The new domestic departure terminal 1D at the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) at New Delhi will commence operations in two phases from April 11 and April 18.

With the exception of Go Air, all airlines from the old departure terminal 1B will move to terminal 1D, along with Kingfisher Airlines who will shift from terminal 1A. Go Air will shift to terminal 1A. State carrier Air India will remain in terminal 1A.

On April 11, only Jet Airways and and its low cost subsidiary Jetlite will move to the new terminal, since they are the dominant private airline at IGIA. A week later, on April 18, after these two airlines would have settled down in the new terminal, the operations of all other airlines from terminal 1B like SpiceJet and IndiGo, along with Kingfisher will be shifted.

To provide for time to shift, the last departure from the old terminals is planned around 22:30 (10.30 pm) local on April 10 and April 17 respectively. The operations will recommence at terminal 1D at 05:00 the following mornings.

IGIA airport operator Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL) has taken the help of a team from Munich airport to assist in the shift and also conduct the operational readiness and airport transfer (ORAT).

Qatar Airways launched its Doha Houston daily non-stop service yesterday linking the world’s energy capitals and marking the carrier’s 84th destination. The new route is Qatar Airways' third daily non-stop service to the United States adding to the existing daily services to Washington D.C. and New York City.

Qatar Airways is using its two brand new Boeing 777-200 Long Range (777-200LR) aircraft, received in February on this route. Qatar Airways is placing a lot of faith in its 777-200LRs since two aircraft are required to operate this route on a daily. It has ordered a total of six LR variants and hopefully A7-BBC will join the fleet very soon.

A7-BBA performing QR077 was welcomed after its nearly 17 hour journey at Houston's George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH) with the traditional water cannon salute.

A 259 seat, two-class configuration places emphasis on space. In Business Class, there are 42 fully flat seats with a pitch of up to 78 inches in a 2–2–2 seat configuration. In Economy Class, there are 217 seats with a pitch of up to 34 inches in a 3-3-3 configuration.

Qatar Airways Chief Executive Officer Akbar Al Baker receives a proclamation from City of Houston City Controller Annise Parker designating Monday 30 March 2009 as “Qatar Airways Day” during the official arrival ceremony welcoming the inaugural Houston flight.

Images courtesy of Qatar Airways

The three month old stand-off between travel agents and Singapore Airlines on the zero commission issue shows no signs of abating. Both sides have tried to negotiate but remain apart. If anything, the dispute has entrenched both sides in to their respective stands even further.

In the latest move to pressure the Singapore national carrier, Indian travel agents will send one hundred thousand e-mails tomorrow April 1, to the Singapore Prime Minister Mr. Lee Hsien Loong, and flood his e-mail box to draw his attention to the on-going dispute.

IATA Agents Associates of India (IAAI) President Biji Eapen says

"One lakh e-mails will be sent to the Singapore Prime Minister, , by all IATA travel agencies on April 1. And this is not going to be an April Fool joke. We want to make the Prime Minister aware of the issue as well as seek his intervention in resolving the issue,"

"We have made every effort to make Singapore Airlines understand the issue in perspective and restore the agency commission like domestic air-carriers have done, but to no avail, hence the operation,"

In a move to widen the protest, the travel agents also plan to send 5,000 e-mails every day to the Indian operations heads of the 14 overseas airlines operating in India, who have resorted to zero per cent commission.

I am not sure, and I invite comments from experienced e-mail system administrators, will one hundred thousand e-mails be seen as a "Denial of Service" (DOS) attack, especially tomorrow when the Win32.Conficker worm is expected to go off, putting everyone on maximum alert.

For a background and all articles on this issue click here.

Singapore Airlines has put out a release and FAQ giving their side of the dispute.

A JetLite flight to Bangalore was delayed by 45 minutes and boarding on several flights had to be suspended for 10 minutes on Sunday evening after a passenger Saptarishi Basu, complained that his laptop had gone missing from the security hold.

Around 5 pm, Basu, who was to board the JetLite flight to Bangalore, went in for security check. On completion of his check, he found his laptop missing on the delivery side of the X-ray machine. He immediately lodged a complaint with the nearby CISF official.

5 pm is a peak travel hour, and there were over 400 passengers departing to Chennai and Delhi undergoing security checks. The CISF suspended all boardings, and started checking the CCTV footage to find the missing laptop. S.B. Hari, a Chennai bound SpiceJet passenger had mistakenly picked up Basu's laptop, thinking it as his own, since both passengers carried the same model.

The JetLite flight took off 45 minutes behind schedule. All other flights, for which boarding had been suspended, took off on time. Basu though, was not on the JetLite flight, since he had to complete formalities. He was accommodated on an Air India flight leaving at 7.55 pm.

This does raise some interesting questions to which I request comments.

• How do you protect and identify your laptop either during your travels on in public areas ?
• JetLite is a low cost carrier, and Air India a full service one. Who paid for the difference in fare ? If Basu or any of the airlines did, is it not unfair ? After all, it is Hari who picked up the wrong laptop. Should he not pay for the delays ?
  

Firstly, many thanks to all the Bangalore Aviation readers who participated in last week's trivia question - Which is the longest scheduled commercial airline flight ?

For the purpose of definition I placed four criteria for an ultra long-haul non-stop flight:

1. Operated by a commercial airliner with a definite schedule
2. No intermediate stop-over point within its scheduled duration
3. More than 12,000 km in route length
4. Over 15 hours of scheduled flying time

The correct answer is Singapore Airline's flight SQ21 from Newark to Singapore, 16,600km (10,314 miles, 8,963 nm), 18 hours 40 minutes scheduled flying time. Congratulations to Dominik from Poland for the right answer.

Incidentally Singapore Airline's SQ22 from Singapore to Newark follows a "great circle" route of 15,700 km, while SQ21 follows a "polar" route which is 16,600 km.

The second longest route is also by Singapore Airlines. SQ37 (formerly SQ19) from Los Angeles to Singapore takes 18 hours 10 minutes to complete the 14,033 km (8,771 mile, 7,577 nm) trip.

Both these flights are operated by the Airbus A340-500.

Delta operates India's longest flight, the world's fourth longest from Mumbai to Atlanta using the Boeing 777LR. DL185 takes 17 hours to cover the 13,739 km (8,537 mile, 7,395nm) journey. This is also the longest currently scheduled flight by the Boeing 777LR. For a full list click here.

On 10 December 2005, a Boeing 777-200LR completed the world's longest non-stop passenger flight, travelling eastwards from Hong Kong to London a 21,602 km (13,422 miles) in roughly 22 hours and 40 minutes. This was not a scheduled flight and although the airplane seats 301, there were only 27 passengers aboard this flight, I guess the balance weight being made up by fuel.

This is not, however, the record for longest time staying aloft for an airliner. This record is held by the 1939 Berlin-New York non stop flight of a reciprocal piston powered Focke-Wulf Fw 200 built for Lufthansa (flight time 24 hours and 56 minutes). Now that would be a very painful flight.

