A long ride to Kannur airport
The laborious task of transporting the aerobridges for the Kannur International Airport being developed near Mattannur here in hydraulic axle trailers has turned out to be much slower than expected because of difficulties to negotiate curves and of other obstacles. The transportation of the components of the passenger boarding bridges for the airport under construction began at the Azhikkal port at around 11 p.m. on Saturday. Three hydraulic axle trailers started the trip with the components for installation from the port with a plan to reach Mele Chovva near here in the early hours. The night time was chosen for the transportation to avoid traffic problems the movement of the huge trailers might cause. The components of the aerobridge being transported to the airport site have a length of 66 feet and height of 17 feet. The components had reached the port on August 10. The scheduled transportation time was delayed because of the slow movement of the trailers. Griffin Reinhart Jersey
Australia looks to increase direct flights from India
Enthused by increasing number of tourists from India, Tourism Australia has intensified its marketing campaign in metro cities. It is planning to increase direct flights to the country from major Indian cities. Now, travellers fly via Singapore, Kuala Lumpur or Hong Kong. In spite of the lengthy journey, number of tourists from Chennai and other major cities has increased. Tamil Nadu comes fourth, when it comes to Australia-bound tourists. The first three states are Delhi, Maharashtra and Karnataka. Tourism Australia managing director John O’Sullivan said, “Australia will lobby for more flights connecting India. The promotion with regard to India will be focused on three points – lobbying for more flights, designing tourism products that will give more value for the tourists and to integrate content of promotion by adding local flavor.” Flying to Australia is expensive and cumbersome because there are no direct flights from Chennai. Scoot Airlines, which offers competitive fares and quick connection from Singapore, has eased the travel woes a bit. This has also increased the volume of tourists in recent months. However, there is very little scope to increase flights via Singapore, because Singapore Airlines has almost exhausted their quota of flights into India. Antti Niemi Womens Jersey
Scoot keen to utilize untapped opportunities in Indian aviation
Scoot which launched its services from Singapore to Amritsar and Chennai in May, intends to offer Indians the option to fly internationally at affordable fares with superior product offerings.Citing the largely untapped with promising growth opportunities, backed by a strong GDP growth, a burgeoning young population and the rising affluence of the middle class,Bharat Mahadevan, the Country Head of Scoot-India, believes that with its services to Chennai, Amritsar and Jaipur, India will become the number two market for the Singapore Airlines group in terms of the destinations after China. For Scoot alone , India will become the third market after China and Australia. We have received positive response from Indian guests and are experiencing strong load factors since our launch. Scoot’s travel proposition combining affordable value airfares with superior product offerings, along with a stringent focus on safety, is resonating strongly with our Indian guests. We have received positive responses from Indian guests and are seeing strong load factors since our launch. Scoot’s travel proposition combining affordable value airfares with superior product offerings, along with a stringent focus on safety, is resonating strongly with our Indian guests. We focus on the leisure market and our strategy includes targeting both independent and group travellers, depending on the originating market. Bud Norris Jersey
JK Tyre is looking to enter aviation market
JK Tyre & Industries Ltd, part of the Rs 28,000 crore JK Group last week rolled out its 10 millionth radial tyre from its Vikrant plant at Mysuru in Karnataka. The company, which ranks amongst the top 25 tyre manufacturers in the world and has a wide range of products catering to diverse business segments in the automobile industry, at present operates 12 plants – nine in India and three in Mexico. It recently announced integrating its Research and Development centres (R&D) spread across different locations in the country into one by setting up a Rs 100 crore centre in Mysuru. Raghupati Singhania, chairman and managing director, JK Tyre, in an interview with Shahkar Abidi, speaks about a wide range of topics and challenges, including the threat from the dumping of Chinese products in the Indian market. He also talked about the company’s interest in getting into the civil aviation sector which provides huge scope for growth as India is amongst the fastest-growing aviation markets in the world. Q. A lot of Indian companies are getting into the aviation market by offering to supply parts to aircraft manufacturers. Does JK Tyre have any plans to get into the aviation segment? A. Yes, we are working towards that direction as it’s a very lucrative segment. Though at present I cannot comment more on it as plans are still being worked out and things are still taking shape. But one thing is sure – we cannot ignore the segment as its going very strong and offers a lot of opportunity for growth. Christian Dvorak Womens Jersey
Agra will get its airport, but Jewar Airport stays, says Union minister Mahesh Sharma
When Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed his first pre-electoral speech in Agra in November 2013, he had made some very ambitious promises to Agra, including that of an international airport and barrage on Yamuna. However, in barely 3 years, his own ministers have reneged on Modi’s promises and the people of the city are not very pleased with the BJP at this hour. According to Anil Sharma, coordinator of the local civil society, Union Tourism MoS (IC) Mahesh Sharma has played a very shrewd game with the people of Agra by snatching away Agra’s international airport in order to benefit his own constituency in Jewar (Noida), when he was also holding the charge of MoS of Civil Aviation. The local civil society had raised this issue before the prime minister and the minister of civil aviation. Though, Mahesh Sharma has been removed from the civil aviation portfolio, the international airport is still being built in Jewar and not in Agra. This made it clear that Agra ranks very low on PM Modi’s priorities these days, in sharp contrast to the Modi Agra heard in November 2013, who appeared to be fully aware of each and every woe of the city. Jonathan Huberdeau Womens Jersey
