<b>In the last ten years there has been considerable growth in India in the Civil Aviation Sector. In the last one year itself a number of Private Airlines have started their operations. It has resulted in air travel becoming cheaper and also generation of employment not only for pilots but for all categories of staff. However, this has not kept pace with the development of facilities in the existing airports. This overcrowding is very much visible in both Mumbai and Delhi airports. This year, with the introduction of international flights by private airlines from India and the open air policy for foreign airlines to operate to India, the situation is going to be getting much worst as time passes.
It is good some of the new airlines are having international flights from Hyderabad and Bangalore. This has taken some load from the Mumbai airport but there is no such alternative in sight for the Delhi airport. Delhi being the capital of India has its ever increasing pressure from the domestic operators in addition to the ever increasing number of new foreign operators. According to media reports, on a particular night there were 6000 passengers chasing 2500 baggage trolleys. The ever increasing number of landings and take offs may cause a major accident any time and now delays are frequent due to congestions in the air corridors.
It is time that Government should seriously think of establishing a civil enclave at the airbase on the Eastern side of the capital so that some of the domestic flights can be operated from that airfield. To start with a limited start can be made in respect of low cost airlines to operate from here. Secondly, the airport at Jaipur needs to be upgraded for allowing international flights. A start was made in a small way but no major effort has been made in this direction. It is good that foreign charters are now being allowed to directly land at Agra. Such operations need to be encouraged so that the situation in Delhi airport can be kept under control.</b>
India need more facilities, more landing strips, better airport facilities.
They should allow more international flights to Amirtsar, Agra and should add more airports all over India.
Indian airports are just a joke. IGI Airport is fairly new but third class construction, without long term vision planning are causing major problem. Not only over congested but mismanaged.
As soon as you land at the airport phenol smell will welcome you. Long queue at immigration make it worse after long flight. Unprofessional rude immigrant officer sitting at the counter make it worse.
Toilet facilities are horrible, female sitting inside toilet hand over 1 or 2 tissue ply is just disgusting. Why canât they leave tissue paper on dispenser, why rationing?
They say Indian Airports are smoke free but they donât implement, even on the spot complaint.
Flight landing times are very odd, why Indians donât negotiate for better landing time.
In US majority of Airport are closed during night.
During winter it all mess, Fog is a major problem. During winter 100% flights are delayed more than 4 hours.
<b>All big airports have space problems</b>:<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>The liberalised aviation policy has suddenly led to an explosion of traffic at airports. It seems infrastructure was not ready for this. Shouldnât we have first developed infrastructure and then changed policy</b>?
It is a debatable issue. Clearly, there are two models for growth. Thereâs the Chinese method where you first develop infrastructure and await economic growth, which is primarily supply-driven. In that case, you have upfront investment and that too of exorbitant magnitude. The second model is demand-driven growth. This might initially have teething problems but I strongly believe it is more sustainable in the Indian context. I think everyone has realised that the Delhi and Mumbai airports will get a radical makeover.
More importantly, what are we discussing? A three-hour congestion in the mornings and evenings at Mumbai and Delhi? The biggest and most sophisticated airports face similar problems at certain points of time. Such issues will remain there even if these two airports are developed significantly.
But at the same time, we have other airports in the country that we tend to forget about. Is there any congestion at these airports? The answer is no. India is not just Delhi and Mumbai. You need to take a holistic view. And I believe the spurt in demand will help bring all-round growth in the aviation sector.
<b>But we are facing a serious problem of parking bays even now when we have only around 125 aircraft â which will increase to nearly 450-500 shortly. How will you cope with such issues?</b>
There are problems. But again, I would like to reiterate, donât look at these two airports alone. There is need to look around for parking bays. I believe there is a need to develop and modernise other airports, which will ease the pressure at these two airports.
See the change that has taken place, almost all leading airlines have started flying to Bangalore now. This clearly demonstrates that there are new markets. You just need to have a vision to exploit them.
<b>Weâve heard of the merger of IA with A-I. When will this be completed?</b>
It is difficult to give a timeline on such a complicated subject. But, I strongly believe synergising the operations of both airlines is critical. A-I is operating on international routes and is now targeting the domestic sector to meet the growth in demand, while IA, which is strong on domestic routes, is aspiring for bigger play abroad. I strongly believe there is a need to have a strategic alliance between the two airlines at the earliest. Once they enter into such an alliance, then we will evaluate the merger.