Image courtesy Singapore Airlines

A host of new and updated services to and from India announced this week.

Saudi Arabian Airlines (Saudia) will launch new flights to Bangalore, Lucknow, and Kozhikode (Calicut) over the next few days. The airline has commenced operating three flights a week to Lucknow; two flights a week to Bangalore from today, March 30, 2009 and four flights a week to Kozhikode, starting tomorrow March 31, 2009.

Israel's national air-carrier El Al Israel Airlines is planning to enhance connectivity between India and Israel by launching twice a week Tel Aviv-New Delhi service from summer. At present El Al Airlines operates three flights a week from Mumbai to Tel Aviv and has a commercial tie-up with national air-carrier Air India and private airline Jet Airways for onward connections to other Indian cities. A spokesman for the airline indicated that El Al was considering Bangalore as a destination, but at a later stage.

Air India has introduced a daily Delhi-Chicago flight via Frankfurt using the new 342 seat Boeing 777-300ER in a three class configuration. The Delhi-Chicago flight will actually originate from Hyderabad (the GMR-UPA connection at work?), while passengers from Kolkata and Amritsar will complete through check-in, immigration and customs formalities at their respective airports.

Turkish Airlines, has increased its seat capacity (measured in ASKs) by 24 per cent and frequencies by 12 per cent from its new summer schedule which went in to effect yesterday. New Delhi, Bombay and Chicago flights are now upgraded to a daily operation. For more details of the changes click here.

Two deliveries of "first" of aircraft model occurred on March 27th.

Airbus delivered the first A330-300 to Finnair, out of an order for eight. Powered by General Electric CF6-80E1 engines, the new aircraft is in a two class configuration 42 Business, 229 Economy for a total seating for 271 passengers.

On the same day, Boeing delivered the first 777 Freighter to Emirates SkyCargo via Dubai Aerospace Enterprise (DAE). Coincidentally, Dubai Aerospace Enterprise Capital, the leasing arm of DAE, also has a total of eight 777 Freighters on order.

Images courtesy and copyright of Airbus and Boeing

According to OAG's (Official Airline Guide) March 2009 report, the world's airlines have scheduled 4.9% fewer flights for March 2009 compared with the same month last year, with a 3.3% drop in capacity, according to the latest statistics from OAG, the world's leading aviation data business.

This is the eighth successive month of declines, and represents a reduction of more than 122,000 flights and 9.8 million seats year on year. The total number of flights scheduled to operate worldwide this month is 2.38 million, offering 289.8 million seats to travellers around the globe.

Within this global figure of all scheduled passenger flight operations, the low cost sector accounts for 419,000 flights (18%) and 61.9 million seats (21%). Frequencies and capacity in the low cost sector are both showing a marginal 0.8% decline for March 2009 compared to March 2008.

Global airline schedules for the first quarter 2009 have dropped by 6.7%, or 491,000 fewer flights, the first since the double impact of the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the burst of the dot.com bubble. Capacity for this quarter also has fallen by 4.4%, representing a reduction of 38.6 million seats.

Download the full report here.

Two Air India employees have been arrested after the vigilance department of the airline found they were allegedly involved in human trafficking and transported two women to the US showing them as their wives.

Deepak Salvi, a office superintendent, and Hemant Morade, an operator, were arrested for allegedly illegally transporting two women posing as their wives to the US and returning alone, police said.

Another accused Ejaz Ansari, a resident of Nagpada in south Mumbai, was arrested today for allegedly assisting in transporting the women.

The two airline employees had used free tickets entitled to employees' relatives to transport the women, police said.

Salvi had travelled to the US in September 2007 and Morade in April 2008 with women who posed as their wives but returned alone, prompting the vigilance department of the Air India to make inquiries, they said.

Air India officials, after confirming that the women were not the employees real wives, informed the US Consulate and sought additional information in December 2008.

US authorities confirmed the women were impostors and had travelled on fake passports to New York.

As a part of its growing offerings to woo business passengers, SpiceJet announced the launch of a breakfast menu available for sale on all flights that depart before 9.30 am. The single type continental breakfast tray is available at a discounted price of Rs 100 ($2) if it is pre-ordered at the time of booking the ticket. The same is available on board for Rs 130. The extra Rs. 30 on-board is charged to cover for wastage.

The hygienically packed breakfast trays comprise a croissant, a portion of seasonal fruits, fruit yoghurt, fruit juice, butter and jam. Guests can finish their healthy breakfast with hot tea or coffee, served with cookies, for an additional Rs. 20.

Other items that are also available for sale on board are carbonated soft drinks (sodas), Orange Juice, and pre packaged cashew nuts all for Rs. 50 ($1) each.

SpiceJet has recently introduced a “sandwich of the day” where one type of sandwich is chosen from a selection of three to offer frequent travellers variety and range.

Some Friday trivia for you to ponder.

Can you name the world's longest non-stop flight by a commercial airliner ? Longest in terms of distance and in terms of time ? Send in your answer via a comment.

And while you are pondering the answer, enjoy this rather unusual angle on a Jet Airways Boeing 737-800 Next Generation series VT-JGV.

From March 29, 2009, the start of the summer time table, Lufthansa and Brussels Airlines will deepen their cooperation and expand their existing partnership, ahead of Lufthansa's plans to take a 45 per cent stake in Brussels Airlines (subsequently to be raised to 100 per cent), and Brussels Airlines' entry in to the Star Alliance.

Codeshare flights on cross-border routes
From the end of this week, numerous Lufthansa and Brussels Airlines flights will be operated on a codeshare basis under the partner airline’s flight number. In future, Lufthansa and Brussels Airlines passengers will have access to both airlines’ route networks. Initially, this service will apply to flights between Brussels and Frankfurt, Berlin, Hamburg, Hanover, Nuremberg and Stuttgart as well as to selected European destinations. At a later date, it will be extended to other flights, particularly to and from Munich.

Frequent flyer programme partnership
The two carriers are launching a frequent flyer programme partnership. Brussels Airlines Privilege members will then be able to earn award and status miles on all flights operated by Lufthansa and also redeem any miles accumulated prior to that date for award tickets on Lufthansa flights. Conversely, Lufthansa Miles & More members will have their account credited with all the premium, status and HON Circle miles earned on flights operated by Brussels Airlines and will also be able to book award flights with Brussels Airlines.

In addition, elite status customers of both carriers will enjoy additional privileges such as more generous free baggage allowances and preferential baggage claim. Lufthansa status customers flying with Brussels Airlines will also be able to use Brussels Airlines’ Business Class check-in counters. Likewise, Brussels Airlines’ Platinum and Gold passengers will have access to Lufthansa’s First or Business Class check-in counters.

Reciprocal lounge privileges
Since mid-February, both airlines have granted their premium customers reciprocal use of the partner’s lounges. Members of Brussels Airlines’ frequent flyer programme Privilege who have attained Platinum status can thus use all Lufthansa Senator and Business Lounges worldwide. Likewise, since February, Lufthansa HON Circle members, Senators and First Class passengers have enjoyed access to Brussels Airlines lounges. In addition, from 29 March, Business Class passengers flying Brussels Airlines will be able to use all Lufthansa’s Business lounges, while Lufthansa customers will have access to Brussels Airlines’ Business Lounge at Brussels.

