Cruising_Heights_October_2011

SAN FRANCISCO AIRPORT INVITES DIRECT FLIGHTS FROM INDIA

CRUISING HEIGHTS October 2011 n ` 90

www.cruisingheights.in

Showpiece airport gets ready

Cargo community The digital up in arms world of travel

After the renovation of Chennai airport, it will be ready to handle 30 mn passengers annually

Air cargo stakeholders ask Mumbai airport authorities to improve infrastructure and services

A brand new section on trends, options and evolution of the digital space in online travel

Spiced-up, new front opens up

A beaming SpiceJet Chairman Kalanithi Maran (extreme left, top) with Kavery Kalanithi, Board Member, SpiceJet, CEO Neil Mills and COO Sivasubramanian Natrajhen poses for a photo after taking delivery of his spanking new Bombardier Q400 NextGen.

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF’S NOTE

Exercises, Kingfisher style n the morning running in the mid-80s, this additional capacity of September 28, will result in significantly improved revenues.

Kingfisher Airlines’ There are numerous other initiatives underway Chairman Vijay Mallya to make Kingfisher a more efficient airline.” announced the shutting How grounding one arm and K Srinivasan down of Kingfisher Red reconfiguring the other will increase capacity, and added: “We don’t believe in low cost is anyone’s guess. Certainly, we can’t seem to operations anymore.” Mallya had started understand the arithmetic. There are many Kingfisher Red after paying `550 crore-plus for a 26 per cent stake in the company in 2007. The airline’s stock rose after the announcement — which is actually an irony considering that the stock is the original ‘Air Deccan’ stock that Mallya acquired after the buyout of Captain Gopinath’s airline. Logically, the move seems completely strange because 70 per cent of the company’s business came from its low cost division. But when has logic ever dictated what the King of CUTTING OFF TIES THAT BIND: Photograph from our files shows Vijay Mallya and Good Times does?

Captain G R Gopinath at the formal handing over of Air Deccan to Kingfisher Airlines.

In fact, what he does is exactly the opposite of what Jet Airways, or who love the style and elegance of Kingfisher for that matter, Air India is doing: getting First and only travel on Vijay Mallya’s airline leaner and meaner to fight the Indigos and for the elegance it offers in the front of the SpiceJets of the world. Globally too, this is cabin. Unfortunately, running an airline isn’t a the trend. Legacy carriers have a LCC cousin luxury business. At the end of the day, the to make sure traffic doesn’t ebb away to other numbers have to add up to something carriers. Be it Emirates in Dubai or the latest substantial.

Malaysian in KL, the idea is to make sure that Will the present exercise lead anywhere or your marketshare is preserved. And if you will it be one more exercise in futility? Only can’t fight them, then you join them or at least time will tell. emulate them.

In the same letter to shareholders, Dr Mallya said: “In order to further improve operating performance, Kingfisher is in the process of reconfiguring its aircraft. This reconfiguration will increase capacity by 10 per cent at minimal incremental cost. With Kingfisher’s domestic economy load factors

O

srini@newsline.in

CRUISING HEIGHTS October 2011

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Off the cuff

Fastest on board Boarding flights are often a tad tedious and no matter when you get into the plane, there are fliers in the aisles blocking the way trying to put up their handbags and luggage in the holds on top. Now, a postdoctoral fellow at the Fermilab Centre for Astrophysics in Illinois, astrophysicist Dr Jason Steffen’s scientific method of herding people onto planes (he publicised it in 2008) has found widespread acceptance after it was tested out against five other methods recently for a TV show.

The secret to a more efficient way to board a plane starts when it is done one side at a time, with as many people putting up their bags simultaneously without blocking the aisle. Even in this system, the window seats have to be filled up first.

The presently used “block” method (boarding a place in sections) is, perhaps, the slowest of methods but airline companies keep on using it. The Steffen method loads passengers in groups, window to aisle, back to front, skipping rows to keep people out of each other’s way.

When it was tested out for the TV show, it took about half the time of the widely used basic back to front block, or “section” method employed by many airlines today.

Analysts, however, have said that Steffen’s system is not foolproof and has to include human personalities and the general ability to hear, understand and follow specific instructions. To top it all, the method separates people who should be sitting next to one another on the flight like children and parents, husbands and wives, etc. Even so, Steffen’s system gives fliers to place themselves and their baggage with minimal interference.

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contents

METEORIC RISE

p34

After nearly six years of operations, low-cost carrier SpiceJet is ready to explore the “uncharted territory” of regional routes. The LCC is looking to expand operations to Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities even as it expands its fleet. The addition of Q-400s in its fleet will provide a major fillip to the expansion of its operations, says Neil Mills, CEO. Also, the airline’s future agenda and how the airline is geared up to take the challenges ahead.

NEWS DIGEST

p16

Chennai Airport is on an expansion mode and the revamped, modernised and expanded airport will be readied by the first quarter of 2012 thereby providing a hassle-free travelling experience to the passengers.

CRUISING HEIGHTS October 2011

FOCUS

p32

San Francisco airport sent its representative to Delhi and Mumbai to woo Indian carriers. An interview with Kandace Bender, Deputy Airport Director, Communications and Marketing, San Francisco airport.

contents ARTICLES NEWS VIEWS EDITS INTERVIEWS CLIPPINGS PROFILES NEWS DIGEST

CRUISING HEIGHTS

Volume VI No 6

Editor-in-Chief

K SRINIVASAN

p28

Vladimir Prisyazhnyuk, President of JSC Sukhoi Civil Aircraft, is upbeat about orders from India. He reckons that Sukhoi SSJ100 is the most advanced 100-seat commercial aircraft in operation and its technology level is definitely higher than that of the competition and therefore it is perfectly suited for Indian operations.

Managing Editor

TIRTHANKAR GHOSH Group Consulting Editor

R KRISHNAN Consulting Editor

NANDU MANJESHWAR H C Tiwari

INTERVIEW

Deputy Editor

PC SINGH

NET EXPRESS

p39

Introducing the brand new section on digital updates in the online travel and tourism business. An exclusive interview of Brett Henry, Vice President-India, Abacus International.

Assistant Editor

JUSTIN C MURIK Copy Editor

ASHOK KUMAR Sub-editor-cum-reporter

PUNIT MISHRA Senior Designer

RUCHI SINHA Design

NAGENDER DUBEY, MOHIT KANSAL

FOCUS ON CHOPPERS

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Picture Editor

PRADEEP CHANDRA

In the choppers section, an interesting item about the evolution of first-ever manned electric helicopter while Prince Harry gears up to undergo training in US for an Apache attack helicopter course. Plus, in-depth interview of Air Chief Marshal (Retd.) Fali H Major on the chopper business in India.

Photo Editor

HC TIWARI —————————— Director (Admin & Corporate Affairs)

RAJIV SINGH Asst. Manager (Subscription)

JAYA SINGH (Mob. 9650433044)

BACK PAGE

p74

On the eve of 9/11 anniversary, a loving sister pays tribute to her sister who was a flight attendant on the ill-fated American Airlines Flight 11 and perished in the 9/11 incident.

CARGO

p55

Air cargo business in Mumbai is going through a rough patch because of its lack of air cargo infrastructure. MIAL, on the other hand, has taken short-term measures to boost the air cargo industry. Plus: Deccan 360 in dire straits as Capt Gopinath looks to sell a stake and Finnair launches freighter service from Mumbai.

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SAN FRANCISCO AIRPORT INVITES DIRECT FLIGHTS FROM INDIA

CRUISING HEIGHTS October 2011 ` 90

www.cruisingheights.in

Showpiece airport gets ready

Cargo community The digital up in arms world of travel

After the renovation of Chennai airport, it will be ready to handle 30 mn passengers annually

Air cargo stakeholders ask Mumbai airport authorities to improve infrastructure and services

A brand new section on trends, options and evolution of the digital space in online travel

Spiced-up, new front opens up

A beaming SpiceJet Chairman Kalanithi Maran (extreme left, top) with Kavery Kalanithi, Board Member, SpiceJet, CEO Neil Mills and COO Sivasubramanian Natrajhen poses for a photo after taking delivery of his spanking new Bombardier Q400 NextGen.

Cover Design: Ruchi Sinha

CRUISING HEIGHTS October 2011

Executive Director

RENU MITTAL For advertising and sales enquiries, please contact: +91-9999919071, 9810030533 Editorial & Marketing office:

Newsline Publications Pvt. Ltd., D-11 Basement, Nizamuddin (East), New Delhi -110 013 Tel: +91-11-41033381-82 All information in CRUISING HEIGHTS is derived from sources we consider reliable. It is passed on to our readers without any responsibility on our part.

Opinions/views expressed by third parties in abstract or in interviews are not necessarily shared by us. Material appearing in the magazine cannot be reproduced in whole or in part(s) without prior permission. The publisher assumes no responsibility for material lost or damaged in transit. The publisher reserves the right to refuse, withdraw or otherwise deal with all advertisements without explanation. All advertisements must comply with the Indian Advertisements Code. The publisher will not be liable for any loss caused by any delay in publication, error or failure of advertisement to appear. Owned and published by K Srinivasan 4C Pocket-IV, Mayur Vihar Phase- I, Delhi-91 and printed by him at Nutech Photolithographers, B-240, Okhla Industrial Area, Phase- I, New Delhi-110020.

“ PERISCOPE

Setting the agenda “We need to strive to lower the cost of travel to attract middle and lower classes to travel by air and improve viability of airports.”

V P AGRAWAL, Chairman, Airports Authority of India on improving airports’ operations in India.

A whole new ball game

LETTERS TO EDITOR

I found out special report Putin steals the limelight…Briefly (September, 2011) very interesting to read.

A STAR IS NOT MAKS 2011 really displayed BORN the aerospace prowess of Russia amid all other speculations and turned out to be humongous affair. The air show involved 627 industry companies, which speaks volumes about the success of the show. In fact, the air show ushered in booming business for the airline community as more than 200 Russian and foreign aircraft were exhibited at the MAKS 2011 air show. With the likes of T-50 fighter, MS-21, Sukhoi Superjet and AN 148, the air show kept the visitors on the toes.

Samar Singh, Jodhpur IMPLEMENTATION OF GROUND HANDLING POLICY DELAYED — ONCE MORE

CRUISING HEIGHTS September 2011 ` 90

www.cruisingheights.in

Air India’s Maharaja may be broken — the rejection

by Star Alliance of Air India’s membership and the whimsical performance of its erstwhile CMD — but he has not given up the fight

Jet joins low fare battle...

The Praful Patel years

MAKS puts Russia on top

With IndiGo and SpiceJet taking away passenger share at home and abroad

PP established milestones that have acted as catalysts for the Indian airline industry

This year’s Moscow Air Show firmly put Russia on the map of global aviation majors

Changing the matrix - The Praful Patel years (September, 2011) relived the memories of Praful Patel’s era as a Civil Aviation Minister. I agree with the writer’s view on Praful Patel. Praful Patel’s tenure as the Civil Aviation Minister was very challenging and he made some fundamental changes in that sector and converted into a vibrant sector. In fact, he should be complimented for changing the Indian aviation scene after being at the helm for nearly seven years.

Kanwar Kanotra, Bhatinda The story Maharaja gets a new guardian (September, 2011) made an interesting reading. The change of guard at Air India was long overdue as it was raking losses never before. Rohit Nandan, the new man at the guard would really have to work out-of-theskin to wriggle out the airline out of the crisis. As the story stated, the job is not easy for Rohit Nandan. No doubt, by accepting the post, Rohit Nandan has taken one of the toughest corporate challenges.

As a troubleshooter, he will have to take special measures to turn around the ailing carrier otherwise his tenure will turn out to be a damp squib.

Ajay Goyal, Chennai

INDIGO’S PRESIDENT ADITYA GHOSH, on introducing new flights from India.

Not a good scenario “The helicopter industry is already reeling under losses. Fuel price has been steadily going up. The manpower cost too has risen. The industry should not be burdened with taxes as it would hamper growth.”

PAWAN HANS CHAIRMAN AND MD R K TYAGI, on the rough patch the helicopter industry in India has been going through.

Turnaround measures “A comprehensive list of to-dos has been given to both AI and airport management for changes. Within days, passengers will feel the difference. Some directives for enhancing passenger comfort have been given.”

CIVIL AVIATION SECRETARY DR NASIM ZAIDI on improving the functioning of Air India.

Clear views “We must accept that there is no such thing as 100 per cent risk-free security. Governments must focus on the probable and not all that is possible and avoid policies driven by knee-jerk reactions.”

IATA CEO AND DIRECTOR GENERAL TONY TYLER, on 100 per cent risk-free security.

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

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“We hope to provide the much needed avenue for countless Indians to explore wider horizons and at the same time open up the doors to more and more overseas travellers to experience India..”

CRUISING HEIGHTS October 2011

Forging ahead “Sustained strong economic growth, growing trade activity, increasing personal income, as well as continued market liberalisation will be the driving forces in shaping China”s air travel market.”

RANDY TINSETH, Vice-President of marketing at Boeing on the China’s air travel market.

Fly safe with Air France-KLM

to encourage airlines to keep track of, and improve their overall airline safety standards. ATRA developed a unique experience and expertise in scientific multi-criteria analyses and risk assessment, generating innovative meaningful information in the aviation world.

The top ten safest airlines 2011 were. ¾ Air France-KLM . ¾ AMR Corporation (American Airlines, American Eagles). ¾ British Airways. ¾ Continental Airlines. ¾ Delta Airlines. ¾ Japan Airlines. ¾ Lufthansa. ¾ Southwest Airlines. ¾ United Airlines. ¾ US Airways.

COLD STATS

Air Transport Rating Agency (ATRA) in a report recently found that the safest carriers in the world were mainly those based in Europe and the U S. Among European airlines, Lufthansa and Air France-KLM bagged top spots while United and Delta Airlines emerged on top from U S. ATRA focussed on 15 factors contributing both directly and indirectly to an airline's operations and its general safety, from data of the top 100 largest airlines. The 15 selected criteria were: Net financial result; total number of passengers; total number of cabin crew employees; total number of aircraft; average fleet age in service; percentage of aircrafts on order; fleet homogeneity; number of aircraft no longer in production; number of aircraft considered at risk; total aircraft-km flown; in-house maintenance capability; number of accidents during the last 10 years; dedicated flight academy pilottraining facilities and dedicated full flight simulators. The report aimed

LOOKING GLASS It’s time for a makeover lady – let the Maharaja have younger people on board...

Casting aspersions “In spite of numerous attempts by Star Alliance (Services) and Lufthansa to convince Air India of the necessity to fulfill all contractual obligations, AI has not honoured its contractual commitments as set forth in the agreement to Star Alliance.”

CHRISTOPH FRANZ, Chairman and CEO of Lufthansa on Air India’s disqualification as a Star Alliance member.

Counter argument “In the wake of the membership invitation to Air India, Lufthansa had been given numerous benefits by way of enhanced frequencies to Mumbai and Delhi, and permission to fly to other points in India.”

JITENDER BHARGAVA, former Executive Director, Air India on Air India’s disqualification to be Star Alliance member.

CRUISING HEIGHTS October 2011

9

OFF THE RECORD

MAHARAJA UPDATE

KIRAN TO SRINIVAS

Kiran Kumar Grandhi

Ä z

Kiran Kumar Grandhi, the GMR scion, who has been heading the airport business for the past three years is now making way for his bother-in-law Srinivas Bomidilla. Srinivas was heading the airport segment of the GMR empire and was in fact at the helm when the foundation stone for T3 was laid. Now almost four years later, he is back at the helm and Kiran moves over to take over the infra and road segment of the business that was being handled by Srinivas.

So, what does that mean in real terms? To start with Srinivas who works mostly out of Bengaluru will be more in Delhi and Kiran will be less in Srinivas Bomidilla the capital city. But that apart, the most important aspect of the job will no more be the running of T3. That’s literally on auto pilot and working with a huge team in place led by I Prabhakar Rao who has been at the project from day one. But the biggest change will, perhaps, be the fact that Kiran, shy, introverted and more focused on the project, will be replaced by someone who is more outgoing and more at ease in public forums. Interestingly, the sports segment of their business, Delhi Daredevils, too was handled by Srinivas. But the guy who played cricket fairly seriously was Kiran. The one common link throughout is group Chairman G M Rao, who is literally the public face of the company. Rao is literally on wings most of time flying from one city to another as he manages the burgeoning GMR portfolio. But the one that continues to give them heartaches is the airport segment. There are too many imponderables and too many issues with the business.

10

S Chandrasekhar

Ä z

Deepak Brara

Anup Shrivastava

It has been the change season at Air India. Two of their senior officials — Anup Shrivastava and Amod Sharma — are back as Executive Directors with the airline.

Both were on the AI board having come to that position from their respective perches as Directors on the Board of erstwhile Air India and Indian Airlines. Both were ousted from the Board by the former Chairman of the airline, Arvind Jadhav, who went out of his way to get them out.

He succeeded partially by having their extension rejected.

Now he is out and they are back. But it is a reflection of the times that a man who has spent a lifetime in personnel management, Anup, is now looking after inflight services and Amod has been tasked with the Special Business Unit.

Meanwhile, the airline has shortlisted its nominees for the top ‘commercial’ job at AI as well as the successor to S Chandrashekar as the head of Finance. Anita Khurana’s replacement as the Commercial Director of Air India will be her batchmate and former IA colleague Deepak Brara.

Brara has had a chequered career and is famous for a mercurial temper combined with flashes of brilliance and dollops of experience. During the Raghu Menon era, he was the ED with commercial responsibility but his complaint has been that he didn’t have a free hand. Now as CD he has a free hand and once he comes on board in the next two months, he can soar if he so wishes. Watch this space for an update.

His other colleague on the Board will be S Venkat, the ubiquitous AI Company Secretary who somehow had the magic mantra to get along with literally every Chairman who has run AI these past few years. He was as close to Thulasidas as he has been to Menon and Jadhav. Venkat will take over from that strokeless wonder S Chandrasekhar, the weakest and most invisible of AI’s Finance Directors. A former IA Regional Director at Chennai, Chandrasekhar literally trembled at the very mention of the CMD, had nothing to say on the financial status of AI and spent a lifetime staying silent at Board meetings. Good bye and good luck to him. Hopefully Venkat won’t wish to emulate him. Watch again for an update.

CRUISING HEIGHTS October 2011

NEWS DIGEST

MAS to start Sapphire

worldscrews.blogspot.com

Malaysian Airline System (MAS) is planning a new regional airline named Sapphire, which will use Boeing 737 aircraft, now operated by its Firefly unit.

After Sapphire is established, Firefly will be branded as a turboprop operator. A spokesman said that this was a tentative plan that MAS had drawn up. As the project is still in its early stages, MAS was not prepared to disclose details such as when Sapphire would be established and Sapphire’s management structure. Firefly operates 10 ATR 72-500 turboprops. The carrier has five ATR 72-500 turboprops on order and an additional five ATR 72-500 turboprops on option. Firefly also owns two Boeing 737-400 aircraft and six Boeing 737800 aircraft.

EADS ownership issues

14

In what Qantas is trumpeting as a ‘world first’, the carrier will begin trials of Apple’s iPad for in-flight entertainment, using wi-fi to stream content to the tablets from a central server on the aircraft. The six-week trial will run from the end of October to early December, although it will be limited to a single Boeing 767-300. All passengers on the aircraft will be issued with an iPad 2 running a specialised ‘Q Streaming’ app which will act as the front-end for on-demand content beamed from one of five wireless access points. The plane will carry one tablet for each of the aircraft’s 254 seats, with several spares on hand. And while passengers won’t be able to view the streaming content on their own iPads, a second stage of the programme — slated for introduction towards the end of the initial six-week trial — will support a free-todownload Q Streaming app for a traveller’s own iPad or Android tablets, notebook or smartphone. In a novel and welcome twist, passengers with a BYO tablet or laptop would also be able to download video to watch within a 24-hour period of leaving the aircraft if the programme was cut short by the plane landing.

Emirates Lufthansa A380 carries name racing to Top 3 of Zurich around the world EMIRATES AIRLINE, WHICH LAST MONTH OVERTOOK CHICAGOBASED UNITED AIRLINES AS THE WORLD’S THIRD LARGEST CARRIER IN TERMS OF MONTHLY CAPACITY HAS SCHEDULED 7.3 PER CENT MORE SEATS IN SEPTEMBER 2011 COMPARED TO THE SAME MONTH LAST YEAR, EMERGING AS THE FASTEST GROWING AMONG THE WORLD’S THREE TOP AIRLINES. ACCORDING TO DATA COMPILED BY CAPA AND INNOVATA, EMIRATES’ AVERAGE WEEKLY CAPACITY FOR SEPTEMBER 2011 STANDS AT 3.97 BILLION SEAT KILOMETRES.

aviationweek.com

The vexed question of shareholdings in EADS has resurfaced last week with a report indicating that the German government is finally prepared to step in where and relieve Daimler, the national industrial champion of some of the burden of holding the country’s interest in the Franco-German alliance behind the Airbus, Eurocopter, Astrium space and Cassidian defence businesses. Daimler, whose aerospace division formed the core of the German pillar of EADS when the Airbus, Eurocopter and Astrium parent was formed a decade ago out of French, German, Spanish and UK national aerospace companies, has remained Berlin’s proxy holder of the 22.46 per cent German share of the company.

iPads on Qantas

Lufthansa named an A380 after Zurich in early September.

The naming ceremony took place at Zurich Airport shortly after the aircraft touched down after a special morning flight from Frankfurt. Zurich Airport is the home base and central hub of SWISS, which is based there as one of the Lufthansa Group Airlines. It accordingly plays a key role in the global route network of the Lufthansa Group. “Today’s naming of the Lufthansa flagship in Zurich is a token of the esteem, in which one of the most important neighbours and partners of Germany and our company is held. In Switzerland, Lufthansa has in harness with SWISS written a success story here at ‘our’ Zurich hub,” observed Lufthansa Chairman and CEO Dr Christoph Franz at the naming ceremony. As ceremonial host, Dr Christoph Franz cordially welcomed Zurich Council President Dr Ursula Gut-Winterberger, who performed the naming ceremony at the airport. She then poured sparkling wine over the giant plane before unveiling the name of Zurich sprayed on the fuselage. Afterwards, the naming certificate was signed and the guests of honour were invited on board the double-decker aircraft to tour the sleek and impressively designed cabin.

CRUISING HEIGHTS October 2011

Airbus sees demand for over 27,800 aircraft in the next 20 years Airbus foresees a strong ongoing demand for commercial aircraft. According to its latest Global Market Forecast by 2030 some 27,800 new aircraft will be required to satisfy future robust market demand. The combined value of the over 26,900 passenger aircraft (above 100 seats) and more than 900 new factorybuilt freighters forecast by the group is $3.5 trillion.

As a result, by 2030 the global passenger fleet will more than double from today’s 15,000 aircraft to 31,500. This will include some 27,800 new aircraft deliveries of which 10,500 will be needed for replacing older less fuel efficient aircraft. The trend towards larger aircraft will continue, in order for the aviation sector to keep pace with future growth in demand.

Over the next 20 years, the aviation sector is expected to remain resilient to cyclical economic conditions as in the past. Airbus forecasts that Revenue Passenger Kilometres (RPKs) will grow by an average 4.8 per cent per year, which is equivalent to traffic more than doubling in the next 20 years. Drivers also include the ongoing expansion of lowcost carriers, and the need to replace older less-efficient aircraft with new eco-efficient models in established markets.

Geographically, over the next 20 years, Asia-Pacific will account for approximately 34 per cent of demand, followed

by Europe (22 per cent) and North America (22 per cent).

By share of passenger traffic, Asia-Pacific will be the biggest market with 33 per cent, followed by Europe (23 per cent) and North America (20 per cent).

IATA: 2012 looks tougher The International Air Transport Association (IATA) announced an upgrading of its industry profit expectations to $6.9 billion (up from $4.0 billion projected in June this year). IATA emphasised that despite the improvements, profitability at these levels is still exceptionally weak (1.2 per cent net margin) considering the industry’s total revenues of $594 Tony Tyler billion. In its first look at 2012, IATA is projecting profits to fall to $4.9 billion on revenues of $632 billion for a net margin of just 0.8 per cent. “Airlines are going to make a little more money in 2011 than we thought. That is good news. Given the strong headwinds of high oil prices and economic uncertainty, remaining in the black is a great achievement,” said Tony Tyler, IATA’s Director General and CEO. “But we should keep the improvement in perspective. The $2.9 billion bottom line improvement is equal to about a half a percent of revenue. And the margin is a paltry 1.2 per cent.

Airlines are competing in a very tough environment. And 2012 will be even more difficult.”

IATA’s forecast is built around global projected GDP growth of 2.5 per cent in 2011 falling to 2.4 per cent in 2012.

Airline financial performance is closely linked to the health of world economies. Whenever GDP growth has slowed below 2.0 per cent the airline industry has lost money. “We will be perilously close to that level at least through 2012.

The industry is brittle. Any shock has the potential to put us in the red,” said Tyler. iFlex: Meanwhile, IATA announced the successful completion of the first iFlex trial between Johannesburg and Atlanta. The iFlex concept provides for a greater and more flexible choice of routes on long-haul operations which cross multiple flight information regions to deliver shorter flight times, improved, fuel efficiency and reduced CO2 emissions while maintaining safety.

With iFlex airlines will be able to fly more optimum routings that take maximum advantage of wind conditions.

While airlines have long planned flights considering wind conditions, air traffic management restrictions often limited flexibility within fixed corridors on parts of routings. The innovation that iFlex brings is the flexibility to extend this practice consistently across the entire journey.

Delta Air Lines reported that the implementation of the iFlex concept between Johannesburg and Atlanta resulted in average time saving per flight of eight minutes, equating to 900 kg of fuel and 2.9 tonnes of CO2. Annualised and on the basis of two daily flights, this translates to savings of some 100 hours of flight, 690 tonnes of fuel and a reduction of 2,150 tonnes of CO2 emitted.

