Civil Aviation Development & Discussion

[krisna]

Plane truths

The government is being forced to, once again, look at India’s troubled national carrier. It has accumulated losses of over Rs 5,500 crore; Public Enterprises Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh said on Thursday after meeting Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel that they both agreed the airline needed to approach the Board for Reconstruction of Public Sector Enterprises. This is on top of the Rs 1,200 crore equity infusion the airline has asked for from the government.The airline might have begun to look like a money sink.

If it has, then the UPA cannot escape blame. Air India has been made to take on more loans than it should have, since the government was party to its buying $11 bn worth of planes instead of the politically difficult decision to shut it down.

National carriers serve little public purpose; the mushrooming of private sector airlines, together with some minimal, light regulation of tariffs and routes, has ensured that India’s citizens, regardless of location, are far better connected by air than they ever were earlier. Nor do we need Air India to be a visible, iconic brand internationally. India’s soft power rests on the inventiveness and efficiency of its private sector; we can leave the branding exercise to them. As the government sits down to decide what to do with Air India, a drearily familiar exercise, it should not fool itself that some tinkering will be enough. The only real choices are big, big steps: fix what you ruined, or shut it down.

will the GOI bite the bullet.

[Vasu]

Fire 30-40% of the payroll, outsource airport services. Both impossible to achieve.

The UPeeA had shown some rare spine when they had stuck to the Delhi/Mumbai airport privatization, maybe a similar tough stance here could pay some dividends. If the GoI is going to bail it out, spend most of that money on a VRS.

[Singha]

seems the BIAL investors who exited with a 700% ROI left us with a Cat-1 ILS only which need 500m visibility. someone forgot to check that north blr can have dense fog. and the sole runway cannot be made Cat-2 or better because it needs centerline lights.

so wait 5 yrs for the second runway (and second terminal) to be cat2 or better.

Delhi has cat3b , one notch below the bleeding edge cat3c.

[rohiths]

Fire 30-40% of the payroll, outsource airport services. Both impossible to achieve.

The UPeeA had shown some rare spine when they had stuck to the Delhi/Mumbai airport privatization, maybe a similar tough stance here could pay some dividends. If the GoI is going to bail it out, spend most of that money on a VRS.

Delhi and Mumbai airport privatization was a big farce. The only positive thing about that was that the airports were decent. Otherwise it would have been all over the place like the commonwealth fiasco.
UPeeA manipulated rules just to ensure Anil Ambani does not get the contract both for Delhi and for Mumbai. The resulting drama might have sunk both of them. Thankfully all is well.
Don't ever say UPA had shown spine. It was a whisker away from becoming a major blow to national H&D. Even now GMR is siphoning off money through a shell entity from the Delhi Airport

[Purush]

Interesting article on Israeli airport security and new technologies for security checks..

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/moslive ... orist.html

The security checks at Ben Gurion, Israel's main international airport near Tel Aviv, are intense. But they are surprisingly discreet. There are no groups of armed police patrolling through the concourses (though if necessary, of course, they will appear very rapidly).

The new intrusive body scanners that reveal naked bodies beneath clothing - recently introduced in America amid passenger resentment - are not in use. Instead, Ben Gurion's critical line of defence consists of polite, highly trained agents, most of them women. Fluent in several languages, they will speak to every passenger while they wait to drop their luggage or check in.

'We operate on the principle that it's much more effective to detect the would-be terrorist than try to find his bomb,' says a senior Israeli official.

'The 9/11 hijackers killed 3,000 people without real weapons or explosives. To be safe, you have to be able to stop the person who has hostile intentions. That's how our system works.'

Its first physical layer lies more than a mile from the terminal: a checkpoint for every vehicle on the only airport access road. I've passed through Ben Gurion many times, and once I was stopped and had my baggage searched there - apparently because I wasn't in a taxi, but in a somewhat ancient private car being driven by an Arab friend.

But the system's most crucial element is those polite young agents - the 'selectors'. In most cases, their questions won't take long, and those who pass their examination will soon be en route to their gate.

Until very recently, Ben Gurion's 'find the terrorist, not the bomb' approach has required human beings to operate it. But now, using machines that at first sight seem straight from science fiction, it can be automated - and in the process, greatly speeded up.

'How many times in the history of aviation have the scanners and security procedures that currently cause such huge anger and inconvenience actually found explosives in baggage or on a passenger?' Sela asks.

