CIAL sets target of Rs.3,000-cr. turnover
Cochin International Airport Limited (CIAL) will diversify its services and expand its electricity generation business, among other activities, to achieve the target of Rs.3,000 crore turnover by 2023. The airport operator’s business target has been made public in its ‘vision mission document’ presented before the State government recently. The company has said that the business of operating other airports too is within its vision. Sources said that CIAL would leverage its subsidiaries to achieve the business target. Twenty per cent of the targeted revenue would come from aero-related business; 30 per cent from non-aero areas of activities and 50 per cent from non-aviation business over the next seven years. CIAL is the first company in the country in public-private partnership to build and operate a greenfield airport and the presentation made before the State government by the CIAL management said it had the competence to take on any challenge. CIAL, which generates 15.2 MW of solar energy now to make its current operations power-neutral, will achieve its target of generating 30 MW of solar power by the end of the current year. Together with solar power, work is in progress on building eight small hydro-electric power generation facilities across Kerala. Wayne Gretzky Jersey
DGCA orders Indigo not to train pilots in one stimulator in overseas training centre
Aviation regulator DGCA has ordered budget carrier IndiGo not to train its pilots on one of the two simulators at an overseas training centre following an inspection of the facility and the subsequent detection of the malfunctioning in one of the two such machines last month. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has, however, not withdrawn approval granted to the training organisation for imparting training to the Indian pilots, a senior DGCA official said. “There are two simulators at UK based training organisation. One was found erratic. DGCA has asked Indigo not to train pilots on erratic simulator,” the official said. The approval granted to the organisation, however, continues, the official said. Besides IndiGo, other domestic carrier Jet airways and a some British airlines also use the facility to impart simulator training to their pilots. When contacted, IndiGo said the regulators decree will not have any impact on its training programme as a major portion of training to its pilots is conducted at the Dubai facility of the same organisation. “This restriction will not impact IndiGo as we primarily conduct a major portion of our training at CAE-Dubai. The simulators used by IndiGo at CAE Dubai have been evaluated and cleared by DGCA vide OC (Office Circular) 1 of 2016,” IndiGo said in a statement. Filip Chlapik Jersey
SpiceJet’s Red Hot Spicy Low fare Deal, a lie?
A passenger consumer rights body in a first of its kind has registered a complaint at the ministry of civil aviation questioning fares availability as was advertised by low-cost carrier, SpiceJet. The “Red Hot Spicy” Airlines had announced five-day sale one-way, base fare of Rs 444 for its Jammu-Srinagar, Ahmedabad-Mumbai, Mumbai-Goa, Delhi-Dehradun and Delhi-Amritsar routes as reported by The Times of India. “Fares would vary from sector to sector, depending on the travel distance and flight schedules, and timings are subject to regulatory approvals and changes,” SpiceJet said, maintaining that the seats would be only available on a first-come, first-serve basis. Complaints were registered soon on the same offer, as many visited the airline’s website. “We started getting complaints from 10.20am, stating that no such fare was available even for a short distance of less than 500km,” said Sudhakara Reddy, president, Air Passengers’ Association of India (APAI). Joe Young Jersey
Oman Air plans to increase flight services to India
In its bid to compete with other Gulf carriers, Oman’s flag carrier Oman Air plans to increase its flight services in India to 175 weekly by 2018 besides seeking an enhanced weekly seat entitlement. The Muscat-headquartered carrier currently operates 126 weekly flights across 11 destinations here. “We are in the first phase trying to look in increasing our frequencies to the existing destinations where we have today 126 weekly frequencies to 175 per week by 2018,” Oman Air chief executive officer Paul Gregorowitsch told PTI. India is an “extremely important” destination for Oman Air and being the fastest growing economy in the world it offers a huge potential, he said. Seeking equal footing with other Gulf-based carriers such as Emirates, which enjoy almost 25 per cent more weekly seat entitlement than Oman Air, Gregorowitsch said, “We have currently 21,147 seats per week. We are looking to increase it to total 29,820 flights by 2018 and hope to increase further to 40,000.” All this depends