www.uninews.com 

‘Airlines to take flight in a big way’ 

Vadodara, August 30 (UNI):

NOTED businessman-turned-executive Pervez Damania was in the city on Wednesday to inaugurate the Flying Cats Air Hostess Academy on Wednesday. On the occasion, Damania, the executive director for Kingfisher Airlines and chairman of the advisory panel for Flying Cats, spoke to the media about changing trends in in the aviation industry.

Damania said that the aviation industry in India was growing by leaps and bounds and was arguably among the fastest-growing in the world, with a growth rate of about 25 per cent. ‘‘And with more new airlines coming into the Indian market in the near future, aviation in India is definitely on the rise,’’ he said. When asked about the poor frequency and the fact that only two airlines (Jet Airways and Indian Airlines) operate in Vadodara, Damania said that the future is bright for smaller cities like Vadodara. He added that the Indian Government was very strict about the avation industry as all airlines which procure new aircraft have to mention where the planes will be parked in advance. According to him, airlines have to start using parking space available in the smaller cities, thus increasing the connectivity in such cities.

 
He said, ‘‘The fact is there is no space for parking aircraft in cities like Mumbai and Delhi. Bangalore is a smaller airport and is completely saturated. It is not a matter of choice for the airlines, if they want operating licenses they have to start looking for cities like Baroda,’’ he said. When asked about whether alcohol or mild alcohol like beer should be allowed on domestic airlines, Damania candidly said, ‘‘In my opinion, they should. What is wrong with it?’’

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2006/20060901/main5.htm

Indicted official made A-I safety chief
T.R. Ramachandran
Tribune News Service

All this, after the CMD instituted a three-member inquiry committee headed by the then Director (Engineering), V.K. Mehra, who has since retired, to probe the charges of senior executive pilots that Captain Hathi was allegedly indulging in ad-hocism and blatant violation of the CAR and guidelines mandated by the DGCA, thus posing a serious threat to the travelling public.

The committee found several aspects pertaining to organisational matters and personnel issues in respect of Capt M.K. Hathi to be true. The committee report said seniority and experience was thrown to the winds in the appointment of Capt Pushpinder Singh, Chief of Operations of Air India Express.

It found perplexing that Captain Hathi could not find “anybody in 50 commanders senior to Capt Pushpinder Singh. Similarly, the positions of Chief of Air Safety and Chief of Training have been filled by very junior commanders.”

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Indian offers big discounts for SME

Bangalore, Sep 1 (UNI)

With growing competition in the civil aviation sector forcing domestic airliners plan innovative and attractive schemes to woo flyers, national carrier Indian today announced a ’SME’ discount to Small and Medium Enterprises to outdo competition.

Indian had tied-up with American Express to offer big benefits to SMEs possessing American Express Corporate Card. As per the scheme, valid from today to January 31, 2007, corporate or charge card holders in the SME segment would get attractive discounts and prizes for travel on domestic and international flights of Indian.

In addition to this discount would be the ’Deep Discounted Fares’ of up to 60 per cent announced every month on select sectors/flights operating on domestic sectors, Indian said in a release here today.

Based on the volume of business generated during the offer period, Indian would offer 60 free tickets for travel on its network to winners after the scheme closed.

The SME discount was available on tickets purchased in Indian Rupee or Dollar for travel on domestic and international sectors. Easy Fares under K, T and V classes on domestic sectors have also been brought under the scheme’s ambit. Cardholders would be entitled to ten per cent discount on Economy class full fare ticket and 15 per cent discount on an Executive class full fare ticket for domestic sectors. Similarly, on international sectors, ten per cent and 15 per cent discount was available on carrier fares, wherever applicable, in Economy and Business class respectively. Easy Fares under K, T and V classes on domestic sectors would attract a three per cent discount, the release said.

http://www.cybernoon.com/DisplayArticle.asp?section=fromthepress&subsection=inbombay&xfile=September2006_inbombay_standard10692
‘Weight and watch’, obese air hostess tells Air India
 
