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Air-India
service engineers strike called off
Mumbai:
The Air-India service engineers strike has been
called off. The service engineers had gone on a strike
to press their demand on the issue of the union elections.
Elections were to be held this morning, but the service
engineers alleged that they were not allowed to vote.
Several flights got delayed because of the strike
by about 7000 service engineers, belonging to two
different Unions. The delayed flights included the
Mumbai-Chicago and the Mumbai-Singapore flights. Ground
support and technical department staffs of the airline
struck work at 0500 hrs to protest postponement of
union elections scheduled for Wednesday, airport sources
said.
-
April 27, 2005
Rs
40,000 cr needed for airport upgradation: aviation
secretary (Go
To Top)
New
Delhi: India requires billions of rupees as investments
to upgrade the country's airports, and therefore,
has decided to seek private sector participation,
said Civil Aviation Secretary Ajay Prasad. "Unfortunately,
we have been lagging behind in upgrading our ground
infrastructure. The kind of investments that need
to be made in airports could not be made in the last
many years. We have now embarked on a very ambitious
plan to upgrade very rapidly major airports of our
country. What we have calculated is that in the next
few years something like 40,000 crores (400 billion
rupees) need to be invested in Indian airports. Now
obviously that kind of money is not going to come
through the budgetary resources of the government.
So, one of the approaches we have adopted, is inviting
private sector participation in the airports," Prasad
said.
Prasad
said that the private-public partnership scheme would
be fianlised in two parts. The first target was to
get the greenfield airport projects in both Bangalore
and Hyderabad off the ground. Separately or simultaneously
attempts would be made to enhance the status of metros
like Delhi and Mumbai to that of being main airline
gateways of the future. He said that as of March 31,
request for proposals had gone out for nine partnerships,
covering financial and technical bids. Prasad estimated
that in the long-term as per the master plan conceived,
these metro airports would become state-of-the-art
entities before the 2010 Commonwealth Games. Therefore
the first phase would see the adoption of a modular
approach -- new runways, expansion of terminals by
the end of 2009, while the second phase would see
a concentration on building alternative gateways,
creation of 25 to 30 new upgraded airports in smaller
cities like Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Lucknow and Jaipur
to name a few.
-
April 24, 2005
Punjabi
girls the flavour of the season in `Open Skies' (Go
To Top)
Chandigarh:
With the government 's "Open Skies" policy taking
off over the last 10 days, many new airlines are now
on the lookout for attractive , presentable and confident
airline staff, including air hostesses, an dtherefore,
what better place to look for such aspirants than
Punjab. Aviation training is in demand in Punjab.The
hefty pay packages paid even by the domestic airlines
is one of the major attractions, and as a result,
Punjab is seeing a host of air hostess training institutes
coming up and wanting to have a share of the pie.
Kirandip, 21, a resident of Mohali, is training at
a Chandigarh- based air hostess training academy.
In this grooming class, she is practically learning
how to apply make up to look pleasing before taking
flights. She recently bagged a position as an air
hostess with Yemen Airways. "The most important thing
is that she should be confident. She should also be
well groomed. She should also have manners and patience,"
said Kirandeep. Hemal is also an aspiring air hostess.
She has chosen to try her luck as an air hostess because
she finds the job challenging. It is a very challenging
job , therefore I preferred it," said Hemal.
To
meet the ever-increasing demand among young Punjabi
girls for training in the field of air hostesses,
many institutes offer diplomas in aviation, hospitality
and travel management. These are either part time
diplomas or full time ones. A young girl can become
an air Hostess after she passes class XII. For such
girls some institutes provide a three-year diploma,
so that they are at par with graduates when they pass
out. Those who complete graduation and then want to
get into a training capsule are offered a one-year
diploma course. The minimum height requirement is
5 Feet 2 inches and the age bracket is from 17 to
26 years. "If you are particularly talking about Punjab
then let me tell you that the young generation is
very keen to get into the aviation industry. The youngsters
who are coming to us, are having it as their first
choice, the second is travel and tourism and the third
is to get into Hotel and hospitality industry. They
are bubbly, energetic, enthusiastic and competent.
