8 airports identified by AAI for promoting Aircraft Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul activities

Radhika Bansal

04 Feb 2022

The Airports Authority of India (AAI) has identified eight airports to promote Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) activities for aircraft and aviation equipment. The eight airports are Chandigarh, Delhi, Begumpet (Hyderabad), Juhu (Mumbai), Bhopal, Tirupati, Chennai and Kolkata.

According to a report titled ‘Status of Aviation Connectivity in the Country’ tabled in Parliament by the Standing Committee on Transport, Tourism and Culture, AAI has developed a business-friendly proposal for MRO with zero airport royalty charges and significantly reduced land rentals for eight airports.

AAI has to identify more airports with available land and resources with the potential to establish MRO facilities from time to time, suggested the committee in the report.

8 airports identified by AAI for promoting Aircraft Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul

The idea to promote the local MRO industry was started in September 2021, when the committee found that the aircraft manufacturer insists the operator enter into a contract for maintenance of the aircraft in the manufacturer’s country, even if such facilities are locally available. This hampers the growth of MRO in the country. To overcome this, it recommended framing an MRO policy.

Accordingly, the Ministry of Civil Aviation announced a policy to promote MRO services in September 2021. The policy opened the possibilities of leasing the land through open tenders for MRO services and abolishing the AAI’s royalty charges, thereby attracting investments to the country.

Besides, the land allotment for entities for MRO will be for 30 years instead of five years. The civil aviation ministry also suggested coordinating military and AAI concerning MRO activities. The vision was to make India a land of MRO hub.

India has the potential to become a global hub as it has the benefits of localisation, low labour cost, a growing number of aircraft fleet and natural talent to drive innovation.

The country failed to attract investments despite the benefits due to high tax components. According to the report, a failure to tap the opportunity to explore the MRO market is a massive loss to the country.

Following the committee’s suggestions, the civil aviation ministry emphasises the collaboration between defence and civilian MROs, by fostering technical and business partnerships between MRO companies in India and defence establishments.

India has the potential to be an MRO hub due to locational advantage, growing aircraft fleet, low labour costs and the natural talent to drive innovation.

The Committee’s report also stated that India has the potential to be an MRO hub due to locational advantage, growing aircraft fleet, low labour costs and the natural talent to drive innovation.

“However, the country has not yet been able to fully exploit the opportunities available in this sector and a major deterrent for the growth of the MRO industry is high taxation of MRO components. Aircraft MRO services are critical in the aviation value chain and it would be of a huge loss for the country if we do not tap the vast technical and skill base available in the country,” the report stated.

Following the Committee’s emphasis on enhanced collaboration between defence and civilian MROs, the government is facilitating civil-military MRO convergence by fostering greater technical and business collaboration between leading MRO companies in India and the defence establishment.

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Multiple SpiceJet flights halted by Delhi ATC for non-payment of daily airport user fees to AAI

Radhika Bansal

20 May 2022

Multiple SpiceJet aircraft were stopped from operating by Air Traffic Control at the Delhi airport on Friday, May 20 morning as the airline didn't make the requisite daily payment to the Airport Authority of India.

Sources said that Air Traffic Control, which is an arm of AAI, was instructed not to give clearance to the airline's aircraft to take off as the payment was not made. AAI has put SpiceJet on "cash and carry" mode since 2020, due to the airline's inability to clear airport dues.

Multiple SpiceJet flights were halted by Delhi ATC for non-payment of daily airport user fees to AAI

Cash and carry mode implies that the credit facility by the AAI has been withdrawn because SpiceJet could not clear dues and now they have to make daily payments for airport user fees to the AAI to continue operations. SpiceJet has to pay cash upfront for the use of airports.

A SpiceJet spokesperson said that the daily payment failed due to a technical glitch in SAP - the software through which the airline makes payment.

"The automatic daily payment could not be processed. The same is being made manually to AAI which has been apprised of the issue. SpiceJet’s flight operations are now continuing normally," he said.

