DGCA makes online fee payment compulsory for more than 14 services
Application process for seeking permission to start airlines, operate airports and pilot licenses, among others, will now be less cumbersome with aviation watchdog DGCA deciding to collect fees only through online. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has made online fee payment compulsory for more than 14 services effective from August 1. The move is part of larger efforts to further improve the ease of doing business for the stakeholders. Online fee payment would be applicable for other services such as issue and renewal of aerodrome license, air operator permit, regular certificate of registration, license for aircraft maintenance engineers and certificate of airworthiness. In a circular, the regulator said online fee payment requirement is being introduced for certain services on a pilot basis as part of the eGCA project. E-Governance for Civil Aviation (eGCA) envisages online service delivery, automation of the systems and processes at the back-end and implementation of required IT infrastructure and service delivery framework. All 162 items identified for this purpose are expected to go online by December at an investment of over Rs 80 crore. Technology solutions provider Hewlett Packard has been mandated to execute the project. The eGCA project is aimed at completely automating the processes and functions of DGCA and its constituent directorates as well as provide a strong base for IT infrastructure and service delivery framework. Chris Johnson Jersey
IndiGo’s bottomline hit, other airlines will also suffer; why airfares should rise
ndia is one of the world’s fastest growing aviation markets, where passengers are enticed to fly with ridiculously low fares even as airlines’ costs remain among the highest due to high taxation of jet fuel. Frequent and bruising fare wars have scraped away about 7 percent from the net profit growth of market leader IndiGo for the June quarter. The airline now says competitive intensity on fares is hurting its bottomline and it will continue to participate in such fares wars. The truth is air fares in India are among the lowest (a Bloomberg story says base fares are as low as 2 cents) and India generates volume of air traffic on the back of affordability. To make matters worse for airlines, there was a further 11 percent decline in year-on-year average domestic air fares during the June quarter this year. The average price at which IndiGo sold a seat was Rs 4,032 in Q1 this fiscal against Rs 4,525 in the same quarter last year. This is the reason for a decline in profitability for India’s largest airline by passenger numbers. This story shows how the fare gimmicks have continued well into the second quarter. It says the cheapest fare for Delhi-Mumbai travel during the two-month period between August and September this year across three airlines hovered between Rs 2,681 to Rs 2,688. Fares for the same route booked a week in advance in 2015 was charged anywhere between Rs 5,000 to Rs 6,000. Indigo said it would open fares from as cheap as Rs 1,005 starting 27 July to 29 July. For IndiGo, net profit fell to Rs 592 crore (Rs 639 crore) while total income from operations rose 8.7 percent to Rs 4,579 crore. The airline reported that average yield (measure of average fare paid per mile, per passenger) fell 8 percent during the June quarter because of fall in average ticket prices.”We have posted yet another profitable quarter. However, profitability was lower than last year primarily because of competitive fare pressures,” said InterGlobe president Aditya Ghosh. So will India’s airlines think of raising fares to improve profitability? Not just IndiGo, every other airline will likely post a decline in profitability for the June quarter due to the same fare wars. They already operate on thin margins due to warped cost dynamics, despite historic low jet fuel prices, with IndiGo the strongest bet. K.J. Wright Authentic Jersey
InterGlobe to lag unless load factor rises: Expert
Most airline stocks have rallied purely due to linear correlation with aviation turbine fuel prices without giving due consideration to other variables like utilisation levels, infrastructure costs etc., which also eat into margins, says market expert Prakash Diwan commenting on the weak show of InterGlobe Aviation in the first quarter. It is highly competitive environment and the results clearly indicate pricing power is not yet back, he says. He points that 18-20 percent of the new routes launched are sub-optimal with less than 55 percent occupancy. Unless occupancy rates and load factors improve, investors will not prefer to enter a high-risk business at such valuations. During the first quarter InterGlobe’s load factor declined to 83.3 percent from 87.9 percent year-on-year. Mack Hollins Womens Jersey
Aviation regulator wants airlines to give weekly reports relating to new passenger-friendly rules
With new norms notified by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) becoming effective on Monday, fliers may now get prompt refunds on cancellations of their air tickets. In addition, the cancellation charges must not exceed the basic fare and fuel surcharge charged by carriers on a particular route. Till today, charges varied from Rs.1,500 to 100% fare of the ticket, depending upon the class, price level and the time before departure. India’s civil aviation regulator on 13 July notified significant amendments to civil aviation rules relating to refunds, cancellation charges and facilities to be provided to persons with reduced mobility. To ensure more transparency, airlines are now required to indicate the refund amount in case of cancellations. The move would come as a relief to passengers as many carriers recently increased cancellation charges. Around 680,000 passengers fly daily on 5,470 daily domestic and international commercial flights from 75 Indian airports. A senior DGCA official requesting anonymity said airlines would soon be asked to give a weekly report on how they are adhering to new rules. Womens Jersey
