Aerospace Diary

Jane's Airport Review Neelam Mathews 14-Sep-2017 Budget carrier AirAsia is poised to become the first Malaysian airline to obtain operational certification from DCA  Malaysia  for Required Navigation Performance Authorization Required Approach (RNP AR APCH) flight paths. The Malaysian programme includes GE Aviation-designed, ICAO Doc 9905-compliant RNP AR APCH paths, which allow the AirAsia A320 fleet to fly precisely defined paths without relying on ground-based radio navigation signals. Kuching and ....Read more in Jane's Airports 

Neelam Mathews Feb 16, 2016 Faced with regulatory bottlenecks and high taxation, and a fledgling infrastructure, India’s aviation industry–having grown by 20 percent in 2015–is set to get a boost a new civil aviation policy. While the government has said it aims to provide a level playing-field to aviation-related sectors including airlines, airports,  MRO  organizations and  GA , systems and processes will need to be simplified and made transparent. This is believed to be one of the conclusions of the draft aviation policy that is expected to be released imminently. The policy recognizes an eco-system will be needed to handle a high-growth market that saw 70 million domestic tickets sold last year, with forecasts for 300 million by 2022 and 500 million by 2027. International ticketing is expected to touch 200 million by 2027 also. Thorny issues remain, however. The government has not decided on the 5/20 rule that disallows start-ups from flying in...

Neelam Mathews A lot of water has flown with speculations galore since the unfortunate crash of AirAsia A320-200 QZ8501, an airline with a decade-old accident-free record. However, it has stirred up long-standing issues that are unfortunately only raked up when attention is drawn by tragedies such as this. One such issue is the urgent need for tracking guidelines that seem to be caught in a quagmire of vacillation by world bodies responsible for aviation health. This nightmare has also exposed the insularity and arrogance of governments. Why, for instance, were SAR operations not started immediately once the plane went off the radar? Yes, the weather was bad and still is. As an aviation safety expert said,this attitude “is unpardonable.” Having faced the nightmare of MH370, one would have thought that as soon as contact was lost with the aircraft, there would be alarm bells ringing. Call it geo-politics or egos, everybody seemed to be waiting for the other to ask or offer hel...

SINGAPORE AIR SHOW  »  2014 by    NEELAM MATHEWS ATR’s EASA-approved training center in Singapore located at Seletar Airpark offers programs that include flight-crew type rating through recurrent training in an ATR 600 full-flight simulator that enables training for both ATR 44-600s and ATR 72-600s. February 12, 2014, 11:50 PM As demand for aviation in Asia Pacific continues to grow, so does the requirement for training. In addition, infrastructure in the region’s growing economies has not kept pace with expansion, creating colossal challenges for airlines–as confirmed by  Boeing’s Pilot  &  Technician Outlook  on Asia Pacific, which states that demand for pilots in the region will increase by 7 percent in the next two decades. The accelerating growth of  Asian budget carriers , with large fleet orders depleting the pool of trained pilots and maintenance engineers, is making many companies look ...

SINGAPORE AIR SHOW  »  2014 by    NEELAM MATHEWS Budget carrier IndiGo, an IATA member, is being courted by Qatar Airways to participate in a code-share agreement. February 8, 2014, 5:00 PM New relationships are changing the Asia Pacific’s airline landscape as it enters a new stage of maturity  with once-fierce opponents forming partnerships  for reciprocal gains. Overcapacity in fleet numbers has fueled competition and compelled budget carriers to look at cooperation initiatives despite the budget airline industry’s penchant to avoid complexity. The 47 budget carriers in the region–with 10 startups to be launched this year–have in hand more than 1,600 fleet orders, with around 1,000 aircraft already in their collective inventory. “There will be no turning back as the momentum that low-cost carriers have steadily built up in Asia over the last decade continues to gain steam,” said a 2014 report by the  CAPA ...

Neelam Mathews May 12, 2013 Branson spills coffee on Fernandes................pay back time! The ways to market an airline are getting innovative to the point of being funny, some would say, wierd. Since humor is not found as much in the domain of aviation - take this! Donning his famous beard  and sporting an AirAsia uniform, Sir Richard having lost a bet to Tony Fernandes 'served" as a flight attendant on an AirAsia flight to Kuala Lumpur from Perth International Airport early today. Credit-Getty Images Being poiltically incorrect, I was wondering how Rohit Nandan, Chairman of Air India would look donning an IndiGo uniform if he ever lost a bet to Aditya Ghosh! While there are mixed feelings on these antics, time somebody brought a smile to passengers. I can almost hear the opposition yelling on how this taints our culture. Guess we're cocky enough to think the other (countries) have none! Though personally I did feel the kissing competition on Scoo...

Neelam Mathews May 4, 2013 cr-hindubusinessline   Always one to call a spade a spade, we caught up with SpiceJet CEO Neil Mills at the launch of India Aviation 2014. Couldn't spot any other domestic airline CEO at the event. While Mills was very clear in saying there was no FDI planned "for now," he wasn't saying 'never.' Which leads us to believe, there's a pot boiling in the kitchen. Because, can it be a coincidence that there is sudden spurt in buying of the carrier's shares? Word has it that once media-shy Maran picks up 51%, announcements will be made. Who could be SpiceJet's partner? Qatar has denied they are interested- but then, Qatar also denied they were joining OneWorld alliance a day before the announcement. We, at AerospaceDiary, wonder how a budget-full-service alliance would work given the logistics including the FFP and the IATA membership issues. But then, the times they are a changing. ANA, that was said to be in talks ...

Neelam Mathews March 27, 2013  An industry person told me the other day, my blog posts had recently been covering a lot of AirAsia. For a person who believes in being fair, that came as a surprise. However, looking back, I must confess the person was right, I must clarify- this isn't because of any  agenda, but simply, because, like it or not, founder of AirAsia Tony Fernandes always manages to stand out bigger than life! By the looks of it, Indian aviation media will keep pretty busy in the time to come! As a member of the fourth estate, I welcome all  competitors in the airline business to scream your hearts out. A promise- your voice will be heard and noted!         Tony tweets-   The Apprentice. Crew who are going to be in the show .             All we can see is the face on the plane. Hell of a way of making a point!

Neelam Mathews April 25, 2013 Watch out India- we're headed your way soon , tweets the Asian Budget carrier Tsar  Tony Fernandes Tony Fernandes Tweets We're hiring soon... India here we come Look out for dates soon at this space...