SpiceJet had reported a consolidated loss of INR 1,259 crore due to rising operating expenses

Flight tracking website said that almost twelve take-offs of SpiceJet in the early hours of Friday, May 20 were delayed by as much as 90 minutes.

ALSO READ - SpiceJet’s Rajkot-Delhi flight takes off without ATC approval

For the nine months ended December 2021, SpiceJet had reported a consolidated loss of INR 1,259 crore due to rising operating expenses. It had a loss of INR 773 crore in 9MFY21. Total revenue from operations grew 44% year on year to INR 4,733 crore from INR 3,283 crore.

Airlines with weak financials and also significant dues are routinely put on cash-and-carry — meaning denied credit facility — by oil and airport companies. SpiceJet sources claim the airline’s dues to AAI have substantially been cleared in the recent past. Comments from AAI were sought and are awaited.

(With Inputs from Business Standard)

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Seaplane service to resume after a year of suspension as bids open

Radhika Bansal

03 Feb 2022

After failing to sustain seaplane service, the Gujarat government is likely to restart the service in the coming months. Officials close to the development also said that a nine-seater Cessna aircraft will be dry leased to operate the route.

According to a report by the Hindustan Times, officials from the state aviation department, Maritime Energy Heli Air Services Pvt Ltd (MEHAIR) won the bids on Tuesday, February 2 and is likely to start operations on the Ahmedabad- Kevadia route in the next four months.

“We will approach the Gujarat government to take financial approval first, we will go ahead after it is approved by them. I don’t know about the exact timeline. We will try to do it (recommence operations) as soon as possible but many approvals are needed from regulatory bodies, hence restarting the seaplane operations is subject to the permissions.”Hareet Shukla, Aviation Secretary, Gujarat

India’s first seaplane service began on October 31, marking the birth anniversary of Sardar Vallabhai Patel. The first flight took off from Sabarmati Riverfront in Ahmedabad to the Statue of Unity in Kevadia Colony in the Narmada district on October 31, 2020, but the seaplane flights were suspended in early 2021, just ahead of the second wave of Covid-19.

The 15-seater Twin Otter 300 seaplane was flown back to the Maldives for maintenance in February 2021. Before that, it flew to the Maldives in December as well to undergo statutory checks. SpiceShuttle, a subsidiary of aviation player SpiceJet, operated the route. The Twin Otter 300 seaplane could accommodate up to 19 people including the crew.

The 15-seater Twin Otter 300 seaplane was flown back to the Maldives for maintenance in February 2021. (Image Courtesy - Hotelier Maldives)

Officials from Ahmedabad claimed that the government aims to restart seaplane operations soon. “The flights may begin from June,” an official said.

“A nine-seater Cessna amphibian aircraft will be used to operate the route. Work for resumption of seaplane service is in process,” said an official from the state civil aviation department.

“Aerotrans Services Pvt. Ltd, Ventura AirConnect Ltd and Maritime Energy Heli Airservices Pvt Ltd (MEHAIR) had put in their bids. They were opened on Tuesday, February 1 and MEHAIR was declared to be the winner,” he added. “The letter of intent is yet to be awarded,” the official added.

At least 28 seaplane routes have been awarded until December 2021, under UDAN.

To provide faster and hassle-free travel options in the long, treacherous and hilly regions of the country, the union government announced seaplane routes under the regional connectivity scheme (RCS)- Udey Desh ka Aam Naagarik (UDAN) scheme.

According to the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) and the Ministry of Ports, shipping and waterways, at least 28 seaplane routes have been awarded until December 2021, under UDAN. 14 water aerodromes based in Gujarat, Assam, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Andaman & Nicobar Islands and Lakshadweep are at various stages of development.

(With Inputs from The Hindustan Times)

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Can aircraft be completely immune to radar detection? Stealth Technology explained

Prashant-prabhakar

03 Feb 2022

How do you make an aircraft show up on a radar-like a small bird or something even as harmless as a small moth as opposed to the 20-ton killing machine that it is?

