Air India comes up with new scheme at competitive rates

Air India on Wednesday announced the extension of its short term promotion scheme, Silver and Platinum Pass aimed at providing air travel at competitive and affordable rates.

The Silver and Platinum Pass being offered in two variants for unlimited travel in economy and executive class on the domestic sectors of the national carrier will now be valid for fifteen days, the airlines said.

Passengers buying the Silver Pass can fly on economy class to any domestic sector of their choice at a fare of Rs 35,000 any number of times during the 15-day period.

Passengers who purchase the Platinum Pass can enjoy unlimited trips in executive class to any domestic destination at a fare Rs 75,000. This fare is inclusive of taxes, Air India said.

The passes are available for sale at the offices of Air India Airline and its approved travel from September 21, 2011 and will be valid for travel up to January 15, 2012.

The day of commencement of the journey will be treated as the first day and fifteen days will be counted from the date of the commencement of the journey for determining travel validity, officials said.
Source: India Times (Air India Online Booking)

Indian carriers chart strategy for lean season

India’s domestic carriers, struggling with mounting losses amid a fare war unleashed by Air India Ltd, met in Mumbai on Monday to decide on a strategy to shore up revenue and widen margins in a move that’s being watched by the aviation ministry.

“They want to hike base fares,” said one of three airline officials with direct knowledge of the meeting and what was discussed. All of them declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the matter.

The post-lunch meeting, which was called at short notice, was held at Mumbai’s Waterstones Club, close to the international airport.

Representatives from state-owned Air India and budget carrier IndiGo, run by InterGlobe General Aviation Pvt. Ltd, didn’t attend.

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), the industry regulator, said it would investigate any efforts at cartelization, but was not aware of any such activity.

“We are watching the price scene situation very closely. There is a fare-monitoring unit in DGCA,” said director general Bharat Bhushan, who has been leading a campaign to root out pilots who’ve got their jobs with the help of forged documents. “So far we haven’t seen fares change.”

Those who attended the meeting included Jet Airways​ (India) Ltd executive vice-president Anita Goyal, Kingfisher Airlines Ltd chief executive officer (CEO) Sanjay Aggarwal, SpiceJet Ltd CEO Neil Mills and GoAir CEO Giorgio De Roni.

SpiceJet’s Mills declined to offer any comment. Email and calls to the Jet Airways’ spokesperson remained unanswered.

Kingfisher’s Aggarwal and GoAir’s De Roni didn’t reply to emailed questions.

The meeting came at the start of the two-week period considered the leanest of the year with many Indians avoiding travel because of religious sentiments, according to one of the officials cited above.

“It’s going to put a lot of pressure on the October-December quarter,” this official said, following the losses posted by all three listed airlines in the April-June period, traditionally considered the second best by way of profitability.

Jet Airways, along with its subsidiary JetLite, made a loss of Rs.128.36 crore, Kingfisher Rs.263.54 crore and SpiceJet Rs.71.96 crore in the first quarter of this fiscal compared with profits for Jet and SpiceJet year-on-year (y-o-y).

The current quarter is expected to be worse and it won’t get much better for the full fiscal, said an analyst.

“Q2 (second quarter) is going to be a disaster,” said Kapil Kaul, South Asia CEO of Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation. “There is a negative sentiment about the airline industry. And Q2 would further increase the downward bias. All the stocks will be serious underperformers. In this year, everyone will lose.”
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AI Express flights tail dips during take-off at Kochi

KOCHI:An Air India Express flight bound for Abu Dhabi had to land back in Kochi after its tail dipped during take-off on Sunday night. The flight was carrying about 190 passengers including four infants, and the Air Traffic Control (ATC) had noticed the incident soon after the take- off.

The pilot was asked to immediately return, after jettisoning off portion of the fuel. It took about an hour and a half to finish the fuel jettisoning process and to landed back normally, an Air India spokesman told TOI here.

The passengers were then lodged in a nearby hotel and the aircraft was declared AOG (Aircraft On Ground) for carrying out the repairs.

"The Boeing design ensues that structure of the aircraft is not affected in the tail dipping incident, as the cartridges provided for this on the tail take the impact of dipping.

