Aerospace Diary

April 2, 2012 Neelam Mathews This emotional appeal went out to all Kingfisher staff for whom the fifth month without pay has started. Aerospace Diary recently learnt of a heart rendering story of a family suffering as a result of their only earning member with ailing Kingfisher who had to resort to getting financial help from a temple! There is a lot of scepticism amongst the employees- once bitten twice shy- whether they will actually get the promised amount. Even competitive carriers that were absorbing KFA staff with starting bonuses are putting a stop to it as they await the final bell to get employees at the lowest salaries possible.  Dear Colleague Further to my earlier mail and media statement, I am pleased to advise you that the formalities of un-freezing our bank accounts was completed yesterday following our payment of Rs 44 crores to the Income Tax and Rs 20 crores to the Service Tax authorities before March 31st. My only focus now is to start paying your s...

Neelam Mathews March 27, 2012 For those from the generation that have heard the song “There’s a hole in the bucket dear Liza……,” might find a comparison to Kingfisher’s latest press release on its summer schedule “holding plan” that promises “schedule integrity”. Words like FDI, recapitalization, connectivity, reliability, as far as this carrier is concerned, are starting to sound unreliable and repetitive, if I may say so. and they are not leading anywhere. For those upbeat that the carrier has paid its IT TDS dues of Rs 44 crores –please note, as Aerospace Diary learns, was a result of IATA returning the security deposit it so unceremoniously clamped down on it.   This ofcourse saved a lot of inconvenience to top management who could be caught in a situation without bail. Now with no international operations left, suspect it wouldn’t make much sense for IATA to be associated with this airline. The issue now, is starting April 7, with nine crores to be paid every week, the m...

Posted by- Neelam Mathews in Brussels July 3, 2011 The 13 th annual SITA/Airline Business Airline IT Trends Survey says airlines carrying 57% of the world’s passenger traffic have reported a real increase in IT and Telecommunications (IT&T) expenditure and are ready to spend big on passenger mobile services and other transformative technology. The Airline IT Trends Survey is an independent poll of senior IT personnel working within the top 200 passenger carriers. Launching the 2011 Airline IT Trends Survey today, Paul Coby, Chair of the Board, SITA, said: “I see IT spend as the barometer of overall air transport industry confidence. Passenger numbers and revenues are picking up, so we are seeing airlines focus precious investment funds on the areas that really make a strategic difference – like IT. “The air transport industry has been quick to capitalize on the mobile computing evolution which started three years ago with the arrival of the first 3G-enabled smartphones. The nu...