Cabinet to take up proposal to allow 49% FDI by foreign airlines in Indian carriers

NEW DELHI: The government will make one more attempt to allow foreign airlines to buy stake in India carriers, a proposal that had been stuck due to opposition from MamataBanerjee'sTrinamool Congress.

The Union Cabinet could, as early as this week, take up a proposal to allow 49% FDI by foreign carriers such as Emirates and British Airways.

"The government is looking to push a set of reforms...FDI in aviation has been fast-tracked and could be taken up shortly," said a government official, adding that a cabinet note has already been circulated.

The decision is crucial to the aviation sector reeling under high debt, especially Vijay Mallya-owned Kingfisher that is finding going tough even after drastic reduction in capacity.

The three big airlines-Air India, Kingfisher and Jet Airway-reported combined accumulated losses of Rs 48,000 crore and have debt of nearly Rs 65,000 crore.

Sri Lankan Airlines explores viability of Vizag operations

They are likely to start by flying a 120-seater airfraft

In view of a large number of Sri Lankan employees working in Brandix and the opening up of the airport to international flights, a team of officials of Sri Lankan Airlines visited the city on Tuesday to explore the possibility of flying out of here.

Regional Manager of Indian Sub-Continent of Sri Lankan Airlines Lalith de Silva and Revenue Optimisation Manager of the airlines Dinesh Pathirana went around the city interacting with leading tour operators and persons from the hospitality industry. Visibly impressed by the view of the hills and the sea, the regional manager felt that this could be a good tourist destination to promote. As there are no direct international flights from the city, it is difficult to get the actual data of how many travellers are heading to international destinations, Dinesh Pathirana said.

Tour operators

He was keen to gather information from the tour operators on the tickets they were issuing and group tours they were organising to international destinations.

The Brandix India Apparel City flies special cargo flights from the city and it also has a large number of Sri Lankan employees, director of Vihar Hospitality Mantri Seshagiri told the team during an interaction. Also there are food processing units and pharma companies in the region which fly their cargo to international destinations, another director of Vihar Hospitality L. Kiran Kumar said. The team felt they could start their operations by flying the 120 seater aircraft as 60-70 per cent occupancy was sufficient to make it viable.

The airlines is likely to use the smaller aircraft of its subsidiary Air Lanka for its flights to the port city.

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·  The Brandix India Apparel City flies special cargo flights from the city

·  The team felt they could start their operations by flying a 120 seater aircraft

http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-andhrapradesh/article3887649.ece

Court notice to government, KIAL

Cancellation of consultancy agreement signed with STUP Consultants

The Kerala High Court on Tuesday issued notice to the State government and Kannur International Airport Limited (KIAL) on a writ petition filed by STUP Consultants Private Limited challenging KIAL’s action in cancelling the consultancy agreement signed with the company for the construction of the airport.

Justice T.R. Ramachandran Nair also directed the State government and KIAL to file an affidavit in response to the writ petition within two weeks.

When the petition came up for hearing, counsel for the petitioner pleaded for staying the cancellation order. However, Additional Advocate-General K.A. Jaleel opposed the plea of the petitioner and submitted that STUP had obtained the contract, suppressing the fact that the Punjab government had blacklisted the company. He said the relevant documents would have to be collected from the Punjab government.

STUP contended that no sufficient opportunity had been accorded for the company to explain its stand before the agreement was cancelled.

It was only given two days, including a Sunday, to reply to a show cause notice issued by KIAL. It would have explained about blacklisting of the company with the support of documents, had it got sufficient time. Therefore, there was violation of the principles of natural justice.

It argued that though the Punjab government had blacklisted the company in 2007, the government agencies in Punjab continued to award it various projects. In fact, it still enjoyed the status of an empanelled consultant. According to the petitioner, debarring the company from taking up any project was bad in law.

The agreement had been scrapped after KIAL found that the company obtained the contract after misrepresenting the fact relating to eligibility norms. The eligibility criteria prescribed for the selection of the contractor was that the bidders should not have been blacklisted, or should not have failed to perform any of its previous contracts.

http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-kerala/article3887485.ece

Flight returns due to engine snag

A Malayasian Airlines flight that took off from Chennai airport at 12.47 a.m. on Monday returned within half an hour after the aircraft developed an engine problem. Nearly 270 passengers in the plane were given accommodation in hotels in the city for the day. The flight will take off on Tuesday at 12.40 a.m.

http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-tamilnadu/article3887656.ece

Flight delayed

An Air India flight from Chennai to Kuwait via Goa carrying 133 passengers suffered an inordinate delay due to a technical snag, sources at the airport said. The flight took off four hours late at 10.30 p.m., and accommodated only the Kuwait passengers. The ones flying to Goa remained at the airport. “Since there had already been a delay, stopping in Goa would take more time. So, the Goa passengers were given accommodation in hotels,” said a source.

