Jaipur International Airport has been taken over by the Adani Group

Adani Group on Monday, October 11 took over the responsibilities of the Jaipur International Airport from the Airports Authority of India (AAI).

The airport has been leased out to the group by the government of India for 50 years.

(Image Courtesy - Twitter - @Jaipur_Airport)

Airport director J S Balhara handed over a symbolic key of the airport to Chief Airport Officer Adani Jaipur International Ltd Vishnu Jha in the presence of other officials. The company took over the airport at midnight on Monday.

Balhara said that the company will work on the operations, management and development of the Jaipur airport through PPP mode.

Jaipur airport is the 11th busiest airport in India in daily scheduled flight operations. Located in the southern suburb of Sanganer, the airport was granted the status of the international airport on 29 December 2005. The civil apron can accommodate 14 aircraft and the new terminal building can handle up to 1,000 passengers at a time.

https://twitter.com/Jaipur_Airport/status/1447573854562357253

On October 8, the Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport in Guwahati was handed over to the Adani Group for operations, management, and development.

Recently, Adani Enterprises arm Adani Airport Holdings (AAHL) has taken over the management control of series of airports in India including the Mumbai International Airport Ltd (MIAL).

AAHL became the country’s largest airport operator after it took a controlling stake in MIAL earlier this year. Adani Group has also won competitive bids to run the airports in, Ahmedabad, Guwahati, Lucknow, Mangalore and Thiruvananthapuram.

Earlier in August, the Civil Aviation Ministry informed the Lok Sabha that Adani Airports (A unit of Adani Enterprises) has been given three more months to take over Thiruvananthapuram, Jaipur and Guwahati airports. The initial deadline for taking over operations of these airports under Public-Private Partnership (PPP) was July. The extension means handing over will need to be completed by September.

A brief history

Airplane Pictures

Air Costa was owned by the Indian business group, LEPL group. An Indian regional airline headquartered in Vijayawada and based out of Chennai International Airport, it commenced operations on 16 October 2013, using two Embraer E-170 aircraft. The airline had initial plans of operating with a fleet of Q400 aircraft but later announced its decision to acquire Embraer Jets at the Paris Air Show in June 2013.

Before its commencement, it received its Air Operators' Permit (AOP) from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) in September 2013.Post operations, the airline focused on increasing connectivity between Tier 1 and Tier 3 cities, investing around  INR600 crore (US$84 million) as of 2015.

During the Singapore air show on February 16 of 2014, Air Costa had ordered 50 Embraer E-Jets E2 aircraft worth US$2.94 billion, only to be later cancelled by Embraer. If all went as planned, the airline would have become the first Asian launch customer for the type.

Embraer E2 Jet | Pinterest

Seeking to further expand its wings, the airline applied for its regional carrier license to be upgraded to that of a national carrier with the DGCA in September 2015.Subsequently, it received a no-objection certificate from the civil aviation ministry for pan-India operations on 19 December 2015.Unfortunately, though, financial woes kept hitting the airline until it finally had to cease operations on 28 February 2017. Apparently, GECAS had seized two of the airline's leased aircraft, while a third had already been returned to the lessor. The airline had a meagre 0.8% share in the Indian domestic airline market(2016).

What did the CEO have to say?

In an industry where only the fittest survive, the battle becomes all the tougher for regional airlines as they bank on convenience and less on speed and cost of travel. As most of the Tier 2 cities could be reached within 6-7 hours, the majority of the Indian travellers don't mind putting up with a little inconvenience, as long as they could reach their destination at the lowest fare possible.

Airport charges, akin to those charged for national carriers added further woes as rates were as high as Rs750 per passenger and if one added up landing and parking charges, the total charges could go up to Rs1,000 per passenger which was about 40 per cent of the total fare.

After all these charges, where is the money for fuelVivek Choudhary, the CEO of Air Costa

Vivek Choudhary | Twitter

He further went on to add that when Air Costa had commenced operations, the airport charges were at INR220. The figure shot up to INR750 after a private airport won a court case.

No airline can sustain its operations with a limited fleet. It is something we have learnt over the yearsVivek Choudhary

COVER: The Hans India

Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia announced a new helicopter policy under which dedicated hubs and corridors will be established and landing charges and parking deposits will be abolished to boost commercial operations on October 8.

"Today, I want to announce a new helicopter policy for the whole country. We have ten steps that are going to be part of this policy," Mr Scindia said during his speech at the 3rd Helicopter Summit organised by industry body FICCI in Dehradun.

Under the new policy, the government will put together a dedicated helicopter-acceleration cell in the Civil Aviation Ministry to look at issues faced by the industry, the minister mentioned.

