Neha Jain: http://indianairlinesnews.blogspot.com/16

1. Air India clips COO, CTO's wings

MUMBAI: State carrier Air India has watered down the powers of its expat chief operating officer and chief training officer three days after sacking its low-cost subsidiary COO Pawan Arora, toeing the line taken by the new civil aviation minister who wants to take a re-look at expensive recruitments.

While the airline has asked its chief operating officer (COO) Gustav Baldauf not to travel abroad for any negotiations on behalf of Air India, it has decided to put the process of issuing foreign aircrew temporary authorisation (FATA) to its chief operating training officer Stephan Sukumar on hold, according to three independent people close to Air India.

Foreign pilots are allowed to fly and train in India under FATA issued by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation. Arvind Jadhav, chairman and managing director of Air India, recruited the expats and these appointments were ratified by the board in June and September 2010, respectively.

These top recruitments ran into controversy as Baldauf and Sukumar were given expensive salaries of over Rs 3 crore and Rs 1.5 crore, respectively. Restrictions on Baldauf’s foreign travel will put a spoke in Air India's entry into Star Alliance. This former Canadian airline executive was mainly brought in last year to ramp up Air India's global operations. “Whatever political decisions are there to be taken, will be taken.

But at the moment I am not worried of these things as the turnaround of the airline is more important and for me, the time is running out both for stopping the slipping airline into bankruptcy and also for the airline joining the Star alliance which is coming to its deadline by June this year,” said Baldauf.

Sukumar could not be contacted. However, people close to him told ET that he was finding it extremely difficult to take things forward. He was brought in to ramp up training to fill in for the shortage of cabin crew and cockpit staff. DGCA, the civil aviation regulator, has raised objections to some papers submitted for Sukumar’s appointment.

The airline, struggling to pay salaries for employees, will have to pay hefty amounts to expats if they are given the marching orders. “If they want to remove Sukumar, they will have to pay a sixmonth salary,” said an Air India official.

2. Airports to light up for 100 years of aviation

MANGALORE: Airports across India will have a special glow on them on February 18. They will be tastefully illuminated to mark the completion of 100 years of Indian civil aviation on that day and also mark the commencement of Civil Aviation Centenary Year starting from February 18 and ending the same date in 2012. This occasion will be doubly sweet for Mangalore airport which is in the alacrity of its 60th year celebration.

It was on February 18, 1911, that the first commercial plane flew in India between Allahabad and Naini. The first commercial international flight, connecting Delhi to Karachi and beyond took place in 1912 and was operated by the erstwhile Imperial Airways. Since then, aviation in India has grown in strength and is currently ninth largest civil aviation market in the world with projections of the country being the top three players in the sector by 2020.

M R Vasudeva, director, Mangalore Airport, said special care will be taken to illuminate the airport tastefully on that day. For us, the occasion is all the more special given that various stakeholders such as the Kanara Chamber of Commerce and Industry and other well-wishers are arranging for a function to commemorate the occasion, he says. The first flight, a Dakota, flew in to Mangalore in 1951 carrying then PM Jawaharlal Nehru.

Vasudeva said it was a sense of belongingness shown by people of the city in accepting the airport as a part and parcel of their lives and as a harbinger of growth and development of the region that has given a special meaning to the February 18 event. People, organisations and authorities concerned have closely associated the development of the airport, he said, adding banners heralding the milestone will also be displayed at the airport on that day.

3. India, China to be among top five domestic aviation markets

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NEW DELHI: India and China will be among the five largest domestic aviation markets in the next two years but the US will remain at the top, the IATA has estimated, saying the focus of the global aviation industry will continue shifting eastward.

By 2014, the five largest markets for domestic passengers would be the United States with 671 million, China with 379 million, Japan (102 million), Brazil (90 million) and India (69 million), the International Air Transport Association (IATA) said in its latest global forecast.

While China will record the highest compound annual growth rate in passenger traffic of 13.9 per cent contributing an additional 181 million passengers, India with 10.5 per cent will be among nations which will record double digit growth.

Other countries with double-digit growth would include Vietnam with 10.9 per cent, South Africa (10.6) and the Philippines (10.2), the figures published by the global airlines' body showed.

Noting that China would be the biggest contributor of new travellers, IATA said, of the estimated 800 million such passengers expected in 2014, 360 million or 45 per cent would travel on Asia-Pacific routes. Of these, 214 million will be associated with China in domestic and international travel.

The United States will remain the largest single country market for domestic passengers, projected at 671 million and will have 215 million international passengers.

IATA Director General Giovanni Bisignani said the focus of the industry "continues to shift eastward. By 2014, almost one billion people will travel by air in Asia-Pacific. That is 30 per cent of the global total and a four percentage point increase from 26 per cent it represented in 2009".

A similar situation would prevail for aircargo as well with Asia-Pacific region estimated to account for 28 per cent of the global volumes, he said.

Asia-Pacific's international passenger demand was expected to grow 7.6 per cent, with China, Japan and Hong Kong becoming the biggest international passenger markets in the region by 2014.

4. Sacked AI engineer serves contempt notice to airline

A senior engineer of the national carrier, Air India, who faced the ire of the management for speaking out despite gag orders in the aftermath of the Mangalore air tragedy, served a contempt notice to the top brass of the company for not allowing him to join duty even after securing a favourable order against his dismissal.

Chief aircraft engineer S Surendranath, one of the veteran technical staff with over 30 years of experience in the field, was terminated from service for going public with his criticism against the management. He, along with a few others of the All India Aircraft Engineers Association (AIAEA), charged that the senior officials had allowed a junior technical staff of a private airlines to certify a relief aircraft that flew from Bangalore to Mangalore soon after the tragedy. The resultant disciplinary action saw the termination of 55 employees and suspension of 32 others.