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EDITOR-IN-CHIEF’S NOTE

Hyderbad Blues

L

ast week, I travelled on one of the LCCs from Hyderabad to Delhi. It was my first experience on board this airline — and I must say, I was disappointed. No, not with the flight. The crusty British veteran in command seemed the only cheerful person on board. He had a freebie for the ladies (a free drink and sandwich) because it was international women’s day and didn’t have the monochrome tone and tenor that most commanders have when broadcasting on the public address system at 32000 feet. And I must confess, it was an uneventful comfortable flight that landed before time in Delhi because there was no traffic over the national capital!

The cabin crew looked like they were strolling at MG Road and giggling and laughing while they made up their minds on which movie to take in at the multiplex and where to jive once that was over. They were amateurish and downright tacky. I wouldn’t blame them for their demeanour. After all, what are you doing distributing sandwiches and litchi juice in your early twenties. It’s time to salsa and burn the floor and here they were working the aisles.

But the point is, most of them chose the aisle over the dance floor. The attractions of a glamorous job, zipping off to new cities each day and a comfortable pay packet has been too alluring and like Twenty20 cricket every young man (and woman) wants to have a taste of the magic. The consequences are there for everyone to see. Poor training and even poorer accent and pronunciation cause a huge mismatch between the travelling public and the people who are supposed to be their interface while on board. What makes it worse is the changing demographics of those on board.

Many of them are shy, unsure and hesitant to reach out for help. It happened on the way out to Hyderabad, again, on an LCC, departing bang on time. While it’s good to leave on time,

CRUISING HEIGHTS March 2008

some allowance has to be made to get passengers seated. So, here we had the spectacle of a big jamboree from Andhra Pradesh (looked like a marriage party on its visit trip by plane) desperately trying to find their seat numbers.

One of them shyly asked the passenger in front of my seat if he could take the middle seat in their row since that seemed his number.

Clearly, this gent, a seasoned traveller, had no desire to spend an hour and thirty minutes with a rustic next to him. He pointed towards the airhostess and fobbed him off. By this time the aircraft had started taxiing and there were still a good twenty odd people on the aisles searching desperately for their seats. Not wanting to compound the problem, the airhostess asked them to sit wherever they could.

So, there you were. Completely new in an alien atmosphere, sandwiched between strangers, not understanding the language or the signs above your head. Finally, when we were airborne and the seat belt signs were off, one of them gently got up and that was the sign for the rest to scamper around and try and place themselves with familiar faces.

Anyway, to come back to the return flight.

My colleague, a diabetic, would have preferred a low sugar drink to the syrupy Litchi mixture. But that wasn’t available.

Neither were there any burning beverages on board. “While I was willing to pass the absence of hot beverages, I think its unpardonable to not account for diabetics,” he said.

“Why don’t you give us your feedback,” drawled the steward.

But the form never came and there was no feedback.

As we were getting down in Delhi, I asked him about the form.

“We ran out of stock,” he informed me cheerily and added, “We look forward to welcoming you again.”

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Off the cuff

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Drop Mohali project?

The Amritsar Vikas Manch has demanded the dropping of the Mohali International Airport project. In different letters to all the big central leaders, Manch patron Dr Charanjit Singh Gumtala said that the proposed international airport at Mohali will encourage the flight of industry from Punjab to Badi and some nearby areas of Himanchal and Haryana. Mohali airport will not be of much benefit to Punjab as 12 out of 20 districts of Punjab are nearer to Amritsar than to Chandigarh. Among eight districts, which are close to Chandigarh, Patiala, Ropar and Mohali constitute only two percent of the total passenger traffic to foreign countries!

The manch leaders said that it is not wise for the Punjab government to waste staggering amount of 700-800 crore on a project, the benefit of which will be shared by Chandigarh, Haryana and Himachal as well. However, Mohali/ Chandigarh airport will not get required traffic for its successful operation from Himachal and Haryana, as 13 out of 16 districts of Haryana are nearer to Delhi than Chandigarh. Similarly 6 out of 12 districts of Himachal are nearer to Amritsar or are at the same distance from Chandigarh and Amritsar. Moreover, a very insignificant population of Himachal is settled abroad. It is also a fact that Haryana is not interested in Mohali airport because the state wants its new airport at Jajjhar. The Delhi airport will take care of almost all the traffic of Northern states for many years after its expansion at a whopping 8,900 crore.

Similarly, Amritsar airport will also take care of the whole traffic of Punjab for many years after its expansion in 2008.

Well, one man — make it two — Praful Patel and Sukhbir Badal — won’t be amused by all this!

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contents

READY FOR THE WORLD

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The long-awaited Greenfield airports at Hyderabad and Bangalore are ready. Both will not only usher in a significant change in the country’s aviation scenario but also spur much-needed connectivity between the two technology hubs and international destinations.

AIR CARGO NEWS DIGEST

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Naresh Goyal comes down bluntly on the lack of infrastructure in the aviation sector as airlines scale down their fleet in exasperation.

CRUISING HEIGHTS March 2008

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Hyderbad is ready and so is Bengaluru — albeit the slight delay. The two should spell happiness for the aircargo industry but they have not. The lack of infrastructure has already started creating dissatisfacton and heartburn in the cargo community.

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ARTICLES NEWS VIEWS EDITS INTERVIEWS CLIPPINGS TRAVEL & TOURISM PROFILES NEWS DIGEST

INTERVIEW

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C. W. Foo, GM, Singapore Airlines talks about India plans and the thrust on providing more connectivity between India and the South East Asia.

CRUISING HEIGHTS K. SRINIVASAN Editor-in-Chief

TIRTHANKAR GHOSH Managing Editor

R. KRISHNAN

Consulting Editor

SPOTLIGHT

BIPIN SHARMA

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Associate Editor

AALOK SRIVASTAV

Air India’s direct flight between New Delhi and New York may be a long one but it is certainly not a tiring one. With extra large 180 degrees beds and the pampering by the cabin crew, the experience is one that cannot be easily forgotten.

Copy Editor

BIRENDRA KUMAR Copy Desk

RUCHI SINHA PRADEEP JHA

GLOBETROTTING

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The Scotland airport has had it up to here with cabbies relieving themselves in the bushes near the main entrance.

A teeny-weeny pin brings down the entire aircraft.

Layout Artists

BHART BHARDWAJ Art Director

H.C. TIWARI

Co-ordinating Photo Editor

JAYA SINGH Subscription

Form IV (See Rule 8)

SNIPPETS

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Visit London to host TAAI conference, 2008. Malaysia Airlines offers special package for New Zealand. Lufthansa’s special Menu for kids is a big hit. Deccan beefs up connections.

BACK PAGE

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Richard Brandson’s Virgin Galactic, that’ll take tourists into space, looks like something straight out of science fiction.

RAJIV SINGH

CRUISING HEIGHTS

1. Place of Publication 2. Periodicity of Publication 3. Printer's Name Whether Citizen of India?

(If foreigner, state the country of origin) Address

: : : : :

New Delhi Monthly K. Srinivasan Yes Not Applicable

Gen. Manager (Admn.)

:

4. Publisher's Name Whether Citizen of India?

(If foreigner, state the country of origin) Address

: : :

4C Pocket-IV, Mayur Vihar, Phase-I, Delhi-110091 K. Srinivasan Yes Not Applicable

5. Editor's Name Whether Citizen of India?

(If foreigner, state the country of origin) Address

: : :

Editorial & Marketing office: Newsline Publications Pvt. Ltd. C-15, Sector 6, Noida 201 301 Telefax: +91-120-4257701-03 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 110091 and printed by him at Nutech Photolithographers, B-240, Okhla Industrial Area, Phase-I, New Delhi 110 020 Vol II No 11

:

4C Pocket- IV, Mayur Vihar, Phase-I, Delhi-110091 K. Srinivasan Yes Not Applicable

4C Pocket- IV, Mayur Vihar, Phase-I, Delhi-110091 6. Name, Address : 4C Pocket- IV, Mayur Vihar, of individuals who own the Phase-I, Delhi-91 newspaper and the partners 1. Renu Mittal or shareholders holding more 2. K. Srinivasan than one per cent of the total capital I, K. Srinivasan, hereby declare that the particulars given are true to the best of my knowledge and belief.

Date: 26 February, 2008

:

sd/K. Srinivasan Publisher

CRUISING HEIGHTS March 2008

RENU MITTAL Executive Director

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Shocking baba!

PERISCOPE

“

Either security personnel failed to detect it, or they were lax because he was a pilot. Either way, it is a failure. Smoking inside aircraft is strictly prohibited. The allegations and the footage are frightening. We will get to the bottom of the case.

KANU GOHAIN, DGCA Director General, on smoking incidents on Spicejet.

LETTERS TO EDITOR

THE COVER STORY, We have a star (February ’08) was interesting. The Air India and Star Alliance merger spells a great future for Air India. The coveted slot of being a Star Alliance member would once again put Air India in the reckoning, which for quite some time has taken a pounding from other private airlines. Air India becoming a Star Alliance member is a slap on the face on private airline operators. While it might be an indication of the coming of rosy days for Air India, it would also put the responsibility on the carrier to serve its customers better than it does now.

Vinay Shahi, New Delhi February 2008

Illustrations: Rajeev Kumar

Travel and tourism sector in India is likely to grow to 26.1 billion dollars by 2010, nearly a quarter of which, 6.02 billion dollars are likely to come from online booking of hotels, air and rail tickets. Online travel reservations last year, contributed 11 per cent to India’s total travel revenues of 15.95 billion dollars, at 1.75 billion dollars.

Rs 60

It was great reading the cover story. The story gave the pros and cons of the Air India and Star Alliance tie-up.

Besides, the V. Thulasidas interview added the icing on the cake. Air India and Star alliance will surely put Air India as a frontrunner for the customer’s choice. Also, with the opening of the new airports — Hyderabad and Bangalore — Air India will be provided the much-needed support it needs to extend its operations thereby enhancing its brand image among customers. I only hope that in the coming days, Air India will surely redeem its lost status.

Ajay Dayal, Patna

4

Booming business

The cargo story, Nagpur Multi Modal Hub: A big push for air cargo (February ’08) regarding the clearance of Nagpur as a multi-modal hub project made interesting reading. The story provided some insights about Nagpur emerging as a cargo hub in the future. Indeed, the city is an ideal choice. MIHAN will surely put air cargo operations of India on the world map. The only factor is that it should be completed in time. The project would be a win-win situation for both: air cargo operators as well as MIHAN. Neha Tyagi, Varanasi All correspondence may be addressed to Editor, Cruising Heights, C-15, Sector 6, Noida 201 301 OR mail to newslinepublications@rediffmail.com

RAM BADRINATHAN, PhoCus Wright Senior Director, Research, on the growth of online travel business.

We are working on it There will be route rationalisation and that exercise is on. But it is a complex exercise as both the airlines together connect 69 destinations, operating 570 flights daily. There is need for both the airlines to ply on metro routes. Deccan will pull out from the sector where it is losing money and Kingfisher will do the same.

The only question is that of profitability of the routes.

CAPTAIN GOPINATH, Simplifly Kingfisher Vice Chairman, on the route rationalisation process.

Big plans

In the next 12 months or so, the ministry plans to separate the role of the regulator and the investigator — both of which are vested in the DGCA as of now. The decision is being taken as it is part of the international practices the ministry wishes to adopt for the civil aviation sector. Though we are very happy and fortunate that there have been no major accidents, in case of any, the need to have separate regulator and investigative authority will be strongly felt. So, there is a case for re-engineering and restructuring DGCA’s role.

ASHOK CHAWLA, Civil Aviation Secretary, on the plans of his ministry regarding the DGCA.

Strong beginning We believe this agreement has the potential to develop into a more broad-based alliance that would enable both organisations to utilise the most competitive resources.

RAVI KANT, Tata Motors MD, on his company’s collaboration with Boeing.

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Airline advertising took to the skies in 2007

during 2007.

Domestic Airlines garnered 69 per cent share of airline sector advertising in print during 2007.

Air India and Deccan Aviation Pvt Ltd had close competition for the first position in the domestic airlines advertisers’ list.

Emirates Airlines was the top advertiser among the international airlines in print during 2007.

According to exchange4media, aviation and advertising is big ticket business 23 per cent growth in print advertising of the airline sector during 2007 compared to 2006.

Airline sector advertising at its peak during the 3rd quarter of 2007.

‘General Interest’ Newspapers and ‘News/Current Affairs’ Magazines had maximum share of airline sector advertising

Emirates SkyCargo was awarded the prestigious Gold award in the 2008 Air Transport World AdAward Cargo Services category. Prakash Nair, Manager Network Cargo Sales Development is pictured receiving the award of behalf of Emirates SkyCargo from Ann Haigh, Managing Director of Air Transport World.

COLD STATS

LOOKING GLASS

Give us a green field and we will give you a spanking new Hyderabad-like airport?

Greater Noida, are you listening?

Come into my parlour… oops!… airport! We have been ready for a long time but there are people who don't want us to open.

What about poor me? With the kind of charges that the two high-fliers have computed, low-cost air travel is hardly low-cost any longer.

King Cargo?

We are looking at a dedicated cargo service, but a final decision is yet to be taken. We hope to take a final decision in three months. An international tie-up would obviously make sense.

HITESH PATEL, Kingfisher Airlines VP, on their cargo plans.

Like it, cuss it CUSS and CUTE installed within the passenger check-in areas in the passenger terminals as well as kiosks separately, will enable passengers to get their boarding passes quickly without going to check-in counters and finish the process.

SANJAY REDDY, Mumbai Airport Vice Chairman, on the facilities put up by the airport for the convenience of the passengers.

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OFF THE RECORD

Stunning

Wedding

V

ic Dunca, the amiable Filipino now resettled in the US and a key advisor to Jet Airways Chairman Naresh Goyal, was dumbstruck by the magical spectacle. As he told friends, he had never seen anything like this, not even in Hollywood! Well, Dunca wasn’t on any Bollywood set and comparing notes between the Hindi film industry and the original in Beverly Hills. He was talking about the wedding and reception of Praful Patel’s second daughter Niyati in the city of lakes, Udaipur.

Well, Dunca wasn’t alone in soaking in the festivities. It was truly a fairytale setting at the Jag Mandir in Lake Pichola, just minutes away from another iconic Udaipur structure — the Lake Palace Hotel where all the guests were staying.

As one blogger, Som, wrote on the net: “Udaipur’s Jag Mandir Palace was decked up in all finery on Sunday (February 23) evening. After all, it is not

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Scenes from Udaipur: Do these pictures need any explaining? The weather was just perfect, the ambience brilliant and the guests - well, full of stardust. It was truly an evening to remember!

everyday that its flooring is changed, walls get a lick of paint and elephants and camels stand guard on its door… all for a wedding!

But when the host of the evening is Union Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel and the guests include the veritable who’s who of India’s political, biz and cineworld, a grand affair is to be expected.

The nuptials of Niyati and Samarth were done in a traditional manner… marigold flowers all over the palace, guests dressed in red and gold and Rajasthani music playing in the background. A mind-boggling variety of eats and drinks completed the picture.”

Well, you got into the fairytale setting, if you managed to get out of the crowded parking lot that was Udaipur airport. It was like one of those airports around LAX (Los Angeles Airport) that has these Silicon Valley types parking their Lear jets and Kingairs all around after their week-end spin.

There was Mukesh Ambani’s aircraft, there was the familiar Raymond insignia on the tail, there was JSW and dozens of other aircraft. Udaipur had never seen so many flying machines at one place at one time. Why, some aircraft even had to move on to Ahmedabad and come back to land later because there wasn’t enough place to park!

Just ten days earlier, the new arrival terminal at Udaipur had been thrown open. It is spacious, well-designed and very modern. Actually, AAI sources say that the opening was on schedule, but not wanting to distract and create a controversy, they simply decided to go ahead with a soft opening rather than an elaborate ceremony.

There was Vijaya Mallya talking alternately to Lalit Modi and Captain Gopinath (sporting a traditional veeshti and accompanied by his low profile wife), there was the GMR family, the GVK family, the Ambani family, Anuradha and Anand Mahindra, Rahul Bajaj, Parmeshwar and Adi Godrej, Jeh Wadia and Preity Zinta, Shubash Ghai and Anil Kapoor, Fardeen and Mallika, Salmaan, Shahrukh and Karan, Vinod Khanna and Hema Malini… and on and on, the list is endless. Of course, there was Siddhanta and the rest of the airline guys, there was Secretary Ashok Chawla and his wife and the rest of the top brass from the Ministry of Civil Aviation.

Then, there was the Netas galore: Lalu Prasad, Vilasrao Deshmukh, Natwar Singh, Renuka Chowdhury and Omar and Farooq Abdullah with Sharad Yadav keeping Natwar Singh company.

As he explained in his own inimitable style: “Bhai buzurg hain, kisi ko to saath rahana chahiye.” Priya and Vikram Chatwal put in one of their rare appearances together at the do too. There were many like Vic who were savouring the sheer magic of the moment. Another one was Qatar Airways chief Akbar Al Baker. He was quietly going from stall to stall, looking at the eats and enjoying the moment in the company of Naresh Trehan.

The entry of the evening went to Shah Rukh Khan — who came late, left early and posed for shutterbugs inbetween. His fave line to shutterbugs: “I will give you one second, but I will pose.”

A veritable who’s who

Celebrations in Mumbai

You had them all there: Netas, Abhinetas, businessmen and industrialists.

Earlier, in Mumbai, there had been two lavish parties to herald the pre-wedding

A crowded parking lot

CRUISING HEIGHTS March 2008

festivities. Nita and Mukesh Ambani had an exclusive party at Sea Wind while Rama and Venugopal Dhoot hosted another at the Marriot.

Reported the Mumbai Times: “Narayan Rane, Anil Deshmukh and Sharad Pawar mingled with corporates Adi and Parmeshwar Godrej, the latter looking chic in a red sari with a backless blouse, Rahul Bajaj, Niraj and Minal Bajaj, Anu and Anand Mahendra, Niranjan Hiranandani, Harsh Goenka, Vinod Mittal and Vivek Talwar.

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OFF THE RECORD

The Jag Mandir glittering in the background as a motor boat full of guests makes its way to the venue

“Sisters Shilpa and Shamita Shetty walked in together, as did sisters Karisma and Kareena Kapoor, both looking stunning in white saris. The rest of Bollywood strolled in later — Rani Mukerji, Hrithik and Sussane Roshan (Hrithik being showered with praises for his brilliant performance as Akbar) and Aamir Khan. Among the others present were Hetal and Bijal Meswani, Peter Mukherjea, Vinod and Kavita Khanna, Dilip and Manali Vengsarkar, Chakor, Champa and Chirag Doshi, Simi Garewal, A.

N. Roy, Atul Kasbekar... the list is endless.

“It was a triple celebration for the Patels, it also being Varsha Patel’s birthday on Saturday and Praful’s on Sunday. The hosts invited the Patel family on stage to cut the cake and pop open the champagne; making for a small trip down nostalgia lane as Praful reminded the guests how exactly a year ago, he was standing on the same stage thanking Mukesh and Nita for the party they had hosted for the wedding of his eldest daughter Avani.

“No important occasion of my family starts without Nita and Mukesh,” smiled Praful.

The next day’s party hosted by Rama and Venugopal Dhoot for the Patels also drew the powerful A-listers. “Mukesh and Nita Ambani, Adi Godrej, Hafeez Contractor and Sunil Alagh were enjoying the evening that was bifurcated into two segments, with a modern art-meets-dance pro-

gramme in between. The guests then trickled into the dinner area, to enjoy the lavish buffet spread.

Among the politicos one spotted Chhagan Bhujbal, Sushil Kumar Shinde and Subirammi Reddy. Making a rare appearance was banking bigshot K. V. Kamath. Appreciating the musical evening were Pankaj and Farida Udhas. A. N. Roy also joined in the celebrations, and greeted Suniel and Mana Shetty who were entering when he was leaving. Naresh Goyal was seen in the company of Mohammed Azharuddin and wife Sangita. Cyrus Poonawalla headed straight from the race course, so to speak, for an upcoming vintage car rally. Jay Mehta and Juhi Chawla, Chunkey Pandey and Preeti Jhangiani sans Parvin were among the other guests present at this splendid party.

