Airports Authority of India (AAI) on Tuesday, July 19 successfully conducted the first flight test landing at Hollongi Greenfield Airport has set the ground for Arunachal Pradesh’s first full-fledged airport to become operational on August 15, which will be three months before the deadline.
More than 90% of the temporary terminal building has been completed and most of the work required for making the airport operational is planned to be completed by July end.
https://twitter.com/AAI_Official/status/1549385801812901888
The maiden landing was of a B-350 (KingAir) special aircraft carrying AAI officials. The flight was led by Capt. Anoop Kachroo and Capt. Shakti Singh and carried flight inspectors Naveen Dudi and Hardeep Singh, DVDR calibration in-charges Ashish Gautam and SS Rohilla for a soft landing.
ALSO READ - Hollongi, a greenfield airport in Arunachal Pradesh expected to open in August 2022
The flight landed around 9:20 AM at the airport, which is located 15 km from the state capital Itanagar. PM Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone of the airport in 2019. The ministry of civil aviation approved the construction of the green field airport at Hollongi in 2014.
https://twitter.com/PemaKhanduBJP/status/1549307526209933314
“Where there’s a Will, there’s a Way! And a Runway. For ages, Arunachal Pradesh was deprived of air connectivity despite our incredible tourism potential. Hon PM Shri @narendramodi’s Will ensured we have an airport here. An incredibly glorious day today. Congratulations to people,” Arunachal Pradesh CM Pema Khandu tweeted.
“Arunachal Pradesh Soaring High! A proud moment for us all as we cross yet another milestone in our efforts to operationalise Hollongi Greenfield Airport with the first flight test landing by AAI. Grateful to Hon PM Shri @narendramodiJi and Hon Minister @JM_Scindia Ji. Kudos team,” Khandu added.
https://twitter.com/PemaKhanduBJP/status/1549259000776011776
State Civil Aviation Minister Nakap Nalo claimed that the pilots, after the test landing, appreciated the runway and other infrastructure at the airport.
Hollongi is about 15 km from Itanagar. Currently, there is no airport in the vicinity of the state capital, the closest one being Lilabari Airport in Assam's North Lakhimpur district, at a distance of 80 km from here.
Developed by the AAI with an estimated cost of INR 645 crore, the Hollongi airport has eight check-in counters.
The passenger Terminal Building of approx. 4100 Sqm will be designed such as to handle 100 arriving and 100 departing passengers at a time
The passenger Terminal Building of approx. 4100 Sqm will be designed such as to handle 100 arriving and 100 departing passengers at a time with scope for future expansion. The terminal will be an energy-efficient building with a rainwater harvesting system and sustainable landscape.
Once commissioned, the airport will be the first in the mountain state with a runway of 2300 meters eligible for landing and take-off of Boeing 747 aircraft.
As the day for the formal inauguration of the flight of passenger aircraft is approaching nearer, the responsibility of the citizens of the Itanagar capital region, as well as the IMC, has increased manifold to keep the city more clean and beautiful to attract more tourists.
Once commissioned, the airport will be the first in the mountain state with a runway of 2300 meters eligible for landing and take-off of Boeing 747 aircraft.
It is expected that the formal operationalisation of the Hollongi airport will help increase the foreign as well as domestic tourist flow in the state, and the tourists will keep coming if they are attracted by the beauty and cleanliness of the state capital.
At the same time, the tourism department will have to put extra effort to lure the tourists who are going to step into the state capital first as airline passengers. With the state’s new airport, Travellers can reach their destinations in a much shorter time and without the hassle of taking detours.
When it comes to tourism in the state, the new airport is expected to bring in a whole lot of visitors. Though Arunachal Pradesh is already a popular destination, especially among adventure and wildlife enthusiasts, indeed, many tourists think twice before making plans to explore Arunachal due to the lack of air connectivity.
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Air Traffic Controllers (ATCOs) are crucial in achieving high levels of safety for flights and assisting pilots during take-off and landing, monitoring aircraft as they travel through the skies and preventing mid-air and on-ground collisions.
India is well on its way to becoming the world’s third-largest aviation market. Airlines are looking to expand, and the government is aggressively pushing for more airports for better connectivity. But an essential cog in the mammoth Indian aviation machinery is facing issues – Air Traffic Controllers. It seems that the country needs more of them, and fast.
With a rapid increase in the number of airports in India and the skies getting busier every year, the country’s current lot of air traffic controllers can’t keep up with the industry’s growing needs.
According to reports, several ATCOs in India are overworked.
Faced with an escalating need for air traffic controllers due to the rapid increase in airports in the country and slow recruitment, the Airports Authority of India (AAI) has asked the aviation safety regulator to revise rules on their duty hours so that their rest periods can be shortened.