But those cartridges have to be replaced after such an incident. The repair work is over and the aircraft is back into commercial sorties. It flew to Mumbai this morning and will fly to Sharjah tonight after its return," the spokesman said.

The passengers were sent to Abu Dhabi today in a Jumbo flight which also carried the passengers stranded at the airport following the skidding off of the Gulf Air flight on Monday morning, he disclosed.

Some of the passengers on the flight however complained that the airline did not give any reason for the return of the flight after its take off, and were not giving adequate information on the rescheduled flight for a long hours on Monday.

The flight was carrying about 190 passenger's including four infants, and the Air Traffic Control had noticed the incident soon after the take- off.
Source: Times of India

IndiGo loses Muscat rights to Air India

The government has withdrawn some of the overseas flying rights granted to IndiGo, run by InterGlobe General Aviation Pvt. Ltd, and handed them to state-owned Air India Ltd, according to two government officials who did not want to be named.

“This is the first time it has ever happened,” said one of the two officials, referring to the clause under the air services agreement that allows Air India to prevent the allocation of rights to another Indian carrier. “Generally, the number of seats available in any bilateral are always surplus. In this case, the number of seats for Oman were falling short. And Air India wanted to start flights, so the rights (to IndiGo) had to be curtailed.”

The second official confirmed the move. It was communicated to the airline in June.

The move will mean that the country’s biggest low-fare carrier, which has a 19.6% share of the domestic market, will only be able to fly four times a week to Muscat instead of all seven days as per the original sanction.

IndiGo, which has 42 Airbus SAS 320 planes, will start overseas services in September with flights to Bangkok, Dubai and Singapore. It hasn’t announced its schedule for flights to the capital of Oman.

The rights to fly daily to Muscat from Delhi and Mumbai had been granted in January by the then civil aviation minister Praful Patel​, who moved on to the heavy industries portfolio on 19 January 2011. With another 12 A320s to be added to its fleet this fiscal, IndiGo Air plans to launch several more overseas flights to West and South-East Asia. But a freeze by the civil aviation ministry on approvals for fresh foreign rights may stall that plan.
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Fly cheap to Singapore

KOLKATA: Soon flying down to Singapore from the city may get cheaper than to Mumbai and Delhi, or even Bangalore. The Singapore Airlines is working on a plan to introduce a low-cost module, and a Kolkata-connection is very much on the cards.

Singapore Airlines chief executive Goh Choon Phong said the decision had been unanimously taken at a board meeting at the airline headquarters. While its primary market will be key destinations in South-East Asia, it is also eyeing three cities in India, including Kolkata.

Indian LCC Air India Express operates to Singapore four days-a-week. Sources said this, coupled with a steady loss of passengers to other LCCs like Air Asia and China Eastern, had led to Singapore Airlines considering a low-cost flight between Kolkata and Singapore.

"Once Air Asia or China Eastern picks up a passenger who has to travel beyond these destinations, it is a Thai or Chinese carrier that benefits. To retain onward customers and attract budget tourists to Singapore, an LCC carrier is critical," an aviation industry expert said.

Though a firm decision is yet to be taken, an airline source said Kolkata was very much on the radar. He further added that it would compensate for the loss of seats on the parent service. Last September, Singapore Airlines had pared its flights to Singapore City and Kolkata from six days-a-week to four days. It also altered the aircraft from Boeing 777-200 aircraft with an Airbus 330 aircraft that led to a slash in economy class seats from 293 to 25
Source: Times of India

Govt wants AI to raise fleet utilisation

The civil aviation ministry wants Air India to increase fleet utilisation. The move would cap the discontent among pilots at not having enough flying hours and even help the state carrier gain grounds in terms of passenger carriage.

“Air India needs to increase its fleet utilisation so that the pilots get to log more flying hours. There are various requests pending with the airline and they should start flights to those sectors,” said a senior ministry official, who did not want to be identified.

The official said even the low-cost carrier IndiGo’s aircraft utilisation is over 12 hours. “There is enormous scope for Air India to increase its fleet utilisation and the planes they have should fly more,” he said.

