Edits, Columns & Analysis - July 2007

---

Indian Airline Makes Its Case as a Premier-Class Contender
JOE SHARKEY
New York Times, United States
July 31, 2007
BETTER than Singapore, better than Cathay and at least as good as Emirates.” That was how Naresh Goyal stated his goal that the Indian carrier Jet Airways be rated among the top premier-class service in the world in a few years.
I know. Tens of thousands of you, maybe more, are now stuck in overcrowded airports or wedged into cramped seats on delayed planes as the worst summer in domestic air travel history grinds on.
Read The Rest >>>

Aviation market booming in the Asia-Pacific region
BOONSONG KOSITCHOTETHANA
Bangkok Post, Thailand
July 31, 2007
The Asia-Pacific region shows a promising future for the civil aviation market with continued growth and business opportunities in maintenance, training, air freight and airport construction, said an industry watcher.
The Asia-Pacific is emerging as the world's fast-growing aviation market with the region's carriers taking a 23% share in the world's airline market by revenue last year, or US$119.86 billion, after Europe (36%) and North America (33%).
Read The Rest >>>

Let them fly free
Daily News & Analysis
July 30, 2007
There is something ironic in the presence of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel and Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar at the formal ceremony marking the arrival of the new Boeing –– for Air India –– and the Airbus –– for Indian, nee Indian Airlines. It is a cause for celebrations all right, because it has been a long time since the two airlines got an addition to their ageing fleets.
But it also demonstrates the continuing control the government has over the airlines, which, despite its commitment to freeing them and the public sector in general, it has not loosened.
Read The Rest >>>

India set to finalise new civil aviation policy
Nicholas Ionides
Airline Business/
Flight International
July 25, 2007
A new civil aviation policy to steer the next stage of development in India's growing air transport sector finally looks set to be approved.
A new aviation policy has been under consideration for several years and is now long overdue, although key elements have already been acted upon, such as making improvements to infrastructure and liberalising international air services agreements.
The policy is now a key step closer to being approved formally, however, following the recent establishment of a so-called Group of Ministers committee that will study a draft policy.
Read The Rest >>>

Are you ready to fly?
Ranju Sarkar/Hindustan Times
July 25, 2007
Sharad Saxena is a mid-level executive. Until 2003, the 36-year-old who takes home Rs 50,000 a month (back in 2003, it was less than Rs 30,000), rarely travelled by air except on a few official trips a year. Thanks to the entry of low-fare airlines, Saxena has travelled by train only twice in the last four years. He flies five or six times and can afford to go on two-three holidays a year, which was almost unthinkable earlier.
Read The Rest >>>

Consolidation may help, but synergies hold the key
Praveena Sharma
Daily News & Analysis
July 25, 2007
Bangalore: In 2006, when intense competition and rising operating costs hit the profitability of airlines, they rushed to consolidate their position through mergers and acquisitions.
Full service carrier (FSC) Jet Airways was the first to kick off the move by buying out Air Sahara. Air Indian and Indian Airlines followed suit by merging their businesses. Recently, Kingfisher Airlines’ parent company UB Group picked up 26% stake in budget airline Air Deccan.
These moves may have strengthened the market share of the carriers but the real test lies in how well they are able to synergise their operations to derive economies of scale to cut costs and improve yields.
Read The Rest >>>

M&As set to take aviation industry by storm
Ankur Bhatia
Daily News & Analysis
July 25, 2007
India’s aviation sector is in for a further shake-up as the airline companies move towards consolidation.
This trend was further confirmed by the recent acquisition of 26% equity stake by United Breweries Holdings, which owns Kingfisher Airlines, in Deccan Aviation, owner of Air Deccan, the country’s no-frills-flying pioneer and second largest domestic airline.
The market has three big players now- the Kingfisher-Deccan combine, Jet (together with its low-cost brand ‘Jetlite’) and Indian - that together control over 80% of the market.
Read The Rest >>>

