Indian-Aviation

The Airport Economic Regulatory Authority of India (AERA) has recommended hiking airport charges at Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport by seven percent. The revised tariffs would be applicable from May 1, 2016.  Mumbai International Airport Ltd (MIAL) and the GVK group, which operate the airport, had initially demanded a 104.82 percent raise in the airport charges, the  Mint  reported. Airport charges are imposed to finance capital expenditure and to pay for the airport maintenance. The charges are revised after a period of five years. The duration is called a control period. These charges are passed on to airlines and they, in turn, pass it on to travellers flying or out to the airport. MIAL is a joint venture between the Airport Authority of India (26 percent) and the GVK group (74 percent). The first control period of Mumbai International Airport was from 2009 to 2014. Over the last three years, airport charges have increased by 346 percent in New Delhi,

The government is to examine the possibility of selling up to 49 per cent of loss-making national carrier Air India, news agency NewsRise Financial reported on Wednesday. The government plans to form a four-to-five member panel, made up of officials from the finance ministry, the civil aviation ministry, the cabinet secretariat to consider selling a stake in Air India to meet its revenue target from state asset sales next fiscal year, according to NewsRise. Air India, which last made an annual profit in 2007, has seen its market share shrink in recent years amid rising competition from private carriers. It is now India's third-largest airline by market share.  Source:  http://economictimes.indiatimes.com

Low-cost carrier Spicejet today announced it summer schedule with three new routes and six more frequencies of its flight on some sectors.  The three new services are on the Mumbai-Udaipur, Tirupati-Vijayawada and Vijayawada-Vishakhapatnam sectors effective April 16, the airline said in a statement, adding it will enhance frequencies between Delhi-Srinagar, Hyderabad- Chennai, Delhi-Dharamshala, Chennai-Vishakhapatnam and Hyderabad-Bengaluru from March 27.  Recently the airline has started connecting Tirupati from Mumbai, Delhi and Ahmedabad apart from Dubai, Colombo and Bangkok from Vijaywada and Tirupati.  With these new services, the airline will increase its operation to 306 daily flights from 240 in the last summer.  To tap the rising leisure and business travellers and considering the tourist and commercial demand, it has increased the frequencies on the Delhi-Srinagar (2nd non-stop flight) Hyderabad-Chennai, (4th non-stop flight) and Hyderabad-Bengaluru (4th direct fl

The state-owned Pawan Hans is in discussions with European aviation major Airbus to jointly set up an MRO (maintenance, repair and overhaul) facility at Mumbai's Juhu aerodrome.  "It (discussion) is almost at final stages. There is some nitty-gritty which is to be sorted out," Pawan Hans Chairman and Managing Director B P Sharma said here today.  Hopeful that a pact could be inked by the end of this month, Sharma said the proposed MRO will initially provide maintenance and other related services for Dauphin and other Airbus choppers.  Speaking at the India Aviation-2016 event, Sharma said availability of land is not a constraint at the Juhu airport where the MRO is to come up.  Yesterday, Pawan Hans had announced its plan to jointly develop the MRO with Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) for maintaining defence choppers fleet.  The government owns 51 per cent stake in Pawan Hans while the rest is with ONGC.  Besides, Sharma said, the company is expected to ho

Customers, including IndiGo, that have ordered the Airbus A320 Neo planes with Pratt & Whitney engines will have have their engine issues resolved only after June, a senior executive at the United Technologies-owned engine maker said Thursday. IndiGo, India's biggest local airline by market share, has ordered 430 of the Neos, the upgraded version of the most popular passenger aircraft in the world, but opted for Pratt & Whitney engines only on the first 180. IndiGo has started getting deliveries of the aircraft. Rival Go Air which has ordered 72 of the planes will likely get the first delivery between April and June. "There are software and hardware modifications going into the engines. Starting June, engines produced will have those modifications and they will be delivered sometime after that. The software in particular is being incorporated in the engines starting in April. Then there is a league time before we deliver those engines to Airbus. So Airbus

Indian airlines are in talks with ATR, Bombardier and Embraer to buy smaller planes to fly to the country's booming second and third tier cities ahead of a government drive to get more of the country connected by air.  National carrier Air India plans to add 40 new planes to its domestic fleet by the end of 2017, of which 13 will be smaller turboprop planes for regional connections, its chairman Ashwani Lohani told Reuters on Friday.  Lohani said the airline, which already leases eight ATR turboprop planes and three Bombardier CRJ-700 70-seater aircraft, would launch "a major foray" in to flying to smaller cities this year.  Low-cost carrier SpiceJet is also talking to small aircraft makers to add to its fleet of 14 Bombardier Q400 turboprop planes, as it expands the number of shorter routes it flies, a company spokesman said.  India's government in October outlined plans to boost regional aviation connectivity by forcing airlines to fly to smaller cities a

National carrier Air India plans to add 44 Airbus A320 Neo planes to its fleet in the next three years, 68% of which will be net additions to capacity for the first time in more than seven years. Air India will next week introduce financial bids for leasing 15 Airbus A320 Neo planes, said two people aware of the matter.  "Three bidders have already responded to the request for proposals that the airline put out recently. It is aiming to get all 15 of the planes between January 2017 and March 2018. The management will consider who is fast with deliveries," said one of the persons cited above, insisting anonymity. Subsequently, there will be a tender for 15 more of the aircraft, he said.  The airline on Wednesday said it signed a lease agreement with Kuwait-based ALAFCO for 14 Neos.   "There's a new promise in the domestic sector. We have seen yields improving. But currently, only 25% of our seat capacity is deployed in domestic operations while the re

New carriers like Vistara and Airasia India will drive growth of flights during summer schedule and have announced to increase their number of flights by 89.8% and 66.7%, respectively. Vistara would be operating as many as 334 flights in the current summer schedule compared to 176 last year and AirAsia India will increase it to 280 flights weekly from 168 flights a week. On the back of expansion by newer carriers, the domestic industry will witness a 18.6% increase in flights on domestic routes. "This is the highest increase in the recent past and clearly an indication of huge expansion plans by carriers," said a senior DGCA official, who did not want to be identified. Domestic airlines will operate 14,869 flights every week during the summer schedule starting from March 27, 12,533 flights a week during the summer schedule last year. The carriers, however, have decided to discontinue flights to four airports in the country. The carriers would not be flying