Indian-Aviation

Ground handling and cargo warehousing sector is heavily dependent on international flights and few domestic airline companies. Since the grounding of airline operations, business has dropped by over 95%, says Murli Ramachandran, chief executive officer-India, Celebi Aviation, a Turkish ground handling company which operates at all major international airports in India. Edited excerpts from an interview. How has your sector been affected by the lockdown imposed to contain covid-19? Amongst the impacted industries, Aviation is in the forefront and probably the most affected. Our Ground Handling and Cargo warehousing sector is heavily dependent on international flights and a few domestic customers. Since the lockout, our business had dropped by over 95%. We have a very high fixed cost base which makes our position more precarious. Are you looking for some relief measures from the government? If so, what are your requests? We have made multiple appeals seeking intervention fro...

A doctor’s appointment may soon be mandatory before you or your family members board a flight after the lifting of the lockdown and resumption of normal life which is expected some time in June. And while you are at it, cooling your heels in the doctor’s waiting room, you may also want to buy up gloves, face masks and disposable caps for the oncoming air journey. Sounds surreal? Not really! A team of airport and airline officials, doctors and government bureaucrats will soon discuss these and other measures to ensure passenger safety in mid-air after normal life resumes. This technical committee is formulating standard operating procedures (SOP) for passengers and flight staff and will soon come out with its recommendations. Airlines in India, such as IndiGo, have offered to thermal-screen passengers, provide them masks and gloves on board once flight operations resume. Social distancing will be maintained in check-in counter queues and no services will be allowed on board f...

The government extended bidding deadline for Air India by two months till June 30, for the second time due to the Covid 19 fallout. The department of investment and public asset management (DIPAM) said on Tuesday that the deadline was being extended after "request received from the IBs (interested bidders) in view of the prevailing situation arising out of COVID-19". ET had reported the deadline extensions earlier this month. The process of selling the government’s full stake in the national carrier initially began on January 27. While issuing the EoI in January, the last date for bids was kept for March 17, which was later extended to April 30. This has now been further extended till June-end. The date for intimation to qualified interested bidders (QIB) has also been extended by two months till July 14. "Further changes with respect to the Important Dates, if any, will be communicated to the Interested Bidders subsequently," the department said ...

SpiceJet on Wednesday told its pilots that they will not be paid salaries for April and May, and said those who have been operating cargo flights will get paid for "block hours flown". SpiceJet's flight operations chief Gurcharan Arora told pilots through an email that "as of today, 16 per cent of our aircraft and 20 per cent of our pilots are flying". "We are doing this by flying our five cargo aircraft and also flying more 'cargo on seat' on our passenger aircraft," he said. The budget carrier has a total of 116 passenger planes and five freight aircraft in its fleet. India has been under lockdown since March 25 to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus. All commercial passenger flights have been suspended. Arora told pilots: "We will not be getting any salary for April and May 2020. Those of us who have been flying cargo, will get paid for the block hours flown." Block hours is the duratio...

Air India chief Rajiv Bansal has been promoted to the secretary-level rank, according to a Personnel Ministry order issued on Sunday. The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC), headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has approved in-situ upgradation of a total of 10 officers to the level of special secretary in the rank and pay of secretary by temporarily upgrading the posts held by them. Bansal, a 1988 batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer of the Nagaland cadre, has been given the rank and pay of secretary to the government of India, the order said. He was appointed the chairman and managing director of Air India in February this year at the rank of additional secretary. Besides him, Airports Authority of India (AAI) chairman Arvind Singh has also been promoted to the top rank. Praveen Kumar Srivastava will be special secretary, Department of Home. He is at present additional secretary in the same department. Read more at:  https://econo...

Higher fares, fewer routes, pre-flight health checks and less free food: The coronavirus pandemic is ushering in a new era of air travel . A seismic shift is underway as the world’s airlines reassess their operations and how they will look emerging from the crisis. At eerily empty airports, mask-wearing and social distancing already show a behavioural change among the few staff and travellers left . A long shakeup lies ahead that is set to touch almost every aspect of flying after limits on movement unwind. “We should be prepared for a choppy, sluggish recovery even after the virus is contained,” Delta Air Lines Inc. Chief Executive Officer Ed Bastian said in a letter to employees this week. “I estimate the recovery period could take two to three years.” In a matter of months, the coronavirus reset the clock on a decades-long aviation boom that’s been one of the great cultural and economic phenomena of the postwar world. The explosion in air travel shrunk the planet, crea...

