Edits, Columns, Features and analysis4
AirDeccan’s small-town plan works
Praveena Sharma
Daily News & Analysis
Sept 14, 2006
BANGALORE: It was a business trip to Coimbatore that Bangalore-based hotelier Pradhan Ganapathy could not cancel. There was no train ticket available, and a Tatkal booking would have cost him Rs 1,400. He checked up the Air Deccan website, and was able to fly for just Rs 1,200 the same day.
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Five years after 9/11, A-Pac aviation altered in unexpected ways
UNI/The Hindu
Sept 15, 2006
Sydney: The Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation (CAPA) said on Thursday, the air transport sector continues to grow – particularly in Asia — five years after the attacks of September 11, an assault that had the seeming potential to undermine air travel.
“A simple reality is at play,” said its executive chairman Peter Harbison. “People still want and need to travel by air, a reality that will reach many more people in this region’s emerging markets in the years to come as economies grow and incomes rise.”
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Racism in the air
HASAN SUROOR in London
Frontline
Sept 12, 2006
WHAT do a British Member of European Parliament (MEP), an airline pilot and two university undergraduates have in common except that they are all British? Until a few weeks ago, if someone were to ask this question an instant response would have been: “They are all Asians, aren’t they?” But now they have a new common bond. All four have been victims of covert racial profiling, the newest method being used by Western security services to pick out potential terrorists at airports and on trains and planes.
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Print, TV or OOH?
Aabhas Sharma
Business Standard
Sept 13, 2006
New Delhi: Domestic airlines are advertising a lot, but not in the media with the biggest numbers. Time for a memory check. Which was the last domestic airlines’ TV commercial that you saw? The 150-second long Air Deccan ad? That’s what a thoroughly unscientific straw poll confirms as the best recalled. But which else?
It’s peculiar. The aviation sector is going helter skelter. Out-of-home (OOH) signposts and print ad-spreads abound. But how come so little of the advertising is on television?
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Indian aviation: gaining tailwind
JEH WADIA
Financial Express
Sept 12, 2006
As I write this, my first article for the Financial Express so close to 9/11, let me first say that air transport is the most modern, the quickest and statistically still the safest mode of transport.
The civil aviation industry in India has changed dramatically over the last decade. Until 1991, the Indian civil aviation industry was a state monopoly, dominated by Air India and Indian Airlines. The Indian government introduced the open sky policy for domestic players in 1991 and partial open sky policy for international players only in November 2004.
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Air Deccan: Always a trend setter
Kerala Online
Sept 12, 2006
Air Deccan’s move to operate direct daily flights in the Delhi-Kullu sector, would be a real boost to the tourism-based economy of the Himalayan valley as it is a paradise on earth for many.
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Flying right
D. Murali
Hindu Business Line
Sep 11, 2006
Cost reduction, as a theme, came up immediately after safety, when Giovanni Bisignani, Director General and CEO International Air Transport Association (www.iata.org) spoke at a conference in Brisbane a few weeks ago.
“The industry is in the red,” he conceded. The fuel bill for the global airline industry went up from $40 billion in 2002 to $91 billion last year, and is expected to touch $112 billion this year, said Bisignani, sounding the alarm bell.
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Life After 9/11 for NRIs
India eNews
Sep 10, 2006
‘My life as an NRI has changed a lot since 9/11,’ remarked Abdul Ali who lives in the US. His friend, Joginder or ‘Joe’ Singh couldn’t agree more. All NRIs took a big hit with 9/11 five years ago when the terrorists struck New York and Washington.
In their daily lives, NRIs have suffered personal attacks due to their colour, appearance and dress. Young Indians are usually checked ‘randomly’ in security checks at foreign airports before boarding a plane and on arriving. After 7/7 and the British alerts in August, these checks have taken a sinister turn when every facial expression or language they spoken is reason enough for questioning.
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Flying safe in the air
Times of India
Sept 09, 2006
September 11 and 8/10 will always remain red letter days in the history of aviation terrorism. As terrorists find newer, innovative ways to carry out horrendous events, India, like other nations, is girding itself up to make airports safer.