Joint ground operations under one roof
Whenever possible, Lufthansa and Brussels Airlines aim to locate their service desks and check-in areas close to one another at airports. At the start of the summer timetable, Brussels Airlines will therefore move into Terminal 2 at Hamburg Airport, where Lufthansa and other Star Alliance partners are located. At a later date, in line with the Star Alliance’s “Under One Roof” strategy, Brussels Airlines plans to relocate to Terminal 2 at Munich, which is used exclusively by Lufthansa and its Star Alliance partners.

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For quite some time the rumour mill had it that the Indian Ministry of Defence (MoD) was going to scrap the $550 million tender for 22 attack helicopters. Earlier today this rumour was confirmed.

According to a spokesman the tender had to be cancelled since 'the remaining three companies still participating in the tender were unable to meet the requirements of the tender'.

"The Request for Proposals (RFP) for the 22 attack helicopters have been retracted and cancelled, as the three offers received from foreign defence companies did not meet the Staff Qualitative Requirements set by the government,”

The spokesman also clarified that other tenders such as the $1.5 billion tender for 384 light utility helicopters are not affected by this cancellation.

The cancellation is widely seen as being of direct benefit to Boeing and its AH-64D Apache Longbow helicopter with the new tender being seen as giving Boeing a second chance to participate.

India began a competition in May 2008, to procure 22 attack helicopters for its air force as a replacement for the ageing Mil Mi-25 and Mi-35 fleets.

Boeing image. Copyright Boeing Company

India requested a 2.5 tonne twin-engined copter with all-weather, day and night operations, and all-terrain ability. The helicopter is be highly manoeuvrable, able to deploy 20mm turret guns, rockets, air-to-air and air-to-ground missiles, able to employ air-to-ground, fire-and-forget mode missiles with a range of at least seven kilometres (4.375 miles), equipped with anti-armour capabilities and be capable of operating at high altitudes such as in the mountainous borders India shares with Pakistan, Afghanistan and China in the Ladakh region of Jammu and Kashmir. Specifications suiting the Boeing AH-64D Apache Longbow to a tee.

With a budget unit price of $25 million, the contract called for the first two helicopters to be delivered within two years of contract signing with completion of the contract within three years.

Initially seven companies participated the tender:

1. Agusta Westland AW129,
2. Bell AH-1Z SuperCobra,
3. Boeing AH-64D Apache Longbow,
4. Eurocopter Tiger HAD,
5. Kamov Ka-50,
6. Mil Mi-28 NE
7. Hindustan Aeronautics (HAL) Light Combat Helicopter.

By the final leg only Agusta-Westland, Eurocopter and Mil were left in the fray, Bell and Boeing quit the race, Kamov and HAL did not qualify.

Since Bell, ceased production of the AH-1Z Cobra it withdrew. Boeing had requested a two month extension last August to submit a proposal that met all the requirements of the Indian Air Force (IAF) which was denied, upon which Boeing refused to submit a proposal.

The MoD spokesman said that a new tender will be announced soon since the air force aims to modernising the service by the middle of the next decade, but this tender cancellation will definitely delay the 2010 target date of the IAF to begin with the deployment of the new attack helicopters.

Observers and analysts of the Indian Air Force (IAF) and the Ministry of Defence (MoD) are completely baffled. No one has been able to arrive at a conclusive logical explanation for the MoD actions.

By maintaining that the three remaining helicopters do not meet their qualitative requirements the MoD effectively implies that their requirements were (a) unrealistic, or more likely (b) tailored for a specific model that did not made it to the short list.

Clues to the second option being the real reason come from the fact that there is only one in-service helicopter-launched fire-and-forget mode missile WITH a 7 kilometre range in the world today -- the AGM-114L Longbow Hellfire; which is equipped on the Boeing AH-64D Longbow Apache.

One can safely surmise that the Indian Air Force brass was not happy that the Apache Longbow was no longer in the competition. This move to cancel the ongoing tender and start afresh is clearly intended to give Boeing a second chance. The outcome of the new “tender” appears to be already clear.

Not that I am complaining. Reading about the experiences of the Apache Longbows in Iraq, I have always felt that a squadron of these supremely deadly helicopters, with their armour, chain-gun and night-vision capabilities, would be more than enough to solve the problem of terrorists sneaking over the border from Pakistan to India.

An Indian Navy Kamov Ka-28 "Helix-A" helicopter crashed in the Arabian Sea, 22 nautical miles off the coast Goa, earlier day, but the three crew escaped unhurt.

The Ka-28 is the export version of the Ka-27Pl

Image courtesy Wikipedia

The helicopter had taken off from the Indian Navy base at Goa INS Hansa at 11:00 (05:30 UTC) on a routine sortie. Air Traffic Control officials at the Dabolim International Airport, Goa, indicated that the helicopter lost contact with them 20 minutes later.

A few minutes later, when a distress signal was received a Navy rescue helicopter was scrambled, which rescued the crew members.

The debris of the Kamov has been located and a court of inquiry has been initiated as per an Indian Navy spokesperson.

Effective March 29th, Gulf Air is withdrawing its flights from Bahrain to Bangalore and to Hyderabad. No explanation has been provided by the airline, but I suspect that they have been crowded out by the far more aggressive Emirates Airlines.

Gulf Air flies a small Airbus A320 to Bangalore daily and a slightly larger A321 to Hyderabad four times a week, while Emirates flies three Boeing 777s/A330s daily to both cities.

Having overtaken European and ASEAN carriers, this is the first case of a fellow middle east airline feeling the pressure of the relentless expansion by Emirates across the Indian skies.

On the same date, March 29th Jet Airways will launch its Mumbai Kuwait service which complements their existing Kochi (Cochin) Kuwait service.

Mumbai-Kuwait: 9W 572 Dep 1900 hrs. Arr 2030 hrs.
Kuwait-Mumbai: 9W 571 Dep 2130 hrs. Arr 0400 hrs.

Obviously there is more traffic between Kochi and Kuwait, since even the Mumbai Kuwait service will offer convenient connections to the Mumbai Kochi services of Jet.

Kingfisher Airlines recently released its Summer schedule which comes in to effect from March 29th.

Some of the highlights :

• Introduction of double daily flights between Mumbai and Vadodara.
• Introduction of direct daily flight between Mumbai and Thiruvananthapuram.
• Introduction of direct daily flight service between Aurangabad and Hyderabad to ensure Aurangabad is connected to Kolkata, Chennai and Bangalore via Hyderabad.
• Introduction of direct daily flights between Mumbai and Patna with onward connection to Ranchi from April 6th.
• Mumbai Bhuj service will be operated by Kingfisher Red (the former Air Deccan)
• Excellent connection from Goa to Chennai via Mumbai.
• Reinstatment of late night departure from Mumbai to Delhi at 22:10 (10:10 PM).

