Tag Archives: Devesh Agarwal

‘Painted Skies News’ – special aircraft liveries – Mar 13

by Devesh Agarwal This fortnight’s edition of news on special liveries from Karsten Heiligtag. *cs = colour scheme A320-214     4083     A9C-AD     Gulf Airat DXB 08/02/13 in special cs now with “2013 Formular 1 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix” titles, ex “2012 Formular 1 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix”http://www.airliners.net/photo/Gulf-Air/Airbus-A320-214/2230244/L/&sid=f2c9586395112746123c9cd54e781f18 A340-642     933     A6-EHJ     Etihad Airways (special “F1 Formula 1” cs)seen at MEL …

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Video: Changing a Boeing 737 CFM56 engine at Southwest Airlines

by Devesh Agarwal A CGI rendition of the Southwest Boeing 737 MAX Without a doubt, an aircraft’s engines are one of the most complex parts on an aircraft. After the airframe, the engines are the most expensive item an airline buys, and normally an airline signs separate contracts for the airframe and the engines. With thousands of rotating parts, and …

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First production Airbus A400M transporter makes its maiden flight

The first production Airbus Military A400M airlifter has made its maiden flight, marking a key milestone towards its delivery to the French Air Force. The aircraft, MSN7, took off from Seville, Spain, at 11:48 local time (10:48Z) and landed back in Seville 5 hours and 42 minutes later. Experimental Test Pilot Hugues Van Der Stichel, captained the flight.

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Video: British Airways In-Flight Entertainment for March 2013

I may not give British Airways high marks for its customer service, but hats off to the airline on the information it provides its passengers. As per the infographic we posted yesterday, over 41% of passengers will spend their time watching a movie during their flight. This is the highest percentage of in-flight entertainment (IFE) activity. British Airways has put …

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Video: Vintage collection of Concorde first flights and construction

by Devesh Agarwal Over the weekend, 2nd March to be specific, was the 44th Anniversary of the maiden flight of Aérospatiale-BAC Concorde 001 back in 1969. Concorde entered service in 1976, and flew the elite of the world, till British Airways and Air France, ceased service on October 24, 2003. Construction of the first prototype began in February 1965. Built …

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Jet Airways to upgrades Delhi-Brussels-Toronto to Airbus A330-300

Mumbai based, Jet Airways, has upgraded its Delhi Toronto via Brussels route to be operated by their brand new Airbus A330-300 (A333). The route was previously operated by A330-200’s. The A330-300 will increase seating capacity from 18 in business class and 236 in economy to to 34 in Business and 259 in Economy. The economy class passengers will get some …

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Video: Etihad’s new TV commercial

by Devesh Agarwal Abu Dhabi based Etihad Airways is releasing a new TV commercial (TVC) across the world in the next few days. Created by M&C Saatchi, the TVC will be released in the UAE on March 3rd, and then across Australia, China, Germany, India, Japan, UK, USA, and Nigeria the next day. The commercial which has been produced by …

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Thai Smile to commence direct Phuket flights from Mumbai and New Delhi

by Devesh Agarwal Thai Airways subsidiary, Thai Smile will commence direct flights from the island holiday destination of Phuket to Mumbai and New Delhi. Each city will be served twice a week. Mumbai flights will commence on March 31, with flights to New Delhi to start on April 2. AirlineRoute reports the following schedule is loaded in to the Amadeus …

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Air India to receive another Rs. 5000 Cr. equity infusion in fiscal 2013~14

by Devesh Agarwal As per the budget for fiscal 2013~14, presented yesterday in parliament, the Indian government has earmarked another Rs. 5,000 crore (about $900 million) for equity infusion into ailing national carrier Air India. This is the second tranche of a nine year, Rs. 30,000 crore (about $ 5.5 billion) tax-payer funded equity infusion, which is part of a …

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Jet Airways sells its London Heathrow slots to Etihad. Cooperation or desperation for Jetihad?

