Tirupati Airport to begin international operations by June end
International operations from Tirupati Airport will begin by June end, with initial flights to the US and the middle-east (via New Delhi), a senior Andhra Pradesh government official said today. Customs and other procedural formalities are being completed at the newly-developed airport for the launch of international operations, Principal Secretary for Energy, Infrastructure and Investment, Ajay Jain said. “To begin with, we will have flights to the US and the middle-east (via New Delhi) and subsequently to other international destinations,” Jain told a press conference here. Vijayawada airport too would have international flights once the interim terminal building gets ready, he said. While the interim terminal building was originally scheduled to be completed by October but Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu has asked the contractor to finish it by August in time for the Krishna Pushkarams. The existing airport at Rajamahendravaram was being expanded to enable operation of larger aircraft like the Airbus A-319 and A-320, Jain added. “We have acquired 857 acres of land at a cost of Rs 350 crore for expansion of the runway. The Airports Authority of India will spend Rs 120 crore on the expansion work,” he added. About the problems in acquiring land for the proposed greenfield International Airport at Bhogapuram near Visakhapatnam, the Principal Secretary said farmers in the region were now coming forward to part with their lands under the land pooling scheme proposed by the state government. “About 97 per cent of farmers are ready to give their land as we are offering them a best compensation package. So far, we have got consent from farmers for giving 350 acres of land. “The Bhogapuram Airport Ltd, the special purpose vehicle constituted to develop the airport, is securing Rs 1,500 crore from the Hudco (Housing and Urban Development Corporation Ltd) and the bidding process will start in June,” Jain said. Dwayne Allen Womens Jersey
IndiGo plane flew close to road; DGCA suspends license of 2 pilots
Putting the lives of passengers in danger, an IndiGo aircraft flew close to the road running parallel to the Jaipur Airport runway in February and aviation regulator DGCA has now suspended the flying licenses of the two pilots concerned. IndiGo Flight 6E-237 from Ahmedabad was involved in the incident that happened on February 27. Sources said the A-320 aircraft was few minutes away from touch down at Jaipur airport when a warning from Enhanced Ground Proximity Warning System (EGPWS) was noticed. The pilots seem to have mistaken the road nearby as the runway and soon after the warning, the flight made a go-around and managed to land safely at the Jaipur airport, they added. Installed in an aircraft, Ground Proximity Warning System (GPWS) provides a timely warning to the flight crew when the aeroplane is in potentially hazardous proximity to the earth’s surface. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) is investigating the matter and taking serious note of the violation, the regulator has suspended the flying licenses of two pilots, the sources said. Soon after the incident, the airline had grounded the pilots from flight duties. IndiGo operates 180-seater planes. When contacted, IndiGo said the flight 6E-237 was involved in “EGPWS Too Low Terrain” warning during visual approach at runway 27 at Jaipur airport. “The captain-in-command immediately took a precautionary measure and carried a go-around. The aircraft landed safely on subsequent ILS (Instrument Landing System) approach on runway 27,” it said in a statement. IndiGo said both the pilots have been taken off from flight duty with immediate effect. “The matter was duly reported to the DGCA by IndiGo flight safety department,” it added. Earlier this month, a New Delhi-bound IndiGo flight from Vadodara with 177 passengers on board made an emergency landing at the city airport due to a technical fault. Larry Robinson Authentic Jersey
Domestic passenger traffic to cross 100 million by year-end: DGCA
Sounding bullish, DGCA expects more than 100 million domestic passengers to fly by the year end, especially as India has outstripped passenger traffic growth in this sector across major global economies including the US and China last year. The number of passengers flown by the Indian airlines stood at 81.09 million in the January-December period last year, a jump of 20.34 per cent from 67.38 million they had flown in 2014, as per the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) data. “We have now crossed in the past four months of the current year (January-April) 30 million domestic passengers and growth is 23 per cent. At this rate, we will cross 100 million domestic passengers by the end of this year which perhaps is the highest in the entire world ,” DGCA Chief M Sathiyavathy said at an aviation event last week. “The country which is second (in passenger growth terms) is nowhere near us,” she said in an apparent