BY A SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT | Saturday, September 02, 2006 11:33:30 IST
Claims victimisation after being assigned mundane ground duty

  
Despite her ambitions to take flight, high up in the skies, her wings have been clipped.
Jennifer Chavan, an air hostess with Air India has come to Bombay High Court as the national flier has stopped her from flying a second time within two years, asking her instead to do mundane ground work. She claims that what surprises her most is that she has not been referred to a dietician or obesity specialist though the reason for her grounding is her being overweight.
Since 2002, Jennifer who was 53 years of age then had been deputed to the desk than to flying. She was first grounded in 2003 since she had put on more weight than what acceptable of an airhostess. This did not pass muster with Chavan who apart from being glamorous enough to be an airhostess, the hours spent in air gave her additional flying allowance, thus making her pay packet bulkier. The distressed lady got back into shape after which she was allowed to fly.
However, on Sep14, 2004, Jennifer was again grounded on the same grounds (obesity). She was sent to the medical board which said she could not fly. She rushed to High Court challenging the order passed by AI. Her petition was disposed of but yesterday a notice of motion was moved before the court in which Jennifer’s contention is she was not subjected to medical test before being grounded. When the medical examination was conducted, it was devoid of specific test on obesity.
Counsel for Air India, J S Saluja, argued that as per rules after the age of air hostesses has been increased to 58 years,  every airhostess over 35 years of age has to undergo the Body Mass Index (BMI) test once a year, after 45 years in every three months and after 55 years  every month. The division bench of Bombay High Court yesterday asked Air India to get the ‘BMI’ test done for petitioner at Nanavati Hospital which is on the panel of government-approved hospitals on September 2 (today) after which suitable action will be taken.

                                                                          ***

http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3786601a12,00.html
Indians stranded by axed flights
05 September 2006 
By MICHAEL FIELD

Air New Zealand's axing of its Singapore services has left about 300 people facing other convoluted and expensive flights – or staying home.

Most of those caught are migrant Indians but Air New Zealand says it will not take responsibility for their travel arrangements.

The decision has hit a potentially lucrative market serving the growing Indian population in New Zealand.

Auckland financial adviser Nishith Vyas, who faces extra costs to go to Bombay with a family of four, said Indians around the country were "pretty disgusted".

"I cannot speak on behalf of the migrant population at large, but I think they will be really wary about going with Air New Zealand in the future – we'll go with the alternatives, Qantas, Emirates. Whatever."

In February Air New Zealand signed an agreement with Jet Airways, a publicly listed 13-year-old carrier that dominates India's domestic market and also flies to London and Singapore.

The deal allowed people to buy an Auckland-to-Mumbai ticket over the summer holidays with Air New Zealand flying passengers to Singapore and Jet flying on to Mumbai.

But on July 12 Air New Zealand announced it was quitting the Singapore route from October 1. On August 10 Jet Airways and Qantas signed a code-share agreement between Australia and India.

Most of Air New Zealand's 4000 passengers have been moved to fellow Star Alliance carrier Singapore Airlines, while Jet passengers have been left to make their own arrangements.

Auckland's World Aviation Systems, Jet's sales agent, launched the fare in February and general manager Ramon Neilson said it had been "left quite high and dry".

"After all, Air New Zealand operated to Singapore for 40 years – we weren't anticipating them pulling out."

The sudden cancellation had been received with dismay in the Indian community.

"Aggravation would be an understatement.

"I can sympathise with the passengers because it has taken longer to come up with alternatives, although I can assure you it hasn't been for want of trying."

Mr Neilson said the airline was trying to find other options but most involved up to five days of travelling, via Sydney and on three different airlines.

Many Indians, unless they were New Zealand passport holders, would require visas to transit Australia.

Air New Zealand commercial general manager Gus Gilmore said the carrier had rebooked customers on other airlines.

"Other airlines which had been using our services to carry their customers between New Zealand and Singapore were advised to rebook their customers as it is their responsibility to do so – it is not the responsibility of Air New Zealand," Mr Gilmore said.