Guests were in for a nice surprise when Shiamak Davar treated them to a special live performance. From Tina Turner’s Simply The Best to Bollywood hits Do You Wanna Partner, Dus Bahane and Bhool Bhulaiyya, Shiamak and his troupe kept the energy levels soaring. But the highlight was when, midway through his performance, Shiamak requested everyone to stand up and dance as he called the couple, the hosts and whoever else wanted to join in, to come on stage for a “mini dance class”. And sportingly, it was Nita, Praful, Shekhar Kapur, Bakul Patel, Hema Malini, Sanjay and Zarine Khan and Hema Deora, amongst others, who shook a leg to Dhoom Machale, as Shiamak made Hrithik Roshans out of all of them.

Definitely worth a loud applause!

More about

I

Mantriji

f you want to know more about Praful Manoharbhai Patel then pick up the latest copy of Society, Nari Hira’s Indian equivalent of the People magazine. Well we all know the airport and aviation side of Praful Patel, but here are a few gems from the article on his choices in life, his personal preferences and his love for Gondia.

On Anil Ambani: I don’t want to comment on why Anil Ambani did what

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he did… I have always been very close to the Ambani family. Dhirubhai was a father figure to me and I still feel the entire family is still very close to me, just as I am to them… He understands that there is nothing personal about it. Also, I was not the only one taking decision.

There was a group of six ministers taking decisions on the issue.

On his bidi background: I don’t like the tag of being called a Bidi king but I’ll be happy to be called a bidiwala. We

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OFF THE RECORD employ close to 50000 people to roll bidis. More than 60 per cent of them are women.

On his sartorial tastes: I am not a suit lover, though I have picked up a few suits abroad. But, I am happy and most comfortable in my kurta pyjama… it is stitched by my tailor in Gondia. But I do love my Frank Muller watches.

On his role as a parent: I am an emotional father and would do anything for my family. It comes first in any scheme of things. It’s always an endeavour to spend Sunday afternoon with them and I try to make it a ritual as far as possible.

On Gondia: Gondia is not a sophisticated place and is yearning for development. It is my constituency and, of course, it is my duty to look after the interest of the people. It is a part of India and if I have the opportunity, why should I not do something for my constituency.

It is an interesting article excepting the fact that it talks about Praful wearing Versace. That’s the last thing Praful does. The man from Gondia doesn’t wear Versace, he does like Frank Muller watches and Bally shoes. But Versace, no thanks. Who needs a Versace when you can carry off your Bally with panache over a kurta pyjama!

Everyone wants

a plane to K. P. Singh of DLF or Ravi Ruia. Both are believed to have said “No” when last reports came in. Sahara boss Subroto Roy also tried to palm off his BBJ (Boeing Business Jet) to K. P. Singh. That is ready for delivery in April and he owns 51 per cent of the aircraft with 49 per cent with Sivasankaran. But the deal apparently fell through because of the cash involved.

Clockwise K. P. Singh, Ravi Ruia, Subrata In any case, Singh has now Roy and G. M. Rao bought himself a Falcon 900. ell, Airbus has tried its but to Meanwhile, GMR has also got into the sell its Airbus Corporate Jet acquisition spree and has bought a brand (ACJ) to Anil Ambani. But new Bell 407 for operational purposes. having dropped out at the last minute, Whether it’s for use in Delhi, Hyderabad Airbus then tried to sell the luxury A319 or Bangalore remains to be seen.

W

fire. They were envious of him for having single-handedly negotiated the gargantuan 100 aircraft Indigo deal keeping all of them outside the loop. Now that he was squirmemember Nigel Harwood? Well, for ing, there were yelps of joy. Anyway to cut those of you with a short memory, a long story short, Harwood soon left AirNigel was the Brit in a predominant bus and joined Kingfisher Airlines as its French company who temporarily shelved CEO. But that wasn’t a long-term sojourn the redoubtable Kiran Rao and was at the and soon Harwood was back in England. forefront of the Airbus operations in the Well, Nigel is now back and he is with sub-continent. Well, Nigel literally set the the company whose 100 aircraft deal he Yamuna on fire when he angrily reacted to originally piloted – InterGlobe enterprises Air India (at that time there was IA ands – as head of their General Aviation diviAI)’s decision to plump for sion. At the Paris Airshow, in the 777s and 787s instead of June 2007, InterGlobe Enterwhat Airbus was offering. prises signed a long-term He told journalists that it sales and servicing agreement was a fit case for investigawith Hawker Beechcraft to tion by the Vigilance Comsell and maintain its products missioner and hinted that in the sub-continent.

Airbus could well think of The enterprise has already doing so. When a hailstorm obtained a hangar in doubleof protests broke out, Harquick speed at Delhi airport. wood ducked under the It’s the same hangar number radar and Airbus gently one that was once used by Nigel Harwood cleared the air. Privately, of Indian Airlines for its 737s. course, they said that Hardwood had spo- With most of them grounded or converted ken out of turn but were delighted that he into spanking new freighters, the hangar was squirming in his seat pants. was returned to DIAL who has now given It isn’t that they were delighted at the it to InterGlobe for their General Aviation. bad publicity for Airbus. They were down- Nigel heads that operation. For the record right worried. At the same time, they were former IA engineer V K Jain is also on delighted that Harwood was in the line of board the project.

Hello Nigel!

R

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Gopi’s plans

Gopinath

C

aptain Gopinath and Jude Fonseca (formerly of UPS) have decided to lease five Airbus A310s from ETA (Dubai). All the five aircraft are on lease with Air India at the moment and are being returned one by one. The aircraft will be converted into 100 per cent freighters before being handed over to the new logistics company that Gopi is setting up. In his second innings, Gopi hopes to rival UPS and FedEx in the cargo business.

Watch this space for an update.

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o, who will finally be the Chairman and Managing Director at Air India? Ask Praful Patel and the good man raises his eyebrows and says, “Let us see. Where are the names, they have still to come to me.”

But those in the know have a different story to tell. That Mantriji left the whole thing hanging fire till very late and as a consequence, he is now finding it very difficult to reconcile various streams of thought (and pressures) and finalise and forward the most suitable name for the top job in the country’s biggest airline.

One reason could be that Mantriji hardly spent any time in Delhi through February.

He was busy with his daughter’s marriage and party affairs. In fact, he was so tied up that even Secretary Ashok Chawla couldn’t get what was in his mind. After all, he was

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till a suitable name can be finalised. That would mean a brief extension of three or six months till a successor is appointed. Would that mean a rejection of Vishwapati Trivedi’s candidature? As the Joint Managing Director, he is ideally placed to replace Thulasidas. He has close to two years to go from his five-year tenure as CMD of Indian Airlines (now part of AI), has appeared before the search committee and as an insider (after all, he has been there for three years) the committee should not find any reason to look beyond him. But all the uncertainty has led to anxiety and a few questions about the Minister’s thinking.

Option two: Simple. Replace Thulasidas with Trivedi. After all he has spent three years in the business.

Option three: Look for an outsider (read Arvind Mayaram) to bring in some

time long-term IA employee) to hold fort till a new candidate can be finalised or just hand the job to him. There were three of them who were interviewed for the job: Finance Director Chandrashekar, Director (Personnel) Anoop Shrivastava and Director at large (he is still waiting to cut his teeth into a meaty assignment and is the equivalent of a minister without portfolio) Amod Sharma.

But that looks highly unlikely. The last person to hold that job for a reasonable period of time was R. Prasad and since then it has been finito as far as insiders are concerned.

Why, his protégé, Sushma Chawla who was the airline’s director (finance) for years wasn’t given wholetime charge after Sunil Arora demitted charge? The political bosses clearly prefer the IAS to head the organisation.

Option five: Split the positions and have two instead of one. This was something

Consider the

options Ashok Chawla

there as part of the search committee and if he could gauge the minister’s choice, life would have been much easier at the meeting. But that was not to be.

Those in the know state that the search committee that met at the Cabinet Secretariat on March 6 with nine candidates had made up its mind and forwarded the names for consideration by Praful Patel. But ask Rajiv Gandhi Bhawan sources and they say that isn’t true. There are no names, as yet.

So what’s the likely outcome? Here are a few possible scenarios: Option one: Present incumbent Vasudevan Thulasidas is asked to continue

R. K. Singh

Vishwapati Trivedi

V. Thulasidas

Raghu Menon

Maharaja

fresh perspective and say “Tata, bye-bye” to all the front-runners and incumbents. While there are many formidable forces backing Mayaram, there is one school of thought that says that Mayaram may not get it for two reasons. One, the forces that are batting for him could have overdone the pinch-hitting.

Moreover, there is a cushy job lined up for him at the Reserve Bank. Would he like to let that bird in the hand go for one that is still in the bush? So far, no other names are being talked about although privately there are reports of three other candidates getting their patrons to strongly push their case.

Option four: Get an insider (a whole-

that was considered in the past and left on the backburner. But that seems to have been revived in the past few weeks. So, one could well see two babus at the helm at Nariman Point instead of one. That would give Praful some time to ponder over the long-term strategy for the Maharaja, make the babus happy with two jobs instead of one and bridge the distance between Nariman Point and Rajiv Gandhi Bhawan. The point is, will it be Tulasi and Trivedi, Trivedi and someone else or Tulasi and someone else?

Now, toss the options and choose the one you like. In a few weeks, this game will be over.

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T R. Krishnan

Past experience suggests that often people used the check facilities to implicate officials who might have belonged to the previous regime or where there was a personality clash between the IAS CEO of the concerned PSU and the ministerin-charge 12

HE NATIONAL AVIATION Company of India Limited (NACIL) — the merged entity of Air India and Indian has joined select big PSUs like ONGC, SAIL and Concor, which have taken steps to check kickbacks and malpractices in global tenders floated by them. Called Integrity Pact, it provides for appointing independent monitors who will supervise tendering processes from time of its issue till it is executed. As per an agreement signed by NACIL, there will be monitors who will be persons of high integrity, preferably with background in CAG, CVC, Secretaries to Government of India, etc.

The tool developed by Transparency International (an international body with an India chapter), which has been fighting corruption by drawing up annual corruption index for sovereign nations, will also be

used by NACIL in its future deals. In any case, being in public sector, NACIL is subject to CAG and CVC guidelines, besides, of course, being under the threat of being investigated by CBI, should any serious allegation be made. But, past experience suggests that often people used the check facilities to implicate officials who might have belonged to the previous regime or where there was a personality clash between the IAS CEO of the concerned PSU and the minister-in-charge, depending upon the latter’s flamboyance. Perhaps, afraid of such a past, when the Indian Airlines (in 2002) board decided in favour of Airbus aircraft, its then CEO made sure that not only the details of evaluation and the way the decision was arrived at — based on technical and financial bids — be referred to both the CAG and CVC but also constituted a special committee under a former C&AG to finalise

Transparency or

OPACITY? Sunil Arora

Created a tectonic shift in the acquisition process by having a pre-order vetting by top anti graft agencies rather than have allegations surface post the order. There has not been a word of murmur on the acquisitions since the deal was signed.

K. Ramalingam

Ramalingam once more faces the same old story: Kahin pe nigahen, kahin pe nishana.

They will now build the airport terminals and then hand them over to the private sector for day-to-day running.

So, why have the AAI then, when the CPWD can do the same job!

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Rajeev Chandrashekar

EADS is acquiring a 24 per cent stake in Indian Aero Ventures, promoted by Rajeev Chandrasekhar, for Rs 131.2 crore. Given the deal size, the value of the promoter's holding would be close to Rs 415 crore, about 90 times his initial investment in just one year. Chandrashekar has no experience in aviation!

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the prices (called the price negotiation team) which Indian Airlines would pay to buy the 43 Airbus aircraft. Once done, the matter was referred to an Empowered Group of Ministers who called the manufacturers Airbus in the case of Indian Airlines, and Boeing in the case of Air India, to make the presentations and seal the deal. Such a step initiated by former Indian CEO, Sunil Arora, a Rajasthan cadre IAS officer has stood the test of time and no allegation of any kickback or malpractice has been made by even the worst critic since September 7, 2005 when the deal was officially announced by Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel.

While I give full marks to the person who enabled such a tectonic shift in the thought process that had an element of a future vision, it is also true that the decision-making process today is not totally adulteration free. Earlier, Air India executives were hauled up and slapped with CBI cases on frivolous grounds. The charge was that their decision caused monetary loss to the carrier. It might have been true in some cases but in many it was not so as it became evident after the closure of the cases. So what NACIL has now done by co-opting the tool developed by Transparency International could serve as a check not only to ensure corruption-free deals but also save officials from unnecessary “official harassment of CVC and CBI”. Even as we witness this, serious fault lines in the laid-down process have refused to go.

Pratyush Sinha

Vijay Shankar

Time and again major cases of intervention in the tendering process, particularly at AAI, have come up before CVC. But their own decision making process has been nothing but opaque. At the end, the CVC is only bothered about the construction of the file, not the process.

The last time IA purchased aircraft their then CEO – R. Prasad – was raided by the CBI and a case filed in court. After years and years, he had to get the courts to intervene to have his passport released. There wasn’t a shred of evidence against him.

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After the Airports Authority of India finalised the process for tendering city-side development of select airports of the 35 non-metro airports that are being modernised at a cost of Rs 40,000 crore, the process has slowed down slightly. I am informed that at a recent meeting the private part of the Public-Private Partnership model got distorted. It was widely believed that the terminals that will be built by AAI will be manned by its staff and the private partners in the project would develop the cityside across the terminal for development of commercial complexes, hotels, etc. When the minutes of the meeting were finalised in the ministry, it showed that AAI would be responsible for construction of only the new terminal building. Once done, it would be handed over to the private partner for its regular running, upkeep, and maintenance.

In a way, the Ministry of Civil Aviation has become the first to arrange the “disinvestment of workers themselves, if not shares” under the UPA regime. Now, where will these AAI employees go? By keeping AAI workers out, the Ministry is seeking to do what even the Left dependent Government of India has been unable to — “Implement an Exit Policy”. The last I heard, discussions are still on.

Recently, Air India signed as a third partner of a consortium to set up an MRO, with other members being EADS and Rajeev Chandrashekar’s Jupiter Aviation. Earlier, Jupiter joined with Snecma and Indian for an engine MRO. It was only an MoU. The deal signed by Air India in January ’08 in New Delhi during the visit of the French President Nicholas Sarkozy was for a JV. When Airbus signed the Indian Airlines deal, Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel had announced that Airbus would help locate a partner to set up the MRO. Now, the principal of Airbus Industrie, EADS itself has become an equity partner in the MRO. But, how did Air India become part of it?

Agreed, EADS is not cause for any problem to Air India. But how did Jupiter become a part of it without any experience in aircraft/ engine maintenance? It could be argued that it is Air India that joined the EADS — Jupiter JV. Fine. Should Transparency International not develop tools where PSUs like Air India have a list of dos and don’ts before they become part of new business venture?

Could Air India have directly chosen Jupiter? Perhaps yes, since there is an escape route whereby up to certain investment limit, PSUs can take their own decision. There is lack of transparency, national

and international.

(Veteran journalist and long time aviation watcher R. Krishnan is Consulting Editor at CH. He can be reached at rkrishnanji@yahoo.com) CRUISING HEIGHTS March 2008

Should Transparency International not develop tools where PSUs like Air India have a list of dos and don’ts before they become part of new business venture?

Could Air India have directly chosen Jupiter?

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NEWS DIGEST

Straight and blunt N

Naresh Goyal

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to the fore the sorry state of affairs of infrastructure, both in terms of airport facilities and ATM system. It was a straight talking avatar of Naresh Goyal — no holds barred and say it as it is.

While what he said is true, much of the problem was self-inflicted — a view Naresh Goyal strongly put forward at the lecture. As he mentioned, the operators themselves had played a large part in creating the situation by pursuing irrational pricing policies often charging fares that had not covered cost, providing excess capacity and offering unsustainable pay and allowance packages to attract qualified and trained personnel leading to “unachievable break-down load factors”.

“My God, it was horrible”

ccording To one newspaper, the coconut escapade qualified more as gimmick than stunt. They were talking about Richard Branson’s Virgin Flight 811P that took off from London’s Heathrow some weeks back fueled in part, by 150000 coconuts and babassu nuts picked in the Amazon rainforest.

Virgin Atlantic Airlines President Richard Branson drank some of the jet fuel made with oil from coconuts and Brazilian babassu nuts with a stiff smile.

“It’s more appropriate for the engine,” he said before TV cameras. Later, he said privately that he had been told he could drink it, “but my God, it was horrible.”

The Boeing 747 touched down safely 40 minutes later in Amsterdam.

The idea was to show that it’s not impossible for airlines to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. But the plane’s fuel tanks contained only a small amount of biofuels, in this case a mix of coconut oil from 150000 coconuts and a similar oil made from Brazilian babassu nuts.

Three of the plane four tanks carried normal aviation fuel (kerosene). The fourth contained 80 per cent kerosene and 20 per cent coconut/babassu oil. In other words, only five per cent of the fuel was biofuel. Calling this a biofuelpowered flight is a stretch.

“This is the first stage on a journey towards renewable fuel,” Virgin’s founder Richard Branson told hundreds of journalists gathered to watch the take-off. “It’s the equivalent of those exciting first few

14

aresh Goyal, the home grown tycoon in the business of flying, can give a lesson or two to the best from India’s own IIMs or those from the US Ivy League.

Even though he shifted lock, stock and barrel to London to enjoy the NRI status, his heart remains in India as evident from the tears he shed the other day at the hapless state of infrastructure in his own desh.

Delivering the Neelakantan Memorial Lecture in Chennai on the occasion of the annual meeting of the Aeronautical Society of India, Jet Airways Chairman Naresh Goyal (for full text Please see Can we get our act together? – Page 22) said the rapid strides that the Indian civil aviation industry has been making in the recent years has brought

steps by a baby.”

But what does this flight prove? Only that biofuel can work at 25000 feet: it won’t freeze at 30 degrees below zero. But as Branson said, this is a baby step. Only one of the 747’s four engines was powered by a biofuel blend: 20 per cent biofuel and 80 per cent conventional aviation fuel.

In preparation for the flight, Boeing, GE Aviation and Imperium Renewable conducted extensive laboratory and staticengine testing to evaluate the energy and performance properties of the biofuel blend used in the flight. The Virgin Atlantic flight is the first step in a broader

industrywide technology initiative to commercialise alternative fuel sources for aviation.

There are some bigger steps that must be taken before biofuel is used for aviation. First up, a sustainable and viable

CRUISING HEIGHTS March 2008

source of biofuel must be found. Corn, palm oil or coconuts are not the answer: Rainforest is cleared for their production or they compete with traditional agriculture and take up land that is needed to grow food. Fuel from algae might be the answer. But most experts think that technology is a long way off. Decades, perhaps.

In another part of Europe, around the same time (mid February), an Airbus A380 aircraft successfully completed the world’s first ever flight by a commercial aircraft using a liquid fuel processed from gas (Gas to Liquids - GTL) in the first stage of a test flight programme to evaluate the environmental impact of alternative fuels in the airline market. The flight from Filton, UK to Toulouse, France, lasted three hours.

Rolls Royce Trent 900 engines power the A380. Shell International Petroleum provided the Shell GTL Jet Fuel. The tests are running parallel to the agreement signed in November 2007 with the Qatar GTL consortium partners and the results will be shared.

The A380 was chosen because the aircraft is already the environmental benchmark in air travel. It has four engines including segregated fuel tanks, making it ideal for engine shut down and re-light tests under standard evaluation conditions. During the flight, engine number one was fed with a blend of GTL and jet fuel whilst the remaining three were fed with standard jet fuel.

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NEWS DIGEST did not say no to the fleet acquisition plan of either Jet or others already well entrenched in business. But, when it came to the question of dealing with central and state government levies, especially on ATF, all of them failed to get their message across, howsoever logical it was.

Just about two months ago, Air India chief V. Thulasidas made a presentation to the assembled Chief Secretaries of various state governments in Delhi on the occasion of a special meeting convened by the Ministry of Civil Aviation to impress upon the former to bring down the sales tax on ATF. Except for Andhra Pradesh which has agreed to bring down sales tax to four per cent on ATF (the exact rate on ATF, should the Centre amend the laws to include Finance Minister P. Chidambaram

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g n i p p o h s e h t g n i c Redu

INFRASTRUCTURE NEWS

reflection on what Naresh Goyal said has already dawned on the industry — at least for close to one year now. Except for his own airlines, some others in the business of flying people in India had scaled back their aircraft acquisition programme while the mai-baap, the Ministry of Civil Aviation had raised invisi-

16

ble entry barriers on new applicants who have been knocking at the doors of Rajiv Gandhi Bhavan for more than two years to get a licence.

