Call it post 26/11 jitters, but an quick reacting flight attendant and under-cover commandos caused a security flap and high drama at New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport. An Air India Airbus A320-200, IC-401 from New Delhi to Kolkata with 104 people on board, was lined up awaiting clearance for take-off when a woman passenger, an off duty flight attendant …

In repeat incident, another Eurocopter AS332L2 Super Puma helicopter, this one operated by Bond Offshore Helicopters, has crashed off the north east coast of Scotland in the North Sea with 16 on board. Unlike the last time, when all persons on board survived, this time it appears 10 persons have lost their lives. The Coastguards says the incident happened about …

Austrian Airlines’ Boeing 767-300ER registration OE-LAE became the first European airline aircraft to successfully convert and add winglets. This following American Airlines successful conversion and implementation of the blended winglets made by Aviation Partners Boeing. Austrian Airlines is in a pioneering position since its committed to the conversion at an early stage, and will now enjoy “clear competitive advantage over …

Bengaluru International Airport (BIA) has beaten four other competing airports in the Indian sub-continent and bagged the Routes Asia Airport Marketing award from its customers — the airlines. Congratulations to Marcel Hungerbuehler and his team, most especially Ashutosh Chandra who leads airline marketing efforts at BIAL. The airlines within Asia nominated five airports whose marketing efforts during 2009 made a …

A Jetlite Boeing 737-800, registration VT-SJH performing flight S2-320 from Kolkata to New Delhi with 140 persons on board, was forced to make three landing attempts due to weather and a fault Instrument Landing System at New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport. The flight was on approach to New Delhi’s runway 29, when a thunderstorm went into its final approach …

The new domestic departure terminal 1D at the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) at New Delhi will commence operations in two phases from April 11 and April 18. With the exception of Go Air, all airlines from the old departure terminal 1B will move to terminal 1D, along with Kingfisher Airlines who will shift from terminal 1A. Go Air will …

Qatar Airways launched its Doha Houston daily non-stop service yesterday linking the world’s energy capitals and marking the carrier’s 84th destination. The new route is Qatar Airways’ third daily non-stop service to the United States adding to the existing daily services to Washington D.C. and New York City. Qatar Airways is using its two brand new Boeing 777-200 Long Range …

The three month old stand-off between travel agents and Singapore Airlines on the zero commission issue shows no signs of abating. Both sides have tried to negotiate but remain apart. If anything, the dispute has entrenched both sides in to their respective stands even further. In the latest move to pressure the Singapore national carrier, Indian travel agents will send …

A JetLite flight to Bangalore was delayed by 45 minutes and boarding on several flights had to be suspended for 10 minutes on Sunday evening after a passenger Saptarishi Basu, complained that his laptop had gone missing from the security hold. Around 5 pm, Basu, who was to board the JetLite flight to Bangalore, went in for security check. On …

Firstly, many thanks to all the Bangalore Aviation readers who participated in last week’s trivia question – Which is the longest scheduled commercial airline flight ? For the purpose of definition I placed four criteria for an ultra long-haul non-stop flight: Operated by a commercial airliner with a definite schedule No intermediate stop-over point within its scheduled duration More than …

A host of new and updated services to and from India announced this week. Saudi Arabian Airlines (Saudia) will launch new flights to Bangalore, Lucknow, and Kozhikode (Calicut) over the next few days. The airline has commenced operating three flights a week to Lucknow; two flights a week to Bangalore from today, March 30, 2009 and four flights a week …

Two deliveries of “first” of aircraft model occurred on March 27th. Airbus delivered the first A330-300 to Finnair, out of an order for eight. Powered by General Electric CF6-80E1 engines, the new aircraft is in a two class configuration 42 Business, 229 Economy for a total seating for 271 passengers. On the same day, Boeing delivered the first 777 Freighter …

According to OAG’s (Official Airline Guide) March 2009 report, the world’s airlines have scheduled 4.9% fewer flights for March 2009 compared with the same month last year, with a 3.3% drop in capacity, according to the latest statistics from OAG, the world’s leading aviation data business. This is the eighth successive month of declines, and represents a reduction of more …

Two Air India employees have been arrested after the vigilance department of the airline found they were allegedly involved in human trafficking and transported two women to the US showing them as their wives. Deepak Salvi, a office superintendent, and Hemant Morade, an operator, were arrested for allegedly illegally transporting two women posing as their wives to the US and …

As a part of its growing offerings to woo business passengers, SpiceJet announced the launch of a breakfast menu available for sale on all flights that depart before 9.30 am. The single type continental breakfast tray is available at a discounted price of Rs 100 ($2) if it is pre-ordered at the time of booking the ticket. The same is …

Some Friday trivia for you to ponder. Can you name the world’s longest non-stop flight by a commercial airliner ? Longest in terms of distance and in terms of time ? Send in your answer via a comment. And while you are pondering the answer, enjoy this rather unusual angle on a Jet Airways Boeing 737-800 Next Generation series VT-JGV.

From March 29, 2009, the start of the summer time table, Lufthansa and Brussels Airlines will deepen their cooperation and expand their existing partnership, ahead of Lufthansa’s plans to take a 45 per cent stake in Brussels Airlines (subsequently to be raised to 100 per cent), and Brussels Airlines’ entry in to the Star Alliance. Codeshare flights on cross-border routesFrom …

Follow Bangalore Aviation on Twitter For quite some time the rumour mill had it that the Indian Ministry of Defence (MoD) was going to scrap the $550 million tender for 22 attack helicopters. Earlier today this rumour was confirmed. According to a spokesman the tender had to be cancelled since ‘the remaining three companies still participating in the tender were …

An Indian Navy Kamov Ka-28 “Helix-A” helicopter crashed in the Arabian Sea, 22 nautical miles off the coast Goa, earlier day, but the three crew escaped unhurt. The Ka-28 is the export version of the Ka-27Pl Image courtesy Wikipedia The helicopter had taken off from the Indian Navy base at Goa INS Hansa at 11:00 (05:30 UTC) on a routine …

Effective March 29th, Gulf Air is withdrawing its flights from Bahrain to Bangalore and to Hyderabad. No explanation has been provided by the airline, but I suspect that they have been crowded out by the far more aggressive Emirates Airlines. Gulf Air flies a small Airbus A320 to Bangalore daily and a slightly larger A321 to Hyderabad four times a …