‘Only way not to break is to merge’
Daily News & Analysis
July 25, 2007
These are crucial days for Vasudevan Thulasidas, CMD, Air India. The countdown for the merger of Air India and Indian has just begun. But the IAS officer from the Tripura cadre has already started the process to wrest back the initiative to take Air India to the forefront of the civil aviation market. While the merger is still a few months away, the co-ordination process between the two state-owned airlines has started. Jet Airways and Kingfisher Airlines are hot on the heels, as they get ready to fly to lucrative foreign locales. When Satish John & Shweta Bhanot caught up with him on the 22nd floor of Air India building, Thulasidas appeared unfazed by the talk of local and foreign competition.
Excerpts>>>

Is there turbulence ahead for AI's 'takeover' of IA?
Shobha John
Times of India
July 22, 2007
August 1 will be a milestone in the history of AI or rather the new National Aviation Company Ltd (NACL), the merged avatar of behemoths IA and AI. Its first direct, non-stop flight from India to the US will take off in a mint-fresh B-777.
Few noticed though that early July was also a milestone for IA as it got the first of its 43 new Airbuses after the merger - an A-321. And that’s symptomatic of the general feeling in IA of being ignored as the merger nears completion.
There’s also a sense of sadness among IA employees as the airline’s brand gets wiped out and apprehension that the merger may be a takeover.
Read The Rest >>>

Known as performer and doer
Raja Awasthi
Economic Times
July 22, 2007
Civil aviation minister Praful Patel is suave and sophisticated by demeanour, though understated in his trademark kurta pyjama. The Mayo College alumnus is known in government circles as a performer and doer. He has many initiatives to his credit — he swung the multi-billion dollar fleet renewal programmes of Air India and Indian, rammed through the modernisation of Delhi and Mumbai airports despite stiff opposition and has even managed to structure the long pending merger of Air India and Indian this week.
Lean and fit, he also likes working out on the treadmill at least five days a week, even as he socialises in the evenings. Of course, there is one other fascination — he likes listening to jazz. He claims it has a soothing effect after a hard day's grind. Often seen at the Taipan (Oberoi Delhi) or Wasabi (Taj Mumbai), Patel is known for his laissez faire approach. In fact, if air fares are at rock bottom, then one has to thank him for allowing the industry to mushroom so that the middle class can make its tryst with aircraft travel. In an extensive conversation in Rajiv Gandhi Bhawan, Patel outlines the next level of competency for his ministry and civil aviation in general in India.
The interview >>>

Regional connectivity vital for take-off
Times of India
July 21, 2007
Regional airports, airlines and routing are lightening the burden on overstretched big city airports worldwide, giving consumers more affordable options along with greater connectivity. Aviation minister Praful Patel's proposal to approve - in the next six months - carriers connecting small cities and towns is a step in the right direction. Operating costs including ground handling would be far less than in major metros, and lower aviation turbine fuel tax would make airfares competitive.
Read The Rest >>>

COUNTER VIEW:
Upgrade infrastructure first
Rohit Viswanath
Times of India
July 21, 2007
The government seems set to approve many new airlines connecting small cities and towns within a region. The move would be grossly premature since aviation infrastructure is so deficient across the country. The demand for air connectivity to small towns may be high but the infrastructure needed to support such a massive development must be put in place first. An open skies policy launched by the government in 1994 has led to airports in big cities struggling to handle the massive rise in the number of passengers and flights.
Read The Rest >>>

Face Time
India's Air Apparent
Tara Weiss
Forbes, US
July 20, 2007
Naresh Goyal might not have the height or the hair of Virgin Chief Executive Sir Richard Branson, but he's certainly got his fellow airline owner's charisma.
The founder and chairman of Mumbai-based Jet Airways is in town for one of his "road shows," part of a campaign to introduce Americans to the 14-year-old airline that begins service from Newark, N.J. to Europe and India next month. He met with reporters in his suite at the Waldorf-Astoria, showering them with compliments and hearty laughs.
He says he can't be compared to Branson because unlike his British counterpart, he's not the face of the brand. That may be true, but like Branson, Goyal built Jet Airways from the ground up.
Read The Rest >>>

Airline mergers bad news for consumers
Economic Times
July 19, 2007
Consolidation is a sign of maturity in any industry. It is merely a reflection of certain benchmarks in efficiencies and productivity. Which means airlines that do not and cannot live up to certain standards at various levels of operation gravitate towards bigger and more established entities because of larger critical mass.
But as the industry consolidates, we can see newer levels of competition, better service levels and higher levels of accountability.
Read The Rest >>>