about the bilateral negotiations between Oman and India, he added. Three major Gulf carriers — Emirates, Etihad (with its Indian Partner Jet Airways) and Qatar Airways enjoy a major share in India’s international traffic. Under the air services agreement, Dubai has a maximum seat entitlement of 65,200 seats per week, followed by Abu Dhabi 49,670. Qatar is allowed to operate 24,800 seats per week between India and Doha. India had enhanced bilateral traffic rights with Oman last November, increasing the number of weekly flights for the carriers of the two countries by 5,131 seats. He said his airline at present did not have any new destination in “mind” but did not rule out the possibility of launching flights from new airports. The India government has recently decided to brush up quite some airstrips, he said adding, “we have not excluded that.” In India, Oman Air operates from Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi, Kozhikode, Hyderabad, Goa, among others. “Oman Air has seen that a number of measures have been taken to boost civil aviation like Indian airlines have been allowed to fly on international routes as 5/20 has more or less lifted on the other side, he said. “We have also seen the possibility of foreign investors to further invest in Indian carriers… We at Oman Air and Oman Government would like to partner further and work together, ” he added. Andrew MacDonald Jersey
Airports Authority of India again rejects Changi Airport plan for Jaipur, Ahmedabad airports
For the second time, state-owned Airports Authority of India (AAI) has rejected Singapore’s Changi Airport proposal to operate and maintain Jaipur and Ahmedabad airports after finding the latest plan “unfeasible”. Now, AAI would move ahead with steps to start the international bidding process for choosing the entities to operate and maintain the two domestic aerodromes. The proposal to rope in Singapore’s Changi airport for the projects was floated during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the island nation last November. The revised plan from Changi Airport, owned by the Singapore government, also sought a “higher” quantum of revenue in managing Jaipur and Ahmedabad aerodromes. This is “unfeasible” and not commercially viable for AAI, a source close to the development said. Hence, the latest proposal has been rejected after discussions with the Civil Aviation Ministry, the source said. Earlier also, Changi Airport’s proposal was rejected on the same grounds. “It has now been decided to re-open the global bids route for the two airports and (if interested) Changi Airport can also participate in it,” the source said. According to him, AAI is in the process of appointing a consultant for preparing the bid documents,”AAI expects to come out with the Request for Proposal (RFP) for Jaipur and Ahmedabad and airports by August,” he added. A senior Civil Aviation Ministry official said there is no “political pressure” to conclude a deal with Changi Airport and decisions are taken on the basis of merits. With regard to Jaipur and Ahmedabad airports, AAI had signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Singapore Cooperation Enterprise (SCE) during Modi’s visit to the island nation. In January, the Union Cabinet had also given its ex-post facto approval to the MoU. Under the MoU, both parties were to cooperate in planning and development of Ahmedabad and Jaipur airports besides other aspects including traffic and commercial development, service quality and operations and management. Significantly, passenger traffic at Ahmedabad grew 28.3 per cent to 64,80,111 passengers in the last fiscal compared to 50,50,433 passengers in FY15. Jaipur Airport during this period logged a healthy 31.4 per cent growth in number of passengers to 28,87,195 passengers from 21,97,996 fliers in fiscal 2014-15. Irving Fryar Jersey
Govt to expand airstrip at Rangeilunda
Odisha government has decided to expand the airstrip at Rangeilunda at an estimated cost of Rs.44 crore to facilitate landing of 40 to 70 seated turboprop aircraft. The existing airstrip with a 900-m runway is on 40 acre of land. Another 40 acres of land, including 30 acre of private land is required to upgrade it to 1,874-m runway, officials said today. A high-level official team led by special secretary in the general administration department, AK Meena visited the airstrip on Friday. “The works department has prepared a detail project report (DPR) at Rs.44 crore, including Rs.14 crore for land acquisition. The project report was submitted to the government,” said Executive Engineer, Works department, Berhampur, PK Das. “We have asked the Ganjam district administration to start the land acquisition process soon,” said Meena. The state government will provide funds for land acquisition to the district administration. A culvert will be built on the nearby canal and the Berhampur-Gopalpur road diverted slightly. Eddie Vanderdoes Jersey
