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 ...

Neelam Mathews Dec 16, 2012 Even as a financial newspaper reports that Captain GR Gopinath’s Deccan Charters is facing a severe financial crisis, the father of the former aaam admi airline, Air Deccan, told Headlines Today he is set to launch an airline soon. Gopinath’s five-year non-compete clause with Mallya ends on January 28, 2013. With Jet talking to Etihad, it will be interesting to see how the dynamics of India’s aviation scene will change. Friends no more!               Credit-Outlook    Given the aviation minister’s hint that the FDI would be more relevant to present scheduled carriers, Gopi might be once again having to face an antiquated, insular and anti- proactive regulatory environment. Ofcourse, the present economic crisis won’t help either.”My aim is not to kill Jet Airways (or any other airline) he said at the interview. “The future of India is in small towns…” Hopefully, the government will take cog...