In 1978, with launch orders from the erstwhile Eastern Air Lines and British Airways, Boeing commenced the venerable Boeing 757. Eastern Air Lines put the aircraft into commercial service on January 1, 1983, followed by British Airways on February 9, 1983. British Airways has operated the 757 for 27 years, longer than any other operator, with the aircraft reaching a …

KC-3801, the first of six stretched fuselage Lockheed Martin C-130J Hercules military transport aircraft of the Indian Air Force, made its first flight, at Marietta, Georgia, USA on October 4th. Along with these pictures, Lockheed Martin released a simple statement The first of six C-130J Super Hercules for India took to the skies for its maiden flight yesterday. The aircraft …

Today, some night plane spotting photos for your enjoyment. Spotting at night throws up some unique challenges. The aircraft need to be stationary, and the photographer requires good anticipation to capture the image in those few seconds between an aircraft’s arrival at the gate and it being swarmed by ground support equipment and people, or from the time of its …

Went spotting with a few members of the Aviation Photographers India yesterday. As it rolled off runway 09, I could not believe my eyes, but sure enough, it was soon confirmed, VT-ESC one of the early batch of Airbus A320’s delivered back in the early 1990’s was rolling in wearing a new fresh coat of paint in the livery of …

Dr. Vijay Mallya, Chairman of Kingfisher Airlines has scored a coup of sorts by bagging one of the most “eligible bachelors” in Indian aviation today — Mr. Sanjay Aggarwal, appointing him as Chief Executive Officer of the airline. I am pleased to announce the appointment of Sanjay Aggarwal as Chief Executive Officer of Kingfisher Airlines Limited with immediate effect. I …

After announcing the expansion of terminal 1, Bengaluru International Airport Ltd. (BIAL), the operators of the airport is seeking public opinion, primarily from the citizens of Bangalore, on what they would like at the airport.In a first of its kind approach in India, BIAL will launch a campaign across the city called ‘Smile Bengaluru’. The campaign features children as the …

As per a press release by the Press Information Bureau, Government of India the airspace in a 300km radius around the nation’s capital New Delhi shall be closed for operations on the opening and closing days of the Commonwealth Games. The Delhi Airspace will be closed from 5.00 pm (11:30 UTC) to 10.00 pm (16:30 UTC) on 3rd and 14th …

On the eve of the Singapore F1 grand prix, Tony Fernandes promoted Malaysian low cost carrier AirAsia unveiled a re-painted Airbus A320-216 from its fleet in the livery of Formula 1 Team Lotus of which Dr. Fernandes is also the principal. Click on the image for a high-resolution view. The aircraft registration 9M-AFY has been flying since early August, and …

In a bid to try and wrest back some of the traffic being lost to foreign carriers, India’s national carrier Air India will introduce a daily hub and spoke flight from the southern Indian cities of Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Kochi to Delhi with effect from October 31, 2010, to connect its non-stop north America flights to New York, Chicago, …

At an industry gathering in India’s capital New Delhi, IATA’s Director General and CEO Giovanni Bisignani advocated what most aviation analysts in India have been saying all along — there is a desperate need for a comprehensive approach in Indian aviation, with a common vision by all involved. While most would latch on the the chest-thumping statement of Bisignani “If …

Airbus has unveiled a new corporate logo, the first update since the company’s creation in 1969. The new logo retains the original ball-shaped symbol, while incorporating the modernised typeface adopted by the company’s EADS corporate parent. The ball-shaped logo is composed of two sets of three curved lines that join at an imaginary horizon line, which represents the unification of …

You might wonder why I have moved from the sky to the earth, but HO scale model rail-roads have been a passion for me ever since my grand-uncle bought me a Marklin set way back in 1971. Today my sets include Fleischmann, Rocco, and Rivarossi, but I still maintain the all metal coaches (today all coaches are made in plastic) …

Mumbai based Jet Airways is moving operations of 63 domestic flights from its low fare Jet Konnect service to its full service operation under Jet Airways. Some of the sectors which will see this change are :Delhi-Pune, Delhi-Bangalore, Delhi-Chennai, Delhi-Kolkata, Delhi-Hyderabad, Mumbai-Ahmedabad, Mumbai-Pune, Mumbai-Chennai, Mumbai-Kolkata, Mumbai-Mangalore, Mumbai-Hyderabad, and Mumbai-Kochi. During the height of the economic slowdown in 2009, Jet Airways …

Liveleak has a video of a Delta Airlines Boeing 747-400 (inherited from Northwest) crashing and pushing a tow tractor at New York’s John F. Kennedy airport instead of the other way around. The jarring incident (pun intended) seems to have occurred on August 14th. The video appears to be from a surveillance camera. As the plane pulls up to its …

Every month passengers are bombarded with statistics by various airlines in India. Best on-time performance, largest market share, most preferred airline …… the list is endless. Mathematical logic would dictate that an airline with the largest fleet of aircraft will have also have the largest share of the market, but an analysis of the passenger market share vs. the fleet …

As I was coming towards the terminal at Bengaluru International Airport, VT-JGA a Boeing 737-800 of the low cost service Jet Airways Konnect was pulling in to its parking bay. I managed to grab a picture while in the background another Boeing 737 of its low cost sibling, JetLite takes-off from runway 27.

Changi airport recently unveiled Singapore’s tallest slide standing at 12 metres (40 feet, 4 storeys) tall, at its Terminal 3. The Slide@T3 is also the world’s tallest slide in an airport. Changi airport is known for its “ridiculously amazing” activities to indulge transit passengers. The slide joins a movie theatre, a butterfly garden and other nature trails, a Balinese themed …

Indian low fare carrier SpiceJet has announced commencement of its long awaited international operations by opening bookings for its Delhi Kathmandu and Chennai Colombo services. SpiceJet will fly its 189 seat all economy Boeing 737-800 aircraft on these routes. The Delhi Kathmandu flight will be a six times a week service commencing on October 7th. The schedule is SG031 departs …

About two months ago, I flew AirAsia, rather Thai AirAsia for the first time. I could help but compare their services with those of Indian low fare carriers IndiGo and SpiceJet. There is a marked difference between AirAsia and the Indians. In some cases the Indians can learn, and some where AirAsia can learn. In the air, the crew friendliness …

Bandhs are the bane of Indian politics. Forcing entire states to shut-down it is a drag on the Indian economy. Nowhere is the effect of a bandh stronger than the communist stronghold of the state of West Bengal and its capital Kolkata (IATA: CCU). A 24 hour bandh has been called for starting 06:00 September 7th, and ending September 8th. …