GMR and GVK approach CCI to get clearance for hike in aeronautical charges

In an unprecedented move, two of the country’s largest airport operators — GMR and GVK — have approached the Competition Commission of India to get clearance for a 10% hike in aeronautical charges like landing and parking tariffs.
They have urged the competition watchdog to overturn a decision by the Airport Economic Regulatory Authority (AERA) rejecting the hike in aeronautical charges, civil aviation ministry sources said.
The Competition Commission has been named as the appellate authority for verdicts of the airport regulator.
If the AERA’s decision on landing and parking charges is turned down, airlines have to pay more at the Delhi and Mumbai airports.
The move comes at a time when the new airport terminal at Delhi, the largest and the most expensive, is all set for a high-profile inauguration by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA chief Sonia Gandhi on Saturday. GMR declined to comment but GVK confirmed that an appeal has been filed, but did not offer any comments on the case since it was sub-judice. The GVK group runs Mumbai International Airport Ltd (MIAL). MIAL also operates the new international airport at Bangalore. Delhi International Airport Ltd (DIAL), which is upgrading the Delhi airport with huge investments ahead of the Commonwealth Games in October, is run by the GMR Group. The Banglore-headquartered group also operates the international airport at Hyderbad.
01/07/10 Faizan Khan & G Ganapathy Subramaniam/Economic Times

SpiceJet CEO Sanjay Aggarwal quits

New Delhi. SpiceJet’s CEO Sanjay Aggarwal has quit the firm marking the second exit from the company in a month after media baron Sun Tv’s Kalanithi Maran brought over the company last month.
Sanjay Aggarwal tendered his resignation after a board meeting on 30 June, three officials at the airline confirmed on condition of anonymity.
The airline’s board member Kishore Gupta will be the acting CEO for the company till a new person is hired, one official said adding he will look at the day to day operations and most decisions will be take by the board.
SpiceJet’s senior vice-president (marketing) Anish Srikrishna has also quit the firm as Mint reported on 1 June.
Media baron Kalanithi Maran’s Kal Airways Pvt. Ltd acquired a 38% stake in SpiceJet earlier last month and has made an open offer to buy another 20% from shareholders.
01/07/10 Tarun Shukla

FAA fines two India cos. for uranium cargo

The Federal Aviation Administration has fined two Indian companies $422,500 for sending a radioactive shipment of depleted uranium as cargo on a passenger-carrying British Airways flight from Mumbai to Logan International Airport in 2008.
The FAA alleges that IIS & Allied Services and its freight forwarder, Gallant Freight & Travels, failed to declare the hazardous nature of the shipment, which wasn’t properly packaged or labeled.
Radioactive materials are not allowed to be shipped as cargo aboard passenger aircraft, with some exceptions. The depleted uranium was destined for QSA Global Inc. in Burlington.
Employees at British Airways’ Boston cargo facility discovered the radioactive material on June 16, 2008, when the bottom of the shipment’s crate failed, revealing inner packaging warning that it contained depleted uranium and shouldn’t be shipped on a passenger plane.
01/07/10 Donna Goodison/Boston Herald.com

Global air traffic up 12% in May

New Delhi: Domestic and international air fares will rise by Rs 103 and Rs 515, respectively with a government notification to bring air travel into the service tax ambit coming into effect from Thursday.
Government had proposed in the 2010-11 Budget that 10 % service tax be charged on air travel aiming at raising Rs 600 crore and Rs 1,000 crore annually.
For domestic travel, 10% of the gross value of ticket or Rs 100 per journey, whichever is less would be charged from passengers travelling in any class—business or economy.
For international journey, it would be “10% of the gross value of the ticket or Rs 500 per journey, whichever is less, for passengers embarking in India for an international journey in economy class.”
Air travellers would be exempted from paying this tax on a journey originating or terminating in an airport located in the northeastern states and J&K.
01/07/10 Financial Express

Air travel to get more expensive

New Delhi: Domestic and international air fares will rise by Rs 103 and Rs 515 respectively with a government notification to bring air travel into the service tax ambit coming into effect from July 01.
Government had proposed in the 2010-11 Budget that 10 per cent service tax be charged on air travel aiming at raising Rs 600 crore and Rs 1,000 crore annually.
It had proposed to expand the scope of air transport services to attract service tax to include domestic journeys and international journeys in any class.
However, airline crew travelling on duty and UN staff are exempted from paying this service tax.
The notification, issued by the Department of Revenue over a week ago, said that for domestic travel, "10 per cent of the gross value of ticket or Rs 100 per journey, whichever is less" would be charged from passengers travelling in any class -- business or economy.
For international journey, it would be "10 per cent of the gross value of the ticket or Rs 500 per journey, whichever is less, for passengers embarking in India for an international journey in economy class."
A service tax of little over 12 per cent is already imposed on foreign travel by business or first class since the past several years.
30/06/10 Press Trust of India/NDTV.com

