Aerospace Diary

March 31, 2011 Time- 11.37pm IST Neelam Mathews India’s budget IndiGo has selected Pratt & Whitney PurePower PW1100G engines to power its fleet of 150 new Airbus A320neo family aircraft  against its competitor CFM International Leap-X. IndiGo signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Airbus for 180 single-aisle aircraft earlier this year. Of these, 150 will be of the yet-to-be-produced 'neo' series, and the remaining 30 are the standard A-320s. It is not clear what engines have been chosen for the 30 A320s. IAE is the clear market leader in India. More than 80% of the A320 fleet in service are on order with airlines in India are, or will be, powered by the V2500. Over 300 aircraft in India are powered by engines provided by Pratt & Whitney and International Aero Engines. IndiGo placed the single largest order for the V2500 in 2005 when it purchased engines for a fleet of 100 A320s, supported by a comprehensive V2500Select aftermarket agreement. The value o...

March 31, 2011 Time: 11:38 am IST Neelam Mathews With business between Philippines and India on the rise particularly on the IT sector, Philippines is now viewing India’s 8 million outbound travelers as Philippine Airlines (PAL) starts six weekly services to New Delhi. (Aerospace Diary broke the news on March 16, 2011). Of the six flights, three will be via Bangkok and three direct to Delhi. Jamie J.Bautista, President and COO said the A330-300 will have a configuration of 42 business class and 260 economy and ample (belly) cargo space” The airlines is offering 188,000 airline seats a year for Indian travelers to and from the Philippines. Bautista said the Indian government’s decision to grant visas on arrival was a big plus to help boost traffic. PAL and Philippine Tourism have a big job ahead. Of the two million Indians flying a year to South East Asia, only 32,817 visited the Philippines, while the rest traveled to Singapore (726,000), Thailand (611,983), Malaysia (589,838) a...

March 29, 2011 Time: 9.30pm IST Neelam Mathews Moving a step further to its entry into Star Alliance, Air India says that the first milestone in its modernization process has been completed with the migration of Air India and Indian Airlines to SITA’s Horizon Passenger Services System (PSS). SITA completed this complex migration to the new PSS in a record 293 days. This included the transfer of over  half a million Passenger Name Records (PNRs). SITA is working with Air India to incorporate additional capabilities and further customize its service delivery.  The PSS platform will enable Air India to increase revenue channels and offer promotional campaigns through its website. In addition, SITA’s system will result in reduced costs of sales distribution for Air India. “I am pleased that Air India and SITA teams have worked closely together to achieve this crucial milestone in record time. ….This migration will also bring significant cost savings, efficiencies and impro...

March 27, 2011 Neelam Mathews As the Asian naval market outlook remains strong and promising with regional navies investing in broad range of ships and capabilities, Asia Pacific's only dedicated international maritime defense show -  International Maritime Defense Exhibition & ConferenceI (IMDEX) Asia will this year have over 20 new companies participating. General Dynamics, Canada, Israel Shipyards, Precision Technologies (Singapore) and Hawke Transit from Spain are some of the 22 companies that will be in Singapore for the show from May 18-20. The new participants include those from Finland, France, UK, Russia and Singapore. With global volatility a thing of today, the theme will be Safe and Secure Seas for All by All, says Jimmy Lau, managing director of Experia Events . The show has around 15 naval delegations. They may be joined by an Indian naval delegation with whom talks are on, he adds. “Around 300-400 Indian visitors visit the show. This year, we would like to do...

Neelam Mathews March 23, 2010 On the third anniversary of Dubai’s first low cost airline, flydubai, its 16th aircraft was delivered carrying the registration A6-FDP. The Boeing 737-800NG  will help the airline further expand its network of 33 routes across the Middle East, Asia, Africa and Europe.  The aircraft is flydubai’s seventh aircraft  to be fitted with Boeing’s new Sky Interior and the Fibre-To-The-Screen in-flight entertainment system by Lumexis. “Less than two years after operations began, we have a fleet of 16 aircraft, a growing network ….The numbers alone speak volumes about flydubai’s rising prominence …..”, said CEO, Ghaith Al Ghaith. In South Asia flydubai flies to Lucknow, India and Kathmandu (Nepal). The carrier has been asking for more frequencies and destinations to India which it hasn’t been granted as yet, Aerospace Diary learns. Flydubai’s all fares are one way and inclusive of taxes, one piece of hand baggage weighing up to 7kg and a small han...

