Aviation sector can absorb US $ 120 b investment: Manmohan

KOCHI, Feb 13: Observing that the aviation sector had a potential to absorb USD 120 billion investment, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday said efforts were on to create world-class aviation infrastructure across the country on a mission mode.

The growth of low-cost air travel has given a strong competition to the railways by making new frequent flyers, he said while inaugurating the new international terminal building at the airport in Thiruvananthapuram.

"I am told the projected growth of India's aviation sector has a potential to absorb investment of over USD 120 billion with attendant job creation for lakhs of workers directly and indirectly," he said.

Emphasizing the importance of aviation sector in the country's economy which was getting integrated to the global economy, Dr. Singh said the government has formulated various policies to give a boost to this vital sector.

Creation of modern and efficient infrastructure at the airports to handle passenger volumes of this magnitude requires huge investment. This creates significant opportunities and challenges, he said.

A roadmap to modernize the existing airports on a mission mode to create world-class infrastructure was being implemented at a fast pace as air transport in the country was witnessing an unprecedented growth, the Prime Minister said.

While domestic air traffic has tripled international traffic to and from India more than doubled in the last seven years.

"An exponential growth in passenger traffic is expected in this decade as well," he said, adding in recent years it has become vital for development of trade, industry and tourism, creating jobs for all sections.

Noting that aviation was earlier considered only for the affluent, he said, "With the growth of low-cost air travel, the airlines are now giving strong competition to the railways and many passengers who earlier used to travel only by trains today frequently use air flights".

To meet the growing air traffic demand, he said the policy on airport infrastructure aimed to increase airport capacity to stay ahead of demand and garner the maximum share of traffic in the region.

"We wish to make our airport facilities user friendly and achieve high levels of customer satisfaction. We also seek to ensure the safety and security of airport operations and develop multi-modal transport linkages," he said, adding aviation infrastructure was being modernized through joint ventures under the private-public partnership model.

Complimenting the Airports Authority of India, he said the entire investment of the new International Terminal Building in Thiruvananthapuram at a cost of Rs 289 crore was being met through AAI's internal resources.

Projects like the new terminal and the India's first International Container Transshipment Terminal at Vallarpadam which he inaugurated on Friday showed the commitment of the Centre to develop Kerala as a major transport hub in the region, he said.

9-hour British Airways flight from New Delhi reaches London after 21 hours

By Deepak Arora

NEW DELHI, Feb 8: A British Airways flight that left New Delhi for London at 3.30 am Tuesday and was to reach London at 7 am local time has finally reached Heathrow after 21 hours.

The flight made an unscheduled stop at Baku airport in Azerbaijan due to onboard medical emergency. The flight Number: BA 142 landed in Baku at 6.40 am local time. However, the Baku authorities would not let the aircraft leave without the woman who did not have a valid visa. The pilot would not take off with the sick woman.

Finally, the flight left Baku airport at 12.56 pm after over 6 hours of stay in the Azerbaijan capital.

The flight was then diverted to Istanbul for change of crew. It arrived at the Turkey capital at 13.47 pm local time. The harassed and horrid passengers were not given food or water at Istanbul airport. The passengers had to buy their own food.

The flight that was to leave Istanbul at 4.30 pm local time, finally left Istanbul at 5.49 pm local time.

BA 142 finally landed at London Heathrow at 7.40 pm, making a 21-hour ordeal for passengers, including women and children.

Jet Q3 net up 12% at 118 cr

NEW DELHI, Feb 2: India's largest airline, Jet Airways, has posted a net profit of Rs 118.2 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2010, a 12 per cent rise over last year's figure of Rs 105.8 crore for the same period. The quarter also witnessed an 18.8 per cent jump in total revenue that rose to Rs 4,002 crore on account of 15 per cent growth in passenger carriage during the quarter.

While announcing the quarterly results on Wednesday, the airline added a word of caution for passengers as crude prices are skyrocketing.

