New Delhi, Mar 4:
Air India is hopeful of getting its six Boeing 787
(Dreamliner) aircraft back in the air by the middle of April this year,
aviation industry sources indicated.
The State-owned airline had grounded the six newest
aircraft in its fleet on January 17, following a directive from the US
regulator, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
This follows a recent meeting in the US attended by
regulators of the countries that were operating the aircraft, airline officials
and FAA officials.
The meeting was informed that a ‘permanent fix’ to the
problem with the lithium-ion batteries was likely to be in place by March-end.
When in operation, the aircraft was earning daily revenue
of around Rs 2 crore for the airline.
The re-induction of the aircraft will be good news for
the airline, which has maintained that Boeing 787 will help its turn around its
financial fortunes.
The airline has been reporting losses since the past few
years.
Ajit Singh, Civil Aviation Minister, told Parliament that
the provisional loss incurred by Air India during 2011-12 was about Rs 7,853.94
crore.
The cumulative loss suffered by it since April 1, 2007
till March 31, 2012 was about Rs 28,000 crore, he added.
IndiGo benefits from slots vacated by Kingfisher
New Delhi, March 4:
Delhi-based low cost airline IndiGo is the major
beneficiary of the Government taking away slots from the now non-functional
Kingfisher Airlines and distributing them to domestic airlines at airports run
by the state-owned Airports Authority of India (AAI).
IndiGo has been given four slots – three in Chennai and
one in Pune – of the 11 slots which were earlier used by Kingfisher Airlines to
operate flights from AAI-owned airports.
A slot is defined as the scheduled time of arrival or
departure made available at an airport to an airline for operating regular
flights.
Air India has been provided two slots and Jet Airways and
SpiceJet one each from those held by Kingfisher Airlines at Chennai airport. At
Pune airport, all the four airlines have been given one slot each that were
earlier used by Kingfisher.
Kingfisher was allocated 580 slots of which 331 slots
were in Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore airports in winter schedule 2013 which ends
on March 28. Globally airlines follow a winter and a summer schedule.
Domestic airlines have also asked for slots in Mumbai and
Bangalore airports.
These two airports are run by a consortium headed by GVK.
A source at Bangalore International Airport Ltd said the slots taken from
Kingfisher Airlines were distributed across various airlines. The source
however said the slot determination takes place on a quarter-to-quarter basis
and it is difficult to give exact slot details across airlines.
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