Aerospace Diary

Neelam Mathews March 11, 2016 They say one should watch one's mouth even in good times.  A reader just reminded us how Mallya in his heydays would brag that one day all Blue Jet Airways tails would be Red. He was ofcourse referring to Jet succumbing to his all mighty power! All of a sudden there seems to be some logic in sayings like 'Don't put your cart before your horse!" Quint Ex Employees and Jet staffers too, I hear, are salivating in the fact that Mallya had to bow down to use Jet Airways First Class to flee. "How the mighty have fallen,' they snigger. "Today, the joke is on him," said our reader. One wonders, however,  if justice will really be served. As for us, we continue to empathize with the hundreds who lost their jobs.                            

AIN NEWS LIVE FROM AEROINDIA  »  2013 by    NEELAM MATHEWS February 7, 2013, 11:32 AM India lost 9 percent of its airline seat capacity as a result of Kingfisher suspending operations since October 1, 2012, when its 66-aircraft fleet was grounded, according to Dinesh Keskar, Boeing’s senior sales vice president for Asia Pacific and India. Speaking at the Aero India show in Bangalore this week, Keskar said that in the short term, with capacity still constrained, profit margins will improve for some airlines, but that some low-cost carriers may find themselves negatively impacted because traffic growth is slowing. “Supply and demand is [now] in balance and India is seeing steady growth,” he commented. Boeing says it still believes in its most recent Current Market Outlook, which sees Indian airlines needing 1,450 new airplanes valued at $175 billion over the next 20 years. Outstanding orders from the Indian market for Boeing include 21 787...

Jan 23, 2013 By- Yash Patel ( Mumbai-based Yash Patel is an analyst with a focus on airline finance, strategy and restructuring) The views published are of the writer alone and not of AerospaceDiary. Credit:20twentytwo ANALYSIS Jet Airways Jet Airways already has an existing codeshare agreement and extensive frequent flyer program/collaboration with Emirates Airlines and Etihad Airways. Jet Airways and Emirates recently announced renewal of their respective codeshare agreements. Jet Airways and Etihad Airways recently announced extension of their codeshare agreement on Abu Dhabi-Paris route. Brussels Airlines (Lufthansa has a stake of 45% with approval to further invest in the carrier) is Jet Airways’ existing European Codeshare partner at its scissor hub in Brussels. Both airlines are members of Star Alliance. Jet Airways has been granted additional flying rights to Europe, especially on the India-Frankfurt/Munich routes. E...

Neelam Mathews Jan 17, 2013 To ensure that Kingfisher continues its operations without being interrupted by demands and strikes for salaries it refuses to pay, AerospaceDiary learns that DGCA has asked the airliner to give it assurance that the staff will work without disruption before it gets its AOP. KFA has been asked to give this assurance (you could call it an NOC from employees!)  by Jan 28 to the DGCA. If it is unable to do this, it cannot fly in the summer either. A staffer AerospaceDiary spoke to says the mood is livid and it is highly unlikely employees will agree to anything until salaries are paid first.  Hardly a surprise as half of them will lose their jobs anyway given the restructuring plan of KFA includes just seven planes to start with! But with KFA, one never really knows whats cooking.. However, this must be a tough one for Kingfisher, used to having people work without salaries!  

Neelam Mathews Jan 10, 2012 Letter sent out to Kingfisher employees immediately after em ployees of  Kingfisher Airlines  (KFA) threatened to file a winding up petition against the company on its inability to pay them salaries. Our humble comments are in BLUE Subject: Update Dear Colleagues I would like to wish you all a happy new year and take this opportunity of sharing important information with you. It's  9 days since the year started! 1. Re-Start - we have submitted a detailed restart plan to the DGCA which is in two parts. The first part deals with a limited re-start utilising 7 aircraft ramping up to 21 aircraft in 4 months. The second part is a full scale rehabilitation of our Airline growing to 57 aircraft within 12 months of recapitalization. Both plans contain detailed information on key assumptions and funding requirements including payment of outstanding salaries to employees. This plan has omitted giving NOCs required, we hear. S...

Neelam Mathews Jan 4, 2012 The recently reported case of the Mumbai International Airport not permitting a lessor to take back its aircraft following non-payment of lease rentals by Kingfisher and DGCAs unwillingness/inability to deregister aircraft is not holding the country in good light. “India being a signatory to the Cape Town Convention, needs to sort out its issues and ensure its leased assets are moved out,” said Kapil Kaul, who heads CAPA in South Asia in an exclusive to AerospaceDiary today. DGCA needs to value the treaty they have signed, he adds. The idea of the treaty-we have covered from its inception years ago- was to iron out unclear areas. So with the Mumbai airport, for instance, wanting to holdback aircraft because it has not been paid by the airline is against the law, we learn. This is ofcourse not the only case pending. DGCA as the regulator needs to exercise its right to ensure the airport does not follow the rule of jungle. “This is a gr...

