New Delhi Indira Gandhi airport is looking to maximize efficiency of their runways via a series of measures. Bangalore Aviation has learned that the airport operator Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL) is working towards achieving a runway service rate of 104 movements per hour. This rate will include optimised pilot performance, optimised ATC performance and high intensity runway operations. Yet, …
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Lounge Review: Malaysia Airlines Golden Lounge Regional Kuala Lumpur
While transiting Kuala Lumpur airport between two ‘regional’ flights, I had a chance to use Malaysia Airlines Golden Lounge regional. Malaysian has two lounges at KLIA, a regional lounge at the main terminal building which mainly services the airline’s Boeing 737 fleet and a bigger Golden lounge at the satellite pier which services the airline’s and airports long haul wide …
Read More »Six more Indian airports to stop stamping hand-baggage tags from June 1
The PTI is reporting that six additional airports will scrap the hand-baggage tags and stamping from June 1. Chennai, Jaipur, Guwahati, Lucknow, Trivandrum, and Patna, will join New Delhi, Mumbai, Kochi, Bengalooru, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Ahmedabad which had scrapped this much despised process back on April 1. Quoting Mr O.P. Singh, the Director General of the Central Industrial Security Force …
Read More »Pictures of Vistara A320neo first commercial flight
The Tata Singapore Airlines joint venture Vistara operated the inaugural flight of their brand new Airbus A320neo from New Delhi to Bangalore yesterday morning as flight UK811. The aircraft registered VT-TNB features slight changes in the livery including the Vistara star and A320neo branding on the belly, and a banner along the upper fuselage. Like national carrier Air India, Vistara’s …
Read More »Irkut MC-21 completes first flight
Russian airframer Irkut completed the maiden flight of it’s new MC-21-300 aircraft yesterday. The test flight was conducted at the airfield of Irkutsk Aviation Plant and reportedly lasted 30 minutes. The MC-21 program was launched in 2007 with the first prototype being rolled out in 2016. The program is headed by Irkut which is a subsidiary of the Russian government …
Read More »Jet Airways adds third Mumbai London Heathrow flight. Good USA connections.
India’s largest private airline, Jet Airways has announced a third flight on the strategic Mumbai London Heathrow route, starting from the winter schedule which commences October 29th. Flight schedule 9W116 departs Mumbai at 09:05 and arrives London Heathrow 13:35. 9W115 departs London Heathrow at 15:30 and arrives Mumbai 05:55 the next morning. The flight will be operated by a three …
Read More »Vistara takes delivery of it’s first A320neo
Full service carrier, Vistara has taken delivery of it’s first A320neo (new engine option) at Airbus’ Toulouse plant. The aircraft is the 14th A320 in the carriers fleet and is powered by CFM’s LEAP-1A engines. The airline has equipped it’s neo with mood lighting, improved seats and a new look across all three of it’s cabins. Phee Teik Yeoh, CEO, …
Read More »Analysis: Why did IndiGo decide to introduce ATR72’s in to its fleet?
Earlier this month, on the 9th of May, India’s largest domestic airline Indigo, announced that they had signed a term-sheet with French turbo-prop airframer ATR, for the induction of 50 ATR72-600 regional aircraft. The announcement caught the aviation and investment community completely by surprise. Since its inception 12 years ago in 2005, IndiGo had slavishly adhered to the “one airframe …
Read More »IndiGo to launch Bangalore Singapore on June 30, with great fares
India’s largest domestic airline and low cost carrier IndiGo will launch its Bangalore Singapore direct non-stop flight on June 30th. This will be the second international flight for the carrier originating from Bangalore. It operates a flight to Dubai. The Singapore flight comes close on the heels of full service carrier Jet Airways successfully commencing flights on the Bangalore Singapore …
Read More »Spicejet first to use Bangalore airport’s new electronic boarding gate
Gurugram based low fare carrier SpiceJet is the first airline to use the new electronic board gates at the Kempegowda airport in Bangalore. Spicejet’s departure control system is integrated with the e-Gates and allows passengers to board by self scanning their boarding passes, whether on paper, mobile, or smart watches. The system verifies the pass, and opens the gate is …
Read More »Indigo wins Airbus’ Best Operational Excellence award
Low cost carrier Indigo has won the Airbus’ award for Best Operational Excellence for the second consecutive year. Indigo won the award after outperforming 46 other airlines globally. The selection criteria for the award is based on data covering two years of operation and taking into consideration the number of aircraft in the fleet, daily utilization rate, technical reliability and …
Read More »Boeing delivers first 737 MAX to Malindo Air of Malaysia
US airframer Boeing, delivered the first new 737 MAX aircraft to launch customer Malindo Air of Malaysia. The 737 MAX 8 was delivered at Boeing’s Seattle Delivery Center in Washington state on May 16th. The airline will be the first to operate the 737 MAX in commercial service on May 22. The MAX is the newest variant of the world’s …
Read More »Indigo to begin regional operations with ATR 72-600s
Low cost carrier Indigo has signed a term sheet with French airframer ATR for 50 ATR 72-600 aircraft. The order would be valued at $1.3 billion at list prices. Deliveries of the aircraft will begin towards the end of 2017. Indigo will be able to reduce the number of aircraft on order depending on it’s commercial performance. The order is …
Read More »Etihad speeds James Hogan’s exit. Ray Gammell is interim Group CEO
Ray Gammell has assumed full management responsibilities as the new interim Group CEO of The Etihad Aviation Group (EAG). Current President and Group CEO James Hogan, will formally leave the company on July 1, 2017. Gammell was the Group鈥檚 Chief People & Performance Officer. In parallel Ricky Thirion the current SVP Group Treasurer, takes over full responsibilities of the Group …
Read More »COMAC C919 completes first flight
The first COMAC (Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China) C919 has successfully completed it’s first flight. The aircraft took off from Shanghai’s Pudong airport and landed back at the airport after a 79 minute flight. The first aircraft bearing the registration B-001A has been undergoing extensive ground testing since it was rolled out of the assembly hanger in 2015. The aircraft …
Read More »Jet Airways to begin Bangalore – Amsterdam and Chennai – Paris flights
Jet Airways will begin two new flights from Bangalore to Amsterdam and Chennai to Paris from 29 October 2017. The airline will operate these routes with it’s Airbus A330-300 aircraft. These flights will offer codeshare connections on Air France, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines and Delta Air Lines and will give passengers one stop connections to 35 destinations in Europe and …
Read More »Vistara introduces paid priority services for economy passengers
Full service carrier Vistara has introduced a fee based service called #VistaraPriority. For a fee of Rs. 500 an economy passenger will be able to check-in at the premium economy counter, have their bags tagged as priority, and get priority boarding along with premium economy passengers. The service can be booked in advance with a 10% discount while booking a …
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