Foreign Pilots to face the Effects of Recession

As a part of cost cutting several Indian airlines are on role to fire highly paid foreign pilots, which would lead them to fight the rising prices and the ongoing recession. About 950 foreign pilots, 810 commanders and approximately 140 co-pilots, working in nearly all the Indian airlines, are the first one to become the casualties of the cost cutting exercise adopted by the Indian airline industry.

Initially, airlines were allowed to hire co-pilots only until 30 May 2008 and senior pilots or commanders until July 2010. Virtually every airline - IA, Air Deccan, Kingfisher Airlines, Jet Airways and Spice Jet among others - had employed pilots from the different countries such as: US, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Egypt, Columbia, Romania, France and Denmark.

Emergency Landing called up by Indian Airlines

Hyderabad-Tirupati flight of Indian Airlines called up for emergency landing after an hour of panic at the Shamshabad International Airport after 15 minutes of take off. The flight IC 942, took off from the airport at 1:40 pm and soon after that pilot noticed a technical fault and informed the airport authorities about the need of emergency landing.

The flight was permitted to land at 1:55 pm, all the 135 passengers on board were safe. After all this the passengers were sent to Tirupati by an alternative Indian airlines flight around 3:40 pm. The Minister for Endowments was among the passengers but was not available to comment on the situation.

Interim Chairman appointed by Air India

Air India appointed Bharat Bhushan as interim chairman and managing director to replace only a year in charge old chairman. Bharat Bhushan is the Joint Secretary and Financial Advisor at the Ministry of Civil Aviation, will take charge with immediate effect until government appoints new head at National Aviation Company Of India which is Air India’s parent company. The appointment was confirmed in a statement but a no reason was provided for the change. It has been found from sources that Menon got replaced due to differences with civil aviation minister. It has been also known through various news papers that the news centered around the slow pace of integration with Indian Airlines, the carrier that merged with Air India in 2007 to form NACIL.

The company has also been under financial crisis, with some reports depicting that they needed more money from the government to pay for its operations and new Boeing and Airbus passenger aircraft which is being ordered before the merger. An opposition by Menon to a proposed joint venture with Singapore Airport Terminal Services (SATS) for ground handling can be one of the possible reasons as well.

Two Indian Airlines and Singapore Airlines announced low fares

To attract summer holiday traffic like Air India did, two Indian airlines and Singapore Airlines announced low air fares and special schemes. A discount of up to Rs 500 per return-trip being announced by Spice Jet under a special scheme, Jetlite also did the same on Wednesday by keeping the fare as low as Rs 4170, excluding passenger service fee and the development fees charged by certain major airports.

Air India on Monday announced advance purchase fares, available on 35 domestic sectors; of Rs 2494 one way if booked 20 days in advance and Rs 2694 if bought 10 days before travel. A ‘Fabulous Singapore Stopover’ package for USD one only for the first night stay in Singapore is offered by Singapore Airlines, together with the Singapore Tourism Board and Singapore Changi Airport. Exclusive deals on hotel stay, airport transfers and entry to some Singapore’s leading tourist attractions are some of the things covered in package.

Flights Withdrawal by Foreign Airlines

Prevailing Economic downturn forces foreign airlines to pull out the flights between various Indian states. The Airlines such as Austrian Airlines, Virgin Atlantic, Sri Lankan Airlines, Syrian Airlines, Singapore Airlines, Lufthansa Airlines and many more withdrew over 100 flights in last 6 months. The rise in airport charges, the growing cost between fuel cost in India and globally, Travel agents pressurizing threatening to boycott Airline tickets sale and a 20% fall in inbound premium passenger travel forced international carriers to reduce flight services in the country.

Fruitema said airports around the world have cut airport charges, whereas Indian airports have increased theirs. Among airports that have lowered airport charges between 10 and 50 per cent are Singapore, Thailand and Korea. Our airport charges in India have gone up 9 to 10 per cent in the last few months. KLM pulled out its services from Hyderabad last October and operates only to Mumbai and Delhi. The airline has no plans to deploy additional flights to India for the time being. Its partner Air France recently pulled out of Chennai. KLM will deploy 5 per cent less capacity in India this summer against last summer. The carrier is, however, considering code-share agreements with full-service carriers Jet Airways and Kingfisher airlines to improve access to Indian destinations.

