Asia-Pacific aviation now biggest market

The Asia-Pacific region is now the biggest passenger market in aviation, the peak industry body says.
"In 2009, intra-Asia Pacific travel had eclipsed the number of travellers in North America as the world's largest aviation market," the International Air Transport Association said in a statement.
The sector lurched from one disaster to another through much of the past decade and is only now recovering from the global financial crisis that threatened even legacy airlines with ruin.
"The global aviation industry is expected to reduce losses from $US11.0 billion ($A12.51 billion) in 2009 to $US5.6 billion ($A6.37 billion) in 2010," association CEO Giovanni Bisignani told a conference in Singapore.
Mr Bisignani pointed to the explosion in Chinese aviation that underpinned growth in the Asia-Pacific.
01/02/10 AAP/Sydney Morning Herald, Australia

Lease planes to foreign cos, but first return import duty relief: Govt

New Delhi: Domestic carriers’ move to cut capacity and improve profitability by leasing out planes to foreign airlines has been opposed by the civil aviation ministry, which has said that airlines must pay back the import duty relief they got whey they purchased these aircraft if they propose to lease them out to foreign carriers.
The remark follows Jet Airway’s proposal to dry lease three B777-300 s to Royal Brunei Airlines.
As per the existing rules, scheduled domestic carriers are exempted to pay duty while importing the aircraft for commercial operation. Operators of chartered services are, however, required to pay 17-18 % customs duty on import of aircraft.
Domestic carriers lease out aircraft to manage capacity and cut losses when traffic demand is weak. In a recent letter to the civil aviation ministry, Jet Airways’ chief commercial officer Sudheer Raghavan has said that the airline had found the need to sublease three B777-300 s as they had been rendered surplus owing to ongoing economic downturn and its impact on the aviation industry.
"The government has given exemption in case of import duty on aircraft to promote domestic aviation sector. The idea is to bring competition in the market and benefit consumers. We can not allow airlines to benefit other markets at the cost of Indian government’ money," a government official who did not wish to be identified, told ET.
01/02/10 Economic Times

Jet fuel prices cut 5%

New Delhi: State-run oil firms today reduced aviation turbine fuel prices by 5.5 per cent to almost negate the steep hike they effected earlier this month.
ATF price in Delhi was cut by Rs 2,260 per kilolitre, or 5.48 per cent, to Rs 38,956 per kl effective midnight tonight, an official of Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOC) said.
On January 16, IOC and other PSU retailers such as Hindustan Petroleum and Bharat Petroleum had hiked rates by 6.5 per cent to Rs 41,216.43 per kl.
In Mumbai, the rates were reduced by Rs 2,354 to Rs 40,181 per kl. Jet fuel constitutes roughly 40 per cent of the operating cost of an airline and the reduction in rates will help to ease the burden of Indian carriers.
31/01/10 PTI/The Telegraph

Aviation Industry Take Flight Again, Says Frost & Sullivan

Singapore: The turmoil surrounding the aviation industry is finally expected to calm and prepare itself to soar once again. The past two years have been a tremendous challenge to the industry and all its stakeholders. Escalating fuel prices followed by the economic downturn has pushed the aviation industry to revisit their business and financial models just to sustain their presence in the industry.
According to Frost & Sullivan's Asia Pacific Research Analyst of Aerospace & Defense Practice Cheong Chern Wai, passenger traffic statistics clearly indicate the significant decline across the globe, with 2% growth in 2008 against a high of 8% growth in 2007.
He continues, "The first half of 2009 saw traffic declined even further, bringing a negative growth to the industry. As the economy began its slow ascent to recovery, passenger traffic also followed the same path to recovery with the fourth quarter showing much improved growth. The regions of Middle East, Latin America and Asia Pacific are the first regions to show positive signs of recovery."
Tourism is one of the key factors that have sustained the aviation industry as business traffic suffered most during the two year period. Relationships that have developed between both airlines and airports have strengthened as all are emphasizing on sustainability to weather this storm.
"Alternative revenue streams, code sharing, route optimization, collaboration, green initiatives, innovative fuel saving techniques are all strategies employed by industry stakeholders to remain afloat. However, there have been casualties as well for those that were unable to overcome the challenges," adds Cheong.
Moving into 2010, airlines will continue to thread carefully, looking at profitable routes and reorganizing their network to drive growth in their business.
In Asia Pacific, airport development in South East Asia, China and India are staging the scene for future growth and expansion of the travel network bringing the world closer to one another. Frost & Sullivan estimates potential spending of almost US$100 billion in airport development and expansion within the next 10 years. It is also estimated that there will be over 300 airports to be developed within the next 10 years in China and India alone.
31/01/10 PRNewswire

PMO steps in to clear fog over Northeast air traffic

New Delhi: With complaints mounting from the Northeastern states on airlines using the Route Dispersal Guidelines (RDGs) to promote their commercial interests and neglecting the demand for enhanced air connectivity in the hinterland, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s office has asked the Civil Aviation Ministry to begin consultations with the concerned stakeholders to review the RDGs. The government has also decided to bring additional destinations in the Northeast region on the civil aviation map by facilitating creation of airport infrastructure.
As reported by The Indian Express earlier, the government had decided to plug a loophole in the civil aviation guidelines that allowed domestic airlines to report high compliance with the North-Eastern Region (NER) flying quota without undertaking actual flying into the region. An airline could end a flight in the commercially viable destination of Bagdodra, West Bengal, to meet the 10 per cent NER connectivity quota.
At a recent high-level meeting, the Prime Minister’s Principal Secretary T K A Nair told top civil aviation ministry officials that while looking at reviewing the guidelines, they should also actively examine the Ministry of Development of Northeastern Region’s (DONER) proposal for extending support to the Airport Authority of India (AAI) for creation of a modern airport infrastructure in the region on the lines of Special Accelerated Road Development Programme-North East (SARDP-NE).
01/02/10 Smita Aggarwal/Priyadarshi Siddhanta/Indian Express