The New Tokyo International Airport at Narita opened its main runway earlier this morning at 09:10 local (00:10 UTC) following yesterday's accident and crash of a FedEx Boeing MD-11 freighter which claimed both the crew and the aircraft.

The crash has shut down the 4,000 meter (13,123 ft) long main runway 16R/34L. The airport was forced to rely on the secondary Runway 16L/34R which, at 2,180 meters (7,152 ft) is just about half the the length of the main runway.

A spokesman for the airport said the first arrival was a Lufthansa intercontinental passenger flight from Frankurt at 09:24 (00:24 UTC)

The spokesman confirmed that the wreckage of the MD-11F was removed in the wee hours of this morning. He added that 101 flights were cancelled and about 50 were diverted to other Japanese airports since the crash.

Use these links for real-time information from Narita airport on international flight arrivals and international flight departures. Here is a list of all the airlines operating at Narita airport.

In the meantime FedEx released the names of the two crew who perished in the accident.

Captain Kevin Kyle Mosley, 54, of Hillsboro, Oregon, USA, joined FedEx Express on May 1, 1996. He has 12,800 flying hours experience.

First Officer Anthony Stephen Pino, 49, of San Antonio, Texas, USA, joined FedEx Express on July 10, 2006. He has 6,300 flying hours experience.

Our prayers with the bereaved families and prayers for the departed.

Blue Skies and Tail winds!!!!

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On March 12th, I had written about the "urgent" safety recommendations by the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) regarding the Rolls Royce Trent 800 RB211 engines which are used by many Boeing 777 operators. It is estimated that there are currently about 220 Boeing 777s powered by Rolls-Royce Trent 800 engines in operation with 11 airlines around the world.

The list includes Air New Zealand, British Airways, American Airlines, Cathay Pacific, Delta Airlines, El Al, Emirates, Kenya Airways, Malaysia Airlines, Singapore Airlines, and Thai Airways.

Image courtesy Singapore Airlines

I was concerned about the impact on my favourite, Singapore Airlines (SIA), who with 77 aircraft, happens to be the world largest operator of Boeing 777s. The 777 makes up more than 75 per cent of Singapore Airlines' fleet (77 777s out of a fleet of 101 aircraft), and this will only grow as more join their fleet, and the 14 venerable Megatop Boeing 747-400s are retired from service by next year.

SIA has 58 Boeing 777s, that are powered by Rolls-Royce Trent 800 engines. These are the 31 Boeing 777-200 (Trent 884), 15 777-200ER (Extended Range), and 12 777-300 (both Trent 892) models. 19 are 777-300ER (also called 77W) powered by General Electric GE90-115B engines, and which are used primarily in long haul flights.

I wrote to Stephen Forshaw the spokesperson for Singapore Airlines with my concerns. He has assured me and all passengers of Singapore Airlines of the airline's confidence in the Rolls Royce Trent 800 engines powering their fleet, and the short-term fix addressed by the NTSB, with training and procedures mandated the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), and the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) minimise the risk while engine manufacturer Rolls Royce rolls out the re-designed Fuel Oil Heat Exchanger (FOHE) as a longer term and more permanent solution.

He also clarified in depth about the routes that Singapore Airlines flies which are more tropical in nature when compared to the extended polar routes flown by some other airlines.

I posed to him that even Singapore Airlines flights flies polar routes. and "with the -40 Deg and colder temperatures experienced at high altitude the route really does not have an impact on the potential for icing. i.e. whether it is a polar or tropical route."?

Stephen Forshaw explains

You are correct that temperatures can reach -40 or lower at cruise altitude, whether in the tropics or the polar region. That is not really the concern. As you would be aware, jet fuel has a very low freezing point - the variety used for commercial aircraft is Jet A1 and has a freezing point of -47 degrees Celsius. Sometimes, the temperature outside the aircraft will reach below that point, but the fuel tank ambient temperature is always higher than the outside temperature, and this prevents fuel from freezing.

Where icing potentially occurs is where the fuel has prolonged exposure to temperatures outside the aircraft at the more extreme end. [In] the BA [British Airways] case, outside temperatures for much of the polar journey reportedly reached as low as -70 degrees. The concern is the prolonged exposure to excessively low temperatures.

What is meant by my comment on the tropical nature of our operations is that, while the aircraft is on the ground, the ambient temperature very quickly warms up to a point well above zero degrees and will quickly melt any ice particles that may form. The difficulty in the BA case was that the ground temperature in Beijing was still well below zero for the entire time the aircraft was in transit. With a small number of exceptions, our RR [Rolls Royce] powered 777s tend not to operate to points where they are likely to face prolonged exposure to extreme cold conditions, both in cruise and on ground.

It would seem, from the available reports, that there were a set of circumstances that contributed to this accident; not merely that the temperature was low. Low temperatures are nothing new for jet fuel systems; it is the prolonged exposure and lack of understanding at that time of the remedial actions that we know are now necessary that are learning points. These points have all been incorporated into our procedures and pilot training, and our pilots are well aware of the issues.

In response to my query "has any SQ B777 flight experienced an in-flight un-commanded engine roll back ?" He said

We have not experienced any similar incident, and this is possibly because, as I said, our RR-powered 777s tend not to be operating in the prolonged extreme cold conditions that the BA flight experienced. Those of our aircraft operations with prolonged exposure to polar routes are only using the B777-300ER (GE-powered) and A340-500 (RR powered but with a different fuel flow system).

To clarify, the A340-500 series used on the non-stop Singapore Los Angeles and Singapore New York service are powered by the Rolls Royce Trent 553 engines. Having flown these flights right from their inaugural, I can attest to their reliability.


In response to my queries "on the "mood" of the airline about the Boeing 777 powered by the Rolls Royce Trent 800 RB211 engines, the fix that is being planned, and whether the recent developments will have any impact on SQs decisions on the engines for future B777 purchases ?" Stephen replied

The 777 will remain an integral part of our fleet operations for many years to come. It is an exceptionally good aircraft with a high level of reliability and customer appeal. We don't see that changing as a result of this finding, because (a) the fix developed has already been rolled out through training and procedures, and (b) RR is engaged on a longer-term redesign. I want to be clear on your question about 18 months as a time to fly with these "risks"- if there were no other mitigation measures, that would be a concern, but the procedures jointly developed and approved by the FAA and EASA provide a solution in the meantime to minimise the risk while the longer-term R&D work is done by RR.

Stephen Forshaw also confirmed that the recent developments will have no impact on the plans of Singapore Airlines to phase-out of the Boeing 744-400s by early next year.

This issue will not affect our plans to retire the B744s from service - that is a wholly different question and contingent on deliveries of newer, more fuel-efficient aircraft such as the A380 and B777-300ER.

It is clear that while the short-term training and procedural fix recommended by the NTSB, FAA and EASA is acceptable for now, it is surely not acceptable for the long term. By then Rolls Royce will have implemented the re-designed FOHE.