The existence of a "Stealth" program, designed to produce aircraft that were effectively immune to radar detection at normal combat ranges, was announced by the U.S. government in 1980.

Now the many nitty-gritties of stealth technology remain classified of course, although the basic principles remain the same.

Let's take a look into what this elusive technology is basically about.

Stealth Technology

SlideServe

Getting started

Also dubbed as Low Observable Technology (LO technology), the development of modern stealth technologies commenced in the United States in 1958 when earlier attempts to prevent radar tracking of its U-2 spy planes during the Cold War by the Soviet Union had been unsuccessful.

U-2 Dragon Lady | Lockheed Martin |

The goal of stealth technology is to make an airplane invisible to radar. Although no aircraft is invisible to radar, stealth aircraft make it all the more difficult for conventional radar to detect or track the aircraft effectively.

Basically, there are two ways of creating invisibility:

The airplane can be shaped in a way that any radar signals it reflects are reflected away from the radar equipment and not towards it.Materials that absorb radar signals to be used for the construction of airframes and engines.

Radar

Ever since radar-directed defences began taking a toll on bomber formations in World War II, aerospace engineers and military aviators racked their brains to come up with effective ways to avoid radar detection.

Airplanes of the early jet age saw the use of materials, although heavy and not strong enough for structural use, could absorb radar energy and not reflect it. It was only after the 1960s and ’70s, that High-performance composites were developed which could address radar-signature issues effectively.

Flat surfaces reflect radar most effectively, so aircraft designers avoided having any flat parts that were likely to face in the direction of threat radar on the ground or in planes up ahead. Hence, the external shape of a stealth aircraft was either a series of complex large-radius, curved surfaces (as on the B-2) or a large number of small, flat, carefully oriented planes (as on the F-117A). Fuel and ordnance were carried internally, and engine intakes and exhausts were set flush or low to the surface.

The plane's surface was often made of radar-absorbing "fibreglass". Upon hitting these composites, radio waves would be almost converted to heat energy. The F-117A is a stealth aircraft with the radar signature of a small bird rather than an airplane - with the only downside being that when the plane banks, there will often be a moment when one of the panels of the plane will perfectly reflect a burst of radar energy to the antenna.

F 117-A Nighthawk | Wikipedia

Sometimes, radar-absorbing Honeycomb-shaped structures were added beneath the skin to cause radar to bounce around inside the plane, dissipating energy with each bounce.

Other possibilities include the laser radar, which would scan the ground ahead of the craft with a thin, almost undetectable laser beam.

Radar cross-section (RCS) reductions

The possibility of designing aircraft in such a manner as to reduce their radar cross-section was recognized in the late 1930s when the first radar tracking systems were employed.

Conventional Vs Stealth Aircraft Radar Cross Section Signature | Representative | ResearchGate

 The Avro Vulcan, a British bomber of the 1960s, had a remarkably small appearance on the radar despite its large size, and occasionally disappeared from radar screens entirely.

Avro Vulcan | Wikimedia Commons

Heat

Heat-seeking missiles are another threat to aircraft. To avoid detection by these thermal imaging devices, stealthy aircraft must minimize heat emissions. The engine exhaust is a major source of such infrared emissions.

Thermal Imaging of a piston engine | Representative | Aviation Stack Exchange

One possible solution is for the engine intakes and exhausts to be mounted above the wings although it can adversely affect aircraft manoeuvrability. Hence, high-performance fighters like the F/A-22 and the X-35 JSF, which require excellent air combat capability, have their inlets and exhausts located more traditionally.

Lockheed MARTIN X-35 | Wikipedia

Another source of heat is air friction caused by travel at very fast speeds, particularly at the wing's leading edge. This can be countered by pumping cool jet fuel inside the wing around the leading edge, thereby reducing the heat signature

Accoustic Detection

Again, engines are an aircraft's major source of noise, thereby great attention is paid to designing quiet engines. Flying at supersonic speeds can produce the iconic "sonic boom" hence stealthy aircraft may be designed to fly only at subsonic speeds.