Cong. against diversion of Eluru Canal for airport expansion
The Congress is against the shifting (diversion) of Eluru Canal by 13.5 km to facilitate expansion of the Gannavaram airport. APCC vice-president and former Minister Devineni Rajasekhar said that the State government, which came to power predominantly on the votes of farmers, was giving little respect to their problems. He said that the Airports Authority of India initially suggested that it was enough to shift the Eluru Canal by 6 km, but the Telugu Desam government had come up with a second plan under which the Eluru Canal would be shifted by 13.5 km from it current location. Mr. Rajasekhar said while in the first plan the government needed to acquire only 195 acres, in the second plan it required 425 acres. Marcus Peters Jersey
Regional connectivity scheme: Govt plans to levy departures on trunk routes
The government plans to impose a levy of Rs 7,000-8,000 per domestic departure flight on all trunk routes to subsidise airfare on operations to unconnected cities, Minister for Civil Aviation Ashok Gajapathi Raju said. This levy is estimated to generate Rs 500 crore annually to be used to fund the Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS), under which airlines will offer services at an all inclusive airfare not exceeding Rs 2,500 for a one-hour flight. “I think as of now it (levy) will come close to Rs 500 crore annually and we have four regions — North, South, East, West — to begin with,” Raju said, adding that the levy could be Rs 7,000-8000 per departure flight. While clearing the National Civil Aviation Policy 2016 earlier this month, the Union Cabinet announced the Regional Connectivity Scheme as the ‘centerpiece’ of its policy, aiming to raise the sale of domestic tickets to 30 crore in five years from 8 crore in 2015. Besides the levy, the subsidised fare of Rs 2,500 will be funded through exemption to airlines from a host of charges, sharply lower services tax on tickets and reduced value added tax (VAT) on aviation turbine fuel. The government changed its earlier plan to levy a 2 per cent cess on each ticket to fund the RCS. Raju said the ministry thought a levy per departure flight may result in airlines absorbing some of the charge and not passing it on to the customer entirely. The government plans to start the RCS from second quarter of 2016-17. Troy Stecher Authentic Jersey
‘Allow private players to train air traffic control officers’: Civil Aviation Ministry
Allowing private players to set up training facilities for air traffic control officers will help in addressing manpower shortage in air traffic management activities, says a report. Air Navigation Services (ANS) comes under state-owned Airports Authority of India (AAI) and for quite sometime there has been a shortage of air traffic controllers. A report prepared by industry body Assocham and consultancy KPMG has said the number of Air Traffic Control Officers (ATCOs) grew to 2,600 last year but there is a shortage of around 1,500 such people. Noting that staff crunch is a cause for concern, the report suggested enhancing capacity at existing ATCO training facilities and also permit private entities to carry out training activities. The Civil Aviation Ministry may consider the option of allowing private players to set up ATCO training facilities, subject to adequate supervision by the Airports Authority of India (AAI), it said. “This may be started in a Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode first and thereafter be made fully open to private sector in the long run,” the report said, adding partnership with international ATC training institutes should also be explored. Currently, there are ATC training facilities at the Civil Aviation Training College, Allahabad and at the Hyderabad airport. Karl Mecklenburg Womens Jersey
Government allows airlines to import up to 18 year old planes
Domestic airlines can now import aircraft that are up to 18 years old into the country with the government amending more than two-decade rules in this regard. The move is expected to provide a fillip for the government’s ambitious efforts to boost regional air connectivity as it gives more leeway for operators in expanding their fleet. Till now, aircraft that are more than 15 years old were not allowed to be imported. As part of larger efforts to improve the ease of doing business in the domestic aviation sector, which has huge growth potential, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has made changes to rules that had come into effect way back in July 1993. With the revised norms, pressurised aircraft that are not over 18 years old or those which have not completed 50 per cent of design economic pressurisation cycle can be imported. Marqise Lee Jersey