Vedant Agarwal

A frequent flyer for both work and pleasure - Vedant has held elite status on many of the major alliances and airlines. Also an avid aviation photographer, his pictures have been published in and on the covers of many international publications.

BIAL to begin limited operations on new runway from 5 December

Bangalore airport will begin limited operations on the new south parallel runway (NSPR) from 5 December 2019. The runway will begin operations with a single cross taxiway in operation, a BIAL spokesperson told BangaloreAviation. “The South Runway will start with limited operations on December 5, 2019. Operations will commence with one of the two crossfield taxiways connected. The second taxiway …

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IndiGo’s soaring GTF engine problems

Indigo Airbus A320neo VT-ITC. Pratt & Whitney PurePower PW1127 Geared Turbo Fan engine. Copyrighted image. Re-use prohibited.

India’s aviation regulator, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has directed both Indigo and GoAir to replace at least one of the Pratt & Whitney PW1100G geared turbo-fan (GTF) engines on the A320neo aircraft within the next fifteen days. This comes after Indigo reported a series of incidents involving in-flight engine shutdowns (occurred on the 24th, 25th and 26th …

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IndiGo places order for 300 aircraft, including the A321XLR

Low-cost carrier IndiGo has placed a firm order for 300 A320neo family aircraft. The order comprises of the A320neo and A321neo both of which the carrier already operates and the new long-range A321XLR. The order is worth around $33 billion at current list prices and will bring Indigo’s total number of A320neo orders to 730. Interestingly, the announcement comes days …

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First picture of Vistara’s 787 in full livery. May be delivered earlier than expected.

In July of last year, Vistara (Tata-SIA) placed an order for six Boeing 787-9’s with an additional four options. These aircraft were scheduled for delivery in early 2020, which would have likely seen the airline launch long haul flights in the first half of 2020. However, it appears that the airline may now be getting its first aircraft earlier than …

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Video: KLM’s 100th Anniversary Film

A couple of days back, KLM celebrated its 100th anniversary. The airline is the oldest in the world still operating under its original name. KLM has released a celebratory ad to commemorate the milestone. The film is called “To More Memories Together,” and follows three generations of KLM crew. KLM said about the film: “The film tracks KLM’s evolution from …

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Airlines hogging bilateral rights as a means to delay competition

IndiGo first A320neo VT-ITC receives the traditional water cannon welcome from the IGI airport ARFF team

Indian airlines are in a rush to start international services – or so we are made to believe. BangaloreAviation recently reviewed the bilateral rights applied for against what airlines have started. Route choices clearly emerged although experts indicate that there’s a fair amount of posturing involved. That is, airlines will often ask for routes they know they will not fly …

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Protests shut down Hong Kong airport from 6PM

The protests in Hong Kong have been covered all over the news for the last few weeks. Today is the fourth day of what was originally supposed to be a three day airport protest. Till now the protests have generally not affected the city’s aviation, today however the protests have caused the shut down of Hong Kong International airport. Extremely …

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Lufthansa to begin Bangalore – Munich flights

Lufthansa A350-900. Image courtesy airline.

German flag carrier Lufthansa has announced that it will begin operating direct flights between Munich and Bangalore from 31 March 2020. The flight will be operated five times weekly by an Airbus A350-900. The airline already operates a daily flight to Bangalore from Frankfurt using the Boeing 747-8i.   On Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, the flight will take …

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Air France orders upto 120 A220’s. Will retire the A380

Air France has announced that it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Airbus for 60 A220-300 aircraft. The deal also includes an additional 30 options and 30 acquisition rights which could potentially see an order of 120 aircraft. The aircraft are planned to be delivered from September 2021 and will replace the airline’s existing A218 and A319 fleet …

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Ethiopian Airlines to begin flights to Bangalore

Ethiopian Airlines will begin operating flights from its base at Addis Ababa to Bangalore from 27 October 2019. The African carrier will operate the flight using a Boeing 737. Ethiopian already operates passenger flights to India with twice dailies to Mumbai on the Airbus A350 and to Delhi on the Boeing 767. The Bangalore flight will depart Addis Ababa at …

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Vistara to begin international flights to Singapore

Full service carrier Vistara (Tata-SIA) has announced that it will begin its first international routes to Singapore from Mumbai and New Delhi. The airline will operate a daily flight from Delhi and Mumbai starting 6 and 7 August 2019 respectively. Vistara will operate these flights with Boeing 737-800s in a two-class cabin configuration. Flights between Delhi (DEL) and Singapore (SIN) …

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What if Air India does not attract any buyers? What then?