Sonic Boom | Representative | BuzzFeed News

That said, higher performance stealth aircraft, like the F/A-22 and X-35, are designed to balance the tradeoffs between extreme stealth and excellent air combat performance.

F 22 Raptor | Hush-Kit

The second-generation stealth aircraft, the U.S. Air Force  F-22 Raptor, for instance, is capable of supercruise, supersonic performance without the use of afterburners.

Did you know? India is now finally getting set to launch its most ambitious, fifth-generation stealth fighter with advanced 'supercruise' capabilities-Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA). It will soon join the likes of the American F/A-22 Raptor and F-35 Lightning-II Joint Strike Fighter, the Chinese Chengdu J-20 and the Russian Sukhoi-57.

HAL AMCA | Representative | AeroTime Hub

SOURCE(s)

COVER: 19FourtyFive

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Vistara enhances Airbus A321neo's Cockpit Connectivity

Radhika Bansal

03 Feb 2022

Vistara is upgrading its fleet of Airbus A321LR aircraft with a satellite-based cockpit connectivity system from Cobham Aerospace.

In emailed statements to Avionics International, representatives for Cobham Aerospace explained that their AVIATOR 200S SwiftBroadband system is being added to four A321LR aircraft operated by the joint venture of Tata Group and Singapore Airlines.

Cobham AVIATOR 200S

Vistara's selection of the AVIATOR 200S includes the addition of a Compact Satellite Data Unit (CSDU), Enhanced LGA Antenna with built-in HPA and DLNA (HELGA), and SATCOM Configuration Module (SCM) to their A321LR.

“We are pleased that a prominent international carrier such as Vistara has placed their trust in AVIATOR S. We have every confidence that AVIATOR will exceed performance expectations, leading to even greater market acceptance of this groundbreaking SATCOM system."Eiji Kawaishi, CEO, Cobham Aerospace Communications

Compared to previous generations of aircraft satellite communication systems, "200S offers two segregated aircraft communication domains, an 80-times increase in data-transfer capacity, as well as safety services-approved ACARS and SATVOICE," the company said in a press statement announcing the Vistara selection.

Airbus A321neo

Cobham Aerospace's AVIATOR 200s is has achieved type certification for the Airbus A320 Family, A330, and A350 platforms.

According to Cobham, the AVIATOR 200S combines the provision of SwiftBroadband Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS) data services with an Internet Protocol (IP) data pipe for the transfer of operational and flight data to ground maintenance and control facilities, or real-time weather and other flight relevant information updates to Electronic Flight Bags (EFBs) or Flight Management Systems (FMS).

Vistara Airbus A321neo

Other features of the system include a Compact Satellite Data Unit (C-SDU) which is deployed with a phased array antenna with built-in Diplexer, Low Noise Amplifier (DLNA), and High Power Amplifier (HPA).

AVIATOR 200S offers interfaces capable of supporting future 4D trajectory-based Operations routing systems for continental (SESAR and NextGen) and oceanic use, according to Cobham.

The cockpit of Airbus A321neo (Image Courtesy - Wikimedia Commons)

"4D Trajectory Guidance is a primary application of interest where Cobham sees significant opportunity for growth in [Air Traffic Control] ATC efficiencies.  It will replace and improve legacy cockpit Safety Services offered by legacy network technology for Safety Voice and CPDLC data for ATC communications. Further applications would include data connectivity driven apps offered on Airbus’ FOMAX Platform," the representative for Cobham said.

The AVIATOR 200S selection for Vistara comes as the airline continues to report ongoing fleet and flight operational expansion. Vinod Kannan took over as CEO of Vistara in January for Leslie Thng, who is taking on a senior role with Singapore Airlines after four years as the CEO of Vistara.

(With Inputs from Aviation Today)

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INR 10,667 crore allocated for the Civil Aviation Ministry in the Union Budget 2022

Radhika Bansal

02 Feb 2022

The Union Budget has allocated INR 10,667 crore for the civil aviation ministry for 2022-23, according to the document presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday, February 1.

