Edits, Columns, Features and analysis3
Apartheid in the sky
EDITORIAL
Times of India
Aug 28, 2006
The detention of 12 Indian passengers on a Mumbai-bound flight by Dutch security agencies and their subsequent humiliation is not a one-off incident. A few days earlier, two British Asian students were taken off a flight after co-passengers complained about their ‘suspicious’ behaviour.
What this amounts to is racial stereotyping of the worst order. Anyone who looks Asian and sports a beard is now likely to be regarded as a potential terrorist. Leaving aside the fact that such a policy is blatantly racist, it is also unlikely to hit the intended target the suicide bomber.
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Budget carriers continue to increase market share
Sudhir Chowdhary
Financial Express
Aug 28, 2006
Fortunately for Indian travelers, today’s low-cost carriers — Air Deccan, SpiceJet, GoAir and IndiGo — are continuing to grow rapidly and expected to attain 70% of domestic market by 2010. The key to a low-cost carriers’ success is a right mix of providing travel basics to flyers while running on a lean and focused operating model.
Sounds simple till you consider some challenges the carriers face — rising fuel (ATF) prices, high taxation, fees and security costs levied by the government and regulatory agencies, increased competition from regular carriers and so on. Moreover, as budget carriers look to evolve their business models and differentiate their services to travelers, their margins suffer from rapid growth.
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Blackening our conscience
Vir Sanghvi
Hindustan Times
Aug 27, 2006
Two things need to be said about the incident on board a Northwest Airlines flight from Amsterdam to Bombay. One of them is self-evident and will, I think, meet with widespread agreement. The second is as self-evident but will, I suspect, be greeted with greater scepticism.
The first is that, no matter what spin the Dutch authorities and the US marshals on board who ordered the plane to be turned back give to the incident, what happened was clearly an instance of racism and religious prejudice.
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INTERVIEW : Captain GR Gopinath
‘Investment in aircraft production would add impetus to the economy’
Financial Express
Aug 27, 2006
The India’s revolutionary low cost airline, Air Deccan, a part of Deccan Aviation Limited commenced its operations as a chartered aircraft service provider. Today, the company is India’s largest private heli-charter company. In the airlines business the company has emerged as one of the fastest growing airlines company in India. The company’s managing director Captain GR Gopinath is a graduate of the National Defence Academy. He spoke with Jitendra Kumar Gupta of The Financial Express. Excerpts:
What is your view on Indian aviation sector and low cost airlines in particular?
The Indian aviation industry has been growing rapidly in the last few years, consequent to the opening up of the scheduled domestic air transport services to private companies coupled with better economic growth and increased purchasing power. The opening up of international routes for private domestic carriers, the introduction of open skies regime, the substantial increase in flight entitlements under bilateral agreements and initiation of private sector participation in the development and management of airports has also led to the rapid expansion of the Indian aviation sector.
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Racial Profiling Pulls Indians From Plane
Praful Bidwai (internews)
OhmyNews International, South Korea
Aug 27, 2006
The 12 Indian men, who were arrested and detained for 30 hours by Dutch authorities following a security alert on a Northwest Airlines from Amsterdam to Mumbai earlier this week, were victims of racial prejudice. All of them are Muslims and none had the remotest connection with a terrorist group or criminal activities.
The Indian government has protested to the Netherlands against the “objectionable” treatment meted out to its citizens. It summoned the Dutch ambassador to India on Friday night and told him that the incident was not in keeping with “friendly relations between the Netherlands and India.” India’s foreign affairs spokesperson said “the response that is required [from the Dutch] is self-evident,” clearly meaning that an apology is due.
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‘The sound of boots was terrifying’
Daily News & Analysis
Augt 27, 2006
After a 22-hour long wait for the Northwest Airlines flight at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport, I was tired. All I wanted to do was to get on to the flight and sleep all through the journey to Mumbai. I even called my wife, Farheen (25), and asked her to cook some special Indian food.
The security procedure at the airport was tedious, especially the personal interviews where 12 of us were asked pointed questions about our work and what we had been doing for the past month. They also confiscated mobile phones and sim cards belonging to all of us. Once on the plane, we found a number of seats vacant, and decided to make ourselves comfortable. A number of us exchanged seats, as did many of the other passengers.
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Flying in the time of fear
Sanchita Sharma | urban gypsy
Hindustan Times
Aug 26, 2006
If you put aside having to place your passport and tickets in a ziploc bag and then take off your shoes and jacket for security checks, you might just discover the lighter side of travel in the shadow of terror. The alert following the arrest of would-be bombers in London on August 10 resulted in a blanket ban on all electronic devices and liquids in carry-on baggage.
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‘The situation could
soon be difficult to manage
Rashmee Roshan Lall
Times of India
Aug 26, 2006
London: Asians travelling abroad are repeatedly complaining of harassment.
A case in point. Ethnic Indian Member of the European Parliament (MEP) Claude Moraes’ has made loud protests that he is repeatedly treated as a suspected terrorist while travelling, having twice been detained and subjected to a full body search at airports for the temerity to “travel while Asian”.
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Turn on those landing lights
Ravi Teja Sharma
Business Standard
Aug 25, 2006
Tourism Chartered planeloads of tourists landing in Jaipur? Sooner than you think, perhaps.
Chartered flights full of tourists have been touching down in India for quite some years now. Goa is a big destination. Kerala is catching on too. Agra got one chartered planeload last year.