The answer, shockingly, is zero. It's true that a bomb packed by the Jordanian Nizar Hindawi in the hand luggage of his pregnant girlfriend Anne Murphy was discovered at Heathrow in 1986. But she was trying to board a flight on the Israeli airline El Al - which uses the same selector method abroad as at Ben Gurion: it was a selector's questioning that revealed Hindawi's plot.

The bombers who killed 270 when Pan Am Flight 103 blew up over Lockerbie in 1988; the 2001 shoe bomber Richard Reid; Umar Abdulmutallab, the former London University student who tried to detonate a bomb in his underpants above Detroit last Christmas; all smuggled their explosives on to aircraft undetected.

After the discovery of the 2006 Al Qaeda scheme to mix liquids in aircraft toilets in order to make bombs, all but tiny quantities of liquid taken on to planes were banned - even, as a YouTube clip of a mother being detained in Phoenix, Arizona showed last month, bottles of babies' breast milk.

'The liquids ban also sucks,' says Sela. 'Always you seem to be fighting the last war.'

To mix the explosive, TATP, takes over an hour and is a highly unstable process. According to Sela, the idea was 'interesting', but most unlikely to succeed.

Meanwhile, although Abdulmutallab's extremist links were discovered by security officials while he was in the air, their plan to question him when he landed would not have been much use if he had already blown himself up.

'He was an idiot who would not have got past the first level checks at Ben Gurion,' Sela says. 'But the answer is not body scanners. Already, we know that the terrorists are planning to hide explosives inside their rectums or breast implants, where they will not show up.

WeCU's technology can easily be incorporated into existing airport processes, such as the stand-up computers found at fast bag drop and check-in stations. Built into the screen is a cheap but highly sensitive thermal imaging sensor, which can measure data including the temperature of the subject's skin, heart rate, perspiration, blood pressure and changes in breathing, as well as other variables - 14 in all - most of which, says Givon, are classified. When the passenger begins to use the station, all these readings are taken almost instantly in order to establish a 'biological baseline'.

Then, over the course of the next 30 seconds, the machine will expose the subject to a stimulus that would cause a response in someone involved with terrorism, but not anyone else.

'I'm not going to give you details here, but it could be a sentence threaded into the instructions about getting a boarding pass or an image on the screen,' says Givon, 'or something as simple as a statement that says, "Thank you for keeping this flight safe". And whatever it is can be changed every day.

'The point is, the person who knows about terrorism will react, and the sensor will measure that reaction. It won't pick out the person who's stressed about flying, or the guy who's worried about a tax bill. But it will pick out the traveller who seems to know about terror - in about 35 seconds flat. You don't have to arrest that person, merely move on to further checks. And by the way, the more you try to train yourself not to react to the stimulus, the more clearly you will stand out.'

Read the rest of the article for the new tech stuff.

[sanjaykumar]

I have suspected there is a biological parameter detector at check points. This confirms it.

Once I had a high heart rate at a check point (for some benign reason), I could see the agent was hesitant and puzzled as apparently I was not raising off any other red flags.

The obvious counter would be to modify biological responses with beta blockers, cholinergic drugs, biofeedback and technology such as electrically shielding the skin.

Pre-screening of potential recruits for dampened biological responses would be another obvious approach to defeat this system.


I am posting this here so the clowns responsible for security can follow up on these points in case they have not thought of them. The bad guys are probably working on them already.

[Surya]

consists of polite, highly trained agents

HA

[SSridhar]

Courtesy: The BusinessLine

Runway across a river: Over 20,350 tonnes of steel and 1.40 lakh cubic metres of concrete have gone into constructing the bridge across the Adyar to extend the second runway as a part of the expansion of the Chennai airport. The 200m-bridge along the run way is about 400 m wide and has a load bearing capacity of about 1,500 tonnes per sq.m to take the shock of aircraft — even an A380 — landing on it. Once operational, this bridge, which is a part of the main runway, will be a unique feature o f the Chennai airport. Since the bridge spans a river, special care has gone into the design and dimensions. The 12.79m-high bridge is well above the high flood mark of 10.5m for the Adyar. Over 2,400 concrete, I-shaped girders of 19.1m length have been used. The concrete has been treated with the latest in construction chemical technology to enhance strength and durability. The concrete was steam cured to help it achieve the rated strength in 24 hours instead of the normal 24 days. This involved baking the concrete by taking it up to 80 degrees C in carefully controlled stages and bringing it down to ambient temperature over an 18-hour cycle.

