Bharat Rakshak

apparently the captain Mrs Yadav has 4500hrs total flying exp. thats a lot...a seasoned veteran.

Folks, what is happening on the Air India pilot strike? What I heard was that the current Aviation minister (Ajith Singh?) has clearly shown the place to these war mongering pilots. Earlier it was "stop the strike, and then we talk". But now it has gone to the level of "NO talks". It seems the air lines is operating 80% of its scheduled flights. The pilots who were thrown out have been told that they will not be taken back. When things settle down, they can be taken in on a contract basis. They work for 5 year periods, and I guess such jobs will not have stuff like seniority based pay etc. etc.

^^ word on PPrune is that requisitions are out for 300 pilots from AI.

Indians are deeply status conscious — the country’s ancient caste system includes thousands of categories — so the battle within the pilot ranks at Air India is no small matter to them.


They have no clue on the Indian social scene.
This is social engineering and a new one.

They can find them in a heartbeat - mostly expats.

The sad part is the local infrastructure is awful. I spent two months by Trivandrum and Bangalore trying to find an instructor who could convert my FAA certificates to DGCA. There was a place with mechanics and well maintained aircraft but no instructor, a few places with instructors leaving, and some places that had no idea how to do the conversion even when I spoonfed the documents to them.

I had a lot of trouble getting through the red tape etc. and most of the other places tried to sell their commercial certificate package - which involved going abroad to the US for ab initio training, completely ignoring that I merely wanted to convert my certificates to Indian and already had my initial training. Calling Air India was even worse, kept passing the buck. Too many salesmen and not enough people willing to accept the business I was trying to shove into them.

I gave up trying to spend money, which sucks because Air India's pay scales are REALLY NICE. You can be a 2000 hour newbie and make an absolute killing compared to the 2000-4000 hr pimple faced wonderkids earning $20-30k in the US flying commuter planes.

Kannan Saar, you have your transport or CPL? Now(April, 2012 onwards), DGCA is asking for a skills test in India. That might have something to do with the confusion?

No sir not a transport though I wish India does not have any agreement with the FAA so FAA holders have always had to take all the written and practical tests to get a DGCA certificate. There was no point to me taking five written tests if I couldn't find an instructor certified to give me the practical tests, so I gave up - this was maybe in 2009.

http://forums.jetcareers.com/threads/fa ... on.114563/

As that thread points out, all I needed to do was make some money go around No big deal, I'm settled into a career as a chemist now, but man, being paid a decent salary to fly would be a dream job. If Air India opened its pocketbook now, there are easily a few hundred people with thousands of hours in wide body ahead of me in line, no point. Nevertheless, Air India should have zero problem finding expat pilots.

I appreciate the note though, I didn't notice they changed the rules for everyone now.

this article says that while Delhi and Hyd are running 1000cr losses per annum and loading users with fees to survive, the plain jane BIAL is making profits of 150 cr / annum due to its minimal style and strong growth in business traffic

http://www.businessworld.in/businesswor ... ?print=yes

unlike the other two private airports (Delhi and Mumbai), BIAL gives only 4 per cent of its topline to AAI whereas Mumbai and Delhi give a substantial part of their revenues. This is due to the Bangalore airport being a greenfield facility where all the initial investment was done by the promoters. At Delhi and Mumbai, the assets have been given on lease to private developers.

There are other reasons why facilities such as Hyderabad have lagged behind. The Telangana issue has taken a toll on business and business travel to Andhra Pradesh, harming the airport’s interests. Then again, Hyderabad sees a much larger volume of one-time fliers whereas Bangalore, being an information technolgy hub, has many more frequent fliers.

The traffic profile at the two cities also varies with the average flier in Bangalore willing to spend a lot more at the airport than the one at Hyderabad. The passenger volume in the two cities is also quite at variance with that at Bangalore at around 13 million last year while Hyderabad’s traffic stood at somewhere between 7.5-8 million.

I always was a huge fan of the new BLR airport - no nonsense architecture and quite functional like a oiro-khan airport. Everything from airport connectivity to check-in to security is pretty usable. They did not waste time in making traffic flyovers for incoming/outgoing at terminal entrance or put up massive bronze hands showing the freudian finger at you etc. You use the airport and get out asap.

