Airline flight schedules went haywire on Monday, due to a re-fuelling problem at the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (RGIA) at Hyderabad. A technical hitch in the fuel hydrant system of Reliance, the fuel franchisee, led to disruptions and delaying almost all the morning flights by up to two hours.

27 flights were delayed due to 'pressurisation problem' in the Reliance fuel system, forcing the airport operator GHIAL to carry fuel up to the aircraft in tankers.

Passengers were a anxious and irritated lot, and some of they were additionally nervous, coming on the back of yesterday's 'hijack' drama at New Delhi.

The early morning delays, have led to a nationwide domino effect, and all downstream flights across India have been delayed. One airline spokesman put it simply -- "It's chaos today."

Time for Reliance to have some reliable backup plans. (sorry, just could not resist the pun).

For other cities, please see the right sidebar. For Hyderabad flight arrival and departure information from the airport's website click here.

Flight information is provided by FlightStats, and is subject to the FlightStats Terms of Use.

Thick fog over Hyderabad early today, hit operations at the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport, Hyderabad.

The meteorological department attributed the thick fog to a “rare phenomenon” in Hyderabad.

Mr. A. Viswanath, chief commercial officer of GMR Hyderabad International Airport Limited (GHIAL), which operates the airport, said, 19 departing flights and 10 arriving flights were delayed. An additional 6 scheduled flights were diverted to alternate airports, and Paramount Airways canceled its flight into and out of Hyderabad.

British Airways commenced operations to Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (RGIA),
Hyderabad, today.

The new route provides a direct flight from Hyderabad to London Heathrow Terminal 5 and is aimed at the IT segment of Hyderabad, with its connections to 22 destinations in North America.

British Airways will operate five weekly Boeing 777-200ER non-stop flights between Hyderabad and London, with a three long-haul cabins on the route: Club World (business class), World Traveller Plus (premium economy class) and World Traveller (economy class).

The Deccan Herald reports that the Bengaluru International Airport Limited (BIAL) consortium has filed a default notice about 10 days ago against the Union civil aviation ministry asking it to make good losses of Rs 23 crore. BIAL claims it had incurred the losses and indirectly held the ministry responsible for it — its complaint was the failure to clear the user development fee (UDF), to be charged by the operator on departing domestic passengers, resulted in the losses.

BIAL, which has been asking the ministry to approve the UDF for a couple of months now, wants the approval for Rs 675 UDF and civil aviation minister Praful Patel may go into this issue next week.

Official sources claim that it was not a loss which would affect the functioning of the airport. According to them, it was only supposed to bridge the revenue deficit which in any case can be carried forward to the next financial year.

It is unclear whether the notice is just a pressure tactic on the part of BIAL to push forward their long pending UDF request. For a few months, there have been persistent rumours that the cash flow at BIAL was precarious. I can infer from these developments that Siemens, the dominant private partner, has choked off funds to BIAL, leading to desperate times.

The ministry has directed the 105,300-square metre, Rs 2,500 crore RGIA to charge Rs 375 from outgoing domestic passengers from August. The 71,000-sq m Rs 2,470 crore BIA has sought permission for Rs 675 UDF.

The civil aviation ministry had appointed a consultant to look into to the UDF request and verify BIAL's capital expenditure claims. Under pressure from various quarters ,the ministry wanted to know whether a smaller airport with lesser facilities can cost as much as a bigger airport with better facilities and in this case, it was BIAL vis-à-vis the bigger GMR promoted Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (RGIA).

The ministry was to take a call on the UDF issue some time after the BIAL filed the audit report on the project cost in August-September. As per Deccan Herald sources, the consultant has submitted the report on financial verification and this should enable the ministry to finalise the UDF soon.

The Deccan Chronicle reports that the ministry of civil aviation (MoCA) is ready to roll out the User Development Fee (UDF) for Bengaluru International Airport Limited which is likely to cheer air passengers but leave the promoters red faced. While the UDF for domestic passengers will be Rs 375, international travellers will have to fork out Rs 1,000 every time they fly out of BIA. The decision comes as a blow to the private operator as they have said that non-approval of the proposed UDF has caused huge losses to it.

Highly placed sources in MoCA say the long pending decision was taken after scrutinising the capital cost of the airport which was put at Rs 2,470 crore by BIA. “The Hyderabad international airport was considered as the benchmark as it is bigger and better than BIA in many ways and was also being built simultaneously. While GMR Group, the lead consortium for Hyderabad airport pegged their expenditure at Rs 2,370 crore, BIA was on little higher side. So after deliberations we have decided to fix the UDF on par with Hyderabad airport,” sources said.

“The procedure for arriving at the UDF was based on the cost incurred on the project. In this connection, the private operator had earlier sent the internal audit report but we sought an independent engineer’s report and it was carried out by international firm Scot Wilson as the evaluation of expenditure should be done from an arm’s distance. The same firm which gave the completion certificate for BIA,” sources said.

BIAL had sought approval for Rs 675 as UDF for domestic passengers and Rs 1,075 from international travellers. The proposal was pending before the MoCA for the last five months as it was considered high. “After carefully assessing the costs and public sentiments, the officials and representatives of AAI, felt that the charges should be on par with Hyderabad airport,” he said.

“It was felt that it was unfair to further burden passengers who already feel that BIA is inferior to Hyderabad airport. The BIAL hasn’t collected UDF for the last five months and we have to factor in this to make up for the losses incurred. A final decision will be taken after we work out all these modalities,” the officials said. The decision comes at a crucial time when BIAL is rethinking about its expansion plans due to the global meltdown.

GMR Hyderabad International Airport Limited (GHIAL) announced that it is all set for its maiden Haj operations from Rajiv Gandhi International Airport.

