India's aviation hub dreams face Dubai, Singapore challenge

The civil aviation ministry will, by the end of this financial year, provide the policy support needed by airports and airlines to create hubs in India.
But the airports would have to go out and market themselves, bring in traffic and make themselves hubs, said a senior ministry official, who did not want to be identified.
The ministry has issued a paper on the subject.
Indian airports have been at a disadvantage because of high taxes, cumbersome visa and foreign exchange norms, losing out to peers in the Gulf. The civil aviation ministry hopes addressing these will help Indian airports attract a large pie of the 28 million annual feeder traffic from neighbouring countries and inter-continental routes linking Europe and Southeast Asia.
After yesterday's meeting of the the cabinet committee on infrastructure, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announced an airline hub policy would be finalised and hubs operationalised at Delhi and Chennai in 2012-13.
According to the ministry's data, 37 mn passengers flew to/from India in 2010-11, of which 11.4 mn were connected by hubs outside India. Essentially, this means 11.4 mn passengers had flown to their destination via a transit point like Dubai or Singapore, instead of taking a direct flight from India.
Indian airlines fly 30 per cent of international traffic to/from India and have been unable to tap passengers on inter-continental routes. The aviation hub policy aims to capture traffic on all such routes which now bypass India and connect via Gulf airports. Neighbouring countries such as Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka can feed up to 11 mn passengers to Indian airports, while inter-continental routes (Europe-Southeast Asia or Europe-Australia) can add another 17 million international transit passengers.
"On Europe-Southeast Asia, Emirates and Singapore Airlines account for eight and 13 per cent traffic, respectively, whereas Indian carriers are capturing less than one per cent,'' the ministry says in its concept note.
"Aviation, tourism and global brand-building have not been a national priority in India like say in Singapore, Dubai, Thailand and Malaysia,&" said Amber Dubey, partner and head (aviation) at KPMG.
"We need to attract transfer traffic – both passengers and cargo – from our South Asian neighbours. The retaliation from leading hubs like Dubai. Doha, Bangkok and Singapore will be fierce and only the most efficient hubs will sustain.&"
An aviation expert said Dubai had hassle-free visa on arrival and transit visa process. Singapore offers free city tours to transit passengers, while Dubai and Kuala Lumpur do so at a nominal fee.
http://wap.business-standard.com/storypage.php?id=5&autono=476710\

Air India may shift base from Mumbai to Delhi

NEW DELHI: The iconic Air India building in Nariman Point in Mumbai may not remain Air India's corporate headquarters for long, as the government is planning to shift the airline's base to Delhi in a bid to cut down on travel costs of employees moving frequently between the two cities and also to lease out the prime property.
The Indian Airlines House at the Parliament Street on Delhi will take over as the airline's new headquarters.
"There is no point having two headquarters. More work takes place from Delhi now and it is only going to increase as time passes. Air India has to be in touch with the government more often now than before," a senior ministry source said, requesting anonymity. Air India officials nowadays work four days from Mumbai, and one from Delhi.
This will be reversed to begin with, giving way to stationing most staff in the national capital, while whatever strength is required to run Mumbai operations would stay there, the official added The move is part of a larger move to monetise Air India's assets in India and abroad, beginning with leasing out of most of the 23-storey Nariman Point building.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-industry/transportation/airlines-/-aviation/air-india-may-shift-base-from-mumbai-to-delhi/articleshow/13911775.cms

Manchester Airport to take up fuel shortage issue with Essar Oil

Airport ran out of jet fuel on Wednesday
London, June 7:  
Manchester Airport officials said they would be looking into what went wrong, after the busy international airport in the north of England ran out of fuel supplies on Wednesday following problems with supplies from Essar Oil UK's Stanlow refinery in north west England.
A spokesperson for the airport said they would be taking the matter up with Essar, as well as the fuel supplier, the Manchester Airport Storage and Hydrant Company. While a disruption to fuel supplies had occurred in 2008, never before had the airport run short, the spokesperson said, coming at a particularly busy time for the airport, at the end of a four-day weekend to celebrate the Queen's Diamond Jubilee.
“It was certainly not ideal as it happened during the big bank holiday weekend.” They added, “We have had a direct fuel supply since the late 1960s and this is the first time this had happened.”
Supplies were affected from around 8.30 a.m. on Wednesday, with the airport running out of fuel completely around 5.15 p.m. The airport had been warned that supplies would be disrupted because of a “quality problem” with supplies due from Stanlow. It is understood that the disruption occurred following the discovery of problems with a single batch of fuel.
The busy airport typically uses 3 million litres of jet fuel a day – the equivalent of around 80 tanker loads. The majority of the fuel comes from the Essar refinery. The airport normally holds around 80 per cent of its usage in reserve to cover disruptions, but that figure had fallen to less than 50 per cent because of the extra traffic.
The airport spokesperson said that travel disruption had been kept to a minimum with some 13 flights delayed on Thursday and no cancellations, and that stocks had been replenished by 8.30 a.m. local time that day.
Jet fuel production was back to normal at Stanlow, Essar Energy had confirmed late on Wednesday.
Essar Energy completed the takeover of Royal Dutch Shell's Stanlow refinery in August last year, a move the company said at the time gave it the double advantage of a foothold in Europe's refining market, and the potential to bring product from Vadinar.
In addition to Manchester, it supplies Liverpool and East Midland's airports with fuel, though it is not their main supplier.
http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/todays-paper/tp-economy/article3502396.ece