[SSridhar]

New Look for Chennai Airport - BusinessLine

[putnanja]

Diplomats Help Push Sales of Jetliners on the Global Market

WASHINGTON — The king of Saudi Arabia wanted the United States to outfit his personal jet with the same high-tech devices as Air Force One. The president of Turkey wanted the Obama administration to let a Turkish astronaut sit in on a NASA space flight. And in Bangladesh, the prime minister pressed the State Department to re-establish landing rights at Kennedy International Airport in New York.

Each of these government leaders had one thing in common: they were trying to decide whether to buy billions of dollars’ worth of commercial jets from Boeing or its European competitor, Airbus. And United States diplomats were acting like marketing agents, offering deals to heads of state and airline executives whose decisions could be influenced by price, performance and, as with all finicky customers with plenty to spend, perks.
...
...

State Department and Boeing officials, in interviews last month, acknowledged the important role the United States government plays in helping them sell commercial airplanes, despite a trade agreement signed by the United States and European leaders three decades ago intended to remove international politics from the process.
...
...
Bangladesh’s prime minister, Sheik Hasina Wazed, was equally direct in making a connection for the landing rights at Kennedy Airport, as a condition of the airplane deal, which was then at risk of collapsing.

“If there is no New York route, what is the point of buying Boeing?” a November 2009 cable quotes Ms. Hasina as saying as she pressed American officials. The deal with Boeing went through. So far, flights by the country’s national carrier, Biman Bangladesh Airlines, to New York have not been restored.
...
...
The cables show that the United States is willing to pull out all the political stops if Boeing is in danger of losing a big deal to Airbus. In late 2007, the board of Gulf Air, the national airline of the oil-rich kingdom of Bahrain, picked Airbus for a huge sale.

Boeing told the American government, which responded that there was still a way to turn the deal around, even though Airbus had offered the planes for about $400 million less than Boeing
...
...The American ambassador at the time, Adam Ereli, and his chief economic officer, went into action, “lobbying Gulf Air management, board members, government officials and representatives of parliament,” and appealing directly to the crown prince of Bahrain, in an effort to line up a deal for Boeing that could be final in time for a coming visit by President Bush, the first visit by a sitting United States president.

Within two weeks, the embassy alerted Boeing officials that the crown prince and king of Bahrain had rejected Airbus’s offer and directed Gulf Air’s chairman to make a deal with Boeing that could be signed while Mr. Bush was in the country.
...
...

[Kannan]

Cat3 alone will not allow planes to take off. You need minimum visibility (dont know what it is. I think DGCA recently revised it down from somewhat). I do remember my days from SF, when SFO used to shut down for couple of hours everyday during the fog season.. Yes, SF is known for it's fog and is part of the allure of SF, but then SFO is further south, opposite Millbrae and even there in particuarly foggy days it gets shut.

If visibility is less than 100m, I dont think any munna level CAT certifications will allow flight operations.

Actually CAT will have nothing to do with takeoffs. It's certification of the fidelity of your ILS signal and the aircraft equipment, none of which is used on takeoff.

I guess this 150m is needed to keep the aircraft aligned with the string of runway lights on both sides.

There are standard minima for different levels of approaches, for instance if you look at this approach plate -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:KEWB_ ... _plate.png

you'll see that a circling approach or localizer only approach has higher minima than one where the glideslope guides you. Likewise, if the signal is better, the autopilot can take you down lower and therefore the minima are even lower.

CAT III certified crews or not, the weather was below most minima quite often.

[Singha]

btw BIAL is nearing its max capacity (even with crush load in departure hall) of 12 mil pax. last year it was 11.24 mil. new terminal2 will take 5 yrs to come up. they were talking of extention to terminal1 to tide things until then, but today morning I saw no evidence that anything had started. just a bunch of ugly rumble strips that shake you to the bone and airport hotel opp terminal is coming up slowly (compared to others I see in city limits)
http://www.hindu.com/2010/12/24/stories ... 960100.htm

imo the karnataka govt must crack the whip periodically on these promoters and make them deliver - they have been given a vast land rights in exchange to develop as they want.

but the karnataka govt doesnt seem to care as they get premium service at BIAL. the entire inner driveway is reserved for Govt vehicles and today 7am there were 50 vehicles parked there waiting for various netas and babus and riff raff to arrive. truly a govt for the govt. nowhere in the world expect banana republics do we see this rampant pandering to "VIPs" of every hue. usually the real VIPs drive through a special gate and depart from the tarmac itself or flit into a special waiting room, but these minor self styled VIPs and chamchas have cornered prime parking territory....perhaps a special parking lot is needed and Govt officials and their bag carrying chamchas can walk 100m to reach their corollas and innovas.

