BCAS has given nod to e-boarding at airports: Government
The Bureau of Civil Aviation Security has approved e-boarding facility that will help domestic fliers at airports reduce waiting time for baggage check-in and security clearance. “The Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) has accorded approval for e-boarding on the basis of successful trial run conducted at Hyderabad airport,” Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha told the Rajya Sabha today. An advisory to airports operating under public private partnerships (PPP) for e-boarding has been issued too, he said. After implementing the project on pilot basis in April, 2015 for three months, the GMR group-run Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (RGIA) in Hyderabad on December 28 last year, became the first airport in the country to offer e-boarding facility to domestic fliers. The e-boarding facility covers all boarding processes right from entry into the terminal building, check-in, security checks, boarding gate and boarding bridge check before entering the aircraft. With the implementation of e-boarding facility, a domestic passenger at RGIA needs only a mobile e-boarding card and his Aadhaar number to gain entry into the airport. Kasperi Kapanen Womens Jersey
Govt gives go ahead for 18 new airports costing Rs 30,000 crore
The government has given in principle approval for setting up 18 airports which together are estimated to cost nearly Rs 30,000 crore. Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha today said the government has granted “in principle” approval for the greenfield airports. Citing information provided by developers, the total estimated cost for setting up of the 18 airports “comes out to Rs 30,000 crore (approximately)”, Sinha said. “As regards construction of new greenfield airports, execution of project including finalisation of project cost and financing arrangement is the sole responsibility of the respective airport promoters,” he said, as per an official release. The 18 airports which have received in principle nod for construction include Mopa (Goa), Navi Mumbai, Shirdi and Sindhudurg (Maharashtra), Bijapur, Gulbarga, Hasan and Shimoga (Karnataka), Kannur (Kerala), Pakyong (Sikkim), Karaikal (Puducherry), Dholera (Gujarat) and Bhogapuram (Andhra Pradesh). Besides, “site clearance” has been given to 5 greenfield airports. They are Machiwara, Ludhiana Airport (Punjab), Itanagar in Arunachal Pradesh, Jamshedpur in Jharkhand, Alwar in Rajasthan and Kothagudem in Telangana. The information was given by Sinha in a written reply in Rajya Sabha, as per the releases. Justin Simmons Womens Jersey
SpiceJet to train 70-75 aircraft maintenance engineers each year
SpiceJet aims to train up to 75 aircraft maintenance engineers under its apprentice programme every year as the airline looks to nurture talent in-house. Against the backdrop of skilled manpower shortage in the fast-growing domestic aviation sector, the airline would provide employment to students who successfully complete the apprentice programme. The initiative would help in improving skills of the students with increased focus on practical training, SpiceJet’s Senior Vice President (Engineering and Maintenance) Arun Kashyap said. “Initially, we plan to train around 70-75 people every year,” he told PTI. The programme, which was started in August 2016, is divided into two phases — three months of classroom teaching and nine months of hands-on training. So far, 22 students have completed their classroom course and the new batch started earlier this month. Kashyap said that the airline is in discussions with aircraft engine makers, including Pratt & Whitney, with respect to the apprentice programme. There is a shortage of skilled manpower to the tune of 300-500 people for the domestic airlines. These are mainly for technicians, and certifying staff, he noted. Those inducted into the apprentice programme are generally students who have completed their aircraft maintenance engineering course having two-and-a-half to three years duration. Bradley Chubb Jersey
SpiceJet most punctual airline in February: DGCA
SpiceJet was the most punctual domestic airline in February, according to data collected by the Director General of Civil Aviation from four cities — Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Bangalore. The airline’s on-time performance was at 81.1 percent, while IndiGo’s was 79.7 percent. The least punctual airline was the national airlines Air India (domestic) at 66.2 percent. On the Bangalore route, Air India was most punctual with 79.9 percent on-time performance. It performed worst at Mumbai with 59.1 percent on-time performance. Meanwhile, Jet Airways and Jet Lite performed best at the Hyderabad airport with 80.3 percent on-time performance. It had the worst performance in Delhi. SpiceJet’s best performance was at the Hyderabad and worst was at Bengaluru. However, it outperformed Air India, Jet Airways + Jet Lite, Go Air and Vistara even at the lowest. Even at its best in Bengaluru, Go Air fared worse than Air India, Jet Airways + Jet Lite, SpiceJet, IndiGo and Vistara. Jamize Olawale Womens Jersey
