DIAL to Charge Airport Development Fee(ADF)

NEW DELHI: Passengers who book flight tickets on or after December 1 for both international and domestic travel from Delhi till May 2013 will have to shell out extra money. The IGI airport management will start levying an Airport Development Fee (ADF) on each passenger who flies out of the IGI Airport to the tune of Rs 1,413 per international passenger and Rs 221 on each domestic passenger. Passengers who have already booked tickets for travel on or after December 1 will not be required to pay the ADF.

Tickets are also likely to get more expensive with fuel prices recording an average increase in of Rs 2,700 per kilolitre, effective from December 1. Airlines will incorporate this increase in ticket prices as well.

The decision to not charge ADF from passengers who have already purchased air tickets was taken by the civil aviation ministry and directorate general of civil aviation after airlines complained that they would have to collect the ADF from each passenger who had not paid so far when they reported for check-in.

"It has been decided to collect ADF only on tickets that are issued from December 1 so that we can avoid passengers having to queue up at the airport to pay the fee. Airlines had said that it would become a logistical nightmare for them to collect the amount which is not even a round figure and tender change to the hundreds of passengers who have already booked their tickets," said a senior ministry official.

Some airlines, like Air India, had already started collecting ADF since the third week of November but sources say that this money will not be refunded.

"There was no order from either the ministry or DGCA to collect ADF even though Delhi International Airport (P) Ltd (DIAL) had announced the implementation of the fee from December 1. However, if some airlines have 1, already collected the amount under the head of ADF, they will have to submit the money to Airports Authority of India," said highly placed sources.

DIAL had started collecting ADF from passengers since March 2009 but an order from the Delhi high court had stalled the exercise in June this year. The Airport Economic Regulatory Authority (AERA) finally passed an order on November 16 that permitted DIAL to restart collection of ADF from December 1 for a period of 18 months.

"The ADF is Rs 1,300 for international passengers and Rs 200 for domestic passengers with an additional 10.3% service tax. We had initially been allowed to collect it for a period of 36 months starting March 2009 and have now received an extension of 18 months. This is the first phase of collection through which we hope to bridge our funding gap by Rs 1,230.27 crore. A cost of Rs 701 crore that would be incurred by DIAL from April 2010 would be recovered in phase-II of the ADF collection from June 2013 to February 2014," said DIAL officials. Source:Times Of India

Emirates ice system wins Skytrax award

DUBAI – For your seventh year inside a row, Emirates Airline’s ‘ice’ inflight entertainment program has been awarded the ‘World’s Greatest Airline Inflight Entertainment’ award at the 2011 Skytrax Globe Airline Awards, says a press release.

The awards were based on voting by more than 18.8 million airline passengers from 100 a variety of nationalities Inflight Entertainment (IFE) has become a key competitive benchmark for airlines worldwide. Emirates has maintained its industry-leading position by continuously investing in and expanding its entertainment offering; resulting in an amazing number of movies, television and music from around the world.

Emirates Airlines latest IFE system, ice Digital Widescreen (‘ice’ stands for information, communications and entertainment), offers a staggering choice of more than 1200 channels of entertainment, for instance more than 280 movies from around the world, hundreds of TV options and thousands of music tracks from contemporary to classical.
Source: Nation.com.pk

Turkish Airlines eyes return to Benghazi

Turkish Airlines will begin operating flights to Benghazi if circumstances allow, Turkish Airlines General Manager Temel Kotil said Sunday.

“There was some damage at the Benghazi airport; once it is repaired, the flights will start. We would start today if it were available. Right now, the businessmen are facing difficulties,” Kotil told a group of journalists in Cairo while waiting for the Foreign Ministry officials’ contacts in Egypt ahead of the ministry-led visit to Libya. After the flight ban to Libya’s capital Tripoli, Turkish Airlines stopped all flights to the city.

In response to whether or not the national carrier will resume flights to Tripoli, Kotil said, “If conditions allow, we will fly everywhere.