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Mushrooming travel portals do roaring business
C Jyanthi & Rouhan Sharma
Financial Express
Aug 26, 2006
August 13 and August 23 will go down as important dates in Indian air ticketing industry. Both dates saw Air Deccan, India’s biggest discount airline and among the top three carriers in the country, releasing nearly half a million tickets for the September-January period. The rush to lap up these inexpensive tickets ended in confusion not only on the airline’s online counter but also on the country’s leading air ticket portals. Most websites hung and phone lines were jammed for over an hour.
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‘World’s strictest airport security’
Peter Mandel
Providence Journal, US
Aug 22, 2006
Srinagar: The soldirer and airport-security guy are pointing, pointing. What do they want? Not my camera. Not my car clicker. It’s my pen. A Paper Mate soft grip — see-through plastic, flattened cap. Also, I have no clue why, my wallet. They ignore the I.D. and get to work on trying to strip out the little pockets that hold cards. “Hey,” I say. This brings instant reinforcements. Sullen faces. Khaki turbans. Guns under armpits, nightsticks stuck to hips.
My plane is loading but I’m taken out of line. I have a wallet thought: These guys need a bribe?
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India’s great low fare spiral
Govindraj Ethiraj
Business Standard
Aug 22, 2006
New Delhi:A few days ago, a senior airline executive narrated this discussion his colleagues had with the Air Traffic Control officials. The meeting’s objective was to explore ways of reducing airport delays at Mumbai and Delhi.
Why, the airline asked, did ATC want such long gaps between take-offs? After all, most modern airports allowed lift-off intervals of under a minute. ATC Mumbai, for instance, insists on intervals spanning several minutes. With just one runway, obviously sequential delays increase.
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Commercial Aviation in India – The HR Challenge
IAG Blog
Aug 21, 2006
India’s airlines are growing fast. They are facing large-scale people problems – a critical shortage of skilled people to run highly complex businesses. The public sector is of little help in improving matters.
The Indian airline sector is experiencing a shortage of flying talent. Most of Indian airlines are hiring pilots from abroad. Cabin crew finishing schools are mushrooming, but training quality remains a concern because demand is rushing training. New airline entrants are poaching talent from existing airlines, and retention is becoming a problem. It is not just pilots or cabin crew, even ex-pat management attrition is an issue.
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A ticket to ride
Deepak Khanna
Business Standard
Aug 22, 2006
New Delhi: What low cost airlines can learn from the Indian railways.
You have to hand it to the low cost airlines — they have truly democratised air travel and in the bargain, generated hundreds of jobs, directly and indirectly.
But there’s still a trick or two the low cost carriers could learn from the Indian Railways. Here’s one that could help them move into a new orbit in terms of customer relationship management. What’s more, it will help the airlines make some extra money, too.
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`Aviation geek’ giving airplanes a new lease on life
Ameet Sachdev
Chicago Tribune, United States
Aug 20, 2006
When Delta Air Lines entered bankruptcy last year, the Atlanta carrier looked to jettison some old airplanes that no longer were fuel efficient. Up stepped Brian Hollnagel.
The brash, 33-year-old Chicago native smelled a chance to acquire some cheap jets and make money by flipping them. Hollnagel bought 26 Boeing 737-200s. While the 20-year-old planes are ancient by domestic-airline standards, they still have some useful flying life left in them.
He already has found a home for many of the planes, including an oil company that needed a plane to ferry workers to Russia and Japan from Sakhalin Island.
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Low-cost airlines plan to woo customers with upgraded facilities
Gouri Shah
DNA India
Aug 20, 2006
As the battle for the skies hots up, low-cost carriers are readying themselves for more than just price wars. And understandably so, as industry experts believe the outcome of the battle will be determined not just by “historically low†fares b
ut also punctuality and the quality of service offered by the airlines
Battle for the skies takes off on ‘quality’
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Indian aviation flying low- Why ?
Moneycontrol.com
Aug 19, 2006
It was the hottest sector last year, but no more. The Indian Aviation industry has hit an air pocket even though the global aviation industry is flying high after 9/11.
CNBC-TV18 finds the poor performance of Indian carriers has forced many new airlines to ground plans even before take off.From hot to not – in just one year the Indian aviation industry is crashing out of favour.
Jet’s Rs 95 crore profit for the first quarter last year is down to a Rs 45 crore loss this year and Air Deccan lost a total Rs 35 crore in the 12 months up to March. Even SpiceJet lost close to Rs 41 crore.So why is India flying low?
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Introducing the spice of flight
Express TravelWorld
Aug 18, 2006
A low-cost model fused with a sophisticated product has made SpiceJet the inevitable candidate for leadership in India’s fastest growing segment of domestic aviation, finds Bhisham Mansukhani
India’s domestic aviation space was regarded with the courtesy of a somewhat cottage industry until the sudden burst that witnessed a combination of government reform and private enterprise, making it virtually a household subject and eventually a household option of travel – a far cry from its initial elitist stigma.
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“We owe allegiance to airlines and travel agents”
Express TravelWorld
Aug 18, 2006
Galileo CEO Bruce Hanna’s initial months in office have been interesting enough for him to believe that the Indian travel market is currently at it is best stage of evolution, he tells Bhisham Mansukhani
What is level of evolution of the Indian travel market vis a vis the global scenario?
India is perhaps in the best evolution stage, which is one of learning from other markets’ best practices and experiences. India is poised to leap ahead of what has happened in other markets. For instance, we are currently making a transaction from paper tickets to full e-tickets. We also have the opportunity here of improving on other market experiences, like Galileo’s dynamic e-ticket that clearly indicates the airline logo reassuring travellers that their itinerary is official and the e-ticket in hand works!
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