Air India’s aircraft utilisation is nine hours. If the airline increases its fleet’s utilisation by three hours per aircraft, it will give the airline around 400 extra flying hours to be distributed among 1,500 pilots.

Recently, around 800 pilots of erstwhile Indian Airlines went on a 10-day strike after demanding an increase in their salaries, which had been impacted because of the fall in flying hours. The Indian Airlines pilots are paid on the basis of flying hours whereas the erstwhile Air India pilots get fixed pay only to exceed if the pilots fly over 80 hours in a month. The pilots alleged their flying hours have fallen to less than 60 hours a month from 80 hours a month earlier. They met officials in the civil aviation ministry with their demands.

The airline is also losing market share rapidly and has become the fourth largest carrier in terms of passenger carriage, losing its third place to IndiGo Airline.

Read more on - business-standard.com

DGCA orders review of 4,000 pilot licences

The back-to-back arrests of an IndiGo and an Air India pilot for forging mark sheets to become eligible for ones career has prompted Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to order review of 4,000 licences, specially those people issued inside past one year.

Air India’s JK Verma was arrested by Delhi Police on Saturday for allegedly with a forged mark sheet to procure the mandatory airline transport pilot’s licence, while Parminder Kaur Gulati, 38, of IndiGo Airlines was suspended following a hard landing and arrested on March 8 in your similar offence.

“We have received complaints against a couple of more pilots — Meenakshi Sehgal of IndiGo and Swaran Singh Talwar of MDLR [both are absconding],” commissioner of police (crime branch) Ashok Chand said on Monday.

“Gulati’s landing procedure had some deficiencies. As soon as I took a contemplate her record, it was a shock that she had obtained her licence on the basis of mark sheets which were not authenticated,” director general of civil aviation EK Bharat Bhushan said.

“Suspecting the same in some other records, DGCA undertook a detailed investigation. So far, there were four cases and a couple of were apprehended,” he said.

The problem has arrive up even as the government searches in your replacement for Bhushan.

Not willing to eat chances, specially mainly because DGCA issues all pilot licences and is in-charge of regulatory issues pertaining to aviation safety, efficiency, and continuity of air transport, such as formulation of air law framework, the government released an advertisement last week generating it mandatory for all aspirants to submit “integrity certificates” and statements of minor or major penalties imposed on them inside preceding decade.

All applications must be submitted within 45 days with the release with the ad.

Apart from integrity certificates, the stress this time is on recruiting a professional. During the past, mostly bureaucrats have headed this crucial office. As per the advertisement, an applicant must have about 12 years experience in aviation, flying, aircraft, engineering or airworthiness.

Of these, minimum five years must were spent in administration and finance disciplines at senior management levels. Possibly, a lesson inside recent chief vigilance commissioner episode that caused the government major embarrassment?
Source: DNA India

Airlines owe Rs 1,122 crore to AAI

Airlines operating within the country owe Rs 1,122 crore to Airports Authority of India, Lok Sabha was informed today.

The dues of Airports Authority of India (AAI) against Air India as on January 31, 2011 are Rs 720 crore, Minister of Civil Aviation Vayalar Ravi mentioned inside a written reply.

For Kingfisher, the figure is Rs 257.62 crore, Go Airlines - Rs 6.77 crore, Interglobe Aviation Ltd. (Indigo)- Rs 13.29 crore, Jet Airways - Rs 38.49 crore, Jet Lite (India) Ltd Rs 13.96 crore, Spicejet Ltd - Rs 16.99 crore and Paramount Airways - Rs 4.88 crore.

For others modest or non-operating airlines the dues stand at 50.13 crore.

He mentioned the matter of pending dues is taken up by the AAI with respective airlines from time to time .

The Minister mentioned steps have been taken to increase the facilities at the airports which include modernisation of Chennai and Kolkata Airports, development of 35 non-metro airports of the terminal buildings having state-of-the-art passenger facilities, user friendly amenities, very good ambiance and satellite based navigation system.