Well, it is a different matter that the much maligned inter-faith between a particular airline and the Ministry did not help in addressing certain issues raised by Goyal as the official aircraft acquisition committee

Airport infrastructure policy by April The civil aviation ministry is planning to come out with a policy to ensure easy development of airport infrastructure across the country by April this year. The ministry is also planning easier rules for development of airport infrastructure.

“We are waiting for the Cabinet's approval and the policy will be notified in a month or two. There will be much simpler rule than the existing one,” civil aviation minister Praful Patel said. “While the ministry is planning to ease the norms for processes like licensing and permission, it is also looking at developing a single window for airport clearance.” Earlier, creation of infrastructure was the domain of the Centre.

“We want to redefine that and allow private players,” the minister said. The government has formed a three-member committee headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to formulate a new set of guidelines to allow easy development of airport infrastructure by private players. “There will be a steering committee comprising agencies like home and defence ministries. It will become like a single-window clearance under the ministry of civil aviation,” Patel said.

ATF as a declared public good) others did not even respond.

Subsequently, the Federation of Indian Airlines in its pre-budget memorandum to the Finance Ministry asked the government to include ATF in the declared good category to enable imposition of a uniform sales tax of four per cent across the country. In fact Jet and Air Deccan as members of the FIA had blamed high cost of ATF as the

of India (AAI) has planned to set aside Rs 12,434 crore for the upgradation and modernisation process.

For the three metro airports in Kolkata, Chennai and Trivandrum, AAI has earmarked 43 per cent of its planned outlay, while the rest will go into upgrading other non-metro airports and modernising the existing aeronautical facilities.

Of the Rs 5,332.13 crore earmarked for the three metro airports, Chennai has got the highest share – Rs 2,462 crore – for revamping the existing airport while the Kolkata airport will be modernised with a total outlay of Rs 2,417 crore.

Another Rs 452 crore will be spent on the Trivandrum

AAI lines up airport revamp The country's aviation infrastructure will get a massive investment dose over the next five years. Airports Authority

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Chennai International Airport

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prime factor responsible for mounting losses was simple:”Praful Patel will continue to of the airlines industry. Civil Aviation Min- pursue with Finance Ministry and States for ister Praful Patel met the Finance Minister P. rationalisation of the taxes on ATF and other Chidambaram to not just ensure cheaper issues”.

ATF through a four per cent sales tax by getNow, it is for Naresh Goyalji to tell us ting it categorised as declared good, he also who is more responsible for the mess — took up another crucial issue of doing away North Block housing the Finance and Home with the imposition of withholding tax on leased aircraft that resulted in additional tax of between 11 per cent and 40 per cent, depending upon from where the leased aircraft was arranged and flown into India.

Private airlines like Jet Airways and Kingfisher who took over Air Sahara and Air Deccan in the early part of fiscal 200708 sought a level playing field from the Finance Minister in the form of similar extension of benefit of carry-forward and set off of accumulated losses and unabsorbed depreciation available to amalgamation of one or more public sector companies to facilitate the merger of Air India and Indian. The budget expectations were not only belied but the Finance Minister P. Chidambaram sitting in the cockpit of Finance Ministry's 200809 budget carrier simply showed thumbs up and flew away leaving Praful Patels, Naresh Goyals, Mallyas and others Railway Minister firmly on Ground Zero. Diehard PraLalu Yadav ful Patel's information officer’s response on behalf of the minister airport. AAI has floated tenders for the modernisation of these metro projects, which are likely to be at par with India’s busiest Mumbai and Delhi airports, which are currently being re-developed by major private players.

Sources in AAI said the process to scale up two of India’s most profitable airports – Kolkata and Chennai – to world standards has already started with adequate funds put in place for the next five years. A major portion of the funds will go into starting new facilities like integrated passenger terminals, constructing new runways and launching hi-tech communication services. These services will be developed to global standards.

Haryana invites AAI Haryana has invited the Airport Authority of India (AAI) to draw out a technical road map for developing aviation infrastructure at various places in the state. The Haryana government has proposed setting up of a Maintenance Repair and Overhaul (MRO) base in the state where big and small aircraft can make use of MRO facilities at locations closer to New Delhi. Haryana has offered five of its airstrips to the AAI for use. “The AAI team will visit Karnal, Hisar, Bhiwani and Narnaul,” an official said. Once the technical feasibility is done, the economic study and private partnership plans will be put in place, he added. The state government is also looking for a state-of-the-art simulator training institute where trained pilots can periodically upgrade their skills as per the laid norms. The airstrips in Haryana are presently not in use, barring the one at the Pinjore aviation club.

Ministries or irresponsible competition. As for Chidambaram he could only entertain one request from NCP, a party headed by Sharad Pawar and whose treasurer is Praful Patel. Sharad was one with Sonia on getting the Rs 60,000 crore debt of farmers in India completely written off, as announced by PC in his budget. Perhaps he could not accept two requests from the same party.

But, competition has started from Indian Railways on short haul routes after Railway Minister Lalu Yadav announced cuts in fares and freight rates. Unlike the airline industry, for Railways and Lalu, the price of diesel and quantity of diesel supplied for hauling passengers and freight is negotiated with oil companies in advance and is fixed for a certain period. In the case of Airline industry the price of ATF goes up with each round of increase in crude price along with the applicable customs and excise duty rates.

What does a nine per cent or a 10 per cent GDP growth rate mean if the government deliberately chooses to keep ATF prices high and thereby keeps a large segment of Indian population out of flying. Even the travel trade industry's repeated request to do away with service tax on business and first class international travel was rejected by Chidambaram. Perhaps Naresh Goyal would have done well had he also reflected on these issues.

A Gurgaon expressway in Kolkata!

A road revamp plan is being chalked out to supplement the Rs 2,000-crore modernisation of Calcutta airport, which took off in January. Post-upgrade, there will be a significant increase in the passenger-handling capacity of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport, triggering a four-fold jump in traffic. A plan has to be worked out to ensure smooth flow of vehicles to and from the airport.

Kolkata airport The road revamp scheme is being drawn up by the Airports Authority of India (AAI). Once finalised, the proposal will be placed before the state transport department. As part of the revamp, the AAI will propose an elevated corridor for part of the route. Since the airport is being upgraded to global standards, the access roads, too, need to be world class. Around 6000 vehicles – private cars and taxis – now come to the airport daily. After the modernisation, the figure is likely to be 24000. The annual passenger handling capacity of the two terminals is six million. Once the integrated terminal building becomes operational, it will jump to 20 million.

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NEWS DIGEST

Vijay Katha and Praful logic

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ijay Mallya has drawn up grand plans to launch his first international flight on August 27, 2008 from Bangalore the desi Silicon Valley to the real Silicon Valley in San Francisco.

His soon to arrive Airbus A 340-500 will have full fledged bar even in the economy class unlike competing Indian and international carriers, which only believe in offering a peg or two to back seatwalas. Mallya is just waiting for the D-day in end-August 2008, when his recently acquired Air Deccan completes the mandatory five years to be eligible to fly overseas. But then, it is precisely here the booze king may hit the air pocket.

Speculation in the Ministry of Civil Aviation suggests that Mallya may not be able to take-off for foreign skies as easily as he thinks. As per babus in Rajiv Gandhi Bhavan, Mallya will have to give up his licence taken in the name of Kingfisher after its merger with Air Deccan is com-

Rajiv Gandhi Bhavan

Vijay Mallya

MRPL, Shell Aviation JV Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL) has informed the Bombay Stock Exchange that it will form an exclusive joint venture with Shell Aviation to market and supply aviation fuel at Indian airports. MRPL and Shell Aviation are respective subsidiaries of the Indian petroleum major Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and Shell, the multinational oil and gas giant. The agreement will become effective early in 2008.

IVRCL to bid for non-metro airports Hyderabad-based IVRCL Infrastructure and Projects Ltd is looking to bid for airport development projects in small cities and towns, joining a growing list of firms wanting to tap the aviation boom in the country. The company has already made a beginning with a bid to develop the Amritsar airport. IVRCL has built the passenger terminals at the existing airports at Hyderabad and Bangalore in the past decade (new airports in both cities are due to open shortly). The company has also bid to build new passenger terminals at the Chennai and Kolkata airports. IVRCL is the fifth infraSudhir Reddy

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structure firm from Andhra Pradesh to enter the airport development business, even as the government opens up this business in metros and smaller cities to private companies. The companies include GMR Infrastructure Ltd that operates the airport in New Delhi and is building the new airport at Hyderabad, GVK Power and Infrastructure Ltd that runs the Mumbai International Airport, and the Nagarjuna Construction Company Ltd-Maytas Infra Ltd combine that has won contracts to build new airports in Shimoga and Gulbarga in Karnataka. Lanco Infratech Ltd, another Hyderabad-based infrastructure company, has also announced its plans to enter the airport development business. In August, it won the rights to modernize the airport at Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh, which includes expansion of the runway and improvement of passenger amenities.

USTDA grant for AAI Safe and more efficient air traffic management in India is the goal of a US Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) grant recently awarded to the Airports Authority of India (AAI). The agreement will be used to develop a plan for technology upgrades that will enable AAI to make key aviation infrastructure improvements that are necessary as India's aviation sector continues its rapid growth. The $ 5,03,252 grant was conferred during a ceremony held at the Airports Authority of India office in New Delhi.

John Davison, the Minister Counsellor for Economic Affairs at the United States Embassy in New Delhi and Dr K Ramalingam, AAI chairman, signed the agreement on behalf of the US and

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pleted so that he can use the entitlement of India's first LCC to launch overseas flights under the Kingfisher brand. What it effectively means is that Kingfisher licence will be cancelled and the merged entity will fly under Air Deccan licence. Rajiv Gandhi Bhavan insiders say the grant of permission to the merged entity (KF-AD) was quite a com-

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plicated affair unlike the merger of Air India with Indian.

This is an officially initiated step to distort the level playing field. After all the pauper Maharaja and his poverty stricken cousin Indian have the backing of the Government of India (despite their repeated plea that they do not get one paise as budgetary support) so that gets favoured treatment in terms of carry-forward of losses and write offs when they merge but deny the same to private carriers when they merge to consolidate.

Indian becomes Air India but Air Deccan cannot become Kingfisher without sacrificing its five-year existence by August 2008 to be eligible to fly foreign routes.

The reverse would be allowed provided the brand of Kingfisher is extinguished. But if Mallya wants to finish the brand of Deccan and fly under Kingfisher brand it becomes the most complicated affair for the babus in Rajiv Gandhi Bhavan. Mallya faces a double whammy.

He will get licence for only one carrier and not the other unlike some others in the same business. The message is very clear. If you merge you are grounded and if you just take over but not kiss and merge, such marriage is cosummated.

We have different types of logic including deductive logic. This is Praful Logic.

Praful Patel

Indian governments, respectively. Under a grant to AAI in 2001, USTDA supported development of an initial CNS/ ATM transition plan. AAI has requested additional assistance that is funded by the grant awarded to incorporate into the original study, an assessment of their communications systems. The assessment will include the development of recommendations to enable AAI to meet the communications requirements of the International Civil Aviation Organisation operational concepts.

Site finalised for Vizag airport The site for the location of a second international airport at the port city of Visakhapatnam has been selected. Andhra Pradesh Governor N D Tiwari while addressing the joint session of the legislative Assembly, which commenced the 40-day annual budget sessions recently said the Airports Authority of India (AAI) had conducted a site location feasibility study for the international airport at Visakhapatnam and the site had been finalised near Rayavaram. It may be recalled that the state government had announced its intention of going for an international airport at Visakhapatnam in place of the present civilian airport, which is controlled by the Eastern Naval Command, owing to a large industrial corridor being developed between Kakinada and Visakhapatnam. Two large multi-product special economic zones (SEZs), a Petroleum, Chemicals and Petrochemicals Investment Region (PCPIR), and two oil refineries among other projects have been proposed in this region that could potentially attract a huge international air traffic to the city.

Rockwell Collins buzzes in H'bad US-based Rockwell Collins Inc is planning to set up its first engineering centre outside the US in Hyderabad for the development of embedded solutions in display and flight management applications to start with, in October, this year.

The $4.5 billion company specialises in avionic electronics, communication and defence solutions. The company plans to create a 500-strong team of engineering professionals in five years, that would begin with 20 people initially.

The centre would be part of an IP-based collaborative product development programme, which is being carried out by the company’s R&D facilities in the US. It expects to spend $20 million a year on the Hyderabad facility once its size touches 500 people.

Academies galore To address the issue of skilled manpower shortage, Jet Airways is setting up academies. These could be located in either Chennai, Hyderabad, Bangalore or Kerala. Jet’s competitor, both in fleet age and product, Kingfisher Airlines has already announced its plan to start the Kingfisher Training Academy in Indore. KTA that already has a school in Mumbai hopes to train at least 3500 candidates over the next three years at this centre. Located in Orbit Mall of Indore, it will begin operations before the end of March 2008. According to Kingfisher, KTA has already placed its successful candidates with Kingfisher Airlines, Jet, Spice, Go Air and Indian.

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SPOTLIGHT

The flight was lovely!

Treated like royalty on Air India’s first non-stop New Delhi-New York flight, Renu Mittal cannot forget that ride of her lifetime

A

S AIR INDIA’S 777-200LR Worldwide – the newest member of the Boeing 777 family – readied for take-off on its first non-stop New Delhi-New York flight from the Indira Gandhi international airport terminal, the air was buzzing with excitement.

As I stepped into the spanking new plane, I had the distinct feeling that the grandeur and luxury had been laid out for me by the chubby, smiling Maharaja himself. I expected him to pop out and throw out his arms in welcome. Equipped with the Boeing Signature interiors, it is indeed the most spacious passenger cabin ever developed. That was what we were told and the reality more than matched up to the hype that had been created about the new Boeing planes recently procured by Air India.

The seats in the executive class are amazingly large. Wide and extremely comfortable – the executive class seats are 20 inches wide (50 cms), the same width as the A340s first class seats – one needed time to get used to all the buttons and gadgets attached to it. But then, what catches the eye is the screen in front. Easy on the eye, it is a pleasure to watch programmes on.

Incidentally, the first class seats are 21 inch wide (53 cms) while those in the economy are 18.5 inches wide (47 cms).

The second pleasant surprise was the large overhead compartment with a great deal of storage space. Perhaps, what is most important is that when it is closed, it still allows for ample overhead clearance, making it comfortable for even the very tall passengers to stand up. Having stowed away the hand luggage, it was time to sit back and enjoy the new Air India experience, a far cry from the tacky old planes with their not-so-inspiring interiors.

The non-stop 15-hour journey began with champagne, served by smiling cabin crew. The plane was ready to take off, but surprise, surprise the New York bound flight was dot on schedule, with no delays.

The new Air India was going to be a stickler for punctuality.

The crew distributed heavy duty, high quality Bose earphones to the executive and first class passengers for use during the flight to make the inflight entertainment an

20

BELLS AND WHISTLES ABOARD THE 777: (Below)Vintage wines and gourmet fare; (Clockwise from right, top) the Bose headphones create magic; smiles to welcome the weary passengers; and one of the luxurious flat beds on the plane

CRUISING HEIGHTS March 2008

even better experience. The earphones blocked out all external sounds and added to the quality of the movie and music odyssey. Sadly, at the end of the flight the airhostess very politely but very firmly asked for the Bose earphones back. But, believe me, the experience was good while it lasted. The next treat was the distribution of individually-packed Pierre Cardin nightsuits for the passengers to make their overnight journey even more comfortable.

Specially designed for Air India, they were in different colours for men and women and were packed in Air India bags. No air

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hostess asked for them to be returned at the end of the flight with passengers taking them home as a reminder and souvenir of the new Air India experience.

After this came the distribution of the leather Air India toiletries bag designed to make you look, feel and smell good after the more-than-comfortable sleep on the seats that open out into fully flat beds.

The take-off was smooth and effortless and all of us saw that on the screen in front of us. At any time during the journey it was possible to get a view of the outside on the screen in front. The map on the screen traced the journey as each city and country was left behind to be explored on another day. This flight was headed straight for the Big Apple with no interruptions, no disturbances and no diversions.

After the take off, it was time to sit back and relax. It was past midnight with the flight taking off at 12.30 a.m. and it would reach New York at 5.45 a.m. the same day. Unbelievable but true and a huge

boon for the business and fast-paced traveller who has everything but time at his disposal. You can board the flight, have your drink, go off to sleep, wake up and watch a few good movies and deplane, ready to attend to your business meeting and strike a few deals. Not a bad deal by any reckoning.

Wonder of wonder, you can even return the same day by the evening flight and go through the entire experience in reverse.

As the drinks trolley is wheeled in, there is a plethora of drinks to choose from: alcoholic and non-alcoholic. The snacks both, vegetarian and non-vegetarian are fine dining gourmet entrees served on fine bone china. The food that follows maintains the high quality.

A word about the inflight entertainment. There are movies both old and new in Hindi and English and some regional languages, music channels, television serials and a host of other offerings.

As the more than comfortable seat changes into a flat bed, the lights are dimmed and the soft blanket covers the weary traveller, the New Delhi-New York 777-200LR experience is more than worthwhile. Even the most nervous of passengers CRUISING HEIGHTS March 2008

who are terrified of spending so much time in a pressurised cabin disembark at JFK in New York, fresh and in fine fettle, ready to experience the wonderful sights of one of the most beautiful and vibrant cities in the world, without an iota of fatigue and jet lag that has been the norm till now. Indeed, you feel like a Maharaja or a Maharani as you make your regal entrance into New

York‌!

21

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GUEST COLUMN

Can we get OUR ACT TOGETHER?

Naresh Goyal

In my opinion, the two principal issues that the Indian civil aviation industry needs to tackle on a priority basis are firstly, the economic health of the industry and secondly, the infrastructure constraints 22

I

N MY OPINION, the extraordinarily rapid strides that the Indian civil aviation industry has been making in recent years has brought to the forefront the sorry state of affairs of the supporting infrastructure, both in terms of airport facilities and air traffic management systems. We all know that development and modernisation of infrastructure must go hand in hand with the growth of air travel, and the induction of additional aircraft by the operators The role that aviation plays in this era of globalisation needs no emphasis. The industry has witnessed rapid technological developments in all its facets. Aviation’s global economic impact is estimated at approximately US$ one trillion and is expected to grow by 70 per cent over the next decade.

With the liberalisation of the civil aviation sector starting in the early 1990s, the aviation industry in India has also undergone rapid transformation. About 90 per cent of foreign tourists travel to India by air and about 40-45 per cent of export and imports by value are carried by air.

The rate of expansion of air travel in India is one of the highest in the world. In India, domestic air travel is growing much faster than the growth in GDP of 8 to 9 per cent per annum, with domestic passengers registering nearly 46 per cent growth in the year 2006. However, I expect the growth rates to stabilise at around 20-25 per cent per annum, both on the domestic and international routes to and out of India for the next five to ten years.

In my opinion, the two principal issues that the Indian civil aviation industry needs to tackle on a priority basis are firstly, the economic health of the industry and secondly, the infrastructure constraints.

It has been widely estimated that in 20062007, India’s scheduled air carriers incurred a combined loss in excess of Rs 2,000 crore. I would not be surprised if, at the end of 2007-08, the operators once again cumulatively incur at least a similar level of losses, if not higher.

External factors such as the rapid rise in crude oil prices, coupled with the fiscal policies of the central and state governments have, of course, contributed to the unhealthy state of the industry. I believe, however, that operators themselves have played a large part in creating this unhealthy situation by pursuing irrational pricing policies, often charging fares that do not cover costs, attempting to gain market share at any cost, providing excess capacity and offering unsustainable pay and qualified and trained personnel, etc, all leading to unachievable break-even load factors.

CRUISING HEIGHTS March 2008

The solution, therefore, I believe largely lies in the hands of the operators themselves and it is time that we all took joint initiatives without ceasing to compete amongst ourselves.

The second major problem plaguing the airline industry in India is infrastructure constraints.

