Tag Archives: Devesh Agarwal

Without a doubt, passengers of Air India had a harrowing time at London. Inside information seems to suggest that they airline’s precarious financial condition has played a role. While most Indian media outlets were on their usual high pitched drum-beating reporting, one might say rants, about the incident, I was thoroughly impressed with the quality of reporting by Ben Mutzabaugh …

In just a few minutes from now, Airbus S.A.S. will deliver to China Southern Airlines, the carrier’s first A30 super jumbo. You can watch live streaming video of the delivery ceremony here. In the mean time, enjoy these videos of the aircraft being built.

by Vinay Bhaskara On 12th October, Boeing finally delivered the first new generation Boeing 747-8F freighter to Cargolux, ending a three week dispute with the carrier over compensation for the aircraft. The aircraft bears registration number LC-VCB. Click on image for a high resolution view Cargolux was seeking additional compensation due to performance shortfalls of the 747-8F with regards to …

By Devesh Agarwal In this India overview podcast Vinay Bhaskara, Addison Schonland, and myself, cover: the announcement of Kingfisher Airlines to withdraw from the LCC segment and what could some of the reasons behind this announcement. The continued financial success of IndiGo as announced by their results The astounding initial success of the recently commenced Q400 turbo-prop service of SpiceJet. …

The operators of the Bengaluru International airport, M/s Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL) have commenced the expansion of Terminal 1. Outline of existing terminal indicates the scope of expansion.Click on image for high res. view. See the walk-through video here. BIAL has planned the expansion on both ends (east and west) of the existing terminal which are open spaces today, …

By Devesh Agarwal At Kingfisher Airline’s annual general meeting last week, Chairman Vijay Mallya announced a drastic change in strategy by the stoppage of the Kingfisher Red low cost service for a focus on the full service segment. Kingfisher Red Airbus A321 all economy cabin In response to the myriad of media articles, many of which speculated on the possible …

Thanks to kind friends at SpiceJet and Bombardier for your enjoyment. It is five days of holiday to celebrate the Ayudha Pooja and Dassera festival, and we extend all our supporters warmest holiday wishes.

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 …

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 …

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 …

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. …

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. …

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 …

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 …

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.

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 …

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 …

-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 …

On the eve of delivering the first Q400 NextGen turbo-prop passenger aircraft to Indian low cost carrier SpiceJet at Toronto Downsview airport, Bombardier gave a product briefing to the visiting journalists including Bangalore Aviation. The first two aircraft VT-SUA and VT-SUB which departed last Friday arrived at New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) just as I was boarding my …