Centre holds stakeholders’ consultation on regional connectivity
The centre today met the states and airlines to discuss plans for the ambitious regional connectivity scheme, which will result in improved connectivity of smaller airports by airlines and put India’s hinterland on the country’s aviation roadmap. Representatives from all states except that of Tamil Nadu, Manipur and Madhya Pradash attended the meet in which various issues were discussed. Airline bosses including IndiGo president Aditya Ghosh, SpiceJet chairman Ajay Singh, Air Asia Amar Abrol and Air India CMD Ashwani Lohani attended the meet. The Narendra Modi-led government on Friday revealed its ambitious regional connectivity scheme under which airfares will be capped at Rs 2,500 for up to one-hour flights on unserved and under-served routes. Minister of state for civil aviation Jayant Sinha said that with demand for air travel increasing there will be ample opportunity for airlines to cash in it. “There is no lack of demand, with this scheme traffic in regional cities like Surat, Bhubaneswar, Mysuru will increase, there is business opportunity in it,” Sinha said. The scheme, mooted in the civil aviation policy to connect smaller cities, has been put up for stakeholders’ consultations, including state governments, airlines and airport operators. The stakeholders have been given three weeks to submit their comments on the draft scheme, which would be finalised by August. “There was not a single state who did not commit support to the state, in fact everyone wanted to participate in that, now the ball is in the court of entrepreneurs and airlines ” said civil aviation secretary Rajiv Nayan Choubey. Tiger Williams Authentic Jersey
Many find getting to and from airport a hassle
Commuters had a tough time reaching the Kempegowda International Airport ( KIA) on Saturday as BMTC buses and a majority of cabs remained off the roads following the bandh called over the Mahadayi water dispute. Rajesh Devreddy, a resident of HSR Layout who had to catch a flight to Chennai said he had a hard time reaching the airport as a few private taxis were hesitant to ply fearing attacks by pro-Kannada groups. He said:?“It usually takes five minutes to book a private cab. However, on Saturday, it took me 20 minutes to get a vehicle after much persuasion of the management of a cab service. Luckily, I reached on time.” At Hebbal, close to Esteem Mall, members of a few Kannada groups riding two-wheelers blocked other vehicles, putting those heading towards the airport to hardship. Keval J, a techie from Koramanagala who landed in the city from his hometown, New Delhi, said he was unaware of the bandh. “There is a private cab service available at the airport but there is a huge rush. I would have postponed my schedule had I known about today’s bandh,” he said. A staffer from the Karnataka State Tourism Development Corporation ( KSTDC), Manjunath K N said there was a 25% drop in airport taxi services. Usually, from morning till noon, about 2,000 airport taxis ply. On Friday, only about 1,000 to 1,500 cabs operated by noon, he said. Mike Modano Authentic Jersey
India eyes direct purchase of six refuelling aircraft
India is now planning “a direct strategic purchase” of six flight refuelling aircraft (FRA) or tankers to enhance the reach of its fighter jets, bombers and surveillance aircraft after the bid to acquire them through global tenders failed twice over the last decade. Consequently, the defence ministry (MoD)+ has scrapped the proposed Rs 9,000 crore contract for acquisition of six Airbus-330 MRTT (multi-role tanker transport) aircraft, which was hanging fire for several years due to high costs as well as old CBI cases and change in the manufacturer’s name from EADS Cassidian to Airbus Group. “Airbus was told towards end-June that the RFP (request for proposal or tender), under which the A-330 MRTT was selected as L-1 (lowest bidder), has been withdrawn. A decision will now be taken for direct acquisition of FRA, a critical operational necessity for IAF+ ,” said a top MoD source. Alejandro Villanueva Authentic Jersey
Centre defers forest clearance for Navi Mumbai airport, again
The forest advisory committee (FAC) of the Union environment and the forest and climate change ministry have again deferred Stage-II forest clearance for the Navi Mumbai International Airport (NMIA) as they found deficiencies in the compensatory afforestation scheme, official documents revealed. The NMIA project requires diversion of 250 hectares of forest land, comprising dense mangroves. Additionally, the City and Industrial Development Corporation (Cidco) also needs 22.5 hectares of forest for rehabilitating project-affected persons (PAPs) for which they have applied for a separate clearance. D.J. Fluker Jersey
CBI arrests Aurangabad airport director for accepting bribe
The anti-corruption division of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Sunday arrested Aurangabad airport director Alok Varshney for accepting bribe of Rs. 10,000 as the first instalment out of a total demand of alleged bribe of Rs. 50,000. The agency carried out searches last night at the official quarter and office of Aurangabad airport director and at present searches is continuing. The CBI authorities remained tight lipped about the entire operation but confirmed that the action was based on the basis of corruption related complaint against Varshney. CBI sources said that the seized documents and other material and articles would be scanned. Kenneth Acker Jersey
Mirage-2000 upgraded: Another HAL project takes off on schedule
