Aviation Boom In Maharashtra as 4 new Airports take flight in 2017!

Nashik Airport Terminal. Source:Wikipedia

The year 2017 has proved to be great for flyers in the state of Maharashtra, as new destinations  got direct flights to Mumbai! 

Air India Regional began services to Shirdi in October, while TruJet connected Nanded to Mumbai in November. With the announcement of Air Deccan's flights to Nashik, Pune and Jalgaon from Mumbai (that will begin on 23 December), the total number of airports in the state with scheduled commercial services will go up to Eight.

This year, the Government of India announced 45 new air routes awarded to airlines under the first round of its Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS) for civil aviation, also known as UDAN – Ude Desh Ka Aam Nagrik, seeking to make flying more affordable.

Under UDAN, the operators would be extended viability gap funding (VGF) in which 80 percent of the subsidy will be provided by the Central government and the remaining by the State Government. Civil Aviation Secretary Rajiv Nayan Choubey said that on each flight, 50% of the seats would have a cap of Rs 2,500 per seat/hour. Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha said the scheme provides for various benefits including no airport charges and three-year exclusivity on the routes. 

Under this RCS, Hyderabad based Turbo-Megha Airways (parent company of TruJet Airlines) were awarded the Mumbai - Nanded route. They also connect Nanded with Hyderabad. The services began in November 2017 with ATR-72 aircraft.

Bengaluru based Air Deccan, promoted by Capt. Gopinath, will operate under RCS on the Mumbai- Nashik- Pune and Mumbai - Jalgaon routes in Maharashtra and will also link Mumbai with Kolhapur and Solapur in the future. Deccan Charters announced commencement of services on 23rd December 2017. 

Air India Regional began services to Shirdi in Ahmednagar district after it was inaugurated on October 1st. Their ATR-72 connects Shirdi to Mumbai and Hyderabad.

Airport Spotlight: Indore Airport (IDR)

Devi Ahilya Bai Holkar Airport (ICAO code VAID, IATA code IDR), serving the Indian city of Indore is the busiest in the state of Madhya Pradesh. It is named after the 18th Century Queen of the Malwa Kingdom. The airport is operated by the state run Airports Authority of India (AAI) which inaugurated a new integrated terminal building in 2012. We hopped over to take a look.

The terminal can handle 700 passengers per hour and cost Rupees 135 Crores to build. Though there are no scheduled international services from this airport at the time this post was written, the airport features an international departures section for future use. 

Airside view

City Side Entrance

A portrait of the Queen in the arrivals hall.

AAI loves potted plants, it seems.

Security Hold area

Check-in Counters.

Escalators leading up to departures

Arrivals area seen from the departures section

Restaurant in the Departures section

Signage

Towards the boarding gates.

Another view of 'Saptagiri', the restaurant.

Busy Apron

Air side facade

Air Odisha Cessna Caravan

The airport is also home to the local Flying Club

Alliance Air signs long-term lease agreements for 10 aircraft with Dubai Aerospace Enterprise (DAE) Ltd.

Alliance Air, a wholly owned subsidiary of Air India Limited, has signed long-term lease agreements for 10 ATR 72-600 aircraft with Dubai Aerospace Enterprise (DAE) Ltd.

The aircraft are scheduled to deliver throughout 2017 and will be used to grow Alliance’s network and to serve underserved or unserved airports throughout India as part of the Indian Government’s focus on regional air access through the Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS). 

Alliance Air began inducting new ATR72 aircraft in December 2014 to fuel it's ambitious regional expansion programme. It also offers the lowest fuel-burn and seat mile cost on its segment. The aircraft is fitted with Pratt & Whitney 127M engines, and features a full-glass cockpit with the most modern navigation aid tools.

 

Etihad Airways and Jet Airways have signed an agreement with the Government of Maharashtra to promote tourism to the state.