"Crude prices, in the recent past, have been increasing and we believe that the impact of such costs will be passed on to the customer in the short to medium term without unduly affecting demand growth. The demand-supply equation in the domestic market continues to be under control and over time, this will result in improved revenues per departure for the industry," the airline said in a statement.

Jet pointed out that improved Q3 numbers were achieved amid rising crude prices. "This performance is despite higher costs of fuel during the quarter, where the price of fuel went up by 5% as compared to Q2, 2010-11 and by 12% as compared to Q3, 2009-10," the statement said.

Enjoying the market leader position with a 25.9% market share in Q3, the airline's international operations now account for over half the overall revenue. Domestic operations had a 45% revenue share at Rs 1,579 crore while international accounted for the rest with Rs 1,936 crore during Q3.

IndiGo, Airbus in $15.6-billion deal

NEW DELHI: In the single largest aircraft deal in the global aviation history, no-frill carrier IndiGo will acquire 180 A-320 aircraft worth an estimated $15.6 billion from the European manufacturer Airbus.

The airline, which would launch international services later this year subject to government permission, signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Airbus at Toulouse in France last evening for the 180 single—aisle aircraft.

Air India’s short term promotion for web bookings

NEW DELHI, Jan 4: In a move that will bring cheer to passengers, Air India is launching a short term promotion scheme where in every 100th passenger booking a domestic journey on IC coded flights through the airline website will win one ticket with 2 coupons for Economy class travel.

This user friendly promotion scheme can be availed from January 9 to April 30, 2011 by logging on www.airindia.in. Winners will be communicated individually and a list of the winners will be put up on the Air India website next day by 1200 hrs.

Under the scheme, bookings made in the lowest refundable Economy class and above will be eligible for participation and as soon as the 100th online booking transaction is completed; a pop-up will appear on the booking window informing the passenger that he is the lucky winner.

The complimentary ticket will be booked in the non-refundable class and the Fare and Airline Fuel Surcharge will be absorbed by the airline. The passenger will however, need to pay the applicable taxes. The winner shall have the choice of either using the complimentary ticket himself or offering it to any person he chooses. The authority letter for issuance of the complimentary ticket shall be valid for 15 days and the complimentary ticket shall be valid for three months.

Air India posts operating surplus of Rs 21.66 crore

NEW DELHI, Jan 3: Air India has posted an operating surplus (cash profit) of Rs 21.66 crore in November 2010, a record in recent times. This has been largely possible due to significant improvement in efficiency parameters, coupled by better yield management strategies and a mushrooming number of passengers showing faith in the national carrier.

Another significant indicator of the national carrier’s operational efficiency is borne out of the fact that 108 of the 194 services (flights) of Air India network during November 2010 has made cash profits.

“The peak season for air travel would continue and our employees’ commitment to meet the challenge is evident” said Mr Arvind Jadhav, CMD, Air India, while reiterating the fact the Rs 1200 crore fresh equity infusion by the Government has helped strengthen the employees morale.

During the period April–November 2010, Air India recorded network revenue of Rs 7,250 crore as compared to the revenue of Rs 5,911 crore achieved during the corresponding period of the previous year, thus showing a robust growth of 22.6 per cent.

Out of the total network revenue, Rs 4,401 crore was recorded on international flights as compared to Rs 3,801 crore in the year-ago period, showing a gain of 15.8%. Network revenue on domestic flights jumped 35%, from Rs 2,110 crore in April-November 2009 to Rs 2,849 crore in April-November 2010.

The airline registered an overall passenger load factor of 66.3% during April-November 2010, up from 63.1% achieved in the year-ago period. On its international network, the passenger load factor increased to 65.0% from 62.2% while on its domestic network, the passenger load factor increased to 70.4% from 66.2% during this period.

Air India successfully flies back 'Passengers Only' flight from US

NEW DELHI, Dec 29: Air India today successfully managed to fly back two of its three aircraft which were struck in the US since December 26, 2010, despite difficult conditions caused by snow blizzard in the US East Coast.

