Aerospace Diary

News AirAsia Expands In India With Three New Routes Aviation Daily Nov 24 , 2009 , p. 07 Neelam Mathews AirAsia last week began daily flights to Kolkata from Kuala Lumpur, using an Airbus A320 Following the launch of Trichy flights last year, AirAsia maintained its commitment to expand its Indian network by launching three new routes from Kuala Lumpur — to Kolkata, Kochi and Trivandrum. The airline is looking at flying to Bengaluru (formerly Bangalore)and Hyderabad from KL next year, and its associate AirAsia X will fly to Mumbai and New Delhi. AirAsia is confident that the route will provide a positive boost for tourism activities and stimulate the local economies of India and Malaysia. “With Kolkata added to our extensive network, AirAsia is unlocking the potential of international air travel from Kuala Lumpur to eastern India and its surrounding areas. With the commencement of the direct service to Kuala Lumpur, the people in West Bengal and India may now use Kolkata as a gateway to...

Indian Defexpo 2010 Gets Firm Schedule NEW DELHI — The back-and-forth over the venue and schedule for India’s major land and naval systems symposium, Defexpo 2010, has been settled. Defexpo will be held according to its original schedule — from Feb. 15-18, 2010 here in New Delhi — but with one change. The show is being directly organized by the Indian Ministry Of Defense instead of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), which has been organizing Defexpo since its inception. The organizers have been criticized for reducing space and increasing exhibitor costs over the previous show. “We have increased costs by just 10 percent over the previous show,” an official said. The bids to manage Defexpo have gone out for 2010, 2012 and 2014 to two bidders — the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry and CII. It is not clear whether the defense ministry will rebid. “It is a pity that the [ministry] is the event manager,” one industry official said. “The industry needs to have...

As an aerospace writer on aviation, defense and space domains, I am starting this blog initially to post my stories that appear regularly. I do hope in time, it will turn out to be a forum for discussion and much more. Looking forward to forming a large community with a voice of its own. Neelam Mathews