Next DGCA director may be from the Indian Air Force
The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government may appoint a senior Indian Air Force (IAF) officer with the rank of an Air Marshal to head India’s civil aviation regulatory body, Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). The rationale stems from the fact that a person heading the post should have sound technical knowledge of air operations and the Indian skies. IAF officers in the past have been unsuccessfully applying for the DGCA’s top post. The post of DGCA head fell vacant as M. Sathiavathy, a 1982-batch AGMUT (Arunachal Pradesh-Goa-Mizoram and Union Territory) cadre Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer, was on 28 July moved from the regulatory body to the ministry of labour as the secretary. A senior civil aviation ministry official requesting anonymity said that the government has already indicated to get an IAF officer, someone who is involved in air operations and air traffic control. This comes in the backdrop of the regulatory body making amendments to the civil aviation regulations besides chalking out new rules on penalties, fast refund and compensations to air passengers. Additionally, DGCA is actively involved in streamlining the strategy for the NDA government’s regional connectivity scheme that aims to develop unserved and underserved airports across the country. St. Louis Blues Womens Jersey
SpiceJet, Jet Airways top India’s Most Reputed Domestic Private Airlines list: BlueBytes
When it comes to flying high in Reputation in Indian Aviation, national carrier Air India ranks first. SpiceJet leads in Domestic Private Airlines followed by Jet Airways with a 34% lower Brand Rep Score. While Indigo Airlines trails Jet with a Brand Rep Score 9% lower. In the International Private Airlines segment Singapore Airlines leads the way followed by Etihad with a Brand Rep Score 19% below the category leader. Emirates Brand Rep Score was 27% lower than Etihad. BlueBytes in association with TRA Research (both part of the Comniscient Group), released ‘India’s Most Reputed Aviation Brands 2016′ – the first in the Reputed series, and is set to launch a monthly report hereon on different sectors. The study evaluates brand’s Reputation with a two-pronged approach of media analysis and a survey of consumer influencers. “Reputation is a measure of the effectiveness of transmitted belief about attitudes showcasing Respect. In an industry where most players provide very similar services and the differentiators are barely a handful, having a good reputation becomes essential. A solid Reputation alone can be the distinguishing feature for Indian Aviation players to stand out from the clutter of the competition,” said Pooja Kaura, Chief Spokesperson for India’s Most Reputed Brands. The study was conducted within the Aviation industry – 21 airline brands that have measurable media coverage in India were selected for the study. BlueBytes tracked all the brands’ news in all the major English and Hindi print media (newspapers and magazines) across 9 cities as a representative of the news across all publications. A total of more than 30,000 articles related to different Aviation brands were captured in the period between June 15, 2015, and June 16, 2016. In addition to media analysis, the consumer’s perception was also studied. Devan Dubnyk Authentic Jersey
Air India’s hidden subsidy shows that the govt uses the company merely as a political tool
In spite of having the most bloated personnel structure in the industry, Air India continues to provide the worst service in the skies. Just recently, its on-time performance was shown to be much lower than other carriers that employ far less people per aircraft. In short, Air India does less work through more personnel. And all this colossal waste is funded by public money, that is, money hard earned and produced by you and me. That Air India still continues to be funded by public money with its very high employee per aircraft number and low on time performance is a matter of shame. Any matter of shame, on the part of who are not shameless, would have provoked some action. However, the government seems to be in no mood to stop funding Air India and stop haemorrhaging of public money. Thus, in an age of republicanism and democracy, the expensive Maharajah burns public money like all maharajahs have done in the past. The turbaned Maharajah icon of Air India is now a cruel, cruel joke. The amount of subsidy that has been injected into Air India by the people of the various states of the Indian Union is huge. Since the Union government extracts this money directly from states and puts them in a common pool, this element of states is not apparent. I will discuss later how and why this matters. Since April 2012, the Union government has pumped in more than Rs 22,280 crore to Air India’s core equity as part of its turnaround plan. This is part of the Rs 30,000 crore committed to Air India by Union government as part of its turnaround plan. Let’s realise what this subsidy is for. This is for passenger air services — a service that less than 5% of the population will ever avail and that too is the top 5% earning group of the population. However, the subsidy for this would come from the people of the states at large and hence, this is the worst form of regressive subsidy where the poor are subsidising a company that provides services to the rich. That this scandal continues is broad daylight is probably a huge sign of the classist nature of public discourse and policy making in the Indian Union. But there is a huge, huge hidden subsidy that no one talks about and that does not seem to matter. Let me explain by example. I am employed in a government-funded institution. One would think that public funds or government funds, since they are funds of the people, should be held to the highest level of thrift and value-for-money when spending and should not be wasted one bit since I am spending money given in trust by the public. The standards of responsibility would have to be high. Marlon Humphrey Jersey
