Cruisingheights

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF’S NOTE

What a costly slot! hat a lovely thought t h a t when K Srinivasan coal and spectrum were being given on a dubious first-come firstserve basis, Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh wants to auction slots at Indian airports to generate more revenue. Good idea. But is it implementable?

For starters, what happens to the grandfather rights that all airlines will claim they own on the basis of their being in operation with those slots all these years?

Will he auction these slots? If indeed, he does so, will the airlines be ready to buy what was available to them till now for free? That will also mean a hefty pay-out.

Will the airlines be ready to part with that amount of money? According to the IATA: "A slot is nothing more than the right to operate a service at a particular time, and there is little certainty about who the legal owner is. Airports own the runways and the terminals. Governments regard a nation's airspace as a sovereign right."

In the US, slot allotment had gone to the Federal Court and many of the issues of ownership are still far from being resolved — does the FAA have the right to auction slots? Do they belong to the Port Authority of the City of New York (who controls the airports)? Or is there a mixed use solution ?

It's going to be even more complicated in India with a plethora of owners handling the airports — the Airports Authority of India, private owners like GMR and GVK and of course over half the airports under the control of the Navy and the Air Force.

At the moment, the Air Traffic Control (ATC) is a function handled by the AAI, the airport by whoever is the concessionaire

W

CRUISING HEIGHTS October 2012

and the slots are determined by the government through the DGCA. Airports increasingly believe that they should have control over a valuable commodity like a slot and it is they who should be leveraging whatever revenues it can generate. So when Minister Ajit Singh says it is a good idea to auction, he has literally set the cat amongst the pigeons.

IATA believes: "The current 'grandfather rights' arrangement is anticompetitive. They argue that airlines that already have slots — particularly those at the congested peak times — have some sort of unfair advantage. They suggest that because of the inherently high value of peak time slots at the most congested airports, airlines may sometimes be operating flights to guard their slots and keep out competition. The 80/20 rule stipulates that a carrier must use its allocated slot 80 per cent of the time or risk losing it. In Europe, Air France decided to cut back some services at Paris Charles de Gaulle during the economic crisis and another carrier came in and took up the slots."

This is just a literal taste of the issues that will confront the government when it decides to auction slots. What Ajit Singh has done is start a debate on how valuable slots are and how best to utilise them. Now he should take it to the logical conclusion by getting everyone to give their perspective and then offering a holistic solution to the issue.

srini@newsline.in

3

Off the cuff

contents

Eye scan for security Airport security across the world is gaining momentum amidst growing concerns about terrorist attacks.

Innovative technology is being leveraged to beef up airport security. The latest from Aoptix Technologies, a US-based high-tech company, deals with scanning the

LATIMES.COM

4

FLYING IS ALL ABOUT FOOD

p30

HC TIWARI

FLYERS NEVER SEEM TO BE SATISFIED WITH THE FOOD THAT IS SERVED ON PLANES. CRITICISED AND SOMETIMES NOT EVEN TOUCHED, AIRLINE FOOD HAS COME A LONG WAY: FROM THE FANCY FOUR OR FIVE-COURSE MEALS TO THE PICK-ME-UP AS YOU GO SANDWICHES AND SNACKS. CRUISING HEIGHTS TAKES A CLOSE LOOK AT THE WORLD OF AIRLINE CUISINE. INTERNATIONAL CARRIERS ARE TAKING THE HELP OF MICHELIN AND WELL-KNOWN CHEFS TO WORK MAGIC ON BOARD AND PAMPER NOT ONLY FIRST AND BUSINESS CLASS BUT ALSO ‘COACH CLASS’ FLYERS WITH TOP-OF-THE-LINE PREPARATIONS.

HC TIWARI

eyes. The company expects iris scan technology can be leveraged by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to authenticate passenger identification in a matter of seconds. The company hopes to market, sell and develop such technology. Speaking about the technology, Aoptix spokesperson Amanda North said, “Though it has not been used in the US, it is already being used to identify passengers coming in and out of the international departure lounge at London’s Gatwick Airport and for border control in Qatar.”

The advantage of the Aoptix technology, she stated, is that the scanning device can substantiate the recognition of a passenger from up to six feet away in about less than two seconds. According to North, Aoptix Technologies Inc in talks with the TSA to bring the technology in the US. “A lot of airports have seen this as an advantage and I think the US is looking at this as well.”

TSA Spokesman Nico Melendez said he could not confirm whether his agency had met with Aoptix officials but said that the TSA was looking forward to using biometric technology at the nation’s airports.

NEWS DIGEST

p22

While both Boeing and Airbus have projected an optimistic outlook for the next decade, the country has taken a decisive step of allowing Foreign Direct Investment in the aviation sector. Plus: GoAir moves steadily ahead.

CRUISING HEIGHTS October 2012

CH SPECIAL

p42

Air India has at last got the Dreamliner that is being used on domestic routes. Cruising Heights tracked down a few of the first fliers on the Dreamliner’s Delhi-Chennai flight to get their reaction about the much-hyped aircraft.

contents ARTICLES NEWS VIEWS EDITS INTERVIEWS CLIPPINGS PROFILES NEWS DIGEST

CARGO

CRUISING HEIGHTS Volume VII No 6

p58

Editor-in-Chief

Pharmaceuticals could very well be the next IT for the air cargo sector. While there is hardly any participation from Indian carriers, most of the pharma loads are being taken away by foreign carriers. Plus: Why are Cathay Pacific Cargo and Lufthansa Cargo ramping up operations in India?

NET EXPRESS

K SRINIVASAN Managing Editor

TIRTHANKAR GHOSH Group Consulting Editor

R KRISHNAN Consulting Editor

NANDU MANJESHWAR Assistant Editors

p49

It has delivered significant improvements in efficiency and costs across the aviation industry worldwide but it has still not been utilised to its maximum capabilty. The CAPA-SITA report on Innovation and Technology explains that this is just the beginning and tremendous opportunities exist for IT to transform the aviation scenario.

JUSTIN C MURIK, NIDHI SHARMA Copy Editor

SNIPPETS

p68

Jet Airways will be able to reduce carbon footprint with IBMs Integrated Emission Management System, helping with the dream of a greener world, Brand USA sends its largest-ever delegation to India and British Airways has created a new commercial team for the country.

ASHOK KUMAR Senior Sub-Editor-cum-Reporter

PUNIT MISHRA Chief Visualiser

AJAY NEGI Designers

MODASSAR NEHAL, MOHIT KANSAL NAGENDER DUBEY, CHANDERJEET Design Consultant

ARTWORKS Picture Editor

PRADEEP CHANDRA Photo Editor

HC TIWARI Photographer

HEMANT RAWAT Director (Admin & Corporate Affairs)

RAJIV SINGH Director (Marketing)

RAKESH GERA Senior Manager (Sales & Marketing)

PRAVEEN SHARMA Manager (PR)

ASHUTOSH MISHRA Sr. Executive (Coordination)

CHOPPERS

p39

ALKA GOSWAMI

Indian helicopter operators, up in arms over “unprecedentedly high” working costs, have now sought redressal from the government. They have asked the authorities to take urgent steps to rationalise taxes on import of spares and jet fuel. These steps, they feel, will also help the promising helicopter sector to grow.

BACK PAGE

p74

Business with pleasure. That’s what Politics Prince William and his wife Catherine did when they visited the Rolls-Royce facility in Singapore where they tested out a Trent engine.

Cover Design: Artworks

Cover Photo: Jet Airways

The total number of pages in this issue: 72+4

6

CRUISING HEIGHTS October 2012

Subscription

ASHNA PANDIT, ANJALI ALEX, CHARU SHARMA (9650433044) Executive Director

RENU MITTAL For advertising and sales enquiries, please contact: +91-9810030533, 9810159332 Editorial & Marketing office:

Newsline Publications Pvt. Ltd., D-11 Basement, Nizamuddin (East), New Delhi -110 013, Tel: +91-11-41033381-82 All information in CRUISING HEIGHTS is derived from sources we consider reliable. It is passed on to our readers without any responsibility on our part. Opinions/views expressed by third parties in abstract or in interviews are not necessarily shared by us. Material appearing in the magazine cannot be reproduced in whole or in part(s) without prior permission. The publisher assumes no responsibility for material lost or damaged in transit. The publisher reserves the right to refuse, withdraw or otherwise deal with all advertisements without explanation. All advertisements must comply with the Indian Advertisements Code. The publisher will not be liable for any loss caused by any delay in publication, error or failure of advertisement to appear. Owned and published by K Srinivasan 4C Pocket-IV, Mayur Vihar Phase- I, Delhi-91 and printed by him at Nutech Photolithographers, B-240, Okhla Industrial Area, Phase- I, New Delhi-110020.

“ PERISCOPE

Step towards quality “Air India is going to really change its image by the way it gives services to its passengers with this beautiful Dreamliner in their suite.”

DINESH KESKAR, Boeing India, on the induction of Boeing Dreamliners into the Air India fleet

Joining hands “We support the management strategy of Virgin Australia and will continue to work closely with them on ways to improve our business.”

LETTERS TO EDITOR

The cover story Go, IndiGo, Go! (Cruising Heights, Sept 2012) on low-cost carGO India,GO! rier IndiGo was written in the proper perspective. In my view, this airline has trumped other airlines in the respect of cheap fares and good services on time.

IndiGo knows what the customer wants.

It has catered well to the needs of common air travellers. It is smart to be an IndiGo flyer since the airline delivers what it promises consistently. IndiGo — India's 'youngest' airline — has become the largest airline in India due to many factors and, in fact, raised the bar for other airlines to follow.

Ram Manohar via email

JAMES HOGAN, Chief Executive Officer, Etihad Airways, on picking up 10 per cent stake in Virgin Australia

Pg 30

CRUISING HEIGHTS TURF WARS READY TO RING THE CURTAIN DOWN ON PATNA AIRPORT

www.cruisingheights.in

SEPTEMBER 2012 I `90

A model of a modern global airline, low-cost carrier IndiGo’s slow and steady climb to the top has come through quality, team work and an almost invisible leadership.

Jet claws back to black

Naresh Goyal’s Jet Airways and Jetlite are once again in profits after five successive quarters of losses

Sorry, no more flights

Civil Aviation ministry turns down requests from Gulf carriers for seats and destinations to create a level playing field for Indian carriers

INDIA-MADE SIKORSKY CHOPPER TAKES TO THE AIR IN BRAZIL

Air cargo receives a firm boost (Cruising Heights, Sept 2012) was a good read. Growth of international trade has boosted prospects for the air cargo sector in India. It is heartening to know that the government will smoothen the progress of developing cold storages to handle perishable goods and commodities at state airports. I think, AAI should be lauded in this respect as the airport regulator has upped the ante to provide a fillip to the air cargo infrastructure in India. Air cargo operators will definitely be benefitted with the coming of these airports as airfreight continues to be a measuring device for world economy.

Laxmi Rana, Mumbai

I quite liked reading the story Apples for all aviation reasons (Cruising Heights, Sept 2012). The iPad has revolutionised many industries and aviation is one of them. No doubt, the iPad will pave a better future for the aviation sector. iPads have become a great craze and have provided great fodder for inflight entertainment — be it short-haul or long-haul flights. The deployment of these devices in-flight has struck the right chord with air travellers. Added to that is the fact that iPad can help track flights, trips, airport delays, weather, flight maps, hotel, parking info and more importantly, flight status information.

What else you can expect?

Tushar Mehta, Agra

A straight arrow “They (members of Congress) have a sense that airports are economically important but don't really understand why 50 per cent of the value of all US exports travel by air.”

GREG PRINCIPATO, President, Airports Council InternationalNorth America (ACI-NA), on the importance of airports in expediting exports

True grit “We know our enemies. We are not frightened.”

HARTMUT MEHDORN, CEO, Air Berlin — 30 per cent owned by Etihad — on the Qantas-Emirates tie-up and the challenge posed by it to the Air Berlin and Etihad partnership

Window of opportunity “We see both of those markets (Australia and China) as growing in terms of prominence in our network, as well as areas that we have identified as future growth centres.”

SUBHAS MENON, Singapore Airlines' Regional VP, rejecting suggestions that it will lose in the Emirates tie-up with Qantas

All correspondence may be addressed to Editor, Cruising Heights, D-11 Basement, Nizamuddin (East), New Delhi -13, OR mail to cruisingheights@newsline.in.

8

CRUISING HEIGHTS October 2012

One step ahead “Were we a member of Star, I am sure we would not be coming to Dulles (airport at Washington DC) because Star (Alliance) and Frankfurt would have overruled that. Our network is our greatest asset.”

TIM CLARK, President, Emirates, on the carrier's policy of pursuing individual partnerships like the one with Qantas

TRAFFIC DATA MARKET SHARE OF SCHEDULED DOMESTIC AIRLINES Religare 0.0%

Kingfisher 3.2% JetLite 6.5%

IndiGo 27.6%

GoAir 7.4% Air India 18.2%

Jet Airways 18.7% Spicejet 18.5%

AUGUST PASSENGER TRAFFIC GOES DOWN As per passenger traffic data issued by Indian aviation regulator DGCA, the number of passengers carried by India carriers was 398.2 lakh between January and August 2012 as against 396.3 lakh during the corresponding period of the previous year. Passenger traffic has grown by 0.5 per cent. The total domestic passengers carried by the scheduled domestic airlines for the month of August 2012 were 43.69 lakh as against 45.37 lakh in July.

The break-up for the month of August 2012 was: Air India — 8.24 lakh, Jet Airways — 8.82 lakh, JetKonnect — 3.25 lakh, IndiGo — 12.26 lakh, SpiceJet — 8.08 lakh, Go Air — 3.16 lakh and Kingfisher — 1.56 lakh. Low-cost carrier IndiGo continued with its dominance of the domestic market with a marketshare of 27.6 per cent in August. It was followed by Jet

10

Airways and JetKonnect (25.2 per cent), SpiceJet (18.5 per cent), Air India (18.2 per cent), GoAir (7.4 per cent) and Kingfisher Airlines (3.2 per cent).

The passenger load factor in the month of August 2012 declined mainly due to the lean season. The highest passenger load factor was obtained by IndiGo at 73.4 per cent (it was 75.5 per cent in July), GoAir's was 67.7 per cent (63.2 per cent in July), SpiceJet's was 67.2 per cent (July: 66.3 per cent), Kingfisher was 53.2 per cent (July: 53.0 per cent), JetKonnect 68.6 per cent (July: 71.7 per cent), Jet Airways 66 per cent (July: 67.1 per cent), Air India (Domestic) 66.1 per cent (July: 64.7 per cent) and Religare ( August: 9.1 per cent).

IndiGo led the airlines in the overall on-time performance of airlines in August 2012 at six metro airports —

CRUISING HEIGHTS October 2012

Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Bengaluru and Hyderabad — with 96.2 per cent. The other airlines that followed were: Jet Airways and JetKonnect 92.9 per cent, SpiceJet 89.7 per cent, Air India (Domestic) 87.4 per cent, GoAir 86.7 per cent and Kingfisher 81.8 per cent.

The number of passenger-related complaints was 1.4 per 10,000 passengers carried. Jet Airways had one of the highest passenger complaint rates at two followed by JetKonnect (1.6), SpiceJet (1.5), Air India-Dom (1.3), GoAir (1.2), IndiGo (1) and Kingfisher Airlines (0.9).

IndiGo's on-time performance at Bengaluru was 99.1 per cent. The carrier's performance at Delhi was 96.6 per cent, Hyderabad (96.4 per cent), Chennai (91.3 per cent), Kolkata (98.1 per cent) and Mumbai (94.0 per cent).

Jet Airways and JetKonnect's ontime performance at Chennai was 96.2 per cent. At other airports it was: Kolkata (94.8 per cent), Hyderabad (91.5 per cent), Bengaluru (95.6 per cent). The carrier's performance at Delhi (89.5 per cent), and Mumbai (91.9 per cent). GoAir flies to only five of the six metro airports. The carrier's on-time performance at Kolkata was the highest at 96 per cent. In the other four metros, it was: Delhi (86.4 per cent), Delhi (86.4 per cent), Bengaluru (95.1 per cent) and Chennai (65.8 per cent).

Kingfisher flies to four metros. Its on-time performance at Bengaluru was 96.8 per cent followed by Chennai (94.2 per cent), Delhi (78.2 per cent) and

354.42 LAKHS PASSENGERS CARRIED

BY SCHEDULED DOMESTIC AIRLINES IN JAN-JULY 2012

PASSENGERS COMPLAINTS OF SCHEDULED DOMESTIC AIRLINES Jet Airways

0

All India (DOM)

1.7

SpiceJet

1.3

GoAir

0.9 5

Jet Airways

JetLite Kingfisher SpiceJet

GoAir

IndiGo

9.1

Air India

AUGUST 2012

Religare

The passenger load factor in the month of July 2012 has declined mainly due to lean season.

IndiGo 0.3 0

2

75.5 73.4

2.7

JetLite

1.5

66.3

7.4 3.5

80 60 40 20 0

67.1 66

32.3

Religare

JULY 2012 SEAT FACTOR(%)

*Overall Cancellation Rate in August 2012: 2.1%

Kingfisher

1

PASSENGER LOAD FACTOR OF SCHEDULED DOMESTIC AIRLINES

CANCELLATION DATA OF SCHEDULED DOMESTIC AIRLINES

Jet Airways

0.5

No. of Complaints /10,000 Pax

MoM

YoY

0.0

Religare

53 53.2

0

1.0 1.9

IndiGo Kingfisher

71.7 68.6

100

Total no. of complaints (Aug 2012) : 598 No. of passenger-related complaints 1.4 per 10,000 passengers carried

1.2

GoAir Growth - YoY (+0.5%) - MoM (-8.73%)

64.7 66.1

200

1.3

All India (DOM)

47.84 43.69

300

1.5

SpiceJet

2012

63.2 67.7

400 396.31 398.21

Pax Carried (in Lakhs)

500 2011

2.0 1.6

JetLite

10

15 20

25

30 35

ON-TIME PERFORMANCE (OTP) SCHEDULED DOMESTIC AIRLINES

Cancellation Rate (%)

OTP AT SIX METRO AIRPORTS

100 OTP (%)

80

86.7

87.4

89.7

92.9

96.2

GoAir

Air India (Dom)

SpiceJet

Jet Airways+Jet Lite

IndiGo

81.8

60 40 20 0

Kingfisher

CAPACITY VS DEMAND

Year over Year CRUISING HEIGHTS October 2012

11

GRAPHICS: AJAY NEGI

-4.8

0.1 Aug

0.2 -8.8 Jul

Jun

-0.3 May

Apr

Mar

Dec

Nov

Oct

-0.5 -4.8

9.5

5.8

2.9

14.5 10.8 Feb

3.0 2.0

12.2 7.9

Demand (RPKM)

Jan

6.9

11.9

16.8 11

18.5 15.4 Sep

16.3 12.0

17.4 16.6

20 15 10 5 0 -5 -10 -15

Aug

Capacity (ASKM *% Change over Month

Mumbai (76.1 per cent). SpiceJet's ontime performance at Kolkata was 92.1 per cent. The carrier's performance at Hyderabad was 88.6 per cent, Delhi (90.2 per cent), Bengaluru (94.7 per cent), Mumbai (82.8 per cent) and Chennai (90.8 per cent).

Air India's on-time performance at Kolkata was 92.7 per cent. The carrier's landings and take-offs at the other metros were: Hyderabad (86.3 per cent), Bengaluru (85.2 per cent), Delhi (87.2 per cent) and Mumbai (85.9 per cent).

The overall cancellation rate of flights in August 2012 was 2.1 per cent.

Leading the carriers was Religare (32.3 per cent), Kingfisher (7.4 per cent) followed by Jet Airways (3.5 per cent), JetKonnect (2.7 per cent), Air India (Domestic) 1.7 per cent, SpiceJet (1.3 per cent), GoAir (0.9 per cent) and IndiGo (0.3 per cent). The reasons for the cancellations: miscellaneous (1 per cent), technical (8 per cent), operational (16 per cent), weather (3 per cent), reactionary (20 per cent), airport (4 per cent), passenger (2 per cent) and ATC (4 per cent).

OFF THE RECORD

SUSPENDING AAI!

Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh n September 17, 2012, the Press Information Bureau (PIB) put out a press release on behalf of the Civil Aviation Ministry with the headline: "Civil Aviation Minister Ch. Ajit Singh takes tough Stand; Orders Immediate Suspension of Six Senior AAI Officers Following Irregularities in Awarding Airports Ground Handling Contracts". The release was issued and the suspensions announced without taking the Ministry into confidence — Chairman of the Airports Authority of India (AAI) were in the loop when the Minister decided to act

O

Civil Aviation Secretary K N Srivastava

12

like John Wayne The press release said: "Ajit Singh has ordered immediate suspension and initiation of major penalty proceedings against six senior officers of Airports Authority of India (AAI). A CBI inquiry has found these officers involved in committing irregularities and favouring a particular company namely M/s Bhadra International India Ltd in award of contracts for ground handling services at certain airports. The officers are LL Krishnan, Executive Director (Commercial), R L Saran, DGM (Finance), S Basu, Additional GM (Commercial), Arun Mehan, DGM (Operations), P K Chadha, DGM (Operations) and Ravi Verma, GM. "The Minister has also ordered filing of the First Information Report (FIR) against Prem Bajaj, MD of the suspect company, R V Narayanan, retired ED (Commercial), A K Dubey, retired ED (Finance), AAI and others for their acts of manipulation, forgery, criminal breach of trust, criminal conspiracy and corruption under Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Prevention of Corruption Act. It has also been decided that action may be initiated against M/s Bhadra International India Ltd. for cancellation of the award/contract and recovery of dues.

Singh has directed the AAI to take corrective measures to prevent participation of defaulter contractor/parties (even if the default is by their sister/ related concerns) in future tender processes by incorporating suitable provisions in the rules and regulations."

Contrast this with what the Central Bureau of Investigation had to tell the Madras High Court in its counter affidavit against the petition by Oveyam Rajan against the award of contract of ground handling to Bhadra International.

"It is submitted that there was no substantial wrongful loss caused to the Airport Authority of India or the Central Government which is an essential ingredient to make out any criminal offence‌ It is submitted that during preliminary enquiry it is observed that the allegations of violation in

CRUISING HEIGHTS October 2012

AAI Chairman V P Agrawal tender procedures are departmental in nature and does not amount to criminality.

Hence, the matter was referred for suitable departmental action against the said AAI officials. It is prayed that in such circumstances, this Hon'ble Court may be pleased to dismiss the writ petition filed by the petitioner and thus render justice."

Ajit Singh's latest effort is similar to the one-stop-forward two-steps backwardeffort he made in March when he ordered action through press releases against several flying clubs across the country. The Indian Express at that time had reported, "While Minister Ajit Singh recently ordered FIRs against all flying clubs, the order has since been revised, a fresh probe ordered and most of the clubs let of the hook." Similarly in a case where he decided to seek action against several Air India employees and Airbus, it took all the effort and guile of the Prime Minister's office to get Ajit Singh to go back on the sanction for prosecution that he had nearly ordered.

In the present case there are several anomalies: The minister has no powers to order suspension. He can only recommend, and it for the AAI Board to consider the matter and decided the next course of action. In the present case none of that hap-

OFF THE RECORD

pened and the officers were finally suspended when the Minister insisted that his diktat be followed since he had already issued the press release. Strictly speaking, if any of the officials go to court or the administrative tribunal (which is actually unlikely) they are bound to get relief considering what the CBI had to say in its report they are bound to get a favourable response. It isn't that the CBI cannot act.

What it has said in its report to the High Court is plain and simple: "It is submitted that the procedural irregularity in the award of tender does not constitute any criminal offences so as to warrant investigation. It is submitted that based on the enquiry conducted, appropriate departmental action has been recommended ‌."

The beauty in the present case is that the Joint Secretary in the Ministry dealing with Airports Authority of India was not in the loop, the Secretary was nowhere in the scene and the entire matter was dealt with by the Ministry's office without any feedback or assistance from the Secretary or the Chairman, AAI. So how is it that the Minister's takes these remarkable decisions and who is the great follower who is briefing the Minister on these matters? Everyone knows who it is but in the bureaucracy sometimes the belief is 'discretion is the better part of valour'.

have a situation where the government is pouring in money and its nominee is still not on board. Hopefully that will be the next change that will happen. In any case, how is it that Minister Ajit Singh, who hasn't batted an eyelid before sanctioning prosecution against officials and suspending them, is turning a blind eye to such blatant administrative shenanigans? Or is it that all this is happening with his aashirwaad?

Director General Arun Mishra at the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) is busy these days getting the Asia Pacific DGCAs to get together for their annual conference in Delhi in early October (October 8-12). It's an interesting gathering of regulators from around the egion and gives them an opportunity to share ideas, best practices and the regulatory trajectory in each of their countries.

Minister Ajit Singh will inaugurate the conference and he should have plenty to say, considering the tearing pace at which he has moved aviation reforms in the past six months. The top brass from ICAO too will be there at the show at Delhi's Ashoka Hotel. Watch this space for an update next month.

Ministry update Recently the Ministry of Civil Aviation finally put out the orders for Dr Prabhat Kumar to take over as the Joint Secretary in the Ministry.

Although his name now figures on the website of the Ministry of Civil Aviation, he has still not formally taken charge till the time of writing in late September. However, the distribution of work that allotted bilaterals and Air India amongst other things to him was circulated more than a month-and-a- half back. It was 'advance booking' of a critical portfolio. By the way, the Air India website also continues to carry the pix of Prashant Sukul who has taken over as the India representative at the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) as its board member when he should have been replaced long ago by Dr Kumar since he has been allocated the Air India portfolio. The change hasn’t happened in the one month since our last story!

