Edits, Columns & Analysis - November 2006

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Is flying becoming unsafe?
Monsters and Critics.com, UK
Nov 29, 2006
s flying in India becoming unsafe? It is a million dollar question to which no ready answer is available. The rapid expansion in aviation leading to shortage of trained hands and diluting of standards for pilots and engineers along with poor infrastructure are a deadly cocktail which can make flying dangerous in any country. Most of these factors are present in India at present.
The airlines have multiplied. More and more foreign airlines are flying into India and all are adding new capacity every year. The present trend suggests that the capacity to be added every year will lead to doubling of air capacity every three years. There are not enough pilots or engineers available to meet the new demand.
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INDIA INC
You can always count on the maharajah
VEERESH MALIK
Financial Express
Nov 25, 2006
Much coverage in the media and nodding of heads surrounded the decision by Praful Patel, our Civil Aviation Minister, to change from Air India to Jet Airways on a recent flight from London to India. With the Air India crew being late through security in the dungeons known as Heathrow-3, something which one can understand having been subjected to this unique form of British Airports Authority inspired torture on a regular basis for the past few decades, the honourable MoCA, who obviously gets a protocol assisted walk-through made a quick change to Jet Airways, which was ready for departure.
Which is what I was thinking about when I found myself at the wrong end of a technology inspired civil aviation stick at JFK-4 a week ago.
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LCCs can fly even higher with strategy & support
Financial Express
Nov 25, 2006
With the passenger traffic of low cost carriers (LCCs) poised to double to more than 10 million in the calendar year, the civil aviation industry is on its way to becoming a growth driver for the economy. It is not just addition to the aircraft that accounts for this performance. LCCs have been working hard to reduce turn around times, improve load factors, aircraft utilisation and reliability, apart from connecting destinations that’ve been outside the ambit of the full services airlines. LCCs’ share in domestic passenger traffic has gone up close to 40% from less than one third over the first nine months of the calendar year. Lead player Air Deccan’s share alone has grown by 50% to touch one fifth of the market. India’s private airlines’ performance stands out especially when mapped against China, one of the fastest growing aviation markets. Though the Chinese aviation industry has been open to the private sector since 2004, all it has to show is four small airlines with couple of aircraft each, a far cry from the large fleet size and the further aircraft orders by the Indian private players.
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Cutting the Indian melon in the sky
Economic Times
Nov 24, 2006
Expansion, it looks is the name of the game as far as Air deccan is concerned. This low cost carrier never ceases to spread its wings, be it touching base at new sectors or adding new planes to its fleet.
While the cold wave is about to grip the nation, Air Deccan has not just opened bookings for summer of '07 and introduced new airways like Delhi-Pathankot, Bangalore-Bellary, Hampi-Goa, but has also added 16 new planes, 11 Airbuses and five ATR's to the existing fleet to make possible a upward swing to 310 flights for the coming summer, from the existing 250 routes in 2006.
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Aviation Industry’s Recovery Drives Demand for Commercial Aircrafts and Engine MRO
Business Wire (press release), US
Nov 23, 2006
Dublin: Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c45851) has announced the addition of Asian Commercial Aircraft/Engine MRO Markets to their offering.
The rapid recovery of the aviation industry has not only resulted in increased air traffic, but also encouraged governments and private equity organisations to invest in aircraft maintenance, repair and overhauling (MRO). The sheer potential of the domestic passenger market is the engine that is driving the Asian aviation industry. India, China and Australia are witnessing growth in the domestic markets.
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Pan India plan in 3 months: Jagson Airlines
Moneycontrol.com
Nov 23, 2006
The Jagson Airlines' stock has been moving up quite smartly. It?s a small cap stock. Though it was down 3.2% on Thursday, it has been moving up quite steadily to Rs 24.
Discussing the company's business plan, Senior Vice President of Sales & Marketing of Jagson Airlines, Koustav Dhar says the older aircraft are being done away with and the company is moving into a larger operation of Dash 8, 50-seater aircraft followed by an Airbus operation of about 18 Airbuses for a pan India operation.