Am glad they are doing well. It is a great model to follow everywhere, IMO.

but even delhi T1 has traffic flyover *whine* we want shakinah *whine*

A few piers/concourses to fan out and add more aerobridges. Shakinat-e-bliss will be achieved along with great utility.

I agree it has nothing to do with status and everything to do with seniority and pay.

Still the point is correct. AI is unviable just for the amount of free stuff it gives away to ex-pilots and employees. Should be privatized or shut down pronto.

Hello!! Don't forget the very first private airport, CIAL. They made close to 100Cr profit last FY, without any user fees. They are doing very well, and currently in big expansion mode.

Gents, any update on the NAL Regional Transport Aircraft? Nothing in the news, the NAL website or frequent gupshup forums on the webz. Any inside info on specs, price, any orders etc?

I am not sure the money is sanctioned, or that any of the numerous alliances with global vendors needed are even in talks stage. the way we trickle fund things dont expect from much from it.

Sigh.. Sri Madhavan Nair was heading that earlier, before he got caught up in the middle of the Antrix-Devas fracas. I guess if at all the RTA is being worked, it is in extreme secrecy
On another note, The Mahindra - Gipps Aero site talks about product line expansion in 2012, so I wonder if the Mahindra-CSIR-NAL NM5 is expected to join Mahindras product range in 2012.

And the tamasha continues....

Air India pilots on 48-hour hunger strike

Cheers....

Cabin crew will serve fresh lime juice and other nourishing liquid refreshments during the hunger strike as per laid down AI procedures. Cheers, hic!

Poor little delicate darlings, do they really expect the traveling public to give a rats a$$?

A few hours of "hunger strike" and kidneys have started to "fail"

Are then these delicate darlings, really fit to fly??

The medical certificate industry will continue to thrive.


Several Air India pilots on hunger strike taken ill

An IPG statement issued on Wednesday said Capt Manish Choudhry, Capt Yashima Singh and Capt Tejveer Singh were diagnosed with critically low blood glucose levels that can cause hypoglycaemic shock resulting in brain damage.

Capt Hari Shankar was diagnosed with critically high ketone levels indicating partial kidney failure. If left untreated, it can cause permanent kidney damage. His blood pressure is fluctuating, too, indicating unstable vital parameters.

...........

Air India's response, too, shocked pilots. The airline's deputy chief medical officer went to the hunger strike venue at Jantar Mantar in Delhi. "On the instructions of Vineeta Bhandari, AI executive director industrial relations, the airline doctor medically examined only those pilots who have not been terminated. So, for Bhandari, the terminated pilots who are on hunger strike may be left to die," said the IPG statement.

"Perhaps, the fact that Bhandari was an employee of erstwhile Indian Airlines explains her lack of compassion towards the pilots belonging to the erstwhile Air India," the statement said.

If it was china or even US , everyone would have eaten bullets for their hunger nautanki that too from the other opening

Meanwhile, back at the ranch.......

Paying passengers inconvenienced once again.

Why was mama not flown as cargo??

Airline captains or creeps??

Any other country and this would have earned an automatic and very long jail sentence.

No seat for ‘ailing’ mom, Air India pilot flies her in cockpit of Pune-Delhi flight

Chetak saar, isnt the captain allowed to take a staff on the jump seat? I qonder if the staff priviledge is available to moms too.

IBNLIVE:
Kingfisher at present has only 15 aircraft flying, including eight ATRs, while 15 of its aircraft are grounded due to non-availability of spares on account of fund crunch.

Its lessors have reportedly taken back as many as 34 aircraft after the company allegedly defaulted on the rentals amounting to around Rs 1,000 crore.

Air India flight makes emergency landing at Pak airport, returns



http://www.hindustantimes.com/News-Feed ... 85840.aspx

Cheers....

Is it common for indicator lights to give false alarm esp for such an important component ???

^^Krishnan,
I am not trying to be a smart a.ss. If it is common, then we would have seen a lot more emergency landings similar to this. Overtime, the pilots would have also grown a thick skin (if it is common) and would not have panicked. I believe it is quite abnormal.

More interestingly, Air India apparently did not let Paki engineers anywhere near that flight.