US bars electronics in cabin bags on non-stop flights from eight countries
The US government is temporarily barring passengers on certain flights originating in eight other countries from bringing laptops, iPads, cameras and most other electronics in carry—on luggage starting today. The reason for the ban was not immediately clear. US security officials would not comment. The ban was revealed yesterday in statements from Royal Jordanian Airlines and the official news agency of Saudi Arabia. A US official told The Associated Press the ban will apply to non-stop flights to the US from 10 international airports serving the cities of Cairo in Egypt; Amman in Jordan; Kuwait City in Kuwait; Casablanca in Morocco; Doha in Qatar; Riyadh and Jeddah in Saudi Arabia; Istanbul in Turkey; and Abu Dhabi and Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. The ban was indefinite, said the official. A second US official said the ban will affect nine airlines in total, and the Transportation Security Administration will inform the affected airlines at 3 am Eastern time today. The officials were not authorised to disclose the details of the ban ahead of a public announcement and spoke on the condition of anonymity. Royal Jordanian said cellphones and medical devices were excluded from the ban. Everything else, the airline said, would need to be packed in checked luggage. Royal Jordanian said the electronics ban affects its flights to New York, Chicago, Detroit and Montreal. David Lapan, a spokesman for Homeland Security Department, declined to comment. The Transportation Security Administration, part of Homeland Security, also declined to comment. A US government official said such a ban has been considered for several weeks. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity to disclose the internal security discussions by the federal government. Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly phoned lawmakers over the weekend to brief them on aviation security issues that have prompted the impending electronics ban, according a congressional aide briefed on the discussion. The aide was not authorised to speak publicly about the issue and spoke on the condition of anonymity. The ban would begin just before tomorrow’s meeting of the US—led coalition against the Islamic State group in Washington. A number of top Arab officials were expected to attend the State Department gathering. It was unclear whether their travel plans were related to any increased worry about security threats. Brian Jenkins, an aviation—security expert at the Rand Corp, said the nature of the security measure suggested that it was driven by intelligence of a possible attack. He added that there could be concern about inadequate passenger screening or even conspiracies involving insiders — airport or airline employees — in some countries. JuJu Smith-Schuster Jersey
Airlines improve connections between India and Asia Pacific
India’s Jet Airways and Singapore-based Jetstar Asia have announced plans for a codeshare agreement that will create a series of new travel opportunities between India and multiple Asian and Australian destinations, via Singapore. Jet will place its 9W flight code on Jetstar’s flights operating from Singapore to 11 destinations: Bangkok, Phuket, Perth, Darwin, Jakarta, Bali, Surabaya, Ho Chi Minh City, Kuala Lumpur, Penang and Hong Kong. Three of these – Darwin, Phuket and Penang – will be entirely new destinations for the Indian carrier. These services will connect at Singapore’s Changi Airport with Jet’s services to and from four Indian cities: Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai and Bengaluru. Deion Sanders Authentic Jersey
Optimism pervades the Indian Aviation Industry
India has one of the fastest growing aviation industries in the world. We are growing at more than 20% annually. The Indian Aviation Infrastructure is definitely keeping pace with the growth. In fact in Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bangalore the infrastructure is already there, we need growth by way of more and more airlines flying to these airports. There are many airports in India which are not utilized fully. Also, we need to have some upgradations. When probed about the issue of capacity crunch in the industry and about the revival of the 400 plus airports and air strips, Mr. Goyal explains, “There is no capacity crunch. In fact there is an imbalance which needs to be rectified by integrated approach. The only way to revive the 400 plus unserved airports is to implement the scheme of regional connectivity which has been initiated by the Civil Aviation Ministry. Now the ball is in the court of the State Governments and the private entrepreneurs. They all need to come together in order to evolve a strategy for an integrated approach. I hope within the next 5 years, a lot of these small unutilized airports will become operative because of the excellent financial incentives in the new civil aviation policy.” The only way forward for functional and loss making airports is to build shopping malls and commercial complexes around the airport and also connect them with metro services so that airports become a hub of commercial activity, not only for the passengers but also for the nearby residents. Yes, PPP is the only way forward, not only for the Indian Aviation Industry and Air India but most of the public sector undertakings which are not making profits. Brandon Bolden Womens Jersey
