DGCA grounds erring pilot, but Air India lets him fly

NEW DELHI: Shockers from the Mumbai landing-sans-ATC-nod incident don't seem to end. It has now emerged that the captain — who was grounded by the directorate general of civil aviation (DGCA) on Friday afternoon for the unauthorized landing in Mumbai earlier that morning — operated yet another return flight from Mumbai a day later!
The blatant disregard of DGCA's grounding order happened when the captain operated a Mumbai-Bangalore-Mumbai (AI 603) flight on Saturday morning. The airline took him off flying duty only after he returned to Mumbai, when TOI had frontpaged the story on the incident and the fact that the pilots involved in that had been de-rostered.
 A senior DGCA official said: "This is unacceptable and we will probe how did the airline let a grounded captain operate flights."
 An AI spokesman said: "The DGCA communication had not reached us till the time the captain operated the Mumbai-Bangalore-Mumbai flight on Saturday. After returning to Mumbai, the captain met DGCA officials and we got to know of his grounding order. He was then de-rostered (taken off flying duty)." Interestingly the airline let the grounded captain to operate the return Bangalore-Mumbai flight also, by when the news of his de-rostering order had become public.
 Airline sources indicated how DGCA directives for de-rostering licenced staffers — pilots, engineers and cabin crew — are taken lightly. "This incident of pilots landing without ATC clearance happened on Friday morning and the DGCA action came happened by late afternoon. But till we get the grounding order in writing, why should we act just on hearsay?" said an official.
 CVR may hold key
 The real reason for delayed response by airlines, however, may be completely different. Cockpit voice recorders (CVR) have a recording loop of three hours. Which means, they retain only last three flying hours' conversation in the cockpit by recording over previous statements in a loop.
 "CVRs contain exactly what was happening inside cockpits when any incident happens. Not reporting an incident on time means the plane's CVR will not be seized and the plane will go for other flights, erasing the conversation inside the cockpit at the time when the incident happened. That's why all airlines delay reporting incidents and taking action against their pilots," said an industry veteran who has taken part in many investigations.
http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2013-04-15/india/38555204_1_dgca-action-pilots-captain

 

E-ticket fraud: 3 held

The Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) personnel on Saturday nabbed three foreigners who used forged e-tickets to enter the departure terminal of the Kochi international airport.
British national John Christopher, 60, his daughter, 17, and her friend, also 17, were the arrested. The three came to Kochi International airport to see off their friend, a Malaysian national who was leaving for Kuala Lumpur on Air Asia flight AK9706, scheduled for 9.25 pm on Friday.
John took out a photocopy of their friend’s e-ticket and added their names to it. The police said that nobody suspected the three while they went inside, but when they returned, they were arrested. Police officials said the arrests took place at 1 am Saturday. The three were taken to the Aluva Judicial First Class Magistrate Court for further legal formalities
http://newindianexpress.com/states/kerala/E-ticket-fraud-3-held/2013/04/14/article1544439.ece
 

