Edits, Columns & Analysis - December 2006

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Fogged out again. Harassed again. When will this end?
Sidhartha Roy
Hindustan Times
Dec 27, 2006
New Delhi: As dense fog enveloped the Indira Gandhi International Airport on Tuesday night and visibility dropped to zero, it was the same story all over again. Flights got disrupted, and passengers were stranded for hours as airline operators failed to inform them on time about the delays and rescheduling.
This, when the Met department had, in the afternoon, forecast that dense fog would to set in over the airport by late evening. Any Delhiite who was out on the road after 8.30 pm on Tuesday could have predicted the chaos that was to come at the airport.
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Why institutional investors lapping up low cost carriers stocks?
Ram Prasad Sahu
Business Standard
Dec 25, 2006
Mumbai: Ajay Singh need not look at the fuel gauge of his 737-800 repeatedly to predict whether he will be able to pilot SpiceJet out of the operational blues that have bled the airline and into safety by FY08.
Thanks to the $80 million (Rs 360 crore) inflow from a clutch of existing and new investors including the Tatas, the director of this low cost carrier (LCC) can now look forward to taking delivery of 18 B737s over the next two years and putting up a fight in a market rife with excessive fare discounting and high fuel prices.
His company, though, is not the only one listed to get the attention from investors who do not want to be left out of the great LCC story unfolding over the Indian skies.
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Indian pilots under fatigue risk
Vishnu Som
NDTV.com
Dec 24, 2006
Its every flyer's nightmare - a jetliner aimlessly flying on auto-pilot with the pilot slumped over the controls and the other pilot not in the cockpit.
In statements made to NDTV pilots flying with leading Indian carriers stated that such incidents happen due to pilot fatigue.
"We were operating a flight from Bombay to a Gulf Country last monsoon and had left the cockpit for about twelve to fifteen minutes to go to the lavatory," a co-pilot on a leading airline said.
"When I returned I saw the commander of the aircraft slumped in his seat, snoring away".
"The aircraft was on autopilot and we could have easily flown right into a thunderstorm and met with a catastrophic air accident that day," the pilot said.
"He had not rested properly in Bombay due to a hectic flying schedule. We had 207 passengers on board that day," he added.
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Flying on a wing and a prayer
Manju V
Times of India
Dec 25, 2006
The recent spate of deaths at Mumbai airport has only emphasised, among other things, the absolute need to keep the airline informed about the passenger's medical history if any — even if you run the risk of not being allowed to fly.
On Sunday, Manickchand Jain, a wheelchair-bound patient who was discharged about 12 hours earlier from a hospital, died minutes after he was off-loaded from a Mumbai-Chennai Kingfisher Airlines flight after the commander found him unfit to fly. He was the sixth air passenger to die in Mumbai in the last two months.
Why has Mumbai airport suddenly become the destination for death for many passengers?
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Situation normal, all fogged up
Daily News & Analysis
Dec 24, 2006
There are some things in India that are so commonplace and routine that it seems almost a waste of time to comment upon them. In Mumbai, it is almost a certainty that year after year parts of the city will get flooded during the rains. In Delhi, December not only heralds the festive season, it brings cancelled flights, stranded passengers and harassed airline staff.
This year too, right on schedule, we saw the spectacle of hundreds of irate and clueless passengers waiting for their flight to be announced at Delhi and other airports. And we didn’t even see those whose flights were cancelled and who never made it to Delhi. So why is it worth talking about?
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Déjà vu as fog grounds air travellers
Sidhartha Roy
Hindustan Times
Dec 24, 2006
It is the same story every winter, and nothing seems to change. Air travellers again had a harrowing time at the Indira Gandhi International Airport on Saturday morning as dense fog threw flight operations out of gear and chaos ruled at the airport. About 100 flights were delayed and some were cancelled or diverted due to the congestion at the airport.
It was not just air travel that was hit. The fog also caused many road accidents in Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, killing four and injuring at least 64. Also 25 trains were delayed, some up to seven hours.
