US downgrades India’s aviation rating; move to hit Air India, Jet

NEW DELHI, Jan 31: In a huge embarrassment and setback for India, the US aviation regulator Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has downgraded the country’s aviation safety rating citing a lack of safety oversight.

India has been put in the Category II list by FAA and joins the likes of Ghana, Curacao, Serbia and Bangladesh. Minnows such as Malta, Fiji, Guatemala, Suriname, Samoa and even Pakistan enjoy a Category I rating.

The downgrade, the first ever in Indian aviation history, is likely to impact the global perception about India’s aviation safety.

It means that Indian carriers such as Air India and Jet Airways, which together operate 28-weekly flights to the US, cannot increase flights to that country nor have new code-sharing arrangements with American carriers. Indian flights can be subjected to additional inspections at US airports.

"This is a big national embarrassment. We couldn’t get our act together for five years," said Kapil Kaul, South Asia chief executive of aviation consultancy Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation.

"This means very stringent oversight for existing operations to US."

In September 2013, the FAA began its reassessment of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), the Indian aviation regulator. The FAA audit had raised 31 findings. When the FAA team visited India for a review in December, 24 findings had been addressed. By January, another five had been addressed and action taken on remaining two, said aviation minister Ajit Singh.

"The FAA has determined that India at this time is not in compliance with the international standards for aviation safety oversight. India will now be publicly disclosed as Category 2, indicating non-compliance with the international standards for aviation safety oversight," the US regulator said in a communication to India.

"Things would have been better if we had acted earlier," said Singh, adding, no time limit could be set for India regaining the Category I status.

"It’s very disappointing and also surprising. In our view, 95% of all the issues raised have been solved," Singh said, adding they would address all of FAA’s concerns by March.

Air India set to join Star Alliance

NEW DELHI, Dec 13: The National Carrier is set to join Star Alliance, the leading global alliance of 28 top international carriers. In a major decision today in Vienna, Star Alliance has unanimously decided to lift the earlier suspension of the process for Air India entry into the Alliance.

With this decision, final process for eventual entry of Air India has begun. Once the airline becomes a member, Air India passengers will enjoy enormous benefits, including seamless transfers while travelling across the world, more frequent flyer mileage points, code sharing leading to a wider choice of flights and access to facilities at over 1000 lounges worldwide. The Star Alliance network offers 21,900 daily flights to 1328 airports in 195 countries.

Established in 1997, Star Alliance today is the biggest alliance of airlines which offers its customers convenient worldwide reach and a smoother travel experience.

In order to become a member, an airline is required to meet and comply with the highest standards of customer service, security and technical infrastructure in the industry.

The present list of members include Adria Airways, Aegean Airlines, Air Canada, Air China, Air New Zealand, ANA, Asiana Airlines, Austrian, Avianca, Brussels Airlines, Copa Airlines , Croatia Airlines , EGYPTAIR, Ethiopian Airlines, EVA Air, LOT Polish Airlines, Lufthansa, Scandinavian Airlines, Shenzhen Airlines, Singapore Airlines, South African Airways, SWISS, TAM Airlines, TAP Portugal, THAI, Turkish Airlines, United Airlines, US Airways.

The Alliance offers passengers a choice of Silver or Gold Status benefits across the alliance relevant to the passengers frequent flyer tier level. The traveller’s status is recognised around the world through out the Star Alliance network at all member airlines. Passengers automatically get the alliance benefits on travelling on the member airline also ensuring more mileage points at the same time.

Whenever a member of the frequent flyer programme travels on any of the Star Alliance member airlines and flies with another member airline he can earn and redeem miles or points on one frequent flyer programme.

Boeing passenger jet crashes in Russia, killing 50

MOSCOW, Nov 17: A Boeing 737 belonging to a domestic Russian airline crashed on Sunday while attempting to land at an airport in western Tatarstan, killing all 50 people on board, Russia's emergency situations ministry said.

"According to preliminary information, all the people on board the flight, 44 passengers and six crew members, were killed," a ministry spokeswoman said.

"There were no children among the passengers," she added.

The local branch of the ministry said in an earlier statement that 44 people had died when the jet, arriving from Moscow's Domodedovo airport, crashed on landing in the Volga city of Kazan at 7:25 pm (1525 GMT).

The Tatarstan Airlines plane "hit the runway and burst into flames", Russia's Investigative Committee said in a statement.

Local news agencies reported the plane had tried to land three times before crashing.

Air safety in Russia is a major issue for the authorities following a severe deterioration in the quality of domestic services after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Officials blame most problems on pilot inexperience as well as poor maintenance by the small and poorly-regulated airlines that have sprouted up across Russia in the past two decades.

Kazan is the capital city of the Russian republic of Tatarstan.

Air India generates cash surplus of Rs. 460 crore in April-June

NEW DELHI, Aug 5: A series of cost cutting measures and an aggressive marketing strategy have led Air India to generate cash surplus of Rs. 460 crore in April-June on the back of a consistent growth trend since last July.

The all-round improvement resulted from a strategy that encompassed a review of Air India's fleet and network, pricing, schedules and revenue management, airline sources said.

With the turnaround plan (TAP) in operation, the national carrier had gradually reduced its running cash loss from Rs. 512 crore in October-December 2011 and Rs. 432 crore in January-March 2012 to just Rs. 37 crore in April-June 2012.

New International Terminal begins operations in Chennai

CHENNAI, Aug 6: The New International Terminal constructed at a cost of about Rs 2,000 crore at the airport in Chennai has begun operations from Wednesday, according to Airport Authority of India.

International departure operations through New International Terminal will commence in a phased manner with the departure of a flight bound for Singapore from Wednesday. Thereafter, all international flights of Indigo, Spice Jet, Jet Airways and Air Austral will operate through NIT.

AAI officials undertook a series of inspections in the last two days and found terminal ready for international flight operations, it added.

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