“The cruel weather and severe shortage of airport personnel at the blizzard affected US airports had made it impossible to resume operations. As many passengers desired to reach their destinations, even without their baggage, we sought local assistance, successfully mitigating the difficult situation our passengers were caught in”, said an Air India official engaged in the contingency operations.

The flight operations at the John F Kennedy (JFK) airport at New York were completely thrown out of gear since December 26, an AI spokesperson said. “The snow blizzard made us divert our JFK bound flights of December 26 and 27 to Washington and Baltimore respectively”.

To ease passenger discomfort, New York based AI officials impressed upon the JFK Airport Authorities to allow the aircraft struck at Baltimore to land at JFK during late evening hours on December 27, to enable AI to operate the flight AI 101 on the New York – Delhi sector.

“This was done in view of the passengers’ desire to reach home and be with their loved ones on New Year’s Eve”, said the US based official. Accordingly, the aircraft from Baltimore left at 1940 Hrs on December 27 and landed in New York.

It may be mentioned that the conditions at JFK were extremely difficult for ground handling activities. The snow had not only covered all the equipment and large portions of the runway / tarmac, but the airport was also facing acute manpower scarcity as employees had not reported for work.

However, the passengers’ decision to collect their baggage, a couple of days after their travel, helped clinch the initiative and Air India, on advise of JFK airport authorities, operated the New York – Delhi flight early this morning with ONLY PASSENGERS on board. Similarly, the other diverted flight from Washington is also being positioned at JFK this afternoon and would be later in the evening flown in to Delhi with ONLY PASSENGERS.

“We are doing our best to minimize and mitigate the inconvenience caused to our passengers by operating these ONLY PASSENGER flights,” said an AI official, adding that all efforts would be made to bring the passengers’ baggage and reach them to their respective owners. Air India also thanks its passengers for their cooperation and support in operating these flights in difficult conditions.

Praful Patel Launches India’s first Sea Plane Service; Boost for Tourism in Andaman Islands

By Deepak Arora

NEW DELHI, Dec 27: The seaplane, that has captured the imagination of people, mainly through James Bond movies, has finally arrived in India too. Union Civil Aviation Minister, Praful Patel, on Monday launched the first Seaplane of the Pawan Hans Helicopters Ltd, and aptly named it ‘Jal Hans’, at a ceremony held at the Juhu Aerodromme in Mumbai.

Describing the launch of seaplane operations as dream coming true, Praful Patel said the government plans to expand the services to most of the popular island and coastal destinations. He said “the Centre is permitting 100 per cent foreign direct investment in this sector and service providers like Pawan Hans should float a subsidiary to run a fleet of seaplanes.”

The ‘Jal Hans’ seaplane is the Cessna Caravan 208 A Amphibian fitted with modern navigation features of any large jet. It has a total seating capacity of 10 of which 8 are passenger seats. It can travel upto 250 kms in about an hour and can land on most calm waters. It can also land on ground using the wheels configuration.

Secretary, Civil Aviation, Dr.S N A Zaidi said “the service will be operationalized in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands as per a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between the Andaman and Nicobar Administration and Pawan Hans Helicopters.”

The service will connect Port Blair with Havelock and subsequently other islands in North Andaman. In Port Blair, it is proposed to operate from the airport. In Havelock and Diglipur, it will operate from a waterdromme.

Facilities for ferrying passengers from the shore to the pontoons; sanitization of the waterdromme before take-off and landing; speed boats with 10-passenger capacity, a standby inflatable Gemini boat; and one floating jetty (pontoon) will be provided at each location.

Andaman & Nicobar Islands have been witnessing steady increase in tourist numbers, as the tropical rain forests and waters of the Bay of Bengal are home to a vast collection of plant, animal and marine life. Adventure tourism, including trekking, island camping, snokelling and scuba diving are also becoming popular in the Andaman Islands. The launch of seaplane operations is expected to boost tourism infrastructure.

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