Mandatory face masks for all travellers and crew, no queues for security clearance, restricted use of in-flight lavatories and a stop on all in-flight meals --- Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) may soon resume flight operations but with strict restrictions and curbs in place. Senior officials said the new rules, which have been recommended by stakeholders to the Union aviation ministry recently, may mean that it would take a little longer than usual for flyers to get through security checks. It has been a month since India suspended all domestic flights on March 25, the first day of the 21-day nationwide lockdown, which was later extended till May 3. On March 22, the international flights to and from India had been suspended. But expecting to resume operations after May 3, the Delhi airport operator, various airlines and the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), which handles airport security, came together to formalise a plan on how to handle hundre...

India's private airline companies have restarted taking bookings for both domestic and international travel, their websites showed. A source told Mint airlines again began taking bookings on Saturday. Spicejet and GoAir are taking bookings with departures from 16 May while Indigo and Vistara are doing so for travel from 1 June. State-owned Air India is yet to restart bookings for any travel. The move by the companies comes exactly a week after they were rapped by the civil aviation ministry for taking bookings even as restrictions on movement of people, imposed to prevent the spread of covid-19, remained in force. They were told not to do bookings till further instructions as the pandemic continued to spread. In the first instance, while private airlines had restarted taking bookings for only a few days and then restarted, it was Air India’s move on 18 April to join their ranks that had upset the authorities. They were then forced to tell all airlines to stop bookings. It...

GMR  group managed  Hyderabad  International Airport (GHIAL) has announced gearing up for the post-lockdown days and preparing itself to make social distancing a new normal. In a statement here on Friday, the airport said it was constantly engaging with all its  stakeholders  and key partners to strategize and work in collaboration to provide a safe and sanitized environment for the  passengers  at the airport. These stakeholders include  Airport Health Organization ,  Airlines , CISF, Customs,  Immigration , Ground Handlers, Security, Concessionaires,  Service Partners , among others. The GHIAL chief executive SGK Kishore said the airport and its stakeholders were working through the lockdown period to ensure that right measures were in place to ensure passenger safety once commercial flight operations resume. “While the airport is geared up with a high level of hygiene and new operational procedures, passengers’ role in keepi...

Eight employees' unions of  Air India  on Friday requested  Civil Aviation  Minister Hardeep Singh Puri to ask the airline to roll back its COVID-19 lockdown-triggered decision to cut 10 per cent pay of its employees. Air India raised the demand, while commending the  IndiGo 's decision on Thursday to roll back pay cuts, which were announced last month for senior staff members, for the month of April in deference to the government's wishes. The joint letter by eight AI employees' unions to Puri on Friday stated, "We request you to countermand Air India committee's decision on COVID-19 pay cut which is against the government's directives and also treat us at par with other PSUs (public sector units) during the lockdown." Air India has decided to cut salaries of all employees by 10 per cent for three months. On March 23, the Modi government had asked public and private sector companies not to cut salaries or lay off employees amid the COVID-19 lockdown. ...

Amid the discussion of resumption in flight services from May 4 and airlines to open bookings for their domestic and international flights, Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri took to Twitter to indicate that the restrictions will only be lifted once the government is confident that the outbreak of Coronavirus has been controlled. In his tweet, he clarified that once the government is sure that COVID-19 poses no danger to the Indian population, flight services will resume. The minister, in a series of tweets, has also highlighted that a directive was also issued to airlines. According to him, the airlines have been asked to restrain from opening flight ticket bookings because they did not take note of the government’s advice. He added that some airlines started taking money from people for further bookings and in order to address this, the Ministry of Civil Aviation has issued a directive to the carriers on April 19, 2020. He further informed that the government will give suffic...

Indian Association of Tour Operators (IATO), an apex body representing more than 1600 inbound tour operators, on Friday urged government to provide relief measures to the tourism industry which has suffered a blow due to the coronavirus outbreak. The body estimates that 3.8 crore jobs associated directly or indirectly with tourism industry are at stake and economy can lose revenue of about ₹5 lakh crore in the next one year. With statutory dues, salaries, utility bills standing amidst zero cash flow, the industry needs immediate help, it said. “We need both short-term and long-term measures. Where short term measures can help in survival, the long term one’s can help in revival. However, what we need is urgency in action as jobs and livelihoods are at stake and delay is announcement of sops is only adding to the existing strain," said Pronab Sarkar, president, IATO. Under short term measures, the tourism body has suggested the government to allow the use of insur...

