India's pioneer of low-cost carriers GR Gopinath is in talks with Cochin International Airport Limited, India's first privately operated airport, to set up a joint venture for dedicated cargo facilities across the country.
National carrier Air India's strategy to cut full-service flights and replace them with low-cost services by Air India Express on its West Asian routes has backfired. The passenger load factor of the flag carrier's low-cost subsidiary for West Asia has fallen a steep 11 percentage points over the last six months as a result of competition from new low-cost entrants and fare wars by incumbents. The PLF on the Dubai-India route fell from 83 to 78 per cent in the same period.
The government is coming out with a policy for setting up greenfield airports for general aviation in the next three to four months. It is also planning to introduce an air cargo policy soon.The broad contours of the policy for general aviation, which includes private charters and corporate jet operations, are more or less in line with the merchant airport policy.
The Delhi government has requested airlines to come up with a detailed note on how decrease in sales tax on aviation turbine fuel (ATF) will lead to higher offtake of fuel from Delhi airport, before taking any measure for reduction in taxes. Airlines have been repeatedly making representations to the state government asking for a reduction in sales tax on ATF from the current 20 per cent to 4 per cent.
Sometime in the second half of this year, Vijay Mallya-controlled Kingfisher Airlines will start operating chartered flights with two helicopters in and around Mumbai. Later, it will also press into service a handful of very light jets.
The govt is likely to propose to the EU that it will validate security procedures in its airports before allowing passengers to carry duty-free goods to India. This is in retaliation to a similar proposal made by EU last year, which led to protests from companies operating duty-free shops in India. EU officials would have to validate the security systems at Indian airports before allowing transit passengers to buy at duty-free shops here, resulting in dispute between the two.
With major predictions of a deceleration in domestic air traffic, airlines are lowering seat capacity by reducing the number of flights or dropping fares in order to fill up their seats. They have also begun the process of reducing the number of aircraft that they were planning to to induct in their fleet as part of their expansion plans. Management consultancy firm Ernst & Young recently estimated that domestic traffic would grow by 24.16 per cent this year
Two of the country's top business houses -- the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group and the Subhash Chandra-controlled Essel Group -- have come together to set up gaming centres across the country. Groundwork for these centres will begin on April 1. Chandra's E-City Media has struck an alliance with Zapak Digital Entertainment to this effect.Globally, gaming is one of the leading entertainment businesses with the industry size pegged at around $35 billion today.
The Mumbai airport has decided not to allow additional flights this summer, thanks to infrastructure bottlenecks. This is likely to spoil the expansion plans of all carriers, including private players like Kingfisher, Simplifly Deccan and Jet Airways. However, airlines have been allowed to re-apply for additional flights as & when they get delivery of new aircraft during the summer. Kingfisher had to shelve 11 additional flights out of Mumbai while Deccan has rescheduled too.
Aviation experts say the existing airports cannot be viable.
"We are definitely planning a multi-modal connectivity to certain places apart from destinations we operate. Though we are primarily looking at railways, we might also look at other means of transport such as roads," said Edgardo Badiali, CEO, GoAir to Business Standard. When a passenger books his ticket on the GoAir website, he will also have an option to book a railway ticket for a place of his/her interest close to the destination at the same time.
With carriers such as Jet Airways and Kingfisher Airlines all set to battle it out on international routes, leading expatriates with years of experience in global airlines are now being wooed for top management posts.
Regional airlines that have received approval include MDLR, Jagson Airlines, Star Aviation and Zav Air. Others like Mega Airways and Premier Airlines are still awaiting approval.
With SpiceJet and Simplifly Deccan all set to give away similar throw-away offers and GoAir looking for similar tie-ups with travel portals, air travellers can expect around 25,000 such cheap-fare tickets on offer up to April 15.
At this price, the ticket would be about 65 per cent cheaper than other return fares.
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The high tax regime makes aircraft service above 50 per cent more expensive than international rates and might spell trouble for over a dozen MRO projects -- several of them involving foreign direct investment that have been announced so far.
On long-haul routes to Bangalore and Hyderabad, new airports being built under public-private partnerships, the increase could be roughly Rs 1,000. In Delhi and Mumbai, which are being modernised under PPPs, the increase could be a smaller Rs 300 on similar routes because these airports do not charge development fees.
As high-speed Internet access invades the average household, digital publishing is evolving into big business.
The government recently allowed the foreign carriers to have a 74 per cent stake in Indian cargo carriers. A total of 49 per cent FDI was earlier allowed in the cargo sector, but no investment by a foreign airline was permitted.
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