Monthly Archives: September 2011

Breaking: All Nippon Airways (ANA) pilots threaten strike

The pilots at All Nippon Airways (ANA) have threatened to strike on October 1st, 2011 (this Saturday). No international flights will be affected by this action, but numerous domestic flights may be cancelled and/or delayed. For passengers planning to fly ANA Group domestically (within Japan) on October 1st, the following are some contact numbers: ANA Reservations Center: 0570-029-222 (within Japan)ANA …

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Emirates to begin flights to Seattle; Dallas-Fort Worth

by Vinay Bhaskara Emirates, the world’s fastest growing airline, announced today an expansion of its North American network. Beginning February 2nd, 2012, Emirates will serve Dallas-Fort worth once daily nonstop from Dubai. On March 1st, 2012, they will also add daily flights to Seattle-Tacoma. Emirates flights to Dallas will be served with 266 seat Boeing 777-200LR aircraft. The aircraft are …

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Photos: Indian Navy’s first Boeing P-8I maritime aircraft completes first flight

The first of the Indian Navy’s eight P-8i long-range maritime reconnaissance and anti-submarine warfare aircraft, ordered on manufacturer Boeing back in January 2009, completed its first flight earlier this morning. IN320 took off from Renton Field at 12:02 PDT (00:32 IST) earlier today and landed 2 hours and 31 minutes later at Boeing Field in Seattle. During the flight, Boeing …

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Indian and global commercial aviation news briefing: September 28th

by Devesh Agarwal India top news SpiceJet passenger loads on Q400 flights exceeding expectations within a week of commencing serviceSources inside the airline have told Bangalore Aviation that the passenger load factors on their Q400 operations have smashed the airline’s expectations within the first week of travel itself. On almost all routes, the passenger load factors are exceeding the break-even …

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Dr. Mallya seeks to assure shareholders after media reports question Kingfisher financial viability

Over the last 15 days, Kingfisher Airlines has been savaged in the media (read articles here and here) based on a research report by analyst Neeraj Monga of Veritas Investment Research Corporation of Canada, which casts doubts on the airline’s viability. A report earlier today, in The Mint newspaper appears to be the straw that broke the camel’s back. The …

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Commercial Aviation News Briefing: September 26th

by Vinay Bhaskara India: Air India launches austerity drive Air India, in a move that defies its traditional profligacy, will be launching an austerity drive beginning October 1st. Rohit Nandan, Air India’s chairman, related in a memo that Air India will be enacting the following initiatives.Payments on reimbursements of entitlements and vouchers will be cut by 10%, in addition to …

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Delivery of first Boeing 787 Dreamliner to All Nippon Airways in a few hours time

Yes, it is three years late, but finally, the tires have been kicked, ANA’s team from the ground to the flight crews have checked out the plane, and the payment has been made. Boeing and launch operator All Nippon Airways (ANA), have signed the formal documents completing the contractual delivery of the first 787 Dreamliner ZA101, registration (tail) number JA801A. …

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Commercial Aviation News Briefing: September 23rd-25th

by Vinay Bhaskara Starting this week, we will be providing readers with an intelligence brief recapping the major commercial aviation news from India, and the rest of the world. India- Cathay Pacific and Jet Airways re-shuffle Delhi – Hong Kong Cathay Pacific and Jet Airways both announced major changes to their operations on the Delhi- Hong Kong sector for IATA’s …

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Buddha Air Beechcraft 1900D crashes. All 19 aboard feared dead.

A Beechcraft 1900D belonging to Kathmandu, Nepal based Buddha Air crashed while attempting to land, in dense fog, near the national capital Kathmandu earlier this morning. The plane with 16 passengers and three crew was on a flight from the capital to view Mount Everest and crashed on its return around Bisankunarayan village, just a few kilometres south of Kathmandu. …

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Trip Report: Lufthansa to Switzerland- Part 2

by Vinay Bhaskara Earlier this year, I took a trip to Switzerland on Lufthansa. The first part of this trip report was published during my time at FlyerTalk’s The Gate blog, so this part covers the return trip (a review of the lounges at both Zurich Kloten and Frankfurt will be published at a later date). As I mentioned in …

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Podcast: Air India’s 787 plight, Is Kingfisher bankrupt?, SpiceJet’s Q400 delivery experience

