Chennai airport work to start soon

Chennai: With Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi on Saturday urging the Centre to implement six major projects in the State, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh assured him that the "welfare and prosperity of the people of Tamil Nadu are very close to the heart of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government."
Dr. Singh announced that the Centre would soon begin work on the modernisation of Chennai airport and plans were being made for the development of Coimbatore, Madurai and Tiruchi airports.
05/11/06 The Hindu

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India grounds hostesses who are 'too fat to fly'

New Delhi: How thin should you be to be a brand ambassador for modern India? This question will be addressed at Delhi's Supreme Court this week, as lawyers argue over whether Indian Airlines, the state-owned carrier and a national symbol, can fire its air hostesses for being too fat.
Eleven employees, recently grounded for putting on too much weight, claim that the airline has changed its vision of the Indian feminine ideal - abandoning the more buxom prototype in favour of a more westernised, skinny model, which staff see as 'unattainable'.
Indian Airlines will argue that this is a case of selecting the 'best ambassadors' to represent the national airline, and the country as a whole, and will also claim that thinner employees are more agile and better equipped to tackle terrorist incidents and other emergencies.
05/11/06 Amelia Gentleman/Guardian Unlimited, UK

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Airlines formally christen their body

Mumbai: CEOs and top officials of ten Indian airlines on Saturday formally named the industry body they set up two weeks ago as ‘Federation of Indian Airlines’ and decided to meet shortly to finalise various aviation-related issues to be settled with the government.
The meeting, attended by the top brass of Air-India, Indian, Jet Airways, Air Sahara, Kingfisher, Air Deccan, SpiceJet, Indigo, GoAir and Paramount, also approved a logo for the FIA and decided to move the Registrar of Societies to get the body registered, airline sources said.
A secretariat of the FIA would be set up with an independent aviation specialist heading the organisation, rather than the chief or official of any airline.
05/11/06 PTI/Mumbai Mirror

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Excess baggage forces Miss Universe to skip flight

Vasco: Air Deccan officials ejected Miss Universe Zuleyka Rivera and other models at Dabolim aitport, after they tried to board the flight with excess baggage.
Rivera, Indian-born American fashion designer Sanjana and international models were forced to miss their scheduled Air Deccan flight and returned to the La Calypso hotel at Baga on Saturday.
According to an Air Deccan official, Miss Universe Zuleyka Rivera, Sanjana and the models arrived at the Dabolim Airport with excess baggage.
“The excess luggage registered amounted to Rs 45,000,” the official said.
When Air Deccan officials and models tried to contact the tour coordinator and Fashion TV chief Bharat Sethe, he could not be located at the airport.
Airline officials refused to allow the excess baggage, forcing Rivera and the others to miss their flight to Bangalore.
04/11/06 Herald Publications

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High-flying fraudster grounded

Mumbai: It was high drama inside the Delhi-Mumbai Air Deccan flight on Thursday night that landed at the airport. A police team stormed the aircraft and took into custody passenger Rajesh Mishitri. Mishitri’s fault: He had made trips to Delhi and Mumbai allegedly using the credit card of one Anjoo Narayan, a Juhu resident.
Narayan, who holds a Gold Card from Hong Kong Bank, was surprised when she got a call from the bank on 28 October if she had done some payment through the Internet and had done some tele-marketing.
On enquiry, Narayan found out that her card had been used in different names, including a woman to book airtickets on King Fisher, Sahara and Deccan airlines.
A determined Narayan, whose husband is working away, made several rounds to the Juhu police station and different airlines’ offices to track down the culprit.
On Thursday, she stumbled on the name of Mishitri in the Air Deccan office records, in which he used her card to travel from Mumbai to Delhi. As luck would have it, Mishitri was returning to Mumbai on the same night.
Sensing an opportunity, Narayan immediately rushed to Additional Commissioner of Police Bipin Bihari’s office.
04/11/06 Nirmal Mishra/Daily News & Analysis

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AAI stakes claim on Dahisar land, revives office

Mumbai: A 63-acre plot belonging to the Airports Authority of India (AAI) located in the faraway western suburb of Dahisar finds itself in the news after the AAI started deputing an officer for daily duty there to man its receiving station that lay defunct till about 15 months ago.
The move to send an AAI officer daily to a hitherto unmanned station has raised some eyebrows within aviation circles in Mumbai.
There are hints with the AAI union that the move could have been done to thwart any proposal by the Mumbai International Airports Ltd (MIAL), a GVK-SA led consortium, the new airport management, to utilize vacant land around this plot to relocate part of the slums that have encroached on airport land or atleast to build transit camps there.
On the face of it, MIAL has denied any such move. AAI, on the other hand, has gone to great lengths to explain how this station had become important in the face of ever increasing air traffic and hence the need to re-start it. The plot is located about 17 kms from the Mumbai airport.
04/11/06 Suman Layak & Lalatendu Mishra/Hindustan Times

