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.