Etihad Airways, the national airline of the United Arab Emirates, and strategic partner Jet Airways, India’s full-service, premium international carrier, have signed an agreement with the Government of Maharashtra to promote tourism to the western Indian state.

The partnership will enable both airlines to capitalise on their strong links with Maharashtra and further propel domestic and international arrivals into the state capital Mumbai and beyond. It is the first time an Indian state has signed a tourism collaboration agreement with airlines.

The Honourable Chief Minister of Maharashtra Shri Devendra Fadnavis presided over the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding in Mumbai today. The agreement was signed by Valsa Nair Singh, IAS, Principal Secretary, Tourism and Culture, Government of Maharashtra; Neerja Bhatia, Vice President, Etihad Airways Indian Subcontinent; and Jayaraj Shanmugam, Chief Commercial Officer, Jet Airways. It followed months of discussions between the leadership of both airlines and the state government on exploring ways to collaborate in promoting tourism.

Under the agreement, the three entities will pool marketing resources to participate in travel-trade events in key international markets such as the UK and the UAE, jointly promote ‘Destination Maharashtra’ through advertising campaigns, and organise inbound familiarisation trips for media and travel agents.

Etihad Airways and Jet Airways are key contributors to India’s thriving travel and tourism sector carrying the biggest combined share of international traffic to and from India with one in five travellers choosing either carrier. 

Collectively, they operate five flights a day between Abu Dhabi, the UAE carrier’s operational hub, and Maharashtra’s main international gateway of Mumbai with domestic connections across the country. In addition, Jet Airways flies daily between Maharashtra’s second largest city of Pune and Abu Dhabi.

Maharashtra, the third largest state in India, is one of India’s most popular tourist destinations. Mumbai ranks second after the Indian capital Delhi in terms of first port of entry for foreign tourist arrivals into India, and fifth in domestic tourist visits.

"Mumbai is Jet Airways’ home hub and the airline shares a warm and emotional bond with Mumbai and the state of Maharashtra. We operate our highest number of flights from the city and have always positioned and promoted Mumbai as the gateway to the state and the country. Our mutual network represents a huge market that can be potentially accessed in support of this initiative."

Maharashtra is home to a diverse range of tourist attractions, from beaches, caves, forts, wildlife, tiger reserves, national parks and hill stations, to monuments, palaces, festivals, places of worship, and adventure sports. Mumbai, the international gateway to Maharashtra, is the country’s financial hub and home to numerous museums, architectural heritage and Bollywood, the world’s largest film industry in terms of movie production.

Since Jet Airways began operations from Mumbai in 1993, the airline has flown millions of guests to and from its main hub over the past 24 years.

Mumbai was also the first Indian city to be served by Etihad Airways with the launch of daily flights in September 2004. A second daily service was introduced in November 2013, followed two years later by a third daily frequency. Etihad Airways has carried more than two million guests on the route over the past 13 years with key inbound markets including Abu Dhabi, London, New York, San Francisco and Chicago. 

Etihad Airways’ Indian network to and from Abu Dhabi covers 11 cities that also includes Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, New Delhi, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Kochi, Kolkata, Kozhikode and Thiruvananthapuram. Jet Airways offers the additional Indian cities of Pune, Lucknow, Mangalore and Goa to Abu Dhabi, as well as numerous domestic connections. 

During 2017, Jet Airways is scheduled to launch flights from Kannur and Chandigarh to Abu Dhabi, subject to appropriate regulatory approvals and completion of operational readiness at these airports.

Combined, both carriers operate over 250 flights each week between Abu Dhabi and 15 Indian cities.

- Jet Airways Press Release.

Since when did a routine "Go Around" become a 'scare'? 

SpiceJet in a statement said "the approach unstabilized in the last 200 feet and the pilot decided to do a go around". 

A 'Go-around' is when the pilot of a landing aircraft decided to abort the procedure and 'go around' back to the beginning of the approach procedure, somewhat like a speed bowler in Cricket who aborts his delivery mid-way for some reason and goes back to his starting position start his bowling run-up! At a busy airport like Hyderabad, this might mean circling a bit while awaiting their turn in a queue for landing.

