Despite private sector developer Delhi International Airport Ltd bracing for a long and foggy winter with added infrastructure, the shortage of CAT III pilots in some airlines could still mean long delays for passengers.
As the demand for air travel picks up in the smaller towns across the country, travel portals are aggressively moving into these markets outside the six metros wooing aspirant air travellers with easier booking facilities. Most of the prominent travel sites like makemytrip, yatra and cleartrip claim that the places to look at now are smaller cities like Varanasi, Surat, Chandigarh, Baroda, Ludhiana, Vizag and Coimbatore.
Miditech, the television content creation company promoted by the brother duo of Niret & Nikhil Alva is now set to expand in the international market, film production as well as reality-game shows for the small screen.
After budget carriers, the Indian skies will soon see the first low-cost charter service. Charter operator Club One Air is going to launch its domestic low-cost operations next year at prices 50 per cent below those currently charged by charters. Thus a Delhi-Kullu chartered flight, which costs Rs 60,000 per person at present, would cost Rs 30,000 once Club One Air starts flying.
With most private television channels deserting it, DD Direct Plus, the direct-to-home (DTH) company from Prasar Bharati, has become a true pubcaster carrying 34 channels of which 31 are from Doordarshan.These 31 DD-channels include 19 television channels and 12 All India Radio channels. The private channels that were recently disconnected from DD Direct Plus include Aaj Tak, Headlines Today, BBC World, Star Utsav and Akash Bangla, sources said.
BBC is likely to rope in music company Saregama as its partner for the venture. BBC Worldwide holds the DVD rights for all its drama and comedy series including Yes Minister, Yes Prime Minister, collections of Shakespeare, the Sherlock Holmes series and several classics and drama series.
Currently, the base price (Rs 5) is also the maximum retail price for pay channels in CAS areas. The biggest impact of price revision will be on the forthcoming 55-city roll out of CAS, as proposed by Trai, and also the extension of CAS in rest of the three metros.
This holiday season air travellers will not get rock-bottom prices like Re 1 or Rs 99. In all likelihood, they will have to fork out 10 per cent more for tickets than last year. SpiceJet executives said the fare war was over and average fares across the country would now go up
The cost of acquiring direct-to-home subscribers could be 70-80 per cent higher for new players like Sun Direct, Bharti and Reliance Bluemagic than the existing players like Dish TV and Tata Sky due to superior technology and expensive set top boxes
Private airport developers in Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Bangalore, say landing and parking fees account for a significant proportion of revenues, so offering these services free would be unviable.
What is more, the training period in the US academies is six months, while it can take up to two and a half years in India. According to norms laid down by the DGCA, one can get a license only after completing 200 hours of flying.
Despite adequate capacity, the India-Gulf market has been growing at a steady pace. Traffic from India to the Gulf increased by 30 per cent last year, while international traffic growth average was 15 per cent.
The move is significant as the ministry has announced its intention to set up another committee to evaluate the success of CAS in areas where it has been implemented. The committee is likely to submit its report by December.
Telecom firms like Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communications and MTNL have shown interest to start IPTV services, where television signal is carried to homes through telecom lines and broadband.
Under the new provisions, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has made it mandatory for the broadcasters to offer their channels on a-la-carte basis (individual channels) and bouquets.
Information technology (IT) solutions provider Amadeus, in a recent study, found that 60 per cent of the companies used low-cost carriers (LCCs) to fly their executives. Around 100 companies were surveyed.
Indian cable companies may lose close to $200 million (about Rs 800 crore) in foreign investments this year as companies like Macquarie, Carlyle, Providence and Liberty Global
Rupert Murdoch-promoted Star Group will take at least four years to cross the $120-million-mark in operating income that it commanded till 2006
Air India comes last among Indian full-service carriers in selling tickets through the Internet. According to the International Air Transport Association, the carrier sells 7 per cent of its tickets through the Internet.
The North-East is finally set to have its own exclusive private airline with daily flights to Guwahati, Agartala, Lilabari, Dibrugarh, Dimapur, Aizawl and Silchar among others.
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