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CRUISING HEIGHTS October 2011 n ` 90

Special Issue

www.cruisingheights.in

The magic of

Indian Aviation ICAN 2011

Air India looks to rise again 84

The first ICAN summit in the country will provide the opportunity to rework air service agreements

ì Cooperation

ì Focus on

Aviation Minister emphasises on aviation blossoming fully

Aviation Secretary outlines plans for the future of the sector

is way forward

Indian growth

ì AAI leads in transition ì Choppers for the nation ì Private airports thrive

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Cheers to more cooperation! or anyone flying out of Heathrow into India any day of the week it is almost impossible to get a K Srinivasan last minute reservation on either Jet Airways or Kingfisher. Regulars love the inflight experience and newcomers are completely bowled over by the joy of what they get on board. And, hopefully soon, Air India that flies almost back-to-back between these two flights at 9 30 pm out of London will be seen in the same light. But that is not the point. For those who are looking for other options there are two more flights — British Airways and Virgin to opt for. Five flights non-stop into Delhi during a 90-minute (9-10.30 pm) period from the world’s busiest airport!

And that’s the point. Till seven years ago, Air India and BA had a free run on the IndiaUK route. They were the legacy carriers and the high density route was largely their domain. At that time there were just 19 flights per week between the two countries. BA had 19 flights, while AI operated 12 and Virgin operated three codeshare flights using AI slots. A landmark bilateral agreement seven years back has completely changed the equation. Those 34 weekly services have now grown to over 120.

For every ‘feel good’ story like the London experience, there are others where bilaterals have been prickly and intense matters of diplomatic wrangling between countries eager to promote the vaulting global ambitions of their airlines and states desperate to preserve the turf for their legacy carriers. And the outcome of such give-and-take battles can sometimes be messy and hurtful as one has seen in the recent past. India has had its own share of such experiences and sometimes bilaterals have even been debated in Parliament!

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On the other hand, you have the industry reiterating time and again that we are now living in a global village and if companies (telecom is an oft-quoted example) working across continents, prosper and bring prosperity for the larger good of the community, how can the shibboleth of a cold war era mindset be brought forth to deal with the subject of aviation? Moreover, as they argue vociferously, after all, the greater the options the better it is for the travelling public.

The one fundamental truth to this whole discourse is that as traffic expands and more flights are injected into the system, the ecostream from business to culture to education gets a whole new fillip. In fact, the first question when you encounter a new destination is: Is there a direct flight to that city?

Perhaps, all this and more will be debated at ICAN 2011. It’s a great forum and there can be no better city than Mumbai to debate, discuss and sew up the agreements. A very warm welcome to delegates from around the globe who are in Mumbai for this event.

It’s also a reflection of the import of this conference that the President of India, Mrs Pratibha Devisingh Patil, has agreed to inaugurate the deliberation of this ICAO and Ministry of Civil Aviation-led summit.

This special edition of CRUISING HEIGHTS will give a glimpse of literally the magic of Indian aviation. How we have galloped forth in the last seven years and how the landscape will change in the next ten. We loved putting it together for you. We hope you enjoy reading it and will take it home to share it with your colleagues.

Have a great conference.

srini@newsline.in

CRUISING HEIGHTS I OCTOBER 2011

editor-in-chief’s note

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Editor-in-Chief

K SRINIVASAN Managing Editor

TIRTHANKAR GHOSH Group Consulting Editor

R KRISHNAN Consulting Editor

NANDU MANJESHWAR Deputy Editor

PC SINGH Assistant Editor

JUSTIN C MURIK Copy Editor

ASHOK KUMAR Sub-editor-cum-reporter

PUNIT MISHRA

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Podium for Air Service Negotiations

The ICAO Conference for Air Service Negotiations is an opportunity for the realisation of air service negotiations that is so important for the global aviation industry. The hosting of this international event in Mumbai clearly emphasises India's air services profile globally.

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12 Huge potential

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The potential for growth of civil aviation in India is huge, points out Vayalar Ravi, Union Minister for Civil Aviation.The prime concern is to expand infrastructure holistically.

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CRUISING HEIGHTS I OCTOBER 2011

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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.

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Unfazed by the economic slowdown of 2008-09, the airline industry has flown ahead on a robust growth pattern: India recorded the highest domestic passenger growth in July 2011 at over 20 per cent

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16 Coming: More bilaterals The government had frozen bilateral rights last year. It is estimated that at least 40 countries will start negotiations on the rights with the Indian Civil Aviation Ministry.

26 Top priority to cargo

The government's Civil Aviation Economic Advisory Council set up a working group to study the air cargo industry and recommend the best way to handle expected future growth.

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41 Gateway to India

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The world-class terminal at the Indira Gandhi International Airport is a sight to behold. T3 represents the best that the Indian aviation sector has to offer.

49 Hyderabad beckons the world

The Rajiv Gandhi International Airport has become an important hub on the global aviation map. It has launched a number of initiatives that has put it on top.

69 AAI in futuristic mode

Airports Authority of India has launched a massive plan to modernise and upgrade its airports.

The aim: first, to match and be a pace ahead of the increase in density — both of aircraft and the air-travelling populace — and, second, to provide the country with world-class airports.

Topping the list are the international airports at Chennai and Kolkata.

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56 Mumbai's focus is on customers It is no easy task running Chhatrapati Shivaji International

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Airport when less than half of the space is available for airport activities. But smart thinking and deft planning have brought GVK rich rewards.

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64 South India's rising star

In its three years of operations, the Bengaluru International Airport has set benchmarks that are worthy of emulation.

Growing at a phenomenal pace of 18 per cent per annum, the airport has turned out to be one of the busiest greenfield airports in the country.

83 Air India looks to rise again

Air India is all set to move ahead and get back its lost glory now that it has an experienced and committed head to lead it from the front. A close look at the rejuvenation plans for the airline.

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MUMBAI MEET WILL SEE A REVAMPING OF SOME BILATERALS AND NEW ONES BEING SIGNED

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he fourth ICAO Air Services Negotiation Conference — the first time it is being held in India — will once more focus on the growth of the Indian aviation sector, the ninth biggest civil aviation market in the world. The main thrust of the meet will be on modernisation of ASAs (Air Service Agreements) by including certain safety clauses, code-sharing guidelines, security and tariff. While the conference will see the participation of at least 60 countries, India will be talking to — or will talk to — 40 of the countries that want to amend the current ASAs. The four-year-old conference, which brings together ICAO member states to sign bilateral and regional air services agreements, was set up to provide member states with a central meeting place to conduct bilateral air services negotiations. In some instances, the states have also used the conference to conduct consultations with their air services partners.

The conference is geared to be rotated among the eight ICAO Regions. The first was held in the United Arab Emirates, then in Turkey and the third in Jamaica: a clear reflection of the worldwide reach of the event.

When it was held in Istanbul, approximately 250 participants from 49 different countries participated and Turkey conducted bilateral air services talks and negotiations with 34 different countries, including Jamaica, Singapore, Fiji Islands, Austria, France, Ghana, and Switzerland. Following the negotiations, Turkey signed seven bilateral air services agreements. From that conference, Turkey increased its air services agreements from 97 to 104.

The benefits to be derived from the conference are many and significant. The most important being the promotion of efficiency/cost saving in the aviation sector because each country in attendance conducts a series of negotiations at one facility, instead of travelling to different countries to have these discussions individually. The meet while strengthening relationships with other states establishes new partnerships within the global aviation industry.

As of April 1, 2010, 72 foreign airlines operated 1,356 services a week, offering 326,705 seats, according to the Ministry of Civil Aviation. Four Indian carriers were flying to 25 countries with 990 flights every week to 35 destinations as of April 2010 although the Indian carriers were eligible to operate to and from 104 countries with which the government has bilateral ASAs. Since April 2010, there are five Indian airlines with international services: Air India, Jet Airways, Kingfisher Airlines, SpiceJet and IndiGo.

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ICAO AIR SERVICES NEGOTIATION CONFERENCE 2011 Ò Pre-Conference activity, Sunday, October 16 Ø

14:00-17:00 Registration of delegates (Hotel Taj Mahal Palace)

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19:30 Welcome cocktail/dinner by the host

Ò DAY 1, Monday, October 17 Ø

08:00-09:00 Registration of delegates

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Session 2: Panel discussion on topical issues (such as market access, airline ownership and control, fair competition, safeguards, consumer protection) Moderator: Mr. Vijay Poonoosam, Chairman - IATA Industry Affairs Commitee Panellists: (from ICAO, Asia/Pacific, Africa/AFCAC, Middle East, Europe and the Americas)

09:20-9:50 Introduction Introduction and administrative announcement (ICAO and host)

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10:00 Arrival of President of India

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Opening ceremony Welcome remarks by Chairman of the Conference Dr. Nasim Zaidi, Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation, India and Chairperson of the Confrence Opening address by Mr. Roberto K Gonzalez, President, Council of ICAO Opening address by Mr. Vayalar Ravi, Minister for Civil Aviation, India Keynote speech by President of India (Chief Guest) Vote of thanks

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15:30-16:00 India and African Group Meeting - continued Bilateral meetings between delegations (for States not attending the Africa Session)

Departure of President

15:00-15:30 Coffee break

11:20 11:30-12:00 Session 1: Briefing on latest trends and developments Overview of global trends and developments (Mrs. Magda Boulos, Air Transport Bureau, ICAO) Briefing on the convening and preparation of ICAO’s sixth worldwide air transport conference (ATConference/ March 6, 2013) (Mr. Yuanzheng Wang, Air Transport Bureau, ICAO)

13:30-15:00 Session 3: African Session Indian and African Group Meeting

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12:50-13:30 Lunch break

Coffee break

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12:45-12:50 Administrative announcement by ICAO Secretariat

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16:00-16:30 Presentation on Indian Airports by Airport Operators

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19:30-22:30 Welcome dinner/reception

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Taj-Mahal Palace, Mumbai, India,

October 17-22, 2011

Ò DAY 2, Tuesday, October 18 Ø

08:30-18:00

Ò DAY 3, Wednesday, October 19 Ø

Bilateral meetings between delegations

Ò DAY 4, Thursday, October 20 Visit to world heritage sites in Agra complimentary tour organized by the Host

08:30-18:00 Bilateral meetings between delegations

Ò DAY 5, Friday, 21 October Ø

08:30-18:00 Bilateral meetings between delegations

Ò DAY 6, Saturday, October 22 Ø

08:30-15:30 Bilateral meetings between delegations

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16:00-16:30 Closing Ceremony

* This Program is subject to change by the Conference organizer.

Host: Ministry of Civil Aviation, Government of India

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1) Feedback from participants about the Conference 2) Closing remarks by the Host 3) Closing remarks by ICAO

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“Regional cooperation is a way forward for aviation security” UNION CABINET MINISTER OF OVERSEAS INDIAN AFFAIRS AND MINISTER OF CIVIL AVIATION VAYALAR RAVI IS KEEN TO SEE INDIAN AVIATION BLOSSOM FULLY BUT RESPONSIBLY. HIS VIEWS ON DIFFERENT FACETS OF INDIAN AVIATION*:

ON 100 YEARS OF AVIATION IN INDIA

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India took to wings only seven years after the historic flight of the Wright brothers. It is believed that the first planes came to India and, perhaps, to Asia in 1910 though the first commercial civil aviation flight took off only on February 18, 1911. Since then, India and Indians have never looked back.

Through the eventful decades, Indian civil aviation has flown from strength to strength and is today one of the fastest growing aviation markets in the world.

The last hundred years have seen Indian civil aviation expand exponentially. From the days of the first flight when aircraft landed on plain grounds without any navigational aids, we have travelled a long

distance to modern and world-class airports of Hyderabad, Cochin, Bangalore and, of course, T-3 (Delhi).

Today, the handling capacity of our airports has reached to 235 million people, which is sufficient to fulfill our needs for the next few years. I would like to point out that airports are being improved not only in the major metros but also 35 non-metros, in a phased manner. It is a matter of satisfaction for us that during the last two decades from a fleet of only about 100, the scheduled operators today have 435 aircraft connecting the nation and the world. This growth is going to be further accelerated in the years to come and we expect that in another decade or so India would have about 1000 more planes and 500 more helicopters. The acquisition of these modern aircraft and the investment in airports is expected to generate business opportunities worth about $ 50 billion that will revolutionise the sector. Civil aviation is clearly the sunrise sector of the Indian economy that is likely to change the way Indians move, think and live.

The airline industry in India has grown by about 400 per cent in the last seven years. With a domestic passenger base of over 50 million, India now ranks fourth after USA, China and Japan. It is the fastest growing and ninth largest aviation market in the world. It is estimated that the travel of international passengers to and from India would grow to the tune of 50 million by the year 2015.

India's domestic passenger growth is expected to continue to grow at the rate of 9 to 10 per cent to reach a level of 180 million passengers by the year 2015 and 270-300 million by 2020. In 2010 we have managed to achieve a growth of about 19 per cent in domestic passenger traffic over 2009.

Air navigation services of 2.8 million sq nautical miles provided by India have helped the development of 90 international and 120 domestic air routes.

CIVIL AVIATION AS AN ECONOMIC DRIVER Civil aviation is a major driver of the economy. The International Civil Aviation Organisation estimates that every $ 100 spent on air transport produce benefits worth $ 325 for the economy.

Hundred additional jobs in air transport result in 610 new jobs in the economy.

Civil aviation is a major employment creator and according to available

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ON AVIATION SECURITY

ON DGCA The increase in the number of aircraft is bound to put a heavy pressure on our regulatory and oversight systems. Today, India is considered to be one of the safest countries in terms of civil aviation. Recently, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) of America even cited India as a role model in the AsiaPacific region. In order to retain this position and to assure all travellers the guarantee of safety, it would be necessary to redefine the parameters of regulation. We are already looking into this matter and considering to restructure the DGCA into a more comprehensive system, which works well above international standards.

ON THE PUBLIC SECTOR One of the biggest challenges before us is to lend renewed vibrancy to public sector undertakings like Air India and Airports Authority of India. These two organisations have rendered historic service to the nation and their continued vibrancy is critical for optimal growth of the sector. The government is committed to support these organisations to ensure their healthy future.

ON THE TRAVELLING PUBLIC

The increase in civil aviation activity is bound to impact the environment too. It is necessary that we should nationally gear up to face this challenge and move towards better technologies and mitigation strategies to minimize the effect of aviation on the environment. A socially harmonised growth of aviation alone will ensure its sustainability.

As we move ahead into the next century, it is our resolve to let the Indian aviation sector blossom fully but responsibly

Maintaining security is the priority that cannot be overlooked even for a single moment. It might have some effect on passenger facilitation but it is imperative in the larger interest of travellers as well as of the nation. Improvement of infrastructure and the need for increased trained manpower for surveillance has been identified as one of our main challenges. By the middle of next year, all six of metro cities would have brand new airports with capacity to manage this growth till at least the next decade.

In this time we would also totally modernise about 50 of the non-metro airports.

We are in the process of revamping our security operations and organisation to meet the phenomenal growth in traffic. We have recently commissioned an ICAO study for restructure ad systemic improvement in our security organisation in view of emerging developments in the aviation security scenario.

Aviation security has been identified by ICAO as one of the three major strategic objectives. We have noted that during recent times ICAO is instituting organisational reforms to increase its effectiveness and efficiency to enable the organisation to face new challenges of technological, economic, social and legal nature. Member States of ICAO have greatly benefitted from modernised aviation security standards laid by ICAO which are audited and enforced across the globe. Through audits and technical assistance, ICAO has provided a basic platform to build a robust aviation security framework.

Over the years aviation has become a soft target for terrorists and extremists. Any attack on aviation generates a lot of media interest and helps the terrorist groups to achieve their objective of getting maximum publicity. Securing aviation is a complex business. The dichotomy of stringent security measures vis-a-vis the demand for efficient passenger facilitation need to be managed properly. While fully sympathetic to the demands of the industry and passengers for better facilitation, we need to place the security of aviation as our topmost priority.

Aviation security unlike aviation safety is an extremely dynamic entity. The threats, risks and challenges change and grow very fast leaving us with very little time to react and put corrective measures.

The only way to hope for secure aviation is to think ahead in this game, plan and be prepared for any and every eventuality.

One of the most important facets of aviation security is International cooperation in the form of information gathering, intelligence sharing, deployment of new technologies and exchange of best practices. Regional cooperation and collaboration is a logical way forward to achieve this objective. India is fully cognisant of the fact that terrorism is not restricted by national boundaries. *The views of the Minister have been culled from his speeches delivered at inaugurals of the Regional Aviation Security Conference (RAVSECC) and the Centenary Celebrations of Civil Aviation in India.

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ON AVIATION AND ENVIRONMENT

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studies it is expected that this sector will create new employment opportunities for nearly 26 lakh Indians by 2025. Catering to this human resource need is in itself a challenge. We shall strive to develop and nurture a strong world class training infrastructure in the country to ensure continuous production of skilled and professional manpower to fulfil the requirements of this sector.

As we move ahead into the next century, it is our resolve to let this sector blossom fully but responsibly. At the centre of this entire system is the common man and we would like all the players in the sector to make the flying experience of passengers safe, secure, comfortable and happy.

The rights of the passengers need to be respected and protected at all times. While we will ensure a liberal and competitive environment for the growth of the private sector, they must strive to maintain the centrality of the consumer. We have recently taken significant steps for consumer protection through Civil Aviation Regulations on disability related rights, refunds, cancellations, delays, over-bookings and denied boardings.

We would appreciate that airlines and airports should compete with each other in offering to passengers better facilities, services and protection of their rights. We, in the government, propose to further strengthen this initiative in the days to come.

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ON THE GROWTH OF TRAFFIC IN INDIA

“The potential for growth of civil aviation in India is huge”

Air transport in India has witnessed unprecedented growth in the recent past. In the last decade, domestic air traffic has quadrupled from 13 mn to 52 mn and international traffic more than tripled to 38 mn. A similar trend is observed in the cargo sector. During the last 10 years, compounded annual growth rate of passenger traffic is estimated to be above 10 per cent. A key trend in the business model of the Indian carriers in the domestic operations is that domestic traffic is rapidly shifting to the LCC model. From a level of about one per cent in 2003-2004, the marketshare of LCCs including the LCC arm of full-service carriers is today exceeding 70 per cent of the total domestic traffic. Low Cost Carriers have displayed a strong operational performance too.

DR NASIM ZAIDI, SECRETARY OF CIVIL AVIATION, GOVERNMENT OF INDIA, ON INDIA'S AVIATION SECTOR AND THE PROMISES IT HOLDS*

ON ITS SIGNIFICANCE Let me tell you the kind of changes that have taken place and affected lives of people from all walks of life both in India and abroad. In the 90s, there were very few domestic connections between metro towns: Delhi, Mumbai and others. In international connectivity, the situation was also not so good particularly during the busy season. Carriers were limited. If people wanted to travel to the West, they would travel to Mumbai to go to USA or UK with associated inconvenience. So, deregulation of domestic sector in 90s and liberalisation of bilateral traffic rights in the past decade brought choices of carriers, choices of timing, fares and experiences. Today, for example, there are 56 direct flights between Delhi and Mumbai with complete freedom of carriers, timings and fares. In 1994, there were only seven flights between these sectors. The same is true of many other towns in the country. There is a sea change from 500 departures in the country in 1994 before deregulation to nearly 15000 departures daily. The same phenomenon has occurred in international side.

We considered the question: Why do people need to travel to Mumbai or Delhi first to go to USA? Why cannot they be provided direct connectivity from their places of work, business, etc.? So, consciously, liberalisation of market access was allowed to our own carriers and foreign airlines.

Today, 87 foreign airlines fly to/from India and five Indian carriers fly to/from 40 countries.

ON MODERN AIRPORTS

PHOTO: H.C. Tiwari

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ON THE OVERSEAS SURGE

Today, in India, about 60 per cent of the air traffic is happening in the airports in the PPP model at Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Bengaluru and the rest is with the airports owned and operated by Airports Authority of India. During the period from 2005 to 2010, US $10 bn was invested in airport development in the country. The private sector played an unprecedented role during the last 5-6 years by acting as a key contributor for the development of PPP airports. Total investment made by private airport operators in the last five years was

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2030 i.e. 40 per cent of the total. And the number of million-plus cities will increase to 68 from 35. Further, the middle class population is expected to grow from 13 per cent in 2010 to 37 per cent in 2025.

India is being looked upon by aircraft manufacturers, allied industries as an important destination for doing business.

The reasons for optimism also include the pattern noticed in the shift of air traffic to the Asian region. There is a gradual shift of traffic, from West to East. Asia has taken over the marketshare lost by North America.

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ON THE FUTURE

One of the key achievements of India in the last decade has been to set up an independent regulator for economic regulation of airports

While figures of growth registered in the past decade sounds impressive, it is a matter of concern that only about 4 per cent people fly — of the total population of the 120 mn who travel. A large number of cities are still devoid of air connectivity. Global comparison of air travel penetration shows that India (at 0.04 air-trips per capita per annum) stands far behind the developed countries like US and Australia (two air trips per capita per annum). China's domestic traffic is five times the size of India's despite having a population just 10 per cent larger. There is significant growth potential for the Indian civil aviation industry as the economy grows, disposable incomes of people rise and the value of time becomes more precious. The low ratio of per capita air trips in India suggests a huge potential for air traffic growth considering the higher trajectory of economic growth the country is witnessing presently.

How do we manage this growth in the next 10 years is a big issue before us.

Anticipating significant growth in traffic, most Indian carriers have placed orders to augment their aircraft fleet. As per industry estimates, airlines in India are expected to add around 370 aircraft to their fleet by financial year 2017. Fleet expansion at this scale would lead airlines to explore multiple funding avenues including capital markets and long-term borrowings.

The fruits of high trajectory economic growth can be spread equitably to far flung areas if air connectivity can be provided to these areas. Hence development of infrastructure is the key to the growth in the sector.

The growth in passenger and cargo traffic requires significant investments in terms of construction of new airports, expansion and modernisation of existing airports, improvement in connecting infrastructure (road, metro, sea link, etc.) and better airspace management. Current estimates indicate that Indian airports would require an investment of about US $ 15 bn during the next five years alone of which around 75 per cent is likely to be contributed by the private sector. We have laid down a positive and enabling framework for FDI in the airport sector. *Excerpts from a recent keynote address delivered by Dr Nasim Zaidi at the Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

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The potential for growth of civil aviation in India is huge. India is the fastest growing aviation market in the world, 9th highest and will be amongst the first 4-5 in the next 10 years. Recent estimates suggest that domestic air traffic will touch 160 - 180 million passengers per annum in the next 10 years and international traffic will exceed 80 million passengers per annum from the current level of 53 million domestic and 38 million international passengers.

Projected CAGR (Compounded Annual Rate of Growth) for the next 10 years is placed at 14 to 15 per cent of passenger traffic and above 10 per cent of cargo traffic. Such optimism stems from independent studies that have concluded that India's urban population will be 590 million by

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to the tune of US $6 bn spread across Greenfield development of Hyderabad and Bengaluru international airports and modernisation of Delhi and Mumbai international airports. A major achievement in the airport sector in India during the last five years was the commissioning of Terminal 3 (T3) and associated infrastructure at the Delhi international airport in a record period of 37 months. T3 has an annual throughput capacity of 34 million passengers and the entire Delhi airport project required an investment of about US $3 bn.

We will continue to build and replicate and experiment the PPP model with other airports. Our Ministry has approved 15 new Greenfield airports which are at different stages of development. India has a well-defined airport policy and a Greenfield airport policy based on mixed models of development of airports.

We are also looking at 35 other airports in the country including state capitals, tourist centres, business and commercial centres. In these airports, city side of airports will invite private sector for commercial development including hotels, shopping complex, cargo, parking lots, food courts, etc.

We invite investors to become partners in this process. AAI has already invested about US $ one bn. In the next five years, we plan to expand the airport network and provide connectivity to Tier-II and III cities.

In metro cities where the existing airport cannot accommodate future growth, a second airport is being planned. New Mumbai is a case in example. The New Mumbai airport is expected to be functional from 2016 or so. Changi airport is already partnering with Bengal Aerotropolis near Kolkata.

While restructuring and development of Greenfield airports has taken place alongside AAI airports, a strong need was felt to have an economic regulator to ensure a level playing field, to promote competition, protection of consumers and viability of airports. The regulator will ensure benefit to all stakeholders and better service levels.

One of the key achievements of India in the last decade has been to set up an independent regulator for economic regulation of airports by an act of Parliament with appropriate provision for an appellate body.

ON THE POTENTIAL

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Services Agreement

India connects to the world INDIA NOW HAS FOUR HOME-GROWN INTERNATIONAL LCCS COVERING 16 INTERNATIONAL DESTINATIONS OF A TOTAL OF 36 INTERNATIONAL MARKETS SERVED BY ALL INDIAN CARRIERS. Air India is looking at adding new overseas routes and tweaking existing ones as it prepares to receive new aircraft in the coming months.In fact, there will be more point-to-point services.