“We are reaching out not only to the Turks, but to the entire world,” said Kotil, who was among the delegation to visit Libya. “We started flights to Basra. In addition to the Iraqi cities of Arbil and Baghdad, Turkish Airlines will begin flights to the Iraqi Shiite shrine city Najaf next week and later to Suleymaniye and Mosul. We will continue to operate new lines and extend our network,” he said.

It was speculated that Turkish Airlines reduced its number of flights to Syria because of the country’s political unrest. “We didn’t reduce the number,” said Kotil. “There has been a 25 percent decrease in the number of passengers,” he said, noting that the problem was a “temporary” one. “We are flying to Aleppo and Damascus, and we have never stopped our flights,” Kotil told reporters. “Turkish Airlines increased its flights to another politically unrest country, Yemen. The number of weekly flights to Yemen has increased from two to four. Now we are planning to fly to Yemen everyday via Jeddah,” he said. “There has been a lot of demand from Saudi Arabia as well. We are expanding everywhere to establish a network.”
Source: http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com

Global air passenger traffic up 7 percent in May

NEW DELHI: The global airlines association on Thursday reported an increase of 6.8 percent in international passenger traffic for May this year, compared to the like period of 2010.

According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), the positive passenger growth in May has helped in reducing pressure on profits in the high fuel prices environment, but freight segment has continued to be in a slump, with a downfall of 4 percent.

"This (passenger traffic) is 4 percent higher than the beginning of the year, whereas freight traffic has showed a drop of 4 percent against the post-recession peak of the re-stocking cycle in May 2010," IATA said in a statement.

The statement said that India's domestic demand was robust at 13.8 percent in May as compared to previous-year levels with a capacity expansion 19.9 percent.

Meanwhile, IATA's director general and chief executive Giovanni Bisignani said he was confident that the airline industry will make profit for 2011, but cautioned that there were grave risks associated with political unrest in the Middle East and the European currency crisis.

"We still expect the industry to make $4 billion this year. That is a pathetic 0.7 percent margin and another shock could alter the industry's fortunes dramatically," said Bisignani.
Source:India Times

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

Flight from Delhi cancelled, several others delayed

LUCKNOW: Dense fog enveloping the Amausi airport continued to disrupt flight movement on Saturday. Even though one domestic flight from Delhi remained cancelled, an international flight from Dubai was diverted to Jaipur.

According to reports, a GoAir flight, G8 351 with a scheduled arrival at 6.30 am remained cancelled. A Jet Airways Konnect flight 9W 2637 with a scheduled arrival at 6.45 am arrived virtually seven hours late even as visibility problems plummeted to near zero. The flight from Delhi arrived at 1.50 pm and departed only by 2.37 pm.

Likewise, a Kingfisher flights with a scheduled arrival at 8.30 am arrived at 12.30 pm and departed at 12.54. One more Kingfisher flight IT 3169 from Mumbai to Lucknow with a scheduled arrival at 8.55 am arrived only by 11.50 am.

Meanwhile, a Fly Dubai flight was diverted to Jaipur. The flight was scheduled to arrive at Amausi airport at around 7.45 am. However, the flight was diverted to Jaipur. The flight finally landed at Amausi airport at 3.40 pm and went back to Dubai at 7.30 pm.

Airport officials stated that even though visibility situation eased from the afternoon, it was back to haunt flight movement late on Saturday evening. In fact, some of the flights which have been scheduled to arrive in late evening had already started arriving late.

International reporting time for domestic flyers?

NEW DELHI: With airlines flying record loads since the Christmas weekend and the rush peaking now, airlines have advised passengers to verify in earlier than usual at crowded airports. SpiceJet passengers flying out of Kolkata this weekend got text messages to report three hours ahead of departure time — the reporting time for international flights! Jet Airways has asked flyers to achieve airports 2 hours ahead of departure time.

"In view of enhanced security at all airports by the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security, Jet has requested all its guests to verify in early to avoid congestion at airports and also allow flights to depart on time. Guests have been advised to report 2 hours ahead of departure time," said a Jet spokesperson. Airline sources say that domestic site visitors is growing incredibly sharply and airports that have not seen expansion are merely unable to cope from the site visitors figures. "In smaller airports like Goa, the security verify line for outbound passengers beings from arrival terminal itself. Kolkata is also choked. Airport expansion plans are taking off at a incredibly slow pace," complained a senior pilot.

