourcing

The French aviation, defence and space major Airbus Group has projected huge business and sourcing opportunities unfolding in India with the Government relaxing the foreign direct investment norms and encouraging domestic manufacturing and souring. Venkat Katkuri, Head of India Subcontinent, Head of Sales-India, Airbus Defence & Space, said through its domestic aerospace supplier partnerships, Airbus Group is already making in India and targets over $2 billion cumulative sourcing volume from India over the next five years, until 2020, covering both civil and defence businesses. Speaking on the sidelines of the Second Defence & Aerosupply India, a global conclave here today, he said, “We are in the midst of a tremendous transformation, full of opportunities, but with a number of challenges. There is intense effort for accelerating the growth of aerospace and defence industry in the country by building new partnerships and strengthening existing ones.” “India has a huge requirement for modern and advanced defence platforms. With the Government of India linking the aerospace and defence sector to the Make in India, it provides a special opportunity to engage with the country and various other manufacturing companies,” he said.

Govt to order 100 Tejas aircrafts for IAF

Decks have been cleared for the country's largest ever defence order, over RS 2 trillion for 100 Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas. At a crucial November 27 governing body meeting of the DRDO's Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) that included manufacturers Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL), the IAF brought down a wishlist of 57 outstanding maintenance issues with the aircraft down to 43, all of which can be executed by ADA and HAL without changing the aircraft design. "We are now hopeful of an order for 100 Mark 1-As before the end of the current financial year," DRDO chief Dr S Christopher told MAILTODAY. The meeting of the governing council headed by Dr Christopher follows the September 23 signing of new aircraft specifications between the four key stakeholders in the three-decade old LCA project-the IAF, DRDO, MoD and HAL. The agreement has launched the struggling LCA Tejas project on a new trajectory. Designs of the Mark-1A will be complete by 2017 and the modified aircraft could enter production beginning 2019. HAL is currently supplying the IAF with 20 variants of the basic LCA Tejas. The DRDO chief says the Mark 1-A Tejas will address other shortcomings indicated by the IAF like the lack of an Active Electronically Scanned Array or AESA radar and Electronic Support Measures (ESM) which will be carried on a pod instead of within the fuselage. The modified Mark 1-A was proposed by HAL this year as a stop gap because the Mark 2 with uprated GE-414 engines and a lengthened fuselage, will not be ready for induction before 2024.

Maiden Air India flight to San Francisco almost full

It's almost full. The first nonstop flight from India to the Silicon Valley - more precisely, from New Delhi to San Francisco (SFO) in the US - has seen 98% of its 238 seats booked. The Air India flight is scheduled to take off from the Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi on Wednesday and from Bengaluru on Tuesday night. It will see passengers from seven Indian cities, including Bengaluru, fly into Delhi to board the maiden flight to the West Coast. "A smaller aircraft will carry passengers from Bengaluru and six other cities -- Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kochi Ahmedabad and Pune -- to Delhi. The Boeing 777 the only Air India flight from India to San Francis co, will accommodate these passengers," V Chandrashekar, an Air India spokesperson, said. Air India flight AI-173 will operate thrice a week. An Airbus-321 will ferry flyers from Bengaluru on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. The flight will take off from Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) at 9.15pm and arrive in Delhi at 11.45pm. From Delhi, the AI-173 to San Francisco will leave on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays at 2.35am, ferrying passengers in a Boeing 777-200Long Range air craft. This flight will arrive in San Francisco at 7am local time there.

Love being in the air? Take a 17-hour flight

By the time you read this sipping your morning tea, India’s longest direct flight would be in the air. Air India launched its new service at 2.25 am on December 2, flying passengers from Delhi to San Francisco on its Boeing 777-200 long-range aircraft. One of the longest air journeys in the world, the flight will cover 12,400 km in 16 hours and 55 minutes. It may seem ludicrous to be locked inside an aircraft for close to 17 hours, but with improving in-flight comfort, fliers now prefer non-stop flights to save time. That is why Air India is not alone. Customer demand prompted Singapore Airlines to recently announce plans to revive its 19-hour flight to Newark (a major departure point for the New York City market) after it stopped the service in 2013. “We discontinued the all Business Class, A345 direct flights to Los Angeles and New York in 2013, and replaced it with stop-over flights on our Airbus A380 (with larger business class cabin), which were more commercially viable,” says David Lau, General Manager – India, Singapore Airlines. “(But) new aircraft technologies, better fuel efficiency, as well as the continuous effort to meet customer expectations prompted us to restart direct flights,” adds Lau. Singapore Airlines has ordered seven Airbus A350 ultra-long range aircrafts to launch more such flights. Though this flight will take two years to restart, there are others coming up sooner. From February 2016, Emirates Airline will start flights from Dubai to Panama City in Florida, United States. The flight will take 17 hours and 35 minutes, and will be the first among many such long routes that the Dubai-based airline is planning.

New Airbus A320 Neo to join IndiGo fleet from December-end

Domestic carrier IndiGo today said the Airbus A320 Neo would begin arriving from December-end and over the next 15 months the fleet strength would be raised to 134 aircraft. "The Airbus A320 Neos will start coming in from December- end. In the next 14-15 months itself we will see a huge expansion. We are going to grow from about 98 to 134 airplanes," IndiGo President Aditya Ghosh said here today. IndiGo in August had finalised a USD 26.55 billion purchase of 250 new Airbus A320 Neo Armed with fleet expansion to 134 aircraft in the next 15 months, IndiGo is planning to begin direct international flights from Kolkata.