That's because he has still not taken over in the Ministry (his name continues to be there on the ICRISAT website). So you

14

ARUN’S CONFERENCE

Getting to Fly

Former Joint Secretary Prashant Sukul

CRUISING HEIGHTS October 2012

So what's the news from the private sector?

For all those keen to know what's going to happen to Vijay Malaya, the punters could make hay with the Chairman's statement that he is talking to foreign investors, but how is he going to get the company afloat again. The Indian bunch of lenders, led by SBI, has made it plain that he will have to recapitalise before they move an inch forward. That would mean diluting his alcohol empire, mopping up some desperately need funds to save face. Will Dr M do it? Only post that can he recapitalise, settle with the banks, ramp up the share price and get some sort of reasonable valuation to get the foreign companies interested in his airline.

It looks like a long haul at the moment. And ironically those who opposed FDI for years (read Jet Airways) may be the one to run away with the moolah first!

NEWS DIGEST

Bonus miles with riders from Star Oneworld gives Flying Star a big push US Airways Dividend Miles members can earn up to 25,000 bonus miles for flying on Star Alliance partner airlines. To take home the full bonus, one will have to take a flight on six or more Star Alliance carriers, which means one will have to do a reasonable bit of international travel to attain the rather high ceiling. Members will garner 2,500 bonus miles after flying US Airways plus three Star Alliance partner

carriers, 5,000 bonus miles when flying four Star Alliance carriers, 15,000 miles when flying five Star Alliance carriers and 25,000 miles when flying six or more Star Alliance carriers. Registration is required at http://usairways.com/star25k. US Airways will not be counted as one of the Star Alliance carriers, but to be eligible to earn the bonus, members must fly US Airways at least once by December 15. Each Star Alliance carrier will only be counted once during the promotion and flights on award tickets are not eligible.

Tryst with China University students are being offered a chance to attend a major conference staged by The Economist in Asia this year — with travel included, courtesy of oneworld alliance.

For a chance to win the tickets, one needs to submit an essay, by expressing one’s viewpoints on whether China's economy will overtake the USA's within a decade.

Entries, of no more than 500 words, must

be in English or simplified Chinese, should be submitted by October 8, 2012.

Submissions will be judged by a member of The Economist's editorial team. The prize will include a complimentary pass to attend an Economist Conference of the winner's preference held in 2012-2013, with return flights in Economy Class on oneworld member airlines.

UK-based Management Consultant Andrew Solum, who has oneworld Emerald status in British Airways’ Executive Club loyalty programme, and British Airways’ Sales Head of UK and Ireland, Richard Tams, will cover nearly 30,000 miles (48,000-km) on their trip, boarding 15 separate flights, passing through 14 airports, mainly oneworld home hubs, in 11 countries, starting and finishing in New York, which is home to oneworld's head office. Along the way, they will board 10 different aircraft types. The money they raise through sponsorship will go to Flying Start, the global charity partnership between British Airways and Comic Relief UK, which will use the funds to improve the lives of hundreds of thousands of children living in the UK and in some of the poorest countries across the world. The aim of the charity is to help create lasting change by giving children and their families the chance to start supporting themselves.

Aerolíneas Argentinas joins SkyTeam Aerolíneas Argentinas became SkyTeam's 18th member and first South American carrier adding 40 new destinations to the SkyTeam network. “We are pleased to be bringing our Argentinean customers access to a greater worldwide network. It marks a significant milestone in our efforts to strengthen our South American network,” said Michael Wisbrun, SkyTeam's Managing Director.

“With the rapidly growing demand for travel to South America and Argentina, Aerolíneas Argentinas adds real value to our alliance by opening up extensive business and leisure travel opportunities for our customers.”

16

“Looking forward, we will continue to focus on this continent. Our founding members Delta and Aeroméxico are significant players in the Latin American market and are leading the way in terms of finding new opportunities in this region,” said Wisbrun. “Delta has expanded its cooperation with Brazil's GOL and Aeroméxico, by building ground-breaking commercial agreements. These will pave the way for further opportunities for SkyTeam and our customers.”

Joining SkyTeam is a major achievement in Aerolíneas Argentinas’long-term restruc-

turing plan. Key elements of this plan include fleet renewal and network rationalisation, upgrading the entire IT platform, improving product quality and enhancing the frequent flyer programme Aerolíneas Plus. In keeping with SkyTeam's focus on enriching the customer experience, Aerolíneas Argentinas will implement SkyPriority — SkyTeam priority airport services for Elite Plus, First and Business Class passengers worldwide — by the end of 2012.

Effective immediately, Aerolíneas Argentinas customers will be able to earn and redeem miles on services operated by all SkyTeam member airlines.

NEWS DIGEST

Dubai airport records 5mn flyers For the first time in its history, Dubai International airport surpassed the five million passenger mark in July.

The previous high for monthly traffic at Dubai International was 4.85 million passengers recorded in January this year. According to the monthly traffic report, Dubai International handled a total of 5,006,155 Paul Griffiths passengers in July compared to 4,724,109 in July 2011, a year-on-year increase of 6 per cent.

Year-to-date traffic reached 32,937,794 up 12.4 per cent over the 29,291,927 recorded in the corresponding period last year.

"This is yet another record for Dubai International and one that we had anticipated based on the growth trends in the first half of the year. Since 2009 average monthly traffic at Dubai International has skyrocketed from just under 3.5 million in 2009 to over 4.7 million in 2012. This clearly signals our emergence as a leading global hub," said Paul Griffiths, CEO of Dubai Airports.

"July's traffic volumes mean that an average of 112 passengers passed through our airport every minute of every day," maintained Griffiths.

Tim Clark, President, Emirates Airline, and Alan Joyce, Qantas CEO, signing aviation partnership.

Qantas and Emirates forge partnership Emirates and Qantas recently announced a new global aviation partnership that would give customers a seamless international and Australian network, exclusive frequent flyer benefits and world-class travel experiences. Under the agreement signed by Emirates President Tim Clark and Qantas CEO Alan Joyce, Qantas will move its hub for European flights from Singapore to Dubai and enter an extensive commercial relationship with Emirates.

The 10-year codesharing partnership is enhanced by integrated network collaboration with coordinated pricing,

sales and scheduling as well as a benefit sharing model. Neither airline will take equity in the other. The partnership will see Qantas, along with Emirates, as the only other airline operating at Dubai International's Terminal 3.

The two airlines will jointly offer 98 weekly services between Australia and the global gateway city of Dubai including four daily A380 flights. As the largest international carrier, Emirates extensive route network provides Qantas customers with one-stop access to more than 90 destinations in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and West Asia.

Qatar announces tie-up with Wipro

Kids-free 'quiet zone'

award-winning airline.

This agreement will bring together Qatar Airways' expertise in aviation systems and Wipro's experience of application development and project management to develop a new suite of IT software. Under the new arrangement, a lot of the software Qatar CEO Akbar Al Baker and Wipro Chief Azim Premji during the development will be strategic tie-up. carried out by Wipro in Qatar Airways recently announced a longSouth India. Qatar Airways will be able to term strategic partnership with leading tap into Wipro's vast pool of highly technical Indian IT company Wipro, designed to resources, as well as research and develop new technological solutions to development centres to explore and take create greater competitive advantage for the advantage of new technological solutions.

AirAsia X has announced it will be launching a 'Quiet Zone' on its fleet of Airbus A330s. Starting in February 2013, the airline will create a "Quiet Zone" in the front section of its widebody aircraft, located between the airline's Premium Class section and the front galley.

Children younger to 12 years old will not be able to book seats in the Quiet Zone, and passengers opting for the zone will be asked to keep noise to a minimum.

Passengers will also be among the first to disembark. The dedicated zone will consist of the first eight rows of the Economy section (rows 7 to 14), and as the front area already houses the airline's Premium Class, turning this part of the aircraft into a Quiet Zone will also be appreciated by AirAsia X's premium passengers.

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CRUISING HEIGHTS October 2012

Officials announcing Airbus' Fly Your Ideas programme.

'Fly Your Ideas' beckons students Airbus' Fly Your Ideas is challenging students worldwide to develop new ideas for a more sustainable aviation industry. This year, victory will mean not only a â‚Ź30,000 cash prize; the successful team will also welcome experts from Airbus' Innovation Cell onto their campus for a week of learning on what it takes to become a true aviation innovator. "We are looking to employ and interact with the next wave

of talents who share our vision for a more sustainable future aviation industry," said Charles Champion, Executive Vice President-Engineering Airbus and Fly Your Ideas patron. "We hope to speed up ideas and international exchange within the global student and academic community." Fly Your Ideas is part of the aircraft manufacturer's ground-breaking initiative 'Future by Airbus'.

Virgin top honcho Boeing’s green to retire initiative Virgin Atlantic Chief Executive, Steve Ridgway announced he was retiring from the airline in spring 2013, following a 23-year tenure. Ridgway joined the airline formally in 1989 when he was appointed Managing Director of Virgin Freeway; the UK's first automated frequent flyer programme. This was followed by appointment to the airline board as Executive Director, Customer Services in 1994 and a promotion to Managing Director in 1998. He has been at the helm of Virgin Atlantic as Chief Executive since 2001. During his time at the airline, the company has grown from two 747s to a fleet of 40 long-haul aircraft, flying six million passengers a year all over the world. Virgin Atlantic is about to enter an exciting chapter with a new fleet of next-generation aircraft.

ecoDemonstrator, Next-Generation 737800 airplane was presented by Boeing and American Airlines in Washington DC to underline testing of environmentally progressive technologies. Officials from Boeing, American Airlines, and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) held a joint press conference at Reagan National Airport, US, to highlight innovation and collaboration among government and industry. The plane underwent wide-ranging flight testing in Glasgow, Montana, US where the plane flew a series of missions planned to test and speed up advanced technologies that increase fuel efficiency and reduce airplane noise. The flight testing, completed in Glasgow, permitted Boeing engineers to collect volumes of data about the feasibility of each technology. After testing is complete, the airplane will be returned to standard configuration and delivered back to American Airlines later this year.

CRUISING HEIGHTS October 2012

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TIME TO REDEEM

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In what could be Japan's most remarkable turnaround stories, Japan Airlines said that it would raise up to ($8.4 billion) in its initial public offering (IPO)? after setting the indicative price range for what will rank as the world's second-largest IPO this year after Facebook. The airline relisted its shares on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. The company will raise 663 billion yen ($8.49 billion), nearly double the 350-billion yen infused by a Japanese government-backed fund following the airline's failure with $25 billion in debts in early 2010.

200 FLEXING MUSCLE

NASA will built 'Ninja style' aircraft and the organisation has granted $100,000 for development. The aircraft will have the ability to tailspin 90 degrees in air for efficient faster-thansound flight. According to The Daily Mail newspaper, the plane looks a bit like a fourcornered ninja throwing star with two sides that are extended out while the other two sides are far shorter. The plane is produced in a way that will allow it to take off from the ground, and then turn on its side once it reaches supersonic atmospheric levels so that it can continue its flight into the uppermost parts of space.

HUGE MODERNISATION PLANS

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Ron Akana of United Airlines ended his six-decadelong career as a Flight Attendant in the airline.

Guinness World Records recognised his achievement as the longest serving Flight Attendant in US history. His last route was Denver to Kauai in Hawaii, where he began working for United Airlines in 1949 while a student at the University of Hawaii.

He was one of the first male Flight Attendants for the carrier. "We didn't even know what a Flight Steward was. But it meant getting to the mainland, which was a huge deal in those days. We just liked working with girls," he told Associated Press.

NINJA FIGHTER IN AIR

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(PAL) signed a $7 billion deal to purchase 54 Airbus jets as part of an ambitious plan to modernise its fleet. According to the reports, the carrier is facing higher demand for passenger and cargo transport from Australia, Asia and the Middle East. Airline President Ramon Ang said that the first consignment of about a dozen wide-body A330-300s and A321s would be delivered in January. The rest of the aircraft would be put in service over the next three years. The possession would more than double the airline's capacity. PAL also plans to buy another 46 aircraft from Airbus and other manufacturers, including Boeing, Ang said. "The orders we are placing with Airbus will play a cardinal role in renewing PAL and growing trade and tourism in the country," PAL Chairman Lucio Tan said.

A LONG HAUL

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Singapore took another giant stride in positioning itself as an air hub with the declaration of the setting up of an S$200-million fund to develop itself into a centre of excellence for Air Traffic Management (ATM). This was announced by Minister for Transport Lui Tuck Yew at the commissioning ceremony of a new air traffic control simulator at the Singapore Aviation Academy. Lui said that the simulator will form a vital part of the nation's plan to renovate and modernise the current Air Traffic Management system and will support the country's push to continue developing Changi Airport as a global air hub. http://www.mpa.gov.sg

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CRUISING HEIGHTS October 2012

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WILL FDI OPEN THE FLOODGATES? fter dilly-dallying for more than 15 years, it was the turn of the Congress-led UPA government to finally approve the policy to allow foreign airlines to invest up to 49 per cent in domestic Indian carriers falling in the category of both scheduled and non-scheduled operators. The policy cleared by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) on September 15, 2012, was notified within five days: September 20. Never in the past has a FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) policy of this kind which included an even more controversial 51 per cent FDI in multi-brand retail been cleared and implemented within a week of its approval by the Cabinet.

The FDI decision came after the government faced repeated international criticism from both foreign media and foreign rating agencies of having run out of steam leaving huge cracks in the “emerging” Indian economy. The CCEA approved the

A

proposal of the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) under the Ministry of Industry and Commerce for permitting foreign airlines to make foreign investment up to 49 per cent in scheduled and non-scheduled air transport services in India. By removing the existing restriction on investment by foreign airlines it is hoped that strategic investors would come to the Indian civil aviation space as it is now felt that higher foreign investment inflow is seriously required at the present juncture.

According to the DIPP, in order to strengthen the civil aviation sector in India, it is necessary to introduce best global practices concomitant with the induction of FDI from foreign airlines that, in turn, would lead to higher service standards, international best practices and induction of state-of-the-art technology in the air transport sector.

Until now, foreign carriers were allowed to invest in the equity of companies operat-

GIVING THUMBS-UP: Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh has proven to be pro-FDI unlike his predecessor Praful Patel who was openly against FDI by foreign carriers.

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CRUISING HEIGHTS October 2012

ing in cargo airlines, helicopter and seaplane services but not in the equity of an air transport undertaking operating scheduled and non-scheduled air services. The government has now permitted foreign airlines to invest under the government approval route in the capital of Indian companies operating scheduled and non-scheduled air transport services up to 49 per cent of their paid-up capital. The 49 per cent will subsume FDI and FII (Foreign Institutional Investors) investment or a 49 per cent cap on investment both under the FDI route and FII route.

The investment so made would need to comply with the relevant provisions of the SEBI (Securities and Exchange Board of India) such as the Issue of Capital and Disclosure Requirements (ICDR) Regulations/ Substantial Acquisition of Shares and Takeovers (SAST) Regulations as well as other applicable rules and regulations. Such investment would be further subject to the conditions that: (I) A scheduled operator's permit can be granted only to a company that is registered and has its principal place of business within India. The Chairman and at least tow-thirds of the directors are citizens of India and the substantial ownership and effective control of which is vested in Indian nationals; (ii) All foreign nationals likely to be associated with the Indian scheduled and non-scheduled air transport services as a result of such investment shall be cleared from the security viewpoint before deployment; and, (III) All technical equipment that might be imported into India as a result of such investment shall require clearance from the relevant authority in the Ministry of Civil Aviation.

The issue of permitting FDI by foreign airlines in the equity of an Indian air transport undertaking — operating either in a scheduled or non-scheduled category — had been under consideration of the government for quite some time. There has been need to consider financing options available to private airlines in the country for their operations and service upgradation besides enabling them to compete with other global carriers. It was felt that denial of access to foreign capital could result in the collapse of many of India's domestic carriers creating a

NEWS DIGEST systemic risk for financial institutions and a vital gap in the country's infrastructure.

The total FDI inflows into India's air transport sector between January 2000 and April 2012, has been a measly $435 million which was only 0.25 per cent of the total FDI flows into the country. With the notification of the policy, it is now expected that equity participation by foreign airlines in the Indian domestic carriers will come as a major mood-changer for the crisis-ridden sector which has been facing severe financial stress with the banks deciding to keep far away from them after sinking thousands of crores of rupees both in working capital and otherwise as is evident from their experience with Kingfisher Airlines.

The entry of foreign carriers has raised hopes of the Indian carriers to attract funding — both internally and externally. The question, however, is when will the foreign carriers actually decide to come and buy stakes in any of the Indian carriers or will they tie-up with new players to start new airlines? All of these issues will also largely depend on the regulatory scenario and also on the cost of operations which in India is artificially high because of steep fuel prices which in turn are higher than the global

Goyal — even before the Cabinet took the decision — made a number of visits to Abu Dhabi seeking a tie-up with Etihad Airways.

Perhaps, IndiGo's promoter Rahul Bhatia who has always opposed to FDI by saying it would hurt Air India, will also change. Now that everything is clear, even he may look for FDI from a foreign carrier.

As per available statistics, of the six Indian carriers, only three — Jet Airways, SpiceJet and Kingfisher Airlines — are quoted in the stock market. The others namely IndiGo and GoAir are closely held and Air India is government-owned. Singificantly, both Jet Airways and IndiGo are already 49 per cent foreign-owned — though not by airlines.

Therefore, they may have to rejig their ownership by getting such foreign holdings transferred from non-airline foreign entities to foreign airlines. This could mean an entirely new game in revaluing their enterprise.

There is a view held by some in the industry that allowing 49 per cent stake to foreign airlines will create access to capital, global connectivity, technology and best practices. This could lead to establishment of new airlines in India and a change in ownership structure of certain carriers. It

THE GAMECHANGERS: (L-R) Kalanithi Maran, Naresh Goyal, Vijay Mallya and Rahul Bhatia.

average rates because of the high taxes.

Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh has proven to be pro-FDI unlike his predecessor Praful Patel who was openly against FDI by foreign carriers. We must state here that when the print media was lobbying against the entry of FDI in the Indian print media, the leaders among them were the Times of India and the Hindustan Times. The moment the government forced open the sector and allowed up to 26 per cent FDI to foreign companies, these two news paper chains were the first to get FDI. A similar behavioural pattern is expected to be repeated in the Indian aviation as well. For instance, since the time the Tatas wanted to tie up with Singapore Airlines — first, financially and later only technically — Naresh Goyal moved heaven and earth to sabotage it and later managed to officially block it. Now that FDI has been allowed, it is learnt that

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could prove to be good for the Indian traveller as a result of increased competition.

But it will not be easy to attract foreign carriers when, perhaps all Indian carriers with the exception of IndiGo are in deep red and their balance sheets having no chance of being cleaned up so easily in the near future.

The highly taxed ATF prices and airport charges have completely skewed domestic air operations in India. In the last four months even the number of passengers carried by Indian carriers domestically has registered a fall on a year-on-year basis unlike global trends which still are positive. Even the International Air Transport Association (IATA) has pointed out this disturbing trend and singled out India for the bad taxation policies which have gone intrinsically against civil aviation. From the losses point of view, it does not seem likely any foreign carrier will come in so easily

CRUISING HEIGHTS October 2012

just because there is an enabling policy in India. At the June 2012 meet of IATA in Beijing, many foreign carriers raised concerns on the restrictive FDI policy of the Indian government as they wanted a minimum 51 per cent ownership or majority. The international carriers also said there should be liberalisation of the restrictions placed on bilaterals to make investment in India attractive. The total international traffic from India in 2011-12 was 36 million of which 11 million travelled via hubs outside India: Dubai, Doha, Frankfurt, Singapore and Sharjah accounted for 40 per cent of the 11 million traffic. So, the opportunities foreign carriers see in terms of both domestic and foreign traffic is a major factor.

According to the IATA country director in New Delhi, Amitabh Khosla, the government decision to allow 49 per cent FDI by foreign carriers in Indian airlines is a positive development and an important step forwards. This will help Indian carriers to have strategic tie-ups with foreign airlines cemented by an equity stake. But allowing FDI in itself may not be the panacea as critical problems of a high cost environment, insufficient infrastructure and crippling taxes also need to be comprehensively addressed with a coordinated government policy framework.

As industry representatives pointed out, the Indian aviation suffered from a syndrome of 'high costs, low returns'.

According to one Indian LCC, it cost $4000 per block hour of flying in India which was 25 per cent higher than comparative LCC operations abroad. As a result, Indian airlines' fuel costs were 45 per cent higher and along with high airport charges, these carriers were negatively impacted far more than carriers in other countries.

Not all foreign carriers are making profits. According to IATA, airlines profits peaked in 2010 to US $15.8 billion with a net profit margin of 2.9 per cent. In 2011, this fell to $7.9 billion with a net profit margin of 1.3 per cent and this year — 2012 — it is projected at $3 billion with a net profit margin of 0.5 per cent. So, who will be interested in Indian carriers? The very first test reaction showed that airlines like Etihad, Qatar, British Airways and even Singapore Airlines could be interested but their official reactions, however, suggested otherwise.

Their comments emphasised caution.

According to media reports that quoted Ratan Shrivastav of Frost & Sullivan, besides attracting hard cash, Indian carriers with the help of FDI could also look forward to global standards and benchmarks in professional services and access to engineering services and support from foreign airlines.

India needs FDI in aviation not just to sus-

tain the present model but to take it to the next level, increase growth and enable connectivity.

Yet another daily quoted a Deloitte Senior Director as saying that FDI in aviation per se would not solve all problems but was welcome. Right now, the problem was lack of profitability on account of high ATF charges, airport charges and artificially kept low fares. Obviously, FDI cannot be expected to solve those problems. But equity infusion will definitely help airlines in scaling up their operations and expanding their network.

A representative of Ernst & Young said allowing foreign airlines to invest in Indian carriers would not solve all the problems.

The tax structure was negatively impacting Indian domestic aviation. He questioned why any foreign carrier would come to India unless the airlines had viable business models that would give them strategic advantage.

Air Asia promoter Tony Fernandez was first quoted as saying: “We will make statements in due course. It is possible Air Asia may tie-up with a strong Indian partner for a start-up.” After the notification was issued by the government, Fernandez stated that he had no immediate plans to tie up with any Indian carrier.

Well-known aviation analyst Andrew Charlton of Aviation Advocacy pointed out

that the fact was that none of the Indian airlines were investment-ready at this stage.

Further, as huge as the Indian market is, the rights that the Gulf carriers have may allow them to access most of the big markets directly making the need for an investment rather remote.

This view could be appealing to some, but not necessarily to all the Gulf carriers since at least two of them namely Etihad Airways and Qatar Airways find themselves squeezed by the bigger Emirates Airlines. Jet Airways boss Naresh Goyal has been meeting Etihad bosses to explore a quick tie-up.

Considering that his domestic operations is slowly yielding place to low-cost carrier IndiGo, notwithstanding the fact that Jet Airways is hiving a separate low-cost or low-fare Jet Konnect to meet competition, it has become all the more critical for Jet to tieup, perhaps, with Etihad which is owned by the emirate of Abu Dhabi and which has a few trillion US dollars in reserves.

Soon after the FDI decision was taken by the government, Etihad Airways said that it would invest in the Indian carrier where “the commercial prospects are strong, where there are like-minded business philosophies and where such commitments will be welcomed... If or when we do make further investment of this sort, we will announce them in line with the regulatory and com-

CRUISING HEIGHTS October 2012

mercial requirements.” It said the Indian aviation industry offered tremendous potential with significant passenger movement both in the domestic and international sectors.

The Etihad statement came in the light of its expected launch of new services to and from Ahmedabad, its ninth Indian destination, in November 2012. With this, its number of flights between India and Abu Dhabi will rise from the present 52 to 59. Qatar Airways was also keen but its CEO stated so rather obliquely. In a statement to Gulf News, Qatar CEO Akbar al-Baker, who visits India often and was even educated in India, said, “Indian announcement has been made but there were many bureaucratic steps to follow…We are waiting for the fine print.”

He also said that whenever some private airline wanted to boost its share prices, they brought Qatar Airways into the picture. His airline, he said, always wanted to take a substantial ownership and never a minority stake. At the same time, he pointed out, Qatar could not take a majority stake in an airline because as soon as it did so, it was no more a national carrier and then it would lose traffic rights. Therefore, if the opportunity arose to pick up substantial stakes in an airline, Qatar Airways would consider it well before taking action, said al-Baker.

Significantly, his observation came a day before the government notified the 49 per

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NEWS DIGEST

ABOVE GROUND LEVEL ¨¨ AAI PLANS AIRPORT AT HOLONGI The Airports Authority of India (AAI) has prepared a draft master plan for the Greenfield airport at Holongi near Itanagar. The master plan was devised following the acceptance of the site for the construction of the airport by the state government in view of its technical suitability and operational safety, Aviation Minister Ajit Singh said during a meeting with Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Nabam Tuki. The new Holongi site permits operations on runway from both directions as compared to the Banderdewa site, which permits unidirectional operation. AAI has, in fact, forwarded the requirement of 320 hectare of land to the state government.

During the meeting, Singh and Tuki also discussed the status of the development of airports in Itanagar, Aalo, Daporijo, Pasighat, Tezu and Ziro in the state. Regarding the development of a civil enclave at the aerodrome in Aalo, Tuki was informed that the AAI had sent a report to the state government in July for the removal of obstacles around the aerodrome for safe flight operations.

