Flying in New Year gets costlier

Mumbai: The year 2011 will be bringing in heavier airfares and the first step in that direction has already been taken with fuel surcharge up by Rs 100 to Rs 200 on domestic routes.
"In order to reflect the multiple recent increases in ATF, Kingfisher Airlines has increased the fuel surcharge by Rs 100-200 on domestic flights from today," said a Kingfisher Airlines spokes-person on Friday. The move came soon after state-owned oil firms hiked fuel prices by about 2% on Friday, taking up the cost of aviation turbine fuel in Mumbai to Rs 48,000. On December 15, fuel prices were hiked by 3.6%. On Friday, IndiGo, Go Air, SpiceJet and Air India confirmed that they hadn't increased fuel charge yet. Jet Airways did not comment. As has happened in the past, airlines are expected to follow suit and increase fuel charge on domestic routes.
The travel industry was also abuzz with news that fuel surcharge has been increased by some airlines on the international routes as well. Kingfisher Airlines said it hadn't done so, while the Jet Airways spokesperson refused to comment.
"Airlines have in the past, too increased charges surreptitiously. No one notices when say, the fare on a given international route goes up by a few hundred rupees. This time around, it looks like some airlines have increased fuel charge on international routes by $20," said a travel agent, requesting not to be quoted. He could not confirm on which of the routes had the charge gone up and exactly by how much.
01/01/11 Manju V/Times of India

Oil companies raise ATF rates by about 2%

New Delhi: State-owned oil firms today raised jet fuel prices by almost 2 per cent, the sixth straight increase in rates since October when international crude oil prices started climbing. Prices of aviation turbine fuel, or ATF, in Delhi have been increased by Rs 935 a kilolitre, or 1.99 per cent, to Rs 47,816 per kl with effect from Friday midnight, an official of Indian Oil Corp (IOC), the nation's largest fuel retailer, said.
The latest increase comes on the back of a massive 3.6 per cent hike on December 15. With this raise, IOC and sister public sector retailers Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum have raised prices of ATF, on six occasions since October. The ATF price in Delhi on October 1 was Rs 40,728.52 per kl. The rates were raised 17.4 per cent in six tranches since then, in tandem with a surge in global oil prices to the $90-per-barrel mark.
Jet fuel will cost Rs 48,059 per kl in Mumbai, home to the nation’s busiest airport, from tomorrow, as against Rs 47,084.40 per kl currently.
01/01/11 Press Trust Of India/Business Standard

Airports Authority asks AI to clear Rs 680 crore dues

New Delhi: Having some money may become a bigger problem than easing the troubles cash-strapped national carrier Air India. Within hours of getting approval for Rs 1,200 crore equity infusion from the Cabinet Committee of Economic Affairs, creditors are eyeing to get their dues.
First off the block was state-owned Airports Authority of India, which claims to have Rs 680 crore as dues from the Maharaja. "AAI chairman V P Agrawal shot off a letter to AI management on Friday morning asking for the long-pending dues to be cleared. Last fiscal, when AI got Rs 800 crore equity infusion, we managed to get Rs 100 crore with great difficulty," said AAI sources.
"Private airlines complain to us that AI has the largest dues but we turn a blind eye to them. Unless our ministry allows us to take strong steps, there's no point in even threatening AI as they will know it has no meaning," AAI sources said.
Recently, oil marketing companies put AI on cashand-carry for the first time.
01/01/11 Times of India/Saurabh Sinha

Jet, Kingfisher raise fuel surcharge on domestic air tickets

New Delhi/Mumbai: Flying within India will become costlier from the New Year with two major airlines -- Kingfisher and Jet Airways hiking fuel surcharge by up to Rs 200 per ticket with immediate effect. As global crude prices touched $90 dollars a barrel, state-owned oil firms hiked jet fuel prices from midnight tonight by almost two%, the sixth straight increase in rates since October.
The two airlines on Friday increased their fuel surcharge by Rs 100 for travel up to 750 kms and Rs 200 for flights covering a distance of over 750 kms.
A Kingfisher spokesperson said that the increase in fuel surcharge was necessitated due to the recent hikes in the jet fuel prices.
In order to reflect the recent multiple increases in aviation turbine fuel, the spokesperson said Kingfisher has raised the fuel surcharge on domestic flights from today. Though Jet Airways officials did not confirm the hike, the necessary changes were made on their website.
There was no comment from national carrier Air India on the issue.
31/12/10 Press Trust Of India/Daily News & Analysis