State asks Centre to improve interstate air connectivity
The state government has urged the Centre to improve both interstate and intrastate air connectivity as part of the regional connectivity scheme (RCS). It has put forth a proposal of four routes to be declared as RCS ones in Odisha. It has also proposed to improve connectivity with major cities in the neighbouring states to the ministry of aviation. At present, Odisha has 20 operational airstrips. This includes the Biju Patnaik International Airport. “People living in the western, northern and southern parts of the state will be immensely benefited if air connectivity increases,” said state tourism minister Ashok Chandra Panda. The proposed routes include Bhubaneswar-Berhampur-Jeypore, Bhubaneswar-Utkela-Jeypore, Bhubaneswar-Sambalpur-Rourkela and Bhubaneswar-Angul-Rourkela. The minister also requested that these be declared as interstate routes connecting Bhubaneswar airport to important cities like Raipur in Chhattisgarh, Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh, Ranchi in Jharkhand and Kolkata in West Bengal. Larry Warford Authentic Jersey
Government may leverage Air India to operationalise regional connectivity scheme
With no commitment coming from private carriers to join the ambitious regional connectivity scheme (RCS), the National Democratic Alliance government may bring in Air India Regional to operationalise the scheme aimed at bringing air travel to remote areas. Started as Alliance Air in 1996, the carrier was a low-cost arm of the erstwhile Indian Airlines and became a wholly owned subsidiary of Air India following the historic merger of the two state-run airlines. A senior official from the ministry of civil aviation, requesting anonymity, said that Air India would be asked to operate small ATR planes on some of the RCS routes in the initial stage to create demand. The official explained that similar steps were taken in the past and private airlines had followed where Air India had been the sole carrier. “We expect private airlines to join sooner or later once Air India flies to those smaller airports. It would create demand in the adjoining areas or even in other parts, if the national carrier is able to make it to just one of the destinations in a particular state,” the official said. The state-run carrier could also be asked to dry-lease more small aircraft for the regional push as private carriers in India don’t have too many of these machines in their respective fleets, he added. Under a dry lease, only aircraft is provided by the lessor. However, if crew is also provided by the lessor, then it is called a wet lease. J.R. Sweezy Authentic Jersey
SpiceJet plans regional connectivity push
Budget carrier SpiceJet on Friday raised the bar of customer comfort and convenience with the launch of smart mobile check in facility at GMR Hyderabad International Airport Limited and outlined plans to tap the growing opportunities in regional connectivity where the Government is seeking to provide a major push. Ashok Gajapathi Raju, Union Civil Aviation Minister, inaugurated the facility and expressed that the country’s civil aviation sector would continue to sustain the growth witnessed in the recent times. Ajay Singh, CMD, SpiceJet Ltd, said, “The airline has managed to turn around from being a sinking airliner after taking it over in January 2015. Over the past 11-12 months, it has consistently registered occupancy levels of over 92 per cent that only reflects how it is on growth path.” Transfer dispute Refraining to comment on the Delhi High Court order wherein the airliner was asked to deposit Rs. 580 crore in a transfer dispute between Kalanithi Maran and Spicejet, Ajay Singh, said, “The matter is sub-judice. At this point it would not be appropriate to comment on the development. We will have to wait for the order before we can comment on the matter.” The court on Friday sent the share transfer dispute between Kalanithi Maran and SpiceJet to arbitration relating to the transfer of 18 crore warrants by SpiceJet to its former promoter Maran. “India has been growing at a fast rate over the past few years and we expect the sector to continue the growth. This will mean new fleet acquisition and we are in talks with both Airbus and Boeing. In addition, we expect to add three more aircraft to the 14 aircraft fleet in couple of months to strengthen the regional connectivity,” he said. Currently, SpiceJet connects its network with a fleet of 26 Boeing 737NG and 14 Bombardier Q-400s. Smart check-in The Smart Check-in facility uses Bluetooth Low Energy and Near Field Communication technologies and enables customers who have booked their tickets through the SpiceJet Mobile App to check in without any hassle. The service has been initially introduced at Hyderabad Airport and will soon be available in all airports supporting e-boarding facility. SGK Kishore, CEO, GHIAL, said, “As an airport operator, we encourage and explore newer ways to improve passenger processing. We are the first Indian airport to implement end-to-end E-boarding process and soon coming with other digital interfaces for passengers. Our focus on digitisation at the airport is in line with the Prime Minister’s dream of Digital India.” “We are also working on a solution, where we may be able to do away with stamping of a cabin bag,” he said. Alexander Edler Authentic Jersey