PUNE AIRPORT GETS NIGHT VISION

NIGHT VIGIL: An artist impression of the soon to be completed terminal at Pune

Lohegaon airport authorities recently acquired night-vision goggles to fortify security on the airport premises. “The airport officials had been demanding these spectacles for the last two years. In its initial stage, the goggles have been allotted to four airports— Pune, Juhu (Mumbai), Goa and Aurangabad,” an airport official said.

Valued at `5 lakh each, the AAI had purchased 57 goggles from Kwick Nxt Generation Technologies. “We have circulated these goggles to security guards for routine watch. It will help them keep intruders and animals away, preventing them from wandering on to the runway,” the official said. The infrared night

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cent FDI from foreign carriers in Indian airlines. Emirates' CEO Tim Clark, against whom both Etihad and Qatar are seeking to compete in the Indian market, said: “We are looking for and are interested in civil aviation in India but we are not getting involved in investment with some of their carriers”.

IAG, the principal holding company of British Airways, said: “Our aim is to be a global airline group and we are pleased with any step towards full liberalisation of the aviation industry. India is a key market for us and we will monitor the changing regulatory environment but at this stage we have no plans to invest in any Indian airline.”

Singapore Airlines, which was once very keen to enter India in partnership with the Tatas, has so far reserved its decision though its initial reaction was positive.

The situation will not be as easy as it appears. Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation Chief Kapil Kaul rightly said: “The balance sheet of most carriers is weak and the sector faces numerous structural challenges that the foreign airlines will make their own assessment before thinking of any investment.”

Even IATA has stated that India is the worst performer among aviation market with domestic traffic falling by 1.1 per cent in July 2012. Total accumulated losses of Indian carriers, excluding Air India, during the period fiscal 2006 to 2012 has been estimated at US$10.5 billion dollars. Obviously, this will raise serious issues of valuation.

Notwithstanding this serious financial crisis that the Indian carriers find themselves in, the government at the Centre has been unable to impress upon state governments which have high sales tax on aviation turbine fuel to bring down the taxes. Even at the production point itself, there are differing views prompting Civil Aviation Secretary K N Shrivastav to write to the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas seeking clarity on the pricing of ATF by public sector oil companies. This is notwithstanding the permission the airlines have been given to directly import ATF on actual user basis.

Shrivastav has also demanded that the monopoly oil marketing companies have at major airports to dispense jet fuel to aircraft should be withdrawn and other non-state companies be allowed to fuel the commercial aircraft in order to bring down the cost of fuel.

Bank of America Merril Lynch (BoAML) in its assessment has stated that the FDI policy will not necessarily change the operating environment or the financial stress the industry is facing in the near term.

Also, in the longer term when the operating environment eases, this would lower the entry barrier into the sector thus raising competition. According to India Ratings &

CRUISING HEIGHTS October 2012

Research, a Fitch Group Company, the decision to allow 49 per cent FDI in aviation will improve the capital structure of Indian airlines with viable business models. The possible equity infusion would not only deleverage the sector but also provide funds for long term growth. However, structural challenges may limit the attractiveness for such foreign investors at least in the medium term.

In addition to equity infusion, stronger strategic and operational ties with foreign partners with stronger credit profile may potentially improve the credit profile of domestic carriers. This may have a beneficial impact on the funding cost of the sector which is otherwise known for its capital intensity.

While the long term growth potential of the Indian market may draw interest from international airlines, the continuing structural weakness and regulatory risks may increase the perceived risk in such tie-ups.

Other key considerations of prospective joint venture partners would be the lack of majority control in addition to specific board position.

The key structural weakness of the Indian airlines industry is its high operating costs driven by the high tax on ATF compared to other emerging markets. The cost of infrastructure is also higher which means higher user charge. This is in addition to the currently limited airport infrastructure which acts as a bottleneck to significantly improve scheduling efficiency and, therefore, a direct drag on operating costs. For the fiscal year ending March 31, 2012, the EBITDA margins of three listed airlines — Jet Airways, Spicejet and Kingfisher Airlines — ranged between 1 per cent and 37 per cent. ATF accounted for 40 to 50 per cent of the airlines operating costs compared to a standard of 30 per cent globally. This is due to the high taxes on ATF in India.

The Indian carriers' customer base is dominated by corporate travel which is comparable to other emerging markets. The household-level spending on airlines is usually limited to no more than the top 10 percentile households and is basically towards low cost airlines. The high cost structure of the Indian airlines industry will always keep air fares high relative to the income of even the top 10 percentile households.

Against these views expressed by foreign carriers, Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh, a day after the decision was formally notified, told an ASSOCHAM meeting, that the aviation industry was in an upbeat mood.

He said: “The aviation sector is going through difficult times due to the economic slowdown. But the mood is upbeat after the government allowed 49 per cent FDI by foreign carriers in Indian carriers. Time will tell

how many foreign airlines evince interest in acquiring stake in Indian carriers.” Ajit Singh expressed the hope that the decision would pave the way for much-needed equity infusion in Indian carriers that were in dire needs for funds. Indian banks were refusing to give money to the aviation sector for obvious reasons. Ajit Singh described the problems faced by the aviation sector as temporary. In the forthcoming winter session of Parliament, the minister said a legislation would be introduced to set up the Civil Aviation Authority which would revamp the regulator DGCA. Government would also set up a Civil Aviation Security Force which would eventually replace the CISF. Notwithstanding such diverse views on the issue of FDI by foreign carriers, there has been no opposition to the policy decision. This raises a very important issue on why the government had deliberately ducked the issue for at least seven years when the FDI inflow would have helped Indian carriers.

It seems SpiceJet may be the first the first target of FDI as it has the least debt and flies to more destinations — national and international. As for Jet Airways and IndiGo, both will need to convince their existing foreign partners to divest in favour

of foreign airlines. We understand that Naresh Goyal is not keen to divest immediately because Jet Airways shares are just over ` 350 compared to the issue price of `1150 in February 2005.

He is seriously thinking of a strategic alliance with Etihad Airways that will include a real time codeshare which will help both airlines. Additionally, the tie-up will provide hub-and-spoke assistance to Etihad in India where it will have 59 services a week from November 2012. GoAir could also think of inducting a foreign partner. It will be interesting to watch what happens to Kingfisher Airlines which unfortunately was the first to openly demand FDI from foreign carriers when it was nowhere near the present mess it is in.

Political exigencies prompted the UPA government to announce the new policy and to sweeten it further, Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh has even spoken of doing away with the five-year wait for launching foreign flight along with the reduction in the minimum 20 aircraft requirement. Considering the kind of losses the airlines have sustained and debts incurred, it is quite possible that foreign carriers may end up tying up with new companies to launch brand new domestic carriers.

CRUISING HEIGHTS October 2012

ABOVE GROUND LEVEL ¨¨ goggles have a range of 350 metres and can be increased upto (between 500 metre to 700 metre) with additional lens.

The device runs on two AA Alkaline batteries and can be attached to a helmet.

HYDERABAD TO HAVE MAINTENANCE CONTRACTS The MAS-GMR Aerospace Engineering Company (MGAE) is in discussion with three more domestic and international airlines to offer aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) services at Hyderabad airport. R V Seshan, CEO, MGAE said that the MRO facility had signed up five customers: GoAir, SpiceJet, Bank of China Aviation and two other undisclosed key companies. “There are few other companies in the pipeline also. I cannot divulge the names at this time. We will for sure close another three customers in this quarter. It is both Indian and international,” Seshan told news agency PTI. “All of them will be medium to long-term contracts.” The facility has already obtained regulatory certifications from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) for

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NEWS DIGEST

ABOVE GROUND LEVEL ¨¨ domestic airlines, as well as the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) for international flights, Seshan said.

SEPARATE AVIATION SECURITY FORCE ON ANVIL Ministry of Civil Aviation has recently engaged the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) expert team to study aviation security arrangements and procedures in India. The objective of the project was to review the restructuring of administration of the existing Bureau of Civil Aviation Security; setting up of a dedicated Aviation Security Force; to design a robust operational framework for aviation security; striking the right balance between aviation security and passenger facilitation, taking into account the various airport operation models in India as well as models in other countries, and to propose alternative mechanism. If any, to discharge non-core security functions in airports. The estimation of expenditure in creation of infrastructure for training the new force/recurring expenditure in creation of infrastructure for training the new force/recurring expenditure for maintenance of this force is being worked out. The average cost of the new ASF is likely to be much less than the cost on CISF, presently deployed at 59 airports in the country.

INDIA-MALDIVES MULLS COOPERATION A Maldivian delegation led by its

COLLABORATIVE EFFORTS: A Maldivian delegation led by its Minister of Transport and Communication, Dr Ahmed Shamheed meeting the Union Minister for Civil Aviation, Ajit Singh, to discuss the cooperation in civil aviation sector.

Minister of Transport and Communication, Dr Ahmed Shamheed met Union Minister of Civil Aviation Ajit Singh. The two sides discussed possibilities of enhancing cooperation in the field of civil aviation including increasing air links between Indian cities and Male and strengthening of infrastructure at the Male International Airport by an

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MOPA DREAMS TO TURN REAL ome October 2012, the Goa government may issue the muchawaited tender to initiate the first step towards realising the delayed Mopa Greenfield international airport, the second for the state. A few weeks ago, the Chairman of Airports Authority of India (AAI) V P Agrawal told newspersons that the Goa government would soon issue tenders to select the private partner for developing the airport under the PPP model. He said, “I was told by the state government that land acquisition is almost complete and the tenders will be called soon for selecting the PPP partner.”

Mopa airport will be constructed on BOOT (build-own-operate-transfer) basis for which a private entity will be selected through a global tendering process. It was in June 2010 that the central government approved the setting-up of a G r e e n f i e l d international airport in Mopa and also decided at the same time not to close down the existing airport operations at Dabolim which was a V P Agrawal civilian enclave in an otherwise naval airport. The clarification was necessary as airport rules in the country clearly state that no two airports should be situated within a distance of 150 km from each other.

After the bitter experience in Hyderabad and Bengaluru where the two earlier airports were closed down, there was great fear among Goans that Dabolim would be closed. On June 10, 2010, briefing newsmen after the Cabinet meeting, Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni said: “There was a lot of discussion on the issue and it was decided to accord approval to the Mopa project which will be 60 km from Dabolim.”

The rule of 'No two airports within a distance of 150 km' was decided by the NDA government in March 2000. As long as the Congress ruled the state government, there were no objections but when the BJPled government took over earlier this year, fears were expressed by many in the Dabolim part of Goa whether the old airport would be closed down. Allaying

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CRUISING HEIGHTS October 2012

their fears, Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar on July 20, 2012, gave a categorical assurance to the state Assembly that Dabolim airport would continue to function even after Mopa international airport began operations.

The fears also arose because there was reportedly a downsizing of the Dabolim airport plan with the number of aerobridges being reduced from the planned 11 to four.

The airport has a capacity to handle 900 passengers an hour but it has been handling 2000 passengers an hour. It is a fact that the Dabolim-Mopa debate has divided public opinion on regional lines with all luxury hotels closer to the older airport. Obviously, there will be hectic lobbying to protect business interests. It was in this context, the Chief Minister stated that AAI is spending Rs 500 crore for the expansion of Dabolim; in fact, quite a lot has already been spent.

After expansion, Dabolim will Manohar Parrikar handle 3000 passengers an hour. The new terminal is expected to become functional from February 2013; hence, the assurance that Dabolim will continue to function. At the same time, the Chief Minister said that Mopa was very important as it would serve the needs of Kolhapur, Satara, Hubli, etc and in moving agri produce. Unlike Dabolim, the proposed Mopa could easily be made a cargo hub which the state badly needs considering its rich agricultural produce including fruits. So far, 2037 acres of land for Mopa airport have been acquired. The new international airport at Mopa might be ready in three years if the tendering process started in October 2012 said the Chief Minister who also remarked that “an investment of `3800 crores will be needed of which the first phase alone would require `2500 crore”.

It will have a passenger handling capacity that will be six times more than the existing facilities at Dabolim. A fiscal consultant has also already been appointed to prepare the bid conditions and its report is ready.

BOEING, AIRBUS HAIL INDIAN AVIATION lobal aircraft majors Boeing and Airbus continue to remain upbeat about India. Both manufacturers ushered in an optimistic future for Indian aviation in its projections for the next two decades.

Boeing’s Current Market Outlook 2012 and Airbus’ Global Market Forecast 2012 stated that India would be the CLEAR VIEW: Dinesh Keskar, Senior VP (Sales), Boeing with next big thing on the world a model of the Air India Dreamliner at the press conference aviation radar despite the unveiling Boeing's Current Market Outlook 2012 for India. conditions the aviation market was going through now.

While Boeing in its 20-year forecast suggested a growth of four and half times for the Indian domestic aviation market, Airbus predicted that the country would be the fourth biggest market in terms of value for all new aircraft deliveries after China, US and UAE during the next 20 years.

Boeing’s Market Outlook UPBEAT ABOUT THE FUTURE: John Leahy, Airbus COO2012 has projected that Customers, with a scale model A380 at the Global Market Forecast press conference in London.

India’s airlines were estimated to take deliveries of 1,450 planes over the next 20 years valued at pie. “Aside from growth in international around $175 billion. India will have the traffic, by 2031 four of the world’s highest traffic growth rate in the world biggest traffic flows will all be domestic over the next 20 years, exceeding even — US, China, Intra-Western Europe and that of China. “Passenger growth foreIndia, and these account for a third of cast over the next 20 years would be world traffic. Emerging economic driven by an underlying economy with regions will represent more than half of long-term growth projections of twice all traffic growth in the next 20 years. the world average and supported by the Domestic flights within China and India continued economic prosperity amongst will become more significant than some a growing segment of the large Indian international routes,” said John Leahy, population, higher discretionary Chief Operating Officer, Customers, incomes, business progress and easier Airbus, while releasing the report at access to airports,” said Dr Dinesh A Airbus headquarters in France.

Keskar, Senior Vice-President (Sales), Boeing airplanes are currently flown Boeing. Dr Keskar noted that domestic

by Air India, Jet Airways and SpiceJet. airlines in India were improving their Indian carriers continue to enlarge their financial performance due to increased fleet with Boeing airplanes such as the yields and capacity management.

747, 777, 737 and the 787 Dreamliner Nevertheless, a slowdown in the econoseries. my, high fuel prices and a weak rupee Airbus, on the other hand, too enjoys could have an effect on the margins. a sizable marketshare and orders in European aircraft manufacturer India. Both the carriers have placed Airbus in its latest global market foreorders for the A320 (NEO). IndiGo has cast (GMF) said that India could take ordered 150 NEOs and GoAir 72 of such bigger slice of the international aviation aircraft.

ABOVE GROUND LEVEL ¨¨

CRUISING HEIGHTS October 2012

HEMANT RAWAT

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Indian company. The Indian side brought to notice the problems faced by the Indian company GMR Group which was awarded the privatisation contract for Male International Airport jointly with another company. The contentious issues include provision of Airport Development Charges (ADC) provided for in the agreement with the GMR but termed as unauthorised by a local court in Maldives and a demand for an additional runway not provided in the agreement.

The Indian side emphasised that the government of Maldives should consider GMR proposals to resolve the issues in an amicable manner and facilitate the restoration of work as per the solutions offered. Another issue that came up was bilateral air services agreement between the two countries.

Ajit Singh said that India would relook the agreement which would help boost tourism between the two countries. The two sides also took note of certain airlines including Island Aviation, SpiceJet and Mega Maldives planning flights to connect Mumbai/Delhi/Chennai with Male. The Maldivian side was requested to take proactive steps to facilitate these flights.

NEW BYELAWS FOR AIRPORTS APPROVED In a decision that will help a large number of people living in areas near airports, the Union Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh approved changes in the byelaws regulating building activities around airports. The changes were recommended by a committee constituted by the Minister and headed by a senior Joint Secretary of the Ministry of Civil Aviation.

The committee looked into all aspects related to procedure of issuing No Objection Certificates (NOCs) for building operation including an aeronautical study, instrumentation, etc. keeping in pace with the changes in time, circumstances, technology and requirements. It also went into procedure of regulating buildings at the airports in other countries including USA and UK. The changes will bring greater transparency and efficiency in the processes of approval for constructing buildings around airports and will simplify the present cumbersome procedure significantly reducing time taken for sanction of building maps.

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COVER STORY

JETAIRWAYS

AIR FRANCE

JUST PLANE FOOD

BRITISH AIRWAYS

ne of the first airline meals was served by British Airways on May 1, 1927, on a Silverwing service to Paris and consisted of hot tea, beef sandwiches and biscuits. Since 1927, airplanes have become bigger, faster, safer and are flying higher. But airline executives, suppliers and caterers still haven’t got around the fact that food changes at 35,000 feet, even if it’s prepared under exact specifications of some of the best chefs in the world.

We’ve all had one very bad in-flight meal. It’s needless to say that in-flight

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meals have got a bad name. But, hold it!

The food is changing and today, as airlines compete for your business and loyalty, they’re trying to go one-up on each other.

Today, the extent some airlines are going to is no less than running a full-fledged ritzy restaurant.

Airlines today are making considerable investments to bring in the world’s best chefs to build adventurous and delicious dishes and sommeliers to pair these creative menus. Backed by expertise, technical support, a strong reputation and professionalism of SATS, Singapore, a leading international chain of flight catering with global

CRUISING HEIGHTS October 2012

VIRGIN ATLANTIC

FROM MICHELIN STAR CHEFS TO DESIGNER TABLEWARE – THE SKY’S THE LIMIT. AIRLINES ARE GOING MORE THAN THE EXTRA MILE TO ENSURE THAT FOOD SERVED ON BOARD – WHETHER IN FIRST CLASS OR ‘COACH’ CLASS – IS PRAISED AND SPOKEN ABOUT. MEGHNA BHADURI FOLLOWED A SERVICE TRAY TO FIND OUT WHAT IS MAKING IT TO THE PLATE ON YOUR NEXT FLIGHT.

DRAGONAIR

presence, and one of the largest in-flight caterers in the country, TSACL (Taj SATS Air Catering Ltd) has a pool of highly skilled and experienced chefs in all its units. Sanjeev Gujral, General Manager, Taj SATS Air Catering Limited, explained, “Most importantly two most legendary chefs that India has ever produced, Chef Satish Arora and Chef Arvind Saraswat are at the helm of Food Production Department with Taj Sats in their capacity as Director of Food Production and as Consultant, respectively.” Chef Saraswat, the recipient of the national award for the Best Chef of

EMIRATES AIRLINE

READY TO ROLL: Passengers being served delicious meals by a flight attendant

the Year 2011, is in the panel of expert chefs for Malaysian Airlines while Chef Satish Arora is a regular advisor for ANA (All Nippon Airlines) and JAL (Japan Airlines). In the past too, a battery of celebrity chefs contributed to designing menus for TSACL. Chef Mashanori Suzuki, Corporate Chef of JAL, Chef Rick Stevens – Executive Chef of SATS and Director, Asia of the World Association of Chefs, Chef Tanaka – the Japanese Chef of SATS at Singapore, Chef Massamitsu Yamamoto – from the chain of Wasabi Restaurants — are some of the internationally reputed

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The atmosphere inside the cabin dries out the nose. As the plane ascends, the air pressure change numbs about a third of the taste buds.

CRUISING HEIGHTS October 2012

chefs who visit TSACL frequently. Our own Chef Ashish Sanyal had been invited to Manila to hold a Festival of Indian Food for a period of ten days at a stretch. Chef Ajay Sood – Executive Chef of TSACL, Kolkata, had hosted an Indian food festival at Johannesburg in South Africa. Last but not the least a Chef from TSACL is a regular part of the advance party for the Prime Minister of India, whenever the PM is on a state visit abroad.

So, as some airlines go to great lengths to make you forget you’re even flying, science may still be working against them. As Jad Mouawad of the NY Times put it: “Even before a plane takes off, the atmosphere inside the cabin dries out the nose. As the plane ascends, the change in air pressure numbs about a third of the taste buds. And as the plane reaches a cruising altitude of

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COVER STORY LUFTHANSA PRADEEP CHANDRA

TEMPTATIONS: Chefs display bakery delicacies at the Ambassador’s Sky Chef kitchen in Mumbai

DELIVERING THE BEST: LSG Sky Chefs’ frozen food operations in Alzey, Germany

Attendants have to bear up with convection ovens that blow hot, dry air over the food.

Newer planes, however, have steam ovens.

35,000 feet, cabin humidity levels are kept low by design, to reduce the risk of fuselage corrosion. Soon, the nose no longer knows. Cotton mouth sets in.”

As Jet Airways’ Reynold Fernandes, Vice President In-flight Catering, said, “One needs to understand that at a level of 35000 ft, in a pressurised atmosphere the human body undergoes certain changes, especially the digestive system. However, no artificial flavouring is added to enhance the taste of the food Jet Airways serves on board. We keep in mind that the food will be reheated and will not have the same taste or texture as compared to freshly prepared food. Keeping this in mind we select dishes that are comfortable on the palate.

Wines we select on ground will taste completely different in the aircraft … Generally wines with balance of acidity and tannins hold well.”

Even if you were to overlook the role our physiology and psychology plays in the in-flight dining experience, it’s difficult to imagine much creativity coming from the

7 REASONS NOT TO EAT AIRPLANE FOOD 32

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small onboard pantries, ovens and larders – unless airlines have chosen to invest greatly in creating larger spaces for chefs and flight attendants to prepare the fabulous meals. But herein lies the challenge. Not only do these celebrity chefs need to translate their visions into something that still tastes good at 30,000+ feet, but must survive the gruelling trip before their creations are presented to you that include blast chillers, assembly lines and at least two ovens.

Once the food is aboard, airlines face other hurdles. For safety, open-flame grills and ovens aren’t allowed on commercial aircraft. Flight attendants can’t touch food the way a restaurant chef might in order to prepare a dish. Galley space is cramped, and there’s little time to get creative with presentation. Attendants have to bear up with convection ovens that blow hot, dry air over the food. Newer planes, however, have steam ovens, that are better because they help keep food moist. Either way, meals can only be reheated, not cooked, on

TOP OF THE LINE: Drinks for the Business and First Class passengers of an aicraft

board.

Peter Andrist, Chief Executive Officer, Ambassador Group (Ambassadors Sky Chef is the airline catering arm of the Ambassador Group and an award-winning catering service that caters to international and domestic airlines like Air India, Air Asia, Austrian Airlines, Etihad Airways, Lufthansa, Saudi Arabian Airlines, Sri Lankan Airlines, Turkish Airlines, Go Air and IndiGo among others) said, “Our meals are tailor-made according to the client standards and dietary requirements. The first steps are similar to a restaurant but the cooking of the meal in in-flight catering has to be strictly performed according to HACCP rules (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points) for hygienic reasons. A minimum core temperature needs to be achieved for all meat products. All cooked food is then passed through a blast chiller and the meals dished-out cold, stored in refrigerators to achieve a prescribed minimum temperature, which is maintained for all food products until they reach the air-

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You could get very ill from bacterial contamination or other pollutants that often and easily end up in airplane food

You might bite into a sandwich and get gauged by needles as happened some time ago on Delta’s flight from Amsterdam to New York or might find other unknown inedible and dangerous objects implanted in your food.

Airplane food is known to be extremely caloric to make passengers feel more full so that they eat less.

CRUISING HEIGHTS October 2012

SINGAPORE AIRLINES

VIRGIN ATLANTIC

craft. The crew on board of the airline then reheats the meals for the passenger.”

Sanjeev Gujral said that the flight catering operation was one of the most complex operations and was difficult to explain in a nutshell. “The operation is partly manufacturing, partly warehousing, partly logistics and distribution system. An average person is unaware of the fact that there may be more than 40,000 separate items loaded onto a Boeing -747, this load occupies 60 m2 and weighs six tonnes and the loading may be done in less than 40 minutes. Keeping that in mind, it is not just remarkable that the air traveller dines so well; it is remarkable that they can do so at all, while they are travelling at 30,000+ feet height, cruising at a speed of 625 miles per hour and in a pressurised cabin.”

While preparing the food, it is always ensured that cooked food reaches a core temperature of 75 °C. According to airlines specification, meals are dished out and trays are prepared with salads, hors d’oeuvre, desserts and other ancillary items.

READY TO FLY: LSG Sky Chefs loading in-flight meals in an aircraft.

UNMATCHED HOSPITALITY: Passengers being served meals on a Singapore Airlines flight

While the hot meals are kept chilled and carried in oven cages, trays are carried in specially designed meal carts and transported in a hydraulic lift-fitted vehicle, called Hi-lifts or Hiloader. The loading crew load food trolleys and main entrees along with other ancillaries on board and hand them over to the crew. While Gujral explained that changes of menu varied from airline to airline and determined by each individual airline, he added, “On international sectors change of menu is mostly seasonal, while in domestic sectors having six cycles of menu (to ensure that a menu is repeated only on the seventh day) is a reality.”

Contributing and establishing in-flight kitchens and airline business for nearly three decades, Ravindra Sharma, Consultant - F&B, Hospitality & Aviation at PMGIndia, believed each airline fixed its own choices, rotations and frequencies of menus. “Normally one -two -three month cycles are adopted and usually finalised annually. Each airline works to invent its own set of USPs. Sear, pitch width, implements, technologies, ease of access, operation...the list can go on...as each creates the complete experience and not just the food.

With the ongoing research and developments, each airline has to make the right choices in material, process of cooking,

serving material and method of service.

The experience, knowledge and innovative skills of a menu planner are best tested in the functioning. Among all of this, safety and accuracy is paramount for the industry.”