NEW DELHI DIARY
An extra runway isn`t the only solution
A K Bhattacharya
Business Standard
July 18, 2007
New Delhi: The Airports Authority of India Limited may not have yet released the latest data on congestion at the major airports in India. But there is enough empirical evidence to suggest that congestion at major airports—Mumbai and Delhi in particular—has eased considerably in the last few months.
Six months ago, it was usual for any aircraft heading for Delhi or Mumbai to circle over the city for 15 to 30 minutes before the air traffic controller would give it clearance for landing. Even taking off from either of these cities would have invariably meant a waiting time of around 15 minutes before the aircraft could be airborne.
Read The Rest >>>

'Air Deccan has found best partner in UB'
Moneycontrol.com
July 18, 2007
Bangalore: Days before the UB Group floats its open offer to acquire another 20 per cent stake in Deccan Aviation, both Mr Vijay Mallya and Mr G.R. Gopinath spent some quiet moments together at the latter's farm house near Hassan, 200 km from Bangalore last weekend.
The story goes that both the airline honchos took just 45 minutes to decide that the UB Group will buy 26 per cent stake in Deccan Aviation and that Mr Mallya even agreed to pay Rs 125-150 crore more than what Mr Gopinath hoped to get.
Read The Rest >>>

Soon, small cities to fly high
Shobha John
Times of India
July 16, 2007
New Delhi: It's a bid to make the whole of India fly. Experts foresee the next boom in aviation to be among regional airlines. With metro airports, like Delhi and Mumbai, getting increasingly saturated, there's a bid to see that development percolates to tier II and III cities. And that's why regional airlines will, now onwards, be given a separate classification. A top aviation ministry source also has made suggestions to make this concept viable.
Read The Rest >>>

“We need to expand aviation infrastructure”
Vinay Kumar
The Hindu
July 16, 2007
Civil Aviation MiniaterPraful Patelspeaks about new airports, the Air India-Indian Airlines merger, and more during an interview at his office in New Delhi last week. Excerpts:
How far has the merger of Air India and Indian Airlines progressed?
It will be an absolutely perfect merger. The first flight of the new carrier, Air India, will be on August 1. The new aircraft, Boeing 777-Long Range, will take off on that day from Mumbai for New York; it will be a non-stop India-U.S. service. Let us put it this way: it will herald the beginning of a new Air India and by which time we will have our new aircraft flying in at regular intervals to join the fleet. So we hope that in a year’s time the perception of Air India and Indian Airlines will begin to change and they will be moving into a new era.
Read The Rest >>>

‘The perception (about delays) is not really true’
K Raghu
Livemint
July 16, 2007
Bangalore: Air Deccan, India’s oldest and largest low-cost carrier owned by Deccan Aviation Ltd, will swap five leased turboprop planes with newer planes later this year to increase operational efficiencies with its new, single-largest shareholder, United Breweries Ltd’s Kingfisher Airlines. “We are looking at returning the oldest ATRs and replacing them with a new fleet,” said Ramki Sundaram, acting chief executive. “There are five of them and are leased.” The planes being replaced represent nearly a quarter of the airline’s 21-strong ATR fleet.
Read The Rest >>>

Greenfield Airports In India – A Case Study Of The Bangalore International Airport
Sumeet Kachwaha
Mondaq News Alerts (subcription), UK
16 July 2007
*Transcript of talk delivered by Sumeet Kachwaha at the Inter Pacific Bar Association Annual Conference; Beijing, 2007.
When one looks at the current huzzle and buzzle around privatization of infrastructure in India, it is difficult to imagine that just about six years back, privatization was virtually unknown in India. The story started with the Road sector in the late 1990’s but that too initially was not under the BOT Model. The project was funded by the Government through a 1% cess on diesel. Infrastructure bonds were floated where the Public Sector Corporations invested. It was only in this millennium that privatization, as properly understood was adopted as a Government policy.
Read The Rest >>>