GHIAL has provided all facilities at the new Haj Terminal for the convenience of the pilgrims this year. The facilities are meant for both the passengers and the visitors.

The Saudia Airlines Airbus A300 flight to Hyderabad will land at Rajiv Gandhi International Airport at 4 a.m. on October 30, 2008 from Jeddah. The flight will take-off from Hyderabad to Medina with 300 passengers at 5:30 am.

The facilities include:

• Separate area for passengers and visitors.
• Separate toilets for male and female passengers are provided at the passengers and visitors area.
• Departure Lounge is provided.
• Security Hold Area has Tea/Coffee & snacks joints, telephone booth with local / STD / ISD, Forex Counters, & Duty Free area.
• First Aid facility.
• Paid Parking for the vehicles of passengers and greeters.

A Prayer Hall is also provided for Male and Female Passengers with facilities for Vazu (ablutions).

The airport is also providing buggies for elderly passengers besides wheelchairs for those who need this facility.

“An exclusive terminal for the first time in Hyderabad has been constructed with all integrated facilities like customs, immigration, security, food & beverage, retail / duty free, an exclusive car park for Haj travellers, which will bring down the processing time and enhance the standards of service provided by GHIAL”, said Mr. Viswanath, Chief Commercial Officer, GHIAL.

In what is sure to be a shock, to both the BIAL and HIAL consortia, the Deccan Chronicale reports, the parliamentary standing committee on transport, tourism and culture, on Thursday October 23, recommended immediate withdrawal of user development fees (UDF) being charged by Hyderabad and Bengaluru airports.

It said the private operators had invested only Rs 330 crore and Rs 240 crore at Hyderabad and Bangalore respectively to develop the airports. The rest of the amount came from the AAI, state governments and through debt from financial institutions.

Observing that the government’s policy was to make air travel more affordable, the committee said the UDF imposed on passengers “may be withdrawn immediately and no more UDF may be imposed on passengers in any of the airports.”

The committee has also recommended that the HAL airport in Bangalore, and the Begumpet airport in Hyderabad be used for short-haul domestic flights.

The committee, headed by the CPI(M) leader, Mr Sitaram Yechury, said any future greenfield or brownfield airports should be developed with the Airports Authority of India (AAI) having a majority stake in a joint venture.

What impact this recommendation will have on the pending UDF requests of the consortia at Delhi and Mumbai is also to be considered.

The volatility in aviation turbine fuel (ATR) has triggered GMR Hyderabad International Airport (GHIAL) to change gear from aero to non-aero operations.

Currently, revenues from aero operations contribute to three quarters of us total revenues. The rest comes turn non-aero operations. GHAIL is looking at reversing this ratio to offset the turbulence in global ATF prices. It is trying to emulate best practices adopted by some of the leading international airports in the world such as Memphis airport, which get a large chunk of their revenues from non-aero operations.

As part of its new strategy, the airport is exploring a tie-up with Agriculture and Processed Food Export Development Agency (APEDA) and freighter companies to enhance revenues from this segment according to a senior official in GMR.

“Our teams have gone to Memphis airport In the US, the global cargo centre, to study the cargo operation models. They will submit a detailed report after studying other airports in the US and Europe in the coming three months. We will rope in a consultant to design a plan to take the idea forward,” he said. With the presence of Federal Exchange and the largest cornea bank in the world, Memphis airport is the nerve centre of cargo operations across the world. For instance, 5,000 faulty laptops are brought to Memphis each day and airlifted overnight after repair at the airport. The GHIAL is exploring such a model here.
The airport will also open a separate website to facilitate banking transactions and cargo operations online. The Greenfield airport in Hyderabad has seen a drastic dip in air transport movements (ATM5) during the last few months due to the volatility in prices of aviation turbine fuel (ATF).

The airport had 260 to 270 ATMs a day in Jun-08. This has dropped to 210-220 in August, leading to a dip of 50 ATMs a day. Several airlines planning to start new trips have also defined their plans. “British Air for instance, has postponed new trips from Hyderabad from October to December this year said a GMR official

‘According to him, the airport expects a 15% increase in passenger traffic this year against 35% last year “ATF sale volumes have also come down from 800-850 kilo liters a day to 500 kilo liters a day in August” he said. Although the state-owned oil marketing companies cut ATF prices by over 16% on Sunday, this may not translate into cheaper airfares. The airport currently records eight million passengers a year and it is forecast to reach l2 million by20l0.

(c) Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation.

A hearty congratulations to Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (RGIA) at Hyderabad for finally getting operational. Similar congratulations are due to BIAL very soon.

An even heartier and resounding congratulations to the domestic airlines, for showing to RGIA management, what we individual consumers will be unable to -- even a monopolistic airport cannot expect to charge unreasonable fees.

The ground handling agents at RGIA, Menzies Aviation and Air India - Singapore Air Terminal Services (AI-SATS), who incidentally are the cargo handling agents at BIAL, wanted to charge airlines 200% of their present costs. Airlines are bleeding losses and rebelled at this move. They outright refused to operate to the new airport. The RGIA management quickly back-tracked and the Government of India allowed airlines to continue to do their own ground handling. Naturally, the royalties due from the two ground handling agents to RGIA, has been slashed from 25% to 5%.

For the airlines, deploying their aircraft to an alternate city is a viable option. There is enough demand across the country. The loss would have been felt by the average citizen of Hyderabad and the management of RGIA.

Airlines have threatened a similar action if BIAL imposes unreasonable charges on them. So the costs will have to be borne by you and me, the individual traveller.

Lest we forget, Menzies and AI-SATS are the cargo handling agents at BIAL. If they have a similar price hike planned for Bangalore, be ready to pay more for everything from computers to cell phones, to fruits.

As Edward R. Murrow put it -- "GOOD NIGHT AND GOOD LUCK"!!!!