"It is going to be a resource that you can use to facilitate your growth," he added.

https://twitter.com/JM_Scindia/status/1446468840443895814

The minister said that according to the new policy, there will be no landing charges or parking deposits for heliports and helicopter companies from now.

Officers of the Airports Authority of India (AAI) and Air Traffic Control (ATC) will engage with the stakeholders of the helicopter industry so that adequate training is given to all individuals, the minister noted.

Under the new policy, an advisory group has been set up in the Civil Aviation Ministry to discuss all pain points of the industry, he mentioned.

https://twitter.com/MoCA_GoI/status/1446509010287398914

Heli-Disha, a booklet released today in Dehradun, will be given to every District Collector of the country, he said.

The booklet has all regulations and issues relating to helicopter size, weight, and operations among other things and it will be distributed so that awareness is created in the district administrations across the country, he added.

As per the new policy, a centralised Heli-Seva portal will be upgraded so that all permissions for a helicopter flight can be granted online, the minister mentioned.

He said the government is going to make four Heli-hubs to start with - one in Mumbai's Juhu, second in Guwahati, third in Delhi and fourth at the HAL airport in Bengaluru.

The minister said 10 cities and 82 routes have been identified to develop helicopter corridors.

https://twitter.com/MoCA_GoI/status/1446453915491311619

"As a beginning, we are going to start with three dedicated corridors for helicopters - Juhu-Pune-Juhu, Mahalakshmi race course-Pune-Mahalakshmi racecourse and Gandhinagar-Ahmedabad-Gandhinagar," Mr Scindia noted.

He said the government has chosen three expressways - Delhi-Mumbai expressway, Ambala-Kotputli expressway and Amritsar-Bhatinda-Jamnagar expressway - along which the heliports will be set up for the immediate evacuation of accident victims.

In the health sector, it is said that the first seven minutes are the golden minutes when victims of a road accident must be evacuated, he added.

During the event, Union minister of state, VK Singh, said that role of helicopters is even more crucial in the Himalayan region. He added, “Air ambulances, air taxis, and helicopters play a pivotal role in disasters. We will work on increasing the connectivity of helicopters in the Himalayan region.”

(With inputs from PTI)

Cover Image - Twitter - @MoCA_GoI

Southwest Airlines cancelled at least 30% of its scheduled flights on Sunday, October 10, marking the second consecutive day of significant cancellations, according to data from flightaware.com.

Southwest declined to confirm the number of flights cancelled, saying only that it had a large number over the weekend due to unfavourable weather in Florida, which was exacerbated by air traffic control issues in the same area.

"With fewer frequencies between cities in our current schedule, recovering during operational challenges is more difficult and prolonged," the airline said in an emailed statement.

(Image Courtesy - Condé Nast Traveler)

According to the flight-tracking website, the airline has already cancelled 1,103 flights on Sunday, October 10, on top of 808 or 24% of scheduled flights on Saturday, October 9th. The cancellation rate was significantly higher than that of competing airlines.

The pilots' union for Southwest Airlines denied on social media that the cancellations were due to strike action. On October 5, the union announced that it would seek a temporary restraining order to prevent Southwest from complying with US President Joe Biden's COVID-19 vaccine mandate for federal contractors, which includes major airlines.

The airline announced last week that—due to the new rules from the Biden administration—its workers must be vaccinated against COVID-19 and have until December 8 to be fully vaccinated. Workers are allowed to seek medical or religious exemptions.

Southwest Airlines flight cancellations strand customers around the US (Image Courtesy - USA Today)

Southwest claims it is required to require vaccines due to new rules issued by the Biden administration, which require companies with federal contracts to have vaccinated employees. Southwest's government work includes transporting military personnel and mail for the United States Postal Service.

American Airlines, Alaska Airlines, and JetBlue told their employees last week that they needed to be vaccinated. United Airlines was the first major airline to do so in August, and the company has since stated that over 97% of its employees have been vaccinated. United also stated that employees who are unable to get the shots due to medical or religious reasons will be placed on unpaid leave until COVID-19 rates drop.

Other policies the union seeks to block include Southwest’s Covid quarantine rules for pilots and an infectious disease control policy that it says significantly altered work conditions, rules and rates of pay, until the two sides negotiate a resolution to alleged contract violations outlined in its original August 30 lawsuit. The changes violate a “status quo” provision of the RLA by not maintaining the terms of an existing contract during negotiations, the lawsuit claimed. 

Southwest Airlines flight cancellations continue into Monday, October 11 (Image Courtesy - 10News.com)

Pilots are at a unique risk because adverse reactions to a vaccine could affect their ability to pass periodic medical examinations required to maintain their license. The union wants to negotiate, among other things, how such instances would be covered by long-term disability policies.  