Northern India is generating and contributing maximum
towards airline industry," said Gulshan Sharma. There
has been a mushrooming of institutes in Punjab that
train wannabe Air Hostesses to realize their 'flying'
ambitions. The desire of young Punjabi girls to enter
the glamorous world of Air Hosting is at an all time
high. With Domestic Airlines offering a starting salary
of Rs. 36,000 per month and International Airlines
upwards of Rs. 50, 000 per month, girls from Punjab
are quite upbeat about becoming Air Hostesses. Adventurous
Punjabi girls want to explore the world and meet new
people through flying with big names in the Aviation
Industry as Air Hostesses.
-
April 21, 2005
Low
budget Air India Express launch on 29 April (Go
To Top)
New
Delhi: Union Civil Aviation Secretary Ajay Prasad
believes that India's international carrier Air India
will become more competitive by launching its international
discount airline service - Air India Express. Prasad
said that Air India Express would initially target
the Gulf region from April 29, and added that several
new airlines were planning to launch discount airline
services in the next two years, encouraged by a government
increase of the foreign investment cap for aviation
to 49 percent from 40 percent last year. As an example,
he pointed out the case of Kingfisher Airlines, backed
by the country's largest beer company UB Group, which
expects to start operations by the end of April. Another
was British entrepreneur Richard Branson of the Virgin
Group, who is considering starting his own low-cost
airline in India. Air-India Express has been conceived
to provide convenient connectivity in the short-range
routes at the most affordable prices to passengers.
Its fleet consists of state of the art Boeing 737-800
aircraft and is aimed at providing budget travel.
The capacity of these aircraft is around 180 seats.
Air-India Express gives its passengers all the essential
on-board services needed for a comfortable flight.
Free standardized meals and limited on-board entertainment
facilities are available.
-
April 20, 2005
Indian
civil aviation poised for take-off: official (Go
To Top)
by Ashok Dixit
New
Delhi: Having signed "Open Skies" agreements with
China, the United States and Britain during the past
ten days, the Indian civil aviation sector is poised
for tremendous growth within the next three to five
years, something that was thought inconceivable in
the immediate aftermath of the September 2001 terror
attacks across the United States. Now as compared
to the dismal scenario for the sector then, India
is planning a massive fleet acquisition programme
and improvement in services to face competition from
private players, a top official of the Ministry of
Civil Aviation said in an interview.
"Immediately
after 9/11, civil aviation globally faced a very serious
crisis. It was a sector facing many difficulties.
Many airlines went bankrupt and traffic volumes dropped.
Now, the main growth is taking place in Asia, China
and India particularly. In 2004, India registered
a traffic volume growth of 24 percent. The growth
rates are set for a take off," Ajay Prasad, Secretary,
Civil Aviation, said. Elaborating further, Prasad
said that the Indian Government was currently working
on a new civil aviation policy, which would serve
as a "instrument for securing the development objectives
of the country." "India has the potential for eight
to nine percent growth overall. Civil aviation must
contribute 15 to 16 percent growth, making an environment
for people to travel to short distances in the leas
amount of time. We are trying to achieve these objectives,"
said Prasad.
Asked
what areas were in focus for achieving these objectives,
he cited four factors viz. modernisation, improved
connectivity, safety and security, upgradation on
training and human resource development. Questioned
about the impact or the potential competition that
India's international and domestic carriers -- Air
India (AI) and Indian Airlines (IA) -- are likely
to face from private airlines like Jet Airways and
Sahara, besides smaller feeder services like Deccan
Airlines and Kingfisher Airlines, Prasad said that
this sort of competition was a welcome and necessary
development. "I am sure that with competition they
(AI and IA) would all like to sort of improve their
services, product and face to this competition. We
are assisting the two airlines (AI and IA) in acquiring
new aircraft and both Indian Airlines and Air India
are going in for massive fleet acquisition programmes.So,
one of the problems that we have is old and ageing
aircraft and as new aircraft start coming in, the
image with the better product, better service would
help them in facing up to this competition," Prasad
said. Commenting on the operations of the two national
airlines, he said that while Indian Airlines has registered
major successes in the last couple of years in terms
of product profile and the reliability factor, Air
India was somewhat behind in terms of global competition,
as it had not been able add new planes to its existing
fleet. Making comparisons was natural, but these comparisons
should be put in perspective, Mr. Prasad said, accepting
that work cultures and practices needed an overhaul.