Airline operations are presently severely constrained by lack of adequate infrastructure in India in terms of slots, night parking, runway capacity, etc. notwithstanding the enormous efforts that the current government has been making to make up for lost time.

As air traffic has grown, Delhi and Mumbai airports, which account for nearly 65 per cent of total passenger traffic, have been facing increasing capacity constraints both, from passenger as well as air traffic point of view. The ground infrastructure like parking bays and hangarage is saturated and cannot cater to increasing demand.

As a result, even at our metro airports, service levels are virtually non-existent, delays are common and future growth cannot be accommodated unless the new privatised owners of these airports take immediate steps to improve and expand the facilities.

The two critical infrastructure constraints that the Indian civil aviation industry faces are airport capacity and air traffic congestion. The result is that single runway airports in India like Mumbai and Delhi can handle only 28 to 30 movements per hour when other similar airports elsewhere in the world daily handle 40 to 42 movements per hour. Can I request MIAL to achieve its target

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sometime in late 2009? May I request DIAL to start and complete work on the second parallel runway with somewhat greater urgency than they seem to be doing at present?

Traffic congestion has become an endemic problem. The additional money that airlines have to spend for the extra fuel that they burn to cater to the anticipated delays and long holdings at destinations has become a commonplace event.

Lack of trained air traffic controllers to handle growing large volume of air traffic and operations efficiently is another issue that needs immediate attention.

With regard to airspace management, I believe, that modernisation of the ATC equipment and the training of additional Air Traffic Controllers need to be tackled with greater urgency.

May I suggest that, since the availability of trained and experienced air traffic managers needs a lead time of 2 to 3 years, the policy makers examine the feasibility of sending Indian candidates for training abroad and “importing� foreign trained air traffic controllers for a limited period.

Also, a lot of flying space is restricted to use by the military and is virtually out of bounds to civil air traffic even during periods that the military do not actually have a requirement to use them. Therefore, more synergy and coordination is required between authorities.

Let me list below, the other, less talked-about issues that need to be dealt with urgently, if air travel at the metropolitan airports is eventually going to become a pleasurable experience: CARGO FACILITIES: Carriage of cargo by air, particularly to international destinations, has become a very important component of the business of airlines. For a country such as India, it is particularly important since we are trying to rapidly improve our export earnings. Unfortunately, the ground facilities for handling air cargo at the airports are pathetic, if not non-existent. I

Page 3

urge the airport operators and the government to pay particular attention to the development of these facilities.

ACCESS TO AIRPORTS: One of the most important requirements for efficient running of airports is easy access to the airports from the cities and towns. As air travel grows in India, creation of more convenient access facilities becomes particularly important if we are to avoid long travel times to and from airports. The developments achieved in these areas also have a progressive impact on airport efficiency in these areas.

SECURITY PROCEDURES: Without in any way undervaluing the importance of adequate and efficient security at airports I believe the security systems and procedures at Indian airports need a tough review. Currently, a multiple of agencies, including the airlines themselves, seem to be responsible for providing security services at airports thereby creating a requirement for a larger than necessary deployment of personnel and duplication of work and, therefore, lower productivity and efficiency.

AIR TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT PROCEDURES: I have earlier talked about the need to modernise the ATC system and of the need to create a cadre of qualified and experienced personnel. Another aspect that also needs attention is the updating of procedures such as separations between aircraft, stacking systems vis-Ă -vis the holding patterns of aircraft etc., all of which are being practiced elsewhere in the world and are readily available for use in our country.

One other issue that I would like to bring to your notice relates to the modernisation and privatisation of airports. I think there needs to be much greater degree of interaction of the airport operators and planners with the users, namely the airlines, to assess the actual requirements in specific areas. The airlines as primary users of the facilities being created have the experience in dealing with the ground realities in India. They know what would make their travel more enjoyable. I would urge, therefore, that there be much greater dialogue and discussions between the airport developers and the airlines than seems to have taken place so far.

CONCLUSION I hope my honest frank recital of the inadequacies of the infrastructure support in India this morning has not created more enemies for me amongst the powers that be and the airport regulators than I already seem to have. I am sure all of you will appreciate that these issues truly need to be tackled on virtually an emergency basis if the air travel in India is to continue on

its rapid growth trajectory.

(Excerpts from the Dr. Neelkantan Memorial Lecture delivered at the 59th AGM of the Aeronautical Society of India by Jet Airways chairman Naresh Goyal.)

CRUISING HEIGHTS March 2008

I think there needs to be much greater degree of interaction of the airport operators and planners with the users, namely the airlines, to assess the actual requirements in specific areas 23

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COVER STORY

Sunrise in the

SOUTH Hyderabad’s Rajiv Gandhi International Airport is open for operations while Bangalore’s new airport is ready to open its doors.

K. SRINIVASAN and R. KRISHNAN take a look at the two world-class airports and their creation 24

CRUISING HEIGHTS March 2008

G

RANDHI MALLIKARJUN RAO (GMR) has a gleam in his eyes. He is now on the fast inner lane and the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport is the icing on the cake: a state-of-the-art Greenfield airport in one of India’s fastest growing cities, Hyderabad. It has catapulted this son of a farmer from Rajam in Srikakulam district into a big-ticket infrastructure developer and a man to watch in the coming decade.

And he says in a matter-of-fact tone: “A

dozen of my assets will be commissioned

by March next year.” Apart from the 5000acre plus Rajiv Gandhi International Airport at Shamshabad on the outskirts of Hyderabad and the Indira Gandhi International Airport at Delhi, the assets include power plants in Uttaranchal, UP, Nepal and Orissa. Add to that four toll roads totalling over 300 km in Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Haryana and you have a measure of the man and the distance he has travelled in 15 short years.

Nine years back when Chandrababu

Nine years back GMR was one of the nine who put in a bid and one of the three finally short-listed CRUISING HEIGHTS March 2008

Naidu floated global tenders for a modern new airport in what was then famously called Cyberabad, thanks to the then Andhra Pradesh CM’s obsessive desire to be the country’s Silicon Valley, GMR was one of the nine who put in a bid and one of the three finally short-listed.

Believe it or not, he came up with the lowest bid but had one hell of a time convincing Naidu that they were the right buys for the job. He simply didn’t buy GMR’s curriculum vitae: son of a farmer, jute mill owner, banker and now an entrepreneur

25

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COVER STORY

Sunrise in the

SOUTH Hyderabad’s Rajiv Gandhi International Airport is open for operations while Bangalore’s new airport is ready to open its doors.

K. SRINIVASAN and R. KRISHNAN take a look at the two world-class airports and their creation 24

CRUISING HEIGHTS March 2008

G

RANDHI MALLIKARJUN RAO (GMR) has a gleam in his eyes. He is now on the fast inner lane and the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport is the icing on the cake: a state-of-the-art Greenfield airport in one of India’s fastest growing cities, Hyderabad. It has catapulted this son of a farmer from Rajam in Srikakulam district into a big-ticket infrastructure developer and a man to watch in the coming decade.

And he says in a matter-of-fact tone: “A

dozen of my assets will be commissioned

by March next year.” Apart from the 5000acre plus Rajiv Gandhi International Airport at Shamshabad on the outskirts of Hyderabad and the Indira Gandhi International Airport at Delhi, the assets include power plants in Uttaranchal, UP, Nepal and Orissa. Add to that four toll roads totalling over 300 km in Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Haryana and you have a measure of the man and the distance he has travelled in 15 short years.

Nine years back when Chandrababu

Nine years back GMR was one of the nine who put in a bid and one of the three finally short-listed CRUISING HEIGHTS March 2008

Naidu floated global tenders for a modern new airport in what was then famously called Cyberabad, thanks to the then Andhra Pradesh CM’s obsessive desire to be the country’s Silicon Valley, GMR was one of the nine who put in a bid and one of the three finally short-listed.

Believe it or not, he came up with the lowest bid but had one hell of a time convincing Naidu that they were the right buys for the job. He simply didn’t buy GMR’s curriculum vitae: son of a farmer, jute mill owner, banker and now an entrepreneur

25

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COVER STORY

RAJIV HYDERABAD

INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT

Fact Sheet Airport location: 25 km/ 19 miles from Begumpet CBD No. of airlines operating: 23 airlines connecting 35 destinations and growing Total area for airport project: 5495 acres Initial passenger capacity: 12 MPPA Ultimate capacity: over 40 MPPA Initial cargo capacity: 100000 MT / annum; Ultimate over 1.3 million MT Exclusive cargo apron for four code ‘C’ freighter aircraft Facility for ‘Express/Courier’ cargo.

India’s longest runway (4260 m): A380 Compatible India’s longest taxiway (4260m): can

running a power plant on a barge. How was this bloke going to put together a state-ofthe-art airport?

Earlier, getting a global partner who could help them implement the project had been one hell of a problem. So, off went Grandhi Mallikarjun Rao to Kuala Lumpur, enlisted the support of Sammy Velu (President, Malaysian Indian Congress) and tried to get Malaysian Airports Holdings Berhad — which created the spanking KLIA (Kuala Lumpur International Airport) — to join him as a partner in the venture.

To cut a long story short, GMR brought Malaysian Airports on board, persuaded Velu to look at the work they had undertaken in Karnataka and trust them to deliver a world-class airport. Finally, on May 31, 2001, Andhra Pradesh — after Naidu had his officers recced the barge — selected the GMR-MAHB consortium as the preferred bidder for the Hyderabad International Airport Project.

On March 14, 2008 when HIAL — now named Rajiv Gandhi International Airport — was formally declared open, it was the first instance of a major project where the start-to-finish schedule was completed with the same set of dignitaries in attendance: UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel and AP Chief Minister Rajashekhar Reddy. In

26

be used as emergency runway for take off 10 runway entry/exit points (Including four rapid exit taxiways) Code-F Facility: A380 compatible Quick turnaround: Full length taxiway and rapid exit taxiways Aviation Fuel Hydrant System in an “Open Access” Model Business Hotel with 308 rooms Parking area for 3700 cars in front of Passenger Terminal Building Easy Transit from Domestic to International and vice-versa Check-in counters (130) with (CUTE) and (16) CUSS (self check-in kiosks )

GMR brought Malaysian Airports on board, persuaded Velu to look at the work they had undertaken in Karnataka and trust them to deliver a worldclass airport CRUISING HEIGHTS March 2008

120 CUTE check-in counters and 12 CUSS (self check-in kiosks) in the Check in island Eight Transfer check-in counters (four each in Domestic and International piers) Six Recheck in counters (two with CUTE and four CUSS kiosks) Immigration counters (46) Departure: 23 Arrival: 22 Transit: One Proposed City Check-in facility at Begumpet & Secunderabad Railway Station 42 aircraft parking stands including 12 passenger boarding bridges

exactly three years, the airport is ready for operation. The only irony being that the man who had started it all, Chandrababu Naidu, was in another part of the city protesting that the airport had no mention of his father-in-law the late N. T. Rama Rao, who has a terminal named after him at the old Begumpet Airport.

For the record, GMR Hyderabad International Airport (GHIAL) is a joint venture promoted by GMR Infrastructure (63 per cent), Airports Authority of India (13 per cent), Andhra Pradesh government (13 per cent) and Malaysian Airports Holdings Berhad (11 per cent). GHIAL has the mandate to build, own and operate the airport for 60 years.

The first phase ends with the commencement of operations at the airport on March 16, 2008 (now postponed by a few days). “We have an expenditure of Rs 2,478 crore on the project so far,” said Rajgopal Swami, the soft spoken Chief Financial Officer of GHIAL and the man who drives the future business vision of the company, and added: “The ground-breaking ceremony took place on September 1, 2005. In just under 31 months, we have readied the project. When we bid, the traffic was five million per year at the old Begumpet airport that rose to 7 million the next year. But by March 2007, we were told

by the government to plan for 12 million passengers handling capacity.”

The new terminal can, therefore, cater to 12 million passengers and can be expanded to handle 20 million passengers.

In keeping with the global practice of expanding without dislocating all future growth, the airport is planned in a modular fashion. This will see passenger-handling capacity increase from 12 million to 16 million and further to 20 million. “However, at the current rate of passenger capacity growth, we may have to start new construction by 2010 as the terminal we have built and are inaugurating on March 16, 2008 will be able to take in capacity only till 2010-11,” said Swami.

Talk across the board — to the patriarch, his son Kiran Grandhi who heads the airport business, Swami or the rest, and one phrase that resonates time and again is: “We are a reasonable and responsible airport developer.” They cite the decision not to impose the User Development Fee (UDF) on domestic passengers but departing international passengers as an example of their approach to be inclusive and care for all stakeholders. The passenger mix at Hyderabad is 70 per cent domestic and 30 per cent international. But the decision did come after the initial brouhaha over the fee.

Swami says that all parking and landing fees will be the same as at Begumpet and that they will respect “all historicity of rights” that airlines enjoyed at Begumpet.

In order words, parking slots, take off and landing schedules, hangars, etc.

What about separate terminal for LCCs? There are plans for a separate LCC terminal. But that is part of Plan C-when the airport expands from Plan B (20 million) to 40 million passengers. But Swami does admit that “various regulations including that of IATA state that you cannot discriminate between people when offering the same facility” have always been kept in mind. Therefore, for the moment, they use the same terminal and pay the same charges. In effect, there will be UDF (User Development Fee) on LCC if going international. In other words, if Air India Express and Simplifly Deccan take off overseas from Hyderabad, one fourth of the ticket cost (on a HyderabadDubai/Bangkok flight) could well be airport tax!

While passengers may blanche momentarily at the steep UDF, there is little doubt that the airport will delight them.

Used to below-par service standards at other airports, there is bound to be a sense of shock and awe at Shamshabad. As the patriarch explained during a conversation: “Shamshabad is the first airport in India to go for LEED Certificate for incorporating

“We are ready” Kiran Grandhi on the airport and his plans to run it

I

have no anxieties about the airport, it is only about running a smooth operation.

I do not wish to talk about the other controversies but from 2000 onwards we have regularly been communicating about the project. If one is so much interested in connectivity, then the process (of building the road) should have started two years back.

How will we make money? It will be a challenge no doubt about that. We will unroll our plans by and by.

Our first focus or stage one is to provide efficient and competitive facilities and services way above what is available at present. When one does that, one provides value for oneself as well as the people one serves. Now, in that I can define what does it mean for airlines and what does it mean for the passengers.

Let's take the airlines first: We are bringing in international best practices for cargo, ground handling, and even the fuel farm. For example, you have multiple choices for ground handling.

You have got an open access fuel system-today, the access is just to two or three PSUs. Now, we can talk to everyone. The negotiating power moves from service provider to airlines.

You are getting a runway system that is the longest in the country, fully compliant for all aircraft including the A380 and that is as good, if not better than anything else in the world.

Today, Indian aircraft are going to places like Singapore and Dubai for maintenance and major repairs. So we're setting up a maintenance hub at this airport although that will take some time.

Now look at what is in store for the passengers: The passenger terminal has everything that gives one the out-of-theordinary feeling.

Right from the point of alighting, it is completely passenger friendly. They simply hand over their baggage and check in. No x-ray, no long queues.

CRUISING HEIGHTS March 2008

The shopping, food and duty free areas will provide them with world-class choices and options.

They will seamlessly connect to their aircraft through state-of-the-art gates and aero bridges.

For arriving passengers, we have made the provision of Volvo buses at affordable costs. Departing passengers too, will have the option of using these buses from the city.

We will have 700 Radio Taxis parked at the airport.

In the terminal building, we have ensured that there will be no echo of the announcements and they will be made and heard where needed by the relevant passengers.

Already, a few airlines have come forward to start operations to and from the new airport. These include British Airways, which wanted to commence operations from October, and Gulf Air, which plans to start operations in June.

There were also requests from airlines to make Hyderabad a cargo hub.

As of now, there is no UDF for domestic passengers, but we will review it at a later stage. We are sensitive to customers and stakeholders’ requirements and that is why we have decided not to increase landing, parking charges and passengers service fees.

The traffic to Hyderabad has increased by leaps and bounds over the years. When we bid for the airport, it was four million for 2008. Hyderabad can no more be termed a regional hub: the city has now become an international hub. We can also claim some credit for this. Our participation in events like Routes has given airlines an opportunity to look at the competitive advantage of this airport. We will also be holding Routes Asia 2009. I can visualise a whole new city coming up around the airport. That will really be a mark of our success. There will be businesses peripheral to the aviation industry that will spring up all around and naturally, it will bring in housing colonies, schools and other infrastructure.

(Kiran Grandhi spoke exclusively to R. Krishnan and K. Srinivasan.)

27

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Page 4

COVER STORY

RAJIV HYDERABAD

INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT

Fact Sheet Airport location: 25 km/ 19 miles from Begumpet CBD No. of airlines operating: 23 airlines connecting 35 destinations and growing Total area for airport project: 5495 acres Initial passenger capacity: 12 MPPA Ultimate capacity: over 40 MPPA Initial cargo capacity: 100000 MT / annum; Ultimate over 1.3 million MT Exclusive cargo apron for four code ‘C’ freighter aircraft Facility for ‘Express/Courier’ cargo.

India’s longest runway (4260 m): A380 Compatible India’s longest taxiway (4260m): can

running a power plant on a barge. How was this bloke going to put together a state-ofthe-art airport?

Earlier, getting a global partner who could help them implement the project had been one hell of a problem. So, off went Grandhi Mallikarjun Rao to Kuala Lumpur, enlisted the support of Sammy Velu (President, Malaysian Indian Congress) and tried to get Malaysian Airports Holdings Berhad — which created the spanking KLIA (Kuala Lumpur International Airport) — to join him as a partner in the venture.

To cut a long story short, GMR brought Malaysian Airports on board, persuaded Velu to look at the work they had undertaken in Karnataka and trust them to deliver a world-class airport. Finally, on May 31, 2001, Andhra Pradesh — after Naidu had his officers recced the barge — selected the GMR-MAHB consortium as the preferred bidder for the Hyderabad International Airport Project.

On March 14, 2008 when HIAL — now named Rajiv Gandhi International Airport — was formally declared open, it was the first instance of a major project where the start-to-finish schedule was completed with the same set of dignitaries in attendance: UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel and AP Chief Minister Rajashekhar Reddy. In

26

be used as emergency runway for take off 10 runway entry/exit points (Including four rapid exit taxiways) Code-F Facility: A380 compatible Quick turnaround: Full length taxiway and rapid exit taxiways Aviation Fuel Hydrant System in an “Open Access” Model Business Hotel with 308 rooms Parking area for 3700 cars in front of Passenger Terminal Building Easy Transit from Domestic to International and vice-versa Check-in counters (130) with (CUTE) and (16) CUSS (self check-in kiosks )

GMR brought Malaysian Airports on board, persuaded Velu to look at the work they had undertaken in Karnataka and trust them to deliver a worldclass airport CRUISING HEIGHTS March 2008

120 CUTE check-in counters and 12 CUSS (self check-in kiosks) in the Check in island Eight Transfer check-in counters (four each in Domestic and International piers) Six Recheck in counters (two with CUTE and four CUSS kiosks) Immigration counters (46) Departure: 23 Arrival: 22 Transit: One Proposed City Check-in facility at Begumpet & Secunderabad Railway Station 42 aircraft parking stands including 12 passenger boarding bridges

exactly three years, the airport is ready for operation. The only irony being that the man who had started it all, Chandrababu Naidu, was in another part of the city protesting that the airport had no mention of his father-in-law the late N. T. Rama Rao, who has a terminal named after him at the old Begumpet Airport.

For the record, GMR Hyderabad International Airport (GHIAL) is a joint venture promoted by GMR Infrastructure (63 per cent), Airports Authority of India (13 per cent), Andhra Pradesh government (13 per cent) and Malaysian Airports Holdings Berhad (11 per cent). GHIAL has the mandate to build, own and operate the airport for 60 years.

The first phase ends with the commencement of operations at the airport on March 16, 2008 (now postponed by a few days). “We have an expenditure of Rs 2,478 crore on the project so far,” said Rajgopal Swami, the soft spoken Chief Financial Officer of GHIAL and the man who drives the future business vision of the company, and added: “The ground-breaking ceremony took place on September 1, 2005. In just under 31 months, we have readied the project. When we bid, the traffic was five million per year at the old Begumpet airport that rose to 7 million the next year. But by March 2007, we were told

by the government to plan for 12 million passengers handling capacity.”