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The mile high club
Priya Krishnaswamy
Express TravelWorld
Dec 19, 2006
Travel and tourism has always been an interesting career option for most youngsters who generally tend to favour the more glamorous segment - the cabin crew. Apart from all the gloss attached to it, it is well-paying, appears easy, and gives people a chance to interact with passengers.
But being a flight attendant comes with its own share of responsibilities. And this is where the in-flight crew training institutes come into the picture. Their courses, that stretch from anywhere between three months to one year depending upon the subject of study, help in developing the confidence of the aspiring candidates and provide technical training including safety and emergency procedures, aircraft-specific training, crew resource management modules apart from programmes on personal grooming, voice modulation, etc.
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Brand India's image issue
Kaushik Basu
BBC News, UK
Dec 18, 2006
Last month, when I had to make a quick trip to India, I decided to fly Air India (AI) to see for myself how the much-criticised airline was doing.
When, at New York's JFK Airport, I entered the aircraft cabin a technician was desperately trying to repair the hand-held TV remote attached to my seat.
When I told him I did not plan to watch TV, he was reassured and exited quickly.
The Velcro on our seat covers was peeling off, and the cleanliness of the cabin and bathrooms, right from the start, did not give a favourable impression.
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On the global aviation map
Priya Krishnaswamy
Express TravelWorld
Dec 19, 2006
The aggressive investments from the technological, pharmaceutical and almost every other industry in Hyderabad, has witnessed the city catering to a larger populace of both, national and international business travellers. The rapid makeover of the city, touted as the new IT hub of the South, has forced the administration to ramp up the infrastructure, especially the airport. Work has commenced on the new Rajiv Gandhi International airport at Shamshabad, 30 kms from the city and the first phase is slated to be operational by March 2008.
The new airport will establish Hyderabad prominently in the global aviation map and thereby contribute to the prosperity and development of the region and the country at large.
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Gearing up for the holiday crowds
Economic Times
Dec 19, 2006
Mumbai: The mid-segment travel industry is changing its colours. The small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are increasingly adopting new technologies to make the most of the boom in the Indian travel market and to attract clients who incidentally pay in advance. SMEs associated with the travel and tour industry are gearing up for the year-end holiday season.
As SMEs scale up to meet seasonal demand, they are attracting investments by venture capitalists too. Recently, Travelguru, an online travel portal, received a fresh infusion of capital commitment to the tune of $15 million from Battery Ventures and Sequoia Capital India. Travelguru markets hotel, holiday and travel packages.
It has access to more than 70,000 hotels worldwide and alliances with 500 airlines globally. As online portals help to aggregate hotels, airlines and travel packages, it helps to ease the hassles of travel within and outside India.
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Let more private airlines fly overseas
Times of India
Dec 18, 2006
The government’s reported willingness to relax the eligibility criteria for domestic airlines looking to fly overseas is welcome. It would allow India’s airlines to corner a bigger share of the international traffic, to and from India. Only those scheduled carriers having five-years experience of continuous domestic operations and a minimum fleet size of 20 aircraft are currently permitted to operate international routes, except to Gulf countries. Of the eight major private domestic airlines, only Jet Airways and Air Sahara meet these norms and are already flying to foreign destinations
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Airlines hit novel routes to woo holiday travellers
Cuckoo Paul
Economic Times
Dec 18, 2006
Mumabi: It’s the run-up to Christmas and New Year, the busiest travel season of the year and the rush for air-tickets is at its peak. Yet, Air Deccan last week announced the sale of two lakh tickets priced at Rs 2 (plus taxes) each. In Bahrain, the Kuwait-based low cost airline Jazeera Airways put up one lakh seats on sale on Friday, offering tickets on all its routes including Mumbai-Bahrain for Rs 960. So has competition has forced airlines into a mad rush to the bottom, Or is there a method to the madness of airline fares?
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Vegetarian or Non-Vegetarian?
Prabhat K. Mukherjee
Korea Times, South Korea
Dec 17, 2006
For most Indians who scorn eating meat, traveling on an international flight and ordering a vegetarian meal can be like playing Russian roulette. You simply don't know what will appear on your tray. Vegetarians who are planning to travel by plane may wonder what vegetarian food choices are available. Almost all airlines except a few operating in South Asia have no knowledge of vegetarian food, at least that's the impression we get from the stewardesses. Most of the Indian expatriates here were brought up with the belief that eating meat is a sin that would invite the wrath of the gods. This belief exists in almost all ancient religions. Even in Christianity, meat is prohibited on some special occasions.
