06. March 2007


Date: 06. Mar. 2007
With the government proposing to increase the charges on airlines operating at Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore airports during 7am-10am and 6pm-10pm, airlines are expected to pass on the hike to customers in the form a "primetime fee", a senior airline executive said.
The landing and takeoff charges, which are levied by the companies running the airports, are based on the weight of the aircraft and vary from Rs 14,000 to Rs 30,000.
"We are working on a clear system of disincentives for airlines operating during peak hours in the morning and evening and provide incentives for operations during non-peak timings," Chawla said.
The increased charges will be applicable evenly on low-cost and full-cost carriers, the secretary said.
Most private carriers have already imposed a congestion surcharge on their tickets, but state-owned Indian Airlines has not done so.
The hike in charges would "essentially be a short-term solution", the secretary said. "In the long run, we have to provide more facilities like additional runways and rapid-exit taxiways to overcome congestion, which should be in place by 2008.
It's a welcome move for decongesting Delhi and Mumbai. It comes with a cost that may be good for the aviation industry.
Whether it is passed on to the passenger will be decided by how the competition reacts," said Indian Airlines CMD V Trivedi.
Private carriers were sceptical. They feared that it might be difficult to shift to non-peak hours due to the heavy and "inelastic" demand during peak hours.
Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com


Date: 06. Mar. 2007
In an attempt to tide over congestion in major airports--Delhi,Mumbai and Bangalore- the government is planning to hike navigation and other airport charges paid by carriers during peak hours and reduce them for non-peak hours.
The move is expected to lead to a marginal increase in air fares for peak hours as carriers are expected to pass on the burden to passengers.
“We are working on a clear system of incentives and disincentives for airlines operating during three peak hours in the morning and four in the evening,” Civil Aviation secretary Ashok Chawla said.
He added airport and navigation charges could even be doubled during peak hours and halved between midnight and 5.00 am. Peak hours have been identified as 7am to 10am and 6pm to 10 pm.
“It’s something all budget carriers have been asking for. There should be differential tariffs. Most of our flights are during non-peak hours,” said Ajay Singh, director, SpiceJet.
Singh added navigation and landing charges accounted for 4-5 per cent of the total cost. “So if these rates go down by half, we won’t save more than Rs 50 on a Rs 2,500 ticket,” he added.
“The costs at airports are already high,” said Jeh Wadia, managing director of Mumbai-based budget carrier GoAir.
Source: http://www.business-standard.com


Date: 06. Mar. 2007
State-run carrier Air-India and US-based aircraft manufacturer Boeing launched the Boeing 737 NG simulator near the Santacruz airport in Mumbai today.
"The simulator is part of the $75 million dollar committment by Boeing for training as part of selling 68 airplanes to Air-India. The list price of a simulator is $14 million," Dinesh Keskar, senior vice president (commercial airplanes), Boeing, said. Boeing will also introduce simulators for B777 and B787 shortly.
Vasudevan Thulasidas, chairman, Air-India, said: "The simulator will bring down the cost of pilots going to Dubai or London for training. Hotel accomodation, daily allowances, time, flying up and down for simulator training will now be history."
He pointed out that Air-India's pilots will be getting training at a contract rate, and the simulator can also be used to train the pilots of other airlines.
Thulasidas said Air-India and Boeing are working out the modalities of a joint venture for a dedicated simulator training venture.
The 737 Next Generation is Boeing’s latest family of single-aisle airliners, comprising the 737-600, 737-700, 737-800 and 737-900.
The 737NG full-motion simulator is one of the newest and most advanced flight simulators in the world, with state-of-the-art daylight, dusk and night graphics.
Source: http://www.businesswireindia.com


Date: 06. Mar. 2007
The recently merged Air India-Indian entity will soon be promoting a new domestic low-cost carrier (LCC) “to take on competition from other airlines within a years’ time.” An Air India official equated the project to plugging into a large power house and drawing energy from all sources to create a synergy which will galvanise passenger load in favour of the new entity.
Sources say the carrier will adopt the hub-spoke concept, where airport infrastructure at the disposal of the carrier will be leveraged to process passengers at ‘hub’ airports, and then they will be sent on secondary flights to ‘spoke’ airports, near their final destinations. Though the project is in its early stages, it is said that the new service will plug the current international LCC network — Air India Express — to the domestic one in times to come.
An Air India official says, “The international low cost carrier will be blended with domestic low cost carrier. There will be a plugging of the domestic network with the international network. The required changes, like the rescheduling of the flight timings or avoiding duplication in the flight network, will be made to ensure everything is in sync with the international flights.”
Also, what is in offing is the advantage of seamlessly transferring passengers from the point of origin to the final destination. For this purpose secondary airports in cities like Amritsar, Nagpur, Mangalore would be put to optimum use.
Passengers travelling on international flights will have the advantage of filling in through check cards at the beginning of their journey, which they can carry through to the international destination. Importantly, domestic flights will be allowed to land on the international airport, thereby enabling international passengers to deplane and immediately board their forward flights.
As per schedule, most of LCC flights in the domestic circuit will be flying late in the evening, therefore, the recently proposed slashing of the parking and landing charges during the non-peak hours would work out in their favour. Indian has ordered 43 new Airbus aircraft. The deliveries will be completed by 2009.
Source: http://www.dnaindia.com