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.

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.

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

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.

Jet Airways shifts domestic operations to Terminal 2 at Mumbai Airport

A view that is now confined to memories only. 9W shifted their operations to the swanky new Terminal 2 at Mumbai International Airport, thus effectively integrating  Domestic and International operations at their Base airport.

Seen here are a Quartet of the 9W workhorses, the Boeing 737-800, parked at Terminal 1C in March 2016.