ROHIT NANDAN

VIJAY MALLYA

CMD, Air India

Chairman, Kingfisher Airlines

n July 2011, India's airlines handled 1.3 million international passengers, a 8.5 per cent year-onyear increase, according to the DGCA. Currently, Jet Airways flies to 76 destinations - 52 within India and 24 internationally, Air India operates 650 flights to 33 international destinations each week and Kingfisher Airlines flies to 59 cities in India and 8 international destinations and has over 325 daily departures with a fleet of 66 aircraft.

India's largest Low-Cost Carrier (LCC) IndiGo began daily flights from Delhi to Dubai, Bangkok and Singapore this September. Except Air India Express that flies abroad mainly from the south, no other Indian LCC flies to Singapore. JetLite currently goes only to Kathmandu and Colombo. SpiceJet, like IndiGo, is planning to expand its international presence in the future. SpiceJet, with just six international servic-

I

CRUISING HEIGHTS I OCTOBER 2011

“We are achieving the highest load factors in our history. On international routes we are awaiting approval for several destinations to operate at night and improve aircraft utilisation.”

“We have received great response from our customers on our recently-launched international flights and we feel quite encouraged. By next March we will be dedicating 15-16 per cent of our total aircraft capacity to international operations.”

ADITYA GHOSH President, Indigo

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Jet Airways is slowly looking at expanding to more stations overseas and taking its international flights to almost half of its total operations. In the next 12 months they will add several new stations to their route map.

“We will not be just a pointto-point carrier. We will create partnerships with other international low-fare carriers. They will sell our products and we will sell their products.”

NARESH GOYAL

NEIL MILLS

Chairman, Jet Airways

CEO, Spicejet

es now among its 200 daily flights, has applied for several international routes, according to CEO Neil Mills. As part of its new phase of international expansion from August 2011, the carrier is adding destinations in West and Southeast Asia. The carrier already operates flights to Kathmandu and

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Colombo from Delhi and Chennai and has also received approval to operate to Dhaka and Male in the Maldives. SpiceJet is reportedly considering launching service to 10 new international destinations from 2012.

Air India is still the largest Indian carrier in the international market, with a 38.2 per cent seat share and a 46.6 per cent capacity in available seat kilometres (ASKs) share. This international network strength provides the struggling national carrier with international connectivity from its generous domestic network.

In this sense, Air India has gained from right of entry to all the main markets, with 140,675 weekly seats across its international network. For every international seat, Air India operates 2.2 domestic seats, although it operates 2.3 more ASKs internationally than in the domestic market. Jet Airways is the second largest Continued on pg 20

Top 15 airlines operating between Asia Pacific and India (international seats): week ended October 9, 2011 Rank Airline 1 Jet Airways 2 Air India Thai Airways 3 International 4 Singapore Airlines 5 Kingfisher Airlines 6 SriLankan Airlines 7 Cathay Pacific Airways 8 Malaysia Airlines 9 AirAsia

Seats 22,022 18,734

10

Air India Express

6,237

11 12 13 14 15

Tiger Airways SilkAir SpiceJet IndiGo Druk Air

5,040 5,022 4,032 3,780 3,480

15,865

Source: CAPA

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13,864 10,940 9,764 9,051 8,589 6,300

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CRUISING HEIGHTS September 2011

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A STAR IS NOT

Juhu refuses to take off

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Even with the green signal to expand, Mumbai’s Juhu airport still cannot accommodate traffic

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

Dreamliner shows its wings Boeing’s 787 makes a whistlestop tour of India wowing those invited to fly in it

Tough times for cargo carriers

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

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LHR LHR FRA CDG FRA FRA MUC AMS IST IST CDG LHR FRA ZRH ZRH HEL MXP BRU BRU BRU MUC AMS VIE

London Heathrow London Heathrow Frankfurt International Paris Charles De Gaulle Frankfurt International Frankfurt International Munich Amsterdam Schiphol Istanbul Ataturk Istanbul Ataturk Paris Charles De Gaulle London Heathrow Frankfurt International Zurich Zurich Helsinki-Vantaa Milan Malpensa Brussels Brussels Brussels Munich Amsterdam Schiphol Vienna

DEL BOM DEL DEL BOM BLR DEL DEL BOM DEL BOM BLR MAA BOM DEL DEL DEL DEL BOM MAA BOM BOM DEL

Delhi Indira Gandhi Mumbai Delhi Indira Gandhi Delhi Indira Gandhi Mumbai Bengaluru Delhi Indira Gandhi Delhi Indira Gandhi Mumbai Delhi Indira Gandhi Mumbai Bengaluru Chennai Mumbai Delhi Indira Gandhi Delhi Indira Gandhi Delhi Indira Gandhi Delhi Indira Gandhi Mumbai Chennai Mumbai Mumbai Delhi Indira Gandhi

26,174 24,472 8652 7182 5320 5320 4522 4116 4032 4015 3696 3430 3360 3304 3304 3252 3150 3150 3150 3150 3094 3038 3024

Asia routes with more than 10,000 weekly seats: September 26, 2011 to October 2, 2011 1

BKK Bangkok Suvarnabhumi

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Mumbai

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Mumbai

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Source: CAPA

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European routes with more than 3000 seats per week: September 26, 2011 to October 2, 2011 1 2 3 4 5 6 8 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 24 25 26

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Airlines operating between Middle East and India (international seats): week ended October 9, 2011 Rank 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15

Airline Emirates Air India Air India Express Jet Airways Qatar Airways Air Arabia Saudi Arabian Airlines Oman Air Etihad Airways Gulf Air Kuwait Airways Kingfisher Airlines IndiGo Bahrain Air Flydubai

Total Seats 51,943 32,997 27,405 21,168 18,304 16,848 11,981 11,350 8,109 5,873 4,983 3,213 2,520 2,268 1,323

Continued from pg 17

operator of international capacity (seats and ASKs) to/from India, and the largest by frequency, and is quickly catching up to Air India.

With IndiGo, India now has four homegrown international LCCs covering 16 international destinations of a total of 36 international markets served by all Indian carriers. Indian international LCC operations have to date been dominated by Air India Express, which has focused on serving the expatriate labour market in the Gulf. None of the LCCs offer services beyond the SAARC/Middle East/Asia region and among the three network carriers, only five destinations in Europe and four in North America are served, highlighting a big gap in the international networks served by the local carriers. That is bound to change in the coming years as Jet Airways, Air India, Kingfisher and the rest receive new planes and plan new flights to new destinations.

Managing flights

in a safe, secure and efficient manner

SXR*

COH

AJL

JAI IXA

RPR BBI TIR MAA TRV

IXZ*

Seamless connectivity Fly out of top-of-the-line airports to the furthest corners of the country and anywhere in the world.

Made possible by

*SXR: Srinagar and IXZ: Port Blair are two among the country’s numerous airports operated by the AAI. The rest are IATA call signs for AAI airports.

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A century old — but flying strong!

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IT WAS AN OCCASION TO REMEMBER: A COMPARATIVELY YOUNG NATION CELEBRATING A HUNDRED YEARS OF AVIATION. A GRATEFUL NATION REMEMBERED ALL THOSE STALWARTS WHO HAD CONTRIBUTED TO MAKING THE INDUSTRY WHAT IT IS.

irports all across India had a special glow on February 18, 2011. On that landmark day, tasteful illumination marked the completion of 100 years of Indian civil aviation. The day also marked the commencement of Civil Aviation Centenary Year.

It all began on February 18, 1911, when French pilot Monseigneur Henry Piquet flew a Humber biplane from Allahabad to Naini, just across the Yamuna River, and back, covering a distance of about 10 km. He carried nearly 6,000 letters, many of which were addressed to King

A

CELEBRATING AVIATION: Snapshots from the inaugural function of the Indian centenary celebrations; (top) the then Minister for Civil Aviation Praful Patel at the first meeting of the Civil Aviation Centenary Celebration Committee

George V of England with ‘First Aerial Post’ as the postmark. This was also considered to be the world’s first airmail service.

A year later, in 1912, the first domestic air route between Karachi and Delhi became operational. The service between the two cities was operated by the Indian State Air Services with the Imperial Airways (a UK-based airline). In 1915, to expand the horizons of the aviation industry, Tata Sons Limited started regular airmail services between Karachi and Madras (now Chennai).

They also founded Tata Airlines, which was rechristened Tata Air Services in 1938 and then Tata Air Lines, the same year.

On October 15, 1932, JRD Tata flew a singleengine aircraft from Karachi’s Drigh Road Aerodrome to Bombay’s Juhu Airstrip via Ahmedabad.

The aircraft continued to Madras via Bellary, flown by former Royal Air Force pilot Nevill Vincent. Tata Air Lines did not, however, survive for too long after the end of World War II. On July 29, 1946, it became a public limited company called Air India and the government acquired 49 per cent stake in it, making it the country’s designated flag carrier. Air India operated its first international flight on June 8, 1948, from Bombay to London.

Speaking during the inaugural of the Centenary Celebrations of Civil Aviation in India, Civil Aviation Minister Vayalar Ravi said: “Today, India is considered to be one of the safest countries in

Terminal 3

Indira Gandhi International Airport,

Come - experience one of the best airports in the world.

enjoy a relaxed sense of space inside the terminal.

shopping options, feel delighted with our services and

Our passengers are pampered with the numerous

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(Top) Union Civil Aviation Minister Vayalar Ravi lauding the participants of the street play held during the Centenary Celebrations of Civil Aviation in India; and (left) Congratulating awardees on International Women’s Day during the Centenary Celebrations.

terms of civil aviation. Recently, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) of America even cited India as a role model in the Asia-Pacific region.” In order to retain this position and to assure all travellers the guarantee of safety, the Minister said: “It would be necessary to redefine the parameters of regulation. We are already looking into this matter and considering to restructure the DGCA into a more comprehensive system, which works well above international standards. One of the biggest challenges before us was to lend renewed vibrancy to public sector undertakings like Air India and Airports Authority of India.”

Ravi also paid tributes to the pioneer of Indian aviation, JRD Tata, who obtained the first pilot’s licence issued in India and also founded the first commercial airline which later became Air India.

Tata also launched India’s first international carrier — Air India International and later when the government took over, he was appointed the Chairman of Air India in 1953, a position which he

Ravi paid tributes to the pioneer of Indian aviation, JRD Tata, who obtained the first pilot’s licence issued in India

had held for 25 years.

Amongst the other pioneers who were remembered were: First Indian woman pilot Sarla Thakural; Air Marshal Aspy Merwan Engineer who won the Agha Khan Trophy for being the first Indian to fly from London to Delhi in a Gypsy Moth aircraft; Senior flight purser of Pan Am flight 73, Neerja Bhanot, for her exemplary courage displayed after the plane was hijacked. She was killed in 1986 while saving the lives of three children from bullets; Former Orissa Chief Minister and an avid aviator Biju Patnaik. After being entrusted to evacuate Sutan Sjahrir, the Prime Minister of Indonesia, during the country’s struggle for independence from the Dutch rule, he flew to Java and brought him from Java islands on his own Dakota; Ravi also paid tribute to industrialist and Chairman emeritus of Raymonds Group and a former Sherriff of Mumbai Dr Vijaypat Singhania. Singhania holds the world record for highest altitude gained travelling in a hot air balloon; Air India for its services to the nation; DGCA for its signal contribution in regulating Indian airspace; Captain Saudamani Deshmukh for helping women get into the cockpit; GVK and GMR for their seminal contribution in PPP; and, The Aeronautical Society of India for its role in spreading greater awareness on the complex issues of aviation.

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Air cargo is top priority now THE GROWTH OF AIR FREIGHT HAS PROMPTED THE GOVERNMENT AND THE MINISTRY OF CIVIL AVIATION TO MOVE FORWARD AND PLAN FOR THE FUTURE. A WORKING GROUP HAS BEEN SET UP TO IDENTIFY AREAS THAT REQUIRE IMPROVEMENT. A REPORT. arly this year, the Ministry for Civil Aviation set up a working group on air cargo/express service industry under the Civil Aviation Economic Advisory Council.

The move came on the heels of the projected rapid growth in air freight and also was indication enough that the government was keen to meet the needs of the air cargo industry. The working group comprising representatives from the airline industry, airport infrastructure developers, cargo associations, airport operators, Customs and the Ministry is looking at the current status of the industry and assess its growth potential. It is also studying the existing system of air cargo/express delivery services handling in the country and identify areas that require improvement. To top it all, the group will establish priorities and recommend policy initiatives to address issues of significant importance to the air cargo industry.

On its part, the government-controlled Airports Authority of India (AAI) that handles 125 airports — big and small — has started to enhance cargo operations at its airports. Looking at the high growth rate of exports, V P Agrawal, Chairman, AAI, said: “The Authority is in the process of

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Looking at the opportunities in the perishable sector, the AAI has launched a programme to set up centres for perishable cargo

BUSINESS PERSONIFIED: Cargo being loaded into the freighter aircraft.

developing regional airports in southern India so that Chennai airport may be developed as a cargo hub for the southern region.” The airport at Chennai, for example, is being revamped to serve as a cargo hub for the southern region once all the construction activity is complete.

Looking at the huge opportunities in the perishable sector, the AAI has launched a programme to set up centers for perishable cargo.

While such centres exist at Kolkata and Chennai airports — both airports are under AAI — the government, too, has initiated a policy to encourage cold storage facilities at airports. In fact, perishable centres have been set up at a number of places like Amritsar, Coimbatore, Guwahati and Lucknow airports.

In an interview some time ago, V P Agrawal, Chairman, AAI, had spelt out plans to enhance cargo operations at AAI airports. He pointed out that since two major airports — Delhi and Mumbai — had been converted as joint venture companies, AAI had to take stock of the changed ground realities and review the policy of cargo operations. A review was also, necessitated due to the changing market forces since many

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industrial townships and states with surplus agricultural products demanded availability of air cargo facilities from the nearest airport.

Airports Authority of India had established Integrated Common User Terminals for processing of international export and import cargo at four airports at Kolkata in 1975, Mumbai in 1977 (now with JVC), Chennai in 1978 and IGIA in 1986 (now with JVC). AAI has also developed cargo-handling facilities at Nagpur (1997, now with the state government), Guwahati (1999), Lucknow (2000), Coimbatore (2001), Indore (2007) and Amritsar (2007) to handle international cargo and courier consignments.

AAI has drawn up plans to streamline and promote air cargo operations at AAI-managed airports. The AAI has developed a new policy for establishment of Centre for Perishable Cargo (CPC) in consultation with APEDA and Ministry of Agriculture wherein, drastic reductions in the processing fee have since been resorted to.

A policy has been formulated where domestic airports will be developed for handling international cargo, by leasing space/land to interested organisations through open tenders on AAI’s commercial terms. AAI has embarked on an ambitious programme for the city side development of non-metro airports through the Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode. The development of Cargo Operations forms a part of the city side development of the non-metro airports.

To reduce congestion at airport and to increase the cargo capacities, the Civil Aviation Ministry has issued directives to all airport operators to reduce the free period to 72 hours from five working days granted to exporter/import/airlines in clearance of their cargo. This step of the ministry has further improved the profile of clearance of cargo both in import and export.

However, even before the working group was set up, the privately-controlled Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (RGIA) launched the country’s only dedicated Pharma Zone in an airport. Said

BUSY STATION: An inside view of cargo warehouse.

AAI has drawn up plans to streamline and promote air cargo operations at AAI managed airports

Hemanth D P, Chief Operating Officer at GMR Airports, “With double-digit export growth of pharma in terms of percentage in the last five years and the same projected for the next couple of years, we (at Hyderabad) realised the need to focus on this segment of the market.” Spurred by the pharma industry, Lufthansa Cargo and the GMR group (promoters of RGIA) signed a Memorandum of Understanding to promote the airport as a South Asian cargo hub, especially in the supply chain of pharmaceuticals. Today, Lufthansa supports the terminal with increased widebody freighter frequencies, capacities and sophisticated state-of-the-art temperature-controlled transport solutions for time and temperature-sensitive pharmaceutical products.

It is not only at Hyderabad that cargo facilities are looking up. The country’s privately-managed airports at Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru too have been seeing changes. Mumbai and Delhi, for instance, will soon have world-class cargo handling services provided by Cargo Service Center India (CSC India). Led by Radharamanan Panicker, CEO, and backed by a team of more than 700 trained staff, CSC hopes to bring about a sea change in the handling of the air cargo business.

At Delhi Airport’s cargo facility, CSC has chalked out plans to take it to the big leagues.

The Delhi Cargo Services Centre (DCSC), a special purpose vehicle (SPV) of Delhi International Airport Pvt. Ltd. and CSC, has signed on Siemens to set up a state-of-the-art cargo handling equipment for the Integrated Cargo Complex at the airport. The 70,000-square metre Greenfield air cargo complex at the airport will comprise two terminals. The complex, entailing an investment of $80 million, will have the capacity to handle close to a million MT of cargo when fully completed.

While the first phase of the project is ready for commissioning by July 2011, the project is scheduled for completion by March 2012.

The Delhi move follows the CSC’s first facility for Mumbai airport. Designed, developed and built on an area of 2,000 square metres, the Perishable Cargo Terminal at Mumbai airport caters to perishable and temperature-sensitive cargo.

Capable of processing and handling 40,000 MT45,000 MT of cargo per annum, the “new Center,” Panicker said, “will aim at restructuring the basic cool chain logistics approach to achieve a quantum leap as far as performance is concerned.”

Bengaluru International Airport Limited (BIAL) too is getting ready for cargo growth — it is expected to grow at around 9 per cent during 2011-12 — and a number of new initiatives have been taken. Hari Marar, President-Airport Operations, BIAL, recently told this correspondent that the airport was being positioned as the future cargo hub of South India, that would connect the West to the East. Among the initiatives are the setting-up of a transshipment facility, plant and animal quarantine facilities, a drug-controller office along with a textile committee office to aid garment exporters.

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V P AGRAWAL, CHAIRMAN, AIRPORTS AUTHORITY OF INDIA, HAS GIVEN THE LEAD TO BRING AIRPORT INFRASTRUCTURE TO THE FOREFRONT. IN THIS INTERVIEW, WHILE OUTLINING AAI’S PLANS FOR THE FUTURE, DETAILS THE DEVELOPMENTS THAT WILL FACILITATE THE ORGANISATION’S LEAP TO NAVARATNA STATUS. The Indian aviation industry has gone through a major transition. What role has the Airports Authority of India (AA) played in this transition process?

CRUISING HEIGHTS I OCTOBER 2011

The Airports Authority of India (AAI) came into existence on April 1, 1995 through an Act of Parliament by merging the erstwhile National Airports Authority and International Airports Authority of India. The aim of the merger was to usher in a single organisation, so as to create, upgrade, maintain and manage the total civil aviation infrastructure that includes management of total Indian airspace as defined by ICAO. AAI manages 125 airports, which include 11 international airports, 8 Customs airports, 81 domestic airports and 27 civil enclaves at defence airfields. AAI provides air navigation services over 2.8 million square nautical miles of air space. The liberalisation of the Indian economy in 1992 has fuelled the growth of Indian aviation with the advent of low-cost airlines and the huge growth in passenger traffic.

Suddenly, the existing infrastructure, be it on the ground or in the air, looked small. AAI took steps to modernise the metro airports, as Delhi and Mumbai were handed over to the joint venture companies for their quick development through the PPP mode.

Kolkata and Chennai airports were taken up for development by AAI and the projects are about to be completed. The 35 non-metro airports, mostly in the state capitals and 23 other airports were identified for development, so as to ensure that good connections/services are provided to the Tier-II and Tier-III cities. AAI is entrusted with the responsibility of providing safe, secure and efficient Air Traffic Services at all civil airports in India and to provide passenger facilitation infrastructure at all AAI-managed airports with utmost customer satisfaction. The continuous growth in

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number of aircraft movements and passengers impinges upon AAI to continuously engage in Research and Development as an integral part of its activities to upgrade CNS/ATM systems and airport infrastructure with state-of-the-art systems. This constant endeavour for automation of CNS/ATM systems — by defining new systems incorporating state-of-the-art proven technology in coordination with the aviation industry and in conformity with ICAO requirements and their implementation — is a never-ending process enshrined in AAI’s in-house activities.

How do you assess the current status of airports’ infrastructure in India?

Automation of ATS at Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai airports has been achieved, while that of Kolkata is in hand

We, at AAI, having witnessed the phenomenal growth in the aviation sector, thought it is prudent to upgrade and modernise the infrastructure, not only to meet the expectations of the air travelling populace, but also the aviation fraternity at large by creating world-class facilities. Accordingly, we ventured upon modernisation of the airport infrastructure on a large scale. Therefore, it would be appropriate, if I were to state with confidence that the infrastructure facilities at Indian airports are looking upwards. As on date, there are no areas that demand immediate attention, for the simple reason that all critical areas have been well taken care of in our plans — with respect to modernisation — that are in hand. However, we are fully conscious of the fact that modernisation and upgradation is a continuous process, to be at par with the other airports the world over.

Since modernisation and upgradation of airport infrastructure is a continuous process and demands constant monitoring, what is your roadmap for the future?

CRUISING HEIGHTS I OCTOBER 2011

AAI has certain plans on the anvil. For airport ground infrastructure, we are developing a Greenfield airport at Pakyong, Sikkim for ATR

AESTHETICALLY DESIGNED: Construction work in progress at Chennai Airport.

72-500 operations which is likely to be commissioned in September 2012. AAI Is planning to expand the aviation infrastructure in the NorthEast region in a big way with financial assistance from the Government of India which includes the construction of a Greenfield airport at Itanagar, NITB at Guwahati and major expansion of Imphal airport. It is also planning to construct hangars at Guwahati, Imphal, Agartala and Dibrugarh to enable airlines to base their aircraft at these airports to launch early morning flights for intra and inter-regional air connectivity.

Automation of ATS at Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai airports has been achieved, while that of Kolkata is in hand. Tower automation at 38 airports including six Area Control Centres viz. Mangalore, Trivandrum, Guwahati, Varanasi, Nagpur and Ahmedabad are also in progress. In addition, AAI is implementing Air Traffic Flow Management system for the entire Indian airspace. As regards multiple Area Control Centres (ACCs) to be centralised, presently 11 ACCs are proposed to be centrallsed in to four ACCs in the first phase and in the second phase, the number is planned to be reduced to two.

As far as upgradation of ILS category is concerned, the presently available ILS with Cat-I and II are being upgraded to Cat-II and Cat-III, respectively. AAI’s GAGAN Project in collaboration with ISRO will provide seamless navigation over the entire Indian airspace. This SBAS (Space Based Augmentation System) will cater to RNPO.1 over the entire Indian airspace. The first GBAS (Ground Based Augmentation System) is being installed at Chennai followed by Delhi and Mumbai. AAI is a Mini Ratna PSU on the threshold of achieving Nava Ratna status.

Your vast experience of upgrading and creating world class airports infrastructure, what are the new innova-

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tions that you wish to bring into the aviation sector?

Well, when one talks of focus areas, one can ill afford to overlook the fact that the aviation sector is peculiar in nature because of the enormous visibility it attracts and, therefore, demands of stakeholders to tread with caution because of the worldwide ramifications it would create. Multifarious challenges/focus areas stare right into our faces that undoubtedly require to be prioritised so as to address them in right and earnest manner.

Some of the areas that attract our attention are those of creating world-class infrastructure to enable us to meet the aspirations of the air travelling populace, especially since they are well-travelled globally and, hence, better informed, experienced and have been exposed to world-class standards the world over. Our intention is to create more and better user-friendly airports ensuring optimum, judicious utilisation of the ever and fast-changing technology. This would undoubtedly go a long way in gaining the confidence of the travelling public.

Whilst developing world-class airport infrastructure, one needs to bear in mind the financial viability, especially taking into consideration the fluctuating global economy. This would undoubtedly call for judicious cost-cutting without compromising on quality and on-time performance. Also, the security scenario being what it is, demands not only constant and close monitoring but also close liaison with other agencies responsible for maintenance of law and order. That has to be done to ensure that the highest level of security for air travellers is achieved and maintained. With the phenomenal influx in air traffic in our air space, there is need to give due cognizance to the air safety aspect, wherein it would be mandatory for us not only to ensure integration of ATS automation systems of Chennai and Kolkata airports with tower automation of the major airports of India, but also

The constant endeavour for automation of CNS/ATM systems is a never-ending process enshrined in AAI’s in-house activities

DEVELOPMENT IN ALL OVER INDIA: (Clockwise from top left) glimpses of Srinagar, Kolkata, Ahmedabad and Madurai Airports.

radar networking for an efficient traffic flow management to achieve seamless surveillance coverage of continental air space.

Our prime objective is to meaningfully contribute towards the growth of aviation in this part of the globe, and also its sustainability to develop fuel-efficient and seamless air-routes, taking into account the satellite-based technology as per the time frame set by the lCAO.

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To meet the rising demand, have any studies been done to bring more cities on the air map?

AAI is aware of the fact that air traffic has been on the fast track from 2004-05 onwards. During the last seven years, passenger traffic has recorded a compound annual growth rate of 16.7 per cent per annum in total passenger traffic. The total traffic has increased from 48.8 million in 2003-04 to 143.4 million in 2010-11. Similarly, cargo traffic has increased from 1.07 millon metric tonnes (MMT) in 2003-04 to 2.35 MMT in 2010-11 recording a compound annual growth rate of 11.9 per cent.