Go-arounds are a regular phenomenon at busy airports. This poorly researched article which hinges on the opinion of a passenger wrongly portrays the incident as though it was a major catastrophe averted!! 

C'mon The Times of India, lets not sensationalise such matters for the sake of eyeballs.

New Aerobridge under construction at Coimbatore Airport.

A Fixed Link Bridge under construction at Coimbatore's airport in Tamil Nadu, India. AAI plans to add two aerobridges to increase passenger handling capacity of the terminal building.

Air India's NEO addition and the continuing A320 saga.

Air India has become the latest A320neo operator after taking delivery of the first of 14 aircraft leased from Kuwait headquartered ALAFCO Aviation Lease And Finance Company.

As of January 2017, Air India operates the oldest A320s yet in operations. And VT-EXF, delivered to the carrier in February 2017 is only one month old! The age gap is a record-breaking 27.9 years!!! 

The oldest of A320s, MSN 24 joined the Indian Airlines (IC) fleet in 1987, when the cutting-edge, 'fly-by-wire' aircraft were as much a rage as the NEOs are today.. These A320s were specially configured, featuring 'double bogey' Main landing gear to cope with weaker runways in India. They were the mainstay of  Indian Airlines' domestic and regional international fleet right through the 1990s and the 2000s, working alongside IA's jet fleet of A300s and B737-200s. They were the sole A320 operators in the 90s when all private operators chose to bring in Boeing narrow body jets. When IC and AI were merged in 2007, the old A320s got repainted in the Air India Livery.

Seven of those beauties are still operating today, although news reports that the National carrier plans to phase them out keep appearing in the headlines..

Indian Airlines next big wave of Airbus family inductions happened in 2006 when it placed an order for 43 aircraft comprising 20 A319s, four A320s and 19 A321s, valued at approximately $2.2 billion. Airbus began delivering these planes in 2007, bang in the midst of the merger process. These new airbuses allowed IC to phase out its ageing Boeing 737-200 fleet. Some of the 732s were hived off to Alliance Air and a few more were converted to cargo. Some of the A320 family deliveres were made in the new livery. A few A319s still sport this interim livery.

In 2015, Air India leased five winglet equipped A320s in an 'all economy' configuration from Chinese lessors in a bid to replace the ageing A320s. This was soon followed by the ALAFCO deal for 14 NEOs, which are being delivered now. Another eight NEOs will be sourced from GECAS and the airline has issued tenders for a further seven A320s.

Incidentally, according to Airbus, more than 6,000 professionals in India contribute directly and indirectly to all Airbus programmes through a network of over 45 Indian suppliers, and every aircraft produced today is partly made in India!

UDAN scheme breathes life into 5 unserved airports in Maharashtra

The Five airports will be connected to Mumbai Airport.

Kolhapur airport will see flights to Mumbai soon. Image source: Wikipedia

The Government of India announced 45 new air routes awarded to airlines under the first round of its Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS) for civil aviation, also known as UDAN – Ude Desh Ka Aam Nagrik. The scheme seeks to make flying more affordable. 

The RCS will connect eight cities in the State of Maharashtra. Of these, five airports have not seen a commercial flight in years!

Under UDAN, the operators would be extended viability gap funding (VGF) in which 80 percent of the subsidy will be provided by the Central government and the remaining by the State Government. Civil Aviation Secretary Rajiv Nayan Choubey said that on each flight, 50% of the seats would have a cap of Rs 2,500 per seat/hour. Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha said the scheme provides for various benefits including no airport charges and three-year exclusivity on the routes. 

Two operators have won bids to fly the intra-state routes. Hyderabad based Turbo-Megha Airways (parent company of TruJet Airlines) were awarded the Mumbai - Nanded route. Their aircraft will also connect Nanded with Hyderabad. The services are expected to begin by June 2017 and will depend on the preparedness of the airport and operator.

