Mumbai Airport to levy development fees on flyers till June end

Passengers flying out of Mumbai Airport will continue paying the development fees (DF) till June 30, 2022. The Airports Economic Regulatory Authority (AERA) has extended the levy of INR 120 and INR 720 per departing domestic and international passenger, respectively, from March 31, 2022, to June end as an interim measure.

The regulator has also directed the Airports Authority of India (AAI) to "examine all issues being raised by Mumbai International Airport Ltd (MIAL)” on this subject by May 15.

AERA had in December 2012 sanctioned charging a DF of INR 100 and INR 600 per departing domestic and international passenger, respectively, till April 30, 2021, to finance a deficit of INR 3,845 crore in Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA) capacity enhancement project.

Mumbai Airport to levy development fees on flyers till June end

Subsequently, in January 2016, it allowed a levy of INR 20 and INR 120 per departing domestic and international passenger, respectively, till March 31, 2021, to finance metro works at the airport worth INR 518 crore.

These two levies were merged to become INR 120 and INR 720 per departing domestic and international passenger. When Covid hit airport footfalls severely and collection suffered badly, AERA had on MIAL’s request extended these two levies till March 31, 2022.

AAI had this March told AERA that “DF to be billed as on September 30, 2021, is INR 401.9 crore. However, as per MIAL, DF billable (on that date) is INR 1459 crore. Further (AAI informed) MDF (metro DF) to be billed by MIAL as of September 30, 2021, is INR 89.6 crore.

“A further request was received from MIAL for extension of the period of levy… due to shortfall in the collection… beyond March 31, 2022, on an interim basis. A letter was sent to AAI on January 25, 2022, for (its) comments regarding year-wise DF collected from passengers, amount disbursed to MIAL, interest payment, details of utilisation…MIAL had claimed outstanding MDF as of September 30, 2021, as INR 106.8 crore. In addition, AAI has pointed out certain issues of importance in the DF and MDF audit reports and MIAL’s claim, which needs to be sorted out."AERA order dated March 28, 2022

“In view of paucity of time for resolving the issues and reconciliation of figures,” the order says “there is a necessity to extend the levy of DF beyond March 2022, to recover the sanctioned DF amount.

Accordingly, it is decided to extend the levy of DF up to June 30, 2022. In the meantime, the position will be examined and further action/Order will be issued based on such examination.”

AERA has directed AAI to examine all issues raised by MIAL by May 15 and also asked the airport operator to “provide all required documents to AAI in this regard.”

The Union Home Ministry has granted security clearance to Jet Airways which is planning to relaunch commercial flight operations in the next few months, according to an official document. The letter was also sent to aviation safety regulator DGCA and aviation security regulator BCAS.

The Jalan-Kalrock Consortium is currently the promoter of Jet Airways. The airline in its old avatar was owned by Naresh Goyal and had operated its last flight on April 17, 2019.

ALSO READ - Jet Airways conducts test flight after more than 3 years

Last Thursday, May 5, the airline conducted its test flight to and from the Hyderabad airport in a step towards obtaining the air operator certificate.

Jet Airways 2.0 gets security clearance from Home Ministry

A letter sent by the civil aviation ministry to the airline on May 6 informed it about the grant of the security clearance by the Union home ministry. 

The letter said, it is "directed to refer to your application… to convey security clearance for change in shareholding pattern of the company/firm, for scheduled operator permit, based on security clearance received from the Ministry of Home Affairs".

"The security clearance can, however, be withdrawn any time in the light of any adverse inputs, if so received from the Ministry of Home Affairs in future," it added.

On May 5, the airline conducted its test flight to and from the Hyderabad airport in a step towards obtaining the air operator certificate.

Last Thursday's test flight was conducted to prove to aviation regulator DGCA that the aircraft and its components are operating normally.

ALSO READ - Jet Airways returning with a hybrid premium and no-frills model, first flight likely by October 2022

After the test flight, the airline has to conduct proving flights after which the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) will grant the air operator certificate. Proving flights are similar to commercial flights with DGCA officials and airline officials as passengers and cabin crew members on board.

ALSO READ - Sanjiv Kapoor named as the CEO of Jet Airways

Jet Airways’ flying licence or AOP was made dormant, months after it stopped flying.

