Civil Aviation Development & Discussion

Bade · Post by **Bade** » 22 May 2012 23:03

from personal experience limited to US-India flights only here is my ranking, with ones in bold being the worst.

KLM
Virgin Atlantic
Qatar Air
Air India
Continental
United
Emirates
Austrian
Air France
Lufthansa
British Airways
Gulf Air
Thai Airlines
Al Jordanian

nachiket · Post by **nachiket** » 22 May 2012 23:26

^^From the East Coast/Midwest, yes. From the west coast, the asian airlines like Korean Air, Singapore Airlines and Cathay Pacific are much better.

Edit: BTW, Air Parasite should be the last, considering you never know when their pilots will go on strike again and ruin your plans. They seem to do that more often than rickshawallahs in Mumbai.

chetak · Post by **chetak** » 22 May 2012 23:27

SBajwa wrote:sorry!! I didn't mean "Passenger to Customer ratio" I meant Workers to Customers Ratio. i.e. if other airlines have 1 worker for 200 customers. Air India has 1 worker for 20 customer. Thus each Air India employee need to

1. Increase the number of customers by attracting them.
2. Lay off the workers.

Sorry dude, but "Passenger to Customer" ratio is exactly the right metrics in this case.

The number of FREE LOADING air India employee "Passengers" to the PAYING "customer" is extermely high on every flight.

The employees cannot increase the number of customers by ATTACKING them which is what they are doing now with the strike.

nachiket · Post by **nachiket** » 22 May 2012 23:32

One of my friends is the son of an AI employee. He flies for free from US to India (and back) at least once a year. It was very amusing to see him cursing AI on FB for ruining his vacation plans during the current strike.

Suppiah · Post by **Suppiah** » 23 May 2012 16:57

hnair wrote:Folks who are constantly asking for wiping out the national airlines needs to keep these in mind

- Those creaky planes are the closest equivalent of a Strategic Airlift for evacuating Indian civilians that India has. No other country is going to bring home millions of Indians from bad spots. And we have millions and millions of economically challenged migrants in lots of countries. For them and their despairing families, that last ride out of a besieged airport (Iraq, Kuwait and recently Libya) in Air India is wonderful beyond words. Those pilots and airhostess that we love to trash will look like devathas who came to whisk them off.

.

Not all of AI fleet was used for emergency evacuation. Assuming 10-20 were used, it should be possible to keep that many planes on standby leased to all carriers in peacetime but back to GOI during trouble time. That may work out cheaper (even make money if done wisely) than supporting thousands of parasites that loot and plunder the airline and attack its passengers all the while fattening themselves at the cost of exchequer just because in 1/3500 days they bring home a few thousand stranded civilians, that too because they have no choice in that matter.

BTW this same argument was used to justify a AI monopoly (and similar arguments used to justify BSNL monopoly)

neerajb · Post by **neerajb** » 28 May 2012 20:09

After reading through the interim report #3 of AF 447 crash investigation and the comments by BR members, I am of the opinion that we all have missed a very important point i.e. Why the PF kept on giving nose up commands when the aircraft was giving all sorts of indirect signs that they are stalled. When an aircraft cruises at high subsonic speeds, the aerodynamic noise in the cockpit increases and is a very good indicator of aircraft's high speed. AF 447 CVR indicates the presence of such noise at the time of upset. PF took it as an overspeed situation when infact they were stalling. The report suggests that it could be the noise of ice crystals hittinng the fuselage. It also has a note suggesting PF thought that they are in an overspeed situation and promptly kept the nose up throughout till impact. Ofcourse he overlooked obvious indicators i.e. high negative vertical speed and altitude higher then REC MAX. At normal climb power settings 10-11 degree pitch is quite normal (18 is the max allowed) and the engine power was at 102% most of the time during the upset/stall. The only thing PF missed was that they were at 37K feet and not at lower altitude (AOA is not displayed to the pilots directly which was 35 degrees). All in all a case of pilot error but we should also keep in mind the conditions prevailing at that time i.e. unreliable IAS/confusing error messages/aerodynamic noise/pitch dark night/lack of information on displays.

Cheers....

