On the eve of the Singapore F1 grand prix, Tony Fernandes promoted Malaysian low cost carrier AirAsia unveiled a re-painted Airbus A320-216 from its fleet in the livery of Formula 1 Team Lotus of which Dr. Fernandes is also the principal. Click on the image for a high-resolution view. The aircraft registration 9M-AFY has been flying since early August, and …

In a bid to try and wrest back some of the traffic being lost to foreign carriers, India’s national carrier Air India will introduce a daily hub and spoke flight from the southern Indian cities of Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Kochi to Delhi with effect from October 31, 2010, to connect its non-stop north America flights to New York, Chicago, …

At an industry gathering in India’s capital New Delhi, IATA’s Director General and CEO Giovanni Bisignani advocated what most aviation analysts in India have been saying all along — there is a desperate need for a comprehensive approach in Indian aviation, with a common vision by all involved. While most would latch on the the chest-thumping statement of Bisignani “If …

Airbus has unveiled a new corporate logo, the first update since the company’s creation in 1969. The new logo retains the original ball-shaped symbol, while incorporating the modernised typeface adopted by the company’s EADS corporate parent. The ball-shaped logo is composed of two sets of three curved lines that join at an imaginary horizon line, which represents the unification of …

You might wonder why I have moved from the sky to the earth, but HO scale model rail-roads have been a passion for me ever since my grand-uncle bought me a Marklin set way back in 1971. Today my sets include Fleischmann, Rocco, and Rivarossi, but I still maintain the all metal coaches (today all coaches are made in plastic) …

Mumbai based Jet Airways is moving operations of 63 domestic flights from its low fare Jet Konnect service to its full service operation under Jet Airways. Some of the sectors which will see this change are :Delhi-Pune, Delhi-Bangalore, Delhi-Chennai, Delhi-Kolkata, Delhi-Hyderabad, Mumbai-Ahmedabad, Mumbai-Pune, Mumbai-Chennai, Mumbai-Kolkata, Mumbai-Mangalore, Mumbai-Hyderabad, and Mumbai-Kochi. During the height of the economic slowdown in 2009, Jet Airways …

Liveleak has a video of a Delta Airlines Boeing 747-400 (inherited from Northwest) crashing and pushing a tow tractor at New York’s John F. Kennedy airport instead of the other way around. The jarring incident (pun intended) seems to have occurred on August 14th. The video appears to be from a surveillance camera. As the plane pulls up to its …

Every month passengers are bombarded with statistics by various airlines in India. Best on-time performance, largest market share, most preferred airline …… the list is endless. Mathematical logic would dictate that an airline with the largest fleet of aircraft will have also have the largest share of the market, but an analysis of the passenger market share vs. the fleet …

As I was coming towards the terminal at Bengaluru International Airport, VT-JGA a Boeing 737-800 of the low cost service Jet Airways Konnect was pulling in to its parking bay. I managed to grab a picture while in the background another Boeing 737 of its low cost sibling, JetLite takes-off from runway 27.

Changi airport recently unveiled Singapore’s tallest slide standing at 12 metres (40 feet, 4 storeys) tall, at its Terminal 3. The Slide@T3 is also the world’s tallest slide in an airport. Changi airport is known for its “ridiculously amazing” activities to indulge transit passengers. The slide joins a movie theatre, a butterfly garden and other nature trails, a Balinese themed …

Indian low fare carrier SpiceJet has announced commencement of its long awaited international operations by opening bookings for its Delhi Kathmandu and Chennai Colombo services. SpiceJet will fly its 189 seat all economy Boeing 737-800 aircraft on these routes. The Delhi Kathmandu flight will be a six times a week service commencing on October 7th. The schedule is SG031 departs …

About two months ago, I flew AirAsia, rather Thai AirAsia for the first time. I could help but compare their services with those of Indian low fare carriers IndiGo and SpiceJet. There is a marked difference between AirAsia and the Indians. In some cases the Indians can learn, and some where AirAsia can learn. In the air, the crew friendliness …

Bandhs are the bane of Indian politics. Forcing entire states to shut-down it is a drag on the Indian economy. Nowhere is the effect of a bandh stronger than the communist stronghold of the state of West Bengal and its capital Kolkata (IATA: CCU). A 24 hour bandh has been called for starting 06:00 September 7th, and ending September 8th. …

The General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has released preliminary information on the crash of UPS Airlines Boeing 747-400F freighter registration N571UP at Dubai on September 3, 2010. In parallel UPS has released a statement identifying the two crew who perished in this crash. GCAA Announces the Preliminary Report on the ACCIDENT INVOLVING UPS6 Boeing …

News reports are coming in of a UPS Boeing 747-400 Freighter registration N571UP crashing at Dubai. UPS flight 5X-6 from Dubai, United Arab Emirates to Cologne, Germany crashed at Dubai around 20:00 local (16:00Z). The company has released a statement (read below the fold). As per Avherald, A UPS Boeing 747-400, registration N571UP, was on approach to Dubai’s runway 30L, …

What a great way to end the week. NASA has moved about 180 images on to its new Commons page. They’re arranged in three photo sets, including “Building NASA,” “Launch/Takeoff,” and “NASA Center Namesakes.” NASA has also displayed many of its historic photos on the Internet Archive. Some of the gems are re-produced here. All photos, titles, and captions are …

Today on the day of Janmashthami celebrating the birthday of Lord Krishna, the post is very tongue in cheek, much in the spirit of lord Krishna, who was known for his mischief, practical jokes and innuendos, and being written from the home city of Jet Airways, Mumbai. The zeal of celebration in Mumbai is uniquely demonstrated by teams of youths …

Dr. Vijay Mallya promoted Kingfisher Airlines released this statement today. The conversion between Indian Rupees and US Dollar at a rate of Rs.47:$1 has been added by us in italics. The Board of Kingfisher Airlines Limited, at its meeting held today, approved, subject to shareholders approval, an increase in the authorised Equity Share Capital from Rs. 900 crores [approx $192 …

German carrier Lufthansa took delivery of its third Airbus A380 D-AIMC MSN044 last week. The Lufthansa “Lady Bee” is named Peking the German name for Beijing. Lufthansa will commence A380 services to the Chinese capital from Frankfurt tomorrow, September 1, 2010.

As per a release by the Press Information Bureau, Govt. of India, following is the full text of the Statement by Shri Praful Patel, Minister of Civil Aviation in the Rajya Sabha on August 3rd, in response to the Calling Attention Motion tabled by Shri P. Rajeeve, MP, Rajya Sabha regarding “Serious safety problems faced by airline industry in the …