More frequent flights to London, this Indian city will now have flights thrice a week

British Airways will operate direct flights from Chennai to London from August 31. The airline will resume operations on London’s Heathrow airport and Chennai thrice a week on Sunday, Wednesday, and Friday from London and Monday, Thursday, and Saturday from Chennai on its return leg.

British Airways has increased flights from India to the UK from 10 to 20 per week from August 16. The decision came as the UK government moved India to an amber list.

"British Airways will now operate 20 direct return flights across Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad providing convenient options for customers wanting to travel to London, Heathrow. To help customers navigate the changing entry requirement and facilitate a seamless journey, they can choose to download the VeriFLY app before departing to London. The digital health app allows customers to combine their travel verification documents and Covid-19 test results in one place and confirms their eligibility with a few simple steps."British Airways said in a statement.

https://twitter.com/aaichnairport/status/1431563969983045633

Tweet from the Chennai Airport

Earlier, the UK government moved India from the 'red' list to the 'amber' list on August 8. In addition, the Indian government allowed UK carriers to operate additional flights, increasing the weekly cap from 15 to 34 per week.

"It is wonderful to see connections between India and London being restored after months of uncertainty caused by the global pandemic. These additional new flights will allow our Indian customers, who have waited so patiently, to reunite with their loved ones. The flights also provide new travel options for Indian students wishing to travel to the UK and beyond for further studies, ahead of the start of a new academic year."Moran Birger, British Airways' Head of Sales for South Asia, Middle East and Africa.

Customers booking with British Airways can exchange their booking for a voucher or move their dates without incurring a change fee, read the statement. British Airways has extended its flexible booking policies. If you’re due to travel before August 31, 2022, you can change your booking without any change fees, or request a voucher that can be used for travel at any time up until September 30, 2023.

Reopening for fully vaccinated Indian tourists — including those who got Covaxin, Sri Lanka is wooing them with a vengeance. Sri Lankan national carrier -- SriLankan Airlines has come with a “buy one and get one free” offer for desi leisure travellers on Colombo return tickets. This offer is on till October 31, 2021.

Sri Lanka now allows fully vaccinated Indian tourists with no quarantine for those who test Covid negative on arrival. “One just needs to be fully vaccinated, with the second shot taken at least 14 days before the trip. A mandatory RT-PCR test will be conducted in the hotel and if anyone tests positive will be taken to health care centres run from hotels,” the airline said.

“Sri Lanka is now open for Indian tourists. People need to be fully vaccinated, with the second shot taken at least 14 days before the trip. On arrival, travellers will go to their hotel where the RT-PCR test will be conducted. Those who test negative can travel where they want to go. Sri Lanka is accepting all vaccines, including Covaxin. Currently, India accounts for over 12 crore fully vaccinated citizens which have resulted in the reawakening interest in travel."Dimuthu Tennakoon, SriLankan Airlines’ head of worldwide sales and distribution, as told to TOI

This special offer would enable Indian leisure travellers to explore numerous attractions available in Sri Lanka after the country relaxed the travel regulations to the tourists. The discounted air tickets together with special incentives offered by the Sri Lankan industry partners would indeed influence Indian holidaymakers to choose Sri Lanka as the ideal & most easily accessible destination to travel.

There is no requirement for quarantine for travellers who test Covid negative on arrival in the Emerald Island.

Also, there is no requirement for quarantine for travellers who test Covid negative on arrival in the Emerald Island. All other Covid time requirements of social distancing and hand sanitation will need to be obviously observed by those testing negative.

From September 1, Sri Lankan Airlines will resume services between Colombo and Madurai, Tiruchirappalli, Trivandrum and Cochin with flights once a week. Hyderabad and New Delhi will be connected to Colombo with twice-weekly flights. Its operations out of Chennai and Mumbai will expand up to five times a week and Bangalore-Colombo services will be enhanced to flights three times a week.

Jan 21,1976- A historic moment for mankind and more importantly for aviation. This marked the beginning of supersonic air travel when man successfully breached the sound barrier and could fly faster than the speed of sound. A landmark achievement for aviation indeed.

Some amazing features of the Concorde:

BA Concorde with its distinctive droop-down nose design

1. The speed of sound is about 340 m/s. The Concorde could fly at 694 m/s which is almost more than twice the speed of sound, making it the fastest trans-atlantic flight ever.

2. Travelling times were reduced drastically. A normal flight between New York and London which would otherwise take 8 hours could now be completed in merely  3.5 hours. It has achieved a speed of 2,179 kmph which is almost equal to covering the distance between Delhi and Chennai in 1 hour.

3. Wondering what makes it possible to fly at such a massive speed? The max ceiling of the Concorde is 60,000ft which is more than twice the max height of the Mount Everest which stands at 28,000 feet. For perspective, a B747 has a max ceiling of 38,000 ft while an A380 can hit upto 43,000 ft.