India Shows Off New `World-Class Hub' at Delhi Airport

Passengers on international flights to and from New Delhi will soon no longer walk through the overcrowded building that has been the Indian capital’s gateway to the world for 24 years.
From July 14, they will instead enter a terminal designed by London architects HOK International and encased in sheets of glass etched with images of Indian dancers. With 78 gates, 97 automated walkways, 95 immigration counters, 20,000 square meters of retail space, and parking for 4,300 cars, the building is comparable to the aviation hubs of Dubai, Hong Kong, and Singapore, Bloomberg Businessweek reports in its July 5 issue.
The terminal, which with other renovations cost $2.2 billion, is a sign that India may be turning the corner on solving one of its most intractable problems, its notoriously poor infrastructure.
The facility took only 37 months to build. That’s faster than the 45 months China took to complete the terminal in Beijing that opened in time for the 2008 Olympics.
30/06/10 Subramaniam Sharma and Vipin V. Nair/Bloomberg.com

Air India to double flights from Delhi next year

New Delhi: With the new integrated terminal coming up at Delhi International Airport (DIAL), Air India’s plans of making Delhi its international as well as domestic hub have begun to take shape.
According to airline officials, by the summer schedule next year, AI will more than double the total number of flights it operates from Delhi - about 486 now to 1200 per week. Officials in the Ministry of Civil Aviation say that the national carrier is looking to launch new, direct flights to several destinations across USA, Europe and Australia in the coming winter schedule, where Delhi would function as an international hub.
To begin with, Air India is thinking of starting direct flights to Chicago and Melbourne in the winter schedule from Delhi and later perhaps also link San Francisco. It already has non-stop flights from Delhi and Mumbai to New York. The idea is to collect passengers from within India (through the domestic network of Indian) at Delhi and also bring in passengers from the Gulf countries and some south-east Asian destinations into Delhi and then give them direct connectivity to western destinations.
“Once Delhi hub starts, the Frankfurt hub solution will fall away. Flights to Frankfurt will continue, but many flights which now go through Frankfurt to destinations in Europe and the USA will not have to go through that port,” the officials told DNA.
The terminal at Delhi, T3, offers an integrated facility where domestic and international passengers would be handled at the same terminal.
Eventually, the same model (of making a domestic and international hub) will be followed by AI for Mumbai airport too.
01/07/10 Sindhu Bhattacharya/Daily News & Analysis

Air India seeks review of Delhi high court order on opening union offices

New Delhi: The Air India today filed a petition before the Delhi high court seeking review of its previous order directing the airline to open the locks of the offices of its employees' union which were sealed after a flash strike a month ago.
Issuing notice to the Air Corporation Employees Union (ACEU), Justice Mool Chand Garg sought the union's response by July 7 on the review petition filed by National Aviation Company of India Ltd (NACIL).
Appearing for Air India, counsel Lalit Bhasin argued that the office bearers of the union should not be allowed to sit in the premises as they misuse the premises and create nuisance against the airlines.
The lawyer argued that the office premises of employees' union in various parts of the country were sealed after the union was de-recognised claiming that the recognition of the union is not covered by any statute and it could be withdrawn at any time.
On June 28, the court had stayed Air India's May 27 order sealing the union offices subsequent to an order de-recognising the union and also sacked 58 employees in an unprecedented crackdown.
30/06/10 PTI/Daily News & Analysis

Air India debris finally get a resting place

Mangalore: The Air India engineering crew today started evacuating the debris of the IX 812 Air India Express plane that crashed in a village near Bajpe airport on May 22. Heavy machinery that arrived today from the new Mangalore Port and the timber yard started picking up the parts of the plane one by one.
According to the Air India officials a team of the Boeing Company will be here next week to identify the parts of the aircraft and assemble them in a bunker in the same order they appear on the aircraft when it was produced. This re-assembly will help the investigators of the crash to determine the cause of crash.
The tender for clearing the debris had been bagged by Fiza Group.
The cranes picked up parts like the fins, belly and the wings and fuselage and the engines. The work will take not less than a week to fully clear the debris from the site and heap it up in a distant corner of the airport the Air India authorities told. The AAI has been approached by the Air India to allocate a corner of the Mangalore Airport terminal near Kenjar for storing the crash until such time the investigations are over.
30/06/10 Mangalorean

