Aerospace Diary

12th May 2017 - 12:01 by  Neelam Mathews  in Chennai  India's porous 7,500km coastline is dotted with fishing harbours, and because these are often adjacent to major ports, an incident could have severe security ramifications. Further, a host of agencies responsible for security, including Customs, the  Central Industrial Security Force  (CISF), .....Read more on Shephardmedia.com

Neelam Mathews July 31, 2013 As media reports indicate, we hear there is frentic activity in SpiceJet's head office in Chennai to wind up a deal.  We are also hearing there is a private equity or a venture capital firm looking at a minority stake in the airline. Whether it is on behalf of an airline, is not clear. An analyst recently told AerospaceDiary that the carrier was even ready to sell out. Tough times when everybody is bleeding, some more than the others. Today the Rupee hit 61 to a dollar- an indication that interest by foreigners with deep pockets willing to look at the sector long term, might just see cash registers ringing as they expect to get good deals. Suitors for SpiceJet in the past (maybe future!) could be Hainan Airlines that was interested over a year ago, RAK Airways, a cash cow- not sure about its connection with Etihad and Turkish Airlines that has an eye to become a hub connecting the east to the west.

  Neelam Mathews  April 22, 2013 Complications don’t go away in India- more so for late entrants like AirAsia India, likely to be faced by a flood of pain points. Tony Fernandes has time and again declared Chennai as its hub, but at AerospaceDiary, we won’t be surprised if this decision may need to be re-looked. Little wonder, the carrier has not approached the authorities for an NOC as yet. As they say, never forget to look over your shoulder- there might be a competitor lurking there. In Chennai, where SpiceJet is safely enconsed with night parking for its six 737s and 4 Q400s using seven gates for their early morning flights and Indigo with five aircraft parked, possibly using the other two, and just 24 takeoffs and landings an hour, one wonders how the Asian giant will tap its early morning flight requirement with limited runway slots. Horror stories are aplenty about the new large terminal referred to by an operator, as a “white elephant”, not helpful to a ...

Neelam Mathews March 21, 2013 GeoPolitics- thy name is bedlam. Even as tourism had picked up between the two neighbors, SriLankan airlines announced today it has decided to reduce its frequency of flights to Chennai from 28 to 14 per week, effective from today. Was it coincidence that the news followed India’s vote against SriLanka at the UNHRC, one will never know. SriLankan Airlines said it “has observed a drop in traffic between Chennai and Colombo due to recent developments in Tamil Nadu, hence it was decided to reduce its frequency of flights….Revised schedule involves two daily flights, departing Colombo in the morning and evening, to facilitate the passengers who board their flights to Middle East and far eastern destinations from Chennai. Flights to other Indian destinations will be operated uninterrupted. SriLankan Airlines is closely observing the situation and will take further action if necessary.” Interesting, the carrier is tapping India’s traffic to the Mi...

Neelam Mathews March 1, 2013 So, for those of us who thought or didn't, that AirAsia would come and takeover the budget seat business in India, here's some news. IndiGo has launched 8 new flights on its domestic network including its fifth daily and direct flight between Delhi and Chennai, AirAsia's hub. It now has a second direct daily between Delhi and Kochi.  Additionally, 6E will operate its fourth daily and direct flight between Mumbai and Chennai. Few guesses why Chennai is so important to its agenda. And while AirAsia has already said Delhi and Mumbai airports are too expensive for its business model for the moment and will stick to sectors from Chennai that do not connect to these two metros, one feels IndiGo is thinking a step ahead. The question is how long can these two city pairs not be part of a scheduled carrier's business model. We're waiting........!   IndiGo n ew flight schedules  Flight Origin Destination Departure Arriva...

Neelam Mathews Dec 24, 2012 Oman Air is likely to increase frequency of flights to India in 2013 following the air transport bilateral services MoU signed in Nov, Aerospace Diary learns. The MoU provides for an increase the number of flights between the Sultanate and India as the national carriers of both countries will operate weekly flights towards a total of 16,016 seats a week.This is up from the previous 11,550. Oman will divide these seats into 14 weekly flights to Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Chennai, 7 weekly flights to Bangalore, Calicut, Jaipur, Kochi, Trivandrum and Lucknow, in addition to six weekly flights to Goa. From Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Chennai, Oman Air currently operates two flights a day or 14 weekly flights to Mumbai alone, while seven weekly flights operate on the remaining routes. And on the Bengaluru, Calicut, Jaipur, Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram and Lucknow routes, the airline operates seven flights a week to all except Bengaluru and Jaipur,...

Neelam Mathews,  Nov 18, 2012                                                                                                                                    Starting Dec 2, Cathay Pacific Airways will launch a new weekly freighter service to Colombo in Sri Lanka (subject to government approval). The new service will expand Cathay Pacific’s cargo presence in the South Asia region and give shippers in Sri Lanka greater choice and flexibility for connecting to the airline’s international cargo network through the Hong Kong hub. The Colombo freighter service will be operated on a Hong Kong-Chennai-Colombo-Hong Kong routing every Sunday using one...

