Clogged metro airports: Government plans more plane parking bays
As Indian carriers have lined up over 550 new aircraft for deliveries over next six years, more parking bays are being planned by the government at airports nearest to the over-crowded and clogged metro airports at Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata airports. The development comes in wake of Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) conveying its concern to the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) concerning over-crowding of aircraft at these metro airports. It has pointed out that Indian carriers are adding more aircraft to their fleet, which is creating shortage of parking space at these metro airports and also creating operational problems leading to flight delays. According to a DGCA official, Indian carriers are expected to add at least 63 new and leased aircraft by December 2017. What’s more worrying for the DGCA is that it has allowed 21 percent more flights from the last year for the winter schedule, which started on October 30 and would continue till March 26 next year. DGCA approved a total of 16,600 flights per week to be operated by domestic carriers compared with 13,744 flights during the winter schedule last year. The Airports Authority of India, which is a state-run airport developer and operates 125 airports across the country, of which 77 are functional — has been assigned to assess the requirement for developing more parking space at airports nearing these metro airports. A senior government official said in case of Delhi, the nearest airports where parking bays for aircraft could be developed are at Jaipur, Lucknow, Amritsar or Chandigarh.
Aviation Ministry refutes reports of new UDAN levy on airlines
After the official launch of UDAN scheme last month by the Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju, the government has taken its first step towards the implementation of UDAN (Ude Desh Ka Aam Nagrik), a plan that aims to making flying affordable for masses. However, the move is not expected to go down well with the existing flyers. According to news reports, the government plans to impose a levy of Rs 7,500-Rs 8,500 on departure of every flight by scheduled carriers on major routes such as Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Kolkata. The levy will go into regional connectivity fund (RCF) that will provide corpus to the regional connectivity scheme. The state governments will contribute about 20 per cent to RCF. When combined, the government is looking at building around Rs 500 crore corpus each year. When Business Today contacted an official in aviation ministry, he said that civil aviation secretary R.N. Choubey has been misquoted. “It’s a big decision. Such decisions have to be consulted with the finance ministry,” the official said. Owen Tippett Jersey
Domestic flight prices set to increase as govt imposes new levy from Dec 1
Airfares are set to rise with the government deciding to levy up to Rs 8,500 per flight on major routes to fund the regional air connectivity scheme. The levy amount would be for an entire flight and the price of each ticket could go up depending on the number of seats in that particular flight. Civil Aviation Secretary R N Choubey today said the levy would be up to Rs 8,500 per flight depending on distance. The ambitious scheme — UDAN (Ude Desh ka Aam Naagrik) — seeks to connect small cities by air as well as make flying more affordable for the masses. To provide viability gap funding for the flights operated under the regional connectivity scheme, the Ministry would impose a levy on every departure on major air routes such as the national capital, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Kolkata. “The levy for an up to 1,000 kilometre length of scheduled flight will be Rs 7,500 per flight, Rs 8,000 for a 1,000 to 1,500 kilometre flight and Rs 8,500 for flights above 1,500 kilometre,” Choubey said here. For UDAN, the government would be creating the Regional Connectivity Fund (RCF). Steven Kampfer Jersey
Airlines increase cancellation charges
The airline industry, on Wednesday, have issued circulars informing their respective ticket counters that in case of cancellation of tickets, the amount will be refunded through bank accounts. Soon after they received the circular, the counters were requesting bank account details of commuters buying tickets for travel in the next three days. The airline industry has been given an exemption of 72 hours for accepting the currency notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000. In a ripple effect, all the private airliners have doubled the cancellation charges for domestic flights from Rs 2,250 to Rs 5,000. Expecting an increase in the purchase of air tickets by black-money hoarders, the airline industry has made it mandatory for people to submit a photocopy of PAN card or AADHAR card for cash payments above Rs 50,000. Warren Sapp Jersey
Air tickets bought using old Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes to be ‘strictly non-refundable’
The great Indian ‘jugaad’ has failed this time. People were lining up at airport counters of airlines to buy tickets using their stack of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes+ . On Thursday evening, airlines said that the tickets being sold like this will be “strictly non-refundable and won’t be cancelled”. SpiceJet confirmed this move and Vistara tweeted about it. “We got instructions from the DGCA to do so. They, in turn, got their orders from the highest level of government (read PMO) as the relaxation was meant to ensure genuine travellers do not face hardships. This was not meant to be misused as a old-to-new note conversion trick,” said a senior airline official. The mad frenzy among people to get rid of their ‘unaccounted’ notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 has seen airlines witness a mad rush at airport counters from soon after PM Modi’s dramatic announcement on Tuesday night. Airline counters at airports were among the few places allowed to accept these high denomination currency till Friday-Saturday midnight. Rob Kelley Jersey