"Unfortunately not all customers of Jet Airways have been rebooked. These people have Jet Airways tickets and Air New Zealand understands that their New Zealand-based sales agent, World Aviation Systems, is endeavouring to find suitable alternative arrangements."

Mr Gilmore said the contract of carriage was between the ticketing airline and the person travelling.

"If the ticket issued includes travel with another airline there is no contract of carriage with that airline till such time as the person checks in for their flight."

Mr Vyas said those with young children found the prospect of transiting Sydney and Singapore too trying and were forced to take a more expensive all Singapore Airlines service.

He said they had paid their Air New Zealand fare in May and questioned how much interest the carriers had collected on fares of 300 people who had paid at the same time.

"You are talking about big money here, who is getting the interest?"

Indian Newsline editor Venkat Raman said many of his readers were upset and Air New Zealand's unwillingness to help had left a sour taste.

"Many people are very upset about what Air New Zealand is doing to them.

"For many Indians here the Christmas break is their only opportunity to go home, visit their parents, visit temples," he said.

Air New Zealand had a contract to take the Indians to Singapore and it had reneged on it, he said.

"Many people find this difficult to understand."

www.uninews.com

Now fly Indian, redeem points on partner brands

New Delhi, Sep 5 (UNI) Air passengers can accrue points by flying Indian and redeeming them on other leading brands and vice-versa under a new coalition loyalty programme called i-mint.

The other five programme partners to have come together on a single platform to create a reward based value program for the customer are ICICI Bank, Airtel, HPCL, Lifestyle Stores and make-my-trip.com.

The i-mint coalition loyalty programme has been initially launched for membership at Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore and Hyderabad and will be later extended to cover the entire country.

i-mint members can earn points by buying petrol at HP outlets, paying Airtel mobile bills, buying clothes at LifestyleStores, buying a hotel package through make-my-trip, buying an Indian ticket or using ICICI credit card. One can then add up all the rewards points accrued to get a product from any of the above partners.

An i-mint member buying an Indian ticket will get six points against every Rs 100 spent. Points can be earned only on the basic fare portion of tickets purchased on domestic or international sectors of Indian or Alliance Air.

Cardholders can earn points on both existing frequent flier programme of Indian as well as i-mint.

www.uninews.com

Kairali Aviation to open airhostess academy in Kochi

Kochi, Sep 8 (UNI)

Bangalore-based Kairali Aviation Pvt Ltd today announced setting up of an airhostess and hospitality training institute named ’Cloud 9’ here next week.

The institute will be formally inaugurated on September 11 and the first batch will start training in the first week of October, Kairali Aviation Managing Director K R Sasikumar said at a press conference here.

Stating that the aviation industry was growing at a rapid pace, Capt Sasikumar said the demand for various aviation-related personnel such as pilots, ground staff, airhostesses and stewards was steadily increasing.

The company was already running an airhostess academy in Jalandhar, Punjab, and opening of similar training centres were being planned for Bangalore, Mumbai and Kolkata.

Asked about the course fee, Capt Sasikumar said the fee structure would be ‘‘competitive’’ with the existing institutes and would not exceed Rs 60,000.

’Cloud 9’ Manager Rachna Mohanan said the six-month airhostess training course would cover various aspects such as aircraft familiarisation, grooming, spoken English, personality development, first aid and swimming. The basic qualification would be Class 12th.

Besides the growing number of domestic airlines, even international airlines were employing more Indian girls and boys as airhostesses and stewards. While the starting salary in a domestic airline was about Rs 20,000 per month, in foreign airlines it could be between Rs 50,000 to Rs one lakh, Ms Mohanan, a former airhostess with Singapore Airlines, said.

The institute would assist the students in job placement by organising campus interviews, Capt Sasikumar said.