The new terminal can, therefore, cater to 12 million passengers and can be expanded to handle 20 million passengers.

In keeping with the global practice of expanding without dislocating all future growth, the airport is planned in a modular fashion. This will see passenger-handling capacity increase from 12 million to 16 million and further to 20 million. “However, at the current rate of passenger capacity growth, we may have to start new construction by 2010 as the terminal we have built and are inaugurating on March 16, 2008 will be able to take in capacity only till 2010-11,” said Swami.

Talk across the board — to the patriarch, his son Kiran Grandhi who heads the airport business, Swami or the rest, and one phrase that resonates time and again is: “We are a reasonable and responsible airport developer.” They cite the decision not to impose the User Development Fee (UDF) on domestic passengers but departing international passengers as an example of their approach to be inclusive and care for all stakeholders. The passenger mix at Hyderabad is 70 per cent domestic and 30 per cent international. But the decision did come after the initial brouhaha over the fee.

Swami says that all parking and landing fees will be the same as at Begumpet and that they will respect “all historicity of rights” that airlines enjoyed at Begumpet.

In order words, parking slots, take off and landing schedules, hangars, etc.

What about separate terminal for LCCs? There are plans for a separate LCC terminal. But that is part of Plan C-when the airport expands from Plan B (20 million) to 40 million passengers. But Swami does admit that “various regulations including that of IATA state that you cannot discriminate between people when offering the same facility” have always been kept in mind. Therefore, for the moment, they use the same terminal and pay the same charges. In effect, there will be UDF (User Development Fee) on LCC if going international. In other words, if Air India Express and Simplifly Deccan take off overseas from Hyderabad, one fourth of the ticket cost (on a HyderabadDubai/Bangkok flight) could well be airport tax!

While passengers may blanche momentarily at the steep UDF, there is little doubt that the airport will delight them.

Used to below-par service standards at other airports, there is bound to be a sense of shock and awe at Shamshabad. As the patriarch explained during a conversation: “Shamshabad is the first airport in India to go for LEED Certificate for incorporating

“We are ready” Kiran Grandhi on the airport and his plans to run it

I

have no anxieties about the airport, it is only about running a smooth operation.

I do not wish to talk about the other controversies but from 2000 onwards we have regularly been communicating about the project. If one is so much interested in connectivity, then the process (of building the road) should have started two years back.

How will we make money? It will be a challenge no doubt about that. We will unroll our plans by and by.

Our first focus or stage one is to provide efficient and competitive facilities and services way above what is available at present. When one does that, one provides value for oneself as well as the people one serves. Now, in that I can define what does it mean for airlines and what does it mean for the passengers.

Let's take the airlines first: We are bringing in international best practices for cargo, ground handling, and even the fuel farm. For example, you have multiple choices for ground handling.

You have got an open access fuel system-today, the access is just to two or three PSUs. Now, we can talk to everyone. The negotiating power moves from service provider to airlines.

You are getting a runway system that is the longest in the country, fully compliant for all aircraft including the A380 and that is as good, if not better than anything else in the world.

Today, Indian aircraft are going to places like Singapore and Dubai for maintenance and major repairs. So we're setting up a maintenance hub at this airport although that will take some time.

Now look at what is in store for the passengers: The passenger terminal has everything that gives one the out-of-theordinary feeling.

Right from the point of alighting, it is completely passenger friendly. They simply hand over their baggage and check in. No x-ray, no long queues.

CRUISING HEIGHTS March 2008

The shopping, food and duty free areas will provide them with world-class choices and options.

They will seamlessly connect to their aircraft through state-of-the-art gates and aero bridges.

For arriving passengers, we have made the provision of Volvo buses at affordable costs. Departing passengers too, will have the option of using these buses from the city.

We will have 700 Radio Taxis parked at the airport.

In the terminal building, we have ensured that there will be no echo of the announcements and they will be made and heard where needed by the relevant passengers.

Already, a few airlines have come forward to start operations to and from the new airport. These include British Airways, which wanted to commence operations from October, and Gulf Air, which plans to start operations in June.

There were also requests from airlines to make Hyderabad a cargo hub.

As of now, there is no UDF for domestic passengers, but we will review it at a later stage. We are sensitive to customers and stakeholders’ requirements and that is why we have decided not to increase landing, parking charges and passengers service fees.

The traffic to Hyderabad has increased by leaps and bounds over the years. When we bid for the airport, it was four million for 2008. Hyderabad can no more be termed a regional hub: the city has now become an international hub. We can also claim some credit for this. Our participation in events like Routes has given airlines an opportunity to look at the competitive advantage of this airport. We will also be holding Routes Asia 2009. I can visualise a whole new city coming up around the airport. That will really be a mark of our success. There will be businesses peripheral to the aviation industry that will spring up all around and naturally, it will bring in housing colonies, schools and other infrastructure.

(Kiran Grandhi spoke exclusively to R. Krishnan and K. Srinivasan.)

27

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s the d: swa ren in rn t hed ode bat m is the al 's min hat ter t. T on! ire ligh ati ent ural nserv The nat co of ergy en

the to he d 't t ed roa isn vat ch his ele roa . T an ao ilt. . app p ort hich ha R g bu edule The air on w saim bein sch new H 7 Nara y-is hind N d- swa be roa pres way ex at's Th

ge rture loun the depa airp ort. It's a t a k o pet A lo ully ld Begum AI manf at the o rea with the A rs a e cramped the surging numb managing

A the moc ar c k boa e x- heck check rdi ray in ng ed co in e pas and unte xer r c s is gett s. No ise a a ing b t bre yo ag eze ur s !

COVER STORY

The baggage sorting area at the ground level in the belly of the airport is one of the most important elements at the airport. All departing baggages are sorted out here

Self-check in kiosks for those without check in baggage.

The accident management center is operational 24X7 and has a clearly laid down procedure to deal with emergencies

The double door aerobridge being installed. This is the one that will seat the A 380 passengers whenever it finally lands in Hyderabad.

28

CRUISING HEIGHTS March 2008

CRUISING HEIGHTS March 2008

akspe one KL with wo s, rs y t tner one tilit ar diti a u m p con t's fro air e-i up e sid d siz the picke nt Gia on ti on ers ntrap rts co irp o A

The Air state p ort Operatio o n monitor f the art co s Control Ce m n close c the airp ort. puter screen tre (AOCC) is I ir t c ui w t il l camera screen have C filled third e a s C . in ye to T V T and ted to the center hey also h ope tha will use 400 m o o f n i t t o h r e down. N t aturally incoming airc center will s a giant oo ra the AT C is p fts 10 mts n be permitrickly a b bout th efore touchis issue

29

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Page 6

s the d: swa ren in rn t hed ode bat m is the al 's min hat ter t. T on! ire ligh ati ent ural nserv The nat co of ergy en

the to he d 't t ed roa isn vat ch his ele roa . T an ao ilt. . app p ort hich ha R g bu edule The air on w saim bein sch new H 7 Nara y-is hind N d- swa be roa pres way ex at's Th

ge rture loun the depa airp ort. It's a t a k o pet A lo ully ld Begum AI manf at the o rea with the A rs a e cramped the surging numb managing

A the moc ar c k boa e x- heck check rdi ray in ng ed co in e pas and unte xer r c s is gett s. No ise a a ing b t bre yo ag eze ur s !

COVER STORY

The baggage sorting area at the ground level in the belly of the airport is one of the most important elements at the airport. All departing baggages are sorted out here

Self-check in kiosks for those without check in baggage.

The accident management center is operational 24X7 and has a clearly laid down procedure to deal with emergencies

The double door aerobridge being installed. This is the one that will seat the A 380 passengers whenever it finally lands in Hyderabad.

28

CRUISING HEIGHTS March 2008

CRUISING HEIGHTS March 2008

akspe one KL with wo s, rs y t tner one tilit ar diti a u m p con t's fro air e-i up e sid d siz the picke nt Gia on ti on ers ntrap rts co irp o A

The Air state p ort Operatio o n monitor f the art co s Control Ce m n close c the airp ort. puter screen tre (AOCC) is I ir t c ui w t il l camera screen have C filled third e a s C . in ye to T V T and ted to the center hey also h ope tha will use 400 m o o f n i t t o h r e down. N t aturally incoming airc center will s a giant oo ra the AT C is p fts 10 mts n be permitrickly a b bout th efore touchis issue

29

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Page 8

COVER STORY

I

No thanks for being on time

f the Raos of Hyderabad are feisty, dogged and completely glued to the ground, Albert Brunner is the exact opposite. Low profile (at least by Indian civil aviation standards), linear and clinically detached, Brunner brings the famous German quality of perseverance and an attention to the basics. “He is to the point, never comes without being called and sticks to the agenda,” said one Ministry official.

But to his credit, he has struck it out, flown through plenty of turbulence and managed to continue without major structural damage. Overcoming the hostility of the political establishment (read H. D. Deve Gowda), a lackadaisical and completely out of sync state administration and the resignation of Bangalore International Airport Ltd Chairman H. R. Narayana Murthy wasn’t easy. But he has done it. And if the airport isn’t opening on time, Brunner can’t be held responsible. For one, it has got to do with the ATC that will take several more weeks to firm up its operations. Moreover, the road to the airport has to be readied. Of course, the abysmal connectivity from the city will take plenty of time and Brunner isn't waiting for that to happen. As he has often said: “My fault is completing the project on schedule.”

Those who have seen the new airport say that it is modern, functional and has accounted for every major innovation that airports of this size need to incorporate. Comparing it with Hyderabad, one observer who has seen both said:

“Hyderabad is flamboyant, artistic and gargantuan in its vision; Bangalore is slowly putting the blocks together.” A major aviation hub is coming up around Devanahalli with Airbus having already signalled that its India engineering section will move there.

The flight trials conducted on March 7 at Bengaluru (a slight controversy with some saying how can it be Bengaluru when the government hasn’t yet approved the name change) International Airport were hugely successful and by all accounts the airport looked ready for D-day. The ATC delay has queered the pitch for the

BENGALURU INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT

Fact Sheet Airport Location: On Highway NH7, 30 km to the north of the city.

Business hotels: 321 rooms.

Parking capacity: 2000 cars.

Initial cargo facility: 300000 tons of cargo.

Passenger terminal: Fully air-conditioned.

Total area for Airport project: 4000 acres.

40-Plus aircraft parking stands Apron area of 182,000 metres.

Runway (4000m): B747 aircraft compatible.

Lounge: Seating capacity of approx 100 people.

green design elements. It is a non-polluting airport and passengers will breathe fresh.

Boston in the US was the first to get this excruciatingly tough certification and certainly no airport in India can boast of it.”

COWI a/s of Denmark, Aviaplan of Norway and STUP from Mumbai provided the global leadership in preparing the master plan and engineering designs and the airport has been designed by Hong Kongbased architects Winston Shu and Gumund Stokke. There were dozens of visits to Bangkok by GMR and his team to look at Suvarnabhoomi that was commissioned last year. “We learnt from Bangkok made our strategies accordingly,” he said.

“Our debt-equity ratio is 2.1:1 say 40 per cent equity and 60 per cent debt. We have not decided on IPO and not thought of it either,” said younger son Kiran Grandhi who is the CEO of the airport business and

30

moment and a new date in May is likely to be announced sometime in April.

Should Brunner be relieved? Unlikely. He has put his all on the airport commencing operations on time? He should feel a sense of elation that he struck to his word and he gets two more months to jog the authorities to do some thing about the road to the airport. It's a nightmare and much much worse than Hyderabad.

Watch this space for a detailed update.

The airport would be third busiest with at least 7.5 million passengers.

Check in Counters: 54 (18 self-service check in kiosks).

oversees both the Hyderabad and Delhi projects. But he fobs off questions on the mantra that will take them towards profitability. “Now you are asking us for our business secrets,” he says and smiles.

One area that the management is feverishly working on is enhanced connectivity CRUISING HEIGHTS March 2008

from the city. So, more flights: domestic and international. Not surprisingly, the first interest is from the Gulf. The traffic distribution is roughly: 30 per cent to US and 30 per cent Middle East and the rest balanced between South East Asia, Australia and Europe. Emirates already has eight flights a week from Hyderabad to Dubai. Air India mounts over a dozen and there are plans for more. Hyderabad has an average of 12 daily international flights from 11 airlines, including Lufthansa.

And there are exciting times ahead: Gulf Air and British Airways are planning about four and five flights, respectively, each week, Etihad is likely to commence operations later this year and Jet has indicated that it would be increasing flights to Singapore. No surprise that SIA is also keen to increase its flights. Several new players like Tiger Airways, Virgin, Cathay Pacific, China Airlines and others are looking at Hyderabad as key to their Southern operations. “Payload issues at Begumpet forced several airlines to shelve plans for Hyderabad, but that’s changed with this airport,” said Swami.

That apart, Lufthansa Technik and GMR have an MoU to set up a most modern airframe MRO at GHIAL. It will cater to both Airbus and Boeing narrow body aircraft to start with. The area earmarked for the MRO on the south-east of the airport is being levelled now.

While the MRO is some way away — at least 12 to 15 months — the airport isn’t counting on just more flights to boost the bottom line.

The internal assessment is that it hopes to make up for most of the Rs 2,478 crore spent on the first phase of development through non-flying operations such as ground handling fees, hotel, aviation fuel and advertising.

At the moment, annual revenues at Begumpet are viewed in the region of Rs 200-250 crore. This excludes the airport charges such as landing, parking and route navigation charges that accrue to the AAI. They are working to boost these revenue streams. Considering the world class duty free, the extensive shopping arcade and the spanking new Novotel hotel in the complex, it would be no surprise if the figures doubled and tripled in the next two years.

After all, passenger figures have been revised four times in the last eight years and is likely to double again in two years.

Are they overreaching themselves?

There are always imponderables, but if the homework that GMR has done in the last few years is anything to go by, they should be able to bite the bullet. As the Group Chairman explains, they saw the Delhi modernisation bid as a one in a life-

READY FOR TAKE-OFF: (Third from left) Chief Minister Rajashekhar Reddy, Praful Patel and G. M. Rao on the day of the first trial run of the Hyderabad International Airport

“ We are a reasonable and responsible airport developer.

Rajgopal Swami Chief Financial Officer of GHIAL

”

CRUISING HEIGHTS March 2007

time chance. “We worked for two years on the Delhi airport proposal with the determination to win the bid. The focus was on improving the financials and identifying the obstacles.” They set up core teams to visit sundry airports and chew in the details bit by bit. It is a process that was honed first in Hyderabad.

From a single jute mill in 1978,GMR today has revenues of over Rs 2,000 crore and over 2000 employees. As they grow at a scorching pace, the group is rejigging its priorities and disengaging slowly from hands-on approach. As Kiran Grandhi said: “Beginning April, I should be 15 days in Delhi.” The role, as they visualise it, is to offer strategic vision, government interface and back up support. His father remembers the early days nostalgically — acquiring 5400 acres in Shamshabad, resettling over 1000 families and the steeplechase at every turn. But he does acknowledge that the group’s airports business is far from mature and evolving and developing. In other words, the patriarch and his son will continue to attend to the day-to-day affairs for some time to come.

And when will he put up his feet and relax? Perhaps, G. M. Rao has been asked this question many times and he told one interviewer: “I’ll know we’ve reached this point when something happens in the business and no one bothers me. Other people will take care of it, so I can go on a long vacation and nothing happens.”

Maybe take a flight to Shamshabad and drive to Rajam — the place where it all began and where he spends most of his money to bring some light into the lives of people who have been less fortunate than

him.

31

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3/15/2008

5:53 PM

Page 8

COVER STORY

I

No thanks for being on time

f the Raos of Hyderabad are feisty, dogged and completely glued to the ground, Albert Brunner is the exact opposite. Low profile (at least by Indian civil aviation standards), linear and clinically detached, Brunner brings the famous German quality of perseverance and an attention to the basics. “He is to the point, never comes without being called and sticks to the agenda,” said one Ministry official.

But to his credit, he has struck it out, flown through plenty of turbulence and managed to continue without major structural damage. Overcoming the hostility of the political establishment (read H. D. Deve Gowda), a lackadaisical and completely out of sync state administration and the resignation of Bangalore International Airport Ltd Chairman H. R. Narayana Murthy wasn’t easy. But he has done it. And if the airport isn’t opening on time, Brunner can’t be held responsible. For one, it has got to do with the ATC that will take several more weeks to firm up its operations. Moreover, the road to the airport has to be readied. Of course, the abysmal connectivity from the city will take plenty of time and Brunner isn't waiting for that to happen. As he has often said: “My fault is completing the project on schedule.”

Those who have seen the new airport say that it is modern, functional and has accounted for every major innovation that airports of this size need to incorporate. Comparing it with Hyderabad, one observer who has seen both said:

“Hyderabad is flamboyant, artistic and gargantuan in its vision; Bangalore is slowly putting the blocks together.” A major aviation hub is coming up around Devanahalli with Airbus having already signalled that its India engineering section will move there.

The flight trials conducted on March 7 at Bengaluru (a slight controversy with some saying how can it be Bengaluru when the government hasn’t yet approved the name change) International Airport were hugely successful and by all accounts the airport looked ready for D-day. The ATC delay has queered the pitch for the

BENGALURU INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT

Fact Sheet Airport Location: On Highway NH7, 30 km to the north of the city.

Business hotels: 321 rooms.

Parking capacity: 2000 cars.

Initial cargo facility: 300000 tons of cargo.

Passenger terminal: Fully air-conditioned.

Total area for Airport project: 4000 acres.

40-Plus aircraft parking stands Apron area of 182,000 metres.

Runway (4000m): B747 aircraft compatible.

Lounge: Seating capacity of approx 100 people.

green design elements. It is a non-polluting airport and passengers will breathe fresh.

Boston in the US was the first to get this excruciatingly tough certification and certainly no airport in India can boast of it.”

COWI a/s of Denmark, Aviaplan of Norway and STUP from Mumbai provided the global leadership in preparing the master plan and engineering designs and the airport has been designed by Hong Kongbased architects Winston Shu and Gumund Stokke. There were dozens of visits to Bangkok by GMR and his team to look at Suvarnabhoomi that was commissioned last year. “We learnt from Bangkok made our strategies accordingly,” he said.

“Our debt-equity ratio is 2.1:1 say 40 per cent equity and 60 per cent debt. We have not decided on IPO and not thought of it either,” said younger son Kiran Grandhi who is the CEO of the airport business and

30

moment and a new date in May is likely to be announced sometime in April.

Should Brunner be relieved? Unlikely. He has put his all on the airport commencing operations on time? He should feel a sense of elation that he struck to his word and he gets two more months to jog the authorities to do some thing about the road to the airport. It's a nightmare and much much worse than Hyderabad.

Watch this space for a detailed update.

The airport would be third busiest with at least 7.5 million passengers.

Check in Counters: 54 (18 self-service check in kiosks).

oversees both the Hyderabad and Delhi projects. But he fobs off questions on the mantra that will take them towards profitability. “Now you are asking us for our business secrets,” he says and smiles.

One area that the management is feverishly working on is enhanced connectivity CRUISING HEIGHTS March 2008

from the city. So, more flights: domestic and international. Not surprisingly, the first interest is from the Gulf. The traffic distribution is roughly: 30 per cent to US and 30 per cent Middle East and the rest balanced between South East Asia, Australia and Europe. Emirates already has eight flights a week from Hyderabad to Dubai. Air India mounts over a dozen and there are plans for more. Hyderabad has an average of 12 daily international flights from 11 airlines, including Lufthansa.

And there are exciting times ahead: Gulf Air and British Airways are planning about four and five flights, respectively, each week, Etihad is likely to commence operations later this year and Jet has indicated that it would be increasing flights to Singapore. No surprise that SIA is also keen to increase its flights. Several new players like Tiger Airways, Virgin, Cathay Pacific, China Airlines and others are looking at Hyderabad as key to their Southern operations. “Payload issues at Begumpet forced several airlines to shelve plans for Hyderabad, but that’s changed with this airport,” said Swami.

That apart, Lufthansa Technik and GMR have an MoU to set up a most modern airframe MRO at GHIAL. It will cater to both Airbus and Boeing narrow body aircraft to start with. The area earmarked for the MRO on the south-east of the airport is being levelled now.

