German carrier Lufthansa has a practice of naming all its aircraft after locations in Germany. Spiegel has released a photograph of Lufthansa’s first Airbus A380-800 superjumbo D-AIMA, and it appears that the German carrier is naming its soon to be inducted aircraft after its home base “Frankfurt am Main”.

Two weeks ago, India’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) issued a circular changed the low visibility take-off (LVTO) minima for Category C aircraft (Airbus A320 family, Boeing 737 family) to 150 metres for all airlines from the New Delhi IGI airport. While the DGCA claims this move would not affect air safety, the circular has sparked an intense debate …

This week onwards, Lufthansa Cargo has increased its freighter service to Frankfurt ex Bangalore and Chennai to four MD-11F flights a week by adding an additional freighter into its existing network in India. Reflecting the growth of the Indian economy, Carsten Hernig, Regional Manager India and Middle East of Lufthansa Cargo said “India is still one the most dynamic markets …

Lufthansa owned, Swiss International Air Lines has connected one of India’s best known leisure destinations, Goa, directly with its Zurich hub by adding its “LX” code to the regular charter flights operated by its subsidiary Edelweiss Air. The Edelweiss service has traditionally been geared towards incoming tourist groups. The code-share agreement facilitates booking access to these flights for individual customers. …

AirAsia X has appointed Lufthansa Technik Philippines (LTP) as its maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) services provider for Malaysian carrier’s fleet of eight Airbus aircraft which comprises Airbus A330s and A340s for three years beginning March 2010 at LTP’s facility in Manila. LTP is a subsidiary of Hamburg-based Lufthansa Technik AG, the largest MRO provider in the world and AirAsia …

Airbus has successfully completed cold-weather testing of the A330-200F in Iqaluit, Northern Canada. The aircraft was subjected to ‘cold-soak’ temperatures down to -30 degrees Celsius (-22 deg F) externally and to -27 deg C (-16.6 deg F) internally.

Kingfisher Airlines will launch Kingfisher Xpress, a new Door-to-Door cargo delivery service from tomorrow. Kingfisher Xpress Same Day service will be India’s first and only same day delivery by air service, with a money-back guarantee. This service will offer a pick up facility in the six metropolitan cities of India — Bangalore, Chennai, New Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Mumbai with …

From our friends at Praja. On February 4th, residents of Bangalore would be embarking upon a green initiative by taking the bus to their work. Leaving behind their personal vehicles like cars and motor-bikes at home, they will be eliminating the stress of sitting in traffic jams. The Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) is campaigning for this day long event …

Malaysia based AirAsia is trying to create aviation history with the launch of six new routes between India and Malaysia in rapid succession. In one more “conquering of Indian skies by storm”, the new services to key metro cities include Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Mumbai and New Delhi from Kuala Lumpur and from Penang to Chennai. The Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad …

India’s second largest value carrier, SpiceJet, has been in the news over the last ten days with a variety of announcements. Maintenance contract with MAS-GMR Aerospace Engineering Company Ltd. and MAS Aerospace Engineering (MAE) SpiceJet has signed a three year maintenance support agreement with MAE for the carrier’s fleet of all Boeing 737-800 and 737-900ER aircraft. SpiceJet is the launch …

A very happy Republic Day to all of India. Circa Aug 15th 1988, “Mile Sur Mera Tumhara” (Your tune matches mine) – The iconic song was premiered on Doordarshan and instantly became India’s beloved melody. It featured many national icons of the time, including, Amitabh Bachchan, Pandit Bhimsen Joshi, Kamal Hassan, Balamurlikrishna, Lata Mangeshkar, Prakash Padukone just to a name …

An Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737-800, performing flight ET-409 from Beirut, Lebanon to the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa crashed in to the Mediterranean Sea about 2nm (3.55 km) off the coast of Naameh soon after take-off around 02:35 (00:35Z). View ET-409 crash site in a larger map The aircraft with 82 passengers and 8 crew, was reportedly struck by multiple bolts …

The Deccan Herald is a leading English newspaper published by The Printers Mysore which based in Bangalore. On 30th November, they used and printed one of my copyrighted photos hosted on Flickr without contacting me and without obtaining my permission. The picture even carries the bangaloreaviation.com watermark on the right engine which has been reproduced in the photo printed in …

2010 is the 40th anniversary of the commencement of commercial operations of the venerable Boeing 747 ‘jumbo jet’. On this anniversary Flightglobal has put together an excellent historical perspective on the Boeing 747 which is well worth a read. Also do take the time to read Bangalore Aviation’s historical perspective on the 40 year old rivalry between Boeing and Airbus …

Unable to resist the intense pressure across the city, the Board of Directors of the Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL), the company operating the Bangalore airport today reviewed the Master Plan for expansion of the Bengaluru International Airport and decided on the following: The process to start construction of a brand new terminal building T2 will be initiated on an …

Qatar Airways has formally announced the full details of the launch of its Bangalore Doha service. From February 22, QR will commence the service using an Airbus A320 aircraft in a two class configuration — 12 seats in Business Class and 132 in Economy. With the Ministry of Civil Aviation under pressure for allowing Gulf carriers, most notably Emirates, to …

After much goading including, by yours truly, Jet Airways has finally embraced social networking sites Facebook and Twitter. Welcome aboard!!! Jet Airway’s objective is reaching a larger cross-section of its customers and keeping them informed on a real-time basis, and will also provide customers with news updates about flight schedules, new customer programs, route additions, services and special offers, etc. …

In December I had the pleasure of meeting with Karl Ulrich Garnadt, the Lufthansa board member responsible for their global network planning. Amongst many subjects discussed, I asked him what he thought would be a good strategy for Air India to adopt for the next five years. In parallel Behramjee has written a well thought out route re-structuring plan. I …

The beauty of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner’s wing flex can be seen in this great video from Liz Matzelle. Do visit her site for some other great videos.

News agencies are reporting a major systems crash at the air traffic control at IGI airport in New Delhi. All flight operations have been suspended for the last 30~45 minutes. There are sporadic reports from passengers who are sitting on-board aircraft on the ramp of one or two aircraft pushing back. This crash has occurred during the peak evening rush …