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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. …

The General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has released preliminary information on the crash of UPS Airlines Boeing 747-400F freighter registration N571UP at Dubai on September 3, 2010. In parallel UPS has released a statement identifying the two crew who perished in this crash. GCAA Announces the Preliminary Report on the ACCIDENT INVOLVING UPS6 Boeing …

News reports are coming in of a UPS Boeing 747-400 Freighter registration N571UP crashing at Dubai. UPS flight 5X-6 from Dubai, United Arab Emirates to Cologne, Germany crashed at Dubai around 20:00 local (16:00Z). The company has released a statement (read below the fold). As per Avherald, A UPS Boeing 747-400, registration N571UP, was on approach to Dubai’s runway 30L, …

What a great way to end the week. NASA has moved about 180 images on to its new Commons page. They’re arranged in three photo sets, including “Building NASA,” “Launch/Takeoff,” and “NASA Center Namesakes.” NASA has also displayed many of its historic photos on the Internet Archive. Some of the gems are re-produced here. All photos, titles, and captions are …

Today on the day of Janmashthami celebrating the birthday of Lord Krishna, the post is very tongue in cheek, much in the spirit of lord Krishna, who was known for his mischief, practical jokes and innuendos, and being written from the home city of Jet Airways, Mumbai. The zeal of celebration in Mumbai is uniquely demonstrated by teams of youths …

Dr. Vijay Mallya promoted Kingfisher Airlines released this statement today. The conversion between Indian Rupees and US Dollar at a rate of Rs.47:$1 has been added by us in italics. The Board of Kingfisher Airlines Limited, at its meeting held today, approved, subject to shareholders approval, an increase in the authorised Equity Share Capital from Rs. 900 crores [approx $192 …

German carrier Lufthansa took delivery of its third Airbus A380 D-AIMC MSN044 last week. The Lufthansa “Lady Bee” is named Peking the German name for Beijing. Lufthansa will commence A380 services to the Chinese capital from Frankfurt tomorrow, September 1, 2010.

As per a release by the Press Information Bureau, Govt. of India, following is the full text of the Statement by Shri Praful Patel, Minister of Civil Aviation in the Rajya Sabha on August 3rd, in response to the Calling Attention Motion tabled by Shri P. Rajeeve, MP, Rajya Sabha regarding “Serious safety problems faced by airline industry in the …

A Jet Airways Boeing 737-800 registration VT-JGM operating Jet Airways Konnect flight 9W-2302 from Mumbai CSI airport to Chennai Kamaraj airport, India, with 139 passengers and six crew, was taxing on taxiway N parallel to runway 09-27 having pushed back from stand A-6 at 20:47 (15:17Z). At 20:55 (15:25Z) the captain declared a port side engine (i.e. left side , …

An Indigo airlines Airbus A320-232 registration VT-IGJ performing flight 6E-260 from Bhubaneshwar Biju Patnaik airport (IATA: BBI, ICAO: VEBS) to New Delhi Indira Gandhi international airport (IATA: DEL, ICAO: VIDP), India with 140 passengers and six crew suffered a bird hit on departure on the port side engine (engine number one) at around 10:00 (04:30Z) earlier this morning. The plane …

A Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL) Chetak helicopter registration VT-EIV belonging to the HAL Rotary Wing Academy crashed earlier this morning around 0900 (0330Z) while performing a training flight at the HAL airport in Bangalore, India.Image courtesy WikipediaBangalore Aviation understands the aircraft was just commencing a routine training flight, and had lifted just about 15 ft in the air when it …

The nose is one of the most distinguishing objects on the human face. A beautiful nose makes the face, and millions if not billions of dollars are spent every year on “nose jobs” better known as rhinoplasty. Today, though, we present three noses of a different kind. A Boeing 777, an Airbus A320, and a Boeing 737. Which nose do …

Today’s dose of spotting photos are all taken at night and incidentally, all are the national flag carriers of their respective countries. First, is an Air China Airbus A319-100. This is a rare visitor to Bangalore, coming in only twice a week, at 03:00. Turning around and leaving in less than 45 minutes. That is about as fast as I …

Today’s picture shows Lufthansa Cargo’s Boeing MD-11F freighter registration D-ALCC in full ground operations at Bangalore. D-ALCC was delivered to Lufthansa Cargo in 1998. Click on the image for a high resolution view. The aircraft features a forward port side cargo door of 140 in x 102 in or 3.56 m x 2.59 m (see the edge of the door …

Last week, the Aviation Photographers India very kindly received permission from India’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation and the Bengaluru International Airport Limited for its members to do airside photography for a few days, a permission for which the foundation extends its sincere thanks. I had the pleasure of joining the expedition on a few days. Below is a British …

The artist Christoph Niemann has published a beautifully illustrated visual diary in the New York Times documenting a flight from New York to Berlin with a layover in London. As a former over-frequent flier, I related to the diary and it had me in rolling on the floor laughing MAO. Cannot think of a better way to end the week. …

GoAir recently added its ninth Airbus A320-214 in to the fleet. VT-WAM MSN4399 will help GoAir expand its operations. The airline is expected to induct its tenth A320 VT-WAN by end October 2010. As the Indian economy recovers air traffic is following the typical ratio and growing at twice the GDP growth rate of 8.5%. Winter is the highest travel …

RyanAir has often been credited with being virtually unstoppable thanks to a highly efficient operation. However, as the WhichBudget website explains While Ryanair declared €663m of ancillary revenues in its last annual report in 2009, Ryanair earned more than €664m in subsidies the same year. It means that subsidies are at least as important as ancillary revenues and represent around …

gfiles magazine has written a two part article accusing India’s Civil Aviation Minister and other officials of systemic corruption with the ulterior motive of running Air India in to the ground. As the magazine puts it gfiles prayerfully brings to the Supreme Court’s attention, in two parts, the inside story of how a national resource – as well as a …