Keeping in view historical trends, AAI has projected that passenger traffic will increase from 143.43 million in 2010-11 to 243.83 million by the end of the XII Five Year Plan (2016-17) and cargo traffic will increase from 2.35 MMT to 4.33 MMT during the corresponding period. Passenger handling capacity will increase from the existing 233 mn passengers per annum to 333 mn passengers per annum — thereby, adding a capacity of 100 mn passengers per annum during XII Plan Period. Cargo capacity too, will increase from the existing 3.37 MMT to 5.62 MMT in the corresponding period — a further 2.25 MMT during XII Plan Period.

For the proposed addition of passenger and cargo handling capacity and other related infrastructure, an investment of `23,000 crore is estimated during the XII Plan period. An additional `23.000 crore is proposed to be invested in Greenfield

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airports. Of the above investment, AAI plans to make an investment of `14,500 crore for addition of 32 mllion passengers per annum capacity and other related infrastructure at AAI airports.

TECHNOLOGY-DRIVEN: AAI Chairman V P Agrawal at Control Tower of Delhi Airport.

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Can you share details about AAI’s ambitious project: GAGAN? In 1993, ICAO endorsed GNSS as the future air navigation system for seamless air navigation across the world. GNSS primarily depends on GPS/GLONASS for position determination corrected through Ground Based Augmentation System (GBAS), Space Based Augmentation System (SBAS) and Aircraft Based Augmentation System (ABAS).

GAGAN is a Space Based Augmentation System (SBAS) and is only the fourth such system in the world after the Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) of USA, the Mult-Satellite Augmentation System (MSAS) of Japan and European Geostationary Navigation Overlay System (EGNOS) of Europe. GAGAN will be fully operational by June 2013 and will provide Standard Positioning Service (SPS) to the entire Indian airspace and provide near-precision approach landing at most of the airports in India.

GAGAN is the acronym for GPS Aided GEO Augmented Navigation. GAGAN uses a system of ground stations to provide necessary augmentations to the GPS standard positioning service (SPS) navigation signal. To improve accuracy, integrity, availability, there is need of continuity of GPS signal for the use of aviation. A network of precisely surveyed ground reference stations (INdian Reference Stations — INRES) is strategically positioned across the country to collect GPS satellite data. Using this Information, the master control centre (INdian Master Control Centre — INMCC) generates messages to correct any signal errors. These correction messages are then uplinked through (INdian Land Uplink Station — INLUS) and broadcast through communication satellites (Geostationary) to

receivers onboard aircraft using the same frequency as GPS. GAGAN will provide benefits beyond aviation to all modes of transportation, including maritime, highways, and railroads. It would be apt if one were to sum up by saying that AAI is truly the mainstay of Indian Civil Aviation.

What are the measures taken by AAI to improve connectivity to the airports?

While developing world-class airport infrastructure, one needs to bear in mind the financial viability

Airports Authority of India (AAI) is responsible for building airport infrastructure across the length and breadth of our country. As is well known and aptly recorded that India had witnessed unprecedented growth of over 20 per cent in air traffic during the period 2003-04 to 2007-08 and had caught planners and providers of airport infrastructure offguard, since our infrastructure was not commensurate at that point of time. Moreover, it is an established fact that there is an appreciable long gestation period in developing airport infrastructure.

AAI, not deterred by developments, accepted the challenge and embarked upon the initiation of massive plans to upgrade infrastructure at its airports across the country. So much so that even the recent dip in traffic, as an outcome of the meltdown, could not stop AAI from execution of its plans. On the contrary, we availed the opportunity to match demand and capacity.

It had been visualised that the aviation sector would witness a great upsurge by 2011, which I daresay is coming true. As on date, the Indian aviation industry is one of the fastest-growing aviation industries in the world. The industry boasts of a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 18 per cent and there are 454 airports and airstrips in the country, of which 16 are designated as international airports. These facts by themselves are testimony to the growth saga of the Indian aviation industry, in which AAI has been playing a key role and is the ‘Face of the Aviation Ministry’ as described by K K Nambiar, former Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation.

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OVER THE LAST 25 YEARS, PAWAN HANS HELICOPTERS LIMITED HAS GROWN IN STRENGTH. NO LONGER DOES THE COMPANY OPERATE ONLY IN HILLY AND INACCESSIBLE AREAS OR PROMOTE TRAVEL AND TOURISM; IT HAS TO ITS CREDIT A NUMBER OF ACHIEVEMENTS — ESTABLISHMENT OF A SPECIALISED INSTITUTE FOR SAFETY AUDIT AND EXCELLENCE, HELIPORTS AND BECOMING AN AUTHORISED MAINTENANCE UNIT FOR AN INTERNATIONAL CHOPPER MANUFACTURER. PAWAN HANS HAS TURNED INTO INDIA'S PREMIER MULTI-DISCIPLINED HELICOPTER SERVICES PROVIDER.

ncorporated in October 1985,Pawan Hans Helicopters Limited (PHHL) began operations within one year. Its objective: provide helicopter services to the oil sector, operate in the hilly and inaccessible areas and make available charter flights for promotion of travel and tourism. The company has added three more objectives in the 24th Annual General Meeting held on December 23,2009: set up a training institute of AME,pilots; operate sea plane and establish a specialised institute for Safety Audit and Excellence and set up heliports and joint ventures for Operations and Maintenance of helicopters.

PHHL's authorised capital has been increased from `120 crore to `250 crore on December 3,2010. The paid up share

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STRONG GRIP: A Pawan Hans chopper lands on a ship.

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capital of the Company is now `245.616 crore comprising `125.266 crore in the name of the President of India and `120.35 crore in the name of ONGC Ltd. ONGC has converted loan amounting to ` 95.85 crore into equity and equity shares allotted on February 14,2011. The government has conferred the status of "Mini Ratna-I" for PHHL on April 11,2011.

PHHL signs a MoU with the Ministry of Civil Aviation every year after the Task Force negotiation meeting in the Department of Public Enterprises. In 2007-08 and 2008-09 the company has achieved MoU rating of "Good" and "Very Good" respectively as per DPE norms. For the year 2009-10 the MOU rating is "Excellent".

With its registered office at Safdarjung Airport,New Delhi,corporate office at Noida and regional offices at Mumbai and New Delhi,PHHL has

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PHHL has emerged as one of Asia's largest helicopter operators with its 42 helicopters

a team of dedicated highly-motivated and skilled manpower comprising pilots,engineers,executives and support staff. The company is headed by Chairman-cum-Managing Director and five part-time directors.

PHHL has emerged as one of Asia's largest helicopter operators with its 42 helicopters.

However,the company at present has a fleet of 51 helicopters comprising 18 SA-365N Dauphin,14 Dauphin AS365N3,3 Bell 206 L4,4 Bell 407,2 AS 350B3 and 1 MI-172 helicopters.

The company has an operation and maintenance contract of a Dauphin N3 helicopter of Government of Gujarat,two Dhruv helicopters owned

by ONGC and four Dhruv helicopters owned by the Border Security Force in 2009 with HAL. Further,the company has signed in December 2010 another contract with HAL for operation and maintenance of four more Dhruv helicopters of BSF.

Operational Milestone: Pawan Hans has transited from its Quality Management Systems under ISO 9001:2008 standards to ISO 14001 and 18001 Certification which is known as Integrated Management System covering Environment and Safety aspects. The company achieved flying of more than 5.13 lakh hours and 19 lakh landings of its fleet since its formation.

Operations for ONGC: Since October 1986,Pawan Hans has been providing helicopter support for offshore operation of ONGC for carrying its men and vital supplies round the clock to drilling rigs situated at Mumbai offshore platforms. PHHL operates to ONGC's rigs (mother platforms and drilling rigs) and pro-

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duction platforms (wells) within a radius of 130 nm. from the mainland at Mumbai. At present 16 Dauphin N and N3 helicopters are on contract with ONGC,of which two Dauphins are stationed overnight at the main platforms in addition to a dedicated night ambulance to meet any emergency evacuation.

Other customers: PHHL has provided helicopter support services to several state governments. The company provides three Dauphin helicopters to the Administration of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and two Dauphins to the Lakshadweep. It also provides helicopter services to Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) at Guwahati,Oil India Limited and GAIL. PHHL runs the helicopter services from Phata to the Holy Shrine of Kedarnath during the May-June and September-October seasons every year. The company was able to achieve record revenue from operations at Phata during two seasons,namely May-June 2010 and September-October 2010 by carrying 19,182 passengers. PHHL has also been awarded contract by Shri Amarnath Shrine Board for operating helicopter services for the Shri Amarnathji Yatra 2010 and 2011 on Baltal-Panjtarni-Baltal sector and started services from July 1,2010,with two Bell 407 helicopters.

PHHL has been successfully operating helicopter services at Mata Vaishno Deviji from Katra to Sanjhichhat under competitive conditions and carried 1.90 lakh passengers in 2010-11,2.05 lakh passengers during financial year 2009-10 Continued on Page 38 `

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PHHL has been successfully operating helicopter services at Mata Vaishno Deviji from Katra to Sanjhichhat

TOUGH TERRAIN: (Above, pg 34) Pawan Hans provides helicopter support for offshore operation of ONGC; (top left) A Pawans Hans chopper in operation.

The lifeline of the North East

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One of Pawan Hans' prime objectives is providing services in the North-East. The company has deployed a number of its choppers with state governments and Public Sector Units (PSUs) in the North-East. These helicopters are provided to the states on a long term lease basis. The state governments pay Pawan Hans directly for utilising the helicopters and in turn are subsided for the helicopter operations by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).

In Arunachal Pradesh, Pawan Hans has provided an Mi-172 helicopter that is being utilised for passenger services connecting Itanagar with Guwahati, Tezu, Ziro, Roing, Tawang, etc. The services by the Mi-172 are run by the state government on a subsidised basis with 75 per cent subsidy from MHA and the balance 25 per cent is recovered from passengers.

In neighbouring Meghalaya, Pawan Hans has provided a Dauphin helicopter on wet lease from February 15, 1999. The state government has been operating daily passenger flights on Guwahati-Shillong-Tura sector and other flights within the state.

Pawan Hans has stationed a five-seater Bell helicopter on wet lease for the Sikkim government since October 31, 1998. Here too, the state government. has been operating daily passenger/tourist flights on the Gangtok-Bagdogra-Gangtok sector and other flights for carrying tourists on a subsidised basis with 75 per cent subsidy from MHA. The Sikkim government has also awarded a contract to PHHL to provide single/twin engine helicopter.

In Tripura, Pawan Hans has provided a five-seater Bell helicopter on wet lease since September 25, 2002. The state government has been utilising this helicopter for regular passenger services connecting Agartala, Dharmanagar, Kailashaar, etc. and for other purposes within the state — again on a subsidised basis.

The MHA had also been utilising a Pawan Hans Dauphin helicopter since 1996 based at Guwahati. The contract for the AS 350 B3/Bell 407 helicopter expired at the end of 2010. The helicopter was based at Guwahati and was being used by ministers and senior officials of the central government to visit places in the North East.

Pawan Hans has also provided an AS 350 B3 helicopter for pipeline survey to Oil India Ltd. from September 20, 2010. The chopper is stationed at Guwahati.

In addition, Pawan Hans has provided helicopter support services to the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) since November 18, 2010.

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“We want our helicopters to touch every life directly or indirectly” PHHL CHAIRMAN R K TYAGI ON THE EXCITEMENT AND GROWTH THAT PAWAN HANS HAS SEEN SINCE ITS INCEPTION 25 YEARS AGO.

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How were the first 25 years of Pawan Hans?

The year 1985 can be considered the year when India began its journey of a new era with Rajiv Gandhi as the young Prime Minister. As PM, he displayed a vision of a new India where growth would be the way of life. This was the year when India defined its strategic sectors such as petroleum, which had to be protected for the development of our country. This was the year when the telecom revolution began with the Prime Minister's vision for nationwide (rural and urban) connectivity. And this was the year when Pawan Hans was born as the Helicopter Corporation of India.

Pawan Hans began its journey on October 15, 1985 from a hotel room in New Delhi. Today, after 25 years of service to the nation, Pawan Hans has achieved the status of a Mini Ratna and has its own corporate building and wellestablished regional offices and bases across the country to serve different customers.

The company showed high energy right from its inception in 1985 and became operational within one year. The journey of the last 25 years has been full of energy, excitement, learning and growth.

In these years the company has handled more than 100 helicopters consisting of 11 different types and all categories: light, medium and heavy.

We have developed expertise in the entire gamut of helicopter services be it operations, maintenance or training.

Today, the company is ready to handle 1000-plus helicopters that are required to meet the country's demand for last mile connectivity, disaster management, internal security and medical

services — primary healthcare and emergency services.

The financial performance over the years has been excellent; in the last five years it has doubled its operating revenues and the operating profit has increased 17 times. In 2010-11, the operating revenue reached `424 crores with operating profit of `48.48 crores. Our fleet utilisation can be compared with the best in the business.

Pawan Hans has been in the forefront of various key areas of operations such as offshore flying, heli-tourism; inter-Island passenger services, hotline washing of high-tension cables and insulators, pipeline surveys, passenger services in remote areas of the North East, etc. Recently, Pawan Hans was awarded as the Best Aviation Company Promoting Pilgrimage Tourism 2011 by business and leisure travel magazine, Today's Traveller.

What is the vision statement for the next quarter century?

India is one of the fastest growing economies of the world today and aspires to be the third largest economy of the world with the projected share of 14.3 per cent of the global economy by the year 2015. These aspirations cannot be achieved without

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National Institute of Aircraft Safety and Services (NIASS) has been opened in New Delhi to impart safety courses like safety management system course, accident prevention and investigation course, special VFR course for pilots, CRM training, etc. These institutes are meant to develop the skilled manpower for the helicopter industry.

Keeping in view the above growth projection, the helicopter industry will require 4000-plus pilots, 2000-plus engineers and 8000-plus technical staff. To develop such manpower, Pawan Hans has already initiated development of another training centre at Hadapasar in Pune that will cater to ab initio training of pilots and technical staff.

This centre will be also equipped with simulator training facilities and also provide recurrent and refresher training.

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One of your most distinctive relationships is with ONGC. Would you like to comment on this exceptional collaboration?

Pawan Hans was created to provide support to ONGC in its offshore efforts and for the last 25 years Pawan Hans has been supporting offshore efforts of ONGC 24X7 365 days in year. ONGC is our part owner and customer both. Director (Offshore) is one of Pawan Hans Board members. Our relationship has been indeed exceptional as we have been able to satisfy ONGC as a customer as well as a shareholder.

It is this relationship and confidence in our organisation that has made ONGC fund our acquisition of helicopters and increase its equity base from 21 per cent to 49 per cent.

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You work with many state governments across India. Please elaborate your relationship with them.

Pawan Hans was created to serve petroleum sector and also provide the much-needed connectivity in the states of the North East and other farflung areas of country. Pawan Hans has been in the forefront in supporting state governments in providing much-needed connectivity, especially in the North East. These state governments have lauded our efforts for years. People of these regions consider our services as a lifeline and appreciate our efforts.

Recently, in Sikkim, PHHL rescued approximately 500-plus people from various quake-affected areas to the nearby base stations/camps including dead bodies/major injured people/ pregnant women/ kids since the calamity took place. PHHL has also transported relief material in far-flung areas of North Sikkim, the worst-affected by the earthquake. Similarly, we supported Orissa government in its relief efforts during the recent floods in the state.

Due to our sincere efforts, the state governments have often called Pawan Hans to deploy helicopters during natural calamities ahead of the defence forces. The state governments have always reposed confidence in our efforts and capabilities.

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Pawan Hans has a major role to play in training pilots and engineers. You have a process in place already. How will you ramp it up?

Like any other growth-oriented company, Pawan Hans has diversified to include training and safety. It has opened Pawan Hans Helicopters Training institute (PHTI) at Mumbai to impart basic three-year training course for aircraft maintenance engineers. The

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the growth of the civil aviation sector especially helicopters.?India needs more helicopters to perform numerous roles for public good. ?

Therefore, the helicopter's role for India is cut out. It has to be used as an effective tool in managing disaster, enforcing law and order, building and maintaining infrastructure, provide emergency medical support, bring primary healthcare to the doorstep of every citizen including the remotest of the remote areas of country. In addition, it has to provide last mile connectivity and also promote our national heritage for tourism.

The helicopter industry is poised for very high rate of growth. In the next decade or so, it is expected that 1000-plus helicopters in addition to the current strength of around 300 helicopters, will join the Indian skies in various roles such as law and order, disaster management and helicopter emergency medical services.

You have a seminal role to play in every walk of Indian life. How are you going to achieve it?

Helicopters play numerous roles due to their unique capabilities and have proven their capability to support humanity in crises when every other means of transport has failed. Helicopters touch every walk of life directly or indirectly. For the last 25 years Pawan Hans has been providing support to ONGC's offshore oil production efforts. Pawan Hans also provides support to pipeline surveys, which are transporting oil and gas across the country and supports maintenance of transmission lines, etc. Thus, we are providing support to ensure the energy security of India.

We are supporting the security agencies in their efforts towards internal security and thus play our part in maintaining peace. We plan to provide more helicopters to security agencies to ensure effective law and order in the country so that every citizen feels safe.

The deployment of helicopters in the management of disaster and emergency medical services will ensure that we do not lose valuable lives.

These helicopters during normal situations can provide primary healthcare in remote areas and thus enabling building of healthy nation.

We plan to provide last mile connectivity to every district and enable better governance.

Like steel, we want our helicopters to touch every life directly or indirectly.

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and 1.24 lakh passengers in 2008-09. The company has been awarded contract for three years by the Shrine Board of Mata Vaishnodeviji from April 1,2011,under a significant competitive environment after being declared the lowest bidder.

The company has undertaken a project for Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd. Hotline Washing of insulators of the power transmission lines for five months in 2008 and for three months in 2009.

PHHL has been awarded a contract by Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation Ltd. for charter hire of a Dauphin N3 helicopter for three years from November 26,2010.

It has carried out operations for the Border Road Organisation at Arunachal Pradesh from November 18,2010 for eight months with one Mi-172 helicopter taken on lease.

For the first time in India,PHHL provided four helicopters (Dauphin and AS 350 B3 helicopters) for live coverage of Commonwealth Games 2010 events for Doordarshan.

PHHL introduced seaplanes for the first time in India to promote heli-tourism in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands on 50:50 profit/loss sharing basis. A Cessna 208 An amphibian seaplane was taken on wet lease for a pilot project of six months initially. The seaplane was dedicated to the nation on December 27,2010,and a proposal has been put up to the Ministry of Civil Aviation for providing support for viability gap funding to the tune of `three crore to PHHL for this project.

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PHHL introduced seaplanes for first time in India to promote helitourism in Andaman and Nicobar Islands

UNCHARTED TERRITORY: Pawan Hans Bell 206L4 helicopter in action during hotline washing of insulators of transmission lines.

Heliport/Helipad in Delhi: The Delhi Development Authority (DDA) allotted 25 acres of land near Rohini for construction of the first integrated heliport in the country on June 1,2009. DDA also earmarked on a hectare of land for construction of helipad at Commonwealth Games Village site and PHHL completed the helipad in October,2010. PHHL also created the basic infrastructure facilities/parking and a helipad at Rohini. The Environmental Impact Assessment Study Report for the Rohini Heliport has been completed and the final report has been submitted.

PHHL constructed the heliport at CWG Village (Akshardham) with best facilities. As the ownership of the heliport belongs to DDA,PHHL has requested DDA to grant permission to utilise the infrastructure/facilities for helicopter operations.

PHHL is planning to develop a Helicopter Training Academy-cum-Heliport at the existing Gliding Centre at Hadapsar,Pune,which is under administrative control and owned by DGCA. The project has been approved by Ministry of Civil Aviation and the DGCA has released an amount of `10 crore for the purpose. PHHL signed a MoU with DGCA on May 17,2010,and DGCA has authorised to use land and other infrastructural facilities for development at the Gliding Centre.

PHHL signed an MoU on July 23,2010,with HAL for carrying out a feasibility study for setting up a joint venture for operation and maintenance of ALH Dhruv,Chetak and Cheetah helicopters

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Equipped for total maintenance

KING OF THE SEA: The then Minister for Civil Aviation, Praful Patel at the launch of India’s first Sea Plane (amphibian plane) of Pawan Hans Helicopters.

Three Dauphin N3 and two Mi172 helicopters are on order and delivery of these helicopters would take place between 2011 and 2012

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of the defence forces. The Boards of HAL and PHHL have given in-principle approval for setting-up of the said JV of 50:50 and further discussions are in progress.

The company set up a DGCA approved helicopters training institute at Mumbai — Pawan Hans Helicopters Training Institute (PHTI) — in September 2009.

In June 2010, PHHL started the National Institute of Aviation Safety & Services (NIASS) at Delhi for safety management system and safety awareness in the country. The institute aims to catering to emerging safety standards and audit compliances in helicopter industry in India and to provide consultancy in conducting audits for various aviation set-ups of PSUs/state governments/private operators. The Institute has started conducting courses on aviation safety and would also provide consultancy services to other clients,new start-ups and audits of various helipad/heliport/offshore installations.

Acquisition of new fleet: PHHL has signed agreements with helicopter manufacturers for purchase of ten Dauphin N3, three AS350B3 and two Mi-172 helicopters. The company has signed an agreement with ONGC on August 13, 2010 for term loan up to `275 crore,being 80 per cent of the estimated cost for purchase of seven new Dauphin N3 helicopters.

Further, the company has also signed an MOU with NTPC for long-term lease of a new Dauphin N3 helicopter for 10 years with loan for 100 per cent funding for that helicopter. Till the delivery of the new Dauphin N3, a Dauphin N has been provided to NTPC on wet lease basis.

PHHL has acquired seven new Dauphin N-3 and three AS-350 B3 helicopters till date. Further,three Dauphin N3 and two Mi-172 helicopters are on order and delivery of these helicopters would take place between 2011 and 2012. While ONGC has funded `261 crore towards 80 per cent of the cost of seven Dauphin N-3s, NTPC has agreed to fund the cost of a Dauphin N-3. The rest of the helicopters will be financed through external borrowings.

Since it started operations, PHHL has built up adequate infrastructure/maintenance facilities (CAR 145 standard), qualified engineers and technical staff for the maintenance of different types of helicopters that the company operates from different locations. Among these are Dauphin SA 365 N and N3, MI-172, Bell 206 L4, Bell 407 and Ecureuil AS 350 B3.

In addition, Pawan Hans also undertakes repair/maintenance of helicopters and components owned by others as per the approved CAR 145 standard. It has, for example, operations and maintenance contracts for Dauphin AS 365 N3 of the government of Gujarat and Dhruv helicopters of the Ministry of Home Affairs and the ONGC. PHHL has approved CAR 145 standard SOAP Lab for monitoring the health of aero engines and gear boxes by analysis of lubricating oil for concentration of metals by the atomic emission method. The state-of-the-art workshop facilities are located at Mumbai (western region) and Delhi (northern region).

The workshops at the regions are: Main Rotor Blade Shop

Engine Shop

Composite Repair Shop

Safety Shop

Battery Shop

Radio Shop

SOAP Lab

Instrument Lab

Electrical Shop The Main Rotor Blade shop in Mumbai is the only one of its kind in Asia approved by Eurocopter and is capable of undertaking repair jobs on the main rotor blades of the Dauphin series helicopters. The Mumbai base is approved for carrying out inspections on A3-rated helicopters that include the Dauphin SA365N installed with ARRIEL 1C engine; the AS365N3 with Arriel 2C engine and the MI172 with TV3-117 engine. The Delhi base is approved to carry out inspections on A3 rated helicopters, which include Bell and Ecureuil AS 350B3 helicopters.

The northern region and western region are also approved for other servicing/ maintenance of helicopter components, These are: C3-rated communication and navigation equipment, C5-rated electrical components, C 6-rated equipment which includes ELTs, liferafts, C7-rated engines APU, C9-rated fuel units, C10-rated helicopter rotors, C11-rated helicopter transmission such as tacho generator, C12-rated hydraulics, C13-rated instruments like 14 scale indicator, C14-rated landing gears, C18-rated protection instruments like fire detector and C 20-rated structural checks, etc.

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Mid-life upgrade programme of Dauphin fleet: With a view to meet the requirements of DGCA and the ONGC contract for Aviation Standard-4 (AS-4) compliant helicopters,retrofit programme for the Dauphin fleet has been undertaken in a phased manner. The programme has been undertaken for better safety and improved serviceability of the Dauphin fleet in view of on-time monitoring of all dynamic components and engines by the technical personnel of the company. Presently,18 AS-4-compliant Dauphin helicopters after upgrade programme are available for use.

