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imo australia and japan are peculiar airline markets.
australia's five main cities (sydney, melbourne, perth, adelaide, darwin) are strung out over a continent sized landscape. big long ranged birds are probably best for these inter metro routes and quantas/virgin probably has a lock on these. the rest of routes might go to smaller towns and desolate mining stations in the northern territory hard to make any $$ on?
japan has one of worlds biggest internal flyer markets but instead of lots of small feeder a/c they seem to use B747 rigged with high density economy class seating for flights of say 90 mins. perhaps the only country that uses B747 that way?
someone has been going around proposing a uber density semi-standing seats where people crouch on bar stool type things - take a look at the pics here - priceless http://www.smh.com.au/travel/travel-new ... 15ad6.html
hopefully conti/Luft/KLM/SIA/Thai will introduce this soon for the benefit of LAX/SFO -> Indic travellers
Qantas have been using or still use airbus 330 between syd/Mel and Perth. Now they are introducing 747s on this route esp to attract more business travelers with their skybeds.
neerajb wrote:More than city, Airport's name takes precedence. Like Charles De Gaulle (CDG) for paris, JFK & LGA (LaGuardia Intl) (both in New York) etc. Technically these are airport codes and not city codes. A city can have multiple airports though rare.
Cheers....
Thanks for nitpick. BOM it is for Mumbai. Unfortunately too late to enforce a correction.
Behind the scenes, Boeing and Crane were struggling to complete the software because of improper verification conducted by Indian company HCL. Sources say the software, which was delivered to Everett prematurely, caused feedback loops that crippled the brake-control system in systems integration laboratory testing. Crane's budget for the programme ballooned more than 10 times after requiring massive upfront costs to straighten out the situation, say those directly involved in the software development.
The "blue label" brake-control software was delivered to Boeing in late October, with the formal "red label" version two weeks later. But by last February, Crane said a further redesign was required because of higher-than-expected brake temperatures interfering with remote data concentrator units restricting aircraft turnaround times in certain conditions.
Theo_Fidel wrote:First commercial 787 is being tested in Japan.
I have to say the curves on this puppy are hawt. Non-stop from SFO to BOM I've heard.
But the B777-200LR still has greater range than the 787 right? So it should already be capable of SFO-BOM non-stop, although there are no such flights.
777 does not have same range at full passenger load. They have to limit capacity to get the 8000+ mile range. Makes things expensive and impractical. Hence, as you noted, no such flight at present.
Theo_Fidel wrote:777 does not have same range at full passenger load. They have to limit capacity to get the 8000+ mile range. Makes things expensive and impractical. Hence, as you noted, no such flight at present.
Theo, SFO-BOM is about 7300nm. The max range of the 777-200LR is 9395nm. Even allowing for a reduction in range at max capacity I highly doubt it would reduce by more than 2000nm.
As a comparison, JFK-BOM is approx. 6700nm and there are direct flights by B777s between the two airports. The max range of the 787 (which also won't be at full capacity) is 1000nm less than the 777-200LR. So the 777 will still be the king of ultra long haul routes. I don't think the reason there are no direct SFO-BOM flights is because of range restrictions.
EDIT: Found a range chart for the 777 family at full passenger load on Boeing's site. As you can see the 200LR can reach just about any airport in the world from LAX.
NEW DELHI: Low-cost airlines cannot hide behind the "no free meal" clause printed on tickets to refuse food to passengers if the flight gets delayed by three hours.
In an important judgment, the Supreme Court ruled that the exclusion clause not to provide meals would apply only to passengers who had not boarded the flight and were free to purchase food in the airport.
"It will not apply to passengers who are on board and the delay in flight taking off denies them access to food and water," said a bench of Justices RV Raveendran and AK Patnaik while absolving IndiGo of any wrongdoing in a case of alleged ill-treatment of passengers on a fog-delayed flight in 2007.
"In the extraordinary situation where the passengers are physically under the complete care and control of the airline, as it happens when they have boarded the aircraft and have no freedom to alight, the duty of the airline to protect and care for them, and provide for basic facilitation would prevail over any term of contract excluding any facilitation, except when the carrier itself cannot access food due to emergency situation," the bench said.
"No public utility service can say that it is not bound to care for the health, welfare and safety of the passengers because it is a low cost carrier," said Justice Raveendran, who authored the judgment.
"If for any unforeseen reason, the passengers are required to be on board for a period beyond three hours without the flight taking off, appropriate provision for food, water should be made, apart from providing access to toilets," the bench said.
In case the flight gets inordinately delayed due to unforeseen weather conditions or technical reasons, the carrier must take steps to secure permission from the airport and Air Traffic Controller to take back the onboard passengers to the airport lounge, the court said.