The union, SWAPA, put out a statement on Saturday, October 9 saying it was "aware of operational difficulties affecting Southwest Airlines" but that its pilots were "not participating in any official or unofficial job actions."

Alan Kasher, Southwest's executive vice president of daily operations, told employees earlier on Sunday that while the airline was staffed for the weekend, it did not anticipate the size of the disruptions.

https://twitter.com/SouthwestAir/status/1446915196438581254

"And as we’ve seen before, an unexpected number of delays ultimately leads to a staffing shortage, and at times, mandatory overtime because of the longer operating day. Although we’ve made schedule adjustments leading into the fall, our route system has not fully recovered—that will take time," he wrote on the company's intranet.

The Federal Aviation Authority said no air traffic staffing shortages had been reported since Friday, October 8 but that some airlines were experiencing scheduling challenges due to aircraft and crews being out of place.

(With inputs from Fox Business, Bloomberg, Reuters)

Cover Image - Fortune

Last week, SpiceJet CMD Ajay Singh said that court cases filed by aircraft lessors to recover their dues don't help anyone and that all such disputes eventually end in settlements.

Employees at SpiceJet are now receiving their full salaries on time, and all pay issues have been resolved, he told PTI in an interview.

After Goshawk, one of SpiceJet's aircraft lessors, filed a case to recover its pending dues of approximately $25 million, the Delhi High Court last month barred the airline from transferring a portion of its assets to a separate company.

On September 3, a section of employees of SpiceJet went on a short strike at the Delhi airport over issues related to reduced salaries and their irregular disbursement. 

Singh said it is a difficult time for every airline around the world and not just SpiceJet. 

"I think SpiceJet has done very well to stay afloat in this crisis. We have built a new cargo business. We are using that cargo business to reduce the parent's liabilities, SpiceJet's liabilities, by a significant amount.Goshawk has gone to court against most of the airlines around the world. So, we will try and find a settlement with Goshawk as well as the other lessors. All these disputes eventually end in settlements.I think the court process does not assist anybody very much. I think, traditionally, all these disputes have always been settled through negotiation. That is what we expect will happen."Ajay Singh, CMD, SpiceJet

SpiceJet reported a net loss of INR 934.8 crore and INR 998.3 crore in 2019-20 and 2020-21, respectively. It entered into a settlement with CDB Aviation and Avolon, two major lessors of Boeing 737 Max aircraft, during the August-September period this year. 

India's aviation regulator DGCA lifted the ban on Max on August 26, 2021. SpiceJet's fleet has 13 Max aircraft. When asked by when does he plan to put all 13 of them into service, Singh replied: "We are working with the lessors. We are trying to ensure that all the commercial arrangements are in place. But we hope that certainly, through October, and by middle November, we should have most of the Max aircraft flying." 

Max was banned in most of the countries, including in India, in March 2019 after two of them crashed between October 2018 and March 2019, killing a total of 346 passengers.

On issues concerning salary payment, Singh said: "All salary issues have been resolved. Salaries are being paid on time and in full. You know, this issue, the media has been raising occasionally but every airline around the world has been challenged on salaries, on payments and so on. And all these issues have always been settled by negotiations." 

Singh gave the interview to PTI here on the sidelines of the 77th annual general meeting of the International Air Transport Association, which is a global airlines body. 

He said the government's decision to impose fare bands and domestic capacity caps greatly helped the Indian aviation industry to maintain some form of stability. 

"Nobody expects the government to keep the support (bands and caps) going on indefinitely. Certainly, what they did help," Singh mentioned. 

"Our view was that the increase in capacity needs to be more gradual and if you can maintain a balance between demand and capacity, that would be helpful for the industry. So, we hope that the government will continue to keep a balance," he added. 

When the government had resumed the scheduled domestic flights on May 25 last year after a two-month break, it had allowed the carriers to operate not more than 33 & of their pre-Covid domestic services. The cap has been gradually increased to 85% to date. 

Moreover, on May 25 last year, the government had imposed lower and upper limits on airfares based on flight duration. Last month, the government relaxed this rule stating that the limits on airfares will remain for just 15 days at any given time and the airlines will be free to charge without any limits from the 16th day onwards. 

Singh said the airports should refrain from recovering all their lost revenue from the airlines amid the COVID-induced crisis. 

"The airlines have suffered extensive losses...so in such a situation, for the airports to try and recover all their lost revenue from the airlines -- when airlines are in such a bad situation -- seems to be something which should be avoided," he mentioned. 

"It is not good for the sector. We need to find a solution where the pain of COVID-19 is shared by all the players in the sector and those that have monopoly positions should not use those monopolies to shift all the pain to the airlines," he added. 