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Deaths onboard BA and AI

Two elderly passengers flying into Mumbai on two different international flights early on Saturday died onboard within hours of each other.
In the first case, British Airways passenger Panna Ramesh Marfatia, 58, who had boarded the flight from Heathrow Airport in London complained to the cabin crew of uneasiness.
In the flight she complained of cramps in her legs and was immediately administered oxygen by the cabin crew. Also, her feet were raised to ensure proper blood flow but all this proved in vain. She died before the aircraft landed in Mumbai.
Marfatia was travelling alone on BA flight number BA-139, which landed at 1:08 am.
In the second case, 75-year-old Ramanand Sharma travelling onboard Air India's AI-200 flight from Dar-es-Salaam—Nairobi-Mumbai flight passed away onboard the aircraft due to heart attack. He was travelling along with his son from Nairobi. The crew rushed to his rescue and a doctor co passenger helped to revive him but he died.
04/11/06 Lalatendu Mishra/Hindustan Times

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JKTDC ties with Go Air

Srinagar: Jammu and Kashmir Tourism Development Authority (JKTDC) has tied up with Mumbai-based airline, Go Air to tap the potential tourist market of western India.
In a statement, an official of JKTDC said Aziz Wani, Managing Director JKTDC and other senior official of the corporation discussed various issues that form part of the memorandum of agreement with Indranil Ray Senior General Manager of Go Air on Friday.
On the occasion the corporation launched its special packages for the winter season like honeymoon packages for domestic market and skiing packages for national and international tourists. “All the packages are most economically designed for Go Air fares. There is tremendous tourist market in the western states like Maharashtraya and Gujrat. Analyzing
05/11/06 GreaterKashmir.com (press release)

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Drunken passenger offloaded, twice

Mumbai: On Saturday, Tehsildar Singh, an Air India passenger, was offloaded twice by the domestic airport authorities following a drinking binge.
Singh arrived at the Air India check-in counter at 4am — the departure time of Flight 137 — and demanded to be accommodated on that flight. Air India officials requested him to take the next flight, at 5.15 am. He was issued a boarding pass and advised to report before the departure time.
“Instead of listening to the suggestion, Singh left the airport,” said Central Industrial Security Force assistant commandant Arun Singh. “At 5.15 am, he was back at the counter vociferously demanding that he be allowed to board the flight.” CISF personnel finally offloaded him and escorted him out of the airport. Singh pointed out that regulations do not permit inebriated passengers to board flights.
04/11/06 Renni Abraham/Daily News & Analysis

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Kuwait firm orders six Airbus jets

Kuwait City: Kuwait's Aviation Lease and Finance Company (ALAFCO) has signed a deal to buy six Airbus A320 aircraft at a cost of $300 million, the company chairman announced yesterday.
Ahmad Al Zabin said in statements quoted by the Kuna news agency that delivery of the planes will start in 2009.
Al Zabin said last month the company's fleet will increase by 10 aircraft next year. ALAFCO is also managing 15 leased planes in favour of other owners.
Jointly owned by Kuwait Finance House (KFH), the emirate's leading Islamic bank, and the state-owned Kuwait Airways Corp (KAC), the company has long-term lease contracts with nine international companies including Indian, Chinese and Yemeni airlines.
05/11/06 Gulf Daily News, Bahrain

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Air Deccan offer for Rs. 9 tickets up for grabs

Bangalore: Celebrating the golden jubilee of Karnataka's formation, low cost airliner Air Deccan yesterday announced an offer of one lakh tickets at Rs nine (plus taxes) across all sectors. Air Deccan, in a statement here, said the tickets, for which bookings would open today, would be valid for travel up to March 25 next year. Air Deccan managing director Capt G R Gopinath said the Suvarna Utsava of Karnataka was a matter of pride to the natives of the state.
''..To commemorate the same, we have also launched flights to Hampi from Bangalore, commencing operations from November 15,'' he added.
05/11/06 Zee News

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Flight fails to take off due to technical snag

Vasco: Barely days after commencing its maiden operations to Goa, a Sri Lankan Airlines (SLA) flight was grounded at Dabolim airport following a technical snag.
According to airport officials, the SLA flight — the second since operations began last week — arrived at Dabolim airport on Saturday at 7.30 am. However during departure, the plane encountered a technical snag in the landing gear hydraulic system and the flight could not depart for Colombo at the scheduled 8.30 am departure time.Officials then sent the 30 stranded passengers by an Indian flight to Bangalore at 10.30 am, from where they were expected to board another SLA flight to Colombo.
04/11/06 Herald Publications

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