It asked the Directorate General of Civil Aviation to specify the responsibilities of the airport management and ATC to ensure that no aircraft remained on the tarmac for more than three hours after the closure of boarding.
"If it has to so remain, then permit the passengers to return to the airport lounge from the aircraft, till the aircraft is ready to take off," the SC said asking DGCA to ensure that conditions of carriage of all airlines in India is in consonance with the Civil Aviation Directives.
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New Delhi: A Jet Airways airhostess has run into trouble with the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) after she requested a person flying on a Singapore Delhi flight to sneak in four bottles of whiskey through Customs for her.
The person she approached turned out to be DGCA's deputy director D Sharan. The incident occurred last month.
The DGCA official immediately took action, writing a strongly-worded note to the Chairman of Jet Airways.
As a result, the entire crew of flight 9W-0174 was grounded and a probe was ordered.
This is not the first time that the airlines crew has been caught. Earlier also two crew members were arrested in Heathrow for smuggling cigarettes.
New Delhi: A Jet Airways airhostess has run into trouble with the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) after she requested a person flying on a Singapore Delhi flight to sneak in four bottles of whiskey through Customs for her.
The person she approached turned out to be DGCA's deputy director D Sharan. The incident occurred last month.
The DGCA official immediately took action, writing a strongly-worded note to the Chairman of Jet Airways.
As a result, the entire crew of flight 9W-0174 was grounded and a probe was ordered.
This is not the first time that the airlines crew has been caught. Earlier also two crew members were arrested in Heathrow for smuggling cigarettes.
Too much generalization Chetak. Its not only about females and making money. Both civilians and airline employees do it regularly when they see fellow passengers without any duty free items. Most often, its only about packing more booze for oneself.
It's only the 777-200LR variant that can reach that far. Very few of those are around, probably for cost efficieny reasons. All of the Jet Airways ones are the 300ER variant, and the flight used to stop at Shanghai.
CBI today raided the office of the Paramount Group and residence of Paramount Airways Managing Director M Thiagarajan in connection with alleged financial transactions.
CBI officials said the raids were conducted in connection with non-repayment of a large amount of bank loans, but refused to give details.
Some officials said the raids could also be linked to the recruitment of pilots by the group.
The planes of Paramount Airways were de-registered in 2010, following which they could not operate their flights for some technical reasons. A legal battle is on.
To add to Gopinath’s woes, his Gujarat Charter plan—to connect smaller towns such as Bhuj, Bhavnagar, Surat, Jamnagar with bigger ones like Ahmedabad—also seems to be going belly-up. The company’s CEO Jayanth Pooviah had claimed that the DGCA has given verbal permission for the wet lease—where the plane is rented with a crew—of two ATR 72 planes and the service will begin in a month. “We are waiting for the aircraft. The pilots will require security clearance. We hope to start the service in a month’s time,” he stated.
Yet, Director General of Civil Aviation, Bharat Bhushan has insisted that no permission has been given to Deccan 360 and until certain conditions are met, Deccan will not be allowed to wet lease the planes. Apparently, the DGCA felt that allowing the wet lease of planes could provide a back door entry for foreign companies in the aviation sector. This has forced Deccan to let go around 40 employees. It also filed an appeal with civil aviation ministry against the DGCA order.
..............
However, for Deccan to soar, Gopinath may have to first get his feet back on the ground, methodically build his capacity and get his operations right in order to convince his investors that this isn’t a venture that’s going to crash and burn soon.
Spicejet Chairman Kalanithi Maran on Friday pledged an additional 43.9 million shares to raise Rs 200 crore to fund the airline's expansion.
In a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange, Spicejet said Kal Airways, a company owned by Maran, has pledged over 43.9 million shares on July 13, taking the total number of shares pledged by the entity to over 134.8 million. The total pledged shares account for 86.17 per cent of its holding in the Delhi-based carrier and 33.27 per cent of the outstanding shares of the company. Kal Airways holds over 156.5 million shares in Spicejet.
Confirming the development Spice Jet CEO Neil Mills said: “The airline's chairman has pledged his shares to support short-term borrowings.”
The move comes at a time when Sun TV and the Marans are under scrutiny for financial irregularities. Mills said the airline has raised debt of Rs 200 crore from a local bank to fund its expansion. The airline plans to set up a base in Hyderabad and start a regional service using Bombardier Q400 planes. However, the airline is still to receive an approval from the Reserve Bank of India for $270 million to fund the aircraft order. The airline has also sought DGCA approval to launch flights to ten more international destinations.