The company has a team of dedicated highly motivated and skilled manpower comprising pilots,engineers,executives,technicians and support staff. The total staff strength of regular and contractual employees was 981 as on July 31,2011 PHHL prides itself as a self-contained organisation with workshops covering different requirements (instruments, electrical, safety equipment, synthetic panel, component repair shop, spectrometric Oil Analysis Procedure Lab and radio including full test data checks) are available on site at Mumbai. All periodic inspections as well as overhaul are carried out in-house.

All aircrew must pass proficiency tests every six months. Maintenance crew undergo regular refresher courses. Meticulous maintenance checks on helicopters are carried out and extensive workshops with in-house facilities provide the back up.

The maintenance capability has been upgraded to carry out major 'G' inspections (airframe overhaul) totally in-house without any foreign assistance.

Further,to meet the requirement of present and future helicopter requirements of Coast Guard and other para-military forces like ITBP, BRO, BSF, etc., PHHL has initiated the setting up of a Joint Working Group with the Ministry of Defence in the national interest to ensure that the requirements can be met on a consolidated basis through PHHL. These organizations can provide funding for their requirement of helicopters to PHHL as PHHL needs large amounts for acquisition of helicopters.

PHHL is also an approved maintenance centre for the servicing of Dauphin series of helicopters and is part of Eurocopter Network of Authorized Maintenance Centre (AMC) worldwide for servicing in India and other South East Asian countries.

PHHL's pilots, maintenance technicians, and support personnel are all committed to safety and service excellence. Throughout its history, PHHL has taken the initiative in developing safe operational techniques in many demanding conditions. Whether on the ground or in the air, PHHL's talented professionals stand ready to meet the customer. The experience and expertise the company has developed and its dedication to excellence in serving the customer has enabled it to maintain position of leadership.

The commitment to excellence reflects on the financial results of the company. PHHL has been maintaining excellent financial results year-after- year and has been regularly paying dividends to the Government of India and ONGC for the last 15 years. „

When Pawan Hans, a public sector corporation with a proven track record, decided to open an engineering training institute at Mumbai, experts from the industry felt that R K Tyagi, Chairman and Managing Director, Pawan Hans Helicopters, had taken a momentous decision. Indeed, with the birth of the Pawan Hans Helicopter Training Institute (PHTI), the helicopter industry in the country had taken a leap into the future.

PHTI is approved by the Director General of Civil Aviation (Government of India). The course confirms to the approved ab-initio training requirements in the field of aircraft maintenance engineering to prepare candidates to appear for basic licence examinations conducted by DGCA. The training course in aircraft maintenance engineering is designed to provide students with a comprehensive knowledge of aircraft systems, and good maintenance practices to enable them to become skilled and competent maintenance professionals. The essential instructions include knowledge of Aircraft Manual (India), Civil Aviation Requirements, Airworthiness Advisory Circulars, etc.; Theoretical and practical technical knowledge of design, construction, maintenance and operation of aircraft, engines, systems and aircraft materials used in construction of airframes, engines and accessories; Knowledge of workshop practices and skill in the use of various equipment, general and special tools used in aircraft maintenance; and, knowledge of good maintenance practices, human factors and human performance, necessary judgment and competence required to assess the airworthiness of aircraft and its equipment.

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REACHING THE DIVINE: Pawan Hans also runs helicopter services to Vaishno Devi and Kedarnath.

In today's market, there is no substitute for professionalism and PHHL's staff is dedicated to being the best in the business

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A dream realised DELHI’S ICONIC T3 TERMINAL AT DELHI’S INDIRA GANDHI INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT HAS GONE FROM STRENGTH TO STRENGTH SINCE IT STARTED OPERATIONS. TODAY, AS IGIA HIT THE TOP SPOT WITH THE MAXIMUM NUMBER OF FLIGHTS HANDLED, WE RECAPITULATE THE STORY AS IT WAS PLAYED AT ITS INAUGURATION. arely two months ago — almost to the date — Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGI) — created another milestone: it pipped Mumbai to become the busiest airport. The daily flight movement at Delhi on August 18 this year reached 872 as opposed to Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport which is handling more than 700 flights daily. One of the major reasons for IGI’s rise to the first position is, of course, the terminal. T3 has indeed added to the airport’s capacity. According to airport officials, T3 can handle 34 million passengers per annum and with the other terminals, T1 C and D, IGI will be capable of handling 60 million passengers annually.

Today, the infrastructure at IGI has enhanced passenger convenience. Before 2007, there were only 143 check-in counters at IGI but now there are 248. In addition, there are 78 aerobridges when compared to the earlier nine and 64 boarding gates compared to 23 just four years ago.

The numbers must have satisfied Kiran Kumar Grandhi (he was heading the airport business for the past nearly four years but has recently made way for Srinivas Bomidilla, who was heading the airport segment for GMR and was, in fact, at the helm when the foundation stone for T3 was laid).

Grandhi took over as Chairman of the gargantuan

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T3 has indeed added to the airport’s capacity.

According to airport officials, T3 can handle 34 million passengers per annum

AESTHETICALLY DESIGNED: T3 catches the passengers' attention by its well-laid-out interiors.

GMR group’s airport business just around the time the construction of the T3 was beginning and since then it has been like a yo-yo: Hyderabad-Delhi-Hyderabad-Bengaluru (where the group is headquartered)-Delhi. And the three years had been eventful in more ways than one.

Grandhi’s second son was born during that time, Turkey’s Sabiha Gokcen Airport (that GMR runs in partnership with that country’s Limak group) was commissioned in a record 18 months and as T3 was dedicated to the nation came the news that the group had bagged Male airport.

Many believe the GMR group has been rushing too soon and too fast. But insiders believe that patriarch Grandhi Mallikarjun Rao is making up for lost time. What began almost 30 years ago as a single jute mill in the village of Rajam is now an infrastructure giant with interests in power, roads highways and airports. Along the way, they dabbled in banks, insurance and breweries, but that’s all behind them with the brewery being the last to go to Vijay Mallya and UB, whose airline, Kingfisher, is one of the big birds in the Indian aviation sky. “Our journey to today’s GMR happened just accidentally. Whatever opportunity came up, we took it,” Rao does not tire of saying time and again, but he concedes that the Delhi airport project is in the make-or-break mould. It will

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catapult them into a different orbit and he is conscious of the weight of expectations. “We have set high benchmarks and I know big things are expected of GMR-DIAL (Delhi International Airport Ltd — the consortium that will operate the

AIRPORT EXPRESS A HIT Delhi Metro’s Airport Express Corridor, which takes passengers from Connaught Place to the International Airport in 18 minutes, is slowly becoming popular among Delhiites .The 23-km high-speed link which was opened to the public in February end helps passengers travel to IGI Airport from New Delhi at a cost of `80 in 18 minutes

SERVICE AT ITS BEST: Delhi Airport provides hassle-free service to travellers through well-administered check-in counters.

Indira Gandhi International Airport).”

It’s a dream that the close lieutenant and CEO (Airport Development), DIAL, Indana Prabhakara Rao has diligently executed these past four years.

And the crowning glory came when the airport

with one stop in between initially. Currently, the corridor has a 16-hour run from 6 AM to 10 PM, which is likely to go up to 20 hours soon.

Trials of the baggage check-in facility on the Airport Metro Express Line are in the process of starting in view of the launch of the facility on May 1. Representatives of Reliance Infrastructure and Delhi International Airport Limited

(DIAL) will carry out the mock check-in process, during which boarding passes will be issued and baggage checked in at the Metro stations of New Delhi and Shivaji Stadium. Passengers who get boarding passes and check in their baggage at three City Airport Terminals — New Delhi, Shivaji Stadium and Dhaula Kuan — will not have to pay anything extra for the facility.

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Rao, who was an Executive Assistant to the Chairman some ten years back, was seconded for the group’s biggest project

deal with. We had to teach them best practices and if they had a problem we intervened to help resolve it. With over 30,000 workers, it was like a mini Bharat and we had to look after them.”

There is a 12-bed hospital on the site and the group organised a weekly mela for the workers to get their shopping done. “The only thing we didn’t have was a school since there were no families on the site.”

It’s an enthusiasm that’s shared by M P Naidu, Larsen and Toubro (L&T )’s man on the spot. This was the single-biggest contract in the L&T portfolio with a value of close to `8,000 crore. They are the old GMR hands having also done the Greenfield Hyderabad project. That apart, they are involved with Mumbai airport’s renovation and own a piece of the action at Bengaluru. But Naidu believes, the Delhi project takes the cake for the

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hit the top slot with 872 flights.

A GMR veteran who has spent a lifetime executing big ticket power projects, Rao, who was an Executive Assistant to the Chairman some ten years back, was seconded for the group’s biggest project because of his fearsome reputation for getting things done on time. No wonder, the terminal was completed in 37 months (Singapore’s Changi Airport’s T3 took 76 months and Heathrow’s new Terminal 5 took 60 months). He laughs when you ask him if his core team used to meet daily to map strategy: “We had daily sunrise meetings and sunset meetings of all key personnel to take stock of the progress. That was the only way forward.” There is a childlike enthusiasm in the manner in which Rao outlines the project and how they went about executing it: “We had nearly 200 contractors and sub-contractors to

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2007

>> Jan - GMR-led consortium was awarded the mandate to modernise the Delhi Airport after a competitive bidding process. >> April - Operation, Management and Development Agreement (OMDA) signed. >> May - Airport handed over to Joint Venture Company (DIAL). >> Aug - Transition phase completed. >> Sep - DIAL submits master plan for modernisation and restructuring of Delhi Airport. >> Oct - DIAL appoints Parsons Brinckerhoff as Project Management Consultants for the modernisation of Delhi Airport. >> Nov - Upgradation works of Terminal 2 (International Terminal) commenced. >> Dec - DIAL unveils master plan for Delhi Airport.

>> Feb - Sonia Gandhi lays foundation stone of Terminal 3 at IGI Airport. >> May - DIAL completes its first year of operations and Airbus A380 made its maiden landing in India at Delhi Airport. >> Oct - DIAL has been awarded the prestigious ISO 9001:2000 quality certificate for Indira Gandhi International Airport. >> Dec - DIAL signs financial documents with its project lenders.

‘unique manner’ in which it has been structured.

“Both the design and the construction went on side-by-side. Usually it takes close to two years for the design to be frozen. But in this case once the basic concept was frozen, the construction and the design happened simultaneously.”

To help iron out issues, they had an executive committee meeting that included G M Rao, Kiran Grandhi, S M Naik as well as Naidu and Prabhakara Rao. “If there were differences in perception, this committee usually gave a direction one way or the other to proceed ahead. It helped smooth things greatly,” said Naidu who was categorical that the 37-month deadline could never have been met but for the almost complete sync between the two teams in their objective.

2008 >> Apr - Airport Operations & Command Centre (AOCC) goes live at the airport. >> May - DIAL completes its two years of operations. >> Jun - Modernisation works of the international terminal of IGI Airport completed. >> Aug - Inaugural flight lands at the new runway at IGI Airport. >> Sep - Airport’s third runway opens for commercial operation.

L&T had over 250 design engineers on the site for most times of the project and over 30 expats were closely involved during the brickand-mortar stage till the project was ready for the interiors.

While the expats arrived in droves to set up base at Udaan Bhawan (IGI’s administrative offices), GMR and DIAL had their best and brightest travel the world and come back with a perspective — how it could be tweaked to make it the best. So, there was plenty to learn from Incheon, Suvarnabhumi, Heathrow, Madrid, Frankfurt, Dubai and Hong Kong. They wanted the elegance of Changi, the smoothness of Incheon, the buzz of Hong Kong and the business-like professionalism of Barcelona.

Delhi offers top-of-the-line duty free

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elhi Duty Free Services (DDFS) recently launched a new media D campaign to highlight its status as a one-stop shopping destination for travellers. The focus of the campaign is to capture the attention of frequent travellers and holidaymakers and promote DDFS' offer of cosmetics, perfumes, confectionery, liquor and accessories at duty-free prices.

Aptly titled, 'A Whole New World', the campaign invites travellers to "experience world-class store atmosphere, an assortment of top global brands, the widest range and irresistible prices" compared to other duty-free markets and retailers. The campaign is being supported by instore promotions including a Formula One-themed activity called Shopping Brand Prix and the Diwali-themed Diwali Delights, with more than 120 offers across all categories planned.

What a spread! DDFS comprises 40,000-square-metres of commercial space including 4,000-square-metres of a walkthrough duty-free area, 800square-metres of luxury retail, 6,300square-metres of speciality retail, 5,500-square-metres of mass and premium F&B, a games zone, a spa and a transit hotel.

The vision is to explore the future of retail excitement and retail development in travel retail. In T3, you have a very interesting combination.

You have a completely different target audience, which you don't see at other airports. If you look at international, you have the business traveller and you have the international worker (blue collar). At the same time, you have the domestic traveller with the kind of spending power that is growing very fast — but with an Indian mentality where value for

money is still the most important thing. This is a different type of passenger because in travel retail, everything is about impulse and impulse is not always value for money. And in India you have to target an audience with impulse in combination with the value for money.

The retail space at T3 will finally stock some 20,000 kinds of products and nearly 1,000 brands. It will have stores by fashion and jewellery companies such as the Versace Group, Marks and Spencer Group Plc, WH Smith Plc and Swarovski Group. The airport operator expects sales at T3 to be around `3,000 crore over the next few years. A passenger currently spends less than $3 on an average while shopping at Indian airports, according to retail industry estimates, while the global average is $15.

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>> Oct - Upgradation of facilities at Haj Terminal.

2009 >> Feb - New domestic departure terminal 1D inaugurated. >> Apr - Commercial operations commenced at new domestic terminal.

2010 >> Feb - IGI Airport rated as the ‘Best Improved Airport’ at ACI Awards. >> Jul - New integrated passenger terminal (T3) inaugurated at the airport. In addition, seamless transition of international operations to T3.

2011 >> Feb - GMR’s Delhi airport ranked as the 4th best airport in the world in the category of 25-40 MPPA airport.

To achieve this incredible mix, DIAL hired global consultants across the board. Designed

by Mott MacDonald (its aviation division provided the master plan, concept and preliminary designs as well as environmental impact management, traffic forecasting and tender assistance) and HOK architects and consultants (this terminal will more than double the airport’s passenger capacity).

The team also designed 1.3 million square feet (120,000 square metres) of renovation projects to refurbish and extend existing terminals) that was constructed by Larsen and Toubro (L&T), Meinhardt Engineering and Airbiz of Australia (an independent international specialist aviation consultancy) with project management by

>> Apr - 6th ACI Asia Pacific Regional Assembly Conference and Exhibition in New Delhi ; T3 first amongst the world’s airports to get LEED NC Gold rating. >> Jun - City check-in facilities become operational for Airport Express Metro’s passengers. >> Jul - Boeing 787 Dreamliner makes it India debut at Delhi Airport.

SHOPPERS’ DELIGHT: Shopping at T3 has been revolutionised by duty-free shops.

Parsons Brinckerhoff International Inc (that provides strategic consulting, planning, engineering, and programme and construction management services).

DIAL had engaged Munich Airport International (MUC), the experts in Operational Readiness and Airport Transfer (ORAT ). If anyone had visited the T3 in the early days, one would have seen ORAT in full swing: bags being dispatched, check-ins are being effected, passengers being moved through security. A complete dry run, day in and day out for over three months to achieve the perfect score!

Or, take Wipro, which was responsible for complete IT management in T3 and will deliver seamless and highly available airport IT operations. The

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ome 2014 and Delhi Airport will create another first in the country when the Las Vegasbased hotel-casino MGM Grand opens its doors to welcome its guests. The hotel (of course, minus the casino) in the airport hospitality district will be MGM's first destination in India.

The MGM Grand and Skylofts will be a part of the multiple-hotel development project at the international airport that will see a whole range of starred hotels — from the three to the five — coming up in a few years. Among those that are slated are the JW Marriott, Hyatt Andaz and Hyatt Place, Dusit D2, Pride Hotel, Pullman, Red Fox, Lemon Tree, Ibis, Holiday Inn and Novotel. In addition, there will be a 100-room hotel facility inside the Delhi International Airport, to cater mainly to passengers in transit. Expected to be operational by December this year, it will be run

by Delhi International Airport Ltd (DIAL).

All the hotels are looking forward to the growing number of passengers who use the airport. Today, as many as 26 million passengers fly in and out of Delhi annually or around 70,000 everyday. T3 is ready to accommodate 34 million passengers annually and will slowly expand to take in 100 million annually. With such expected volumes at the airport, hotels have projected an average occupancy of 60 per cent in the first year of business. As Delhi moves to become a hub terminal such as Changi or Dubai, the hotels would see increases of up to 30 per cent in the number of guests. In addition, the hotels would have captive business from the airlines. Today, most airlines prefer to keep the crew in hotels in the city but when the hotels at the airport open up, these would be utilised to save time.

Now that Delhi's T3 is well known throughout the world, hotel operators in the airport's hospitality district feel that the biggest driver of growth in the medium to long term would be the meetings, conventions and entertainment (MICE) segment while the commercial and leisure segments will also do well. For the moment, however, there is only a small supply of hotel rooms around Delhi airport unlike Mumbai airport, which is surrounded by a number of hotels.

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International Airport Limited A TREAT FOR EYES: Wellcrafted murals and artwork catch the travellers' attention.

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Add to that, an overall nationwide fall of around five per cent in domestic traffic and DIAL’s revenues were affected

scope includes airport-specific applications, data centre, networks, security and surveillance systems and end-user systems. Additionally, Wipro will be responsible for managing a host of intelligent systems, including building management systems, access control, public address and telephony. For passengers, this engagement will deliver superior customer experience; for airlines, it will deliver fast efficient systems, which enable quicker turnaround times.

But it had not been an easy haul. The original project cost was around `8,975 crore. But estimates said that the project would cost around `12,700 crore, up 41 per cent over the earlier estimated cost. DIAL expected that it would be able to raise over `2,500 crore as refundable security deposits from real estate and hotel companies that bid for the project in the hospitality sector of the airport. But there was a huge controversy surrounding the effort to raise the deposits and by the time the issue was resolved, the red-hot sector had gone into a deep slump. Instead of `2,500 crore, DIAL managed to raise `900 crore. Add to that, an overall nationwide fall of around five per cent in domestic traffic and DIAL’s revenues were affected. Projects like additional taxiways and so on had also escalated the project costs.

AAI projections had visualised a 20-million traffic flow by 2012, but who had reckoned with a 20 per cent year-on-year growth for a straight three years? The estimate was later revised by Mott MacDonald to close to 38 million. What that meant was some more time at the drawing board and a terminal that would now be close to double the original planned 2,50,000 sq metres.

Observers have in the last few years viewed GMR’s ability to tweak the system to do its

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Big leap for Delhi's air cargo

elhi will soon have world-class cargo handling services provided by Cargo Service Centre India (CSC India). CSC has taken a move that will take Delhi Airport's cargo facility into the big leagues. The Delhi Cargo Services Centre (DCSC), a special purpose vehicle (SPV) of Delhi International Airport Pvt. Ltd. and CSC, has signed on Siemens to set up a state-of-the-art cargo handling equipment for the Integrated Cargo Complex at Delhi International Airport.

The 70,000-square metre Greenfield air cargo complex at Delhi airport will comprise two terminals. The complex, entailing an investment of $80 million, will have the capacity to handle close to a million MT of cargo when fully completed. While the first phase of the project is ready for commissioning by July 2011, the project is scheduled for completion by March 2012. With a high degree of automation, the facility will be able to handle all types of cargo: general, perishable, express, valuable and dangerous goods as well as live animals for both international and domestic sectors under an integrated terminal concept.

FUTURE READY: A graphic representation of the cargo service centre, which will come up at Delhi Airport.

Siemens Limited's Mobility Division will outfit the main terminal — T1 with air cargo handling solution (MHS) which will include Automatic Storage and Retrieval System, Cargo Workstation, Pallet and Container Storage and Handling System, all managed and controlled by high-level IT systems. Siemens Mobility Division will also supply high-end automation, Elevating Transfer Vehicles (ETV ), Transfer Vehicles (TV ), shuttles and hoists for fast movement of unit loading devices. High-end software that interfaces with other IT systems will ensure faster clearance of cargo.

Starting with a mechanised handling system, in a span of four years, T1 will be largely automated in its operations with a capacity to handle more than 600,000 MT of cargo annually. Siemens will also maintain the system initially for a period of two years. The total investment in the MHS will be to the tune of €37 million, of which the initial order to Siemens is for €27 million, approximately `165 crore, which is till date India's largest cargo handling system contract.

bidding as one of its greatest assets. But insiders say that it is unfair and that they have literally worked their soles off in lobbying with the government and “convincing them about every issue that we have raised over the years”. It was a chore that was handled by Subbah Rao in the early days.

On any afternoon, you could have spotted him in the corridors of the Ministry of Civil Aviation at Rajiv Gandhi Bhawan or at the AAI or at the Delhi State Secretariat or in the labyrinthine corridors of North or South Block. His moment of glory came when more than 40 secretaries visited the airport along with the Cabinet Secretary for a final meeting of the NFC (National Facilitation Committee) — and gave a thumbs-up to the airport.

The setting-up of the NFC itself was reflective

The dream took shape: a `12,000-plus crore project6,00,000 cubic mt of concrete, 1, 00,000 tonnes of steel, 100,000 sq mt of glass walls

of the drive and zeal that the then Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel exhibited in the first five years of his tenure. He literally talked the Prime Minister into creating this committee of super secretaries to streamline the construction of the airport at a fast clip and clear the bottlenecks along the way. One major achievement was to get the village of Nangal Dewat cleared. At another level, it took some persuasion to get several temples moved to one omnibus site that is visible as one moves on the Gurgaon highway with Runway 28 in the horizon.

Ultimately, the dream took shape: a `12,000plus crore project — 6, 00,000 cubic mt of concrete, 1,00,000 tonnes of steel, 100,000 sq mt of glass walls. As G M Rao says: “We had a vision and everyone helped implement it.”

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Hyderabad is ready for the world

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RAJIV GANDHI INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT IS READY TO ASSUME ITS POSITION AS AN IMPORTANT HUB ON THE GLOBAL AVIATION MAP. IN ADDITION TO TWO IMPORTANT FACTORS GOING FOR IT — THE EXPANDING INDIAN AVIATION SECTOR AND HYDERABAD’S STRATEGIC LOCATION — THE AIRPORT HAS CHALKED OUT A STRATEGY TO ACHIEVE ITS GOALS. hen in April last year, GMR Hyderabad International airport won the Routes Airport Marketing Award in the Indian Sub-Continent category in the Routes Asia 2010 conference in Adelaide, the airport’s operators took the honour in their stride. Winning awards comes naturally to the GMR-led Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (RGIA). And as for the Routes award, the 2010 one was the second one for the airport: it had won the same award in 2009.

RGIA was also rated as the world No.1 by ACI in 5-15 million category for two consecutive years, i.e. 2009 and 2010. The airport has also been adjudged as the 5th best across all categories in the world for 2009.

These honours were strong affirmations for the kind of service provided by RGIA. Capitalising on its strategic location on the map of India, the airport is within two hours flying time of most metro cities in the country. Internationally too, Hyderabad makes an ideal transit point for flights from west to east and vice versa. Located around 25 kms from the city and built to the capacity of 40 million passengers per annum, the RGIA is designed to handle new large aircraft (NLA), including the Airbus A380.

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RGIA was rated the best in the world by Airports Council International (ACI) in the 5-15 million passengers category for its Airport Service Quality for 2010.

BEAUTIFUL EDIFICE: Inside decors of Bengaluru Airport are treat to watch.

The airport, which was commissioned in a record time of 31 months in March 2008, has an initial capacity of 12 million passengers per annum (MPPA) and 100,000 tonnes of cargo-handling capacity per annum. The airport provides worldclass facilities and infrastructure, in accordance with ICAO standards and practices to handle large aircraft and international traffic. In fact, the RGIA is the first Indian airport to have the Airport Operations Control Centre, which acts as the nerve centre for all coordination within the airport.

Other salient features of the airport include an integrated terminal that offers an international experience with a local flavour, an airport village with shopping arcade, a 305-room business hotel located just three kilometres away from the airport, conference facilities for the business traveller and integrated modern IT systems. The airport has 13 lounges including the airline lounges being operated by Air India and Kingfisher. Plaza Premium operates the country’s first airline independent lounges at both domestic and international departure concourses, offering services such as business centre, baggage hold with pick-up and delivery, 28 bed Nap and Shower besides spa services as well.

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“Regional connectivity is the first step toward a global hub” VIKRAM JAISINGHANI, CEO, RGIA, ON THE AIRPORT'S KEY AREAS OF FOCUS IN THE COMING DAYS What are your priorities?

customers (passengers, airlines, freight forwarders) through proactive feedback. Communication, continuous training and concentration on continuous improvements are the key strategies of service quality at RGIA. Wellestablished systems and processes integrated with all stakeholders systems have enabled us to achieve our common goal: passenger delight. We have also enhanced service quality continually by understanding the customer satisfaction levels and expectations from all possible sources, analysed and focused on actions with the help of all stakeholders.

We have been helped by the commitment shown by all the regulatory authorities and our business partners who worked shoulder-to-shoulder with our team in the airport making it possible.