The team of Vinay Bhaskara, Addison Schonland and Devesh Agarwal bring you another edition of the India aviation review podcast. In this edition we feature the dilemma faced by a bankrupt Air India and its 27 787 Dreamliner order. There is no doubt that the airline needs a good mid-sized aircraft, but it is out of money. Is the national …

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Jet Airways takes delivery of India’s first Boeing 737 with new “Sky Interiors”

by Devesh Agarwal A little over two years ago, Boeing showed mock-ups of a new cabin interior for their 737NG series aircraft. The “Sky Interior” utilises inputs from the Boeing 777 and 787 Dreamliner to improve the passenger experience. (To see photos please ready this related story) Last week, Jet Airways took delivery of its newest Boeing 737-800 VT-JBU, and …

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Air India Express to launch domestic flights, enhance Kerala-Oman flight options

Air India Express, the low cost wing of India’s national airline Air India, has announced an expansion of its domestic network with two new routes, as well as expanded service from Kerala to Oman. The exact details of the changes and new flights are given below. Delhi-Kochi IX411- DEL: 0600 ~ COK: 0915 DailyIX412- COK: 2005 ~ DEL: 2320 Daily …

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Photos: Cockpit and cabin interior of SpiceJet Q400

Indian low fare carrier SpiceJet commenced the first Indian commercial operations of a Bombardier DH4 Q400 turbo-prop yesterday. Here are two pictures on the 78 seat interior of the aircraft and its state of the art “glass cockpit”. You will observe, that unlike other turbo-props, the Q400 features large overhead baggage compartments.

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Overview of Singapore Airlines’ and subsidiary SilkAir’s India operations

The world’s best airline, Singapore Airlines will be effecting a significant change in its scheduled operations at Mumbai starting from the Winter 2011 schedule which goes in to effect on October 30th. The carrier is also strengthening the operations of its regional subsidiary SilkAir across India. MumbaiCurrently the carrier operates double daily flights between the financial capital of India and …

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Financial analysis of JetLite’s Q1 fiscal 2011~12 results

This is the final carrier-specific financial analysis for Q1, covering JetLite. The overall market picture will be studied in a separate analysis. Previous Analyses: Jet Airways, Kingfisher, SpiceJet Despite the positive results shown by its parent carrier Jet Airways in the face of rising fuel costs, low fare carrier JetLite succumbed to domestic competitive pressures, posting relatively poor results in …

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TV Interview: Karan Thapar grills Praful Patel on the Air India C.A.G. report

Noted TV personality Karan Thapar grills former civil aviation minister Mr. Praful Patel in this interview on CNBC-TV18. Mr. Praful Patel is known to be a smooth operator. One might even call him the “Teflon Minister”. It is interesting to see Mr. Patel squirming, trying not to answer directly and trying to divert the what he wants to say, and …

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INFOGRAPHIC: Airline wise seat capacity offered at Bangalore

The nightly aircraft line-up tail parade at the apron of Kempegowda International Airport Bangalore

The below infographic shows the capacity offered, in seats per week, by each airline at Bangalore’s Bengaluru International Airport. Kingfisher with 65,724 seats, is still the market leader, but unlike earlier days, when the airline was considered based out of Bangalore, its lead over second place IndiGo, has shrunk significantly. IndiGo, the Gurgaon based low cost carrier is showing a …

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“There is no single low cost model for the world” – Q&A with Neil Mills, CEO, SpiceJet

-RyanAir considers its passengers as “self-loading freight”by Devesh Agarwal “While 80% is common, there is no single LCC model that is used across the world”. These were the thoughts expressed by SpiceJet’s Chief Executive Officer Neil Mills in a relaxed and free spirited conversation with Bangalore Aviation’s Devesh Agarwal, enroute to Niagara Falls immediately after taking delivery of the new …

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Photos: Lufthansa rolls out their first Boeing 747-8i. Delivery scheduled for Feb 13th

By Devesh Agarwal and Vinay Bhaskara Late on September 4th, 2011, the first Boeing 747-8 Intercontinental rolled out of a paint hangar near Boeing鈥檚 Everett Factory in Seattle in full Lufthansa colors. This first aircraft, which will be registered as D-ABYA, will undergo stringent ground tests ahead of planned initial test flights beginning in November. As per Boeing, this first …

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