IF this is related Tayara!! Thats a big IF!!

As for the age of the case, well you should know that legal procedures take time!! Or do you think, IAE wouldnt contest any claims?

Yes if the grounding is related to this case, then it is a bungling on IC's part and heads must roll. Those profit figures would have been much higher if this hadnt happened and a full investigation should be done to get to the root of it. No doubt about it!! And if i am not mistaken, 2 guys from the Engine Shop in DEL were served notices is it not? IC staff can u confirm?

All carriers, including 9W and S2 and certainly AI, have had their share of similar incidents. Infact AI tops the list as far as us these "believe it or nots" go. Heard of caribjet? We are concerned with IC/AI because these are govt owned.

And whats important is that the management shows evidence that it has learnt from past mistakes. I will give IC credit for having learnt from their mistakes which led to the grounding. They have revamped the sub-contracting processes in the engg dept after the incident. However as one of AI's latest RFP's for a lease of 744/777 shows, they have learnt little from Caribjet!!

COUGAR wrote:

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No doubt about it!! And if i am not mistaken, 2 guys from the Engine Shop in DEL were served notices is it not? IC staff can u confirm?

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Shouldn't the QC dept be responsible for monitoring Engine Life status.

regds

MEL

Terrible report. Wish an expert rewrote it.

Why do you say it is terrible ? NDTV reports are normally brief, he has managed to highlight the critical aspects. just wondering what has he missed or could have reported differently.

I wish we have more of these reports ( probably better reported as KCM suggests ) to highlight the state of affairs within the GOI owned entities.

karatecatman wrote:

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Okay look at this one now!!!

http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?NewsID=1056047
IA had near misses with engine failure

DNA Correspondent
Saturday, September 30, 2006  22:48 IST

 
To be aboard an Indian Airlines (IA) flight is akin to courting death. An NDTV report says that in the last eight months, there have been more than 50 serious “incidents” during IA flights, including engine failure.

IA aircraft had serious problems like temperature shooting up and landing gear getting stuck, and in at least one case, there was emergency evacuation after one of the engines caught fire. There have also been incidents of in-flight shutdown - an extreme emergency. An aircraft has two engines. When one fails, the other compensates.  

But IA plays down the incidents. “Extreme emergencies could have been one or two. We don’t compromise on passenger safety,” said Vishwapati Trivedi, CMD, Indian Airlines.

 

This DNA correspondent is really creating more panic. Temperature shooting up ... an aircraft has two engines .... inflight shutdown (of what?) What is this supposed to mean? And what an introduction.

                                          ***

The NDTV TV report was shown once more at night and was better than the written text given above. The correspondent gave more details, but for some strange reason NDTV kept showing images of VT-SCA, the new leased A319.

Facts were not researched well.

What the correspondent should have said:

It's the older A320s that are having the problems. Some of those of the first batch of aircraft that came in the early 1990s.

Indian's new lot of A320 will have  different engines --- CFM. If he found this out, he should have found out why IA has gone in for a complete change. The IA technical committee overwhelmingly recommended CFM for the 43 new aircraft.

Didn't say that Kingfisher/Deccan are also experiencing trouble with their V2500 engines. Deccan is now getting Lufthansa to help it sort out its technical matters especially in connection with the A320.

Selectively quoted flights which actually did not experience engine failure but had hydraulic problems. Did he even care to find out that Airbus has admitted and sent a circular to most A320 operators that the nose wheel gear needs modification. This was after the FAA came to this conclusion after the emergency landing of a US A320 and where the nose wheel was perpendicular on deployment and were the pilot had to make a dramatic but safe landing.

Was more bothered about his fake American accent.

The exclusive evidence that NDTV has seems to have been a calculated "leak". In the sense that there was no mention also of similar problems that other (private) operators of the A320 might have experienced. Kingfisher is one, thiogh its maintenance is being done by IA.

---

I'll accept that the DNA article was trying to create sensationalism, he has to be pulled up for that.

On the issues you raise with regards to IA choosing CFM-56 over V2500, its better not to start evaluating engines on an investigative report concerning maintenance standards. IAeroEngines have sorted the problems with their earlier generation engines of V25 series. You have mentioned DN & KF going for V25, infact Indigo have also gone for V25. 

I wouldn't like to comment on the evaluation process of IA, however based on info available on the net, there could be 2 reasons, 1) As you mention IA was unhappy with V25 ( So are every customer of the earlier gen V25) 2) AI have ordered a fleet of B738 and these come with CFM-56 only, since the GOI is involved in evaluation of both the fleets some maverick might have looked at synergies with regards to spares, as the core on both the CFM -56 'A' & 'B' series is the same. I am sure if they had stuck with the V25, IA would have got a huge discount for any past loss of revenue and they wouldn't have had the embarrasment of grounding a 3rd of their fleet. As i've been saying in my post in ''Merger of AI /IA...'' IMHO IA management shouldn't be in the business of running an airline, they were the only airline to have opted for A320 with a bogey gear (4 wheels, instead of 2 wheels). And they were one of the first airlines in the world with a large fleet of A320 and look at where they stand in terms of a/c utilisation or adapting tech. Inspite of having one of the most advanced a/c in their fleet they were happy to flog those rust bucket B732 on Alliance Air.

On the Q of NWSteering that you mention, the SB issued by Airbus is routine. IMO journalists of non trade papers, with little knowledge of these issues shouldn't start commenting, it can have a negative impact on peoples perception of an aircraft type. And these Service Bulletins are routines affairs for OEMs to issue thru the life of a product. To give you an example following the crash of a couple of B737 due to Rudder over travel, the B737 got a lot of bad press. I had relatives calling up to find out if it is safe to fly a B737.................It was 3/4 crashes out of the 5000 manf. Boeing i believe has addressed the problem.