While the MRO is some way away — at least 12 to 15 months — the airport isn’t counting on just more flights to boost the bottom line.

The internal assessment is that it hopes to make up for most of the Rs 2,478 crore spent on the first phase of development through non-flying operations such as ground handling fees, hotel, aviation fuel and advertising.

At the moment, annual revenues at Begumpet are viewed in the region of Rs 200-250 crore. This excludes the airport charges such as landing, parking and route navigation charges that accrue to the AAI. They are working to boost these revenue streams. Considering the world class duty free, the extensive shopping arcade and the spanking new Novotel hotel in the complex, it would be no surprise if the figures doubled and tripled in the next two years.

After all, passenger figures have been revised four times in the last eight years and is likely to double again in two years.

Are they overreaching themselves?

There are always imponderables, but if the homework that GMR has done in the last few years is anything to go by, they should be able to bite the bullet. As the Group Chairman explains, they saw the Delhi modernisation bid as a one in a life-

READY FOR TAKE-OFF: (Third from left) Chief Minister Rajashekhar Reddy, Praful Patel and G. M. Rao on the day of the first trial run of the Hyderabad International Airport

“ We are a reasonable and responsible airport developer.

Rajgopal Swami Chief Financial Officer of GHIAL

”

CRUISING HEIGHTS March 2007

time chance. “We worked for two years on the Delhi airport proposal with the determination to win the bid. The focus was on improving the financials and identifying the obstacles.” They set up core teams to visit sundry airports and chew in the details bit by bit. It is a process that was honed first in Hyderabad.

From a single jute mill in 1978,GMR today has revenues of over Rs 2,000 crore and over 2000 employees. As they grow at a scorching pace, the group is rejigging its priorities and disengaging slowly from hands-on approach. As Kiran Grandhi said: “Beginning April, I should be 15 days in Delhi.” The role, as they visualise it, is to offer strategic vision, government interface and back up support. His father remembers the early days nostalgically — acquiring 5400 acres in Shamshabad, resettling over 1000 families and the steeplechase at every turn. But he does acknowledge that the group’s airports business is far from mature and evolving and developing. In other words, the patriarch and his son will continue to attend to the day-to-day affairs for some time to come.

And when will he put up his feet and relax? Perhaps, G. M. Rao has been asked this question many times and he told one interviewer: “I’ll know we’ve reached this point when something happens in the business and no one bothers me. Other people will take care of it, so I can go on a long vacation and nothing happens.”

Maybe take a flight to Shamshabad and drive to Rajam — the place where it all began and where he spends most of his money to bring some light into the lives of people who have been less fortunate than

him.

31

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AIR CARGO

Hyderabad

READY TO FLY As India’s two Greenfield airports go on stream, the air cargo industry waits patiently to step into the big leagues. For long, the freight forwarding community has suffered due to lack of infrastructure. Tirthankar Ghosh takes a look at what the new Hyderabad and Bengaluru Airports have for aircargo community.

B

Y THE TIME this issue of Cruising Heights goes into print, the new Hyderabad airport would have been formally inaugurated. The response that the airport has received is good. While teething problems do exist, the new airport could well see the country stepping into the big leagues of the aircargo business. For the industry, the airport is not only world class in every sense of the term: in looks and in quality. Hopefully, it will set the standards in delivery.

Impressed with the infrastructure, British Airways World Cargo has decided to launch direct flights between London Heathrow and Hyderabad, India, effective October 2008. The carrier will operate five flights a week on wide-bodied Boeing 777s, increasing cargo capacity to and from the region by 2500 tonnes per annum.

According to Mat Burton, Area Manager of India and Nepal at British Airways World Cargo: “These new services complement our longhaul freighter network and demonstrate our commitment to provide customers with access to strategic global markets. Hyderabad is an increasingly important station, primarily due to the rapid increase in pharmaceutical and IT manufacture in the region.”

On his part, Kiran Kumar Grandhi, Chairman and Managing Director of the GMR Hyderabad International Airport Ltd (GHIAL), recently told the media that GHIAL wanted the new airport to be a cargo hub too. While DHL had started setting up its India hub at the new airport, Air Deccan’s cargo section would like to have a large base at Hyderabad.

GHIAL would have an initial cargo capacity of 100000 MT per annum which will ultimately go up to more than 1.3 million MT per annum. It will have an exclusive cargo apron for four code C freighter aircraft and facilities for ‘Express/Courier’ cargo.

32

Keen to cash in on the booming eight per cent growth in the economy, the government has been looking to develop dedicated cargo airports. Though, no cargo airports exist at the moment in the country, the Airports Authority of India has already introduced special cargo facilities at airports in Nagpur, Lucknow and Coimbatore.

The GMR Hyderabad International Airport (GHIAL) has already done the test runs of its hi-tech cargo facility prior to the commercial launch. In addition to the nittygritties of cargo handling that were tried out, GHIAL will also test some aspects of

airport operations. The cargo unit will be handling, in the first few months, around 100000 tonnes of cargo, around 150 per cent more than the current capacity of 40000 tonnes being handled by the present airport.

With Hyderabad slowly emerging as one of the country’s top IT centres, the cargo section of the airport would be handling IT-related products as well as perishable cargo. The new airport will have facilities to handle pharma, agro products and processed seafood products. Hyped as the cargo terminal of the 21st century, GHIAL

has brought in Hermes, an IT application used in some of the top airports across the world. The application would ensure warehouse management from the time export cargo is accepted to the time it flies off. In the case of import cargo, the application will keep track of cargo offloaded from the aircraft till it is cleared by Customs and delivered to the forwarders. Of the total area of 14330 sq mt, the international air cargo complex would have 6610 sq mt while the domestic air cargo complex would have 4346 sq mt.

Cargo hiccups at Bengaluru

M

arch madness seems to have gripped Bengaluru. Why else would there be efforts to stymie the inauguration of the new airport? Even before it can open its doors to the public, the new Bangalore International Airport has been officially “grounded”. According to the aviation ministry, the official opening “has been postponed due to issues relating to air traffic control and safety”.

For freight forwarders and the cargo industry, the new Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL) is not high on the popularity charts. In fact, the air cargo industry in the city has decided to virtually boycott the airport and most freight forwarders are looking around at other options

Blue Dart appoints MD

B

lue Dart Aviation, India’s first and largest domestic cargo airline, recenlty announced the appointment of Tulsi Mirchandaney as the organisation’s new Managing Director. Mirchandaney was earlier Senior Vice President — Marketing and Projects, with Blue Dart Express and has taken over this new responsibility from Niteen Gupte.

Not new to Blue Dart’s aviation operations, Tulsi joined the company in 1995 to create and market the air cargo products for the launch of India’s first express airline, and was involved in route planning and space allocation. As the company’s

With Hyderabad slowly emerging as one of the country’s top IT centres, the cargo section of the airport would be handling IT-related products as well as perishable cargo. The new airport will have facilities to handle pharma, agro products and processed seafood products.

CRUISING HEIGHTS March 2008

CRUISING HEIGHTS March 2008

new Managing Director, Mirchandaney will now be the Accountable Manager of the organisation, which operates a fleet of seven freighters, three B757s and four B737s, offering a payload of 300 tonnes per night, across the seven major airports in the country.

Speaking on the occasion, Tulsi Mirchandaney said, “It has been a challenging but fulfilling journey at Blue Dart. Way back in 1996, we started a new chapter in India’s aviation industry with the first jet domestic freighter operations, and it is a source of great pride to have added an important milestone in a country that has a long history in aviation.” to send their consignments like Hyderabad, Chennai, Coimbatore and even Mumbai.

Reason: air cargo operators are apprehensive that BIAL would not be able to handle cargo loads to international destinations.

Shesh Kulkarni, president of UT Worldwide, and a prominent member of the Bangalore Air Cargo Club (BACC) is apprehensive. Talking to Cruising Heights from Bangalore, he said, “We do not have any doubts about the abilities of BIAL handling cargo from April 1. But the question is one of efficiency.” He pointed out that he had “serious doubts of efficient handling starting April 1, as there are many grey areas starting from the roads, parking areas for the cargo trucks, offloading of cargo and the process from thereon.”

Simply put, Kulkarni maintained that the BIAL authorities had not seen it fit to share these “concerns” with the industry in detail as yet. “So, while we have something happening on April 1, the matter is serious for the forwarders. The airlines know how and who will handle the cargo and where it is to be stored, but the forwarders are unclear about the process pertaining to clearance, both in terms of infrastructure and the cost,” he said.

It is not that the air cargo industry in the city has not pointed out their concerns to the BIAL authorities. In fact, members of BACC have been holding regular talks with the BIAL authorities. Said Kulkarni, “We have been seeking meetings with BIAL, the freight community has been very actively involved with all the stakeholders, be it Bangalore Air Cargo Club (BACC), Bangalore Customs House Agents Association Ltd (BCHAAL) or Air Cargo Agents Associations of India (ACAAI), all are

33

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Hyderabad

READY TO FLY As India’s two Greenfield airports go on stream, the air cargo industry waits patiently to step into the big leagues. For long, the freight forwarding community has suffered due to lack of infrastructure. Tirthankar Ghosh takes a look at what the new Hyderabad and Bengaluru Airports have for aircargo community.

B

Y THE TIME this issue of Cruising Heights goes into print, the new Hyderabad airport would have been formally inaugurated. The response that the airport has received is good. While teething problems do exist, the new airport could well see the country stepping into the big leagues of the aircargo business. For the industry, the airport is not only world class in every sense of the term: in looks and in quality. Hopefully, it will set the standards in delivery.

Impressed with the infrastructure, British Airways World Cargo has decided to launch direct flights between London Heathrow and Hyderabad, India, effective October 2008. The carrier will operate five flights a week on wide-bodied Boeing 777s, increasing cargo capacity to and from the region by 2500 tonnes per annum.

According to Mat Burton, Area Manager of India and Nepal at British Airways World Cargo: “These new services complement our longhaul freighter network and demonstrate our commitment to provide customers with access to strategic global markets. Hyderabad is an increasingly important station, primarily due to the rapid increase in pharmaceutical and IT manufacture in the region.”

On his part, Kiran Kumar Grandhi, Chairman and Managing Director of the GMR Hyderabad International Airport Ltd (GHIAL), recently told the media that GHIAL wanted the new airport to be a cargo hub too. While DHL had started setting up its India hub at the new airport, Air Deccan’s cargo section would like to have a large base at Hyderabad.

GHIAL would have an initial cargo capacity of 100000 MT per annum which will ultimately go up to more than 1.3 million MT per annum. It will have an exclusive cargo apron for four code C freighter aircraft and facilities for ‘Express/Courier’ cargo.

32

Keen to cash in on the booming eight per cent growth in the economy, the government has been looking to develop dedicated cargo airports. Though, no cargo airports exist at the moment in the country, the Airports Authority of India has already introduced special cargo facilities at airports in Nagpur, Lucknow and Coimbatore.

The GMR Hyderabad International Airport (GHIAL) has already done the test runs of its hi-tech cargo facility prior to the commercial launch. In addition to the nittygritties of cargo handling that were tried out, GHIAL will also test some aspects of

airport operations. The cargo unit will be handling, in the first few months, around 100000 tonnes of cargo, around 150 per cent more than the current capacity of 40000 tonnes being handled by the present airport.

With Hyderabad slowly emerging as one of the country’s top IT centres, the cargo section of the airport would be handling IT-related products as well as perishable cargo. The new airport will have facilities to handle pharma, agro products and processed seafood products. Hyped as the cargo terminal of the 21st century, GHIAL

has brought in Hermes, an IT application used in some of the top airports across the world. The application would ensure warehouse management from the time export cargo is accepted to the time it flies off. In the case of import cargo, the application will keep track of cargo offloaded from the aircraft till it is cleared by Customs and delivered to the forwarders. Of the total area of 14330 sq mt, the international air cargo complex would have 6610 sq mt while the domestic air cargo complex would have 4346 sq mt.

Cargo hiccups at Bengaluru

M

arch madness seems to have gripped Bengaluru. Why else would there be efforts to stymie the inauguration of the new airport? Even before it can open its doors to the public, the new Bangalore International Airport has been officially “grounded”. According to the aviation ministry, the official opening “has been postponed due to issues relating to air traffic control and safety”.

For freight forwarders and the cargo industry, the new Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL) is not high on the popularity charts. In fact, the air cargo industry in the city has decided to virtually boycott the airport and most freight forwarders are looking around at other options

Blue Dart appoints MD

B

lue Dart Aviation, India’s first and largest domestic cargo airline, recenlty announced the appointment of Tulsi Mirchandaney as the organisation’s new Managing Director. Mirchandaney was earlier Senior Vice President — Marketing and Projects, with Blue Dart Express and has taken over this new responsibility from Niteen Gupte.

Not new to Blue Dart’s aviation operations, Tulsi joined the company in 1995 to create and market the air cargo products for the launch of India’s first express airline, and was involved in route planning and space allocation. As the company’s

With Hyderabad slowly emerging as one of the country’s top IT centres, the cargo section of the airport would be handling IT-related products as well as perishable cargo. The new airport will have facilities to handle pharma, agro products and processed seafood products.

CRUISING HEIGHTS March 2008

CRUISING HEIGHTS March 2008

new Managing Director, Mirchandaney will now be the Accountable Manager of the organisation, which operates a fleet of seven freighters, three B757s and four B737s, offering a payload of 300 tonnes per night, across the seven major airports in the country.

Speaking on the occasion, Tulsi Mirchandaney said, “It has been a challenging but fulfilling journey at Blue Dart. Way back in 1996, we started a new chapter in India’s aviation industry with the first jet domestic freighter operations, and it is a source of great pride to have added an important milestone in a country that has a long history in aviation.” to send their consignments like Hyderabad, Chennai, Coimbatore and even Mumbai.

Reason: air cargo operators are apprehensive that BIAL would not be able to handle cargo loads to international destinations.

Shesh Kulkarni, president of UT Worldwide, and a prominent member of the Bangalore Air Cargo Club (BACC) is apprehensive. Talking to Cruising Heights from Bangalore, he said, “We do not have any doubts about the abilities of BIAL handling cargo from April 1. But the question is one of efficiency.” He pointed out that he had “serious doubts of efficient handling starting April 1, as there are many grey areas starting from the roads, parking areas for the cargo trucks, offloading of cargo and the process from thereon.”

Simply put, Kulkarni maintained that the BIAL authorities had not seen it fit to share these “concerns” with the industry in detail as yet. “So, while we have something happening on April 1, the matter is serious for the forwarders. The airlines know how and who will handle the cargo and where it is to be stored, but the forwarders are unclear about the process pertaining to clearance, both in terms of infrastructure and the cost,” he said.

It is not that the air cargo industry in the city has not pointed out their concerns to the BIAL authorities. In fact, members of BACC have been holding regular talks with the BIAL authorities. Said Kulkarni, “We have been seeking meetings with BIAL, the freight community has been very actively involved with all the stakeholders, be it Bangalore Air Cargo Club (BACC), Bangalore Customs House Agents Association Ltd (BCHAAL) or Air Cargo Agents Associations of India (ACAAI), all are

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AIR CARGO

The approach road to the new Bengaluru airport

involved in interacting closely with all the stakeholders, including customs and we hope that we will, to an extent, have minimum surprises.” But nothing seems to be working — at least not yet.

Top priority has to be given to connectivity, say the air cargo operators. The road, which connects the airport to the city, is not yet ready: in fact, passengers have been warned that a ride from the city to the new airport could take quite a while. The National Highway No 7, which is one of the main connecting roads is an overcrowded one and when the new airport starts functioning, it will not be able to handle the huge loads. In fact, this is what the BACC told BIAL. The movement of cargo operations from the present HAL airport to BIAL from March 30, say the cargo operators, would increase operational costs.

To top it all, the other worry for the air cargo industry is that BIAL would levy higher charges for cargo than what they are paying now to HAL. The cargo handling charges at the airport could be somewhere around Rs 6 a kg as against the Rs 2 a kg being charged at the HAL airport.

In such a situation, operators feel that they would be left with no other alternative but to go to other airports. Kulkarni was forthright. “Cost,” he pointed out, “is a very relative term in our business, it measures up against time. If in the process of clearing,

34

“ If in the process of clearing, the time involved is longer and it results in increasing the overhead cost, we’ll have to explore the options of Chennai, Mumbai, etc.

— Shesh Kulkarni President, UT Worldwide

”

CRUISING HEIGHTS March 2008

be it imports or exports of cargo, the time involved in commuting is longer and it results in increasing the overhead cost, I guess we will have to explore the options of Chennai, Mumbai, etc. Cost is one aspect, but it is also a system that should deliver efficiently and to top it all, it will have to be ‘predictable’. With regard to loss of business, only time will tell, at this point of time your guess is as good as mine,” he said.

The present HAL airport handles more than 100000 tonnes of cargo annually and is seeing an annual growth rate of 24 per cent. BIAL authorities maintain that the new airport would have the capacity to handle 350000 tonnes of cargo annually. The city, according to BIAL, would be a cargo destination. For the present, there will be a temporary cargo area that would operate for two years. Within those two years, BIAL has plans to set up a large cargo village near the airport.

BIAL’s entry has indeed been welcomed by everyone in the city. As Kulkarni put it: “First and foremost, I do think, Bangalore needs a new international airport.

From that point of view, we are very excited. The new airport is the answer and a solution to present pain points pertaining to air travel and cargo handling, particularly in Bangalore.” But he was quick to point out once again, “There is a lack of awareness or insight on the process/ progress with regard to cargo handling. We feel concerned, but do think that it should pan off in a period of six months to one year.”

Meanwhile, at a recent meeting — sometime in the middle of February — between BIAL and the Bangalore Airline Operators Community (AOC), it was announced that cargo and freight companies could occupy offices at BIAL from March 20. “So we have just nine days to shift? Why can’t BIAL involve us more actively in the planning?” asked Shesh Kulkarni.

BIAL has a strategic partner for cargo operation. The consortia that was selected after an extensive technical and financial evaluation process were SATS-Air India and Menzies Aviation. After the selection process, Albert Brunner, CEO of BIAL had said that the selection of the cargo concessionaire marked a significant step towards transforming the Bangalore International Airport into a regional cargo hub. BIAL, he had said then, was “committed to offer cargo facility services to airlines and shippers at the best international standards and competitive prices. We wish to create a competitive environment between the selected cargo facility operators in order to ensure long-term quality, efficiency and innovation in cargo services at the new Bangalore

International Airport.”

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INTERVIEW

Scope to increase frequencies exists top ‘ ’

Q

: What plans does SIA have for India? :We would like to thank the Indian government for the bilaterals between India and Singapore. Our plans for India… We have been a long-term player in the Indian market. We started operating in 1970 — almost 40 years of operations. Our strategy has always been to cater to the market as well as putting up new destinations. Our objective is to cater to international demand: be it business and corporate traffic, leisure traffic or the NRI traffic.

A

You mentioned that there could be fast-tracking of the bilaterals…

We have to see whether we can expand those bilaterals. For example, instead of making them available next year, we can think of advancing them this year. Our entitlement is enough to allow us to operate three flights daily but now we have two.

What about the competition?

Jet, for example, has been very active in your market. How has it affected your market share, which, we understand, stands at 20-25 per cent?

The competition has not really affected our market share. What has happened is that demand has grown. There is more government, more business and more leisure traffic. Also, there is VFR (Visiting Friends and Relatives) traffic between Delhi and Singapore. Singapore has traditionally been a very popular destination with Indians and it will continue to be so because it is renewing its attractions and creating new ones. At the same time Singapore is becoming an education hub.

Competition is always welcome and it continues to intensify. We are never the ones to shy away from the competition. It helps to drive the market. As for the market share, it is fairly bal-

anced.

SIA recently started the ‘all business-class’ flights from Singapore to New York and Houston. Do you have any moves to start similar flights from India?

All business class is something that has a very specific mission where the clientele is purely corporates. Currently, there is no specific need to introduce the “all-business class” on the IndiaSingapore sector. Incidentally, no other carrier has a first class from here (to Singapore). At the same time, I would like to mention that the demand for Business and First Class from North India is pretty attractive.

As for our services, let me tell you about Singapore Airlines.

We are known for our service standards. Lots of airlines compare themselves to where we are and they look at the Singapore girl as the icon. Our endeavor is to consistently provide more travel options and localised inflight selections that delight our Indian customers.