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Plane truth: Poaching gives airlines CAT edge
P R Sanjai
Business Standard
Dec 16, 2006
Mumbai: With fog setting in, fledgling airlines are suddenly getting Category (CAT) II and CAT III certifications, which are mandatory for operating under low-visibility situations, such as fog or poor weather conditions. The strategy of poaching experienced pilots from carriers, such as Indian Airlines, is now paying off for new domestic carriers. Pilots are normally awarded CAT II status after operating under CAT I for a year. The next step, CAT III, is only possible after two years of operation under CAT II. But, take this example: IndiGo Airlines, launched six months ago, has announced that it has received CAT III approval from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to operate in fog conditions. “Newer airlines have poached experienced pilots from Indian Airlines and experienced expat pilots from various international airlines and are directly getting CAT III compliance without waiting for three years,” a source said.
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Who will rule the skies tomorrow?
Daily News & Analysis
Praveena Sharma
Dec 15, 2006
Bangalore: As airlines get embroiled in a brutal war on the price and capacity fronts, the aviation landscape could well change drastically, going forward. Smaller players could push bigger players down the ladder to take their position. This is what emerges from broking house JP Morgan’s crystal ball gazing into future.
Based on aircraft orders, JP Morgan’s equity research team has computed the market share (in terms of seat capacity) of airlines on completion of (plane) delivery, which varies for each one of them.
And guess who will dominate the sky once orders of airlines are completely executed?
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McDonald`s of the sky
P R Sanjai
Business Standard
Dec 15, 2006
Mumbai: Avani or SpiceJet: which is the love of his life? For Ajay Singh, that’s a tough one to answer.
He may be setting a new benchmark in low cost airline operations with SpiceJet but it is Avani, his 10-year-old daughter, who ends up dictating terms to its 40-year-old director. It was she who had him shave off his moustache two years ago, and old-timers still remember the late Pramod Mahajan’s close ally with a moustache, and not without it.
That’s because Ajay Singh mostly stays away from the usual Page 3 socialising. “He is an out-and-out family man,” says one of Singh’s closest friends. Endorses Singh himself, “ I try my best to keep my weekends free to spend with my family.”
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Ground Them
Times of India
Dec 14, 2006
When the civil aviation minister recently confessed that he was very disappointed with Air-India's service — and that disciplinary action would be taken against poor performers — he kindled the hope that at last errant airlines in India would be forced to shape-up, if not because of enlightened self-interest, at least under threat of penalty.
Ground reality shows otherwise. Despite private airlines being warned a year ago — by the same ministry — to upgrade themselves technically to become fog-navigable or else, clearly, nothing has been done in this regard.
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Chaos in airports, is fog to blame?
Shreya Dhoundial
CNN-IBN
Dec 13, 2006
New Delhi: Come December and it is the same story all over again of cancelled or delayed flights and harried passengers at the airports.
With no one accepting blame for the scenario, is it really the much-maligned fog that is causing all the trouble?
Tourism consultant, Vimal Kumar was supposed to deliver a lecture at the Jammu University on Wednesday but his flight first kept getting delayed and then got cancelled.
To top it all, only one runway was operational at the Palam Airport in Delhi because of which flights that were still taking off were all delayed.
So it may only be fashionable to blame the fog for all this chaos, but Kumar begs to differ.
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Air security’s XXX files
Saba Shaikh
Times of India
Dec 14, 2006
In the post 9/11 world, security versus privacy battle has a very clear winner – security. From body searches to frequent physical pat-downs, air travellers have been through much because of heightened security considerations.
But it is now that air security has come up with something that is bound to be more than many a traveller expected – a virtual strip search!
