Bharat Rakshak

++1, BMTC Volvo is a god sent service to Bangalore. When I flew from Pune to BLR a couple of weeks ago (incidentally on KF which took off & landed on time with out interruptions ), a couple of firangi backpackers boarded the bus along with folks from other parts of country as well. I have heard people from outside BLR sing praises about Vajra service. Now only if the drivers of Vajra drive a less rashly, it would be a perfect boon to commuters

Sorry for OT.

>> Of course like any other airport in the country, you have autowalas and taxi walas pouncing on you the moment you walk out with your luggage

this was NOT the case when the BIAL opened. this freelance business was very minimal then even though almost same amt of passengers were passing few yrs ago. at some point the policing or standards slipped and the place is overrun by these freelancers now just as it used to be in palam airport. the outside concourse has adopted the feel of a railway platform than a showpiece airport.

methinks the taxi unions and their political goon backers have put pressure on BIAL to allow this to happen and tear away share of the pie with meru and easycabs.

I forsee dark days ahead for BIAL if policing and adherence to original procedures is not followed strictly. it takes a long time to climb up the pole and only few weeks to slip down. the car parks outside could use some sprucing up. the pay and use toilets are heavily used by the taxiwallahs and shall we say do not project a presentable image to people looking to use it (people who come to drop or lift passengers). meantime the insidious habit of parking the cars in the long approach roads and waiting for call either as a pvt taxi or to avoid paying parking fees if picking up a family member is gaining currency.

I got some sweet deal for a family trip to India online, the catch was a segment of the flight uses KingFisher. I knew the risk but still went for it, this was before the IATA dropping its weight also into KF's current pains. IF KF folds in 5 months time, or even cancels the flight segment that I plan to use, what happens to my ticket. Does other domestic airlines honor them ?

The deal was too sweet, so I am willing to take the train or bus if I have to but just asking.

Boeing 787-8 series Dreamliner lands at Begumpet Airport First look.

Bade
Dont know but I think it makes sense to have alternate plans . Do not expect refunds to materialise. If alternate airline tickets are given, grab and run. Heard KF employees did not report to work ( salary not paid) and this led to cancellation of some flights. what I have been noticing is that on prime routes , rates have shot up some 60%.

Lesson: Book early. A drop in 30% capacity on domestic prime routes leading to atrocious prices

Neela, thanks for the tip on potential increase in domestic fares in India if KF winds down. I know KF all too well, they still owe me $150 or so from a trip few years ago.

But the difference in ticket price was $300 each with this combo. So it added up to a cool savings of $900 alone. Hard to let that go, so did bite with some reluctance. I am assuming that segment alone which uses KF will not cost me more than $150 one-way for each ticket if I had to buy it again separately. So still worth it I thought when I purchased them. I bought it on Vayama and they seem to have issued the ticket as Qatar Air one, though I am using Qatar only for one segment to India on inward journey. Rest is random match of United+Brussels Air. Normally I do not go for such deals, but I am getting more adventurous as the purse string is getting tighter for these yearly jaunts.

Since the ticket was issued as a Qatar Airways ticket (which was a surprise to me) as I did not see it till reservations were confirmed online, I am hoping the Qatar folks in Kochi will find a solution. I know I am being very optimistic which usually is not in my nature when dealing with Airlines.

Bade,

KF makes me sick. THey are in serious trouble and they cannot honour their promises to big companies all over the world. Yet, their listings come on sites like makemytrip.com etc. This looks like a ruse to make people buy tickets even when the chances of any given flight from KF runs a very very high risk of not taking off.
That fellow Mallya is running rough shod over Indian customers. His reach runs deep into aviation ministry!

Boeing to pay 500mn to Air India



GOI must drive a big pressure campaign to extract as much as possible from boeing.

Tatas, AugustaWestland to set up helicopter assembly line near Hyderabad.

Indian Rotorcraft, a joint venture company of Tata Sons and AgustaWestland, a Finmeccanica company, will assemble, customise and flight-test new helicopters at a facility in Hyderabad for the global market.

The joint venture will initially start producing the 8-seat AW119Ke light helicopter, with production commencing from mid-2013.

Indian Rotorcraft has announced that the ground breaking ceremony was held at Hyderabad’s Rajiv Gandhi International Airport, marking the start of construction of a new helicopter production facility.

