Bharat Rakshak

“It was not an easy decision for us to fly to Pasighat. The first challenge was that the airport is located in the middle of the jungle and it did not have the navigational aides that other airports usually have. But the issue was resolved. Flying to Pasighat, or for that matter to any hill airport, is absolutely safe,” says CS Subbiah, chief executive officer of Alliance Air, a wholly owned subsidiary of Air India, adding how drains near the runway had to be covered and trees and lampposts uprooted before the airline was given the mandatory safety clearance.

No wonder, Pasighat airport was developed out of an airstrip originally built during the India-China war of 1962. The strip was partly paved, partly grassy. It was originally reinforced with perforated steel plates. In 2010, the Indian Air Force upgraded it.

What followed was installation of facilities such as aprons for ground manoeuvring, air traffic control tower, a security wall, a perimeter road et al. By 2016, it was ready for fixed-wing planes. The other Advanced Landing Grounds (ALG) at Walong, Ziro, Along and Mechuka in Arunachal Pradesh are also ready, though there’s no flight connectivity to those stations.

For example, Kargil, located at about 200 km north of Srinagar, will soon be connected by commercial fixed-wing aircraft belonging to MEHAIR, a pioneer in seaplanes in India. Then, another destination in Arunachal Pradesh, Tezu, is expected to be connected by Zoom Air in a couple of months.

What will, however, make India’s air travel to the hills more fulfilling is when Sikkim’s Pakyong airport, built after cutting a hill and reinforcing a 74-metre wall at an altitude of 4,641 ft, will be launched, tentatively in July.

about 20-25 airports in the country can be branded as hill airports. Currently, fixed-wing planes regularly fly to several of those destinations — Shimla, Kullu (Bhuntar), Kangra (Gaggal), all in Himachal; Srinagar and Leh in Jammu and Kashmir; Calicut (Kozhikode) in Kerala; Shillong in Meghalaya and Lengpui in Mizoram.

@Mahindra_Aero
May 18

Thank you #DGCA for Type Acceptance of our Turbocharged Airvan 8! Customers in India can now choose between the 300 HP Airvan 8 NA (Normally Aspirated) or 320 HP Airvan 8 TC (Turbocharged).

SP Shukla @Prakashukla
22h22 hours ago

Delighted to announce that #DGCA India has approved new Mahindra #Airvan10 Turboprop.

More utility, more room & fuelled by #JetA1. Most suitable #aircraft for regional connectivity to remotest areas.

Thank you DGCA. Congratulations @arvind_mehra , Keith & @Mahindra_Aero team.

Khalsa wrote:HAL seeks private partner to build Dhruv copters for civilian market
Thirty Dhruv helicopters built by HAL await collection by army and IAF, having been built ahead of time
http://ajaishukla.blogspot.com/2018/05/ ... build.html

Business Standard learns that the EoI has received 10 responses from private firms, including the Adani Group and Reliance. HAL is currently shortlisting eligible bidders, based on capability and capacity. Then, a winner will be selected based on commercial bidding.

HAL initiated a certification request four years ago with the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA). HAL officials say EASA is at the final stages of granting certification for the civilian Dhruv.

Air Asia CEO may continue to evade CBI summons

Abhinandan Mishra
June 16, 2018,

AirAsia chief executive officer Tony Fernandes, who has been named in a first information report (FIR) filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for allegedly indulging in corruption along with officials of Ministries of Finance and Aviation as well as certain UPA era politicians, is unlikely to join the probe in the near future.

Fernandes, who is presently based in Malaysia, was asked to appear before the CBI for questioning by the apex investigating agency on 6 June, but he did not comply with their request. Instead, he claimed before the Malaysian stock exchange that he had not received any summons from the CBI. This has led to speculation that certain top CBI officials are “going slow” in the probe, by not going after Fernandes with the intensity that they should, to save the bureaucrats and politicians who had played a key role in helping AirAsia CEO.