Last month, the airline appointed industry veteran Sanjiv Kapoor, former chief strategy and commercial officer at Vistara, as its CEO.

Jet Airways already has more than 150 employees on its rolls and the airline is also speaking to vendors, including lessors, for the relaunch.

Jet Airways stopped operating in April 2019, burdened under piling losses, debt and dues. Jet Airways’ flying licence or AOP was made dormant, months after it stopped flying.

IndiGo, India's largest airline, will require pilots to participate in Behavioural Event Interviews in order to be upgraded and promoted to management positions.

According to an internal memo reviewed by Business Standard, Behavioral Assessment Interviews (BEI) will be required for all management positions in the flight operations department, including Fleet Supervisors, trainers, and auditors, as well as for pilots seeking upgrades as captains from senior first officers.

IndiGo has collaborated with human resource consulting firm Aon Hewitt to create the programme, which will make BEI mandatory for upgrades and leadership positions.

IndiGo plans to make behavioural testing a requirement for pilot upgrade and promotion

The inclusion of BEI as part of upgrade and promotion comes in the backdrop of pilot unrest in the company, due to a delay in restoration of salary cuts which were induced in phase during two years of the pandemic.

The airline suspended five pilots—in what is the first cause of action against organised labour protest the airline witnessed in its inception.

“The attitude of its employees plays a pivotal role in shaping an organization. With our focus being on enhancing and shaping the right attitude for Pilots, inside and outside the cockpit, we move towards our next critical step in the Pilot Upgrade Project. I am confident that these behavioral interviews will help us choose and upgrade the right people for the right job which is a much required necessity for any organization to become world class,” Ashim Mittra, Senior Vice President, Flight Operations, IndiGo

In human resources terms, the objective of a BEI is to get very detailed behavioural descriptions of how a person will react under different conditions. In aviation, it is a crucial part of crew resource management, to choose the best-aligned candidates for the company and mitigate the future risks of pilot conflicts.

An IndiGo spokesperson said that while the BEI interviews will currently be rolled out for the flight operations department, gauging the impact and outcome of the same, it can be implemented across the departments.

A senior executive of the airline said that during the interview if a person fails, he will be handled and counselled by experts for six months after which he can reappear for the interview.

IndiGo has collaborated with human resource consulting firm Aon Hewitt to create the programme, which will make BEI mandatory for upgrades and leadership positions.

Inclusion of BEI is part of our long term plan to help align our Pilots to the company’s culture and values by selecting the right attitude and the right behaviour for the right work profile. It will identify and upgrade those pilots who are already aligned and guide those who need to be moulded and polished,” the executive said adding that while currently BEI will be used for upgrades & management positions it will soon be launched for newly inducted pilots too.

“We need to identify leadership competencies in our pilots which are aligned to the core values of IndiGo and give our customers an enhanced experience of on-time, hassle-free and courteous experience from the flight deck,” he said.

The airline has also begun a new process for newly hired pilots called "culture training," in which they will spend time with other flight operations departments such as rostering and scheduling to get used to their new jobs.

The airline has also begun a new process for newly hired pilots called "culture training"

Pilot pay has become a thorny issue for India's largest airline, with pilots dissatisfied that their pre-Covid pay has not yet been fully restored.

Despite a partial salary increase, pilots are still disgruntled because the airline is now operating over 1,600 flights per day, which is higher than before COVID grounded travel.

However, senior executives of the airline pointed out that the number of flights is not an indicator that the airline has regained its financial health and utilisation of aircraft still remains low with high fuel prices increasing the cost of operations manifold.

ALSO READ - IndiGo pilots investigated for using obscene language on emergency radio frequency

A few unhappy pilots expressing unhappiness over salary cuts even used expletives on the radio while operating aircraft, prompting an investigation by civil aviation regulator DGCA.

(With Inputs from Business Standard)

In what could be a recipe for disaster, a potentially critical issue has been detected on the Airbus A350-900 and -1000, which could possibly render the pilots helpless in controlling the stability of the aircraft.

Twitter

Reportedly, a software bug has been detected on the Airbus A350 which could potentially lead to a loss of elevator control-one of the worst control to be lost.

An elevator is a primary flight control surface that controls movement about the lateral axis of an aircraft-a movement referred to as "pitch".