[Singha]

found something:-

Bangalore International Airport terminal expansion work from May
Published: Thursday, Dec 30, 2010, 17:00 IST
By Hemanth CS | Place: Bangalore | Agency: DNA

The Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL) will commence work on the proposed expansion of terminal-1 at the Bengaluru International Airport (BIA) from May next year.

The expansion work, to be completed in 18 months, would be carried out at a cost of Rs1,000 crore to enable the airport handle 17 million passengers a year. Currently, the airport handles 10.6 million passengers a year.

Marcel Hungerbuehler, president, BIAL, said that the invitation for expression of interest for the terminal-1 expansion work was out and the bidding process was currently on. “Once the tenders are finalised, which is expected by the end of February, we will commence the construction work by May,” Hungerbuehler said.

The expanded terminal-1 will be spread over an area of approximately 1,34,000 sq m from the existing 72,000 sq m.

Designed by HOK, along with several leading international architects, planners, urban designers, landscape architects and engineering consultants, the expanded T1 sports an enhanced elevation with modern design.

In addition to the approved design, the BIAL has also launched a campaign — Smile Bengaluru — which seeks ideas from citizens, passengers and employees on what they would like to see at the expanded terminals. Over 1,000 comments have been posted so far. The comments can be posted on www.smilebengaluru.com

[Singha]

and some drawings from HOK of the new expanded T1-mki ...finally some style quotient and a big new roof to engulf the whole place.
more importantly, the number of aerobridges look like going upto 10...pathetic still...a spur type design would have increased it from current 5 to 15 atleast...but they want to mint more money keeping the land for T2.

http://www.worldarchitecturenews.com/in ... d_id=14759

[Bade]

Problem with organic growth model, is that there is going to be perennial construction to deal with for users.

[Singha]

yeah I dunno how they plan to put in the new roof...perhaps assemble large sections of it offline and crane it into place. the right and left side extentions to T1 can likely be hidden behind some sheets. some work ongoing in changi low cost airline terminal was cleverly sealed off barring the door through which workmen entered..I peeked in and just yards away from spiffy terminal was a bare concrete industrial workspace strewn with rods, cables, tools, structures being made etc.

[anishns]

Dunno if posted before...but, a report on WSJ says:

Airbus Lands Big Plane Order From India

Airbus announced a deal to sell 180 A320 aircraft to Indian low-fare carrier IndiGo,
in what it called its biggest ever commercial-aircraft deal by volume.

If true....this is huge!

[hnair]

^^^ seems confirmed. Those guys certainly order in big tranches. One wonder how they are going to deal with fleet replacements etc at a future stage?

But that is a long way off and I am happy for Indigo, as they started a lot of flights to TIAL since last month!! They are buffing up their ops even in Trivandrum, as per a friend who joined them last week as the city boss. The Queefers and Jeeters were just ripping us off with enormous fares for almost a year

[Ashoka]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110111/ap_ ... nce_airbus

Airbus on Tuesday unveiled a possible mega-order for its planned new eco-conscious A320neo jet — a deal the European aircraft manufacturer is calling the largest in aviation history.
The commitment by Indian low-cost carrier IndiGo for 180 A320s — including 150 of the new A320neos — would have a value at list prices of $15.6 billion (euro12 billion) if converted into a firm order, Airbus said.

"It's a great win," said Joseph Campbell, a New York-based aerospace analyst at Barclays Capital. "It's just where you'd think it would come from, from one of these emerging, fast-growing markets and a fast-growing airline ... It's perfect."

And look at the comments posted by Americans. They seem to be feeling rejected that Boeing didn't get it.

[Vipul]

Confirmed by Airbus:
IndiGo commits to 180 A320s, largest jet order in aviation history.

[Singha]

wow...who is funding this humongous deal?

I really like three things about indigo - their turnaround time for intermediate stops on the ground is very quick and efficient, their seats are comfortable and somewhat 'minimalistic german chic' and their airhostess dress is quite pretty and neat in a sober and professional way (not the shocking livery of KF or the dated charms of 9W)...

[chetak]

I have suspected there is a biological parameter detector at check points. This confirms it.

Once I had a high heart rate at a check point (for some benign reason), I could see the agent was hesitant and puzzled as apparently I was not raising off any other red flags.