Would I fly aboard a Rolls Royce Trent 800 powered Boeing 777 of Singapore Airlines -- ABSOLUTELY!!!!!!!

On a side note, with the phase-out of the B744s, Singapore Airlines' long association with US engine manufacturer Pratt & Whitney will come to an end, as their entire fleet from the mighty Airbus A380 to the Boeing 777s to the Airbus A330 will be powered by Rolls Royce and General Electric engines. At one point about 10 years ago, Singapore Airlines was PWs largest customer in Asia. Singapore Airlines Cargo though, will continue using the PW4056 powered B744s.

and finally .... Stephen Forshaw is leaving Singapore Airlines for other career prospects. I wish him all success. His successor Nicholas Ionides who takes over as Vice President Public Affairs, with effect from 4 May 2009 is well known in the blogosphere. Mr Ionides, 37, is currently the Singapore-based Managing Editor (Asia) at Reed Business Information, publishers of Flight International and Airline Business Magazines and the Air Transport Intelligence and Flightglobal news websites

Virgin Blue’s international airline V Australia and Delta Air Lines have negotiated and signed an Australia-U.S. interline agreement on the networks of each carrier and across the trans-Pacific route.

An interline agreement allows the partner airlines to carry passengers or freight on behalf of each other and also enables luggage to be checked through.

Effective immediately, the agreement allows travellers to purchase a single ticket from their Travel Agent, V Australia or Delta for travel between the U.S. and Australia on either carrier.

The agreement leverage's each airlines' domestic connectivity strength. Virgin Blue has domestic connectivity to all major cities in Australia while Delta has extensive domestic services to virtually every city in the United States. This agreement competes head-on with the One World Qantas American Airlines pairing.

V Australia commenced flights between Los Angeles and Sydney on February 27, 2009, and is planning direct flights from Los Angeles to Brisbane on April 8, 2009 and to Melbourne in September 2009.

Delta is expected to commence daily non-stop services on the Sydney - Los Angeles route from July 1, 2009.

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First posted - March 23, 01:00 GMT

A FedEx MD-11 freighter registration number N526FE performing flight 80, from Guangzhou, China crashed at Tokyo Narita International Airport in heavy winds, and burst in to flames. The two crew on board were killed. The main runway at the international gateway airport to Tokyo has been shut down.

Image courtesy Wikipedia

Most airlines have been forced to divert incoming flights to Tokyo Haneda, Osaka, Nagoya and other airports, as the longest runway of two at Narita has been closed.

The FedEx plane landed hard, tipped onto its left wing and burst into a bright orange fireball of flames, the video of the crash from Tokyo Broadcasting System shows. I have upload the video since the TBS website does not allow resizing of the small video window. The copyright remains that of TBS.

The three engined MD-11F an improvement of the old DC10 made by McDonnell Douglas, now a part of Boeing, is the mainstay of FedEx's freighter fleet who has 58 aircraft in its fleet.


This crash is reminiscent of the July 31, 1997 crash of another FedEx MD-11F at Newark. The US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) faulted the pilots for the crash of FedEx Flight 14, from Anchorage, Alaska to Newark.

Airport officials are unclear how long the main runway would be closed at Narita. International Japanese carriers Japan Airlines (JAL) and All Nippon Airways (ANA) have cancelled 29 and 10 flights respectively.

Having flown frequently to Narita I can attest to the tough time pilots have in the frequently occurring crosswinds. Both runways are aligned in a roughly North South direction (156/336 degree headings on the compass), and the airport often has strong crosswinds in an easterly and westerly direction. Paucity of land prevents the authorities from building a crossing runway at the airport.

METARS (21:48 UTC):
2009/03/22 21:00 RJAA 222100Z 30013G28KT 260V330 9999 FEW020 13/M01 Q0998 NOSIG RMK 1CU020 A2948
2009/03/22 21:00 RJAA 222100Z 30013G28KT 260V330 9999 FEW020 13/M01 Q0998 NOSIG
2009/03/22 21:08 RJAA 222108Z 31025G35KT 9999 FEW020 12/M01 Q0998 RMK 1CU020 A2949
2009/03/22 21:30 RJAA 222130Z 32026G40KT 9999 FEW020 12/M02 Q0999 WS R34L NOSIG
2009/03/22 21:30 RJAA 222130Z 32026G40KT 9999 FEW020 12/M02 Q0999 WS R34L NOSIG RMK 1CU020 A2952 P/RR
2009/03/22 21:30 RJAA 222130Z 32026G40KT 9999 FEW020 12/M02 Q0999 WS R34L NOSIG

Japan's meteorological agency had issued an advisory of gales for the area around the airport.

Update 1 - 04:30 GMT

FedEx has put out a statement

A FedEx Express MD-11 was involved in an incident today en route from Guangzhou to Narita, with two crew members on board. The incident occurred upon landing. We are sad to report that there were no survivors.

Our deepest sympathies go out to the family and friends of these crew members. This loss pains all of us at FedEx. Right now our focus is on doing everything we can to assist those involved at this difficult time.

We are thankful for the quick response of emergency teams on the ground and will continue to work closely with the applicable authorities as we seek to determine the cause for this tragic incident.

Update 2 - 06:00 GMT

Widespread flight disruptions are being reported at Narita airport. Read the full article.

The crash of FedEx MD-11 freighter registration number N526FE performing flight 80, from Guangzhou, China at the New Tokyo International Airport at Narita has caused major disruptions in flight schedules.

The crash has shut down the 4,000 meter (13,123 ft) long main runway 16R/34L.

Map should not be used for navigation

The airport is forced to rely on the secondary Runway 16L/34R which, at 2,180 meters (7,152 ft) is just about half the the length of the main runway.

Narita is the main gateway to Japan's capital Tokyo, and home to all of Tokyo's intercontinental flights, many of which are operated by the Boeing 747 Jumbo Jet. Unfortunately Boeing B747 and Airbus A380 operations are not permitted on the secondary runway. Even wide bodies like the Boeing 777, 767, MD-11, Airbus A340 and A330, will not be able to carry a full complement of passengers, baggage and fuel.


Air travel to and from Tokyo is going to be hard today.

Please use these links for real-time information from Narita airport on international flight arrivals and international flight departures.

Do contact your airline and determine what is their situation, what arrangements are being made or alternatives they suggest. Here is a list of all the airlines operating at Narita airport.

See two videos of the crash.

Originally posted - 16:00GMT 21:30 local March 18

Something is in the air at the Bengaluru International Airport. For the second time in less than a week, an Airbus A330 is getting grounded at the airport with a technical fault.

Following the five day grounding of a Dragonair A330, it is the turn of Air France. F-GZCB which was to perform flight AF191 early this morning, has been grounded with a technical flaw in the avionics bay.

An Air France engineer is flying out with the required spares on tonight's AF192 flight, and is expected to fix the aircraft which should fly out some time tomorrow afternoon.

All the passengers on the stranded flight were put on alternate airlines or accommodated in hotels.