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 28 May 2012 20:26

not sure if this was reported here, but earlier this month a IA plane on takeoff from Leh lost one engine, when just about nosewheel up, pilot put wheel down and braked very hard to stop within end of runway with tires smoking.

my uncle, aunt and niece were onboard
http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/4-ty ... 88023.html

Kannan · Post by **Kannan** » 02 Jun 2012 05:01

http://business-standard.com/india/news ... rt/476093/

Wow. These AI idiots basically don't want to lose seniority chances on the 787 to more qualified IA pilots, and are going to tank the carriers in the process.

chetak · Post by **chetak** » 03 Jun 2012 10:59

Singha wrote:not sure if this was reported here, but earlier this month a IA plane on takeoff from Leh lost one engine, when just about nosewheel up, pilot put wheel down and braked very hard to stop within end of runway with tires smoking.

my uncle, aunt and niece were onboard
http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/4-ty ... 88023.html

Looks like a very nicely handled rejected takeoff, sirjee.

Very commendable of the commander to have handled such an emergency successfully at the elevated heights of leh.

neerajb · Post by **neerajb** » 04 Jun 2012 12:34

The plane, which is modified for flying to Leh, was taxied to a parallel runway and all the passengers were later flown in another plane that was flown from Delhi, the sources said.

http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/4-ty ... 88023.html

What does that means? I thought that standard aircrafts are capable of operating from higher altitudes airfields.

Cheers....

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 04 Jun 2012 16:16

Leh flights always operate with less passengers than their full complement iirc. which means less luggage also.
this makes them very costly for only a 1 hr flight vs a regular 1 hr flight like Hyd-Blr.

I dont know what other mods are done - perhaps better de-icing eqpt?

my uncle was saying it was a old plane and he swore never to fly AI again and if forced to, would put auntie on a different flight for some fail safeness.

neerajb · Post by **neerajb** » 04 Jun 2012 16:49

As far as I remember leh flights don't compromise on seats, my flight was full upto the brim. Flights arriving at Leh are normal flights but flights departing from Leh don't accept ~~check-in baggage~~ handbag (oops

), they cite security reasons not sure if hot and high performance is the criteria. Ditto with flights departing from srinagar.
Leh runway is fairly long at 10K+ feet.

Could be engine tweaks???

Cheers....

Avik · Post by **Avik** » 04 Jun 2012 21:19

Leh flights operated by AI/IA are usually flown by A 320 planes with a bogey pair in the nose wheel. So, the nose landing gear has four tyres instead of the usual two. Helps in braking action. These planes were specially ordered by IA to operate hot-high routes.

neerajb · Post by **neerajb** » 05 Jun 2012 10:28

Avik wrote:Leh flights operated by AI/IA are usually flown by A 320 planes with a bogey pair in the nose wheel. So, the nose landing gear has four tyres instead of the usual two. Helps in braking action. These planes were specially ordered by IA to operate hot-high routes.

Thanks Avik. Never heard of it before, a little googling confirms it but it is the main gear with double bogey and not the nose gear.

http://www.jetphotos.net/viewphoto.php?id=6206442

It seems older A320s have this feature and only Air India ones. Discussion from jetphotos on the same topic.

Cheers....

Suraj · Post by **Suraj** » 05 Jun 2012 21:27

Double bogie main landing gear on the A320 is an Indian Airlines exclusive. Every other A320 uses a single. It led to maintenance issues because of the special parts required for these IA-only options. The original plan was to massively build up A320s in the fleet to service smaller cities with bad runways, but the 1990 crash in Bangalore, among other things, put paid to those plans; the fleet was grounded for some time afterwards and newer A32xs in the IA fleet do not have double bogey gear.

Kannan · Post by **Kannan** » 06 Jun 2012 03:42

Anti ice should be the same, they all operate in the high flight levels.

He mentioned a different wheel configuration, but there's also the case of cabin pressure

Cabin pressure is kept to 6-8k feet, so if you're landing at an airport past 10k feet you need to make sure you can open the door

The higher density altitude means longer takeoff/landing runs (i.e more braking needed) so some general aviation aircraft have STOL kits if they're flown there regularly, or have props pitched for climb since that's crucial.

Sea level performance on a cold day vs high altitude performance on a warm day can be night and day - potential to even double your takeoff run and cut your climb rates in third.

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 06 Jun 2012 07:23

there a few airports in south america & nepal (and surely tibet) that have the leh issue and then not many around the world.