Delhi’s Jan fog hit Mumbai flights hard

Mumbai: Thirty-eight Delhi-bound flights from Mumbai and 53 Mumbai-bound flights from Delhi were cancelled in January, almost all of them because of fog in New Delhi, airport officials say. The fog also forced 19 Delhi-bound flights to be diverted to Mumbai.
“One or two cancellations may have been for other reasons but to the best of my knowledge, Delhi-bound flights were cancelled because of dense fog at the Delhi airport,” said a senior flight safety official with a private carrier.
Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGI) recorded 172 hours of fog in January making it the highest since 2003. Almost half of all domestic air travel in India takes place between Delhi and Mumbai, over 600 flights a week on an average, with minimum passenger load factor of 75-80%.
“The airlines have been losing money because of diversions and cancellations. If there is a cancellation, we need to accommodate outstation guests and if there is a long queue to land or if our flights are diverted we incur additional losses of at least 5-6 lakh rupees every additional hour till the aircraft is operational,” said a senior official of a leading private carrier. “Eventually you face passengers’ ire as well,” he added.
01/02/10 Shashank Shekhar/Indian Express

Airlines' promises nosedive in January's blinding fog

New Delhi: With the airport here witnessing record-breaking 172 hours of dense fog this month, only few airlines have managed to keep up their promises of operating under near-zero visibility conditions using CAT-III Instrument Landing System.
Even minimising the low visibility take-off limits by the civil aviation regulator, Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) did not help in improving the situation.
On a normal day over 300 flights operates between 6 am and 10 am, but on most of the foggy days not even the one-fourth had services. This resulted in delays of over three to five hours and huge congestion at the airport leaving passengers stranded.
The IGI airport had witnessed dense fog for 172 hours between January 2 and 27. Unlike the last season, there was no fog in December.
"We have two CAT-IIIB compliant runways, equipped to handle aircraft in visibility up to 50 metres, but the airlines' claim that they have both CAT-III trained pilots and CAT-III compliant aircrafts falls flat when anyone could see the number of flights they have operated under these conditions," a senior airport official said.
31/01/10 PTI/Economic Times

9 more scanners at airport to ease customs officials’ work

Mumbai: In a relief to customs officials facing it tough to scan baggages — only four scanners are installed for 15,000-20,000 arrivals per day — airport authorities will install dedicated baggage scanners on the baggage conveyor belts at the international arrival terminal. The first will be installed in February and the rest by April end.
Customs laws require the baggage of incoming international passengers to be put under the scanners. While this law is unique to India, it makes it extremely cumbersome for customs officials especially when it comes to diamonds attached to a metal or even unpolished ones. These show up only as white dust on the X-ray scanners making their detection extremely difficult. Currency notes are also difficult to detect as passengers who do not declare foreign currency wrap it in carbon paper toevade detection, say customs officials.
“We are in the process of installing nine machines on the arrival conveyor belts. The machines will be operated by customs officials and will be installed right at the start of the conveyor belts in the airside of the airport. The first machine will be installed in February and the rest will be installed by April end this year,” said Manish Kalghatgi, spokesperson, Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL).
01/02/10 Shashank Shekhar/Indian Express

Dubai Policewoman given suspended jail term for stealing from Indian passenger's wallet

Dubai: A policewoman was given a three-month suspended prison term after a court convicted her of abusing her duty and taking Dh4,300 from a wallet which a passenger accidentally dropped at the airport.
After the 32-year-old Emirati policewoman pleaded guilty and admitted that she had returned the money, the Dubai Court of First Instance imposed the sentence.
Pronouncing yesterday's verdict, Presiding Judge Fahmi Mounir fined the accused — who worked as a first corporal at Dubai International Airport — $900 (Dh3,310), in addition to Dh1,000, the amount which she took.
"I am guilty. I did take the money, but your honour I returned all the amount. I am sorry for what happened," M. B., the defendant, said.
Prosecutors charged M. B. with abusing her duty and taking money from the wallet of an Indian businessman.
Records show that the businessman accidentally dropped his wallet while being searched at the airport.
The 26-year-old Indian, H. K., testified that the incident took place at the airport during a trip to Iran.
The primary judgment is still subject to appeal within 15 days.
01/02/10 GulfNews.com, UAE

Puri police comes across 'immigration' error

Puri: Functioning of immigration officials at New Delhi airport has come under scanner after Puri police recently stumbled upon a blunder committed by the former while scanning the passports and visas of some Korean nationals on January 2, 2010.
After verifying the documents of the 17-member Korean team upon their arrival at Delhi airport on January 2, the immigration department had stamped it "2 Jan, 2011" as the arrival date of those tourists in India.
The howler came to the notice of Puri police when the Koreans arrived at Puri on January 21 for holidaying. During the routine inquiry after the immediate arrival of foreign tourists in the beach town, the owner of Hotel Santana, where the tourists stayed, and police found that two out of the 17 passports of the Koreans described their "erroneous" arrival in India. TOI has photocopies of the erroneous stamps applied on the two visas.
"The erroneous stamps were found on visas of Jiyeon Cha and Doyeon Kim. The arrival date showed 2 Jan, 2011. We are verifying this and trying to communicate it to the immigration department," said Amulya Kumar Dhar, inspector-in-charge of sea beach police station.
The Koreans left Puri a few days ago. "This is a big blunder on part of the immigration officials. This appears to be a minor mistake, but the tourists might suffer a lot due to such callous frisking," said Srimanta Kumar Dash, owner of Hotel Santana.
31/01/10 Times of India