by Devesh Agarwal and Vinay Bhaskara Yesterday, India’s largest private carrier sold its three precious landing slots at London Heathrow airport to Abu Dhabi, UAE based Etihad Airways for $70 million. Etihad will lease the slots back to Jet Airways for the time being. London is essentially THE destination for Jet Airways, which currently serves Heathrow daily from New Delhi …

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Summary of the Economic Survey 2012~2013

Every year, the Finance Minister, and the Government’s Chief Economic Advisor release the Economic Survey, a day ahead of the annual budget, which details the performance of the Indian economy and expectations. The aviation industry is closely linked to the economic growth of the country, and it is a well established norm, that the industry grows at about two times …

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Images: Airbus moves complete first to fly A350XWB to next stage of ground testing

European airframer Airbus S.A.S. has released pictures of the first A350XWB – A350-900 MSN001 being moved from Roger Béteille A350 XWB final assembly line (FAL) “Station 30” to the Clément Ader area “Station 18” in Toulouse. These are the first pictures of the structurally complete flying prototype aircraft with its wings which include the new curved winglets. The belly fairing …

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Lufthansa India launches Star Chef contest on its Facebook page, but read the terms carefully

by Devesh Agarwal Lufthansa image. German carrier Deutsche Lufthansa has launched an exclusive contest, for aspiring chefs, on its India page on Facebook. Called the Star Chef Contest, the aim of the contest is to find Indian main course recipes for service aboard Lufthansa’s First and Business class flights between India and Germany. The winning recipe will be featured in …

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Japan Airlines and Jetstar Japan start codeshare and mileage tie-up

by Devesh Agarwal Japan Airlines (JAL) will start code-share and mileage program partnership with Jetstar Japan (airline flight code: GK) – a joint-investment with the Qantas Group, Mitsubishi Corporation and Century Tokyo Leasing Corporation. JAL, which started code-sharing with Jetstar (the Australian LCC) in 2007, on routes between Japan and Australia, will now be codesharing with Jetstar Japan on all …

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Video: JetBlue launches first A320 retro-fitted with ‘Sharklets’

by Devesh Agarwal United States low cost carrier JetBlue has retrofitted the first Airbus A320 worldwide (N821JB), with the new fuel saving wing-tip ‘Sharklet’ devices. The carrier was able to carry out the retrofit quickly since the aircraft wing had already been modified to accommodate the increased weights of ‘Sharklets’. JetBlue will deploy this and other ‘Sharklet’ fitted A320 aircraft …

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Time for government to stop procrastinating on Air India: CAPA

by Devesh Agarwal The Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation (CAPA) has released a report on national carrier Air India titled ‘Air India: the time has come to stop procrastinating and act. The final scene is near’. The content and conclusions of the report are in line with our analysis. If anything, the CAPA report is mild displaying the diplomatic wording …

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Jet Airways site says they halved ticket pices in a sale, but we cannot find the savings

by Devesh Agarwal Experience India’s biggest air ticket sale with 20 lakh seats on over 450 daily flights across 57 cities within India. Lofares on Jet Airways and JetKonnect flights starting INR 2,250. is what Jet Airways’ website screams at you as one of the largest Indian carriers launches a mega sale valid till February 24, in which it appears …

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Scamster makes 389% profit margin selling official travel tickets to Members of Parliament

by Devesh Agarwal A ticket bought for Rs. 17,270 was sold to the Rajya Sabha secretariat for Rs. 67,270, a 389% mark-up!! We regularly hear either the Minister of Civil Aviation, Mr. Ajit Singh, or the Director General of Civil Aviation, Mr. Mishra, calling for airlines to curb their fares and not indulge in price gouging. One has to wonder …

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Videos: Emirates promotes its multi-lingual crew with colloquial idioms videos

by Devesh Agarwal “You are the cat’s whiskers” is an English idiom meaning “you are perfect” or “you are someone special”. These are just some of the 29 colloquial idioms Dubai-based Emirates airline is advertising to showcase its global network and multi-lingual and multi-ethnic crew. Watch the videos below, and remember, if you want to romance an Italian Madonna, tell …

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