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Blind to more than fog
Hindustan Times
Dec 13, 2006
For more than a decade now, the disruption in air traffic, because of fog at this time of the year, has been an issue. With each year, as the volume of travellers and services increases and the number of incoming tourists grows, the cost of the dislocation of air services grows exponentially. Apart from the monetary cost to airlines, there is an indirect cost to passengers whose schedules go awry and who are forced to bear the needless stress of waiting at airports trying to reach their destinations.
For years the aviation authorities have dilly-dallied over setting up a Category III A system, which would enable aircraft to land in visibility of 150 metres.
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Overcapacity clouds air cargo boomlet
Central Chronicle
Dec 12, 2006
Bangalore: Is the air cargo market going the passenger aviation way? Many industry observers believe so, what with capacity addition surging at a much faster pace than demand. This is likely to pressure yields, and as that happens, players will be goaded to push up volumes to salvage operating margins. And this vicious cycle could continue till consolidation takes place.
This being the reality, civil aviation minister Praful Patel’s recent announcement that overseas investors may soon be allowed to own as much as 74% in Indian cargo airlines compared with 49% now has failed to excite the industry as much as it should have.
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Easy fly
Business Standard
Dec 12, 2006
Mumbai: Tired of the long queues at check-in? Well, Lufthansa and Singapore Airlines have just made the process a little more convenient for you.
At Singapore’s Changi airport, all you need is your e-ticket or your frequent flyer (KrisFlyer) card or your credit card, you can check-in at any of the airline’s 14 auto check-in counters, choose your seat and collect your boarding pass. The German carrier’s gone one step ahead.
Now you can book, check-in and print your boarding pass from your home or office PC by accessing the airline’s website www.lufthansa.com. And the process gets even simpler if you are travelling light.
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Airlines Bluecasting?
Neeraj Saxena
Times of India
Dec 11, 2006
New Delhi: Airlines the world over have not taken to providing too many newer customer services based on the technologies that have become mainstream.
Forget technologies, most are yet to start even providing good choice of palatable food onboard and comfortable leg space in the cattle class, or ask you to switch off all your electronic devices once onboard which may well be classified a carry-over habit from the past century.
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Watch Tower: Air charter & ownership
Central Chronicle
Dec 11, 2006
According to conservative estimates, India's civil aviation sector has been growing at the rate of more than 20% per annum- Radhakrishna Rao
With India's GDP projected to grow at the rate of 8% per annum, tourism and business travel sector registering a robust annual growth of 15% along with India's emergence as the fourth largest economy in the world in terms of purchasing power with its 300-million strong middle class, the Indian civil aviation sector is posed for a take off. Similarly, medical tourism in the country, is showing a potential to grow at 25% per year and fetching the country US$ 2.15 billion by 2012.
There has been a significant increase in both the domestic and international air traffic and cargo in India over the last five years.
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Get set for smart air cargo handling
Financial Express
Dec 11, 2006
Even as the Indian economy is surging ahead, there is a compelling demand for companies—irrespective of the sector they operate in—to create and maintain an efficient supply chain possible. In order to compete and succeed in today's demanding marketplace, manufacturing com panies in particular are hard-pressed to consider a wide range of alternatives, including site locations, product mix, transportation, inventory deployment, suppliers, cost service levels, constraints, as well as supply chain operations.
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Overcapacity clouds air cargo boomlet
Praveena Sharma
Daily News & Analysis
Dec 10, 2006
Bangalore: Is the air cargo market going the passenger aviation way? Many industry observers believe so, what with capacity addition surging at a much faster pace than demand. This is likely to pressure yields, and as that happens, players will be goaded to push up volumes to salvage operating margins. And this vicious cycle could continue till consolidation takes place.
This being the reality, civil aviation minister Praful Patel’s recent announcement that overseas investors may soon be allowed to own as much as 74% in Indian cargo airlines compared with 49% now has failed to excite the industry as much as it should have.
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Women pilots flying high
Darlington Jose Hector
Times of India
Dec 10, 2006
Bangalore: Indira Mittra has been flying for 17 years. She is one of India's most experienced pilots and few men pilots can hold a candle to her. When she started out there were only a handful of women pilots in the Indian skies, but today there are 137 of them, and the tribe is growing.
