DGCA imposes INR 5 lakh penalty on 5 helicopter operators at Kedarnath

Jinen Gada

17 Aug 2022

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has imposed a penalty of ?5 lakh each on five helicopter operators ferrying pilgrims to Kedarnath shrine over irregularities in flying records, officials mentioned.

The incident happened at a time when the Char Dham pilgrimage was in full swing in Uttarakhand. So far, at least 450,000 pilgrims have embarked on the pilgrimage since its re-opening on May 6 after a gap of 2 years due to the pandemic.

The irregularities and violations came to light during an audit conducted in June, days after a chopper ferrying pilgrims to the high-altitude shrine made a hard landing on May 31.

DGCA imposes INR 5 lakh penalty on 5 helicopter operators at Kedarnath

On May 31, at about 01:30 PM, a Thambi Aviation Pvt Ltd Bell 407 helicopter executed an un-stabilized approach in marginal weather, resulting in a very hard landing with consequent uncontrolled yaw for about 270 degrees.

ALSO READ - DGCA begins probe of a helicopter bouncing and turning 270 degrees while landing at Kedarnath

The director general of DGCA formed a team for spot check of the choppers involved in shuttle operations in Kedarnath, an official in Uttarakhand Civil Aviation Development Authority (UCADA) said.

“On June 7th and 8th, the team conducted a spot check in which serious violations came to light, prompting it to hold a detailed audit of all operators undertaking the shuttle operations,” the official added.

DGCA also suspended officials of two other operators for three months over violation of safety regulations.

DGCA has also issued an operational advisory to all operators for strict compliance to safety standards as per the joint SOP issued for these operations.

The advisory has asked pilots to exercise caution about tailwinds during approaches at the four high-altitude shrines, especially at Kedarnath which faces a constraint of a one-way approach.

"During the audit that had taken place between June 13 and June 16, it was discovered that five operators were not keeping accurate flying records in their technical log books."Arun Kumar, Director General of DGCA

Two more people were discovered to have broken the joint standard operating procedure's rules. DGCA opted not to release the operators' names.

ALSO READ - Chopper makes ‘dangerously’ close landing on Amarnath Yatra route

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Indian charter aircraft lands in Karachi; reason not apparent

Radhika Bansal

17 Aug 2022

A charter airplane from India with 12 passengers on board landed at Pakistan's Jinnah International Airport in Karachi on Monday, August 15 reported Geo News.

According to the media reports, the flight took off from Rajiv Gandhi International Airport in Hyderabad and landed at Karachi airport at 12:10 PM. However, it departed from Karachi after a short while. The reason for the landing is not yet clear.

A spokesperson for the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) confirmed the development and said the international charter flight had flown in from India and it had no connection whatsoever with the country other than that.

Indian charter aircraft lands in Karachi; reason not apparent

The latest incident comes after two planes from India landed in Karachi last month due to technical issues. SpiceJet Delhi-Dubai flight suffered a mid-air malfunction in its fuel indicator and was diverted to Karachi on July 5.

IndiGo's Sharjah-Hyderabad flight was delayed to Karachi as a precaution on July 17 after pilots observed a defect in one of the engines.

Following the Balakot strike in February 2019, Pakistan initiated a months-long closure of its airspace that was finally lifted in the middle of July 2019.

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Air India selects RateGain for real-time airfare pricing intelligence

Jinen Gada

17 Aug 2022

Air India has selected RateGain's - AirGain product to dynamically adjust prices with real-time, accurate, and high-quality airfare data to compete globally with leading airlines.

AirGain is an innovative SaaS-based airfare pricing intelligence product designed to enhance the revenue & operational efficiency of the airlines. It offers vital pricing insights & real-time competitive intelligence data that would enable the airlines to come up with a robust revenue strategy with the latest market insights.

Air India offers connections to close to 90 destinations in over 30 countries.

In addition, AirGain’s ability to track historical trends and track fare changes on the most-profitable routes makes it easy for Revenue and Commercial teams to stay on top of every market development.

AirGain offers actionable insights to quickly react to market price change and stay ahead of the competition through its scalable and intuitive analytical capabilities. Airlines gain competitive intelligence by analyzing market data in real-time.

AirGain is RateGain’s dedicated next-gen SaaS solution for airlines with market-leading analytics capabilities for competitor benchmarking.