Opposes proposed US Security Tax hike: IATA has expressed its opposition to the proposal by the US Administration to double the 9.11 passenger security fee and then to raise it in successive years through 2017 as part of the administration’s deficit reduction plan. “Airlines and their passengers are being asked to pay for national security, although it clearly is a responsibility of government,” said Tony Tyler.

“To add insult to injury, more than half of the increased revenue from the higher fee will be diverted into the general fund and will not be used to make air travel more secure.”

CRUISING HEIGHTS October 2011

Boeing

sees‘big’ Asia demand

BOEING HAS FORECAST ASIA PACIFIC WILL NEED SEVERAL HUNDRED THOUSAND NEW PILOTS, TECHNICIANS AND INSTRUCTORS OVER THE NEXT 20 YEARS TO MEET THE DEMAND FROM THE REGION. ASIA PACIFIC WILL NEED 182,300 NEW PILOTS AND 247,400 NEW TECHNICIANS THROUGH 2030 TO SUPPORT THE REGION'S AIRLINE FLEET MODERNISATION AND THE RAPID GROWTH OF AIR TRAVEL, BOEING SAID IN A REPORT. THE 2011 BOEING PILOT & TECHNICIAN OUTLOOK PREDICTS NORTHEAST ASIA WILL NEED 20,800 PILOTS AND 30,200 TECHNICIANS OVER THE NEXT 20 YEARS. THE SAME REPORT SAID SOUTHEAST ASIA WILL REQUIRE 47,100 PILOTS AND 60,600 TECHNICIANS. THE OCEANIA REGION WILL REQUIRE 13,600 PILOTS AND 15,600 TECHNICIANS, WHILE SOUTHWEST ASIA WILL NEED 28,100 PILOTS AND 32,700 TECHNICIANS. THE REPORT ADDED THAT CHINA HAS THE GREATEST NEED FOR NEW PILOTS AND TECHNICIANS. AS MANY AS 72,700 PILOTS AND 108,300 TECHNICIANS WILL BE NEEDED IN THE COUNTRY OVER THE NEXT 20 YEARS.

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NEWS DIGEST

Chennai readies for

a date in 2012

ROAD TO MODERNISATION: Construction work in progress at Chennai Airport.

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he revamped, modernised and expanded Chennai airport will throw open its doors for commercial traffic sometime in the first quarter of 2012. Till then, the existing facilities both in terms of airside and non-aeronautical side including the existing terminals — domestic and international — will continue to operate, notwithstanding the various obstructions that passengers face every day to catch a flight out of Chennai or attempt to reach home after they land in the city.

As per the status of Chennai airport on date, it has a total land area of 1298.01 acres with length of perimeter wall running 15 kilometres and the perimeter road meandering 14 kilometres. Its main runway 07/25 is 3658 metres long or over 12,000 feet, which is enough for a Jumbo to operate. The secondary runway 12/30, which was 2085 metres or 6,765 feet, has been extended by way of a stilted bridge, on the Adayar river by another, 1,032 metres or nearly 3400 feet to take the total length to just about 10,000 feet. The length and width of the RCC/pre-stressed concrete bridge is 200 metres by 447.50 metres to accommodate secondary runway and parallel taxi track. The bridge will be able to take a A 380 superjumbo landing.

T

CRUISING HEIGHTS October 2011

Chennai airport has 17 taxiways and 81 parking stands. It has five aerobridges to cater to international passengers and three for domestic. Chennai airport falling under the 4E category is undergoing a massive renovation that will see a completely brand new all-steel and glass front when the passengers and airlines get to use it in early 2012. The domestic terminal, which was commissioned in April 1985, went through periodic upgrades and today is spread over 19,250 square metres. Against an annual passenger handling capacity of six millon, in fiscal 2010-11, the airport handled 7.80 million domestic passengers. The peakhour handling capacity in the departure hall is 800 while in the arrival hall it is 1200. There are only four baggage conveyor belts in the domestic arrival hall. The domestic terminal has 48 checkin counters.

The international terminal, which was twice commissioned – once in April 1989 and later upgraded in May 2003 – is spread over 42,870 square metres with an annual passenger handling capacity of three million. The airport, however, handled 4.25 million passengers in 201011. During peak hours, it has a handling capacity of 1200 in the departure hall and 750 in the arrival hall and another 350 in

NEWS DIGEST

No clearance, no aerobridges While everything seems to be going according to plan with the ongoing Chennai airport upgrade and modernisation, a couple of issues, if not solved on time, could severely hamper its date with the citizens who are waiting to see their new airport.

There are six aerobridges that are supposed to connect the planes with their for passengers both for boarding and for exiting. That is the end point of any airport modernisation.

Towards this, AAI had invited tenders for the supply of brand new state-of-the-art aerobridges. The tender was won by a Chinese company and AAI could not proceed without obtaining the official clearance from the Ministry of Home Affairs. It has been nearly six months since the tender process got underway and the Chinese company won it but the Home Ministry has not communicated its view.

Meanwhile, the way the Chinese are putting pressure on India in the hunt for oil in collaboration with Vietnam in the South China sea and the frequent violation on both the North Eastern borders and beyond the LoC near Leh has added a new twist to Indo-Chinese economic collaboration. The Chinese are present in a big way in India’s telecom equipment business. Now, they are making an entry into the crucial and highly securityconscious airport business. If the clearance is delayed, the modernised Chennai airport opening will be pushed back and should the aerobridge tenders be recalled for fresh bids then it will be further delayed.

While the Union Government will have to take an early decision, the state government of Tamil Nadu also needs to fulfill its obligation by way of allotting 15.65 acres of land immediately near the approach side of the secondary runway. Once the land is made available, AAI will immediately install the approach lights on the secondary runway and the buildings that are coming in the way of the approach funnel will have to be removed or drastically pruned to use the full capacity of the runway.

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The state government has been informed about this and DGCA is also awaiting to notify.

The manner in which Chennai airport is witnessing a sharp increase in passenger movement – both inbound and outbound – a back-ofthe-envelope calculation shows that the revamped airport will get saturated by 2017. It is, therefore, all the more necessary that steps for the new proposed Greenfield airport at Sriperumbudur has to be initiated at the earliest. In all, 5000 acres will have to be acquired. After financial closure and acquisition of the Greenfield site, a minimum of 36 months will be required to complete phase one. While AAI will be ready to bid and construct the airport, it

must be remembered that the centre will not be funding it in any way; the onus will be on the Tamil Nadu government to take the lead from the acquisition of land to calling for bids and their final processing before the job is allotted to the successful bidder. The state government will be a stakeholder as it will be giving land free of cost. As a crow flies, the existing airport will be 35 kilometres from the proposed Sriperumbur airport and both will have their own ATC towers. The other major issue that the state government will have to resolve is the building of expressways that will ensure speedy transfer to the destination as well as the city.

CRUISING HEIGHTS October 2011

the transit hall. It has four baggage conveyor belts and 44 check-in counters besides nine arrival counters for customs and 22 arrival immigration counters as against two departure Customs and 16 departure immigration counters.

The proposed domestic integrated terminal building with its three-level structure under construction will have an area of 72,614 square meters. It has a provision for seven gates and two hardstand hold rooms and 52 check-in counters excluding eight e-ticketing counters. The international terminal building with also a three-level structure under construction shall be of 60,528 square metres and have a provision for two gates with multiple hardstand hold rooms, 52 check-in counters excluding eight counters for e-ticketing. Besides, the international terminal will have 18 immigration and four Customs counters for departure passengers.

While the capacity of the new

FUTURE READY: The modernisation of Chennai Airport will catapult the airport into a class of its own.

domestic terminal building will be for 10 million passengers per annum, the new international terminal building will cater to four million passengers per annum.

After completion of the two new terminal buildings, the capacity of Chennai airport will be 23 million passengers per annum against the 2010-11 handled 12.05 million (the designated capacity of both the terminals is nine million only). In that sense, once the expanded and upgraded Chennai airport formally opens all its wings, Chennai would be able to handle nearly 30 million passengers though the actual handling capacity will be 16 million in domestic and seven million in the international terminal with peak hour

NEWS DIGEST passenger handling capacity of 3,300 for domestic and 2,300 for the international terminal.

The question, however, is whether the airside of the airport will be able to deal with more than twice the traffic it is currently handling. This is important for two reasons: one, it will genuinely offer a chance to make Chennai an important hub by the larger airlines – be they domestic or Gulf-based and, secondly, such a passenger and plane rush could actually galvanise the power centres to set up the second greenfield airport at the proposed site at Sriperumbudur for which ICAO has already submitted its feasibility report. A copy of the report was handed over to the new AIADMK-led government in Tamil Nadu as land needs to be urgently acquired to initiate steps for the new airport. The only silver lining is

Unlike any other airport in the world, Chennai airport will have lush green gardens on view throughout the terminal creating a unique dialogue between engineering and nature.

The building volume will be clearly divided into the landside and airside and the spaces connected with a central security checkpoint for departure as well as two glass bridges on either side for arriving passengers. The circulation will be so organised that departing and arriving passengers will never mingle at any point in the terminal. Special energyefficient technologies have been incorporated in the design besides various water management techniques like water efficient landscaping, rain such as water harvesting, water efficient fixtures, use of treated grey water for airconditioning cooling system and innovative effluent

FLYING HIGH: After modernisation, the airport will be able to provide hassle free flying to travellers.

that unlike what happened in Hyderabad and Bengaluru, where the older airports were shut for commercial traffic, the existing airport in Chennai will continue to operate and compliment the proposed new airport. This is something which Mumbai is also going to experience perhaps much earlier than Chennai.

In the revamped Chennai airport, the new international and domestic terminals will be connected with an elevated road (flyover) of a kilometre. With construction on in full swing, the massive steel and glass structure will be defined by dramatic, twin wing-like hovering roofs providing a 300 metre-long columnfree space. The straightforward planning and super-efficient organisation of the programme, security and circulation, as per an AAI official at the site, formed the basis of an innovative design that incorporates vibrant sustainable gardens.

20

treatment plant. These will help in reusing waste water.

Both the terminals will be equipped with a sophisticated in-line baggage handling system which will be capable of, Level-4 security screening system.

This system consists of five departure conveyors including rejected baggage conveyor. There will be four arrival carousels in domestic and three in the international terminal. The total length of the conveyor will be 3,500 metres which can handle 1,250 pieces of baggage per hour.

A glass tube connecting both international and domestic terminal at the mezzanine level for length of 600 metres has been proposed on the city side. This will facilitate the passengers to move from the domestic terminal to the international terminal and viceversa. There will be two walkalators CRUISING HEIGHTS October 2011

each of one metre width. It is also proposed to connect a metro station by a link tube to the main glass tube. In due course, the job for constructing the two multi-level car parking will also be undertaken. Work will be initiated on the proposed metro rail station inside the airport premises with total area of 20,000 square metres with four–level terminal having concourse, platform, two–wheeler parking for metro users and car park for airport users. AAI will execute the work of the metro station within the airport premises.

Coming back to the existing airport and the newly-laid secondary runway, its full potential is yet to be realised as there are obstructions on the approach path. At the far end, that is away from and on the opposite side of the terminal buildings, etc, there is a housing colony where about 50 houses need to reduce their height drastically with some needing a complete upper floor to be demolished. At present, AAI is doing a safety assessment.

Basically, there are two issues that need to be sorted out. First, more land–an estimated 15 acres – is required for the approach flight; and, second, the houses on the path cannot be more than 4.5 metres high.

Pending all these, as with Delhi’s statue of Shiva obstructing the full use of the third brand new longest runway in Asia, the secondary runway in Chennai will not be available for full use. Against the available 3117 metres, the secondary runway can be used for only 2400 metres which means 7,920 feet or just enough for A 320 family and Boeing 737s. Should one want to land a widebody, then pay load penalty will have to be imposed.

The upgrade of the secondary runway with the bridge will cost AAI ` 550 crore.

Once the secondary runway becomes available for full use, then it will be possible for AAI to undertake regular maintenance of the main runway, which is not possible today without severe flight restrictions.

In terms of passenger traffic, Chennai airport is the third busiest in the country.

The airport is also undertaking a major revamp of its cargo facilities at a cost of ` 145 crore, which may be increased later.

An automatic storage and retrieval system is also being planned to be installed at this cargo complex which will improve efficiency of cargo handling substantially.

The cargo complex, proposed in Chennai will be much bigger than what is available in Hyderabad or Bengaluru. Already 75 per cent of the construction is over and once complete, this will be the most modern airport cargo complex in India.

NEWS DIGEST

f Dr Vijay Mallya is the Kingfisher bird, his airline, Kingfisher (or Kingfisher Airlines), is the fish underwater.

Despite repeated attempts by Mallya to retrieve his airline from the serious financial mess it is in, it has only got deeper into the red. This sparked off a debate when the official auditors of Kingfisher Airlines (KFA), B K Ramdhyani & Co strongly hinted if Kingfisher Airlines can be called a “going concern” in accounting parlance given the fund crunch it faces. The auditors had a statutory job to do; hence, stated the obvious in the annual report of the company for fiscal 2010-11.

A “going concern” refers to a company’s ability to continue functioning as a business entity in the near future and it is extremely rare for auditors to mention the words in the passing. Kingfisher Airlines has accumulated a loss of `4283 crore (it has never made a profit since it began flying in 2005) which meant more than 50 per cent of its net worth had been totally eroded as of March 31, 2011. When Rajiv Gandhi was Prime Minister he brought in a legislation to deal with sick companies and one of the main reference points for declaring a company sick was the erosion of the net worth of a company by more than 50 per cent. Once declared sick, the company was referred to an official board that looked at the possibility of its revival or recommended a closure. However, the law went through numerous amendments and ultimately got lost in the maze of lobbying and strong advocacy against it by interested corporate groups.

The point made here was only to highlight the state of denial the airline is in. Unfortunately, it is not a sarkari unit

like Air India that can be kept alive with tax-payers’ money. But Mallya is not as fortunate as Air India and hence had to fall back on his more profitable enterprises, mainly the liquor business to keep his airline high. Notwithstanding all his attempts to do that, the airline auditors chose to make comments that his executives had not exactly relished.

What could the auditors do when they are under compulsion to make such a disclosure?

KFA auditors noted that the airline needed to infuse required funds to continue as a “going concern”. But with no sign of improvement in its financials, the valuation of the airlines has

I

22

H.C. Tiwari

Going red

Vijay Mallya

CRUISING HEIGHTS October 2011

reportedly fallen by 60 per cent. The auditors said in their report: “Kingfisher’s ability to remain a going concern will depend on its promoters bringing in money into the company.”

They also referred to instances of the airline management not depositing with the central government the statutory dues collected. These included, in some cases, TDS amount, PF contribution, service tax, withholding tax, etc. which were not regularly deposited with the appropriate authorities. These dues did not include those that were under dispute with the statutory authorities.

A partner in the audit firm, Satyanarayana Murthy reportedly stated that they had done their job in a holistic manner based on the financials of the airline and as per statutory requirement.

Incidentally, B K Ramdhyani & Co came on board in 2007 after it took over the mandate from PWC. In sharp response to the auditor’s observation, Kingfisher Airlines management said: “We are a 100 per cent viable strong going concern.” In support of its contention, the airline management said its lenders had independently assessed and found the airline to be a viable “going concern”.

In this context, it said, while there were delays in statutory payments in 2010-11, these had been cleared and no dues were pending. UB Group CFO Ravi Nedungadi said: “It is incorrect to say that Kingfisher Airlines auditors have raised serious doubt about the survival of the airline.” In a statement he said the auditor’s report, especially Para (9) only draws attention of the members to the reasons (which have been accepted by the auditors) for preparing the accounts under the “going concern” concept. He said, as per RBI directives, the airlines’ lenders

NEWS DIGEST along with the lead bank SBI as also SBI Capital Markets had independently assessed Kingfisher Airlines’ viability.

In his statement, Ravi Nedungadi said the fact that all the company’s accounts with bankers were classified as ‘standard’ which meant they were within the norms and gave credence to the issue of going concern. The business associates of UB group have already injected ` 475 crore into the airline till December 2010. He pointed out: “We look at it not as erosion but in long term view as investment to acquire 25 per cent market share in the domestic aviation business.”

The question is: Will everyone look at it that way? In January 2011, RBI approved Kingfisher Airlines corporate debt restructuring under the lead bank – SBI– that included 14 banks and 13 PSBs and one private bank, ICICI. Kingfisher Airlines reduced its debt by diluting the promoter equity by 29 per cent. Among other steps, this helped treduce the airline’s debt from `12,000 crore to `7,000 crore. At that time, RBI directed the banks to independently assess the viability of the airline. This was carried out by SBI Caps and it confirmed that

Kingfisher Airlines was a viable going concern. In a follow-up measure, the airline was supposed to raise through GDRs (Global Depositary Receipts), low cost finance. Unfortunately, the stock markets dropped sharply and the management felt it could not afford to go in for GDRs. Going that way would have meant surrendering a much higher percentage of its holdings for conversion under the GDRs to raise the same amount of money it desired when the markets were comparatively higher.

It may be mentioned here that way back in January 2011, Kingfisher Airlines had planned to raise USD 250 to 350 million through GDRs. However, since then the airlines’ market cap fell sharply to USD 275 million (midSeptember 2011) following stock value erosion of over 62 per cent. A senior SBI official noted that what the auditors had observed was not very new. They were talking about fresh equity infusion, which is what lenders stipulated a long time ago. Unless long-term funds come in and the degree of leverage reduced sharply, the problems faced by Kingfisher Airlines will continue to

hether Air India will defer taking delivery of Boeing 787 Dreamliners or whether it will start taking delivery of them – slated for the last quarter of 2011 – in reduced numbers is not known. Perhaps, the mystery will be solved only after a Group of Ministers deliberates on the subject besides other main issues referred to in the recent CAG (Comptroller and Auditor General of India) report on Air India. Among other things, the auditor faulted the way the government merged Air India and Indian and the super speed at which it took a decision to acquire at least 50 widebody planes for Air India from Boeing.

It must be understood that the report could have actually seen the working of other successful airlines and also measured the productivity of the airline employees the world over and compared it with Air India’s own inefficient employees particularly in the commercial and marketing departmentn who have specialised in ensuring that none of Air India’s flights fly with full loads or even above 75 per cent. Otherwise, it could not be facing constantly lower loads of not more than 66 per cent, both in the domestic and overseas flights. Though there has been an improvement of late due to a sharp drop in fares by the carrier, the revenue earned has not helped it pay its own employees –

W

NACIL (A) -

NACIL (I) or AI!

Vayalar Ravi

24

bother it. The airline management had already decided to postpone taking deliveries of A 320s from 2010 and 2011 to 2012-13. It now remains to be seen if this will happen or will get postponed again. Independent of this, at least 12 A 320s and ATR 72s in its fleet have been grounded for lack of engineering and maintenance support. This will strike yet another blow to the airline, which is not just facing competition in terms of reduced fares and, therefore, yields but also in load factors as the budget carriers are inducting newer A 320s and B 737800s. Just imagine what this would cause to Kingfisher Airlines (it is also true for all others including Air India). Should IndiGo and SpiceJet – and to a smaller extent GoAir – induct newer aircraft, this will certainly crowd the Indian skies.

While the budget carriers are working on a lower-cost platform, this is not true of Kingfisher Airlines or Air India even as the other full-service carrier Jet Airways is furiously converting its full-service flights to low-cost flights. The move could well lead Dr Vijay Mallya to what we said at the beginning of this analysis – under water!

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NEWS DIGEST leave alone service its debt. an agreement they had reached with the The CAG report, among other issues, then Air India management. It is stated that noted that Air India did not have a strong Air India would require over 180 pilots to fleet of medium-haul aircraft (seven to nine man the B 787s. But these pilot numbers hours) because of which it operated many will come in only progressively as the medium-haul international sectors with planes are acquired. The pilots, however, long-haul aircraft like Boeing 777s. As a have to be readied before that. More than result, it made many such sectors one-third will have to be commanders in commercially unviable. any case to start with. If we Perhaps, this is only partially superimpose the flying hours true but when we look at of the erstwhile Indian pilots, Singapore Airlines and one will find that those pilots Emirates, they have been using are grossly underutilised. And – beside the smaller A 330s – if we go by Air India pilots’ bigger birds like Boeing 777 to so-called past understanding, suck out traffic from India, take then shifting pilots from it to their home hubs in Boeing 777s to Boeing 787s Singapore or Dubai and fly will lead to a severe shortage them onwards to Europe and for the B 777s of which three Praful Patel the US. What everyone forgets aircraft are yet to be inducted. is that the same B 777 with Air India can fly So, pilots for really long haul operations non-stop to all the stations in Europe and may not be available and Air India – if it also the US with some payload penalty. goes by what the Maharaja-aligned pilots What is not just clear is why should want – then will find itself in another Indian passengers board an Emirates or serious soup.

Singapore or Etihad aircraft to fly to their The much-maligned former CMD of home hubs, hang around for few hours and Air India, Arvind Jadhav, had tried then resume their journey to Europe and the earnestly to settle this issue when on US? Why cannot Air India fly them directly December 31, 2010 he wrote: “It has been from its various points in India to various decided that 40 slots of Boeing 787 shall be destinations in Europe and the US? allocated to Air India (Narrow Body) pilots.

Practically, no one in Air India, or the The project shall be handled by Capt government or even the CAG, has bothered Subodh Nigam G M (Operations) and to find out the reason for this serious underIn-charge (Ops) Air India (Narrow Body) performance. If this is the case with who shall be overall incharge. All decision international travel, what about domestic? and correspondence relating to training of Well, the monthly market share figures A 320 on B 787 and liaisoning with Boeing released by DGCA shows Air India has Company for the same shall be managed by managed to slide to the fourth position Capt Subodh Nigam.” Then, on March 7, despite using many more aircraft than 2011, an e-mail from Jadhav to Nigam was either IndiGo or Kingfisher Airlines. That is forwarded by the latter to all pilots. In that why we need to study the productivity of he wrote: “My dear Pilots, Greetings. First better global carriers and then damn Air India instead of just daming it for acquiring new aircraft, which in any case they needed as they had not bought any new planes for more than 20 years.

August z Coming back to the original issue of 17.4 what will happen to the Dreamliner Boeing 787s? Preparations for a battle of sorts are on by the pilots of Air India and the July z erstwhile Indian. The core of the issue is while Air India pilots are compensated in 16.5 terms of wages, allowances, etc. for a fixed 75 hours of flying a month, those at Indian (domestic and some nearby Gulf/South East Asia flights) are compensated for actually flying, which is never more than 52 hours a week. In fact, this was the bone of contention when the pilots of the erstwhile June z Indian under their association, the Indian 13.2 Commercial Pilots Association (ICPA) went on strike in late April and early May 2011. Air India pilots have been staking April z 15.4 claim for flying the B 787s on the basis of

of all I would like to thank you and your representatives for their cordial and meaningful discussion with Air India’s top management over the last week to discuss issues, which concern your fraternity as well as the company. As you would appreciate, the top management understands your issues and is concerned about devising a path, which would see the resolution of issues to everyone’s satisfaction. We all know that the flying hours are a matter of concern and the issue requires a solution, which benefits both the company and its pilots. Therefore, we need to work together to increase the flying hours keeping the ground realities in mind.

Our topmost priority should be ensure that we as a company not only ensure absolute normal operations but also accept the challenge of evacuating the maximum number of stranded fellow country people from disturbed countries like Libya. There is an opportunity being made available to Air India by the government and we must unitedly respond and grab the opportunity to ensure maximum evacuation. This would assist, though partially and in the short term in taking care of the need to log more flying hours. Other initiatives we are working on include: (a) minimising and completely eliminating the deployment of expat pilots for our B 777 type aircraft; (b) 40 narrow body commanders to be converted on B 777 type of aircraft – this would enable flying on Airbus family narrow body to increase up to 70 hours; (c) induction of more A 320 aircraft; (d) induction of seven B 787 aircraft – this would require 40 sets of pilots for which upgradation and training would commence in the second part of the calendar years.”

The e-mailed letter from Jadhav, which

Air India’s domestic market share

CRUISING HEIGHTS October 2011

January 15.8 z February

15.8

z

March 14.9

Graphic: Ruchi Sinha

26

z

Source : Directorate General of Civil Aviation

was written prior to the ICPA going on strike, also mentioned that Civil Aviation Minister Vayalar Ravi would announce the formation of an independent committee headed by a retired judge to take up wage parity and other harmonisation issues to ensure complete integration within a fixed time frame. Jadhav, therefore, appealed to the pilots to close ranks and ensure optimum and normal operations. Then the ICPA went on strike and the matter reached the courts. Thereafter, an out-of-court settlement was sought by the Ministry of Civil Aviation, which eventually saw Jadhav exiting Air India.

Some months later, on July 21, 2011, the general secretary of ICPA Capt Rishab Kapur wrote to the Executive Director (Operations of Air India) at Delhi. In this communication titled, “B787 Dreamliner Training”, Capt Kapur wrote: “As per the understanding reached earlier with you and our CMD’s approval (then Jadhav), we request you to expedite the list of erstwhile Indian Airlines pilots who are to be trained on the B787 Dreamliners. Capt K P Banaji and Capt K Sebastian, two of our senior pilots, have already successfully finished the initial evaluation course and have submitted the training recommendations to be followed for A 320 pilots for training them on B 787 Dreamliners. While you had indicated clearly that you would be working on getting erstwhile Indian Airlines pilots on an equal proportion as erstwhile Air India pilots for the B787 training programme, it has come to our knowledge that a list of erstwhile Air India pilots has already been finalised for training on B 787 including simulator slots with confirmed dates. If this is true, it would be a clear indication of favourtism and would open up a Pandora’s box of strained industrial relations for years and years to come. We consider you to be a fair man and urge you to be an unbiased arbitrator in this matter.”