While airlines find it difficult to hold on time performance with passengers stuck in serpentine security queues even when it's flight departure time, flyers are suffering too because of poor infrastructure.

Source: India Times

Kingfisher Gets Okay for Debt-Equity Swap

Kingfisher Airlines' board has approved a debt recast plan that seeks to convert some of its debt into equity. The move will aid the company reduce its interest burden and stem losses.

Kingfisher will convert lenders' loans of as much as Rs. 1355 crore into shares. It also plans to convert founders' debt of as much as Rs. 648 crore into share capital. Kingfisher's balance loans is also repaid to lenders over nine years with a moratorium of a couple of years, it added. The airline plans to problem convertible and redeemable shares to lending banks as well as founder entities in line with its debt recast plan.

It plans to problem as much as 57.5 crore redeemable preference shares and as much as 78 crore convertible preference shares to its consortium of lenders. Its board also approved issuing as much as 64.8 crore convertible preference shares to founder entities United Breweries (Holdings) and to Kingfisher Finvest India. Under the debt restructuring package, lenders can also sanction a lot more funds as well as non-fund-based facilities, Kingfisher said. The package firmed up following a one-time relaxation in restructuring guidelines sanctioned by the Reserve Bank of India, the airline said.

Tata Motors reportedly plans to set up a second factory in Bangladesh, one of its main export destinations for commercial vehicles, in six months to cater to growing sales of smaller and light commercial vehicles.

Separately, Tata Motors reportedly plans to launch compressed natural gas (CNG)-powered trucks within the medium and heavy segments for your domestic marketplace within a year.

Communications Minister Kapil Sibal mentioned on Thursday, 25 November 2010 cellular number portability across the country is going to be implemented from 20 January 2011. Mobile number portability, which allows users to keep their phone number even if they switch operators, was to be introduced in all telecoms zones by 31 March 2010.

The board of Money Matters Financial Services will meet today, 26 November 2010, to select the futures course of action following the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Wednesday, 24 November 2010 arrested the Money Matters' chairman and a couple of other officials and also the senior executives of three state-run banks and other financial organizations inside a loan bribery case.

In a statement towards stock exchanges, Money Matters mentioned the board meeting had been called to discuss the matter in detail and select the next course of action. The CBI has mentioned that Money Matters acted being a mediator and facilitator of corporate loans and other facilities by bribing bank officials.

Money Matters mentioned the company will like to assure its shareholders, buyers and company associates that the company firmly believes in ethical practices in all company dealings. The company is fully co-operating with CBI and within the legal proceedings, it said.

Paras Pharmaceuticals has reportedly shortlisted the bids of Piramal Healthcare, Emami and unlisted Taisho Pharmaceutical Co to sell a controlling stake. As per reports, Emami could emerge the winner with its final bid of Rs. 2950 crore.

SKS Microfinance has reportedly occur under the scanner on the Insurance Regulatory Authority of India for deviating from guidelines set by the regulator on commissions and claim settlements.

Glodyne Technoserve's board approved sub-division of equity shares of Rs. 10 each into equity shares of face significance Rs. 6 each. The board also approved raising funds through equity and other methods from domestic and overseas markets.

Pratibha Industries has raised Rs. 50 crore through equity shares issued to Van Dyck, a unit of ChrysCapital V LLC. The company issued 38 lakh equity shares on preferential basis at Rs. 92 a piece to Van Dyck, it said. In addition, it issued 16.3 lakh compulsory convertible participatory preference shares at Rs. 92 a piece to Van Dyck, it added.
Soruce: India Infoline

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

Emirates Wins CAPA Airline of Year Award

MANILA, Philippines – Emirates was referred to as the winner of the prestigious Center for Asia Pacific Aviation (CAPA) Airline of the Year Award for 2010 at a gala reception in Singapore recently.

Air New Zealand's Rob Fyfe was referred to as CEO of the Year. The awards ceremony was held as component of this year’s seventh annual Asia Aviation Outlook summit, showcasing airline and airport CEOs from about the Asia Pacific and Middle East regions.