Pranay · Post by **Pranay** » 06 Jun 2012 21:55

http://www.ndtv.com/album/listing/news/ ... 06/slide/1

First Look at Mumbai International Airport's T2

... but where are the Indians?? Picture 1 will send shivers down the spine of the MNS / Shiv Sena folks.

Whoever came up with this "picture" failed to crop in some Indians.

Suraj · Post by **Suraj** » 07 Jun 2012 01:45

Those are all renderings that have been accessible on SSC-India forum for a long time, as far as I can recall.

Bade · Post by **Bade** » 07 Jun 2012 08:11

There was a nice hour long program this past week on Science channel (building big ?) on Mumbai's new airport terminal.

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 07 Jun 2012 09:23

when is it slated for completion?

has the navi mumbai airport earthwork started?

rahulm · Post by **rahulm** » 10 Jun 2012 10:20

Transited through B'lore airport yesterday from Goa to Coimbatore on JetKonnect. This was a special transit as had to use wheel chair assistance for the 1st time in my life (The wheel chair is a result of a fractured leg from a Royal Enfield Bullet landing on my leg and dragging me due to the desi "full entitlement to drive on the road with little sense of responsibility" mind set but that is another story. I was the pillion rider).

A few observations

+ At all 3 airports, embarking and disembarking was via ramp stairs and buses even though aero bridges were free. Particularly, I was surprised that aero bridges were not used in Bangalore. Maybe because aero bridges attract an additional fee and therefore, LCC's do not use them.

+ none of the Jet Airways buses at any airport had wheel chair ramps, not even at the brand new B'lore airport. They cobbled together a few staff and manually lifted the wheel chair on and off the bus. I was not expecting this, again, particularly in Bangalore where Jet have brand new buses.

+ B'lore airport represents a big uplift in Indian airport standards.

+ The land side domestic arrivals & departures hall is well lit by passive lighting using sky lights. The indoor luminaires switched on around 5 PM

However,

+ Transit passengers have to come land side and then go back air side [exit departure->enter departures hall(through security gate where they check your boarding pass/ticket only. This gate is also used by service staff to move food and equipment around. Messy.)-> through a security check]. There is no straight through air side transit like many other international airports.

+ In arrivals air side, ceiling is poorly finished as is tiling at dado height. A few tiles are peeling off. Overall it lacked the Grade A feel.

+ Cafe Coffee Day are operating in a monopoly situation being the only food and beverage option in domestic arrivals, departure and on the first floor before security. Its absurd. The full menu particularly many vegetarian options were not available. I had a 4.5 hour stop over between flights and because I was at Jet's mercy to move around, I had to go hungry until I was taken air side.

+ Air side the situation is only marginally better with a grand total of 3 options, Taste of India, Barista and Time-Bar but at least there are some options. I was so famished that the otherwise ordinary Bisi-Bele-Bath tasted heavenly.

+ Land side departure ceilings have cobwebs on the ceiling. There are enough around so its not a case of one that got through. IAt may soon look like a government building ceiling.

+ I saw 2 adjacent sets of escalators for going up. Coming down you had to either use the stairs or the lift. More practical to have 1 escalator each configured to go up and down.

+ The toilet main entrance has a door! Makes it a hassle to enter and leave the toilet with a trolley.Even Mumbai airport does not have an entrance door. On the plus side the toilets were spotless and odour free.

+ In the departures hall, there are big ugly speakers on top of the air line ticketing offices (opposite the check-in counters). An after thought or poor design? These should have been conformal.

+ The departure boards are only in English. Why do we assume that all people who fly know English.It's simply not true anymore. On the plus side the departure boards were reliable and up to date.

+ Announcements were simply unintelligible for me. Land side had too much echo, air side was a bit better (Compare with the crystal clear announcements in Changi)

+ air side is already cramped.The corridor to move between gates could be wider. Its tight now.

In summary, B'lore has upped the standard for Indian Airports. Maintenance, food options and some process improvements need attention to bring up to par with other international airports.

What to do? I have been trained in the real estate industry to pick building defects on a walk through!

+ The ATR 72-500 pilot from B'lore to Coimbatore kept announcing the destination as Madurai. He did finally correct himself but not before many passengers raised their eye brows and looked a little nervously at fellow passengers.