Capt Rishab Kapur further wrote: “Kindly look into this issue on priority basis as B 7878s would be delivered to Air India by late 2011 and training erstwhile Indian Airlines pilots on Dreamliners should be commenced on priority basis because of the universally accepted truth that erstwhile Indian Airlines has a surplus of A 320 pilots who are utilised only between 40 and 50 hours per month after willing to fly up to 90 hours per month as per the last agreement. Being given to understand that there are a number of expat pilots flying B777 fleet, therefore pilots currently flying A 320 should be urgently inducted for the B777 and B787”.

Following this letter from the ICPA to ED(O), a meeting was conducted in the

office of ED(Ops) and Customer Services on July 26, 2011, where the following were present : Capt AS Soman – ED Ops and Customer services, Capt R Anand – ED Training, Capt RS Dhillon - GM – Ops Airbus In-Charge, Capt Amitabh Singh GM-Ops Training, Capt R Bhasin – GM Ops Crew Scheduling, Capt A Gujral – GM Ops Admin and Capt RS Pal – Advisor Crew Scheduling. They decided and brought out three options to resource the crew for B 787s. Option 1 was to follow the IPG (Indian Pilots Guild) Agreement wherein the first 12 aircraft are manned by the erstwhile NACIL A Pilots (former Air India pilots). However, it is pertinent to note that the ICPA has no such agreement.

This is a distorted position: how could erstwhile IA pilots sign an agreement when IA had no widebody operations and

decisions taken at the pilots meet said that the three options described as “suggestions” did not address issues such as career progression, pay and allowances, seniority and other Industrial Relations (IR) and Human Resources (HR)-related issues, which have to be addressed in order to ensure manning of all aircraft fleet and future expansion as envisaged.

Notwithstanding all that was discussed and deliberately couched as suggestions, erstwhile Indian Airline pilots are feeling cheated. They say that the Executive Director (Operations), an erstwhile Air India pilot insists that AI pilots (current lot of B 777 pilots) will only be sent for B787 training. This will result in severe shortage of B 777 pilots wherein any case of expat pilots have been engaged. By sending the surplus erstwhile India Airlines pilots to B 787 and B777 training, it will solve two

ON HOLD: The Ministry of Civil Aviation is having second thoughts on plans by Air India to take delivery of 27 Boeing 787 aircraft.

even the plan for it was languishing in the Ministry of Civil Aviation for a long time?

Option 2 was due consideration be given to manning of all aircraft types with the company and route pilots to B787 based on experience and other allied qualifications (company requirements) and not just solely on seniority, which could affect the operation of other aircraft in the fleet.

Option 3 noted that due consideration be given to the CMD’s letter of December 31, 2011, directing 40 sets (80 pilots) from the Airbus fleet to B787s. It was suggested, in view of the limited points available for training, 10 sets from Airbus fleet be scheduled towards the first B 787 aircraft training and 20 sets to be scheduled for B 777 training with immediate effect and the remaining 10 sets to be taken up for training subsequently on B787s. This communication capturing the CRUISING HEIGHTS October 2011

issues: increase the utilisation of A 320 pilots and also phase out expat pilots who in any case are supposed to be phased out

by May 2013 as per DGCA notification.

Praful Patel might have merged the AI and IA on paper. Four years after the legal merger, the highest paid pilots in the airlines have decided to fight in the air, on the ground, boardroom and wherever they get an opportunity to do so. Perhaps, it will be a good idea for the CAG to separate the losses of the merged entity so that we can see clearly, which airline is under financial

mess: Air India or Indian?

STOP PRESS CRUISING HEIGHTS learns that the training programme for the pilots in the 787 has been stopped. The reason is that the Group of Ministers has yet to take a final decision on whether to ‘buy’ or ‘opt out’ of the Dreamliner deal. Till then...

27

INTERVIEW

“Our priority is to get an order Vladimir Prisyazhnyuk, President of JSC Sukhoi Civil Aircraft, is confident that the Sukhoi Superjet 110 will be able to get at least 20 per cent of the 60-120seat aircraft that India will need by 2030.

The aircraft has been in commercial operations with a few airlines and the initial reports, according to Prisyazhnyuk, have been positive. In his conversation with K Srinivasan, the Sukhoi Civil Aircraft President spoke about the future plans of the Russian plane manufacturer. Excerpts: What is the status of the Superjet 100 at the moment? How many orders do you have on hand and what is the feedback from the airlines on its performance?

In January 2011, the Interstate Aviation Committee Aviation Register (IACAR) awarded Type Certification to Sukhoi Superjet 100 airplane. The certificate is a result of an unprecedented vast certification campaign preformed since April 2004.

The Type certificate confirms the compliance of the aircraft with the IAC certification norms and airworthiness directives thus opening the way to start commercial operation. The EASA Certification is expected to follow at the end of 2011.

œ

28

from an Indian carrier”

der

The Sukhoi Superjet 100 was delivered to Armenian airline Armavia in April this year. The aircraft was put into operation in an extremely short period of time. By August 2011, the SSJ100 of Armavia had a total of 273 flights and more than 678 hours. SSJ100 performs flights from Yerevan to 24 airports in Russia, Ukraine, Western Europe and Middle East. Its highest daily utilisation reached 16.5 flight hours.

Armavia’s operations showed that owing to its economic efficiency and operational capabilities, the aircraft was suitable for both regional and short-haul routes.

In June, the SSJ100 was handed over to Aeroflot Russian Airlines. By August 2011, the SSJ100 had a total of 193 flights and more than 312 hours with Aeroflot. The aircraft serves routes from Moscow to St. Petersburg, Nizhny Novgorod, Yekaterinburg and Ufa. Usually, the SSJ100 preforms three return flights or even four return flights per day, achieving daily utilisation from nine to 14.5 flight hours.

Aeroflot’s operations showed that the aircraft is able to serve efficiently regional routes with the high frequency of departure.

Flight and technical crews of both carriers provided a positive feedback on the aircraft, specifically on its performance.

For the time being, ten customers have placed 170 firm orders for SSJ100 aircraft. Our final assembly line at Komsomolsk-on-Amur is increasing production. It planned to raise monthly production rate up to two and three units by late 2011 and 2012, respectively.

There are many other manufacturers who have similar jets — Embraer and Bombardier — who are doing well in the Indian market. What is your differentiator and how are you better than the others?

The SSJ100 is the most advanced 100seat commercial aircraft in operation. Its technology level is definitely higher than that of the competition. We believe SSJ100 surpasses competitors in terms of key parameters: Reduced fuel burn per seat, thanks to superb aerodynamics and full fly-bywire system (among all regional jets), and a new engine designed especially for SSJ100 Higher maintenance intervals Lower operation costs Enhanced comfort, thanks to spacious cabin, wider seats and aisles, extended capacity overhead bins and larger

BEST OF THE LOT: An Armavia Sukhoi Superjet 100 aircraft.

individual passenger space Lower noise and emissions These features combined with sales financing being arranged will affect the SSJ100 promotion in the Indian market in a positive way.

What are your plans for the Indian market? Are you planning to validate type certification SSJ100 with the DGCA in India?

Air travel in India has undergone a revolutionary change ever since private airlines came into the market. Fares have reduced considerably and more people are now capable to travel. About 55 per cent of the market is focused on the two main hubs (New Delhi and Mumbai). Additional regional jets will be needed in order to easily link secondary growing markets and avoid further overcrowding of the two main hubs, enabling people to easily move within the country.

According to the SCAC forecast, Indian airlines will require some 250 new 60-120-seat aircraft over a period by 2030. We expect that the SSJ100 aircraft will cover up to 20 per cent of this demand. Today, our priority is to get an order from an Indian carrier. Once it happens we will approach Indian authorities to certify our jet. This scheme has already been negotiated by us with Mexican aviation authorities and Interjet Airlines.

EASA certificate plus several items checked by Mexican experts will be quite enough to start operation of our aircraft.

The SSJ100 is the most advanced 100seat commercial aircraft in operation. Its technology level is definitely higher than that of the competition.

CRUISING HEIGHTS October 2011

What has been the experience with the Powerjet engine and how are you going to take this experience forward with the other engine opportunities?

29

INTERVIEW There are two factors worth mentioning here. First, SaM146 is a dedicated SSJ100 engine designed to provide best flight and technical performance and aircraft operation efficiency. Today, SaM146s are cutting-edge engines installed and operated on regional jets.

Secondly, we were lucky to involve France-based Snecma Company in the Sukhoi Superjet 100 programme as a risksharing partner in respect of the engine.

Snecma and Russia-based NPO Saturn established the PowerJet joint venture that is in charge of designing, manufacturing, marketing, sales and after-sales of engines for the SSJ100. The successful experience of cooperation with a risk-sharing partner gained by us can be used for not just implementing the SSJ100 programme but in other large scale projects in Russian aviation industry, including India-related projects.

flight from Yerevan - Marseille - Yerevan operated by Armavia, an indication related to one engine parameter deviation appeared on the cockpit panel. The captain took necessary action in accordance with the Quick Reference Handbook. The airplane continued its flight normally.

Further flight data recorder analysis revealed unstable performance of engine #110. Like the aircraft itself, SaM146 is a new engine, which has recently entered into commercial service. Thus, a decision was made to change the engine and to send engine #110 for thorough bench inspections.

When is the European certification likely to come?

By the end of July 2011, Phase II Agreement of Certification Programmes were completed while the schedule of activities for completion of Phase III Compliance Determination was defined.

The EASA certification is planned to be finalised by the end of 2011.

While the aircraft production will be ramped up, what about engines? How many engines a month is the target?

The engine supplier is intensively working on increasing engine production to meet the established target of the aircraft deliveries to customers.

One of the major complaints of customers in India is that the lifecycle lists and maintenance costs for the Superjet are not available unlike Airbus and Boeing. How do you propose to resolve these issues? What are your immediate activities planned in India for promoting the SSJ100 in India?

The information you have is not quite true. We have already provided all data requested including those parameters named by you to Indian carriers among which are the country leaders such as Jet Airways, Kingfisher, IndiGo, Air India and SpiceJet. We have commissioned local Hindavia Consulting to market our aircraft in India. We believe that having a long-term experience working with Russian aircraft building companies, Hindavia will help us build and keep up good business relations with India-based airlines and promote SSJ100 jets in the Indian market.

Sukhoi Company being our majority shareholder enjoys its deserved reputation of being India’s robust and long-term partner in military and engineering cooperation and we’ll do our best to make SukhoiSuperjet be loved by both Indian carriers and their passengers.

Where will the training and simulator operations take place for the Indian buyers of the jet?

It would be reasonable for potential Indian operators to train their staff at the SJI training facility in Moscow, Russia, to be equipped with the SSJ100 FFS in September while they also can get the requested training at the SJI training centre in Venice, Italy.

There are claims that the engine has reliability issues. What is the correct position?

On July 23, 2011, during a commercial

30

We are working on different scenarios of future SSJ100 product line development and looking mainly at various SaM146 engine versions.

CRUISING HEIGHTS October 2011

What is the list price of the jet and what are the financing options for Indian buyers? $31.7 million for SSJ100/95B (basic), $32.3 million for SSJ100/95LR (long range). SCAC will work on arranging sales financing for Indian customers of the SSJ100 aircraft.

Can you give us a list of total orders/purchasers/delivery schedules?

Prior to the Moscow Airshow MAKS 2011, the SSJ100 portfolio included 170 firm orders. Contracts for 22 more aircraft were concluded at the airshow.

The SSJ100 customers include Aeroflot, FLC, VEB Leasing and Gazpromavia of Russia, Armavia of Armenia, Phongsavanh of Laos, Kartika and Sky Aviation of Indonesia, Interjet of Mexico, Blue Panorama of Italy and Willis Lease and Pearl Aviation of the USA. Deliveries in 2011 are scheduled for Armavia and Aeroflot. Deliveries in 2012 will be distributed between Aeroflot, Interjet, Yakutia Airlines (of FLC),

Phonsovangh and Sky Aviation.

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FOCUS San Francisco has a growing market based on strong fundamentals and more than two dozens of the world’s leading airlines serve the airport — even in these challenging times. The airport was among the top ten airports to have experienced the highest passenger growth in the last year. One of SFO’s major attractions is its superior connectivity throughout North America. As part of a trade mission led by the US Travel Association, Kandace Bender visited Mumbai and Delhi to promote increased travel to the United States and project the airport she represents.

How do you see the Indian market from San Francisco?

India is a huge market in San Francisco.

We are fond of saying that all roads lead to India from San Francisco. There are a number of reasons. We have a large Indian population there but we also have Silicon Valley, which is in heart of the Bay area and the connections between the two countries in technologies, life sciences, etc. are enormous. So there’s a lot of traffic back and forth between San Francisco and India.

That is the reason for you from San Francisco airport to come all the way to India…

For the airport, yes. No one buys tickets to come to the airport; they buy tickets to come to the area. So, we work with our convention visitors bureau there, with our business community and our Silicon Valley manufacturing people to attract and promote traffic between India and the Bay area and we want to make sure that we have the right number of flights that we need for passengers to get back and forth and to make it easier for passengers.

H.C. Tiwari

KANDACE BENDER, DEPUTY AIRPORT DIRECTOR - COMMUNICATIONS AND MARKETING, SAN FRANCISCO AIRPORT (SFO), CAME TO WOO INDIA’S AIRLINES FOR DIRECT FLIGHTS. SHE SPOKE TO TIRTHANKAR GHOSH. EXCERPTS:

“All roads lead to India from San Francisco” 32

CRUISING HEIGHTS October 2011

There are no direct flights from India to San Francisco now?

There are not. The traffic between San Francisco and India is actually bifurcated. There may be half a dozen airlines that fly right there. But the big three (taking passengers from India to San Francisco) are Emirates through Mumbai, Cathay Pacific through Hong Kong and Lufthansa through Frankfurt. It is a long journey but we feel if we can cut down on the time in any way possible, it will really make the journey a more pleasurable experience.

Talking about San Francisco airport, we understand you have fashioned the airport to be an “attraction”?

It’s a fantastic airport… it really is. What we are trying to do in SFO is to bring back the romance of travel and the passengers get an experience in the treatment. You know there are all kinds of amenities. I mean we have a gym, a medical clinic, wonderful shopping, we have live music… local bands perform every Friday in the international terminal. We really want to give people a taste and a flavour of San Francisco.

All this opens the airport to a larger number of people. How do you manage security?

We are one of five airports in the United States that opted out of the thorough security screen programmes. So, we have private screeners — (they are from) private companies that come in with their excellent customer service techniques and have very high security standards.

They actually report to the TSA but they are private screeners and not federal workers.

We have got state-of-the-art in terms of screening facilities. We were the first to have full EDS (Explosives Detection System) baggage screening systems. In fact, the first airport to really have it. And we have magnetometers at all of our checkpoints and we work very hard to make it an efficient process for passengers.

It (the security process) is not too bad actually. We’ve gradually moved most things post-security and most amenities like restaurants or shopping (have been moved out of the security areas). So, people coming to the airport are primarily checking in and going through security and that’s where they have the opportunity to relax. But a lot of changes have taken place since September 11t, and here on the10th anniversary, we’ve done a lot of stories with reporters about what’s changed and what is different.

WELCOMING: Vignettes from San Francisco airport showing its many facilities for its users.

It is a long journey from India to San Francisco but we feel if we can cut down on the time, it will really make the journey a more pleasurable experience

CRUISING HEIGHTS October 2011

Are you pushing for direct flights from India?

Well we’re talking to as many carriers as are viable for that particular route. We would like to have an Indian carrier on that route.

We had an analysis done by a company in Washington. We basically analysed our international travellers and where we have opportunities for new travel. We specifically asked about India. So, in 2010, we were the second-largest city in terms of passengers flown each way to the United States from Delhi. The first was New York from Delhi. From Mumbai we were the third largest. In fact, India is the second largest in the number of passengers each way from San Francisco. And yet we have no direct service.

So, there’s definitely a market there — a non-stop from India.

We do have bilaterals pending. In fact, Jet Airways flew to San Francisco for about a year. It started in 2007 and were there till about 2009-10. It was there for about a year and a half and it flew to Shanghai. It actually had the right to pick passengers in Shanghai as well, each way. I mean that was fantastic. We need it back.

I am not sure why it discontinued the service. But they it was apologetic about having to leave and it hoped to be back. So we’d really like to welcome it back to San Francisco. There is definitely room for a national carrier from India

to come in.

33

COVER STORY

34

CRUISING HEIGHTS October 2011

A PERFECT

RECIPE

WITH ITS REGIONAL OPERATIONS FIRMLY IN PLACE, SPICEJET AND ITS CEO NEIL MILLS SEEM TO HAVE HIT UPON THE PERFECT COMBINATION OF “SPICES” TO FIRST BREAK EVEN AND THEN EARN PROFITS. PICEJET’s Chief Executive Officer Neil Raymond Mills has been in the hot seat for almost year but he is fast becoming an Indian learning about spices and food as fast as he can. Speaking about food on the carrier, he said rather knowledgeably, “In India, eating food is an event, it is not just sustenance. It is something that you enjoy.” In his rather brief tenure, the man who has learnt about Indian food has managed to “spice up” the country’s aviation scenario with the launch of the regional services. It is not a gamble but one that he is willing to go into head-first.

Mills certainly sounds optimistic especially when he predicts that oil prices in future could rule between US$ 85 and 90 a barrel. Good luck to him and the competing carriers as it would mean continued lower fares for the rising number of Indian flyers in the future.

However, what we are witnessing on the Indian domestic aviation scene is rather the opposite. SpiceJet, for example, posted a loss in Q1 and may do so in Q2 as well notwithstanding the sharp rise in the number of passenger carriers and revenue earned. Obviously, there is something wrong with yield management that is not unique to SpiceJet but to other carriers as well. What all this boils down to is: India may be witnessing the highest increase in domestic passenger demand but it is coming at a terrible price — losses being incurred by the carriers as they are unable to increase fares fearing competition will kill them.

In this context, the new-look SpiceJet that will have two streams of aircraft running its business: the bigger narrowbody Boeing 737-800s on the trunk routes and other long haul domestic and short haul or less than four hours’ flights on international sectors and the other set of aircraft, the Q-400 NextGen turbo-props that will virtually connect most parts of South India, in the first phase, in a web-like operations with Hyderabad as its hub. Those who thought of using regional jets and regional turbo-props tried with ATRs — both the 42 and the 72 varieties — did not make money. Perhaps, Mills feels more than confident of using his regional carriers to make money as he mentioned in his conversation (see accompanying interview).

Indeed, the CEO is confident that the Q-400s would be gamechangers, “changing the way people live”. Mills agreed that the regional foray was Continued on Page 38

CRUISING HEIGHTS October 2011

35

COVER STORY

You must be upbeat about the new Q-400s and the regional operations. Do you think that is where SpiceJet’s growth lies now?

No, I don’t think so. I think that will be one of the focuses of our growth. What we will have is growth happening in our Boeing fleet — that will continue anyway — and we will have an equivalent market volume in the Q-400s. What we will need is more airplanes because to deliver the volumes you need more players.

With your regional operations, SpiceJet — as an LCC — is venturing into uncharted territory. After all, many carriers have tried operating regional routes over the years but have withdrawn or stopped the services altogether.

Not really…It’s not really fair to compare us with the others. Yes, it is uncharted to a point but what we’re doing is actually extending a very successful business model. Faster delivery is successful. We really know what we are doing operationally. For some of these smaller airlines (that started regional operations) operational issues

have been big challenges whether they are airplane issues or whether they are individual issues like schedules and infrastructure issues. The operational issues have a direct impact on the financial part of the business at the end of the day. Some of them have also really struggled to achieve critical mass because in an airline you have to get to critical mass. For SpiceJet, all those challenges are not there because we really are a critical mass. Operationally, we know what we are doing. We are an operationally capable airline. So that is not a challenge for us. But the challenge is an extension of what we are doing like inducting two more aircraft, finding pilots for them…

And to clearly make the point, the only two groups in the business that will be different on the Q-400 operation versus the Boeing will be the pilots and the engineers. Everybody else will be common. Economies of scale and using the critical mass up there will be what SpiceJet will do. The regional services will be just an extension of what we have been doing.

“We are a business that runs an airline” AND NOT AN AIRLINE THAT RUNS A BUSINESS, EMPHASISED NEIL MILLS, SPICEJET CEO, IN THIS CONVERSATION WITH TIRTHANKAR GHOSH, AND ALL THAT THE AIRLINE DOES IS GEARED TO BRING IN PROFITS — ALONG WITH, OF COURSE, PASSENGER CONVENIENCE. EXCERPTS:

36

Do you think the infrastructure in the Tier-2 and 3 cities is good enough to handle the Q-400s?

There are one or two Tier-2/3 routes that are struggling or that will struggle a little bit to deal with, but these have to be watched out. These are issues that can be addressed. It is not about runways and it’s not about terminals. The terminals are small. In some of the destinations there are four or five aircraft on the ground. Most of the time we will try to make sure that the smaller destinations don’t have more than one of our aircraft.

This is very different from our hub at Hyderabad. Actually, Hyderabad can do with five Q-400s.

Your regional operations now span the south. Do you plan to come to the north?

We will over time come into the north.

But in the north, you have other issues like aircraft parking that we do not yet have. The other issue is that for six weeks of the year in Delhi and the northern states we have limited visibility issues because of the fog. So (the issue is), do we have one schedule for the year

NEW BEGINNINGS: The SpiceJet top brass at the handing over ceremony of the Q-400.

or do we have a fog schedule for six weeks of the year? So we will have to look at how we manage that going forward in the north.

In the short term, we will focus on the south because the infrastructure in Hyderabad is the best that is available in the country, with capacity available.

At one point of time, you were directly competing with IndiGo. However, now, IndiGo has more flights abroad than SpiceJet. Are you curbing your international operations?

No, we are not curbing our international operations. We have applied for general routes from the international perspective and we have not had permissions on those yet. We are not going to go for the Dubai, Singapore, Bangkok routes because the average fare that you are going to achieve in those markets, I am not sure they are going to be particularly profitable. Because we will be competing against the Fly Dubais, the Emirates and Air Arabia, all of which have very deep pockets.

If you are looking at Delhi-Dubai, your biggest competitor is actually the back-end of an aeroplane. They have four flights a day between Delhi and Dubai and two of them are B-777s. The economy market is huge flying everyday between Delhi and Dubai. In spite of the fact that you’ve got the Air Arabias flying into Sharjah and picking up the labour traffic, this is not going to be an easy slam dunk!

Anything going to Singapore will now have to compete against Tiger, Singapore Airways, etc. and that is not going to be easy.

We will obviously look at those routes as well but we will also look at the CIS (Confederation of Independent States) countries and we think we will

get some opportunities... we have applied for some of those. So I don’t want to talk about that since they are just a wishlist.

As the fare wars hot up, will SpiceJet hike fares?

One issue has been the fuel price, which has stabilised at a level that is a lot higher than desirable. The fact is that what we are seeing is the rule... the pressure on the oil price particularly now that Libya has finally got its problems sorted out. It’s going to take a couple of months before Libyan oil gets back into the market but more than the Libyan oil supply what was driving the price down was the sentiment because Libyan oil was a very small proportion of the world’s oil anyway.

(The question is) Once the sentiment gets better, a majority of the Arab countries — that were under upheaval are now pretty much stabilised — what are they going to do? Except for Syria — which produces a minute percentage of the world’s oil — all the others have an influence on the rest of the region. So I am more comfortable going forward that the economics of oil will come down.

And as long as the oil comes down to say $85-90 a barrel, I am not looking for it to become cheaper or anything, but $85 or $90 a barrel is acceptable for the business. That will be a lot more sensible than the price falling. So we are not looking for oil to become cheaper.

What kind of passengers are you aiming to target in the Q-400s?

The Q-400s will actually open up markets that don’t exist today. If you actually look at any of the economics of the Tier-2/3 cities, the economic growth in the immediate future is not within the metros but it is actually growing quick-

CRUISING HEIGHTS October 2011

er (in the Tier-2/3 cities).

We are putting together an attractive fare in the market and actually make people think of not going by an air-conditioned train or even drive for six hours. (We are targeting the businessman) Because you don’t have to spend on a hotel overnight or waste two days for a two-hour meeting. Sometimes the geographic distance (if you travel by road or train) is not long but the time it takes because of the infrastructure makes the journey long.

Are you cutting down on the “frills” on your regional routes?

The only thing that we will not provide from a standard SpiceJet flight is access to a hot meal. That is because you don’t have the time (on the regional flights). In India, eating food is an event, it is not just sustenance. It is something that you enjoy and by the time we have heated the food and given it to you, it is time to land. That is not the right experience.

Do you see consolidation in the Indian aviation industry?

I can’t see anybody who wants to take over anybody else. There are two that can most likely see some sort of consolidation or help but will anyone help out? That’s a bit of a tough decision to make particularly for those two airlines.

We see a huge opportunity in India, particularly in the regional markets and add some of the countries that are in four hours’ flying distance…It’s a huge opportunity.

Ultimately, we are here to make money. We are a business that runs an airline and we are not an airline that runs a business. That is a big difference.

37

COVER STORY

THE SPICEJET SAGA History Royal Airways Limited launched SpiceJet in 2005. SpiceJet was formed by Ajay Singh, Sanjay Malhotra and the Kansagra family in 2005. Began services in May 2005 and became the secondlargest low-cost airline in terms of marketshare. Mark Winders joined as first CEO of the airline.

Orders In 2005, SpiceJet inked $1.26-bn deal with Boeing and took delivery of first B737-800 in 2006.

Signed a deal to buy another 10 Boeing 737s worth $700 million at Asian Aerospace at Singapore in 2006. In 2007, SpiceJet placed further orders for 10 nextgeneration B737-800s. In 2010, Bombardier sold 15 Q400 NextGen aircraft and in the same year, the airline signed an agreement to buy 30, B737-800s worth $2.7 billion.