AirAsia Expedia to take localisation route to connect to more people

She describes herself as ‘disruptive’, and wants her company to do exactly that in the Indian travel market. Kathleen Tan, a trusted lieutenant of another famously disruptive entrepreneur – Malaysian budget airline AirAsia’s promoter Tony Fernandes — was a member of AirAsia’s leadership team for nine years, responsible for topline performance and overseeing as many as 15 departments.
This January, she was appointed Chief Executive Officer of AirAsia Expedia, a 50:50 joint venture between AirAsia and online travel portal Expedia.
 Business Line met Kathleen Tan to get her views on the Indian travel market, her strategy for selling AirAsia in India, and her plan to double the headcount in Indian operations to 600 in a year or so. Excerpts:
 You took over AirAsia Expedia at a time when AirAsia is preparing to launch its joint airline venture in India. What is your view on the Indian market?
 My role as the new CEO is to build and grow the Expedia brand in Asia, and India is a priority for me. I see more people travelling to South-East Asia, so we can tap from our market to bring more people coming into India. Expedia sells large number of hotels. We have a lot of inventory. We have over 400 airlines and 200,000 hotels globally. We want to become the preferred choice of Indian travellers planning to book overseas. We have 18,000 deals every day to fly or book hotels anywhere.
The perception is that foreign brands are very expensive, that is not true. We also have domestic hotels in India. We want to localise the brand, bring more local content, so that we can connect more people.
 What will be the specific strategy for India?
Localisation. Not a foreign brand, where you do translation. The strategy is we want more Asians to book on Expedia. It has a unique competitive edge. It is a one-stop shopping portal -- you have flights, hotels, tours and cars. In each local Asian city, we want to have a deeper campaign. We have a mobile app and it is getting improved.
 You said you have 280,000 people following you on the Facebook. How many of them do you hope to convert into actual users? What are the growth numbers you are looking at?
 We are seeing double-digit growth on our Web site. In India, people do not mind booking hotels on standalone basis -- we saw triple digit growth in standalone hotel bookings in the last few months. Now the trend is shifting. Indian people are becoming more confident. We see people coming to our Web site to buy packages. So, we are changing people's behaviour. The best thing on our Web site is that we have low-cost inventory due to our joint venture. We can get AirAsia’s lowest fare that you see on AirAsia Web site. I come from AirAsia, so I am the person in charge for giving low fare for the entire group. Coming from Air Asia, we do things differently. In fact, in Japan, we just did a ‘One Yen’ deal. It was a two-day campaign and was driving everyone mad. We are disruptors, I am the disruptor and I am going to do things which nobody has ever done.
 For example, in India, people are just marketing mostly Bangkok, Phukhet, Singapore. Everyone is doing the same. I want to market Bali, Lombok (Indonesia), Saba (Netherland), Krabi (Thailand) and cities like that. We know so much about travel. We are contracting teams in Thailand, Japan and Indonesia. I am challenging my team to do something which no one has done.
 But here, the problem is that AirAsia is currently not connected to two key cities, Delhi and Mumbai.
 I do not sell AirAsia only. We have so many airlines. We sell many low-cost airlines
 Any new scheme for the Indian market?
Just wait. We launched 10,000 free rooms scheme and it was very successful. Throughout the summer, you will see lot of such market disruptive schemes.
Is there a strategy planned for when AirAsia’s new venture starts flying? Yes there will be, as Expedia will have exclusive content about it. Once the plan (of AirAsia) is finalised, we will be the first to know. We also want to bring in another portal called AirAsiaGo. So, you will have two brands for two different classes of people.
 Under the current regulation, AirAsia’s new venture in India will have to wait for five years to fly abroad. So, don’t you think providing cheaper international travel package will be difficult, going by the domestic fare scenario?
 AirAsia has lot of surprises and India is just going to see them. First when you will have new players, fares are bound to come down in the domestic market. Secondly, though I cannot say, but who knows whether in five years, the regulation is going to remain there or change.
http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/companies/airasia-expedia-to-take-localisation-route-to-connect-to-more-poeple/article4614553.ece

Walk in to fly high

It’s only 7-30 a.m. But not too early for a pretty girl in a black short skirt and a white shirt who steps out of a Karnataka-registered Honda City that comes to a screeching halt in front of Chinmaya Heritage Centre in central Chennai.
 She, along with a whole lot of young men and women, is to attend an interview with AirAsia India to become a flight attendant.
 And, in an hour, the narrow street off Harrington Road in Chetpet is swamped by young aspirants who have come rushing to the centre with the hopes of flying high with the airline. The airline is expected to commence its domestic operations in September.
 The hot and humid day did not prevent the men from wearing glossy suits in various colours that caught the attention of passers-by. Many girls were busy touching up their make-up. A number of candidates came directly from the airport or railway station, lugging along their trolleys. A police patrol was stationed outside the venue to regulate the traffic.
 For 100 vacancies
The interview started at 9 a.m, and by 11 a.m. nearly 1,000 candidates had registered. By 3 p.m., the tally had increased to 3,500 for 100 vacancies.
 “We have never in our history seen such an overwhelming response,” said Suhaila Hassan, AirAsia’s group head flight attendant.
 The first screening was checking the height where a number of candidates failed. “They [the airline] are too rigid,” an agitated girl rejected in the first round told her father waiting outside the venue. The women need to be a minimum 160 cm to a maximum 170 cm barefooted, while the men need to be in the 170-180 cm tall.
In round two, the candidates were given 60 seconds to impress jury members, who were watching closely at how they smiled, their physical appearance, body language and walk. The jury included Bo Lingam, Chief Operating Officer of AirAsia Group.
 And, finally, out of the 3,500 candidates who came in, only 200 made it to the final interview, set for Sunday.
 Said Tiren Karki, 23, from Mumbai who was one of those selected on the first day, “I am quite excited. I have heard a lot about the brand.”
 A.R. Remya, 23, from Kerala, who also made it to the final round, hopes to fly with the airline leaving behind a job with a life insurance company as a customer care executive.
 To be headquartered in Chennai, AirAsia India will be a budget airline with AirAsia, the Tata Group and Telestra Tradeplace as joint venture partners. The airline has also started hiring pilots and flight officers.
 September launch
“With the way things are going, it looks like AirAsia India will launch its operations in September. However, this is provided we get all the regulatory approvals,” said Bo Lingam, who led a 14-member team for the hiring.
http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/industry-and-economy/logistics/walk-in-to-fly-high/article4614581.ece
 