“If he is questioned, he is going to reveal the names of the politicians and bureaucrats who facilitated the whole deal, illegally. Hence, it is in their interest that Fernandes does not come to India,” said an official source in government.

According to these sources, the airline’s CEO has been advised by his “well-wishers” to stay elusive until the general elections next year and wait for a “favourable” political situation to emerge.

Responding to this newspaper’s email seeking Fernandes’ side of the story, Divya Kumar, who handles AirAsia’s public relations in India, said that “they were not in a position to participate in the story”. To queries related to whether Fernandes had received the CBI summons and, if yes, then why he was not appearing for questioning, Kumar shared the 5 June press note of the company. The release states that “neither AirAsia Group nor Tan Sri Tony Fernandes, in his personal capacity, has received any such notice as of today.”

“If and when, any such notice is received through formal and official channels, then in accordance with the sovereign laws of Malaysia, we will abide by the due process of the letter of the law,” it adds.

There was no response from CBI spokesperson Abhishek Dayal on the newspaper’s email, SMS and phone calls seeking the agency’s response on what it planned to do next since Fernandes, in his official communication to the Malaysian bourse, said that he had not received any communications from the CBI. An official from the Malaysian stock exchange, while replying to this newspaper’s queries on whether it was aware of the criminal charges that had been filed against Fernandes, said that they would share an appropriate response after receiving it from the concerned division.

A government source explained, “Fernandes has been advised to wait till the situation becomes favourable next year as there are chances that there may be a change in the ruling dispensation. Certain officials, who are responsible for handling the probe, too believe that the pressure on them to prosecute those named in the FIR will decrease as the case gradually becomes old, and hence are not pushing too much for Fernandes’ interrogation.”

This is the third agreement Jet Airways has entered into for Boeing’s 737 MAX narrowbody jets over the last one year, taking the total to 225 aircraft. The Indian airline signed firm orders for 75 planes each in October and April.

Suraj wrote: I hope they build T4 ASAP.

Suraj wrote:DEL airport has grown into a monster in terms of passenger traffic really quickly. When T3 was built in 2010, they were a medium size airport in global terms, with 25M passengers a year, or thereabouts. Last fiscal year, it was 66M and this year it will probably be 75M, which would probably put it between London Heathrow and Hong Kong, ranking globally #6-8 . One more year and they'll be 80 million+, putting them in the rarefied league with Los Angeles and Tokyo Haneda close to or within top 5.

I hope they build T4 ASAP.

Suraj wrote:Yensoy: I know you have your heart in the right place, so here’s a suggestion - look up and collect all the information about the Navi Mumbai airport , including the status of work updated in the past year, and post it here . Even better, be the expert on the topic here, who’s constantly keeping up with the news . You can do better than the above, which is a collection of homilies plus a nonsensical claim about a no fly zone being imposed .

Kashi wrote:I believe yensoy is referring to the fact that most westward flights from Delhi overfly the Pakistani airspace and if they deny permissions for these flights, it would affect these flights in and out of Delhi.

Even if it were to happen, don't think the affect would be as drastic as yensoy fears.

Kashi wrote:I believe yensoy is referring to the fact that most westward flights from Delhi overfly the Pakistani airspace and if they deny permissions for these flights, it would affect these flights in and out of Delhi.

Even if it were to happen, don't think the affect would be as drastic as yensoy fears.

Singha wrote:undivided UP + Bihar combined pop of around 280 mil which is more than pop of japan+france+germany+uk does not have a single major domestic or international airport other than maybe a few gulf flights.

India should build its own aircraft: Ex-ISRO chief Kiran Kumar
By PTI | Jul 09, 2018, 03.11 PM IST

HYDERABAD: A growing large economy like India with huge domestic market should build aircraft indigenously and make sure that it does not depend on international entities alone to meet its needs, says an eminent scientist.

The former Chairman of Indian Space Research Organisation A S Kiran Kumar said India is now poised for a significant growth in the aircraft industry.