ATC crunch at Mumbai airport

Mumbai: Mumbai is one of the busiest airports in the country and handles over 700 flights daily.
In the last year alone, traffic here has gone up by 40 flights a day. With so much congestion, a 45-minute flight delay is now the norm. And reports of near collisions are more and more frequent.
The blame often is laid at the door of the ATC which monitors flight movements. Yet even as pressure builds on this crucial operation, NDTV found it shockingly ill-equipped.
The Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has prescribed a limit of 32 flights per hour on the cross runways, yet in reality, during peak hours the ATC handles at least 20 per cent more flights per hour.
To handle this growing traffic, the ATC needs a staff of 300, but the current strength is just 200 - that's a 30 per cent staff crunch. Internationally an ATC controller handles 10 flights at a given time while in Mumbai, one ATC controller sometimes handles twice or thrice that number.
30/06/10 Miloni Bhatt/NDTV.com

No tax on fliers to NE and J&K

New Delhi: Domestic passengers flying in and out of the northeast and out of Jammu and Kashmir will not have to pay the 10.3% service charge on airfares that will be levied from Thursday.
The new cess for both business and economy domestic travellers will be Rs 103 or 10.3% of gross ticket value, whichever is lower. For economy class international flyers, it will be Rs 515 or 10.3% of ticket value, whichever is less.
Ticket value, for this purpose, will be determined by adding the basic price, fuel and congestion surcharges. Passenger service fee and airport charges (UDF/ADF) will be kept out of ticket value for this purpose.
The tax would be levied on tickets sold, issued or re-issued, from Thursday. Which means, travellers who have already bought ticket for flying after July 1 may not need to pay this additional charge. The tax is applicable on journeys originating in India.
A service charge of 10.3% is being collected for years from international travellers flying out of India in business and first classes.
01/07/10 Economic Times

Mentally-ill man found on airport taxiway

Chennai: A Bangalore-Chennai Jet Airways flight was told to go around on Wednesday after an unidentified person was found walking close to the Guindy end of the main runway. The pilot of a taxiing aircraft spotted the person and alerted the airport.He was caught and was handed over to the police. Officials said the man was mentally unstable and had entered the airport by scaling a compound wall.
01/07/10 Times of India

Air India loses labour battle in Nepal

Kathmandu: India's flag carrier Air India has lost a protracted labour battle in Nepal with the country's apex court ruling that the airline would have to abide by Nepal's labour laws while operating in Nepal.
The verdict delivered on Tuesday by Supreme Court judges Khilaraj Regmi and Bharatraj Upreti comes as a blow for India's oldest airline that, plagued by losses, is trying to cut down on costs.
The court order is a victory for 39 casual and contractual workers of the airline, earlier known as Indian Airlines, who are now entitled to get permanent jobs along with the perks they carry.
Nearly five years ago, the group of casual workers went to Nepal's Labour Office, saying they were entitled to be hired as permanent employees as they had worked for 240 days and/or continuously for one year.
As per Nepal's labour law, a temporary worker has to be absorbed as a permanent employee if he has worked for 240 days or continuously for one year.
Air India rejected the demand, saying it was not an organisation registered in Nepal but an Indian government institution. As it began flights to Nepal after an agreement between the governments of India and Nepal, Air India said it was not bound by Nepal's labour law.
30/06/10 IANS/Economic Times

HAL Airport not ours, says AAI

Bangalore: The Airports Authority of India (AAI), which has come in for sharp criticism for flouting air safety norms, has said it will not apply to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) seeking renewal of the licence of the HAL Airport. AAI is operating over 40 airports, including the HAL Airport, whose licences have lapsed.
The HAL Airport does not fall in the same category as other defaulting airports as it is categorised as a defence airport, said AAI officials.
“The HAL Airport does not belong to the AAI,” said a senior AAI official. “Even the Air Traffic Control is operated by HAL and the airport is classified as a defence airport.” The official said the AAI, which only has its administrative offices in the premises of the HAL Airport, “will not apply for renewing the licence of the airport”.
Apart from HAL Airport, the Mangalore airport is the other airport in the state whose licence has expired and is not being renewed.
01/07/10 ExpressBuzz