Air India COO Baldauf resigns; carrier faces pilot strike

Air India COO Gustav Baldauf resigned last week after controversial comments produced on the Indian government's role in AI, in accordance with numerous news reports from India. The Austrian native, who became the first to preserve the COO title inside the airline's history once he joined last April, told The Indian Express in an job interview how the Indian government "should not be involved in day-to-day [AI] operations" and was "too prominent" in AI decision-making. According to the reports, airline management deemed the comments out of bounds for an Air India Airlines executive.

The departure from the COO is not the only sign of tumult at the struggling carrier—AI also faces a capacity strike by former Indian Airlines pilots set to start on March 9. In a letter to employees sent March 3, AI Chairman and MD Arvind Jadhav did not reference the COO's departure but expressed concern more than the looming strike by the Indian Commercial Pilots Assn.

"It is time for all of us to strive and work towards the a growth path which would take in the company out of its supply issues and strengthen the hands from the [Minister of Civil Aviation] to resolve various issues amicably," he said. He also cited the airline's progress in its restructuring and integration of Air India Airlines and Indian, for instance "making operational profits due to the fact November 2010."

Kingfisher regains No.2 spot...IndiGo ahead of AI

Indigo Airlines has gone ahead of Air India by carrying 1.71 lakh more domestic passengers than the national carrier in January this year.

Vijay Mallya-controlled Kingfisher Airlines has regained the no 2 position as compared to its competitors IndiGo Airlines and Air India. Jet Airways along with its budget arm Jetlite continues to be at the top

Indigo Airlines has gone ahead of Air India by carrying 1.71 lakh more domestic passengers than the national carrier in January this year.

The total domestic passengers carried by the Scheduled Airlines of India in January, 2011 were 49.36 lakhs. It may be recalled that the total domestic passengers carried by the Scheduled Airlines of India in December, 2010 were 52.13 lakhs.

The break-up for the month of January, 2011 is as follows:

Air India (Domestic) – 7.79 lakhs, Jet Airways –8.54 lakhs, Jet Lite – 3.72 lakhs, Kingfisher – 9.61 lakhs, Spice Jet – 7.05 lakhs, Go Air – 3.15 lakhs, IndiGo – 9.50 lakhs.

The percentage share of the carriers in the month of January, 2011 is as follows:

Air India (Domestic) – 15.8%, Jet Airways – 17.3%, Jet Lite – 7.5%, Kingfisher – 19.5%, Spice Jet–14.3%, Go Air – 6.4 % and IndiGo – 19.2%.

The seat factor of the domestic airlines in the month of January, 2011 was:

Air India (Domestic) – 69.3%, Jet Airways – 73.9%, JetLite – 74.6%, Kingfisher Airlines – 86.5%, Spice Jet – 82.6%, Go Air –83.3% and IndiGo – 88.6%.

Air India to seek 10k cr equity support to tide over crisis: Ravi

MUMBAI: The cash-strapped national carrier, Air India, will seek more than 10,000 crore as equity aid to tide more than its financial crisis and turnaround operations, stated the civil aviation minister Vayalar Ravi. "I am looking at a holistic process and not a piecemeal product to problems," he stated in Mumbai after a meeting with Air India unions.

Ravi , who met the finance minister on Wednesday using a request to include 2,000 crore equity infusion package inside the forth coming budget, stated the choice to raise more than 10,000 crore inside the government was taken at a recent review meeting.

He also stated that there will be a review on management claim that 65% from the turnaround plan were implemented.

Management and unions ought to occur forward to lessen the financial concerns and less-than-satisfactory operational performance of Air India, the minister said. He was in Mumbai to meet the trade unions to consume stock from the issues that confront the ailing airline.

The minister met representatives of some unions on Wednesday and others are slated to meet him on Thursday.

"Three main issues have emerged after the talks with employees, 1 could be the dilemma of differential salaries (between employees of erstwhile Air India and Indian) as well as the reduction of profitable routes from the airline as well as the integration of human resource inside the organisation is yet to consume place," stated Ravi.

The pilot unions of each Air India and erstwhile Indian met up from the minister. Although the Indian Airlines union will meet him once more with grievances, the Indian Pilots' Guild of Air India apprised him of differential treatment in comparison to expats and salary issues and mistreatment in between other issues faced by them.

