HC rejects KF's plea against CCI probe into Jet alliance

Mumbai: The Bombay High Court on Wednesday dismissed Kingfisher Airlines’ application challenging a Competition Commission of India (CCI) notice that sought to inquire into Kingfisher’s alliance with Jet Airways.
The division bench of Justices JN Patel and CL Pangarkar dismissed the application, saying the case does not merit interference from the court, Union government lawyer Rui Rodrigues told ET.
Justice Patel and Justice Pangarkar were connected through video conference when the judgement was announced as they were not in the same courtroom. Justice Patel was in the Bombay High Court, while Justice Pangarkar was in Nagpur.
Kingfisher spokesperson said the company needs more time to formulate its future plan on the issue. The Competition Commission had ordered an inquiry in August last year after Kingfisher and Jet announced an alliance to rationalise their resources to reduce cost.
The commission wanted to investigate into the alliance to ensure that the deal would not create a monopoly in the aviation industry.
Kingfisher approached the court against the notice, challenging the jurisdiction of the commission.
01/04/10 Almas Meherally/Economic Times

Airlines bet big on South India to grow outbound traffic

Chennai/Bangalore: After tangible signs of economic recovery, airlines are again betting big on the south Indian destinations to profit from the increasing outbound traffic. With rising importance of South East Asian destinations for leisure travellers, the traffic is set to grow more in near future.
Further, as Indian trade engagement with Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) grow, business travellers will also flock to airlines to travel to these destinations.
The aviation industry in general had to go through difficult times during recession due to lesser corporate traffic last year. However, figures for January show passenger traffic going up by 22 per cent to 4.14 million passengers compared to 3.37 million passengers during the same month last year. Most airlines enjoy passenger load factors up to 80 per cent in case of low cost airlines. Full service carriers are witnessing a load factor up to 70 per cent.
Some of the airlines which had reduced their frequency during recession, are again resuming their flights to different south Indian destinations.
Dragonair, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Cathay Pacific, had reduced the frequency of its flights on the Bangalore - Hong Kong route to four from seven during recession. However, the airline resumed daily services recently in the wake of the increasing traffic.
“As we have witnessed an uptick in traffic in the last quarter of 2009 and first two months of 2010, we have decided to resume daily operation,” Tom Wright, General Manager of India, Middle East, Africa, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal, said.
01/04/10 Debasis Mohapatra/Business Standard

Bombay HC warns director general of civil aviation of contempt

Mumbai: A division bench of the Bombay high court on Wednesday took exception to the director general of civil aviation (DGCA) failing to file a reply on the air-traffic congestion issue.
Irked by the central authority’s ‘lethargic’ attitude, justices FI Rebello and Amjad Sayed gave the DGCA a last chance to file the reply in two weeks or to face contempt of court charges.
The court was hearing a public interest litigant (PIL) initiated by the Resources of Civil Aviation Redressal Association and seven others. Filed in 2009, the PIL claims the air congestion at Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport jeopardises the safety and security of travellers.
Petitioner’s advocates Joaquin Reis and Vinay Hegde argued that there was too much traffic congestion at the airport which often causes delay in flights to take off and land.
However, an affidavit filed by V Balasubramanian, deputy general
manager (law), with the Airport Authority India on Wednesday said there was no illegality, irrationality and procedural impropriety.
01/04/10 Hetal Vyas/Daily News & Analysis

'No one is exiting Spciejet'

SpiceJet on Wednesday said none of its stakeholders were interested in selling stake in the leading no-frills carrier now.
"I hold 12.5 per cent stake in the company. I am absolutely clear that I am not going to sell it at this point in time. ...As far as I know, no other stakeholder is also interested. So, nobody is selling," Ajay Singh, Director told PTI.
His comment comes amid reports suggesting that Sun TV promoter Kalanidhi Maran was interested in acquiring a 51 per cent stake in SpiceJet and was ready to offer over Rs 700 crore (Rs 7 billion) for it.
Financial services group Religare and Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group have also reportedly evinced interest in the airline.
When contacted, Singh, who is abroad, said the health of the aviation industry was looking up and Spicejet was "doing very well too". "We feel that the valuation is very low.
Equity dilution at current valuation is out of question. Since the airline is growing, of course, there has been a lot of interest. The company keeps getting approached by various investors," he said in reply to questions.
Besides Singh, the Kansagra family holds 13 per cent stake in the firm. US-based private equity investor Wilbur Ross had also invested $80 million in SpiceJet in July 2008 through foreign currency convertible bonds.
31/03/10 Rediff.com

First Indian woman to command jet engine aircraft retires

Mumbai: The first Indian woman to have commanded a jet engine aircraft retired on Wednesday after serving as a pilot for the erstwhile Indian Airlines for thirty years.
In 1988, Captain Saudamini Deshmukh became the first Indian woman captain to command a Boeing 737. She also became the first Indian woman to command the Airbus A320 in 1994. Capt Deshmukh joined erstwhile Indian Airlines in 1980 as a co-pilot on the Fokker F27 Friendship turboprop aircraft.
“I never thought of it as anything special but by God’s grace, there are a lot of firsts in my career. Whatever I did, I became the first woman pilot in India to do so,” said Capt Deshmukh. “As a child, I had always wanted to become a pilot and by God’s grace it happened,” she added.
01/04/10 Shashank Shekhar/Indian Express

Did a dog on the runway delay flights in Mumbai?

