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.

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.

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.