March 23, 2011 Neelam Mathews Oman Air has become the eighth E-Jets operator in the Middle East following the delivery of the first EMBRAER 175 jet to Oman air at  São José dos Campos, Brazil. The aircraft will serve the airline’s regional routes operating from Muscat International Airport. The delivery is the first of five firm orders announced in 2009. Oman Air’s EMBRAER 175s are configured with 71 seats, in a dual-class layout, with 11 seats in the business class and 60 in economy. “The E-Jets are the ideal platform from which we can expand our regional route network and better align frequency with demand,” said Peter Hill, CEO of Oman Air. “Having this flexibility allows us to introduce more point-to-point routes currently not sustainable with larger aircraft, as well as upgrading our services to domestic destinations like Khasab and other new airports currently being developed within the Sultanate of Oman.” Oman Air has also signed the Embraer Pool Flight Hour Progra...

March 22, 2011 Posted by Neelam Mathews Gulf Air, the national carrier of the Kingdom of Bahrain is starting four weekly flights to Kabul from June 15. The announcement follows the airline’s recent launch of services to Addis Ababa in Ethiopia, Isfahan in Iran, Basra in Iraq, Milan in Italy and Geneva in Switzerland which brings the number of new destinations opened in 2011 to six. Gulf Air will be the first ‘full service’ scheduled commercial carrier in the Middle East to connect Afghanistan. Announcing this today, Gulf Air Chief Executive Officer Samer Majali said: “The launch of our service to Kabul follows extensive safety and security audits, and further demonstrates our strategy to connect the Kingdom of Bahrain with niche and under-served markets within the region that have high growth potential.” “Afghanistan has seen some remarkable growth recently and the government is committed to facilitate and promote the development of a dynamic, competitive private sector by close...

EXCLUSIVE Asian Defence and Diplomacy Neelam Mathews March 21, 2011 Giuseppe Giordo, the Chief Executive Officer of Alenia Aeronautica, the aeronautics sector of Finmeccanica is also Chairman of the Board of Global Military Aircraft Systems (GMAS), a joint venture with L-3 Communications, working on the C-27J transport aircraft.Giordo caught up with Asian Defence and Diplomacy’s (AD&D) Neelam Mathews to talk on how he viewed India’s burgeoning defence industry and the role his company anticipated it could contribute to growth of the Indian defence/aerospace sector. India’s defence budget is set to increase substantially over the next decade, with the country looking at spending approximately $32 billion in its defence procurement over the next years. Alenia Aeronautica, the Italian aerospace leader, has chalked out plans that will enable it to participate in the growth of India’s aerospace industry as it gradually matures and picks up pace. “India is a strate...

Asian Defence and Diplomacy Neelam Mathews March 2011 Indian Air Chief Marshal Pradeep Vasant Naik addressing a press conference in Bengaluru at Aero India summed up the India Air Force plans for increasing numbers, replacement and capabilities upgrade under what he termed as “four pillars.” These include ‘See’ (surveillance through satellites and Airborne Early Warning Systems), ‘Reach’ (air-to-air refuelling), ‘Hit’ (air-to-surface missiles) and ‘Protection’ (protection of these assets with surface-toair missiles). The Indian Air Force has repeatedly voiced concerns on the depletion of its squadrons with the shortage of aircraft in the fleet expected to last through till 2014. Naik created a flutter when he said the mother of all contracts, the 126 Medium Multi Range Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) order would be announced by September this year. The six contenders for the MMRCA programme include the MiG-35 from Russia, the Lockheed Martin F-16IN and Boeing F/A-18E/F fr...

Feb 2011 Neelam Mathews Indian winters usually see a spike in visiting foreign tourists and 2010 was no different, except it included four of the world’s most powerful people who came to tour, trade and transact with the world’s second fastest growing economy. An economy hungry for nuclear energy and defence technology, signifying a sign of changing times and an indication of India’s willingness to look west. New Delhi’s growing clout as an economic powerhouse that needs to be befriended saw David Cameron, the British Prime Minister, US President Barack Obama, Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev all visit New Delhi in 2010. India is now too big to ignore, hence major world leaders beating a path to India’s door for both economic and strategic reasons. The significance of these visits is that the US is increasingly engaging with India and this challenges many of the traditional relationships tha...