Egypt wooing private Indian airlines

The airlines like Jet Airways and Kingfisher airlines being wooed by Egypt to boost their relations with India as a Country, by providing tax concessions and also they want them to connect Cairo, Egypt’s capital. Earlier Air India was active in Egypt, it had flights flying to Cairo, but was discontinued since 1970s. The Ambassador of Egypt said that they want to attract private airlines like Jet airways and Kingfisher and use Kolkata as their hub.

There have been flights to Cairo from Mumbai, as few airlines were providing flights to Cairo from Mumbai, but now Egypt wants to cover Kolkata, Delhi and Bangalore or Chennai. Regarding Indian investments country was already in talks with Kirloskar group for irrigation and land reclamation of Toshka region in upper Egypt.

Boeing to deliver $17 billion worth planes to India

Boeing a U.S. based aircraft making company will deliver about 100 planes worth $17 billion in next 4-5 years to India. Recently Boeing launched its research and technology centre in Bangalore, during this launch President of Boeing India said that they really want to extend their footprints in India. It was projected by Boeing last year that India would need 1001 aircraft of worth $105 billion in the coming 20 years and he also added that this prediction won’t get affected despite an economic crisis.

Boeing has been on top in delivering aircrafts in India and has never faced any cancellation of its order for civilian aircrafts from Indian airlines though Jet Airways refused the order of two aircrafts last year. Boeing also competes in taking defense related projects of delivering planes in Asia with other European rival Airbus grabbing new orders for planes though there is an economic downturn.

Merger Talk denial by GoAir

GoAir denies merger talks with its largest rival in Indian aviation i.e. Spice jet. GoAir chief executive officer says that, they are not looking for any kind of merger with Spicejet. This all was told to reporters during a press conference on 25th March’09 in New Delhi. The merger has been denied by saying it as one of the rumors. The officer also said that Jet Airways and Kingfisher airlines too had a merger as a part of cost cutting by becoming code sharing partners, sharing crew and managing fuel so, there can be a consolidation with other airlines as a part of cost cutting.

The officer says that GoAir is planning to add on fleets, taking it to 20 by 2012 from current six. Though merger is good for airlines to come out of any kind of losses but still making decisions and implementing them is a task in itself. In the last the officer adds on that, an intelligent investor is always an opportunity but this all depends on conditions as well.

Pilot Drain is likely to be face by Indian carriers

West Asian Rivals are planning to hunt for pilots in India. Loss of about 100 pilots to Qatar Airways has been assumed, which is on an expansion no matter there is an economic downturn. Other West Asian carriers such as Emirates Airlines, Air Arabia and many more have been regularly hiring pilots in India, with a pay increase of about 30%. Jet Airways is likely to be affected the most, with at least 40 of its senior pilots who are going to leave, as told by two senior Jet executives.

The domestic airlines were negotiating with pilots for reducing their salaries by 25% because of economic crisis. Due to which the Indian carriers faced a loss of $2 billion last year and at this point of time a job offer is really something the pilots waiting for. A person close to the development and involved in the recruitment process said these West Asian carriers have approached pilots with state-run National Aviation Co. of India Ltd that runs Air India. “West Asian carriers are mainly eyeing Indian talent and pilots from Singapore Airlines,” he said.

Spice jet awarded for excellence in cost management

On 17th March’09 Spice jet won the ICWAI award for excellence in Cost Management. The Ministry of Corporate Affairs, presented the award. Spice jet was one out of the three companies who won the award. The people from industry, Academia and Administration were the Jury who selected Spice jet and awarded it with an excellence award. The selection was done on the basis of adapting better practices for resource management, efficient utilization of capacity, working capital and R&D efforts done by the airlines.

The Chief Executive officer of Spice jet said that he was very much delighted after winning the award. They were always concerned with the capital i.e. the investment and the gains they are getting in return, this is why Spice jet airlines is the lowest operating carriers in the airlines industry. Other airlines should work on the operating costs to get profits out of what they invest.

Air India to join Star Alliance by year 2010

Air India has to join Star Alliance by March’09 but now it has been delayed by a year, and it will join Star by 2010. According to an official the earlier merger of Air India and Indian Airlines has not been found useful yet, as there has been a confusion about the work duties between the two airlines. The Star and Air India has to integrate their IT platforms under one common system , but Air India still hasn’t confirmed about which platform they will be using.