Neelam Mathews Dec 31, 2012 The saga continues. The last release issued by Kingfisher this year: Kingfisher Airlines applied for renewal of its License as a scheduled carrier. Subsequently, Kingfisher Airlines submitted a restart and rehabilitation Plan to the DGCA and also attended meetings to respond to queries. The plan itself clearly states that the funding required would be provided by The UB Group.The DGCA has asked for certain no objection letters which are in the process of being procured. Further, a few additional questions have been raised which will be answered to the regulators satisfaction. Despite the impending expiry of its License tonight, there is no cause for concern as the regulations permit License renewal within two years of expiry. Kingfisher Airlines is co tart plan, License approval and reinstatement of its AOP . nfident of securing approval from the DGCA on the  restart plan, License approval and reinstatement of its AOP.

Neelam Mathews Dec 17, 18, 2012 Even as the bad old 2012 nears an end, and Mr Mallya celebrates his birthday, followed by a new year bash and then the launch of the Kingfisher calendar, he has reason to celebrate-. “We will restart in a phased manner and will provide funding ourselves. We have not asked the Banks for any support. We have also shared a full recapitalization plan which will be further discussed with a small designated group of Bankers,” said a crisp statement from Kingfisher to Aerospace Diary this evening. No mention of how many aircraft- we hear it will be around 6 in “the first phase”. No mention of when they will take off- we suspect soon, since the carrier’s license expires end of this year. And though it is valid for 2 years after expiry, nobody will be in a hurry to renew it once it expires, we are told. No mention of how many staff will be retained. We hear they have not been informed. “Kingfisher is ready to infuse Rs 425 crore into the airline an...

Neelam Mathews Dec 12, 2012 Even as we posted a portion of the story released in an ME newspaper, we received a request from the corp com of UB group to post this letter of protest to the publication denying the quote attributed by the author of the piece.  A case of perhaps over-enthusiasm to see KFA flying again by the paper! As said earlier, Aerospace Diary could not confirm the news.  Though we do hear that due diligence by Etihad has been done thoroughly on Kingfisher. We are also hearing what a nightmare the airline will have in dealing with the cannabalized aircraft. For the sake of a gesture of fairness by our community, we thought it only fair that we publish the letter. Though we hope the publication that wrongly quoted him, will do too. A reminder to ourselves: Here goes the UB email to: The Correspondent Gulf News New Delhi, India Dear Ms. Madan: I am writing to protest a quote that has been wrongly and incorrectly attributed to me in...

Neelam Mathews Dec 11, 2012,     9.24pm There's a news snippet I just read in Gulf News that "Etihad Airways has entered into a $553 million (Rs30 billion, Dh2.06 billion) buyout of a 48 percent stake in debt-ridden Indian carrier Kingfisher Airlines (KFA), highly placed sources in Kingfisher confirmed on Tuesday"  AerospaceDiary could not confirm any of this. There are a few queries that come to mind- What happens to the Jet Airways-Etihad deal we are hearing about? Can the same foreign carrier invest in two Indian airlines? What will be the ramifications? What does the Competition Commission of India have to say on this? What will it do to domestic fares? Here's what the rest of the article says: Etihad will initially buy a 30 percent holding this month and a further 18 percent by next August, reads the news. However, the formal announcement for the same is likely to come on December 18, the 57th birthday of Kingfisher chairman Vijay Mallya. Acco...

Neelam Mathews in Kuala Lumpur Nov 8, 2012 AAPAs 56th Assembly of Presidents concentrates on its members primarily in the Asean region, But talk aviation with very senior people here, and the state of Indian aviation crops up as the primary subject of interest. It is embarrassing to hear tales of woe from lessors, insurance agents, OEMs and anybody who is a vendor about payments not being made primarily by Kingfisher and airports setting a bad example by not letting the claimed planes go. In case we didn't realize people didn't care, lets think again. The aviation community is so big, yet so small, somebody told me here. And how true that is! Everybody's fortune, seems to be intrinsically linked with each other. "People are scared of fuel prices, airport charges that go up and down and are waiting for the regulatory environment to pan out," said an official here on condition of anonymity. He did add that nothing much was expected to move till India's e...

By- SUBHASH CHANDRA AGRAWAL (Guinness Record Holder & RTI Activist) With curtains now finally lowered by authorities ordering suspension of air-licence for Kingfisher, Union government should take immediate steps to ensure recovery of public-funds including a debt of rupees seven thousand crores of public-sector banks before Vijay Mallya succeeds in his efforts to save his enormous property and assets in his other money-minting companies from recovery-proceedings of Kingfisher Airlines.  Passports of Vijay Mallya and his family-members should be impounded. System should be that such defaulters of public-money may not be allowed to remain in legislature with serious attempts made to make Vijay Malalya resign/sacked from membership of Parliament.   It is indeed surprising and shocking that such steps were not initiated by Union government till now despite families of staff of Kingfisher Airlines not being paid salary for last so many months leading to suicide ...

