Vistara plans to rope in pilots on deputation from AirAsia India for its expanding A320 fleet

Full-service carrier Vistara is looking to rope in pilots on deputation from budget airline AirAsia India to ensure adequate crew for its expanding fleet of A320 planes, according to sources. Both airlines are part of the Tata group and the latest move indicates efforts to have more synergy as well as optimal use of manpower among group carriers.

Tata group also owns Air India and Air India Express. Vistara -- a joint venture between the Tatas and Singapore Airlines -- has a fleet of 53 aircraft. These include 41 A320s and five A321s. The airline is planning to increase the fleet to 70 planes by December 2023. AirAsia India operates a fleet of A320 planes.

ALSO READ - Vistara to absorb 70 AirAsia India trainee pilots grounded for a year

"Vistara has sought some pilots from AirAsia India on deputation given the induction of new aircraft, a proposal which the budget carrier has consented to," one of the sources told PTI on condition of anonymity. Both Vistara and AirAsia India declined to comment on the matter.

Vistara plans to rope in pilots on deputation from AirAsia India for its expanding A320 fleet

According to the sources, Vistara has been expanding its Airbus fleet but does not have an adequate number of pilots to operate them.

"The airline was banking on the huge pool of pilots that was created due to the pandemic but the dynamics have completely changed now with several both serving and non-serving pilots taking flights to the Gulf airlines, which offer fatter pay packages besides other benefits," one of the sources said.

The source also said Vistara had looked at hiring some pilots from a Mumbai-based low-cost airline but the plan did not work out due to notice period issues. Another source, on condition of anonymity, said even though AirAsia India has 27 planes in its fleet with around 400 pilots to operate them, the airline has not been operating more than 18-20 aircraft.

Vistara has been expanding its Airbus fleet but does not have an adequate number of pilots to operate them.

"With this much fleet in operations, an airline would not require more than 240-250 pilots. Since AirAsia India does not have plans to induct any new aircraft in the short term, more so amid the talks of its possible merger with Air India Express, it leaves around 150-160 pilots as surplus," the source said.

ALSO READ - Tatas likely to offer a stake to Singapore Airlines, for Air India – Vistara merger

Further, the source said after receiving the Vistara proposal, AirAsia management left it to the decision of the pilots and then take a call on how many of them should be sent on deputation.

ALSO READ - Air India gets CCI’s approval to acquire the entire stake in AirAsia India

Meanwhile, Tata group has started an exercise to evaluate options to consolidate AirAsia India and Vistara under Air India to bring operational synergies among the three airlines under its umbrella. Air India has set up a team under its Director of Operations R S Sandhu in this regard, sources had said earlier.

ALSO READ - Air India, Air Asia India and Vistara partner with CSIR-IIP for enhanced use of SAF

Air France and aircraft maker Airbus go on trial in Paris on Monday, October 10 on charges of involuntary manslaughter in the 2009 aircraft crash of a flight from Brazil, killing all 228 people aboard. The case focuses on alleged insufficient pilot training and a defective speed monitoring probe, which was quickly replaced on planes worldwide in the months after the accident.

Flight AF 447 from Rio de Janeiro to Paris plunged into the Atlantic Ocean during a storm in the early hours of June 1, 2009, when it stalled after entering a zone of strong turbulence. The Airbus A330 was carrying 12 crew members and 216 passengers, including 61 French. It was the carrier's deadliest crash.

Debris was found in the following days but it took nearly two years to locate the bulk of the fuselage and recover the "black box" flight recorders.

Debris was found in the following days but it took nearly two years to locate the bulk of the fuselage and recover the "black box" flight recorders.

Air France and Airbus were charged as the inquiry progressed, with experts determining the crash resulted from mistakes made by pilots disorientated by so-called Pitot speed-monitoring tubes that had frozen over in a thick cloud.

Both companies have denied any criminal negligence and investigating magistrates overseeing the case dropped the charges in 2019, attributing the crash mainly to pilot error. That decision infuriated victims' families, and in 2021 a Paris appeals court ruled there was sufficient evidence to allow a trial to go ahead.

"Air France ... will continue to demonstrate that it did not commit any criminal negligence that caused this accident, and will request an acquittal," the airline said in a statement.

Airbus, maker of the A330 jet that had been put into service just four years before the accident, declined to comment ahead of the trial but has also denied any criminal negligence. They each face a maximum fine of 225,000 euros (USD 220,000).