International passenger capacity for India plunged by a whopping 89 per cent so far in April due to the COVID-19 pandemic as compared to a "business-as-usual" scenario, according to the latest projections from the International Civil Aviation Organisation. The Montreal-based ICAO, the specialised agency of the United Nations, said that by September, the world could have 1.2 billion fewer international air travellers, compared to regular originally planned or “business-as-usual”. Estimates by the organisation show a dramatic reduction in international passenger capacity for countries across the world between January and April, as the COVID-19 pandemic spread globally. In February 2020, international passenger capacity reduced by 13 per cent, mainly related to traffic from/to States experiencing an early outbreak and States deeply interconnected to China. By March, global international passenger capacity reduced by 49 per cent, with significant reduction not o...

The coronavirus pandemic is expected to impact more than 29 lakh jobs in the Indian aviation and dependent industries, global airlines' grouping IATA said on Friday. Commercial flight services in the country remain suspended till May 3 amid the nationwide lockdown to curb spreading of coronavirus infections. Besides, the pandemic and subsequent lockdown have significantly impacted economic activities, with aviation and tourism among the worst affected segments. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) said its latest estimates indicate a worsening of the country impact from the COVID-19 crisis in the Asia-Pacific region. About India, IATA said the pandemic is expected to potentially impact 29,32,900 jobs in the country's aviation and its dependent industries. The passenger traffic has declined 47 per cent. Besides, the grouping noted that the revenue impact for airlines operating to and from the Indian market would be USD 11.221 billion (over...

IndiGo , the country's largest airline, has assured its employees of no cut in their April pay. "In deference to our Government’s wishes of not reducing pay during the lockdown, we have decided not to implement the previously announced pay cuts during the month of April," CEO Ronojoy Dutta told employees in an email on April 23. "However, your Excom members and SVPs have volunteered to take pay cuts this month. For everyone else, you can expect your April salaries to be paid without the pay cuts," he added. In his March mail to employees , Dutta had talked about the need to cut costs, and this a salary cut. While he himself took a 25 percent cut, the rest of the employees saw a trim ranging from five percent to 20 percent. The decision to retain salaries will help bring some cheer in the sector that has been grounded by COVID-19. All of IndiGo peers, including  SpiceJet , GoAir and Vistara, have either cut pay or sent a large part of their staff, on leave withou...

India will airlift 220 tonnes of essential medical cargo from China over next three days, Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said on Wednesday. The National Carrier, Air India, has lifted about 300 tonnes of essential medical cargo so far this month through the China-India aerobridge, the minister said on Twitter. “It is planned that Air India along with SpiceJet and Blue Dart will airlift another 220 tonnes of this critical cargo in the next three days,” he said. India has been under a lockdown since March 25 to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus, which has infected more than 20,000 people and killed over 600 in the country till now. All commercial passenger flights have been suspended for the lockdown period, which is scheduled to last till May 3. Source: https://www.thehindubusinessline.com

Once the lockdown is lifted, your flying experience will take on a new avatar. It’s as yet unclear when flights will resume and what the new social distancing norms will be, but the pandemic will radically shake up aviation, just like 9/11 and the security challenges it ushered in did nearly two decades ago. The check-in changes You will notice the changes the moment you reach the airport. In fact, it could set in even earlier. While booking tickets, the airline may ask you to furnish a medical certificate to establish you are not displaying corona symptoms. Some international airlines were insisting on a medical certificate at the time of check-in even before the lockdown. There is every likelihood that more flyers will opt for web check-ins. However, you may still need to approach the counter if you have check-in baggage, unless a newly evolved technology takes care of that, too. At the airport, not only will the social distancing norms be more stringent, but the...

India ordered airlines this week to stop selling tickets. Hardly any listened. Four of the country’s top six airlines, which together control 80% of the local market, are selling domestic flight tickets for as soon as the third week of May, searches on their websites showed. That’s despite the government saying no decision has been made on allowing flights after the end of the nationwide lockdown on May 3, which means airlines should refrain from selling tickets until authorities give them the go ahead. Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri reiterated that no commercial flights will be allowed to operate until the spread of the coronavirus has been controlled and that the lifting of restrictions will only be considered later. Market leader IndiGo, operated by InterGlobe Aviation Ltd., is selling tickets from June 1, as is Vistara, the local affiliate of Singapore Airlines Ltd., searches showed. SpiceJet Ltd., the nation’s second-biggest airline, and Go Airlines India...