Excerpts from CNBC-TV18's exclusive interview with Koustav Dhar>>>

LEGAL CORNER
It’s time to spruce up airports and increase their capacity
Manoj Kumar Sinha
Director, Indian Society of International Law
Nov 18, 2006
The aviation industry in India is growing rapidly; but there is still a need for huge investment to develop the necessary airport capacity. The days when air travel was confined only to the rich and affluent sections of society are over. Globalisation has brought about drastic changes in consumption patterns and profiles. Today, people are willing to pay more to save time. It has thus become equally important that airport infrastructure grows with the growing needs of the aviation industry.
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EDITORIAL
Q&A:
How Air-India bombers got away with murder
The Times of India
Nov 18, 2006
Toronto: When the Air-India Kanishka flight from Toronto to Delhi was blown up mid-air in June 1985, killing 329 passengers, Vancouver Sun journalist Kim Bolan knew whose handiwork it was, because she was covering the pro-Khalistan violence at that time. Amid death threats, she investigated the plot.
After the acquittal of two suspects Ajaib Singh Bagri and Ripudaman Malik last year, she has now come out with Loss of Faith: How The Air-India Bombers Got Away With Murder.
Bolan spoke with Gurmukh Singh after winning PEN Canada's award for investigative journalism this week >>>

Airlines soar high with smart wings
Vishakha Talreja
Indiatimes
Nov 17, 2006
New Delhi: Technology has revolutionised the way we travel. Sky captains agree! The aviation sector is evidence of what technology can do to cut costs, improve speed and make flying convenient. E-ticketing, delay reports, marketing campaigns via SMS, computerised back-office operations et al are improving flying experience.
Today, around 25% of air tickets sold in India are bought on the Internet, as compared to only 5% in ’04. Globally, $2-7 per transaction is saved by using e-tickets. “An e-ticket cannot be misused or lost.
It is also cheaper compared to the traditional air tickets which cost almost Rs 15-20 per ticket to print.
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Market share seen at 25-26% by FY07-end: Air Deccan
Moneycontrol.com
Nov 17, 2006
Aviation has staged a come back after being down in the dumps for the last many months, it is a clear resurgence of interest among investors in the sector, spiked by fare hikes and ATF going down. Captain GR Gopinath, MD of Deccan Aviation comments on the same.
MD of Deccan Aviation, GR Gopinath says that the average load factor stands at 75%. According to him, margins will be better going forward. However, he says that margins will remain subdued for 6-9 months.
He further adds that it will take 9-12 months to become profitable and sees Air Deccan's market share at 25-26% by FY07-end.
Excerpts from CNBC - TV18’s exclusive interview with GR Gopinath >>>

The Happy Builder
Karmali Naazneen
Forbes
Nov 17, 2006
When India announced plans in 2004 to privatize its airports in Mumbai and New Delhi, it attracted many suitors, including Reliance's well-connected Anil Ambani, media baron Subhash Chandra and mining magnate Anil Agarwal, all billionaires. Also in the running was little-known entrepreneur Grandhi Mallikarjun Rao. At the time few predicted he'd beat the better-known businessmen. But Rao spent $8 million on his bid, dispatching 15 executives to do the groundwork, hiring 16 consultants and persuading Fraport AG, which runs seven airports (including the one in Frankfurt), to partner with him.
The effort paid off: Rao's bid was deemed the most technically competent to vie for both airports. Rao chose New Delhi--India's second-busiest airport with 16 million passengers a year versus Mumbai's 18 million--because it has more potential: Recently growing at a rate of 27% a year, it has 5,100 acres, enough land to eventually accommodate 100 million passengers; Mumbai has only 1,800, enough for about 40 million.
