Crew to keep log of intercom chats with pilots on intl flights

New Delhi: After tightening the health and flying track record norms for foreign pilots working in India, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has now framed strict rules for ensuring safety inside cockpits of flights operated by Indian carriers. 

DGCA chief Nasim Zaidi has made it mandatory for the senior-most cabin crew of each medium and long haul international flight to maintain a log for two things — speaking on intercom to the co-pilot and commander alternatively— every half hour in lean activity periods of flight. And also keeping a record of when either the pilot or commander went of the cockpit for some reason, a cabin crew member was there to ensure the presence of two persons in the cockpit. 

These logs will have to be maintained on international flights to ensure that pilots in cockpit are alert even during the dull moments of long journeys. The rule of cabin crew talking to the commander and co-pilot alternately every half hour was made some years back but there is no way of knowing if this is being followed or not. 

01/08/10 Saurabh Sinha/Times of India

ATF prices to go up by 2.7 per cent

New Delhi: The State-owned oil firms on Saturday raised the prices of jet fuel, or Aviation Turbine Fuel, by 2.7 per cent after lowering the rates at the last fortnightly revision on July 16.

The rate in Delhi will go up by Rs.1,078 a kilolitre, or 2.7 per cent, to Rs. 41,177 from midnight on Saturday, Indian Oil Corporation official said. 

01/08/10 PTI/The Hindu

GAGAN is undergoing final operation phase: AAI

New Delhi: The GPS-Aided Geo Augmented Navigation (GAGAN) system, aimed at making Indian skies safer, is undergoing the final operation phase which will be over in the next three years before it is commissioned.

“The GAGAN project is currently undergoing the final operation phase since June last year and is scheduled to be completed by June 2013,” an official from the Airports Authority of India (AAI) said.

The AAI, in collaboration with Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), is developing and implementing this state-of-the-art satellite-based navigation system.

Once operational, GAGAN project would provide augmented information for satellite navigation to aircraft flying over Indian airspace and the routes over the high seas with high level of accuracy, integrity and continuity at all phases of flight operations, he added.

“The system is being implemented in a phased manner. The first phase of technical demonstration got over in August 2007,” he said.

The Flight Management System (FMS), based on GAGAN, will also help the operators to save time and money by managing climb, descent and engine performance profiles of aircraft.

01/08/10 PTI/The Hindu

Mangalore airport New terminal opens tomorrow

Mangalore: The multi-crore new integrated terminal building of Mangalore airport at Kenjar near here will finally see action, albeit on a trial basis from 6 am on August 2. The Airports Authority of India in a release here on Saturday announced its decision to shift operations to the new integrated terminal building from Monday. Both domestic and international aircraft operations will be handled from the said new terminal. 

Airport director M R Vasudeva told STOI that travel operations would commence from the new terminal, closer to the city by nearly six-kilometres. Vehicles coming to new integrated terminal building would do so from road laid adjacent to Shree Devi Institute of Technology, and exit from the road adjacent to Dakkan Park. The existing road to the terminal is narrow to facilitate easy two-way movement of vehicles, he said. 

On the spin offs of this move to the travelling public, Vasudeva said there would be clearer demarcation of arrival, departure and visitors lounge. Simply put, Vasudeva said the new integrated terminal building would reduce congestion for all concerned.

31/07/10 Times of India

Flight aborts landing twice due to bird menace

Chennai: An Air India Mumbai-Chennai flight was told to go around the airport twice on Friday after birds were spotted on the runway. 

Sources said the flock of birds was seen over the runway when IC 972 approached runway 25 around 9.30 am. 

As the birds could not be chased away on time, the flight could not land when it returned after circling the city. So, "it was told to go around again," said an airport official. The incident lasted about 15 minutes. 

Sources said the bird menace had affected flight operations at the airport on some occasions. The airport does not have modern equipment to chase away birds and relies on people employed for this. 

In another incident, the communication link that helps air traffic controllers get position of a flying aircraft in data form failed on Friday night. It was restored by Saturday morning. 

Sources said a snag in the server of a private firm that provides the service caused the failure. 