reference to China, which logged 10.9 per cent growth in domestic traffic last year. Air traffic has been posting more than 20 per cent growth over the past several months with travel demand in April surging to 20.93 per cent over the same month of 2015 driven by lower fares. Earlier this year, Sydney-based aviation think-tank Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation (CAPA) had in its forecast said that India will have over 100 million fliers by March 2017. Sathiyavathy said that the domestic aviation industry has about 1,200 aircraft, leaving aside microlites and hand gliders. “With scheduled airlines, we have more than 400 aircraft and if we are going to post the growth of over 20 per cent over the next few years, which is what we expect, you can imagine the number of aircraft flying in the sky,” she said. According to the DGCA chief, scheduled Indian carriershares operate from across 80 airports in the country, adding that “of these 22 are joint user aerodromes (used both for civil and military puposes)”. More than 25 per cent of the aerodromes are joint user aerodromes, she added. According to an industry report presented at the India Aviation Conference in Hyderabad in March this year, India is set to become the third largest aviation market in the world by 2020. Seth DeValve Authentic Jersey
Air India board discuss FY15-16 financial performance
Air India’s board today discussed the national carrier’s financial performance in the last fiscal for which it has been projected to record an operational profit of Rs 8 crore. During its meeting here, the board also discussed about independent directors as some of them would be completing their respective terms soon, a senior official said. The board mainly discussed the carrier’s financial performance during the last financial year, according to the official. Battling tough market conditions and stiff competition, the airline has been registering losses for quite some time, but its performance has improved in the last few quarters. “Air India’s all-time performance has increased. This year, it is making profit, which is the first time in the last 10 years. It is making an operating profit. Air India is doing good work,” Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju had said earlier this month. The airline is expected to post an operating profit of Rs 8 crore in 2015-16. There are 11 members on the board, including CMD Ashwani Lohani. Director (Finance) V Hejmadi, Director (Personnel) N K Jain and Director (Commercial) Pankaj Srivastava. The government nominees include Gargi Kaul and B S Bhullar, both joint secretaries at the Civil Aviation Ministry. There are five independent directors — Gurcharan Das, Prem Vrat, K K Nohwar, R H Dholakia and Renuka Ramnath. In March, Minister of State for Civil Aviation Mahesh Sharma had said Air India was “expected to earn operating profit of Rs 8 crore as compared to the operating loss of Rs 2,636.18 crore in the previous year”. “This is the first time that the company is going to achieve operating profit since its merger in 2007-08,” he had said. Air India ran up losses to the tune of Rs 5,859.91 crore in 2014-15. The improvement is anticipated mainly on account of a steep fall in the jet fuel price, which accounts for 40 per cent of an airline’s operating expenses. In 2012, the government had extended a Rs 30,231-crore lifeline to the national carrier under a turnaround plan stretching over a period of nine years to keep it afloat. Under the 2012 Turn Around Plan (TAP), the government would infuse Rs 18,929 crore for repayment of government- guaranteed loans/interest till 2010-21. Reid Duke Authentic Jersey
Only 27 per cent passengers at international airport aware of customs rules: Survey
There seems to be an awareness gap among passengers about customs norms with a survey by a government agency revealing that only 27 per cent of the respondents travelling at the city international airport claim to fully know them. “There is a gap between what passengers should know and what is currently available. While only 27 per cent were fully aware of the Indian Customs rules and regulations, what is permissible and not permissible, the vast majority was either partly aware or unaware of the legal requirements,” according to a survey initiated by the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC). CBEC, along with a management school, conducted a survey about the Passenger Satisfaction Levels (PSL) of customs clearance process at the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (CSIA), which is one of the largest airports in India in terms of the international passenger traffic. The survey’s scope was to assess PSLs with the customs clearance process. It was conducted for a week and its sample size involved 731 passengers. While only 28 per cent of passengers felt that their experience with Mumbai customs vis-a-vis international customs was much better, 41 per cent passengers felt that the experience was somewhat better, it said. Only 4 per cent travellers felt that it was worse. The survey also found that 35 per cent of the respondents mentioned that the clearance process has drastically improved and 37 per cent said there was a marginal improvement. About 50 per cent passengers took 1 to 14 minutes for their immigration clearance while 59 per cent took the same time in baggage handling and 38 per cent in customs clearance, the survey found. Rob Gronkowski Jersey