Swiss CEO of new Bangalore airport in race against time

AFP
Times of India
JUly 15, 2007

Bangalore: Swiss CEO Albert Brunner, whose nation takes pride in its clocks and watches, is racing against time to get a showpiece airport up and running in Bangalore.
April 2, 2008, is Brunner's deadline for Bangalore International Airport to receive and send off the first of the eight million passengers it expects to handle in its first year.
Read The Rest >>>

On Full Flight
Deccan Herald
July 15, 2007
As BIAL enters last leg before the trials, Deccan Herald looks at what passengers can expect from the airport.
Bangalore:Less than nine months to go for the opening of the international greenfield airport in Devanahalli, the airport’s promoters - Bangalore International Airport Limited - have entered the last legs of construction, before the formal trials begin. The task is tight but on course, says BIAL CEO Albert Brunner. As work progresses at the two-level 71,000 sq m (total floor area) passenger terminal building, BIAL officials point out that the idea is to centralise the entire passenger-handling and processing systems. The fully air-conditioned building is set to handle both international and domestic operations.
Read The Rest >>>

Terminal delay
Nikhila Pant, Agencies
Times of India
July 14, 2007
Long haul flights once used to elicit excitement. Today, passengers settle for hollow groans. What with the wait at various airports stretching from long to endless, all the fun of flying has been lost. The civil aviation ministry proved that the worst fears of passengers were true when a recent survey conducted by it said that almost 40 per cent flights are delayed. However, ask anybody who flies frequently and they will tell you the situation on ground in India is worse.
Read The Rest >>>

GMR: From commuting on a cycle to building global airports
Anirban Chowdhury
Business Standard
Rediff
July 13, 2007
Close to three decades ago, when people saw Grandhi Mallikarjuna Rao cycling 25 kilometres everyday around his village in Andhra Pradesh collecting money for the farm poduce he had supplied, they never thought he would one day own the first Indian company to develop an international airport.
On 10 July 2007, GMR Infrastructure bagged the contract for an international airport - the Sabiha Gokcen International Airport in Istanbul. Along with its Hyderabad airport partner, Malaysia Airports Holding Berhad, and Limak, a construction company in Turkey, the group will build an international terminal in the Euro 400 million development project.
Read The Rest >>>


A weighty matter
Barkha Dutt
Hindustan Times
July 13, 2007
So, what’s the difference between an aeroplane aisle and a catwalk ramp? As you strap up in your claustrophobically small seat and wait for the customary delay on the tarmac, or whisper a not-so-silent prayer to slow down your thumping heart during a bad spell of turbulence, do you really care what the stewardess’ waist size is?
Up there among the clouds, is it sexiness you seek or safety?
These were some of the questions that Sheila Joshi, an airhostess suspended after 20 years of flying with Indian Airlines, demanded to know on a recent television debate.
Read The Rest >>>

Deccan & Kingfisher try and live together
Mehul Srivastava
Livemint
July 11, 2007
A few weeks ago, as it has done every so often, Air Deccan, India’s biggest low-cost carrier, raised the fares on a few of its secondary routes to test customer response.
Just as they had done in the past, passengers baulked, and the flights flew increasingly empty.
But this time around, Deccan’s reaction was new: It stuck with the higher prices, some as much as 8-10% more or almost Rs400 for each ticket.
“That’s just not how we did business before,” said a senior executive at the Deccan Aviation Ltd owned airline. “It’s not in our DNA to fly planes half empty.”
Before as in “before Vijay Mallya became an investor”.
Read The Rest >>>

Time To Take Off
Kaushik Basu
Times of India
July 11, 2007
Some of the eccentricities of Indian airports are charming. Take the modern tea-dispensing machines, where, thanks to Indian ingenuity, the automaticity is totally dispensed with. I tried to insert coins the other day into one such machine at Delhi airport when a middle-aged lady intercepted, took the coins from my hand, dismantled the front panel of the machine with the dexterity of a magician, tucked the coins in, took a plastic cup out of the automatic cup dispenser, placed it under the tap and turned some knobs, which brought forth the magic potion.
The charm, however, paled during the Indian flight to Kolkata, when the passengers were informed of a "short circuit" in the aircraft's music system.
Read The Rest >>>