A news report by a Delhi based news agency suggests that Ministry of Civil Aviation is found to be upset that talks are on with Jet Airways to join Star, as it would put Air India at a disadvantage. A Jet spokesperson said that the Jet Airways was evaluating various options, over the years Jet has decided not to align itself to a specific alliance rather go with code sharing and independent alliances. Star, at the onset, had not ruled out other Indian partners.

5% rise in airfares found in quarter four last year

It was heard that Indian airlines claimed of slashing flights airfares after ATF prices came down but it has been revealed by an exclusive industry report that airfares actually risen by 5%. A report named The American Express Asia Pacific Business Travel Monitor report, revealed that due to reduction in competition and falling rupee has let airfares to increase quarter on quarter which is effective on selected categories only.

Moves have been made by domestic airlines in India to reduce fares and make it cheap flights, after ATF reduced by almost 50% last year due to fall in prices of crude. This reduction in airfares is effective only on certain categories, while in most of the segments it has been increased. Fares in India rose by 5% which is the highest quarterly rise of airfares across Asia Pacific region. Whereas full business class airfares shown 10% quarter –on-quarter increase in airfares. India published fares rose 15% on year, while they rose 26% in domestic and 13% in Intra Asia Pacific.

Air India declared as Number one carrier in October-December’08

Economic crisis had hit the tourism in India last year, whole travel industry including the airlines industry was affected by it, and still Air India emerged as number one in passenger carriage as well as aircraft movement globally. Though in overall share Gulf carriers lead the market in passenger carriage. Jet Airways has the second highest aircraft movement, is third on the passenger carriage list with a 9% market share. After starting international operations last year Kingfisher airlines is at number 46.

The figures reported by AAI this year shows Gulf airlines dominated the past giants The European carriers. The 71% market share is dominated by top 20 airlines out of which Gulf carriers control 27% with Emirates on top. The others are Air Arabia, Qatar Airways, Saudi Arabian Airlines, Oman Air, Gulf Air, Etihad and Kuwait Airways. Five South-East Asian airlines cover the 13% of market share in the top-20 list that includes Singapore Airlines, Cathay Pacific, Thai, Sri Lankan airlines and Malaysian airlines.

Rupees 11 billion to be paid by Airlines to the Airport Operators

Airports Authority of India said that Airlines owe it Rupees 11 Billion, out of which Air India alone has to pay Rupees 7 Billion. Though airport has given airline operators an ample of time to clear dues but still they need money for upgrading the airports and government also approved the airports development fee for raising fund for the development of airports. Already 20 airports including Kolkata and Chennai are being upgraded by AAI by investing Rs 120 billion.

Delhi International Airport Ltd. (DIAL) has already started charging Rs 200 from domestic passengers and Rs 1300 from international passengers as development fee from March 1st onwards. The one upgrading the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport in Mumbai will charge Rs 100 per trip from domestic passengers and Rs 600 from international passengers April 1st onwards. Greenfield Airports at Hyderabad and Bangalore charges Rs 375 and Rs 260 from domestic passengers and Rs 1000 from international passengers on Airline Tickets.

A new Flight launch Mumbai-Kuwait by Jet Airways

Jet Airways to launch a direct daily flight Mumbai-Kuwait from 29th March’09. Earlier it was only Kochi-Kuwait flight being operated by Jet Airways; this would be the second daily service in Kuwait from India by Jet Airways. The airline is already operating its daily flights in the Middle East countries like Abu Dhabi, Muscat, Dubai, Doha and Bahrain. The Jet Chief Executive is hoping that this flight service proves also to be popular amongst the passengers in Kuwait.

The Flight will depart Mumbai at 7:00 pm and reach Kuwait at 8:30 pm local time and on return it will depart at 9:30 pm from Kuwait and reach Mumbai at 4:00 am in the morning. About 4.82 million Indian are residing in Gulf countries out of which 550,000 are living in Kuwait so jet airways definitely going to be popular amongst the ones residing in Kuwait.

UDF to be collected by Airlines at the time of selling tickets

User Development Fee (UDF) will now be collected from the passengers by the airlines, at the time of tickets selling. The charges will not be exceeding Rs 5 per passenger and will not be passed on to the passengers in any manner. Last month in February government approved charging UDF by DIAL at the rate of Rs 200 from each domestic passenger and Rs 1300 from international passenger. The UDF came into effect from March 1st for next 3 Years. This is really going to affect the prices of air tickets in India.