+ Goa airport air side has a little shop" Xone,wire free music" which in desi style blares away music at full volume making it impossible to hear announcements. And since the departure and gate display boards in Goa are not reliable announcements are the only resort (How does airport management allow matters to get to ST bus stand status?). I had to get up from my wheel chair 4 times and hobble to ask some crew which flight they were boarding. Not happy Jan.

Many seem to think a world class airports (or any infrastructure) is about the product. This is partially true. Its actually about the whole experience (e.g. world class bitumen top but desi style toll collection plaza's - aka worli-Bandra sea link). We need to understand this basic truth.)

Deans · Post by **Deans** » 10 Jun 2012 10:54

Rahul, Good points. I was in a senior position in an Airline in India and deal with B'lore airport. Just a couple of other points:

1. BLR airport is actually not that well planned. The runway which was supposed to last 12 years, started sinking after 6. This then required runway closures for severla hours, earlier this year, till the runway repaving work was over.
2. They have parking bays for over 40 aircraft, but only 1 runway (the 2nd runway is planned for phase 2). There is no point parking 40
aircraft, if you have only 1 runway for all take-off's & landings, The 40th aircraft parked, will have to wait almost 3 hours before
it takes off.
3. The buses and other infrastructure belong to BIAL, not the individual companies. So, not much customisation by airlines is
possible.
4. Quality of announcments by pilots is generally poor across airlines in India. Some pilots are very good, others are not bothered.
Airlines do not really invest much in this area and no one wants to ask highly pampered pilots to do much more than fly.

Deans · Post by **Deans** » 10 Jun 2012 11:04

Also,
- LCC's do use aero bridges. Its only a question of slot availability.
- The problem with Goa (and with several other airports), is that it belongs to the Navy, but facilities are provided by AAI. Cooperation between
the services and AAI/Other agencies is poor. Thus Goa is also closed in the morning (all arrivals are very early in the morning), which often does
not match hotel check in times. Similarly in Srinagar, airport closure from 1600h (in Bagdogra it is worse), is the biggest bottleneck in trying
to get more flights (and tourists) into Kashmir.

Deans · Post by **Deans** » 10 Jun 2012 11:07

Kannan wrote:Anti ice should be the same, they all operate in the high flight levels.

He mentioned a different wheel configuration, but there's also the case of cabin pressure Cabin pressure is kept to 6-8k feet, so if you're landing at an airport past 10k feet you need to make sure you can open the door The higher density altitude means longer takeoff/landing runs (i.e more braking needed) so some general aviation aircraft have STOL kits if they're flown there regularly, or have props pitched for climb since that's crucial.

Sea level performance on a cold day vs high altitude performance on a warm day can be night and day - potential to even double your takeoff run and cut your climb rates in third.

Aircraft have to be especially modified for High altitude operations and this has to be agreed with the manufacturer, before you
buy/lease the aircraft. In India, the only airports (used by domestic airlines) requiring this, are Leh and Thoise (where airlines have ferry flights for the army).

Deans · Post by **Deans** » 10 Jun 2012 11:10

vikrant wrote:As far as I remember leh flights don't compromise on seats, my flight was full upto the brim. Flights arriving at Leh are normal flights but flights departing from Leh don't accept ~~check-in baggage~~ handbag (oops ), they cite security reasons not sure if hot and high performance is the criteria. Ditto with flights departing from srinagar.
Leh runway is fairly long at 10K+ feet.

Could be engine tweaks???

Cheers....

Leh flights in the tourist season are absolutely full, because there is a very limited operating window for flights
(starts 20m after sunrise and ends around 1030, after which winds make landings very difficult). There are also a limited
no of parking bays (IAF uses the majority). Outside the season, flights are around 60% full.

rahulm · Post by **rahulm** » 10 Jun 2012 11:11

We build a greenfield airport in the 21st century with all the past lessons from previous airports and many great airports to benchmark against and we are struggling to the basics right, like wheel chair ramps, passenger flow & food options?"

This inspite of having Siemens and Unique Zurich as stakeholders, both companies from countries which have excellent experience and sensitivity towards people with disabilities?

Hopefully, Phase 2 will be better.