So are there any SFO-BOM nonstop services planned in the foreseeable future?
India is probably the only major economy that's not easily reachable with a nonstop flight from the US -- partly because of being unfortunately situated on exactly the other side of the world, but also because the Indian government has wilfully kept private airlines weak in order to allow its pet airline more breathing room.
I want Kingfisher, Jet and Indigo to offer twice daily nonstop flights from SFO and JFK to all major Indian cities -- BOM, DEL, MAA, BLR. Also a side of fries.
I'm traveling SFO-BOM in a few days and my flight is a hellish SFO-DTW-AMS-BOM 26 hour route. At least it lands in BOM at a decent 11.15 pm rather than at 4 am.
Why not take one hops across the Pacific ? SFO-HKG-BOM or SFO-ICN-BOM on Cathay Pacific or Asiana is way more comfortable than through Detroit on KLM/Delta.
There is also SFO-DXB-BOM by EK. At least SFO-DXB-COK used to be the cheapest last year.
And do you REALLY think a non-stop flight is fun? Trust me it isn't. Spent 16 hours inside the excellent cabin of EK, and felt like opening the door and jumping out!!
If you're on Skyteam, why not take Korean Air ? It's a one hop with a 3hr layover in the excellent Seoul airport, and they have probably the best looking flight attendants in that region
Yes, Korean Air is great for SFO-BOM. Unfortunately I don't think Delta allows you to redeem miles on any other airline.
Dileep, I'd much rather take a nonstop if it saves 5+ hours (16 hours for nonstop vs 21 hours for probably the shortest 1-stop route). If you've traveled by Cathay it's 15 hours for SFO-HKG anyway, so a 16 hour SFO-BOM wouldn't be much longer.
Aviation sector asked to cough up cash they owe various oil companies, or risk closure
Date: 2011-07-23 Place: Mumbai
It's time to pay up or shut shop for airlines that have hitherto defaulted on their fuel payments.
Under pressure from various state-owned oil companies, top sources within the Union government said they were in no mood to mollycoddle airlines unable to keep their pecuniary distress in check.
We also have to import oil and have a deadline to clear the dues. Any company, including airlines, should make the payment on time, or we will have to get harsh with them in future," said a senior official from the petroleum ministry.
The official added that payments were pending to various countries, for crude oil import, one such being Iran.
Import dues
Various news reports have pegged India's debt to Iran at five billion dollars. Iran fulfills about 12 per cent of India's oil requirements. Iran has been demanding immediate payment of its dues from India.
A recent statement by Irani caretaker Oil Minister Mohammad Aliabadi also reflected the pressure on the government to pay up.
"Iran will not cut oil supplies to India which will find a way to pay for its exports within the next two months," Aliabadi had said.
Two major players in the Indian aviation sector, Kingfisher and Air India, jointly owe more than Rs 3,500 crore to oil companiesWhile the former owes Rs 1,000 crore, the latter owes Rs 2,500 crore to the oil companies. In several occasions in the past, the oil companies have even stopped fuel supply to these airlines owing to non-payment of dues, which led to suspension of flight operations.
The situation could only be resolved after top officials from Petroleum and Civil Aviation Ministry intervened on behalf of the defaulting airlines. Both the airline companies have been put on cash-and-carry basis in the last few months.
Abhijeet wrote:I'm traveling SFO-BOM in a few days and my flight is a hellish SFO-DTW-AMS-BOM 26 hour route. At least it lands in BOM at a decent 11.15 pm rather than at 4 am.
That's the equivalent of taking a 1980's ST bus. The people travelling on the AMS-BOM leg tend to be experts in trashing a good aircraft cabin, and the airline compensates for it by plying their oldest equipment. Be nice to the flight attendants on the DTW-AMS leg so they ply you with plenty of alcohol for the trial that lies ahead.
Theo_Fidel wrote:NJ has numerous non-stop to BOM. But you probably know that.
Didn't know that, actually - looks like at least United, Continental and Air India have EWR-BOM nonstops. That's good information, thanks.
United and Continental are one and the same now. There is a daily non-stop Continental flight to BOM from EWR. Same one will be marked with a United flight number as well.
There is also a (daily?) American Airlines non-stop flight from Chicago (ORD) to DEL.
vera_k wrote:That's the equivalent of taking a 1980's ST bus. The people travelling on the AMS-BOM leg tend to be experts in trashing a good aircraft cabin, and the airline compensates for it by plying their oldest equipment.
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM/MANGALORE: The Kerala high court on Wednesday ordered Air India to pay Rs 75 lakh to the families of each of the kin of those killed in last year's Mangalore air crash.