The CAPA Airline of the Year is awarded on the carrier that has had the most effective impact on a development of the airline marketplace in the region, establishing itself as a leader, and also the benchmark for others to follow.

It is the second time Emirates has won CAPA’s coveted top award getting previously won in 2005.

“Emirates’ achievements in the past year had been extraordinary, as the most profitable and fastestgrowing airlines in the world," mentioned CAPA chairman Peter Harbison.

"Emirates’ influence on competitor airline strategy continues to increase, as it aggressively enters new markets and expands others and demonstrates leadership in highquality passenger service."

Harbison mentioned Emirates’ development has contributed to Dubai’s surge in the rankings of the world’s biggest international hubs, from 26th location in 2001 handling 12.4 million international passengers to sixth location last year with 40.1 million."

"The CAPA Airline of the Year for 2010 is specific to acquire a lasting and irreversible impact on a evolution of the worldwide aviation and tourism industries.” (EHL)

Source: http://www.mb.com.ph

Jet Air's India passenger traffic in Sept up 37%

Jet Airways Ltd, India's largest private carrier by sales, mentioned its domestic passenger targeted traffic in September grew 37.1 percent on the year ago, whilst its international targeted traffic rose 36.4 percent.

Jet Airways has now posted 11 consecutive months of growth in passenger traffic, it said.

The group, which includes low-cost carrier JetLite, includes a marketplace share of 26.9 percent inside the country's aviation sector, it added.

Source: Sify

Mumbai FC gun down Air India

Since its launch four many years ago, Mumbai FC had not managed to beat Mumbai football’s powerhouse, Air India. Manager Henry Picardo, a former Air India player, kept dreaming in the result.

And that dream couldn’t were realised at a far better occasion than from the final in the Nadkarni Cup. Mumbai FC defeated Air India 2-0 to win the championship at the RCF ground, Chembur, on Monday.

Ebi Sukore Theophilus’s strike from the 40th minute followed by a superb back volley from striker Pc Lalawmpuia from the dying minutes clinched the 104th edition in the tournament for Mumbai FC.

It looked like an I-League encounter over a local tourney as each the sides play from the national tournament. The intensity was high as there was high quality action and drama involved. Some comical errors from the referees added on the excitement.

However, they also raised question marks over some of the decisions taken by them. From the very first half, several Air India players argued in the referee over the rules during a free kick. However, it was resolved amicably.

For most in the opening period, each sides played both equally well, doing inroads to the opponent’s half but they could not capitalise on the opportunities that came their way.

Five minutes ahead of the very first half whistle, Air India’s Samson Singh committed a foul from the box, which resulted inside a penalty kick for Mumbai FC. Ebi obliged by tapping the ball in without having any issue leaving Air India custodian Kunal Sawant, a mere spectator.

Second half as well had some exciting moments as the ball went over the horizontal bar quite a few times, but a 90th minute back volley strike from Lalawmpui finished the game in style in Mumbai FC’s favour.

Picardo, who was in-charge in the team from the absence of coach Khalid Jamil, was all praise of Lalawmpui.

“He is recognized for that. That goal from him sealed the game for us,” mentioned Picardo.

He mentioned he is happy, especially, mainly because his team had defeated the power property of Mumbai.

“It was dream arrive true. Since our team was launched four many years ago, we had never defeated Air India. Beating this sort of a big and tough side gives you high. As far as winning the tournament is concerned, it'll give us a improve ahead of the I-League begins.”
Source: DNA India

SriLankan Airlines to acquire seven new aircraft by 2011-end

COLOMBO: National carrier SriLankan Airlines today stated it's going to soon purchase its first brand of new aircraft in more than a decade among the seven aircraft it plans to eat delivery of by 2011-end.

They include 5 Airbus A320's, such as three brand new aircraft, and 2 Twin Otter float planes.

"We will likely be celebrating an important new chapter during the history of SriLankan Airlines on the arrival of this big number of aircraft within a short period," SriLankan's CEO Manoj Gunawardena today said.

He stated this would permit the airlines to a lot enhance the passenger service. "This will give us the ability to fly to more cities during the Subcontinent, Middle East and Southeast Asia, and to also enhance ability to existing destinations in these regions," he today stated in a statement.