Attractive remuneration, societal respect, spirit of adventure and the thrill of the unknown are driving the women of today to join a profession which was once deemed a man’s den.
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Some plane truths
Chandan Mitra
Daily Pioneer
Dec 09, 2006
For over a week now, air passengers are being made to pay a surcharge of Rs 150 on every ticket ostensibly to help airlines reduce pressure on their bottomlines caused by interminable delays in landings and take-offs at airports - especially Delhi and Mumbai. Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel is hopping mad with private carriers for imposing this congestion surcharges on air travellers and intervened recently to stop state-owned Indian Airlines from following the lead taken by Kingfisher and Jet Airways. He also lashed out at those who have slapped the surcharge, claiming it is an invidious way of hiking fares and that, in any case, air traffic congestion is confined to Delhi and Mumbai, so passengers travelling between other destinations should not be penalised for something they don't experience.
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Airlines racing ahead of terror: Airbus
Economic Times
Dec 07, 2006
New Delhi: Despite the growing threat of terrorism across several parts of the world, travelling by air is now safer than ever. In fact, it is safer to travel by air than, say, take a train or bus. With CCTVs inside the aircraft and armoured doors ensuring safety of pilots, Airbus chief operating officer (COO) John Leahy is confident that a 9-11 can never happen again. There are many other security systems that the aviation veteran would not like to talk about but he is certain that 9-11 has taught enough lessons to make flying safer for passengers as well as the larger public.
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IT beneath its wings
Faiz Askari
Express Computers
Dec 11, 2006
There are some components that together make for a good in-flight experience—IT is among them. Airlines have identified IT as a key facilitator for providing a good experience to their customers. Beyond enriching a passenger’s experience, aviation CIOs clearly understand the capabilities of diverse IT applications.
Emphasising the role of IT in the growing aviation business, Ajay Bhatkal, Chief Technology Architect, Air Deccan says, “IT applications play an important role in the airline industry. Right from buying your ticket to boarding, everything is computerised. In fact, in India, Air Deccan is a pioneer in e-ticketing. This paperless transaction helps reduce the number of employees required to reconcile accounts.”
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Global outlook
David Ingham
ITP.net, United Arab Emirates
Dec 06, 2006
BA World Cargo is one of the major European airlines looking to further strengthen its presence in the Middle East and India’s air freight markets. Baba Devani, vice president, sales & customer services, BA World Cargo, explains what he likes about doing business in the region and what challenges it presents.
How much business are you doing in the Middle East?
To give you an indication of scale, we have six gateways in the Middle East and we fly double dailies to Dubai, a shared daily flight between Abu Dhabi and Muscat, and a shared daily flight between Bahrain and Doha, and a direct flight to Kuwait. For the winter schedule, we will be introducing a third daily flight, which will be a 767. The others are a combination of 777s and 747s. These are all passenger flights. We also have a freighter coming into the Middle East from the US, which then goes on to Hong Kong. For India, we’ve gone from 19 passenger flights a week in April last year to 42 a week. Those are a mixture of 747s and 777s. As part of that growth, we introduced Bangalore to the schedule.
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The battle between low cost and traditional carriers continues
e-Travel Blackboard (press release), Australia
Dec 05, 2006
If there is one component of travel in Asia which has grabbed attention relentlessly throughout 2006, it has to be the low-cost carrier segment.
If on one hand, the penetrative levels of LCC’s have forced the traditional airlines to restructure their operations and address cost issues, on the other LCC’s have also contributed immensely towards the revival of the region’s tourism figures.
Even as LCC’s gain praise from several quarters, it was EyeforTravel’s Travel Distribution Summit Asia in Singapore this year which set the ball rolling with some engaging comments and insights from senior distribution executives from British Airways and Jetstar Asia.
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Let Indian VC take the lead in aviation
GR GOPINATH
(Managing director, Air Deccan)
Financial Express
Dec 04, 2006
Although not opposed to FDI in the aviation sector, I for one believe that 49% is a substantial foreign holding in a domestic carrier, increasing which will not augur long-term gains for either the aviation industry or for India Inc as a whole.