In 2010, LSG Sky Chefs produced 460 million meals for 300 airlines in 200 flight kitchens in 50 countries. GateGourmet, the No. 2 caterer, served 9,700 daily flights in 28 countries! So how does an airline do this? Andrist explained, “Menu cycles are decided by the airline. In general, international airlines change their menu cycle monthly. Once to twice a year an international airline visits the caterer for a meal presentation and makes the choice in general for four menu cycles, which then changes monthly. The planning and finalisation of new menus for international airlines takes two to eight months, depending on the airline, how many flights they have, how many different meal types (breakfast, lunch, dinner, snack, etc) and also the number of destinations. The meals have to be coordinated between the inbound and outbound flights as the equipment to be used has to be the same, but the meals have to be different.”

For an international airliner like Jet Airways, preparation across all markets takes up to four-five months with design,

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Airplane food is incredibly high in sodium because sodium is an easy way to add flavor to otherwise bland mass produced food.

If you are vegetarian, pescatarian, kosher or have other food specifications, there won’t be an option for you unless you call the airline in advance, which is time consuming and a pain and you still won’t know what you will truly be getting really.

If you care about consuming organic, pesticide-free, freerange, or anything close natural food, forget about it all on airplanes.

Your food may have been heated, cooled, and reheated again, who knows how many times, which spoils everything about a dish from safety to taste to texture and hydration.

CRUISING HEIGHTS October 2012

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COVER STORY

REYNOLD FERNANDES VP, In-flight Catering, Jet Airways

VIRGIN ATLANTIC

“In a pressurised atmosphere, the human body undergoes certain changes.The ability to taste food is reduced.”

GI’ MME RED: The fancy in-flight bar in a Virgin Atlantic aircraft

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Chef Ashay Desai - Executive Chef, Travel Food Services said: “At TFS-Gate, we have a systemised process of food sampling, preparation and ground testing before implementation. Further, we have a 360 feedback process to gather inputs on the products and its taste: both on-ground and in-air, from all stakeholders including passengers, the airline, and the crew. We constantly work developing new offers that are aligned with the evolving tastes of passengers. We also conduct market research to access the needs of passengers, understand national and international trends, and

also take into account logistic processes and infrastructure availability before introducing an appropriate offering in flights.”

How much do the Economy, Business and First Class meals really differ?

Gujral believed the primary differences between First and Business Class on a plane are seats and service, although no specific standards exist in airlines. “International flights on many airlines are operated with three-cabin planes with First, Business and Economy cabins. Food and beverage service in First Class is top-notch with menus designed by celebrity chefs and

SINGAPOREAIRELINES

trials, and execution. The Jet Airways food programme is catered by the renowned inflight kitchens of the Oberoi’s and Taj Sats.

Reynold Fernandes added, “For locations away from India we work with global leaders. We pride ourselves in the service of great Indian food and have an association with the iconic Bombay Brasserie in London, which was awarded the Tatler’s ‘Restaurant of the Decade’ award and a pioneer of traditional and authentic regional Indian food in Europe. For the North American market, we associate with Dabbawala in New Jersey. Although we do not have onboard chefs, we are associated with some of the best in-flight catering companies across the network.” The airline also has on-board Star Michelin Chef Yves Mattagne who has designed their Western food in London, Milan, Brussels and North America.

But as Reynold Fernandes pointed out, frequency of travel had increased in recent times, adding the pressure of reinventing themselves for passengers. “We have to constantly refresh our menus in order to keep the demand in line with our customer expectations. On our international flights the menus change every month to ensure choice and variation. On our domestic flights we have menus changing daily. The entire programme is refreshed every year.”

Singapore Airlines’ International Culinary Panel comprises award-winning chefs from all over the world including Sanjeev Kapoor.

CRUISING HEIGHTS October 2012

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ASHAY DESAI Executive Chef, Travel Food Services

wine pairings suggested by noted sommeliers. International Business Class falls short of First Class but still exceeds the offerings of the Economy Class meal. Normally, in First Class, there is a la carte service and there is no longer a formal meal service. The passenger can ask for whatever they like and whenever they like it.

Therefore, First Class will have sufficient quantity of meals uplifted so that due to passengers demand a certain choice of meal is never exhausted. The food in Economy Class is less elaborate with limited but with nice choice of food,” he added.

On Jet Airways, there are distinct differences in each class for their food and beverage selection. “A guest on board our First Class is served the prestigious Dom Perignon 2002 or Bollinger La Grand Anee 2002. A guest on board our Premiere Class will savour our Champagnes Bollinger Special Cuvee and Bilecart Salmon Brut Reserve. Quality is paramount in all our cabins. But what changes is the choice, selection and product in each cabin,” explained Jet’s Reynold Fernandes.

Another element in all this complex process of in-flight meals is the cutlery airlines use. Gujral pointed out that “before the September 11 attacks in 2001, First Class passengers were often provided with full sets of metal cutlery. Afterwards, com-

CRUISING HEIGHTS October 2012

PRADEEP CHANDRA

GO DIGITAL TO PROTEST f you’ve ever been on a plane, you’ve more than likely to have eaten airline food. Matthew Rosenbaum has shown us the way how to protest if the food served is not up to any standard. In an article for ABC News, he pointed out that although the march of technology had made flying cheaper and faster for travellers, on the issue of cuisine it seemed many airlines have stood still.

Rock solid meatloaf, slimy salmon, freeze dried eggs – terrible airline food has often been the stuff of legend. Before the Internet, dissatisfied travelers were forced to satiate their food fury with angry complaints to friends, family, and, in the most extreme cases the airlines themselves.

Thanks to some websites however, in-flight meals are now being held to a higher degree of accountability.

Sites like AirlineMeals.com allow users to take pictures of their in-flight dinners, and post them along with a rating of 1 to 10 and a description of the meal. The site, which was set up ten years ago, now has meals from over 600 airlines from all over the world ranging from the best to the worst.

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JET AIRWAYS

“We have a 360 feedback process to gather inputs on the products and its taste: both onground and in-air.”

mon household items were evaluated more closely for their potential use as weapons on aircraft, and both first class and business class passengers were restricted to plastic cutlery. This restriction has since been relaxed in many countries”. Before the SARS outbreak in 2003, many airlines offered metal cutlery in all classes. During the outbreak, several airlines used plastic/metal cutlery (plastic on the tip, metal on the handle), and several airlines used all plastic cutlery to prevent infection, as they were thrown away after use.

Today, airlines have switched back to metal cutlery and China has emerged as a major hub for airline equipment. A large number of Chinese manufacturer supplies cutleries and other airline equipment to various airlines. Air India uses cutlery made by ‘Arthur Price’ and a few Indian companies like ‘Kishco’. And though the meals on Jet Airways are served on bespoke crockery from the house of William Edwards – one of Britain’s leading and awarded ceramic designers – there is a distinctive “look” for both Premiere and First Class.

Andrist went on to point out that the cutlery selection depended on the class and the airline with the range going from plastic cutlery in Economy Class to the most known brands in silver cutlery for First Class. All the equipment, crockery and cutlery, is selected by the airline and shipped to each caterer worldwide.”

One wonders why the airlines are going to such great lengths. “In-flight meal plays a major role on an overall flight experience for the passenger. Once airborne, apart from the comfort of seat and amenities/services provided along with the quality of meal contributes a lot towards the flying experience,” he added. While most airlines are outdoing each other on extensive menu selections, most offer such a wide selection that it’s mind-boggling. Air India’s offering includes: Asiatic Veg/Indian Veg Meal, Baby Meal/ Infant Food, Bland Meal/ Ulcer Diet/ Low Fiber Meal, Child Meal Lightly Spiced, Nutritionally Balanced, Diabetic Meal, Fruit Platter, Gluten Free Meal, Gujarati Meal-Veg Meal including Dhokla/ Patra, High Fiber Meal, Hindu Meal, Japanese Meal, Kosher Meal, Low Protein Meal, Low Sodium, Unsalted Meals, Moslem Meal, Lactose Free Meal, Oriental Meal, Low Purin Acid Meal, Raw Veg Meal, Seafood Meal, Vegetarian Meal, Veg Meal (may contain Egg, Dairy Products) Low Sodium, and Unsalted Meals.

On Jet Airways exclusive dishes for Business and First Class include Nahari Gosht, Rizala Murgh, Murgh Pista Korma, Braised Guinea Fowl, Salmon Teriyaki,

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Steamed Seafood Rings, Baked Duck Rolls, Orzo Risone, and Garganelli. While on the beverage front, they serve the finest of Champagnes, including the vintage Dom Perignon, and wines from around the world, and a library of single malt whiskies in the First Class cabin on long haul flights.

The First Class is also served a variety of Bordeaux and Burgandy wines, GevreyChambertin, Louis Jadot, Burgundy, Chablis Grand Cru Les Clos, J. Moreau, while Premiere Class offers a selection of wines from the Napa valley, Piedmont, Barossa and the McLaren Vale.

Just how seriously Taj SATS takes its job can be gauged from the names that Gujral rolled off: “On international flights operating in major sectors items like ‘Sevruga Caviar’, New Zealand Lamb Chops, Pink Norwegian Salmon, Pate de foigras are extremely popular. For flights operating to and from Japan, steaks made of ‘KOBE’ beef are extremely popular.

Indian vegetarian dishes are gaining popularity amongst international travellers also.

Dishes like Tawa Murg Angara, succulent piece of chicken roasted on a tawa (griddle) with a sprinkling of home grown spices and herbs or Murg Khatta Piaz, chicken morsel lest with thick spicy gravy topped with picked onions. There are lamb dishes such as famous Lucknowi Bhuna Gosht (succulent lamb pieces in best of Lucknowi traditional cooking) or ‘Kareli Rogan Josh’ which is tender lamb shanks simmered in rich creamy gravy with subtle flavour.”

On July 17, 2012, Virgin Atlantic celebrated its brand new A330 aircraft that landed from Delhi to London. On this occasion it also launched a hunt to discover the best cocktail for taste buds at 37,000 feet.

The best recipe would then be served at the exclusive on-board bar – the longest in the sky – to those flying Upper Class cabin between Delhi and London. The Virgin Atlantic in-house design team began working on the new Upper Class cabin on the A330 four years ago and was proud to unveil the longest and most stylish bar in the sky. At 2.7 metres long, the futuristic new on-board bar has a changed orientation. The bar featured Virgin Atlantic's new icon coupe glass - perfect for sipping Champagne at 37,000ft. In addition, after two years of thorough research, expert design and extensive onboard trailing, Virgin Atlantic recently unveiled its innovative new Economy meal experience. And the experience begins with the new Welcome Cocktail - a refreshing mix of fruit juices with or without vodka, served in a fabulous new purple glass!

Only a few months back, Cathay Pacific announced that it would introduce the

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new “Cathay Pacific Signature Chinese Dishes” on its in-flight menus. The new dishes, being served to Business, Premium Economy and Economy Class passengers, include slow cooked pork with preserved Hakka mustard greens; wok-fried chicken with black bean; and Hong Kong-style curry prawns.

Studies have shown that India today is the second largest market for British Airways, Lufthansa and is the largest operational market for Emirates. While Lufthansa serves Indian meals in Economy Class and teamed up with Indian chefs from The Leela to serve Indian dishes in its premium cabins, the carrier also offered all passengers a choice of chai (spiced Indian tea) as well as Assam teas, and Asian vegetarian and Hindu meals can be booked preflight. They even take note of the little things – like whisky being always served with water, while tea and coffee are served extra hot. On Lufthansa, the list of awardwinning chefs brought onboard to create special menus for First Class and Business Class long-haul flights is long and includes Armin Leitgeb, Nils Henkel, Stefan Stiller, Holger Stromberg, Marc Fosh Léa Linster David Burke, Wahabi Nouri, Roland Schmid, Anna Matscher, Douce Steiner, and Patrik Kimpel.

Globally, American Airlines recently added celebrity chefs Richard Sandoval, winner of numerous culinary awards and executive chef at several prestigious restau-

“At any point of time in the production chain temperature is not violated since food safety is of topmost priority.”

SANJEEV GUJRAL General Manager, Taj SATS Air Catering Limited

CRUISING HEIGHTS October 2012

EMIRATES AIRLINE

COVER STORY

MOUTH-WATERING DELICACIES: A tempting plate of food served in an aircraft

rants, and Marcus Samuelsson, winner of Top Chef Masters Season 2 and Executive Chef at the Red Rooster. And while Singapore Airlines hired Gordon Ramsey, United hired Charlie Trotter, Delta latched on to Michelle Bernstein, and Air France got Joël Robuchon. Lufthansa also teamed up with chefs from the luxury hotel chain Mandarin Oriental to prepare meals for its flights between the United States and Germany.

The catering business of Emirates Airlines in Dubai, which handles 80,000 meals a day and bakes its own bread, crumble cake and pecan pie, also prepares nearly 130 different kinds of menus daily, offering Japanese and Italian dishes and 12 regional Indian cuisines. Apparently eighteen workers spend their days just making elaborate flower designs out of fruit! Said Robin Padgett, Emirates’ Vice President, Aircraft Catering: “The biggest challenges of serving in-flight food is to produce a huge volume of freshly prepared meals to exacting standards, whilst working under tight deadlines. On an average Emirates produces over 80,000 meals per day within the specially designed and dedicated inflight catering facility in Dubai.” The high volume of meals does not deter Emirates from producing what Padgett described as “not just the finest dining experience in the skies, but a dining experience worthy of the finest

restaurants all around the world”. He gave an example. “On the Brisbane-to-Singapore route, the Asian-accented braised beef rib and the fresh, stir-fried lobster in black bean sauce reflect the vivid flavours of the local markets. That's just one of the regionally inspired menus created with care for our First Class passengers by our worldclass chefs.”

Finnair, on the other hand recently, completed the tasting of about a hundred in-flight veggie meal choices, which would be offered in economy class on all intercontinental flights where meal options would be available from November. Vegetable curry, suggested by Food and Drink Quality Hunter Sanjoo Malhotra, is one of the scrumptious dishes already lined up as an option. “One thing that was also quite obvious was how popular curries were,” said Malhotra in his own Quality Hunters blog. “And why not: they are tasty, popular in different parts of the world and very feasible too.”

In September 1998, Singapore Airlines set up the International Culinary Panel, comprising award-winning chefs from the culinary capitals of the world. The panel works closely with the Airline’s own chefs, to specially create the unique selection that is available on board and includes Alfred Portale of the United States, Georges Blanc of France, Matthew James Moran of Australia, Sam Leong of Singapore, Sanjeev Kapoor of India, Suzanne Goin of the United States, Yoshihiro Murata of Japan, and Zhu Jun of China.

For Indian palates, there’s the Shahi Thali, a distinguished Indian service that features a dazzling spread of traditional Indian delicacies, specially designed by Sanjeev Kapoor. Available in both vegetarian and non-vegetarian versions, Shahi Thali comprises of a starter, two types of chutneys, up to four entrees, rice, Indian rotis and a signature dessert. Complete the grandiose meal service with Lassi or Masala tea. First Class and Business Class passengers are served on fine bone china and crystal ware specially designed by Givenchy.

Qatar Airways recently officially introduced an incredible line-up of globally renowned chefs to their unrivalled five-star service, with the award-winning Chef Ramzi Choueiri, Chef Vineet Bhatia, Chef Tom Aikens and Chef Nobu Matsuhisa inspiring an entirely new in-flight dining experience and create the ‘Qatar Airways Culinary World Menu’ – a new range of tempting signature dishes to satisfy the tastes of the airline’s discerning passengers.

Chef Ramzi, from Lebanon, brings his exquisite experience of Middle East cuisine

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EMIRATES AIRLINE

COVER STORY

LAP OF LUXURY: A passenger relaxes in total comfort, enjoying her drink and meal in the plane

to the fore; Mumbai-born Chef Vineet Bhatia has his unique blend of exotic Indian food; Chef Aikens, from the UK, provides his own variety of European culinary offering and Chef Nobu, from Japan, adds a touch of Asian fusion cuisine to Qatar Airways’ ambassadorial line-up.

Then to up the ante, airlines like Turkish Airlines and Etihad went a step further

“In-flight catering has to be strictly performed according to Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points rules.”

PETER ANDRIST Chief Executive Officer, Ambassador Group

CRUISING HEIGHTS October 2012

JET AIRWAYS

by bringing chefs on board to cook and prepare meals during the flights! Chefs say cooking is the easy part. What they have to worry about is the logistics of getting the correct meal on the correct flight, on the right trays, into the right galley, at the right time. Gujral believes the biggest challenge in in-flight catering is food safety. “Huge monitoring and resources are required to ensure the food served is safe in all aspect,” he adds.

But then there’s a new twist to counter all these issues. Andrist explains, “Many airlines are now offering First Class passengers to select a meal to be served in the lounge before the flight or even after the flight, so that they have time to rest or work during the flight.”

According to Andrist, selling meals on board or buy-on-board as they are popularly known, is another trend for short-haul flights and mostly for low-cost-carriers in India. “And it’s a trend concept that is catching up for sure.”

The new dynamics of the skies today is that passengers expect more for their money and there’s a race to hold onto to the First and Business class customers. Unfortunately, those of us flying Economy will still find that occasional depressing menu being served. As the New York Times article stated the obvious: “Business and first class account for about a third of all airline seats but generate a majority of the revenue.

Keeping high-end customers is crucial to the bottom line.”

FOCUS ON ‘COPTERS P40

P41

New chopper route

Thailand opts for EC725 The Royal Thai Air Force has opted for the Super Cougar for the Search-and-Rescue Role

HELICOPTERSPHOTO.BLOGSPOT

Pawan Hans is all set to introduce chopper services to Bagdogra

CRYING FOUL OVER FUEL: Chopper service providers have been complaining over high fuel costs, which are making flights to some sectors unviable

Chopper operators voice concerns Indian helicopter operators, up in arms over "unprecedentedly high" working costs, have now sought redressal from the government. They have asked the authorities to take urgent steps to rationalise taxes on import of spares and jet fuel. These steps, they feel, will also help the promising helicopter sector grow. The operators have even asked for help from the Civil Aviation Ministry to take urgent measures to harmonise fiscal tariffs they are burdened with.

Speaking after a meeting of the chiefs of several helicopter companies with DGCA chief Arun Mishra, Col Jayanth K Poovaiah, Executive Director of Deccan Aviation, told agency reporters: "High cost of operations was the primary cause for the poor

growth. High cost of ATF, high customs duty for import of helicopter and spares and application of fixed-wing air traffic rules to helicopters were some of the contributory factors to high operating costs." Operators told the aviation regulator that high airport charges, together with high fuel cost, had made chopper operations very costly. The aviation regulator was apprised by the operators of the dire state of affairs the chopper industry in India was in, saying that if the troubles were not resolved soon, a number of them would be forced to shut down. According to the chiefs of chopper firms, "inordinate delays in getting clearances relating to safe and efficient helicopter operations" were due to the 'single window control system' at the DGCA.

CRUISING HEIGHTS October 2012

39

BELL BOEING

PAWAN HANS

FOCUS ON ’COPTERS

Bell Boeing V22 Osprey

Chopper services to Bagdogra

Osprey safe to fly: Japan Following a series of tests the controversial MV-22 Osprey aircraft has been declared safe to fly over Japanese skies despite a number of crashes. There had been strong public protest against the deployment of the hybrid chopper to the Japanese island of Okinawa after crashes earlier in the year. During the aircraft's protracted development, from 1991 through 2000, 30 people have been killed in test flights or training accidents. This year, a V-22 Osprey crashed in Morocco in April killing two US Marines, while one crashed in Florida in June leaving five injured. The V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft, which takes off like a helicopter but flies like a plane is built

by Bell Helicopter Textron and Boeing Company.

After stuttered attempts in the past, the government chopper operator is all set to start services on the Kolkata-Bagdogra-Coochbehar route soon. The West Bengal government will be providing a subsidy to Pawan Hans for eight seats for three months initially, after which an assessment will be undertaken. In the Nineties, Pawan Hans used to fly helicopters on the sector but did not find the route viable.

Earlier, Deccan Charter too tried and failed to provide services on the Kolkata-Coochbehar route. Meanwhile a chopper service between Digha and Tajpur in West Bengal is also being planned by Pawan Hans.

CAE

CAE, Russian Helicopters tie up

STRATEGIC ENDEAVOUR: Both Russian Helicopters and CAE stands to gain from the partnership

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CRUISING HEIGHTS October 2012

Development of flight simulators and pilot training programmes are on the agenda of a possible tie up between simulator major CAE of Canada and Russian Helicopters.

Russia's Helicopter Academy, which was recently established in the Moscow region, would be the main beneficiary of the proposed deal. If all goes well, CAE would enter the huge market for Russian Helicopters deployed around the world.

The deal would also entail access to Russian Helicopters to CAE's huge network of training centres to train pilots and mechanics for Russian helicopter operators. Also on the cards is the joint creation of training centres in Russia and other countries. CAE Inc is a leading global supplier of products and service ranging from the sale of simulation products to providing comprehensive services such as training and aviation services, professional services, in-service support and crew sourcing.

BOEING

FOCUS ON ’COPTERS

Cobham bags Apache contract

RUSSIAN HELICOPTERS

MI-171E

US Army AH-64 Apache helicopters will soon have On-Board Inert Gas Generating System nitrogen inert units (NIUs) supplied

by Cobham Life Support and Mission Equipment. The $15 million contract is a five-year indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity deal for the AH-64 fleet. More than 1,500 Apache helicopters with Cobham NIUs have been delivered worldwide.

According to a news release, the company has provided military On-Board Inert Gas Generating System solutions since 1985 on more than 2,400 aircraft flying today. On-Board Inert Gas Generating System nitrogen inert units accomplish a vital aircraft safety system role "by displacing fuel tank vapors with inert nitrogen gas, reducing the risk of explosion".

Ka-226TG

Thailand opts for EC725 for SAR role

EUROCOPTER

Configured for the Search and Rescue (SAR) role, four EC725 helicopters have been procured for the Royal Thai Air Force.

Deliveries of the EC725, the twin-engine tactical rotorcraft from Eurocopter's successful Cougar family, will begin in 2015.

The twin-engine EC725/EC225 rotary-wing aircraft family features high-performance navigation and mission systems, including a unique digital four-axis autopilot. This powerful machine is also great for tactical transport as it has a large cabin with seating for 25 people. The EC725 military version and its EC225 civilian/parapublic variant have been used for military search and rescue, off-shore and passenger transport missions around the world.

Major deals for Russian Helicopters Russian Helicopters, part of state defence holding Oboronprom and a leading global designer and manufacturer of helicopters, has signed a contract with the NefteGazAeroCosmos research and production centre to deliver 18 light Ka-226TG helicopters. The helicopters are scheduled for delivery in 2013-2014, with the buyer receiving the first six machines in 2013 and the rest the following year.

The Ka-226TG, a modernised version of the Ka-226T, is designed to meet the client's needs for operations in the far north and on the Arctic shelf, including in conditions of limited visibility and rapid air temperature fluctuations. Rosoboronexport and Chinese company Poly Technologies, Inc. have signed a contract for delivery of 52 Mi-171E transport helicopters to China in 20122014.

The first eight Mi-171Es are scheduled for delivery in 2012, with the rest slated for 2013 and 2014. The Mi-171E is produced at the Ulan-Ude Aviation Plant, part of Russian Helicopters. It is equipped with search and rescue equipment and for special operations including at night-time.

CRUISING HEIGHTS October 2012

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CH SPECIAL

Flying dream THE DREAMLINER WAS WELL WORTH THE WAIT, AS FLYERS ON DOMESTIC FLIGHTS HAVE EXPERIENCED. CRUISING HEIGHTS PHOTOGRAPHER H C TIWARI FLEW ON THE DELHI-CHENNAI-DELHI SECTOR AND CAME BACK WITH SHOTS OF HAPPY FLYERS, CONTENTED CABIN CREW AND THE CLASSY INTERIORS OF THE B-787.

ROYAL TRIBUTE: Air India Boeing Dreamliner being given water cannon salute after arriving at the Delhi airport

hen Dr Baldev Sharma received a call on September 19, 2012, that Air India flight AI-439 from Chennai to Delhi at 9.30 am had been cancelled, he thought that another strike had taken place. But before he could say anything, the Management professor from Delhi was told that he could take AI-430 leaving Chennai at 10.45 am.

Dr Sharma hurried to the check-in counter to ensure that he got a seat on the flight.

Not only did he get a seat but he got a surprise too: AI-430 was going to be the newly-inducted B787, better known as the Dreamliner, and Dr Sharma would be on it for its maiden flight.

It was indeed a dream come true for him. He told Cruising Heights, “I have travelled extensively in the US, all over

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Europe, parts of the Middle East and South East Asia and have used many airlines. By far, the flight in the Dreamliner was the most enjoyable and memorable.”

The Maharaja’s Dreamliner story began on September 8, 2012, when the first of the 27 planes was flown in to Delhi Indira Gandhi International Airport from Charleston, South Carolina, by its senior executive pilots Capt A S Soman and Capt Amitabh Singh. As he came down from the plane, Capt Soman told the waiting media, “It’s a gift to the nation. I am sure passengers will be delighted to travel in it.” He was not alone. Among those waiting for the Dreamliner to arrive were Air India staffers. One of them exclaimed in delight, “Our dreams are coming true!”

A few days later, Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh unveiled the Dreamliner and

CRUISING HEIGHTS October 2012

said that the arrival of the new aircraft would usher in better days for the airline.

What is so special about the aircraft that has prompted so many people — from the Minister down – to bank on it?