Attracting Investments Wilbur Ross invested Rs. 345 crore in SpiceJet in 2008 and was appointed as Director along with Ranjeet Nabha on the carrier’s board in 2009. SpiceJet then announced the appointment of Sanjay Aggarwal as its Chief Executive Officer.

Change of guard In 2010, Istithmar World sold 13 per cent stake in SpiceJet. In June 2010, Kalanithi Maran picked up 37.7 per cent stake in SpiceJet and appointed Neil Mills as CEO. In November 2010, Maran acquired another 7.68 per cent and took over as the Chairman of the airline.

Embracing new regional

routes

Opening a new front, SpiceJet announced regional routes with Hyderabad as its base to connect to 12 popular tiertwo and tier-three destinations: Aurangabad, Bhopal, Goa, Indore, Madurai, Mangalore, Nagpur, Pune, Rajahmundry, Tirupati, Thiruvananthapuram and Vijayawada.

38

Continued from Page 35

After attempts to raise money through “uncharted” — but only to a point. What various sources including foreign SpiceJet was doing was “actually extendinvestors got inordinately delayed, the ing a very successful business model”.

SpiceJet board finally agreed to issue prefUnlike the smaller and other airlines that erence shares to its own majority owner had failed with the ATRs, Mills is certain Kalanithi Maran. He is to pick up five per that SpiceJet will have no operational cent stake in the airline at nearly `130 issues and will be able to achieve critical crore with the shares priced at `36 per mass — so important for the bottom line scrip, which is 50 per cent more than the in the airline business — fast. last price quoted in BSE in mid-SeptemCashing in on the ever-growing number 2011. As a result, the total holdings of ber of flyers from the Tier-2 and 3 cities — Maran and his associates as well as Kal that is where the economic growth was Airways Private Limited will rise to 43 moving faster than the metros — Mills per cent from the present 38.61 per cent. hopes to woo the businessman, the local The fact that its revenues rose 35 per cent government employee and others who in Q1 of current fiscal 2011-12 did not see would not want to spend a night at a hotel it making a profit. With no major increase or make an arduous journey by road. in fares or rather fare cuts by SpiceJet, the Sweetening the deal are the introductory fares in some of these markets: `999. “It’s not a lot of money,” said Mills.

CRUISING HEIGHTS believes that SpiceJet led by Kalanithi Maran, the single-largest stakeholder in the airline and its Chairman, must have thought of Plan B. We are compelled to say this because two distinctly different flavours seem to be emerging from SpiceJet. Sometime ago, in a conversa- COOL SERVICE: SpiceJet's inflight services on the regional routes will serve no hot foods or beverages. tion with a daily, Samyukth Sridharan, the airline’s CCO rising fuel prices and the falling rupee reportedly observed in late August 2011 against the US dollar will only end up in that SpiceJet began selling tickets at administering yet another bitter cocktail to prices that were 10 to 30 per cent cheaper the Indian aviation industry, SpiceJet than either Kingfisher or Jet Airways. He being no exception. went on to say that Spicejet was targeting Whatever the end-result, SpiceJet’s tickets that were at least 10 per cent lowmoves with the Bombardier Q-400 could er than what the market was offering. He ultimately see the carrier in a healthier pointed out that for the proposed regional financial position. With a fuel burn of flights while on an average, the fares for 1,200 kg per hour compared to a Boeing flights operating out of Hyderabad were ` 737-800’s of 2,400 kg per hour, the Q2499 and from other cities it was `1999, 400, according to its manufacturer BomSpicejet had priced its Hyderabad-Tirubardier, could break even even if the plane pati flight (which takes just over 50 minis only a third full. Mills, on the other utes by A 320) `300 lower than Kingfishhand, expects to get load factors of 75 per er and `1200 lower than Jet Airways. cent after a few months of operations.

The CEO, in turn, in media interNow that SpiceJet has set the ball views is reported to have strongly critirolling, there could be a move by other cised the low fares charged by full servcarriers to join the regional routes path. ice carriers, which as he believed did not The government too has a number of even cover their costs. The observation incentives to increase connectivity of the CCO (even if it be an opening across the smaller towns from a gradedoffer) and that of the CEO sends two difconcessional tariff structure for airlines ferent signals. Perhaps, it is their way of to waiving of night parking charges at spicing up their strategies.

Tier-II city airports. As Greenfield airLike all other quoted airlines on the ports continue to be developed in these Bombay Stock Exchange, even SpiceJet smaller towns, it will be the Indian flyer

share prices have plummeted sharply. who would benefit the most.

CRUISING HEIGHTS October 2011

NetExpress CRUISING HEIGHTS

DIGITAL TRENDS FOR TRAVELLER EXPERI-

I N N O V A T I O N

How much does lost

or mishandled baggage cost?

A close look at the digital world of travel The airline and airport business is a growing industry with limited airport and airspace capacity. The 4.7 billion people, who pass through our airports today (ACI data for airport passenger movements), are predicted by 2020 to grow to around 7.5 billion — another 2.5-3 billion people for us to serve at the airport. Delivering the vision of a seamless travel for customers will need the right mix of technologies. IT will be a key differentiator for airlines and airports to attract customers in the next decade. Look at the stats: 34 per cent of all US smartphone users research from their mobile devices while 23 per cent of all international travellers use mobile check-in for flights. By 2012,18 per cent of mobile users will also book from their smart devices. There is a phenomenal amount of catch up to do in order to satisfy these travellers.

CRUISING HEIGHTS will attempt each month to look at the trends, options and the evolution of the digital space and how it helps

According to figures from SITA’s 7th Annual Baggage Report, it was $2.94 billion in 2010 for 29.4 million bags. IATA is seeking a $1.2-billion saving on this in 2012.

Enter Amadeus and SITA, have teamed up to create Altea Baggage Tracking by integrating SITA BagMessage with Altea Departure Control, passengers will get realtime baggage status updates via their device of choice while the airlines will save time and money. A survey conducted by Amadeus in April this year found that 34 per cent of passengers had been affected by Continued on Page 42 `

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FAST-FORWARD Abacus' Brett Henry on new software and Asian travel growth

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PUNDITSPEAK Passport online launches TripBlip Travel agents will have a new, innovative tool to build sales and connect with clients with Passport Online’s TripBlip Web Edition, the personal vacation finder. TripBlip is a next generation Personal Vacation Finder linking travel agents to their clients, delivering personal travel deals 24 hours a day. Agencies using TripBlip Web Edition will immediately be able to offer their customers communication options including instant messages, SMS text messages, RSS feeds and emails. Customers will still have the existContinued on Page 42 `

CRUISING HEIGHTS October 2011

SITA's Paul Coby on new technologies to improve customer experience

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GOOGLE IT Flight Search could take the wind out of online travel booking sites

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NetExpress

D I G I T A L

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Abacus International recently launched Abacus WorkSpace, a Next Generation point-of-sale application that provides the Abacus customer across Asia Pacific strong advantages in productivity, content aggregation and customer management. WorkSpace delivers a new, high-performance opensource platform that allows the optimisation of operational efficiency.

It increases agent productivity; brings in seamless integration of third-party applications via an open source platform; reduces training time by 50 per cent and provides an improved management of customer data and service delivery via a next generation, graphical customer profile system.

Brett Henry was in Delhi for the Abacus Travel Leadership Forum. He spoke to K Srinivasan and Tirthankar Ghosh on WorkSpace, how Abacus’ is gearing itself for the tablet/iPad generation and the travel industry.

Excerpts: What is the purpose of this roadshow that Abacus has organized?

The purpose of the Abacus Travel Leadership Forum is to try to bring together the most influential people in the Indian travel business and provide

H.C. Tiwari

BRETT HENRY, VP MARKETING, VP INDIA, ABACUS INTERNATIONAL, ON THE TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATIONS BEING BROUGHT ABOUT BY ABACUS TO INCREASE PRODUCTIVITY

“Travel growth in India will accelerate in

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a platform for them to network and talk about the issues facing the industry and think about how and what we can do to shape the future.

It’s about bringing people together to have fun. It is also to share who Abacus is. We have recently refocused on our position in the market and we want to share with them where we are clearly at and what we want to accomplish in the market and see how we can work with them.

You have introduced Abacus WorkSpace, a new software in the market, that reduces the lead time for agents. Can you tell us something about that?

Abacus has worked on WorkSpace, the Next Generation travel agent point of sale system which is focused around productivity. In terms of the numbers that you are quoting, we see an immediate increase in productivity at 25 per cent. For example, if an agency uses a matrix like tickets per day per agent to measure productivity, we see an immediate jump in those figures.

We also reduced the training time for new agents up to 50 per cent. So, if it normally would take you two weeks to get a new agent up and running, this takes you five days. It is really focused around productivity inside the agency.

We are trying to give our customers a constant edge. It’s built on an open system platform and it has very strong content integration and a fully graphic user interface. We are using this “green screen” prompt. It is a real game-changer in terms of bringing all the strengths of the graphic user interface to the professional travel industry.

The entire world is moving to mobile and tablet technologies. Can you tell how you are keeping pace with that and the exciting new trends that we can expect from you?

Sure thing. In Asia, Abacus is far away the mobile leader in the agency space.

In India, we have been pushing recently Abacus Mobile that takes the professional travel agency desktop and puts it on an iPad or tablet or a smartphone. All the functions they could do from the PC, they can now do from these mobile devices. We are currently in pilot for a White Label mobile booking engine which is an internet booking engine for flight, cars that are tablet specific or mobile specific applications.

So, those are two of the areas that

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In India, we have been pushing Abacus Mobile that takes the professional travel agency desktop and puts it on an iPad, smartphone

trying to be the biggest we are trying to really focus on integrated products.

If you had one quote from me, it should be: ‘Abacus is serious about the agency product’. We are really very serious about agency products and products that help agencies to be more productive. So we picked up the mobile strand about two-and-a-half or three years ago and focused there and then we worked both with an Asian team and a local Indian team — Asian team based in Singapore and an Indian team based here in the market.

And then we had the benefit of our global team — through a partnership with Sabre in North America. It is really just a matter of focusing.

We have solutions across all smartphone platforms. Not all, but all the ones that are popular such as IOS, Blackberry, Android…

we’ve been concentrating on. For sometime now, we have had Abacus Virtual that delivers a mobileformatted real-time itinerary for travelers that integrates things like flight verifications. Four hours before your flight, it can tell you your departure terminal and gate. It updates you on your flight delay. It is a very strong mobile tool and once a traveller uses this tool on his smartphone, he is going to want it every time after that. The real travel experience shifts from the hard-toread paper itinerary to the mobile.

Two keystrokes sends a beautifully formatted email itinerary. If you want to have that in a web environment, you can flip through a beautifully formatted HTML file, mobile or tablet specific product.

Abacus has said that Asia will be the top travel region in the world by 2015.

Why do you think so?

It is not what makes us think so. It is a fact. A lot of the travel would be intraregion but when you take the sheer size of the India market or the sheer size of the Chinese market just these two markets and look at the growth rate that’s going on.

You look at aircraft numbers: aircraft because they have a five-year or more cycle from order to delivery.

You can build your data on that. Also factor in who has placed the orders, where does the airline actually fly to, etc. You can have a second data for them that will give you a very deep insight into where the capacity is going to be, where the volumes are going to be in 2015.

What is happening in India? Data tells us that people in the hinterland use local languages. Are you planning to introduce your services in local languages for the mobile platform?

None in our current plan. But certainly the desktop as well as the mobile applications that we are working on, are capable of bringing in Chinese characters or Hindi or otherwise. This can add value to the travellers.

How do you see the India story shaping up as far as the travel sector is concerned?

For next year, I hear a lot of people talking and they are saying that they are really concerned about the downturn and they are concerned about what’s going to happen next year. My advice is, if you are not the CEO, it is good news for you. It gives you the excuse to say that you need a really modest plan for next year. But actually what is going to happen is that the growth is going to continue and actually the growth in India will accelerate in my view in 2012. This year it has been typically 10 or 12 per cent. Next year it may be 10 or 12 or maybe higher. But in 2012, there will be a great deal of Indians travelling.

You were telling us that you are the leader in the mobile space. Can you tell us how Abacus became the leader?

What set us rolling on this is not just in mobile but in product. Abacus is the agency product leader and we are not the biggest in the market. We are not

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baggage issues on their most recent flights. Altea Baggage Tracking, which will also include worldwide reconciliation, is being implemented in 54 airports around the globe in the first phase.

Altea Baggage Tracking is based on the integration of SITA’s leading baggage messaging technology with the passenger and baggage servicing capabilities of Amadeus Altea Departure Control.

SITA BagMessage is a unique service used by more than 500 airlines and close to 200 major airports and is the most comprehensive source of information on baggage movements globally. The result of the collaboration is a single, integrated environment, which allows airlines to provide passengers with real-time status updates regarding the location of their baggage through multiple channels.

“The airport itself is one of the last frontiers in delivering the ‘total trip experience’. If airlines are to overcome this challenge, it is important that they address the issue of mishandled baggage, which is a persistent problem for the industry and a very disruptive issue for passengers. In fact, it’s an area where technology can make a real difference, and Amadeus’ and SITA’s vision for the airport is to deliver solutions based on collaboration and data sharing between all relevant parties, including airlines, airports and ground handlers. “Our work with SITA shows how sophisticated technology can deliver real improvements to the passenger experience” said John Chapman, Vice President Airline Group, Amadeus Asia Pacific.

Rakesh Bansal, CEO, Amadeus India, said, “Amadeus strives to streamline travel processes for our customers and partners. Our collaboration to implement SITA’s baggage messaging technology will not only assist in providing real-time information about passenger baggage but will also help airlines to reduce costs related to mishandled baggage through the development of Amadeus Altea Baggage Tracking solution. This in turn will help improve passenger experience, which forms the core part of our business.”

ing option of a desktop application that was launched last year.

As the digital gateway between supplier content and travel agency consumers, TripBlip lets travel agents jump into today’s new digital world of selling travel to their clients, who are adopting new methods of communication, using all forms of digital communication, and want on-demand access to the best travel deals from their trusted travel agent.

The pundits predict What is the most significant opportunity (or critical threat) that the travel industry faces? Which disruptive forces will reshape the online travel landscape as we know it in the next years? EyeforTravel teamed up with the leading lights at Facebook, Google, and TripAdvisor and simply asked them: What are the “Next Big Things” for the online travel industry?

Some excerpts from their conversation ROHIT DHAWAN,

Lead Product Manager, Facebook: “We’ve always known that the best recommendations come from your own friends - and now businesses can leverage this natural word-of-mouth using the suite of marketing tools that Facebook has to offer — including ads, pages, sponsored stories, and social plugins.”

BARBARA MESSING,

CMO, TripAdvisor “Travel is becoming more social — People are using technology and social networks to tap into the wisdom of friends to make good travel decisions. We are spending a lot of energy at TripAdvisor facilitating these connections between friends, as we think

Coby mantra SITA Chairman Paul Coby on how new technologies can be effectively harnessed to improve the customer experience: First C trend: Convergence.

Voice and data are coming together on the same device, providing new services. Hardware is converging and today’s smart devices replace what would previously have been multiple devices. Mobile phones replace cameras, we watch TV on our PCs and DVDs on our games consoles. How

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seeing travel advice from your friends is incredibly valuable.”

ROB TORRES,

Head of Travel, Google Three predictions for 2012: 1. Aggressive consumer adoption of the mobile platform as a booking vehicle for travel: The number of mobile users researching travel is expected to grow 51 per cent in 2012.

2. In 2012, consumers will again be willing to invest more time in the research process in order to save money - they will look for the best deals they can find, to get the most bang for their buck. Flash sale sites will continue to flourish... especially in the travel space.

3. Product innovation in the travel space will emerge for the first time since the entrance of OTAs in the late 90s .

When you look across the phases of the travel cycle — dreaming, researching, booking, experiencing, and sharing — the potential for innovation, particularly in the early stages of dreaming and researching, is astounding. In 2012, you will see quite a few travel start-ups emerge that attempt to capitalize on this opportunity.

Africa and Middle East lead the way for online travel and tourism.

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Joining the online travel sites, the mother of them all, Google, recently launched its own flight search tool. In so doing, Google has taken the competition to the doorstep of the Expedias, Travelocitys, etc. However, Flight Search — that is the name of the tool — is only available for booking flights in economy class for a limited number of US cities.

In fact, Google’s launch of Flight Search should not come as a surprise. In July this year, Google had launched Hotel Finder, an “experimental search tool”, as it was publicised. The tool helps users locate and book hotels in the USA by geographic area. In addition, it has a number of other add-ons such as price, the number of stars and user ratings. Though Flight Search does not sell tickets — not yet — but directs potential travellers to airlines’ websites to complete deals, what has been noticed and remarked upon by users is the impressive speed displayed by the site: changes to an itinerary and new options are displayed almost instantaneously.

Flight Search came after Google’s $700-million acquisition of ITA Software earlier this year, Flight Search is the first travel product from Google and more are expected to follow. What followed the acquisition was best described by Google in a blog posting: “Since then, our engineering teams have been working closely together to build new travel tools that provide faster, more flexible, and more useful results to online travel searches.”

ITA Software was a firm that organ-

ised airline data. And with the takeover, Google has worked to incorporate ITA data. What that has resulted in is allowing US users to not only view flights between particular destinations but take a look at prices too. Google made it a point to announce that the results thrown up by its flight search service were “not influenced by any paid relationships”. It went on to add that “airlines control how their flights are marketed, so as with other flight search providers, our booking links point to airline websites only”.

While Flight Search can be directly accessed by entering google.com/flights, a “Flights” link appears on the left of the page when a Google search is entered for flight information. Flight Search also provides flight options for a selected destination by departure time and date, airport, price or airline.

When negotiations to acquire ITA started, a number of travel sites had wanted to block the move by Google because they claimed that the acquisition would give Google too much control over the online travel market and push up prices.

However, the US Justice Department’s anti-trust division approved the deal in April with a condition: Google would have to continue to license ITA’s travel software to other companies.

According to site experts, it is only the location of the final destination that will determine the effect Flight Search will have on the present search engines and online travel agencies. Robert Birge of

Kayak was quoted in USA Today as saying his company was “confident in (its) ability to compete”. He also said, “We believe our flight search technology is superior. We recognise Google is a formidable competitor, but they haven’t been successful in every (niche) they’ve entered.”

Even so, according to reports, the Google product could hit a number of travel affiliate marketers. According to Ed Perkins, a contributing editor for the website Smarter Travel, “Anybody who competes with Google should be worried, just because it’s Google and they have the resources and the clout.” Flight Search is still in the Beta mode and only works in the American flight market, but because of its speed rather than the average sites, searchers have been going to it. The site can instantly adjust flight details, such as number of stops and if a traveller wants to fly with a certain group of airlines. Also, unlike some sites that do not show certain airlines, the Google site shows prices for all carriers and allows searchers to filter flights by price, number of stops and duration.

None of these features are, however, new. In fact, Kayak, for example, offers many of the same features, including a map of the region showing the prices of airline tickets to nearby destinations. The only advantage that the Google site has is the speed.

When Gulliver, the business travel blogger in The Economist mentioned the launch of Flight Search, an Indian blogger replied that an Indian website had beaten Google by being the first to launch a similar site. A reader of the blog from India wrote: “Interestingly enough, Google seems to have been beaten to it by an Indian website — that has had a ‘Google’y interface for years now — ClearTrip — http://www.cleartrip.com/ has been up and running for a while now, and providing excellent service for flight bookings and Indian Railways.”

likely then is it that aircraft will need the type of seatback in-flight entertainment systems we install these days at a cost of millions of dollars?

Second C trend: The ubiquity of communications. Everything as well as everyone will soon be connected through IP addresses. So, everything — aircraft, engines, components, cargo containers, even bags — will be “talking” and exchanging huge volumes of data. An enormous challenge will be to make sense of that mass of data.

Storing, processing, transporting and, above all, interpreting it is going to need

a radically new approach. Then just add to this the sensor technology — near-field communication, Bluetooth, radio frequency — that we will be introducing at different points in the customer journey, both for passengers and their baggage. Plus, of course, there will be biometric data to process, too.

So we have our first two ‘C’ mega-trends: Convergence and Communications. What are the other game-changers for the travel industry?

Location-based services will evolve to give passengers information relevant to their precise location at every step of

their journey. Location computing should also provide great productivity and efficiency gains in ground operations and maintenance, as employees get the information they need much faster and manual tasks become automated.

Fourth mega-trend is the move of everything to the cloud, which Coby talks about. So, chief executives and chief information officers need to chose which technology to back. Once they get them right, they will be able to deliver brilliant customer-focused service at a competitive cost.

Google for flights

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A heady mix

In March 2011, PATA joined forces with comScore Inc, a global leader in measuring the digital world and the preferred source of digital marketing intelligence, to produce a report on low-cost airline and the changing demographics of travel.

The report pointed out that across the globe, consumers turned to the web for their travel needs. From trip research, price comparison shopping and booking, travellers were finding the convenience of the web vital to their personal and business travel and the Asia Pacific market was witnessing various demographic trends driving growth across the online travel industry.

According to the report, 446 million unique visitors across the world in the 15+ age group visited a travel site from a work or home computer in February 2011. This represented one-third of the worldwide Internet audience and was an 18 per cent increase in visitors compared to February 2010. The majority of the visitors to the travel sites were from Europe or North America: 63 per cent of the visitors were from those two regions, though they represented only 42 per cent of the global Internet population. In comparison, the report pointed out that in February 2011, Internet users in the Asia-Pacific region represented

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41 per cent of the total global Internet population, but only represented 26 per cent of visitors to online travel destinations.

Countries with the highest rates of travel site visitation were primarily in Europe and North America with the United Kingdom topping the list, with two-third of its online population visiting travel sites in February 2011. A notable exception was Singapore, a small city-state where practically any flight was bound to be for an international destination. More than half of Internet users in Singapore visited a travel site during the month of February.

Perhaps, what was interesting to note was that the demographic distribu-

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tion varied considerably by region; however, travel site visitors in Asia Pacific and Latin America were much younger than those in Europe or North America. As for the travel site visitors from Asia Pacific and Latin America, the average age was 34 years.

Countries with the highest visits to airlines' sites were primarily in North America and Europe. Singapore and Malaysia were among the top 12, as were Australia and New Zealand.

However, two-third of the fastest-growing countries for this category were in Asia, led by China, Vietnam, and Hong Kong. In China, this translated to 6.8 million additional visitors to the category compared to last year.

In the Asia-Pacific region, low-cost airlines posted a significant growth over the past year. While Malaysia-based Air Asia added an impressive 1.2 million visitors to its website in the past year to maintain its lead as the top-visited lowcost airline site in Asia Pacific, the others that showed growth were Tiger Airways, Malaysia's Firefly and India's Indigo that posted growths of 89 per cent and 70 per cent, respectively.

The low-cost airlines in Asia Pacific with their highly web-centric models attracted young Internet users in the region. For these young travellers, lowcost airlines could be the first time that they had to book and buy their own travel, providing for many the portal into continued use of the web as an e-commerce channel. “Significant upside in the market remains as Internet penetration increases in the region, and people, who could not afford to travel before ,can now take cheaper flights. The younger generation as well as the continued improvements in site usability and security will also begin to influence older Internet users to adopt the web as a channel for researching and booking travel,� the report said.

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CHOPPER JOYRIDE

ELECTRIC WONDER

Get an aerial view of Mumbai on a shoestring budget

A look at the first-ever manned electric chopper

is a very versatile combat “ The helicopter platform in the air today ”

Air Chief Marshal (Retd.) Fali H Major was the first helicopter pilot to be the chief of the Indian Air Force. He is of the firm opinion that if the IAF is poised at the threshold of a transformational change today, it requires an extraordinary amount of integration between the DRDO (Defence Research and Development Organisation), PSUs (public sector units), private industry, government and the user (IAF). He spoke to PRAKASH NANDA on the role that helicopters play in augmenting India’s air power.

India is a rising power.

Keeping the long-term vision and goal of the Indian Air force in mind, how do you assess our present helicopter fleet?

FHM: Given the Indian role in the region and the nature of conflict which is more towards the lower spectrum of conflict such as terrorism, insurgency, militancy etc. the role of helicopters can’t be over

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emphasised. The helicopters have a very important role to play. And given the present state of affairs in the Indian Air Force, one must say that the strength of its helicopter fleet is not what it should be.

However, in last three or four years, a lot of effort has been made and quite a few helicopters are in the pipeline. So all types of helicopters, whether they are utility, attack, heavy lift, medium lift, the process for acquisition is on.

This needs to be done on a priority, because some of our older helicopters such as Cheetah and Chetak don’t have very much life left.

They are very old, very unreliable, and extremely expensive to maintain. So, this process of getting helicopters must be completed as fast as possible.

It seems there is confusion over the number of helicopters we are buying?

FHM: There is no confusion. I (Continued on page 48)

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Sikorsky launches S-92 tour

Sikorsky Aircraft Corp has launched a "Legacy of Heroes" demonstration tour by its S-92 helicopter, commencing a multicountry visit from its Sikorsky Global Helicopters facility that recognises first responders to natural disasters and other humanitarian emergencies while promoting the company’s family of products such as the H-92 helicopter, the S-92’s military version. The route of the tour includes the United States and locations in Asia and India and then to Latin America and South America later. A six-member crew will conduct cockpit briefings and aircraft tours at designated stops and participate in first-responder recognition ceremonies and other special events to provide community support along the way. During the tour, the crew will showcase the multi-mission capability of the z

Apache training for Prince Harry in US

Prince Harry, a combat chopper pilot, will undergo training at two US military bases for an Apache attack helicopter course. The prince will train at the Naval Air Facility in El Centro, California, and later continue at the Air Force Auxiliary Air Field in Gila Bend, Arizona. Prince Harry served for ten weeks as a forward air controller in Helmand province of Afghanistan in 2008 but was pulled out after a leak to press revealed his location making him a target for the Taliban. Harry wants to return to combat action in Afghanistan but the prince needs to go through more rigorous training before he can see real action fighting Taliban in Afghanistan. Harry, who is a captain with the Blues and Royals squadron attached to Army Air Corps, was awarded his Apache Flying Badge this April. The training programme will involve live firing of Apache’s formidable weaponry, tactical exercises and survival in combat. Prince Harry served for ten weeks in Helmand province of Afghanistan in 2008.