Illustrative | Tekno-Port

Therefore, a directive was issued on May 5th and is tentatively expected to go effective from the 9th of May. Apparently, the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) has asked operators of the Airbus A350-900 and -1000 to amend the applicable AFM (airplane flight manual) and Minimum Equipment List accordingly.

An occurrence was reported where the PRIMary flight control computers (PRIMs) indicated that both elevator actuators were considered faulty." The airworthiness directive (AD) also states that subsequent investigations had found that incorrect instructions had been implemented with the introduction of the "PRIM P13 standard", which is part of the Flight Control and Guidance System (FCGS) X13 standardPublished as Emergency Airworthiness Directive 2022-0079-E, EASA

Furthermore, the Airworthiness Directive also stated that subsequent investigations pointed to incorrect instructions being implemented with the introduction of the "PRIM P13 standard"- which also happens to be a part of the Flight Control and Guidance System (FCGS) X13 standard.

Source

The emergency AD by EASA could mean further ADs could possibly follow in the days to come. EASA has set the deadline to MAY 16 within which it expects operators to amend the AFM with a temporary revision (TR), noted as AFM TR 132 issue 1 or 133 issues 1.

Inform all flight crews, and, thereafter, operate the aeroplane accordinglyEASA's directive stated

Now one might ask, how could a simple "amendment" possibly fix a loss of elevator control?

Reportedly, it is only a software bug "indicating" a malfunction, and there perhaps, might not be an "actual" loss of control of the elevator. In simple words, the bug in itself might not cause issues but the human actions resulting from following that definitely might.

SOURCE(s)

COVER: Aviation Week

The European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS) is Europe's regional Satellite-Based Augmentation System (SBAS) used to enhance the performance of navigation satellite systems for the most safety-critical applications such as aircraft navigation and landing.

Airbus

This system which is under development, has Airbus collaborating with its key partners Indra and the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona/IEEC, and the EGNOS V3 stakeholders to introduce new services based on multiple frequencies (L1/L5, E1/E5) of multiple constellations (GPS, Galileo), and will also embed sophisticated security protection against cyber-attacks.

EGNOS is composed of a large network of about 50 ground stations deployed over Europe, Africa and North America, two master control centres located near Rome and Madrid, and a System Operation Support Centre in Toulouse.

Touted to provide critical navigation services even at airports without the presence of expensive instrument landing systems, the initial assessment of the system performance highlighted the high level of maturity of the design and its adequacy to flawlessly continue the provision of critical navigation services, such as precision approach and landing everywhere in Europe. Additionally, the report also confirmed that EGNOS V3 would deliver the accuracy, continuity, integrity and availability required for Safety-of-Life operations up to Category I - with margins.

Illustrative | ASDNews

At this stage of the development, this performance review has demonstrated the increase in benefits which EGNOS V3 should bring to Europe. As the full power of this new EGNOS generation has still to be qualified in the following phase of the project, this first important milestone of the Detailed Design phase has met our expectations on all legacy aspects assessed. We look forward to the next steps, as we are confident that EGNOS V3 will deliver as requiredsaid Didier Flament, Head of EGNOS & SBAS Division at ESA

The EGNOS V3 test signal campaign involved the new version of EGNOS Navigation Land Earth Station (NLES) developed by Indra as well as the Eutelsat E5WB’s dual-frequency SBAS payload developed by Airbus.

Illustrative | European Space Agency

The successful broadcast of the EGNOS V3 test signal is a key event in the life of the program. Together with other ongoing field experiments, this “hello world” of EGNOS V3 lays the foundation for the deployment of the new generation of EGNOS. The program and the system are now entering into reality on their journey to enable continuous and improved Safety of Life services across the European Union and beyond said Silvio Sandrone, Head of Navigation Programs at Airbus

Silvio Sandrone | Uni Bremen

Combining both, Galileo and GPS signals to monitor ionosphere-induced position errors, would reportedly increase the availability of the service in the western and southwestern periphery of Europe, thereby expanding the area in which satellite navigation landing becomes possible without requiring dedicated ground systems.

