Government mulling standards for noise levels due to aircraft ops
The government is planning to come up with standards to curb noise pollution due to aircraft operations and ensure that noise levels are maintained within permissible levels. The proposal, which has been in the works for some time, comes against the backdrop of concerns expressed in some quarters, including by resident welfare associations, about noise pollution being created by aircraft operations. To assess the situation at airports, various studies have been carried out by agencies and discussions have been going on between different government departments over the last few years. The Environment Ministry is working on a proposal for bringing in standards on noise levels pertaining to aircraft operations and measures for maintaining noise within the permissible limits, a senior official said. Multiple rounds of discussions have already taken place among various agencies including the Environment Ministry, Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) and Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), the official said. Back in September 2013, a study on noise levels from aircraft operations at the Delhi international airport was conducted by DGCA through a foreign entity. Besides, CPCB has done studies on few other airports, the official said. In December 2014, the regulator had issued a CAR (Civil Aviation Requirement) on ‘noise management of aircraft operations at airports’. The issue of noise pollution from aircraft operations has been simmering for sometime and some entities had also moved court and tribunals in this regard. Earlier this week, the National Green Tribunal, while hearing a bunch of pleas, asked why night curfew is not implemented for flights to and from airports across the country. According to a DGCA official, the general view has been that it would not be practical to put in place restrictions for night operations on aircraft in the country. Such a move could result in foreign carriers choosing other countries rather than India as their hub for operations. Many overseas airlines operate flights at night as that helps them in reaching their destinations in the morning hours, the official said.
Fuel in tanks of Indian aircraft exempt from customs duty
Revenue department said fuel in tanks of aircraft of all Indian airlines entering the country are exempt from customs duty. As per a notification of 1994, fuel in the tank of an aircraft of Indian Airlines or Indian Air Force is exempt from customs and additional duty “when imported into India”. Responding to representations from the industry on the notification, the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) said exemption is available to all Indian airlines. “The matter has been examined by the Board and it is observed that in reference (to the notification) exemption is not limited to the ‘Indian Airlines’ (now called as ‘National Aviation Company of India Limited’). “It is available to any Indian airline, in other words, to all Indian airlines,” it said. As per the 1994 notification, the duty exemption is given when the quantity of the fuel is equal to the quantity of the same type of fuel which was taken out of India in the tanks. Also, the rate of duty of customs or Central Excise leviable on such fuel should be same at the time of the arrivals and departures of such aircraft.
High Court seeks DIAL, AAI reply on entry fee on commercial vehicles
Delhi High Court has sought the responses of Airport Authority of India (AAI) and Delhi International Airport Ltd (DIAL) on a cab firm’s plea against the entry fee of Rs 150 levied upon all commercial vehicles entering the IGI airport to ferry passengers. Magic Sewa, an app-based cab company, has also alleged that DIAL and AAI were giving “preferential treatment” to some taxi operators at IGI airport by allowing them to enter and pick-up passengers while denying the same privilege to others. A bench of Chief Justice G Rohini and Justice Jayant Nath asked AAI and DIAL to file their replies in two weeks to Magic Sewa’s plea before the single judge who is hearing the matter and disposed of its appeal against the single judge’s decision not to grant any interim relief. The division bench also advanced the next date of hearing in the matter before the single judge to May 17 from July 22. The single judge had on February 24 declined to grant any interim relief to Magic Sewa which had sought stay on the Rs 150 entry fee. On the alleged exclusivity being granted to the three other cab companies — Easy, Meru and Mega Taxi — to enter the airport and pick-up passengers while denying this benefit to others, Magic Sewa claimed this privilege was being granted as the three operators had paid huge sums of money for it. During the hearing before the division bench, AAI said that tenders were floated for grant of special privilege and the three companies are being charged huge amounts for it. Magic Sewa has claimed that grant of such special rights “kills competition” and was “anti-people and consumer”. “Apparently, the cost incurred by the said cab companies is passed on to hapless domestic and international passengers in one form or another. Besides, these privileged cab companies also charge from passengers the maximum rate notified by respondent 3 (Delhi government) under the law which at present stands at Rs 23 per km. “In today’s market, competition is so high among cab companies that the average cost works out to less than Rs 15 per km. By granting special rights to select companies to the exclusion of other similarly placed companies to park taxis at and pick up passengers from the airport kills competition and is anti-people/consumers,” Magic Sewa has said.
Aviation authority reviews block time for select domestic flights
The Directorate-General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has advised airlines to use realistic block timings for flights. For this it has “considered” a flight time of 185 minutes for a flight between Delhi and Kochi and 130 minutes for a flight between Delhi and Mumbai. For a Delhi-Patna flight the DGCA has “considered” a new block time of 95 minutes. On all three routes this is five minutes more than the earlier block times. The block time for flights from Delhi to Chennai, Hyderabad and Bengaluru remains as before, officials said. This follows a DGCA review of the block time that domestic airlines can show in their time tables for their flights. Block time is calculated from the time that an aircraft pushes back from the departing gate till the time the captain switches off the aircraft engines after parking at the arriving gate. “Domestic air passenger traffic has grown, airports have become slot constrained and one has to consider seasonal wind patterns while taking a view on the block timings for various routes,” a senior DGCA official said. Officials clarified that a 130-minute block time between Delhi and Mumbai does not necessarily mean that a flight will be completed in that time as the aircraft may have to wait for a few more minutes to actually get on the ground if the airport is facing congestion.