The court will hear testimony from dozens of aviation experts and pilots, along with second-by-second details of the final minutes in the cockpit before the plane went into free fall. As it approached the Equator en route to Paris, the plane entered a so-called "intertropical convergence zone" that often produces volatile storms with heavy precipitation.

Around this time the captain, 58, handed over to his 32-year-old senior co-pilot and went to bed, with the second co-pilot sharing the controls. To avoid the worst of the storm they veered off route to the left and slowed their speed, having warned the crew of coming turbulence.

Shortly after the automatic pilot functions stopped working, just as the Pitot tubes froze over, leaving the pilots with no clear speed readings. "We've lost our speeds," one co-pilot is heard saying in the flight recordings before other indicators mistakenly show a loss of altitude, and a series of alarm messages appear on the cockpit screens.

The pilots quickly point the nose of the plane higher to start climbing, but soon a "STALL" alert sounds once, then pauses, then sounds nonstop for 54 seconds. The plane keeps climbing, engines at the max and reaches 11,600 metres (38,060 feet) before the stall begins. "I don't know what's happening," one of the pilots says.

At this point, the captain is back in the cockpit trying to help but the plane is falling rapidly, at 3,000 metres per minute. "Am I descending?" the senior co-pilot asks. "No, now you're climbing," the captain answers. The recordings then stop, four minutes and 30 seconds after the Pitot tubes froze.

Testimony will also be heard from some of the victim's family members, 476 of whom are civil plaintiffs in the case.

"It's going to be a very technical trial... but our goal is also to re-introduce the human element," said Alain Jakubowicz, a lawyer for the victims' group Entraide et Solidarite (Mutual Aid and Solidarity).

"Instead of trying to pin the blame on the pilots, We want this trial to be that of Airbus and Air France. We expect an impartial and exemplary trial so that this never happens again, and that as a result, the two defendants will make safety their priority instead of only profitability."Daniele Lamy, President, Entraide et Solidarite (Mutual Aid and Solidarity)

But Nelson Faria Marinho, president of the Brazilian association of victims' relatives, said, "I'm not expecting anything from this trial." His 40-year-old son, also named Nelson, perished on his way to an oil industry job in Angola.

"Even if there is a conviction, who will be punished? The CEOs? They have changed at Airbus and Air France a long time ago," he told AFP during an interview at his Rio home.

Despite having travelled to France 18 times to meet authorities and investigators, Faria Marinho will not be at the trial. He will be represented by former French pilot Gerard Arnoux, who has advised several of the victims' families and wrote a book titled "Rio-Paris Is Not Responding: AF447, the Crash That Should Not Have Happened".

"The French government isn't going to pay for the trip, and the tickets are much too expensive. I'm retired and don't have the resources," he said. "But if I could, I would."

The first commercial Boeing 737 MAX flight appeared to have resumed flying into China for the first time in almost four years, in what would be a major breakthrough for the US planemaker’s best-selling jet.

Returning the 737 MAX to the skies in China and resuming deliveries are critical steps toward helping rebuild Boeing’s balance sheet, which was battered by the lengthy Max grounding and the Covid pandemic.

Chinese airlines haven’t flown the plane commercially since two fatal crashes involving the model in October 2018 and March 2019 in Indonesia and Ethiopia respectively that combined killed 346 people.

Boeing 737 MAX flight lands in China, first after almost four years.

A MIAT Mongolian Airlines flight operating a round-trip between Ulaanbaatar to Guangzhou landed in the southern Chinese city at 8:18am local time on Monday, according to FlightRadar24 data.

MIAT, Mongolian Airlines has the flight scheduled and listed to go again, using the 737 MAX on Oct. 17 and Oct. 24. Both trips are available for booking on the carrier’s website.

“We continue to work with global regulators and our customers to safely return the 737 Max to service worldwide.”Boeing said in an e-mailed statement.

Flight OM235 from Mongolian capital Ulaanbaatar landed in Guangzhou on Monday morning, according to FlightRadar24.

On 14th September, Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) organized a specific Aircraft Evaluation Group meeting about the Boeing 737 MAX in Zhoushan, Zhejiang Province, the purpose of the meeting was to review the aircraft training specifications of the 737 Series after the relevant improvements.