First, we would like to enhance regional connectivity at Hyderabad airport. For an airport to transform itself into a global hub, the fundamental requirement is to evolve a hub and spoke strategy efficiently. The hub-and-spoke model envisages creation of a dense network of frequencies and destinations. Regional connectivity is the first step in this direction.

Considering this fact, we want to enhance regional connectivity, thereby establishing Hyderabad Airport as a gateway to South and Central India and a hub of choice. Currently, the regional routes are largely unserved and underserved out of Hyderabad. At Hyderabad, percentage capacity deployed on nonmetro routes is only 35 per cent, but based on various reports, there is a huge demand for regional services. The National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) reports have shown that several Tier II/III cities have average household incomes that are as high, or higher, than the metro cities and are growing faster. There are 19 cities, which have been identified by Hyderabad Airport for enhancing regional connectivity. The benefits of enhanced regional connectivity will be: 1) strong feeder traffic to domestic trunk routes; 2) strong feeder traffic to international routes; 3) increased transfer traffic; and, 4) improved route network, creating additional travel options.

Are there any expansion plans on the cards?

The airport is built to take a passenger load of 12 mppa in the first phase. The expansion will be effected as and when we reach the traffic triggers defined in the master plan. In its final form, RGIA will be a twin runway airport catering to over 40 mppa.

You want your airport to be the hub of the region. How do you plan to go about that? a. By enhancing regional connectivity to facilitate more domestic and international connectivity; b. By improving our transfer processes; and, c. By working together with airlines to make Hyderabad the preferred choice of passengers.

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What will be your key areas of focus?

Apart from enhancing regional connectivity, revamp of departure retail area, enhancing the passenger shopping experience and attracting cargo traffic, we will be going all out to retain our world No 1 position in the ACI ASQ ranking as well as improve upon our score. The best way to do this will be by delighting customers with pleasurable experiences at RGIA. We also need to work together with various stakeholders at the airport so that all of us provide a better, faster response as a team without any divides and make flying a great experience for all passengers.

We have in place a business excellence framework, which will go a long way towards helping us achieve these goals.

The airport performed admirably last year. How have you achieved this success?

Through relentless focus on improving service standards, regular training of employees of GHIAL as well as service-providers, including government agencies and by listening to our

Regional connectivity is the first step in this direction.

Considering this fact, we want to enhance regional connectivity.

A responsive government could give HIAL the push it requires to get into the big leagues. What more do you expect from the government?

We have an excellent working relationship with the governments of Andhra Pradesh and India.

We get all the cooperation we require for the smooth running of the airport from all agencies. However, the government could take some positive steps leading to benefits for the airport. The government could: (i) Classify airports as an industry ; (ii) Provide better connectivity by joining the existing metro terminals at Falaknuma and Shilparamam through RGIA; and (iii) Provide improved basic infrastructure at feeder airports susch as Rajahmundry, Vijayawada, etc.

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STRICT VIGIL: (Above) Controllers at work and (below) ATC tower at the Airport.

The airport, which was commissioned in a record time of 31 months in March 2008, has an initial capacity of 12 million passengers per annum.

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RGIA is the first airport in the world to be awarded the Leadership Energy and Environment Design (LEED) silver rating for its eco-friendly design. It has also won the ‘Outstanding Concrete Structure of Andhra Pradesh’ award from the Indian Concrete Institute.

Awards apart, RGIA is in innovation mode at all times. According to Vikram Jaisinghani, CEO, RGIA, the thrust is now on a revamp of the departure area. “We are undertaking a revamp of the departure retail area, and enhancing the shopping experience of passengers. We propose to double the area of both recreation and shopping for the passengers by creating new and innovative concepts.

The major thrust would be to make goods and services available to the passengers at city prices.

The entire terminal modification project would be carried out keeping the passengers’ convenience in mind. The idea is to give a unique experience to the passengers, by creating concepts, which would be first of its kind in the airport sector.”

Upgrading facilities for passengers is only one part of the RGIA story. The airport has plans to develop an aerotropolis on 1,000 acres, which will

promote education, healthcare, entertainment, hospitality, commercial and logistics ports around the airport. To begin with, the airport authorities signed an agreement with the Apollo Group to set up a hospital. In addition, the airport has got in touch with international corporates to form joint venture partnerships on the proposed 1,000 acres.

An airport bases special economic zone spread over 250 acres is also scheduled to be set up.

The airport has also started some joint venture projects. In February 2010, a 50-50 joint venture was signed with Malaysian Airlines for a maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) facility that is all set to begin its first phase of operations this year.

This is in addition to National Aviation Company of India Ltd (NACIL) setting up its airframe MRO facility on five acres of the airport land. In addition, the world’s top aircraft engine-maker CFM International has inaugurated its engine maintenance training centre at the Hyderabad Airport Aerospace Park.

While facilities for passengers will be upgraded, the airport is looking to position itself as a global hub. First on the list is the enhancement of regional connectivity. As CEO Jaisinghani explained, the basic requirement for an airport to become a global hub is to create an efficient hub-and-spoke system. For that, it is essential to have a substantial number of frequencies and destinations. The only way that can be possible is by encouraging regional connectivity. Once RGIA achieves that, the airport will become a gateway to southern and central India.

The CEO believes that the regional routes out of Hyderabad are unserved and underserved. In fact, the percentage capacity deployed on nonmetro routes is only 35 per cent (see interview).

However, according to reports and surveys, the scope for the development of regional connectivity is immense. SpiceJet has announced the Hyderabad as its Hub for Tier 2 and 3 cities in South and Central India. Recently, SpiceJet with its Bombardier Q400 fleet has commenced its operations to three new destinations from Hyderabad-Madurai,

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MR Hyderabad International Airport (GHIAL) was recently awarded the prestigious National Tourism Award 2009-10, under the best airport category. The airport has been adjudged as the best airport in India for actively promoting tourism, not only at Andhra Pradesh but also at a pan-India level. The Ministry of Tourism, Government of India, presents the National Tourism Awards to various segments of the travel and tourism industry every year, that include states/union territories, hotels, travel agents, tour operators, airports, etc., to recognise their performance with an aim to promote tourism. The award was accepted by P S Nair, Chief Executive Officer-Corporate, Airport Sector and Raveen Pinto, Head, Aero Commercials and Route Development, GHIAL at the award ceremony function in New Delhi.

The National Tourism Awards 2009-10 under the best airport category was open for all the Indian airports, providing the best facilities to passengers and guests. The criteria for selection included:

Creation of tourist-friendly atmosphere, infrastructure and initiatives to support tourism by the airport;

Facilities provided to visitors such as seating facilities, toilets, eating outlets, etc at the airports;

Maintenance and upkeep of the airport;

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Adaptation of eco-friendly practices; Availability of transport facility from airport to the nearest city centre;

Display of proper signages at important locations;

Facilities for the physically-challenged persons, particularly at the point of boarding; and,

Other relevant facilities at the airport.

Hyderabad Airport has shown excellence as per the prescribed criteria. The airport has the best infrastructure and facilities, with an emphasis on eco-friendly practices. Facilities and services provided are passenger-friendly with special attention towards convenience and comfort. Hyderabad Airport is also actively working with the Government of Andhra Pradesh, airlines, travel agents and other related bodies to promote Andhra Pradesh Tourism on the global platform. The airport participates jointly with Andhra Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation (APTDC) in various events to promote Destination-Hyderabad internationally.

Under tourism promotion, APTDC has a 24x7 counter at the airport to provide information about tourism packages. Other joint efforts include promotion of ‘Destination Hyderabad’ to all passengers, from untapped destinations to sumptuous cuisine; promotion of business packages for Tirupati, a key temple tourist spot; promotion of medical, film tourism, etc. The airport also makes maximum utilisation of the advertising space for promoting various passenger informative advertisements, such as those on India’s tourism destinations and air-connectivity

Tourists love RGIA

GHIAL was recently awarded the prestigious National Tourism Award 2009-10, under the best airport category

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Business school in an airport

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The country’s first fullyfledged international business school campus will be built at the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport and will become an integral part of its aerotropolis vision. In a partnership between the airport operator GMR and the Toronto-based Schulich School of Business at York University, Schulich will develop the facilities, curriculum, staff and learning programmes for 120 students, while GMR will provide the land and the physical campus. The campus development is pending final approvals by the boards of York University and the GMR Group, admissions are expected to commence no later than 2013. According to V Raghunathan, CEO, GMR Varalakshmi Foundation,” GMR will bring its world-class infrastructure development skills to the table, while the Schulich School of Business will bring its expertise as one of the world’s toprated MBA programmes and Executive Education providers.”

The airport has developed 20 acres of FTZ area within the 250 acre Airport based SEZ at the airport in order to facilitate the fast growing logistics trade

Mangalore, Aurangabad and Trivandrum, and started its operations to Thirupathi, Vizag, Vijayawada, Madurai, Goa, Rajahmundry, Indore and Bhopal.

It is towards the enhancement of regional connectivity that the airport is keen to attract freighter airlines, grow cargo tonnage and possibly position Hyderabad first as a cargo hub of the country. The airport management has crafted out a threepronged strategy. The first is the establishment of a logistics hub. The airport has made substantial progress in discussions with major carriers for a strategic tie-up at Hyderabad. This initiative will help transform RGIA into a logistics hub for India and the subcontinent.

The second part of the strategy includes the formation of a Free Trade Zone (FTZ). The airport has developed 20 acres of FTZ area within the 250acre airport-based SEZ at the airport in order to facilitate the fast-growing logistics trade. The fact that the FTZ is inside the airport makes it unique and the first of its kind in India. It will bring down transportation costs and turnaround times for movement of goods and services for the FTZ-users and will benefit the end-customers in turn. The airport has started discussions with some large global logistics operators and would possibly tie up FTZ contracts with at least two such global operators within the next few weeks. The FTZ will allow its users to warehouse, distribute, trade and valueadded goods and services for their customers.

The third link in the strategy is improving surface connectivity. In its efforts to connect Hyderabad with other major cities in India through a surface network, the airport operators are designing a scheduled Road Feeder Service (RFS).

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advertisements. Hyderabad Airport has a complete focus on developing and promoting tourism by providing world-class infrastructure, passenger-friendly facilities, and its innovative ways to boost tourism and traffic out of Hyderabad. APTDC has recently started city tour for transit passengers. The passengers will be charged `475 for the three-hour tour.

Andhra Pradesh has been assured full cooperation in tapping tourism potential by the central government. In fact, the then Union Minister for Tourism and Housing Kumari Selja told media persons that she hoped that the 24x7 information-cum-reservation centre she had inaugurated at the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport at Shamshabad sometime last year, would give a boost to tourism in the state.

Tourists had been availing information from the 24x7 centre since the airport began functioning in 2008, but the facility to make reservations at AP Tourism hotels or resorts from the centre was inaugurated recently.

In addition to existing facilities for travellers, they can experience the luxurious spas located near Gate 25 and Gate 22 of domestic departures, inside the security hold area. These spas are operated by the nationwide airport spa chain O2 Spa. These spas offer services customised to passengers on-the-go. Services include Foot Reflexology, Body Massages, Neck and Back Massages, Facials, Pedicures and Manicures. All the services are competitively priced and are a perfect blend of Thai concepts with Indian elements.

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RGIA takes solid steps for cargo INNOVATIVE MOVES BY THE HYDERABAD INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT IN THE CARGO SECTOR LIKE THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE COUNTRY'S FIRST PHARMA ZONE, WILL GO A LONG WAY IN POSITIONING THE AIRPORT AS AN INTERNATIONAL CARGO HUB.

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ndia does not have an international cargo hub and at almost every air cargo/airport conference, the demand for the establishment of an international cargo hub is raised — only to be brushed aside or forgotten. The country’s new growth phase can be achieved by transforming ourselves into a major regional hub. The country is ideally positioned to stake its claim to this position because of its unique geographical location and ideal position between Asia and Europe.

Also, the country’s economy is driven by domestic consumption. Unlike most other hubs, the country has the power to consume and not just transship commodities through our airports. In addition, the Free Trade Agreement with SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) provides India an opportunity to consolidate movement into and out of the SAARC region.

RGIA has chalked out plans to transform itself into a cargo hub. The airport has a capacity of handling 100,000 tonnes. Spanning a total area of 14,330 sqmt of which the international section is around 6,610 sqmt and the domestic is 4,346 sqmt, GMR has plans to enhance the area and the facilities by setting up a bigger cold chain storage as well as a perishable warehouse in the cargo area so that by the end of 2011-12, the airport will be able to carry an additional capacity of 40,000 tonnes from the 60,000 tonnes it does today.

The Greenfield airport has seen cargo volumes rising constantly over the years — from 46,411 tonnes in 2006-07 (April 2006-March 2007) to 66,482 tonnes in 2009-10 (April 2009- March 2010) — leading the operators to launch the ambitious plan to turn the airport into a cargo hub.

Hyped as the country’s first airportbased dedicated pharmaceutical cargo storage and handling facility, the Pharma Zone is a joint venture between Hyderabad Menzies Air Cargo Private Ltd. (HMACPL), a unit of UK’s Menzies Aviation, and the operator of the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport, GMR Hyderabad International Airport Ltd. (GHIAL).

While GMR holds 51 per cent of the stake, Menzies has 49 per cent. Inaugurated by Kiran Kumar Grandhi, Business Chairman, Airports, GMR Group, the Zone has the capacity to handle 30,000 tonnes annually and will be able to meet the projected requirement of 7,000 tonnes next year and 30,000 tonnes by 2015-16.

According to HMACPL CEO Paul Smith, around 70 per cent of the export cargo from Hyderabad comprised pharma products. The state-of-the-art temperature-controlled facility had been so designed that pharma products such as bulk drugs, raw material, formulations, medicines and vaccines could be handled safely. The first airport-based

RGIA has chalked out plans to transform itself into a cargo hub. The airport has a capacity of handling 100,000 tonnes

dedicated temperature-controlled pharmaceutical handling facility in the country, there are chambers with temperature ranges from 2-8 degrees C to 1525 degrees C — both in sterile and non-sterile zones. Additionally, some of the Zone’s features include temperature tracking and monitoring with SMS, e-mail and audible alarm system and office facilities for customs and drug controller for rapid clearance.

After the inauguration of the Pharma Zone, Lufthansa Cargo and GHIAL signed a memorandum of understanding to jointly develop the airport into a major Asian cargo hub for the shipment of temperature-sensitive pharmaceutical products.

Lufthansa operates four weekly flights from the airport and is the only international frieghter to do so.

According to the memorandum of understanding, a modern infrastructure will be established at the airport to meet the complex requirements of reliable, temperature- controlled transport solutions. Under the terms of the partnership, Lufthansa Cargo will provide the capacity for the transport of temperature-sensitive cargo.

In fact, looking at the demand for pharma products, Lufthansa has planned to station for the first time outside Germany, its Opticoolers at Hyderabad airport that it showcased in August

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2010. Martin Schlingensiepen, Vice President, Product Management at Lufthansa Cargo, speaking at the signing of the memorandum of understanding said, “India is the world’s largest producer for generics. The demand for temperature-controlled transport will continue to grow substantially in the coming years. A strong partnership with GMR Hyderabad International Airport will enable us to offer our local customers, a tailor-made product for the fast and reliable transport of pharmaceuticals.”

The airport is also wooing Malaysia Airlines Cargo Sdn Bhd (MASkargo), the cargo division of Malaysia Airline System Bhd to start using the Pharma Zone. Malaysia, incidentally, has also been ramping up its biotech industry.

Now that Hyderabad has been handling around 81,000 tonnes of cargo annually, GMR has plans to develop the airport into a cargo hub for the country. According to the plans, a Free Trade Zone (FTZ), is being developed on 19.8 acres close to the Aerospace SEZ at the airport. The FTZ will aid logistic companies to store cargo for both short and long terms without attracting import duty.

Hyderabad’s Rajiv Gandhi International Airport has made astounding progress in the last two-anda-half years. Commissioned on March 23, 2008, the airport’s cargo complex is now regarded as the foremost in India. It has implemented the concept of an Integrated Cargo Facility housing both domestic and international facilities under one roof. The Air Cargo Complex has a built-in area of 14,330 sq metres with a capacity to handle cargo throughput of 100,000 MT annually. The air cargo

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Looking at the demand for pharma products, Lufthansa has planned to station for the first time outside Germany, its Opticoolers at Hyderabad airport

BUSY STOP: Inside view of air cargo complex at the Airport.

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section has dedicated cargo apron facilities for handling freighter operations.

The airport is building up on the state’s pharma-manufacturing potential to emerge as a global pharma hub. According to O R S Rao, Director, Cygnus Business Consulting & Research, Andhra Pradesh, has become the preferred destination for investments in pharmaceuticals for Indian as well as multinational companies. Speaking to Express Pharma magazine sometime ago, Rao had said that the state held a dominant position in the pharma industry with 33 per cent share of bulk drugs produced in the country. In value terms, the industry was worth $1.6 billion. Andhra Pradesh exports $500 million of pharma products from its more than 2,500 pharma companies.

Transshipment Facilities: In line with the airport’s objective of offering integrated cargo solutions, RGIA approached Customs to allow transshipments from the cargo terminal. RGIA was granted approval to set up a separate transshipment area within the integrated cargo terminal, which is fully operational. Cargo operators after obtaining necessary approvals from Customs can now transship both import and export cargo from the dedicated transshipment area. The integrated cargo terminal concept results in the efficient handing/taking over, handling and movements process for transshipment cargo.

Security Partnership Programme: DHL and Hyderabad Menzies Air Cargo Pvt Ltd (HMACPL), Hyderabad recently signed a security partnership for its freight forwarding division, DHL Global Forwarding. Through this partnership, both the organisations would work together and agree on standard operating procedures (SOP) for high value and high risk air cargo, to share best practices and information on crime trends to further improve the product delivery to customers.

Cargo Satellite Building : RGIA is the only airport in India to provide a dedicated Cargo Satellite Building (CSB) at a short distance from the integrated cargo terminal. The CSB provides facilities for trade such as warehouse and office space for logistics operators. The building is a multi-floor structure with the ground floor dedicated to warehousing operations and offices on first and second floors covering a total of approximately 11,000 sqmt.

Customs ICES Version 1.5 Implementation: In July 2010, RGIA was the airport site chosen by Indian Customs for migration and implementation of ICES’s Version 1.5. Customs chose RGIA for the go-live over other airports because of its superior infrastructure and facilities offered. Indian Customs started automating the process of cargo clearance a few years ago and upgraded to Version 1.5 in 2010 with an objective to help industries become more competitive and bring in efficiencies by way of automation through EDI. Looking at the demand for pharma products, Lufthansa has planned to station, for the first time outside Germany, its Opticoolers at Hyderabad airport.

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Mumbai: Committed to passenger comfort

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RUNNING CHHATRAPATI SHIVAJI INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT SMOOTHLY AND EFFICIENTLY WHEN LESS THAN HALF OF THE AIRPORT SPACE IS AVAILABLE FOR AIRPORT ACTIVITIES IS INDEED A TASK. SMART THINKING, DEFT PLANNING AND A RELENTLESS FOCUS ON IMPLEMENTATION HAVE BROUGHT GVK RICH REWARDS. ow do you run a smooth and efficient airport operation when less than half of the airport space is available for airport activities as much of its land had been illegally occupied by slums and other institutions that have been on the land for years. It requires some smart thinking, deft planning and a relentless focus on implementation.

That’s what the GVK-operated Mumbai International Airport Ltd (MIAL is a Public-Private Partnership joint venture between GVK, BSDM, ACSA Global and Airports Authority of India). MIAL was awarded the mandate for operating and modernising the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (CSIA) and has been focusing on that for last few years. Since taking over airport operations in 2006, MIAL has brought about a number of changes at CSIA with an ongoing focus on passenger convenience and comfort in the long term.

The journey to modernise Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport began soon after the Operations Management and Development Agreement (OMDA) was signed between Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL) and Airports Authority of India (AAI) on April 4, 2006. The airport operations were handed over to MIAL on May 3, 2006.

In the first year, MIAL initiated a number of significant changes at CSIA that were conducted at both an operational and an organisational level. With a clear focus on passenger convenience and comfort, MIAL introduced some immediate changes in the first year such as additional check-in counters, cleaner toilets, better housekeeping, improved signages, fast food kiosks, a website with live flight updates, kerbside management, aesthetic changes and smoother traffic flow. In effect, this period was marked by the start of the service transformation at CSIA. One of the key milestones was the unveiling of a comprehensive master plan, which encapsulated a blueprint for a major transformation of CSIA and a creation of a distinct brand identity, a first for any airport in India. This period also saw the start of major airside developments.

The milestones achieved during May 2006 and April 2007 were: y A new brand identity was unveiled for CSIA. The identity was derived from the form of a

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CLEAR DEMARCATION: Check-in counters at Mumbai Airport.

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peacock feather, into which the acronym CSIA was woven seamlessly y A comprehensive master plan was unveiled for CSIA and it clearly stated the vision to make CSIA a global benchmark amongst airports while lending it a distinct Indian character y A new website for CSIA — www.csia.in — along with free wireless network, providing enterprise-class Wi-Fi service throughout all the terminals at CSIA was launched — both firsts for any airport in India. y CSIA was voted the “Best Airport In India” in an independent survey of passengers and opinion-makers conducted by the APAI. y MIAL inaugurated a new Rapid Exit Taxiway called ‘India’, as part of its effort to upgrade the runway system at CSIA along with two new taxiways, parallel taxiway A4 and Rapid exit taxiway ‘W’, to reduce the runway occupancy time and improve the efficiency of aircraft movements.

Between May 2007 and April 2008, MIAL was built on the service-oriented culture at CSIA. The service transformation at CSIA continued in the second year of modernisation with the unveiling of a brand

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CSIA was voted the “Best Airport In India” in an independent survey of passengers and opinion makers conducted by the APAI

COORDINATION AT ITS BEST: Controllers at work in ATC room at the Airport.

new arrival terminal at 1B and the roll-out of a new duty-free retail experience. This helped in reinforcing MIAL’s commitment to the development of CSIA as world-class airport with state-of-the art infrastructure and the best possible facilities and management despite the numerous challenges.

In fact, one of the key milestones of this period remains Terminal 1B and the stupendous response it received from all stakeholders. This was also a period of awards and accolades with two major recognitions that CSIA was conferred with, i.e. the “Best Airport In Public-Private Partnership” by the APAI and the “Aeronautical Excellence Airport of the Year” award conferred by Frost & Sullivan.

The milestones achieved during the period were: y The new duty-free retail experience for passengers at CSIA was rolled out during this period.

To begin with, a new duty-free area operated

by DFS Galleria was also opened at the arrivals area of international Terminal 2C. y CSIA was conferred the 2008 Frost & Sullivan Asia Pacific Aerospace & Defense Awards “Aeronautical Excellence Airport of the Year” award for its exemplary efforts in developing the aero-

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nautical segment of the airport. It also got voted the “Best Airport In Public-Private Partnership” for the year 2007 by APAI. y CSIA crossed the 25-million passenger mark, a landmark of sorts — it recorded a passenger traffic of 25.8 million for the period April 2007 — March 2008 representing an almost 17 per cent jump over the corresponding period last year. y CSIA was fully geared to welcome the Airbus A380, which made a stop at Mumbai.

The pace of modernisation at CSIA picked up in the third year (May 2008-April 2009). The period was mainly marked by the commencement of the construction of the new integrated passenger terminal building at Sahar and the building of some noteworthy airside infrastructure at CSIA. This was undertaken as a part of MIAL’s ongoing efforts to upgrade the runway system and included amongst others the commissioning of two new taxiways — N9 and N10 — to reduce the runway occupancy time and improve runway efficiency for landing aircraft at CSIA. During the same period, the refurbished international terminals 2B & 2C were also opened to the flying public.

The achievements during the period saw MIAL

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MIAL is currently implementing a master plan, which includes building a new integrated passenger terminal at Sahar

flagging off the construction of the new integrated passenger terminal building at Sahar by undertaking the demolition of Terminal 2A. Among other notable achievements during this period were: y CSIA received a commendable rating of 3.57 in the ASQ survey carried out by ACI. The rating was the highest received by any airport in India during that time. y MIAL celebrated World Environment Day by organising a series of activities to mark the occasion and demonstrate its support to the cause of environment. y For the first time at any Indian airport, a luxury car was offered as part of a promotional activity at CSIA. In line with this, DFS India Pvt Ltd, the duty-free operator at CSIA, in association with Diageo, a leading spirits company announced a luxurious Mercedes Benz ‘C’ class as a prize for the Raffles draw.