<b>But will it happen before the public issues of these two airlines?</b>
A merger is a complicated subject and cannot be done in a hurry. The public issues are the first priority for both airlines as they are in the midst of expansion plans and require fund infusion. Since the government isnât funding the flight acquisition plans, they have to raise resources.
<b>Is the government also raising funds through a clubbing mechanism with the initial public offer of these airlines as it did in the case of NTPC?</b>
No, the government doesnât intend to raise funds by divesting its own stake in the market. These companies will make fresh issues of shares up to 20 per cent of their enhanced paid up capital. In addition, five per cent of the paid up capital will be offered to the employees of both airlines. Therefore, post-issue, government stake will automatically come down to 75-80 per cent.
<b>How much will A-I and IA mop up?</b>
The size of the issue is a function of the valuation of these companies. A-I has just appointed an investment banker while IA is expected to appoint one shortly. It will take some time for them to evaluate. However, we are confident to complete the IPOs in the current fiscal ending March 2006.
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Minister had no vision. He is expecting Airline operator will find solution and all problems will be solved without any effort.
<b>India to spend $10 bn on airport upgrades</b><!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->India is embarking on a massive drive to upgrade existing airports and build new ones at a cost of 10 billion dollars over the next four years, its Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel has said.
<b>The projects involve both upgrading and building airports in 41 cities, including six key cities</b>, he told reporters at the Dubai Air Show on Monday.
While airports <b>in the metro cities of New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata </b>would be upgraded to receive the largest and latest aircraft, t<b>wo new airports would be built at Bangalore and Hyderabad</b>.
The minister said these projects would be completed in five years.
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Again everything is in air.
Is anyone familiar with Indian Aviation rules (Are they similiar to the FAA FAR/AIM ) ?
Is there a lot of airspace where one can fly VFR or is that very limited.
Is it easy to deal with Flight Service stations/ ATC (Filing flight plans, deviating etc.. )?
thanks
<!--QuoteBegin-Ravish+Nov 23 2005, 01:29 AM-->QUOTE(Ravish @ Nov 23 2005, 01:29 AM)<!--QuoteEBegin-->It is time to act rahter than keep on talking. The creation of a second airport in Bangalore is a more than a decade old project.
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In India there is ample airspace avalaible to fly around. Except for about a dozen airports the rest hardly have any traffic.We have many flying clubs but only few are fully operational , due to poor maintainence.
<b>Flying into a jam</b><!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->The Delhi airport was never equipped to handle the kind of pressure it has come under lately. Around 21 flights are landing or taking off every hour â one every three minutes. On Wednesday, 530 flights operated out of the airport â a new record.
If that doesn't sound congestion to you, you must be a traffic policeman.
That is many times more than what the airport was designed to handle. To a passenger stuck in air for 45 minutes, this will sound criminal. And it is. This government, for instance, doesn't want to take the blame for it.
<b>A source in the Civil Aviation Ministry said, âThe free distribution of flight licences started in the NDA regime and if we stop it, weâll be accused of doing so at the behest of those already in play.â</b> [Blame previous government what the hell he is doing to improve situation]
<b>So the policy clearly is this: let passengers suffer; it's only a matter of time before the airport gets the overdue infrastructure upgrade </b>(the process is under way). Till then, the passengers be damned.
<b>A senior Airports Authority of India official alleges that for the past eight years or so they were assiduously prevented from upgrading infrastructure </b>â unless it had a bearing on security (this was allowed post-haste).
The lack of enough bays makes it worse. <b>The international airport has 17 bays, of which only nine have aerobridges</b>. At the domestic terminal, there are 33 bays while the number of flights is twice as many during peak hours. New bays are still under construction and will take time to be ready.
Delay in landing is followed by delay in immigration (for international flights) and baggage collection. After 29/10, there are now three baggage checking points instead of two. A couple of days back, passengers of the Air-India flight from Dubai waited for 90 minutes before they could get their baggage
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Not exactly related to the thread, but will post it here for now:
<!--emo&:ind--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/india.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='india.gif' /><!--endemo--> India Balloonist Sets Highest Flight Mark
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->An Indian textile millionaire apparently broke the world record Saturday for the highest flight in a hot air balloon.