The President-elect of Aeronautical Society of India said many of the Indian industries and private enterprises actually contribute to the global aircraft industry and provide some key components because of the "advantages" they have.

These industries and enterprises are establishing newer capabilities within the country. "In the coming days and years, there is a tremendous opportunity, we need to build on the capabilities of the country," Kiran Kumar told .

. . .

"It's a positive development that's happening and in the coming days and years, we also need a large number of aircraft; if we are able to do some more developments on aircraft industry within the country, it will be great," he said.

Government, Kiran Kumar said, needs to make sure that the environment is conducive within the country, and industries are supported and encouraged to build aircraft.

"We also need to make sure that we don't depend only on outside entitities for building the aircraft, we need to start building in the country," Kiran Kumar said.
Indian aircraft manufacturing industry should start developing, he said.

. . .

"We want Indian aircraft to be realised. Right now, some of the Indian companies have started providing parts to the global aircraft industry, we want an Indian aircraft to also come out," he said.

Kiran Kumar agreed that such an endeavour needs a clear road-map and vision to achieve the objective.

Singha wrote:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_t ... er_traffic

while the top10 or so always hog the limelight, we must invest big in the 11-50 airports because it is they (spokes) who most move huge nos of people in and out of the top10 hubs. most are owned by AAI except a few like COK.

it is time to privatize the next 10-15 as was done for the others and relegate AAI to airside and ATC ops only. this will drive scale and efficiency and offer business prospects to private parties than a sulky govt run monopoly.

and the top10 ongoing expansions must be speeded up by Govt diktat. blr airport runway expansion and T2 is going on at snails pace for a year+ now. all I see on takeoff is red earth and no glass, steel, concrete. T1 is bursting at seams with 26 mil - even late at night the outside area is like majestic bus stand/NDLS with hordes moving in and out, camping until daybreak, 1000s of taxis, 100 large buses ..... there is no real downtime at night now...flights are only cheaper at really odd hours like 1am or 3am and hordes of people take those!

chola wrote:We need to start soon. The third largest aviation market must be used to build up our industrial base. We need to start the process of planning, designing and building our own commercial airliners. In the long run this will be far more important to the country than the mil projects (eventually a developed commercial side will make the mil side even better.)

Terming the creation of infrastructure a big challenge, Civil Aviation Minister Suresh Prabhu on Saturday said India will need at least 1,000 planes in the next few years as it prepares a comprehensive and integrated plan for 2035 to boost the sector.

Neshant wrote:

chola wrote:We need to start soon. The third largest aviation market must be used to build up our industrial base. We need to start the process of planning, designing and building our own commercial airliners. In the long run this will be far more important to the country than the mil projects (eventually a developed commercial side will make the mil side even better.)

Commercially no company would dare sink their funds into such a venture which could end up like the "100 year Arjun tank project" where there is no intention to purchase the product after decades of development and tons of money spent. Yet still the military issues suggestions on what should be changed on the tank to give the developers a false sense of hope and keep them running around. The ultimate nightmare "customer".

Neela wrote:India preparing comprehensive aviation plan for 2035: Suresh Prabhu

Terming the creation of infrastructure a big challenge, Civil Aviation Minister Suresh Prabhu on Saturday said India will need at least 1,000 planes in the next few years as it prepares a comprehensive and integrated plan for 2035 to boost the sector.

Read more at:
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/in ... 895817.cms

Suraj wrote:DEL airport has grown into a monster in terms of passenger traffic really quickly. When T3 was built in 2010, they were a medium size airport in global terms, with 25M passengers a year, or thereabouts. Last fiscal year, it was 66M and this year it will probably be 75M, which would probably put it between London Heathrow and Hong Kong, ranking globally #6-8 . One more year and they'll be 80 million+, putting them in the rarefied league with Los Angeles and Tokyo Haneda close to or within top 5.

I hope they build T4 ASAP.