4.The climb rate of the bird was just as impressive with the ability to climb 100m in just 4 seconds. Talk about Usain Bolt's record in a 100m dash.

5. The Concorde, which costed around 46 million dollars in the 1970s, costed about 350 million dollars (at the time of it decommissioning).

6. Ticket fare for a one way trip across the Atlantic was about 6,270 dollars (4,58,288.72 Indian Rupees) while for a round-the-way trip it costed close to 13,000 dollars (9,50,199.90 Indian Rupees)

7. Out of the 20 that were ever built, only 14 made it for commercial operations. The other 6 were  prototypes that were scrapped later on.

British Airways and Air France were the only operators of the type, with each operating 7 aircrafts.

Getty Images

Various airlines had placed orders for the Concorde back in the 60s and 70s. While British Airways and Air France were leading the race, the lower spectrum saw Air India, Braniff, CAAC, Continental Airlines, JAL, Lufthansa, and Sabena .Operators had the choice of choosing between 2 and 6 orders.

Air India's order

Air India, along with its Belgian counterpart, Sabena, placed the smallest order for 2 aircrafts. The order was officially made on on July 15th, 1964 placing India at the 9 position out of 18 airlines to place an order(at the time).

Marketing and demonstration

The next few years would see the Concorde indulging in heavy marketing for the type, organising round-the-world sales trips. As a part of the trip, the Concorde also made its way to the Indian skies.

Concorde taking off from Mumbai airport in the 80s

The Concorde made its demonstration flight in India when it was flown to Santa Cruz Airport ( now Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport). The aircraft departed from Bahrain and landed in Mumbai taking only 80 minutes as opposed to the standard 3 hours taken by subsonic jets. The aircraft then flew over Kolhapur in low heights to check the effects of supersonic speed on structures on the ground.

A team of civil aviation experts from the DGCA were specifically dispatched and pre-positioned at Kolhapur to analyze sound measurements. The final analysis reported the shaking of a few weak houses in Kolhapur and some glass window panes were also reported to be shattered. Following which, the regulator placed strict restrictions on supersonic flights over land areas.

Unfortunately, the deal didn't go through

Although Concorde was highly optimistic that Air India would convert this into a firm order, officials who participated in the negotiations were skeptical. According to experts, Concorde was an engineering marvel indeed but would prove to be economically disastrous in the years to come. It was no surprise then, that the deal was rejected in a matter of only a few hours.

If the airline had bought the Concorde, it would have gone into the red several years agoA top official of Air India commented during the event.

Thereby Air India finally concluded to cancel the order for two options for Concorde in February 1975.Unfortunately, the supersonic bird didn't survive too long with British Airways and Air France finally retiring it from service in 2003.

Fun fact

The letter "E" in Concorde has always been a subject of contention between the British and France, considering this was a joint venture between them. As can be seen, with the letter "E", the word Concorde becomes a french word. The British didn't prefer it although finally they came around when the  British Prime Minister at the time, Tony Benn, compromised and stated that the "E" represented- "England", "Excellence, "Europe".

Images: The World Economic Forum, Reddit

COVER: Financial Times

IndiGo on Sunday (August 29) said it has appointed Canadian budget airline Westjet's former CEO Gregg Saretsky as a special advisor and he will work closely with the executive leadership team to accelerate operational and commercial improvement opportunities at the airline.

Saretsky joined the board of InterGlobe Aviation, the parent of IndiGo, as a non-executive director in October 2020. In a regulatory filing, the airline said that Saretsky has been appointed as a special advisor with immediate effect.

IndiGo has appointed Canadian budget airline Westjet's former CEO Gregg Saretsky as a special advisor

"In this capacity, Gregg will work closely with Rono Dutta, the executive leadership team of IndiGo, and Rahul Bhatia to accelerate operational and commercial improvement opportunities at the airline," the filing said. Bhatia is a promoter of IndiGo.

In the past, industry veterans appointed as advisors or consultants have made it to the helm of the airline's management. IndiGo's current CEO Ronojoy Dutta, a former executive at United Airlines was appointed as a consultant in IndiGo before becoming its chief. Before Dutta, Greg Taylor, former managing director of United was an advisor and then a CEO appointee.

He was formerly associated with WestJet and Alaska airlines.

Saretsky served as the President and CEO of WestJet, Calgary, Alberta (Canada) from March 2010 to March 2018. Before WestJet, Saretsky was associated with Alaska Airlines. He has been an independent director on the board of travel technology company Sabre Corp since July 2020.

"Gregg's understanding of the low-cost carrier model will serve us well as we work together to drive the change that will propel IndiGo to the next level and recover from the damaging effects of the pandemic," the filing said. IndiGo board has ten members.