HAL confronts Snecma in light helicopter project

New Delhi: The Light Utility Helicopter (LuH), which Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) is designing for the Indian military, has encountered turbulence even before leaving the drawing board. French engine-maker Turbomeca, whose vaunted Shakti engine was to power the LuH, is demanding what Ministry of Defence (MoD) sources term “extortionist prices” for integrating the Shakti with the LuH.
HAL had paid Turbomeca to develop the Shakti engine for the Dhruv Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH); and the Shakti also powers the Light Combat Helicopter (LCH) that HAL is developing. Because the Shakti is custom-designed for the high altitudes — between 15,000 and 20,000 feet — that characterise much of India’s border, and because HAL and Turbomeca will jointly manufacture the engine in India, the Shakti was selected to also power the LuH.
But the Dhruv and the LCH are twin-engine helicopters, while the lighter LuH will fly with a single Shakti engine. That requires Turbomeca to design a new transmission for the LuH. Additionally, the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) will have to certify the Shakti for single-engine operation. To HAL’s dismay, Turbomeca has demanded Rs 190 crore for these jobs, more than half the LuH’s entire budget of Rs 376 crore.
01/07/10 Ajai Shukla/Business Standard

Traffic, flyers' flow grow at Patna airport

Patna: City's Jayaprakash Narayan International Airport ranked second in the country, after the Amritsar airport, in terms of percentage growth in flow of domestic passengers and aircraft movement during April-December 2009.
These figures are based on the traffic statistics of the Airports Authority of India (AAI) as reported in its in-house periodical, `Traffic Reporter'. It has compiled figures of the country's 46 major airports.
The growth in terms of passengers' flow at the Patna airport was 52.6%, second only to the Amritsar airport which registered a growth of 64.6% during April-December 2009. The Rajkot airport with a 51.3% growth of domestic passengers, stood third under this category.
Big airports like Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata and Bangalore recorded a modest growth under this head compared to the smaller centres.
As for the domestic aircraft movement, the Patna airport witnessed a 31.7% growth which was next to the growth of 49.4% recorded by the Amritsar airport. Rajkot again stood third under this category with a growth rate of 31.3%.
01/07/10 Sanjeev Kumar Verma/Times of India

6 years on, 508 AI staffers to get flats at Nerul

Mumbai: As many as 508 Air India (AI) employees will soon get their flats at Nerul in Navi Mumbai.
They had paid the initial installments in 2004 but could not get possession because of a dispute between the City and Industrial Development Corporation of Maharashtra Ltd (CIDCO) and their employer.
The Bombay High Court on Tuesday intervened in the matter and directed Air India to pay an additional Rs 60 crore sought by CIDCO towards the added premium for allotting the land to cooperative housing societies of the employees.
Air India will recover the amount from the employees.
CIDCO had allotted the plot measuring one lakh sq m to Air India in 1992 for constructing staff quarters in view of a proposed airport in Navi Mumbai. The national carrier has completed constructing 25 buildings of 508 flats on 28,626 sq m. But financial difficulties compelled the Air India management to reconsider development of the land.
01/07/10 Hindustan Times

One held at airport, Rs 6.95 lakh worth illegal articles seized

Mumbai Customs officials here arrested one passenger and seized illegal possessions worth Rs 6,95,740, a customs official of the Air Intelligence Unit of Chatrapati Shivaji International Airport here said on Thursday.
The accused Balani Prakash Techchand, with an Indian passport, yesterday was proceeding to board an Indian Airlines flight to Singapore, the officials said in a release.
01/07/10 Express India

Airtel wires up Terminal 3 at IGI Airport for customers

Bharti Airtel, one of the leading emerging markets telco, announced the availability of its basic telephony and mobile services in Indira Gandhi International Airport’s T3 terminal which is expected to open soon. Through this initiative, Airtel has become the only mobile service provider to be associated with India’s biggest and world’s second largest integrated airport terminal. The services to be provided will include superior network connectivity enabling Airtel subscribers to be constantly in touch with the world, PCOs to make calls, charging stations to charge laptops , and facilitation counters which will offer telephony solutions and services to customers.
30/06/10 India Infoline

Nagaland Minister released, flies to New Delhi

Kathmandu: Home Minister of Indian state of Nagaland Imkong L Imchen, who was held at the Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu for flouting a currency ban, flew to New Delhi following his release from the police detention on Wednesday afternoon. He boarded a Jet Airlines flight to go to the Indian Capital this afternoon after spending eight hours in the detention.
Nepal Police had arrested Imchen at the TIA for possessing contraband Indian bank notes in denomination of Rs. 1000 and Rs. 500 during a security check this morning.
Police confiscated about IRs. 9 lakh from his possession. Imchen claimed that he was unaware about the ban.
Talking to the media at the TIA, Indian Ambassador to Nepal Rakesh Sood said that the Indian Embassy coordinated with the Nepal government for Imchen’s release after it was informed about the detention.
The Indian VIP was on a personal visit to Nepal along with his family members.
30/06/10 Keshav P. Koirala/The Himalayan