Air passenger traffic worldwide drops, but India scores

Mumbai: Even as air passenger traffic (APT) saw a decline of 0.8% internationally in November due to slow economic growth, industrial labour actions and bad weather, airlines in India not only braved the conditions but also came up trumps.
According to figures released by International Air Transport Association (IATA), India registered a 20% growth in APT in the month over October, when there had been an increase of 10% in APT worldwide.
Except for Africa, carriers in Europe, North America, Latin America, South Asia and Asia Pacific saw slow growth or decline in APT in November compared to October.
01/01/11 Naveeta Singh/Daily News & Analysis

The foggy lingo of taxes on air tickets

Mumbai: Ever wondered what fees like JN, WO, YQ and XT on your air ticket mean, and why, added to the base fare, they send your airfare streaking into stratosphere. The odd alphabetical pairings have left the Directorate General of Civil Aviation scratching its head as well.
The issue of lack of transparency in air tariffs was brought up this month by Sudhakara Reddy in the first ever meeting of the Civil Aviation Economic Advisory Council.
A December 14 Jet Konnect ticket came at a base fare of Rs 2,250, but cost Reddy Rs 6,282 because of the mysterious heads of IN, JN and XT in between.
The other, more transparent, ticket bought on IndiGo Airlines for the same date coupled the base fare with the fuel charge to give an initial price of Rs 5,319. It then added passenger service fee (Rs 229), transaction charge (Rs 500), service tax (Rs 103) and user development fee (Rs 200), forcing the final tariff to balloon to Rs 6,351.
Though gobbledygook on the ticket, the lingo is demystified on Jet Airways' website. According to the site, JN stands for service tax, WO for passenger service fee and IN for user development fee.
Director general of civil aviation Bharat Bhushan said: "We are looking into the issue."
Reddy also criticised IndiGo for charging a transaction fee for tickets bought online — a practice also followed by Spice Jet and Go Air, though Go Air calls it merely "services". Aside from the transaction fee, Go Air passengers also need to pay Rs 129 as insurance fee.
All domestic airlines in India play the obfuscatory game by adding into one sum the base fare, the fuel charge and the airline congestion charge. Though a requirement of the DGCA, it makes cancelling a non-refundable ticket more troublesome.
01/12/10 Manhu V/Times of India

Air India reinstates 8 employees sacked after Mangalore crash

New Delhi: In some good news on New Year eve, national carrier Air India has reinstated eight of the 55 employees sacked for striking work after the May 22 Mangalore plane crash.
"Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel has informed me that Air India management has issued orders revoking termination of eight engineers with immediate effect," CPI-M leader Sitaram Yechury said here today.
The issue of other terminated employees and re-recognition of the ACEU and AIAEA would be taken up in the coming days, Yechury, who is the chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Transport, Tourism and Culture, said.
Yechury said he would be holding a meeting with Patel shortly in this regard. The Air India management in May had terminated services of 55 employees besides suspending 32 others after a section of the now derecognised AIAEA and ACEU went on a two-day flash strike amid relief work in the aftermath of the Mangalore plane crash that claimed 158 lives.
31/12/10 Times of India

Centre gets time for airport security job

New Delhi: The Delhi high court on Friday granted the Centre an extra week to take over security related functions at airports, including access to aircraft, baggage screening and aircraft search for security reasons.
The court had earlier directed the ministry of civil aviation to take over these functions at four airports, including Delhi and Mumbai, from Friday while allowing private airlines to undertake ground handling services by themselves till further order.
A bench headed by justice Pradeep Nandrajog granted time till January 7 on the Centre’s plea for four weeks time due to lack of manpower. Additional solicitor general AS Chandhiok said there was a requirement of 10,000 personnel to handle the security functions and the aviation ministry was still in the process of hiring.
31/12/10 Kanu Sarda/Daily News & Analysis

