Bangalore Aviation News, Reviews, Analysis and opinions of Indian Aviation

Earlier this week, Boeing released some of the confirmed design details for its re-engined 737 MAX narrow-body program. The new series of aircraft is expected to retain significant commonality with its predecessor, the Boeing 737NG program, however unlike Airbus’ competing A320neo re-engine program, there are tangible changes being made between the 737NG and 737MAX due to the increased engine diameter …

Yesterday the government announced a massive Rs. 30,000 Crore ($5 billion) bailout of national carrier Air India. The government has justified this this bailout to ostensibly protect the jobs of the over-bloated workforce of 30,000 employees at the airline. Simple maths effectively translates the infusion to Rs. 10 million per employee, a figure the average Indian cannot even hope to …

If you can get away from the self-promotion in this 9.5 minute video, it is an interesting fantasy on what flight could look like in the 2030~2050 time frame, and how technologies being developed today, military and civil, will play a part. In this 3.5 minute video the cabin of the concept plane. The one question that is asked in …

Image courtesy Lufthansa At the ITB show in Berlin, German carrier Lufthansa announced a new media campaign titled “nonstop you”. The new campaign attempts to build on the carrier’s strong reputation amongst business travellers and also targets leisure travellers more directly than before. Signifying a change in focus by airlines across the globe this year, the campaign focuses on the …

Continuing our weekly interactive post where we seek your views, this week we discuss Kingfisher Airlines. Whether due to his own poor planning and execution, or as some conspiracy theorists will have you believe, there is no doubt, in the case of Kingfisher Airlines, Dr. Vijay Mallya has been systematically pushed against the wall. Kingfisher Airlines is now a weight …

Last month Dubai based Emirates airline received the 1000th Boeing 777 to be built. The aircraft is registered A6-EGO and performed its delivery flight, from Everett to Dubai, on March 21, 2012. Since then the airline has sent this aircraft to many cities across the world, including the capital of India’s neighbour Bangladesh, Dhaka. Image generated courtesy GCMAP. The most …

2011 was a banner year for airlines and airports around the world, who reveled in the restored economic growth. And nowhere was that air travel growth more apparent than at Doha International Airport, which saw passenger traffic grow to an all time record of 18.1 million passengers, growth of 15.24% versus 2010. The graph below shows the five year trend …

The first Airbus A350XWB entered the final assembly line at Toulouse earlier this week. Enjoy the photos which are courtesy Airbus S.A.S. Have a great weekend.

Recently Airbus S.A.S. completed the final assembly of MSN (manufacturer’s serial number) 087 Thai Airway’s first A380 superjumbo. Here is a time lapse video showing the event. The national carrier is scheduled to receive delivery of the airline this year. Thai Airways will become the ninth customer worldwide to operate the behemoth, and is expected to deploy the A380 on …

British Airways is one of the world’s most recognisable airlines and at 93 years, one of the oldest. The radio call sign for British Airways is Speedbird, based on the stylised icon of the airline’s predecessors, Imperial Airways and BOAC, and probably best symbolised by Concorde. The airline has naturally relied upon and continues to rely on history and nostalgia …

Earlier this week, I got a chance to go planespotting at Newark (well technically I stood atop my car in an IKEA parking lot across the street from Newark’s runway) and I’d like to share some of the fruits of my trip. While I am nowhere near the level of photographer that Devesh or Vedant is, here are the cream …

British Airways has launched a special ‘Dove’ livery celebrating the upcoming London Olympic games of 2012. Nine Airbus A319’s will wear this new livery for the next one year. As part of our BA Great Britons programme, designer Pascal Anson was chosen to create a unique aircraft livery to celebrate London 2012. His beautiful design is based on a dove, …

In parliament, the Indian civil aviation minister Mr. Ajit Singh released the historical information on the passenger load factors and the on-time performance for domestic operations of Indian carriers for the last three years i.e. from January 2009 to December 2011. The annual average for each airline is given, as is the average for all airlines for a given year, …

Dear Readers, welcome to a new financial year. As you know, interactivity with you, our readers, is important to us, and we constantly ask for your thoughts and your views on our stories. Comments received are featured in EVERY page footer, and we are thankful for the contributions received. Deriving from my friend Brett Snyder The Cranky Flier, from today …

Dubai based Emirates airline is trying to evolve its brand from a travel / airline brand to a global lifestyle brand. The carrier set to launch a new global brand platform and direction, themed “Hello Tomorrow,” which positions the global airline as the enabler of global connectivity and meaningful experiences. Emirates has partnered with Strawberry Frog and will launch promotions …

Editor’s Note: This is a guest post via Ashwin Jadhav The FAA’s Next Gen project, which involves revamping of the nation’s air traffic system to accommodate the forecasted traffic growth, maintain high standards of safety and increase operational efficiency, uses the above mentioned forecasts as a baseline. The changes in the forecasts determine the urgency of the implementation phases for …

By Rishul Saraf and Vinay Bhaskara Jet’s international operation, which began in 2004 with a Chennai – Colombo flight, today has over a hundred flights daily, which generate nearly 60% of the airline’s total revenues. Jet’s system wide load factors stay around a healthy 80% mark, but their revenues are unable to match up with this, hence denying them of …

Rishul Saraf and Devesh Agarwal India’s largest domestic airline Jet Airways, has announced a unification of its two low cost brands JetLite and Jet Airways Konnect to be called JetKonnect from March 25, 2012. As per the airline, a “gradual rebranding” of the JetKonnect brand will commence on March 25, manifesting itself on letterheads, the JetKonnect website, boarding passes, tickets, …

When full service carrier Kingfisher Airlines enacted a latest round of route and capacity cuts last week, it represented simply the latest evidence that the carrier is headed for bankruptcy and is in a death spiral. Part of the drawdown involved the cancellation of almost all of Kingfisher’s international operations, which occurred after the airlines lessors began demanding the return …

To date, the only carrier to enter the new super-efficient Boeing 787 Dreamliner into service is Japan-based All Nippon Airways (ANA). However, numerous airlines have announced their planned operations for the Boeing 787 as follow: 1. ANA (already in service)2. Japan Airlines (already delivered; will enter service in March)3. Air India (already delivered; entry into service [EIS] TBD)4. Ethiopian Airlines …