SpiceJet posts ₹73 cr profit in fourth quarter
The Delhi-based low-cost airline SpiceJet has reported a net profit of ?73 crore for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2016, after taking a one-time expense of ?173 crore towards stabilising and improving the reliability of the fleet. This is the fifth profitable quarter in a row that the airline has reported a profit. “We have taken the expense to clean up and overhaul the fleet. A majority of the funds will go towards overhaul of engines and upgrade of fleet. It also provides for all claims. With this we hope that the past does not come back to haunt us,” Ajay Singh, Chairman and Managing Director, told newspersons after the results were announced. After this one-time expense, the airline will only have three outstanding claims of about $60 million of which at least two are in the process of being settled involving $30 million. The results are for the first full year that Singh has been at the helm of the then financially-strapped airline. He claims that the company’s networth has significantly improved to a negative networth of ?600 crore from a negative networth of ?1,300 crore. SpiceJet has reported a net profit of ?407 crore for the fiscal year 2016. The airline had reported a loss of ?687 crore in fiscal 2015 registering a positive change of ?1,094 crore. It reported an operating revenue of ?1,475 crore in the current quarter, a growth of 86 per cent over the same period in the last quarter. On an EBITDA basis, it reported a profit of ?146 crore against ?80 crore profit in the same quarter of last year. Timo Meier Authentic Jersey
Need to discuss with airlines on capping airfares: DGCA
Amid concerns over steep fluctuations in airfares, aviation regulator Directorate General Civil Aviation ( DGCA ) today said discussions need to be held with airlines before any decision on fixing upper cap on ticket prices. “If a capping of airfares is required, then we will have to have discussions with them airlines,” DGCA Director General M Sathiyavathy said here. To a query on whether capping airfare is a practical option in the context of free market principles, she said, “Let’s see. We need to have discussions.” The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) would start making public from this month the highest fare bucket or class rates levied by domestic airlines. When asked if the regulator has noticed significant fluctuations in air ticket prices, she said, “If the average rise has been less than 1.5 per cent or a maximum of 2 per cent in high fare bucket for the month of April. We will be monitoring it every month.” The DGCA is expected to release tomorrow the air traffic data for the month of April along with high fare bucket details. Responding to concerns expressed by Parliamentarians over surge in airfares during the recent Jat agitation and natural calamities, Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju earlier this month told the Lok Sabha that he would discuss the issue with stakeholders. To a query on proposed discussions with airlines in this regard, the DGCA chief said the minister has to fix the date and that “the matter is being looked into”. According to Sathiyavathy, airlines have come forward and offered extra flights during crisis times such as at the time of Chennai floods . Whether it was floods at Chennai and Srinagar, Jat agitation or earthquake in Nepal, on all the four occasions the DGCA interacted with the airlines, she said. During those times, the airlines “readily came forward and offered extra flights, some of them free of cost and as far as Chennai floods were concerned, in flights from Chennai to Hyderabad and Bengaluru,airlines pegged fares at Rs 2,500 per ticket,” she noted. Sathiyavathy also said that if there is a need to have a restriction on the upper limit of airfares during crisis periods, “we need to examine that, which is what the Minister has said”. On the issue of airlines hiking ticket cancellation charges recently, she said the DGCA is looking into the matter. “We have been trying to compare with international trends and like that.Analysis of cancellation charges will take more time,” she said. John Tavares Authentic Jersey
‘Agencies plan airspace management cells at major airports’