Cheaper flights an alternative to road travel

Kochi: Introduction of short distance flights with cheaper fares is being considered as an alternative to road travel, Yusuff Ali M A, director board member, Air India, has said.
He said changing the headquarters of the Air India Express from Mumbai to Kochi will usher in a lot of positive changes. He said that more domestic flights are on the cards. While Kochi is to be developed as the commercial hub, Thiruvananthapuram will be the engineering hub of Air India Express, he said.
31/12/10 ExpressBuzz

Fog effect: Early morning flights to North India rescheduled

Mumbai: For the next one month, taking early morning flights to destinations such as Chandigarh and Jammu is going to be difficult with airlines rescheduling them to later in the day because of fog in North India.
Jet Airways has rescheduled its flight to Chandigarh from Mumbai to depart at 11.30 am because of prevailing poor visibility conditions at the Chandigarh airport. Similarly, Jet has rescheduled its flights to Udaipur from its early morning 5.40 am slot to 7.05 am.
On the other hand, it has cancelled its flight from Delhi to Chandigarh altogether for the first week of January citing poor visibility conditions at the Chandigarh airport. These flights have been rescheduled regularly over the last few days and this is likely to continue in January as well. ATC officials said flights from many fog hit stations including Chandigarh and Delhi continue to be delayed by an average of an hour.
On Friday, Go Air’s flight to Chandigarh was delayed by around 3 hours because of the weather. According to flight tracking website flightstats.com, Jet Airways cancelled its 7 am flight from Mumbai to Delhi on Friday. Early morning flights to destinations such as Bangalore are also going to be uncertain because of fog affecting other stations as well.
01/01/11 Indian Express

Still a long way to go for Pune ILS installation

Pune: After a year-and-a-half of vacillating over technical' matters, the Airports Authority of India (AAI) and the Indian Air Force (IAF) are now engaged in a fresh exercise to finalise details for the installation of an upgraded CAT-II level instrument landing system (ILS) at the Lohegaon airport.
"The CAT-I level ILS equipment, which the AAI, Pune, had acquired nearly two years ago, has been shifted to the Chandigarh airport," Lohegaon airport director Deepak Shastri told TOI recently.
The ILS refers to a ground-based instrument approach system, which provides precision guidance to an aircraft approaching a runway for safe landing during inclement weather conditions like low ceilings or reduced visibility caused by fog or heavy rains. In turn, situations like delays or flight diversions can be avoided.
The need for such equipment gets more pronounced during the winter season when flight disruptions owing to fog are often reported, throwing plans of air travellers as well as airlines out of gear.
On Thursday, the early morning flight schedule at the Lohegaon airport was disrupted due to fog. One flight had to be diverted to Mumbai, while another two were delayed by two to three hours. "The ILS is required in Pune, but its utility is for a limited period such as during winter or rainy seasons," said Shastri.
31/12/10 Vishwas Kothari/Times of India

Flying while the world parties

Chennai: As the world readied to usher in new year, Anita was all set to take off to Dubai, not as a passenger but as a pilot manning a Boeing 737-300 on December 31. Hundreds of pilots did the same when the world beneath them heralded 2011 with noisy parties.
The pilot knew she would be able to see the glittering lights of the city from her cockpit window, but she would not see the fireworks explode to welcome the new year as she would have climbed to cruising altitude over Chennai.
Anita was sad that she would not be with her husband and parents, but she cheered up soon. "It's better to start a new year by doing something that I like flying an aircraft," she said. Her husband too is a pilot and was also flying like her.
"I will be landing in Chennai around 8pm. So I will get to celebrate new year's eve unlike last year when I was flying," said Dennis Rajagopal, a pilot with Air India.
Celebration on board vary sometimes, the airline serves special food for passengers or cabin crew distribute sweets to passengers. "We don't clog up the radio channels but quickly exchange new year wishes with other pilots flying in the vicinity," Anita said.
01/01/11 V Ayyappan/Times of India