Most crucial meeting to come for AI, IA Airlines

The most awaited meeting is going to be scheduled the coming week, where next week could be a crucial one for airlines in India with government holding two meetings. While the committee of secretaries headed and cabinet secretary K M Chandrasekhar will discuss the long-pending issue of allowing foreign airlines to invest in desi ones, the whole team is gonna decide on funding on AI.

Vijay Mallya’s Kingfisher words are gonna come up live soon, where he was demanding about foreign airlines be allowed to invest in fund-starved Indian airlines.
The govt has so far not taken a decision about this and  headed by Naresh Goyal’s Jet, has been opposing this on the ground that in the current environment no player can expect a good valuation. However, the trickiest of all seems to be the question of funding AI and saving it from a collapse.

Top 15 Global Airlines in a glance

Before telling about the ranking of each airlines, Its always good to learn how calculations are made in an Airline Industry,

Note: A passenger kilometre is a unit to measure traffic by multiplying the number of passengers by the number of kilometres each passenger is flown. So accordingly IATA has given us a stats with the top 15 Global Airlines.

Top Airlines

Rank: 1
Airline: American Airlines
Millions: 222,760

Rank: 2
Airline: United Airlines
Millions: 191,932

Rank: 3
Airline: *Delta Air Lines
Millions: 166,209

Rank: 4
Airline: Continental Airlines
Millions: 130,965

Rank: 5
Airline: **Air France
Millions: 128,914

Rank: 6
Airline: Lufthansa
Millions: 122,091

Rank: 7
Airline: *Northwest Airlines
Millions: 117,357

Rank: 8
Airline: British Airways
Millions: 113,273

Rank: 9
Airline: Singapore Airlines
Millions: 90,900

Rank: 10
Airline: Emirates
Millions: 90,529

Rank: 11
Airline: Japan Airlines
Millions: 85,102

Rank: 12
Airline: Qantas
Millions: 82,124

Rank: 13
Airline: China Southern Airlines
Millions: 80,984

Rank: 14
Airline: Cathay Pacific
Millions: 74,987

Rank: 15
Airline: **KLM
Millions: 74,496

 

Paramount Airways planning to buy Star aviation

Chennai-based Paramount Airlines has sent feelers to a south-based regional carrier, Star Aviation, for a possible acquisition of the airline. Star Aviation got an operating licence in 2007, but has yet to start any flights.

“We are looking at acquisitions to expand and we are talking with Chennai-based Star Aviation,” said a senior executive of Paramount Airways.

Star Aviation Pvt Ltd, part of a Dubai-headquartered conglomerate, the ETA Star group, did not comment for the questions raised.

Paramount is the only airline in India to offer full business class service at prices comparable to the normal economy class fares of other airlines. It flies to 16 destinations in the country and is been doing a great job at the present scenario.

The airline, which started operations in October 2005, operates five planes — two Embraer 170 and three Embraer 175. Established by the Madurai-based textile company, the Paramount Group, it has ordered 10 A321-200 aircraft for short-haul international routes to be launched next year, when it completes the mandatory five year pre-requisite to fly abroad.

The source added that acquisition made sense for the airline, as Star Aviation has a fleet of three Embraer aircraft, which will add to Paramount’s existing strength.

There were reports that Paramount was buying GoAir, which has eight aircraft and 5.8 per cent market share, in a cash and equity deal, paying Rs 100-150 crore in cash and a stake of 7-8 per cent in the Paramount Group to the Wadias, who own GoAir. But GoAir has denied all such reports of talks.

Worst is over for Aviation Industry : Indian Aviation

Worst has been over for Indian Aviation

A good news came out from  IATA (International Air Transport Association) where the worst has been over for the aviation Industry, but but it will take a few more years for the sector to completely recover from the crisis. “The worst is over, but the industry has to go a long way for a complete recovery,” Giovanni Bisignani, director general and chief executive of the International Air Transport Association (IATA),

The stats according to them says that, it will take three to four years to reach the level it was at before the crisis hit the industry.”  The maximum losses has been calculated in the aviation sector and the result was  highest in Europe at $3.8 billion, followed by $3.6 billion in Asia and $2.6 billion in the US. The Indian aviation industry losses are estimated to be around $1.5 billion this year, The losses will be mostly from Air India.”
Bisignani recalled that it took three-four years for the US aviation sector to return to the growth path after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
“Now, we are facing an economic slowdown worldwide. Still we are hopeful that the industry could bounce back in three-four years,” he added.

Bookings cheers aviation industry level high

Diwali seems to have brought the much-needed cheer to the aviation industry, which was worrying about dwindling passenger loads.

Travel industries are very happy with the bookings which happened for diwali ,industry observers hope the aviation sector is on the road to recovery. The cheap fares advertised by most airlines two months prior to the festive season contributed most to the upswing, experts say. “The fares, if one was booking two months in advance, ranged anywhere between 1,600-2,500 for most destinations. Also, there were no hidden charges in these fares. This made flyers grab the opportunity at the earliest,” said Rajesh Rateria, managing director, Cirrus Travels, adding that most of his clients had made bookings well in advance. “No wonder, most airlines are flying packed now,” he added. “Till about two years ago, passenger traffic was growing by 25-30% annually. That growth is still a far cry. But considering that people are now more inclined to travel than they were an year ago, significant growth can be expected,” said Prakash.