The following people will be exempted from paying UDF to the airlines:
- The persons travelling on infants tickets issued by the airlines.
- Diplomatic Passport Holders.
- Crew of Airlines on duty.
- Official duty persons on aircraft operated by Indian Armed forces.
- Transfer/Transit passengers (less then 6hrs stay at IGI Airport).
- The passengers departing from airport due to technical faults in plane or not suitable weather conditions for flying.

Airlines affected after Rupee hit a record low of Rs 51.92 per dollar

There has been seen a fall in Rupee, domestic airlines are likely to revise all their targets, as 30% of expenses of airlines are denominated in dollars. Airlines such as Jet Airways, Spice Jet, Air India and Kingfisher airlines usually make their payments in dollars towards the rentals of their leased aircrafts, maintenance, foreign crew and pilots. Rupee can touch 54 by the end of this month; this has been predicted by some financial firms.

Airlines pay a rental of Rs 40 Lac for the single aircraft, which has now increased to Rs 50 Lac due to the decrease in value of a rupee. This has affected many things including parking, employee costs and navigation charges. The fall in rupee is definitely going to play a major role in this year’s losses in airlines industry. The losses have been estimated for this year, it would be Rs 10,000 crores which is more than double of last year’s losses which was 4,000 crores.

A review of creative duties by Air India

Air India has decided to review its creative duties and will have a separate media agency to handle all its Media duties. Earlier they use to give media work to existing media agencies. This all has been done to reduce the cost they have been spending in media related issues. A total of 25 crores have been spent on advertising last year. The development has been confirmed by an Air India official spokesperson he said “at the time of merger between Indian Airlines and Air India the two airlines creative agencies started working for Air India.

Air India Cargo and Air India Express are Air India’s current subsidiaries. Air India Cargo provides air cargo services and a dedicated fleet, Air India Express which is a budget airline operates flights in the countries of Middle East. The merger of Indian Airlines and its subsidiary, Air India regional into Air India, these two became subsidiaries of Air India. The new logo of Air India is a red colored flying swan with the ‘Konark Chakra’ in orange inside it, in which the chakra has been taken from the Indian National Flag and the swan from the Air India’s previous logo.

India still in decision making mode to allow Overseas stake in Local carriers

Overseas airline code-sharing agreements with various Indian domestic carriers have made India to examine a plan for allowing the overseas airlines to buy a stake in local airlines. The plans will definitely going to benefit the airlines specially the airlines faced losses last year such as Jet Airways and Spice Jet. India currently will permit 49% stake in Indian carrier and no direct or indirect dealing will be allowed. The Minister stated, India will look into any attempt at cartelization. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation is inquiring into cartelization allegations after some airlines made coordinated fare increases earlier this month.


The recession has definitely affected the airlines industry for that the Civil Aviation Minister has ruled out the establishment of a stabilization fund sought by Indian carriers. A stabilization fund of $2 billion for 3- 5 years, interest free loans has been asked by the Government.

British Airways to strike a code-sharing agreement with Go Air

British Airways will soon strike a code sharing, co-branding and marketing agreement with GoAir. This would lead to an equity stake in Go Air by British Airways. By this code-sharing agreement both the airlines will get equally benefited, BA can mark its reputation in Indian market and Go Air can do the same in international market. BA is the largest passenger’s contributor after US so; this is definitely going to help Airlines industry in India. The deal would benefit Go Air by $350 million which is definitely a huge profit to the airlines. For this deal Go Air has appointed a London based Bank Euromax Capital for the transaction.

Indian Government is also looking forward to this agreement between the foreign airlines with domestic flights India. Earlier Royal Bank Scotland and Standard chartered were the two banks which were supposed to make an equity investment into GoAir. The IATA in response has said that 2009 will be the worse year than 2008 in terms of number of passengers and yield, so in these conditions a foreign airline having an equity share in Indian airline is definitely going to lessen the effect of recession in the market of airlines industry.