Neelam Mathews Oct 14, 2012 When Ernest Hemingway helped to make the phrase 'For Whom the Bells Toll," commonplace in his 1940-published book, he would never have envisaged how relevant it would be in the second decade of the 21st  century. Now, on the verge of extinction and with the impending shadow of arrest hovering over  Vijay Mallya and his top management, PTI reports, have now called for a meeting on Monday Oct 15, with engineers and pilots- labelled criminals not so long ago- to offer part payment of dues for two to three months (of the seven and a half months owed!).  What is it about this company that takes its staff so much for granted, the world is asking. It is apparent they just don't care anymore. Will the government now stop looking the other way? What use, we query, is an airline that is incapable of flying, not be let loose? Why not let another carrier with a solid business plan be allowed to start?  Why should Kingfisher...

“GHIAL had filed four cheque bounce cases against Kingfisher Airlines amounting  to Rs.10.50 crores. The cases were listed today for the airline to appear in the court. Since they failed to appear before the Magistrate, the court has ordered issuance of NBW against KFA, Mr Vijay Mallya  and four other KFA officials.  At this stage GHIAL would not like to comment more.” ---GHIAL Spokesperson.  

Neelam Mathews Oct 5, 2012 Viewing the ND TV Profit program on Kingfisher, about people not getting paid salaries and how it affects mental health,  I'm getting a painful banging in my head. It   has become very clear, as Capt Minoo Wadia said, "the minister does not understand what is aviation safety." This followed the mantri's remark on "it is the pilot's job to know....does he (pilot) not want to be safe himself?" I am afraid I have to disagree. How does a person who is depressed realise the state of his mind when he is not in a position to do so? Many years ago, I asked the then DGCA on whether health checks for pilots included mental health. I cannot forget his facial expression-it was as though I had dropped in from Mars. It was then that I realised we were in big trouble. "Safety is a major concern and if the minister can say, we haven't had a crash, this is a major concern," says  Wadia. "India's regulations ar...

Neelam Mathews Oct 4, 2012 As though making false promises and using unacceptable language towards people who finally spoke up after being denied salaries for 7 months, wasn’t enough, Kingfisher management, if it has a conscience left, should have sleepless nights following the suicide of an AME's wife in Delhi. We hear, the suicide note cited a worry that the family was running out of finances following stoppage of salaries by Kingfisher. Our heart and sympathy goes out to the family of the deceased and to the senior AME who had to bear this loss. While it doesn't come much as a surprise , we have yet to hear Kingfisher Chairman, in San Francisco at the moment, sending out a few words to the family. Kingfisher Airlines today extended its partial lockout by another three days till Sunday as talks failed. Now we wonder, could this be a permanent situation? It is time to take a cold, hard, rational view by Kingfisher, says CAPA. It outlines :  Total debt...

Neelam Mathews Oct 1, 2012 Civil aviation minister Ajit Singh said today that no Kingfisher flights can take off till DGCA certifies all  the aircraft are safe. He also said this was the "first time" the safety issue had come up with the carrier.  There is a lapse of memory here. This is  not  the first time engineers of the carrier have gone on strike. Infact in April this year, 200 engineers had given up their tools. Why wasn't it then a safety issue? While we are glad to hear the government is now facing reality and has asked Kingfisher to submit its financial report- recognizing finally that safety and finances have a direct link - hopefully it will acknowledge its error in judgement in an earlier announcement where the minister had clearly indicated that the audit on the airline's financial health sho uld be removed from the safety audit? We need some transparent thinking. Has this understanding come too late, one wonders. Now that the airline is ...

Neelam Mathews Oct 1, 2012 Just an update on my earlier post for those of our readers looking at travelling on Kingfisher. We hear all AMEs are on strike. Pilots too, have joined them. Mumbai airport terminal, where Kingfisher shares space with Air India,  is totally abandoned and wears a forlorn look. Even flights that had 75% load factors have been cancelled. As the management tries to rustle up engineers to operate some 14-15 flights, a staff member told us: “Nero fiddles while Rome burns......Mr Mallya is in France and the CEO is on vacation from Friday till Monday.” Source-Carnage and Culture

Neelam Mathews Oct 1, 2012 It is interesting to note that  after we published our blog on the mishandling of a manager at Mumbai airport by engineers not paid their salaries, the  PR division of Kingfisher woke up to the fact that the  " inconvenience that may be caused to our valued guests on account of this unprecedented action."  The press release of Kingfisher says: "   A section of employees of Kingfisher Airlines has not been reporting to work over the last fortnight and over the past 2 days, they have been threatening and even manhandling the other employees who are reporting to work as usual." So if they knew this was happening for two days, why did the airline not find the need to inform their "valued customers?"   "We are doing our best to minimize the impact of these anticipated disruptions," says the release. Really? Pray, tell us how. Now we're hearing the mantri (minister) talk of revoking Kingfisher's licen...