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Flying against logic
Indian Express
14/11/06
Parts of the security apparatus aren’t serving country or common sense. PM can’t allow this
Will someone please explain what ‘security’ means in official India’s dictionary? Some in the security establishment are paranoid about foreign investment from certain countries. Others find their job satisfaction in prolonged ‘assessment’ of ‘security risks’ of Indian businesses. We have pointed out in these columns the illogic of the first kind of security policy. The second kind of preoccupation defies logic even more. And it finds its fullest expression in the home ministry holding back security clearance for Jet Airways’ American operations.
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Pack of cards
Elizabeth Thomas
Business Standard
Nov 14, 2006
New Delhi: For business travellers, an air miles credit card should offer the best deal. Period. The thrill of seeing all those free miles reflected on your statement every month is a rewarding experience.
Indian Airlines has been offering a co-branded card with American Express for some years now, while Jet has a tie-up with Citibank. Now there are two more in the fray.
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INTERVIEW
Embraer sees aircraft demand from China, India
Jan Dahinten
Reuters/NDTV.com
Nov 13, 2006
Singapore: Brazilian plane maker Embraer aims to sell at least 200 regional jets in Asia, excluding China, over the next two decades and sees most of the demand for its aircraft from India, Japan and Australia.
Embraer, the world's fourth-largest commercial aircraft producer, builds planes with up to 118 seats, putting it in direct competition with the smallest models made by giants Boeing of the United States and Europe's Airbus.
Managing Director Bruce Peddle said on Monday that his target for 200 jets was based on expectations of total demand for 410 jets in Asia excluding China.
"It's a conservative market forecast," he said, speaking in an interview with Reuters on the sidelines of a presentation of its new Embraer 190 regional jet.
REad The Rest ? Managing Director Bruce Peddle said on Monday that his target for 200 jets was based on expectations of total demand for 410 jets in Asia excluding China.
"It's a conservative market forecast," he said, speaking in an interview with Reuters on the sidelines of a presentation of its new Embraer 190 regional jet.
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STATES: KERALA
Helicopters and home stay
M Sarita Varma
Financial Express
Nov 13, 2006
The Rs 7,738 crore tourism industry in Kerala is all set to further extend its successful H-series (health tourism, houseboat tourism, heritage tourism). This it will do by serving the season’s guests two more niche products, helicopter tourism and home stay tourism, as the two packages are sharply product-differentiated for two distinct market segments.
For the budget conscious middle-class, it’s the South Korea model, home stay tourism in plantation bungalows and central Kerala taravads (ancestral family homes). The second is for high spending, tree top gazers who can take helicopter tours over Gods’ Own Country from this year.
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STATES: ORISSA
Charter flights give a boost
Dilip Bisoi
Nov 13, 2006
Tourism in Orissa seems to have fully recovered from the shock of the super cyclone, which hit the state coast in October 1999, causing immense damage to the sector. After a drop in the tourist flows in 2000, the state has clocked growth of 12.3% last year, with the number of tourists going up to 46.66 lakh. This year, the state is expecting tourist flows to go up by at least 15%.
The projections for higher growth stems from the fact that the state has already received 34.9 lakh tourists, including 26,990 from abroad, in the first six months of the year. The second half is expected to be better as the introduction of chartered flights and the improvement in air connectivity step up flows during the peak season.
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CONVERGENCE
Charting a new flight
Atreyee Dev Roy
Financial Express
Nov 13, 2006
The boom in Indian aviation sector is not just confined to private carriers placing impressive orders for fresh mint aircraft and passengers experiencing new freedom in the air at low fares. The sector is beginning to attract engine component design and manufacturing to the subcontinent as well. The decision by UK-based aircraft engine maker Rolls-Royce to broaden its partnership with Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) and foray into civil aerospace sector—so far, the relationship was restricted to the defense sector—for engine component design and manufacturing is a sign of the emerging trend.
Global aircraft and engine manufacturers like Airbus, Boeing, GE, Snecma and Pratt & Whitney, are keen to set up facilities here and undertake engine design and manufacturing. In such a scenario, the decision by Rolls-Royce to broaden its existing relationship of 50 years with HAL reflects the growing importance of the country emerging as a technology hub in the civil aviation sector.