Simply put, the B787 will redefine passenger experience, environmental performance, lower operating cost and better economic performance. With its sophisticated, futuristic design, the B787 is, today, the most refined aircraft in the sky. Its wing, tail, nose and flight deck windows have all been engineered for the maximum aerodynamic efficiency reducing fuel burn. The composite fuselage and smooth wing design is much more efficient than that of any of the airplanes flying around. The substantial breakthrough in its fuel consumption and maintenance cost would help Air India save money while providing

A GIFT TO THE NATION: Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh waving to the crowd after the induction ceremony of Air India Dreamliner

by welcomed gers being ated passen of Air India Dreamliner El Y: N TI ES ght HD TRYST WIT fore the first official fli be flight crew

DIFFERENT LOOK AN D FEEL: (Left) Captain A S Soman in the cockpit of the plane.

A FLIGHT TO REMEMBER: Crew members of the flight.

flexibility to expand into new markets. Add to that the Dreamliner’s spacious architecture, stowage space, cleaner, healthier air, lower cabin altitude and dimmable-windows, you have in hand a winning combination.

On the first flight from Delhi to Chennai, there were a host of passengers who could not stop singing praises about the plane and the journey. Said an effusive

CRUISING HEIGHTS October 2012

Deepshikha, remembering the flight: “The experience was very good. The flight was quite comfortable and it gave us a highclass international experience. The water cannon salute, the roses, made us feel extremely special...”

Delhi-based banker Sukhdeep Singh said: “It was the best flight of my life. I would love to travel on the Dreamliner again.” While for T V Balasubramanian, the plane and the journey were “exceedingly nice and pleasant”. Veteran flyer P N Chellappa was effusive: “It was an awesome experience…When I entered the plane it was a total surprise for me. The Dreamliner,” he said, making a final point, “cannot be compared with any other aircraft.”

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CH SPECIAL

ev Sharma essor Bald BEST: Prof music on the flight S IT AT T MEN enjoying ENTERTAIN IN-FLIGHT

COOLING OFF: C Achelender Reddy, in the Bu posing for our photographer siness Class

The ultimate in terms of passenger comfort, the Dreamliner offers an unparalleled feeling of spaciousness with its vaulted ceiling, roomier cabins and higher head clearance. The roominess and the ambience surprised Dr Sharma: “Everything about the plane points to bigness, comfort and luxury…” Sukhdeep Singh said that when he saw the plane at the airport, the windows seemed bigger but “when I went inside, it’s really cool…the seats had more leg space.”

P N Chellappa too, was floored by the ambience as he entered the plane. And when he saw the seats, he could not help but say, “They are very, very big when compared to other aircraft and there is a lot of leg space which is not available in other planes.” Deepshikha could not help but mention the seats: “The seats are not crammed up — even in economy. In, fact, no passenger had to disturb the other if they wanted to walk around in the aircraft.” The sense of space and freedom sent the fre-

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HALLOWED COMPANY : Deepshika Goel with her husband, look contented

khdeep st from left) Su In the BIENCE: ( Fir ograph. ot ph PERFECT AM e th r fo that posing Singh, happily window panes can be seen in blue g to the light tin jus background, ad lly r automatica the cabin. changes colou

quent traveller Deepshikha to emphasise that she “preferred this aircraft over others that I have travelled in”. C Achalender Reddy travelling in the Business Class section had a wonderful experience when he tried out the flat bed. “It is more comfortable…and it is cosy as it opens out into a full flat bed,” said Reddy.

The overhead storage bins also came in for praise – not simply because they were bigger but more spacious although from outside they did not appear so. “These allow plenty of head space,” said Dr Sharma.

The Air India plane is configured for 256 seats: 18 full flat Business Class seats and 238 Economy Class seats. The windows are 60 per cent larger offering a much better view from all the seats. To top it all, the windows changing colour according to the light outside was a novel experience for all the flyers. Many of the passengers on the Chennai flight did not have enough of

CRUISING HEIGHTS October 2012

the state-of-the-art In-Flight Entertainment system (Top Series i8000), capable of AVOD (Audio Video on Demand) in all classes. Reason: the journey was too short for Clint Eastwood and his Dirty Harry. For those who want to try out the new planes, Air India will let them since the Dreamliners will fly for the first few months on the domestic Delhi-Chennai-Delhi and the Delhi-Bengaluru-Delhi routes before it takes off for foreign shores. The domestic landings and take-offs will provide the pilots and the crew the necessary experience to handle the new birds.

Five more Dreamliners are expected to join the fleet by this December and Air India has drawn up plans to operate these new machines to new destinations in Australia – Melbourne and Sydney – and its present destinations in Europe in the forthcoming winter schedule. The rest of the planes – and there are 27 more on order – will be ready for delivery by 2016.

BUSINESS AVIATION

BIZ JETS TO BUZZ INDIAN SKIES With the largest number of private jets in Asia — and figures expected to double by 2020 — India is slowly progressing towards centrestage as far as business aviation is concerned, explains PriceWaterhouse Cooper’s report

F

enhance productivity.

In Asia, India has the maximum number of private jets — around 140 — against 93 of China and 76 of Japan. As per Business Aviation Association of India (BAAI), there are 680 business aviation aircraft including private jets, helicopters, turboprops and piston engines.

The number will expectedly reach 2000 by 2020.

This, despite the fact that at present, the Indian General Aviation (GA) market is small and under-developed as compared to its global peers. The US with around 5110 active airports — the largest in the world — also has the largest number of GA aircraft approximating more

than 25,5000.

On the other hand, India has been a laggard in the global GA market with approximately 680 aircraft and only around 150 active airports.

These views are supported by PriceWaterhouse Cooper’s (PwC) recent report that was unveiled at the annual Indian Business Aviation Expo (IBAE) 2012. It says: “Due to the fears of double-dip recession, the traditional markets of North America and Europe offer little prospects for GA as well as non-scheduled aviation.

Also, the market for business aircraft has been hit harder by the economic downturn than other aerospace markets around the world. The peculiar aspect of the global

LUXURY IN THE SKY: Plush seats, fancy toilets and more are all part of the facilities available in a business jet

WWW.ARTEMISAIR.COM

or long, the European and US markets have been at the centrestage as far as the market for business aircraft is concerned.

However, in the coming years, we are going to witness a paradigm shift in the scenario: India, with a fast-developing economy as a result of rising corporate profits and increasing number of high net worth individuals, will catapult into a powerful and robust market for business aircraft.

The business class is realising the increasing need to put in more productive hours for growth. The mindset is fast changing: business jets are no longer viewed as objects of luxury but tools to

CRUISING HEIGHTS October 2012

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BUSINESS AVIATION

CATERING TO LITTLE INDIA oving from the top to bottom, the metropolitan cities of the country are no doubt taking leaps to improve infrastructure.

However, the absence of full-service fixed base operators (FBOs) considered essential for services in business aviation is a major impediment. The introduction of an FBO at New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) is a welcome start. The FBO, offers services such as ground-handling, passenger services, maintenance support, lease and purchase of aircraft and helicopters and spare parts for various fixed-wing business jets and helicopters.

The IGIA also plans to further develop suitable GA infrastructure like building an enhanced GA apron and further upgrade its aircraft maintenance activities. Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (CSIA) recently became the first airport in the country to start dedicated international operations from its GA terminal. The new GA terminal at the CSIA offers exclusive services and facilities for travellers and houses world-class facilities such as meeting rooms, conference rooms, crew rest rooms,

M

F&B outlets, bars and lounges.

Bengaluru, a promising centre for the development of GA facilities, and Hyderabad have witnessed the development of Greenfield airports that have set new standards. Further, Mumbai will soon be having a third international airport. In addition, the planned upgradation of the Chennai and Kolkata airports and improvement of technology at all its existing facilities by the Airports Authority of India (AAI) are also likely to encourage both commercial and general aviation.

According to reports, the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) is also envisioning ‘merchant airports’ to be independently developed and run by private companies.

The government’s Vision 2020 seeks to create infrastructure to handle 280 million passengers by 2020. Investment opportunities of $110 billion are anticipated through 2020, consisting of $80 billion in new aircraft and $30 billion in airport infrastructure. Also, the AAI has undertaken a feasi-

bility study to determine the commercial viability of developing currently non-operational airports across India for commercial use. However, the fact that commercial flights are mostly limited to metropolitan areas and large cities and do not cater well to smaller cities that are, in times of economic resurgence and growth, becoming more important, increases manifold the need for growth of business and GA. Home to between two million and four million people each, the Tier II and Tier III cities in India are local and regional centres for manufacturing, trading and logistics and have shown a huge potential for the development of GA. Due to these factors, often businessmen may opt for business aviation to access the market.

business aviation market has been that the The PwC report informs that India’s top end of the market has in fact grown general aviation market is expected to consistently over the last few years, grow at 10 per cent per annum to cross whereas the bottom end has witnessed a `16 billion by financial year (FY) 2017. disturbing and strong Industry estimates show decline.

As the that around 300 busiThe PwC report economies of China and ness jets, 300 small airIndia offer huge economcraft and 250 helicopinf or ms t hat ic potential, most busiters are expected to be India’s general ness jet manufacturers added to the current GA aviat ion mar ket is have become active fleet by FY-17. As per here.” the report by the Workexpected to grow With manufacturers ing Group of the 12th at 10 per cent such as Cessna, GulfFive Year Plan, a total stream and Hawker investment of more than per a nnum t o Beechcraft either setting `200 billion in GA is cross `16 billion up offices in the country expected during the or expanding their existPlan period. by financial year ing businesses, most What is of prime ( FY) 2017 business jet and helicopimportance is to estabter manufacturers are lish and have in place an exuding optimism infrastructure that is regarding the lucrative potential of the conducive for the development of the Indian GA market. business aviation/general aviation sector.

The requirement for helicopters in Most international airports in the mettourism, mining, corporate travel, air ropolitan cities are steadily working on ambulance, homeland security, etc, is those lines (see box). being realised.

In addition to upgrading and installing

new infrastructure for business and nonscheduled aviation, efforts need to be undertaken to create a favourable regulatory environment for the purpose. The regulatory framework in India does not focus on the business aviation sector but has commercial aviation on the top in its priority list.

As a result, obtaining an operator’s permit or purchasing a corporate jet are time-consuming because of the large number of permissions required. The government’s move to restrict import duty of 25 per cent only for business aircraft purchased for private use, high rates of Customs duty, service taxes and cess on fuel will increase their cost, only acting as stumbling blocks to compound the problems.

In addition, too many agencies getting involved in the licensing of private aircraft — such as the Ministry of Home Affairs, Ministry of Civil Aviation and Directorate General of Civil Aviation, Bureau of Civil Aviation Security, and the Airports Authority of India — only results in a waste of time and delaying the actual operation of the aircraft.

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CRUISING HEIGHTS October 2012

SHORT TAKES COMING: INDIAN BUSINESS AVIATION EXPO 2013 The fourth Indian Business Aviation Expo (IBAE) will be held in Delhi between February 19 and 20, 2013. In 2012, the event had witnessed a 40 per cent increase in delegate attendance over the previous year, a clear testament to the growing importance of the sector. Those assembled at the 2012 event heard from many of the country's business aviation leaders, who informed that the business jet fleet had expanded from 55 in 2007 to 150 in 2011.

The current General Aviation industry in India is valued at $220 million and is expected to be worth $320 million by 2017.

AIRCRAFT SALES: NO SIGN OF RECOVERY In its latest business jet outlook, JP Morgan North American Research pointed out that "business jet deliveries rose 11 per cent year-over-year in the first half of the year", prompting the feeling that a recovery was under way. The outlook, however, mentioned that any conclusion regarding recovery was premature. "Tougher comparables and fewer Hawker deliveries post-bankruptcy should result in a second-half decline that holds deliveries flattish for the year," commented the outlook.

JP Morgan analysts noted that although this would be an improvement in the light of the declines witnessed for the past three years, still the deliveries were 40 per cent below the 2008 peak. “Ultimately, we do expect business jet demand to recover, and we forecast 13-per cent delivery growth next year; however, the indicators we would most like to see improving are not yet there,” the analysts said.

DASSAULT FALCON AIRCRAFT SERVICES-CHINA LAUNCHES IN SHANGHAI Dassault Falcon, together with Shanghai Hawker Pacific has launched Dassault Falcon Aircraft Services-China, a dedicated programme at Shanghai's Hongqiao International Airport. “Falcon customers will experience a further increase in the level of Falcon maintenance experience in China,” said Kathy Liu, Director, Asia

Belavia gets its first Embraer 175 jet In a ceremony held at Embraer's headquarters in São José dos Campos, Brazil, Belarus’s national carrier Belavia took delivery of the first of the two Embraer 175 jets. The aircraft, which is leased from Air Lease Corporation of Los Angeles, will operate on European routes from Minsk International airport, in Belarus. The second E175 is scheduled for delivery towards year end.

“The E175 is ideally suited to support Belavia’s fleet plan. It’s the right-sized airplane that will help the airline carefully increase frequency without adding excess capacity,” said Paulo Cesar Silva, Embraer’s President, Commercial Aviation.

“Like other e-jet operators in the region, Belavia has identified the E175 as the ideal aircraft to bring greater efficiency in its fleet by replacing older equipment.”

The E175 is configured with 12 business class and 64 economy class seats, enabling the airline to offer a consistent, dual-class product standard across all air-

craft types in its fleet. The carrier plans to deploy its new e-jets on routes between Minsk and Moscow-Domodedovo, SaintPetersburg, Baku, Paris, Yerevan and Milan.

Belavia is the ninth Embraer e-jets customer in the region, along with Montenegro Airlines, Air Moldova, Bulgaria Air, Aerosvit, Wind Rose Aviation Air Astana, LOT Polish and Estonian Air and the third operator of the E175 — LOT was the first and Estonian the second. There are more than 340 E170s/E175s flying with airlines around the world.

“We welcome this first E175 as a key aircraft in supporting our company’s strategic development plan, which will allow us to better match capacity to demand on our main European routes,” said Anatoly Gusarov, Director General of Belavia. “The aircraft’s seating capacity complements our narrow-body fleet, flying where it would be uneconomical to deploy larger aircraft and offering equivalent passenger comfort.”

STRENGTHENING CAPACITY: An Embraer 175 jet belonging to Belarus’s national carrier Belavia

Region Customer Service, Dassault Falcon.

“Dassault will bring its in-depth Falcon know-how and experience, rapidly expanding the capabilities of Shanghai Hawker Pacific as dozens of new Falcons enter the Chinese market.”

The programme comprises a team of Dassault technicians with an average experience of 10 years on Falcon business jets and specifically trained for Falcon 2000EX EASy, Falcon 900EX as well as Falcon 7X models. The team brings extensive, handson Falcon maintenance experience to Shanghai Hawker Pacific's world-class facilities for support of local and transient Falcon aircraft.

They will also provide an opportunity to transfer significant knowledge and maintenance experience to Chinese maintenance engineers in this developing market.

CRUISING HEIGHTS October 2012

EMBRAER ON DOW JONES SUSTAINABILITY INDEX LIST Embraer has for the third time in a row been listed on the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI World Universe 2012/2013), which lists 340 companies that stand out for their economic, social and environmental performance, based on the analysis of several sustainability metrics. Embraer is one of the four companies in the aerospace and defence sector.

The analysis is conducted by the investment company SAM (Sustainable Asset Management), which invites the 2,500 largest companies worldwide (by free-float market capitalisation) from 58 sectors to take part in the evaluation.

The company had appeared for the first time in SAM´s DJSI analysis in 2009 as “Sector Mover”, which ranks companies by the number of positions gained among their

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NetExpress CRUISING HEIGHTS

D I G I TA L T R E N D S F O R T R AV E L L E R E X P E R I E N C E

“IT to change future of Indian aviation�

Information technology has delivered significant improvements in efficiency and costs across the aviation industry worldwide. The CAPA-SITA report on Innovation and Technology, 2012, explains that this is just the beginning and tremendous opportunities exist for IT to transform the aviation scenario in an unimaginable way.

TOP STORY

ndia has witnessed sufficient progress in technology at the PPP (Public-Private Partnerships) airports since 2010.

Technologies for passenger experience enhancement such as self-service kiosks, information exchange via mobile and social networking along with FIDS (Flight Information Deploy System) have gained prominence during the period. The CAPASITA report on Innovation and Technology, 2012, estimates that by 2020 domestic traffic will reach 180 million passengers per annum and international traffic will exceed 90 million.

According to Dr Nasim Zaidi, former Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation, "By 2020 passenger traffic will more than triple to around 450 million annual passengers, with India expected to be amongst the five

I

largest aviation markets in the world. The huge growth of air traffic presents a number of challenges. In order to address these challenges, technological innovation will be required to bring efficiency and speed to the sector."

To service the huge growth, the report forecasts that the country will require an additional 300,000-350,000 employees in the aviation sector over the 2012-2022 decade. The problem lies in the fact that IT is still not considered a tool of strategic importance. Technology in Indian aviation is largely considered to be an operational issue rather than forming an integral component of a company's key objectives and is not directly linked to profit and loss performance.

Service has always been at the forefront of the air transport industry's IT agenda.

Taking into account future trends based on survey, mobility is the high point for advancement. As far as passenger interaction evolution in the next three-five years is concerned, 71 per cent smartphone users are likely to book online, compared to 54 per cent of plain mobile users. 54 per cent travellers interviewed worldwide were carrying a smartphone, a big leap from 2010, where it was a meager 28 per cent.

In addition, there has been a sufficient progress in technology at the PPP (PublicPrivate Partnerships) airports since 2010.

Technologies for passenger experience enhancement such as self-service kiosks, information exchange via mobile and social networking along with FIDS (Flight Information Deploy System) have gained importance during the period.

Against this backdrop, Maneesh Jaikrishna, Continued on page 50

CRUISING HEIGHTS October 2012

Cleartrip is Amadeus's technology partner With the recent announcement of a multiyear technology agreement, Amadeus, the leading transaction processor for the global travel and tourism industry, will become the primary technology provider to Cleartrip, one of India's online travel portals. Under the agreement, Amadeus will be providing the company with fare search technologies and access to global travel content through the Amadeus system.

Cleartrip's website will be powered by Amadeus Web Services 2.0 that provides full access to Amadeus' extensive content of over 110,000 hotels, 430 bookable airlines and much more.

Cleartrip will also implement Amadeus Master Pricer, a low-fare search tool, which uses the world's most advanced algorithms to help travellers find flight options, quickly and easily, to suit their travel needs.

Speaking on the occasion, Stuart Crighton, CEO, Cleartrip, said: "Through this partnership with Amadeus we are confident that Cleartrip will deliver a low-fare search technology and breadth of content, something that matters most for customers and partners."

INSIDE

50 INNOVATION AT ITS BEST Immigration e-gates at Sofia Airport

51 TOWARDS TECHSAVVINESS AA to save fuel, with iPad help

52 A STEP TOWARDS QUALITY IATA plans to unveil a new distribution technology standard

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Smarter airports mean attractive airport cities aviation activities. It is well known that only a few airports have a profitable aviation business and these are recognised as truly global gateways in their own right.”

“An integrated approach to airport and airport city development would provide the best chance of success, when combined with the demand pattern for new business and residential amenities close by.”

“Building a greenfield airport from the ground up along with a master plan for development of a brand new city which would stimulate the economy and bring in substantial added value for a host city or region. Greenfield airports have the advantage of choice of selection of site and most often these are on major trunk roads linking many of the cities in the region.”

“To exploit the potential of serving multiple cities and a large region, calls for best-in-class competitive performance of an end-to-end supply and logistics chain.”

“This can only be conceptualised and created with automation and integration as a central theme for a true multi-modal integrated transport system. Even during adverse conditions, such as weather, security concerns or unrest.”

“Airport IT and system integration encompasses baggage management, endto-end passenger experience management, continuous process improvement to keep reducing operational costs and embracing rapid growth with almost no disruption to business.”

“Passenger journeys extend beyond airports to many cities and a sense of personalisation needs to be overlayed in order to ensure the passenger experience is enjoyable and unique.”

GLOBALAIRPORTCITIES.COM

“Air travel can be a highly stressful experience for passengers, especially when they end up feeling like they are being processed in much the same way as bags or cargo,” claims Ravi Shankar S N, Global Solution Leader Airports, IBM Corporation. “Passengers have certain expectations regarding how they should be treated and react angrily when singled-out for exceptional processing. This additional processing, whether it is to do with issuing tickets, checking in luggage or the need for extra security screening, requires interaction with the authorities concerned and can lead to significant delays.”

However, if that passengers had been smarter and did their pre-processing at home or at the office, they could have been fast tracked at the airport, and had they used such things as loyalty cards, pretagged baggage and recognition as a trusted traveller, they would have been the envy of the other passengers.

“These lessons can also be applied to the development of airport cities.”

“Airport city developments are varied the world over and we see two clearly defined business models for their development; one through modification of an existing airport, the other creating a new airport from scratch. An existing airport can transform itself into a smarter airport that then fuels the development of an attractive airport city. Existing airports are always under pressure to make ends meet and generate an operating profit from their

For the purpose of providing automated border clearance to passengers through the use of e-passports and facial recognition biometrics, four immigration e-gates have been installed at Sofia Airport's Terminal 2 in Bulgaria.

These e-gates speed-up the immigration process considerably and can be used by passengers aged 18 years or above from the European Union, European Economic Area and Switzerland.

The airport has reported that the new egates are recording an average processing time of 7-10 seconds per passenger. Those

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Immigration e-gates at Sofia Airport

passengers who do not have an e-passport or don't wish to use the new e-gates can still use the traditional border clearance desks.

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Continued from page 49

"IT to change future of Indian aviation" VP, India and sub-continent, SITA informed, "Airports Authority of India (AAI) is considering investment in solutions such as virtualisation, self-service kiosks, FIDS, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), and Radio Frequency Identification (RFID). Additionally, AAI plans to implement Baggage Reconliation Solution (BRS) at its major airports within two years. It is also considering limited implementation of biometrics to enhance security. AAI is evaluating server virtualisation along with the deployment of CUTE at 13 airports in the first phase and 25 airports in the second phase of implementation. Airport Operation Command Centre (AOCC) is planned to be implemented at 10 airports within the next two years. Key drivers for IT implementation for airlines are obtaining operational efficiency and bringing about enhancement of customer experience coupled with cost reductions.

Boarding pass scanners at Glasgow

In order to reduce pressure and speed up the security checkpoint processing, six automated boarding pass scanners have been installed in the security hall at Glasgow Airport. The technology is similar to that used at Gatwick Airport's FTE award-winning security checkpoint and allows passengers to self-scan their boarding pass before proceeding to the security screening area.

Amanda McMillan, Managing Director of Glasgow Airport, said: "Our focus in recent years has been on improving our customers' journey through the terminal building and not only will this technology further enhance our compliance with strict industry security regulations, it will significantly reduce the amount of time passengers spend in the security hall, particularly during peak times."

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online, we wanted to make sure we had the right partner with the right solutions to achieve ultimate success," said Tan Sin Chong, Managing Director, Reliance Travel. "The conversion to Abacus made perfect sense for us, both through the Abacus team investing considerable time in understanding our business objectives and challenges, and by the advanced innovation in Abacus solutions that looks to enable our agents to increase productivity and efficiency."

"Abacus is delighted to partner with Reliance Travel, a business with a long history and many accolades — 40 years of strength in travel management and services," said Brett Henry, Vice President, Commercial and Marketing, Abacus International. "Through this agreement, Abacus is now powering some of the

AINONLINE.COM

AA to save fuel, with Steve Jobs' help

American Airlines (AA) pilots would now be allowed to use iPads for the "electronic flight bag" replacing the last bit of paper that pilots deal with, such as when flying below 10,000 feet, the Federal Aviation

Administration (FAA) recently informed, claiming that the lightweight iPads would save $1.2 million in jet fuel a year.

Customised versions of the Apple tablet computers will be issued to each of the carrier's pilots. iPad is the only FAAapproved tablet as an electronic flight bag in an approved aircraft. Until now, pilots were required to carry 35 pounds of printed manuals, aviation regulations, and other paperwork to fly any jetliner. Surprisingly, the FAA will continue to prevent passengers from using iPads (and similar electronic devices) during take-off and landing precisely when the pilots will be using their iPads as flight manuals.

Toronto Pearson opts for automated passenger tracking Amor Group's Chroma ACDB system, an innovative passenger tracking system, will be installed at the Toronto Pearson International Airport to monitor and reduce queuing times across the airport. The system makes use of BlipTrack technology to track mobile phones through augmented Bluetooth and wi-fi connections as passengers move through the airport. The system will provide passengers with live, automated wait times at the airport's key touchpoints.

Janik Reigate, Director of Customer Experience at Toronto Pearson Airport, said: "We are constantly looking at the processes that passengers go through when

moving through Toronto Pearson and what we can do to enhance their experience. The implementation of BlipTrack will give us another tool to help manage the operation of the airport in an even more effective way."

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biggest names in the online travel space, and we are especially pleased to deliver the functionality and technology that Reliance Travel needs to propel them to greater success."

Aeroflot offers inflight taxi reservation Russia's flag carrier Aeroflot, in an effort to provide passengers with a safe and hasslefree onward journey, is offering passengers

AVIATIONNEWS.EU

In a five-year agreement that will strengthen their bond, Abacus International, Asia Pacific's leading provider of travel solutions and services will be completing the successful conversion of Reliance Travel, a leading travel franchise system in Malaysia, from Travelport's Galileo system to the Abacus platform, providing access to full-travel content including air, hotel, car and rail.

The Abacus deal also provides Reliance with two strategic solutions including Abacus WebConnect to help leverage the benefits of an online presence and Bargain Finder Max, which provides the ability to sort and display hundreds of diverse worldwide, lower-priced itineraries for available flights as well as enabling the presentation of a broader set of carriers and schedules. "In preparation for our move

IFRANCHISEMALAYSIA.COM

Reliance Travel converts to Abacus platform

on domestic flights out of Moscow, the option to reserve a taxi while up in the air.

