02. March 2007
LCCs clamour for low-cost ground handling facilities
Date: 02. Mar. 2007
Objecting to what are believed to be very high ground handling rates charged by public sector enterprises at the Hindustan Aeronautic Ltd (HAL) airport in Bangalore, four carriers GoAir, SpiceJet, Indigo Airlines and Paramount Airways, have written to the HAL chairman requesting setting up self handling facilities.
According to the letter, a copy of which is available with FE, the ground handling rates charged by the HAL-Air India joint working group at Bangalore appear to be very high. The rate for per turn charge and the pushback charge of a single aircraft is around Rs 18,000 which is thrice the cost that an airline incurs on either self handling or outsourcing the work to other private players at other airports across the country.
The letter also points out that full service carriers are allowed to self handle at the HAL airport are while the low cost airlines subject to the high rate set by the HAL-Air India joint working group, are the new low fare carriers.
The four carriers have thus requested to be either allowed "self handling", or allow two or three ground handlers to "compete in service and cost for their business".
“We only want and expect a level playing field for all carriers,” the letter stated.
The new ground handling policy has already become a bone of contention between the government and the private sector carriers. Airlines like Jet Airways and Air Sahara (with more than 2000 personnel) who have been doing their own ground handling and already have a huge set up at the major airports have asked the government to allow them to continue to do self handling at the airports. According to the new policy, three agents will undertake ground handling at the metropolitan airports i.e . at New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Bangalore and Hyderabad.
The three agents are the respective airport operator (AAI or other operators as the case may be) itself or its joint venture (JV), subsidiary companies of Air India or Indian Airlines or their joint ventures specialised in ground handling services (third party handling will also be permitted to these subsidiaries or their JVs on the basis of revenue sharing with airport operator) and any other ground handling service providers selected through competitive bidding on revenue sharing basis by the airport operator subject to security clearance by the government and observance of performance standards as may be laid down by the airport operator.
Source: http://www.financialexpress.com
GoAir passengers grounded for 19 hours due to snag
Date: 02. Mar. 2007
About 120 Delhi-bound passengers of budget airline GoAir were stranded overnight Friday for around 19 hours at the city airport due to inordinate delays, bad weather and flight cancellation.
In a belated response to day-long enquiries about the harrowing incident, GoAir admitted in a written statement that it had made alternate arrangements for all passengers on board G8-284 to reach Delhi after it was forced to cancel its flight due to snag and absence of crew.
'This is one of the rare incidents with GoAir, as passengers' safety is of utmost importance to us. The flight to Delhi had to be re-scheduled from the original STD (scheduled time departure) of 21:30 Thursday to 00:30 Friday.
'Due to operational reasons (read snag), the departure was further delayed by an hour. Though the flight took off at 01:40, it had to return (to Bangalore) due to fog and zero visibility at the Delhi airport,' a company spokesperson said in the statement.
After the flight landed at Bangalore airport in the wee hours (03:35), some of the passengers refused to deplane. Even as the airline staff waited for the fog to clear at Delhi and take-off after dawn, the crew got down from the aircraft as it crossed the flight duty time limitation (FDTL) by then.
Instead of waiting for the new team of crew to land from Mumbai, the airline cancelled its flight and made alternate arrangements to fly about 80 of the stranded passengers in Delhi-bound flights of other airlines, including Indian by 16:00.
Though the airline's managing director Jay Wadia apologised to the passengers for the inconvenience, a company official said the airline had refunded the fare for those who cancelled the ticket.
One of the passengers, who finally managed to board SpiceJet for Delhi, said the airline (GoAir) was callous in taking care of them and kept them in the dark over the reasons for such long delays and flight cancellation.
'We were stranded in the aircraft for over 15-16 hours without water and food. After the crew got down at around four or five in the morning, no airline official from the ground staff was available at the airport terminal or on the tarmac to explain the reasons for the delay and cancellation later,' an aggrieved passenger told IANS on anonymity.
Source: http://www.indiaprwire.com
Kingfisher to start flights to Lakshadweep
Date: 02. Mar. 2007
Kingfisher Airlines will launch flights to Lakshadweep, the first by any private carrier, from tomorrow.
The Bangalore-Kochi-Agatti flight will operate thrice a week - Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, airport sources said.
The airline would use a 42-seater aircraft for operating the service. The first flight will be landing at Agatti at 1.30 pm tomorrow, the sources said.
Source: http://www.hindu.com