Neelam Mathews Nov 15, 2012 Even as an Airbus ACJ319 with the fuel-saving Sharklet option has been ordered by a Chinese customer, in the first deal for this version from the country, Maldivian Airlines, the national carrier of the Maldives has become a new operator of Airbus single aisle aircraft, following the first commercial flight of an A320 on the inaugural flight from Male to Chennai.  The aircraft, operated under a leasing agreement, is the first A320 Maldivian will fly to destinations in the Indian sub-continent. “This signifies the increasing expansion of Maldivian in the region,” commented Abdul Haris, Managing Director of Maldivian. “We will start our A320 operations with direct flights to Mumbai, Chennai and Dhaka, much-anticipated routes for our customers.” 

Neelam Mathews Oct 31, 2012 Jet Airways may soon be moving its international operations to Munich, Aerospace Diary learns. While  Brussels Airport was geared to handle 6 Jet flights a day with seamless activity, the carrier's expansion plans for adding more flights connecting Bangalore, Hyderabad and perhaps Chicago and Washington DC, will make the terminal small for handling the six existing plus four proposed flights, it is learnt. We hear that most of the senior managers have not been informed about the change. Since Munich is a busy airport, Jet will face considerable competition there as Brussels was a virtual monopoly. For example, Chennai-Brussels-JFK will now be MAA-MRU-JFK. "Now Jet cannot use 332s. Compare that to Lufthansa's 380... which will at a lower cost...Hence they should add capacity to BRU," an analyst says. "They (Jet)  should have connected to further points long ago..... Since 2007 they have been operating the same flights...

Neelam Mathews Sept 28, 2012 Starting Nov 15, Maldivian, the national carrier of the Maldives, will launch direct services from Mumbai, Chennai and Dhaka to Male. To cater to the new direct routes, Maldivian will be adding a 154-seat Airbus 320 aircraft to its fleet by October 2012. Presently, the fleet consists of 2 Dash8-200 series aircraft (37 seats) and 3 Dash8-300 series aircraft (50 seats). Abdul Harris, Managing Director, Maldivian, said. "We are entering new passenger markets where we see a need for more air services, particularly where such markets are under served and in need for extra capacity", he said. Maldivian, which has only been in operation for 12 years, began its operations to Trivandrum, India in January 2007. Maldivian already works in partnership with a number of key resorts in the country such as Island Hideaway at Dhonakulhi, J Resorts Alidhoo, Waldorf Astoria Maldives, Six Senses Laamu, Park Hyatt Maldives, Robinson Club Maldives, Jum...

Neelam Mathews Sept 15, 2012 Air India opened its reservations on Sept 14 for its Boeing 787 service. Initially the Dreamliner will operate Delhi – Chennai and Delhi – Bangalore, 1 daily each, starting Sept 19. Reservation for the Boeing 787 service is currently scheduled until Oct 27. Planned Boeing 787 operation remains subject to change.   Delhi – Chennai   eff 19SEP12  AI439/440 AI439 DEL0700 – 0940MAA 788 D AI430 MAA1045 – 1325DEL 788 D Delhi – Bangalore   eff 19SEP12  AI403/404 AI403 DEL1630 – 1910BLR 788 D AI404 BLR2010 – 2245DEL 788 D

Posted by- Neelam Mathews August 5, 2012 Only in India! Non-payment of bills makes for strange bedfellows! A wire news says Authority of India has refused to allow some lessors to retrieve around six aircraft leased out to Kingfisher Airlines parked at Chennai airport. KFA owes AAI around 300 crores for landing and parking fees, sources say. One of the lessors has sent a legal notice to AAI for not passing the release order. AAI's contention is that it can not let the aircraft go, as it too has to recover dues of about Rs 300 crore on account of landing and parking fees from the near-bankrupt KFA. An AAI spokesperson  is believed to have confirmed the development. The airline, which has not paid salaries to its employees for the past six months has been defaulting on payments to most vendors it deals with. "This is absolutely normal. I am not surprised, lessor will have to pay airport fees to retrieve the aircraft," says a Mumbai-based analyst.

  Posted by- Neelam Mathews’ Jan 29, 2012 A high level delegation led by Admiral Hisayasu Suzuki, the Commandant, Japan Coast Guard (JCG), is visiting India from 26-30 Jan 2012, for the 11 th High Level Meeting and Combined Exercises, with the Indian Coast Guard. “The visit, was in pursuance of the Memorandum of Cooperation, signed between the two Coast Guards on 24 November 2006, which stipulates that the heads of the two organizations meet alternately in India and Japan, to discuss maritime issues of mutual concerns and formulate a cooperative approach to address these”, says a statement. The Memorandum of Cooperation between the two Coast Guards encompasses issues of maritime search and rescue, combating marine pollution, technical assistance for responding to natural disasters and exchange of information regarding crimes at sea, including smuggling and illicit trafficking. The first ICG-JCG combined exercises were carried out in November 2000 off Chennai, in which one JCG...

Neelam Mathews   Dec 28, 2011 Sri Lankan Airlines has added more capacity in India from 64 to 77 flights after 23 December. The carrier added two additional flights to Muscat from December 23. Flights to Chennai increased to four frequencies a day from December 23 bringing the city’s total frequencies to 28 a week. The four daily frequencies to Chennai is the airline’s highest frequency to any destination, except Male, to which the airline operates an average of six frequencies a day. Some of these flights are direct operations from Europe and Tokyo and connect to Colombo via Male. The airline operates it’s A320 and A330 fleet on this sector and caters to a mix of passengers from leisure travelers to business travellers and students from Colombo to through traffic (connecting passengers) from the Far East and Europe . “We are developing Colombo into a hub for the South Asian Region and it is vitally important that we provide the best service for our connecting passengers ...