To comply with the Directorate General of Civil Aviation's rules on "watch duty limitations and rest requirements", the AAI as the provider of air traffic services needs 40% more personnel for 2022 than its current strength of 3,163 personnel.
In 2023, it will need 5,131 ATCOs or 60% more than the present numbers, and in 2024, it will need 5,428, or 70% more officers, according to a government official.
India's current ATC workforce cannot keep pace with the growing industry.
Officials at the AAI as well as members of the Air Traffic Controllers Guild attribute the widening shortage to three factors — failure to create new posts for the past six or seven years, delay in recruiting new officers during the pandemic as well as several new airports expected to become operational later this year.
"We have asked the DGCA to rationalise its rules. Instead of one set of rules for all airports in the country it must look at volume of air traffic at different airports to fix duty and rest periods. An airport that operates 24x7 hours such as Delhi will have different requirements than those that see flights only between dawn to dusk or have limited day-time operations."Government official
The three training centers for ATCOs in Prayagraj, Hyderabad, and Gondia can only accommodate 264 trainees a year. It also takes around 18 months on average for a new joinee to effectively start working at an airport tower.
With air traffic increasing swiftly and airports mushrooming in all corners of the country, the present ATC resources are spread too thin.
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The trainer aircraft crash-landed, when the student pilot of Carver Aviation, was flying it as a part of the training exercise. Fortunately, the 22-year-old trainee pilot, identified as Bhavika Rathod, suffered minor injuries. The pilot was admitted to Navjeevan Hospital in Shelgaon.
A major accident was averted on Monday, July 25 after a trainee pilot had a narrow escape when her aircraft crashed near Pune in Maharashtra.
The trainee aircraft crashed on a farm in Kadbanwadi village of Indapur taluka in Pune district today at around 11:20-11.30 am. The pilot was rescued by the villagers and given first aid. The trainee aircraft had taken the sortie from Baramati.
Fortunately, the 22-year-old trainee pilot, identified as Bhavika Rathod, suffered minor injuries.
“On 25.07.2022, Carver Aviation Cessna 152 aircraft VT-ALI on solo cross-country flight made a crash landing while 15 nm inbound to Baramati Airfield due to suspected power loss. No injury reported to cadet pilot,” said a statement by Arun Kumar, chief of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).
Union civil aviation minister, Jyotiraditya Scindia said, the incident is unfortunate and he is "praying for the recovery of the injured pilot, Ms Bhavika Rathod."
https://twitter.com/JM_Scindia/status/1551478804933066752
Carver Aviation is based in Baramati. The Carver Aviation and police personnel reached the accident spot and started investigating the cause of the accident. DCGA authorities are also present at the spot and an investigation is underway.
The Academy of Carver Aviation Pvt. Ltd was established on August 19, 1995. It is a DGCA (Director General of Civil Aviation, Govt. Of India) approved institution. The school is located in the rain shadow region of Baramati in Maharashtra.
In June 2022, a Red Bird flight training organisation (FTO) Tecnam P2008 aircraft had a hard landing on at Baramati runway in Maharashtra.
The trainer aircraft crash-landed, when the female pilot, a student of Carver Aviation, was flying it as a part of the training exercise.
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In the same month, a trainee aircraft was forced to land from the Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Uran Akademi (IGRUA) at Fursatganj in Uttar Pradesh’s Raebareli. The DGCA had ordered a probe into the incident of a forced landing.
Cessna 152 aircraft VT-EUW crashed near the Birasal airstrip in Odisha in June 2022. The aircraft belonged to the pilot training organisation 'Gati'.
ALSO READ - DGCA reviews 30 flying training organisations; suspends certified flight instructors
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Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport, New Delhi announced that due to the ongoing up-gradation work, traffic movement on the carriageway connecting terminal 3 (T3) to terminal (T1) of IGI airport, through the underpass, has been suspended for three weeks starting July 23, 2022.
With this change, it is advised for those who wish to travel from T3 to T1 to take National Highway (NH-48 or the old NH-8) to get to T1 through the Radisson roundabout. The highway that goes from T1 to T3 will continue to be used to move traffic from Delhi Airport’s T1 terminal.
It is worth noting that due to the suspension of traffic movement the travel time from Terminal 3 to Terminal 1 will increase to 20-25 minutes from the current 10-15 minutes for the next three weeks.
The road connecting Delhi airport terminal T3 to T1 to remain closed for 3 weeks
People who have booked connecting flights that require a change of terminal are advised to ensure extra time or, if the connecting flight has less time, they can change the flight altogether to avoid no-shows.
The work on a flyover is underway as part of the Phase 3A expansion project and hence, the traffic movement on one side of the carriageway will be prohibited for three weeks, airport sources said.