Other unions that met him were the Indian Airlines Officers Association (2,500 members), Indian Airlines Technical Association (3,500 members) and Air India Aircraft Engineers' Association. All the unions wanted to know the financial viability from the airline as well as the plan for equity infusion.
Source: Economic Times

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.

Airlines to Hire 5,000 as Aviation Boom Returns

MUMBAI | NEW DELHI: Indian carriers will hire at least 5,000 professionals across categories this year — pilots, cabin crew and airport ground staff — buoyed by the recent boom during the aviation sector which saw high attrition and retrenchment following the onset of the downturn in 2008.

“Airlines had pulled out at least 20% ability during the industry during the downturn. That ability was restored last year and we see airlines adding another 20% ability this year and would be hiring 4,500-5,000 individuals this year,” said Kapil Kaul, CEO of aviation consultancy company Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation, South Asia.

The Indian aviation sector will grow by 18-20% this year, said aviation industry experts. Among airlines, national carrier Air India Airlines and low-cost airlines IndiGo and SpiceJet will add more than 1,000 this year. “Our flights will go up to 350 flights per day from 221 currently. We are during the technique of hiring 200 pilots, 400-500 cabin crew and as many airport ground staff this year at IndiGo,” said Aditya Ghosh, president, IndiGo.

Demand for pilots is rising because of the dearth of professionals. Airlines are chasing expats as the aviation regulator has allowed foreign nationals being employed as pilots till December 13, 2013.

“The fact these days is that all airlines in India are asking for foreign pilots and no single agency can supply those people many numbers. Airlines in India have asked all agencies that these pilots needs to be recruited on an urgent basis,” said somebody directly involved with hiring of expats, requesting anonymity.

In all, airlines are looking for about 230 commanders on an immediate basis , based on recruitment agencies. “We are searching to hire 500-600 pilots to meet the demand,” Jet’s chairman Naresh Goyal had said recently. Jet, which seems to add 49 aircraft, need 100 commanders alone to meet its international expansion plans. Jet Airways , during the downturn, had fired 1,800 flight attendants only to re-hire them following protests and political intervention. It also slashed salaries by up to 25% at greater levels.

GoAir, which plans to add 20 aircraft by 2014, will hire 250 individuals this year with 100 every for cabin crew and ground staff and 50 pilots. The only airline that doesn't look being on an expanding spree stands out as the Vijay Mallya-promoted Kingfisher Airlines . The airline pulled ability by 22% during the downturn, losing pilots to competitive airlines.

Aviation experts, however, feel that the modern-day hiring spree usually do not translate into greater salaries because of inflation and other costs. “Salaries will only go up by 15-20% on an average,” said an expert.

The staffing agencies are conservative in their demand projections. “2010 was a recovery year, which saw world-wide-web addition of 1,500 people, but 2011 is a boom year and we’ll see world-wide-web addition of 3,000 individuals or more,” said Kamal Karanth, MD, Kelly Services India, a global staffing company. Out of these 3,000, two-thirds are going to be cabin crew as well as the sleep are going to be a mix of engineers and pilots. More than the following 5 years, the growth in hiring are going to be among 100% and 200%.”

Source: India Times

Airlines set to take off after turbulence

The year 2010 was each a year that saw a silver lining in addition to dark clouds within the aviation industry. Except Air India, which continues to face difficult times, other airlines started a steady march on the recovery right after the slowdown many years of 2008 and 2009.

What ought to be a huge relief on the Indian aviation authorities could be the fact how the US did not downgrade the Indian safety regulator, Directorate General of Civil Aviation, to sub-Saharan Africa levels. The final nod for the second airport in Mumbai right after a delay of three many years and the opening of new T3 terminal in New Delhi were a large plus for travellers.

But just as very good news was flowing in thick and fast right after 2 many years of gloom, the worst fears of aviation came real with India witnessing 1 of its worst ever air crashes on May possibly 22. Air India Express's flight 812 crashed at Mangalore airport, killing 158 from the 166 men and women on board.

