Aerospace Diary

Neelam Mathews Feb 23, 2013 timescontent.com India's first budget airline Air Deccan made  its first flight in Aug 2003. It was no cake-walk for founder G.R Gopinath, who showed a similar grit asTony Fernandes- who already  two years into the business, had started shaking up everything that was previously sacrosanct.  Today, AirAsia is making making an entry into India and dare I say, we'll have our hats truly off to Fernandes if he manages to shake our moth-ridden system with fresh concepts.  Take the airports for instance. Many years ago, in an interview during Formula One in Bahrain with me, Tony called airports in India, "vultures." They still remain that and AirAsia is rather sagely keeping away from Mumbai and Delhi for the moment. Tony said during a press concall he hopes to convince them to relook at costs. At AerospaceDiary, we have our bubbly ready to cork if that happens! Tony also hopes that the five-year minima for Indian carriers to fly ...

Aviation Daily Apr 14 , 2010 , p. 16 Neelam Mathews A bird strike to a DHL Airbus A300 engine that experienced a blowout led to the temporary closure of Bahrain Airport. "There was oil and metal on the runway after the incident, and that took a while to clear,” an official told local media. A spokesman for DHL confirms that on April 10, an ACT Airlines A300-B4 cargo aircraft failed to take off from Bahrain Airport due to technical problems. “The crew are safe and there is no damage to the freight on board. ACT and DHL are cooperating with the Bahrain Civil Aviation Affairs investigation into the incident,” he said. "The A300-B4 freighter is a reliable aircraft with a good safety track record in cargo operations worldwide. ACT Airlines, our aircraft lease contractor, has a solid maintenance program and is certified under European regulations. ACT also holds an IATA IOSA Certificate that supports Organizational Safety Compliance and holds ISO 9001:2008 accreditation...