Sunday, September 27, 2015

Air India to launch non-stop flight to San Francisco from Dec 2


THE HINDU,27SEP2015


Air India announced the launch of a non-stop flight to San Francisco from December 2, fulfilling a long-pending demand of Indian IT professionals.
“We are launching a direct non-stop flight to the San Francisco on December 2, as there was a demand for it,” Air India CMD, Ashwani Lohani, announced at an event to celebrate the World Tourism Day.
San Francisco will be the national carrier’s fourth destination in the United States after New York and Chicago, where it operates daily non-stop flights.
The Boeing 777-200 LR (Long Range) flight, to be operated on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays, will have a convenient early morning departure and arrival. Similarly, the return flight will have early morning departure from San Francisco and arrive here in the afternoon.
Air India officials said the flight will be a boon to the Indian diaspora on the US West Coast, as it will make travel easy and convenient for students, NRIs and business travellers looking for direct options to connect with India.
The new flight would connect passengers from Indian cities of Bengaluru, Mumbai, Chennai, Kochi, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Pune and Bhubaneswar.
Referring to Air India’s Discover India scheme, Mr. Lohani also said there was a deep connect between tourism and civil aviation sectors and the airline was in discussion with Tourism Ministry to launching various schemes in this regard.

Monday, September 14, 2015

125 AI cabin crew members to lose job over weight issues


THE HINDU,14SEP2015

Air India is likely to ground nearly 125 cabin crew personnel, including airhostesses, for not maintaining the weight standards prescribed by the Director-General of Civil Aviation.
Some of them may be assigned ground duty, while others can be offered voluntary retirement, airline sources said.
The national carrier had given an opportunity to around 600 “overweight” cabin crew members last year to “shape up” within a stipulated time frame following the DGCA guidelines.
“Of these 600 cabin staff, nearly 125, including airhostesses, failed to maintain the required body mass index (BMI) or weight standards. Now we have no option but to take them off permanently from flying duty,” sources said.
Air India has 3,500 cabin crew, of whom 2,200 are permanent staff and the rest are on contract.
By the DGCA norms, a BMI of 18-25 is normal for a male cabin crew member, while for a female, it is 18-22. A BMI of 25-29.9 for male crew is considered overweight and 30 and above is obese, while for females, 22-27 is overweight and 27 and above obese.

Thursday, September 3, 2015

Airfare cartelisation complaints keep coming up due to nature of industry: CCI Chairman

THE HINDU,03SEP2015

A group of parliamentarians led by BJP leader Kirit Somiya, had met Mr. Chawla and lodged a compliant against the airlines on the pricing practices.

Fair trade regulator Competition Commission of India is looking into the charges of cartelisation among the airlines in fixing airfares and the issue keeps cropping up due to the nature of the industry, its Chairman Ashok Chawla told The Hindu in an exclusive interview.
In May, a group of parliamentarians led by BJP leader Kirit Somiya, had met Mr. Chawla and lodged a compliant against the airlines on the pricing practices.
“Air fares are a cartel matter. One is ganging up and others are abuse of dominance. Whenever the prices go up suddenly and are abnormally high there is the feeling that the airlines are working in conjunction,” he said.
CCI have looked at the issue in the past three times and found there has been no evidence of cartelisation.
Currently, it is again probing whether there is cartelisation among carriers in fixing the price of air tickets on the basis of the complaint from Parliamentarians.
Minister of State for Civil Aviation Mahesh Sharma has said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed concerns over the predatory pricing practices of domestic airlines and the ministry is trying to address the issue.
Mr. Chawla said that due to the concentrated nature of the industry the complaints on the issue come up again and again. “We are investigating the issue once again.”
He also admitted that there has been anxiety among the industry regarding the change in norms, which seeks more information in M&A deals.
The CCI had recently changed some of the norms, including the one, which requires companies to file adequate information at the first stage itself so that it speeds up the investigation process. It also said that the regulator can now invalidate notice seeking approval if the information provided is incomplete or inappropriate. Mr. Chawla said there need not be apprehension on this and CCI aim is to speed up the approval processes and not invalidate the application.

Wednesday, September 2, 2015

PM expresses concern over high airfares during festive seasons

THE HINDU,02SEP2015

Last week, Minister of State for Civil Aviation Mahesh Sharma had said the issue of predatory pricing has been a concern for majority of Parliamentarians as well as the Prime Minister.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has expressed concern over steep rise in airfares during festive seasons and the Civil Aviation Ministry is looking at ways to curb such instances, a senior ministry official said.
The official said that Mr. Modi also asked whether there is way to handle the issue.
Prime Minister received a representation that airfares are high during the Onam festival that is celebrated in Kerala. At that time, many Keralites — working in the Middle East come home with their families — have to shell out high prices of air tickets, the official said.
“High airfares during festivals is a cause for concern. We will try to address both in international and domestic routes,” the official said, while ruling out the option of regulating fares.
One of the ways to reduce fares is through encouraging the use of unutilised bilateral rights with other countries, which would increase the availability of seats and result in reduced airfares, the official said.
Last week, Minister of State for Civil Aviation Mahesh Sharma had said the issue of predatory pricing has been a concern for majority of Parliamentarians as well as the Prime Minister.