Launched in 2008 on flights from Moscow to two airports in Siberia (Novosibirsk and Yekatarinburg), Aeroflot's 'in-flight taxi reservation service' is presently available on flights arriving at 12 domestic airports in Russia, including St Petersburg, Khabarovsk, Sochi and Samara.

The taxi reservation service is offered free of charge by Aeroflot and passengers pay for the onward trip at the end of their journey. On medium and long-haul domestic routes, the cabin crew announces about the in-flight taxi reservation and then hand out 'taxi order' vouchers to interested passengers. After collecting and sorting the filled-out vouchers, cabin crew passes the taxi reservations list to the captain, who forwards the information via Aeroflot's Operations Control Center to the taxi operator located at the arrival airport.

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Make more profits: IATA's recipe for carriers

ow profitable is an industry as powerful and glamourous as airlines?

Tremendously, right? Unfortunately, the answer is perplexing. The fact is that aviation — a profit machine for a large array of stakeholders in the travel business — such as aircraft-makers, travel agents, airports, caterers and maintenance firms, is financially in shambles, not only in India, but world over. According to reports, in the last few years and averaged over the past four decades, the net profit margin of the world's airlines, taken together, has been a measly 0.1 per cent.

The Global Distribution Systems (GDS) enjoys the largest chunk of the cake, as Take Travel Forward, an airlines' lobby group put it, the world's carriers pay $7 billion in GDS fees a year — more than double their expected net profits this year of $3 billion. Naturally, a situation arises where airlines are left looking for alternatives to make higher profits. The chronic unprofitability of the airlines world over is the result of various factors such as heavy competition, especially from low-cost-carriers.

It is also important to consider the fact that the move by airlines from 1990s onwards to stop paying direct commission to travel agents, and selling their shares in the reservation systems, allowing GDS to become parasitic on the airlines were in retrospect, strategic errors. For the past few years, ancillary services such as extra charges for meals, checked bags, less-cramped seats

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IATA plans to unveil a new distribution technology standard that combines the "best of both" GDS and direct channels, enabling airlines and travel agents to sell on product, not just on price and the like have been like ventilators.

The GDS system, incidentally, has less of a hold on few emerging travel markets such as Brazil and India. However, there are markets like China, where they are being further nurtured.

In such a scenario, adoption of new measures for profitability becomes obvious. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) Director General Tony Tyler admitted in a speech at the SITA Airline IT Summit in Brussels recently that IATA planned to unveil a new distribution technology standard that combined the "best of both" GDS and direct channels, enabling airlines and travel agents to sell on product, not just on price.

One of its main elements would be a common technical standard for direct-connect services. The GDSs could make use of such services to sell the airlines' the full range of extras as well as just flights.

However, what holds greater relevance for carriers is that it would become easier for travel agents to build computer systems that deal directly with airlines. It would also become easier for search engines to scour the web for flights, assemble a list of options for travellers, then let them click through to the website of their chosen airline to complete the booking — again without a GDS's involvement.

Such a service is already offered by Google (which has bought ITA, an airlinesoftware firm, and Frommer's, a guidebook

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publisher, as part of its push into the travel business). The airlines hope that common technical standards will also encourage the creation of lots of innovative new travelsearch firms.

The international body was hopeful that it would not take later than the end of 2012 to have the system in place. However, the path is not as smooth sailing as it sounds and there are various stumbling blocks such as getting approvals from airlines, implementation, and the GDSs' grip on the industry, which, according to an IATA official, "may not change much without regulatory action to unpick their cosy agreements with travel agents".

Fortunately, Tyler presented a positive picture and said he was confident that GDSs would join the move to modernise distribution. He described the standards development process as a "collaborative effort" with GDSs, airlines and other providers.

The technocrat, well-aware of the fact that technology was changing the business scenario, said: "The GDSs and system providers have an important role to play in working with us to optimise this NDC (New Distribution Capability)."

The fact remains that today's industry scenario is very different from that in the 1970s. Tyler's words, therefore, that "progress can't wait. We can't shape tomorrow with the models and technology of yesterday holding us back," hold great relevance.

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COLD COMFORT

Pharma and perishables are helping the air cargo sector to breathe easy

India does good for Lufthansa

No let-up from Cathay

Steady demand for freighters

Regional Director Carsten Herning on how the Indian market contributed to profits

Cargo chief Nick Rhodes on how the carrier is countering the competition

Overcapacity in the market prompts caution for freighter operators

CARGO ONE POINT AGENDA: The Prime Minister of the Republic of Singapore, Lee Hsien Loong, with Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh during his recent visit to India.

Wanted: ASEAN ties to boost cargo Air cargo stakeholders are looking forward to the implementation of the ‘Look East’ policy in enhancing the connectivity between India and ASEAN nations. A report.

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hen Lee Hsien Loong, Singapore's Prime Minister, came to Delhi in June, one of the top points on his agenda was to push forward a proposal to open up air services between India and Singapore. Loong is not the only one who would like to see an enhancement of air services between the two nations. He has been joined by a host of leaders from the 10-member ASEAN (Association of South East Asian Nations) that includes Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao DPR, Myanmar and Viet Nam. An ASEAN meeting is scheduled to take place shortly that will discuss when India will open up the skies for ASEAN carriers.

Just a few months ago, the Singapore Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Masagos Zulkifli, who was in Delhi for the inaugural session of the Delhi Dialogue (part of the ASEAN

meetings), had also spoken about the Air Transport Agreement talks and had gone on to mention: “Connectivity will bring together India's 1.2 billion people with ASEAN's 600 million people. A more connected region will contribute to the economic growth and stability of India and ASEAN; it will also enhance the flow of people, ideas, culture and a sense of affinity that has connected us for thousands of years.” In fact, Zulkifli had expressed the hope that the Air Transport Agreement would be settled "in time for the ceremonial ASEAN-India summit in December". If these agreements were done, "then we open up our services industry and boost investments and pave the way for integration in many other areas", he had said.

The minister had pointed out the need to liberalise the air services agreement between India and Singapore; the number of weekly flights between the two countries

were 190. He gave the example of the agreement between Singapore and China: today even though there were 260 weekly flights between Singapore and China, there was an agreement for an open sky policy allowing unlimited flights from one country to another.

India is, in fact, seriously considering granting permission to carriers from the ASEAN nations to start and operate unlimited number of flights between their capitals and Delhi to start with and later permit the airlines to touch other metros in India. The move is part of the 2003 India-ASEAN open skies agreement. According to that agreement, the ASEAN carriers could fly to 18-odd tourist destinations in the country.

It is understood that the Indian carriers are not in favour of the open skies with ASEAN. Their reason: International airlines — especially those from Singapore, Bangkok or Kuala

CRUISING HEIGHTS October 2012

Lumpur — would take away a bulk of Indian passengers destined for third countries.

While that explanation is open to debate, what is important is the fact that air cargo will definitely get a boost. According to ASEAN Deputy Secretary-General S Pushpanathan, discussions at the technical level had taken place and an agreement was on the cards at the 2012 summit. The agreement will ensure the start of point-topoint routes for air services between India and ASEAN nations. It will enable cargo airlines to look for opportunities in transport of pharmaceutical and hi-tech industries.

Before that, however, India has to improve aviation infrastructure especially in the north-east of the country, which is closer to the ASEAN nations. According to Panchali Saikia from the Delhi-based Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies (a premier South Asian think tank which conducts independent research on and provides an in-depth analysis of conventional and nonconventional issues related to national and South Asian security and peace processes in the region), there was a need to improve the quantity and quality of flights, introduction of charter flights, cargo carriers and ground infrastructure such as cold storages, etc. The scholar points out that only one carrier operates flights between Guwahati in Assam and Bangkok and then Paro in Bhutan, which is not sufficient for the heavy transfer of goods. There is potential to enhance trade: Business between India and ASEAN nations rose 30 per cent in 2010-11 to $57.89 billion and is charted to reach $70 billion in this financial year.

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‘CATHAY PACIFIC CARGO THRIVES ON COMPETITION’

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NICK RHODES

Director Cargo Cathay Pacific Cargo

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When do you see the cargo business moving up?

Any forecasts?

logistics hub of choice in Asia", as Nick Rhodes, Cathay Pacific’s Director Cargo puts it. The avid golfer that he is, Rhodes gave his view of the global air cargo market — without losing sight of the ‘ball’: "The global air cargo market has been very soft for most of this year especially in the second and third quarters."

As for Cathay Pacific’s major markets — the export markets from Hong Kong and China - "these are the markets that have been the hardest hit in 2012, especially from China to Europe. There has also been a significant increase in capacity into most cities in China which has exacerbated the problem of supply and demand disequilibrium", he said. He spoke at length to Tirthankar Ghosh. Excerpts:

A very good question! We expect some pick-up in the next three months especially to North America, but my crystal ball for 2013 is very cloudy!

“

If the going was good for global cargo airlines in 2010 just coming out of a downturn, the downward journey in 2011-12 has been equally bad. While on one hand, demand seems to be petering off, on the other hand, fuel prices have gone up forcing carriers to cut down on flights.

One of the carriers that was affected was Hong Kong’s flag carrier Cathay Pacific.

The cargo division’s revenues went down 7.6 per cent, year-on-year, in the first half of 2012. Freight capacity and yield also faced similar pressures in the first six months of 2012: 4.3 per cent and 0.4 per cent, year-onyear, respectively. Matching capacity with demand, Cathay’s load factor suffered: going down 4.1 per cent, year-on-year, to 64.3 per cent. In a press release, Cathay pointed out that the cargo demand in Hong Kong and Mainland China was "well below expectations" during the first half of the year, except for a brief hike in March. Despite these pressures, Cathay launched freighter services to Zhengzhou, China, in late March. A twice-weekly cargo service to Hyderabad will start in December.

The launching of the services — when others have been trying to cut capacity — only emphasised Cathay’s commitment "to maintain Hong Kong’s position as the

:How has the global air cargo market been? :The global air cargo market has been very soft for most of this year especially in the second and third quarters. The major markets for Cathay Pacific are the export markets from Hong Kong and China and these are the markets that have been the hardest hit in 2012, especially from China to Europe.

There has also been a significant increase in capacity into most cities in China, which has exacerbated the problem of supply and demand disequilibrium.

Q A

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The downturn in the market notwithstanding, Cathay Pacific decided to expand its services to India and has even planned to start services to Hyderabad. Obviously, the Indian market means a lot to you. What is Cathay Cargo’s strategy in such market conditions?

Our strategy is to maintain Hong Kong’s position as the logistics hub of choice in Asia and the premier gateway to and from China. This means that, despite the downturn, we wish to continue to build our network (both passenger and freighter) over Hong Kong to increase the power of the hub. Every new destination that we add, such as Hyderabad, immediately generates dozens of new city pairs over Hong Kong. It is surprising how many cities in our network suddenly started selling Hyderabad, once it came on line.

India is an extremely important market for Cathay Pacific, both import and export. It, not only, has historical significance, as CX began by flying cargo from Kolkata to China but it has enormous future potential as an emerging economic power. Our strategy is to continue to develop both passenger and freighter flights to India both in terms of frequency and new destinations.

Now that you will be starting the Hyderabad services in December 2012, will you be

focussing on the pharma and perishable business?

Most definitely. Cathay Pacific is quickly developing a reputation as a carrier who understands the pharmaceutical business. We have years of experience as a ‘pharma airline’ out of Europe, Canada and Australia, especially with the temperaturesensitive pharmaceuticals such as vaccines. The pharma business ex- Hyderabad is mostly passive pharma but it still requires careful control of temperature within a specified range and the Cathay Pacific Cargo Services team is well-equipped to handle such cargo in all airports. In Hong Kong we are building our own cargo terminal (which will open in 2013) with a sizeable temperaturecontrolled facility.

Cathay has had the biggest loss since 2003 and Chairman Christopher Pratt has said that the carrier’s business had been "significantly affected by weak air cargo demand" among other factors. Do you feel that with Europe and America not doing too well, the time has come to concentrate on intra-Asia growth?

It is true that we have suffered a loss in the first half of 2012 but the primary reason is the high price of fuel and the inability of the airline to pass on such an escalation in costs to the passengers and shippers. The weak cargo market is a significant factor but there are no plans to change our strategy.

We will continue to grow both as a long-haul and as a short-haul cargo operator out of Hong Kong. Having said that, we do see intra-Asia as an area with considerable potential. Much of the growth in capacity will, however, be served by passenger bellies and an increase in freighter frequencies will be unnecessary to most markets.

The fleet is being energised

POISED FOR FUTURE: Cathay pacific cargo planes lined up at the airport

with new planes. How many planes would be inducted by the end of this year and how will they be able to affect the cargo business? How much surplus capacity do you have?

We have two more B747-8Fs due for delivery this year (August and October) taking the fleet size to eight. This is in addition to six 747-ERFs, six 747Fs and five 747-BCFs (of which two are currently parked).

During the peak season, in Nov, we will operate all aircraft — total of 23 —but we will probably park one more BCF in Dec, reducing the fleet size to 22 wide-bodied freighters.

The B747-8Fs are all deployed on long-haul routes to North America, where their greater payload and enhanced engine efficiency are having a positive impact on operating economics.

How do you view the competition that is being built up in Hong Kong and China? Will

these adversely affect your cargo business?

As already mentioned, there has been an increase in capacity in both Hong Kong and China this year, which has had an adverse impact on yields. This is particularly the case on routes between Asia and Europe, which are now served by an increasing number of airlines from China, Europe (including Russia) and the Middle East. In very simply terms, the current high price of fuel and low cargo yields make it very difficult for a commercial freighter operator to cover the cost of its assets. In my humble opinion, such a situation is unsustainable in the long term. Some airlines will be forced to park (or scrap) older fuel-inefficient freighters and many will find it very difficult to justify any investment in new and expensive freighters, despite their improved operating economics.

Why have you been shifting

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some focus from China to other Asian markets? Do you think that the trade flows to China have been corrected?

China is apparently seeing a lot of imports. What are your views?

There has definitely been a correction in the directional imbalance of trade to and from China. Imports have picked up significantly in recent years although this is yet to be reflected in significantly improved yields ex Europe and North America.

We have always focussed on other markets in Asia, not just China. In the good years and on the peak days of the week, when demand outstrips supply, we prioritise space on long-haul flights for the higher-yielding cargo markets.

As space becomes available we are able to accept more cargo from other markets across India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and South-East Asia, albeit it at a lower yield. This is not so much a shift in focus but prudent yield management!

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Look West,

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Go

Pharma could very well revive the sagging fortunes of the air cargo sector presently going through one of the worst phases in history. With hardly any participation from Indian carriers, most of the pharma loads are being taken away by foreign carriers that are, in fact, ramping up operations. A report from Tirthankar Ghosh ho ferries the largest volume of air cargo from India? The question should be an easy one to answer and we are certain you know it, dear reader. The answer: It is the foreign carriers. A well-known fact is that Air India, the national airline, even in the best of times, could hardly match the cargo capacity offered by most of the top foreign carriers.

According to the latest official figures, foreign airlines transport 83 per cent of the international air cargo from India and that is projected to grow at a rate of 10-12 per cent over the next five years. The figures for the 2009-10, 2010-11 and 2011-12 were: 83.1 per cent, 83.7 per cent and 82.5 per cent, respectively. The competition — if one may call it that — posed by the Indian carriers carrying international cargo amounted to 16.9 per cent in 2009-10, 16.3 per cent in 2010-11 and 17.5 per cent in 2011-12.

With hardly a challenge from Indian carriers, the foreign ones are ramping up and even enhancing capacity. Cathay Pacific, for instance, is launching a direct flight between Hong Kong and Hyderabad by December 2012. With that, Hyderabad will be the sixth Indian city to be served by Cathay Pacific as the airline operates to Mumbai, Delhi and Chennai while Dragonair operates

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flights to Bengaluru and is set to connect Kolkata from November 2, 2012.

The carrier is optimistic about its cargo services from Hyderabad. As Tom Wright, GM-South Asia, Middle East and Africa, Cathay Pacific, commented, “With the development of IT industry and pharmaceutical companies in and around the city, Hyderabad is one of the fastest growing markets.”

Hyderabad’s dominance in the pharma market will gain more muscle when the Pharmaceutical Export Promotion Council of India (Pharmexcil) holds its annual meet towards the end of September 2012. As a major promoter of India’s pharmaceutical industry across the world, Pharmexcil has played a major role. During the Indian-Asia Pacific International Pharma meet, a CEOs conclave will also take place that will see discussion about pharma logistics.

Perhaps, more than IT, it is pharma that is going to rule the skies — at least from India — if forecasts are to be believed. According to a McKinsey & Company report, the Indian pharmaceutical market is all set to grow to a whopping $55 billion in 2020 from the $12.6 billion the industry made in 2009. In fact, the report also mentions that the figure could go up to $70 billion by 2020 if more efforts are taken by both CRUISING HEIGHTS October 2012

government and private industry. India, according to Palash Mitra, leader of McKinsey’s Pharmaceuticals & Medical Products Practice in India — the group that conducted the study — is inching its way to the top among pharma producers in the world. “Over the next decade, the market will proliferate, presenting a variety of opportunities …a lot more needs to be done to fully capture the potential of the market,” the study stated.

The major reason is that India has a huge number of pharmaceutical plants and, according to Bloomberg, has more US Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved pharma manufacturing facilities than anywhere outside the US. In fact, the FDA has an office in Delhi since 2008 and another in Mumbai since 2009.

These offices help regulate the drugs

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glaring example before us is the recent penalties.

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The expansion of the pharma sector is on FedEx’s future plans, said Richard Smith.

FedEx can connect manufacturing hubs in India to any part in a day or at most two days.

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manufactured in the country. Among the drugs that need constant monitoring are “biological medicines” made from living organisms and not through chemical processes. Experts believe that in the next few years, almost 70 per cent of the drugs that will be in demand will be the biological medicines and will require temperature-control measures in their transport.

One of the other reasons that will lead to the explosion — a study by the Organization of Pharmaceutical Producers of India and Deutsche Post released towards the end of last year mentioned that the country’s pharmaceutical exports are expected to grow 23 per cent per year to 2015 — in the market is the expiry of patents or the “patent cliff” phenomenon. It is not only India that will benefit but China and Brazil too.

The pharma companies from these countries will offer outsourcing opportunities.

To service the huge market, airlines as well as pharma logistics companies have started putting into practice new measures and facilities. When Cathy Roberson, senior analyst at UK-based Transportation Intelligence Ltd., researced for her Global Pharmaceutical Logistics Report 2012 towards the end of 2011, the international market for pharmaceutical logistics services was valued at nearly $52.3 billion and was expected to reach $57.1 billion by 2012.

In her report, Roberson mentioned, “Biotech and pharmaceutical products represent the highest value per airlifted

Richard Smith, Managing Director, FedEx pound for any cargo.” If the rate of pharma growth continues, the four per cent growth in electronics cargo, which has always been the strongest sector for air freight demand, will fall far behind.

“The growth will be driven by emerging markets,” in particular India, China and Brazil, Roberson said in the report.

“Continued outsourcing to these locations, along with changes in government legislation, will drive increases in logistics spending.”

Lufthansa was one of the first to seize the opportunity in India when it designated the Hyderabad International Airport as one of its key cargo hubs in South Asia for the transport of temperature-sensitive pharmaceuticals. The carrier has placed its own fleet of OptiCoolers at the airport to facilitate the temperature-controlled handling of more than 30,000 tonnes of pharmaceutical products annually.

In a recent interview, Carsten Hernig, Lufthansa Cargo’s Regional Director (South Asia, Middle East & Pakistan), was confident about

Lufthansa delivering high quality services at its South Asia pharmaceuticals hub at Hyderabad. Hernig said that the facilities at Hyderabad airport had helped the carrier to lay out high quality services for the sensitive cargo that is shipped by the pharmaceuticals industry.

It is not only carriers that are planning for the pharma boom. Integrators like FedEx and DHL too are moving in.

Barely five months ago, FedEx’s Richard Smith pointed out that the expansion of the pharma sector was on the company’s future plans. Smith, who was in India sometime ago, said that FedEx could connect manufacturing hubs that had moved to India to any part of the world in a day or at most two days.

That would be an advantage for the pharma industry given its perishable nature. Smith also said that with the RELISHING ON SUCCESS: 1. Envirotainer container being loaded into the freighter; 2. Lufthansa Cargo opticooler container

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CRUISING HEIGHTS October 2012

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CARGO

PAIN AND PLEASURE upply chains are becoming important in the pharma trade and healthcare executives around the world are preparing for continued global growth in an increasingly complex and dynamic environment, according to data from the fifth annual UPS Pain in the (Supply) Chain healthcare survey.

The top two planned investments for healthcare companies globally — as cited by 83 per cent of decision-makers around the world — are tapping into new global markets and investing in new technologies. Survey respondents have planned to employ both strategies over the next three to five years to increase their competitiveness, maintain product integrity and gain efficiencies. The top four countries where companies will focus on expansion efforts over the next three to five years are China, the United States, Brazil and India.

The UPS survey, conducted by TNS, reflects the views of senior-level healthcare supply chain decision-makers in the pharmaceutical, biotech and medical device and supply companies in the US, Western Europe, Asia and Latin America.

“Healthcare companies are feeling the pressure to expand and drive new growth while containing costs and ensuring compliance around the globe,” said Bill Hook,

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Vice President, Global Strategy, UPS Healthcare Logistics. “That has only heightened the need to build more global flexibility, integration and transformation into the healthcare supply chain.”

The top specific supply chain concern was regulatory compliance, cited by 65 per cent of respondents. Cost management came in second with 60 per cent citing this as their top supply chain issue. Only 41 per cent reported success in managing their supply chain costs. In addition to regulatory compliance and managing supply chain costs, product security and product integrity have risen to the third most cited supply chain issue, reported by 57 per cent. In emerging markets, it was a more significant concern as it is ranked first or second by survey respondents.

“Concerns around regulatory compliance and cost management have been constants for healthcare supply chain decision-makers over the past five years while we’ve seen growth in concern around areas such as product security and product protection,” said Scott Szwast, UPS Healthcare Segment Marketing Director.

“While these areas will always be a focus in the healthcare industry, companies can experience positive impact by examining strategies such as increased collaboration,

“

Life Sciences & Healthcare is a key industry for DHL in India. By setting up this worldclass infrastructure we continue to meet the industry’s increasing logistics needs.

“

Vikas Anand, Chief Operating Officer, DHL Supply Chain India acquisition of the local logistics unit, AFL, FedEx would use it for healthcare and high-tech goods.

In addition, it would also offer services that pharma customers would need like secured and temperature-controlled warehouses. DHL has also taken steps to tap the pharma business — but this time on the domestic front. Its Supply Chain unit, for contract logistics solutions, a couple of months ago launched a new distribution centre for the Life Sciences & Healthcare industry in Mumbai. This state-of-the-art life sci-

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ON THE RADAR: Pharma business is being leveraged by cargo companies

CRUISING HEIGHTS October 2012

adopting segment-based supply chains and leveraging new innovative models and technologies.”

For the past five years, a top trend in the healthcare industry has been increasing global growth with companies ramping up expansion into new markets each year. The survey’s five-year data also illustrated the “constants” in the industry that have continued to challenge healthcare supply chain decision-makers.

Concerns around cost management and regulatory compliance top the list of industry constants over the past five years.

Elsewhere in an interview, Scott Szwast said that the survey served as a diagnostics tool and helped UPS better understand what challenges its customers were facing, coupled with what healthcare logistics and supply chain improvements they could make. “Healthcare is an incredibly large industry,” he said.

“It is projected to be a $1 trillion global industry by 2015 (according to IBISWorld data), and it is also one of the most complex businesses in the world, with the products that move through the healthcare supply chain being increasingly sensitive, sophisticated, and valuable.

The healthcare supply chain piece of it is around $60 billion.”

ences facility is located within a newly constructed 56.000 square metre multicustomer distribution centre and has started catering to the requirements of the life sciences industry. Said Vikas Anand, Chief Operating Officer, DHL Supply Chain India, “Life Sciences & Healthcare is a key industry for DHL Supply Chain in India. By setting up this world-class infrastructure we continue to meet the industry’s increasing logistics and warehousing needs.”

Like DHL and FedEx, UPS too has moved ahead. Some time ago, Dan Gagnon, UPS’ European Healthcare Logistics Director, said that almost every airline was keen to get a piece of the pharma pie.

“As more competition gets into this space, you need to come up with solutions that are more economical, but provide the same level of service,” he said.

On its part, UPS is well aware of the limited infrastructure available in India and has chalked out plans to invest in facilities.

CARGO

FREIGHTER FLEETS TO GROW The present economic conditions have not deterred aircraft manufacturers to paint a picture of growth for ‘new-build’ freighters. However, freighter operators need to adopt a cautionary approach since the world could see an overcapacity. he air cargo market finds itself in a complex situation. While the world over, till the time of going to press, the air cargo market remained flat with a few blips here and there, cargo carriers from the Middle East have been getting high loads.

The present conditions notwithstanding, both aircraft manufacturers - Boeing and Airbus -- have projected growth in the freighter fleets around the world.

According to Boeing, the world freighter fleet will nearly double during the next 20 years to keep pace with the 5.2 per cent annual growth of air cargo traffic.

The increase, from 1,700 aircraft in 2011 to 3,200 aircraft in 2031, will be driven by global economic growth and the need to replace aging freighters, the aircraft manufacturer pointed out in its Current Market Outlook 2012-2031. Of the 2,760 freighter deliveries through 2031, 1,820 will be conversions from passenger jets, while the remaining 940, valued at $250 billion, will be new.

