by Devesh Agarwal Finance minister P. Chidambaram disappointed the Indian aviation industry in his budget presented before the Parliament yesterday. Last year, then finance minister Pranad Mukherjee, had offered a small relief to the fledgling aviation MRO (Maintenance, Repair, Overhaul) industry by giving a waiver in customs duty for import of spare and testing equipment, but required the spares be …

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) announced that the 2012 global accident rate for Western-built jets was the lowest in aviation history. The 2012 global Western-built jet accident rate (measured in hull losses* per million flights of Western-built jets) was 0.20, the equivalent of one accident every 5 million flights. This represented a 46% improvement over 2011, when the accident …

by Devesh Agarwal Thai Airways subsidiary, Thai Smile will commence direct flights from the island holiday destination of Phuket to Mumbai and New Delhi. Each city will be served twice a week. Mumbai flights will commence on March 31, with flights to New Delhi to start on April 2. AirlineRoute reports the following schedule is loaded in to the Amadeus …

by Devesh Agarwal As per the budget for fiscal 2013~14, presented yesterday in parliament, the Indian government has earmarked another Rs. 5,000 crore (about $900 million) for equity infusion into ailing national carrier Air India. This is the second tranche of a nine year, Rs. 30,000 crore (about $ 5.5 billion) tax-payer funded equity infusion, which is part of a …

by Devesh Agarwal and Vinay Bhaskara Yesterday, India’s largest private carrier sold its three precious landing slots at London Heathrow airport to Abu Dhabi, UAE based Etihad Airways for $70 million. Etihad will lease the slots back to Jet Airways for the time being. London is essentially THE destination for Jet Airways, which currently serves Heathrow daily from New Delhi …

Every year, the Finance Minister, and the Government’s Chief Economic Advisor release the Economic Survey, a day ahead of the annual budget, which details the performance of the Indian economy and expectations. The aviation industry is closely linked to the economic growth of the country, and it is a well established norm, that the industry grows at about two times …

European airframer Airbus S.A.S. has released pictures of the first A350XWB – A350-900 MSN001 being moved from Roger Béteille A350 XWB final assembly line (FAL) “Station 30” to the Clément Ader area “Station 18” in Toulouse. These are the first pictures of the structurally complete flying prototype aircraft with its wings which include the new curved winglets. The belly fairing …

by Devesh Agarwal Lufthansa image. German carrier Deutsche Lufthansa has launched an exclusive contest, for aspiring chefs, on its India page on Facebook. Called the Star Chef Contest, the aim of the contest is to find Indian main course recipes for service aboard Lufthansa’s First and Business class flights between India and Germany. The winning recipe will be featured in …

by Devesh Agarwal Japan Airlines (JAL) will start code-share and mileage program partnership with Jetstar Japan (airline flight code: GK) – a joint-investment with the Qantas Group, Mitsubishi Corporation and Century Tokyo Leasing Corporation. JAL, which started code-sharing with Jetstar (the Australian LCC) in 2007, on routes between Japan and Australia, will now be codesharing with Jetstar Japan on all …

by Devesh Agarwal United States low cost carrier JetBlue has retrofitted the first Airbus A320 worldwide (N821JB), with the new fuel saving wing-tip ‘Sharklet’ devices. The carrier was able to carry out the retrofit quickly since the aircraft wing had already been modified to accommodate the increased weights of ‘Sharklets’. JetBlue will deploy this and other ‘Sharklet’ fitted A320 aircraft …

by Vinay Bhaskara Abu Dhabi based Etihad Airways has inked a code share with Nairobi based Kenya Airways, expanding access to second and third tier African destinations for its consumers. Etihad Airways will place its code on flights by Kenya Airways to 27 destinations across Kenya Airways’ African network. Meanwhile, Kenya Airways will place its code onto 32 onward destinations …

The interaction with the Chief of Staff of the Indian Air Force, Air Chief Marshal NAK Browne, at the biennial Aero India 2013 air show, is always attended in force by members of the Indian and foreign media. During his hour long interaction the chief addressed a wide variety of issues on various programmes, budgets, strategies, needs, achievements, including operations …

by Devesh Agarwal Malaysian low cost carrier AirAsia Berhad (Ltd.) through its investment arm, AirAsia Investment Ltd. (AAIL) has submitted an application to the Indian Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) seeking approval for AAIL to invest 49% into a proposed Indian joint venture together with Tata Sons Limited and Mr. Arun Bhatia of Telestra Tradeplace Pvt. Ltd. The expected holding …

by Devesh Agarwal As banks move to recall their loans to Kingfisher Airlines, below is an infographic showing the exposure of various banks to the airline. Click on the image for a larger view. You can also download the graphic, by right clicking once you click on the image.

IAF Su-30MKI in a flypast at AeroIndia 2011 A Su-30MKI air superiority fighter of the Indian Air Force (IAF) crashed at Pokharan range, Rajasthan, earlier today around 1920 IST (1350Z). Both the crew ejected safely and there is no damage reported to any civilian property of any casualties on the ground. A spokesperson for the IAF could not divulge details …

by Devesh Agarwal The Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation (CAPA) has released a report on national carrier Air India titled ‘Air India: the time has come to stop procrastinating and act. The final scene is near’. The content and conclusions of the report are in line with our analysis. If anything, the CAPA report is mild displaying the diplomatic wording …

by Devesh Agarwal Experience India’s biggest air ticket sale with 20 lakh seats on over 450 daily flights across 57 cities within India. Lofares on Jet Airways and JetKonnect flights starting INR 2,250. is what Jet Airways’ website screams at you as one of the largest Indian carriers launches a mega sale valid till February 24, in which it appears …

by Devesh Agarwal A ticket bought for Rs. 17,270 was sold to the Rajya Sabha secretariat for Rs. 67,270, a 389% mark-up!! We regularly hear either the Minister of Civil Aviation, Mr. Ajit Singh, or the Director General of Civil Aviation, Mr. Mishra, calling for airlines to curb their fares and not indulge in price gouging. One has to wonder …

by Devesh Agarwal “You are the cat’s whiskers” is an English idiom meaning “you are perfect” or “you are someone special”. These are just some of the 29 colloquial idioms Dubai-based Emirates airline is advertising to showcase its global network and multi-lingual and multi-ethnic crew. Watch the videos below, and remember, if you want to romance an Italian Madonna, tell …