AAI’s plan-B to avoid link fail
Airports Authority of India (AAI) is putting in place a backup for the microwave link that connects critical aircraft communication, navigation and surveillance equipment to prevent a repeat of Thursday’s blackout. AAI officials said RailTel was installing its internet backbone to provide a second connectivity to fall back on in case the primary microwave link service provided by BSNL failed. “Installation of the redundancy line has been expedited and should be in place in three-four months,” an official said. RailTel owns a pan-India optic fibre network on exclusive right of way along railway tracks. While Thursday’s link failure had led to a critical situation in Kolkata air traffic control as connectivity to remote VHF radio units had also failed, a radar link failure had happened in October 2015, necessitating the backup. Seamless connectivity between air traffic controllers and pilots is of paramount importance to ensure flight safety as it is the controllers who monitor the relative position of planes and provide navigation guidance by communicating through VHF radio.
Air India orders probe against pilot who delayed flight for particular woman co-pilot
National carrier Air India on Thursday ordered an inquiry into an incident in which a commander allegedly refused to operate a flight from Chennai without a particular woman co-pilot. The company will neither “condone” nor “tolerate” such acts, Air India chairman and managing director Ashwani Lohani said in a statement here. As many as 110 passengers onboard the airline’s flight from Chennai for Male via Thiruvananthapuram were made to wait for over two hours at the Chennai airport on Wednesday morning after the commander allegedly insisted for the particular woman pilot to operate the aircraft with him. “On the issue of the recent incident on (Air India flight) AI 263 from Chennai to Male via Thiruvananthapuram where the pilot refused to fly without a particular co-pilot, the airline has taken a strong view on the matter and has ordered an immediate inquiry into it,” Lohani said.
Spicejet-Kalanithi Maran stock warrant issue: HC seeks BSE, Sebi reply
Delhi High Court Thursday asked the Bombay Stock Exchange and Securities and Exchange Board of India on what decision they have taken with regard to the application of Spicejet and Kalanithi Maran for issuance of stock warrants in the airline to him. Justice Manmohan Singh issued notice to BSE and Sebi asking them to inform him on April 26 “outcome of decision, if taken, in view of order passed on March 14” by the court. The order was passed after the lawyers for Spicejet and Maran told the court that so far no decision has been taken by BSE and Sebi and the time of two weeks given by the judge has already expired. The court on March 14 had asked BSE to decide the application for issuance of stock warrants within two weeks of filing of the requisite paperwork by the airline. The March 14 interim order was issued on a plea of Sun group head Kalanithi Maran claiming that he and his KAL Airways were to be issued stock warrants in Spicejet by the airline under a 2015 sale purchase agreement (SPA) which led to change in ownership of the budget carrier.
CBI Inspection at Airport, AISATS Office
The CBI Kochi unit on Wednesday conducted further inspections at the domestic airport of Trivandrum International Airport (TIA) and at the office of Air India SATS (AISATS) in the city. AISATS is a joint venture between Air India Limited and SATS Limited, a leading ground handling agency. The raid was carried out following complaints against AISATS over the payment of ground handling royalty charges to the Airport Authority of India (AAI). In the complaints, it was said that AISATS had deliberately reduced the per cent of royalty payment which it is bound to give the AAI. Agencies like AISATS are required to pay a certain percentage of their monthly gross turnover (GTO) as royalty charges to AAI. The raid, which began in the early hours of Wednesday, ended in the evening and the CBI officials are learnt to have confiscated several records from the offices. The sleuths had directed all airlines dealing with AISATS to produce the documents of payments made to the ground handling agency over the last few years. According to the CBI officials, this was a follow-up inspection made by the sleuths after a major raid carried out three months ago. Earlier, the CBI had also found misappropriation to the tune of crores.
Disclose assets by April 21, SC tells Mallya
The Supreme Court on Thursday directed beleaguered liquor baron Vijay Mallya to disclose to it all his assets—movable and immovable and tangible and intangible—and other interests in India and abroad by April 21. An apex court Bench comprising Justice Kurien Joseph and Justice Rohinton Fali Nariman asked Mallya to disclose all the assets held by his wife and children and also indicate the date when he could appear before it in person. The order came after a consortium of 23 nationalised banks and financial institutions today rejected in the Supreme Court Mallya’s offer to repay the Rs 9,000 crore loans in a staggered manner.
Passengers body calls for removal of 5/20 rule
The Air Passengers Association of India (APAI) has asked the ministry to remove the controversial 5/20 rule and attacked the Federation of Indian Airlines, which is lobbying against the removal of the rule. In a letter addressed to Civil Aviation Secretary Rajiv Nayan Choubey, the association said: “It must be completely scrapped and the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) must be empowered to consider giving licences to all those airlines that have financial muscle.” Business Standard has seen a copy of the letter. The controversial 5/20 rule makes it mandatory for an airline to have five years of domestic operations and 20 aircraft to become eligible for flying abroad. With a civil aviation policy on the cards, airlines are divided over the proposed removal of the rule. IndiGo, Jet Airways, SpiceJet and GoAir have opposed doing away with the rule. But new airlines such as Vistara and AirAsia want the rule is removed. The letter also said the FIA, which represents the older airlines, acts as a cartel and takes joint decisions that harm the interests of passengers. “It is pertinent to note that FIA is nothing but an organisation established for self-serving causes and does not care to address any other issue, including those of the passengers and their grievances,” the letter said. ” It is also pertinent to note that all airlines registered with DGCA are not allowed to become members of this body which goes on to show that this is nothing but an entity to lobby when required for self-serving their own cause.”