The Airport Economic Regulatory Authority (AERA) has in 2021 accepted demands of Indian airports in Delhi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Kochi to raise their charges -- such as landing fee or user development fee -- which are levied from the airlines or passengers.

The Indian aviation sector was in very poor shape, especially when the second wave of the virus descended upon us this year, Singh stated. 

"You are now at the IATA meeting and you can see what airlines are saying. This has been what everybody has been calling an apocalyptic moment for airlines," he mentioned. 

Having said that, of course, things are improving, he said. 

"Traffic is picking up. On average, we (airlines in India) are now carrying 250,000 passengers a day, which is approximately 60% of where we were before COVID-19. So, definitely, there are signs of improvement and we are also hoping that the government will use this crisis to resolve some of the issues that the Indian carriers have faced for several years," he added. 

(With inputs from PTI)

Cover Image - India TV News

The face-off between the two aerospace giants continues as both players leave no stone unturned to ensure their supremacy in this ever-evolving cut-throat competition.Although Airbus has gained the top spot for being the world's largest manufacturer of commercial planes, rival Boeing has dominated the air cargo corridor with its windowless cargo planes and for years.If reports are to be believed, Airbus has plans of challenging Boeing dominance in the cargo section by introducing a freighter version of its highly popular A350 series.

We believe we have a very promising aircraftChief Executive Guillaume Faury said after unveiling better-than-expected half-year results

According to him, the company has backed plans of an A350F, expected to enter service by 2025 tentatively.

Interestingly enough, this move comes as a response after Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun listed developments including, "I hope in the relatively near term, a freighter version of the 777X"

Here's how the juggernauts compare:

A350F Vs B777F

A350F

Aviation International News

Entry into service: 2025Maximum range: UnpublishedMaximum payload: 109 tonnesEngines: Rolls-Royce Trent XWBList price: UnpublishedA350-900 passenger jet- $317.4 millionA350-1000 passenger jet -$366.5 millionThe aircraft will be between A350-900 and -1000 in length

B777F

Wikimedia Commons

Entry into service: 2009Maximum range: 4,970 nautical miles (9,204 kilometres)Maximum payload: 102 tonnes (224,900 pounds)Maximum take-off weight: 347.8 tonnes (766,800 pounds)Cargo capacity: 37 palletsEngines: General Electric GE90List price: $352.3 millionTotal delivered: 209Unfilled orders: 46

B777-FX

Entry into service: N/AMaximum payload: 116 tonnes*(Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun said a 777X freighter, temporarily dubbed 777FX, could be its next programme)*Unconfirmed estimates from industry sources**Airbus last updated list prices in 2018

The A350F would directly compete with the B777-FX.

However, the question remains as to how well the A350F and B777FX would co-exist considering the older customers of the B747-8F are still on the horizon? Hence the A350F will now have to compete with the B747-8F as well, in addition to the B777F.

B747-8F | ZAP16.COM

Environmental standards

In March 2017, the ICAO Council adopted a new aircraft emission standard to mitigate global aircraft emissions. These standards apply to all newly-designed aircraft from Jan 1, 2020.

Those in-production aircraft which by 2028 do not meet the standard will no longer be able to be produced unless their designs are sufficiently modified.ICAO

This could mean that the Boeing 777F line could be forced to be switched off, as the freighter could potentially not meet emissions standards.

B777 vs B777FX vs A350F

Nevertheless, Boeing could fire back with its plans of B777-FX. There's been huge customer demand for folded wing-tip freighters and the most notable is the one from Akbar Al Baker, CEO of Qatar Airways.

We would also like to be the launch customer, because of the confidence Qatar Airways had in Boeing. Hopefully, Boeing will launch a 777X-based freighter"Al Baker

Akbar Al Baker | Oneworld

We need to develop a new ICAO-compliant freighter. I circle the 777X as the logical place for that, and the smart place to do thatBoeing CEO David Calhoun said on 28 July

He further added that there are exemptions that exist within the ICAO language that have to be accommodated by the US government. Those exemptions could potentially aid Boeing’s “transition strategy to that new kind of opportunity”.

With the B777F being the current reigning champion, the 777F, the 777X-based freighter and the A350F have a lot on the line.

The 777F and the 777-FX would be very similar, including the fact that Boeing applied for a 777X type certificate as a derivative of the 777, slashing introductory and operational costs for airlines.Therefore, it would be a monumental face-off between the A350F and the B777-FX when it finally hits the market.

Who do you think will bag the title of freighter king in the cargo industry? Will Airbus finally be able to de-thrown Boeing in its own game? Let us know your views

COVER: @av.spotter