Too bad Air India: FinMin pours cold water on SPVs for bad loans
The finance ministry is unlikely to sign on to the proposal for a ‘bad (debt) bank’, going by its response to some of the line ministries on similar proposals. The latest of those is the one to form a special purpose vehicle (SPV) to house Air India’s (AI’s) debt. The finance ministry argues that debt of any entity must largely be serviced from its own resources, instead of expecting the government to pay for these. While the government is AI’s owner, the suggestion for it to take a haircut on behalf of the airline does not find favour. has proposed to house a major portion of its Rs 45,000 crore of debt in an SPV, to cleanse its balance sheet. A third of the loans were raised to finance the cost of aircraft acquisition; the rest are for working capital. The loan overhang and the cost of servicing it at Rs4,000 crore a year cripples the airlines’ ability to set aside money for investment in route expansion or upgrading of services. The proposal is leant to have got the support of the civil aviation ministry. Finance ministry officers have made their position clear through informal discussions with the aviation ministry. The ministry has said such bailouts will create a precedent for other stressed entities. AI is running a large operation and the ministry feels there is enough room for it to clear out its debt. AI’s proposal is similar to the one suggested for public sector banks to house their bad debts. HDFC Chairman, Deepak Parekh and Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian have also supported the setting up of one or more ‘bad banks’, to pull out non-performing loans from state-owned lenders. Subramanian has used the term ‘twin balance sheet problem’ to describe the issue. The bad debts cripple the ability of these banks to commit fresh credit to companies, while the companies which have run up the debt, starved of fresh investments, are unable to raise resources to service the debt. Denver Broncos Womens Jersey
SpiceJet to lease planes for Udan flights
SpiceJet Ltd will lease more planes to fly under the government’s Udan regional flying scheme and connect six additional stations, chairman Ajay Singh said in an interview. “There will be some planes required for RCS (regional connectivity scheme),” Singh said, adding that over the next one-and-a-half years, the airline could take on lease as many as 10 planes, some of them for this scheme. SpiceJet operates 343 average daily flights to 45 destinations, including 39 domestic and six international ones, using 32 Boeing 737NG planes for national and international routes and 17 Bombardier Q-400s for short-haul flights. The flights under RCS could be to six stations, starting summer. “We should be starting RCS flights by June or July,” Singh said, adding that there would be single flights to these stations “and then we will see how it goes”. Singh said he would fully support the government’s Udan scheme. “It’s an important national programme,” he said, adding that “there will be commercial viability (as there will be exclusive rights on a route for the first three years).” Clark Griswold Womens Jersey
Air India to complete procurement of all 27 Dreamliners by October: Jayant Sinha
Air India will complete the procurement of all the 27 Dreamliners by October, 2017 as per the contract, MoS for Civil Aviation, Jayant Sinha said in a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday. “Air India has acquired 23 Dreamliners progressively from September, 2012 to January 9, 2017. The Dreamliners aircraft have experienced technical reliability issues, since induction into Air India fleet. These issues, however, do not affect the safety of the airplane due to the system design and inbuilt system redundancy. Further, system improvements are incorporated as a part of reliability enhancement process and the glitches have significantly reduced,” the minister informed the Upper House. Sinha said one B787-8 aircraft will be delivered in July this year, two B-787-8 aircraft by August and one B787-8 aircraft by October, 2017, the minister said. Sinha further informed that in compliance with the provisions of Operation, Management and Development Agreement (OMDA), Delhi International Airport Private Limited (DIAL), the developer of Delhi’s IGI airport has reviewed and updated the airport’s master plan in 2016 in consultation with the Airports Authority of India. Kelechi Osemele Authentic Jersey