In setting that service standard we bring along a product.

We were the first ones to launch the A380 service and in the past as well, we have been the first one in many things. We are currently operating to 75 cities in the world and the only place we are not in is South America. But that is due to a constraint of rights and opportunities.

We have ordered 19 A380s.

CRUISING HEIGHTS March 2008

“

We are known for our service standards.

Lots of airlines compare themselves to where we are and they look at the Singapore girl as the icon

“

Chai Woo Foo is a happy man. As General Manager – India, Singapore Airlines, he spearheads the carrier’s aggressive expansion plans in India.

On the sidelines of the media meet to announce the new morning flights from Delhi to Singapore, Foo made time to speak to Tirthankar Ghosh about Singapore Airlines’ future plans. Excerpts from the conversation:

How much is SIA’s entitlement and how much of the bilaterals have you taken care of with the introduction of the new flights?

We understand that there are 18 tourist destinations that you can fly to in India. Will you increase the number of destinations in the near future?

There is nothing specific as yet although, our sister airline, Silk Air, introduced a new destination in October last year: Coimbatore. For Singapore Airlines, while there is nothing specific yet, we are open to new opportunities as and when they come along. We are always evaluating destinations and whenever any station begins to show signs of development in growth, we will start looking at it seriously. We continue to evaluate these opportunities.

We do not have any other destinations in mind. Coimbatore was outside the 18 destinations and is the last one that we have done. In India, we are currently operating to eight points with 55 services a week. Along with our sister carrier, Silk Air, we offer

three more destinations.

37

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INTERVIEW

Scope to increase frequencies exists top ‘ ’

Q

: What plans does SIA have for India? :We would like to thank the Indian government for the bilaterals between India and Singapore. Our plans for India… We have been a long-term player in the Indian market. We started operating in 1970 — almost 40 years of operations. Our strategy has always been to cater to the market as well as putting up new destinations. Our objective is to cater to international demand: be it business and corporate traffic, leisure traffic or the NRI traffic.

A

You mentioned that there could be fast-tracking of the bilaterals…

We have to see whether we can expand those bilaterals. For example, instead of making them available next year, we can think of advancing them this year. Our entitlement is enough to allow us to operate three flights daily but now we have two.

What about the competition?

Jet, for example, has been very active in your market. How has it affected your market share, which, we understand, stands at 20-25 per cent?

The competition has not really affected our market share. What has happened is that demand has grown. There is more government, more business and more leisure traffic. Also, there is VFR (Visiting Friends and Relatives) traffic between Delhi and Singapore. Singapore has traditionally been a very popular destination with Indians and it will continue to be so because it is renewing its attractions and creating new ones. At the same time Singapore is becoming an education hub.

Competition is always welcome and it continues to intensify. We are never the ones to shy away from the competition. It helps to drive the market. As for the market share, it is fairly bal-

anced.

SIA recently started the ‘all business-class’ flights from Singapore to New York and Houston. Do you have any moves to start similar flights from India?

All business class is something that has a very specific mission where the clientele is purely corporates. Currently, there is no specific need to introduce the “all-business class” on the IndiaSingapore sector. Incidentally, no other carrier has a first class from here (to Singapore). At the same time, I would like to mention that the demand for Business and First Class from North India is pretty attractive.

As for our services, let me tell you about Singapore Airlines.

We are known for our service standards. Lots of airlines compare themselves to where we are and they look at the Singapore girl as the icon. Our endeavor is to consistently provide more travel options and localised inflight selections that delight our Indian customers.

In setting that service standard we bring along a product.

We were the first ones to launch the A380 service and in the past as well, we have been the first one in many things. We are currently operating to 75 cities in the world and the only place we are not in is South America. But that is due to a constraint of rights and opportunities.

We have ordered 19 A380s.

CRUISING HEIGHTS March 2008

“

We are known for our service standards.

Lots of airlines compare themselves to where we are and they look at the Singapore girl as the icon

“

Chai Woo Foo is a happy man. As General Manager – India, Singapore Airlines, he spearheads the carrier’s aggressive expansion plans in India.

On the sidelines of the media meet to announce the new morning flights from Delhi to Singapore, Foo made time to speak to Tirthankar Ghosh about Singapore Airlines’ future plans. Excerpts from the conversation:

How much is SIA’s entitlement and how much of the bilaterals have you taken care of with the introduction of the new flights?

We understand that there are 18 tourist destinations that you can fly to in India. Will you increase the number of destinations in the near future?

There is nothing specific as yet although, our sister airline, Silk Air, introduced a new destination in October last year: Coimbatore. For Singapore Airlines, while there is nothing specific yet, we are open to new opportunities as and when they come along. We are always evaluating destinations and whenever any station begins to show signs of development in growth, we will start looking at it seriously. We continue to evaluate these opportunities.

We do not have any other destinations in mind. Coimbatore was outside the 18 destinations and is the last one that we have done. In India, we are currently operating to eight points with 55 services a week. Along with our sister carrier, Silk Air, we offer

three more destinations.

37

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INTERVIEW Two have been delivered and one will pass over the Indian skies sometime tonight (March 10, 2008) on its way to Singapore.

Photos: H.C. Tiwari

(L to R): SIA’s C.W. Foo and Manjit Grewal

COMING: A DOUBLE DAILY FROM SIA

I

“

We would not be introducing new flights if we did not expect fliers.

We are fairly optimistic about how the Indian market is developing

“

38

n a move that can only be seen as part of its aggressive expansion plans in the country, Singapore Airlines (SIA) has decided to start morning services from New Delhi to Singapore. There will be two new flights from New Delhi, beginning March 30.

With the new services, aptly named ‘Sunrise’ flights, the carrier will now be operating nine flights a week from the capital.

These flights would be in addition to the daily night flights from Delhi. “Our new Sunrise services,” said an upbeat C. W. Foo, General Manager — India, Singapore Airlines, “will provide convenient connectivity to our customers travelling to and beyond Singapore to destinations in South East Asia, Australia and New Zealand. This will increase Singapore Airline’s capacity from New Delhi, by almost 24 per cent.”

In its bid to provide services of a high order to passengers from Delhi, Manjit Grewal, Manager, North India, mentioned that the food served on the flights had been changed to serve the North Indian palates.

For the southern passengers, SIA has created a menu that is in keeping with the choice and comfort of southern customers.

The menu, according to Grewal, is a veritable feast in the sky and comprises a regional starter, rice based main course and a signature dessert.

In addition, SIA has also introduced special economy class fares to destinations beyond Singapore like Kuala Lumpur, Penang and Langkawi in Malaysia; Denpasar and Lombok in Indonesia; Beijing, Shanghai, Canton and Shenzhen in China; Hong Kong; Australia; New Zealand; and Manila, Cebu and Davao in Philippines.

SIA has also chalked out plans to start double daily flights from Bangalore, which currently operates ten flights per week. In its blueprint for the future, the carrier would like to fly thrice daily flights from Mumbai from its present 14 flights per week. Even for Delhi, SIA would like to start its double daily flights from the capital in around 18 months from now.

CRUISING HEIGHTS March 2008

How much of the passenger traffic — that you get from Indian destinations — flies out of Singapore?

Look at it this way. We would not be introducing new flights if we did not expect fliers. We are fairly optimistic about how the Indian market is developing. For example, every year Australia attracts many holiday-makers from the Indian sub-continent. From India, Singapore Airlines offers the best travel options to Australia with convenient flight connections via Singapore. We are working with Tourism Australia for jointly promoting our flights to five destinations in Australia.

We are also looking at expanding our international destination network and considering exotic locations like Bali and Vietnam.

The new morning flights from Delhi is an important milestone for our Delhi operations. Our sunrise services will provide customers with a choice as well as convenient connectivity to destinations around the globe. Our aim is to step up the flights from New Delhi to double-daily in the near future. We plan to operate 11 times a week to Delhi from next year. If traffic rights are available, then we would like to operate a double daily. We are also keen to operate a double daily flight to Chennai if permitted by the bilaterals.

Is there any plan to bring the A380 to India?

Not at the moment. Our plan is to increase frequencies for India before introducing a bigger aircraft. There is still a lot of scope to increase frequencies. I will give you an example. We currently operate four flights a day to Shanghai from Singapore and we have plans to push it to five times a day. From Delhi, we have seven times a week but there is scope to increase it to double flights a day.

We want to introduce flights which will provide our customers, at least timing wise, the convenience of choosing whatever time

they want to fly.

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GLOBETROTTING

AT A GLANCE

Stop watering bushes

Pandemonium in the air

TAXI CAB drivers at Scotland’s Edinburgh Airport could face a possible ban if they didn’t soon put an end to relieving themselves around the bushes near the facility’s main entrance according to The Scotsman. Operator BAA has caught cabbies on numerous occasions on the closed circuit television cameras answering nature’s call.

JUST HALF-AN-HOUR after take-off, a flight was forced to turn around and return to base causing a two-hour delay for 105 frustrated passengers. Remnants of a tyre had been found on the runaway, but it was later discovered it belonged to another aircraft. As luck would have it, there was another plane with a burst tyre that caused all the confusion. Not able to validate which aircraft had burst a tyre, simply because it is awfully intricate to inspect an aircraft while mid air, two aircrafts that took off back to back had to be recalled!

The best of blues from Pacific Blue

H

would receive a credit for travel with the airline, equivalent to the value of the flight from which they were being bumped, in addition to being placed on a later flight.

Things aparently got tough when the crew announced that once the voluntary phase was completed, the next step would be to disembark the passengers who checked in last.

The pilot announced that if the 13 passengers desisted from disembarking, he would leave everybody behind and fly the plane to Christchurch without a solitary passenger.

Interestingly, another fresh assurance followed stating that any late volunteers would be eligible for the free flight consequent to which fresh negotiations began with yet another couple that appreciated the idea.

They bounded down the gangway to a round of applause from the surviving passengers with a final announcement: “Where’s the wedding party? Your bacon is saved.”

CRUISING HEIGHTS March 2008

A QANTAS passenger flight from Brisbane to Sydney lost power to its left engine and was forced make an emergency landing after a small pin came loose, eventually shutting down the engine. Subsequent scrutiny revealed that a dowel pin in a section of the plane’s left engine that had been ingested by the downstream rotating hardware had come loose resulting in damage to a part of the engine and causing it to shutdown.

The ATSB’s safety report stated that the engine’s manufacturer, General Electric, had released a manual that contained “no guidance or instruction” to maintenance staff about examining the pins well in advance.

Cat is out of the bag A KITTEN survived a plane trip halfway across the US after accidentally ending up in a suitcase. The suitcase in which 10-month-old tabby Gracie Mae was stowed away, was mistakenly picked up by the wrong person after a twohour plane trip from Fort Lauderdale in Florida to Dallas-Fort Worth airport in Texas.

Incidentally, the man who took the suitcase called the kitten’s Florida home.

As an aftermath of his talks with the owner’s wife, the man agreed to hold the cat until her husband could pick it up.

39

Illustrations by Rajeev Kumar

ERE GOES a pleasant piece from the Sydney Morning Herald – A packed passenger jet from the Virgin Group airline Pacific Blue spent a frenetic 90 minutes parked on the tarmac at Melbourne Airport as its crew members pleaded, cajoled and bullied 13 passengers into disembarking the plane.

As luck would have it, the 737-800 was all set to take off for Christchurch when the crew announced a short delay due to inadequate staff for safety requirements, as a result of which all the 13 passengers needed to be disembarked. The crew called for volunteers to leave the aircraft and suggested alternate options until the next Christchurch-bound flight. Ironically, several of these ill-fated passengers were rounded up and escorted off the aircraft.

Luckily, the cabin crew later elucidated that volunteers disembarking on their own

All because of a teenyweeny pin

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SNIPPETS

DOMESTIC AIRLINES

Educational bonanza for Spicejet’s employees IN A UNIQUE move, SpiceJet is collaborating with University of Petroleum and Energy Studies to provide its employees full-time MBA and BBA programme in Aviation Management.

The first selected batch comprise of 15 students who have qualified for the MBA programme. The objective of starting this programme is to provide managerial education to junior and middle level managers and enable them to develop skills and talent required for higher managerial positions in the organisation. This programme is a fully sponsored opportunity from SpiceJet to its employees and also includes free facilities like travel and stay while employees attend classes at Gurgaon campus. This is the second major step towards employee empowerment announced by the airline, the first being ESOP

Air India bags Best Customer Loyalty Award AIR INDIA was proud recipient of the coveted Best Customer Loyalty Program Award for ‘Flying Returns’ at the Asia Retail Congress held in Mumbai in early January. The award, the firstever for this category, was received on behalf of Air India by Pankaj Shrivastava, General Manager-Commercial (W). While thanking the organisers, Shrivastava briefed the participants who had come from all over the globe, about ‘Flying Returns’. The programme, which has approximately 400000 members the world over, is one of the best amongst the airlines with excellent earn/ burn ratio, he affirmed.

Deccan beefs up its connections!

DECCAN CONTINUES to expand its connectivity spree to new city pairs across the country. Recently, it has launched several daily flights.

Mumbai-Vizag: An Airbus 320 has been deployed to serve this route.

Cochin-Mangalore: Operations on this route will commence on March 30. An Airbus 320 aircraft will operate on this route.

40

offerings to all its employees.

Speaking on this, Siddhanta Sharma — Executive Chairman and CEO, SpiceJet Ltd said, “Our people are our most valued assets and we believe in investing in our employees for their individual growth and for the development of the company. Programmes like these, offer opportunities to our young talents and help them groom to become tomorrow’s managers.”

SpiceJet achieves operational breakeven: SpiceJet declared its third quarter results for period October ’07 to December ’07 with an operational breakeven. Its operational revenue has almost doubled over the last quarter showing a 97 per cent growth and is now at Rs 4,085 million. The total income of the company has achieved a growth of 71 per cent and is now at Rs 4,380 million. At operational level, the company achieved a break-even with a profit of Rs 0.4 million compared to an operational loss of Rs 259.3 million last year. Net profit for the quarter is reported at Rs 93.4 million. This includes non-operating income from foreign exchange fluctuation of Rs 35.3 million and profit on sale of 2 aircraft of Rs 57.6 million. The number of flights during the quarter has increased from 5506 last year to 8918 this year, resulting in a growth of 62 per cent.

The number of passengers flown in Q3 last year was 6.95 lacs and is now at 11.66 lacs showing a growth of 67 per cent.

Booking for the flights is open.

Mumbai-Lucknow: Operation on this route will commence on March 30 and an Airbus 320 will operate on this route. Bookings for the flights are open.

Bangalore-Indore: The airline has also announced new daily flights connecting Bangalore to Indore via Nagpur. The new flights will commence operations on March 30, to be served again by an A320.

Bangalore-Trichy: The airline has launched two daily flights connecting Bangalore and Trichy, which will be linked for the first time ever by air. An ATR aircraft has been deployed to serve this route. The new flights will operate in the morning and evening and will commence operation on March 30. Bookings for the flights are open.

Jorhat-Kolkatta (via Guwahati): Operations will commence on March 30 with an Airbus A320.

IndiGo expands INDIGO HAS taken delivery of its 17th brand new Airbus A320 aircraft to further expand its route network with the introduction of 6 new flights. With the launch of these new services, IndiGo is operating 118 daily flights connecting 17 destinations.

IndiGo will introduce non-stop round trip service between Kolkata and Bangalore, as well as add flights between Kolkata and Guwahati and between Bangalore and Chennai. IndiGo will also offer same-aircraft connecting services between Mumbai and Guwahati and between Guwahati and Bangalore and continuation to Chennai.

Speaking on the launch of new and additional services, Bruce Ashby, President and CEO of IndiGo said, “We are pleased to announce these services, which will provide our customers greater flexibility in organising their travel and will further help us in strengthening our route network”.

CRUISING HEIGHTS March 2008

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Plenty of action at Jet The Lord of the Rings musical album launched: Jet Airways supported the launch of Lord of the Rings cast (musical) album at the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane, London, U.K. The album features the 70 strong cast and orchestra, has lyrics

by Shaun McKenna and Matthew Warchus and music by A. R. Rahman, Värttinä and Christopher Nightingale.

This unique partnership between the production team of the Lord of the Rings and Jet Airways means that travellers flying to India on Jet Airways flights will be able to enjoy music from the show and watch an interview with India’s most renowned composer A. R. Rahman.

Jet-AA announce FFPO programme: Jet Airways and American Airlines have announced a frequent flyer partnership programme.

With this reciprocal accrual and redemption partnership, Jet Airways’ JetPrivilege, India’s largest frequent flyer programme, will now have 12 international airline partners on which its members can earn and redeem their JPMiles. JetPrivilege members flying on eligible American Airlines flights anywhere on the latter’s network will now be able to earn and redeem their JPMiles. Similarly, members of American Airlines frequent flyer programme, AAdvantage, will be able to earn and redeem miles on eligible flights on the Jet Airways network.

Tie-up with Mandarin group: JetPrivilege has tied up with Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group. JetPrivilege members can now earn JPMiles during their stay at the Group’s 18 select premier properties across Asia, Europe and America. With this new partnership the two celebrated brands will enable, JetPrivilege members based in India and abroad, to earn 500 JPMiles during their stay at any of the various participating hotels under this scheme.

Codeshare with Air Canada: Jet Airways has announced a codeshare with Air Canada offering seamless travel to passengers between India and Canada, effective February 28, 2008. With this partnership, passengers can fly between Mumbai and London Heathrow on Jet Airways operated flights continuing to/ from Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, Montreal, and Edmonton on flights operated by Air Canada. The arrangement also includes Jet Airways’ operated flights from Chennai to Toronto, which will be operated in codeshare with Air Canada. Additionally, passengers will enjoy frequent flyer benefits on code-shared routes on accrual basis as well as seamless transfers with through check-in and interline eticketing.

Avaya GlobalConnect Award: Jet Airways has been recognised

GoAir announces flexible fare plan GOAIR HAS launch- ed a new fare package called GoFlexi Fare. It allows a GoAir passenger to make unlimited changes in his travel itinerary without the levy of rescheduling charges. The passenger booked on a GoFlexi Fare has the flexibility to change his date of travel and re-book his ticket free of cost. GoAir has also slashed the cancellation charges to Rs 200 on all GoFlexi bookings.

The cancellations or rescheduling can be made upto two hours prior to scheduled time of flight departure.

Minister of State for External Affairs, E. Ahamed cutting the ribbon with N. Hariharan, Vice President-Office of the Chairman, Jet Airways at the launch of Jet Airways maiden direct flight to Muscat from Calicut International Airport on January 23, 2008

Daily direct to Muscat and Doha : Effective January 23, Jet launched its daily direct flights to Muscat and Doha from Kozhikode (Calicut). Simultaneously, the airline launched flights from Kochi to Muscat and from Mumbai to Doha. Jet Airways will serve these routes on the Boeing 737-800 aircraft. With the introduction of these new flights Kozhikode will be the second city in Kerala to be connected by Jet Airway’s international services to the Middle East.

for its Customer Responsive Business Practice 2007, for its JetPrivilege programme (the airline’s Frequent Flyer programme), at the Avaya GlobalConnect Customer Responsiveness Awards in January in Mumbai. JetPrivilege was judged for its Business Practice which best displayed its Customer Responsiveness for “Delivering Value based Members’ Flying Programme”. It emerged a leader amongst all the companies selected, which were evaluated with regard to customer responsiveness policies and practices, by a distinguished jury of experts including eminent corporate personalities.

‘Jetprivilege’ offers : Jet’s frequent flyer programme JetPrivilege (JP) now allows its members to book redeem and print their Jet Airways award e-tickets online on www.jetairways.com. With the introduction of this convenient online redemption feature, JP members can now view award seat availability, redeem JPMiles for Award tickets and pay taxes online through a secured payment gateway. Jet Airways Award e-tickets can be booked and ticketed up to two hours prior to departure for domestic sectors within India and six hours prior to departure for Jet Airways’ international sectors.

Records 73 per cent growth in traffic: GoAir recorded a whopping 73 per cent growth in passenger traffic during the last ninemonths of the current fiscal, carrying over a million passengers. The massive growth in traffic immediately follows the flight operations expansion programme concluded by GoAir last November, GoAir doubled its weekly flight operations to 561 commercial flights.