I think articles on Non-compliance of Safety and Maintenance standards should be handled very cautiously. The Common man should be made aware enough, to generate a feeling of fear within the airlines concerned rather than the otherway round where it can result in devastating the publics faith in the airlines concerned. To put my point across as i have said in another thread on the losses in dom aviation, the indian public seems to have a devious pleasure in seeing the airlines get bad press and shut down. Rather look at the issue objectively.

http://www.indianexpress.com/story/14508.html
IA caught in financial tailspin, Govt calls urgent review today
Pranab Dhal Samanta Posted online: Thursday, October 12, 2006 at 0000 hrs Print  Email
NEW DELHI, OCTOBER 11: National carrier Indian Airlines ended 2005-06 as a profit-making airline but the first few months of this financial year have brought the worst of news. Not only are losses in the first quarter estimated at over Rs 90 crore, on-time performance has slipped below 60 per cent in September and the valuation of the total IA fleet has dropped drastically by $200 million in the insurance finalised recently for this year.

Prompted by the situation, Cabinet Secretary B K Chaturvedi is learnt to have called for an urgent review of the performance of Indian Airlines tomorrow. While the airline management sought to play it as a “routine meeting”, there is a lot to review in the national carrier which has dipped after making profit for three years in a row.

For all talk of negotiating a 30 per cent lower premium in the annual insurance talks this year, sources say the drop in premium was because the IA’s Airbus fleet has been devalued. The 29 Airbus-320 aircraft owned by IA were valued at $40 million until now, and this year the value is down to $25 million.

While IA officials claim this is in line with market trends, the fact is that four of its leased A320s remain at $40 million. The last time, value was brought down for IA aircraft was for the aging Boeing fleet of Alliance Air four years ago.

Surely, all airlines have registered losses in the first quarter ending June 2006 but IA’s Rs 90-crore loss has been complicated by low passenger growth. In comparison to 10.3 per cent in the corresponding period last year, passenger growth is only 8.1 per cent between April and June 2006. Sources say in July alone the loss is close to Rs 45 crore. All this sits oddly with IA’s budget projections of a profit of Rs 100 crore for 2006-07. IA officials say they hope to remain profitable by the end of the year as non-operating revenue is still to be included. But the fear in IA is that eyes may be set on the corpus of about Rs 800 crore that has accumulated since 1997 to cater for a wage revision which has been in the works for a long time.

Indian Airlines declined to give an official comment but officials said the first six months of every financial year are difficult and they hope to improve the situation in the second half. That’s not going to be easy. The one major factor for losses in the aviation sector has been increasing fuel costs. Here again, IA levied a fuel surcharge of Rs 750 in May projecting a revenue of Rs 30 crore. It is interesting to note that in the first quarter of 2005, fuel prices rose by 40 per cent, yet revenue went up by 18 per cent. This year, prices have risen by 24 per cent but revenues have only increased by 3-5 per cent contributing to the losses.

Besides this, the on-time performance has dropped and each time this falls below 60 per cent, productivity-linked incentives get affected. Last month, 56.4 per cent IA flights were on time while in September 2005 this was 72.7 per cent.

The other crucial issue is that of engines. IA was caught in a tussle with engine manufacturers International Aero Engines after it didn’t choose to order engines with the same company for its new 43 Airbus aircraft. The problem started when V2500 A1 engines developed a problem with blades requiring repair and overhaul. This technical issue got complicated by inter-company issues. However, the problem is almost a year old. By December 2005, a committee by IA had drawn up a $38-million “Engine Recovery Plan” that was approved in January. According to this plan, all engines should have been repaired by June 2006. In fact, there should have been an extra availability of two engines.

On the contrary, more than 10 engines are still under repair and six A320 are grounded. This led to another complication as fewer aircraft had to do more flights. As a result, their routine maintenance checks came up earlier than scheduled. Put together, 12 aircraft are now grounded in a fleet of 48 A320s.

pranab.samanta@expressindia.com

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/NEWS/India_Business/IA_to_set_up_aircraft_repair_JV_with_Snecma/articleshow/563559.cms
IA to set up aircraft repair JV with Snecma
[ 25 Nov, 2006 0006hrs ISTTIMES NEWS NETWORK ]
 
 
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NEW DELHI: The state-owned Indian Airlines on Friday inked an agreement to set up a $30 million aircraft engine maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) JV with Snecma.

Snecma will hold the majority 51% stake in the joint venture, which will be based in Delhi, while Indian Airlines and Air India will together hold the remaining 49% stake.

"The venture will set up an MRO facility for repairing and overhauling CFM engines, which will be powering all the 43 aircraft that Indian Airlines in buying from Airbus.

In addition, this venture will also undertake the repair work of CFM engines that will power Air India planes," Indian Airlines chairman and MD Vishwapati Trivedi said.

The venture is expected to be in place within the next two years and will initially use IA's existing jetshop in Delhi. "This jetshop will not be phased out once the new venture is in place. Instead, the new venture will use the test facility of this jetshop," he said.

The airline is also exploring the opportunity of seeking maintenance jobs from private airlines with this venture. "We have on Friday signed an MoU for setting up the venture. IA, along with AI and Snecma, will now undertake a detailed study and explore various opportunities with the JV," Trivedi said.

Making up for past bungling.