The phase 3A expansion work has been planned to cater to the expected increase in air traffic in the future. As part of the expansion project, the integrated T-1, where work is underway, will have arrival and departure terminals under one roof.
Delhi Airport is the busiest one in India in terms of passenger traffic and cargo.
The upgraded T-1 will double its capacity from 20 million passengers per annum to 40 million passengers per annum. The other development plans under the project include a fourth runway, dual elevated eastern cross taxiways, landside developments for circulation and connectivity improvements and T-3 modification work.
Among the T-3 modifications are increasing the international transfer area, adding of seventh check-in island and associated baggage handling system. After the upgradation, T-3’s capacity is estimated to go up from 34 million passengers per annum to 45 million passengers per annum.
ALSO READ - Elevated cross taxiway at Delhi Airport, India’s first, to be ready by December 2022
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Air India is in talks to lease about 400,000 sq ft of office space at Vatika’s office complex in Gurugram, Haryana.
The erstwhile national airline now owned by the Tata Group has already signed a letter of intent (LoI) for about 200,000 sq ft with the option of doubling the space later. The airline will shift all offices to this building, one of them said. Other Tata airlines – Vistara and AirAsia – may also shift to the same complex later.
“Air India is planning to consolidate and was initially looking for a property with Tata Realty, but that building is part of SEZ. Now, they have decided to move to this building, which is on the National Highway,” said one of the people aware of the deal.
Air India to lease 400,000 sq ft office space in Gurugram
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The Vatika project, One on One, on National Highway 8 is spread across 2.2 million sq ft and is being developed in two phases with an investment outlay of INR 1,200 crore. CBRE India facilitated the deal.
According to a report from Bussiness Today, Air India Executive Director Harpreet A De Singh has been given the responsibility to complete the transition. Singh will be assisted by consultants from Ernst & Young and a team of professionals from Tata Realty, it said.
Air India has a total of 12,085 employees of which 8,084 are permanent and 4,001 are contractual.
The Indian commercial real estate (CRE) office market saw net absorption rise 62% sequentially in the quarter ended June to 9.6 million sq ft, the best quarterly performance since the quarter ended December 2019 which saw 10.7msf of net absorption, according to a report by ICICI Securities.
The Tata group took over the management of Air India on January 27 after winning the bid for the airline on October 8 last year. Air India has a total of 12,085 employees of which 8,084 are permanent and 4,001 are contractual. Air India Express, its low-cost international arm, has 1,434 employees.
ALSO READ - Air India intends to purchase a 100% stake in AirAsia India; Tatas to relocate all 4 airlines to Gurgaon
(With Inputs from The Economic Times)
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Lenders of Jet Airways led by the State Bank of India could push the airline into liquidation if the winning bidder, the Jalan-Kalrock consortium, disagrees on distributing the proceeds from aircraft rentals among the financing banks, The Economic Times has reported.
Jet Airways owes a lot of cash to many lenders and stakeholders, including ex-employees and ticket claimants. So, any source of revenue for the airline is being carefully observed, with attempts being made to direct the funds to those demanding their money back.
Aircraft rentals to Air Serbia have, so far, yielded about INR 108 crore. The amount is parked with the SBI. The report said the banks conveyed to the winning bidder that they would apply for liquidation if lease rentals were not distributed to the verified lenders, citing sources.
Lenders of Jet Airways threaten bankruptcy over aircraft rental revenues
The Jalan-Kalrock group has proposed INR 380 crores in phased payments. These include a one-time payment of INR 185 crores and a two-year payment of 195 crores following the implementation of the plan.
Additionally, lenders would get a 9.5% ownership of the airlines. However, a portion of the money used to pay the creditors comes from the sale of assets belonging to Jet Airways. Only 5% of the lenders’ claims are recovered, which limits the negative effects of a firm liquidation.
The Jalan-Kalrock consortium has sought time until next week for a decision. The resolution plan approved by the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) is silent on the distribution of the lease rentals, leading to a dispute between the lenders to the distressed airline and the winning bidder.
Jet Airways was grounded in April 2019 due to its failure to pay for fuel and lease rentals.
Although the NCLT approved the Jalan-Kalrock plan in June 2021, the consortium has not yet paid the lenders. As the new owner of Jet Airways was working on receiving regulatory clearances, the implementation of the plan was delayed.
Civil aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) reinstated Jet's air operators’ certificate in May 20222. Jet Airways was grounded in April 2019 due to its failure to pay for fuel and lease rentals.
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Jet Airways is near a deal to buy 50 A220 jets from Airbus. "We are in an advanced stage of discussions with lessors and OEMs (manufacturers) for aircraft, and we will announce our aircraft choice and fleet plans as we make our decisions," a spokesperson for Jet Airways said.
(With Inputs from The Economic Times)
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