At the start of Aero India in early February, Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd., announced it would make delivery of the first five of the Advanced Light Helicopters sold to the Ecuadorian Air Force using the behemoth Antonov An-124-100. On the night of March 18th the giant transporter came to the HAL airport to load up. I managed to catch her departure …

The sixth and final Boeing 787 Dreamliner designated for flight test is now undergoing final assembly in Everett, Wash. The airplane, designated ZA006, will be powered with General Electric GEnx engines. Boeing photo Progress continues on the fleet. The first flight test airplane, ZA001, is getting its paint touched up this week before finishing factory testing. Power was brought onto …

SpiceJet announced reduction of up to Rs. 600 per ticket on its already low fares, for all bookings made for 30 or more days in advance, across all its 119 flights in the new summer schedule. The airline’s Chief Commercial Officer Samyukth Sridharan claimed the fares will be comparable to IInd AC train fares. Clearly SpiceJet is targeting the summer …

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Etihad Airways, the national airline of the United Arab Emirates, is set to overhaul the schedule of its flights to India and provide increased long haul connectivity and better frequency. Etihad is also streamlining its services to key destinations in response to changing demands and will now operate all Indian flights as early-morning departures effective March 30, 2009. Currently Etihad …

Air traffic controllers in France are set to strike on Thursday 19 March in a national day of strike action. Consequently the French Civil Aviation Authority, Direction Générale de l’Aviation Civile (DGAC) is limiting the number flights handled for each airline during that day. Air France has confirmed it will operate all of of its long-haul flights. On its short …

Emirates recently announced that it will commence services to Toronto and Bangkok with its Airbus A380 superjumbo from June 1st. In order to do this Emirates will have to reposition two of its A380s from the current double-daily New York route. Emirates representatives have confirmed this re-positioning. One aircraft will be deployed on the three times a week Dubai Toronto …

Armenia flag carrier Armavia took delivery of its first new A319 yesterday. The aircraft was handed over to Armavia’s President, Mikhail Bagdasarov, at a ceremony held at the Airbus factory in Hamburg, Germany. Operated under a lease agreement with ILFC, the new A319 will increase the airline’s Airbus fleet to five aircraft from the current four, two A319s and two …

I had gone to Bengaluru International Airport for a meeting, and took my camera along. Got some great shots of Kingfisher Airlines and Jet Airways at the field. Hope you enjoy. Visit my photo album on Flickr. VT-VJK (the first KFA A330), performing flight IT2 coming in from London Heathrow. Sorry about the heat haze. The flight comes in the …

SpiceJet today announced its new schedule for summer 2009, effective March 29, 2009. Four new flights have been added to take the number of flights to 119 daily. In addition to the current Bangalore Ahmedabad (via Mumbai), a new direct flight connecting the two cities is added. Ahmedabad also gets a very convenient evening flight departing 18.35 to Mumbai and …

In my recent interview with SpiceJet CEO Sanjay Aggarwal, he highlighted some of the innovative cost cutting methods adopted at SpiceJet. These methods have won SpiceJet the coveted Institute of Cost and Works Accountants of India (ICWAI) award for Excellence in Cost Management. It is the only airline to win this award. A distinguished jury of eminent persons from industry, …

During my visit to the Bengaluru International Airport on March 14th, I observed a Dragonair Airbus A330 B-HWH parked on the apron at 08:00 Obviously something was wrong. Normally the Dragonair flight is scheduled to arrive at 01:40 and leave by 02:40. Found out today that the Dragonair aircraft had an engine problem on the outbound flight back to Hong …

An audit team of the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is meeting the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) in Delhi today. The team will check if India is following the international safety standards set by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) under the FAA’s International Aviation Safety Assessment (IASA) Program. During its 2006 audits, ICAO had found several violations …

Some updates on the production progress of the Airbus A380 superjumbo, courtesy of the A380 production forum. MSN027 (F-WWSY) the fifth for Qantas (VH-OQE Lawrence Hargrave) came out of the Final Assembly Line (FAL) hangers and made its taxi tests. MSN029 (F-WWSA) the sixth for Qantas (VH-OQF Charles Kingsford Smith) has been outside since it came out of the FAL …

Cathay Pacific recently launched a promotional return fare of Rs 7,999 on its direct Delhi-Bangkok service, against a normal fare from other airlines in the range of Rs 15, 500-19,000. Including the recently introduced Rs 1,300 Airport Development Fee (ADF) charged by the Delhi International Airport Ltd. (DIAL), the total fare works out to an astoundingly low Rs. 9,299. The …

As I sign off for the week, a light hearted story from British Airways with a serious intent. There will be Red Noses on the ground and in the air at British Airways this week, in support of Comic Relief’s Red Nose Day on 13 March. (Picture by Nick Morrish/Seven Squared/BA News) Staff will be encouraged to Do Something Funny …

Driven by the whopping discounts offered by airlines, domestic passenger traffic in India, increased very marginally, to 3.336 million in February 2009, up from 3.326 million in January. Kingfisher Airlines retained the top spot as India’s largest domestic carrier for the month with 904,000 passengers representing a 27% market share. Jet group which includes the low cost subsidiary Jet Lite …

….. Continued from yesterday. Read the first part. FinancialsFor the third quarter ended December 31, 2008, SpiceJet declared a profit of Rs. 19.48 million. In today’s economic meltdown, any profit is welcome. The financial statements have an explanation for a one time charge of Rs. 187.82 million. The Company entered into a Memorandum of Settlement (MoS) on November 26, 2008 …

Following two engine thrust rollback events on Boeing 777 aircraft powered by Rolls-Royce engines, the United States National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) issued an urgent safety recommendation today calling for the redesign of a Rolls- Royce engine component. The Safety Board also recommended that, after the redesign is completed, the new system be installed on all affected Boeing 777 airplanes …