Air India Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner line number 35 test registered N1015 (later became VT-ANH) at the India Aviation show, Hyderabad March 2012. Photo copyright Devesh Agarwal.

Military aviator and strategist John Boyd famously said, “If you want to understand something, take it to the extremes or examine its opposites.” Applied in the context of Air India, this becomes particularly interesting. That is, at a point of time where everyone seems to be convinced that the airline will be sold off, to understand the situation fully one …

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Airbus orders and deliveries – June 2019. Paris delivers an order boost.

Airbus closed the first half of 2019 by adding 145 orders to its order book in June. As expected the slew of orders from the Paris Air Show pushed the European manufacturers net orders for the year into the black, with a net positive of 88 aircraft. The Paris Air Show saw Airbus launch the A321XLR for which the manufacturer …

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Saudi Flyadeal backs out of 737 MAX order

Suadi Arabian low cost carrier Flyadeal is backing out of a provisional $5.9 billion order for 50 Boeing 737 MAX aircraft. The low cost subsidiary began of flag-carrier Sudia began operations in 2017 and currently operates an all Airbus fleet of A320s. In December 2018, the airline placed a provisional order for 30 firm orders and 20 options of the …

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Indigo hikes cancellation and change fees across the board

Indigo Airbus A320neo VT-ITK. Image copyright Vedant Agarwal.

In a surprise move, Indigo announced an increase in cancellation and change fees. These will be effective as of June 27th. The airline added that for domestic bookings, customers can make any changes or cancellations free of charge within 24 hours of booking, if booked at least 7 days before the travel dates. This is largely to comply with the …

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Mitsubishi to acquire CRJ program from Bombardier

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI), the parent company of Mitsubishi Aircraft Corporation has entered an agreement to acquire Bombardier’s Canadair Regional Jet program. The agreement will see Mitsubishi pay Bombardier $550 million USD and assume liabilities of approximately $200 million USD. Mitsubishi will accuire the Canadian manufacturer’s maintenance, support, refurbishment, marketing, and sales activities for the CRJ Series aircraft – which …

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PARIS 2019: KLM to purchase 35 Embraer E195-E2s

KLM Cityhopper has announced its intention to purchase 35 Embraer E195-E2 aircraft at the Paris Air Show today. The deal which will be finalised after the show will incude 15 firm orders and options for 20 more aircraft. Pieter Elbers, President & CEO, KLM “Embraer has been a key partner for KLM and Cityhopper over the past ten years. Our …

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PARIS 2019: Indigo Partners and American Airlines order A321XLRs

Airbus has announced two more orders for its new A321XLR. The first is from Indigo Partners for 50 aircraft. Indigo Partners is a American private equity fund focused on worldwide investments in air transportation. It has major ownership stakes in Frontier Airlines (U.S.A.), JetSMART (Chile), Volaris (Mexico) and Wizz Air (Hungary). The four carriers operate a fleet of 295 Airbus …

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PARIS 2019: Boeing gets 777F orders from China Airlines and Qatar

Boeing has announced two orders for 777 freighters at the Paris Air Show today. The first came from China Airlines in the form of six 777 Freighters. China Airlines will use the 777F to replace their existing 747 Freighters and to operate between their base in Taipei to North America and Europe. Hsieh Su-Chien, Chairman, China Airlines “Air cargo is …

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PARIS 2019: Mitsubishi announces first order for SpaceJet M100

Mitsubishi Aircraft Corporation has announced that it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for 15 Mitsubishi SpaceJet M100 aircraft with an unidentified prospective North American customer. The deliveries of the aircraft are expected to begin in 2024. Hisakazu Mizutani, President, Mitsubishi Aircraft “We are pleased to welcome a new airline to the SpaceJet program, We have received strong interest …

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