Edits, Columns & Analysis - August 2007

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Is there room for a regional airline?
V. Jayanth
The Hindu
Aug 20, 2007
In yet another policy formulation, the Union Civil Aviation Minister, Praful Patel, has announced the creation of a new category of scheduled operations — Regional airlines. This will apply to both fixed wing and helicopter operators, and will be confined to services within a region, dividing the country into four regions — north, south, west, and east/ northeast.
This announcement has met with a mixed response from both airline circles and aviation industry sources. But there appears to be a general consensus that this classification could have waited for the process of acquisitions, mergers, and consolidation to take place in the airline industry. Civil Aviation officials, however, insist that it was unveiled only to enable the various airlines to draw up their roadmaps for future growth and development.
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‘The role model for the new Air India is the Air India of old'
Indian Express
August 19, 2007
V. Thulasidas, CMD of Air India after Indian Airlines was merged with it, began his career as a lecturer in English. He was then selected to the IAS in the Manipur-Tripura cadre and has worked in various capacities in Kerala, Tripura and the Centre. He headed Air India even before the merger, and is credited with giving the airline a new direction with his leadership. In a freewheeling discussion with Express staff, moderated by Financial Express Dy Executive Editor Sourav Majumdar, at Express Towers, Mumbai, Thulasidas spoke about the challenges facing the new airline in highly competitive times.
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Spicy aspirations
Raja Awasthi
Economic Times
Aug 19, 2007
At a time when the domestic aviation industry is struggling to steer clear of loss zones, Spice Jet has registered profits in the first quarter. The company is now aspiring to attain a breakeven in the current fiscal. The low cost carrier (LCC) SpiceJet, with a fleet size of 14 planes and market share of more than 8%, is the second largest LCC carrier in India.
The airlines will be increasing its fleet from 14 aircraft to 26 by 2008-end. Siddhanta Sharma, chairman & CEO, Spice Jet, in exclusive interview, speaks about the civil aviation sector and his group’s future plans.
Excerpts >>>

Bhopal needs world class airport: Increase in connectivity
Central Chronicle
August 17, 2007
With connectivity increasing at global level the need for developing airports of international standards in Madhya Pradesh could be understood. Recently Chairman-cum-Managing Director of Indian Dr Vishwapati Trivedi talked about the lack of facilities for aircraft parking. According to him, stations like Ahmedabad and Baroda have become full. He advised that there is need to build aircraft parking in Bhopal. Airports at Indore, Bhopal, Gwalior and Jabalpur are comparatively small in the state.
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Man and machine
Abhijit Bhattacharyya
The Telegraph
August 15, 2007
Although much has been said about the length of runways and the slippery surface caused by rain, what remains unsaid is that even at the best of times and with the best of technology at hand what matters most in any critical stage of the flight is the capability of the man behind the machine. Flying is a job in which even the slightest of mistakes can result in fatalities. This is borne out by numerous air disasters around the world.
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Taking India Aloft
Ruth David
Forbes, US
August 13, 2007
Bangalore: Gorur Ramaswamy Gopinath, the founder of India's largest low-cost airline, Air Deccan, is glad he didn't do any market research when he started operations in August 2003 in a country where less than 1% of the population traveled by air.
Gopinath, a retired captain in the Indian army, says the typical reaction when he went to raise money was that India was not ready for a low-cost airline, because of a tightly controlled market, poor infrastructure at airports and the lack of sheer numbers needed to make operations profitable. But Air Deccan--started with an investment of $10 million--was aimed at getting the millions who traveled by trains and buses to switch to aircraft.
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Virgin set to enter Indian territory, mobile first
George Koshy
CNN-IBN
August 12, 2007
Malaysia: The aviation industry is heating up to more competition. British business mogul Richard Branson’s Virgin Aviation has recently announced its entry into the Asian aviation space with a 20 per cent stake in Air Asia.
From low cost travel to Virgin mobiles, Branson, the billionaire behind the multi-platform Virgin brand, said that he looks at India as a potential market and soon he is going to increase his presence for Indian customers.
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The heat is on: It's rock and roll in the skies
Shobha John
Times of India
Aug 12, 2007
It could well be a harbinger of things to come. Increasing storms, violent thunderclaps, greater wind speeds — the din unleashed in the heavens by the weather gods between April and September (pre-monsoons to end of season) over the last two-three years has surprised and alarmed even veteran aviators. And as they struggle to steady their big metallic birds and stay calm lest it unnerve their passengers, the niggling question on their minds is: Are these severe climatic changes a sign of global warming?
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AI: Hot air or taking wings?
Chidanand Rajghatta
Times of India
Aug 5, 2007
The storied history of aviation in India added a new chapter last week when Captain Amitabh Singh took off from Boeing Field near Seattle in a spanking new 777-LR and headed to New Delhi. Thanks to oversimplification of the globe, we tend to think the distance from the United States east coast to India should be shorter than from the west coast. But as the unofficial flight demonstrated — by taking the Arctic route — what you see isn't what you get.
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Give India a flying start
Nirbhay Kumar
Economic Times
August 02, 2007
Sustained buoyancy in India’s aviation sector has been appreciated globally, but experts have not failed to notice that lack of adequate infrastructure could be a roadblock. That explains civil aviation minister Praful Patel’s emphasis on building the country’s airport infrastructure to lay the foundation for long-term growth in both passenger as well as cargo traffic.
With an open investment regime and liberal policy on bilaterals, the civil aviation minister wants to take aviation to the masses. Among the plans in the pipeline are building airports within 50 km of every significantly large habitat in the country.
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What is the Truth Behind the Latest Twists in the Air India Flight 182 Case?
Avtar Singh
Panthic Weekly
August 01, 2007
Last week an article appeared in the magazine Tehelka, written by Vikram Jit Singh, referring to a secret recording of the interrogation of Shaheed Bhai Talwinder Singh Parmar between 9 -14 October 1992. The recording was supposedly made by retired Punjab Police DSP Harmail Singh Chandi, who has for some strange reason decided 15 years later to now make known the contents of his secret recordings that senior police officers had asked to be destroyed.
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