MRO joint venture between Jet Airways and Malaysia Airlines

A code-sharing agreement has been signed between Malaysia Airlines and Jet Airways. According to agreement signed in Hyderabad, India regarding Joint venture Jet Airways will take care of Malaysia Airline planes maintenance, repair and overhaul i.e. MRO in India by February end. This joint venture will be beneficial for Malaysia airlines as its planes don’t have to fly to Malaysia for MRO services, it can be done in India itself.

Malaysia’s National carrier is hopeful that Jet airways in India would become its anchor tenant after signing the code sharing agreement and they desire of having a commercially viable MRO joint venture. This code sharing agreement is definitely going to help both the airlines to build a strong bond between the two nations. This venture will attract other nations as well to participate in signing these kinds of agreement with India and will help Indian airlines to build a reputation in airlines industry world over.

Recently announced Updated report of Jan-09 Indian Domestic traffic

Indian Ministry of civil aviation recently reported the total passengers carried by domestic airlines in Jan’09. The total passengers carried were 3.3 million. Air India carried 555000 passengers, Jet airways carried 596000 passengers, 241000 passengers were carried by Jet Lite, Kingfisher carried about 919000 passengers, 393000 passengers were carried by Spice jet, Go air carried about 81000 passengers and Indigo airlines carried about 457000 passengers in Jan’09.

The seat factors of domestic airlines in Jan’09 is nearly varied with each other: Indigo has 72.2% of seat factor, Spice jet about 68.3%, Jetlite 67.5%, Jet airways 64.8%, Kingfisher 64.0%, Go air 64.0% and Air India 60.2%. The report generated shows that Kingfisher airlines are ahead of others in carrying passengers and Indigo in seat factors in the month of Jan’09. The Jan’09 domestic traffic data is the result of introducing promotional flights airfares by almost all domestic airlines, report may vary a bit this month as there has been a rise in fares in Feb’09.

A new base fare of Re.1 introduced by Jetlite

As all Indian Airlines are hiking the base fares Jetlite introduced a base fare of Re.1 as a promotional fare. The fare is applied on some of Metro cities flights as well. Meanwhile Jet Airways also announced Rs.300 base fare on the flight routes to major cities. The fares will be effective from 30th April’09. Jet Lite introduced its promotional base fare as it heard about other airlines withdrawing the promotional base fares.

All airlines including Spice Jet, Indigo, Kingfisher and GoAir had a hike in their base fares; they all are now concentrating on earning revenues rather than seat factors. It was assumed that there will be a hike of Rs.1800 to Rs.2000 on the flights from Mumbai to Delhi. Air India in response to withdrawal of promotional fares said that the response was not upto the expectations, so they decided to discontinue with the promotional fares.

Business Travellers never demands for a luxury travel

A survey has been done regarding what a business executive demands while travelling, and was found that it wasn’t the luxury extras but the good service and basic efficiency. They want the things that can help in their official work; proper internet connection is their main priority. Now a day’s business professionals want a proper Wi-Fi connectivity so that they can complete their pending tasks before they reach somewhere for their meeting.

According to the survey the business travelers will go for the basic facilities no matter what is the price of Airline Tickets. Proper internet connectivity is the main priority for worldwide business travellers rather than a peaceful room, good transport and central location. Economic pressure has let the business professionals to think more about the basic facilities rather than the luxury requirements. The same is for the hotels they stay in, hotels must have proper internet connectivity rather than the luxury. Corporate companies have started looking more closely into the travelling expenses which has made the business travellers specially in Asia-Pacific to look for Cheap Air Tickets with basic faculties rather than having luxury flight experience and spending too much on the tickets.

Indian Airlines Plane narrowly escaped a collision

It was a narrow escape for the passengers in Indian Airlines IC 866 was about to collide with a chopper at Mumbai airport. The pilot was quick to spot the army choppers landing on the same runway. It was truly the mistake of Air Traffic Control Mumbai that allowed The President’s plane to land on the same runway when an Indian Airlines flight was about to take for Delhi from there.

The Indianairlines plane has already run about 1-1.5 kms on the runway when an Army helicopter landed. The pilot saw the helicopters when they were just 50 meters away and applied emergency brakes. The plane wheels got damaged as well while the emergency brakes were applied. All the passengers were reported to be safe at the end. The operation of Air Traffic Control comes under scanner and after this incident Airport Authority has launched investigations into the matter.