The consolidation of EGNOS’ service area will be beneficial to our customers, as it will support their satellite navigation-guided operations to even more destinations. Airbus is very pleased to support the growth of EGNOS users in commercial aviation in Europe with the recent certification of the SBAS Landing Systems on Airbus A320 and A330 families. We continue to support the development of any system which will contribute to a safer and more sustainable air trafficcommented Hugues de Beco, head of ATM Programs within Airbus Commercial Aircraft

EGNOS is a component of the European Union Space Programme designed to improve the positioning service of the Global Positioning System and Galileo for Safety of Life users.

SOURCE(s)

COVER: Airbus

Boeing on May 5 announced a significant scaling up of the MRO facilities within India for the Indian Navy’s fleet of P-8I long-range maritime reconnaissance and anti-submarine warfare aircraft. 

The companies will carry out extensive MRO works on a total of three P-8I aircraft at the Air Works facility in Hosur, Tamil Nadu, India.

Three Indian Navy Boeing P8Is are simultaneously undergoing heavy maintenance checks at the Hosur facility of Air Works, India’s largest aviation MRO, to demonstrate the growing capability to service these mission-critical platforms in India. 

Boeing expands MRO capability for Indian Navy's P8I fleet

The P8I is the Indian Navy’s most capable surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft. The induction of the P8I fleet in 2013 is widely regarded as a game-changer for India’s maritime capabilities. Nine of these aircraft have been delivered and three more are in the pipeline. 

The Boeing-Air Works collaboration is meant to enable faster turnaround and enhanced operational capability of key defence platforms. 

“The partnership began with the first P-8I aircraft Phase 32 checks and has grown to include Phase 48 checks and MRO on the landing gear of the Indian Air Force’s 737 VVIP aircraft,” Boeing stated.

Three Indian Navy Boeing P8Is are simultaneously undergoing heavy maintenance checks at the Hosur facility of Air Works

The world’s largest aerospace company is increasing MRO availability for its platforms in India as an illustration of its alignment with India’s self-reliance (Aatmanirbhar Bharat) quest. 

Boeing’s “strategic collaboration” with Air Works is an important first step under the Boeing India Repair Development and Sustainment (BIRDS) hub launched last year. The BIRDS hub envisions a collaboration with key local companies and businesses to develop India into an aviation and defence repair and sustainment hub. 

“Maintaining such mission-critical platforms for the nation’s defence forces is a matter of immense pride for Air Works. At the same time, it also reflects the “coming-of-age” or maturing of indigenous MRO capabilities in aviation, defence and aerospace, which can deliver huge advantages for the country."D. Anand Bhaskar, Managing Director & CEO, Air Works Group

Bhaskar wants the partnership to extend to other critical Boeing Defence platforms used by India’s armed forces. 

Established in 1951, Air Works has a pan-India network across 27 cities and provides MRO support to Boeing 737 and Airbus 320 fleets besides the ATR 42/72 family. It is also an Authorized Service Centre (ASC) for Bell and Leonardo helicopters and undertakes modification and assembly of rotary-wing aircraft.  

“The ongoing satisfactory execution of heavy maintenance checks on three P-8I platforms concurrently by Air Works is a remarkable achievement. Such efforts contribute towards the Government’s vision of making India an MRO hub for the region."Surendra Ahuja, Managing Director, Boeing Defence India

Boeing has an Indian supply chain with more than 275 local companies and a joint venture to manufacture fuselages for Apache helicopters. The US firm employs close to 4,000 people in India, and more than 7,000 people work with its supply chain partners. Annual sourcing from India stands at USD 1 billion.

Boeing India and Air Works intend to commemorate their collaboration at the Boeing India Aatmanirbharta in Defence conference being organized in New Delhi with participation from dignitaries from the Indian Navy, Air Works Group, and other key supplier-partners.

Boeing has delivered the 12th P-8I maritime patrol aircraft to the Indian Navy 

ALSO READ - Indian Navy gets its 12th P-8I maritime patrol aircraft from Boeing

Recently, Boeing delivered the 12th and the last aircraft to the Indian Ministry of Defence.

The P-8I aircraft is a variant of the P-8A Poseidon aircraft that Boeing developed as a replacement for the US Navy’s ageing P-3 fleet. In May 2021, the US State Department approved the proposed sale of six P-8I patrol aircraft and related equipment, a deal estimated to cost 2.42 billion dollars.