The record by Vijaypat Singhania is subject to verification, but his son Gautam Singhania said the 44-ton balloon climbed nearly 70,000 feet, beating the old mark of just under 65,000 feet.
"This goes to show to the world that we are not bullock cart drivers, but we can compete against the best of the world," the balloonist said.
11-27-2005, 05:29 PM (This post was last modified: 11-27-2005, 05:30 PM by ravish.)
Yes, it brought much fame to India and was also covered both by CNN and BBC all around the globe. However, it did not reduce the congestion in the arrival hall at Indira Gandhi International Airport last night.
<b>Free Flow: To fly high, India must modernize its airports </b><!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->..............
The second element is to bring more of the country's 300 or so airports into the national grid by adding flights to functional but obscure airstrips and by upgrading navigation equipment and buildings at long-neglected facilities.
............
Following the Chinese lead, <b>Patel is also pushing to get more domestic airports onto the international stage</b>. Singapore Airlines, for example, has begun operating flights to second-tier cities little known outside India, including Ahmedabad and Amritsar
....................
to move goods in and out of the country. Jacques Creeten, the country chief for FedEx in India, said the government was realizing what FedEx had long argued: <b>that an airplane carrying goods generates considerably more economic activity than one carrying people.</b>
India now loses out on much of that activity by preventing cargo carriers from working at peak capability, Creeten said. <b>FedEx wants its own facilities, but Indian law prohibits foreign carriers from making domestic flights, requiring them to fly to Mumbai or New Delhi and continue by road. </b>
Despite the seemingly slow motion, there is a sense that when compared with other infrastructure woes, from roads to rail, airports may be the least contentious battle. Robert Blake, a senior U.S. diplomat in New Delhi, said recently at an industry conference: <b>"The aviation sector can be a model that demonstrates the ability of infrastructure development to propel growth and job creation across India."</b>
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<b>Two days ago the first batch of Airbus A319 just acquired by the Indian Airlines landed at Kolkata airport from Sarjah. The significance of the event is that the servicing facility for these aircrafts has been set up at Kolkata airport. This is a very good decision as it is the least used international airports in India. This action will reduce the workload on Delhi and Mumbai where servicing facilities for the other aircrafts being used by AI and IA are located.
The authorities should try to utilize the spare or under utilized capacity in the 124 operational airports to see that the current load on the busy airports can get reduced. One should try to understand that overnight we cannot improve the facilities in Delhi and Mumbai airports. Some of the tourist charters may be allowed to operate from Agra and Jaipur to Europe instead of Delhi. Similarly, some of the Far East bound traffic can originate from Kolkata.</b>
12-18-2005, 02:11 AM (This post was last modified: 12-18-2005, 02:12 AM by ravish.)
The Economic Times reports:
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IA to get new planes from October â06
New Delhi: After a wait of more than five years, Indian Airlines will get its first batch of new 43 Airbus A320 family of aircraft from October â06 onwards, and the entire delivery is expected to be completed by March 2010, as per the schedule deal signed between IA and Airbus on Friday. Indian Airlines today signed a Term Sheet with aircraft manufacturer Airbus, for the purchase of 43 aircraft. As per the terms of the Term Sheet, Indian Airlines placed an order for the purchase of 43 new aircraft, all belonging to the Airbus A320 family â 19 A319s, 4 A320s and 20 A321s. Speaking after the signing ceremony, Indian Airlines Chairman and Managing Director Sushma Chawla said the challenge before the national carrier is to modernize and grow while delivering a world class service. Senior officials from Indian Airlines said that both the parties are likely to arrive at the final cost of acquisition by February 2006. The deal is estimated to be worth around $2.1 billion. Indian Airlines becomes the first Indian carrier to select the Airbus A321 aircraft. All the 43 aircraft will feature two-class cabin layouts and will be powered by CFM engines. Indian Airlines has recently taken on lease four A319 aircraft, bearing the carrierâs new look and logo.