According
to reports, a decision on the planned purchase of
50 aircraft for Air India will come within the next
two to three weeks. Prasad, however, ruled out direct
financial support from the government to either of
the two airlines, saying that the Government of India
(GOI) was not directly contributing to the acquisition
of new aircraft for Air India, while in the case of
Indian Airlines, it has agreed to contribute Rs.320
crore for equity participation. This was not so in
the case of Air India. Plans were also under consideration
for both airlines to go down the IPO route to raise
money for their expansion plans, Prasad said. "We
are now going in for IPO. The Indian Airlines board
in the last meeting in principle has taken a decision
to go in for an IPO. They are now in the process of
getting the necessary spadework done towards going
in for the IPO little later in the year. Air India
is also seriously contemplating a similar move and
very shortly the Air India board will also be looking
at this possibility," Prasad said. Civil Aviation
Minister Praful Patel has already indicated that 10
percent shares of both Indian Airlines and Air-India
would be offered to the public.
On
the question of the Indian civil aviation sector going
in for discount airline services, Prasad said that
Air India is launching its Air India Express, an international
discount airline service, to the Gulf region from
April 29. Several new airlines plan to launch in the
next two years, encouraged by a government increase
of the foreign investment cap for aviation to 49 percent
from 40 percent last year. Kingfisher Airlines, backed
by the country's largest beer company UB Group, expects
to start operations by the end of April. British entrepreneur
Richard Branson of the Virgin Group is considering
starting his own low-cost airline in India, according
to media reports. Prasad also said India needs billions
of rupees as investments to upgrade airports and has
therefore decided to seek private sector participation.
"Unfortunately, we have been lagging behind in upgrading
our ground infrastructure. The kind of investments
that need to be made in airports could not be made
in the last many years. We have now embarked on a
very ambitious plan to upgrade very rapidly major
airports of our country. What we have calculated is
that in the next few years something like 40,000 crores
(400 billion rupees) need to be invested in Indian
airports. Now obviously that kind of money is not
going to come through the budgetary resources of the
government. So one of the approaches we have adopted
is inviting private sector participation in the airports,"
he said.
Expanding
on the issue, he said that the private-public partnership
scheme would be fianlised in two parts. The first
target was to get the greenfield airport projects
in both Bangalore and Hyderabad off the ground. Separately
or simultaneously attempts would be made to enhance
the status of metros like Delhi and Mumbai to that
of being main airline gateways of the future. He said
that as of March 31, request for proposals had gone
out for nine partnerships, covering financial and
technical bids. Prasad estimated that in the long-term
as per the master plan conceived, these metro airports
would become state-of-the-art entities before the
2010 Commonwealth Games. Therefore the first phase
would see the adoption of a modular approach -- new
runways, expansion of terminals by the end of 2009,
while the second phase would see a concentration on
building alternative gateways, creation of 25 to 30
new upgraded airports in smaller cities like Ahmedabad,
Amritsar, Lucknow and Jaipur to name a few. Commenting
on the fluctuating airline prices, Prasad said it
was largely a fiscal problem linked to the fluctuating
oil prices. "It is an anamolous situation. Largely
a fiscal problem caused by the high incidence of sales
tax. We have been requesting that the state governments
reduce their sales tax. The new civil aviation document
will address some of these factors,"Prasad said.
On the problem of poaching of AI and IA pilots by
the private airlines, Prasad said it was a matter
of serious concern for all airlines and this was addressed
on Tuesday (April 19) when the domestic airline industry
unanimously agreed that all pilots henceforth would
give a notice of four months to their existing employers
before seeking to join another carrier. Representatives
of both established and start-up airlines participated
in the talks with Mr. Prasad, who said that the airlines
would be meeting in about 10 days time to decide among
themselves the "desirable notice period for manpower
and other technical departments." Prasad said that
Air India and Indian Airlines had been appointed as
the nodal carriers for these deliberations. "They
should reach a pact not to poach. There are not enough
pilots or engineers," Prasad concluded.