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Now calling at all towns
Raghvendra Rao
Newindpress on Sunday
Nov 10, 2006
Taking a train to small towns may soon become a matter of choice rather than compulsion. With private airlines flying out to a host of new destinations, regional connectivity has finally arrived.
The facts lie in the figures. Though all major airlines ran losses this year, domestic passenger traffic registered a growth of 48 percent in the first quarter of the current fiscal. And this boom in passenger traffic has been behind the host of new regional destinations.
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Indian Airlines: Only skinny air crew can fly
The Brunei Times, Brunei Darussalam
Nov 11, 2006
HOW thin should you be to be a brand ambassador for modern India? This question will be addressed at Delhi's Supreme Court recently, 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'.
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'Revolution' needed to unshackle Asian
airlines sector: Industry
Daily Express, Malaysia
Nov 10, 2006
SINGAPORE: Asia should further liberalise its airline industry to unleash the region's full growth prospects or risk losing billions in unrealised potential, industry experts said Thursday.
"We need one more revolution and that's from the government ... liberalisaton," said Peter Harbison, executive chairman of the Sydney-based Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation (Capa).
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India's Aviation Sector Booming
Bernama, Malaysia
Nov 10, 2006
Singapore: India's aviation industry is booming in line with the sector's liberalisation as well as the growing economy, says Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation, Indian Subcontinent and Middle East's chief executive officer Kapil Kaul.
He said the Indian aviation sector was more liberalised and open during the past two years than previously when it was over-regulated.
Kapil said mushrooming low-cost carriers have to some extent stimulated the expansion.
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Airlines just can’t fix the bleeding fares
Praveena Sharma
Daily News & Analysis
Nov 08, 2006
Bangalore: They are profusely bleeding but they can’t do much about it — the current market conditions wouldn’t permit them to. Even as the demand-supply imbalance in the market has kept them from reaping a windfall this peak season, not all airlines are looking at fare revision.
Except for low-cost airline SpiceJet, all other carriers have decided to continue with their existing pricing regime.
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Two 'Quiet Revolutions' Drive Aviation Outlook for 2007
ASIATravelTips.com, Thailand
Nov 09, 2006
Opening the Outlook Summit in Singapore today, Peter Harbison, Executive Chairman of the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation, stated that two key developments that occurred in 2006 will change the face of Asia Pacific aviation in 2007 and beyond.
“Two quiet revolutions have occurred in the past year which are driving irreversible change. The most important development for the long term has been the quiet revolution in airline strategy among the Asia Pacific flag carriers, as they have been forced to respond with renewed discipline to competition coming from the low cost sector and surging fuel prices,” he said.
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LCC Growth Roils Asian Distribution
Neelam Mathews
Business Travel News, US
Nov 06, 2006
The growth of low-cost carriers in Asia and their need to cut operating costs has caused global distribution systems to reconsider their business models, as low-cost carriers in many cases do not list full content in GDSs. Several, including Asian GDS firm Abacus Distribution Systems, are expanding to reach the travel agent community.
Via a general sales agent model, Abacus has a physical presence in 10 cities across India, with the rest covered by GSA partners, said managing director Viveck Verma. Last year, Abacus launched WebConnect, its online booking engine for travel agents, helping it get a share of the online market in India with Makemytrip.com, Indiatimes, Yatra and Travelguru.com among its customers.
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DOWN TO EARTH: Sunita Narain
Making space for emissions
Business Standard
Nov 07, 2006
New Delhi: What does the ubiquitous auto-rickshaw and the plush aeroplanes have in common, other than getting us from one place to another? The auto-rickshaw, as India’s largest manufacturer Rahul Bajaj will tell you, is the symbol of democratic mobility — it provides transport for large numbers of people at what he says is affordable costs. But it pollutes. How do you balance interests of equity and access with the interests of clean air and health?