Gujarat shortlists Ventura Aviation, Deccan Charters and Meher Air Service for intra-state aviation service.

Gujarat government has shortlisted three companies to provide offshore and onshore civil and cargo aviation service within the state. These include Ventura Aviation, Deccan Charters and Meher Air Service. The government will now decide on allotment of routes to these companies.

"Earlier, nine companies had expressed interest in the project; six for onshore and three for offshore connectivity. Of these six companies that complied with the technical criteria, three have been finalised to offer service," Saurabh Patel, minister of state for industry, told ET.

Ventura and Deccan are selected for onshore service, while Meher will provide offshore (amphibious sea-planes) service. The move is expected to boost trade and tourism in Gujarat. It will also provide better connectivity to the visiting NRIs. The state government will handhold these companies for three years by providing tax incentives and viability gap funding.

"Gujarat Airways, Deccan Airlines, Spicejet, Dwarkadheesh and Kingfisher had explored the possibilities of regional connectivity in the 1990s. But they wound up their operations in a few months for want of traffic. Moreover, there were other issues like taxation and regulation. From the past experience, the government insisted this time for 9-19 seater aircraft," Captain Ajay Sharma, director of Civil Aviation in Gujarat told ET.

Madhya Pradesh was the first state to start regional aviation service. However, its model is based on seat-sharing agreement with the government, while the Gujarat model is based on distance. The state Civil Aviation department had conducted a study and found that these operations will be feasible. It is working on a strategy to ensure long term sustainability of the service.

The department has also identified 5 circuits and 11 airstrips across the state for offshore and onshore service. The circuits include Ahmedabad-Surat-Bhavnagar, Bhuj-Rajkot-Ahmedabad, Ahmedabad-Porbandar-Jamnagar, Kandla-Mandvi-Amreli-Ahmedabad and Ahmedabad-Keshod-Diu. The airstrips include Ambaji, Palitana, Ankleshwar, Dwarka, Mandvi (Kutch), Morbi, Rajkot, Parsoli, Rajpipla, Dholavira and Dahej.

All these routes are within 50-190 nautical miles of each other. According to government data, the air cargo traffic grew 19% in fiscal 2011-12 compared to the growth of 10% in shipping and 9% in railways. The state government is also encouraging the private sector to build tourist infrastructure near airports.

These include transport services from airports to nearby cities, golf courses, amusement parks, business centres, duty free shopping complexes of international class, aviation recreation activities, adventure aviation, hang-gliding, micro light aircraft and parachuting. The Gujarat government had floated Gujarat State Aviation Infrastructure Company Limited (GUJSAIL) to facilitate infrastructure requirement of the airlines.

Most of the future greenfield airport projects within the state will be developed as a joint venture company, which would become a subsidiary of GUJSAIL under Public Private Partnership (PPP) framework. In May last year, the government had slashed the Value Added Tax on ATF from 30% to 4% for non-scheduled flights, bringing parity with VAT on ATF for scheduled flights.

Earlier, Deccan Charters of Deccan Airways fame Captian Gopinath was to start intra-state service but had to shelve the plan as it could not get approval from Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), the regulatory body for the aviation sector in the country. Now the state government has come out with a bidding process and a policy.

The on-board cameras on the aircraft were being used for some snooping when flying over TSP?

^^^Most of the flight paths are allotted in a way so that civil airlines do not overfly any sensitive areas...so, unless a plane is carrying a really powerful sideways looking SAR, I don't think the above is possible. One of the reasons given for downing the Korean Airlines by USSR was that it was too way off the route...and this deviation from route was said to be because Korean Airline was on a spying mission and deviation was intentional.

What are you going to see with an airliner's camera that Google Earth don't show already?

^^ True....Thats the only reason i could think of about why AI wouldn't allow TSP folks near the aircraft since it is just a normal civilian B-737 or A-330 with nothing to hide.

Cant think of any other credible reason.

they were paki's, wasnt that enough reason not to allow them near the A/C

It was A319 with 128 pax.

Cheers....

pakis would like have tried to steal anything not nailed down (even safety critical items) and sell them on black market to local airlines.

And don't forget they could have tried to put something in the Aircraft in the hope some of thier contacts in Indian airporyts could pick up, why give an opportunity?