Out of the total allocation, INR 600.7 crore has been earmarked for the regional connectivity scheme UDAN (Ude Desh ka Aam Naagrik), while INR 9,259 crore goes to AI Asset Holdings Limited for servicing the loans transferred to the special purpose vehicle (SPV) for the financial restructuring of Air India.

An amount of INR 165 crore has also been set aside for the medical benefits of retired Air India employees, the Budget document said.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman with the Union Budget 2022.

Air India was taken over by Tata Group firm Talace on January 27. Through a competitive bidding process, the government sold loss-making Air India to Talace for INR 18,000 crore. As part of the deal, Talace paid INR 2,700 crore in cash and took over the INR 15,300 crore debt of the airline. The remaining debt and borrowings of Air India were transferred to AIAHL.

As of August 31, 2021, Air India had a total debt of INR 61,562 crore. The airline also had about INR 15,000 crore excess liabilities towards unpaid fuel bills and other operational creditors.

According to the budget document, the government infused INR 36,254 crore in AIAHL during 2021-22 "for repayment of past government-guaranteed borrowings of Air India Limited".

Air India was taken over by Tata Group firm Talace on January 27.

Further, the government put in INR 12,357 crore equity in AIAHL in 2021-22 "for repayment of past government-guaranteed borrowings (lease rental for aircraft) of Air India Limited", as per the document.

Last fiscal, it also infused Rs 13,446 crore equity in AIAHL for repayment of past dues/ liabilities of Air India. The total equity infusion in AIAHL was Rs 62,057 crore in 2021-22.

In 2021-22, the civil aviation ministry was allocated INR 3,224 crore, however, the government incurred high expenses during the divestment of Air India and, as a result, the revised expense for the civil aviation ministry during 2021-22 stood at INR 72,652 crore.

Out of the total revised figure for 2021-22, the allocation towards Air India loans, grants in aid to Air India for cash losses during the COVID period and towards Air India Assets Holding Company for re-payment of dues and borrowings of the airline stood at INR 68,501 crore.

In 2021-22, the civil aviation ministry was allocated INR 3,224 crore.

In the Budget for 2021-22, the government had allocated INR 600 crore for the UDAN scheme, but the total expenditure rose to INR 994 crore.

While the finance minister did mention that airports would power the economic growth as a part of the PM Gati Shakti programme, she did not share any details on how this would be achieved.

The government also did not come out with any measures such as a cut in the excise duty charged on aviation turbine fuel, to help airlines grappling with high operating costs.

ALSO READ - IndiGo expected a reduction in excise duty on jet fuel in Union Budget 2022

Budget carrier IndiGo termed the Union Budget 2022-23 as “growth-oriented” while expecting a cut in the excise duty on jet fuel. Ronojoy Dutta, Whole-Time Director and CEO, IndiGo said that they were expecting tax concessions to the aviation industry in the form of a cut in ATF (Aviation Turbine Fuel) excise duty and the allocation of concessional finance to airlines to help us come out of the pandemic.

ALSO READ - Aviation Turbine Fuel prices rise by a whopping 8.5% to new highs

To make things trickier, the Indian government announced a price hike on ATF by up to 8.5%, just ahead of the budget. ATF price has gone up to INR 86,038.16 per kiloliter (kl) in the national capital region, the highest ever. Price hikes like these are usually passed down to passengers, reflecting on their ticket prices.

https://imasdk.googleapis.com/js/core/bridge3.496.0_en.html#goog_1210032461Click To UnMuteWhile most airlines and airport operators in India have hailed the government's call to develop infrastructure and increased capital expenditure allocation, most of them were also disappointed with no support from the government for the sector.“We were expecting tax concession for the aviation industry in the forms of a cut in ATF excise duty and allocation of concessional finance to airlines to help us come out of the pandemic,” IndiGo CEO Ronojoy Dutta said in a statement after Sitharaman's Budget speech.

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