Civil and military agencies are seeking to set up airspace management cells at major airports to ensure optimal utilisation of airspace. Rear Admiral Philipose George Pynumootil , NM, Assistant Chief of Naval Staff (Air), today said in order to achieve real-time coordination for effective use of airspace, integration of sensors and systems is important. “A technical sub-committee has been formed to study the existing equipment and to explore the feasibility of integrating the same with Airports Authority of India (AAI) systems,” he said here. He said efforts are being made to form these cells at major airports which would “enable real-time airspace management in a dynamic environment which is the way ahead for the future”. With good growth expected in commercial air traffic, the Flexible Use of Airspace (FUA) concept is being followed for optimum utilisation of airspace. Under FUA, for military operations, utilisation of non-military airspace by creation of temporary segregated or reserved areas is permitted. Noting that there are many challenges to ensure successful civil-military air operations in the available airspace, Pynumootil said there has been coordination efforts which have bolstered the “synergy of civil military cooperation in aircraft operations”. The Indian Navy operates three joint user airports at Goa , Visakhapatnam and Port Blair . Alfred Blue Womens Jersey
DGCA chief M Sathiyavathy says India avoiding catastrophe because of secure practices
On the day when an EgyptAir plane carrying 66 people crashed over the Mediterranean Sea, DGCA chief M Sathiyavathy said all players in India were following safety measures which has prevented any major catastrophe in its airspace. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) chief said the aviation regulator was also playing its role, while referring to the EgyptAir plane mishap. “I am glad and thankful to God that at least in India we have not had any major catastrophe, basically because of the safety measures put in place, adopted and followed by all the players including defence forces, civil airlines, non-scheduled operators and lastly the regulator which has played its role” said Sathiyavathy. An EgyptAir flight headed from Paris to Cairo with 66 people on board crashed in the Mediterranean Sea today after it vanished from radar screens in Egyptian airspace. However, Sathiyavathy, the Director General at DGCA, emphasised the need for optimal utilisation of airspace citing the fast speed of growth in aviation sector. She was speaking at the Civil-Military Cooperation Conference, organised by Airports Authority of India (AAI) and the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO). “Airspace is a finite national asset and while we have a lot of cooperation, we need to increase it. We need to engage more and ensure that we are making optimal use of the finite asset so that aviation in India can grow” Deion Jones Jersey
Greek authorities find crashed EgyptAir plane debris: Egyptian civil aviation ministry
Greece will scale back search and rescue assets to find a missing EgyptAir airliner after objects thought to be from the aircraft were found in waters under Egyptian jurisdiction. Greek authorities have found “floating material” that is likely to be debris from the EgyptAir plane that crashed over the Mediterranean on Thursday, the Egyptian civil aviation ministry said in a statement. Egypt’s envoy to France said Greek authorities had informed his counterpart in Athens that they had found blue and white debris as part of its search for a missing EgyptAir plane. “All I will say is that our embassy in Athens told us that it was contacted by Greek authorities who signalled that they found white and blue debris corresponding to EgyptAir’s colours,” Ehab Badawy told BFM television. “I can’t confirm it is the debris, but it would be reasonable to think it is the debris of this plane,” he said. Greece to scale back EgyptAir search Greece will scale back search and rescue assets to find a missing EgyptAir airliner after objects thought to be from the aircraft were found in waters under Egyptian jurisdiction, two Greek government sources said on Thursday. Greece had deployed a frigate and air assets to the area south of the island of Karpathos after the airliner with 66 people on board dropped off radars overnight in Egyptian airspace minutes after leaving Greek airspace. A transport aircraft would remain in the area. Pieces of plastic and two lifejackets were found in the sea area about 230 miles (370 km) south of Crete. It was all found in waters under Egyptian jurisdiction, a Greek defence source said. Greek authorities earlier reported the aircraft took a sharp 90 degree turn left, and then spun 360 degrees in the opposite direction as it plunged from cruising altitude of 37,000 feet to 15,000 feet before disappearing off radars. Terrorism suspected Egyptian Prime Minister Sherif Ismail said it was too early to rule out any explanation, including an attack like the one blamed for bringing down a Russian airliner over Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula last year. The country’s aviation minister said a terrorist attack was more likely than a technical failure. A Greek military official says an Egyptian search plane has located two orange items believed to be from the missing EgyptAir flight. T.J. Yeldon Jersey