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Chopper joyride for just `3,333!

Mumbaikars can now treat themselves and their loved ones to affordable chopper joyrides- starting at a mere `3,333 courtesy Airnetz Aviation. This is the second time that prices for joyrides are being revised. In May, Airnetz had lowered the price of the joyrides from ` 10,000 to `7,500. As a result many Mumbaikars took to the skies to celebrate birthdays, anniversaries, or just to get an aerial view of the city.

According to company officials after a tremendous response for joyrides, Airnetz has now cut down the price for the joyrides.

Airnetz Aviation, which provides private jet, chopper and turbo prop charter aircraft. Airnetz Charter Aviation Private Limited has a fleet of 200 aircraft in India and 1,500 globally. A 7-seater Italian Augusta 119 will be used for the joyrides from Juhu beach to the Pagoda at Madh Island and back.

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aircraft including its military and paramilitary capabilities. S-92 helicopters perform search and rescue (SAR) missions as well as a variety of transportation missions for VIPs including heads of state, offshore oil and gas crews, utility and airline passengers. The worldwide fleet of 137 S-92 helicopters has accumulated more than 320,000 flight hours since deliveries began in 2004.

Eurocopters for Namibia, Japan

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With an area nearly twice as large as France, Namibia is a country with long distances between towns and settlements, as well as a 1,580-km. mineral-rich coastline and an economic exclusion zone. This means that aircraft range and endurance are key considerations for NAMPOL, which delivers law enforcement and civil protection throughout the country. NAMPOL has contracted with Eurocopter Southern Africa Ltd (ESAL) to provide EC145 type conversion training for pilots and engineers.

This activity will take place at Eurocopter in Germany and at ESAL’s base near Johannesburg, South Africa.

Following intensive relief operations after the Great East Japan Earthquake in March, the Japan Coast Guard, Eurocopter Group and Eurocopter Japan have signed a tripartite contract for the supply of three additional EC225 helicopters to the Japan Coast Guard. These aircraft will be the first civilian helicopters to be equipped with the mostadvanced mission system, to be deployed for search and rescue as well as law-enforcement missions. Procurement of the EC225s was decided after the Japanese Coast Guard efficiently carried out rescue and relief efforts following the massive earthquake and tsunami that hit the country on March 11, but unfortunately the aircraft submerged during the disaster and were rendered unserviceable. The acquisition will replenish the fleet with new aircraft that have the technology and capability to carry out complex search and rescue (SAR) as well as anti-piracy missions.

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French engineer Pascal Chretien now holds the record for the world’s first untethered, fully electric manned helicopter flight.

On August 12, this electrical/aerospace engineer and helicopter pilot took to the air in a flight that lasted 2 minutes, 10 seconds. He accomplished the feat in a machine that he designed and built almost entirely by himself within a 12-month development period.

Chretien modeled and built a coaxial design with two counter-rotating rotors on top — a torque-balanced design that can fly without the need for a tail rotor to stop the aircraft rotating out of control. Chretien beat aviation major Sikorsky, which has been working on its own project to get the first manned electric helicopter in the air. Sikorsky also used a coaxial twin-rotor design to push its X2 to a speed record of 250 knots.

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Britain orders 14 more Chinooks

Britain will add 14 more Chinook heavy-lift helicopters to its existing fleet in a $1.6 billion deal. This will take the total number of Chinooks in UK’s fleet to 60.

Analysts say that the deal is the first significant acquisition after the huge cuts in the country’s defence budget. But after the recent Taliban attack killed 30 American special forces troops, questions remain about the vulnerability of the helicopter in certain combat situations. The deal for the Chinooks is the conclusion of a ‘fast track’ order, initially projected two years ago by the-then Labour government to rush the helicopters to Afghanistan to reduce the exposure of the troops to roadside bombs. The government had originally proposed buying 22 Chinooks, but following the strategic defence and security review last summer, the Ministry of Defence reduced the number to 14. The Boeing-made Chinook can carry about 40 troops or 10 tonnes of cargo. The shortage of helicopters to transport troops in Afghanistan became a source of political debate in the UK, after criticism that troops had to travel on unsafe roads. The first helicopters from the contract will only be ready for deployment in 2015.

Mumbai police to get its first chopper

The 26/11 Mumbai attacks and the subsequent terror strikes have time and again illustrated the city’s need for dedicated police helicopters. That need might be close to fulfillment soon. A chopper bought by the state government in 1999 to fly the Chief Minister and other VVIPs might be given to the city police. The state’s home department has sent a proposal asking the general administration department to transfer the old Dauphin VT-MJ helicopter to the police. The helicopter will be used by the city police and the recently set up elite Force One commandos for surveillance, security and emergency rescues. Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan will

have to clear the proposal, but this could set a precedent for the city police to get wings for policing. Since the 2009 terror attacks, the home department has been mulling over purchasing a helicopter for the police. A chopper has been used by the anti-Naxal forces in Gadchiroli where it helped save lives.

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FOCUS ON ‘COPTERS The utility and heavy-lift helicopters are with Air Force, but these are essentially to help the Army. The asset is with Air Force because the expertise is with Air Force. What is important is here is that the core competence of the force should remain same. In the ultimate analysis, cost to the nation is also very important. Your training establishment is with the Air Force. Now, if you establish institution in the Army, you are wasting money. These are the aspects that need to be considered.

So, it is a wrong thing to say that the Army wants this or the Air Force wants this. Let us talk of joint capability. Ownership doesn’t matter. It is for the total military capability of the country.

How do you see the role of helicopter in high altitude wars?

FHM: Every qualitative requirement for new helicopters that we are going to have is based on where they are going to fight.

It is based on what area they are going to fight.

In every acquisition, it is automatically factored in that they should have high-altitude fighting capability.

AIR ASSAULT PLATFORM: Helicopters play a crucial role in modern warfare and form a potent element to be reckoned with in any operation Continued from page 45

think we are buying 80 Mi-17Vs. We are acquiring 22 attack helicopters, 15 heavy-lift helicopters, 197 light-utility helicopters, all coming through direct import. All this is in the pipeline. The life of the helicopters that we have is another 10-15 years at the most. So once our planned acquisitions of new ones are complete, the IAF will be in comfortable position.

Do you think that the number of helicopters we have or are planning to have is adequate, keeping in view our two traditional adversaries: China and Pakistan?

FHM: I will say that there is no limit to an adequate number. It all depends on how you define it. But one thing that we should keep in mind is that the number should not be such so as to result in an arms race. Therefore, what you need is not numbers but capability and if you have capability then you will accomplish your missions.

Traditionally, helicopters have been used to provide logistic support to other forces. What changes have occurred recently when we are talking about the role of helicopters?

FHM: It has already changed a lot. Now helicopters have got attack role, gunship role, surveillance role and many other roles. Helicopter is a very versatile combat platform in the air today.

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There is one theory that since all three services need helicopters, there should be fine-tuning of their requirements and there should as much coordination as possible in issuing tenders and bargaining with foreign vendors. Do you think that such an approach will impact adversely on the priority requirements of individual service?

FHM: I do not think so. What is probably meant is that if the requirement is common among the three services then they purchase it together. And that has many advantages. One is that you can leverage the price as the number is large. But, at the same time, it should also be realised that at every stage such coordination is not possible. For instance, the medium and heavy-lift helicopters are not for Air Force but are for Army support.

There is this ownership debate among the forces about who should own these helicopters. How do you look at it?

FHM: Yes, there is a debate and it is all around the world. We have to look at the cost-effective solution. If the bread and butter happens to be aviation and aerospace, then does it make sense that the agency with many established organisations and systems for air power should leave aviation? The Navy leads in sea power. The Army leads in land power.

So why cannot the Air Force keep all the air-related assets which are meant for joint operation? After all, the Air Force doesn’t go to war for itself.

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What about our indigenous strength in making helicopters? HAL is developing Advance Light Helicopters (ALH) and Light Combat Helicopters (LCH). How are they?

FHM: Yes, the HAL is developing light combat helicopters. It is happening but a lot more needs to be done. There is no doubt that the ALH is to reduce imports and increase indeginisation. For that we need not only public sector undertaking but also increased private participation.

Your assessment of ALH Dhruv. Are you satisfied with its performance?

FHM: Dhruv is already in the service with the Army and Air Force. The initial batches were not very good and there were problems with their maintenance.

But things are improving. Huge problems that existed initially are gradually coming down.

What do you think about diversifying the acquisition base? Are we depending too much on Russia?

FHM: Well, not any more. Mi-17 medium helicopter from Russia is, perhaps, the best for the role that we require them at high altitude. So it is good that we identify countries with whatever they are good at. We are not putting all our eggs in one basket. That is happening — now you can see there are Americans on the scene. Dependence on only one country is an old thing, which

our country has overcome.

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New automation system in Chennai

AAI moves to train urban slum youth

Radar networking is being readied for the southern region

AAI & NIIT are setting up career development centres across India.

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AAI’S FIRE TRAINING CENTRES

Preparing fire fighters for

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GIVING THE LEAD: AAI Chairman V P Agrawal (right) and (above) fire fighters photographed during a practice drill

particularly from the SAARC and African countries, have also been participating in the training programme being conducted

by Fire Training Centre, New Delhi and Fire Service Training Centre, Kolkata.

The objectives of the training programme are:

H.C. Tiwari

he training of aviation fire service personnel began in 1948 at CATC, Allahabad in the Civil Aviation Department.

Subsequently with the increase in the training requirement, the training centre was shifted in 1954 to Narayanpur, near Dum Dum Airport, Kolkata and renamed Fire Service Training Centre, Kolkata.

Fire Training Centre, New Delhi, was established in 1976 for International Airports Division to meet the specific training requirements of fire safety personnel for metro airports.

The Fire Training Centres have been delivering high quality fire fighting, rescue and emergency response training to airport rescue and fire service personnel of the Airports Authority of India (AAI) as well as fire service personnel of other private airport operators and industries. Foreign trainees,

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To provide excellent rescue and fire fighting services in emergencies; º Impart emergency response training for rescue while updating fire fighters on their professional skills and knowledge; and, º To meet the deficiencies of trained fire personnel and upgrade professional skills and human behaviour in fire services Fire Training Centres have been provided with Drill Grounds that have all facilities for conducting Pump Drill, Hydrant Drill, Crash Fire Tender Drill, Breathing Apparatus Drill, Rescue Drill, etc. and to evaluate performance like PET (Physical Efficiency Test) and PFET (Practical Fireman Efficiency Test). A Smoke Chamber has been provided on the Drill Ground for realistic confined space rescue and fire-fighting training. A separate parade ground is available for Squad Drills and Ceremonial Drills.

Classrooms are well-designed and Continued on Page 51

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AAI update A I R P O R T S

Radar networking and new automation system in Chennai

A U T H O R I T Y

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new automation system and radar networking are being readied for the southern region. The system incorporates eight radars at Bengaluru, Bellary, Hyderabad, Mangalore and Trivandram and three radars at Chennai, which are interconnected. The state-of-the-art automation system is in an advanced stage of commissioning.

The automation system at Chennai will cater to the issues and challenges faced in the increase in traffic growth with enhanced safety and efficiency. It incorporates a flight data processing system (FDPS) capable of integrating ADS-C/CPDLC and surveillance data processing systems (SDPS).

The automation system, when fully installed, will equip the ATCO with: R Processed flight plans; R Means to monitor aircraft movements throughout the FIR; R Ability to project future aircraft movements and predict conflicts

I N D I A throughout the FIR; R Information on conflicting aircraft movements throughout the FIR and flight progress strips; and, R Integrated Radar, MLAT and ADS-B data and single display to the ATCO with safety features on MediumTerm Conflict Detection, Short-Term Conflict Alert, Approach Path Monitoring, Minimum Safe Altitude Warning for air traffic control purposes. The system is so robust that even in the case of SDP failure, the automation system supports through direct surveillance access mode.

Besides the above capabilities, the automation system also provides support services such as database management and adaptation system to store static data on the operational environment of air traffic control.

There is also a provision to record and replay the voice and data of all the activities of controller workstations simultaneously.

Typical Layout of the New Automation System

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CRUISING HEIGHTS October 2011

AAI update A I R P O R T S

Display Console

A U T H O R I T Y

SMR

A-SMGCS in Chennai will keep vigil

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Continued from Page 49

AAI’S FIRE TRAINING CENTRES equipped with adequate teaching aids.

The laboratories have facilities for testing of fire equipment and performanceevaluation of extinguishing media.

FSTC, Kolkata, also has an approved test lab of the Bureau of Indian Standards for testing of Foam Compound as per BIS 4989 while FTC, Delhi has ICAOapproved lab for Foam Compound testing. Training centres also arrange to impart training in First Aid to all trainees through St. John’s Ambulance Association. Communication training is provided for radio receivers, walkie-talkie

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Vehicle with Transponder

Surface Movement Radar

-SMGCS brings the movement area of the airports under electronic scanning to provide the ATCO with details of vehicle and aircraft movement on the airside of the airport for better surveillance, control, routing and control of airside ground movements.

A typical A-SMGCS includes Surface Movement Radar (SMR) Sensor, Multilateration (MLAT) Sensors, vehicle transponders called squids and a Central Processing System (CPS).

MLAT is a multilateration sensor that receives positional data of vehicles fitted with vehicle transponders in the manoeuvering area and presents an integrated display of the airside of the airport to the tower controller with aircraft/vehicle identification and their location through the CPS. In an ASMGCS environment, all vehicles such as fire tenders, jeeps, etc. need to be fitted with transponders. However, SMR assists MLAT by providing data on the

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The salient features of A-SMGCS are: º The A-SMGCS provides a display to controllers with the uninterrupted identification of all suitablyequipped aircraft and vehicles on the manoeuvering area. º In conditions of restricted or reduced visibility, the benefits of the system become more apparent, allowing the controller to be completely sure of the position of aircraft and vehicles. º In addition, the system enhances safety, alerting the controller by detecting potential conflicts on the runway. º The A-SMGCS uses multilateration technology to provide accurate surveillance and identification of all aircraft and transponder-equipped vehicles on the airport surface while the Surface Movement Radar (SMR) usually assists the multilateration

(MLAT) system by detecting any non-transponder equipped aircraft or vehicle. º Range of SMR from 0 to 5 NM, Height from 0 AGL to FL030, Azimuth 360° The key benefits of the system are: R Reduction in airside accidents R Reduced runway incursions R Reduction in taxi-time R Increase in throughput R Reduction in weather delay, and R Improved situational awareness in all- weather conditions In Chennai, two surface movement radars and 13 MLAT sensors are installed at strategic locations. Forty vehicles on the airside are fitted with vehicle transponders and the display of the A-SMGCS system is provided to the Tower Controller. The A-SMGCS is a pioneer project installed in Chennai awaiting DGCA clearance for commissioning.

sets and all other communication equipment that are used for fire services.

All the trainees including executives are trained in driving at both the training centres.

Fire Training Centres have two types of faculty: the core faculty and the visiting faculty. While the core faculty is experienced in the field of fire safety, the visiting faculty is generally drawn as per the requirements of the programme from among professional experts in the field of health, safety, management, human behaviour etc. The Training Centres have a large collection of technical books, reference books and materials related to

standardization and codes and good libraries for fire and safety. The libraries also subscribe to technical journals from national and international publishers.

The training programmes have been devised keeping in mind the ICAO standards. All the courses being conducted are in the form of Standardised Training Packages (STPs) with welldefined course objectives. Field visits to airports and other installations and laboratories are included as relevant to various courses. AAI’s Fire Training Centres find their place in the list of aviation training directory of ICAO and FAA Advisory Circular.

presence of vehicles and aircraft that are not fitted with transponders.

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AAI update A I R P O R T S

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I N D I A CDC efficiently º Industry-recognised NIIT Yuva Star Certification for the students.

CDC setup

LENDING A HELPING HAND: A file photograph of an NIIT training centre.

AAI moves to train urban slum youth

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s a CSR initiative, Airports Authority of India (AAI) & NIIT Foundation, a not-for-profit organisation, is setting up career development centres (CDCs) across India. To begin with, AAI would like to set up the first CDC in partnership with NIIT in the New Airport Colony, Vileparle (East), Mumbai.

NIIT Foundation (previously known as TNI), a not-for-profit organisation, sets up CDCs (since August 2008) within urban slums to provide employability

skills to slum youth that help them gain employment in formal industry such as Retail and BPO. AAI will cover the initial set-up and operation costs for the CDC for at least a period of three years after which the unit would become self-sustainable. About 500 students would be given training per annum. The students would be from economically weaker sections residing in the nearby areas.

NIIT will bring the following benefits to the table: º World-class training material created specifically for our target audience º Tie-ups with corporates for placement º Certification programme for faculty and centre heads º Systems and processes to run the

The location for the CDC will be identified with the help from AAI. A CDC typically contains the following: Education area – a classroom, a machine room; front office and students’ waiting area; and, library/reading room The target population for the flagship course — Multimedia and advance IT — is the urban slum youth in the age group of 18 to 25 years who have completed 10th (12th preferable) and want a job.

The target audience for Basic IT, English I-Step is students currently in school and require supplementary training to develop or improve skills in computers and English.

Key benefits º

Learn skills that can get them employment in organised sector such as retail and any emerging sectors during the course of the project; º Improve confidence and develop personality; º Improved education/employment opportunities; and º Contribute to family growth.

A memorandum of understanding will be signed with NIIT to open such centres in 55 cities in the next five years. In this financial year, upcoming Career Development Centres will be starting at Kolkata, Delhi, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Calicut, Bhubaneswar, Guwahati, Allahabad, Varanasi and Behrampur (Orissa).

AAI Engineers Guild celebrates Engineers’ Day

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AI Engineers’ Guild celebrated Engineers’ Day on the birthday of Sir M Visvesraya. In fact, the Guild celebrates the day every year to commemorate their respect to the great son of India, Bharat Ratna Sir M Visvesraya.

This year, Mr V P Agrawal, Chairman, AAI, the Chief Guest at the function, released the Technical Souvenir prepared by the Engineers Guild and presented the Sir Visvesraya awards to the engineers for their commendable work. Other dignitaries present on the

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On Engineers’ Day, a Technical Souvenir was released by Mr V P Agrawal, Chairman, AAI (centre). The others in the photograph (L-R) Mr S Raheja Member (Plg), Mr K K Jha, Member (HR), Mr Somasundaram, Member (ANS), Mr M Madhavan Nambiar, former Secretary, MoCA, Mr G K Chaukiyal, Member (Ops) and Mr B Pradhan (IAS), CVO

CRUISING HEIGHTS October 2011

occasion included Independent External Monitor (IEM) Mr M Madhavan Nambiar, IAS, former Secretary, Civil Aviation, Members of the AAI Board, CVO and senior officers of AAI and engineers from various airports. Mr Agrawal while addressing the gathering remembered the good work done

by Sir Visvesraya in particular and its importance today. He flagged the issues concerning efficient and effective project execution and its completion to motivate the young engineers to follow the ideals of Sir Visvesraya, which would help them meet the challenges of tomorrow.

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CRUISING HEIGHTS Waiting for a new day October 2011

Capt G R Gopinath’s Deccan 360 hits a roadblock for lack of funds

63 CRICKET LESSONS FOR FREIGHT FORWARDERS: TIME TO REINVENT

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MUMBAI FALLS, NASIK RISES IT'S TOUGH TIMES FOR AIR CARGO BUT MIAL IS WORKING TO BETTER CONDITION

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BUSINESS FROM HEL AND BACK

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FINNAIR SEES CARGO POTENTIAL IN MUMBAI AND LAUNCHES FREIGHTER SERVICE

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SKYCARGO TO FAR EAST AND AUSTRALASIA

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NEW BOEING 777 FREIGHTER TO FERRY 100+ TONNES LONG HAUL EACH WAY

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LAST IN/FIRST OUT

Coming: Brakes on exports

THE FEDERATION of Indian Export Organisation (FIEO) recently warned that the slowdown in manufacturing and industrial growth would have its ripple effect on exports.

The country’s factory output growth dropped to a 21-month low in July this year.

The Index of Industrial Production (IIP) was at 3.3 per cent in July compared with 9.9 per cent in the year ago due to a slowdown across most sectors except electricity, which grew at 13.1 per cent. According to C Rangarajan, Chairman of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council (EAC), “At the present moment perhaps the numbers are not encouraging... but if the industrial production does better in the second half, then the overall growth rate may be

higher.” EAC, in its economic outlook for the current fiscal released in July, had pegged the growth rate at 8.2 per cent.

FIEO President Ramu S Deora, however, said that Indian exports relied less on Western demand. Even so onethird of total exports are meant for the US and EU. Deora also said that Asian demand — of which China and ASEAN account for a 17 per cent share in India’s exports — was also exhibiting a slowdown.

FIEO has appealed to the government to announce immediate reduction in interest rate for exports and liberal drawback rates so that exporters can book order for the next quarters.

According to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the economic growth rate in India is expected to decline to 8.1 per cent in 2011 from 8.6 per cent in 2010 due to stagnation in global economy.

The UNCTAD Report further estimated that the global economic growth would slow down to 3.1 per cent in the current year from 3.9 per cent in 2010. Although the economic slowdown would affect both developed and developing countries, growth rates would remain higher in the developing economies (6.3 per cent) if compared to the developed ones (1.8 per cent).

Ready for the Chinese invasion PREDICTIONS ARE that there will be sea change in the global supply chains in the next ten years. John Manners-Bell, CEO of Transport Intelligence, has pointed out in a recent article that the Chinese manufacturers are no longer interested in supplying cheap goods. Instead, they are developing global brands.

This has happened after Chinese authorities started encouraging companies to go up the value chain: a result of the economic environment where inflationary pressures are making it increasingly difficult for Chinese manufacturers to compete on cost alone. The article goes on to mention that the move will have implications for the logistics market. When a Chinese brand starts going to Western consumers, distribution networks will have to be established in North America and Europe. In fact, Haier has already done that.

Why is this development so important? “Simply put, a wave of Chinese companies will enter Western markets in need of downstream logistics services. This is not necessarily a completely new phenomenon — in fact, in Europe, Haier signed a contract with CEVA Logistics as long ago as 2008. However, the trend will gather pace and logistics service providers will need to be aware of this change in customer profile if they are to take advantage of the opportunities it offers,” writes Manners-Bell.

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“Security is a key topic for all members of the air cargo supply chain today. There can never be 100 per cent security, however much we strive for this.

Numerous measures have been introduced that have improved air cargo security. Others are just placebo therapy by politicians.” ) Felix Keck CEO,TRAXON

CRUISING HEIGHTS October 2011

TRENDS THE AIR Cargo Agents Association of India (ACAAI) recently announced that its initiative — UPLIFT, an electronic collaboration platform for the Indian logistics industry — has now more than 50 subscribers. Companies of all sizes ranging from SMEs to large organisations have chosen UPLIFT. This is a definitive step towards efficiency improvements in the Indian logistics industry that is considered to be one of the most costinefficient sectors with over 13 per cent of GDP being spent on it.

UPLIFT is India’s first cargo community system facilitating Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) among the various stakeholders in the Logistics Value Chain.

This system addresses the needs of air, ocean and multimodal cargo by connecting thousands of the country’s freight forwarders and Custom House Agents electronically with each other and with other cargo stakeholders like airlines, shipping lines and Customs. At present, the exchange of information across the value chain is mostly carried out manually.

This gap has been impacting the bottom lines of most of the stakeholders involved in cargo movement including the forwarders, carriers, port/airport operators, customs house agents, etc.

UPLIFT helps the stakeholders stay ahead of all industry changes without changing their in-house systems, and comes without the hassles of upgrades and maintenance.

A platform like UPLIFT assumes greater importance in the era of stringent security regulations and mandates of advance cargo information coming from European and US Customs, owing to the integrated functionalities it offers.

CARGO

Mumbai falls, Nasik rises

Mumbai’s frustrated air cargo stakeholders have been finding the going tough due to a number of issues for which they blame the authorities at MIAL. On its part, MIAL has chalked out long and short-term measures to help the air cargo industry, reports Tirthankar Ghosh.

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ed up with the congestion problems in Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL) — and of late, the situation has gone from bad to worst — freight forwarders and air cargo stakeholders voiced their protest at a recent meet. At the beginning of September, in a move that could only be the result of frustration and delays, the Air Cargo Agents Association of India (ACAAI) along with the Bombay Customs House Agents Association of India along with other stakeholders held a joint meet to air their grievances regarding air cargo movement.

ACAAI President Bharat Thakkar detailed the long list of problems faced by the air cargo community. He said that the Mumbai

International Airport had taken over the Air Cargo Complex from the government-controlled Airports Authority of India in 2006. “Since then,” he told CRUISING HEIGHTS, “there has been a manifold increase in the volume of cargo.

However, there has been no improvement in the infrastructure, manpower, equipment being provided to the trade.” Over the last five years, many suggestions to enhance and upgrade the infrastructure had been made but little had been done. “The trade had been promised state-of-the-art cargo facilities but even till today, that promise remains a distant dream,” said Thakkar and went on to mention that due to non-development of the infrastructure, the trade had been facing several

issues which had gone beyond, what he referred to as “any tolerable limits”. In fact, the trade has been brought to a virtual stop as the custodians were not geared to handle the increase in volumes. Additionally, the safety of the material and the people working at the airport had also been compromised.

The ACAAI Chairman also emphasised: “For both, India’s international and domestic air cargo, the significant drawback is the low priority given to cargo infrastructure development at our airports. They are predominantly passengerfocussed (bellyload) aircraft capacity, scheduling and handling.”

