Aerospace Diary

Neelam Mathews Oct 31, 2015 All that fanfare about the draft aviation policy (watch this space!) and how the aam admi is going to fly etc etc and news coming in that pax will have to pay a UDF at Hyderabad of Re 485 on domestic tickets and Re 2000 on international! Really Mr AERA/ MOCA! So much for capping of fares-lets have a standardization in your thinking. By the way, as prices squeeze us the middle class, banish any thoughts of that hoped for year-end travel. Domestic fares as a result will go up on an average of 25% between Bangalore and Hyderabad and 10% between Hyd and Delhi. As for Hyd- international destinations, expect an increase of atleast 40%! Happy New Year.

Neelam Mathews June 24, 2014 There are so many woes domestic airlines are facing that one never hears of, that are often sniffed away. They range from something as basic as two aerobridges in Indore festering for 6 months for boarding that havent been fixed, to common terminal charges at airports, which some have referred to as "match fixing by the airports authority," (not our view!) . Do we really need aerobridges (Indore) for two flights a day?," AerospaceDiary is asked. Logic says no, but economic logic says something else, we guess. The query: "Why not create facilities where they are needed, instead of the other way around,?" makes sense again. One hopes presentations made to the PM recently took major issues in account. A case in point deeply resented by most airlines is that of Bangalore airport. "You increase  UDF, landing charges by 64% and then offer a discount of 25% on non-peak flights, still an increase of 40%," moans an operator...

  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 April 25, 2012 One man's food is another's poison. Even as Delhi International Airport Ltd (DIAL) welcomed the revision in aeronautical charges promulgated by AERA, IATA cried foul. The revised tariffs will be charged in the form of an enhanced Landing and Parking fee for aircraft and a User Development Fee (UDF) for passengers and will be applicable from May 15. “The increase approved by AERA is extremely disappointing.  This will make Delhi the world’s most expensive airport.  It will also have a larger impact on India and its economy, with an expected 5-8% decrease in demand at Delhi as a result of higher costs, a fall in tourist arrivals and further damage to local and international airline connectivity. This is a big step backwards for Delhi’s ambition to be an aviation hub,” says Albert Tjoeng, IATA’s spokesman for Asia Pacific. However DIAL has another point of view. It says considering that the charges were stagnant for the last decade (since 2001), “th...