Indian-Aviation

A senior Air India pilot, prone to extreme mood swings, did an unsafe manouvere with a Delhi-Paris flight carrying over 200 people in April, with the airline grounding the pilot while aviation regulator DGCA is probing the matter.  Raising serious concerns over air safety, the flight's commander steered the Boeing 787 plane to a higher elevation beyond the stipulated permissible safety levels.  There are serious concerns over such an incident involving an Air India flight especially after the Germanwings plane crashed in March last year when a pilot, reported to have suicidal tendencies, crashed the aircraft into the French Swiss Alps killing more than 140 people.  Sources said soon after the incident was reported by the co-pilot, the commander was grounded and Air India has opened an investigation into the "serious violation".  The matter is also being investigated by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), they added.  Source:  http://economi...

Air India is likely to enjoy acche din, as its low-cost international subsidiary Air India Express has turned the corner by reporting net profits for the first time since it started operations in April 2005.  The airline reported a profit of Rs 362 crore during the 2015-16 fiscal, helped by lower fuel prices and improved revenues over the past year on the back of flying more people per flight. The airline had incurred losses of Rs 62 crore during the 2014-15 fiscal.  Profits of AI express has come during the fiscal, when its parent Air India is also expected to make operational profit. The airline also found a mention in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Independence Day speech, where he complimented the national carrier for improved financial performance.  The financial results show that the airline's biggest benefit came from reduced oil prices that led to a 28.6% reduction in fuel during the FY16 fiscal from FY15. The overall reduction in cost was to the tune of 4.7...

Air India will launch a new Ahmedabad-Newark via London tri-weekly flight from August 15, an official said here on Thursday.  The service AI-171 will be operated with a Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft from Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport at 5.30 a.m. all Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and reach London at 10.15 a.m.  It will take off from London at 12.30 p.m. and land in Newark, New Jersey, US, 1500 hours.  On the return trip, the flight AI-172 will depart from Newark at 2230 that evening, and arrive in London at 10.15 a.m., take off at 12.30 p.m. and land in Ahmedabad at 2 a.m.  The flight is expected to prove a boon to over 600,000 Indians in Ahmedabad who have been seeking seamless connections for business and leisure to Newark and London, besides catering to the huge NRI population from Gujarat in both these cities and surroundings.  Source:  http://economictimes.indiatimes.com

A total of 122 pilots tested positive for alcohol during pre-flight medical check-ups between 2013 and June 30 this year, the government said told Lok Sabha today.  In 2013, 30 pilots were found alcohol positive during pre- flight medical check-ups though the number came down to 26 in 2014, Minister of State for Aviation Jayant Sinha said in a written reply.  However in 2015, the figure again shot up as 43 pilots failed the blood-alcohol test.  Till June 30 this year, 23 pilots tested alcohol positive. All the 122 erring pilots have been put under suspension.  Of those caught with alcohol in their system, 34 were from Mumbai and 31 from Delhi.  Sinha said of the 23 pilots found positive for alcohol till June, 22 were suspended after first violation, while one pilot was suspended for second violation.  Source:  http://economictimes.indiatimes.com

A new terminal will be constructed at Leh airport with an investment of around Rs 200 crore which will increase the passenger handling capacity, Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju said today.  With the new terminal, the peak hour passenger capacity is expected to go up to 800 from current level of 250.  State-owned Airports Authority of India (AAI) is operating the Leh airport, which has been seeing increased flight movements in recent times.  "Leh Airport - New terminal to be constructed @ Rs 200 cr to increase peak hour passenger capacity from 250 to 800," Raju said in a tweet.  Leh airport handled little over four lakh passengers in the last financial year ended March 2106. During the same period, there were 3,434 aircraft movements.  Source:  http://economictimes.indiatimes.com

US aircraft maker Boeing will deliver two Dreamliners to Air India this year and four more next year to complete the airline's order of 27 of these aircraft, even as the national carrier grapples with glitches in its fleet of 787-800 planes.  Once described as a "game-changer," Air India was one of the launch customers of the Boeing 787-800s and had started inducting them in its fleet about four years ago.  Since then, the airline has been facing a series of technical glitches and other malfunction issues with regard to the Dreamliner fleet.  Boeing's Senior Vice President Sales (Asia Pacific and India) Dinesh Keskar said two Dreamliners would be delivered this year.   Source:  http://economictimes.indiatimes.com

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 N...

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-...

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 compa...