The ceremony was performed in the presence of Mr Ratan N Tata, Chairman, Tata Sons, Mr. Bruno Spagnolini, CEO, AgustaWestland and other dignitaries.

In a statement, Mr Ratan Tata said: “The project is integral to our plans in the aerospace sector and we look forward to an enduring and successful partnership with AgustaWestland for fostering the growth of the Indian aerospace sector.”

Mr Bruno Spagnolini, CEO of AgustaWestland, said, “Our joint venture with Tata Sons will play an important role in the development of the Indian aerospace industry. Not only will this new facility be able to build helicopters for the Indian market but it will supply helicopters to AgustaWestland customers around the world.”

The facility is being built on a 10-acre site adjacent to the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport, Hyderabad, and include a 9,000 sq.m. building incorporating a main assembly building, flight hangar, office accommodation and outside several helicopter landing pads.

The facility will be capable of producing up to 30 helicopters per year and is designed to be further developed for other helicopter types, right up to the 16-ton AW101.

AgustaWestland has its operations in Italy, the UK, Poland and the US, with a global presence through its network of industrial partners.

What has happened to B'lore Airport? Yesterday, it felt as if I landed in the middle of a flea market. The old airport even though small and SDRE looked a lot cleaner IMHO.

yep - its gone to the dogs in terms of order, discipline, rule of law, control of touts .... no different from majestic bus stand or blr central apron.

the karnataka govt itself is in comatose state with Yeddy playing resort politics to get his seat back.

It's even more apparent if you transit to Bangalore through T3. It was much better 2-3 years ago.

>>majestic bus stand

That is exactly how I described the "airport" to my mother.
of course the traffic enroute home was terrible to say the least, but that was kind of expected.

Interesting bit of co-operation between Bombardier and Comac on Civil Aircraft Development

Common cockpit to feature in CSeries-C919 co-operation

Surprising appearance last week at an out of the way airport in Sacramento CA - not the main airport but an executive one..
Not sure if it connected to all the turmoil in KF these days..

Surprising enough for me to pause and take this picture... It may have been there for some time and it may still be there or it might be gone by now.. But KF does not fly to US hence the double take. Maybe being sold..

^^
Or perhaps being returned to the leasing company.

what is the plane , which route was it used? I thought KF had ATR72 and A321 only?

Mallya sir has family in CA, could it be his private jet?

That is a Boeing 727, it is Mr. Mallya's private jet. Not connected to the Airline he runs (even though the livery is the same).

That's correct. IIRC he also has an A319 (?) for personal use.

On BIAL, initial reviews on this forum mentioned that is undersized and will saturate pretty soon. For the domestic terminal, the waiting area near the gates are very small similar. There are 50 odd seats near each gate considering that each domestic aircraft carry 120 passengers and there are usually at least two planes using the same gate during peak hours. The domestic terminal having 10 gates has 3 toilets with 3 western closets each. Very bad for a new green field airport. Even the Mumbai domestic terminal is also undersized and it is not surprising that they are built and operated by GVK

the pvt contractors seem to be willing to get away by doing the bare minimum.

the GOI needs to impose some minimum norms countrywide both on AAI and pvt airports.
- if the passenger peak load is X / hr / gate - what is number of seats, counters, toilets , open sq ft per pax needed.

on their own these contractors will use least cost approach. they will wave some shiny CGs and brochures from HOK and other foreign shops to hoodwink ministers. VIP lounge will be well kept to make ministers happy with best looking ground staff.


BIAL is only the most visible example of being a kanjoos. when HIAL and T3 hit the peak numbers perhaps skeletons will emerge there too. in BIAL case, it was a skeletal place from day1.

We should have stake in these air sector: Exclusive 'Sneak Peek' at Doha's new airport with Qatar Airways CEO

http://www.deccanherald.com/content/239 ... uring.html


Rs.18,000-crore Air India restructuring plan approved

Mumbai, April 3, 2012, (IANS) :
The long-awaited Rs.18,000 crore financial restructuring plan for cash-strapped Air India has finally been approved by a consortium of 19 banks led by State Bank of India, an official said here Tuesday.
The plan includes a debt restructuring of Rs.18,000 crore by the banks and a committed equity infusion by the government, the official said in a statement here.
The high-cost working capital debt of the national carrier stands at Rs.22,000 crore, of which the banks will restructure Rs.18,000 crore.