A dog's day out at the Mumbai Chhatrapati Shivaji airport allegedly led to the delay of around half a dozen flights arriving in from New Delhi between 10 pm to 1 am on Wednesday night. While all but one of the flights landed in Mumbai after hovering over the airport for almost an hour, a Jet Airways flight had to be diverted to Ahmedabad, affecting hundreds of passengers.
A ground staff, on condition of anonymity, said, "There was a dog on the runway which made the Air Traffic Control (ATC) delay the flights". However, the ATC denied making any confirmation about the dog on the runway and said it was traffic congestion that led to the delay.
Jet Airways flight 312 which was scheduled to leave the Delhi airport at 8.30 pm on Wednesday, left at 10 pm.
Passengers aboard flight 354 of Jet Airways were the worst hit as their flight was diverted to Ahmedabad. The journey, which was supposed to take two hours, ended up taking a harrowing seven.
01/04/10 NDTV.com

Class XII student held for hoax bomb calls

New Delhi: The Airport police arrested a hoax caller, who had called in on March 12 and 13 claiming there were bombs on two of Indigo airlines flights. According to the police, the accused, Debasish Banerjee, is a resident of Kolkata. A student of Class XII, Banerjee had called from Kolkata to say that there was a bomb on Indigo’s Bangalore-bound flight. The police said he called again later claiming there was a bomb on Indigo’s Delhi to Mumbai flight.
The DCP said that a report against Banerjee has been filed at the Dwarka Court. The mobile phone from which the calls were made has also been taken into possession by the police.
01/04/10 Indian Express

IPA announces NZ-India direct air service

A new Macau based pan Asian budget international airline is set to begin operations connecting Pacific and South Asian destinations beginning August this year.
In the first twelve to eighteen months of its operations, India Pasifika Airlines will connect Pacific urban centres like Auckland, Brisbane, Sydney, Nadi and Hawaii with major destinations in South Asia such as Mumbai, New Delhi, Colombo and Dhaka, senior airline officials revealed at a media conference in Auckland yesterday.
“The trunk routes will be serviced by our Airbus A380 aircraft while we will also run hub and spoke operations within Australia and flying between Nadi and Brisbane employing modern smaller jets like the Embraer 190,” Executive Director – South East Asia Operations, Asanka Senaviratne told media and a large gathering of travel agents at a prestigious hotel in downtown Auckland.
Initially, Auckland will be connected to Mumbai with a once a week A380 service via a halt in Brisbane. However, passengers can fly to New Delhi via Sydney from where there will be two flights a week – one each serviced by a Boeing 777-300ER and A380 aircraft (passengers will have to make their own way to Sydney from New Zealand cities).
31/03/10 Indian Weekender, New Zealand

At Srinagar Airport, announcements in Kashmiri

The next time you land in Kashmir, don’t be surprised if you hear flight operators at the Srinagar International Airport making announcements in a language you don’t understand. From Wednesday, announcements are also being made in Kashmiri.
The order to this effect was issued by Srinagar Airport director O S Tyagi on Tuesday. “Besides English and Hindi, operators will make all announcements in Kashmiri also,” he said. “Many passengers were facing difficulties and we felt that there was a need for making announcements in Kashmiri also. We hope this move will help a large number of travelers,” he said. Tyagi said operators too had shown keen interest in making announcements in Kashmiri.
01/03/10 Majid Jahangir/Indian Express

Cop suspended for taking $100 bribe from NRI

The Goa Police Wednesday suspended a sub-inspector for accepting a bribe from a non resident Indian (NRI), officials said.
Deputy Inspector General Ravindra Yadav told reporters that sub-inspector Pravin Pawar attached to the immigration branch was placed under suspension for accepting a $100 bribe.
'We received a letter from British NRI Fatima Fernandes, who complained that Pawar, posted at the Dabolim airport, asked for a bribe on March 7,' Yadav said.
31/03/10 IANS/Sify

Inderjit Reyat's trial in Kanishka bombing case deferred till June 7

Toronto: The perjury trial of Inderjit Singh Reyat, accused of lying under oath during the prolonged Kanishka bombing trial, is likely to be deferred again till June 7.
The trial for Reyat, charged with lying during testimony at the Air India trial, may now be delayed till June due to scheduling conflicts involving his lawyer, Ian Donaldson, media reports said.
The trial was originally scheduled to begin on May 18 and has seen several previous adjournments.
On March 8, the trial was deferred as a Canadian judge dismissed the jury as it was about to hear the perjury trial,
saying he feared the panel may have been tainted.
British Columbia Supreme Court justice Mark McEwan had ordered that a new jury be selected. He said a remark allegedly made by one juror to others on the panel may have tainted the jury as it was being selected last week.
31/04/10 PTI/Daily News & Analysis