MIAL is currently implementing a master plan, which includes building a new integrated passenger terminal at Sahar with state-of-the-art infrastructure and facilities to cater to passenger traffic of 40 million per annum. In the last four years, MIAL has received a number of national and

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Mumbai and CSIA to host Routes Asia 2013 ROUTES ORGANISES WORLD-RENOWNED AIRLINE AND AIRPORT NETWORKING EVENTS THROUGH ITS REGIONAL AND GLOBAL ROUTE DEVELOPMENT FORUMS. EACH YEAR, THERE IS ONE GLOBAL EVENT AND ONE REGIONAL EVENT IN ASIA, AFRICA, EUROPE, THE AMERICAS AND CIS, RESPECTIVELY. THIS TIME AROUND, THE SHOW AT MUMBAI WILL BE THE LARGEST ASIAN AVIATION FORUM TO BE HELD AT AN INDIAN AIRPORT. umbai will be the host city and Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (CSIA) the host airport for Routes Asia 2013. It is expected to bring a number of visitors to Mumbai from the airline, airport and tourism industry to discuss and explore the opportunities for airline route development.

"We at MIAL are pleased to note that CSIA has been selected as the host airport for Routes Asia 2013," said G V Sanjay Reddy, Managing Director, Mumbai International Airport Pvt Ltd (MIAL) and Vice Chairman GVK, "This is noteworthy because besides being one of the busiest airports in South Asia, CSIA has also emerged as one of the most significant aviation hubs in the region given both the increase in passenger traffic and number of carriers flying to Mumbai. While Mumbai itself is undoubtedly a critical business hub for the region and key to the regional strategy of leading corporates, this

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TAKE OFF: Planes all set to fly out of Mumbai.

status will be further enhanced upon the completion of the state-of-the-art integrated passenger terminal T2 in 2013. The choice of CSIA as a host airport also helps to reinforce its position as India’s foremost airport at the cutting edge of comfort, technology and design."

"We are glad that CSIA has been selected to serve as the host for the Asia Route Development Forum in 2013," said Rajeev Jain, CEO, Mumbai International Airport Pvt. Limited (MIAL). "Hosting Routes Asia 2013 will not only give us the opportunity to showcase CSIA to a diverse group of industry professionals across the globe but also provide tremendous tourism-related economic benefits to the city of Mumbai. Additionally it will enable us to share relevant expertise and build relationships with industry partners including airlines."

Traditionally Routes Asia as an event has been attended by leading airports and airlines. Being

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GRANDEUR: CSIA’s terminal is comparable to the best anywhere in the world.

¾ Voted the ‘Best Airport in Public-Private Partner-

ship’ for two consecutive years (2007 and 2008) by the Air Passengers Association of India (APAI) ¾ CSIA’s proposed Air Traffic Control Tower won

the ‘Autodesk Hong Kong Building Information Modeling (BIM) Award 2009’ ¾ CSIA was rated the best airport in India for air-

ports above 15 million passengers per annum (mppa) in the ASQ (Airport Service Quality) survey carried out by Airport Council International (ACI) and ranked fourth amongst all airports globally in the 15-25 mppa category in the second quarter of 2010

MIAL’s vision is to transform CSIA into one of the world’s best airports that consistently delights customers

¾ CSIA has been declared the winner for having

followed the ASQ guidelines regarding the representativity of the sampling most closely.

Mumbai International Airport Pvt. Ltd. (MIAL) is a joint venture between the GVK led consortium and Airports Authority of India. MIAL was awarded the mandate of modernising, upgrading and expanding Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (CSIA) in May 2006. CSIA catered to 29.07 million passengers with a growth rate of 14 per cent and 670,235 tonnes of cargo which grew at the rate of 15 per cent for FY 2010-11.

MIAL’s vision is to transform CSIA into one of the world’s best airports that consistently delights customers and to be the pride of Mumbai.

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chosen as a host is an opportunity to showcase the economic, industrial, and tourism potential of the host city and its airport. Additionally, Routes Asia also offers an opportunity within a short period of time to conduct a number of one-to-one meetings between airports and airlines from Asia. Over 17 years of its existence, Routes has acquired a well deserved reputation and has proved its claim of being the main aviation event in Asia helping make connections between airlines and airports.

CSIA is a standing participant of the Route Development Forum (World & Asia). With a total of 48 international passenger airlines, and 7 domestic passenger airlines currently operating more than 680 flights a day while directly linking Mumbai to 83 airports in India and worldwide, CSIA offers unmatched connectivity. This coupled with CSIA’s handling efficiency over the last five years and the extremely challenging environment it operates in has made it one of the most important emerging aviation hubs in India and the Asia Pacific Region.

"We are delighted to bring Routes Asia to India once again as the Indian market is a key strategic focus for the Routes business," explained David Stroud, executive Vice President Airports, Routes.

Stroud also pointed out: "We have worked with the GVK team for many years on their presence at our events. It is fantastic that we are now able to bring our 11th Routes Asia event to Mumbai in 2013."

Over the years, MIAL has also been credited with many awards and accolades, some of which are:

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international accolades for its modernisation efforts. It isn’t easy when there are myriad issues that come up while operating India’s busiest and most-congested airport as you ramp up to provide global scale services to 45 million passengers three years from now.

For instance, CSIA handled 28.10 million passengers in 2010, which was the highest-ever for Mumbai airport. It is something that is now being recognised globally: according to Airport Council International (ACI), CSIA was next only to Gimpo International Airport, Seoul, in terms of airport service quality. Vancouver International Airport, Canada, came third. The CSIA was ranked 12th in 2009. ACI had surveyed three lakh passengers at 153 airports in the world in 2010. These included airports, which handle 15-25 million passengers every year.

Between May 2009 and April 2010, CSIA saw overall development and the highlight was undoubtedly the opening of the brand new domestic terminal 1C connecting Terminals 1A & 1B, thereby enhancing overall passenger comfort and convenience. The first half of 2010 saw noteworthy changes on the airside that included the reconstruction of the secondary runway and the recarpeting of the runway intersection at CSIA. Meanwhile, some noteworthy passenger facilities especially for children were introduced at both the domestic and the international terminals. These elicited a stupendous response from both kids and their families.

During the period, in addition to the unveiling of Terminal 1C, there were a number of other projects that were completed successfully.

EASY PICKINGS: An inside view of a duty-free shop at the Airport.

MIAL became the first airport in India to introduce a pre-order booking facility at the duty-free stores at CSIA

Among them were: y MIAL completed the re-carpeting and reconstruction of runway 14/32 (Secondary Runway) and the reconstruction of the runway intersection at CSIA. The project, which was part of the overall modernisation process of CSIA, was completed in just over six months. y A children’s corner with exciting activities for kids was opened at terminal 1B at CSIA. MIAL also introduced the Entertainment Centre at the International Terminal with a whole range of facilities for both adults and kids. Another passenger convenience added during the same year was the O2 Spa at the international terminal where passengers could look forward to relaxing and recharging their senses with a variety of therapies. y The proposed Air Traffic Control (ATC) Tower designed by global architectural firm, HOK International Limited was conferred the prestigious “Autodesk Hong Kong Building Information Modeling (BIM) Award 2009”. y MIAL presented the “Airport Service Personality of the Year Awards” to CSIA employees with an aim to create awareness of service quality and encourage airport staff to strive for service excellence.

Committed to providing passengers with the best, MIAL became the first airport in India to introduce a pre-order booking facility at the duty-free stores at CSIA where passengers could pre-order thereby saving valuable travel time. The last year (May 2010 onwards) was also the period when CSIA considerably improved its rankings amongst glob-

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WELL LAID-OUT: Passengers terminals at the Airport ensure greater convenience for the travellers.

CSIA was rated the best airport in India for airports above 15 million passengers per annum (mppa) in the ASQ survey carried out by ACI

Aviation terminal at CSIA. CSIA is the first-ever airport in India to offer this facility. y MIAL celebrates ‘Passengers’ Day at CSIA on its 5th Anniversary and facilitates its passengers through a number of activities and promotional programmes. y MIAL and TFS unveild a swanky new RC (Royal Challengers) Bar at CSIA. y MIAL introduced ‘E-ticket printing’ kiosks at all domestic departure gates at CSIA. Reacting to the achievements, Managing Director Sanjay Reddy said: “We have always worked towards providing quality service. We have strived to cultivate a customer-oriented service culture at CSIA. We are proud that it continues to win accolades.”

The real test, however, for Sanjay Reddy and his hugely competent team is to get the integrated terminal ready for operations, get the huge land bank that is a gigantic slum on airport land back into productive use and restructure the entire airport terrain including shifting buildings, hangars and colonies to create a more holistic and integrated airport in India’s commercial capital.

Five years back when they took over the airport on its privatisation, the general murmur was that GVK had accepted one heck of an ‘impossible’ challenge. The congestion, the work culture and the literally cramped airport had innumerable challenges. Five years down the line it is apparent that there is light at the end of the tunnel and that is G V Krishna Reddy’s and Sanjay Reddy’s biggest achievement.

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al airports in international surveys and was adjudged the best airport yet again by APAI. Additionally, MIAL introduced a number of new amenities/facilities at both the domestic and the international terminals while maintaining a continued focus on passenger convenience and comfort.

Among the other achievement was the reconstruction of Primary Runway 09/27 at CSIA, which was an integral part of the overall modernisation process of CSIA. The notable achievement is the last year were: y MIAL announced the launch of the revamped official website for CSIA — www.csia.in. A key feature of the new-look website was the first of its kind Mobile Airport Portal application. y CSIA was rated the best airport in India for airports above 15 million passengers per annum (mppa) in the ASQ survey carried out by ACI in the second quarter of 2010. In addition it was ranked 4th amongst all airports globally in 1525 mppa category in the second quarter of 2010. It was also voted ‘Best Brown Field Airport in Public-Private Partnership’ for the year 2009

by APAI. y Passenger conveniences — MIAL introduced the Noir Bar as a preferred hang out for business and leisure travelers at the international terminal. A state-of-the-art Mantra Spa was also opened to passengers. Some other significant additions were the opening of the KFC outlet at Terminal 1C and the Jawed Habib Hair & Beauty salon at Terminal 1B. y MIAL announced the commencement of international flight operations from its General

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Bengaluru: South India’s rising star IN ITS THREE YEARS OF OPERATIONS, THE BENGALURU INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT HAS SET BENCHMARKS THAT ARE WORTHY OF EMULATION, WRITES SANJAY REDDY, MANAGING DIRECTOR, BENGALURU INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT LIMITED. engaluru, famous as the ‘Silicon Valley of India’s is a city of countless possibilities and innumerable success stories. From garages to multimillion dollar corporations and from backyards to Wall Street, are ventures that aren’t uncommon here. With the city’s burgeoning talent, excellent location and ideal climate, it attracts huge investment in the fields of Information Technology, machinery, BPO, biotech, medical tourism and education, to name a few. While the growth of the Information Technology sector has been the major influencing

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factor on the international traffic from the city, the other industries are not far behind.

The airport began operation in May 2008 and is India’s first Greenfield project built on a Public Private Partnership (PPP) model. With a rapidlyincreasing air traffic growth in the city, it became imperative to have an international airport that would not only cater to this demand, but also leave a lasting impression on the traveller. This is when the Bengaluru International Airport came into being. Situated on a 4000-acre plot of land, the airport started by handling 9.8 million

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Eye candy: Interiors of Bengaluru Airport are a treat for eyes.

The Bengaluru International Airport has established itself as India’s leading airport in terms of quality and efficiency

The domestic passenger traffic at the Bengaluru International Airport currently amounts to around 83 per cent of the total traffic and the remaining are international travellers. The Silicon Valley of India sends more than 50 per cent of its international passengers to the US and Europe, thereby identifying them as knowledge workers and IT professionals. In the US, a majority of the international traffic from the city is towards North American cities such as New York and San Francisco. In domestic aviation, more than 60 per cent of travellers are on business while the others are on personal or leisure travel.

With a passenger profile of over 50 per cent comprising business travellers, the airport has created a name for itself for its efficiency and processes that make air travel a pleasant and hassle-free experience.

Adding to the increasing passenger traffic, what has been particularly encouraging for the

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passengers and currently handles nearly 12 million passengers annually. It has a 4000-metre runway and a terminal building of around 70,000 square metres, the capacity of which is being enhanced.

With the aim of establishing the Bengaluru International Airport as India’s leading airport in terms of quality and efficiency and set a benchmark for the future amongst Indian airports, it is built and operated to best international standards and is a new start in Indian aviation with regard to the passenger experience on ground.

Three years of successful operations and the airport still has the advantage of a very attractive passenger profile, fuelling airlines’ desire to make this route a reality for them. The airport is growing at a phenomenal pace of 18 per cent per annum, even higher than the national average of 16 per cent. This makes Bengaluru International Airport one of the busiest Greenfield airports in India.

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airport is the fact that since the new airport began operations, it has seen the introduction of several new international airlines. The airport has attracted more than 10 new international airlines, taking the total number of airlines to 31 with direct connection to over 49 destinations.

A strong hub airport can only be realised if there is a strong feeder airport group in the region. Bengaluru, due to its geographical positioning, lies exactly in the middle of South India, hence the average distance between all the regional airports is ideal. The average flying time between all South Indian airports from Bengaluru is less than 90 minutes, making for a strong case to develop a regional feeder system by using the right equipment. To achieve a strong regional hub position, Bengaluru International is looking at connecting new and existing regional routes by both low-cost and full-service domestic carriers.

The Bengaluru International Airport’s vision of becoming the gateway to the South of India will enable the economic prosperity of this region by facilitating its connectivity to the world. While the airport has been working towards this goal since the day it opened, the focus is constantly on operational excellence.

Apart from the trunk routes connecting the metro cities, there is a tremendous growth potential for regional connectivity. Bengaluru has the best network, connecting airports in South India and this only keeps growing with addition of new regional airports by the domestic airlines. Connectivity to Central and North-East India is certainly an area of growth. Also, with domestic airlines getting permission to fly internationally,

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Bengaluru Airport is looking at connecting new and existing regional routes by domestic carriers

EXUDING CLASS: The Airport has a big lounge area for air travellers.

SAARC countries are potential regions for growth.

Bengaluru International Airport Limited (BIAL), the airport’s operator, is fortunate to be operating in this city with a robust economy and prides itself for being able to go that extra step to make the environment friendly and productive for the airlines. Working closely with them to provide adequate and cost-effective facilities and solutions is one of the key reasons for the airport’s growing popularity and success.

The journey of the airport over the past three years has been challenging and a huge learning experience. The working of an airport is a highly complex function and takes years of understanding and hands-on experience. The Bengaluru International Airport employs over 8000 people, their efforts combined with extremely able and forward-looking management have resulted in constant upgradation of the airport facilities and efficient operational performance that is carefully monitored and continually enhanced.

The Bengaluru International Airport, in a short time span of three years, has already become the pride and identity of Bengaluru. It has overcome many challenges, earned numerous accolades and remained focused on its objectives. The airport is the proud recipient of the ‘Best Airport, India’ award by SKYTRAX and ‘Best Emerging Airport — Indian Sub-continent’ at the Emerging Markets Airports Awards (EMAA), for the second time in a row this year.

The airport received a platinum certification from IATA for becoming the first airport in India to be 100 per cent Bar Coded Boarding Passes (BCBP) compliant. This is a testimony to the fact that BIAL has and will continue to pioneer the best prac-

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EYEING TOP SPOT: The grand facade of the Airport has got its own charm.

BIAL most recently won the CISO 100 Award 2011, putting it among the best and the brightest IT security leaders of today

passengers. It delivers to its customers — airlines and passengers — a high-quality experience, backed by assured service levels and high reliability. One of the steps that the Bengaluru International Airport took while aiming to give passengers the ultimate in travel experience, is investing in state-of-the-art IT and communication systems to ensure faster processes and responsiveness.

One IT concept in particular, the commonuse model, implemented by BIAL is highly costeffective for both airlines and concessionaries as it saves them the effort of managing the underlying infrastructure. The airport is a full-fledged service provider, maximising the efficiency of shared resources, thereby reducing costs for passengers as well. In our case, the compact integrated terminal for domestic and international traffic allows best possible use of the facilities and is at present the most cost-effective solution.

Spearheading a new approach to the airport operations, BIAL pioneered the concept of the Airport Operations Control Centre (AOCC) in India.

BIAL is specifically proud of the AOCC concept. It fosters collaborative decision-making among the airport’s key stakeholders. It serves as the nerve centre of the entire airport with realtime data being fed into it from diverse departments and ensures smooth and efficient airport operations. It is crucial in operational recovery in times of disruption & delays. Helping in enhanced predictability, it results in better planning and real-time overview of operations for improved quality of decision-making — quick, accurate and taken by the correct partner. This improves processes leading to high punctuality of flights.

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tices in the industry. BIAL was acknowledged with the prestigious CNBC AWAAZ Travel Awards 2010 under the category of ‘Best Managed Airport’ in the country. The airport also brought home an award for achieving distinguished honours for excellence in IT adoption in the Travel & Logistics category by India’s most prestigious awards for IT deployment, the NASSCOM & CNBC-TV18 IT User Awards. BIAL most recently won the CISO 100 Award 2011, putting it among the best and the brightest IT security leaders of today.

Following a process lasting almost six months, BIAL had its work processes certified to the internationally recognised quality management system standard, ISO 9001: 2008. The airport is now one of the first in the country to achieve this version of ISO 9001. It has also achieved OHSAS 18001 certification, a prestigious international standard for facilities with world-class safety and health management systems. The airport is also now one of very few airports in the country that can claim world-class Quality (9001), Environment (14001), Information Security Management System Standards (27001) and Occupational Health & Safety (18001) Management Systems.

Being a Greenfield airport comes with its advantages, one of them being the ability and freedom to deploy state-of-the-art, industryleading solutions right from the start. Given its location in the home of India’s formidable IT industry, it is entirely appropriate that this worldclass airport remains at the forefront as far as deployment of cutting-edge technology is concerned while ensuring that it remains operationally efficient, secure and passenger-friendly.

The airport is focused on customer experience — of both the airline and of the

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Additionally, the streamlined processes ensure faster turnaround making the operations as well as travel through the Bengaluru International Airport more efficient and economical for passengers.

Departure punctuality touches 85 per cent through most months, within 15 minutes of scheduled time. Baggage delivery time is monitored and managed with the first baggage being dropped on the belt within seven minutes of the flight touching down at the airport, for domestic arrivals. By international standards, this is a good record.

While the vision of the Bengaluru International Airport to become the Gateway to South India is being achieved, the focus of the airport is constantly on the operational excellence and that is reflected in the high Airport Service Quality

DEVELOPMENT AT ITS BEST: (Above) Construction work in progress at the Airport; (bottom) A young girl gathering information from a touch screen kiosk at the Airport.

The new Bengaluru International Airport is envisioned to meet the growing aviation needs of the city

Scores achieved within the first year of operations and consistently maintained thereafter.

THE MASTER PLAN AND IMMEDIATE EXPANSION

The new Bengaluru International Airport is envisioned to meet the growing aviation needs of the city through the development of a passengerfriendly, well-operated and financially-sound airport. The Master Plan ensures that the size and capacity of the airport’s facilities are in line with passenger traffic forecast and projected cargo growth. With the 4,000 acres of land allocated towards it, there exists a scope for expansion of this airport. What one sees today at the airport site is just one part of the Master Plan. Till the final Master Plan is realised, this airport will be a ‘workin-progress’ project for the next few years with gradual but continuous expansion phases, the way it was initially envisioned and planned.

For the near future, in keeping with this rapidly-growing passenger traffic to and from Bengaluru, the Terminal 1 (T1) expansion of the Bengaluru International Airport will have enhanced capacity and operational performance. The expansion is scheduled to be completed in 18 months from the commencement of its construction and will enhance the terminal space from 72,000 sq.mt to 134,000 sq.mt.

The enhanced terminal is aimed at significantly improving passenger experience, making access to seating, amenities and commercial facilities easier and better. With the commencement of the terminal expansion, the idea is to alleviate any hurdles being faced by passengers today. At completion, an enhanced airport is envisioned that befits the city of Bengaluru, enhances its business opportunities, complements its culture and welcomes its visitors. Simultaneously, a comprehensive review of the Master Plan is underway.

The aim is to continue developing and modernising the airport infrastructure to avoid capacity constraints, improve air space efficiency and minimise costs. As the air traveller becomes discerning, it is imperative to ensure that we do not create any inequities in his overall airport experience.

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South, North, East or West...

AAI in fast forward mode CRUISING HEIGHTS I OCTOBER 2011

The growth in the number of fliers prompted the Airports Authority of India to launch a massive plan of modernising and upgrading its airports. The aim: first, to match and be a pace ahead of the increase in density — both of aircraft and the air travelling populace — and, second, to provide the country with world-class standard airports. Targeting 60 airports including those at Chennai and Kolkata were identified for modernisation and upgradation with the rationale to develop the state capitals and other airports that have the potential to attract tourists and business travellers who would meaningfully contribute towards the economic growth of the state.

The following pages take a look at AAI’s moves...

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Connect India, the AAI way THE AIRPORTS AUTHORITY OF INDIA HAS BEEN CONCENTRATING TO DEVELOP THE INFRASTRUCTURE OF THE AIRPORTS UNDER ITS PURVIEW AND HAS BEEN PUSHING AHEAD TO UPGRADE AND ENHANCE THE AIRPORTS AROUND THE COUNTRY. IT IS A HUMONGOUS TASK BUT ONE THAT AAI HAS BEEN MANAGING WITH APLOMB.

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he opening-up of the skies after the liberalisation of the economy and the increased disposable income afforded by it has led to more people preferring air travel. There has been a slew of modernisation activity in the country with airports getting new equipment and facilities to handle the increased passenger and freight volumes.

Lauding the efforts of the Airports Authority of India, Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh inaugurated the New International Terminal Building at Thiruvananthapuram airport at a function organised early this year on February 12, 2011.

The Prime Minister emphasised the importance of airports and said the government had prioritised the enhancement of airport infrastructure in the country as airports were considered gateways to economic development of the country. He applauded the AAI and the Ministry for Civil Aviation for developing such an impressive and world-class project for passengers travelling to the state of Kerala. He added that making the terminal and building facilities more user-friendly was the need of the hour as airlines were competing with railways to attract the populace to air travel.

Speaking on the occasion Minister for Civil

The Prime Minister has emphasised the importance of airports and prioritised the enhancement of airport infrastructure in the country

Chairman, AAI, V P Agrawal, lights the inaugural lamp at the start of the first-ever airport directors’ conference.

Aviation Vayalar Ravi said the new terminal building at Thiruvanthapuram Airport was a unique architectural feature. Built at a cost of `289 crore, the terminal is a state-of-the-art steel tabular shape structure with a pair of portals connected with a top enclosure struss shaped like a wave with 30 check-in counters, 26 immigration counters, 11 Customs booths, four pre-check X-ray machines and three aerobridges.

A few months earlier, the new airport at Mangalore was inaugurated at a function on May 15, 2010 by the then Minister of State for Civil Aviation, Praful Patel. The new terminal building was built over 70 acres of land at a cost of `150 crore. The facility is equipped with two aerobridges with provision for adding more in the future. The airport building is designed to separately handle domestic and international passengers. The facility can accommodate four A310-class and an A321-class aircraft at a time, with provision for three more aircraft to be added at a future stage.

On the same day, May 15, 2010, the new airport at Mysore too, was inaugurated. Mysore Airport is about ten kilometres from Mysore city. The airport had two fair weather strips (FWS) with a small terminal building that had been constructed two decades ago. It was used for scheduled flight

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Vignettes from the AAI’s upgradation and enhancement plans: (LR) The new terminal at Thiruvananthapuram; Shillong airport; and Vayalar Ravi, Union Minister for Civil Aviation unveiling the plaque to inaugurate the terminal at Bhopal’s Raja Bhoj Airport

There has been a slew of modernisation activity in the country with airports getting new equipment and facilities to handle the increased passenger and freight volumes

of Instrument landing System (ILS) and the extension of the runway so that A321-like aircraft could be operated from Shillong, which has a huge passenger potential. He emphasised the need of air connectivity of this beautiful and land-locked state of Meghalaya with the rest of the country and abroad for rapid economic growth of the nation. V P Agarwal and S Raheja, Member (Planning), AAI, appreciated the project officials and all employees of Shillong Airport for the completion of the task and the successful organisation of the inauguration ceremony.

The construction of the new terminal building was undertaken by the AAI at an estimated cost of `30 crore in 2007 with a target date of completion within three years. But it was possible to finish the task before the due date due to the commitment of the AAI officials and staff. The members of the AAI family are proud of this remarkable achievement.

The new terminal building is equipped with state-of-the-art equipment such as explosive trace detectors, baggage X-ray machines, conveyor belts and close-circuit cameras. In addition, there are six check-in counters and a complete security-hold area. Separate blocks have been created for arrival and departures along with a modern medical inspection room. The runway of 6,000 ft will be lengthened to 7,500 ft and will have a strength of PCN (Permanent Classification Number) 54 to cater to operations of A321-like aircraft. The installation of ILS on Runway 22 is underway.

On June 28, 2011, Vayalar Ravi, Union Minister of Overseas Indian Affairs and Civil Aviation, inaugurated the new integrated terminal building at Raja Bhoj Airport, Bhopal. The new Terminal Building has been built at a cost of `135 crore and is equipped with modern facilities for passengers.