Shares of RateGain Travel Technologies Limited gained over 2% in early trade.

Powered by industry-leading technology and data from 200+ airlines across 700+ demand partner channels, AirGain is the solution of choice for the world’s fastest-growing airlines to help them power revenue growth with unlimited, accurate, actionable intelligence.

As fuel prices and inflation continue to increase costs for airlines, travellers are becoming cost conscious and looking for the best airfares.

"Air India is focused on becoming one of the most competitive airlines in the world and technology will play a big role in it. RateGain is known for helping the world's largest travel companies, and is expected to be playing a role in making Air India the preferred choice for travellers."Aruna Gopalakrishnan, Executive Director, Corporate Affairs, Air India

This pressure on costs as well as traveller preference is creating a need for pricing data that will allow Air India to accurately understand market shifts, monitor competitive strategy and understand the right price each time.

The company said AirGain offers actionable insights to quickly react to market price change and stay ahead of the competition through its scalable and intuitive analytical capabilities

ALSO READ - Revenue of Air India rose 64% in FY22; net loss swelled by a third

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Ground handling & engineering units of Air India to be sold soon, EoI invitation by November

Radhika Bansal

19 Sep 2022

The government is planning to invite expressions of interest (EoI) for the erstwhile ground-handling and engineering units of Air India by November as it aims to complete the transaction this fiscal, business daily the Economic Times reported.

The department of investment and public asset management (DIPAM) last week started roadshows to scout for buyers for Air India Airport Services (AIASL) and Air India Engineering Services (AIESL) to scale bidders’ interest. Consultancy firm EY is the transaction adviser for the process, the report said.

ALSO READ - Air India subsidiaries to be privatised soon

Ground handling & engineering units of Air India to be sold soon, EoI invitation by November

The roadshows saw participation from Indian companies such as the Bird group and Tata Sons, the holding company of Tata Group which now owns Air India, for the ground handling unit. Major international companies such as Swiss ground handling company Swissport and Turkish firm Celebi Aviation Holding also showed interest.

ALSO READ – Celebi Aviation interested in bidding for Air India’s ground handling unit

The roadshow for AI engineering services also saw participation from Tata Sons and the Adani group. The roadshows are being conducted to take feedback from the industry so that the expression of interests (EoIs), the initial step to get the process going, can be designed in a way to get more responses.

As part of Air India’s divestment process, four of its former subsidiaries including Airline Allied Services of Alliance Air were transferred to AI Assets Holdings as a special purpose vehicle.

“We want to incorporate the feedback from the industry so that the sale process is simple and fast. The companies have been profitable and are very attractive with presence across India and ready-made trained workforce,” a government official told ET.

As part of the process, two agencies have been appointed to verify and tag the assets of the two companies that lie across airports in India.

As part of the share purchase agreement entered into between Tata Sons and the government during the disinvestment of Air India, there is a lock-in period of three years during which Air India is required to continue its business with the ground handling and engineering unit.

ALSO READ - Centre begins work on privatisation of Alliance Air & other Air India subsidiaries

The autos-to-steel conglomerate completed its purchase of Air India in January 2022.

As part of Air India’s divestment process, four of its former subsidiaries – AI Air Airport Services, Airline Allied Services of Alliance Air, AI Engineering Services and Hotel Corporation of India – along with non-core assets and other non-operating assets, were transferred to AI Assets Holdings as a special purpose vehicle.

The autos-to-steel conglomerate completed its purchase of Air India in January 2022.

ALSO READ - Air India unveils Vihaan – a comprehensive 5-year transformation plan

Air India recently said it was aiming to increase its domestic market share by more than over 30% and also expand its international presence. Releasing a transformation plan titled “Vihaan.AI”, the company on September 15 spelt out its objectives for the next five years.

(With Inputs from The Economic Times)

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Archer completes preliminary design review of the "Midnight" eVTOL - receives its first pre-delivery payment from United Airlines

Prashant-prabhakar

17 Aug 2022

According to reports, Archer Aviation has completed the preliminary design review for the initial production version of its eVTOL air taxi dubbed " Midnight".