01/08/10 Times of India

Plane flies despite snag at takeoff

Patna: A Kingfisher Airlines flight bound for Ranchi was declared “unfit” for onward journey on landing in the Jharkhand capital five days ago, but sources have told The Telegraph that the snag had occurred while taking off from the Jaiprakash Narayan airport here.

Flight IT 3571, with 173 passengers on board, took off from Patna around 3.08pm on July 26 for a roughly 40-minute journey to Ranchi. On landing at the Birsa Munda airport around 3.50pm, the Airbus A320 was found “not fit” for onward journey to Mumbai.

It was found that fan blades of one of the engines and the cowlings — the outer cover of the engines — were damaged.

The extent of the damage was such that aircraft engineers from Calcutta had to be flown to Ranchi.

Information collected by The Telegraph suggests that the aircraft developed a snag during takeoff from Patna. The commander, Captain Meera Pandey, however, did not report any such problem.

Sources at Patna airport said that as soon as the flight took off, a bird chaser reported that he had seen a metal sheet, around 2 feet long and 1.5 feet wide, lying on the runway.

The air traffic control got in touch with the captain. “A metal sheet has been found on the runway, confirm all operations normal,” the ATC asked the flight captain at 3:19:53pm. Within six seconds of the query came the reply that all operations were normal.

31/07/10 Sanjeev Kumar Verma/The Telegraph

Delhi fiasco may spell trouble for Mumbai airport

Mumbai: The crash of Air Traffic Control (ATC) system-Autotrack III-in Delhi earlier this week bodes bad news for Mumbai airport as well. 

The system, an upgraded version of Autotrack II which is currently in use, was to be installed at Mumbai airport by August after it had stabilised in Delhi. However, as Delhi has now gone back to the old system, the chances of it being used in Mumbai are slim. 

Autotrack III crashed at Delhi airport on July 28 disrupting flight operations for 30 minutes. Officials at Mumbai were also being trained to use the system once it was consolidated in Delhi. "Now, the fate of the system hangs in balance. Everyone was working towards installing it. However, it seems like a far cry after the failure in Delhi,'' an Airports Authority of India (AAI) official said. 

Autotrack III is an advanced software which could have helped a complex airspace like Mumbai organise its traffic. The system has an integrated terminal manager which can help sequence flights at the airport. 

01/08/10 Chinmayi Shalya/Times of India

SIA to acquire stake in Indian carrier if rules changed

New Delhi: Singapore Airlines has said it may acquire stake in an Indian carrier if the current rules are amended, but is not looking at such opportunities right now. "Never say never. Challenge for us at the moment is to consolidate what we have today. ... When opportunities arise, we will consider it. It is not something that we are actively looking at right now," Philip Goh, the airline's Regional Vice President for India, West Asia and Africa, said.

He was asked whether Singapore Airlines (SIA) would be interested in picking stake in an Indian carrier if the present rules, which prohibit foreign airlines from doing so, are amended.

In 2000, the Tata group had partnered with SIA to acquire a 40 per cent stake in Air India, but the government later decided against selling equity of the state-run airline.

On its operations in India, Goh said the premier global airline was in the process of augmenting capacity on its India network, "matching capacity with demand".

01/08/10 Press Trust Of India/Hindustan Times

Singapore Airlines business class travel to get classier

Chennai: Luring the lucrative segment of the travel market, Singapore Airlines now promises a sophisticated and classy business class experience for its customers.

From intelligent mood lighting to in-seat power supply and USB ports, the enhanced business class of the Airlines has been planned with a touch of luxury to draw more corporate clients. Added features are full-flat bed – widest in its class, wider LCD screen and smart storage compartments.

For gourmets, a delicious spread of international cuisine, carefully selected by seven culinary experts is served at a restaurant-style setting. The international culinary experts, which include Sanjeev Kapoor for Indian cuisine, have chosen some of the most celebrated starters, main courses and desserts.

“We hope that the business class would have a wider reach, with the market bouncing back from recession,” says Philip Goh, Regional Vice President (West Asia and Africa), Singapore Airlines. Calling India a ‘potential market for any airlines,' he told reporters flown to Singapore from India that Singapore Airlines would place Indian cities in top priority while drawing its expansion plans.