Feb 2011 Neelam Mathews With the recent release of the Defence Procurement Procedures 2011 (DPP 2011) document, Defence Minister A.K. Antony reiterated that the intent of the revised policy was to expand India’s defence industrial base, encourage indigenous production and reduce imports. “The changes aim at simplification of procedures, speeding up procurement and enhanced benefits to the Indian defence industry. Keeping in view the strategic importance of the ship building sector… Our singular objective is to provide a level-playing field to the public sector units, shipyards and private sector, as well as promote indigenization”, Antony said. With over 65% of India’s defence equipment having been acquired from the former Soviet Union with no commitment to life cycle costs or offsets, over the years, efforts have been made to introduce a series of changes to the procurement policy framework with the main aim of including offsets and to give Indian industry a boos...

February 2011 Neelam Mathews Indian Air Force (IAF), the fourth largest in the world, is striving to match the pace of its modernization in step with India’s changing status in the global economic and security environment. With an escalating need for India to project force beyond its troubled borders, the challenge for the IAF is to augment its reach and maintain its technological qualitative edge. In parallel with this commitment to qualitative measures of air power, the IAF also remains wedded to quantitative measures of strength. The IAF wants both numbers and quality. Under implementation, the Long Term Integrated Perspective Plan (LTIPP) 2002-2017 seeks to acquire cutting edge technology, weapon systems and platforms. In a candid statement, Chief of Air Staff Air Chief Marshal P.V. Naik said: “50 percent of equipment - including fighters, transport aircraft and air defence weapons - was obsolete, making the pressure to procure at a faster pace, more imminent.” Lined up f...

Asian Airlines and Airports March 21,  2011 Neelam Mathews Even as India’s business and general aviation continues to grow by over 12% with signs of accelerated growth in future, there is a call by the Business Aviation Association of India to review the complex regulatory framework according to global norms. An in-depth study by think-tank Australian Center of Asia Pacific Aviation (CAPA) points out India has a total fleet of 681 as against 912 projected at different forums. The mix includes 236 single pistons, 250 helicopters, 91 turboprops and 104 business jets. Emerging multinational companies have a large, pent-up need for rapid and flexible transportation across and between continents. As economic growth continues to be the catalyst for aviation growth, a significant increase in individuals with high net worth who recognize time as a premium. More mid-size corporations are looking for alternatives to provide flexibility of travel schedules, Karan Singh, Vice Presiden...

Asian Airlines and Airports March 20,  2011 Neelam Mathews India’s new aviation minister is facing predictable problems as he aims to turn around troubled flag carrier Air India India’s new civil aviation minister Vayalar Ravi plans to start the turnaround plan of loss-making government-owned national carrier, Air India, by making employees a stakeholder and as an initial step, concluded extensive talks with all 14 of its labour unions. Ravi took charge in January as the new aviation minister, three years after Air India was merged with its erstwhile domestic arm Indian Airlines in a badly managed marriage and has since been slipping into losses with human resource integration emerging as its biggest challenge. Air India has 32,000 employees and another 10,000 on contract, the largest workforce employed by any Indian carrier, making per plane to employee ratio high and unproductive. A veteran Congress leader Ravi, 74, who himself rose in ranks from a union leader in the s...

March 17, 2011 Neelam Mathews NEW DELHI- As the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme (EU-ETS) deadline for 2012 approaches, UK companies are offering India products and services related to the trading of emission reduction credits  and investing in greenhouse gas abatement projects. As of 2012, all flights arriving at or departing from airports within the EU will be subject to the ETS. This means that by 2020 the CO 2 emissions of those flights are to be reduced by at least 20% of their 1990 levels. Airlines around the world are grappling to come to terms with this new challenge. “We are concerned about the ETS. This concern is felt not just by India but by the entire block of developing countries. We would like to be guided by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC )…” said Nasim Zaidi, Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation at the UK-India Aviation Meet held here. “We would like to be guided by a global approach of ICAO,” added Zaidi. H...

March 16, 2011 Siemens PLM (product lifecycle management) Software, a business unit of the Siemens Industry Automation Division, is accelerating its R& D programs in India. “Our R&D staff in Pune has more than doubled. We now have 1000 people working there.  We are also increasing the spread from maintenance projects to product development…..this is a paradigm shift,” says Raj Khoshoo, Vice President , Strategic Planning, Siemens PLM. Siemens PLM Software now has its largest center in India. “We are not here just for cost, but for resources and for long-term.We have moved up the value chain (significantly),” says Khoshoo. While in the past, Indian manufacturers had a captive market, the trend now is to think sustainability and consider PLM costs, he adds. The thawing of India-US relations is helping. The next major change for Siemens is to look at end-to-end (of product life cycle). The company is also viewing PLM solutions for homeland security and looking into de...