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 10 Jun 2012 11:17

I found the general kit in Delhi LCC terminal 1A/B to be much better than blr BIAL. the food options were definitely much better , while shops were less.
BIAL std falls somewhere in between the typical AAI terminal and delhi shakina stds.

dont keep ur hopes too high for phase2 - its not a brand new terminal just a extention of existing one on all sides.

Deans · Post by **Deans** » 10 Jun 2012 11:30

Singha wrote:I found the general kit in Delhi LCC terminal 1A/B to be much better than blr BIAL. the food options were definitely much better , while shops were less.
BIAL std falls somewhere in between the typical AAI terminal and delhi shakina stds.

dont keep ur hopes too high for phase2 - its not a brand new terminal just a extention of existing one on all sides.

DEL, LCC terminal is better only because AI, KF & Jet moved to terminal 3, thereby suddenly de-congesting the terminal, which
got designated the `LCC' terminal. The layout of that terminal is also a problem, because the food court is 2 levels above the departure gates (announcements are difficult to hear).

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 10 Jun 2012 18:19

TOI=

GUWAHATI: The presence of mind of two women pilots saved the lives of 48 passengers and the crew aboard a Guwahati-bound Air India plane on Sunday after it was noticed that a front wheel of the aircraft was missing as it came in to land here.

"During a pre-landing check, the ATC discovered that one of the two front wheels were missing. The pilots were immediately informed and an emergency was declared at Lokapriya Gopinath Bordoloi International (LGBI) Airport," a source in the Airports Authority of India (AAI) here told reporters.

The ATR flight from Silchar was being flown by Urmila Yadav and co-pilot Yashu.

They kept the aircraft circling for more than two hours over the airport to burn off the fuel while preparations were being made for an emergency landing, the source said.

"In such a situation, the remaining fuel is always burnt off to lighten the aircraft and prevent a fatal accident while landing.

"It was a good decision to burn the highly inflammable fuel as it sometimes lead to fatal accidents during emergency landings, the source said.

Although panic gripped passengers after they came to know about the snag, the plane landed safely and the passengers and crew were evacuated safely, an AAI official said.

Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi congratulated the pilots over the phone for their courage in landing the aircraft and saving precious lives.

The aircraft lost its front wheel during take off, a statement issued from the chief minister's Office here said

Austin · Post by **Austin** » 10 Jun 2012 23:00

These lady pilots and the ground ATC crew deserves all our respect for saving life of 48 people onboard , time we give the pilots a presidential award something well deserved.

neerajb · Post by **neerajb** » 11 Jun 2012 10:48

Reminds me of an incident some 2-3 years back when one of the nose wheel fell off during take off from a 737 belonging to Jet/indigo. One of my friend who is in aircraft maintenance and was based in Delhi later told me that the engineer (her namesake

) tightened the bolts without jacking the aircraft. The wheel was not secured properly and it fell off during the takeoff run but the plane landed safely. Poor girl was put on probation for a year but not fired.

Cheers....

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 11 Jun 2012 10:55

PTI has a picture of the ATR nosegear here after landing
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1120611/j ... 9WDHNXoLfc

As the Air India plane took off from Silchar airport amid a drizzle, ground staff saw something drop from the sky. It was one of the ATR-42 aircraft’s nose wheels.
....................

A pilot and aviation trainer, Samar Desai, said there wasn’t really much risk provided the “standard procedure” for landing with a damaged nose wheel was followed.

“In such a situation, a pilot is expected to land on the main landing gear (the wheels under the wings) and keep the nose in the air, using air brakes to generate drag and reduce the aircraft’s speed,” said Desai, who handles Indian operations for an aviation college in Australia.

“The goal is to slow down the aircraft as much as possible before the nose wheel touches the ground.”

As the pilots burnt up the excess fuel, it also reduced the plane’s weight: a crucial step for a safe emergency landing. The crew moved the luggage to the rear to shift the centre of gravity further to the aft and away from the nose.

Kannan · Post by **Kannan** » 12 Jun 2012 05:47

Wow, the press sure loves talking that up! Kind of insulting that they keep mentioning women but I guess it's good press for them.

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 12 Jun 2012 09:36

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

Sachin · Post by **Sachin** » 12 Jun 2012 10:27

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.