Flying into danger?
PTI
Daily News & Analysis
July 10, 2007
Airport security has been a major concern for some time now. With major international airports on the terrorists' radar, security agencies have to be on their toes all the time, updating their equipment and methods. But the story at city’s Sahar airport is none too encouraging. Baljeet Parmar finds out that apart from the chinks in the armour there are far too many agencies involved in coordinating the managing of sensitive installations in and around it
The recent terror attempt at Scotland's Glasgow airport has once again brought to the fore the issue of security of air terminals and safety of passengers. While the airport authorities abroad are seen to have taken adequate pre-emptive measures, the picture nearer home seems none too rosy.
Read The Rest >>>

Crewsing on mid-air malice
Anjali Chandra
Times of India
July 09, 2007
A cerebral palsy patient and NGO activist Rajiv Ranjan being off loaded by a private air carrier's crew because he was unaccompanied by an attendant was still evoking harsh criticism, when another similar incident underlined what is fast becoming a common complaint - of harsh and unbecoming behaviour by airlines' crew.
This time, it was a visibly ill girl aboard a national carrier who was denied water by a steward, despite repeated requests. According to reports, not only did the steward refuse to comply with the excuse that the seatbelt lights were switched on, he also allegedly challenged them 'to do what they wanted' when the argument heated up.
Is an offensive crew member becoming a part of the deal that comprises low cost tickets, competitive rates and a choice of flights?
Read The Rest >>>

Soar with your dreams
The Hindu Business Line
July 09, 2007
Mr M. Thiagarajan is a grandson of Karumuttu Thiagarajan, a pioneer in the field of textiles and the founder of Bank of Madura. A business management graduate, Mr Thiagarajan entered the family business of textiles as a third generation entrepreneur. His passion for aviation led to his establishing commercial aviation company, Paramount Airways, in October 2005.
Here’s his take on four questions from Business Line >>>

Infrastructure seen halting India's aviation boom
Liz Mathew
India eNews.com
July 08, 2007
Bangkok, Thailand: India may be among the most happening places in the global aviation field, but its poor airport infrastructure is a major cause of concern and even threatens to retard the robust growth in the sector, international experts say.
With some 400 new aircraft set to join the fleet of Indian carriers at an estimated cost of $80 billion and potential annual passenger traffic set to soar to 180 million over the next few years from the present 50 million, experts say the whole system can crumble if attention is not paid to improving airport infrastructure.
Read The Rest >>>

Fly Them Like Gods
Newsweek International
July 08, 2007
India is rising. and as rising nations are wont to do, it is launching airlines on global routes in pursuit of money and international glamour. The Indian entrants in this brutal market are led by Jet Airways, which begins to fly from major North American cities to Europe, Africa, China, the Middle East and to its home bases in India on Aug. 5.
Chairman Naresh Goyal, who started his career as a ticket agent, founded Jet in 1993, when India began opening up its air market. Jet was India's first private domestic carrier, and is now the country's largest private airline. Goyal, one of India's 10 richest people, spoke to NEWSWEEK's Vibhuti Patel in New York about Jet's $3.7 billion expansion and the global airline business. Excerpts: >>>

Not off the ground
Hindustan Times
July 05, 2007
The Ministry of Civil Aviation shouldn’t have have any problems in giving the nod to the techno-economic feasibility study report prepared by the Uttar Pradesh government for setting up Delhi’s second international greenfield airport at Greater Noida. The proposed airport project spread across 1,500 hectares would cost over Rs. 3,500 crore and will hopefully put two other second-airport projects — the Rs 9,000-crore Navi Mumbai airport project, and Chennai’s greenfield airport in Sriperumbudur — on a fast track.
Read The Rest >>

Safe skies for tomorrow
HUMA SIDDIQUI
Financial Express
July 02, 2007
The rapid growth of the aviation industry has not only resulted in increased air traffic, but also encouraged engine companies—Rolls-Royce, GE, MTU Aero Engines, Pratt & Whitney—to invest in aircraft engine R&D. Engine companies across the globe are now working on new technologies to further improve the environmental compatibility of future engines. The effort is worth the trouble: industry experts see tremendous growth opportunities for aviation. By 2020, they expect air traffic to double. The aim is to make engines quieter, fuel-thriftier and cleaner.
Read The Rest >>>


All Edits Archives >>