The obvious counter would be to modify biological responses with beta blockers, cholinergic drugs, biofeedback and technology such as electrically shielding the skin.

Pre-screening of potential recruits for dampened biological responses would be another obvious approach to defeat this system.


I am posting this here so the clowns responsible for security can follow up on these points in case they have not thought of them. The bad guys are probably working on them already.

At every point of contact with a passenger, the terminal or airline or security personnel are trained to profile the passenger and accordingly watch / quietly raise the alarm. What you may think of as a PYT taking an interest in you is actually a trained professional looking for suspicious or unusual responses.

As unusual interest is generated, the security scrutiny is accordingly enhanced and stricter is the baggage and pat down check.

The airline staff are effectively the first line of defence.

[Abhijeet]

Indigo also advertises quite heavily on TV -- the "on time" campaign, though ironically the last two flights I took with them were late. They're the only Indian airline I can recollect with a strong TV ad presence. I don't remember seeing any TV ads for Kingfisher or Jet. Apparently they are privately owned, so the financing for this deal is likely to remain unclear.

[Singha]

yes their CEO says the deliveries are 5 yrs out, so they have no decided on the funding options yet.

[merlin]

wow...who is funding this humongous deal?

I really like three things about indigo - their turnaround time for intermediate stops on the ground is very quick and efficient, their seats are comfortable and somewhat 'minimalistic german chic' and their airhostess dress is quite pretty and neat in a sober and professional way (not the shocking livery of KF or the dated charms of 9W)...

Yes, my first go-to airline for internal flights. Mostly 30 min turnaround time, nice blue seats and being Airbus is more spacious than 737 Jet ones and easy on the eye staff (hot red is not easy on the eye).

[chaanakya]

AT Last T3, has WOW factor. Carpet indeed sucks and would be a big drawback in future if not maintained. Buildings and layout.façade does not look as inspiring a Bangkok or Beijing but neatly and cleverly designed. Ceiling on many places is low. May be cooling cost was factored. But gives clean looks unlike BKK's raw concrete finish.
Mostly streamlined check in and arrivals are smoother for passengers. Security is fine.Not intrusive , obsessive.

Exit entry to terminals are good and gives good feel. Once outside you see the charm of Kalmadi's money, as spent on CWG preparations. Already crumbling, despite many unfinished works still going on at elephantine pace.

[chaanakya]

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/busi ... 197658.cms

In some good news on New Year eve, national carrier Air India has reinstated eight of the 55 employees sacked for striking work after the May 22 Mangalore plane crash.

[K_Rohit]

yes their CEO says the deliveries are 5 yrs out, so they have no decided on the funding options yet.

Indigo has a deal where they do not have any old aircraft. When they buy aircraft their contract specifies that the aircraft after a specified period (I think its 5 years) is taken leased out by Airbus or something like that. In effect, their aircraft fleet will always be ~ 5 years old max.

That is why they also order a lot of aircraft.

I know it sounds half-baked, but there is an element of truth in this. I am sure google can give some more details on this.

[A Nandy]

Can our Air Traffic Control handle such a huge number of aircrafts ? I wonder if there is an effort underway to modernize systems on all major airports.

[hnair]

On the Indigo news, the Beeb's paki contingent (aka South Asia desk) seems energized by J20

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12169785

India has only 400 commercial planes, whereas China, with a comparable population, has 2,600 aircraft.

[Shankas]

yes their CEO says the deliveries are 5 yrs out, so they have no decided on the funding options yet.

Indigo has a deal where they do not have any old aircraft. When they buy aircraft their contract specifies that the aircraft after a specified period (I think its 5 years) is taken leased out by Airbus or something like that. In effect, their aircraft fleet will always be ~ 5 years old max.

That is why they also order a lot of aircraft.

I know it sounds half-baked, but there is an element of truth in this. I am sure google can give some more details on this.

IndiGo's first order 6 years ago also created a similar flutter. It was for 100 A-320's and was valued at $6B list price. This is the only professional airlines in India, they are methodical and seem to build/run their business with short-medium-long term plan.

