Over the last few months, I have grown to respect Tarun Shukla. Tarun and his colleague P.R. Sanjai at the Mint newspaper (a joint venture of The Hindustan Times and The Wall Street Journal), take the time to well research and write, analytical stories on the Indian aviation industry. This week, Tarun has detailed the rather rapid decline of Paramount …

In a surprise move, German carrier Lufthansa will ignore its two largest markets, the United States and India, when commences its Airbus A380 uber-jumbo flights in couple of months. Instead, the carrier will commence its A380 services between Frankfurt and Tokyo Narita first, and then Beijing, China. Johannesburg in South Africa will be the third A380 destination for the German …

From Monday this week, Kingfisher Airlines launched three more new international routes, from New Delhi to Kathmandu and from New Delhi and Mumbai to Dubai. Kingfisher now flies its luxurious wide body Airbus A330’s to London and Hong Kong from Mumbai and Delhi, and to Singapore from Mumbai and it operates two-class A320s featuring the very posh Kingfisher First cabin …

An Emirates airline Boeing 777-21H registration A6-EML performing flight EK530 from Dubai, United Arab Emirates (DXB) to Kochi, India (COK) with 350 passengers and 14 crew, was en-route at FL350 (35,000ft) and just about to begin descent towards Kochi, when the airplane experienced severe turbulence for a brief period of time. As per a statement released by the airline, the …

Jet Airways’ all-economy service ‘Konnect’, will launch a new premium cabin product on some of their Boeing 737 aircraft called ‘Konnect Select’ on April 26th. Sounds confusing? Jet Konnect is by the airline’s own definition an “all economy” service. This moniker will get removed when the new premium class is introduced. A Jet Airways spokesperson clarified, the new cabin will …

Here I am in Jitra, a small hamlet in the extreme north of Malaysia just about 30 km (20 miles) from the Thailand border. View Larger Map Like so many others, my world is turned upside down thanks to the volcanic ash cloud emanating from Iceland. We have been hearing of airlines loosing over $200 million a day, but what …

Last week I had discussed the need to review the requirement of Indian aviation security agencies of placing a stamp on boarding passes and hand luggage tags. Many readers have commented about similar experiences and the frivolity of having such an archaic system which has become irrelevant in a modern world where threats are more insidious and require ever increasing …

India’s Jet Airways, in association with South African Tourism and Sun International are conducting a social media and blogging contest titled ‘Why I should visit South Africa this summer’. The winner of the contest, to be selected on the basis of a lucky draw, will be provided with two Jet Airways return economy trip tickets (for a couple) from Mumbai …

Thanks to the increasing security threats, queues at security checks have become the bane of air travellers across the world. However, during my recent trip to Malaysia and Thailand, I found reasonably fast moving lines. In contrast, at peak hours across airports in India, we experience extremely long lines at security checks and a boarding process that moves slower than …

A little tongue in cheek humour as we enter the Easter weekend.As previously announced, Kingfisher Airlines launched its Delhi – London Heathrow flights on March 28th. At the ceremony the guest of honour was famous Bollywood actor Ranbir Kapoor. Along with the press release one picture caught my eye. Kingfisher’s head of sales Mr. Vijay Arora presented what appears to …

Jet Airways has beaten out Air India and will dry lease three of its Boeing 777-300ERs (B77Ws) to Thai Airways for a period of three years. The deal is estimated at $36 million per year or about $1 million per aircraft per month. Under financial pressure, Jet has been looking to lease these three aircraft after Gulf Air cut short …

Eight days ago, on Sunday 21st March, a so-called bomb was discovered on board a Kingfisher Airlines aircraft at Bengaluru International Airport (BIA) early morning. As usual, TimesNow TV tried to make a huge mountain out of a molehill claiming that a “bomb” was discovered and defused. In reality about a teaspoon full of black powder, the type used in …

China is regarded as the “will-be” economic superpower of the 21st century. A similar “superpower” tag was bestowed on the erstwhile Soviet Union during the second half of 20th century. Yet for all its economic or military might, we did not, nor do we, see queues of potential immigrants or students scrambling to get a visa for either of these …

During the recently concluded India Aviation 2010 show, I met a trio of Indian stewardesses who serve with Qatar Airways. Unlike the European carriers who tend to recruit and station in India, complete cabin crew teams from India, for their Indian routes, Qatar Airways stations their India origin cabin crews at its home base in Doha. Three more beautiful reasons …

Boeing has completed the initial airworthiness testing on the 747-8 Freighter. This will allow Boeing test engineers to be on board during future flights and also brings the remaining two 747-8F test airplanes into the flight test programme. Since its first flight in early February, the 747-8F test plane has conducted 13 flights totalling 33 flying hours with five pilots …

United has signed a firm order for 25 Airbus A350-900 XWB aircraft which it originally announced in December 2009 The aircraft will be powered by Rolls-Royce Trent XWB engines. Deliveries of the aircraft will begin in 2016 and run through 2019.

To most passengers, Kingfisher is the only airline in India offering an in-flight entertainment (IFE) system on narrow body aircraft. Not too many people are aware that Jet Airways has also has some Boeing 737 aircraft equipped with an Panasonic efx IFE system with 10.6 inch screens. Jet has 20 Boeing 737NG with seat back AVOD (audio video on demand) …

A Lufthansa Boeing 747-430 registration D-ABVD flight LH755 from Bangalore, India to Frankfurt, Germany and with 288 passengers and 18 crew, was grounded early this morning due to a technical fault in engine 2 (left in-board). After push back as the engines were being started up the flight commander experienced a fault in engine 2. The airline’s ground engineer tried …

Apparently there is a major meeting currently underway at the Bengaluru International Airport Ltd. (BIAL) which will run till tomorrow. This meeting is focus on the expansion plans of the Bengaluru International Airport (BIA). The new de-facto owners of the airport Mr. G.V. Krishna Reddy and son Mr. G.V. Sanjay Reddy of GVK Power and Infrastructure Ltd. (GVK) will receive …

Marking International Women’s Day, India’s national carrier Air India created history when at a little past midnight earlier today, the first all-women crew performed an ultra long-haul B777-200LR non-stop flight from Mumbai to New York. AI 141 was the first of the 22 all-women crew flights operated by Air India across its domestic and international network. Women form a core …