Aerospace Diary

Neelam Mathews March 9, 2013 At a recent IACC summit on March 6, a question I put to the DGCA, Arun Mishra  on what it would take to make Kingfisher Airlines fly again, had an immediate reply: “He (Vijay Mallya) must pay people their salaries.” Though it was essential he cleared his dues, he said. He added a postscipt: “However, KFA need not pay ALL the dues…” Which was news. AerospaceDiary learns that Sanjay Agarwal, CEO, KFA who was to have left the airline on Feb 28, and has now decided to stay on, when he met ministry officials on March 7, was assured KFA- anxious to start operations- could apply for its NSOP next week. However, how the recent decision by the Supreme Court dismissing the TDS appeal, will affect this decision has to be seen. AerospaceDiary could not confirm any of the above and sources were unwilling to be quoted. We also hear KFA is getting NOCs from airports, oil companies and banks to enable it to fly again. However, Mallya's ACJ remains grounded...

Neelam Mathews Sept 19, 2011 Smaller airports that can develop through the Public Private Partnership model will be the next phase of growth in Indian airports, was the conclusion at the IACC meet on aviation in New Delhi. “Though aviation business is not making money, airports are progressive regimes for development,” said Atul Sharma, Regional President, Indian American Chamber of Commerce. “We were caught napping in the first phase of aviation growth with no infrastructure in place. We don’t want that to happen again,” said V.P Agrawal, Chairman Airports Authority of India. Agrawal said 85 airports were active in India and 15 were dormant. While AAI is investing $3 billion in the 12 th Plan (2012-2017) , the rest will be tapped from the private sector. AAI will seek the government's clearance for its proposal to issue $1.1 billion worth of infrastructure bonds to develop the 15 airports in the next five years. “We are looking at more airports for Tier 2 and 3 cities to “...