Green signal to new Lohegaon airport road
The defence ministry has approved the construction of another road leading to the Lohegaon airport, paving the path to ease congestion on the approach path to the terminal. The 400m road would pass through a private land. It would stretch towards the VIP Road in one direction and towards Vimannagar on the other, running parallel to the existing road through defence land. The road will originate from the Parking number-2 of the airport, said MP Anil Shirole, the chairman of the Pune Airport Advisory Committee. Serious discussions on constructing the new road were on for quite sometime. The office of the Union defence minister has now given a go-ahead to the construction of the road along the perimeter wall of the Indian Air Force (IAF). It has been decided that the IAF would give land not exceeding 20m in width from its existing boundary wall. The security wall would be constructed exactly at a distance of 20m from the wall. The new security wall would have to be constructed before the demolition of the existing boundary wall. The IAF has sought proper security measures during the construction of the road. Deion Sanders Jersey
AAI announces Rs. 17000 crore for development of existing airports
The Airports Authority of India on Tuesday announced a major expansion plan of Rs 17000 crore in next five years, for the development of existing airports in the country. AAI Chairman Guru Prasad Mahapatra, who paid a visit at the Bhubaneswar airport, said the development plan includes the expansion of terminals, runway and improvement in the radars of the air navigation system. During the briefing Mahapatra enlightened that round 200 to 300 crore would be spent by the AAI authority to expand the Bhubaneswar airport, under which new terminals would be built and the old ones would be repaired with new tools. The decision of expansion arrived after the aviation sector in India witnessed a growth of more than 20 percent. The Airports authority has plans to purchase new aircrafts under the process to increase the connectivity with other countries. C. J. Prosise Womens Jersey
Armed With A Winning Strategy, Jayant Sinha Vows To Make Air India Profitable Again
Jayant Sinha assumed charge as Minister of State for Civil Aviation in July this year, after a stint in the Finance Ministry. The former investment banker gained a reputation of being a quick learner there and he has demonstrated that again in his new job, having acquired a good grasp over the intricacies of India’s high-cost aviation sector. He has helped launch the ambitious regional connectivity scheme UDAN (which had been in the works for years) and now promises to revolutionise service standards in the aviation sector. In an exclusive chat with Swarajya’s Sindhu Bhattacharya, Sinha promises a return of loss-laden Air India to its former glory and a new definition of what we know as an “Indian” airline. His next pet project is Air Sewa, which is expected to change service standards in India’s aviation industry. Excerpts: Q. In the last six months, every airline was competing aggressively, especially on pricing so much so that yields were falling. But last-minute prices have shot through the roof in the last few days. A. It is important to understand how airline pricing is done. Like any other industry, setting prices is a very dynamic process. If you look in aggregate, prices have been declining for air travel and if you look at the revenue per average seat kilometre (RASK), which is something that airlines track very closely and you can see the data from the latest numbers that Indigo has posted, those are actually coming down. So airline prices in aggregate are declining. Q. What do you mean by aggregate pricing, for the common man? A. If you look at the number of kilometers flown and the amount of rupees collected, the rupees collected per km are actually going down. So in aggregate, the cost of flying is going down. Now that’s the overall story and now you have to look at the individual routes over time. Pavel Buchnevich Womens Jersey
New aircraft on Gaya-Delhi route from January 2017
Come January 2017 and the old and defect prone A320 air bus flying on Gaya-Delhi route would be taken off and a new series plane would fly on the said route. This will help to resolve the frequent grounding and emergency landing of the planes flying on this route. Till now Air India had been flying aircrafts procured a quarter century back with metal fatigue and other problems. The issue of defect prone aircraft came up at a high-level meet chaired by the Union civil aviation secretary Rajiv Nayan Choubey in Gaya on Tuesday. The participants included Gaya DM Kumar Ravi and airport director Dilip Kumar. Nolan Cromwell Authentic Jersey
Runway shuts due to stalled aircraft
The main runway at Kolkata airport had to be shut down for two-and-a-half hours on Monday after an aircraft developed a snag during take off and was stuck on the tarmac. All flight operations were shifted to the shorter, secondary runway during the crisis. According to airport officials, Singapore Airlines flight SQ517 operated with an Airbus 330 aircraft was taxing for take-off scheduled at 11.55pm when the plane developed a snag. As the aircraft rolled into the main runway, the pilot turned the nose to align the plane with the central runway line for the take-off run, the nose wheel mechanism jammed, stalling the aircraft on the runway. The night was a crucial time for air traffic management (ATM) team as many international flights were scheduled to land. Once the pilot radioed the air traffic control tower, operations were switched from the primary runway to the secondary strip. Rashaad Penny Authentic Jersey