Update 1 - 13:00GMT 18:30 local March 19

After many efforts by the engineers at Bangalore very futile, a team of senior engineers flew in from Dubai late this afternoon on the Emirates flight and have commenced inspection of the aircraft. Parts are expected in from Paris on AF192 which should come in around 01:00 local. Hopefully F-GZCB will be repaired by tomorrow morning and leave back to her home in Paris.

Update 2 - 06:00GMT 11:30 local March 22

Poor F-GZCB is still sitting on the ground. Very forlorn. The major electrical problem has been addressed. The parking bill from the Airport is going to be big.

Update 3 - 18:00GMT 23:30 local March 22

F-GZCB finally flew out as a ferry flight at 19:00 local time (14:00 GMT). Even the departure was not without drama as the aircraft was originally scheduled to leave at 15:45 local to avoid the night curfew plaguing most European airports including Charles De Gaulle. At the last moment a hydraulics problem cropped up. Luckily there were three engineers from Air France at the site, and the issue was addressed and corrected in a record two hours.

Still special permission was needed for the European curfew, and having obtained it, the A330 finally left Bangalore almost five days after being on the ground.

Since F-GZCB was in "AOG" status (Aircraft On Ground) for such a long period, she will undergo a thorough check today before being pressed back in to service.

Lufthansa is opening its Tower Lounge for First and Business Class passengers as well as customers with Hon Circle, Senator or frequent traveller status, at the Frankfurt airport by this month end.

Located in the departures area above gate A65, the Tower Lounge offers the customary amenities in a floor area of 1,100 sq. meters (about 12,000 sq. ft.), big enough for up to 288 guests. The bistro area serves a buffet of drinks and a variety of savoury snacks, a soup of the day and a choice of warm or cold sandwiches. Office facilities include separate workstations equipped with complimentary Internet PCs, W-Fi/WLAN access, a fax and copier, credit card payphones and power points to re-charge mobile phones. The lounge also provides five modern showers.

The best part of the lounge for airplane buffs like me; sink into deep leather armchairs and view the apron traffic through the spacious panoramic windows allowing a spectacular view of the tarmac.

The new Lufthansa Tower Lounge replaces the existing Lufthansa Senator and Business Lounge at gate A51.

An Emirates Airlines Airbus A340-500, Emirates Airlines Airbus A340-500, registration A6-ERG performing flight EK407 from Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, to Dubai, United Arab Emirates, with 225 people on board, damaged and decommissioned the main runway at Melbourne airport while taking-off.

The aircraft ran off the runway 16 (length 3657 meters / 12,000 feet) around 22:30 local (12:30GMT) March 20, during its take-off run, struck its tail on the runway, and hit the runway end lights and the localizer antenna past the end of the runway 16.

The airplane climbed out safely, and tried to dump fuel over the ocean at Port Philip Bay but was forced to return to Melbourne for an immediate emergency landing when smoke started to fill the cabin.

The airplane was fully fuelled for the long non-stop flight to Dubai, and the heavily loaded aircraft landed hard on Melbourne's runway 34. She was able to taxi to the apron after being inspected by airport's emergency services.

Severe abrasions occurred to the tail skin and several access panels have been ripped off during the tail strike at take-off. The hard landing, un-avoidable due to the full fuel weight, has reportedly caused damage to the landing gear.

Melbourne airport authorities have confirmed that ILS runway 16 will need repairs and will not be available until Monday, March 23rd.

For full technical details of the accident including NOTAMs and METARs please visit Aviation Herald. Hat tip to Simon Hradecky who runs a great site keeping track of all the aviation incidents around the world.

The entry of Air India in to the Star Alliance is delayed by at least one year to the first quarter of 2010.

Star Alliance founder, Lufthansa was a sponsor for Air India joining the Star Alliance. Since 2004, Air India has operated code-sharing flights with Lufthansa between Germany and India.

18 months ago, the Government of India decided to merge Air India and the erstwhile Indian (formerly Indian Airlines). The process of merger, which was to have been completed in 2008, has been severely delayed due to "integration" issues. Apparently there is major confusion at even the most basic levels between the staff of the two airlines, with no clarity on who is responsible for what. Where have we heard of this before?


While Star Alliance and Air India signed a non-disclosure agreement last year, the compliance is yet to be done. The IT systems are no where close to integration and Air India has not yet, even informed the Star Alliance, on which of the two systems it will finally be using. This is proving to the major sticking point for Air India's entry in to the global alliance.

Adding complexity to this issue are reports that mandarins at the Ministry of Civil Aviation of Air India owner, Government of India, are "upset" at reported talks between Jet Airways and the Star Alliance, whom they perceive as a threat to Air India.


Previously Jet Airways had an announced policy of remaining alliance neutral preferring to sign one-on-one bi-laterals instead. Delays by the US Federal Aviation Administration on Jet's code share deal with Star Alliance founder United Airlines have launched a diplomatic protest by the Indian government.

However, the extreme operating environment due to the on-going economic slowdown, the sheer size of India, and the desire of the Star Alliance to grow to 50 members especially regional airlines, may be tilting the scales in favour of Jet Airways joining the Star Alliance.

and I see not reason why can India not have two airlines participating in the alliance.

At the start of Aero India in early February, Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd., announced it would make delivery of the first five of the Advanced Light Helicopters sold to the Ecuadorian Air Force using the behemoth Antonov An-124-100.


On the night of March 18th the giant transporter came to the HAL airport to load up. I managed to catch her departure yesterday and hope you enjoy the picture. She is BIG!!! Even with a small Nikon 50mm f/1.8 lens she filled more than 60 per cent of the photo frame.


While at the airport I managed to also capture one of the four Indian Air Force owned Embraer ERJ135 derived Legacy 600 Executive Business Jet (IAF tail number K3601, actual registration VU-AVS) coming in to land. A fifth aircraft of this type is owned by the Border Security Force. These aircraft are used to transport VIP passengers. I wonder who came to Bangalore on it?

Also got buzzed by an Ilyushin IL 76 MD of the Indian Air Force. Called Gajraj (King of Elephants) by the Indian Air Force, (IAF tail number K2879, actual registration VU-FGH). The IL 76 MD is a strategic heavy lift transporter very aptly named; she is big and noisy.

Even with its large size, the IL 76 MD Gajraj was dwarfed by the Antonov An-124-100.

Sorry about the heat haze, even at 10:15 AM, it is peak summer at Bangalore.

To get a small appreciation of the An-124's abilities see this video about the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) trains which were transported from Bombardier's Germany facility to New Delhi by the giant transporter.

A huge hat tip to Airliners-India user Aseem for the video link.

Please note, these images are covered by a CC license who terms are at the bottom of this page.

The sixth and final Boeing 787 Dreamliner designated for flight test is now undergoing final assembly in Everett, Wash. The airplane, designated ZA006, will be powered with General Electric GEnx engines.

Boeing photo

Progress continues on the fleet. The first flight test airplane, ZA001, is getting its paint touched up this week before finishing factory testing. Power was brought onto the second airplane, ZA002, in late February and build verification tests are progressing well. Production work continues on ZA003, ZA004 and ZA005. In all, assemblies for 31 Dreamliners are currently in production throughout the supply chain.