The FDI hike in civil aviation is a proposal that has been visited time and again by the government as well as industry analysts. The high-powered Naresh Chandra committee on civil aviation in its report submitted back in December 2003 had officially proposed a hike in the FDI limit for domestic aviation.
The resultant increase in FDI from 40% to 49% in October 2004 along with 100% FDI clearance for airport development was expected to usher root-and-branch reforms in the aviation sector.
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For the disabled, flying is an ordeal
Lekha Agarwal
Mumbai Newsline
Dec 03, 2006
Mumbai: Social worker Natwarlal Worah (95) and wife Pushpa (90)—both wheelchair users—-travel to their hometown Bhavnagar at least four times a year. The recent boom in low-cost airlines encouraged the couple to swap the 14-hour-long train journey for an hour-long flight.
But their first flight turned out to be such an ordeal that the couple don’t want to fly again.
“The airline told us that there would be an additional charge for the wheelchairs, since it was a low-cost airline,’’ says Worah. The couple shelled out Rs 400 and expected “fabulous service” in return, but were shocked when confronted with the realities of traversing the Indian skies as wheelchair-bound passengers.
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Should FDI for domestic carriers be raised to 74%?
TULSI KESHARWANI
(Senior fellow, Asian Institute of Transport Development, Delhi)
Financial Express
Dec 04, 2006
Air transport in India is witnessing unprecedented growth. Passenger traffic has almost doubled in the last three years. Liberalisation in policies along with the economic boom, competition, increased frequencies, improved connectivity, reduced fares and emergence of low-cost carriers have all contributed to this growth.
Though the Air Corporations Act, 1953 which gave Air-India and Indian Airlines a monopoly has been repealed and private carriers are permitted to operate on domestic routes, a number of requirements, including a minimum number of aircraft and capital, must be met. Foreign equity participation up to 49% is permitted.
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Indian Airports - Bad Symbols Of India
Ashish
Dec 03, 2006
Desicritics.org
I just completed a flight across India to the US via Frankfurt. Doing such a trip makes an Indian realize how really primitive the facilities are that are provided in Indian airports. There is no specific reason as to why such a disparity exists. It cannot be due to airports being good only in rich countries. There are many Asian countries that have excellent airports, and they can by no stretch be light years ahead of Indian in terms of economic development.
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The battle between low cost and traditional carriers continues
Eye For Travel
Dec 01, 2006
If there is one component of travel in Asia which has grabbed attention relentlessly throughout 2006, it has to be the low-cost carrier segment.
If on one hand, the penetrative levels of LCC’s have forced the traditional airlines to restructure their operations and address cost issues, on the other LCC’s have also contributed immensely towards the revival of the region’s tourism figures.
Even as LCC’s gain praise from several quarters, it was EyeforTravel’s Travel Distribution Summit Asia in Singapore this year which set the ball rolling with some engaging comments and insights from senior distribution executives from British Airways and Jetstar Asia.
Read The Rest >>>

Jet Airways ‘flying into cost turbulence’
Praveena Sharma
Thursday, Nov 30, 2006
Bangalore: Two years back, investment banking and advisory services firm Seabury Group, which boasts of a client list that includes leading airlines like Lufthansa, Ryanair, Air Canada and others, had prescribed a survival pill to the full service carriers (FSCs) grappling with competition from low cost carriers (LCCs) in the US and European markets.
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‘I’d love to model with Akshay Kumar’
Getting up close and personal with the ‘flying bikini model’, Selma Lasrado.
Daily News & Analysis
Nov 30, 2006
What made you venture from being an in-flight attendant to modelling for the Kingfisher Swimsuit Special calendar?
Actually, at Kingfisher Airlines all of us (in-flight attendants) are known as ‘Flying Models’. In fact the in-flight attendants are also the brand ambassadresses and the face of the airline in its advertising. Dr Mallya has been very kind in providing us a platform to make it big. The Kingfisher Swimsuit Special Calendar 2007 was one such opportunity – I have always been interested in fashion and modelling, so when this opportunity came I grabbed it with both hands. And although the screening process was an arduous one, I’m happy that I was selected.
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