The crash, coming amid fears which started within the troubled 2008-09 that some crises-ridden airlines may perhaps not have even adequate income to maintain their fleet airworthy, led to intense financial surveillance from the carriers. The scrutiny once more revealed that except Air India, most other critical airlines' fortunes were showing changes—thanks to a double-digit growth in domestic air travel.

This is borne by the fact that 2009 saw 445.1 lakh men and women flying inside India. But the January-November 2010 period itself saw that figure getting left behind with 468 lakh men and women flying in India. Considering about 50 lakh men and women fly in December, 2010 may perhaps witness a 16% rise more than 2009. "This growth is likely to be even more pronounced, next year, from the economy searching up. So the large upside for the year 2011 is that most airlines, barring —of course—Air India, could come to be profitable again. But simultaneously the large worry is rising oil prices with crude touching $90 a barrel. This may perhaps force fare hikes and affect air travel growth," mentioned a senior ministry official.

That worry apart, financially airlines are searching to fly to the black. Financially-strained Kingfisher got approval to restructure its mounting debts. The country's second largest low-cost carrier (LCC), SpiceJet, was finally bought more than by a south-based group with deep pockets, signalling the end of income crunch, and it, subsequently, also began overseas flights. Similarly, the largest LCC, IndiGo, is all set to launch an IPO and start international flights next year. In fact, the aviation market came a full circle this year. The sacking of 450-odd Jet Airways cabin crew staffers had signalled the beginning from the global meltdown-induced crisis for Indian airlines in 2008. This year, Jet contacted all its sacked staffers and about half of them have joined back within the past few months.

Air India, Jet Airways to Lease 35 Airbus Planes

NEW DELHI -- Air India and Jet Airways India Ltd. have agreed to lease 35 planes of European Aeronautic Defence & Space Co. NV's Airbus from leasing companies.

Flag carrier Air India has decided to lease 10 A330 planes and 15 A320s, Airbus said inside a statement late Monday. Jet Airways, India's biggest carrier by industry share, will lease 10 A330s.

Airbus said the 25 planes that Air India plans to eat on lease have a list acquisition cost of $3.1 billion, while the 10 planes chosen by Jet Airways have a list acquisition cost of $1.9 billion.

A spokesman for Airbus said the deals are, however, possibly being done directly on the leasing firms and are unlikely to give new firm to Airbus.

"The carriers will choose an engine supplier and also a leasing business during the near future," Airbus said.

Indian carriers have started to eat new planes on lease or order new aircraft as demand for air travel rebounds during the global economic slowdown of 2008 and early 2009. Budget carrier SpiceJet Ltd. last month ordered 30 turboprop aircraft from Canada's Bombardier Inc. for $900 million, adding to a $2.7 billion order for 30 Boeing Co.'s 737-800 planes placed in July. An additional budget airline IndiGo has received government approval to buy 150 Airbus planes.

Ragini Chopra, a spokeswoman for Mumbai-based Jet, said the airline is planning to eat the 10 A330s on lease to expand its international operations.

"We are in talks with numerous leasing firms for your aircraft," she said, but declined to elaborate.

The first two A330s are going to be leased among January and June 2011, while the sleep are going to be leased in 2012 for use on long-haul routes, said another Jet Airways executive, who declined being named.

"We are finalising our international expansion plans," the executive said. "We think demand is rising and this really is the proper time to deploy additional capacity."

Jet has already leased four ATR turboprop planes during the aircraft-leasing arm of U.K.-based Investec PLC. A couple of additional ATRs will join the fleet next month.

Air India executives weren't promptly accessible for comment.

Air India sacks COO with unsafe track record

Pawan Arora has been sacked as the chief operating officer of Air India Express, the low cost international arm of Air India. The decision was taken by the full AI board, which met the following on Thursday. Sources mentioned AI COO Gustav Baldauf has protested for the civil aviation ministry against Arora's removal.

"Baldauf selected Arora and is unhappy in the decision to sack him. We have told him it's up to him to decide what he wants to do," a top ministry official said.

