The environment ministry has objected to the fact that around 115 hectares (or 7.3 per cent) of total land for the project is mangrove forest. It recently conveyed this to both Cidco and the civil aviation ministry. The matter is now with the prime minister's office. Cidco Vice-Chairman and Managing Director GS Gill said the corporation had sought an appointment with the environment ministry officials to make another presentation on the project in the next 10 days.
Ticket prices do fall 10-15 per cent every summer. But, this year, the fares have fallen 30-60 per cent. Some airlines have decided to top these rock bottom fares with freebies like free hotel accommodation.
Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces, decided the welcoming staff at the group's Luxury Hotels would be draped in the rich colours and designs of the Banarasi saris. Taj had adopted three villages in Varanasi and employed 25 master weavers there for the project. It will be subsequently replicated at all 10 Luxury Hotels of the group across the country for duty managers and front office staff. For the Taj sari, a weaver is paid Rs 1800 directly, without a middleman.
Boeing had announced a further six-month delay for the first flight and initial deliveries of its 787 Dreamliner programme to Air India. A high-level Boeing team will discuss the fallouts with IA, including compensation in the coming week. The revised delays will have a significant impact on IA's growth plan and financial aspect. Apart from compensation, Boeing will also have to factor in the impact of the delay on the carrier's growth plan when computing for the same.
With both the Indian and Chinese governments agreeing to a full fifth freedom last month, the doors have opened for Indian carriers to tap the lucrative United States west coast market through the Middle Kingdom as well as tap China's growing tourism market. This will give Indian carriers the ballast to challenge established foreign carriers like Singapore Airlines and Cathay, which have picked most of the India-US traffic.
"The markets do not remain the same forever but still, anything that makes sense to Jet Airways' shareholders will make sense for the promoters as well," Goyal said. Together with JetLite, formerly Air Sahara, which Jet bought last year, the airline controls over 29 per cent of the Indian domestic market.
Private carrier Jet Airways is expected to further consolidate its international operations into a major revenue grosser in FY09, to overcome the growing turbulence in the domestic sector. The general economic scenario does not bode well for capacity expansion on domestic routes, with some of these struggling on account of overcapacity, and only yesterday some airlines were pushed to hike fares to make up for higher aviation turbine fuel prices.
After Frankfurt, the airline may opt for Munich as its other base in Europe. "Air India would ideally want to have both Frankfurt and Munich as European hubs as the airline does not want to vacate Frankfurt and also wants to establish Munich as a hub for operations after network expansion plans come through," said an Air-India official close to the development, not wanting to be quoted.
With the Bangalore airport announcing stiff user developmental fee on domestic passengers, low-cost carriers JetLite, SpiceJet and Simplifly Deccan (formerly Air Deccan) have decided to drastically cut their flight schedules to the city and other new airports like Hyderabad.