Boeing officials met with China’s aviation regulator, to review pilot training criteria for its MAX jetliners, in a sign the planemaker is getting closer to securing all the necessary approvals to get the MAX back up and flying in China, the last remaining major aviation market not to permit its resumption.

The 737 MAX has returned to commercial service in almost every market globally, with the exceptions of China and Russia, which is now sanctioned over its invasion of Ukraine.

With inputs from msn.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/boeing-737-max-flight-by-mongolian-airline-lands-in-china-flight-tracking-sites/ar-AA12M91o?li=BBnbklE

The global aviation sector will strive to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, as per a long-term collective aspirational goal of UN aviation body, International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO).

UN aviation agency members on Friday set the year 2050 as their goal for achieving net-zero carbon emissions for air travel, an industry often criticized for its outsized role in climate change.

Members of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) have agreed to set the year 2050 as their target, in a milestone agreement that starts the clock on the industry.

https://twitter.com/icao/status/1578407619227795456?s=20&t=-lyY90BvzlY5JFBEOgokUA

Achieving net zero emissions will be a huge challenge. The aviation industry must progressively reduce its emissions while accommodating the growing demand of a world that is eager to fly.

To be able to serve the needs of the ten billion people expected to fly in 2050, at least 1.8 gigatons of carbon must be abated in that year. Moreover, the net zero commitment implies that a cumulative total of 21.2 gigatons of carbon will be abated between now and 2050.

Lowering of carbon emissions will need multiple measures, including the accelerated adoption of new and innovative aircraft technologies, streamlined flight operations, and the increased production and deployment of sustainable aviation fuels.

Also read - High demand for private jets throws carbon emission goals talks out of the window

Global aviation sector aims net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.

A key immediate enabler is the ICAO’s Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA).

The air transportation industry has faced growing pressure to deal with its outsized role in the climate crisis.

Currently responsible for 2.5 percent to 3 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions, the sector's switch to renewable fuels is proving difficult, even if the aeronautics industry and energy companies are seeking progress.

Also read - With net-zero emissions at the top of the agenda, cleaner fuels and efficiency just might not cut it

In November 2012, Nepal Airlines signed a commercial agreement with the Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC), a Chinese government undertaking, to procure six aircraft—two 56-seater MA60s and four 17-seater Y12es.

As part of the deal, China provided grant and concessional loan assistance worth 408 million Chinese yuan to purchase the six aircraft.

Out of the total aid money, a grant worth 180 million yuan went to pay for one MA60 and one Y12e aircraft; and a loan worth 228 million yuan was used to purchase one MA60 and three Y12e aircraft.

In July 2020, the airline's management announced that it would ground all Chinese-made airplanes.

The delivery of the rest of the Chinese aircraft was stalled for years after issues appeared in the first batch of planes that arrived in 2014.

These issues included lack of pilots, lack of instructor pilots, lack of spare parts and lack of engineers trained to maintain them.

Except for operating services to a few airports in the Tarai plains, these aircraft spent more time on the ground than in the air, and they were becoming a financial stress to the debt-ridden national flag carrier.

Besides maintenance issues and lack of spare parts, Nepal Airlines couldn’t find pilots to fly the aircraft, and there was no sense in keeping them anymore.

The Chinese planes have been grounded for more than two years.

The Finance Ministry is the owner of the planes and Nepal Airlines is the operator. The ministry gave the green signal to Nepal Airlines to lease out or sell the planes in March 2021.

All these five turboprops are in storage at Kathmandu airport and are available for inspection on an “as is, where is” basis, according to the notice published by Nepal Airlines on its website.

Only airlines with a valid air operator’s certificate and at least one aircraft in their in-house fleet are eligible to bid.

With inputs from The Nation.

The first crewed eVTOL test flights in Italian airspace have been accomplished successfully by Aeroporti di Roma (ADR), Atlantia, UrbanV, and one of the pioneers of urban air mobility (UAM)- Volocopter. The Leonardo da Vinci International Airport in Fiumicino, Italy has a mobility ecosystem built up when these experiments were conducted there.

The partners have started operating the first fully operational vertiport in Italy, marking an important step toward the anticipated introduction of advanced air mobility (AAM) services in Rome by 2024.

ALSO READ - Urban air mobility | Advanced air mobility- history, market forecasts and myths debunked

The vertiport at Fiumicino airport

Aeroporti di Roma, Volocopter, UrbanV, and Atlantia carried out the nation's first advanced air mobility (AAM) testing vertiport presentation on October 6 and hosted an interactive booking process on Volocopter's VoloIQ digital platform. The first eVTOL prototype was unveiled in Italy a year before the test.