Also observe the pre-painted doors in the aircraft. I wonder why? since the aircraft will in any case undergo a painting. Any answers ?

SpiceJet announced reduction of up to Rs. 600 per ticket on its already low fares, for all bookings made for 30 or more days in advance, across all its 119 flights in the new summer schedule.

The airline's Chief Commercial Officer Samyukth Sridharan claimed the fares will be comparable to IInd AC train fares. Clearly SpiceJet is targeting the summer family holiday passengers.

Did we not have an airline try this strategy before ? Ah.... yes, Air Deccan.

I hope you enjoy the pictures. The high resolution versions are on my Flickr site.

If you like this please share the link with your friends and networks via the links below.

Etihad Airways, the national airline of the United Arab Emirates, is set to overhaul the schedule of its flights to India and provide increased long haul connectivity and better frequency. Etihad is also streamlining its services to key destinations in response to changing demands and will now operate all Indian flights as early-morning departures effective March 30, 2009.

Currently Etihad has flights to six destinations in India; Chennai, Kochi (Cochin), Kozhikode (Calicut), Mumbai, New Delhi and Thiruvananthapuram (Trivandrum).

With the new schedule, Etihad flights from Thiruvananthapuram will now additionally connect to long haul destinations like Canada and New York, Chennai to Milan, Frankfurt and Moscow, Kochi to New York, London, Europe and Jordan, Kozhikode to the Middle East including Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Qatar. Mumbai and New Delhi will connect better to key destinations in Europe and the Mediterranean region.

Air traffic controllers in France are set to strike on Thursday 19 March in a national day of strike action.

Consequently the French Civil Aviation Authority, Direction Générale de l’Aviation Civile (DGAC) is limiting the number flights handled for each airline during that day.

Air France has confirmed it will operate all of of its long-haul flights.

On its short and medium haul network, Air France will operate nearly all its flights at Paris-Charles de Gaulle and 70 per cent of its flights at Paris-Orly, but warns that some flights may have to be cancelled during the day, and other delays may occur.



Air France is re-assuring its passengers that it will ensure that all its passengers travel.

Air France ground and sales staff will do their utmost to inform passengers if a flight is cancelled and, if necessary, offer an alternative flight either on Air France, on KLM via Amsterdam or one of the SkyTeam partner airlines.

Passengers are requested to log on to www.airfrance.com for all the latest information in the flight status tab or contact their travel operator.

Passengers in France may also call Air France on 3654, or, send a text message on their cell phones to 6 3654 indicating their flight number (e.g. AF2062).

Air France flight schedules will be updated on March 19th at noon.

Passengers on other airlines should check with their respective airlines. It will be a tough day to fly in France.

Emirates recently announced that it will commence services to Toronto and Bangkok with its Airbus A380 superjumbo from June 1st.

In order to do this Emirates will have to reposition two of its A380s from the current double-daily New York route.

Emirates representatives have confirmed this re-positioning. One aircraft will be deployed on the three times a week Dubai Toronto service, and one will be used for one of the double daily Dubai Bangkok service.

One of the double-daily flights currently operated by the A380 will be replaced by a Boeing B777-300ER on the Dubai-New York JFK route.

While this re-positioning is occurring, all is not well between Airbus and Emirates. German paper Der Spiegel reports that the airline has slammed Airbus for "defects" on the plane, which has grounded the behemoth aircraft nine times costing the airline over 500 flying hours.

Emirates has presented Airbus with a damning list of defects in the new A380 super-jumbo jet. The airline, which has ordered 58 of the aircraft, warns of a possible "loss of confidence" in the giant plane.

While both the airline and manufacturer are putting on a front on congeniality in public, in private storms are brewing over perceived shoddy work ethic at Airbus and its suppliers, by Emirates.

In a presentation in February, Emirates showed Airbus a 46 page presentation with included photographs of defects including singed power cables, partially torn-off sections of panelling and defective parts of thrust nozzles in the engines.

The other two operators of the Airbus A380 are Singapore Airlines and Qantas. They seem to be taking a softer line with Airbus, but Emirates has a lot more at stake with a 58 plane order which represents over 25 per cent of the total order book Airbus has on the aircraft.

Read the full article here.

Armenia flag carrier Armavia took delivery of its first new A319 yesterday. The aircraft was handed over to Armavia’s President, Mikhail Bagdasarov, at a ceremony held at the Airbus factory in Hamburg, Germany. Operated under a lease agreement with ILFC, the new A319 will increase the airline’s Airbus fleet to five aircraft from the current four, two A319s and two A320s.

Armavia’s A319 features the all-new cabin that recently entered service on all members of the Airbus A320 family of aircraft. The new cabin increases passenger comfort in a brighter and more modern cabin environment. The aircraft is powered by CFM International's CFM56 engines, and is fitted with 134 passengers in a two-class cabin layout.

The airline plans to operate this aircraft on its international routes, such as to Moscow, Paris, Amsterdam, Saint Petersburg, Zurich, Berlin, Athens, Kiev, Odessa, Simferopol and Dubai.

I had gone to Bengaluru International Airport for a meeting, and took my camera along. Got some great shots of Kingfisher Airlines and Jet Airways at the field. Hope you enjoy. Visit my photo album on Flickr.

VT-VJK (the first KFA A330), performing flight IT2 coming in from London Heathrow. Sorry about the heat haze. The flight comes in the afternoon.


VT-VJN performing flight IT001 takes off for its ten hour trip to London.


Observe the lack of winglets on this Jet Airways Boeing 737-800 Next Generation


A nice northerly wind ensured all the planes showed me their belly while taking-off


One of Kingfisher's newer ATR72-500s (model AT72-212A)



I wonder who came or departed on this Cessna 525B Citation Jet 3?
Please do leave a comment, and spread the word.

SpiceJet today announced its new schedule for summer 2009, effective March 29, 2009. Four new flights have been added to take the number of flights to 119 daily.

In addition to the current Bangalore Ahmedabad (via Mumbai), a new direct flight connecting the two cities is added.

Ahmedabad also gets a very convenient evening flight departing 18.35 to Mumbai and onwards to Chennai. This additional connection to Chennai now allows a second option for travellers between Ahmedabad and Chennai.

Pune will now be connected to Kolkata via Delhi. Mumbai will be directly connected to Coimbatore by a daily return flight. Delhi now has a convenient morning departure to Pune at 08:40.

Samyukth Sridharan, Chief Commercial Officer said

“Our On Time Performance remains around 88% and with a Technical Dispatch Reliability of around 99.6%, we are the airline with the least cancellations. These factors go a way to encourage people to fly us for both business and leisure travel. Our market share has shown a continuous rise over the last few months. We believe more and more people will choose SpiceJet for its connectivity, timing and customer experience.”

More information is available at SpiceJet's website.

In my recent interview with SpiceJet CEO Sanjay Aggarwal, he highlighted some of the innovative cost cutting methods adopted at SpiceJet.