Another high-profile appointment — of Stefan Sukumar as chief of training — is also under the scanner, having a two-member committee getting formed to glimpse into the "process of recruitment" and submit a report for the board within a fortnight.

In an action-packed day, AI CMD Arvind Jadhav and three independent directors — Air Chief Marshal (retd) Fali H Major, FICCI secretary general Amit Mitra and Ambuja Realty chairman Harsh Neotia — met civil aviation minister Praful Patel just before proceeding for the board meeting.

Thereafter, the Board unanimously decided to sack Arora, over a grounds that a number of issues about him weren't known at the time of his appointment — as reported very first by HT.

Arora joined AI on October 11. On October 22, HT exposed the truth how the Director General of Civil Aviation had removed him from four key flight-safety posts just before he joined the national carrier.

On November 1, AI's independent directors met the PM's main secretary TKA Nair to tell him they have been "misguided" and "kept from the dark" about Arora's record.

It also emerged that Arora was the chief reference for Baldauf, inside a report by a headhunting agency hired to short-list candidates to your AI COO's post.

Within months of Baldauf taking over, Arora was produced AI Express COO. Each earlier worked together in Jet Airways Konnect.

Air India pilot's 'sleep inertia' caused crash

The senior pilot of an Air India jet that crashed in May was asleep for most with the flight after which produced critical errors since he was disoriented after waking up, based on Indian news reports.

The crash on May 22 in Mangalore, India, killed 158 men and women after the jet overran the runway and plunged off a cliff.

Capt. Zlatko Glusica was captured loudly snoring on a cockpit recorder, the accident investigation found, based on the Hindustan Times. The Associated Press confirmed the account from a federal government official who spoke on condition of anonymity since the report had not been presented towards the Indian Parliament.

After waking, Glusica did not respond when his co-pilot H.S. Ahluwalia repeatedly urged him to abort the landing.

Indian investigators stated that Glusica was suffering from "sleep inertia," a condition that can be deeply disorienting when an individual is awoken suddenly from deep sleep, based on the reports.

The accident may be the most clear-cut instance yet of the crash caused by a tired pilot and might affect the debate during the United States more than how to adjust pilot schedules to reduce fatigue, aviation safety experts say.

"This is almost a smoking gun," stated Curtis Graeber, a fatigue expert and consultant who specializes in pilot schedules.

The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board has observed that fatigue played a role in several accidents, but has had to rely on circumstantial evidence. In the crash of the commuter plane on Feb. 12, 2009, near Buffalo that killed 50 people, investigators raised concerns that each pilots had not slept the night before, but stopped short of citing fatigue as being a cause.

Graeber and others could not recall a case wherever a pilot involved in an accident had been recorded even though asleep.

Two pilots on board a go! airlines flight in Hawaii on Feb. 13, 2007, fell asleep for at least 18 minutes, and their commuter jet flew past its destination, but the crew awoke in time to return to your safe landing.

In June 2008, an Air India aircraft headed to Mumbai flew past its destination with each pilots asleep. They landed after being awakened by air-traffic controllers.

The Federal Aviation Administration, under orders from Congress to address pilot fatigue, last September unveiled sweeping changes that would require longer rest periods for pilots. The proposal has met fierce opposition from airlines and some pilot unions.

John Cox, a retired airline pilot who works as being a safety consultant, stated he expects the Air India crash to be cited during the debate more than U.S. regulations.

Cox also cautioned that other factors might be blamed for ones India crash. For example, the co-pilot could have woken the captain earlier and been far more assertive, he said.

"This flies during the face of professional training," Cox said. "What has happened right here is tough to understand."

Cox and Graeber stated that the factors identified during the accident appear unlikely to come during the USA, wherever co-pilots are trained to speak up if they have safety concerns.
Source:USA Today
Yatra.com

Air India empowered to take decision on hiring employees says Praful Patel

NEW DELHI: The Civil Aviation Ministry on Tuesday mentioned how the Management of Air India was empowered to take any choice during staff selection, right after reports that some of its Board directors had opposed appointment of Pawan Arora as COO of its low-cost arm Air India Express .