Unquote
Let us hope the IA with the new appearance as Indian will get back its past glory and will once again rule the sky over India.
<b>Experts' panel on airport modernisation set up</b><!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Cabinet Secretary BK Chaturvedi on Wednesday set up a group of technical and financial experts to advise the high-powered official committee headed by him on the bidding process for modernisation and restructuring of Delhi and Mumbai airports.
The panel of experts, headed by Delhi Metro chief E Sreedharan, also includes Financial Controller of Indian Railways Sivadasan and top officials of the Airports Authority of India and Directorate General of Civil Aviation, among others, sources said...................
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<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Sanganer Airport gets intl status</b>
New Delhi
Jaipur's Sanganer Airport was on Thursday granted international status by the Union Cabinet, making it the 14th such airport in the country. Announcing this here, Finance Minister P Chidambaram said the Cabinet had approved the proposal for declaration of the existing domestic airport as an international one, thereby improving connectivity and offering wider choice of services at competitive cost to air travellers.Â
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<b>.The decision of the Government is a move in the right direction. However, to make it really useful it will be first necessary to construct some basic infrastructure and train the airport personnel how to handle foreign airlines. Sometime back a foreign airlines which was operating through this airport as a technical stopover, was alleged to have been asked to pay a bribe by the weatherman so that clearance for the flight could be given. The amount per flight was not very high only Rs.500 per stopover. On refusal to pay the bribe, despite clear weather one flight was not allowed to land for 45 minutes, putting considerable cost tom the airlines by way of fuel burnt unnecessarily. The airlines in question, did not press the charges and the Government of India promptly agreed to shift the airlines technical stopover to another airport. Unless such incidence are probed and weatherman brought to book nothing much should be expected of the Government pronouncements.</b>
It's official. For the thousands of future travelers who will pick Air India to fly between the likes of Bangalore and the U.S. or Europe, some 68 new Boeing aircraft will get them there. The company's executive vice president, Allen Mulally braved Mumbai's near 90 degrees Fahrenheit heat to sign Air India's purchase agreement, valued at an estimated $11 billion at list prices according to the Associated Press.
After months of negotiations, India's authorities have declared it the largest single deal in India's civil aviation history, even with the substantial discount that Air India will probably get for such a large order. And there's <b>another 18 aircraft penciled in for Air India Express</b>, the company's low-cost affiliate<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Boeing will do its bit by also investing $100 million to set up a new maintenance facility in the country.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Airport bid: GMR bags Delhi, GVK wins Mumbai </b>
New Delhi
GMR-FRAPORT consortium has won the bid for modernisation of Delhi airport, while GVK-South Africa combine has bagged the Mumbai airport project, Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel announced on Tuesday. They will now be placed before the Cabinet on Wednesday
India airport contracts announced 31 Jan 2006 15:06 GMT
... (Bombay) airports, Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel says. GMR Industries and Frankfurt airport operator Fraport will modernise Delhi airport while the GVK group and its South African partner has ...
<b>Reliance shocked over outcome of airport bids </b>31 Jan 2006 15:05 GMT
... privatisation plan while the GVK-ACS consortium is a clear winner for Mumbai airport. The GMR-Fraport alliance is the runner up for restructuring and modernisation exercise for both airports. However, ...
GMR to spruce up Delhi airport, GVK will revamp Mumbai 31 Jan 2006 14:12 GMT
... to get the contracts for modernisation of Delhi and Mumbai airports respectively. Even though GMR-Fraport was the second highest financial bidder for the modernisation of the two metro airports, ...<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Tagging with Amar Singh cost them bid or Sonia free ride to Russia was not very comfortable.
<b>Reliance moves HC over airport modernisation</b><!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->In its petition, Reliance Airport Developers, a company of the ADAE Group, <b>challenged the manner in which the consortium led by it was downgraded </b>as a result of which GMR-Fraport consortium was awraded the contract for Delhi Airport.
A spokesperson for Reliance Airport Developers said the company has "filed a petition in the Delhi High Court seeking fairness and transparency in the awards of contracts of both airports.
<b>"Reliance had emerged as a highest financial bidder for Delhi Airport. Reliance is also one of the two highest ranking bidders for both Delhi and Mumbai Airports."</b><!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