Civil Aviation Minister to meet the AI Staff Unions tomorrow

Praful Patel Minister for Civil aviation

Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel is looking forward to meet the Air India Staff Unions including the pilots to completely discuss about the rationalization of the incentives and allowances in line with the airlines turn around plans been going on.  Sources say that there is a meeting which is gonna be scheduled soon to discuss the various problems within all the departments.

This meeting is been raised due to the major backdrop of the 5 day long stir by the Executive pilots after the management suggested to cut pays upto 50 percent in their PLI ( Productivity Linked Incentives) and the flying allowances.

The proposal was deferred after the employees including pilots and engineers, vehemently opposed any cut, maintaining that the staffs are completely not responsible for the mounting AI losses. There are 14 unions in the state-run airline representing engineers, pilots, cabin crew, officers and other employees.

Prock-Schauer ( CEO) Retires from Jet airways

Wolfgang Prock-Schauer, Austrian-born outgoing CEO of Jet Airways, India’s largest private carrier by number passengers carried, had made Mumbai his home , for the past six and a half years he has made a remarkable change in Jet. Before that he had spent 26 years in top positions at Austrian Airlines and Star Alliance. And now he had headed to british midlands to join the UK-based carrier as the new CEO.

The GOOD TIMES : he said he saw four profitable years during his tenure with the airline. And 2005 was a remarable year for him where the company came out with a huge profit where it was able to increase the fleet. It has expanded from 40 aircrafts in 2005 to 110 today.”

The CHALLENGING TIMES :“One of the most difficult times I faced was when we were in expansion mode. In 2008, we were all set to expand – our revenues, fleets, routes, etc — and the economy slowed down.” 2007 & 2008 were the most worst years that he saw in his experience.

Govt INTERVENTION NEEDED: They (government) must look in into the high input costs, they are taxes,ATF and airport charges, lso, the government needs to develop world class aviation infrastructure to bring it up to the international benchmark. ATC (air traffic controller) should be restructured to reduce the circling time of aircraft in the Indian airspace.”

Indian aviation sector has gone through tough times but outlook bright: The main problem according to him was.. India has expanded fast on this industry and so industry being saddled with excess capacity and so deep losses have been formed. However, Prock-Schauer is leaving on an optimistic note:  “In a few years, the sector is meant to grow. India will continue to grow. This is a key emerging market and it will soon rise to global standards. Things will work out if they are done in the right manner.”

Pilots end strike, Air India started Operations

NACIL started operations on thursday after its striking pilots reported back at work, with nearly all of its morning flights taking off on schedule.Passengers at several airports across the country were surprised when the staff of the carrier apologised for the inconvenience caused to them because of the pilots’ stir and some even got roses from the carrier.  A senior official said that, this is some thing to woo back the passengers and it was also on the anvil.

Air India travellers got a relief on Wedneday when the pilots of Air India ended their five-day-old agitation after an assurance over payment of allowances from Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel. Captain V.K. Bhalla, a senior executive pilot who was spearheading the strike told the press that he recieved a official communication from the civil aviation minister, Praful patel saying that He has himself assured us that there will be no salary cuts, The strike by Air India pilots had begun Saturday with 180 pilots reporting sick to protest a cut in their productivity-linked incentives.

Air India has cut the PLI (Productivity Linked Incentives) for Air India Executive Pilots

Air India seems to have a frustrating time in this fiscal year 2009. As we all know that he airline is already dropping down because of the very low passengers filling up the seats for them. The National Aviation Company Ltd, or Nacil, which runs state-owned Air India is in turnmoil over pilots strike. There is a section in Air India called the Executive Pilots, There was a sudden change in the management saying that there would be stopping the (PLI) they are nothing but Productivity Linked Incentive. After cutting productivity-linked incentives (PLI) of more than 7,000 officers, Air India (AI) is now planning to cut such incentives of the remaining 23,000 mid- and lower-level unionised employees, as higher costs and unviable routes take a toll on the national carrier. According to people familiar with the development, AI has had informal negotiations with the unions. Unions have already warned AI not to cut PLI of its mid-level employees.
AI has a cost structure in which salaries and wages constituting 35% of the total operating costs. AI is targeting a reduction in employee cost of around Rs 500-800 crore. Its current annual employee cost is nearly Rs 3,000 crore.

Aviation Industry still under tough pressure, A sad session

The aviation industry is facing a tough time rite now where they haven been things working out as planned,It has sacked many many pilots and also specialized jobs in the industry says Civil Aviation Secreatory Madhavan Nambiar

Nambiar was addressing the Cochin International Airport Ltd (CIAL) aviation academy in Nedumbassery district. The aviation sector has been hit by a slowing economy triggered by the global financial slowdown, reducing business and leisure journeys of most passengers. Also costlier oil, pushed up airfares last year, are sending many passengers to trains. The Indian industry’s woes have been highlighted by a slump in passengers and have hit losses around nine billion dollars in the year 2009. Nambiar said that thousands of trained commercial pilots in India are still looking for jobs even if they have spent huge amounts of money to procure their licenses in the country. “The cumulative losses of airlines all over the world were 10 billion [dollars] and this year it is about 9 billion [dollars]. Airlines in India this year has made a loss of rupee 10,000 crores so this is the level of problem this sector is facing. We have 3,000 pilots today who are unemployed. They have spent more than 40 lakhs (rupees) to get the pilot license. So this is a very difficult time for all of us and it is a time where we have to pause, we have to introspect and see what we can do to revive this sector,” said M Madhavan Nambiar. However there is a huge demand for training in various professions like Air Traffic Controller, Nambiar said. Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan inaugurated the CIAL academy. (ANI) SEARCH