Ajay Singh looking to do a SpiceJet with MDLR

Right after exiting the board of low-cost airline SpiceJet last year, Ajay Singh has initiated the system of investing in another carrier — the beleaguered MDLR Airlines — hoping to breathe new life into it.

New Delhi-based MDLR, a regional carrier, stopped operations in November 2009 after defaulting on lease payments to BAe for its Avro RJ70 aircraft.

According to a source during the know, Singh, who had promoted SpiceJet along with London-based NRI Bhupendra Kansagra, has sought the Ministry of Civil Aviation’s permission to select up around 23% stake in MDLR.

“He (Singh) has employed towards Ministry of Civil Aviation to purchase stake in MDLR Airlines to revive its operations. The software program is becoming processed and the ministry has sought clarifications over a source on the fund,” mentioned the source.

The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, did not disclose the price at which Singh was buying the stake.

MDLR, which began operations in March 2007, was founded by Gopal Goyal Kanda, a politician from Haryana, and is wholly owned by Murli Dhar Lakh Ram (MDLR) Group.

The company’s schedule airline operating allow has turn out to be defunct as all of the aircraft in its fleet have been deregistered by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) for over a year now. However, its airline operating allow is nonetheless valid.

Singh could not be reached over a phone for your response plus a text message sent to him remained unanswered.

A senior executive with another airline, who did not desire to be named, mentioned even if Singh succeeds in owning stake in MDLR, he will have to begin operations from scratch.

“He will have to get brand new aircraft, set up new engineering and maintenance facility and begin all over again. It will be like setting up a brand new airline, except for applying for the airline operating permit,” he said.

Despite stepping down during the SpiceJet board in August last year, Singh continues to keep around 5% stake during the budget airline even after media baron Kalanithi Maran bought over a majority stake of 37.7% in Spicejet.

Singh, and also the Kansagra family, had re-launched the bankrupt Modiluft Airlines in 2005 after taking it over from industrialist SK Modi, who operated the airline in partnership with Lufthansa in mid-90s.

SpiceJet fought a lengthy legal battle with Modi to settle a dispute over 11.5 million shares on the airline, which the Modiluft promoter claimed have been nonetheless owned by him.

Modiluft was reincarnated as SpiceJet, and is these days the second-largest budget airline after IndiGo, having a marketplace share of 12.9%.

Source: DNA India

Air India gives in, sacks COO of low-cost arm

Despite protesting to the end, the Air India management today finally gave in to pressure to dismiss Pawan Arora, chief operating officer of Air India Express, the low-cost international arm with the federal government carrier.

An AI spokesperson confirmed Arora had been asked to go and said S Chandrasekhar, director (finance), would assist Arvind Jadhav, who is chairman and managing director of both AI and AI Express, till the time a new COO was appointed.

Arora’s appointment was embroiled inside a controversy, following data surfaced that he had been earlier removed from a position of test pilot by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).

The civil aviation ministry had then asked the AI board to reconsider the appointment. Questions had also been raised about non-renewal of Arora’s flight instructor licence.

Arora joined the airline in October and his appointment was cancelled inside a board meeting a month after. In the meeting, the independent and federal government directors had asked the management to cancel Arora’s appointment.

The management did not and even defied a letter inside the ministry asking it to eliminate Arora. This evening, however, the ministry issued fresh and final orders, asking the management to eliminate Arora.

The airline management is calling it unfortunate and autocratic. “Neither the management nor Arora was allowed or asked to justify (his stand) in any with the meetings. If we are asked to justify now, we will do it and put the situation for the require of the professional COO for AI Express,” said a senior AI official.

The official said it was not a very good factor that another person was chosen following interviewing 170 candidates after which suddenly asked to leave. Arora did not eat calls on his cell phone.

“Such decisions will impact the standing Air India has and also the range of applicants will fall drastically following we call for applications again,” said the official.

Arora did not eat calls on his cell phone. He had served the Indian Air Force for 18 years worked with Jet Airways, Paramount Airways, Kingfisher Airlines and IndiGo. He also served at the DGCA in your year.

CAE Inaugurates Training Centre in India

CAE inaugurated its new aerospace and defense complex in Bangalore on February within the presence of representatives of India's airlines and defence forces, Canada's High Commission to India, along with company executives and employees. Located around Bengaluru International Airport, the complex is headquarters for CAE's operations in India and residence to a majority of its India-based employees.

During the 116 000 square-foot complex, CAE designs and develops defence training systems for India's defence forces and operates an engineering centre of excellence where visual databases and other software components for CAE's simulators are developed. The facility also houses CAE's Bangalore aviation training centre, the very first independent aviation training centre in India.

The six-bay capability centre currently offers Airbus A320 and Boeing 737 pilot training on three CAE-built full-flight simulators. Over 1,500 pilots trained at the centre last year, such as pilots from Indian-based airlines such as Air India, Go Air, IndiGo, Kingfisher Airlines, Spicejet and commercial pilots from the Indian Air Force. Other customers include Fly Wings Aviation and SriLankan Airlines. The training centre is component from the CAE-Airbus Training Services Cooperation agreement.

India is of strategic significance to CAE as well as the new aerospace and defence complex demonstrates the Company's commitment to India. CAE has been active within the Indian market for your past 40 years, beginning from the sale of simulators, and now offers comprehensive training items for India's civil aviation and defence markets. CAE's workforce in India has grown from 13 employees in 2004 to over 300 today.