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On board IC 814
Paromita Chakrabarti
Delhi Newsline
Sept 09, 2006
New Delhi: It’s been over six years now, but entrepreneur Romesh Grover can remember the week of December 24, 1999 with remarkable clarity. He was heading back to New Delhi from Nepal’s Tribhuvan International Airpo
rt on flight IC 814 after wrapping up a business deal, just in time for Christmas with his family.
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Airbus and Boeing Vie for India’s Skies
Nandini Lakshman
BusinessWeek
Sept 07, 2006
With Indian carriers in expansion mode, the Western giants face each other to fill the growing demand for new airplanes
Few corporate rivalries are as heated as the one between Boeing (BA) and Airbus. The manufacturers are engaged in a mad mating dance with India’s flagship and discount airlines alike to lock up orders in one of the fastest-growing aviation markets on the planet.
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Emergence of Airports as Attractive Business Centres
Frost & Sullivan
Business Wire India
Sept 06, 2006
Mumbai: Airports are becoming profitable business enterprises based on the increasing revenues generated by non-aeronautical commercial activities, in particular, retailing, car parking and catering. This trend is opening up opportunities for airport management firms and other companies keen on expanding their businesses in the catchment area of airports.
Currently, due to the demand from air carriers for the reduction of charges and the unwillingness of governments to offer subsidises, airports can no longer rely solely on aeronautical revenues to generate the resources needed for infrastructural improvements.
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IC-814: The Kandahar shame story
CNN-IBN
Sept 07, 2006
On December 26, 1999, a whole new drama unfolded at Kandahar, Afghanistan, soon after the hijacked Indian Airlines flight IC-814 landed there. Even as the plane came to a halt on the tarmac, the Taliban militia surrounded it with the hijackers still on board. For the 162 passengers and crew onboard IC-814, a long, fearful wait had just begun.
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Domestic airlines fly into an air pocket
Praveena Sharma
Daily News & Analysis
September 05, 2006
BANGALORE: An analysis of Centre for Asia-Pacific Aviation (CAPA) says yields and fuel management would be the flight path to profitability for airlines. It is because of these two factors that the IATA’s profitability outlook for European carriers for this year has flown past the Asia-Pacific region, despite the latter’s strong market growth and low labour cost.
Last week, the IATA slashed its profitability outlook for the Asia-Pacific region by $300 million to $1.7 billion. This upgraded Europe to industry’s most profitable region with $1.8 billion net profit.
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Online air tickets have a catch
Khushboo Narayan
CNN-IBN
Sept 05, 2006
Mumbai: Next time you book your air ticket online think twice. Chances are you may not get your refund back in time if you decide not to travel. Several consumers have been struggling to get their refunds for months.
Everyday, for the last nine months Manish Garg of Bangalore has been spending hours before his computer writing mails to Air Deccan. But he has not received a single reply as yet.
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Aviation Turbine Fuel High cost bleeds no-frills airline firms
P R Sanjai
Business Standard
Sept 04, 2006
Mumbai: The concept of low air fare has just got a hard knock with domestic airlines all set to impose the third round of fuel surcharge hike since May 1. This means fares will go up by Rs 750 in three months.
“The concept of low fare is under threat. Moreover, the government is exploring the idea of imposing a cess on air ticket to support HIV/AIDS awareness programmes,” industry sources said.
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Flight cancelled – this is Aizawl airport
The Hindu
Sept 04, 2006
Aizawl: Mizoram’s only airport here is in dire need of modernisation, as shortage of facilities lead to frequent flight cancellation, which is a common feature.
Numerous top guns from Delhi, including the Civil Aviation minister Praful Patel, were compelled to cancel their important engagements in Mizoram due to the cancellation of flights, thanks to the dilapidated condition of Lengpui airport, the only one in this hilly north-eastern State.
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Drinking water, dehydration, bathroom use big air travel issues
Michelle Higgins,
NEW YORK TIMES
Sept 03, 2006
AS TRAVELERS adjust to the new rules against carrying liquids onto planes, what about the most essential liquid, water? Before the London terror scare a few weeks ago, water bottles in a variety of shapes and sizes could usually be seen poking out of backpacks, carryalls and totes in departure lounges. Now that passengers must rely solely on what the airlines provide to quench their thirst, there’s reason to be concerned that it may not be enough.
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