Giving the example of the Mumbai airport, Thakkar said that while the airport handled 30,032 tonnes in

March this year, from April onwards there had been a fall: 27,092 tonnes in April, 28,936 tonnes in May, 26,179 tonnes in June and 28,394 tonnes in July. All this pointed to the fact that cargo was going away to other airports.

According to the air cargo industry in Mumbai, other states in the country that do not handle volumes as large as Mumbai airport does, have state-of-the-art facilities. In fact, many wondered why such facilities had not yet been put at the airport. The meeting threw up the problems faced by the trade.

Among the points raised was that of cargo segregation. The trade said that there was no defined time frame for segregation of import cargo.

At the same time, the free period for storage had been

LONG LIST: ACAAI President Bharat Thakkar speaking to air cargo stakeholders about the problems that the industry faces in Mumbai.

CRUISING HEIGHTS October 2011

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CARGO determined and the penalty imposed for any delays were to be borne by the trade and industry. This, even if the delay was due to various reasons attributable to the airlines or the airport authority. The trade demanded that there should be a clear and transparent time frame laid down for cargo segregation by the groundhandling agencies appointed or authorised by MIAL. In addition, the trade felt that the free period should start from the date when the cargo was made available to the consignee and not from the landing date as was currently the case. The present system added to the financial burden of the consignees for no fault of theirs.

MIAL pointed out that segregation of cargo included binning and updating the locations in the system. On an average that has been taking around 10 hours for line flights and 12-14 hours for freighter flights and this data was shared with the trade regularly. Indeed, there had been some delays in September due to shortage of manpower but the situation has returned to normal. In fact, measures have been taken to avoid recurrence of such situations in the future.

As for free period, MIAL was following the guidelines issued by the Ministry of Civil Aviation that is also followed at other airports.

The trade also highlighted improper storing and stacking of cargo, parcels going missing after they landed, non-accountability for damage to cargo and lack of security in the storing and delivery areas. MIAL, on its part, pointed out to Cruising Heights, that it had installed more racks in the storage areas and also imparted training to around 40 operators in safe handling of cargo. In addition, all the open areas where cargo is stored have been covered by temporary monsoon sheds

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The redevelopment of the cargo complex needs careful consideration of various important parameters while any odd-sized cargo kept in the open is protected with plastic sheets.

As for untracebility of packages, MIAL was aware of the problem. The airport authorities have deployed dedicated teams to take care of the problem. From the time, untraceability of package is recorded, till the time of it is traced, demurrages, if any, are waived off. MIAL informed that it would very shortly be introducing RFID system for storage and retrieval of cargo and this would significantly eliminate the problem of untraceability. The pilot RFID project would begin in October.

To strengthen the security system, MIAL has 44 cameras operational at the cargo complex. The process is on to upgrade the system and install

new IP-based digital cameras.

Altogether, 126 new cameras will be set up (of these 96 have been installed at the time of filing this story).

On the export front, MIAL informed that the introduction of the cash incentive had brought positive results, with 50 per cent of the cargo being admitted before 4.00 pm.

The carting of Customs cleared cargo is being completed overnight to ensure that the shed is empty for the next day. Only around three per cent of the cargo that includes cargo that has not been Customs cleared (i.e. 10 MT) is left overnight in the warehouse. MIAL’s efforts are to reduce this figure to zero per cent.

The airport cargo authorities pointed out that all these measures had helped improve the export vehicle turnaround time to two to three hours in the morning time and six-eight hours during peak time coinciding with the peak time import cargo traffic. While there has been improvement, MIAL is striving to better the situation with effective control of cityside traffic.

It is not that the Mumbai International Airport is not aware of the problems faced by the air cargo community.

In fact, the cargo authorities of the airport have been working to improve the

situation. According to the MIAL authorities, the redevelopment of the cargo complex needs careful consideration of various important parameters such as cityside connectivity, enough provision for vehicle parking, continuguous space availability, etc. After evaluating several options, MIAL has decided to redevelop the cargo facility at the existing location, adding approximately 7.5 acres of land that was earlier leased out to CPWD for staff quarters.

The authorities pointed out that the existing cargo facilities of the two custodians, i.e. MIAL and Air India, were not contiguous and resulting in operational inefficiencies. This would also be addressed during the course of the master plan implementation by restructuring the facilities of the two custodians with clear demarcation. The master plan for cargo development had been finalised and that would enhance the cargo handling capacity to one million tonnes per annum.

In the short term, MIAL has taken several measures to improve efficiency and that includes some cash-incentive schemes to encourage better utilisation of the morning hours. Among these are: „ 20 per cent discount on Terminal Charges for

MUMBAI MESS: A photo from our files shows the kind of congestion in the cityside that the cargo stakeholders face

CRUISING HEIGHTS October 2011

export cargo admitted and Customs cleared on the same day between 8.00 am and 3.00 pm.

Five per cent discount on Terminal Charges for importers for cargo cleared and taken delivery on the same day up to 2.00 pm to encourage forenoon clearance.

Revalidation of Gate Passes for the next day without levy of additional demurrage charges subject to delivery of Import cargo affected by 12.00 noon.

Creation of URL in the web portal of MIAL to facilitate Customsaccredited importers to upload advance intimation for consignments normally cleared under RMS Scheme soon after uplifting from the station of origin.

Modification of UB centre and creation of additional cargo delivery gate with three truck docks in import.

Facility for advance online generation of Export Terminal Charges Receipt for the next working day.

Widening of Export Admittance Gate.

Additional Import cold cargo storage capacity by installing three reefer containers with a capacity of 25MT each.

Commissioning of new state-of the-art facility with a capacity of around 40,000MT per annum for export perishables including pharma and agro products.

MIAL has also planned a few infrastructural changes at the airport. Work on the new heavy cargo export shed will start immediately after the monsoon to ease the vehicle and traffic congestion. An additional 2500 sqm on the airside has been made available for import storage.

MIAL informed

ANOTHER OPTION: Announcing the start of cargo operations from Nasik’s Ojhar airport: (L-R) Ganesh Krishnan, CEO, Clarion Solutions (Clarion is a subsidiary of Transworld Group, a leading coastal shipping operator in the country), V Ramnarayan, Vice-Chairman, Transworld Group of Companies and P V Deshmukh, MD, Hindustan Aeronautics.

CRUISING HEIGHTS that the construction of the additional space would be a top priority and the structure is expected to be ready for operation by the end of January 2012.

Once ready, this would enhance the handling capacity by 20,000 MT per annum. The authorities would also be creating additional space for vehicular management for export and import by modifying the old car parking within the cargo complex by the end of October this year.

In addition, the key focus areas will be benchmarking of flight checking, forwarding for examination and physical delivery of cargo. The trade will be made aware of these procedures in the coming month.

MIAL cargo authorities

MIAL has planned a few infrastructural changes. Work on the new heavy cargo export shed will start immediately

also pointed out to CRUISING HEIGHTS that it was not fair on the part of the trade to complain and hold the infrastructure responsible for all the delays as wells as for the higher dwell time of import cargo. The percentage of clearance of cargo within 72 hours has gone down as well as there has been an increase in the percentage of cargo where the bill of entry is not filed even after 30 days of arrival of cargo. They emphasised that approximately 16 per cent of the import inventory was more than 30 days old and of this at least for 50 per cent of the cargo even the bill of entry is not filed by the importers. Air cargo being time-sensitive, the cargo is expected to be cleared immediately. The warehouse capacity at airports should be used for immediate clearance of cargo, not for storing the cargo. That would help the operator offer better service and handle more throughputs, said MIAL. Meanwhile, Mumbai’s air cargo trade has been presented with another option with the start of air cargo services at Ojhar airport in Nasik, barely 200 km away. The airport initially expects about 20-25 per cent of the 40,000 tonne a month cargo handled at the Mumbai airport to come to it.

Promoted primarily as a

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cargo airport, Ojhar’s cargo services have been started by HALCON, a joint venture working group between Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL) and the Container Corporation of India (Concor) along with terminal operator Clarion Solutions.

Speaking at the commencement of air cargo services, Ganesh Krishnan, CEO, Clarion Solutions, pointed out that Nasik had the potential to develop as a hub for air cargo services in western India. Situated at the centre of various industry verticals and its proximity to the main highway linking Mumbai and Agra, Ojhar airport could be a viable alternative solution for the export-import trade, he said.

According to P V Deshmukh, Managing Director, Hindustan Aeronautics, HAL had invested nearly `70 crore to upgrade the existing infrastructure like creating additional parking space and making it a desired destination for air cargo services. Along with night landing facilities, Ojhar comprises a full-fledged air cargo complex, warehousing, integrated packing centre for perishables, cold storage, screening, unitising/palletisation, comprehensive ground handling services for airlines, CCTV surveillance, barcoding, labelling and Customs with EDI linkage. The airport is well equipped and capable of handling heavy aircraft like the Russian AN-124.

Deshmukh also said that Ojhar airport would be dedicated to air cargo services and help de-congest the traffic at Mumbai airport. It would not only help exporters of vegetables, flowers, fruits, automobile, pharma, engineering products but also benefit the industrial giants situated in the region. It remains to be seen when the dedicated cargo carriers start utilising Ojhar as an alternative to Mumbai.

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CARGO

Business from HEL

Upbeat about the Indian market, Finnair recently launched a once-a-week dedicated freighter service on the Mumbai-Helsinki route.

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he only carrier directly to North Europe from India, Finnair, has gone a step ahead to add muscle to its India operation with the launch of its first once-aweek freighter service from Mumbai to Helsinki.

Announcing the launch of the service, Pertti Mero, Finnair Cargo’s Vice President (Global Sales) commented that the service was started since the carrier’s customers felt that there was a great need for cargo capacity, especially between the Nordic countries and Mumbai.

Finnair will be operating the cargo service in co-operation with the recently set up Helsinki-based all-cargo airline Nordic Global Airlines Ltd (while the US-based Neff Capital Management holds a majority stake in the carrier, Finnair Cargo and Finnish insurer Ilmarinen Mutual Pension Insurance Company are minority shareholders).

The plane that will be used will be a MD-11F. NGA has already charted out its routes that are concentrated mostly on the Helsinki-Asia and Helsinki-North America sectors.

The service is also in line with the Finnair cargo unit’s business strategy to first attain the top position in the Nordic countries and be the “desired option in transit traffic between Asia and Europe”. In fact, the majority shareholder in the start-up cargo airline, Brian Neff, President of Neff Capital was quoted: “We believe that Helsinki is a natural base for a wide-body freighter operation, given its proximity to Asia and location among the growing economies of Europe.”

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Kari Stolbow,

Director, Indian Subcontinent, Finnair

“Passenger and cargo from Asia have pushed up Finnair’s business…we have seen very good growth in every segment in India.”

Finnair started the Mumbai freighter service after receiving good response from the cargo community — despite the global recession.

Its passenger flights from Delhi to Helsinki have been seeing good loads in belly cargo — a large part of which is bound for northern Europe and the CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States) countries.

According to Kuldip Singh Kharayat, Area Director - Indian Subcontinent, Finnair Cargo, “Cargo loads out of Delhi have been high. Each flight of A330 can take 20 tonnes of cargo along with a full load of passengers and we have been able to utilise most of the space on each flight.”

The carrier, incidentally, has a pact with the Vijay Mallya-led Kingfisher

Kuldip Singh Kharayat,

Airlines, for domestic connectivity, saw a whopping 11.1 per cent increase in its scheduled passenger traffic in August. According to Kari Stolbow, Director, Indian Subcontinent for Finnair, “though passenger and cargo from Asia have played a lead role in pushing up Finnair’s business, we have seen very good growth in every segment in India”. Finnair offers morning connections from Delhi to its European network of 60 cities and its tieup with Kingfisher has been seeing passenger and cargo loads coming from Mumbai, Bengaluru, Pune, Hyderabad, Chennai, Jaipur and Ahmedabad. Mumbai too, has huge cargo potential. The financial capital of India, the city and its suburbs are industrial hubs producing garments, footwear, leather

“Flying cargo on Finnair makes good sense because Finnair has very good onward connectivity.”

Area - Director - Indian Subcontinent, Finnair Cargo

CRUISING HEIGHTS October 2011

accessories and pharmaceuticals. The outbound from Helsinki will be bringing in telecom, electronic goods and equipment. As for the Helsinki-Delhi route, there is demand of infrastructure-related goods from North Europe to India, Kharayat said.

Harping on the advantages of using Finnair, Kharayat pointed out that “with Helsinki as a hub, Finnair has the shortest flying distance from India to northern Europe. Flying cargo on Finnair makes good sense also because Finnair has very good onward connectivity.”

Finnair Cargo has performed creditably and recorded good results in April-June 2011, as per the Finnair Group Interim report (January 1-June 30, 2011).

While cargo sales grew by 18 per cent in the second quarter, available tonne kilometres grew by 21.5 per cent and revenue tonne kilometres by 16.1 per cent. In addition to the launch of the Singapore route and additional flights to Hong Kong, cargo aircraft traffic began in spring 2010 also contributed positively to Finnair Cargo’s growth figures during the first half of the year.

Over the next few years, Finnair would like to touch more Indian destinations. It could do very well with a connection to Chennai (Finnish telecom giant Nokia has its India manufacturing facilities at Sriperimbudur on the outskirts of Chennai) but it cannot do so because of the present bilateral arrangement.

The Indo-Finn air services agreement only allows Finland to connect with two India cities and they are Delhi and Mumbai.

CARGO

I

THOSE WERE THE DAYS: Capt Gopinath in a jubilant mood after launching Deccan 360 in May 2009.

Deccan

dreams fail to take off Capt G R Gopinath launched Deccan 360 to connect the untouched corners of India but was unable to do so. Within two years, the much-hyped transportation and logistics company is in dire straits. Will the Captain be able to resurrect his dream, asks Tirthankar Ghosh.

t is the end of the road for express transportation and logistics company Deccan 360, but certainly not for its founder, the never-say-die Capt G R Gopinath. At the time of filing this report, the former army captain and low-cost carrier entrepreneur had started moves to sell his company and one could see him in a new role soon.

While no names have been mentioned yet, the buyer is known to be a Mumbaibased company that has wide business interests including logistics.

Capt Gopinath pointed out that talks were on and a number of options were being discussed. Among them were: sale or a stake in Deccan 360. According to reports, the buyer will be taking over Deccan 360 at a nominal cost and let Capt Gopi retain some shares.

Whatever the outcome, from Capt Gopinath’s words, it seems that he would continue to be involved in some way or the other with his baby, Deccan 360.

Deccan 360’s problems began in May this year when there was not enough business for its three leased Airbus 310s — in fact, there was not enough money to pay the lease and the aircraft were sent back to the lessors.

That left Deccan 360 with only two ATRs. Worse was to follow: the company’s Human Resources department sent out a terse message: “The company is going through a financial and business restructuring exercise and we are forced to reduce our man power count in the process of the same.”

Result: Around 1,000-odd employees were asked to look for jobs.

When it is ultimately sold, it will signal the end of a story that began with a lot of hype in May 2009. At that time, Capt Gopinath had said to this correspondent, “In many senses, Deccan 360 is

CRUISING HEIGHTS October 2011

a child of (Air) Deccan. I say it is a child of Deccan because of the nightmare and frustration of the logistics of (maintaining) Air Deccan (aircraft).” He revealed that while running Air Deccan, it had become increasingly clear to him that a gap needed to be plugged.

“We had FedEx, we had UPS and Blue Dart/DHL. But their focus was taking India to the rest of the world, not bringing India to India,” he had said.

Capt Gopi’s vision was to change the way logistics moved. For many years, the East was dependent on the West, he had said and now the country’s growth had “enabled us to return the favour. To sustain India’s growth, inter-dependency of Tier-1, Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities will be just as crucial as the inter-dependency of the global economy.

Transportation can accelerate this interdependency by enabling a larger segment of cities to be a part of this growth. Our goal is to be the catalyst of that change.” Unfortunately, his Deccan 360 could not bring “India to India”.

Perhaps, what changed the view in two years was that Deccan 360 expanded way beyond what it could handle.

Over the last two years, Deccan 360 ran up a loss amounting to a whopping ` 120 crore, thanks largely to Capt Gopinath’s ambition to spread Deccan 360’s net far and wide. Though there was nothing wrong with the business model, its overheads grew at a faster pace than its revenues. He took planes on lease when he could just have sent his packages by commercial flights. The same was the case with road transport. In a business that requires a long gestation period, Capt Gopi seemed to be on an extremely small period of time. Added to that were rising fuel prices and the fact

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CARGO that there were hardly any senior people to steer the business compounded the problems.

On a difficult track from the very start, the Captain did not give up hope. Stuck for funds, he got Mukesh Ambani and Reliance to invest `115 crores last year.

This was in addition to the debt of `500 crore and his own investment of `75 crore.

Even so, there was hardly any improvement in the numbers. According to Business Standard, “On a top line of the `180 crore for the financial year 2010-11, the company had reportedly lost as much as `120 crore.”

The problems became more pronounced in May 2011 when news filtered out of Deccan 360’s headquarters in Bengaluru that Capt Gopi was scouting around for funds from investors. If reports from Mumbai are to be believed, the Captain’s talks with the corporate entity had yielded results and, according to bankers privy to the “deal” being worked out, Deccan 360 could be kept afloat. The arrangement that has supposedly been worked out would enable the founder of Deccan 360 to hold on to some percentage of shares in the company. This could not be verified because Capt Gopi was not available for comment.

The formation of Deccan 360 was sparked off by the delayed delivery of an Airbus engine in the good old days of Air Deccan The formation of Deccan 360 was sparked off by the delayed delivery of an Airbus engine in the good old days of Air Deccan. The event also ensured that Capt Gopi learnt about supply chain.

He had told this correspondent, “Building a supply chain, all people will tell you, is an organisational capability along with a knowledge base.” The organisational capacity and the knowledge base did not, however, come in handy. In the absence of big customers — who could have given him enough money to venture into the hinterland — Capt Gopi got around 2000-odd small businesses that did little to boost his bottom line.

It is not that the company did not do its homework

before starting. In fact, Deccan 360’s gestation period was rather prolonged.

His Eureka moment came soon after he sold his shares to Vijay Mallya’s Kingfisher.

“I think the timing was right,” he said when this correspondent interviewed him in May 2009. “I said,” he recounted, “my God, in this country you can’t move an Airbus engine from Delhi to Kolkata. While China has 98 aircraft in cargo, Europe has 128 in express logistics, but India has about five. A country as great as ours, with a $1.1 billion emerging economy, growing at 7 to 8 per cent of the GDP, surely we should have had more aircraft,” he had said.

After all, it was planning an all-India footprint. As one of the top managers in the organisation had put it at that time, “All-India is correct, but then all-India is a very vast terminology. The top 24-odd cities contribute to about 80 per cent of the GDP of this country.

Naturally, that is where the majority of the business lies.

Among them, the top seven or eight cities cover about 60-odd per cent of the GDP. Our intention is to provide connectivity to 17-20 per cent of the GDP-generating areas of the country in a 2448-72-hour time plan. We are obviously more focussed on the manufacturing sector,

CORE TEAM: Capt Gopinath (middle) poses for a photograph with his core team, which was instrumental in the launch of Deccan 360.

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CRUISING HEIGHTS October 2011

and to some extent on services.”

He was certain that he was on the right track because the government was looking to more industries in rural areas. Existing businesses were moving out of Mumbai into the interiors, he had said. “More so now, with the government’s policy of SEZ, which has favoured industry in rural areas…Look,” he said, counting out examples on his fingers. “Asea Brown Boveri has gone to Nasik, TVS is going to Mysore, Firodia has gone to Himachal Pradesh.

Places such as Jamnagar, Ludhiana, Surat, etc. that rarely ever saw a cargo aircraft needed connectivity.”

Convinced about his plans, Capt Gopi had told himself, “You can’t go wrong.” The country, he had emphasised, needed such connectivity. “It is like arteries and veins pumping blood to the heart. The industry is the heart. That requires a supply chain. It takes only one part to go missing in that machinery for all your production lines to come to a halt. Most industries that are automated require a supply chain, and that requires better aircraft.” He had envisioned that his express logistics outfit would not just deliver next day or overnight; in fact, it would have the ability to build a supply chain into industry both ways — supply and back.

Simply put, it meant that the parts and goods would reach the manufacturer or consumer whenever they wanted them. According to a presentation made to investors in early 2009, Deccan 360 had pegged the size of the logistics industry at a conservative $ 630 million of which 60 per cent of the revenue came from air. Capt Gopi’s aim was to do a better job than Blue Dart to enable him to have revenues of $75 million at the end of 2010. But in July

CARGO 2010, the yearly revenue was only around $ 10 million while the losses mounted to nearly $45 million.

Capt Gopi also wanted to cater to different spaces. He felt that the only space that express logistics had catered to was high value but he wanted to penetrate below that strata. To ensure that millions of the middle class had the purchasing power, Deccan 360 wanted to stimulate demand. “I have always felt the need to build the right environment for equitable growth in this country, but one can’t do it, well, alone. If everybody does it together, you’ll do well,” he has said. So, a portion of each of the company’s aircraft was meant for carrying goods from farmers, at lower than the usual rates.

That, Capt Gopi had mentioned, was good business sense, “not just an altruistic thing. Good business becomes good if you make others do well. So, I want to allocate a portion of space for perishables”.

Noble words but the idea, obviously, did not bring in the desired results. To begin with, the Deccan 360 venture began operations in November 2009, around the time that the recession was ending and air cargo was inching back to keep its head above water. To get into the market, Deccan priced its products cheap leading to a price war. What happened later was that the established players with deeper pockets than Capt Gopi also reduced rates and got back into the market. Result: the cost and the pricing differed so much that the revenues could not keep pace. One other factor was that Deccan 360, perhaps, did not market itself well. While it did not use its A 310s to ferry international charter cargo during the day, neither did it tie up with international carriers to give it their extra cargo loads. “My vision,” he had pointed out, “is a

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KEEN EYE: Capt Gopinath with Kiran Grandhi, Chairman, Airports, GMR Group, oveseeing the interior of Deccan 360 after its launch.

completely revolutionary one — of doing business in the Indian context wherein the cost of manufacturing any product, and then the cost of sending it to the shelves, will come down dramatically.”

He had, on the eve of the launch, pointed out the reach and power that Deccan 360 would have. Giving an example, Capt Gopi had said that it was possible to send packages from Mumbai to Delhi in a day, but “if you want a package to be sent from Mumbai to Guwahati, it will take 10 days. And if you want something to be sent from Ludhiana to Tirunelvelli, it may take 20 days”. What he was trying was simple: “If Deccan 360 is given a package in Manchester it should reach Coimbatore the next day, or a packet from Cincinnati in the USA should reach

Deccan 360, hopefully, is not dead. It had the makings of a good business idea and all it requires is a good deal of “oxygen”

Guwahati the next day.”

Once the bricks and mortar were in place, Capt Gopi aimed to have six planes “and twice the reach of Blue Dart”. That, he had emphasised, would be possible because Blue Dart’s focus was different. “My focus is to integrate the smaller towns with the larger network in the metros. I’ve also created this hub-andspoke, with Nagpur as the hub. The reason I went to Nagpur is because the place is ideal for me and is also suitable for my overall strategy as it is in the centre of India. In two, or at most two-and-a-half hours, Deccan 360’s planes can reach the cities concerned,” he had said with conviction.

Captain Gopinath knew that his aim of ensuring cargo deliveries across continents in a day would only have been possible when international cargo aircraft started flying to Nagpur. But that has remained a plan —only on paper.

Deccan could also have capitalised on the domestic retail sector. It was only recently, after Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance invested in Deccan, that there was talk of Capt Gopi getting into Reliance’s retail business.

What really brought Deccan down were the franchisees. Most of Capt Gopi’s customers were unhappy at the way his

CRUISING HEIGHTS October 2011

franchisees — who had been selected for last mile deliveries — treated them.

Often packets were lost or delivered to wrong locations creating a lot of confusion.

Always a hands-on person, Capt Gopinath, unlike many Indian corporate honchos, had his own style of running the business, notwithstanding the fact that he had fingers in many pies in the initial stages of Deccan 360: Deccan Aviation (the helicopter charter unit, his farm where he cultivates coconuts and sundry other crops, and much more). He believed in delegating responsibilities. While at Air Deccan, he knew that “two years down the line, I’d have the ability to set up another company. At some point, I understood that we’ll need a CEO, so that I could distance myself from the physical management of the company”. He got himself a COO, who ran the outfit, though he continued to handle the running of the company on a day-to-day basis.

Capt Gopi had apparently learnt from his mistakes at Air Deccan. At Deccan 360, he had said, it would certainly not be run “like old family-owned businesses…When you are a first-generation entrepreneur”, advised Capt Gopi, “the only way you can grow in size and scale in three, four or five years is to dilute and bring in equity.

You can build a company on a size which is scalable and have a societal impact.” That is why he had brought in people who knew the business to run the logistics outfit. However, none of them stuck around.

Deccan 360, hopefully, is not dead. It had the makings of a good business idea — and one that India needs — and all it requires is a good deal of “oxygen”. The Captain’s dream, perhaps, then will be realized.

COLUMN/FULLY LOADED

Wanted: A balance of the ‘old’ and the ‘new’ SHESH KULKARNI

Taking lessons from the present Indian Cricket team, Shesh Kulkarni has a word of advice for freight forwarders: it is time to reinvent.

s I write this on September 17, I am confronted by two events. First, the Indian cricket team has just concluded its tour of England and lost all its matches! Even as I try to stomach this English brutality, I am distracted by a call from an industry colleague in a leading airline who wanted to schedule a luncheon meeting with his Global CEO. He was keen that I shared with him prospects about the freight industry and insights on how the year ahead looked. I asked him if he was adding capacity and he said he was. Don’t we have eccess capacity in the market, I queried. My last study of market statistics showed that we had 30 per cent excess capacity! You will not understand this, was all that he told me. Maybe I don’t. As if that was not enough for the morning, I get an email resignation from a colleague informing me that he was quitting his job since he wanted another with more pay.