Bengaluru based Deccan Charters, promoted by Capt. Gopinath of Air Deccan fame, will operate on the following routes in Maharashtra.

Mumbai- Nashik- Pune

Mumbai- Aurangabad

Mumbai - Jalgaon

Mumbai - Kolhapur

Mumbai - Solapur

Deccan Charters are expected to commence by September 2017 depending on the preparedness of the airports. While Pune and Aurangabad airports are AAI owned airports that already have some services and are likely to require little or no preparation for these RCS flights, the same cannot be said for the other airports which have been lying idle for quite some time. While Jalgaon and Kolhapur are run by AAI, Solapur is run by the Maharashtra Airports Development Corporation (MADC) and Nashik (Ozar) is run by Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL). These airports will now need to prepare their premises for receiving regular flights.

Indian Naval Air Enclave at Mumbai Airport Inaugurated

An Indian Navy P8I Neptune at BOM.

The Indian Navy has established a new Air Enclave at Mumbai airport (BOM). The Indian Naval Air Enclave, Santacruz (NAE Scz) has a large hangar and dispersal area located adjacent to the airport's main Runway. The enclave was inaugurated by Vice Admiral Girish Luthra, Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief Western Naval Command of the Indian Navy on 1st February 2017. 

This is a significant development from the point of view of Naval Operations, since, it now provides Indian Navy, capability to stage through all types of fixed wing aircraft held in the Naval Inventory including the highly potent and versatile Boeing P8I Long Range Maritime Reconnaissance (LRMR) aircraft. This gives a major boost to the surveillance and offensive measures on the areas of interest in the Western Seaboard.

P8I LRMR aircraft are presently operating from their base at Arakkonam, near Chennai. With the operationalization of the NAE at Santa Cruz, the Indian Navy can operate the P8I’s from this enclave thereby enabling them to operate for longer durations in the Arabian Sea resulting in vast area coverage.

In his address, Vice Admiral Girish Luthra complimented the efforts of all those involved in creating this facility. He said that the city of Mumbai and Indian Navy have had long standing relations which were not restricted to the Dockyard or harbour areas. He amplified that, decades ago, naval helicopters and Super Constellation surveillance aircrafts operated from the same airport. He thanked, among others, the Airport Authority of India, Mumbai International Airport Limited (the airport operators), the Central Industrial Security force (CISF), Air India, contractors and Military Engineering Service for their support and co-operation in operationalizing this facility and solicited their continued support and cooperation in the future.

Sourced from the PIB, GoI

Chandigarh Airport Registers Exponential Growth: AAI

Chandigarh International Airport located in Mohali, Punjab in India has been registering exponential growth according to statistics released by the Airports Authority of India (AAI).

Chandigarh is the capital of the Indian states of Punjab and Haryana. Chandigarh Airport (IXC) is located in Sector 17, around 14 kilometres from city centre. the airport operates as a civil enclave, meaning the runway and other air-side infrastructure are controlled by the Indian Air Force.

This airport commenced operations in 2006 with three flights a day. Today the number of flights operating daily from the airport is more than 24. In 2006-2007, the total annual traffic was just 154,000. Ten years down the line this number has multiplied, with the total number having reached 1,534,000 in 2015-16!

From April to December 2015-16, the total number of passengers using the airport was 1,158,111, while for 2016-17 for the same period, the number was 1,282,243 - an increase of 124,132 over the previous year. According to AAI stats, traffic at this airport peaks in the months of October and November. Air India, Air Asia India, Jet Airways, IndiGo, Vistara and SpiceJet connect IXC to a steadily increasing number of domestic destinations like Srinagar, Pune and Kochi to name a few apart from the usual Delhi and Mumbai.