The terminal building has an aesthetic structural shape in a curvilinear form. With its total area of 26,936 sqmt and a provision for future expansion, the terminal is sleek and artistic and encompasses all modern facilities. The salient features of the building are 14 check-in counters, 10 immigration counters, four Customs counters, six security check X-ray machines, two escalators, enhanced parking facilities for 700 cars and 20 buses and apron. The state-of-the-art building has all modern userfriendly amenities such as Childcare Room, Smoking Room, etc. The apron has been constructed to accommodate 13 aircraft. The airport runway has been extended to 9,000 ft. to facilitate operation of bigger aircraft.

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operations by Vayudoot with Dornier aircraft till 1990. The Indian Air Force/NCC used the strip for training flights apart from sporadic use by small private charter flights.

A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between the Government of Karnataka and AAI on June 6, 2005, to upgrade the erstwhile Mysore airport for operation of ATR-72 and B737/A-320 aircraft in a phased manner. AAI developed the new airport in an area of more than 650 acres at a cost of around `60 crore. Mysore Airport has also been provided with state-of-the-art CNS, security and fire safety facilities. The new building has a modular design and can accommodate 75 arriving and 75 departing passengers at a time with the scope for future expansion.

Last year, the Minister for Home Affairs, P Chidambaram, had inaugurated the New Integrated Terminal Building at Madurai airport in a ceremony organised on September 12, 2010.

The new Integrated Terminal Building covers a total area of 17,560 sq m. Constructed at an estimated cost of `128.57 crore, the facility is capable of handling domestic as well as international traffic even though the airport at present is only a domestic one. The new building will help handle 250 departing and 250 arriving passengers. The allglass-and-steel structure makes use of maximum natural light. The New Integrated Terminal building has escalators, elevators, aerobridges and state-ofthe-art conveyors.

Meanwhile, the Airports Authority of India has focused its efforts to upgrading and enhancing connectivity in the North-East, Vayalar Ravi, Union Minister for Civil Aviation, unveiled the new terminal building at Shillong Airport — designed in keeping with the architecture of buildings in the city — on June 25, 2011. The inauguration saw the presence of Dr Mukul Sangma, Chief Minister of Meghalaya and his Cabinet colleagues along with a host of dignitaries, P P Shrivastav, Member, NorthEast Council, V P Agrawal, Chairman, Airports Authority of India (AAI) and top officials of AAI at the inauguration.

On the occasion, Chief Minister Dr Mukul Sangma handed over the deeds of 192.253 acres of land around the airport to V P Agrawal. He praised the villagers for their selfless contribution towards development of the state. He felt proud to declare the contribution unique and one that had made history not only in the country but also in the world.

Chairman, AAI, also urged Union Minister for Civil Aviation to expedite the work like installation

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Chennai readies for a date in 2012 AAI’S SHOWPIECE AIRPORT IN THE SOUTH IS NEARING COMPLETION AND ONCE READY IT WILL BE ABLE TO HANDLE AROUND 30 MILLION PASSENGERS.

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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 in terms of both airside and non-aeronautical sides including the existing terminals — domestic and international — will continue to operate.

As per the status of Chennai airport on date, it has a total land area of 1,298.01 acres with length of perimeter wall running 15 kilometres and the perimeter road meandering 14 kilometres. Its main runway 07/25 is 3,658 metres long or over 12,000 feet, which is enough for a Jumbo to operate. The secondary runway 12/30 which was 2,085 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 3,400 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 an A 380 superjumbo landing.

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 peak hour 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 check-in 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 2010-11. During peak hours, it has a handling capacity of 1200 in the departure hall and 750 in the arrival hall and another 350 in 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 3-level structure under construction will have an area of 72,614 square metres. It has a provision for seven gates and two hardstand hold rooms and 52 check-in counters excluding eight e-

The international terminal is spread over 42,870 sq metres with a passengerhandling capacity of three million

ticketing counters. The international terminal building with also a 3-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 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 9 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

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domestic and seven million in the international terminal with peak hour passenger-handling capacity of 3,300 for domestic and 2,300 for the international terminal.

In the revamped Chennai airport, the new international and domestic terminals will be connected with an elevated road (flyover) of a kilometre. With construction in full swing, the massive steel-and-glass structure will be defined by dramatic, twin wing-like hovering roofs providing a 300-metre-long column-free 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. 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

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The terminals will be equipped with a sophisticated baggagehandling system with Level-4 security screening system

ROAD TO MODERNISATION: (Left and below) Construction work in progress at Chennai Airport.

techniques such as water-efficient landscaping, rain water harvesting, water-efficient fixtures, use of treated grey water for airconditioning cooling system and innovative effluent treatment plant.

These will help in re-using 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 terminals 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 vice-versa. There will be two walkalators 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

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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.

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.

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Tagore inspired design for Kolkata THE FIFTH-BUSIEST AIRPORT IN THE COUNTRY AND PRESENTLY HANDLING MORE THAN NINE MILLION PASSENGERS ANNUALLY, KOLKATA'S NETAJI SUBASH CHANDRA BOSE INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT IS THE LARGEST IN EASTERN INDIA. ITS PROSPECT OF BECOMING AN AVIATION HUB OF THE REGION HAS PROMPTED AAI TO UNDERTAKE ITS EXPANSION.

olkata’s Netaji Subash Chandra Bose International Airport that is being expanded and modernised at a cost of `2,325 crore will help increase the passenger-handling capacity at the city airport from the present nine million passengers annually to 20 million passengers a year. The modernisation work launched in December 2008 is expected to be completed by January 2012. A consortium of ITD of Thailand and ITD Cementation India Limited bagged the contract for the civil construction and modernisation of the airport.

Located at Dum Dum near the city of Kolkata, it is the fifth-busiest airport in India. The main international airport in eastern India, it is also its largest. As the current infrastructure was unable to handle the influx of passengers, owing largely to the city’s development and air traffic growth in recent years, the Airports Authority of India (AAI) took up large-scale airport development plans including a new state-ofthe-art integrated airport terminal. This modern, glass-steel structure is being constructed using green building concepts, environment- friendly technology and world-class passenger facilities.

Airports Authority of India appointed an international architectural design consultant to design the new airport terminal with an emphasis on deriving operational synergy and optimum utilisation of available resources by developing an integrated terminal building. New York-based project management consultant, Parsons Brinkerhoff has been appointed to supervise and monitor the construction of the state-of-the-art terminal building.

The new integrated terminal will be a wide v-shaped structure with two-tier operations for arrivals and departures. The integrated passenger

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INSPIRATION: Construction in full swing at Netaji Subash Chandra Bose International Airport.

The grand central garden will be a canvas inspired by paintings and poems by Tagore, and will have two levels separated by a sweeping curve—directly inspired from one of Tagore’s famous paintings

terminal will have an apron for parking aircraft on its northern and north-eastern sides: 18 aircraft are proposed to be parked there in an in-contact configuration. These in turn will be supplemented by another 53 aircraft parking bays. Passengers will be able to embark/disembark from any aircraft stand and proceed to either domestic or international station.

A landscaped courtyard in the heart of the building will provide a symbolic and physical separation between the airside and landside. It will be further divided by an island of accommodation that projects forward between the check-in area and the baggage-reclaim area. These two large spaces will sit side-by-side in the landside section of the building. To unify these two spaces, a spectacular roof will pass above them, retaining it as a whole.

The landscape concept will be one of the biggest pieces of land art inspired by the works of Rabindranath Tagore. It will offer two disparate spatial experiences — the vastness of the grand central garden and the intimacy of the internal courtyards. The grand central garden will be a canvas inspired by paintings and poems by Tagore, and will have two levels separated by a sweeping curve — directly inspired from one of Tagore’s famous paintings. Compared to the simplicity of the lower level, the upper level of the garden will be richly textured and patterned with letters and words extracted from one of the poems from Gitanjali.

AAI is on the job to upgrade the CNS and ATM systems in the airport, which will have a state-ofthe-art ATC tower and an adjacent technical building. There will also be provision for metro rail connectivity from the city centre to the airport with city check-in facilities.

The first phase of modernisation will enable the airport to accommodate a peak flow of 1,800 passengers an hour. The airport will also have an inline baggage system, which will make it redundant for passengers to go for pre-check through Xray machines. The approach road from the city will be uni-directional four-lane approach road merging with the existing road network without disrupting vehicular traffic flow from various other airport facilities. The proposed five-level terminal will be served by an elevated roadway leading to the departure facilities. The city side will be linked to the upcoming metro rail from the main city.

AAI is also doubling the area meant for commercial use from the earlier 45 acres to 90 acres.

The work should be complete by December 2011.

Extension and refurbishment of the runway were completed in December 2010.

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Innovation

GAGAN ushers flying leap for aviation WORK ON THE GPS-AIDED GEO AUGMENTED NAVIGATION (GAGAN) PROJECT IS ON AND BY THE MIDDLE OF 2013 WHEN THE GEO SATELLITE IS LAUNCHED BY ISRO, IT WOULD PROVIDE THE AVAILABILITY OF GAGAN SIGNALS IN SPACE. SIMPLY PUT, THESE SIGNALS WOULD PROVIDE A CERTIFIED NEAR-PRECISION APPROACH SERVICE AT ALL AIRPORTS. he implementation of the GPS-Aided Geo Augmented Navigation (GAGAN) project by the Airports Authority of India (AAI) and Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) for seamless navigation over Indian airspace is on. Once completed, India will be the fourth country in the world to have a satellite-based navigation system.

GAGAN’s ground elements are being deployed and integrated to have it certified by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, for its operation over Indian Flight Information Region (FIR). The system has in-built expansion capabilities to operate over neighbouring FIRs. The GAGAN system will provide corrections to the GPS signal to meet the accuracy, integrity, availability and continuity requirements prescribed for aviation.

GAGAN will provide a civil aeronautical navigation signal consistent with International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) Standards and Recommended Practices (SARPs) as established by the Global Navigation Satellite System Panel (GNSSP). In addition, GAGAN has established the capability of meeting ICAO-SARPS requirements through its Technology Demonstration System (TDS) Phase. India has embarked on a four-year programme called Final Operational Phase (FOP) ending June 2013 to provide GAGAN SBAS services over Indian airspace.

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AAI is on the threshold of redefining navigation from the present “land-based” to the “satellitebased” system

PERFECT NAVIGATION: A graph portraying the architectural set-up of GAGAN.

BENEFITS OF GAGAN AAI is on the threshold of redefining navigation from the present “land-based” to the “satellitebased” system. The facility will provide tangible benefits to the civil aviation and the non-civil aviation sectors.

For the aviation sector, it will usher in: Improved efficiency/economy Direct routes Increased fuel saving Approach with vertical guidance to all runways not equipped earlier Reduced workload of flight crew and Air Traffic Controllers Improved capacity through reduced aircraft separation Higher accuracy, global coverage Improved safety Reduce the risk of controlled flight into terrain [CFIT] Enhanced air-to-air surveillance: ADS-B future generation surveillance Availability of MSAW facility (Minimum Safe Altitude Warning) Reduced noise pollution footprint Ease of search and rescue operations Even the non-civil aviation sectors will be benefited:

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Passenger and freight management in railways Maritime applications Improved surveying and cartography Scientific research Geo dynamics Natural resource and land management Business solutions Agricultural aerial spraying Vehicle tracking Search and rescue

GLOBAL CONNECT: Administrators (seated) from Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) during the visit to GAGAN Complex, Bengaluru.

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CONFIGURATION OF THE GAGAN SYSTEM The GAGAN system architecture (see chart) involves the establishment of: Ground-based elements: Comprising Indian Reference Station (INRES) with 15 of them spread over the entire Indian sub-continent to collect measurement data and broadcast messages from all GPS and GEO satellites in view and forward to Indian Master Control Centre (INMCC).

Indian Master Control Centre (INMCC): Installed and operating at Bengaluru consists of computer systems to implement algorithms for computing corrections and integrity information for visible GPS satellites, ionospheric corrections and integrity information at identified grid points.

Indian Navigation Land Uplink Station (INLUS): There are three of them, which receives messages from the Indian Master Control Centre, formats those messages for GPS compatibility and transmits them to the GEO satellites for broadcast to user platforms. It also performs the stringent time synchronisation between GAGAN network time and GPS time within the specified value of 50nS. Space-based segment: Comprising navigation payload on board Indian Satellites GSAT- 8 and GSAT10 that use the bend pipe transponder with uplink in C- Band, downlinks in L1 and L5 frequencies.

CURRENT STATUS OF GAGAN The technology demonstration phase of the project, which was aimed to underline the concept of SBAS over Indian airspace, was successfully completed in August 2007.

As a part of final operation phase (FOP), the installation and site acceptance test (SAT) of 15

INRES sites have been completed at Delhi, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Thiruvananthapuram, Kolkata, Guwahati, Port Blair, Jammu, Jaisalmer, Nagpur, Dibrugarh, Bhubaneswar, Porbandar, Goa and Gaya.

The SAT of two INMCCs and two INLUS sites have also been completed at Bengaluru. A total of 14 INRES have been linked through Optical Fiber Cable (OFC) to INMCC and one station (Port Blair) has been linked through DSCN to INMCC Bengaluru. Data received from all the stations are being recorded at INMCC, Bengaluru. Additional OFC links are being added to provide communication link redundancy in the system.

Infrastructure for providing standby connectivity through AAI V-sat / DSCN from all INRES to INMCC is in progress, which was completed by the end of February 2010. Presently, five INRES are connected through DSCN circuits while five stations have been already connected through AAI DSCN circuits.

ISRO/AAI has developed a region-specific ionosphere model called ISRO GIVE Model — Multi Layer Data Fusion (IGM-MLDF) for GAGAN since a single shell ionosphere model falls apart when the ionosphere exhibits sudden changes in electron content as is the case over the equatorial region. IGM-MLDF models are associated with uncertainties to protect a GAGAN-user from ionosphere abnormalities.

PSAT GAGAN system’s PSAT (Preliminary System Acceptance Test) was conducted successfully on December 9 and 10, 2010. Extensive tests were carried out to integrate all elements with the help of Satellite Emulator. The PSAT Task Team comprised officials from Raytheon and from AAI/ISRO.

ISRO/AAI has developed a region-specific ionosphere model called ISRO GIVE Model — Multi Layer Data Fusion for GAGAN

POST-PSAT ACTIVITIES A system regression test using the PSAT procedure will be conducted after availability of the following: Second communication circuits’ establishment Delhi INLUS installation and SAT completion INRES site which was not included in PSAT (Gaya and Jaisalmer) DCSS expansion cabinets installation and SAT completion Second SMSS integrated in both circuits Delivery of WAAS 8/9.2 build and further software builds TDS spares and maintenance GAGAN CERTIFICATION ACTIVITY Certification process by DGCA has commenced simultaneously along with installation of various systems.

TASK AHEAD The GEO’s launching by ISRO would herald the availability of GAGAN signals in space followed by extensive HMI analysis and Flight Test to establish and provide a certified near-precision approach service at all airports and RNP 0.1 service for the entire Indian airspace. The target date for completion is June 29, 2013.

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Upper Airspace Harmonisation

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Eyes in the sky A MOVE IS ON TO USHER IN NEW GENERATION SURVEILLANCE AND COMMUNICATION CAPABILITIES THAT WILL BRING ABOUT HARMONISATION IN THE UPPER AIRSPACE. ONCE COMPLETED, IT WOULD LEAD TO SUBSTANTIAL REDUCTION IN AIR/GROUND DELAYS PER YEAR AND A WHOPPING SAVINGS IN AIRLINE COSTS.

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he Indian airspace is divided into five Flight information Regions (FIRs) with the Flight Information Centres at Chennai, Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata and Guwahati. There are eleven Area Control Centres (ACCs) located at Chennai, Hyderabad, Trivandrum and Mangalore within Chennai FIR, Mumbai, Ahmedabad and Nagpur ACCs within Mumbai FIR, Delhi and Varanasi ACCs within Delhi FIR, Kolkata ACC and Guwahati ACC within their respective FIRs. With the new generation surveillance and communication capabilities and the concept of Upper Airspace Harmonisation, a plan has been drawn up for restructuring the entire Indian airspace whereby 11 ACCs will be amalgamated into four ACCs initially and finally into two centres. Each FIR will have only one Upper ACC with multiple sectors to be operated from four major ATCs. The entire airspace will have an overlapping surveillance cover through Radar/ADS-B/Multilateration combined with matching seamless air-ground communication to facilitate efficient air traffic management and AIDC for ground-to-ground communication. The surveillance data from Radar/ADS-B/Multilateration will be networked and electronically processed with relevant flight data from the flight data processor to provide an integrated track data output correlated with flight plan so as to enable application of uniform radar separation throughout the FIRs.

With the introduction of improved ATS automation system, the entire continental airspace will permit seamless surveillance over oceanic airspace

With the introduction of improved ATS automation system and installation of additional Radars/ADS-B/Multilateration, the entire continental airspace will permit seamless surveillance and in addition to the existing ADS-C over oceanic airspace. India has successfully integrated all radars in Chennai FIR in the first phase thus enabling seamless upper airspace with lower limit as FL 255. The newly-introduced technique of cross-coupling of VHF would facilitate creation of multiple sectorisation over continental airspace. AIDC (ATS Inter-facility Data Communication) enabled through automation will substantially reduce ATS coordination.

In the pilot project of Chennai FIR, the upper airspace harmonisation includes one upper ACC centre with five dynamic sectors, where successful integration of 10 radars including a defence radar has been completed, and shall be operated from the Chennai ATC Centre. Lateral jurisdiction of existing ACCs at Hyderabad, Mangalore and Trivandrum has been re-designated as Lower ACC with revised lateral and vertical jurisdiction. Tower and approach will be operated from individual airports as per the existing jurisdictions.

A similar concept of integrating radars and upper ACC is also planned for Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata FIRs. This will facilitate to merge the present 11 ACCs into four ACCs initially and finally into two ACCs. On successful implementation of similar (continued on page 79)

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First ANS Coordination Meet sees international participation

AI as a major Air Navigation Service provider in the region has embarked on many ANS-improvement initiatives to meet not only the challenges of ensuring safety and efficiency of aircraft operations but also optimising capacity against the demand posed by the increasing traffic growth in the Asia Pacific region. Further, realising the need for a collaborative approach among the states for seamless provision of ANS services, Mr V Somasundaram, Member (ANS), AAI, took the major initiative of hosting a meeting of the neighbouring ANSPs of various states within the Bay of Bengal, the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean (BOBASIO) of the Asia Pacific Region. The first ATS Coordination meeting of BOBASIO was organised by Airports Authority of India at Indian Aviation Academy, New Delhi, on May 5 and 6, 2011.

The meeting was attended by 43 participants including 10 delegates from Oman, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand, Mr John Richardson, ATM consultant from ICAO, Mr P Sanglikar, representative of IATA, DGCA representatives and other aviation experts from AAI across the country.

The meeting, inaugurated by Mr EK Bharat Bhushan, Director General of Civil Aviation, assumed enormous significance and importance with the participation by many of the neighbouring countries of India in their collective quest to find common solutions through a collaborative approach for safe-efficient and environment-friendly aircraft operations in Asia Pacific region.

DGCA appreciated the efforts of AAI in organising such a meeting, called for a collaborative approach in sharing information, resources, expertise and procedures among the states of region and keeping themselves abreast of the international best practices.

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The highlight of the meeting was the presentation of the working paper on India’s proposal to establish an ANS coordination sub-group

Mr VP Agrawal, Chairman, AAI, elaborated on the recent CNS-ATM initiatives by AAI in implementing RVSM, R-NAV Routes, Performance-Based Navigation, Enroute Monitoring Agency and Reduction of Longitudinal Separation Minima. The Chairman called for close cooperation among the states to derive optimum benefits from similar initiatives from the other states. The meeting featured presentations of 10 working papers by experts from India on various subjects ranging from Satellite-Based Navigation, Air-Traffic Flow Management, Reduced Horizontal Separation. The meeting also enabled the participating states to finalise SAR agreements, ATM contingency plans and ATS coordination procedures.

The highlight of the meeting was the presentation of working paper on India’s proposal to establish ANS coordination sub-group in the Bay of Bengal, the Arabian Sea and the Indian Oceanic Region with the objective of ensuring that participating member states arrive at uniform decisions on ANS matters of common interest and benefit from expertise and capabilities of one another. The ICAO representative assured that endorsement would be accorded for institutionalising the formation of the sub-group for regular conduct of such meetings annually by other states in future. The representatives of the participating states from Nepal, Oman, Sri Lanka, Thailand and the representative from ICAO and IATA appreciated the initiatives taken by AAI in arranging such a meeting. The participants evinced keen interest in establishing the proposed sub-group as it would permit the states to access the latest ANS developments in the region, updated SAR agreements and coordination procedures and ensure uniform application of ANS procedures for seamless services across the states for safe and efficient flow of air traffic.

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projects in all the Indian FIRs, the airspace will be classified as ‘A’ aligning with adjoining airspaces.

One of the key enablers of the upper airspace harmonisation is the ATS Automation system.

Flight plan/Radar Data processing system, airspace situation awareness track displays, automatic coordination and hands-off, controller decision support tools, flow management tools, conflict detection and safety alert tools, route conformance warning, etc. constitute an integrated ATM automation system for the controller to handle the traffic effectively with enhanced safety. An integrated automation system is in place at Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru and Hyderabad.

Integrated Surveillance Data from multiple radars viz., Hyderabad, Chennai, Mangalore, Bengaluru, Bengaluru HAL, Trivandrum, Bellary, Vishakapatnam radars are being processed by the Advanced ATS Automation System at Chennai and the improved situational awareness support application of uniform level of separation standards, procedures and dynamic sectorisation

C-ATFM (CENTRAL AIRTRAFFIC FLOW MANAGEMENT)

An efficient ATM system should be flexible enough to enhance the capacity for airspace users

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An efficient ATM system should be flexible enough to enhance the capacity to meet the demand in an efficient manner without an adverse impact on safety and in a cost-effective manner for airspace users. Keeping in view the current and future growth of traffic and to ensure safe and efficient flow of traffic through various airports and airspace, Airports Authority of India has taken the initiative to implement a Central Air Traffic Flow Management system integrating interfaces of various stakeholders in the system to manage various operational constraints strategically and tactically in such a way that the demand and capacity are optimally balanced through a collaborative decision-making process.

Stage 1 plans to operationalise the C-ATFM for the entire Indian airspace and major airports by 2012. This would provide the ANSP, aircraft operator and airlines with significant capabilities to perform strategic, pre-tactical, and tactical ATFM and CDM, associated with the sectoral demand of the Indian airspace and arrivals into airports, especially the high density ones such as Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport in Mumbai, Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi, Chennai International Airport, Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport in Kolkata, Bengaluru International Airport, and Rajiv Gandhi International Airport in Hyderabad.

In Stage 2, the regional ATFM integration with the Indian C-ATFM is envisaged. The specific functionality will be defined in collaboration with the international ANSP necessary to support the international ATFM integration identified

by AAI. These integrations can be implemented in several ways. In case an adjacent FIR of another country is not controlled by an ATFM system, this FIR can be included in AAI’s C-ATFM system. In case adjacent FIRs or countries have their own ATFM system, a system-to-system integration can be provided to improve efficiencies across both ATFM systems.

The anticipated benefits of CATFM when implemented in six metro airports in the first phase calculations based on the recent data collected on air/ground delays: Substantial reduction in air/ground delays in five metro airports per year would be 1,42,845 minutes; Six million kilograms of fuel savings annually; Eighteen million kilograms of reduction in carbon dioxide emissions per year; and.

Nine million US$ of airline costs savings annually.

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ATC (Civil Aviation Training College), Allahabad, is a training establishment of Airports Authority of India and the alma mater of air traffic controllers and communication engineers in the country. This institute is not only unique, for it is the only one of its type in the country and, more importantly, the expertise is not available at any university or in the best technical institutes.

CATC came into existence at its present location in Allahabad in 1948. It functioned under the Ministry of Communication until a separate Ministry of Civil Aviation and Tourism was created in 1950s. In those early days, the establishment was known as Civil Aviation Training Centre and it imparted training in various technical aspects of aircraft operations: flying, aircraft maintenance, air traffic control, navigational and communication equipment and operational procedures. The centre had a flight simulator, ATC simulators and communication/navigation equipment of that era.

The airport at Allahabad was under the CATC’s control. In 1965, the Air Force took over the airport to establish the Central Air Command. Thereafter, with the advent of flying schools promoted by the central and state governments, training in flying and aircraft maintenance shifted to these flying schools at various airports and airfields. By the mid- 70s, CATC’s

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Civil Aviation Training College is the alma mater of air traffic controllers and communication engineers in the country

training activity was confined to Air Traffic Control (ATC) and Communication/Navigation/Surveillance (CNS). In 1989, the establishment was renamed as Civil Aviation Training College.

CATC is headed by a Principal who is assisted

by Chief Instructors in ATC and CNS streams. The CIs spearhead the training activities in their respective fields, supported by instructors from respective disciplines drawn from among active air traffic controllers and CNS personnel working at airports.

The instructors so selected are those who possess skills for instructional work and have successfully undergone an instructional technique course — certified by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO). The Indian Meteorological Department has also positioned its personnel in the CATC to impart training in aviation meteorology, a subject required to be learnt by air traffic controllers and radio operators.