A strange paradox, indeed! Here was the Indian cricket team, which was the Number One Test playing country in the world they get beaten 8-0 in the series. Here was a carrier that was aware of excess capacity in market place but still wanted to add more capacity. And my colleague of 20 years chooses an email to let me know he was leaving for more money.

I guess my industry friend was right: I did not understand the business and that there is no straight answer to most of the things in life since we spend much of our time chasing, correcting, rewriting or figuring fresh answers to traditional problems. Does the Indian cricket team and all the gurus of cricket not know that being Number One is easy but staying Number One is tougher? Don’t the carriers understand the demand and supply scenario? And as for my resigning colleague, any career planner or advisor will tell him that big money does not necessarily mean a good job.

How should one have felt about all this: frustrated, angry…? Strangely I had neither of these emotions with my colleague, the Indian cricket team or the friend from the international carrier. It’s impossible to satisfy everyone all the time or be satisfied with everything around you. I guess with years and experience, it’s good to learn to live and let live.

A part of me asked what was wrong with

A

It is true that pressure on cost and productivity is becoming most critical. It is clear that clients will not pay more. As in cricket, players will have to be quick to adopt, learn and unlearn to be in the cricket team – so it is with carriers.

our cricket team or the carrier that was adding more capacity when the demand is little. It is clear something is amiss. Winners do things differently; that is what we are told. If we were to reflect on what we did as a winning team and what we did not do to end up on the other side, we will find answers.

Somewhere I felt that our cricket team showed fatigue and looked jaded during the English tour. Did they miss out on adequate preparation – both physical and mental or did they just hope to pull through? Past performance and experience tell us that one of them is true.

Is my colleague experiencing afraid that he will not be able to counter the demands of his profession in the future? Are carriers following a similar approach? Since India and China are growth markets, let’s add capacity since elsewhere they have little hope to push growth.

Maybe this trade of ours will have to reinvent itself too. It is true that this industry has a great future and will post growth, but oversupply of capacity will hurt carriers that are the key elements in our trade. The investment in capital (aircraft) must be protected. These are industries that bring capital and have the ability to contribute in a far larger capacity than others that are not in a capital-based business.

It is also true that pressure on cost and productivity is becoming most critical. It is clear that clients will not pay more. As in cricket, players will have to be quick to adopt, learn and unlearn to be in the team, so too in carriers. These carriers must strengthen and bring about more integrated partnerships with the forwarding community — perhaps, even make them stakeholders in their endeavour and initiatives.

We, from the freight industry, economy mangers, and sports bodies will also have to learn to balance the ‘old’ and the ‘new’ if we want to play this game for longer term, and follow a winning routine to be a winner. Knowing this trade, it will adopt new ways the moment someone takes the lead. Someone has to show the way. Isn’t that a common human tendency?

India will follow…

CRUISING HEIGHTS October 2011

(The writer is President and CEO of a leading logistics company which provides complete logistics solutions and can be reached at cruisingheights@newsline.in)

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CARGO JOTTINGS Emirates SkyCargo ushers new freighter service

DEEP PENETRATION: The Boeing 777 freighter, with a capacity of 103 tonnes — will fly Dubai-Singapore-Sydney-Hong Kong-Dubai weekly, connecting businesses to Emirates’ Dubai 114 destinations on its network.

Emirates SkyCargo recently celebrated the inaugural service on its new Far East and Australasia freighter route. The weekly service, operated by its new Boeing 777 freighter, will fly on the Dubai-Singapore-Sydney-Hong Kong-Dubai route providing the key trading points with additional connectivity to Emirates’ Dubai hub, which can link businesses to the 114 destinations on the carrier’s network.

The Boeing 777F — which touched down for the first time in Sydney on September 12 — has the capability to carry up to 103 tonnes of freight. “This new route not only bolsters capacity, it provides our customers with more options and increased trade opportunities,” said Hiran Perera, Emirates’ SVP Cargo Planning & Freighters. “We currently transport cargo in the bellyhold of 126 passenger flights a week between Dubai and Australia, as well as 28 Hong Kong flights and 42 Singapore flights, and the freighter — with a wide main deck door — will increase our ability to carry oversized shipments,” added Perera.

The inaugural flight — which carried 100 tonnes of cargo,

Cargolux gets B 747-8 freighter

Cargolux took delivery of its first two Boeing 747-8 freighters in September, 2011 marking a new chapter in its long and successful history when it received the new-generation 747-8 FF. Commenting, Frank R Reimen, Cargolux President and Chief Executive Officer, said, “We hit a few bumps on the journey from order to delivery, but I am convinced that the entire Cargolux team shares my sense of excitement and pride as we demonstrate industry leadership once again. This aircraft sets new standards in efficiency: it features greater fuel economy and the lowest operating costs of any large freighter, and boasts a significantly improved environmental performance. Clearly, the 7747-8 F will be the cornerstone of our growth and profitability for the next decades and a genuine industry game changer.”

“Everyone at Boeing is so pleased to see Cargolux take delivery of the latest member of the legendary 747 Freighter TO THE NEXT LEVEL: Cargolux will be eyeing more international routes with family. As launch custhe introduction of new freighters. tomer, Cargolux has been closely involved in establishing the requirements for a larger aircraft with significantly enhanced capabilities and has offered valuable insight throughout the various stages of design and development,” said Elizabeth Lund, Vice-President and General

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including medical equipment, diagnostics, spare parts, textiles and clothing - was met by Greg Johnson, Emirates’ Cargo Manager Australia, and Alex Barkway, Emirates’ Cargo Manager New South Wales. “The addition of a dedicated freighter service is a major milestone in Emirates SkyCargo’s growth in Australia, and offers new possibilities for expansion into other areas of air cargo transport,” said Johnson. “With the high Australian dollar driving up imports, this new flight will also provide us with much needed additional capacity into the market,” added Johnson.

With a long-range flying capacity and technologically advanced General Electric (GE) engines, the Boeing 777F provides greater flexibility than any other freighter aircraft in operation today. It maintains the lowest fuel burn of any comparable sized aircraft, consuming nearly 18 per cent less fuel than today’s freighters.

A hat-trick in Nepal: Adding yet another feather to its cap, SkyCargo’s Nepal wing recently won the Top Offline Cargo Carrier Award for 2010 on Nepal’s Cargo Day. The event was organized by Nepal Freight Forwarders Association (NEFFA) as celebrations of their 17th anniversary. This is the third year in a row that the cargo carrier has received the award.

Every year, NEFFA awards the top three online and the top offline cargo carrier from Nepal judged on the basis of highest tonnage uplifted in 2010-11. SkyCargo was awarded in the offline cargo carrier category and the award was received

by Parasar Prasai, Managing Director, Emirates SkyCargo.

Other carriers nominated in the category were British Airways, Saudia and Kuwait Airways.

Keki Patel, Cargo Manager-India and Nepal, Emirates Airline, said, “We are delighted to have received this award consistently for three years and it’s a matter of great pride for us to be recognised for our continuous efforts in the Indian sub-continent.

Nepal is an evergreen tourism market and the efforts o.

Manager, 747 programme.

With a maximum payload of 134 tonnes and about the same trip costs as the 747-400F, the 747-8F has enough room for seven additional pallets and 16 per cent more cargo than its predecessor. Its advanced GE engine, improved aerodynamics and lighter materials provides the 747-8 freighter with doubledigit improvements in fuel consumption and carbon emissions — well below ICAO limits.

Continental and United Cargo to merge operations CONTINENTAL and United Cargo recently merged operations.

The joint company will operate with 159 widebody aircraft operating over 10 hubs to 378 destinations. The move is believed to be driven by the merger of United Airlines and Continental in October 2010. Early next year, once the carriers have implemented United Cargo 360°, their new integrated cargo business management system, they will function as one carrier.

The United Cargo 360° system is on track to go live in Q2 2012. Once integration is finalised, customers will have access to a single air waybill number stock, a fully-integrated product line and a single contact centre call number.

The latest milestone achieved in the integration is the combination of shipping services for high-value goods and articles of extraordinary value under the brand UASecure, effective August 20. UASecure offers secure chain of custody, continuous monitoring and secure storage facilities in more than 80 locations worldwide.

Continental and United Express and General Freight products

CRUISING HEIGHTS October 2011

have been aligned under the brands EXP and GEN as of June 2011. United Cargo is scheduled to begin operating out of the company’s new hub facility at O’Hare International Airport in Chicago in mid-January 2012 — after the holiday peak period.

Meanwhile, almost 90 per cent of Continental and United Cargo operations are already co-located, with the latest locations added this month including CVG, LAS, LGA, PDX and YYZ.

Lufthansa Cargo obtains US Safety Act recognition

K+N opens logistics facility at Pune KUEHNE+NAGEL recently opened an automotive logistics facility in Pune, India, while also entering into a three-year deal with the French men’s clothing company Celio Future Fashion regarding warehousing and distribution in India.

A number of auto-manufacturing hubs are based in Pune, making it the ideal place for K+N to concentrate its Indian distribution efforts, according to the company press release. The firm will offer vendormanaged inventory, emergency handling, THINK LOCAL, ACT GLOBAL: Kuehne + network engineering Nagel office in one of the foreign countries. and other services from the facility. “The new development is fully in line with our goal to be one of the leading logistics specialists, providing operational excellence and setting new standards for the automotive industry in India,” K+N’s Managing Director, Volkmar Mueller, said in a statement.

K+N will staff about 20 employees at Celio’s domestic warehouse in Bhiwandi to take care of receipt, physical inspection, order planning, pick-and-pack, distribution and a variety of other services.

JOB WELL DONE: Lufthansa Cargo has been recognised for its security standards.

LUFTHANSA Cargo AG has been the first air carrier to receive the US Department of Homeland Security Safety Act Designation for the screening of air cargo departing the United States. James LoBello, Head of Security, The Americas, stated, “In working with the Department of Homeland Security we are proud to be the first air carrier to receive the US Safety Act Designation which extends certain liability protections to our customers.” This protection covers the services of air cargo screening, security training and quality control audits in the United States and its territories.

“With the reception of the Safety Act designation Lufthansa Cargo has again proven its industry leadership position in the area of air cargo security”, emphasised James LoBello.

In the Americas, Lufthansa Cargo has implemented new xray and trace detection machines into operation and is currently increasing the number of security experts at its stations significantly. “With these investments in equipment, resources and programmes, we are striving for the highest possible security along with the most efficient processes in order to benefit our customers”, stressed LoBello. The Safety Act provides legal liability protections for providers of qualified anti-terrorism technologies — whether they are products or services.

APPOINTMENTS

New MD for TNT Express India TNT Express recently appointed Gerry Power as its Managing Director for India. In this role, Power will be responsible for driving business growth and profitability for TNT Express India’s operations. Based in TNT LONG INNIGS: Gerry began his career India’s head office in with TNT Express in 1985.

Bengaluru, Power will report to TNT Asia Pacific Managing Director Michael Drake.

Michael Drake said, “We are delighted to have Gerry Power as our Managing Director for India. He is highlyrespected within TNT and possesses vast experience in country management, successfully managing our business in both Vietnam and Malaysia. We have full confidence in his ability to grow TNT’s business in India.”

Looking forward to take on his new role, Gerry Power said, “The focus going forward is to deliver a robust growth strategy, which will further consolidate the business progress to date but deliver a framework to fast track growth.”

Power began his career with TNT Express in 1985 and has risen through the ranks over his 26-year career with the

company. Prior to his current appointment, Gerry was the Managing Director of TNT Malaysia (Brunei), Vietnam and Indochina. He was also the Regional Operations Manager for TNT in Asia. He has held several senior management positions in the UK, Amsterdam, Europe and Asia, giving him broad experience across the business.

Sorgetti to head FIATA Marco Sorgetti has been selected to fill the post of Director General and CEO of the International Federation of Freight Forwarders Associations (FIATA) following the retirement of Marco Sangaletti.

FIATA will officially announce the leadership change and introduce Sorgetti Marco Sorgetti to FIATA members at the FIATA World Congress in Cairo, Egypt, October 16-21, 2011.

“Sorgetti has a proven track record in the logistics industry. He has developed our European sister organisation, CLECAT, the European association for forwarding, transport, logistic and customs services, to the highest level of professionalism and reputation,’’ said FIATA President Jean-Claude Delen.

Sorgetti volunteered for industry associations and the Chambers of Commerce in the early 80s, first in Italy and later at an international level through FIATA. In 2003, he joined CLECAT as Director General.

CRUISING HEIGHTS October 2011

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GLOBETROTTING

Sobbing partners in crime z

Bloody-minded on board z In a rare instance happened on flight, two brothers allegedly attacked a airline pilot in the US. The reason: he tried to kick one of them off the flight for being drunk. This happened in a flight of American Airlines. Two brothers — Jonathan and Luis Baez — went berserk and had to be restrained by passengers after they began repeatedly punching each other.

The alleged assault started after a flight attendant realised Jonathan Baez, 27, had passed out as the plane was taxiing, and refused to buckle up

Help! I am lost… in z

another airport

when roused. When told he had to get off the flight, he and his brother began verbal abuses and death threats at the pilot. The pair then allegedly struck the pilot as he escorted them off the plane before punching a flight attendant who tried to stop them. In the end, the pilot was left bloodied and bruised.

My dog is a co-pilot z ave you ever seen a dog as a co-pilot? If not, then read the story of Dexter — a dog whose passion lies in flying.

The story goes like this: Van Surdam, who owns a vintage aircraft business, is an airplane mechanic at the Oconee County Regional Airport. He inspects airplanes and helicopters. Every day, he starts up the engine of his two-seater Bentley helicopter, places Dexter, his pet dog, in the doggie bed on the passenger seat and flies the two miles to work.

H

This is really hilarious! A boozy Belgian pilot has admitted being drunk in charge of a plane after flying from France to the UK — because he thought — aviation fuel was cheaper.

Arne Wante, Chief Executive of Travel Expo, was stopped by an immigration officer after landing his light aircraft. The officer then alerted police after noticing a strong smell of alcohol.

Wante was arrested after heading to the airport bar while his plane was refuelled. Wante told Canterbury crown court that he flew from Calais, France, to Lydd Airport, Kent, as he thought it would cost less for him to fill up in the UK. Later, he admitted partying in Belgium in the night with school friends before flying to Calais, then the UK, the next day. Wante, of Harelbeke, was fined £7,000. The Belgian authorities will decide whether to ban him from flying.

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In a bizarre incident, two sisters kicked off a plane after one began crying and asked a flight attendant for a glass of wine. Two sisters were flying to visit their father who had suffered a heart attack. Ricci Wheatley and her sister Robin Opperman were removed from the Southwest Airlines flight to Dallas, Texas, before the plane took off from Oakland, California.

“I broke down and started to cry and I’m a little bit afraid to fly, so I said to the stewardess as she was passing, When you’re going to be serving, I’ll have a

CRUISING HEIGHTS October 2011

Suprisingly at the airport hangar, Dexter has another bed. “He just sits here and watches the world go by,” Van Surdam said. The tradition of bringing a pet to work didn’t start with Dexter, according to Van Surdam. It started with Ernie, another one of Van Surdam’s many pets.

Like pets do, Ernie would always hover around Van Surdam when it was time to start up the helicopter. “One day, Ernie just jumped into the seat,” Van Surdam said. “It was like he said, All right, I’m ready to go too.”

Wannabe terrorist on flight z

glass of wine, “ said Wheatley. “She said, “I think you’ve had enough.” Of course I hadn’t had any on the airplane,” Wheatley told a local radio station. But Southwest Airlines claimed the sisters had been removed from the flight after a “verbal altercation with the flight attendant”.

A woman at Philadelphia International Airport created a ruckus after she made terroristic threats and intimidated passengers and crew. Flight attendants on a US Airways flight from London alerted airport police that an unruly passenger was threatening to blow up their plane and making other threats against the crew, passengers, and the US government.

The passenger, Hannah Marie Shiner, of Roseville, California, allegedly threatened airplane crew, blurted expletives against the government and said,

Please let me commit suicide! z

Believe it or not, a Filipino flight attendant tried to commit suicide but was saved by a New York police detective.

Filipino-American Averie Kennery, a Delta Airlines flight attendant, was in between flights when she ingested a bottle of pills. Kennery reportedly called her mother, Beth Walz, who was in her home state of Hawaii, before she passed out. She also asked them to tell her two children how much she loved them before losing consciousness.

Walz then called 9-11 and the local New York police department. Police detective Charles Lopresti responded to the call and located the unconscious Kennery in her bedroom.

“For some reason, he (Charles Lopresti) entertained my call.

Here we are, thousands and thousands of miles away, but he listened to us!” Walz, 50, told the New York Daily News, which broke the news.

“She went into respiratory arrest and she wasn’t breathing, but she did have a pulse. The paramedics had to resuscitate her,” LoPresti recalled. Meanwhile, Kenery’s grateful family has nothing but praises for the “amazing” Lopresti and his squad members. “They will forever be angels to us,” Walz said.

In the end, Kennery was taken to the Jamaica Hospital Medical Centre where she was given immediate treatment.

Infamous urinator identified z

The Jetstar passenger, who made headlines around the world for urinating in the aisle of a jet, has been identified as Michael Aitken. He is the son of New Zealand’s national Netball Coach, Ruth Aitken. According to the New Zealand Herald, drunk Aitken began relieving himself in the aisle, spraying a fellow passenger’s coat and laptop, as well as a woman’s scarf in the process.

The friend and Captain of Aitken’s Canterbury Men’s Under 21 basketball team, Marty Davison, said that the behaviour was out of character for Aitken, saying although he had seen his teammate enjoy a good time, he usually kept control. “He always was a bit of a party guy. But he never really gets into that state,” Davison said of Aitken. The

“Blow up the government!” It included allegations she made numerous references to the “9/11 attack” and claimed Shiner said she supported Osama bin Laden and the 2001 attack on the Pentagon. According to Philadelphia police, her profane and threatening rant did not stop when the plane was on the ground. She continued her outburst until authorities detained her in the airport terminal.

low-cost carrier has also since publicly apologised to affected passengers and reprimanded the cabin crew involved in the incident.

“We have spoken with him and he does not remember anything — but he is hugely embarrassed at what has been reported and at the thought that he could have done something like that is just beyond belief really, for all of us — him included,” a remorseful Aitken said from Singapore.

Flight blues z

Now this is really amusing. Rapper Dizzee Rascal has allegedly been ordered off a plane after a confrontation with a flight attendant. The story goes like this: Rascal accompanying his friend and band members allegedly lost his temper and began bad-mouthing the stewardess. Ultimately police were called to attend to the disturbance, which took place at London’s Heathrow Airport.

“Dizzee was getting very angry since it was taking so long to take off. Then he threw a tantrum with staff, and passengers were told something was wrong,” a witness said. “After the incident his band members were still on the flight. They started kicking off too, shouting that they couldn’t play without him because he’d been thrown off.”

An airport official added, “This will not be tolerated.

He was taken off the aircraft and was not allowed to continue his route on any other British Airways plane. There will be an internal investigation and a decision will be taken whether he will ever be allowed to fly with British Airways again.”

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DOMESTIC AIRLINES Jet Airways hails first air-rail codeshare

JET AIRWAYS recently entered into an arrangement with Thalys high-speed rail service between Brussels and Paris, for the first intermodal codeshare. Under codeshare, Jet Airways will place its marketing code on the Thalys operated direct train service between the train station at Brussels Airport and Paris Nord.

Guests can now book a combined Thalys-train ticket between Paris and India or US and Canada via Brussels with Jet Airways through travel agencies or via jetairways.com. This codeshare service is now available for sale, for travel starting from October 30, 2011.

Nikos Kardassis, CEO of Jet Airways, said, “Jet Airways has constantly innovated to set new benchmarks and our affiliation with Thalys high speed train is another distinctive travel solution. Jet Airways’ guests will now be able to access Brussels Airport from the French capital in a mere hour and forty-seven minutes thanks to the new Thalys’ high-speed train.

Air-India Express announces winter schedule AIR-INDIA EXPRESS is rationalising Oman-India flight routes on the Kerala sector from October 30, to offer convenient connectivity to passengers.

The proposed schedule from October 30 to March 24, 2012, will now have 19 flights per week, from the existing 17 flights. It will be as follows: Muscat to Kozhikode — seven direct daily standalone flights per week; Muscat to Thiruvananthapuram — four direct flights per week (Saturday, Monday, Wednesday and Thursday); and Muscat to Kochi - four direct flights per week (Saturday, Monday, Thursday and Friday). Also, Salalah to Kozhikode - two direct flights per week (Wednesday and Friday); Salalah to Thiruvananthapuram — one direct flight per week (Sunday); Salalah to Kochi — one direct flight per week (Thursday).

According to Air-India officials, the Muscat to Kochi sector will have four standalone flights per week from the existing three shared flights. The Salalah to Kerala sector is being augmented from the existing three flights to four flights per week.

IndiGo to increase flights to Singapore INDIGO recently announced that it would increase flights to Singapore as the current overall limit, permitted by the air services agreement between the two countries, remains underutilised.

“But, we hope, this will now change as we increase flights,” said Ghosh, who launched IndiGo’s first low fare service on September 15 to Singapore.

Ghosh sees a further increase in passenger traffic between the two countries, and has planned a number of holiday packages both ways as IndiGo increases flights to Singapore from “one per day to

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As the largest long haul carrier in Brussels since 2007, offering daily six direct flights to India and North America, we are certain that our guests from France as well as from both the Asian and North American continents will greatly benefit from this new travel solution. We look forward to extending partnership with Thalys to more European cities in the near future.”

JetPrivilege inks partnership with the three leading dining brands: Jet Airways’ JetPrivilege recently announced the introduction of an additional category of partnerships with prestigious “Dining Brands” to enhance its member experience.

Thus, JetPrivilege members can now partake of the delectable cuisine at three prestigious dining brands namely, Manchester United Restaurant & Café Bar, Rajdhani and Choko la — all of whom cater to a distinctive palette. Importantly, this new category is in addition to the over 60 partnerships that Jet Airways’ JetPrivilege members enjoy across categories ranging from retail, airlines, finance, lifestyle, hotels and publishing to telecom, car rentals, co-branded credit cards and many more.

Sudheer Raghavan, Chief Commercial Officer, Jet Airways, said, “JetPrivilege has always endeavoured to offer its members exceptional value and an enhanced lifestyle experience via its partnerships with a number of respected brands across a range of categories and segments. The introduction of three new dining brands to our JetPrivilege programme is yet another step in that direction, offering our members exciting and exclusive privileges across a range of categories, while earning additional JPMiles.”

at least two and preferably three per day” in the next 300 days.

Ghosh said he also expected an increase in new travellers from India, especially taking advantage of the low-fare to travel to Singapore for shopping and holidays.

“We are trying to tie up with various agencies in Singapore to sell Singapore as a family holiday destination to Indian tourists,” he said.

“Having established Delhi-Singapore and Mumbai-Singapore routes, we are looking to connect Hyderabad and Chennai to Singapore within six to eight months, then we are going to look at adding Kolkata,” Ghosh said.

Eventually, IndiGo would look at linking Singapore to the 26 cities the airline connected in India, he said, adding that all those cities were major tourist attractions, including Goa.

Additional security systems at CSIA RECENTLY, MIAL commissioned standalone X-Ray Baggage Inspection Systems to screen passengers, staff and visitors. The systems were installed citing the need to screen entries at the gates of CSIA. In addition, devices such as Explosive Trace Detectors & Hand Held Metal Detectors will complement the security screening system. CSIA will be the first Indian airport to implement the process after the order by BCAS. The systems have been installed at all entry gates. Trained CISF personnel will conduct random checks at all the entry and departure gates.

There will be seven X-Ray Baggage Inspection systems, four Explosive Trace Detectors and 14 Hand Held Metal Detectors across the domestic and international terminals.

Delhi Duty Free introduces the Smirnoff Gold DELHI DUTY Free in association with Diageo recently introduced the ‘Smirnoff Gold’. Available from the beginning of

CRUISING HEIGHTS October 2011

this month, the Smirnoff Gold is a treat for Vodka lovers in India and across the world.

The Smirnoff Gold is the perfect luxury vodka inspired by the opulence of the Russian Tsars and their PARTY TIME: Smirnoff Gold is a treat passion for gold. Triple for Vodka lovers in India and across distilled, ten times charcoal the world. filtered vodka, flavored with a hint of cinnamon spice and garnished with real edible gold leaf, this opulent vodka tastes best when served straight on ice.

Smirnoff Gold can be used for making two special mixes (Cocktail) — Golden Age, Golden 75 and Golden Smash. The Golden Age is the remake of famous 20th century cocktail is sweet and sophisticated. The chocolate flavours of the Crème de Cacao compliment the spice of the cinnamon in the vodka, while the lemon juice brings a hint of freshness.

The Golden 75, named after the classic French champagne, has its own timeless taste. The flamed orange zest on the rim of the glass mixes with the herbacious flavours and leaves a hint of cinnamon from the vodka.

The Golden Smash is a quintessential summer drink. The pineapple, the cinnamon of the vodka and the mint are three main ingredients.

Metro Express introduces feeder bus service DELHI Airport Metro Express recently launched its first feeder bus service for commuters from the Shivaji Stadium station.

“We listen to our commuters’ demands through our in-house survey ‘Voice of Consumer’. Based on this feedback from people

ADD-ON SERVICE: Passengers will leverage the feeder bus service of Metro Express.

travelling on Reliance Airport Metro, and after studying locations of various offices in Connaught Place, we identified the feeder bus route that will provide seamless connectivity to commuters going to Connaught Place for work,” said Reliance Infrastructure (that operates the high speed metro link) CEO Lalit Jalan.

The buses have a carrying capacity of 50 people, beginning from Shivaji Stadium station and connecting strategic locations around Connaught Place. The route is Bangla Sahib Gurudwara, YMCA, Jantar Mantar, SBI building, Tolstoy Marg, K.G. Marg crossing, Hans Plaza, Barkhamba Road Crossing and Hotel Lalit flyover and back to Shivaji Stadium Station.