International operations at the airport commenced in September 2016 after all operations were shifted to new integrated terminal building, inaugurated in September 2015. The eco-friendly terminal, built by Larsen & Toubro, covers 53,000 square metres and is designed to handle 1,600 passengers per hour.  IndiGo (6E) operates to Dubai International (DXB) while Air India Express (IX) flies to Sharjah International (SHJ). The number of international passengers recorded in November and December were 12,127 and 12,797 respectively. Other international destinations like Bangkok (BKK), Singapore (SIN) and Abu Dhabi (AUH) are expected to be connected to Chandigarh shortly.

View our detailed walk-through of the New Integrated terminal building here.

Air India moves to Terminal 2 at London Heathrow Airport

Air India, the national carrier of India, has moved to London Heathrow Terminal 2: "The Queens Terminal" on January 25, 2017.

The move is in keeping with the Star Alliance policy of getting all its member carriers under one roof, ensuring seamless connectivity of passengers between Air India and other Star Alliance carriers.
Air India joined the Star Alliance in July 2014. Initially the goal was to make the move by September 2016 but got delayed to January 2017. The move finally brings all 24 Star Alliance carriers together under one roof for the first time at London Heathrow Airport (LHR). The Air India Check-in counters will be located in Zone-D.

Terminal 2 is LHR's newest Terminal. It was opened in 2014 and includes automated kiosks for multi airline check-in and a smoother connection between Star Alliance carriers. The terminal has four Star Alliance lounges, including the Air Canada, Lufthansa, Singapore Airlines and United Airlines lounges so Air India passengers travelling in either First or Business Class or holding Star Alliance Gold status can now choose whichever lounge they would like to use.

AI operates 7 daily flights from LHR, including twice daily to Delhi, once daily to Mumbai, Four times a week to Ahmedabad and thrice a week to Newark. Incidentally, the Indian national carrier has been continuously operating from LHR to India for the past 69 years, having commenced flights from  Bombay to London in June 1948!

Air India deploys their Boeing 747-400 on the Delhi-Mumbai route.

Air India deploys its veteran Boeing 747-400 on the heavily congested Delhi-Mumbai route.

VT-ESO Khajuraho basks in the Mumbai Sun

The Delhi-Mumbai air-route is the world's 6th Busiest route by Aircraft movements and by seat capacity! More than Four Million passengers flew this route (one way) in 2016. Six Indian domestic carriers flew a total 140 daily services (both ways) in 2013! A cursory glance at FlightRadar24 data reveals that the route is presently served by a whopping 66 daily services each way! This includes 60 on narrow body aircraft and 6 on wide-body aircraft.

 The route has obviously had a lions share in the astonishing 20% growth that Indian aviation has been witnessing in the past few years. However, growth on this route is hitting a plateau thanks to air-side congestion at Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaja International Airport (BOM). The airport runway already handles around 50 air traffic movements during peak hours, making BOM the world's most efficient single operational runway airport. Airport operators MIAL stopped allocating new slots during peak hours in the Summer16 schedule, meaning that airlines couldn't add more services during peak hours to cope with the demand. Deploying larger aircraft on the densest of routes out of BOM ended up being the most practical solution for airlines who were struggling to match demand with capacity.

In December 2016, the national carrier decided to deploy its iconic Boeing 747-400 aircraft on the BOM-DEL route. This aircraft has more than twice the capacity of their regular 'two-class' Airbus A320, meaning a 100% increase in capacity for the same landing slot! This is not the first time a wide-body has been deployed on the route, though. Air India already operates their Boeing 777s and 787s on BOM-DEL as international connector flights. Their competitor Jet Airways also operates the wide-body Airbus A330 on the same route.

AI's move is reminiscent of domestic routes in Japan back in the day when 747s with dense seat configs used to be the mainstay for short domestic journeys. These routes are now operated by 777s and 787s.

