03. March 2007


Date: 03. Mar. 2007
Flight services between Calcutta and Delhi were disrupted on Friday morning because of dense fog in the Capital.
Airport officials said Delhi-bound flights could not take off from Calcutta for several hours in the morning, resulting in delays throughout the day.
Among the affected airlines were Indian, Jet Airways, Air Sahara, Kingfisher, IndiGo, SpiceJet and Air Deccan.
An Indian flight was the first to take off for Delhi at 8.10 am, instead of its scheduled departure time at 7 am. An Air Sahara flight left at 8.30 am, instead of 6.15 am.
The afternoon flight of the airline left at 5 pm, instead of 2.40 pm, and the evening flight took off at 10.35 pm, two hours behind schedule.
The first flight from Delhi to arrive at Calcutta was of Jet Airways. It landed at 10.35 am, instead of its scheduled arrival time at 8.55 am. An Indian flight arrived at 12.15 pm, instead of 9 am.
An Air Sahara flight, scheduled to arrive at 9.10 am, landed at 11.10 am. The afternoon flight touched down at 7.20 pm, instead of 4.55 pm.
SpiceJet’s evening flight arrived two hours late, at 10.35 pm. The morning flight of the airline left on time as it flies via Guwahati. “It was stuck in Guwahati for some time,” said an airport official.
Source: http://www.telegraphindia.com


Date: 03. Mar. 2007
This is a tale of two auditors and their treatment of income and expenditure of Deccan Aviation Ltd, operator of budget carrier Air Deccan, and its impact on the airline’s financial results.
The story emerges from observations of the low-cost carrier’s two auditors (previous and current) posted on the BSE website.
Under one version, for the quarter ended December 31, 2006, Deccan Aviation posted a profit of Rs 13.32 crore. The other version says the airline suffered a loss of Rs 125.81 crore.
Simply put, if the previous auditor’s views on amortisation of training and pre-operative costs, subsidy on leased aircraft, credit inflow for spare/service/software, income on pledging of aircraft purchase rights, foreign exchange loss error and others are considered, then the net profit of Rs 9.64 crore reported by Deccan Aviation for the third-quarter of the current fiscal would have transformed into a loss Rs 125.81 crore — a whopping difference of Rs 135.45 crore
In contrast, the no-frill airline’s new auditor’s reading of the accounts would have boosted the profit by Rs 3.68 crore to Rs 13.32 crore.
For the six months ended December 31, the difference between the auditor’s numbers is Rs 261.65 crore with a wide gap in the loss figure of Rs 26 crore and Rs 293.65 crore, respectively, of the previous and the current auditors.
Interestingly, the new auditor’s losses for the 15 months ended June 30, 2006, of Rs 375.60 crore would have been higher than the previous auditor’s loss for the same period of Rs 340.55 crore.
If the current auditor’s higher profit would have been taken into consideration, then the budget carrier’s reserves, excluding revaluation reserves for the 15-month period (ended June 30, 2006) would have been Rs 64.87 crore as compared to the reported credit of Rs 125.95 crore.
Chartered accountants feel these kinds of wide difference in opinions are not very surprising in a sunrise sector. “Low-cost airlines being new in India, such difference in interpretation of activities can be subjective. Some may take the accounting standards in spirit and others in words,” said a chartered accountant.
Source: http://dnaindia.com


Date: 03. Mar. 2007
A day after the Union Cabinet cleared the proposal for merging the two state-owned carriers, Air India and Indian Airlines Limited, Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel on Friday said the technical and procedural formalities for the merger would begin immediately.
"One company with one name, one brand, one logo, one code and single financials is expected to be in place within the coming 16 weeks. This new airline, with about 112 aircraft with both international and domestic footprint, will set fresh benchmarks for efficiency and reliability, thus benefiting the civil aviation sector in the country, specially the travelling public," Mr. Patel told both Houses of Parliament.
He said the Government was committed to ensuring that all legitimate employee interests, including their current compensation and status, were protected.
"There will be no retrenchment and all employees will continue in the merged company. Besides, to keep the exercise as smooth as possible, the integration of manpower will be completed in a phased manner, on the basis of transparent and objective criteria. A well-defined grievance redress machinery will also be put in place."
The new firm to be created by merging the two carriers will be registered under the Companies Act within the next fortnight, official sources said. As the first step, a new company will be incorporated under Sections 391-394 of the Companies Act of 1956. The Government proposes to register the new airline firm as a hundred per cent government-owned public company, keeping in mind the Cabinet decision to maintain the public sector character of the merged entity.
However, the actual amalgamation and integration process will be carried out in phases over two years, especially to cater to the integration of the combined workforce of over 30,000.
"It is estimated that this decision would result in the net benefit of Rs.600 crore at the end of third year of merger," Mr. Patel said.
During the next week, the Minister is likely to hold talks with the managements of the two airlines and their employees' representatives in a bid to ensure a smooth and painless merger, sources said.
The merged entity will be comparable with UAE carrier Emirates, which has a fleet of 93 aircraft, Singapore Airlines with 118 planes and Malaysia Airlines 110. The new company will work on a model, under which separate strategic business units will be created to look after different streams such as passenger airline, cargo, low-cost carrier, Maintenance-Repair-Overhaul, engineering and catering.
Source: http://www.hindu.com