The first AAM flights between Fiumicino Airport and the city of Rome are scheduled to begin flying by 2024, and substantial advancements have been made in in-flight technology, vertiport design, and the legislation required to make this possible.

Today’s event represents a significant milestone in our path as pioneers in testing and implementing Advanced Air Mobility in Italy, and in playing our part in making urban transports increasingly sustainable and seamless. The opening of the first vertiport in Italy and the first crewed eVTOL flight represent a remarkable step towards the activation of the first AAM routes between Fiumicino airport and Rome city centre by the end of 2024, ahead of the Jubilee, to offer our contribution to our city and our institutions in welcoming the international tourist flows with a ground-breaking, innovative serviceMarco Troncone — CEO of Aeroporti di Roma

After receiving all necessary approvals from the Italian authorities, the civil aviation authority (Ente Nazionale per l'Aviazione Civile - ENAC), and the provider of air traffic control services (Ente Nazionale Assistenza al Volo - ENAV), whose role remains central in defining the future AAM ecosystem, Volocopter's test pilot on board the electric Volocopter 2X flew 40 km/h for 5 minutes at 40 meters height along a "figure 8" flight Volocopter's electric air taxi is made for rapid, emission-free passenger flights over congested roads and waterways in urban settings, representing Atlantia and Aeroporti di Roma's intention to take the lead in advancing aviation's innovative and sustainable future.

The vertiport

After the flight, UrbanV, a firm founded by ADR along with Aéroports de la Côte d'Azur, Aeroporto di Venezia (SAVE), and Aeroporto Guglielmo Marconi di Bologna, presented a vertiport demonstration. International vertiport design and construction have been the goal. The VoloIQ, another aspect of potential AAM services, was looked at in this context.

ALSO READ - Vertiports – the key to UAM/AAM infrastructure | How are they different from heliports?

The urban air mobility ecosystem's backbone, allowing digital access to every working process, is this digital platform. VoloIQ will assist and streamline UAM/AAM operation scale-up in cities all over the world, from flight operations to booking and beyond, to complement the physical infrastructure (vertiports) and the whole ecosystem in the digital sphere.

It is situated within the regulatory sandbox authorized by ENAC and was created by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency's (EASA) "Prototype Technical Specifications for the Design of VFR Vertiports for Operation with Manned VTOL-Capable Aircraft Certified in the Enhanced Category".

Its electric system was built to enable the testing of various eVTOL charging systems, and it is intended to host a variety of tests for both flight and ground operations (turnaround, battery charge, etc). (battery swaps, fast charging, etc.).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4iTg4az0yc

This test vertiport is particularly significant for UrbanV, representing our first step towards establishing a network of vertiports in the Rome region. In close synergy with all of our partners in this new mobility ecosystem, we are making progress towards positioning Rome as one of the first European cities to offer seamless connections with electric aircraft, leveraging the expertise we have developed in designing and building ground infrastructure for advanced air mobilityCarlo Tursi — CEO of UrbanV

The infrastructure, which covers about 5,500 square meters, has been sized to ensure compatibility with the primary eVTOLs that will be certified in the upcoming years and consists of a parking area, a covered hangar measuring 20 x 20 x 6 meters, and various rooms, including an office, a warehouse, and a space for battery charging. The FATO (Final Approach and Takeoff Area) is used for landing and takeoff operations.

We’ve come from a signed partnership agreement and event series kickoff to a flight test at an operational airport in a little less than a year. With that, we are bringing together all the key stakeholders and regulators to witness this mobility service and technology with their own eyesChristian Bauer — Volocopter’s Chief Commercial Officer and Interim Chief Financial Officer

Recent research by the EASA and the McKinsey Center for Future Mobility has determined that the estimated market size of UAM in Europe - including R&D, vehicle manufacturing, operations, and infrastructure construction - will be about €4.2 billion by that year, with the capacity to create or sustain about 90,000 jobs (excluding manufacturing jobs).

Rome is one of Italy's best cities for the deployment of UAM/AAM services, according to the EASA study, which focuses on the diversity of societal benefits that UAM will have for Europe.

SOURCE: VoloCopter

COVER: VoloCopter