Hijack scare troubled Security at Delhi Airport

A mid air hijack scare created panic for the on board passengers and the airport security, when an Indigo flight was going from Goa to Delhi. The accuse was arrested and interrogated by Delhi Police on Monday after which the court has sent him to jail for 14 days. The accuse was not happy with the seat allotment and was behaving awkwardly. His behavior forced the pilot to send a hijack alert which caused the emergency landing and the plane was kept in isolation for at least two and a half hours after that.

The accuse threatened the air hostess by saying that he was armed which was the main cause of calling a hijack alert. The CISF took position outside the plane while NSG was inside, taking charge of the situation. Once the situation was under control and was confirmed that there was no hostage situation the NSG was allowed to go ahead and ask the passengers to deboard the Indigo airlines 6E44. Finally, all the passengers and airline crew were safe and the hijack was declared as fake by the NSG.

Economy class ticket in Just Rs 99 – Air India

Air India recently declared its economy class fare price which is Rs 99 and is valid for the month of February only. This offer will also continue after February for the one who books a ticket 21 days in advance. The Business class travelers can enjoy the scheme till February end under which the passenger’s spouse is allowed to travel by paying only the fuel surcharge and the airport user development charge. Air India was lead by Jet Airways and Kingfisher Airlines last year in flight bookings.

The civil aviation Ministry released its data depicting Jet Airways as India’s largest domestic air services handling a market share of 29.5 percent followed by Kingfisher Airlines handling a market share of 27.6 percent market share. Air India is only handling a market share of 16.3 percent after Jet and Kingfisher airlines which has immensely effected the business of Air India this is the reason why the airlines is introducing new schemes this month.

Kingfisher Airlines Deprived from aviation fuel supply

The Oil marketing companies which are being run by State has threatened Kingfisher airlines that if they will not clear their outstanding of Rs 158 crores the oil marketing companies will stop supplying aviation fuel to the airlines from next Wednesday. The oil companies has started supplying the fuel to Kingfisher and Jet Airways on cash and carry basis from last few days due to the nonpayment of their previous dues for the Last week of October. Jet immediately responded to the situation and paid its dues but Kingfisher still hasn’t cleared its dues with Hindustan Petroleum and Bharat Petroleum.

Kingfisher Airlines has been affected the most by hike in ATF prices and this can be seen by the loss of Rs 2500 crores faced by the airlines this year. It was decided on 22nd October’08 that the airlines can pay its dues in six easy installments by end of March this year and also asked Oil marketing companies to revise ATF prices every fortnight instead of every month so that international market also gets benefited from the falling ATF prices.

Travel agents protest against foreign airlines commission denial

The travel agents all over India are planning to protest on 30th Jan’09 against the foreign airlines those who have refused to pay the commissions to them. It has been noticed by the travel agents that they have not been paid the commissions on the air ticket booking of the airlines. The international airlines such as Singapore airlines, Lufthansa airlines, Qatar airways, Air France and many more which are operating there airlines in India has deprived the travel agents of the commission on airline tickets booking.

The domestic airlines later on after the protest agreed to pay on 3 percent of airfare. An official of foreign airline said that there would be a temporary reduction in the Indian flights airfares that’s why they were unable to pay the commissions to the travel agents. Now, the airlines are selling the tickets from their offices or online through their websites as there are unable to pay commission to the travel agents.

Airfares hike once again

Government has decided to put an additional charge for air travelers in Delhi and Mumbai, so stop expecting cheap air tickets from now. ADF charges may be effective from next month onwards; this will be an additional fee for outgoing passengers. The ADF will be for 2 years only to minimize the deficits for future which was about Rs 2,000 crores at the Delhi and Mumbai airports. Delhi Airports will be charging of about Rs 300 from outgoing domestic passengers and Rs 1000 from international passengers as additional flights airfares. These two airports handles 55 percent of flights in India and the reconstruction of the two airports can cost upto Rs 11,400 crores. This ADF will be charged for 2 years then it may be discontinued.

The Bangalore Government allowed it’s airports to charge UDF of Rs 260 from Jan 16. Here domestic passengers are already paying Rs 375 and International passengers have been paying Rs 1000 UDF early this month which is additional to cheap flights tickets. The sources are depicting that airports could be allowed to pay UDF or ADF from passengers but still no official talks have been done in this regards.