From this (Rs.18,000 crore), Rs.10,500 crore will be converted into long-term debt with a repayment period of 10-15 years.

The remaining Rs.7,400 croe will be repaid to banks through a government-guaranteed bond issue.

The proposed restructuring - which will now go for cabinet approval - will help AI reduce its interest outlay substantially.

As part of the airline's restructuring plans, the government had announced an infusion of Rs.4,000 crore during the current fiscal, raising the airlines' equity base to Rs.7,345 crore, in the union budget for 2012-13.

Anyone know of updates on the Pakyong Airport that was scheduled to be commissioned in the first quarter of 2012. I haven't found any news items reporting on it. Perhaps it's delayed again!


Added later...

Never mind, just found out it's scheduled for June 2012, not the first quarter. Can't wait for this one!

BIAL was designed & executed by a consortium of Zurich Airport, Siemens & L&T. It has always been a subject of immense scrutiny for their planning, design & construction standards (specifically, their lack thereof!). The current woes are mainly the result of cutting corners and skimping while on the drawing board itself. GVK does not have much freedom to rectify this. The expansion currently underway and the second terminal which should follow will hopefully alleviate a lot of the initial drawbacks. But one has to remember, it's like putting a whole lot of bandages to all over the body rather than a comprehensive overhaul.

Mumbai is a different kettle of fish. When the PPP agreement was signed, GVK had to develop the existing terminals to the best possible levels while they went ahead with the new terminal building. So all the improvements and changes being done in Terminal 1 will be ultimately demolished. Maybe 1C will survive, but not sure. It may become the domestic hub, while airlines with international+domestic will shift to T2 integrated terminal building.

of the two - GMR & GVK, the latter seem to be more focused on quality & passenger comfort and it shows.

It is expected that low cost airlines may move into terminal 1

This is one of uncle mallaya's personal aircraft, the older one.

His family lives in california, second wife + two daughters.


Flight and maintenence crews for his newer AB 319 usually comes from Kingfisher airlines. Strained relationship with employees and pilots may have left him stranded as far as the AB is concerned.

He also maintains smaller private aircraft there that he pilots himself.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/new ... 595140.cms

NEW DELHI: India experienced the second strongest domestic air traffic growth in the world after Brazil, but the high growth hid the financial weakness facing the Indian carriers, global airline body IATA has said

Govt to take decision on FDI in aviation this week

The above title should read :

To help Mallya and Praful Patel government is allowing FDI in airlines but we are going to pretend as though this has nothing to do with Kingfisher. And we will pretend to make a decision one week from now
.

Both link to the same article.

Is Reliance Industries closing in on Kingfisher Airlines?

The Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance Industries may be close to buying the ailing Kingfisher Airlines, according to market sources.

The sources say that as part of the deal, Reliance would also get Mangalore Chemicals and Fertilizers Ltd, in which the UB group has a 30.44 per cent stake. When contacted, a Reliance official said they were unaware of any such development, while Kingfisher's spokesperson was not available for comment.

A chance meeting between Mr Mukesh Ambani, whose wife owns the Mumbai Indians IPL franchisee, and Mr Vijay Mallya, who owns the Royal Challengers Bangalore team, at an IPL match a few days back has led to intense speculation that a deal was imminent.

Kingfisher Airlines, whose operations have been severely curtailed, has an accumulated loss and debt of nearly Rs 7,500 crore. It is now operating only a fourth of its services and has only a fifth of its fleet.

According to exchanges, a series of block deals was put through in Kingfisher last week.

among the domestic players I think only RIL and Sahara have the war chest to bail out KF. Tatas is a dark horse as I dont imagine they are as cash rich.
foreign players like Etihad / Qatar or Emirates who are rolling in money could also pick up KF to make a strong entry into the domestic market.

but with the high cost of opex in india I dont know how new management will help turn it around.....they might have to cancel it as a full service airline and go to bare bones like IndoGo....cut the bling and focus on the meat.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/Air-India-turnaround-plan-Carrier-to-get-Rs-30000cr-relocate-19000-staff/articleshow/12639271.cms

Absolutely mind boggling. This is a govt which has to cut defense spending this year due to money problems and yet can flush Rs. 30,000 crore down the toilet on an airline no one wants to fly on. Why is the GOI in the airline business

http://in.news.yahoo.com/trainer-choppe ... lding.html

The Schweizer 300 from HAL flight school.