The recent order of revoking the ban on the B737 MAX series came as a welcome news for operators in the country. Although Spicejet is the only airline operating the MAX series in India currently, Jet-Airways (now defunct) had 5 aircrafts in its fleet.

The new order permits Indian operators to fly these models subject to compliance with the Mandatory Modification to DGCA/B737-8&9/01R1 and EASA Airworthiness Directive of February 17, 2021is what the DGCA order said

But, is it simply enough for the bird to take to the skies? Well, theres more to it than meets the eye and the process might not be as simple as it sounds.

Now that the initial clearance is given, there are a lot of procedures and protocols in place, that need to be adhered to before this series can realistically take to the skies.

A successful return to service for these aircraft will need certain actions to be completed in terms of aircraft modifications and pilot training. Since the affected aircraft have been in storage, two sets of maintenance activities need to be carried out-Captain PP Singh, formerly Senior Vice President, JetLite, a unit of Jet Airways, said

According to Mr. Singh, the following needs to be done before the aircraft can be deemed fit to fly again:

1.To begin with, all activation tasks required to return to service shall be completed.These tasks essentially reverse the steps taken earlier to preserve the aircraft during storage. Preservation of an aircraft entails mothballing and safeguarding it against environmental damage by using physical/chemical barriers.

2. Manoeuvring Characteristics Augmentation System, or MCAS, is a flight stabilising program developed by Boeing, installed in the MAX series and were notorious for the two fatal crashes of Lion Air and Ethiopian Airlines.Hence mandatory modifications would be required to be made to the hardware and software as stipulated by the manufacturer and the regulator.

Modifications include taking inputs from two angle-of-attack sensors as opposed to just one. Crew would now be able to manually disable MCAS if necessary which wasn't an option earlier.

Additionally, separate changes will be required on the wiring based on directives issued by the FAA, following certain issues flagged by the regulator.

All these improvisations will be monitored by the airworthiness directorate of DGCA who will finally approve the completion of maintenance actions upon satisfactory compliance of established standards.

Pilot training

With all the software upgrades made, another requirement would be pilot training. Now training programs typically include several simulator sessions and computer-based training modules to provide a real-time understanding of the modifications made and practise all possible failure scenarios and recovery procedures.

CAE, Greater Noida has become the first simulator training facility in India to obtain clearance for B737 MAX simulator training.

Interglobe Enterprises

When all of these are in place, combined with the maintenance and training activities, can the aircraft take to the skies again. This is of course, subject to satisfactory compliance to standards set by the DGCA.

The plane will only fly after the DGCA gives a green signal after inspecting the modificationsCaptain Singh

Spicejet had earlier revealed its intentions of commencing operations as early as late September. According to a former official of DGCA, this again would take time as Spicejet still would have to fly a prescribed number of test flights in consultation with DGCA and recommendations put forward by the FAA.

About 344 MAX planes have been flown by 35 operators around the globe ever since the grounding was first revoked in December 9,2020. And as of today, they have achieved appreciable performance with no untoward events. American Airlines, Ryanair, flydubai, Air Canada and United Airlines are among the global airlines that have commenced operations with the MAX aircraft.

COVER: FlightGobal

Amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the Director-General of Civil Aviation on Sunday extended the suspension on scheduled international commercial passenger flights till September 30, 2021, said a circular by the office of DGCA.

However, international scheduled flights may be allowed on selected routes by the competent authority on case to case basis.

In a release, the DGCA said that the order will not apply to international all-cargo operations and flights specifically approved by the regulator. It also added that international scheduled flights may be allowed on selected routes by the competent authority on case to case basis.

https://twitter.com/DGCAIndia/status/1431862315729645569

CIRCULAR TWEETED BY DGCA

"In a partial modification on a circular dated June 26, 2021, the competent authority has further extended the validity of the circular issued on the subject cited above regarding Scheduled International commercial passenger service to/from India till 2359 hrs IST of 30th September 2021," stated the DGCA circular. "This restriction shall not apply to international all-cargo operations and flights specifically approved by DGCA.

However, International Scheduled flights may be allowed on selected routes by the competent authority on case to case basis," further stated the circular.

Scheduled international passenger flights were suspended in India on March 23, 2020, due to the coronavirus pandemic. The aviation authority has extended the ban several times since then.

International flights are currently operational under air bubble pacts. India has an air bubble arrangement with several countries

International flights are currently operational under air bubble pacts. India has an air bubble arrangement with the US, UK, UAE among others. “Transport Bubbles” or “Air Travel Arrangements” are temporary arrangements between two countries aimed at restarting commercial passenger services when regular international flights are suspended as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. They are reciprocal in nature, meaning airlines from both countries enjoy similar benefits.