The last time Sri Lanka's National Carrier took delivery of a brand new aircraft was in June 2000, after it received the last of six A330-200's.

The three brand new aircraft are scheduled to be acquired from May-November 2011, and will sport the latest comforts and entertainment systems, such as Audio-Video On Demand (AVOD) in each Organization and Economy Classes.

"These three aircraft would be preceded by 2 other A320's, that are probably to come in December 2010 and early 2011," he said. All 5 aircraft would be on operating leases at quite attractive terms of monthly payments.

In addition, 2 Twin Otters are to be acquired for the re-launch of its domestic support SriLankan Air Taxi this winter.

The airline can be exploring the possibility of obtaining at least another long-haul wide-body aircraft to launch services to more new destinations in Europe and the Far East, Gunawardena said.

"Our fleet expansion plans are usually updated to aid Sri Lanka's swiftly growing tourism industry, even though keeping in mind the financial requirements on the airline," he said.

Sri Lanka's national carrier started a re-fleeting programme shortly after its management changed hands (when Government got the controlling stakes) in April 2008, obtaining three A320's in 2008 and 2009 to replace old aircraft.

A wide-body A330-200 was also added on the fleet 2 months ago. These seven aircraft will join SriLankan's fleet of 13-- three A320's, 5 A330's, and 5 A340's-- with a global network covering 49 cities in 31 countries.

The twin-engined A320's operate to destinations during the Subcontinent, Maldives, Southeast Asia, and parts on the Middle East, even though the A330's and A340's operate on the Middle East, Europe, and the Far East.

Source: The Economic Times

Malaysia Airlines wins top aviation awards

Malaysia Airlines has been known as 'Asia’s Leading Airline' and 'Asia’s Leading Business Class Airline' by more than 185,000 industry professionals inside a global poll conducted by the World Travel Awards.

Since its inception in 1993, the winners with the award are certain by industry professionals from more than 160 countries who cast their votes for companies they consider to become the greatest in travel, tourism in addition to hospitality merchandise and services in Asia.

Malaysia Airlines Regional Senior Vice President, South Asia, Azahar Hamid said, “We are delighted to become acknowledged by travel professionals as Asia’s leading airline. We are committed to continuous assistance improvement and delivery, and these awards are testament on the tough work and outstanding performance of employees in providing Malaysian Hospitality to our guests.”

Malaysia Airlines has won a string of awards in 2010. This year, the airline was accredited with "Staff Service Excellence for Asia Award 2010” and “World’s Greatest Economy Class Award 2010” by Skytrax. It is also known as the “Best Airline in Southeast Asia” by GT Tested Awards, Global Traveller Magazine and ranked 7th inside Top 10 Airlines Worldwide category for Greatest in Travel Poll 2010 by Smart Travel Asia.

Source: Indian Express

Air-Traffic Growth Slows, Suggesting Peak Has Passed : IATA

Air-traffic growth slowed for a second month in August, suggesting that a recovery in demand for flights may have peaked, the International Air Transport Association said today.

The gain in passenger traffic eased to 6.4 percent compared with a year earlier, down from 9.5 percent in July and a high of 11.9 percent in June. The figure matches the lowest growth rate this year in January, with the exception of April, when a volcanic ash cloud from Iceland closed European airports.

IATA more than tripled its forecast for full-year airline earnings to $8.9 billion on Sept. 21, citing the strength of a recovery in demand, while cautioning that profit would fall back in 2011 as cuts to state spending sap consumer confidence.

“The rapid improvements that we saw earlier this year are behind us,” IATA Chief Executive Officer Giovanni Bisignani said in today’s statement, predicting “a tougher end to 2010 as government stimulus monies run out.”

Traffic grew fastest in the Middle East in August, rising 12 percent, with Europe expanding 5 percent, North America 5.3 percent and the Asian-Pacific region 6.2 percent, IATA said.

Cargo-traffic growth may have peaked in May, when it increased 34 percent, today’s figures suggest, with August’s advance of almost 20 percent the lowest increase since then.