Bali jet lands in sea, all flyers safe

All 108 passengers and crew miraculously survived on Saturday when a Lion Air Boeing 737 missed the runway on the balmy Indonesian resort island of Bali and landed in the sea
 A Lion Air passenger plane with 108 people on board crashed into the sea off the Indonesia’s resort island of Bali on landing at Ngurah Rai International Airport, according to the airport’s operator. No deaths were reported.
 The Boeing 737, which served the Bandung to Bali route, broke in two and all passengers were evacuated, with 53 people suffering light injuries, Farid Indra Nugraha, the corporate secretary of PT Angkasa Pura I, said by phone today.
 TVOne showed pictures of the plane with its fuselage damaged. The weather was “visually clear” when the accident happened, Edward Sirait, the commercial director of Jakarta—based PT Lion Mentari Airlines, which operates the aircraft, told the television station. There were were 95 adults, five children, one infant and seven crew onboard, Sirait said.
 “From the information that we have the plane was broken into two,” Sirait said in an telephone interview with TVOne. “Visually it is a total loss, which means we cannot use the aircraft again.”
 Lion Air, Indonesia’s biggest private carrier, is considering partnerships in Thailand, Myanmar, and Vietnam, Sirait said in an interview April 1.

The company has placed orders of more than $45 billion with Airbus SAS and Boeing Co. in the past two years and has the world’s biggest order backlog for 559 narrow-body aircraft. It aims to have 1,000 planes in 10 years, according to Sirait.
http://www.business-standard.com/article/international/lion-air-jet-crashes-into-sea-in-bali-45-hurt-113041300150_1.html
 

Boeing faces last hurdle for Dreamliner take-off

Boeing Co's effort to get its troubled 787 Dreamliner back in the air is headed for a challenging final hurdle: It needs approval from the US agency that's already been burned by signing off on the plane's safety.
 The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is under scrutiny for clearing the 787 in 2007, only to reverse itself after lithium-ion batteries overheated on two jets. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, whose agency includes the FAA, declared the planes safe days before they were ordered parked. FAA officials will face the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) this month to explain their initial decision.
 Boeing needs the FAA to end a January 16 grounding order so deliveries can resume from an order book valued at almost $190 billion. Politics, not just safety, will weigh on the agency as it reviews the Dreamliner's battery redesign and test-flight data, said John McGraw, an aerospace consultant.
 Boeing has to restart deliveries to pare a backlog of about 800 planes, with a list price starting at $206.8 million. The Chicago-based planemaker has sent teams to Japan, where ANA Holdings Inc and Japan Airlines Co fly almost half of the 49 planes in service, to prepare to install new battery units.
 'Really fast'
 "This will move really fast in terms of being able to get the airplanes back into the air" once the FAA approves the reworked batteries, Boeing Commercial Airplanes President Ray Conner said at a conference last month.
 Regulators won't be rushed, according to LaHood, who said at an April 5 conference in Washington that Boeing must convince the FAA that the battery fix is safe before flights can resume. The 787 may be his last major decision as he prepares to leave after four years on the job. "We want to get it right," LaHood said. "We want to make sure that everything's done correctly. We want to be able to assure the flying public that these planes are safe."
 Boeing completed certification tests that day for the new battery system, flying a 787 with two FAA officials aboard after a series of ground trials.
 "We are engaged with the FAA to reply to additional requests and continue dialogue to ensure we have met all of their expectations," Marc Birtel, a Boeing spokesman, said yesterday in an email response to questions. He declined to comment on the submission of test results, which Boeing said would be turned in to the agency "in the coming days."The design and certification of the cells for the Dreamliner in 2007, including the FAA's role, will be the focus of a two-day NTSB hearing starting April 23. The batteries were certified under "special conditions," which are rules the FAA creates for new technology.
 Today's hearing
 At another NTSB hearing today, on the use of lithium-ion batteries in transportation, Chairman Debbie Hersman said the cells have an inherent risk, like gasoline in automobiles.
 Dan Doughty, president of Battery Safety Consulting Inc in Albuquerque, New Mexico, said those hazards are dwindling as the technology matures.
 Next week, the Dreamliner probably will come up when the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee holds a hearing to discuss the FAA's progress on safety initiatives.
 LaHood, 67, a former seven-term Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Illinois, has played a prominent role since the Dreamliner's batteries came under scrutiny with a Jan. 7 fire on a Japan Airlines 787.
 At a January 11 news conference, he and FAA chief Michael Huerta declared the plane safe. Less than a week afterward, an ANA 787's battery began smouldering and spewing vapour above Japan, prompting an emergency landing and then the grounding.
 LaHood's involvement in the 787 decision escalates pressure on the FAA, said John Nance, a Seattle-based aviation-safety consultant and former commercial pilot.
http://www.business-standard.com/article/international/boeing-faces-last-hurdle-for-dreamliner-take-off-113041200021_1.html