Edgardo Badiali is CEO: Edgardo Badiali has been appointed as as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of GoAir. He will report to Jeh Wadia. Badiali is a senior aviation professional with over 15 years of senior management experience and 27 years of experience in the aviation sector. Before joining GoAir, he was the CEO of Italian low cost airline MyAir. Badiali is also the co-founder and member of the Executive Committee of the European Low Fares Airline Association (ELFAA). He has also held various senior positions in leading airlines including Swiss Air and Jet Airways.

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INTERNATIONAL Emirates becomes ICC official partner Emirates has expanded its sponsorship portfolio by becoming an Official Partner of the International Cricket Council (ICC) until 2015. As an Official Partner of the ICC, Emirates has rights to all ICC major tournaments, including the 2011 and 2015 ICC Cricket World Cups, ICC Champions Trophy, ICC World Twenty20, ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier, ICC Under 19 World Cup, ICC Intercontinental Cup and the ICC Women’s World Cup. Through this partnership, Emirates will gain considerable media exposure.

Maurice Flanagan, Executive Vice Chairman, Emirates Airline & Group, said: “We have been involved as a sponsor of cricket for many years, particularly through our support of the Emirates Elite Panels of ICC Umpires and Match Referees, and our partnership with Cricket Australia. We felt that the time was right to expand our partnership with the ICC.

Maurice Flanagan, Executive Vice Chairman, Emirates Airline & Group (right) and Malcolm Speed, ICC Chief Executive, announcing the official partnership between Emirates and International Cricket Council (ICC) until 2015. Also photographed are Emirates Cabin Crew Bianca Neves (left) and Ghada Elmansouri.

Kingfisher-Emirates ink alliance

in two variants — Platinum and Titanium. One of the fastestKINGFISHER AIRLINES and Emirates Airline have announced growing airlines in the world, Emirates is the international airline that they have inked an alliance aimed at expanding the benefits of the United Arab Emirates, based in the awe-inspiring city of offered to members of their frequent flyers programmes. Besides Dubai. Emirates has one of the youngest fleet in the skies and offering reciprocal benefits to each others’ frequent flyers, the more than 300 awards for excellence worldwide. Skywards is the alliance also envisages that both partners will explore and embark award-winning loyalty programme of Emirates Airline. The Stanon mutually beneficial marketing opportunities. The alliance dard Chartered-Emirates card enables the card-holder to earn Skywhich was signed by Brian LaBelle, Skywards’ Senior Vice Preswards Miles against every rupee spent on the credit card. These ident and A. Raghunathan, Executive Vice-President of KingfishMiles can be redeemed for free flights or upgrades on Emirates er Airlines, came into effect from March 1, 2008. Kingfisher Airand its airline partners as well as for a wide array of products and lines becomes the first airline from the Indian sub-continent services with its non-airline partners. region to partner with Emirates Airline’s acclaimed frequent flyer programme. The coming together of two market-leading airline powerhouses gives their frequent flyers much reason to rejoice with the announcement of the combined Frequent Flyer programme. The partnership provides the members unmatched travel benefits in the form of bonus Miles and entitles them to redeem it while flying either airline. Frequent flyers of both airlines can now earn and burn frequent flyer miles on each others’ programmes.

StandChart-Emirates co-branded credit card: Standard Chartered Bank and Emirates have announced the launch of their co-branded credit card — The Standard Chartered-Emirates Card. This credit card offers unmatched travel benefits for frequent Fly to New Zealand on Malaysia Airlines travellers in the form of Miles and special unmatched PLAN YOUR Kiwi holiday this summer on Tourism New Zealand and features like on-boarding Miles. The card is available Malaysia Airlines' Special Holiday airfare of Rs 32,174/- (tax exclusive) from New Delhi to Auckland, New Zealand for travel planned from April 1 to June 30 . Malaysia Airlines offers flights from five points in India to Auckland through Kuala Lumpur. “We are confident that this service will be of tremendous value to our customers. As outbound travel from India continues to be on the up swing, Malaysia Airlines hopes to be at the helm of this growth by ensuring the best accessibility, affordable travel and the highest standards of hospitality,” says Kiran Nambiar, Country Manager, Tourism New Zealand.

He further says, “Indian tourists are increasingly lured to a Kiwi holiday for the many adventure, luxury and cultural experiences we offer.

In 2007, New Zealand attracted about 21000 Indian tourists and we expect a 10-15 per cent growth this year.” So, grab your passport and A. Raghunathan, Executive Vice President – Finance, contact your local travel agent to book now!

Kingfisher Airlines and Brian Labelle, Senior Vice President, Skywards exchange the agreement

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QA’s corporate rewards programme QATAR AIRWAYS has unveiled a new corporate travel rewards programme for small and medium sized businesses across Qatar, designed to ensure their travel budgets go further with added value services. The newly-launched Qbiz programme will make it easier for companies with limited travel budgets to maximise their savings when travelling with Qatar Airways. Under the new programme, when employees travel with Qatar Airways, their companies will earn Privilege Club Qmiles which, in turn, can be used to redeem free flights and secure upgrades with the airline. Qatar Airways Chief Executive Officer Akbar Al Baker said the scheme was a win-win situation for all, as business trips would be twice as rewarding.

Lufthansa’s rewards for frequent flyers STARTING JANUARY 25 members of Lufthansa’s Miles & More frequent flyer programme in India are being offered books and other printed materials through redeeming their award miles. Members are also exchanging points for books through the website of India Book Distributors (Bombay) Limited (IBD) — www.ibdwebstore.com.

IBD is the country’s largest importer and distributor of English language books. Books ordered online will be door-delivered to Miles & More members across the country.

Special menus for Lufthansa’s young guests: Nine months after their introduction, the new children’s menus on board Lufthansa flights are still popular with the little guests. On longhaul-flights, Lufthansa’s catering subsidiary, LSG Sky Chefs, has already loaded 60000 portions of the dishes created by star chef Ralf Zacherl on board. They include seemingly adventurous dishes such as ‘Tiger’s Tail’, which is really a rolled pancake filled with poultry and vegetables. The young passengers can continue their culinary journey in space, for example with a ‘Little Martian’ for dessert. The face is thereby formed from mousse and strawberry purée; the eyes consist of chocolate drops and the antennae of liquorices snakes. The children’s menus can be booked in advance free-of-charge for all children less than 12 years of age on all Lufthansa’s long distance flights.

Lufthansa expands flight services to India: From May 3, 2008, Lufthansa will be the only airline connecting Mumbai to Munich with three weekly flights. Operated with an Airbus A340-300, the flights will complement Lufthansa’s existing daily service between Mumbai and Frankfurt. Convenient connections to onward destinations in Europe, US and Canada will be synchronised from Munich to provide passengers from India with seamless travel. Lufthansa will also boost the current services between Kolkata and Frankfurt from three to five flights a week, starting on June 3 by adding flights on Wednesday and Sunday. Lufthansa operates the route to Kolkata with an Airbus A330-300, offering a total of 221 seats.

Sri Lankan Airlines’ incredible offer SRILANKAN AIRLINES is offering young Indian travellers the chance of a lifetime to fly to Sri Lanka at attractive air fares, and enjoy an exciting holiday. Manoj Gunawardena, head of Worldwide Passenger Sales, said: “Teenagers and young adults yearn to explore the world, but many simply can’t afford it. The ‘Before

you’re 27’ promotion is a remarkable opportunity for those between the ages of 16 and 27 years to make a start in their quest to explore and experience. This offer is available throughout the month of February.” SriLankan Airlines is the only international carrier to have 100 flights per week to India. The offer is valid from each of the 11 cities it serves there — New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Trichy, Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Goa, Coimbatore and Kozhikode.

SIA’s A380 to London SINGAPORE AIRLINES is flying the Airbus A380 on the Singapore-London route, from mid March, after taking delivery of the third A380 into its fleet. The inaugural flight was also the first-ever A380 commercial service to Europe.

Ranjan Jha appointed Manager for Gujarat: Singapore Airlines has announced the appointment of Ranjan Jha as its new Manager for Gujarat. Ranjan has been with Singapore Airlines for over eight years and has contributed substantially in the field of sales, distribution and business management. Prior to taking over his current role as Manager for Gujarat region, he worked as Assistant Manager, Sales & Distribution (Marketing) within the company. This Singapore Airlines scholarship winner completRanjan jha ed his Bachelors in Engineering from National University of Singapore and his interests include sports, yoga and music.

Boeing appoints new Leader in India THE BOEING Company has announced that Naveed Hussain will serve in India as its Vice President of Engineering and Technology. “Naveed will strengthen our efforts to develop and implement engineering and technology strategies in this important and dynamic market that are mutually beneficial to India and Boeing,” said John Tracy, N. Hussain Boeing Senior Vice President of Engineering, Operations and Technology and chief technology officer.

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National Tourism Awards

The Ministry of Tourism presented the National Tourism Awards 2006-2007 on February 27, 2008. The awards are given out to honour outstanding individuals and organisations, state governments and the travel industry that have achieved excellence in different fields related to tourism.

Presented under various categories, the awards included recognition to the best states, best rural tourism projects, best publicity materials, best hotels, best convention centre, Chefs of the year, travel agents/tour operators, best foreign journalist for India, best foreign photographer for India, best maintained monument, best maintained tourist friendly wildlife sanctuary, best NGO promoting tourism, best guide, best films, excellence in publishing, most innovative use of information technology promoting tourism and so on.

The function was inaugurated by Union External Affairs Minister, Pranab Mukherjee. Speaking on the occasion, Ambika Soni, the Tourism Minister said, “I am hopeful that this recognition will motivate the industry to strive for excellence in this important sector of the economy.�Among others present to grace the occasion was Tourism Secretary, S. Banerjee, and number of stalwarts of the tourism industry.

Photos: H.C.Tiwari

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TRAVEL & TOURISM Surajkund Mela 2008 concludes

The Union Minister of External Affairs, Pranab Mukherjee, inaugurating the 22nd Surajkund Craft Mela-2008, in Haryana on February 1, 2008. The Chief Minister of Haryana, Bhupinder Singh Hooda and others are also seen

Accor opens first ibis ACCOR HOSPITALITY, the French hotel group and the world’s largest operator of economy and budget hotels, has announced that the first Ibis hotel in India will open in April 2008. Accor is developing the Ibis brand of economy hotels through a significant joint venture with Indian travel conglomerate, InterGlobe Enterprises.

The Ibis Gurgaon is located on the prominent Golf Course artery in Gurgaon and will feature contemporary European styling, 217 rooms, a three-meal restaurant, bar and meeting rooms. The brand espouses the values of quality, simplicity and value and will be positioned as the best value international hotels in India, for those consumers willing to trade off luxuries but not comfort. Casual and friendly, the hotels will feature an outstanding room with modular bathroom, quality food and beverage and a high-tech environment.

Accor is aiming to open more Ibis brand hotels in Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad and New Delhi.

Accor announces major expansion to its novotel network: Accor will develop a 440-room Novotel hotel in Mumbai, due to open in 2010. The hotel is being developed in a joint venture with India Blue Mountains, a hotel-specific development company focused on India, and will be located on the prominent AndheriKurla Road artery, in close proximity to the international and domestic airports as well as to the current and emerging business districts of Mumbai.

Cox and Kings goes for an IPO COX AND KINGS (India) Limited has filed its Draft Red Herring Prospectus with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) to enter the capital market soon with an Initial Public Offering (IPO) of 8700000 equity shares of Rs 10 each for cash, at a price to be decided through a 100 per cent Book-Building Process. The Issue comprises a Net Issue of 8600000 Equity Shares to the Public and a reservation of up to 100000 Equity Shares for Permanent Eligible Employees. The Issue would constitute 23.75 per cent of the fully diluted post Issue paid up capital of the Company and the Net Issue will constitute 23.48 per cent of the fully diluted post Issue paid-up capital of the Company. The Equity Shares are proposed to be listed on Bombay Stock Exchange of India Limited and National Stock Exchange Limited.

Fortune debuts in City of Joy ITC’s WHOLLY owned subsidiary Fortune Park Hotels opened its 23rd hotel, Fortune Park Panchwati in Kolkata in February 2008.

EXTERNAL AFFAIRS Minister Pranab Mukherjee inaugurated the 15-days long Surajkund crafts mela last month. West Bengal was the theme state in the Mela and over 60 eminent craft persons from West Bengal participated. The major crafts on display from West Bengal were artistic leather craft, brass and bell metal, cane and bamboo, ceramic, clay dolls, dhokra, horn work, jute products, masks and puppets, papier mache, sandalwood carving, artistic weaving, printing and painting, Baluchari saree and Daccai, cotton sarees and Jamdani and needlework and embroidery. A total of 350 craft persons/ weavers participated in the Mela. In addition, craftpersons from SAARC countries as well as from Thailand, Brazil and South Africa were also part of the mela.

The hotel lies across the Hooghly River and can be reached by the Vidyasagar Bridge and the Kona Expressway. Located just five km from the Toll Plaza at Howrah, the combination of the new bridge and the expressway makes it possible to cover the distance from Esplanade to Fortune Park Panchwati in just 25 minutes.

The opening of the hotel was attended by senior members of ITC's Hotels Divn. and Fortune Hotels, including Pawan Verma, Executive Vice President of ITC’s Hotels Divn and Suresh Kumar, President Fortune Park Hotels. Others present included Rohit Malhotra, General Manager- Operations, Abinash Manghani, General Manager-Marketing and O.P. Khantwal, Executive Chef of Fortune Park Hotels.

The hotel has 71 well-appointed rooms, offering a number of categories to suit customer needs. Partial wooden parquet and partial carpeting is among the more important features of the suites, which have large king size double beds, desks and separate sitting areas. … And in Navi Mumbai: Fortune Park Hotels Ltd also launched Fortune Select Exotica at Navi Mumbai in Feb. The opening was attended by Pawan Verma, Senior Vice President Operations, ITC Hotels Division and senior officials of Fortune Park Hotels. At the opening Verma said, “This has been a very special project for us and we are delighted that it has lived up to expectations. We congratulate Vikramaditya Kukreja, and his team on creating such a fine hotel and I am sure that it will soon become the busiest hotel in Navi Mumbai.”

Sarovar’s ‘Hometel’ arrives in Hyderabad

Fortune Park Panchwati, Kolkata

Sarovar Hotels & Resorts launched ‘Aditya Home- tel’, its economy segment hotel in Ameerpet, Hyderabad in Feb 2008. This hotel offers distinct yet exquisite hospitality experience to the budget conscious travellers to the ‘City of Pearls’. Sarovar’s first Hometel brand hotel, Radha Hometel was launched in the city of Bengaluru

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Visit London to host TAAI 2008 meet

in the year 2006 and ‘Aditya Hometel’ is the second in series. On the anvil are other Hometels in Mallad (Mumbai), Chandigarh, Chinchwad (Pune), Chennai OMR, Sri Perambadur (Chennai), and Baddi (HP).

Meanwhile, Sarovar Hotels & Resorts signed the opening of a Sarovar Portico hotel in the vibrant city of Kolhapur, Maharashtra.

Located minutes away from Kolhapur Railway Station and bus stand, and 10 kms from the airport, Sarovar Portico Kolhapur will offer 65 rooms, an international cuisine restaurant, Geoffrey’s, a Business Centre, a Health club and meeting rooms.

Visit London has won the bid to host the Indian Travel Congress held every year by the Travel Agents Association of India. The event will be held in London between September 26 to September 29, 2008. It is the first time in the Travel Agents Association of India's 60 year history that the congress is being held outside of Asia.

Indian visitors to London spent more than those from Japan for the first time in 2006. Visit London has been leading a bid to host the annual congress for over a year, supported by the Mayor of London, who recently led a delegation to India to open offices in Delhi and Mumbai.

Welcoming the TAAI's decision to host its 2008 Congress in London, the Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone said: "We met with tourism representatives during last November's delegation to promote London in India and it is excellent news that the TAAI has chosen London to be the first city outside Asia to host its congress. I hope the close ties that we can develop through hosting the 2008 Congress will bring considerable mutual benefit to both our countries.”

Le Passage’s Corporate Social Responsibility IN PURSUANCE to the spirit of Corporate Social Responsibility, Le Passage to India Tours and Travel has taken the initiative to support Wildlife SOS, an NGO based in India, dedicated to conserving and protecting the environment and wildlife. As a part of responsible tourism initiative, Le Passage to India has joined hands with Wildlife SOS and is providing foreign tourists with a toy bear and information about this project of the wildlife SOS and are making a contribution to the NGO on the basis of Rs 120 per foreign tourist they handle. In the year 2006-07, the number of tourists handled by le passage to India was 52059.

“Galileo Leisure” — A B2B platform for travel agents GALILEO, THE Global Distribution System (GDS) and a leader in travel technology has successfully launched its non-airline web based GDS product Galileo Leisure. A comprehensive new travel B2B platform, Galileo Leisure fully integrates the existing Galileo GDS with additional enhanced travel content sourced from Travelport’s subsidiary, Gullivers Travel Associates (GTA).

Gullivers Travel Associates (GTA) is a leading global wholesaler of hotels, ground products and services to the travel industry.

GTA supplies tour operators, travel agents and public websites with one-stop-shopping. Its vast inventory is available in 35 languages and includes more than 80000 rooms a night at over 23000 hotels and apartments worldwide, airport transfers, sightseeing tours and even concert tickets and restaurant reservations.

TAAI London conference announcement: (L to R) Punam Singh, Chief Representative – Visit London, Sanjay Narula, Conference Chairman – TAAI, Martine Ainsworth-Wells, Marketing Director – Visit London, TAAI President C. Venkateshwara Prasad, Ken Kelling, Communications Director – Visit London and Hon. Secretary-General – TAAI, Shubhada Joshi

Amadeus golf tournament held: The annual TAAIAmadeus Golf Tournament was held on March 1, 2008 at the Qutab Golf Club. Over 75 golfers from the travel and hospitality industry participated in the tournament which was organised by the TAAI-Northern Region.

The event was keenly contested and the eventual winner was Ramesh Marwah, Dy Country Manager of Austrian Airlines, First runner up was Harinder Bans, Second runner up was Ajay seth, Managing Director of m/s Vision Travels & Tours Pvt. Ltd.

Tourism Malaysia Receives ASEANTA Award Tourism Malaysia received the ASEAN Tourism Association (ASEANTA) Awards for Excellence in Tourism 2008 for the Best ASEAN Marketing & Promotional Campaign category for its highly-acclaimed “The Time Is Now, The Place Is Malaysia” campaign conceptualised during the 50th Golden Jubilee Anniversary Year. The award was presented during the 27th ASEAN Tourism Forum held at Bangkok, Thailand.

Golfing in Selangor: The premier World Amateur Inter Team Golf Championship first preliminary round will tee-off in Selangor, Malaysia (March 24-27). The championship is organised by Tourism Malaysia in conjunction with Golf Club Managers Association of Malaysia (GCMAM) to further position Malaysia as a Golfing destination of South East Asia.

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The prize distribution ceremony of TAAI-Amadeus Golf Tournament

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or $2,00,000 (Rs 80 lakhs) Virgin Galactic will prepare space travellers over three days for their two-hour flight beyond Earth’s atmosphere that will culminate in five minutes in space. The three-day programme will include simulating a zero-gravity environment, showing travellers what it means to accelerate and decelerate quickly, as well as what the earth looks like from space.

The passenger flights, which could begin in 2009 will initially be launched from Mojave, California and take off from a facility called Spaceport America in the New Mexico desert. The VG Astronauts will be launched in SpaceShipTwo (SS2) and propelled by White Knight Two (WK2) launch systems that are now in development.

The spaceships are designed to carry six passengers and two pilots to an altitude of about 140 km on a sub-orbital space flight.

Branson said more than 200 passengers have confirmed their plans for the flight, and that some 85000 have expressed interest.

And here is what Sir Richard had to say about the enterprise: “2008 is really going to be

the year of the spaceship,” Branson, president of the Virgin Atlantic airline and a key backer of the private space flight effort. The designs of both the mother ship and the new spaceship are absolutely beautiful and surpass any expectations for the future of commercial spaceflight that we had when first registering the name Virgin Galactic in 1999.

But about the $2,00,000 price tag?

“It’s silly to divide the $200,000 by those five minutes. It really is a life-time experience.”

Quite.

Virgin Galactic spaceship

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Richard Branson inside Galactic

Richard Branson with his Spaceship

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