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India, the world’s largest democracy, has a sorry record in sound and bold economic administration. Populist measures abound, and nothing is sacred or immoral in the perpetual quest to obtain and then secure the “gaddi”. Fuel pricing in India is a prime example. Officially, the “Administered Price Mechanism” was abolished in 2002, but today, the Indian government has a greater …

Plane truth: Trains fare betterBy Nandini Chandrashekar, DH News Service, Bangalore: Frequent short haul air travellers from Bangalore seem to be preferring the train, discouraged by the distance and time taken to travel to the new Bengaluru International Airport (BIA). South-Western Railway officials here have noticed a great increase in passengers notably on the Shatabdi trains running between Chennai and …

Air passenger traffic takes a hit on high faresAnirban Chowdhury / New Delhi July 11, 2008 Dips 4 per cent in July first week for the first time in 3 years. For the first time in the past three years, the first week of July has seen the domestic air passenger traffic declining by 4 per cent over the year-ago …

HAL airport: Centre may seek more time to get back to HC The issue of keeping HAL airport open even after the new airport becomes operational has become contentious as the agreement signed with the promoters states that the existing airport will close when Devanahalli starts functioning Ashwini Phadnis New Delhi, July 8 A decision on whether the HAL airport …

Mr Albert Brunner, CEO, Bangalore International Airport ProjectJul 08, 2008 Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL), the owner and operator of the new Bengaluru International Airport, is a public limited company, registered under the Indian Companies Act. A private-public venture, the project realized so far and the upcoming phases are being built and will be operated by the company for the …

Venkatesha Babu Bangalore: Seventeen years after it was conceived, the Bengaluru International Airport became operational on the night of 24-25 May after several delays. From the day of its launch, the airport has been in the news mainly for the wrong reasons, from complaints over poor connectivity to inadequate toilet facilities. This, however, doesn’t seem to faze Albert Brunner, the …

HAL can’t handle charter flightsMonday July 7 2008 Monica Jha BANGALORE: Despite receiving a green signal from the Ministry of Civil Aviation to operate charter flights, the HAL Airport is in no position to handle charter flights. The reason being that the security mechanism at the HAL Airport is inadequate for the handling of take-offs and landings of charter flights. …

Hemanth C S BANGALORE: The city was once considered the ‘Aviation Hub of India’ and the host for aviation-related events and exhibitions, due to its proximity to various state-owned aeronautical organisations, like Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, National Aerospace Laboratories and other agencies. However, today it is no longer the preferred choice for such events, as two of the country’s biggest civil …

BIA runway may be on courseDH News Service, New Delhi: In a relief to the Bengaluru International Airport Limited (BIAL), the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has rejected the defence ministry objections to the direction of the second runway of the Devanahalli aerodrome. After holding meetings with the parties concerned as directed by the Union cabinet secretary, the DGCA …

BIA, HAL dispute carries onSaturday July 5 2008 Monica Jha BANGALORE: The latest survey conducted by the Airports Authority of India (AAI), on the passenger handling capacity of the two airports in Bangalore, indicates that there is just a minor difference in the capacities of the two airports, contrasting BIAL’s claims. The annual capacity of the HAL Airport has been …

Air Force opposes BIAL plan on second runwayRavi Sharma It has been thought of south of the existing runway The runways at AFS Yelahanka and BIA are parallel to each otherAir Force has no objection to a runway being built to the north of the existing one BANGALORE: The Air Force has strongly objected to the plans of the Bangalore …

5 Jul 2008, TNN NEW DELHI: As oil continues its relentless upward march, US aircraft major Boeing sees difficult days ahead for airlines. While hardly any airline has business model to cope up with fuel at these levels, this is the first time in history that the increase in oil prices is happening at a time when world economy is …

Vijay Mallya looks to fly away with SpiceJetNirbhay Kumar, ET Bureau NEW DELHI: Another round of consolidation in the domestic skies seems imminent with UB Group chairman Vijay Mallya engaging in talks with two major shareholders of SpiceJet to buy the budget carrier in an all-cash deal. According to industry sources, Mr Mallya is negotiating with Gulf-based fund Istithmar and …

User-charges norms for airports soonSindhu Bhattacharya/ DNA MONEY The user development fee (UDF) conundrum may finally get resolved next week when the Union civil aviation ministry holds a crucial meeting to frame a broad policy on this levy. At present, only two new airports (Hyderabad and Bangalore) have been allowed to charge a specific amount as UDF and that too …

BIA sees drop in domestic departures ENS BANGALORE: HERE is some bad news for the Bengaluru International Airport (BIA), which wants to have sole rights on Bangalore’s commercial airspace. The BIA has been witnessing a dip in the number of domestic flight operations in its very first month after it started operations on May 24 and this continues. According to …

By Lakshmi Vishwanath | Bangalore Dragonair, the sister airline of Cathay Pacific Airways launched its daily service on Bangalore-Hong Kong route, day before yesterday. The first flight landed at Bengaluru International Airport (BIA), at 01.18 hours on July 1, while the first flight from Bangalore to Hong Kong departed at 02.35 hours yesterday. Bangalore is the seventh new destination, being …

Jet Airways will enhance its network connectivity from Pune with the launch of its new direct services to Hyderabad, Nagpur and Ahmedabad, effective 15-Jul-08. The flight from Pune to Hyderabad and Ahmedabad will be a daily direct flight whereas flights between Pune and Nagpur will operate six days a week, with the exception of Saturdays. Jet Airways’ flight 9W 3421 …

BIA II phase suffers a setbackFrom B S Arun, DH News Service, New Delhi: Just as the first phase of the Bengaluru International Airport (BIA) was finally declared open after hitting air pocket several times, the proposed second phase has received a blow. The Defence Ministry is opposed to the proposed second runway direction and wants it to be shifted. …

DH News Service, Bangalore: In its first step towards implementing the proposed high speed train project to Bangalore International Airport, the State government on Wednesday called for Expression of Interest (EI) from private firms to take up the project on Build Operate and Transfer (BOT) basis. The EI has been issued by Karnataka Industrial Investment and Development Corporation (KSIIDC), which …

To introduce A-SMGCS for monitoring movements at Mumbai and Kolkata airportBy Anita Jain | Mumbai Airports Authority of India (AAI) is planning to introduce Advanced Surface Movements – Guidance and Control System (A-SMGCS), to monitor Air Traffic Management (ATM) in Mumbai and Kolkata airport by next year. The System was introduced by USA based, Sensis Air Traffic Systems at Indira …