“The bounce from restocking is over,” Bisignani said. “We do not yet see the strong consumer confidence needed to sustain the expansion with spending.”

Source: Bloomberg

Air India to Implement SAP ERP Package for Better Efficiency

MUMBAI: The Air India Board on Tuesday approved the implementation of the SAP Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) project.

The implementation of the ERP project is in line with the business objectives and strategy of the company for effecting a turnaround, a press release said here.

SAP is the largest provider of ERP solutions world-wide and has been preferred by more than 115 airlines.

SAP solutions support the core business of airlines in passenger services planning and development and also MRO (maintenance, repair and overhaul) functions.

The implementation of the SAP ERP package would help Air India in strategic decision-making, monitoring and control systems, the release said.

Besides, integration of key business functions in the erstwhile Indian Airlines and Air India Airlines, the package would also help in seamless integration with other systems and ensuring availability and consolidation of critical data and information,

At the same time, the airline could aim for improved profitability by availability of real-time information on route network and profitability, it said.

It would also help in reduction in costs especially in inventories across various areas.

Source: The Economic Times

Compulsory pre-flight breath analyser test on cards

Pilots and cabin crew of all International and domestic flights operated by Indian carriers could be subjected to compulsory pre-flight breath analyser test as the civil aviation regulator seeks to make air travel safer.

A draft of the rules unveiled by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) suggests that all crew of flights originating in India as well as foreign destinations should be subjected to pre-flight medical check-up for consumption of alcohol.

At present, only 60% of the crew, both cabin as well as cockpit, undergo random checks by scheduled operators. The drive is intensified only during festival season and New Year.

“For scheduled operators, this percentage shall be on a daily basis and for other operators like non-scheduled ones, air taxi operators, state government aircraft operators and private category operators, the percentage is be worked out on a 15-calendar day basis,” said the draft regulations.

The cabin crew will be subjected to the test twice during a flight. If any member tests positive, he or she will not be allowed to operate the flight.

Refusal to undergo the check-up will also be considered alco-positive, says the civil aviation requirements. Any member attempting to evade the test procedure by leaving airport premises before undergoing the complete test procedure will be considered to have tested positive,” the new proposal says.

The DGCA has also proposed tough action on those who fail to clear the breath-analyser test. “First-time offenders and any crew member refusing to undergo the medical check-up will be kept off-duty “and his license will be suspended for a period of three months.”

The licence of the crew will be “permanently cancelled” if they are tested positive during the pre-flight medical check-up for a second time.

In case an instructor or examiner or check crew tests positive, they will lose their rating for at least three years.
The civil aviation regulator has also proposed a post flight medical check on the crew, which should be done during their duty hours after disembarkation of passengers, and if found guilty their licence will be surrendered forthwith.

The Economic Times

Air India Plans to dry-lease 4 Airbus A-330 aircraft

Air India is planning to dry-lease four Airbus A-330 aircraft to service some of its medium-haul international routes, airline sources said on Monday.

"The purpose of taking A-330 aircraft is to deploy them on medium-haul routes or on sectors which have 7-8 hours of flying, like Hong Kong," the sources said, adding "though we are leasing only four aircraft now, our actual requirement is that of ten of these planes."

Currently, the national carrier has two of these wide-body planes in its fleet which are operating on the Jeddah and Shanghai sectors.

The leasing period of the A-330s would be one-and-a-half year to two years, the sources said. Under the dry-lease arrangement, the lessor provides an aircraft without crew, insurance, ground staff, supporting equipment and maintenance, all of which has to be taken care of by the lessee.

The routes on which these A-330 aircraft would be deployed are being finalized, the sources said, adding that the delivery of these leased planes would have to be made between October 2010 and September 2011.

The decision to lease these Airbus planes came in the wake of delays in the delivery of Boeing 787 Dreamliners by the US manufacturer for which Air India has sought compensation.

Air India had placed orders for the delivery of 27 Dreamliner aircraft even when the project was on drawing board in 2006. It was to receive the first aircraft in 2009, which would now be delivered by 2013.

Following the delay in the delivery of B-787s, Air India has planned to take on lease ten A-330s, besides several A-320s and turboprop ATR planes to meet its requirements.