ManjaM · Post by **ManjaM** » 12 Jun 2012 16:08

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

Pranay · Post by **Pranay** » 12 Jun 2012 19:24

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/12/world ... &ref=world

Like China, India has long been eager to showcase the best features of its fast-growing economy on the international stage. But whenever it gets a chance to shine, something almost invariably goes wrong.

The latest example involves India’s plans to be only the second country to roll out Boeing’s newest jet, the superefficient 787 Dreamliner, on its international routes. Instead of being the guest of honor at a celebration at Indira Gandhi International Airport here, however, India’s Dreamliner has been sitting on a tarmac in Everett, Wash., waiting for a formal invitation.

And even when the plane does arrive, which could be as early as next week, any celebration is likely to be muted because of a noisy dispute between pilots at the state-owned airline, Air India, that has led to a strike and a shutdown of some international flights.

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. But the failure to resolve these issues before the plane’s arrival reflects other vexing contradictions in India: a near-paralysis in government decision making, as well as a continued insistence that the government retain control over important national industries. This unfortunate combination of control and indecision has crippled its coal mining, power generation, oil and agriculture sectors. And now Air India.

As with everything about India, the reasons for the latest public debacle are complicated.

Manufacturing glitches led Boeing to put off the plane’s completion by three years, so most of the company’s customers cannot get the plane fast enough. But not India.

“India’s airplane is ready,” said Dinesh Keskar, a senior vice president for sales at Boeing. “We are waiting to give it to them.”

First, the country demanded that Boeing pay a $1 billion penalty for the manufacturing delays in India’s 27-plane order. Boeing offered a small fraction of that. The two sides have since come to an agreement but have not disclosed the amount. A government cabinet meeting is scheduled for the end of this week to approve the deal. But until then, no plane.

But even after that dispute is finally put to rest, Air India faces a fight with its pilots over who among them should be allowed to fly the 787.

Air India’s pilot problem has festered since a merger was announced in 2007 between the two state-owned airlines, Air India and Indian Airlines. Pilots from the original Air India argued that since the Dreamliners were bought before the merger, only pilots working for the carrier at the time should be allowed to fly them.

But Air India, seeking a more flexible and efficient operation, sent 32 pilots from each of its predecessor companies to Singapore for training on the new plane. In response, hundreds of pilots have been calling in sick since May 7.

The merger of the two airlines was intended to create a carrier strong enough to compete globally and burnish India’s reputation. Just the opposite has happened, as repeated strikes, poor service and safety fears have left Air India flailing even as the domestic and Asian air travel markets have grown rapidly. On Sunday, a nose wheel on an Air India jet with 52 people aboard fell off during takeoff from Silchar Airport, and the plane made an emergency landing in Guwahati, in northeastern India, with no major damage or injuries.

“In hindsight, I can say that the merger didn’t work out,” said Ajit Singh, India’s minister of civil aviation.

The government agreed this year to give the airline a $5.4 billion bailout as long as it met certain financial milestones.

“That’s why the strike came at such an inopportune time,” Mr. Singh said. “This is the public’s money.”

Mr. Singh announced last week that he had fired 101 of the 400 striking pilots and that the airline was in the midst of training new ones. Air India has had to cancel all its flights to Hong Kong, Osaka, Seoul and Toronto. Mr. Singh urged the pilots to return to work without preconditions.

K. Swaminathan, an Air India spokesman, estimated that normal operations would resume within three or four months, and he said the airline had enough trained pilots to fly all three Dreamliners expected to be delivered this month. But the loss of highly profitable international routes will cost the airline dearly.

Air India’s turnaround plan depends heavily on the improved efficiency that the 787 will bring, so getting the airplane into the airline’s rotation is crucial. The 787 is the first major commercial plane made almost exclusively from composite materials. Its wings flex like a glider’s when flying, and its reduced weight saves fuel.

“I’m very confident we will succeed,” Mr. Singh said.

Others are less sanguine. Air India is unlikely to turn itself around, said Saj Ahmad, chief analyst at StrategicAero Research in London, “until they sort out the strike and get pilots working again and streamline their top-heavy management team with one that knows how to run an airline.”

svinayak · Post by **svinayak** » 13 Jun 2012 02:23

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.

Kannan · Post by **Kannan** » 13 Jun 2012 04:19

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

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.