Take off shoes, belts, jewellery for airport security check

New Delhi: Flying out of Delhi? You may soon be asked to take off your shoes and belts, and jewellery if you are wearing, at the security check counters of the IGI Airport.
The Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) is in the process of putting in place tighter security check norms like this, in line with those in the US and Europe, following higher threat perception, official sources said.
However, it may take a few more weeks as the required technology, like sophisticated door-frame metal detectors, is still not in place at all counters of the airport, they said.
If shoes, clothing items or other accessories containing metal set off an alarm, the security screener would insist on further checks, including pat-down frisking.
The sources, however, discounted the possibility of further delays the tighter security screening would cause by adding to the time by which a passenger can get into the aircraft.
They said the metal detectors would allow passengers not having any metal on their person to pass through without a pat-down.
Currently, its takes around two to three minutes for the Central Industrial Security Forces (CISF) personnel to clear a person during the security check but with implementation of the new proposal, this is likely to increase to 5-7 minutes, an airline official said.
BCAS had recently carried out a trial run of the system at Terminal 1D to access the problems that may crop up when the system is put in place, but the official sources said the response was not good as proper infrastructure was lacking.
In the US and Europe, passengers are required to take off their shoes, belts, all metallic objects, mobile phones and other electronic items in a separate tray before passing through the metal detectors.
Similarly, the fliers here would soon have to put all their belongings and cabin baggage in a tray along with the footwear when they pass through the metal detector.
http://www.deccanchronicle.com/130412/news-current-affairs/article/take-shoes-belts-jewellery-airport-security-check

UAE pact takes off on Etihad Airways' investment in Jet, FM to travel to Abu Dhabi to discuss treaty

BERLIN: India has put the proposed bilateral investment treaty with the UAE on fast-track to clear the way for Etihad Airways' investment in domestic carrier Jet Airways, separating it from the general review of such investment protection treaties being carried out by the finance ministry.
"The UAE has been very insistent on the finalisation of a Bilateral Investment Promotion Agreement (BIPA) before investments can come. We have had talks in view of the proposed investments in the aviation sector and we have now decided to go ahead with the Bilateral Investment Promotion Agreement separately," External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid told ET.
 Finance Minister P Chidambaram is scheduled to travel to Abu Dhabi to discuss the pact.
 The UAE wants to tread with caution as several Gulf investors have faced problems in the past with their India plans. Telecom major Etisalat was forced to close its India operations after the Supreme Court cancelled several mobile permits last year in the 2G spectrum case. Etisalat had a joint venture with the DB Group for its telecom foray in India.
 Etihad Airways' purchase of a stake in Jet has been delayed with Abu Dhabi wanting assurance for its investors in the form of a bilateral investment pact.
 Treading Cautiously on BIPAs
 But the bilateral pact with the UAE has been delayed as New Delhi has decided to re-negotiate all 82 bilateral investment treaties to safeguard its interests, after it got notices from as many as 17 foreign investors.
 The government has formed a secretaries' group that will provide a detailed road map for re-negotiation. But, New Delhi does not want this review to come in the way of fresh investments, and has, therefore, decided to formalise the bilateral pact with the UAE on a standalone basis.
 India is eyeing stable and long-term funds to finance its current account deficit, which widened to a record high of 6.7% of GDP in the third quarter of 2012-13. Chidambaram, who has already held road shows in Japan, Singapore and Hong Kong, will be travelling to Toronto, New York and Washington to woo investors.
BIPAs seek to promote bilateral investment flows by assuring fair and equitable treatment to investments on post-establishment basis through reciprocal provisions like national treatment, most-favoured-nation treatment and mechanism for dispute resolution.
 Etihad is eyeing a 24% stake in Jet. It had started talks for an equity stake in Jet last year after India relaxed ownership rules and allowed foreign airlines to invest up to 49% in local carriers.
 The Etihad-Jet deal is expected to inject much-needed funds into Jet and help Etihad expand its reach in the Indian aviation sector. The Gulf carrier paid Jet $70 million for its slots at London's Heathrow airport earlier this month and the two already have a code-share agreement.
http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2013-04-13/news/38511382_1_etihad-airways-bilateral-investment-promotion-agreement-jet-airways