AI's jumbo-jet domestic flights were launched on December 14 2016 with one daily flight each way. Air India operates a total 12 daily flights each way on this, the busiest domestic route in the country. Buoyed by the positive response, Air India deployed a second 744 on the route within weeks, one flying BOM-DEL-BOM and the other DEL-BOM-DEL. The airline also upped the free baggage allowance on these 'jumbo' flights, allowing 40 kilos and 50 kilos in Economy and Business class respectively. 

The domestic operation is currently being managed with two aircraft, VT-ESO, based in DEL and VT-ESP based in BOM. VT-ESO, named Khajuraho, operates AI678 to BOM in the morning and then flies back to DEL as AI888 in the evening. VT-ESP, named Ajanta, operates in the reverse rotation, flying to DEL as AI806 in the morning and flying back to BOM as AI805 in the evening. 

Air India's 747-400s can carry 423 passengers; 12 First class seats on the upper deck of the aircraft, 26 seats in business, and the rest 385 in economy. The aircraft sub-type joined the fleet in 1993 and were the flagships of the national carrier for more than a decade before making way for the next generation long range aircraft like the Boeing 777 and 787. Today, almost 25 years down the line, the few 747-400s that continue in service are the only remnants of the once large fleet of thirty B747s (all variants) that once handled all of the Maharajah's long haul duties around the world.

The Boeing 777 (left) has taken over long haul duties from the 747-400

Apart from the BOM-DEL route, AI deploys the 747-400 on the BOM-HYD-JED and COK-JED routes. The 747-400 is also used for  "Air India One" duties on international state visits. However, due to the relatively high cost of operating these ageing beauties, the domestic utilization of the 747-400 is deliberately being kept low with each aircraft only operating one flight in each direction per day. With the aircraft slated to be phased out of AI's fleet by the end of 2017, these domestic flights provide many with the opportunity of flying "The Queen of the Skies" one last time before she flies into the sunset!

Rwandair launches Mumbai service in S17

RwandAir, the flag carrier of Rwanda, will start services to BOM from 3 April 2017. The thrice weekly service will be operated by a Boeing 737-800 - one of the worlds longest routes on a 737 (8 hours eastbound)

Image by Andrew W. Sieber on Flickr

WB 500/501 will operate thrice weekly between Kigali International Airport and Mumbai Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport. The African carrier had earlier announced the route was to be operated four times a week by one of their newly Acquired Airbus A330s. The flight was supposed to launch in September 2016 and was to have a halt at Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. It is unclear what prompted the change in equipment or if the A330 will be deployed at a later date.

Bloomberg misquoted our data, says FlightStats

In a prompt reply to Air India, FlightStats clarified that Bloomberg's report wrongly showed Air India as the 3rd worst in "On Time Performance", whilst citing FlightStats data as its source. The reply came hours after Air India, wrote to the Portland, OR based Aviation Insights company, saying that the data presented in the report leads one to "speculate" of the "intentions" behind the entire exercise.

"Air India strongly contest the data shared and veracity of the report... Air India will take a strong action and leave no stone unturned to ascertain and bring to light any biased or malicious intent to spoil Air India's image," the airline said in the letter.

The Bloomberg report that attempted to rank airlines based on Punctuality quickly went viral. The report had stated;

"Every year, the aviation insights company FlightStats puts together a list of the international airlines with the best on-time performance records. It's the capstone to the company's year-round efforts to track delay and cancellation patterns for airlines across the globe. We've asked them to share all of their annual findings so we can point out the losers, too. Without further ado, here are the full results, along with your likelihood of getting delayed on each carrier:"

It its reply to AI, FlightStats clarified;

"Our Data, which was a measure of 97.7% of your arriving flights, indicated that 61.29% of AI's flights arrived within the A14 threshold. Bloomberg applied its journalistic license to invert the A14 (formula) result to highlight the percentage of delayed flights being 38.17% and indicated that the number was a predictor to future delays. This is not how we would portray airline OTP; nor were we given access to the Bloomberg article prior to it's publication."