The game they are playing goes something like this
Indigo to Airbus and Boeing - we want to place an order for 100 aircrafts, what's the best price you can give?
After putting them through a bidding war they picked Airbus.
Naturally the price they got is a lot less than $60M.
Let's say they got it for $50M (Its much more, I won't tell how much)

Given the backlog, deliveries are usually 12 months out
Indigo then puts the word out to small leasing companies
- we have a brand new A320 aircraft for sale
- Price is $55m
- Not only do they have an aircraft for sale, they will lease it back

Indigo gets $5m every time they take delivery. Of course you can only do this if you place a large confirmed order. You need a solid business plan and confidence that you will be able to pull this off.

Ryan Air, Easyjet, Air Asia all do this...

[Suraj]

On the Indigo news, the Beeb's paki contingent (aka South Asia desk) seems energized by J20

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12169785

India has only 400 commercial planes, whereas China, with a comparable population, has 2,600 aircraft.

Adding all the current fleetsizes of Chinese carriers gives me 1520 aircraft. It looks like either Shanghai statistics or including everything flying in HK, Macau and Taiwan as well, either or both of which are reasonable assumptions considering the source. The primary constituents of their large fleet are the big three - China Southern (345), Air China and China Eastern (~260 each).

Current listed Indian airline fleetsizes:
Air India: 31
AI Express: 21
AI Regional: 11
Go Air: 10
Indian: 72
Indigo: 39
Jagson: 5
Jet Airways: 99
Jet Konnect: 8
JetLite: 19
Kingfisher: 66
Kingfisher Red: 21
SpiceJet: 25
Total: 427

The current order books of our airlines should more than double the fleet by 2015.

[Prem]

Gangwal is an old hand in airline business. I think he was involved with Jet Blue , United and US air in massland .

[chetak]

yes their CEO says the deliveries are 5 yrs out, so they have no decided on the funding options yet.

Indigo has a deal where they do not have any old aircraft. When they buy aircraft their contract specifies that the aircraft after a specified period (I think its 5 years) is taken leased out by Airbus or something like that. In effect, their aircraft fleet will always be ~ 5 years old max.

That is why they also order a lot of aircraft.

I know it sounds half-baked, but there is an element of truth in this. I am sure google can give some more details on this.

Singapore Airlines and a lot of gelf airlines do this to maintain a young fleet as it saves substantially on maintenance and operating costs.

[vera_k]

Plus, its good for customer satisfaction as people like to fly on planes with the newest toys.

[Gagan]

I was in New Delhi T3 recently. Have to say much impressed by the infrastructure.

All the announcement speakers - there are like a zillion of them are all 'BOSE' ! Everything used is top of the line.

I have loads of pictures, will post if it is OK (In the photography thread)
Spoke to a CISF security officer.
The Jawans carry MP-5s and the officers carry Glock pistols.
The officer mentioned that the INSAS was getting old, the MPSs are superbly balanced, light, and fire effortlessly without any noticable kick. Says that his jawans have reached new levels of accuracy with this in the shooting sessions.
The Glock pistols were light, and very accurate. He said that the earlier pistol they had the tendency to go upwards with each shot, not so much on the Glock.

He said that he understood that both the weapons were probably very expensive, and said that his jawans understood that they were being given top of the line stuff. The gates open when security officers swipe their cards into the gate electronic locks.

The carpet gives everything a yellowish earthy glow, its a bit jarring, but not a deal breaker at all. I was impressed with everything else to notice the carpet too much.

[Singha]

WSJ excerpt:

This is working well, in part because IndiGo was launched with a low-cost model in mind. It uses a single type of aircraft that cuts maintenance and training costs, for example. Some rivals, on the other hand, have only recently decided to compete for low-cost business. By November, IndiGo was India's third-busiest airline with nearly 18% of the market by number of passengers carried within the country. This is up from less than 12% of the market in 2008.

And the company's president, Aditya Ghosh, says it has been profitable since the year ending March 2009, only three years after starting operations. In the year through March 2010, the company earned $107 million. By comparison, Kingfisher Airlines, which started operations at the same time as IndiGo, but as a premium carrier, has yet to make a profit.

The new aircraft will also help IndiGo expand overseas. It could get permission for international routes in August, when it completes a mandatory five years of domestic operations, the president says. The new jets are ideal for short-haul flights to the Middle East and Southeast Asia—important destinations for India's expatriate workers and holidaymakers.

[Suraj]

Gagan: Thanks for the DEL T3 review. Please feel to post the links to your pictures here (not inlined, of course). If you have an account at Skyscrapercity India forum, you may want to post there too - they are fine with inlining as well.

[VinodTK]

Air France-KLM Launches Component MRO In India

[SandeepA]

IndiGo is joint India No. 2 with Kingfisher