Thirty-eight passengers who were to go to Goa stayed behind in Chennai for about 14 hours. Later, on Tuesday, they were sent on a SpiceJet flight that left for Goa at 12.30 p.m., he added.

http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-tamilnadu/article3887215.ece

Flight service to Colombo to be operated as per schedule

Fears over the first full-fledged international flight from Madurai airport appear to be receding following assurances from SpiceJet, whose Colombo flight service was in doubt following the recent tension over the presence of Sri Lankans in Tamil Nadu. The Madurai-Colombo flight service was seen as the one that would herald international connectivity for Madurai and the southern districts.

The Sri Lankan Government had issued a travel advisory warning its citizens to stay out of Tamil Nadu following incidents such as the stoning of a convoy of Sri Lankan pilgrims near Thajavur. B.S.G. Musthafa, president of Travel Club, told The Hinduhere on Tuesday that the vice-president (Commercial) of SpiceJet Airways, V. Raja, visited Madurai on Monday and assured travel agents that the Madurai airport’s first full-fledged international flight service, Madurai-Colombo-Madurai, would be operated as per schedule.

He also said that the inaugural flights in both directions were almost fully booked. Later in the evening, he also met the District Collector Anshul Mishra and invited him for the function scheduled to mark the inaugural flight.

Mr. Musthafa also added that senior officials from Sri Lankan travel agencies would come to Madurai shortly to meet their counterparts in the Temple City and hold discussions for promoting tourism between Sri Lanka and Tamil Nadu. S. Rethinavelu, senior president of Tamil Nadu Chamber of Commerce and Industry, which is also in the forefront of the campaign for getting international connectivity to Madurai, said that the tension seemed to be subsidising in the past few days. The chamber was taking a trade delegation of 50 members in the first flight itself to Sri Lanka to meet their counterparts, officials and Ministers to further improve bilateral trade and investment between Sri Lanka and Tamil Nadu.

The delegation would fully proceed with the programmes planned. The businessmen would look not only at opportunities for export-import activities but also explore the possibility of starting joint ventures with the Sri Lankan companies, he added.

http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-tamilnadu/article3887350.ece

Air Asia announces increase in frequency to Malaysia

: Low cost carrier Air Asia has announced an increase in its frequencies on Tiruchi-Kuala Lumpur sector, effective October 15. The airline, which currently operates daily service on the route, would add four more flights a week.

The additional frequencies would be operated on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, taking the total number of flights operated by the airline on the sector to 11 a week.

The airline has also announced a special fare of Rs.4,700 from Tiruchi to Kuala Lumpur. “The additional frequencies and special fare offers an exciting opportunity for tourists to explore Malaysia. We are happy to provide this opportunity to our guests ahead of the holiday season. The services will not only serve the 1.5 lakh Indian nationals working in Malaysia but also the large number of Indian nationals around the region who could take advantage of Air Asia’s network and low fares,” said Rajkumar Paranthaman, Marketing Manager, Air Asia, in a press release.

Bookings to avail the promotional offer can be made at www.airasia.com between September 11 and 16 for the travel between January 3 and March 31, 2012.

http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-tamilnadu/article3887731.ece

Air India asked to implement guidelines for pilots, crew

New Delhi, Sept. 11:  

Air India has been asked to immediately implement the guidelines of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) and the Civil Aviation Requirement on Flight Duty Time Limitation (FDTL) for its pilots and crew members.

The non-implementation of the guidelines saw the average utilisation of pilots in Air India being limited. This direction to Air India will lead to optimum utilisation of its pilots and cabin crew and reduce the requirements of pilots and cabin crew for a given number of aircraft.

Interestingly, on Monday, the Indian Commercial Pilots Association (ICPA), the pilots association of erstwhile Indian, wrote to Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh seeking a meeting to explain their viewpoint on how many hours they should fly to make better use of aircraft.

A Ministry statement said that with the implementation of guidelines, the airline will be able to spare a significant number of pilots and cabin crew for additional aircraft that Air India is going to acquire up to 2015.

The decision to ask Air India to implement the guidelines comes after an analysis of the FDTL showed that Air India was lower in five of the six parameters. It is only when it comes to “rest period” that Air India is on par with the FDTL.

The FDTL basically deals with six parameters, including maximum daily flight duty period, maximum daily flight time, weekly/monthly/annual limitation of flying hours, rest period, staff on duty travel or position and number of landings.

“Line pilot’s FDTL is a mutually agreed set of rules incorporated in Air India operational manual and does not restrict a pilot from flying,” the ICPA letter states. It adds that the CAR series allows a pilot to fly 1,000 hours in 365 days where as the ICPA FDTL, allows a pilot to fly 960 hours in 365 days.

The letter points out that a pilot can fly 6.5 hours a day under the ICPA FDTL, which is 1.5 times higher than the requirement of 4.16.

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/todays-paper/tp-economy/article3886326.ece