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Airport modernisation gains urgency
The Hindu
Nov 06, 2006
The development of civil airports has been strongly influenced by the type and size of aircraft and in turn by the growth of traffic. The aircraft industry has been introducing passenger planes with varied capacities and ranges to meet the requirements of complex route structures, with the primary objective of bringing down the cost per seat/kilometre.
Construction at almost all major airports in the world is an unending process. Traffic growth quickly absorbs the capacities being created at airports and terminals generally remain choked during peak hour.
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IT's in the air
Raja Simhan T. E., Nina Varghese
Hindu Business Line
Nov 06, 2006
Over the last decade, Indian IT professionals have been working on projects all over the world, and, the first brush with the romance of flying has been the `welcome aboard' announcement of global airlines.
But, things are a-changing. It's now time to say, "welcome aboard India" to global airlines and airline manufacturers who are flying down here and looking to Indian software vendors and IT professionals to help them grow the business.
According to an industry watcher, senior officials from global airlines have been camping at India's top IT companies to outsource key initiatives.
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Foreign carriers find flying to new India profitable
Zee News
Nov 05, 2006
New Delhi: International carriers, who survived the airline industry slump in 2001 and are seeking to consolidate gains, find flying to an economically resurgent India a profitable proposition.
All international airlines that are on an expansion mode have made it a point to add an India gateway to their plans, be it Finnish national carrier Finnair, Delta Airlines or UAE's budget carrier Air Arabia.
Already, the likes of Qantas, which withdrew service post September 2001 terrorist attacks in the us, has resumed flights to india. But the new entrants are confident that the India service would add to profits.
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Flying high
Vinay Kumar
The Hindu
Oct 05, 2006
Not long ago, air travel in India was characterised by a limited number of domestic and foreign connections. The public sector carriers Air India and Indian Airlines determined fares. When the winds of liberalisation swept through the civil aviation sector 13 years ago, they brought in private carriers like Jet Airways and Air Sahara while others like ModiLuft, East West and Damania did not survive in the long-term.
From times when air tickets could be bought only at airline offices and through travel agents, the civil aviation sector has changed dramatically in the last decade. New private carriers, including low-cost ones, criss-cross the Indian skies. On a given day, a traveller can pick from 36 flights between Delhi and Mumbai at prices that include regular, discounted fares and bargain booked through the Internet. Private no-frills carriers offer to fly people at fares comparable to that of AC second-class tickets in trains.
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EDITORIAL:
Dizzying heights
Times of India
Oct 04, 2006
Is small-town India gearing itself for that magical take-off? As many as 15 towns in India now offer direct flights abroad and the list includes places like Gaya, Guwahati, Jaipur, Lucknow, Goa, Amritsar and Calicut.
Foreign tourist attractions apart, these towns get many footfalls from domestic holidaymakers, business visitors and even spiritual seekers.
That the Airports Authority of India has released figures showing remarkable percentage increase in inter-national passenger traffic from small towns might not be cause enough for celebration. Only absolute figures in this case could throw light on whether the increase is real or relative.
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India considers tourism development as National Priority Activity
Satish Gupta
eTN Asia/TravelVideo.tv
Oct 31, 2006
Major policy initiatives such as liberalization in aviation sector; pricing policy for aviation turbine fuel which influences internal airfares, tourist police etc highlight the diligence with which India has approached development of tourism industry in the last few years.
India is positioning tourism as a major engine of economic growth and to harness its direct and multiplier effects for employment and poverty eradication in an environmentally sustainable manner.
This is the objective of the existing Tourism Policy of the Indian government, according to Minister of Tourism and Culture, Ambika Soni.
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RFID Technology to Handle Baggage for US Airline Industry
Newswire Today (press release), UK
Oct 31, 2006
New Delhi: In the backdrop of rising security problems in airline baggage handling, RFID appears to have significant potential for streamlining and improving highly volatile security situation.
According to Industry experts, the overall revenue generated from RFID systems employed for airline baggage handling in the US, will stand at $11.8 million for the current year. This figure is expected to grow to around $27.5 million in 2011, with an impressive CAGR of 18.5 %.
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