Air India launches Two More flights from Gulf to Thiruvananthapuram

Air India had one flight running between Bahrain and Thiruvananthapuram on Tuesday earlier, but from now it is launching two more flights for the same route which will be running on every Friday and Saturday but at the same time, Air India is going to reduce flights running between Bahrain and Kozhikode in Kerala from six days to four days in a week.

The other airlines Indian Airlines was already operating daily from Bahrain to Kochi and Kozhikode. The schedule for the Bahrain-Thiruvananthapuram flight will be it will depart from Bahrain at 12:55 a.m. on Tuesday and reach Thiruvananthapuram at 7:50 a.m. From Bahrain it will take off on Friday and Saturday at 11.20 p.m. and land in Thiruvananthapuram at 7:30 a.m. the next day. The flight will be a blessing for 290,000 Indians in Bahrain in which mostly are from Kerala. Air India now operates 20 flights a week to five destinations in India.

Fare Cuts by Jet Airways and Air India

Jet Airways and Air India has announced to cut their air fares and revised rates will be in effect from 1st January’09 in which Jet airways will cut the fare up to 40% on domestic routes. The air fares will go on like this Rs 2000 for Mumbai-Delhi flight, Rs 4065 for Mumbai-Kolkata route, Rs 1220 for Bangalore-Mumbai and as low as Rs 500 for Mumbai-Ahmadabad flight. Taxes of Rs 3,500 are also to be included on each ticket. This means that the total cost of an air ticket will be with taxes.

Another airline Kingfisher airline has also stated that fare cut will be implemented by New Year. The Indian air operators are reluctant to revise air fares despite the fall in fuel prices. The demand of aviation turbine fuel under the declared goods category by Indian air operators will bring down the sales tax from an average of 32% at other airports to a uniform 4% and due to this Indian aviation ministry has forced the major airline companies to go for fare cuts.

British Airway’s equity stake in Go Air

The British Airway’s chasing a 25% stake in Indian Go Air airlines. The officials have decided to have a meet in London for the further discussions sources says that British Airways has tried Last Year to reach a code sharing agreement with Go Air. Go Air spokesperson says that the airlines has 2.3% share in the market and would welcome such a change in policy and British Airways refuses what is said.

Foreign airlines will be allowed to invest in domestic airlines with a cap of nearly 26% with India’s changed policy plan. Though Go Air faced losses last year still it is a closely held company with its financial numbers not in the public. The decision to scale up the fleet by 35 aircrafts will be fulfilled till March 2011, recently added six and will add 20 by end of this year.

New Overseas Operations Launch by Kingfisher Airlines

Kingfisher airlines have announced its service of daily international flight from Mumbai to London with effect from 5^th January’09. After this launch the Kingfisher airlines will have two overseas operations. It’s already running Bangalore to London flight was launched in September last year. Airline has also decided to launch Mumbai-Hong Kong operations from 12^th January’09 and Mumbai-Singapore operations from 16^th January’09. Kingfisher airlines have also planned to Launch Bangalore-Chennai-Colombo flight service from 19^th January’09 onwards.

The timings of the Mumbai-London flight will take off at 1:50 p.m. from Mumbai and it will arrive at Heathrow at 5:55 p.m. The return flight would leave London at 8:30 p.m. and will arrive the next day at 11 a.m. in the morning.

10 Flight attendants of Air India got fired

Air India fires it’s 10 flight attendants, the reason was they were exceptionally overweight.They were firstly made to do ground duty for several years but recently got fired when found unfit during a medical test, in which medical board declared them unfit for duty. In response the airline says they were given time to shed weight but still they failed to do so.

Some of the air hostesses have also approached the Delhi High Court for a legal challenge against the airlines, but it was later thrown out. Weight is the main criteria for being selected in an airlines job and this is not the first time an airline has sacked its employees for being overweight.

Oil companies strike affect airlines

The state-run oil companies proposed strike from 7th January’09. 55,000 officers of 14 Oil companies announced strike on 6th January’09 which is definitely going to affect the airlines. In response Jet airways said “Jet airways and JetLite flights will not be affected by the strike and flights will be operated as per normal schedule”, Kingfisher airlines said they were already prepared to deal with the situation, Air India too said this strike won’t affect their daily flight operations.

On the whole the airlines pretend that they are not being affected by the oil companies strike but somewhere an impact will be seen in the flight operations due to this strike as the time passes by.