A blast from the past

Midnight is Archer’s second eVTOL design, its first is "Maker". The company unveiled the prototype of the Maker in June 2021. It is a two-seater, fixed-wing vehicle with an all-composite fuselage that is powered by twelve electric motors. With 75 kWh of battery power available, the vehicle can fly 100 kilometres/60 miles at a speed of 240 kilometres per hour/150 miles per hour. The Maker made its first short hover flight on December 16.

Maker

Midnight is a piloted, four-passenger aircraft that is the aircraft planned to be used for commercial operations. It is expected to be able to carry more than 1,000 pounds of payload and to be able to fly up to 100 miles. Furthermore, it is expected to be able to complete the target mission of successive 20-mile flights with a charging time of approximately 10 minutes.

What is a Preliminary Design Review (PDR)?

A PDR is a review of the aircraft design to ensure the program is on track and the design is mature enough to proceed to the next development phase and the kick-off of production of long lead time hardware.

It also features all aspects of the aircraft’s specifications and manufacturing requirements, necessary pre-conditions for determining that the design is feasible for regulatory compliance and viable to bring to market.

Representative

The Preliminary Design Review has been completed, with the findings now used for the Critical Design Review that is scheduled for the first half of 2023. The Midnight will be the version that Archer plans to certify for commercial services, for which it is actively working with the FAA.

While that is underway, Archer is also building its manufacturing infrastructure simultaneously. According to the company, it has selected over 50% of its suppliers for the program, recently adding Honeywell for various systems and FACC for the production of the fuselage and wing elements to the program.

$10 million deposit from...

In what it describes as a “watershed moment for the eVTOL industry”, Archer announced that it has received a $10 million pre-delivery payment from United Airlines on 100 Midnights.

United’s decision to place a deposit for 100 of Archer’s eVTOL aircraft signals its desire to be one of the first airline operators in the US to bring eVTOL aircraft to market.Archer says in a press release

United’s decision to place a deposit for 100 of Archer’s eVTOL aircraft signals its desire to be one of the first airline operators in the US to bring eVTOL aircraft to the market.

Recently, United formed a Joint eVTOL Advisory Committee with Archer, allowing the parties to work more closely on eVTOL maintenance and operational matters. Committee members include Archer’s operations and maintenance leadership, as well as leadership from United’s maintenance, materials, and engineering groups.

United had provisionally agreed to buy in February 2021. Archer said the deal represents one of the first of its kind for the budding eVTOL industry, as many eVTOL developers have signed only non-binding agreements with prospective customers that have not yet made any formal payments.

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The world's largest airline poised to have the world's largest supersonic fleet? Here's what we know

Prashant-prabhakar

16 Aug 2022

According to reports, American Airlines and Boom Supersonic have announced the airline’s agreement to purchase up to 20 Overture aircraft, with an option for an additional 40. Apparently, the airline has already paid a non-refundable deposit on the initial 20 aircraft.

Boom Supersonic’s Overture would introduce an important new speed advantage to American’s fleet, which is currently the simplest, youngest and most efficient among U.S. network carriers.

Looking to the future, supersonic travel will be an important part of our ability to deliver for our customers. We are excited about how Boom will shape the future of travel both for our company and our customers.Derek Kerr, American’s Chief Financial Officer

The Boom Supersonic Overture

The Overture is touted to be the world's fastest airliner-optimized for speed, safety, and sustainability.

Beautiful sky. Cumulonimbus cloud and cirrus cloud

It is being designed to carry 65 to 80 passengers at Mach 1.7 over water — or twice the speed of today’s fastest commercial aircraft — with a range of 4,250 nautical miles. Flying from Miami to London in just under five hours and Los Angeles to Honolulu in three hours are just two among the many possibilities.

CRUISE SPEEDMACH 1.7CRUISING ALTITUDE60K FT FUEL100% SUSTAINABLE AVIATION FUELRANGE4250 NMPASSENGER CAPACITY65-80Boom Supersonic

We are proud to share our vision of a more connected and sustainable world with American Airlines. We believe Overture can help American deepen its competitive advantage on network, loyalty and overall airline preference through the paradigm-changing benefits of cutting travel times in halfsaid Blake Scholl, Founder and CEO of Boom

Blake Scholl

Boom revealed the final production design of Overture in July, which is slated to roll out in 2025 and carry its first passengers by 2029.

ALSO READ - Boom Supersonic unveils updated “Overture” supersonic airliner design

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