DGCA may double 6-month notice period for pilots
A bitter fight has broken out among Indian carriers over the issue of ‘old’ airlines trying to retain their prized pilots and ‘new’ airlines aiming to poach them for their expanding fleets. Things have come to such a pass that the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) is reviewing its over a decade-old rule of having six months’ notice period for pilots. The old and established airlines have sought doubling of pilots’ notice period to a year. The DGCA has now sought individual views of all airlines. Highly placed sources say established airlines like Air India and IndiGo are in favour of one-year notice period, while ‘new’ airlines from the Tata Group like Vistara are against raising the notice period. Even some old airlines which are now going to expand their fleet are against the proposal for a year’s notice period. “There is differed opinion among airlines on this issue. Unfortunately nobody looks at this issue on the basis of legality. A final call will be taken after due dilligence by current DG B S Bhullar. His predecessors were not in favour of extending the notice period,” said a highly placed source. Mirza Teletovic Authentic Jersey
GMR wins bid for Mopa Greenfield airport
GMR Airports Limited (GAL), a subsidiary of GMR Infrastructure Ltd, has won the bid for development and operation of Mopa Greenfield Airport in North Goa. The concession period for the Greenfield project will be 40 years with a possible extension of another 20 years through a bid process. The airport will be built under the BOT (Build Operate Transfer) model. Th regulatory regime for the concession will be hybrid till with 30 per cent cross subsidy. The concession offers 232 acres of land for commercial city side development for a period of 60 years. “We will deliver an airport worthy of the state of Goa well within the project timelines,’’ Srinivas Bommidala, Chairman Airports, GMR Group, said in a release issued here on Saturday. The Airports Authority had ended up as the second highest bidder followed by the consortium of Essel Infra-Incheon. Jordin Tootoo Authentic Jersey
Not overlooking aircraft maintenance: Centre to High Court
The Centre has refuted in Delhi High Court the claim that civil aviation authorities are overlooking the alleged violation of aircraft maintenance schedules by airlines, endangering passenger safety. The Civil Aviation Ministry and the Director General for Civil Aviation’s (DGCA) denied that various private airlines operating in the country were “violating/circumventing the mandatory provisions for airworthiness and air safety”. The submission was made before a bench of Chief Justice G Rohini and Justice Sangita Dhingra Sehgal during hearing of a PIL alleging that aviation authorities were overlooking the prescribed maintenance schedules and sought directions to them to ensure safety of passengers on aircraft flying in and out India. The counsel for the ministry submitted that till date they have not received any complaint regarding any deficiency in aircraft services. It further said that the petitioner, advocate Alok Kumar, was a frequent flyer, yet he was alleging there were no safety measures in the flights. The bench then asked the petitioner to give suggestions with regard to safety requirements in aircraft and listed the matter for further hearing on October 19. Matt Paradis Jersey
Aviation fuel demand rebounds
State-run oil marketing companies (OMCs) are seeing a rebound in demand for aviation turbine fuel (ATF), with airline companies flying high on improved operations and profitability. Data on ATF consumption with the Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell of the government show a jump of nine per cent in 2015-16 to 6.2 million tonnes. In the four years between FY12 and FY15, the consumption had an annual compound growth of only one per cent. Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) saw a six to seven per cent rise in FY16, said a company official. It is the largest ATF supplier. Consumption and sales volumes for oil companies might differ slightly, due to imported ATF volumes; also, the data for FY16 is provisional. In recent years, airlines had scaled down operations. In October 2012, Kingfisher Airlines stopped plying. Financial woes also forced SpiceJet to scale down between 2014 and 2015, before a new investor stepped in and improved both operations and performance. “The improvement in FY16 was due to SpiceJet scaling up operations and the entry of new airlines AirAsia and Vistara,” the IOC official said. “We expect the volumes to grow at six-seven per cent for the next two to three years.” Josh Donaldson Womens Jersey
ATF — cheaper but still dear
Earlier this year, in March, the country’s leading private sector airlines — IndiGo, Jet Airways, SpiceJet and GoAir — accused the public sector oil marketing companies — Indian Oil, HPCL and BPCL — of profiteering on aviation turbine fuel (ATF). These oil companies supply about 95 per cent of the ATF across India’s airports and reset the fuel’s price on the first day of each month. Urging disclosure of the “ambiguous” and opaque price discovery mechanism for ATF, the airlines alleged that the benefit of the sharp fall in crude oil prices since 2014 had not been passed on. The 12 per cent hike in ATF price in March was being paid under protest, the airlines said. Indian Oil, the largest ATF supplier, was quick to refute the allegations. There was no monopolistic situation in ATF supply and pricing, the oil major said, adding that airlines were free to import the product, and that it is inappropriate to compare ATF price in an oil importing country such as India with that in oil exporters. ATF price had reduced sharply since 2014, Indian Oil said, asking for good measure whether airfares had reduced commensurately. While the argument continues, the truth, as always, seems to lie somewhere in the middle. ATF prices have evidently come down over the past two years. At about ?47,200 a kilolitre in Delhi, the fuel is today about 32 per cent cheaper than it was in end June 2014 (about ?69,800). But the drop is much lower than the 60 per cent dip in the cost of the Indian crude oil basket over the same period — from $109 to $43.5 a barrel. Three factors account for this — the pricing mechanism, taxes and exchange rates. Germain Ifedi Authentic Jersey