Continuing its success in various projects recently, HAL flew the first FOC upgraded Mirage-2000 aircraft on July 28, adhering to the scheduled date of today. “We have done it again on time. What it proves is HAL’s capability for mid-life upgrade of platforms to overcome obsolescence issues, enhancing the reliability and maintainability of these aircraft. The introduction of a modern facility for this project ensured the timely upgradation of the Mirage fleet,” said T Suvarna Raju, CMD, HAL. The Final Operational Configuration (FOC) design was implemented on an Initial Operational Configured (IOC) aircraft, which was received at HAL about eight months ago. “This significant milestone could be achieved with the dedicated effort of HAL’s team of designers and engineers with active support from IAF, RCMA and DGAQA,” added Raju. Kasen Williams Jersey
Lessors approach DGCA to get 3 Air Pegasus planes deregistered
Aircraft lessors have approached the civil aviation regulator, Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), asking it to deregister their three planes loaned to Air Pegasus after the airline defaulted on rental payment. The Bengaluru-based airline, which is facing severe fund crunch, has already suspended operations indefinitely, DGCA sources said. The airline has not been carrying out operations since Wednesday. “We have received an application from the lessors seeking deregistration of three ATR-72 plane with Air Pegasus,” a source said. The application is being processed, it said, adding that of the three aircraft, one is already out of operation for quite sometime. The deregistration will enable the lessors to take the aircraft out of the country after repossessing them. Air Pegasus Managing Director Shyson Thomas did not respond to calls. The carrier, which was launched in April 2015, operates flights from Bengaluru to Chennai, Cuddapah, Hubli, Madurai, Mangalore, Puducherry, and Trivandrum in South India, as per latest data available with the DGCA. Recently, DGCA has suspended five Air Pegasus pilots for serious safety violations. The civil aviation regulator had also warned that the airline would not be allowed to fly on new routes unless the lapses were addressed at the earliest. At that time, a senior Air Pegasus official had said that the issues raised by the regulator had been addressed. A safety audit of Air Pegasus, conducted in late April, showed serious violations safety rules in some of its flights. Ricky Seals-Jones Womens Jersey
SpiceJet sees growth in passenger traffic; more in regional market
Lower oil prices has led to a growth in the domestic airline industry and also airlines have increased their capacity. According to data from Directorate General of Civil Aviation the airlines have carried almost 21% more passengers in June 2016 than it was in June 2015 (7.97 million and 6.6 million passengers respectively). SpiceJet is flying the highest in this criteria as reported, they are functioning at 93% seats full. SpiceJet told Bloomberg TV India, that it has seen good growth of 22 percent in the number of passengers. It has spotted a change in the mode of transport that people are using, that is more and more people are upgrading to air travel. Although Spicejet said that it doesn’t see any drop in the demand for domestic air travel, but most of the growth is from the regional market, and the growth in the metro cities market has been rather mute. Still the airline believes that continuous discounting will keep stimulating demands. Demands for International flights has been seasonal. It was only two years ago, the airline was making huge losses as they were not getting oil refills and also the retreating of creditors had hit them badly. Spicejet recently launched its subsidiary called ‘SpiceJet Merchandise Private Limited’ with a focus on consumer merchandise, including readymade apparel. From January to March this year, in a fifth straight quarter, Spicejet posted a net profit Rs 73.19 crore, a three fold rise. Ozzie Newsome Authentic Jersey
Vistara doubles market share, Jet sees steep fall
Vistara has doubled its market share to 2.8 per cent in June over the corresponding month last year. Jet Airways saw the sharpest fall among all airlines during this period. Domestic air traffic rose 20.81 per cent in June on the back of low fares and peak season demand. Carriers flew 7.9 million passengers against 6.6 million passengers in June 2015. According to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) data, domestic airlines flew 47.5 million passengers between January and June this year, registering a year-on-year (y-o-y) growth of 22.52 per cent. Vistara’s market share grew from 1.3 per cent in June 2015 to 2.8 per cent as it inducted aircraft and expanded its network. The market share of Jet Airways and JetLite (combined) slipped two percentage points to 19.1 per cent as it did not add aircraft and most of its capacity enhancement was through better aircraft utilisation. Daniel Sprong Womens Jersey
Aviation Minister A Raju hopes new policy would make flying ‘easy’
The government on Thursday hoped that the new civil aviation policy will ensure better viability gap funding which will result in improved connectivity of smaller airports by airlines operators and benefit the passengers. Responding to supplementaries in the Lok Sabha during Question Hour, Civil Aviation Minister A Gajapathi Raju said the funding was to be provided by the Centre as well as the state governments on a 80:20 ratio and 90:10 ratio for Northeastern states. He said revenue from passengers as well as viability fund will help the airline operators. “I hope that the scheme succeeds,” he said. It was pointed out to the ministers that certain airlines in the recent past have stopped services to some smaller airports citing lack of revenue. “The National Civil Aviation Policy, 2016 envisages to take flying to the masses by making it affordable and convenient. To promote this objective, the policy provides for regional connectivity scheme by way of upgradation/development of no-frills airports and viability gap funding to the airlines operating to these airports based on demands,” Raju said in his written reply. Kareem Hunt Authentic Jersey