Airbus too, in its recent Global Market Forecast, has pointed out that the global aviation sector will generate a demand for 3,000 freighters by 2031.

The figure, which represents a near doubling of the global freighter fleet, will be prompted by increased urbanisation and

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economic growth in emerging regions, according to Airbus. The European aircraft manufacturer estimated that the industry will necessitate 28,200 passenger and freighter aircraft, valued at $4 trillion, by 2031 with the Asia-Pacific region leading the world in aircraft demand, accounting for 35 percent of aircraft deliveries, followed by Europe and North America.

In such a situation, the freighter conversion market finds itself in a limbo.

While the orders are few today, forecasts from aircraft manufacturers point to a large number of conversions. Boeing, for example, has mentioned that around 1,820 airplanes will be converted from passenger models. Even studies by Airbus indicate that the narrowbody freighter market will be predominantly converted aircraft as opposed to factorybuilt new freighters. That certainly bodes well for conversion specialists like Aeronautical Engineers Inc (AEI), Precision, Pemco, ST Aerospace and Israel Aerospace Industries’ Bedek Aviation Group.

The conversion industry’s worst fears stem from the overcapacity that the market would witness in the near future. Air Cargo Management Group (ACMG) in its latest research, tellingly entitled The Freighter Overcapacity Threat, has point-

NEW BEGINING: A Cargolux Boeing 747-8 freighter at one of the airports.

CRUISING HEIGHTS October 2012

ed out that air cargo prospects were uncertain for 2013 and beyond. In such a scenario, the total backlog for production widebody freighters was exceedingly high by historic standards (as of 1 May 2012, there were 213 new-build widebody freighters on order representing 21 per cent of the base widebody freighter fleet). Three new production freighter aircraft -- the 777F, the A330-200F, and the 747-8F -- have been introduced over the past three years and that no narrowbody freighters were being manufactured. ACMG has worked out three growth scenarios keeping the induction of newbuild freighters in the global fleet in the background. In the first high demand growth scenario -- 5 per cent annual increase in air freight demand -while widebody freighter production rates will be determined by manufacturers based on existing order backlogs and assumed increases, the passenger-tofreighter conversion activity will remain at a low level. In the low demand growth scenario, with economic growth registering only a 3 per cent annual increase in air freight demand, carriers will usher in capacity discipline and place no orders for new freighters, P-to-F conversion activity will go down. In the last low low demand scenario of 3 per cent growth per year again, the deliveries of new-build freighters will continue but there will be drastic cuts in P-to-F activity.

While these scenarios deal with widebody freighters, the changes in the supply chain model are prompting narrowbody conversions. What is pushing the move forward is the availability of narrowbody stock and the demand from developing nations. Today, according to the Miami-based conversion specialist AEI’s vice president of operations David McDonald, “While we have a worldwide customer base, Russia, Brazil, Europe, and Africa have been very active recently. We expect several 737400 conversions in the China market in the first half of next year.” Perhaps, what is important is the fact that narrowbody conversions can be more easily financed than the widebodies.

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ast year was a good year for Lufthansa Cargo. The cargo department returned an operating profit of €249 million, the second-best result in company history prompting Chairman and CEO Karl Ulrich Garnadt to tell the press that the very good results for the year were achieved despite adverse operating conditions.

Following record profits in 2010, the first few months of 2011 began on a rather positive note.

However, during the year, demand declined significantly. The airline struggled against eroding demand, especially in the major airfreight markets in China and India. Said Garnadt: “Lufthansa Cargo turned in an outstanding result in a demanding

market environment.” While the successful performance is primarily due to cost discipline, it was also the result of a broad product range and adjustment of capacity that was dictated by demand. In the past business year, Lufthansa Cargo increasingly switched capacities from Asia to North America and included new and attractive destinations in its route network. On the back of those measures, the cargo carrier significantly boosted revenues and tonnage.

Earnings rose by 5.3 per cent to €2.9 billion. The operating profit amounted to €249 million, the secondbest in company history.

In the present year, though Lufthansa Cargo is anticipating severe pressures ensuing especially from the ongoing night-flight ban in

Frankfurt, the company expects a good operating result once more at the end of the year.

Demand has certainly gone down in India. Said Carsten Hernig, Lufthansa Cargo's Regional Director (South Asia, Middle East & Pakistan), “The Indian airfreight export market declined overall in volume in the second half of 2011 and has dipped up to now this year as well, while imports have remained strong.” He went on to point out that the “grave financial situation in several European countries as well as the economic situation in the US” was impacting customer demand, in particular for fashion. “The trend is naturally adversely affecting India's strong share of textile exports,” he said.

However, the silver lining

was that at the same time, “demand is growing for pharmaceutical exports, auto parts and telecommunications equipment ex-India, which is lifting airfreight exports,” Hernig commented.

With Europe not doing too well, was Lufthansa Cargo concentrating on India in a move to develop markets in South East Asia or Africa? Hernig said that Lufthansa being an “European carrier, we focus mainly on markets which are 'west' of India, because our network is predominantly situated in that area. Europe, the US and increasingly South America are major export and import markets from India and our principal objective is to increase our share in those market segments. However, we are

No looking back for Lufthansa Last year’s results for Lufthansa Cargo were the second best in the company’s history. One of the markets that contributed significantly to the profits was India — though textiles, for example, went down, pharmaceutical exports, auto parts and telecommunications equipment lifted airfreight exports, as Carsten Hernig, Lufthansa Cargo’s Regional Director (South Asia, Middle East & Pakistan), told Tirthankar Ghosh.

LUFTHANSA

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That, along with attention to quality, was also largely responsible for the carrier's success last year. Chairman and CEO Karl Ulrich Garnadt made it a point to mention to the press at the meet in Frankfurt that “we raised our quality level markedly during the year and attained top marks anew in all areas,” and, in fact, confirmed that “we will stay on that path and further expand our quality lead”.

Meanwhile, the carrier has been crafting out its strategy. With the “Lufthansa Cargo 2020” programme launched last year, the company clearly defined its long-term strategy, explained the Chairman. The orders for the new Boeing 777 freighters, the upgrading of the IT platform, plans for a new logistics centre in Frankfurt to replace the existing 30-year-old facility as well as other long-term projects: these were the key markers in place to ensure that the company remained the industry leader in 2020.

Indeed, in India too, it has led by example.

Lufthansa has been at the forefront of the pharma exports from India and Carsten Hernig was all praises for the cargo facilities at the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport in Hyderabad and mentioned that the cooperation with the management team was excellent. “Thanks to the excellent facilities at Hyderabad airport, we are laying on high quality services for the sensitive cargo shipped by the pharmaceuticals industry,” emphasised Hernig. “Our product has evoked a positive customer response from the start,” he said.

Lufthansa presently operates three freighter flights weekly to Frankfurt with connections into its global network.

As if the difficult market

“

We are laying out high-quality services for the sensitive cargo shipped by the pharmaceuticals industry at Hyderabad…Our product has evoked a positive customer response from the start.

“

observing growing demand for African destinations, where our focus and our services are also increasing,” he said.

Lufthansa, emphasised Hernig, would continue to focus on Asia. “…and India being part of it — will remain a target area for Lufthansa Cargo,” he said.

According to Hernig, most of the Asian countries were recording above-average GDP growth rates, that fuel airfreight demand for both exports and imports. While Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan and later China have dominated the Asian airfreight market in the past, other significant markets have, in the meantime, emerged in countries such as Thailand or Bangladesh.

He mentioned that countries like Vietnam and Cambodia, would also gain importance as Asian exporting nations.

Simply put, said Hernig, “That explains the importance of the Asian markets to Lufthansa Cargo — and among them, India is surely a key player.”

The low demand from India saw Lufthansa adjusting capacity. Hernig pointed out that capacity was always systematically managed by the carrier. “It's the bread and butter of being successful in the airline Industry. We adapt our capacity to demand and increase or decrease it, as needs dictate. The recent rise in airport landing and parking charges in Delhi — which we will possibly experience at other Indian airports — is a matter of great concern, since it will endanger growth.” After all, India was an exporting nation and trade could only suffer seriously in the long term in a country, which made it unattractive for airlines operating in it, he emphasised.

One of the major areas of focus for Lufthansa has been investment in new products.

Carsten Hernig, Regional Director Lufthansa Cargo conditions were not enough, challenges have been posed by the carriers from the Middle East. According to Hernig, the Middle East carriers have changed the competitive scenario in the airline industry. He pointed out that they came from a status of minor players and attained sizeable market shares while aggressively penetrating the region's airfreight markets, especially in Asia, Europe and Australia. “They have naturally benefited greatly from government subsidies,” he said.

Meanwhile, a fully privatised legacy carrier, like Lufthansa Cargo, based in the heart of Europe had to operate in an entirely different economic and regulatory environment, Hernig emphasised. “The playing field is simply not level. Be that as it may, the fact is that we are competing in the same markets and for the same customers.

Competition has always driven Lufthansa Cargo forward. We are the industry's innovative and quality leader. And innovation is spurred by the need for change in a competitive environment.”

At the end of it all, said Hernig, “We are confident that we will maintain that lead and continue to find the trust of our customers.”

The spirit of innovation has kept Lufthansa ahead — despite the challenges of operating in India. Hernig was forthright when he said

CRUISING HEIGHTS October 2012

that Lufthansa faced quite a few challenges in India. “The poor infrastructure at many of the airports prevents us from offering state-of-the art services to customers.”

Providing the example of the Chennai airport, he said, “We are working with suboptimal facilities in the warehouse and at the ramp.

The airport is growing strongly but still only provides two freighter parking bays.”

He had, however, a few words of advice for air cargo stakeholders in India. “The promotion of through-unit concepts” is required in order to resolve congestion problems in and around airport warehouses.

Procedures governing the release of containers and ULDs to shippers and consignees — especially cool containers — urgently need to be simplified. Another area that required urgent regulatory action was the much-needed simplification of parts-shipment clearance procedures on the import side, he mentioned.

If all these measures were carried out, said Hernig, and decisive action was taken to stop the “unreasonable increase in landing fees and airport charges in Delhi”, the competitive position of India's exports would not be threatened. Those moves would further the aim of developing Delhi into a hub, which would be able to compete with gateways such as Dubai or Singapore.

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CARGO JOTTINGS

Vizag awaits air cargo terminal

L-shaped scanners at MIAL

Vizag airport will soon have an international air cargo terminal

by April 2013. According to Srinivasa Rao, Director, Vizag airport, the port city was fast evolving into a hub for specialised export products. Moreover, there was also a vast unexploited agro sector from which perishable goods could be exported both within the country and outside.

The international cargo terminal at the Mumbai airport recently put in place a new advanced infrastructure and security system.

Stating that the move would lower cases of pilfering, an airport official said, “Due to the high number of packages being passed through daily, many cases of unscanned goods getting mixed with scanned goods were taking place, thus posing a security hazard.”

According to sources, the erstwhile poorly-controlled cargo section was posing a security problem. While the CISF personnel were in charge of the main entrance, there were no safeguards inside the building. Concerned over the situation, the Bureau of Civil Aviation and Security (BCAS) had asked the Mumbai Airport authorities to set things right.

FedEx, UPS to operate in China

OPTIMISM AT ITS BEST: An outside view of Vizag airport.

“Visakhapatnam is a base to various pharmaceutical industries and also features diamond-cutting unit. Aqua culture products too are exported from the city. Though the cargo is today limited only to high-priced products and highly perishable ones, the cargo terminal could bring about a vast change in both the volumes and variety of cargo being exported,” Rao was quoted in the Times of India. On the status of the new cargo terminal, he said that a few changes were needed at the old passenger terminal and, once they were sanctioned by the Customs and the Airports Authority of India (AAI), the terminal could be ready by December 2012 and operations would begin by April 2013.

FedEx and United Parcel Service (UPS) recently received the nod to offer express-package services in some cities of China on their own, China’s State Postal Bureau (SPB) said. The approval gives FedEx right of entry to eight cities while UPS was given access to five cities, the SPB said. According to the government body, FedEx could now operate in the cities of Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Hangzhou, Tianjin, Dalian, Zhengzhou and Chengdu. “FedEx is dedicated to China and remains centred on growing the business together with the customers,” FedEx spokeswoman Shea Leordeanu said.

UPS was given a license for the cities of Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Tianjin and Xi’an. “We are delighted to receive a licence to control domestic express service in five strategic cities in China,” UPS spokeswoman Kristen Petrella said.

IBS adjudged ‘IT Provider of the Year’ IBS Software was awarded the “IT Provider of the Year” for the air cargo industry for the year 2012 by Singapore-based Payload Asia magazine. The award was announced on September 5 at the Payload Asia Conference in Singapore, a premier global industry event attended by leading personalities from the air freight industry including airlines, industry consultants and experts, airports and other service providers. The global award for acknowledging excellence amongst technology providers was given based on a world-wide independent on-line poll by various stakeholders of the air cargo industry. IBS was adjudged the winner, from among the shortlisted companies, based on three parameters: relevance and currency of offering, product innovation and range of value-added services provided.

AirAsia Cargo is ‘Rising Star Carrier of the Year’: AirAsia Cargo was selected by Payload Asia for ‘The Rising Star Carrier of the Year Award’ based on the airline’s exceptional network growth and development strategy, operational performance in 2011, customer service and product innovations and its market responsiveness and adaptability.

Said AirAsia Singapore CEO, Logan Velaitham, “After 10 awesome years, we continue to enjoy unprecedented growth in all areas including the cargo section of the business. Winning this award only proves that AirAsia is gaining greater foothold in

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JOB WELL DONE: AirAsia Singapore CEO Logan Velaitham (3rd from left) and AirAsia Regional Head of Cargo Sathis Manoharen (5th from right) with the AirAsia Cargo team at Payload Asia Awards 2012 ceremony in Singapore.

the aviation industry and will continue to contribute towards economic growth in the ASEAN region and beyond with our long-haul affiliate AirAsia X.”

CRUISING HEIGHTS October 2012

DHL and Blue Dart employees lead altruism DHL and Blue Dart recently marked Global Volunteer Day 2012 with close to 8000 employees scheduled to take part in various local activities across India as part of its global drive to give back to local communities and to inculcate a passion for volunteerism among employees.

Activities included blood donation drives, cleaning school premises, plantation of saplings, visiting and helping at orphanages, old-age homes and helping in underprivileged classrooms.

Anil Khanna, MD, Blue Dart Express said, “As a responsible organisation, the need of the hour is to put into practice sustainability strategies to ensure positive impact on the environment we function in. Our employees are committed to make the society at large a better place for future generations.

The Global Volunteer Day is an excellent opportunity for employee engagement in our group’s sustainability focus areas — GoGreen, GoHelp and GoTeach. Like previous years, we will have a large mobilisation of employees across the country in various activities in community welfare, environmental protection and blood donation drives.”

Unveils new services to Sweden, UK: Logistics firm DHL Global Forwarding recently launched two new services connecting India with Sweden for exports and with the UK for imports. “These are strategic countries rendering to a large segment of trade with India. The new direct LCL (Less than Container Load) services reduce transit time and total carbon

SELFLESS SERVICE: R S Subramanian, Country Manager, DHL Express, conducted a classroom activity with children at Mahim Mori School.

emissions, efficiently bringing wider business opportunities to India-based customers and Indian SMEs,” a company release stated. LCL refers to smaller amounts of ocean freight cargo that are insufficient to fill a Full Container Load (FCL) on its own.

The service is widely used by customers across many industries as it offers greater elasticity in the supervision of supplychains by being able to embark smaller quantities on a timely basis. By offering reduced transit time of 25 days from Nhava Sheva to Gothenburg, DHL becomes one of the few consolidators from India to reach the Scandinavian destination directly.

Air China Cargo launches freighters

ROCK SOLID: Air China Cargo freighter at one of the airports.

Air China Cargo has begun scheduled freighter flights into Schiphol Amsterdam Airport for the first time. The inaugural Air China Cargo scheduled flight arrived on September 12. The brand new B747-400 services are initially operating five times weekly from Shanghai, via Chengdu or Chonqing; flights return via Tianjin. The airline has slots for up to 10 flights per week from Amsterdam. Some of the new services into Schiphol replace flights to Frankfurt. Air China Cargo will utilise Schiphol’s highly-developed scheduled road feeder network to over 100 destinations, enabling it to extend coverage to all major European markets. With the arrival of Air China Cargo freighter services, Schiphol is the only European airport to serve all three major Chinese freighter operators.

APP OIN T M E N T S Etihad ushers new India sales team

Etihad Cargo recently announced it was beefing up operations in Mumbai, Bengaluru, Delhi and Chennai, by adding a new cargo sales team. It has also selected AVS Cargo Management Services as its General Sales Agent (GSA) partner.

The announcement strengthened Etihad Cargo’s presence in the growing Indian market, where the airline operates to nine destinations. Kevin Knight, Chief Strategy and Planning Officer at Etihad Airways, said, “Building on our success in India, we look forward to working with existing and new customers to provide them with optimal logistics solutions taking advantage of future opportunities.”

Lufthansa prolongs contract of Board Member

The supervisory board of Lufthansa Cargo AG extended the contract of Andreas Otto as Board Member Product and Sales for a further five years up to June 30, 2018. Dr Otto joined the Lufthansa Cargo Executive Board in April 2000 and is now its longest-serving member. Aside from his stewardship of worldwide sales and handling (except the Andreas Otto hubs of Frankfurt and Munich), Dr Otto is responsible for Margin Management and Product Management as well as Global Network and Sales Steering.

CRUISING HEIGHTS October 2012

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GLOBETROTTING

Give me a break z

In a haze z Believe it or not, a marathon sleep of a French woman landed her in a big soup.

The lady had slept for 18 hours non-stop on a flight from Lahore to Paris. When the plane stopped at Paris for two hours, the lady did not get off the plane and as a result flew back to Lahore.

Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) spokesman Sultan Hasan said that the woman, Patrice Christine Ahmed, who is married to a Pakistani, left Lahore at noon to fly to Paris via Milan, but did not wake up to get off the plane. "The woman did not clarify her error to the staff and the matter

only came to light when she was stopped by immigration officials on arrival back in Lahore — after a 12,000-kilometre round trip," Hasan said.

A boozed and boisterous passenger attacked two people on-board and damaged the aircraft. This incident happened on an international Air Canada flight en route to Calgary and later on diverted to Edmonton due to the incident. Annelies Bekes was seated behind the passenger in the business class section. She noticed the man becoming increasingly loud and obnoxious. "He was making inane drunk comments. It was the kind of stuff you hear from a drunk guy at the bar," Bekes said. The man continued to annoy her while making nasty comments as she tried

Attention-seeking moron z Mathew Davis, a flight attendant, created a ruckus in mid-air by announcing that there was a bomb on board. The story goes like this: he scribbled a message on the back of a toilet door of the Tokyo to London flight which read, "The bomb on board will explode at 1600 GMT if our demands are not met."

Mathew Davis spoke about the note to stewardess Sarah Jane Spencer. She went to one of the toilets at the back of the plane and discovered the message. She immediately said she was shaken and terrified, and she actually did believe there was a bomb on the plane.

Later, Davis was produced in court where Judge Anna Guggenheim took serious note of the deed and said, "This young man has a history of highly unusual acts which could be described as attention-seeking but which are potentially dangerous. This is an extremely serious example of a bomb hoax. Had you been believed, the extent of the chaos and disruption and fear would have been very great indeed."

Disturbing element z In one of the most unusual happenings on an Air Canada flight, the Senator of Manitoba, Canada, Rod Zimmer and his wife Maygan Sensenberger were arrested for allegedly threatening passengers.

The Senator's wife was also heard cursing and arguing with her husband during the flight.

Police spokeswoman for the Saskatoon Police Service, Alyson Edwards said that Sensenberger threatened to take down the plane and to harm her husband during an apparent lovers' quarrel that began soon after takeoff and intensified throughout the flight. "Attempts by the flight's crew and other passengers to intervene were met with hostility," Edwards added. Sensenberger was later taken into police custody and then spent a night in a Saskatoon detention cell before a first court appearance and transferred to Prince Albert's Pine Grove Correctional Centre for Women.

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CRUISING HEIGHTS October 2012

Born in the skies z

to watch a film. The man got out of his seat and walked to the back end of the plane, rousing the attention of other passengers and crew members. Crew members told the man to calm down and remain in his seat, but he refused.

Passengers were treated to a rare sight when a mother went into premature labour on a flight and was forced to give birth in the airplane toilet. This rare incident happened on an Emirates flight from Dubai to Manila. Nedz was 27-week pregnant when she and her husband travelled from their jobs in Dubai to their native home in the Philippines to prepare for the arrival of their first child.

A nurse, who was by accident seated next to Nedz, said she discovered that the woman was uneasy before entering the toilet. "When I saw the mother walking

toward the toilet, she seemed to be in pain.

The father was restless‌ walking back and forth, nearly in tears, so I offered to help," Karen Caballes-Santos, nurse, said.

Turbulence in mid-air z Strange things happen up in the air. A man from Chicago was charged for groping a pregnant woman while refusing to follow crew instructions on a JetBlue flight thereby instigating the plane to make an emergency landing in Denver. A flight attendant asked Covington if he would stay in his seat, as he was making others around him nervous prompting the crew to ask an FBI agent on the plane to intervene.

Fang noticed the attendant was taking pictures of the scene, he angrily attacked and tore apart her outfit. Later on, when the aircraft landed in Guangzhou, Fang and the attendant were both taken to the police station.

Starry tantrums z

Marcus Covington was advised in federal court that he faced a charge of interfering with the duties of a flight crew.

Later, Covington was charged with interference with flight crew members and attendants, which carries a possible penalty of twenty years in jail and up to a $250,000 fine.

A military sermon z

A lady with starry tantrums earned the wrath of her fellow passengers when she managed to get business class treatment. Gina Swannell was about to board the flight from Melbourne to Coolangatta when a woman started making a scene by swearing loudly and yelling at passengers in the Jetstar area. "A security guard came over to her and spoke to her but then they put her on the plane first.

There were about 50 people waiting to board and everyone was just in shock that she was still able to fly," Swannell said. "Our staff can refuse and have refused to let passengers fly if crew believe the passenger could be considered to be a disturbance on the flight," the Jetstar spokesman said. According to Queensland police, after arriving at Coolangatta airport, the 30-year-old woman was arrested and charged with being drunk in a public place.

A female flight attendant on a China Southern Airlines flight and Colonel Fang Daguo, a Military Director, became involved in a bizarre altercation during a flight.

It all happened when the flight attendant asked Fang and his wife to move their luggage, which was put in the middle of the walkway before takeoff. Instead, the couple demanded she move out the flight equipment on the luggage rack to make room for their suitcase.

When she denied, Fang hit her on the shoulder with his bag and the couple began to insult her aggressively. When

CRUISING HEIGHTS October 2012

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SNIPPETS

DOMESTIC AIRLINES IBM enables Jet to go greener

new additional flights from Mumbai. It is operating its third daily and direct flight between Mumbai and Ahmedabad and Mumbai and Goa. Additionally, 6E is now also connecting Ahmedabad to Chandigarh and Goa to Chandigarh via Mumbai.

Speaking on the launch of new flights from Mumbai, Aditya Ghosh, President, IndiGo, said, “Mumbai-Chandigarh, and Mumbai-Ahmedabad have emerged as sectors that have started attracting both leisure and business passengers in the recent past, and hold immense potential for IndiGo. We are also looking at providing affordable fares on these new routes for regular travelers. It is our constant endeavor to provide greater flexibility of

IBM’s INTEGRATED Emission Management System will now enable Jet Airways to use advanced analytics to map the carrier’s carbon emissions, optimising its fuel usage by detailed analysis of each flight. In what is a complex process involving comparison of flight records and fuel-usage data contained in multiple systems ranging from internal aircraft systems to regional navigation data and flight records, accurate calculation, tracking and reporting aircraft emissions of its fleet will help the airline save $6 million per year.

Jet Airways had signed a strategic 10-year business transformation agreement with IBM in 2010 to streamline and consolidate its IT operations. This association has helped Jet Airways focus on its core business and improve operational efficiencies, as well as delivering a seamless customer experience.

“Creating an energy efficient airline is a top priority and we are committed to the environment and a greener world. With IBM’s solution, Jet Airways will be able to evaluate carbon foot print not only at the fleet level but also at the aircraft level. It will help us optimise the fuel usage and thereby create a positive impact on the environment,” said Sudheer Raghavan, Chief Commercial Officer, Jet Airways.

IndiGo launches four new flights WITH 59 BRAND new Airbus A320s, 6E will now be operating 373 daily flights, connecting 33 destinations and expanding its presence in the country. The carrier has recently launched four

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KNOWING THE INSIDE: The interiors of a Jet Airways aircraft

SMILING FACES: The cabin crew of IndiGo airlines

choice for our customers, and we continue to offer them an ontime, hassle-free and affordable experience. In addition, we are also looking at the connectivity between Bengaluru and Chandigarh in near future.”

Ramco’s aviation software to power GoAir RAMCO SYSTEMS recently announced a prestigious order win from Go Airlines (GoAir) for its Maintenance & Engineering (M&E) suite of software. With this win, Ramco’s software would be used in providing MRO, M&E and ERP services to nine aviation organisations in India.

Under the agreement, Ramco will deliver its web-based Series 5 M&E system and Ramco ePublications, including Engineering and Configuration, Maintenance Program and Planning, Line Maintenance, Technical Records and Complete Materials.

Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puruskar for AI At A recently-held ceremony at the Rashtrapati Bhawan, Air India was awarded the “Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puruskar2012” for its outstanding contribution in the field of sports under the category - “Community Sports Identification and Nurturing of Budding Young Talent”. Rohit Nandan, Chairman and Managing Director, Air India, received the award given by the President of India, Pranab Mukherjee.

Air India has been a patron to sportspersons for the last several decades. It has provided jobs to sportspersons who have brought glory to the country in different national and international competitions. In the recently-concluded Summer Olympics 2012 at London, Gagan Narang, an Air Indian, brought India its first medal — Bronze Medal in the 10 metre air rifle event. Three more Air Indians who were part of the

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WINNER ALWAYS: An aircraft of the award-winning Air India

Olympics 2012 are — Mohammed Riaz, coach, Shivendra Singh for Hockey, and Annu Raj Singh for Air Pistol.

CRUISING HEIGHTS October 2012

INTERNATIONAL AIRLINES JET AIRWAYS has a bouquet of unique travel options from India to multiple destinations in the ASEAN region, Australia and New Zealand. Launched with the help of interline partners, Jet Airways’ guests may avail enhanced daily connectivity from major Indian cities and onwards through the airlines’ international gateway points in Singapore, Bangkok and Hong Kong to onward destinations in Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea and China. Guests will be able to avail of these seamless connections at attractive prices. For example, guests may avail of attractive return fares when they travel to Tokyo with fares starting from `48,800, to Shanghai and Beijing at a fare of `40,700 onwards while fares for travel to Seoul will start from `39,200.

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Attractive travel options by Jet

ENHANCED CONNECTIVITY: An international aircraft of Jet Airways

IndiGo launches Thai website IN AN effort to enhance customer-experience, India’s low-cost carrier IndiGo (6E) has recently launched its new Thai website in Bangkok market. This Thai website has been specifically designed for both business and leisure travellers based in Thailand. Besides providing a fresh approach to the overall travel experience, the new website will be distinctly displayed in International Standard Thai language. All the numeric figures will be displayed in English. Additionally, 6E travellers will be provided a wider choice for making payments in currencies such as the Thai bahat, Arab Emirates dirham, Indian and Nepalese rupees, Omani Rial or Singaporean dollar.

Said Aditya Ghosh, President, IndiGo, “Our endeavour is to provide the best-in-class experience to all our customers. At IndiGo, everything is geared to understand the cultural sensitivities from the food we serve to the languages we speak. Therefore, the launch of this new Thai website in Bangkok is to bring the local feel alive for the people of Thailand. The timing of the launch of the Thai website coincides well with launch of additional new flights between Bangkok and India.”

SpiceJet mulls foreign destinations SPICEJET has sought government nod to fly to 10 new destinations, majority of which are in the former Soviet Union and China.

These include places such as former Kazakh capital Almaty, Uzbek capital Tashkent and Chinese special-administered region (SAR) Macau.

According to airline CEO Neil Mills, the airline would launch flights to other Chinese SAR Hong Kong next month along with Guangzhou. It already flies to Kabul, along with Colombo, Dubai and Kathmandu. The airline will bring Male, Riyadh and Dhaka on its network soon. “We follow a blue ocean strategy for international flights-which means flying to places where not too many airlines go. We would like to go to more points in China,” Mills said.

AirAsia strengthens China foothold with Nanning INTRODUCING ITS 22nd route to China, low-cost carrier AirAsia has announced its newest way from Kuala LumpurNanning, bookings for which were open for grab between September 12 and September 16, 2012, for travel between December 11, 2012 and May 22, 2013.

The new direct flights will commence operations with 3x weekly flights on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays beginning December 11, 2012, and will complement the AirAsia Group’s

network connectivity from Asean to China, especially with the recent announcement of B a n g k o k - Wu h a n flights operated by Thai AirAsia. The carrier is offering a special all-in-fare from as low as $34 one way in conjunction with the new route.

Kathleen Tan, AirAsia’s Group Head of Commercial, commented, “China is a great market for us to explore and expand our route network and connectivity.

We are seeing a SETTING STANDARDS: AirAsia staff with Airbus greater demand A320 with Sharklets between both ends especially for business travel, and we hope to showcase what Nanning has to offer to the average of 30 million guests that fly through our network every year; as well as for the Chinese to use our Kuala Lumpur hub to connect to more than 75 destinations that AirAsia flies to. We are glad to be able to provide the only direct flight from Kuala Lumpur-Nanning and we are confident that flight loads will pick up once we open this new destination for sale, especially with the importance of Nanning as a city that works closely with the ASEAN countries to promote investment and trade between China and ASEAN.” To become first Airbus A320 “Sharklets” operator: AirAsia will become the first operator of the Airbus A320 with “Sharklets” when it takes delivery of the first A320 equipped with these fuel-saving wing-tip devices at the end of this year.

The aircraft exhibited on static and flying display at the ILA Berlin Air Show is the flight-test aircraft for CFM engines.

“The A320 has played a key role in our success, enabling us to offer our passengers the lowest fares possible and completely

CRUISING HEIGHTS October 2012

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SNIPPETS Lufthansa flies all-new B747-8 to Bengaluru AS FLIGHT number LH 754 from Frankfurt to Bengaluru recently landed at the Bengaluru International Airport, Karnataka’s capital became the third destination worldwide to receive Lufthansa’s latest product offering — the B747-8 Intercontinental — and the second Indian destination after New Delhi. The German national carrier has deployed the state-of-the-art aircraft

STATE-OF-THE-ART: The Lufthansa B747-8 Intercontinental aircraft

redefine short-haul travel in Asia,” said Tony Fernandes, AirAsia Group CEO. “Now we are looking forward to become the first airline in the world to start operating this most fuel-efficient aircraft.”

Sharklets will be fitted on previously-ordered, newly-built A320s for AirAsia, scheduled for delivery from the end of 2012.

They will result in close to 4 per cent fuel savings on longer sectors, corresponding to an annual CO2 reduction of around 1,000 tonnes per aircraft.

Offers great fare for Motorcycle Grand Prix: AirAsia X is offering fares as low as $115 to Japan (Osaka, Tokyo) and $121 to Australia (Perth, Melbourne, Gold Coast, Sydney) in conjunction with the MotoGP races that will be held in Japan and Australia in October 2012.

The carrier will also take you from Kuala Lumpur to China (Beijing, Hangzhou, Chengdu) for $115 and Taiwan (Taipei) for as low as $147. The deals are available for immediate travel till November 15, 2012.

Azran Osman-Rani, CEO of AirAsia X, said, “In conjunction with the MotoGP, AirAsia X is offering low-fare deals for sports enthusiasts to affordably travel with us to witness the MotoGP races in Tokyo and Melbourne live. As an icing on the cake, we are extending this awesome deals across our other destinations in Australia, including China, and Taiwan.”

Also available are the fly-thru service from Australia, China, Japan, Korea and Taiwan to AirAsia’s popular destinations in Thailand, Indonesia, China, Singapore, Indochina, Hong Kong, and Macau. The Fly-thru service allows passengers to purchase two flight sectors with transit via Kuala Lumpur seamlessly.

Etihad gets stronger in Virgin Australia ETIHAD AIRWAYS recently confirmed that its equity stake in Virgin Australia Holdings had reached 10 per cent. This represents 221 million shares, which have been bought on the open market over recent months.

Six weeks ago, Etihad Airways received Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB) approval to increase its holding from 5 per cent to 10 per cent.

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on its direct Bengaluru-Frankfurt route.

This latest avatar of the legendary family of Jumbo Jets — the longest and widest aircraft in the world — is configured with eight first class, 92 business class and 262 economy class seats.

It has introduced new on—board pleasures for passengers in all three classes.

“We are excited to serve customers in India’s high-tech capital Bengaluru with this exceptional aircraft, featuring breakthrough innovations in terms of technology, efficiency and inflight comfort,” said Axel Hilgers, South Asia Director for Lufthansa. “Introducing our latest global products to this important destination highlights our endeavour to offer simply the best service between Bengaluru and Frankfurt and beyond on intercontinental routes.”

“This partnership with Lufthansa indicates that major airlines and travellers from around the world turn to Bengaluru International Airport as their Gateway to South India, and we continue to work towards being the preferred destination in the region,” Hari Marar, President Operations, BIAL, added.

Passengers on the inaugural flight to and from Bengaluru were able to experience how state-of-the-art aircraft technologies maximise in-flight comfort by reducing cabin noise by 30 per cent.

Speaking on the occasion, Etihad Airways President and Chief Executive Officer, James Hogan, said: “We are very pleased to have reached this threshold. We support the management strategy of Virgin Australia and will continue to work closely with them on ways to improve our business.”

Hogan reiterated that Etihad Airways wasn’t interested in becoming a majority shareholder or taking control of Virgin Australia.

“Our small equity stake reflects the strong working relationship of both airlines and again demonstrates our enduring commitment to the Australian market,” he said.

Air Arabia ‘City Terminal Check-in’ opens AIR ARABIA recently announced the launch of its first “City Terminal Check-in” in Dubai. The facility in the Lamcy Plaza shopping mall is Air Arabia’s first check-in service outside of an airport and offers increased convenience for passengers travelling from Dubai.

The counter of Air Arabia’s “City Terminal Check-in” is equipped to accept baggage from passengers, which is then sent straight to Sharjah International Airport. Passengers can checkin 24 hours before their flight, up to three hours before departure.

Checked-in passengers, who can choose seats for their flight, will receive their boarding passes, as well as claim tags for any checked-in luggage, meaning they only need to reach the airport to proceed to their flight.

“We know that our customers value the efficiency of Air Arabia’s operations, which enables them to travel more for less,” said, Adel Ali, Group Chief Executive Officer, Air Arabia. “Our new City Check-in facility will be a great value addition for our passengers; helping to reduce the amount of time they need to spend at the airport and making the process of flying just a little more hassle free.”

The Air Arabia “City Terminal Check-in” at Lamcy Plaza is available to passengers and will operate seven days a week, from 9 am to 10 pm. Air Arabia shuttle service to Sharjah International Airport is currently available from Lamcy Plaza.

CRUISING HEIGHTS October 2012

Artur Farinha, Sales Audit Business Manager, said: “The association with Alitalia reinforces Accelya’s leadership in the field of airline sales audit. We are positive about the value our services will bring to Alitalia and look forward to a long-term partnership with the airline.”

Accelya provides Alitalia sales audit services

Malaysian Airlines partners with Tourism NZ

AIR-VALID.CO.UK

MALAYSIAN AIRLINES (MH), along with Auckland International Airport (AIAL), has partnered with Tourism New Zealand (TNZ), a country well-known for its natural beauty, to provide Indian travellers with an opportunity to explore the country by

THE FLAG carrier and national airline of Italy, Alitalia, has selected Accelya, the leading solutions provider to the airline and travel industry, for end-to-end sales audit services.

Commenting on the occasion, Giuseppe Lombardi, Head - Marketing, IT, Hotel, Cargo and General Services Purchasing, Alitalia, said “We are pleased to partner with Accelya. Given their proven audit capability across the ticket lifecycle, we are confident that Alitalia will improve profitability by plugging wider range of revenue leakage sources and enforcing pricing and booking policies.”

Accelya’s Sales Audit services will enable Alitalia to audit the complete lifecycle of the ticket by covering not only the ticketing, but also the booking and the entire journey, maximise revenue by identifying and plugging wider range of revenue leakage sources, possible through PNR and Revalidation Audit, ensure that the agents comply with airline pricing and booking policies and recover lost revenue from agent errors during revalidation

APPOINTMENTS BA announces new commercial team in India British Airways has announced the formulation of a commercial Tarun Minocha Anjali Puri Nepali Gandhi team for India. Amongst other changes to the team, a new management team has been created and assigned the strategic task of further strengthening the international carrier’s stronghold in the Indian market.

Welcoming this team, Christopher Fordyce, Regional Commercial Manager, British Airways, South Asia, said, “We have specially selected a core team to drive the next phase of our growth. India is a very important market for British Airways and we have grown considerably in the last few years.

We are very confident our new commercial team will help us continue our growth significantly in the region.”

Anjali Puri has been appointed as the Commercial Development Manager — South Asia. She will now be responsible for all sales related activities for the region.

Nepali Gandhi has been appointed as the Corporate Sales Manager for South Asia, British Airways. She will now be responsible for all sales activities related to the Corporate Channel in the region.

SUPERADRIANME.COM

FOR BETTER PERFORMANCE: Alitalia staff pose in front of their aircraft

WITH CARE: Service aboard a Malaysia Airlines aircraft

flying from India to Auckland, New Zealand on Malaysia Airlines for just `58,717 (all inclusive). The airlines is operating six weekly return flights from Kuala Lumpur to New Zealand and bookings and ticketing for this travel deal will be available till November 15, 2012, for the travel period valid up to December 15, 2012.

Elaborating on the partnership, Azahar Bin Hamid, Regional Senior Vice President, Middle East and South Asia, Malaysia Airlines, said, “Malaysia Airlines provides good connectivity between Auckland and the five Indian metro cities of New Delhi, Bengaluru, Chennai, Mumbai and Hyderabad via Kuala Lumpur, in Malaysia.”

Tarun Minocha has been appointed as British Airways’ Trade Sales Manager for South Asia and will be responsible for development and implementation of trade sales strategy. He will be working closely with commercial and business development; revenue development and corporate sales teams to deliver the business plan initiatives.

Oddie joins Legacy Hotels and Resorts Liam Oddie has joined the Legacy Hotels and Resorts as the Market Manager: Middle East and Asia. In his new role, Liam will further grow the awareness of the Legacy brand in order to create a demand from the source market, thereby achieving the end goal of increasLiam Oddie ing market share.

Liam comes to the Legacy Group from Sun International where he was the International Sales and Market Manager — India, in their International Sales Department.

During his time there, Liam was responsible for the India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal and Maldives markets which he is an expert in.

In these regions, he sourced business from the designated markets to maximise revenues and targeted sales.

He has been able to impressively position all the brands he has worked for and formulate strategies to position them as highend products.

CRUISING HEIGHTS October 2012

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SNIPPETS

TRAVEL & TOURISM Brand USA’s largest-ever delegation to India A unique endeavour was undertaken by Brand USA, the new tourism marketing entity responsible for promoting the United States to world visitors, when it organised its first-ever travel mission from September 9 to September 14, 2012, in India. The mission that sold out within 30 days of being offered to US travel organisations, comprised 50 delegates representing 35 US destinations and companies that had visited New Delhi and Mumbai.

In previous years, this mission was organised by the US Travel Association, making this the sixth travel trade mission from the United States to promote tourism in the Indian market.

The agenda of the US delegates was to meet travel agents, airline representatives, tour operators, and the travel trade media, with the objective to rekindle the holidaymakers’ love affair with America — reclaiming the USA’s share of the market and positioning the country as a diverse destination with nearly limitless opportunities and experiences. “Brand USA is a unique marketing initiative which encourages international travellers to experience the infinite experiences that our country has to offer. With President Obama recognising tourism as an important sector of the US economy, we are hopeful of maximising our nation’s potential as a leading tourist destination for

Indian travellers”, said Caroline Beteta, interim CEO and Chair-Elect of Brand USA. Paul Cerula, Chief Business Development Officer, Brand USA, added: “India is one of the key markets for us with the number of Indians travelling to the United States growing from 309,000 in 2004 to 660,000 in 2011 — an impressive 115 per cent growth in travel during that time.”

UNIQUE ENDEAVOUR: Delegates of Brand USA at the first India mission

WTTC launches 2013 tourism awards THE WORLD Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) is inviting tourism businesses, organisations, and destinations worldwide to apply for its Tourism for Tomorrow Awards.

Each year, the Tourism for Tomorrow Awards recognise global leadership in sustainable tourism best practices. It involves a threestep judging process involving 22 independent expert judges from all around the world, including an on-site evaluation of all award finalists.

Applicants have to demonstrate how they are actively engaged in a successful programme of sustainable tourism practices and management, including maximising social and economic benefits for local people, reducing negative impacts to the environment, and supporting the protection of cultural and natural heritage in destinations where they operate.

Award applicants may enter in one of four award categories: Global Tourism Business, Conservation, Community Benefit, and Destination Stewardship — and can submit their entries online at www.wttc.org/tourismfortomorrow until November 26, 2012.

David Scowsill, President and CEO of WTTC, said, “The travel and tourism industry has immense influencing power and has the potential to raise awareness and initiate action on the sustainability agenda among consumers, employees, and governments. With its ninth year under WTTC stewardship, the Tourism for Tomorrow Awards are rewarding top sustainable tourism practices globally.

These are outstanding examples, reaching new heights in the world’s sustainable tourism advancement.”

GRT Hotels & Resorts sweep 66 medals THE GRT Hotels and Resorts swept a whopping 66 coveted awards for its culinary and creative expertise at the recently-concluded 2nd Edition of SICA (South India Culinary Association) Culinary Competitions 2012 — the largest gathering of food and beverage professionals and experts in Chennai. Three of their properties participated in the event — The GRT Grand Chennai, Radisson Blu resort Temple Bay Mamallapuram and the Radisson Blu Hotel GRT Chennai.

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VICTORIOUS: Winners of GRT Hotels and Resorts at South India Culinary Association Competition, 2012

The Group received a variety of top honours, including two gold medals with distinction and 19 gold medals awarded by an International Jury, appointed by WACS (World Association of Chef’s Societies). Hotel GRT Grand was awarded the Best Hotel Team & Overall Championship and was closely followed by Radisson Blu Resort Temple Bay, bagging the award for the ‘Runners Up’ in the best hotel team. Some of the highlights at the award function were “Gold with distinction” under the individual categories for “Artistic Pastry Showpiece” by P Sivakumar and V Viswanathan from The GRT Grand and the “Outstanding Pastry Chef’” award for Chef Gopi Mohan from Radisson Blu Resort Temple Bay.

ITTE-2012 dates rescheduled THE TRAVEL Agents Association of India (TAAI) has rescheduled the dates of its B2B Travel and Tourism Exhibition — India Travel Trade Expo (ITTE-2012) from September 15-16, 2012 to October 2223, 2012. The venue, however, will remain the same - The Trident, Nariman Point, Mumbai.

Tourism Minister Subodh Kant Sahai will be presenting the TAAI

CRUISING HEIGHTS October 2012

Travel Awards to the members of the fraternity on October 22. TAAI is awaiting confirmation for presence of the ministers from the governments of Maharashtra and other states.

100th edition of TTF Mumbai gets huge response

Walk with the lions

THE 100TH edition of TTF, India’s oldest and biggest Travel show, opened recently at Nehru Centre in Worli, Mumbai, with enthusiastic participation of 11,000 visitors. The September edition of TTF is a one-stop shop for Mumbaikars to make their travel plans for the upcoming Diwali and winter vacations.

With over 150 participants, including representation from 21 Indian states and six countries, TTF Mumbai was a very successful three-day business event. Rajasthan was presented in a big way as the Partner State, while Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Lakshadweep and Kerala were the Feature States. They showcased the tourist attractions of their states and offered attractive packages and options for the upcoming holiday seasons. In addition, there was representation from the Host State Maharashtra, and various other states such as Assam, Goa, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Kerala, Odisha, Punjab, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and West Bengal.

Leading the international presence was Britain, the Feature Country. The other overseas destinations represented were Bhutan, China, Dubai, Japan and Maldives. Besides state and national tourism organisations, the event witnessed the presence of a large number of hotels, resorts, travel agents, tour operators, car rentals, cruise lines, railways, coach operators etc.

APART FROM being a beach holiday destination and an adventure lover’s paradise, Mauritius has also earned a reputation in adventure

Thrill awaits at Haunted Halloween 2012

GDP: Tourism contributes more than automobiles ACCORDING TO new research from the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) sponsored by the American Express, released at the ‘WTTC’s India Initiative Retreat’ in Bekal, Kerala recently — the Travel and Tourism industry in India is almost three times bigger than the size of automotive manufacturing industry and generates more jobs than chemical manufacturing, automotive manufacturing, communications and mining sectors added together.

The research, undertaken by Oxford Economics, shows that the sector’s direct contribution to India’s GDP is `2 billion, which is almost three times more than the contribution of automotive manufacturing. Travel and Tourism’s total contribution — including direct, indirect and induced impacts — to GDP in India was `6.7 billion, around 6.4 per cent of total GDP. This compares to 3.3 per cent for automotive manufacturing, 4.5 per cent for education and 3.7 per cent for the mining industry. Supporting 39 million direct, indirect and induced jobs in India, Travel & Tourism generates more jobs than mining industry and communications services.

BECOMING FRIENDS: Tourists with lions at the Casela Nature and Leisure Park, Mauritius

tourism. The country is offering its visitors a unique adventure of ‘Walk with the Lions’, in their natural habitat with perfect safety. This exclusive activity is available all year round at the Casela Nature and Leisure Park. Tourists can view the lions in close proximity. With the supervision and guidance of the lions’ handlers, one can have a firsthand experience of how it is to walk alongside the lions; lead with them and even pet them.

The park also features the sighting of white lion in the park which is becoming popular. Apart from walking with the lions, you can indulge in the activity where you can interact with cheetahs and can click the pictures with them. The walks are available daily in the morning between 8 am and 11 am and in the afternoon between 2 pm and 5 pm. Normally each walk lasts approximately an hour and consists of a small group of people. The visitors are even allowed to touch and strike a pose with the lions. They are provided a big stick and advised to keep it between them and the lions to show that “you are in charge”. Prior to first contact with these massive beauties, the lion handler briefs the tourists about the necessary do’s and don’ts whilst in their habitat.

A UNIQUE experience will be awaiting guests at Hong Kong Disneyland’s Haunted Halloween between October 4 and 31, 2012 (Thursday-Sunday). In an interesting event, the Park will witness the struggle for power to new heights with a smartphone app and an augmented reality (AR) game, together with various co-marketing promotions — “Choose Your Dark Side” now! There would be the chance to virtually meet and interact with the recruitment leaders of the two “evil forces” — the Vampire Coven and the Were Tribe.

At the Tomorrowland - Party Zone, an array of music, dance, stage performances and interactive games will provide guests with exciting entertainment options, including four nights of performances by the hot new pan-Asian girl band BLUSH, whose members come from five different countries in Asia. In addition, there will be performances by Diablo-End of Line, TRON City Dance Crew, the ElecTRONica Program Dancers and the spectacular Laserman Show. On Friday and Saturday nights, popular radio DJs

UNIQUE LAND: A view of the Disneyland in Hong Kong

will also take over the stage with their own brand of party games.

Guests can enjoy the Halloween fun throughout the entire park with a single ticket for the duration of Disney’s Haunted Halloween. Those who want to spend an entire day may consider buying a one-day ticket priced at $52, while those who fancy a wild night of frightful fun after 6 pm may choose the night ticket priced at $34.

CRUISING HEIGHTS October 2012

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BACK PAGE

4 3. UNDERSTANDING MECHANICS: Prince William and Mark King, President Rolls-Royce, chat 4. ALL ABOUT POWER: The Duchess of Cambridge reacts after testing the Trent 1000 engine.

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rince Britain's P HI-TECH: rine attend a G IN O G 1.

Cathe d his wife plant in William an at the Rolls Royce t en Singapore ev launch T: ING STAR 2. ZOOM ate ds after K au pl ap m st rince Willia y to launch the fir Britain's P a ceremon Trent 900 engine officiated

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R(IGHT) R(OYAL) BUMP

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arely do royalty test out engines — airplane engines manufacture Rolls-Royce hollow titanium WCFBs, a technoloin particular — preferring to sit in cockpits and pilot gy that has played a key role in the success of the Trent engine the aircraft or the helicopter as Prince William, the family.

The loud “Yes we will!” from the Duke came when he was Duke of Cambridge, is wont to do. In Singapore, however, the Prince and his lovely wife Catherine, jumped at offered to test one of the multimillion-pound machines during a the opportunity to test out a new Trent engine — yes, the ones guided tour of the state-of-the-art plant in Singapore. But he let that power the super jumbo A380s and the Boeing Dreamliners. his wife sporting an Alexander McQueen-designed white After all, it was an occasion that the royal couple would not broderie anglaise suit to get a taste of the action. She took her seat in front of a bank of computer screens and have missed for anything. To begin with, the put her hand on the throttle as the Prince kept engine was being produced by a company with a close watch. Soon enough, there was huge a blue-blooded British lineage: Rolls-Royce.

The Duke gave rumble as the Trent 1000 engine — this one And, most important, in these days of global a loud “Yes we for a Boeing 787 Dreamliner — started whinrecession, the move was a great thump in the ing and in a short while the Duchess brought it back for aviation, European and British busiwill” when back to a stop with a question for the test enginess. No wonder the Prince was effusive: offered to test neer: “Did that sound OK?” She laughed when “Here is cutting-edge aerospace technology she heard that it was perfect. When the developed by one of the United Kingdom’s the machine Duchess realised that some limit had been set great global companies…I know that Rollson the machine she tried out, she said amidst Royce sets as its standard that it should be ‘Trusted To Deliver Excellence’. There can be no doubt that laughter, “So I wouldn’t break (it).” That was not the end. The Duchess, on her part, also gave a big thumbs-up to British Seletar (the Singapore facility) will deliver exactly that.”

A key business hub for Rolls-Royce, the Singapore facility industry.

As she pushed a button that sent the last titanium blade to a was dubbed the ‘Facility of the Future’ when it was announced in 2007. In 2009, plans to build a new wide chord fan blade new Trent 900 engine, she turned to her husband and Mark (WCFB) factory that would be set up beside the facility was King, president of civil aerospace at Rolls-Royce, and pumped announced. The new factory was the first outside the UK to the air with her fist.

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CRUISING HEIGHTS October 2012