-
April 20, 2005
Air
India set to expand its fleet (Go
To Top)
Mumbai:
Air India has embarked on its biggest fleet expansion
project to purchase 68 aircraft at an estimated cost
of Rs 30,000 crore in the next four to five years
and would operate low-cost services to more international
destinations. A top Air India official was quoted
by a television channel as saying that India's international
carrier would be purchasing 68 aircraft between now
and 2010. "Our plans for purchasing 68 aircraft are
in the final stages. This is the biggest ever fleet
expansion to be carried out in four-five years," Air
India Chairman and Managing Director V Thulasidas,
who was here to announce the launch of the airline's
budget service to the Gulf sector, told reporters.
Air India Express, a fully-owned subsidiary of Air
India, the low-cost airline would commence operations
with inaugural flight from Thiruvananthapuram to Abu
Dhabi. There would also be services from New Delhi,
Mumbai, Kochi and Kozhikode, he said. The airline
also plans to start budget flight to South East Asian
destinations like Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok,
he said. AI would commence direct flights to Toronto
and Birmingham via Amritsar on May 15, he said, adding
the airline also has a plan to start a non-stop service
to the US.
-
April 16, 2005
Jet
Airways starts Mumbai-Singapore air service (Go
To Top)
Singapore:
The country's largest private domestic carrier,
Jet Airways, launched inaugural service to Singapore,
spreading its wings to the long-haul international
market, on Friday. Colourfully dressed dancers welcomed
Jet Airways' inaugural flight to Singapore from Mumbai,
as the carrier looked to expand its service across
South East Asia, and into Europe and the United States.
Jet Airways is the country's largest airliner by market
share and chose Singapore as its first connection
outside of South Asia. The company's Chief Operating
Officer, Peter Luethi, told journalists at Singapore's
Changi airport on Friday that Jet's international
routes would add 10 to 15 percent to the carrier's
revenue. Luethi said Jet Airways was well placed to
deal with the price of oil staying between 58 dollars
to 65 dollars a barrel, but if prices went towards
70 dollars or 80 dollars a barrel, that would be a
cause for concern. "I think it will not have a major
impact on our balance sheet at this point knowing
the fuel (price) as it is now. Of course if the fuel
goes higher to 70 dollars or 80 dollars then we have
another issue," Luethi said.
On
Thursday, Jet had said it would increase its domestic
fares by 12 percent to offset the rising cost of jet
fuel. Airline experts said India's airline market
is potentially huge and largely untapped. "Domestically
in India there are 15 million annual passengers, which
is tiny really for a country of a billion people.
Fifteen million people take the train every day in
India. The air transport market there is really small.
I think with all the new airlines that are coming
in, people are looking at five million additional
passengers a year. So there is huge growth to be had
in the Indian market," said Nicholas Ionides, Asia-Pacific
Editor of Flight International magazine in Singapore.
Luethi added the company would use its strength on
its domestic network to build upon its international
routes. "We take the strengths from our domestic network
that will hopefully feed out into our international
network. So we are talking about the same thousands
of Indian passengers, which we hope to gather on our
routes. I don't think we have any plans to compete
against the low cost (carriers)," he said. Jet Airways
is considered the country's most lucrative passenger
aircraft carrier. The company's recent initial share
listing in Mumbai brought in 2.2 billion dollars,
as investors bet on massive growth in country's airline
industry. Mumbai-based Jet has grown quickly to overtake
state-owned Indian Airlines Ltd., which for decades
was a monopoly provider of domestic services. Jet
has grabbed a 43 percent share of the Indian air travel
market, which is expected to grow at about 25-30 percent
over the next five years. Lower taxes, rising incomes
in a quickly growing economy and government moves
to open up the sector are spurring growth of air travel
in the country and boosting industry profit expectations.
- April 15, 2005
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