by Vinay Bhaskara British Airways recently launched an powerful advertising campaign entitled “Visit your Mum.” The following video shows British Airways flying Ratnesh home from New York City to surprise his mother and visit his family for the first time in more than 15 years since leaving home at the age of 17. His unwitting mother is cooking his favorite dish …

Boeing rolled out its first 787-9 Dreamliner, and this aircraft has also become the first 787 to don the new Boeing Commercial Airplanes (BCA) livery. The new look began with the 747-8 and evolved with the 737 MAX. The new livery retains many of the features of the original 787-8 livery, adding a prominent number on the tail to help …

Low cost carrier, SpiceJet, will commence a thrice a week service on the Muscat-Ahmedabad route from August 29, 2013. The airline will deploy its 189 seat Boeing 737-800 New Generation aircraft. Muscat, the capital of Oman, will be the ninth international destination to be served by SpiceJet. The airline is offering an introductory fare of just Rs 5,999/- one way …

by Devesh Agarwal The 24% stake sale by India’s Jet Airways to Abu Dhabi’s Etihad Airways has been finally cleared by India’s Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB), albeit with conditions, after the share holder agreement (SHA) was changed to incorporate the apprehensions of the government of India. One of the conditions imposed by the FIBP requires prior Government approval before …

by Devesh Agarwal The consortium of banks which lent vast sums of money to Vijay Mallya promoted Kingfisher Airlines seem to be making a mockery and charade of recovering almost Rs. 7,000 Crore worth of loans from the airline and its guarantors. The question is why? As per a Mint report, SBI, the leader of the creditors’ consortium, has the …

by Devesh Agarwal According to a PTI report, Air India has tied up with Deutsche Bank and Investec Bank to raise up to $500 million as bridge loans to take the delivery of five Boeing Dreamliners, according to airline sources. India’s flag carrier had invited bids for this on June 26. A bridge loan is normally a short term loan …

by Devesh Agarwal LoganAir. Photo by Dave Wheeler. Used under CC license. While many of us will be aware of the longest non-stop flights; Singapore Airline’s soon to be withdrawn Newark Singapore and Los Angeles Singapore, and Qantas’ Sydney Dallas-Fort Worth which become the longest; how many of us are aware of the shortest non-stop flights? The world’s shortest flight …

by Devesh Agarwal and Vinay Bhaskara Dallas-Fort Worth headquartered American Airlines recieved its first Airbus narrow body aircraft, an A319-112(WL). MSN 5678 is registered N8001N, is the first A319 delivered, equipped with Sharklets, and the 100th A320 family aircraft delivered, fitted with the new wing-tip devices. The engines are from CFM. Our Vinay Bhaskara captured these exclusive photos at the …

India’s only publicly listed low fare carrier, SpiceJet Ltd., faced turbulence in the stock market after newspapers reported the resignation of its Chief Executive Officer Neil Mills. The stock price of the Kalanithi Maran controlled airline fell as low as Rs. 26.50, its lowest price since June 27. Mills joined the airline in October 2010 from flyDubai. While there is …

by Devesh Agarwal Majority of Jet’s A330 fleet parked at New Delhi’s IGI airport In what is not a very uncommon development, The Economic Times reports, India’s financial markets’ watchdog, the Securities Exchange Board of India, better known as SEBI, has written to the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB), the approver of FDI proposals, expressing concern on the agreement to …

By Devesh Agarwal In late April, on a business trip, I flew from Bangalore to Frankfurt aboard Lufthansa’s newest Boeing 747-8i D-ABYH. She is named Thüringen after the state located in central Germany with its capital at Erfurt. While the business class was packed, the First Class was strangely empty. As we were flying over Europe, a kind and cooperative …

by Devesh Agarwal The United Kingdom’s Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) has issued a special bulletin (read PDF here) on the fire that broke out on Ethiopian Airline’s Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner ET-AOP, parked at London’s Heathrow airport last Friday. In the report, the AAIB said the fire occurred in the rear upper fuselage where the fixed Emergency Locator Transmitter (ELT) …

by Devesh Agarwal The Indian Commercial Pilots Association (ICPA) of the erstwhile Indian Airlines, who fly the narrow body A320 family fleet of national carrier Air India is resorting to scare tactics accusing the airline “of arbitrarily changing the flight operating procedures for narrow-body A320 aircraft, affecting flight safety.” The issue revolves around the carrier’s decision to reduce the acceleration …

The renaming of Bangalore’s Bengaluru International Airport (BIA) to Kempe Gowda International Airport received approval from the Union Cabinet yesterday. The lower house of the state legislature, the Karnataka Legislative Assembly, passed a unanimous resolution on December 10, last year and the upper house, the Karnataka Legislative Council, also passed a similar resolution two days later to rename the airport. …

by Vinay Bhaskara Late last week, The Times of India reported Turkish Airlines, one of the world’s fastest growing airlines in the world, wanted to more than quintuple its Indian footprint, requesting an increase in weekly seat allocation from 4,000 to 20,000 seats per week, and gain access to Bangalore, Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad, Amritsar, and Ahmedabad. Turkish is also requesting …

by Vinay BhaskaraLast Friday, a pair of incidents occurred with the Boeing 787 Dreamliner. Smoke was observed billowing from an Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 787 parked on the ground at London Heathrow International Airport with no passengers on board, while a Thomson Airways Dreamliner operating between Manchester and Sanford, Florida (SFB) was forced to return to Manchester due to a routine …

Dubai Airports is inviting bids from food and beverage operators and selective retail-service providers for the award of concessions in Concourse D at Dubai International. Construction of Concourse D is well under-way with the facility’s opening slated for 2015. The opportunity is available to food and beverage providers in the categories of popular restaurants, 24-hour casual dining, licensed bars, coffee …

by Vinay BhaskaraEarlier today, at its annual general meeting for shareholders, the shareholders of Tempe, Arizona based US Airways voted to approve the merger between US Airways and Fort Worth, Texas based American Airlines. The merger, which would create the world’s largest carrier by passengers carried, was announced on February 14, 2013. Under the terms of the merger agreement, US …

by Devesh Agarwal We welcome your feedback and comments on the Jet-Etihad deal. Without a doubt the humongous increase in seat capacity offered to the Abu Dhabi government by India has some quid-pro-qua links to the Jetihad deal. There is also talk that the bilaterals seat increase was to pacify the UAE government after their telecom company allegedly lost over …