Flight grounded after fire scare

After becoming airborne for 10 minutes, a Hyderabad-bound flight with 27 passengers and 5 crewmembers had to build an emergency landing yesterday

A freak accident caught the city in the wee hours yesterday as the Kingfisher Airlines Bangalore-Hyderabad flight IT 4817 had to country back shortly after its take in off. The 27 passengers and 5 crewmembers on board have been reported safe and deplaned in the craft immediately. The flight that was scheduled to depart at 7.25 am was delayed due to a technical snag and took off at 7.40 am.

"An early boarding was announced and we had boarded the craft at about 7.05 am after which a technical snag was declared and we have been disembarked. Once in the bus we have been told the difficulty was resolved and boarded the craft again. 5 minutes after take in off the appropriate engine started out sputtering," stated a passenger.

"The passenger seated ahead of me called the airhostess for attention who in turn called the pilot. The appropriate engine was turned off and the flight had to build a landing back in Bangalore. No data regarding the technical difficulty or the turbulence that followed was announced," he added.

In an official statement from Mumbai, Prakash Mirpuri, VP, Corporate Communications, Kingfisher Airlines Limited, declared, "Shortly after the flights to Hyderabad took off from Bangalore, the commander received a warning alert. The cockpit crew took needed action as per established procedures and as a matter of abundant precaution decided to return to Bangalore immediately.

The aircraft, an ATR 72-500, landed safely in Bangalore at 8.40 am in which the 27 guests and 5 crewmembers have been promptly deplaned. The aircraft is becoming inspected thoroughly including a flight safety team will carry out a detailed investigation into this." A normal flier of the airlines said, "I fly at least as soon as or twice a month. I would even avoid Kingfisher flights if possible."
Source: Mid-Day

More flights to remote areas likely

The aviation ministry is planning to expand the scope of existing route dispersal guidelines for airlines that define a dozen key metro routes from the region according to air traffic

Indian carriers may be asked to increase connectivity to remote areas on the region inside a move that could raise prices for airlines even as it aims to evenly distribute the growth in domestic air traffic, which crossed the 52mn mark last year. The aviation ministry is planning to expand the scope of existing route dispersal guidelines for airlines that define a dozen key metro routes from the region according to air traffic. Airlines need to ply at least 10% of their total metro flights on routes covering destinations that are not well connected and are a smaller amount profitable, including Jammu and Kashmir, the North-East, Lakshadweep, and also the Andaman and Nicobar islands. "The targeted traffic has elevated more than the years and there is a situation for revising these metro routes. Kochi-Bangalore and Bangalore-Hyderabad are also at par in terms of targeted traffic now," mentioned a ministry official, who declined being named. "DGCA (Directorate General of Civil Aviation) is getting asked to appear into it and rework."

The regulator defines high-traffic metro routes currently as Mumbai-Bangalore, Kolkata-Delhi, Mumbai-Kolkata, Kolkata-Bangalore, Mumbai-Delhi, Kolkata-Chennai, Mumbai-Hyderabad, Delhi-Bangalore, Mumbai-Chennai, Delhi-Hyderabad, Mumbai-Thiruvananthapuram and Delhi-Chennai. If, for example, Kochi-Bangalore and Hyderabad-Bangalore are added to this list, the amount of flights that airlines ply on a smaller amount profitable routes will simultaneously increase. Civil aviation secretary Nasim Zaidi needs the definition being widened to cover such routes, the ministry official said. In 2009, DGCA had banned national airlines from buying seat-miles from so-called regional carriers to meet regulatory requirements, as Mint reported on 24 April. Wadia Group's low-fare carrier GoAir bought seats from Gurgaon-based MDLR Airlines Pvt. Ltd in 2008 after it was unable to meet route dispersal requirements as it was focused on just flying metro routes then.

Most national airlines including GoAir prefer these metro routes, which provide far better passenger targeted traffic and yields, besides helping to save prices as aircraft maintenance facilities require not be based at multiple airports. Any move to widen the metro route definition is likely to force all airlines to rework their schedules in line on the new guidelines, that are likely to come up for consultation soon. An official having a domestic carrier confirmed how the matter has been discussed with airlines, but called it illogical and against the recommendations on the Naresh Chandra panel report of 2003 over a aviation sector. The report, offered over a aviation ministry website, had advised that "route dispersal guidelines need to be abolished" and airlines need to be allowed to assistance the routes of their choice, according to commercial considerations.

It had also advised that "the federal government need to provide explicit subsidy support-preferably from the general exchequer and supplemented by a sector-specific cess of 5% on airfare and proceeds from the privatization of airports-for providing essential, but uneconomical services, and award it via a method of minimum subsidy bidding". The creation of a non-lapsable important air services fund was an ideal solution for this, it said. None of these recommendations had been employed so far. "Where there is no demand on Kolkata-Silchar, they want you to put jumbos. You happen to be forcing the industry being sick," mentioned the airline official. You'll find other constraints at such low-traffic destinations, he said. In Srinagar, for example, wherever the amount of daily flights have elevated drastically through the years, this official pointed offered are no night-landing facilities, leaving tiny scope for more flights to consume off or state following sunset.
Source: India Infoline