Jalan added, “We are also planning to provide feeder bus connectivity at other Airport Metro stations. Talks are already on with Delhi Metro Rail Corporation and Delhi Transport Corporation for providing the feeder service connectivity.”

Initially, the feeder bus service is operational from Monday to Saturday and will not be available on Sundays.

BIAL’s Terminal 1A expansion in progress

Force, Bureau of Civil Aviation Security, Airports Authority of BIAL recently announced an update on the ongoing work for India, Karnataka State Police, Director General of Civil the expansion of Terminal 1 A. The planned phases are being Aviation, airlines and all other stakeholders, held a full-scale executed keeping in view the mock exercise. The exercise was 24X7 operations in the existing designed to test the preparedness terminal. Passenger experience of the airport in dealing with and convenience will be dealt with unlawful interference with civil extra care by closely monitoring aviation operations and to the planned works and the impact validate its response plan in the that they may have on passenger case of such incidents. During experience, based on which steps this exercise an incident was are taken to compensate the drop simulated and all emergency in service levels. Alternative response mechanisms from the routes, walkways with necessary airport and the local signage and safety and security administration were tried and installations are some of the tested. measures that have been planned During the exercise, STRICT VIGIL: CISF officials conducting the mock exercise at BIAL. for the smooth flow of normal flight operations were passengers, baggage movement and vehicles during the entire not disrupted since the exercise was carried out during the construction period. The highest standards of health, safety scheduled maintenance closure hours of the airport. and environment are employed at the construction site, as part The scenario created was that of an aircraft hijack and the of the continuous endeavour of BIAL to embrace the global various processes from the receipt of first information to the best practices. resumption of normal operations, including all stages of BIAL has planned the expansion on both sides of the negotiations, passenger rescue and medical services, were existing terminal which are open spaces today, ensuring simulated. Parallel functions were put to test in order to minimal disruption to the operating portion of the terminal. familiarise the involved individuals/agencies with their roles The expansion and existing terminal will be merged to allow and responsibilities, ensure smooth communication and seamless flow of passengers throughout the expanded coordination between all agencies, as well as to ensure terminal, post completion. familiarity with procedures during such incidents. A detailed Mock exercise held at BIAL: BIAL with the support of debriefing session was held after the conclusion of the the Government of Karnataka, Central Industrial Security exercise to share the learning from the experience.

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INTERNATIONAL AIRLINES Virgin Atlantic unveils new travel agents site

Knowledge Bank section is an easy access A to Z directory including everything agents need to know including Aircraft, Baggage and Clubhouses in an easy to read format.

Bulgaria: Qatar’s new destination

CLASSY: Vsflyinghub.com sports a trendy look.

VIRGIN ATLANTIC recently unveiled a new travel trade website dedicated to travel agents and tour operators. The website, vsflyinghub.com offers a one stop shop for agents looking for information on Virgin Atlantic. The site features information on the airline’s policies, products, destinations and news with areas designed to surprise and delight the agent with competitions and special offers. To launch the site Virgin Atlantic is offering all agents the opportunity to win an iPad2. Four winners will be chosen in weeks ahead.

Michael Burke, General Manager, India, commented, “We are delighted to launch this new website and it really underlines Virgin Atlantic’s longstanding commitment to the trade. We recognise that the trade are an essential part of the whole customer journey and want to provide them with as much information and as many tools as possible to help them.”

The new website is designed so agents can find out information quickly and simply at the click of a button. The

Cathay launches non-stop flights to Chicago Cathay Pacific Airways celebrated the launch of its daily non-stop flights to Chicago with a gala event held at The Peninsula Chicago. Around 200 guests, including business partners and government officials, attended the celebration hosted by the airline’s Chief Executive, John Slosar.

Officiating at the event was guest of honour The Hon Leong Che-hung, Member of the Executive Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government.

Cathay Pacific’s first flight from Hong Kong to Chicago took off on September 1 and the new service will play a pivotal role in connecting two of the world’s greatest cities.

GLAMOUR PERSONIFIED: Cathay Pacific’s The daily non-stop signature Walking on Air show was one of service is being the highlights of the gala event. operated by recently arrived Boeing 777-300ER aircraft and features the airline’s new Business Class seat.

Speaking at the event, Cathay Pacific Chief Executive John Slosar said, “Our new service will offer to Chicago businessmen and women access to great markets within the Cathay Pacific network, and access to the people who know them, especially China.”

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QATAR AIRWAYS has continued its 2011 European expansion drive with the launch of scheduled flights from the airline’s Doha hub to Bulgaria’s capital city of Sofia.

Flight QR943 arrived at Sofia International Airport to a dramatic water salute and welcome ceremony. The Prime Minister of Bulgaria, Boyko Borissov greeted the first flight at a reception, attended by airport officials and dignitaries from the Bulgarian government and local business community.

Qatar Airways Chief Executive Officer Akbar Al Baker led a delegation on the inaugural service from the airline’s operational hub of Doha, capital of the State of Qatar. The delegation included the Bulgarian Charge D’Affaires to Qatar, Miroslav Zafirov, and media from the Gulf region.

Addressing guests at the airport ceremony in Sofia, Al Baker said, “We are delighted to add Sofia to our international route network, further strengthening the traditionally excellent relations between our two countries. We are confident that Bulgaria will prove to be a great success for Qatar Airways and will open new doors for businesses and individuals.”

Named best airline in Middle East & Africa: Qatar Airways continued its award-winning streak by retaining the Best Airline in the Middle East and Africa accolade at the 2011 Business Traveller Asia Pacific Awards.

Voted by readers of the prestigious monthly magazine targeting frequent travellers, Qatar Airways beat stiff competition to pick up the coveted award for the second year running at a ceremony in Hong Kong attended by leading figures from across the hospitality industry.

The award further recognises Qatar Airways’ strong commitment towards travel excellence as voted by the very people who regularly ply the skies on business travel trips — frequent flyers.

Qatar Airways Chief Executive Officer Akbar Al Baker said retaining the award reflected the company’s high standards of service and commitment to the travelling public.

Air Arabia lauded for innovation AIR ARABIA recently announced that it has won the top award in the category of ‘Innovation in Operations Low-Cost Carrier Airline’ at the recent Express TravelWorld Awards 2010-2011 held in New Delhi.

Air Arabia was recognised for its innovation in business at the annual awards, now in their eighth year. The awards are widely regarded as India’s most respected B2B travel industry awards and were open to all organisations with registered offices in India that have been operational for two years or more.

Nominations were assessed by an independent jury, with Ernst & Young as the official process advisors.

“We are delighted to receive this prestigious award, which recognises the success of our growth strategy in the key market of India, where Air Arabia now has 13 destinations,” said A K Nizar, Head of Commercial Department at Air Arabia. “As the pioneer of low cost air travel in the region, Air Arabia prides itself on innovation-driven strategies that differentiate the airline in all areas of our operations.”

CRUISING HEIGHTS October 2011

AirAsia sponsors Queens Park Rangers club AirAsia recently announced that it will be the official partner of the Barclays Premier League’s (BPL) club Queens Park Rangers (QPR). The partnership will see AirAsia’s corporate logo emblazoned on the team’s ‘away’ and ‘third’ jersey for two seasons.

Present at the announcement were AirAsia Regional Head of Commercial, Kathleen Tan; QPR CEO, Phillip Beard and QPR’s Team Manager, Neil Warnock.

“We are absolutely thrilled with this partnership with QPR. This is a timely and significant relationship between two brands which are keen in taking on any challenges for the taste of success. Our logo on QPR’s away and third shirt does not only symbolise our energetic partnership, but also a jointrepresentation of the hard work and challenges that we went through — for AirAsia to be the world’s STRATEGIC TIE-UP: AirAsia Regional Head of Commercial Kathleen Tan (cenbest low cost airline for tre) with QPR CEO Phillip Beard (secthree consecutive years and ond from right) and Neil Warnock, QPR's QPR to make a comeback Team Manager (far right) together with AirAsia flight attendants donning the into top flight football for new QPR 'away' and 'third' jersey. the first time in 15 years,” said AirAsia Regional Head of Commercial, Kathleen Tan. “This is a very meaningful moment for all of us, and we are very excited to jointly associate ourselves with a team like QPR, as they have a remarkable history in English football and their unrelenting spirit reflects our own Asian endeavour for success.”

SWISS travellers can now enjoy the delights of the new SWISS Business cabin on all long-haul flights. The new Business Class is one element in SWISS’s extensive programme of investments in its product and its aircraft fleet which began with the service entry of the first of its ten new Airbus A330-300 longhaul twinjets in spring 2009.

Air France KLM lauded for CSR AIR FRANCE KLM has been recognised as air transport leader for 2011 in the field of corporate social responsibility for the seventh time in a row and confirmed in the two Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes — DJSI World and DJSI Europe. Thanks to its performance, the Group is also leader of the entire “Transport and leisure” sector for the third time. This recognition is awarded to the 19 most sustainable companies worldwide, each in their own sector.

Aware of its corporate social responsibility, Air France KLM has for many years been committed to reducing its environmental impact, to implement a responsible social policy, contribute to regional development, while offering its customers a quality service and innovative products. In 2010-11, the Group has made progress in areas such as the development of sustainable biofuels, the implementation of recycling uniforms and meals trays served on board, as well as supporting several humanitarian projects.

Both the DJSI World and DJSI Europe indexes, references in the field of extra-financial indexes, select the leading companies every year in terms of social responsibility, following a review process conducted by the Swiss group SAM (Sustainable Asset Management Indexes GmbH). The Dow Jones Sustainability Index World groups 10 per cent of the leading companies, among 2,500 international companies.

Lufthansa announces plans to serve Knock LUFTHANSA RECENTLY announced plans to begin services to and from Knock in what the airport hopes could generate in excess of €1 million for the west and northwest next year.

The airline, the largest in Europe and the fourth largest in the world, will operate direct flights to and from Dusseldorf every Saturday between May 7 and September 29, 2012.

Connecting services to Berlin, Frankfurt, Hamburg and Munich will also be available for booking as part of the new service.

Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport Leo Varadkar congratulated Ireland West Airport Knock on delivering the new route, which he said would benefit the region and had huge significance for tourism.

“Germany is a key market for Irish tourism as German tourists tend to stay for an average of a week at a time and travel more widely,” he said. “This is a great example of how close cooperation between the transport and tourism sectors can deliver a successful result.”

SWISS is Europe’s best business-class airline SWISS INTERNATIONAL Air Lines has been named “Europe’s Leading Airline Business Class” in this year’s World Travel Awards. The distinction is based on the votes of more than 183000 specialists from the travel and tourism sector all over the world. SWISS’s earning of this prestigious industry award coincides with the completion of the carrier’s programme to retrofit its new Business Class cabin into all 15 of its Airbus A340s and the withdrawal from service of its last Airbus A330200. As a result, the advanced new SWISS Business Class is now installed on all the company’s long-haul aircraft, setting new quality benchmarks in cabin interior terms.

INTO THE SKIES: Emirates will serve Dublin with a daily flight from January 9, 2012.

Emirates to launch daily service to Dublin EMIRATES recently announced that it would begin daily flights to Dublin from January 2012, marking its first route to the Republic of Ireland.

“Dublin will be our 29th route in Europe and Emirates’ customers in Ireland who currently travel through some of our UK gateways will be able to fly non-stop in Dubai and conveniently connect onwards to our broadening route network,” said His Highness Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Chairman and Chief Executive, Emirates Airline and Group. “We see strong potential in Ireland through its industry, technology, tourism and the huge number of Irish nationals living overseas.”

“We are delighted to welcome Emirates Airline to Dublin,” said Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) Chief Executive Declan Collier. “The significant improvements we have made to our facilities in recent years, including the opening of a new passenger terminal, was a major factor in helping to win this new business.”

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TRAVEL & TOURISM Venetian Macao celebrates Diwali

Kouni (India) and Abacus ties up

HOLIDAY seekers looking to go someplace new and exciting for Diwali are in luck. The Venetian Macao-Resort-Hotel is offering a Diwali package exclusively for residents of India arriving between October 9 and November 30, 2011.

HIGH RANKED: Venetian Macao Resort The promotional pacHotel is famous for its plush exteriors. kage includes all of the important elements of a holiday tour — accommodation, meals, transportation, shopping, entertainment, and sightseeing.

KUONI TRAVEL (India) and Abacus International recently announced a strategic partnership further accelerating Abacus rise as India’s premium GDS (Global Distribution Network).

Speaking on the partnership, Rajiv Duggal, Managing Director, Kuoni-India said, “Abacus is in the forefront in bringing next generation products, technologies and services to the Indian agency community. As a market leader, Kuoni India focuses on new technologies and products that can further propel our growth and leadership. We have been impressed by Abacus’ next generation point of sale system, it’s portfolio of mobile solutions, and it’s mid and back office suite.”

SkyTeam unveils 'Round The World Planner'

strategic partnership with SimpliFlying. With travel companies keen on leveraging social media, IGT and SimpliFlying together will offer new solutions to fine-tune their travel partners’ needs and opportunities.

Announcing the partnership at APEX Expo 2011 at Seattle, Akhil Agarwal, Chief Operating Officer, IGT said, “We believe that social media is altering travel planning and purchase. As travellers get more social, travel brands will generate considerable social chatter. Given this need, we believe that our partnership with SimpliFlying will enable the integration of marketing and customer support consulting with technology as an enabler.”

Shashank Nigam, Chief Executive Officer, SimpliFlying, added, “There are 191 airlines on Twitter today, and only 85 actively tweet. Of these, only 28 provide 80 per cent of the tweets.

Most are obviously short on resources.Our partnership with IGT will redefine the business strategies where we will be able to provide end-to-end customer engagement solutions to our customers.”

SkyTeam, the global airline alliance, recently launched a new, self-service Round the World Planner for its customers. The userfriendly online application has been designed to allow customers to create their own SkyTeam Round the World itineraries, using the extensive networks of all 14 SkyTeam member airlines.

Two versions of the Round the World planner have been developed. Both enable customers to build tailor-made itineraries in compliance with SkyTeam's Round the World fare products, terms and conditions. Travel agents can access a customised trade version via the newly created dedicated skyteam.biz website, while a consumer version can be accessed via the recently refreshed skyteam.com.

The Round the World Planner is another example of SkyTeam's focus on actively improving products and services for its customers.

"With hundreds of destinations to choose from, SkyTeam can take our customers wherever they want to go whenever they want to go, whether they are travelling for business or pleasure," said Mauro Oretti, SkyTeam's Vice President of Sales & Marketing. "Our new planner has been developed to maximise customers' potential travel opportunities, whilst minimising the complexity of planning a Round the World itinerary."

InterGlobe partners with SimpliFlying INTERGLOBE Technologies (IGT) recently announced its

Amadeus and SITA join hands AMADEUS is working with SITA to empower Amadeus Altéa customers to offer real-time baggage tracking information and worldwide baggage reconciliation to passengers, while reducing the

True flavours of Asia at Sampan

the “true flavours” of Asia came alive. Set WHAT is unique about Sampan is the on the top floor of South-Delhi located seating arrangement: there is the formal five star, Sampan in its new avatar which table, the luxurious lounge seating with showcases the best of pan-Asian cuisine in couches and sofas as well as a discreet an ambience that changes magically: in private dining area. the day, the restaurant's diners can look out The restaurant serves a vast selection of at the vast Delhi landscape while at night it popular and not-so-well-known culinary is a different story. Tall bamboo plants, the treasures. There are dishes from Cantonese, rich wooden texture on the walls and Sichuan, traditional Mandarin, new-age ceilings are highlighted by Oriental-style Shanghai and Beijing cuisines. The Southcustom-crafted artefacts. Chinese letters East Asian section offers lesser known are cleverly used as motifs at the open jewels from Myanmar such as the delicious kitchen and the entrance door.

Monhinga, Mandalay curries and the The show kitchen houses a versatile Panthé. The Thai selection is extensive with dumpling steamer to dole out scrumptious robust Massamans, the Hung Lay from the Har Gaws, Sui Mai, Bao and Tibetan north and the Penang style seafood and momos. A duck rotisserie is now a part of commercial styles from Bangkok. In FROM THE HAVENS: A contemporary well the fleet to dish out Beijing duck for addition, there are dishes from Vietnam, stocked bar. connoisseurs. A live sushi counter is also Indonesia, Malaya and Japan along with the universally popular there. To add a Delhi touch, a dedicated page on 'local favourites', Singaporean chilli crabs. a fusion of Chinese and local flavours, has been included to serve The Suryaa, New Delhi recently re-launched Sampan, where the local palate.

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costs associated with mishandled baggage.

Altéa Baggage Tracking is based on the integration of SITA’s leading baggage messaging technology with the passenger and baggage servicing capabilities of Amadeus Altéa Departure Control. SITA BagMessage is a unique service used by more than 500 airlines and close to 200 major airports and is the most comprehensive source of information on baggage movements globally. The result of the collaboration is a single, integrated environment, which allows airlines to provide passengers with realtime status updates regarding the location of their baggage through multiple channels.

Rakesh Bansal, CEO, Amadeus India said, “Amadeus strives to streamline travel processes for our customers and partners. Our collaboration to implement SITA’s baggage messaging technology will not only assist in providing real-time information about passenger baggage but will also help airlines reduce costs related to mishandled baggage through the development of Amadeus Altéa Baggage Tracking solution. This in turn will help improve passenger experience, which forms the core part of our business.”

Focus on Indian travel market THE US Travel Association recently hosted its fifth annual trade mission to India from September 11-15. A delegation of 28 representatives visited Mumbai and New Delhi to promote increased travel to the United States and conducted meetings with tour operators, airline representatives and travel agents. This year marked the first time when the mission included a day dedicated solely to RESPLENDENT: Gathering at US Travel meeting with media in Association India mission 2011 in Mumbai New Delhi.

“International travel is vital to the United States, as it provides important opportunities to improve economic competitiveness, strengthen national security and advance public diplomacy,” said Malcolm Smith, Vice-President of business development for the US Travel Association.

Canada is like heaven: Akshay Kumar IN AN EFFORT to honour his Canadian and Indian connections, Akshay Kumar, the Tourism Ambassador to the Canadian Tourism Commission addressed the media at the pre-launch of Speedy Singhs movie.

A cross-cultural family comedy, set in the Indo-Canadian community in Canada, Speedy Singhs is set in the suburban Toronto. The film tracks the story of a young man struggling between a traditio-nal IndoCanadian family expectations and his dream of hockey stardom. The complete film has been exclusively shot in Canada’s beautiful cities like Calgary, Toronto and Vancouver.

EAST MEETS WEST: Actors Akshay was present along Camilla Belle and Akshay Kumar. with the star cast of Speedy Singhs at a luncheon with the Managing Director, Canadian Tourism Commission, China & India, Derek Galpin at Canada House on September 19, 2011.

The epitome of comfort THE GATEWAY to Maldives is the Ibrahim Nasir International Airport (INIA) which has now taken its airport lounges a notch higher than what these high-end travellers expect. The lounges are no longer just a spot for travellers to wait in between connections; they’ve become an oasis. Andrew Harrison, Chief Executive Officer of INIA said, “Maldives caters to the high-end travellers as customers, and Maldives one of the revenue generators is traveller experience hence we have to cater to them or risk losing them to other destinations that go beyond the expectations of the traveller.”

At the inauguration ceremony of the new business lounges, Minister of Tourism, Mariyam Zulfa stated, “I remember how pleased we were at that time with the powerful example set by our President when he insisted on a transparent and professional tender process to build our nation’s pride. Today, we again express our appreciation to the President for providing the enabling environment which has allowed this project to flourish and deliver results like the lounge development which we are witnessing today.”

Amber Lounge ties up with The Claridges

distinguished brand and the luxurious setting of the hotel will FOLLOWING the announcement earlier this year that Amber compliment the attributes associated with the bespoke interiors Lounge will run its exclusive Grand Prix After Party at the of Amber Lounge.

Indian Grand Prix — the new addition to the 2011 Formula Amber Lounge was founded by Sonia Irvine, sister of One calendar — Amber Lounge Ferrari F1 star Eddie Irvine. The Delhi has signed up The Claridges, first Amber Lounge event took Surajkund, Delhi NCR as the place at the Monaco Grand Prix in official venue partner for its May 2003 and since then has run inaugural event. parties in Abu Dhabi, Barcelona, Parties hosted by Amber Monaco, Shanghai, Singapore and Lounge are the most unique and Valencia. The premise was exclusive over a Formula One simple: to create a truly VIP weekend, this statement has been nightlife experience that reflected re-affirmed with the collaboration the glamour and exclusivity of of these two highly coveted and one of the most prestigious recognisable brands, the statement sporting events in the world. Over points out. the years Amber Lounge has SWANKY CARS: Witnessing Grand Prix championship is truly The Claridges, Surajkund, a delight for spectators. carved a reputation as a unique Delhi NCR has received accolades venue where drivers, celebrities, including 2010 Winner of the World Travel Awards and most VIPs and regular race fans can come together to enjoy a recently the Five Star Diamond Award 2011 from The stylish, fun night out. For 2011 Amber Lounge is hosting American Academy of Hospitality Science, is an elegant and parties in Monaco, Singapore, Delhi and Abu Dhabi.

CRUISING HEIGHTS October 2011

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BACK PAGE eptember 11, 2001. That date — seared in the collective memory of the whole world — will always bring tears to the eyes of not only those who were directly affected but others too. That day, three flights that were hijacked by suicidal terrorists. While American Airlines Flight 11 from Logan International Airport to Los Angeles International Airport crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center, United Airlines Flight 175 on the same route crashed into the South Tower of the World Trade Center. Two other flights — American Airlines Flight 77 from Washington Dulles Int’l Airport to Los Angeles Int’l Airport crashed into the Pentagon at Arlington, Virginia, and the other, United Airlines Flight 93 on its journey from Newark Liberty

S BEFITTING MEMORIAL: Front of benches showing names of passengers and crew who were killed during September 11, 2001 attacks at the Flight 93 National Memorial in Stonycreek Township, Pennsylvania.

Remember September 11

My DeyalifreedisdtI evBereimeag: ine life wityohouuthayoveu.beTcohemree aisgrsteaillt-soauntm,ucabhouIMtom

International Airport to San Francisco International Airport met its end at Stonycreek Township, Somerset County in Pennsylvania — were similarly hijacked. The total number of deaths: 2977 (including 19 hijackers). The number of injured: more than 6000.

For the aviation community, it was as if the world had stopped. But then rays of hope emerged from the gallant acts of flight attendants like Betty Ong who was on American Airlines Flight 11. Her phone call to an American Airlines agent on the ground was the first warning of the harrowing events that were to follow that fateful September day. We reproduce Cathie Ong-Herrera’s letter-prayer to her gallant sister Betty Ong that she wrote on the 10th anniversary of her death.

out Never in m you. I want to tell you that school and college, ab want to say tos of our nieces and nephews fromouhirghsister secrets and hearing thend the graduation , but most of all I miss sharing cause we had a strong-sister bo Betty Ong and her travelslaughter. Still, I have no regrets beays ending our daily sign-offs sound of your tood our love for one another, alw life has is and we unders u lots.” ed about life, wha10t years. Many people say our wayouof rn lea ve ha yo I e ns nd lov so “I with, me in the past lephone call to gr r between the les My thoughts wanmdee and where my journey has tatrkeagnic day began with you and your te ’t get me most importantpttoember 11, 2001, and it has. That el whole again. Dioon fe to r ve Se ne e , nc en si n op d ge ss as we all chan ripped ican Airlines. have my heart co with so much compa er th ge to g in m authorities at Ay,mIerfound out what it felt like tollow untrymen n I saw On that da served our fe ts coof that tragic day. ob I as pe ho a good time or wkhein a time o ng als vi as ha en w d ev e an g er r in th te , ify gh ng rr uc wro like I was st terms with thevehor I saw other families sharing ine. lau s I watched, it felt A tried to come to er ne th he t w no e e m er en w il Hall in It used to sadd other’s company, because you ard for you at Fmanyeuhotel room, aw ch ea an ng pt yi ce jo ac . en by s to e er d m st te in g si hen I was invi ld was passin g all night long capsule and thetiwmore I spoke about you publicly watastewndance and I was terrified! Packeins, soothing and calming me. At ople in g of snowfla The first ere would be 500d pe , the gentle fluttmere,inwith the gift of your courage. when I am as w it e er th an Boston. I learnedopth the curtains n you came to y to share about you. Sometimes n’t even know, I finally pulled I wenatched in peace and that’s whe places, mostl out to people I indog with others about an that moment, , my travels have taken me to manyding up here, spilling my heart ea ng and shar imes shedding a Since then here I am, st to say. I later realized that sp tkiyo , elf ys m to k u now, somet in th . speaking, I wouldthey really care about what I havefortable speaking with others aboue, and that makes it all worth itm and I wonder if e best therapy for me. I am comrs through the gift of your couragwith the children at summer ca p. you has been th t knowing that I am helping othe Ong Foundation and our work ildren, I see your spirit living on tear or two, bu would be proud of the Betty Annr children. When I look at the ch s for the common good. This is I know you who you are and your love fo ng above personal pain and los ents, you ’s about risi Our work mirroI rs s you could say it en in your last dmofomyou. es ev gu t bu . us em t e. th lef h fin u ug st ro yo ju ou th d I am doing left us or how tely. I am very pr where I am todafuyllyanknow why you left us, whenuyolivued, gallantly and compassionaba by sister.

We don’t ncerned. You died the way yo r you, my sweet fo er ay pr e tl co lit d a an y were brave t when I say my prayers, I sa Every nigh gently in the arms of God. May you rest er, Your loving sist Cathie

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CRUISING HEIGHTS October 2011

RNI No. DELENG/2006/16897 Posting Date. 8-9/10/2011 Reg. No. DL(E) 01/5294/2009-11