ATC & CNS SCHOOLS The aim of air traffic control service is to facilitate safe, orderly and efficient movement of aircraft. To carry out its duties, CATC has a training programme.

The syllabus and the contents are developed by CATC in consultation with and under the guidance of the operations departments at headquarters and, more importantly, in accordance with

CATC plays a lead role in aviation IN EXISTENCE SINCE 1948, THE COUNTRY'S PREMIER TRAINING INSTITUTE AT ALLAHABAD HAS UNDERGONE LARGE SCALE DEVELOPMENT THROUGH THE YEARS. TODAY, IT IS THE SINGLE-MOST IMPORTANT ESTABLISHMENT FOR TRAINING AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLERS AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS, WRITES DEVINDER C MEHTA

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Training

Indian Aviation Academy aims for excellence he recent drastic changes in the aviation environment have resulted in greater business complexities, as far as the aviation business is concerned. In such a scenario, effective and constructive interaction between individuals and groups has been found useful for the overall development and growth of an organisation. To meet this challenging task, Indian Aviation Academy has been set up under the aegis of National Institute of Aviation Management and Research Society (an autonomous body) with Airports Authority of India (AAI), Director General of Civil Aviation and Bureau of Civil Aviation (BCAS), Government of India as stakeholders to become a global centre of excellence in aviation training and research-related activities.

NIAMAR was registered as a Society under the Society Registration Act XXI of 1860 (vide Registration No. S/RS.SW/0043/2010) on July 22, 2010, pursuant to the decision taken at the 136th Board Meeting of AAI. Today, the Indian Aviation Academy (erstwhile National Institute of Aviation Management and Research — NIAMAR), has turned into a training institute of AAI conducting courses in all technical and nontechnical disciplines of Airport Management.

While the present operations of the Indian Aviation Academy will continue to be from the existing building on Gurgaon Road, New Delhi, a modern building is proposed on an eight-acre plot near Vasant Kunj, Rangpuri, New Delhi.

The academy has a rich infrastructure that is at par with international standards. It also has state-of-the-art training aids. The present building comprises six training halls equipped with necessary modern training aids including audio-video arrangements, a computer lab, secretarial support and a full-fledged Course Development Unit where the Course Developers are trained under the aegis of ICAO's TRAINAIR programme — a UN Body. The institute has 28 furnished hostel rooms to accommodate visiting trainees and faculty.

The ambit of the Indian Aviation Academy includes education, training, research and consultancy services in areas such as Airports, General Aviation, Maintenance, Aviation Safety and Regulations Management, Cargo Management and General Management/HRM. Broadly, the areas include various courses concerning Engineering, HRD, Finance, Operations, Electronics and Information Technology, Security and Planning Disciplines. In addition to the above, emphasis is always laid on international exposure through invitations to faculty from within and outside the country.

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standards specified by ICAO. At the CNS school, CNS engineers and operators provide and maintain communication and navigation equipment. CNS engineers also provide and maintain radar equipment. CATC trains the CNS engineers and data circuit operators to carry out their respective responsibilities at airports.

Hands-on training for aviation professionals in progress at the CNS school.

MODERNISATION OF CATC

NEW PREMISES A modern building was needed to fulfil the conditions of the UNDP assistance for the development of the CATC. A complex was constructed during 1992-96 at a cost of `35 crore. The salient

ICAO had been taking steps separately to collaborate training activities among its member countries

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The CATC estate stands on 100 acres. Till the mid90s, the barracks of the World War II era accommodated the classrooms and other associated buildings.

Improvements started from the late 1980s and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) gave a grant in 1990 to modernise the training facilities at CATC. The UNDP procured communication and navigation equipment of the then-prevailing technology and arranged experts on deputation from abroad to CATC for instructional work. The UNDP, through ICAO, helped establish a Training Support Unit (TSU) at CATC that created an in-house publishing/production unit, undertook systematic preparation of training manuals, procurement and maintenance of modern training tools and accessories and updations of the manuals.

ICAO had been taking steps separately to collaborate training activities among its member countries. It started TRAINAIR, a programme that was aimed to persuade the training establishments to adopt a standardised methodology for development of course materials, called Standardized Training Packages (STP). In 1993, ICAO helped CATC set up a Course Development Unit (CDU) in CATC. An ICAO-appointed expert Course Developer assisted a number of instructors of CATC in producing STPs, thereby themselves becoming TRAINAIR-certified course developers. Till date, CATC has developed STPs on various ATC and CNS topics for universal sharing and has both imported and exported STPs.

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Training

Learning to fight fire he Fire Service Training Centre (FSTC) was established in 1954 at Kolkata by the Ministry of Civil Aviation to meet its requirements of trained fire safety personnel for airfield fire and rescue services. FSTC is the premier training centre in the field of aviation fire and rescue services towards developing professional skills and upgrading the knowledge of fire fighters and rescue personnel. The centre also conducts Basic Training Course for private candidates and advanced course in fire and rescue for officers and staff of port and shipping industries.

In 1976, International Airports Authority of India established the Fire Training Centre to meet the training requirement of fire safety personnel for international airports namely, Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai and Trivandrum.

AAI's Fire Training Centres have been established to impart fire safety and rescue training to airport fire service personnel as per ICAO guidelines for dealing with aircraft firefighting and rescue operations.

Other than rescue and fire-fighting training, Fire Service Training Centres have been undertaking specialised training for officers and staff of other organisations such as port and shipping, oil industries, state fire and

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features of the complex are: Centrally air-conditioned modern classrooms and laboratory buildings An instructors’ block for seating the 75-plus faculty members An air-conditioned library building to facilitate 50 readers An air-cooled hostel block to accommodate 300 trainees, which includes a separate block to accommodate 28 lady trainees A gymnasium and facilities for indoor games and TV viewing A cafeteria building with a seating capacity of 100 An air-conditioned seminar hall with a seating capacity of 50 An air-cooled auditorium with a seating capacity of 350 Guest house with 11 air-conditioned rooms and a common pantry A swimming pool, a cricket ground, a football ground, a basketball ground and a volleyball ground A new hospital block with facility for outpatient treatment, limited in-patient treatment as well as minor operations

RECENT DEVELOPMENTS Improvements have been continuously carried out in CATC. During 2006-2008: The number of procedural ATC laboratories was increased from 5 to 12, enabling simultaneous

Trainees at the Fire Service Training Centre.

FSTC is the premier training centre in the field of aviation fire and rescue services and develops professional skills of fire fighters and rescue personnel

other industrial fire services.

During 2010, the AAI Fire Training Establishments in Delhi and Kolkata conducted 23 training programmes in which around 1500 fire personnel including executives from AAI airports and other organisations such Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Cochin airports, Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Uran Academy, Indian Institute of Port Management, Civil Aviation, Bhutan, Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh, Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal, Reliance Industries, Oil India and many more participated.

training of 144 ATC trainees, more than doubling the capacity from 60 to 84.

A visual aerodrome control tower simulator costing `25 crore was installed during 2007, enabling additional intake of 12 ATC trainees.

Thus, over a period of few years, the capacity for ATC training at any given time has increased from 70 trainees to 175.

New equipment was added and laboratories were revamped and augmented to increase the trainee intake from 50 to 100 in the CNS School.

All classrooms were modified for proper acoustics, proper lighting and sunlight control.

Availability of computers for instructors and trainees were enhanced multifold.

Internet facility has been made available to all instructors, and internet café established in the library for the use of trainees.

Hostel rooms for senior trainees were air-conditioned.

The cafeteria hall was revamped with proper lighting, air-conditioning and new furniture.

Gardening area has been enlarged and fountains added to provide better aesthetics to the institute area.

All these resulted in an increase of trainees from 400 (during 2005) to 600 (during 2008). In addition, off-campus training through programmes conducted under CATC’s guidance at Hyderabad and Regional Training Centres produced an additional trainee turnout of 200 in 2007-08. Now, Gondia has been added to the list of training institutions.

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The Maharaja means business AIR INDIA’S NEW CHAIRMAN AND MANAGING DIRECTOR ROHIT NANDAN HAS HIS WORK CUT OUT. HE WANTS THE AIRLINE FIRST TO GAIN BACK THE CONFIDENCE OF FLYERS. THINGS ARE LOOKING UP AND THE AIRLINE LOOKS ALL SET TO KEEP ITS BRAND VALUE AND PRE-EMINENT POSITION AS THE COUNTRY’S BEST KNOWN CARRIER INTACT. I certainly don’t have a magic wand...but I am doing all the basic things to attain operational efficiency and financial freedom,” Air India’s recently-appointed Chairman and Managing Director Rohit Nandan, 54, said in a recent interview. Nandan is keeping an open door policy, meeting employees — he meets anyone every Wednesday through the day — getting their feedback and putting institutional practices into place that do not depend on one or two individuals but will continue as a matter of policy. His confidence also stems from the fact that his interaction with the employees has given him the belief that “they are fairly positive about the airline”.

As a first step, however, he has decided that the customer gets the backing in the airline and has focused laser-like on the On Time Performance (OTP) of the Maharaja to give the travelling public the confidence that it can continue to depend and trust AI. In a recent statement the airline said: “There has been an emphasis on OTP, and it is being continuously monitored at the highest level.

The regional executive directors have been made responsible for monitoring and analysing the causes of delays and taking adequate measures to

“

resolve this.’’ In fact, the O n -

PROUD TO BE AN AIR INDIAN: Energy and spirit of unity being displayed by the all-women crew that flew Air India flights on International Women’s Day this year.

Time-Performance (OTP) of the carrier has improved significantly in the month of September, 2011 and was over 80 per cent on the domestic and international network. The airline also achieved a 100 per cent OTP on September 20 and 21, 2011 ex-Mumbai and Delhi.

An Integrated Operations & Control Centre (IOCC) has been launched at T3, Delhi, using Sabre Soultions wherein the widebody fleet has already been cut-over. The narrowbody fleet would be cut-over by the time this edition is printed (October 16) and the full network cut-over is planned by December, 2011. A computerised crew rostering system would also be put in place by June 2012.

The IOCC has resulted in real-time monitoring and reduction of delays and turn-around time. Simultaneously, a Hub Control Centre (HCC) for monitoring and control of all arrivals and departures has been established at T3, Delhi.

The next major thrust for Nandan is cost control and revenue enhancement measures. The airline is retiring old planes, swapping high-cost loans with cheaper ones, setting up cells to monitor plane schedules, enhancing ancillary revenue by insisting on excess baggage charges and

negoti-

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1H2011 int’l passenger numbers % total

Jet Airways

2,494,877

36.7%

Air India/Indian Airlines 2,313,443

34.0%

Air India Express

1,154,126

17.0%

Kingfisher

651,596

9.6%

SpiceJet

131,072

1.9%

JetLite

54,780

0.8%

Total

6,799,894

100%

Source: Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation and DGCA

CRUISING HEIGHTS I OCTOBER 2011

ating hard with food and information technology vendors for lower rates. Air India has also returned 22 leased planes and grounded 25 old ones to cut fuel consumption. It is also exploring ways for efficient use of commercial space in its headquarters at Nariman Point, the Mumbai business district. All

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READY FOR INDIA? The assembly line at the Boeing plant of the Dreamliner that Air India has been wanting to press into service.

in all, there is a buzz and renewed energy as the airline looks to keep its brand value and pre eminent position as the country’s best known carrier. It reminds one of the time not too long ago when the carrier celebrated International Women’s Day by planning all-women flights. The spirit of unity saw flights with all-women crew together with women dispatchers, women load and trim staff, women engineers, women staff at check-in counters, women doctors for crew breathalyser tests, women staff for security checks and women conducting LOSA safety audit. There was the non-stop flight AI-187 on the Delhi-Toronto sector that was operated by Capt Rashmi Miranda and Capt Sunita Narula and First Officers Capt Varsha Sheoran and Capt Nidhi Suri.

That apart, the airline has set up a committee to find out the possibilities of reconfiguring planes that will yield better returns and cut costs. The objective is to reduce the interest burden and increase operational efficiencies across the network. Air India executives say efforts by Nandan have started showing results, citing a decline in operational losses to `266 crore in August 2011 from `507 crore in April 2011. The airline said its operational performance in August showed a

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significant improvement over the year-ago period.

While passenger revenue rose from `889 crore to `998 crore, a rise of 12.3 per cent, the network passenger load factor (PLF) increased from 67.7 per cent to 70.3 per cent. The PLF on the domestic sector showed a huge jump — from 64.3 per cent last year to 73.1 per cent this year. Yields rose by 14 per cent across the network. The airline expects to save `1,000 crore in interest costs if the financial restructuring plan goes as planned It has targeted `1,200 crore additional passenger revenue in the current fiscal and `1,000 crore additional cargo revenue. Air India’s passenger revenue stood at `11,000 crore in fiscal 2011 and cargo revenue at `900 crore.

Amidst the moves to get customer backing, the airline received a boost recently when it was presented Asia’s leading Airline in Economy Class and India’s leading Airline award at the World Travel Awards Asia and Australasia. The nominees for “Asia’s leading Airline” included leading airlines such as Cathay Pacific, Thai Airways, Singapore Airlines, Japan Airlines and others. Known as the “Oscars” of the travel industry, the awards ceremony held at Bangkok reaffirmed the trust reposed by passengers on the national carrier’s proactive

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SERVICE FIRST: Air India is going all out to improve its cabin service.

CMD, Air India

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“I certainly don’t have a magic wand...but I am doing all the basic things to attain operational efficiency” Rohit Nandan

approach, persistent performance and undeterred commitment to customer satisfaction, according to an airline spokesperson.

On the cargo front too, moves are on to ramp up services to utilise its infrastructure and network to ensure smooth transportation and delivery of cargo, worldwide.

Air India’s cargo operations provide a capacity advantage, combined with a 13-city network in India alone. On the domestic front, the carrier flies to Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Thiruvananthapuram, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Goa, Kochi, Kozhikode and Lucknow, internationally, it has tied up with various foreign airlines and trucking companies.

To support the cargo operations, at the carrier’s warehouse in Mumbai, it has developed an indigenous system of inventory management for cargo handling of import/export functions that takes care of the entire management of cargo, supports Electronic Data Interface (EDI) messages with Indian Customs and replaces to a great extent existing paper correspondence between Customs, Airlines, and the custodians. The system has replaced manual handling and binning of cargo at the warehouse in Mumbai by Air India in its role as custodian.

Air India ordered 68 planes from Boeing in December 2005 and Indian Airlines ordered 43 planes from Airbus in February 2006.While the Airbus deliveries have been completed, Air India has already taken delivery of 18 B737-800s and 8 B777200 LRs. Of the 15 B777-300 ER aircraft, it has received 12 planes and deliveries of three more remain. The US Exim Bank had funded Air India’s previous purchases from Boeing. The national carrier has never defaulted on payments to the Exim Bank.

One of the planes that Air India is banking on to revive its fortunes is the Dreamliner. The carrier would like to go ahead with the acquisition of 27 Dreamliners. According to reports, the Air India board in one of its latest meets, agreed that the 27 aircraft were needed by the carrier to expand operations.

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EXPRESS DELIVERY: Air India’s successful low-cost arm has performed admirably.

Air India Express

Abu Dhabi

*

Al Ain

*

Bahrain

*

SpiceJet IndiGo JetLite

Bangkok

*

Colombo

*

Dammam

*

Dhaka

*

Doha

*

Dubai

*

Kathmandu

*

* *

Kuala Lumpur

*

Kuwait

*

*

Muscat Salalah

*

Sharjah

*

Singapore

*

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India: International LCC weekly system capacity: August 29 to September 4, 2011 Rank

Airline

Total Seats

1

Air India Express

67284

2

Air Arabia

33696

3

AirAsia

12600

4

Tiger Airways

8640

5

AirAsia X

8206

6

SpiceJet

8064

7

Thai AirAsia

5040

8

Mihin Lanka

3600

9

Flydubai

2646

10

Jet Lite

2366

11

IndiGo

1440 Source: CAPA

Leader by far Destination

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Air India’s shining star

he Kochi-headquartered Air India Express (AIE), the no-frills international arm of the national carrier Air India, offers flights to major international destinations within a distance of around four hours from different cities in India. Most of the flights are quick-turnaround ones with a ground time of around an hour at the destinations.

Currently, Air India Express flies to 14 international destinations: Abu Dhabi, Al Ain, Bahrain, Colombo, Dammam, Dhaka, Doha, Dubai, Kuala Lumpur, Kuwait, Muscat, Salalah, Sharjah and Singapore from 12 Indian cities - Kozhikode, Kochi, Thiruvananthpuram, Mumbai, Pune, Jaipur, Amritsar, Lucknow, Kolkata, Chennai, Mangalore

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* Source: CAPA

and Tiruchirapally.

On the domestic front, AI Express operates on Mumbai-Kochi, Mumbai-Kozhikode, MumbaiDelhi, Mumbai-Chennai, Mumbai-Pune, MumbaiTiruchirapally, Chennai-Thiruchirapally, ChennaiThiruvananthpuram, Kozhikode-Kochi, Kozhikode-Mangalore and Kochi-Thiruvananthpuram sectors. Air-India Express, based on market-trends, will be introducing many new destinations, international as well as domestic.

AI Express operates 195 weekly flights, mostly from Kerala. “Currently, our flights depart from India at 7-9 p.m. and land in local destinations before midnight. On their return, they land in India in the early morning. As a result, passengers in both India and the Gulf get a complete day for themselves before the flight.” said the airline’s chief operating officer, S Chandrakumar in a recent interview.

The airline is hopeful of achieving break-even by the next fiscal, a top company official has said.

The airline is already in cash-profit and expects to achieve break-even by the turn of the 2013. AIE moved its headquarters to Kochi in December 2010 from Mumbai for better operational efficiency and coordination and the airline got a new headquarter building in February this year.

This move is part of an efficiency blueprint, and improving utilisation of its 21-strong fleet to 12.5 hours daily. It is also an indication that the Kerala-Gulf sector would be more active in the coming year. It is because of the reason that over 70 per cent of operations of Air India Express is in Kerala that the low cost carrier shifted base to Kochi in central Kerala. After Mangalore, Air India Express gets the most number of travellers from Nedumbassery airport in Kochi.

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WHAT CHALLENGES ARE SHAPING TODAY’S BAGGAGE-HANDLING STRATEGIES? TOP OF THE LIST, OF COURSE, IS COST CONTROL. BUT AIRPORTS ARE ALSO FACED WITH GROWING PASSENGER NUMBERS AND HIGHER PEAKS. TO TOP IT ALL IS THE NEED TO IMPROVE SUSTAINABILITY, PRIMARILY BY REDUCING ENERGY CONSUMPTION, WRITES ODEKE LENIOR. t’s clear that IT will be a key factor in meeting these future challenges. Smart controls and automated handling enable efficiency, speed and reliability of operations to be optimised.

That can mean time and cost savings, reduced manual labour requirements, improved working conditions, and higher energy-efficiency.

Most of all, baggage handling is changing to a controlled, demand-driven process, in which bags are managed dynamically and on-demand, as required for flight building (see Fig. 1). IT is the essential enabler for this ‘intelligent’ baggage handling process.

Current IT developments provide big opportunities to meet the demands outlined above. But it’s not simply a matter of adding intelligent controls to an existing system. The first step is to look at the underlying flows to determine how for example flight make-up operations can most cost-effectively be implemented. At this stage, simulation allows system and labour requirements to be identified, and a range of operational scenarios to be optimised and verified before costly system engineering. That leads to the optimal balance between automated and manual handling, and the most economic solution for dealing with peak times. And it answers questions like how to handle more bags, in less time, with fewer baggage-handlers and in a limited space.

I

Baggagehandling is changing to a controlled, demand-driven process, in which bags are managed dynamically

EASY CHECK-IN: Check-in counters at one of the Airports.

‘Pull’ principle is key to efficient baggage process Big gains can be made by changing baggage handling from the conventional serial process — in which bags pass through the system as they are received — to a managed, demand-driven process or one that works on the ‘pull’ principle. This not only allows cost-efficiency, productivity and use of the available space to be optimised. It also enables the airport to improve passengers’ experience at the airport by giving them more time and freedom to relax and enjoy the available facilities.

The key factor in this ‘pull’ principle is the use of a buffer to store bags until they are needed for flight make-up. "That means the process can be executed in a controlled way", explains Sjoerd de Jongh, System Design Engineer at Vanderlande Industries. "Bags placed in the buffer are accessible at any desired moment, so they can be called forward for flight-make up as and when they are needed.

Containers or carts can then be loaded sequentially from the buffer, instead of having to be dealt with on an ad hoc basis as and when they

FOCUS FEATURE

IT for smart baggage handling

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TOUGH JOB: Baggage handling and scanning forms the most important part of Airports’ administration.

Check-in

Different operational scenarios have been tested for both larger and regional airports, and have enabled flight-build windows to be shortened significantly (see Figure 2). Start times have typically been reduced from three to four hours before departure to only one to two hours before.

That translates into a big reduction in the number of make-up points, typically by 20 per cent for regional airports and up to 50 per cent for large airports. Required numbers of baggage-handlers on the shift are also reduced significantly.

However, baggage flows are not stable but are subject to peaks at busy times. Scaling systems and manpower for peak demand are clearly wasteful of resources. By introducing dynamic, ondemand flight make-up peaks can be shaved by buffering incoming bags and calling them forward when resources are available, creating a more constant, controlled flow to the make-up locations.

This improves working conditions for baggagehandlers, and allows labour costs to be reduced by from 35 per cent to more than 50 per cent.

Screening

Buffer

Ă‚

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Make-up pull

Fig. 1 Schematic of the on-demand flight make-up process.

CRUISING HEIGHTS I OCTOBER 2011

More opportunities to save time and labour are provided by semi-automated loading of containers for transfer to the aircraft

Working conditions are also greatly improved by introducing make-up on demand in combination with semi-automated loading. Handlers no longer need to load multiple carts or containers, each with 35-40 bags, during simultaneous 15minute peaks. This reduces risks of injuries and disability caused by heavy, stressful manual handling.

The on-demand flight make-up process depends on automated, intelligent bag storage.

This allows labour requirements to be reduced, make-up windows to be shortened and higher volumes to be handled within existing space constraints. Key aspects of the Vanderlande bag storage concept are high storage density and fast, random access to stored bags. The system allows capacity to be optimised by peak shaving, early bag flows to be handled efficiently, and passenger satisfaction to be increased by longer check in opening times.

More opportunities to save time and labour are provided by (semi-) automated loading of containers for transfer to the aircraft. Different technologies are rapidly gaining ground, and offer cost-effective solutions for regional as well as larger airports. With semi-automated loading technology the baggage-handler only has to guide and position the bag, instead of actually lifting and loading it manually.

IT also plays an important role in optimising sustainability by reducing energy consumption.

This is achieved by an intelligent system control to adjust a system capacity in line with variations in baggage loads. Smart controls — for example

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Optimised

Current

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Fig. 2 Reduced flight-built windows and numbers of laterals achieved through simulation of baggage flows. with Vanderlande’s VIBES standard controls solution — allow belt speeds to be reduced and complete sections of the system to be switched off automatically as loads fall.

Increased use of automation and intelligent Operator Cost

# Hours Equivalent

arrive. That benefits the airport by improved efficiency, but also the passengers who can check-in their bags as soon as they arrive and then have maximum freedom to visit the airport’s shops and restaurants. Of course, airlines and airport would have to open flights earlier for check-in.

Flight make-up then becomes a much more intensive and rapid process, and is completed in much shorter time windows than conventional manual loading. Equipment and space utilisation is greatly improved, and operators benefit from a uniform workload, instead of alternating between high peaks and periods of relative idleness.

This on-demand flight make-up process makes optimum use of the available system capacity, space and labour, so that high peak volumes can be dealt with optimally. Systems and manpower no longer need to be scaled to meet expected peak demands — a situation that typically results in wasteful excess capacity during most of the day or even year.

Another benefit of this on demand principle with fully automated bag storage and retrieval is that it facilitates the introduction of labour-saving mechanised or automated loading of bags into containers and carts. Mechanised loading means baggage-handling operators only have to guide and position bags, instead of actually lifting and loading them manually. It also allows employers to meet increasingly stringent Health and Safety legislation by relieving operators of repetitive heavylifting work.

Vanderlande Industries has successfully implemented a world first in on-demand flight make-up at a major international airport, with large-scale automated loading of bags into containers and carts by six fully automated robots. The company offers a range of scalable solutions using manual, mechanised or automated loading principles to match airports’ individual needs, preferences and business models.

Loading Capacity (bhp)

Fig. 3 Reductions in baggage-handler working hours plotted against a range of capacity requirements. controls in the coming years will continue to lead to big improvements. Manual handling will be almost entirely eliminated in the end-to-end baggage-handling process, from remote checkin via dynamic, on demand, semi-automated flight make-up, right through to aircraft loading.

That will help airports maximise their efficiency, cost-effectiveness and service levels, as well as to meet increasing sustainability demands.

(The writer is Senior Systems Engineer, Vanderlande Industries)

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