Kairali Aviation is running a pilot and ground staff training centre in Bangalore, Ms Mohanan said. UNI ARC ROY 1528

http://newstodaynet.com/08sep/ss3.htm
Light at the end of the tunnel for pilots

M BHASKAR SAI
Chennai, Sept 8:

        The direction given by the Madras High Court yesterday to immediately cut power to all the hoardings on the eight-kilometre highway stretch running parallel to the Chennai airport has been welcomed by those concerned about safe air travel.

        Also, the stake holders are expecting a verdict from the High Court to remove all kind of hoardings near the airport, as the stretch under the Civil Aviation Ministry was declared as ?hoarding-free zone? by the Tamilnadu government in an order issued on 16 August 1996.

        In spite of this, the particular stretch of the highway was full of brightly lit hoardings. Pilots, especially those of foreign airlines, at times mistook them for ground lights, they say.

        In a petition filed in the High Court also, the Airports Authority of India (AAI), has stated that government agencies had ignored repeated reminders from international agencies and experts and had not rectified the problem.

        Consequent to the AAI plea,  which claimed the bright lights on hoardings near the airport were posing a hindrance for pilots in terms of visibility, a division bench comprising Chief Justice A P Shah and Justice K Chandru ordered the Tamilnadu Electricity Board (TNEB) to cut power supply until further orders.

        The police Commissioner of greater Chennai and district Collector of Kanchipuram were also instructed to ensure that the direction was complied with, while the TNEB was asked to file an action-taken report today.

        Also, the High Court made it clear that no one should use generators or any other means to illuminate the hoardings until further orders.
Commenting on the issue, Ravi Nair, manager, Flight Safety, Indian Airlines said it was a welcome move by the court as lights on the GST Road were a dangerous distraction to pilots. ?Enormous hardships had been faced by the  pilots to land their aircraft without any trouble since they were in a dilemma about the exact landing position due to bright lights,? he said.

        Speaking to News Today, Mohan, senior marketing manager, Air India recalled the days when even circuses were asked not to turn on their lights as they might disturb pilots.

        Mohan said they have stopped conducting laser shows in their residential colonies near airport many days before as they could be a deterrent for flights. ?Safe landing is now assured in Chennai,? he said.

        However, advertisement agencies have a different view on this. Since the issue is in the court, a senior official of a leading advertisement agency said on conditions of anonymity, that they expected the Court to give some clear guidelines for placing hoardings near the airport. ?Without ordering not to give power or to remove the hoardings, it would be better if we are allowed to do our business by following the prescribed regulations,? he said.

http://cricket.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1960310.cms
Kingfisher refuses to let in Sreesanth

JAI PRASAD V RAI

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Bangalore: India paceman S Sreesanth went through a 'harrowing' experience at the Bangalore airport here on Tuesday. The Kerala bowler, who was part of the second batch at the ongoing roll camp, was scheduled to leave for Kochi on a Kingfisher airlines flight but was not allowed to check in because he reached a bit late.

"The departure of the flight was at 6 am and the check-in time was 5.30 am. I arrived at the airport just five minutes late. They simply refused to oblige."

Sreesanth, who was to join his family for Onam, had to wait for another four hours for the next flight.

Expressing his anger, he said: "I was upset with the behaviour of the staff. Especially one Hemant Lalvani, who really troubled me. I have lodged a complaint to the higher-ups in the airline, including Vijay Mallya." Deeply disappointed, Sreesanth, who will be leaving for Chennai from Kerala for the practice matches, said: "It would have been alright if such an incident had occurred on some other day. Today was a special day for us and my entire family was waiting for me. My entire schedule was upset."

A Kingfisher spokesman said Sreesanth had reported at the check-in counter just 14 minutes before the take-off. "Hence we could not accept him on board. The flight was scheduled for 6 am but Sreesanth reported at 5.46 am," he said. An official denied that airline staff were rude to the player. ''We cannot accept any passenger who comes late, irrespective of who he is, whether he is a cricketer, or anybody else.

A Kingfisher official said Sreesanth was given an option of travelling on the next flight but refused.