"If there is any controversial appointment, I am sure that Air India management and Air India Board will take a right decision. It is a question of an Air India employee, so allow the Air India management and board take care of these issues," Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel told reporters here.

He was replying to questions on reports that some of Air India's independent directors had raised objections on the appointment of Arora as well as the functioning of its top management.

He asserted that there was "no controversy" within the board's independent directors meeting top officials within the PMO to discuss the trouble on functioning of Air India.

Yesterday, the five independent directors with the business -- Anand Mahindra of Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd , Ficci's secretary general Amit Mitra, Ambuja Realty chairman Harsh Neotia and former air chief Fali H. Major-- met Prime Minister's Principal Secretary T K A Nair and reportedly expressed their anguish over the appointments being made by the company.

They also met Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel today and briefed him for the meeting with Prime Minister office.

"There is no question of any controversy. Independent Directors wanted to meet me and they had courtesy call. They have been on the Board for over six months and they wanted to share their views with me," Patel said.

Apart within the trouble of Air India COO, difficulties relating to Air India's financial position, debt case and human resources are also understood to have occur up for discussion within the meeting with TKA Nair.

Source: The Economic Times

7 Mumbai-bound flights diverted

Hundreds of passengers on board seven city-bound flights were forced to country at other airports on Friday night because an Air India flight from London was stuck on the taxiway paralysing operations for nearly an hour. Six flights had to become diverted to Ahmedabad and one was sent to Hyderabad.
Soon
after vacating the principal runway, the pilot of flight AI 130 informed the air targeted visitors control that he was unable to move the landing gear with the aircraft as a result of suspected hydraulic failure.

A Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL) spokesperson, mentioned that airport staff saw smoke emanating within the landing gear. “The staff sprayed foam on the gear and passengers were safely deplaned,” the spokesperson said.

At that thing air targeted visitors control officials were using only the principal runway. They had to switch for the other runway because the exit within the principal runway was blocked by the Air India flight. By then, several incoming flights had already aligned themselves to country on the principal runway.
As soon as the ATC official announced the transform of runway, these flights had to re-vector their position mid-air.
In addition, airport ground staff also takes about 30 minutes to switch runways because one end with the principal runway is under repair. By the time the ATC cleared the secondary runway for operations, flights decided to country at a neighbouring airport.

“At least a dozen flights were circling around the airport,” mentioned a senior air targeted visitors control officer. Airport sources blamed runway repairs.
Source: Hindustan Times

T3 of IGI airport to start operating from Oct 30

NEW DELHI: As soon as domestic operations begin inside integrated terminal Three (T3) on October 30, about 70% of domestic site visitors would be moving on the new terminal. Although 3 roads will consume passengers up to the Haj terminal — NH-8, the tunnel road that will be made operational by this month-end and the road from Gurgaon — only 1 road from that thing will bring about the main terminal, posing a site visitors nightmare.

A team inside civil aviation ministry led by joint secretary Alok Sinha inspected operations at the airport on Tuesday. In accordance with sources, officials pointed out that site visitors chaos would probably result right after domestic operations on the 3 main carriers — Air India, Jet Airways and Kingfisher — shift to T3. ''The tunnel road will open with only two lanes at supply and that ought to not be a problem. However, just right after the Haj terminal, after all site visitors would be pushed onto 1 road, site visitors jams will probably be a huge issue,'' stated sources.

Sources also stated that whilst everything was on schedule at the domestic side on the terminal, the entire airport experience will probably be marred if difficulties like site visitors aren't sorted out. The first four gates at T3 will probably be dedicated to domestic carriers and officials are worried that the starting on the ramp would often be crowded and keep up other traffic. A meeting is probably to be convened among Delhi International Airport (P) Ltd (DIAL) and site visitors police on October 25 to formalise a site visitors plan.

''The other issue highlighted by ministry officials was that of passenger transfer, among international and domestic and within domestic. DIAL is planning to convert IGI into a hub on the lines of Singapore and Dubai. That is a first for India and there can't be goof-ups. The issue will must be sorted out by airlines and the ministry will also keep a meeting with them right after the site visitors issue is sorted out,'' stated officials.
Source: The Times of India