31/07/10 S Aishwarya/The Hindu

No check-in counters for Airport Line yet

New Delhi: Passengers using the showcase Airport Express Line may not be able to check in their bags at the City Airport Terminals (CATs) when the line opens in September since not a single airline as come forward to set up check-in counters. This, when barely a month is left for the opening of the line. 

While Reliance Infrastructure, the concessionaire of the line, claims that the counters are ready but airlines are not coming forward to occupy them, the airlines claim that it is an expensive proposition. The civil aviation ministry has intervened and a meeting was called to discuss the issue on Friday. 

The construction of the stations, along with the line and systems, is being paced up to ensure timely completion. But if the issue is not resolved soon, passengers using the high-speed line to reach the airport terminal T3 will not be able to check in their baggage and get boarding tickets at the metro stations (CATs). 

01/08/10 Megha Suri Singh & Neha Lalchandani/Times of India

Delegation seeks support for Calicut airport expansion

A three-member delegation of Federation of North Kerala Chambers of Commerce and Industry is in Qatar to seek the support of residents from the Malabar region for the development of the Calicut (Karippur) international airport.

Headed by the chamber’s senior vice-president, C E Chakunny, the team made a representation to Qatar Airways authorities seeking the introduction of a budget airline on the Doha-Calicut (Karippur) route. In a memorandum, the delegation pointed out that most passengers travelling to Calicut from Doha were low-paid people and they could not afford the high fares being charged by most airliners operating in the sector.

The airport is serving people of at least five districts of the Malabar region, Nilgiris in Tamil Nadu and also Lakshadweep Islands, it pointed out.

The delegation also plans to meet officials of Emirates and Ethihad Airlines in the UAE soon to highlight the need of operating a budget airline in the sector, said Chakunny. 

01/08/10 Gulf Times

Terminal 3 of IGI Airport becomes shopper's delight

Delhi has another shopping district to boast off—just that you need to clear immigration to reach there. 

The duty free at the swanky new terminal 3 of the newly built Delhi airport is now as much a shopper’s delight as Heathrow, Changi or KL. Snazzy stores cover over 20,000 sq feet of retail space, making it one of the biggest ensemble of luxury brands at any location in India. 

Luxury lovers, particularly, will have their share of stores to visit given the range of brands that are slated to have a presence, both as single store and multi-brand outlets, within and outside the duty-free. 

Those traveling out of the country in the initial days, for instance, could avail of an inaugural discount of 15% at the Versace store in the departure lounge. According to Abhay Gupta, executive director of Blues Clothing Company, which retails Versace in India, “The store will have a greater focus on accessories like eyewear, scarves and wallets in comparison to apparel given that airport shopping is generally impulse buying and generally restricted to smaller items which can fit into cabin baggage.” 

01/08/10 Lisa Mary Thomson & Neha Dewan/Economic Times

Bad Weather Forces AI Express to Revise Route of Doha-Bahrain, Kuwait Flights

Mangalore: The weather at Mangalore airport continued to play spoilsport and for the third consecutive day, domestic and international flights at Bajpe had to be rescheduled.

In an official communiqué to Daijiworld.com late in the evening on Saturday July 31, Air India informed that the flights to Kuwait as well Doha-Bahrain have been not only been rescheduled but also combined into one.

The Doha-Bahrain flight which was supposed to leave at 8.00 am on Sunday August 1, has now been rescheduled for 01.30 pm with its route revised to Mangalore-Doha-Kuwait- Bahrain.

Dubai-Mangalore flights scheduled for Sunday August 1 are also expected to be rescheduled but Air India is awaiting final confirmation from the concerned head office.

31/07/10 Daijiworld.com

Delay in departure of Air India Express puts passengers to hardship

Thiruvananthapuram: Inordinate delay by an Air Express flight bound for Doha from here put 160 passengers to severe hardship since last night.

Many of the passengers were migrant workers for whom it was important to reach the places of their work in time, the aggrieved passengers said.

The airline officials put "operational reasons" as the cause for the overnight delay in departure of flight AI 457, which was to have taken off at 8.45 pm last night.

The flight was expected to take off this afternoon, airline sources said.

The stranded passengers were accommodated in hotels.

31/07/10 PTI/Daily News & Analysis