Justice P R Ramachandra Menon said Air India was liable to pay the compensation equivalent to 1 lakh Special Drawing Rights (SDR), a kind of International Monetary Fund currency. The bench was hearing Abdul Salam and Ramla's petition. Their 24-year-old son, B Mohammed Rafi, was killed in the crash.
The petition challenged AI's Rs 35 lakh compensation and said victims' families were entitled to damages of Rs 1.5 crore for the carrier's liability as per international law.
MUMBAI: Government has decided not to challenge the Kerala High Court order asking Air India to give proper compensation to the next of kin of the victims of Mangalore air crash which claimed 158 lives.
"We welcome the Kerala High Court order to grant compensation of Rs 75 lakh each to the families of the Air India Express' Mangalore crash victims. We have also directed Air India to ensure that the insurance companies settle the payments expeditiously," Civil Aviation Minister Vayalar Ravi told PTI.
Ravi responded to a question on the issue via e-mail as he was unable to take phone calls because of illness, his office said.
Final report says pilot/captain was sleeping for full 20 minutes and when woken up ignored Co-pilot's warnings /advice
Pilot error onlee.
chetak wrote:
Two major players in the Indian aviation sector, Kingfisher and Air India, jointly owe more than Rs 3,500 crore to oil companiesWhile the former owes Rs 1,000 crore, the latter owes Rs 2,500 crore to the oil companies. In several occasions in the past, the oil companies have even stopped fuel supply to these airlines owing to non-payment of dues, which led to suspension of flight operations.
The situation could only be resolved after top officials from Petroleum and Civil Aviation Ministry intervened on behalf of the defaulting airlines. Both the airline companies have been put on cash-and-carry basis in the last few months.
Kingfisher was permitted priority/emergency landing on a closed runway ( no 2 at MAA, methinks), lastweek , when it ran out of fuel, well almost.
Are they trying to save fuel due to cash and carry?
The Transport Workers Union (TWU) says Qantas has rejected commitments to enhance safety, productivity, job security and efficiency, as well as provide a safety net for employees and outsourced staff. Link
chetak wrote:
Two major players in the Indian aviation sector, Kingfisher and Air India, jointly owe more than Rs 3,500 crore to oil companiesWhile the former owes Rs 1,000 crore, the latter owes Rs 2,500 crore to the oil companies. In several occasions in the past, the oil companies have even stopped fuel supply to these airlines owing to non-payment of dues, which led to suspension of flight operations.
The situation could only be resolved after top officials from Petroleum and Civil Aviation Ministry intervened on behalf of the defaulting airlines. Both the airline companies have been put on cash-and-carry basis in the last few months.
Kingfisher was permitted priority/emergency landing on a closed runway ( no 2 at MAA, methinks), lastweek , when it ran out of fuel, well almost.
Are they trying to save fuel due to cash and carry?
No Way!!
Such a situation is not possible as the pilot HAS to mandatory carry extra fuel to reach the diversionary airport which has to be decided based on the weather and / or operational conditions. Any lapse in the above procedure will lead to immediate grounding for the pilot and very serious penalties for the airline.
Such a situation is not possible as the pilot HAS to mandatory carry extra fuel to reach the diversionary airport which has to be decided based on the weather and / or operational conditions. Any lapse in the above procedure will lead to immediate grounding for the pilot and very serious penalties for the airline.
CHENNAI: A Kingfisher aircraft from Colombo that ran out of fuel landed on a runway closed for maintenance at Chennai airport, on Tuesday. The plane, carrying 132 passengers and six crew members, was scheduled to land at 4.30 pm. But its pilot took special permission from Air Traffic Control (ATC) for the early landing .
A senior AAI official said the pilot of the plane reported the fuel crisis to the ATC and asked for permission to make an early landing.
The ATC officials gave the permission and immediately alerted officials at the apron area, where the runway maintenance work was under way," the official said.
^they could have had stronger than expected head winds. There was an incident with Qantas a380 from sin-syd that almost ran out of fuel and had to divert to adl. Even though they were carrying extra fuel and the reason given was "stronger than expected head winds".
Jet Airways on Monday said it will soon have only one low-cost brand and that a decision on the merger of its present two low-cost subsidiaries -- JetLite and Jet Konnect -- will be taken within the next one month or so.
"We are still in the process of discussing whether there is a need to merge JetLite and Jet Konnect, but we are very clear that there will be only one brand in the low-fare arena and that is something which will emerge very clearly in the next one or two months," Jet Airways Group vice-president for commercial strategy and investor relations KG Vishwanath told the analysts on a conference call here today.
Non-stop from SFO to BOM I've heard.