These methods have won SpiceJet the coveted Institute of Cost and Works Accountants of India (ICWAI) award for Excellence in Cost Management. It is the only airline to win this award.

A distinguished jury of eminent persons from industry, academia and administration selected the winners, and on the basis of better practices for resource management, efficient utilisation of capacity and working capital, quality augmentation programs and R&D efforts, and precise information on performance.

Nandan Mimani, Vice President Finance and Financial Controller of SpiceJet received the award from The Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Government of India recently. SpiceJet was one out of three companies from the private sector who won this award.

Commenting on this Sanjay Aggarwal, Chief Executive Officer, SpiceJet Limited said,

“We are delighted with this award – it is a recognition of our collective efforts in the right direction. Cost consciousness has been an intrinsic part of our corporate culture – SpiceJet has one of the lowest operating costs in the industry. We are constantly evaluating how to manage our costs even better, while providing a better experience to our customers.”

I cannot but help compare the corporate culture of SpiceJet, which never loses focus on the passenger, with that of Ryanair, which will do anything to earn a buck or rather a Euro.

Kudos to the team at SpiceJet.

During my visit to the Bengaluru International Airport on March 14th, I observed a Dragonair Airbus A330 B-HWH parked on the apron at 08:00

Obviously something was wrong. Normally the Dragonair flight is scheduled to arrive at 01:40 and leave by 02:40.

Found out today that the Dragonair aircraft had an engine problem on the outbound flight back to Hong Kong early morning on Tuesday, March 10th. Passengers were dis-embarked and put on flights of other airlines. A Cathay Pacific Boeing 747 freighter flew a new engine and a team of engineers to Bangalore on the 13th, and the Dragonair A330 was finally fixed and flew out on the 14th afternoon, about 8 hours after the picture was taken, five days after she was grounded.

An audit team of the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is meeting the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) in Delhi today. The team will check if India is following the international safety standards set by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) under the FAA's International Aviation Safety Assessment (IASA) Program.

During its 2006 audits, ICAO had found several violations of 300 guidelines. Shortage of skilled manpower was the biggest problem, and neither the DGCA, nor its master, the Ministry of Civil Aviation have taken any substantive steps to correct the short-comings. The DGCA reportedly faces a shortfall of 700 adequately qualified staff, one of the pre-requisites to be assessed by the FAA team, and one the FAA has already wanted the DGCA about more than six months ago.

As per reports, in the 2006 ICAO audit, for technical personnel qualification and training, India scored only two out of ten, against a global average of four; for safety oversight functions, India scored four out of ten against the global average of six.

This is going to be a tough time for Naseem Zaidi, India's Director General of Civil Aviation. Failing this assessment will result in a downgrade of India from its Category 1 to a Category 2 status, which will place severe restrictions on Indian carriers operating to the United States; currently Air India and Jet Airways.

Lest India thinks that its special new found friendship with the United States will help, one should look at one of the United States' closest allies, Israel, who was recently downgraded to Category 2.

As per the FAA guidelines

While in Category 2 status, carriers from these countries will be permitted to continue operations at current levels under heightened FAA surveillance. Expansion or changes in services to the United States by such carriers are not permitted while in category 2, although new services will be permitted if operated using aircraft wet-leased from a duly authorized and properly supervised U.S. carrier or a foreign air carrier from a category 1 country that is authorized to serve the United States using its own aircraft.

Facing the imminent threat of the downgrade the DGCA is desperately trying to recruit more staff, and preparing a roadmap to separate the tasks of safety inspections and accident investigations from its regulatory functions. It has even finally come to its senses and mooted a proposal for the formation of an independent agency vested with the responsibility of accident investigations.

The question now remains whether (a) Will the mandarins at the Ministry of Civil Aviation, finally come to their senses and give up their powers? and (b) Is it too little, too late. Will the FAA give India more time and accept India's improvement roadmap plan?

I am very doubtful on both.

Read more about the FAA IASA program.

Some updates on the production progress of the Airbus A380 superjumbo, courtesy of the A380 production forum.

MSN027 (F-WWSY) the fifth for Qantas (VH-OQE Lawrence Hargrave) came out of the Final Assembly Line (FAL) hangers and made its taxi tests.


MSN029 (F-WWSA) the sixth for Qantas (VH-OQF Charles Kingsford Smith) has been outside since it came out of the FAL in mid February. While inside the FAL, MSN027 and MSN029 had their tails switched. MSN027's tail going on MSN029 and vice versa. During a hail storm last year there was damage to MSN027's tail. To keep the production schedule, the tails were switched and repairs carried out. You will observe the tail on MSN029 (originally MSN027 tail) has been marked in black in some areas.


MSN023 (F-WWST) sixth for Emirates A6-EDF has left the FAL and is now on the flight line. It will make its first engine and taxi runs in early to mid April and also expected to fly in April as well.


MSN017 for Emirates (A6-EDE) will be delivered on 24th April.

Photos 1, 3, 5 courtesy Flickr user A380spotter. Photo 2 courtesy Flickr user Christope Ramos. Photo 4 courtest PictAero user David Barrie. All copyrights rest with them.

Visit the Bangalore Aviation Flickr photo gallery.

Cathay Pacific recently launched a promotional return fare of Rs 7,999 on its direct Delhi-Bangkok service, against a normal fare from other airlines in the range of Rs 15, 500-19,000.

Including the recently introduced Rs 1,300 Airport Development Fee (ADF) charged by the Delhi International Airport Ltd. (DIAL), the total fare works out to an astoundingly low Rs. 9,299.

The special fare is valid till April 10, 2009, and and travel between March 30 and May 30, 2009. Read the offer here.

Tom Wright, General Manager, Cathay Pacific said,

“These ultra-low special fares have been a big cracker as soon after the announcement, the inquiries have went up sharply both on our website and with the tour operators. The response has been terrific and we could also be looking some innovative fares for other sectors.”

We can expect competing airlines on this route, Thai Airways, Malaysia Airlines, Singapore Airlines, Jet Airways and Air India to match this fare soon even if they claim the Cathay fare is "abysmally low".

As I sign off for the week, a light hearted story from British Airways with a serious intent.

There will be Red Noses on the ground and in the air at British Airways this week, in support of Comic Relief's Red Nose Day on 13 March.

(Picture by Nick Morrish/Seven Squared/BA News)

Staff will be encouraged to Do Something Funny for Money, by wearing Red Noses, and the airline has also painted Red Noses on a long haul Boeing 747, and two short haul Airbus aircraft.

The airline is asking all eagle-eyed photographers to send their uploaded pictures of the British Airways Red-Nose planes in flight to its Twitter page.

Comic Relief spends all the money raised through Red Nose Day to give extremely poor, vulnerable and disadvantaged people in the UK and Africa a helping hand to turn their lives around. For more information on Red Nose Day, go to their website www.rednoseday.com.

In this spirit of giving, I seek your support of Bangalore Aviation. Advertising income is donated to the Rotary Club of Bangalore for education of under-privileged gifted children. It only takes a couple of seconds of your time.