Neha Jain: http://indianairlinesnews.blogspot.com/2

1. Two Army officers killed in chopper crash
Nashik (Mah), Feb 2 (PTI) An army helicopter crashedin a residential area here today killing both its pilots butthere was no casualty on the ground.

The Cheetah helicopter of the Army Aviation Corpscrashed at around 0855 hours at Jachak Nagar, killing both itsoccupants-- Captain Bhanu Pratap Gupta and Major Atul Garje,army officials probing the crash said.

They said as the chopper crashed in an open spacethere was no casualty.

Major Garje and Capt Gupta of Jodhpur army aviationbase had arrived at the army''s Combat Aviation Training Centreat Gandhinagar here two days back and had taken off thismorning for Goa en route Pune. Later they were to fly toBangalore for the Aero-India show that kicks off next week,army sources said.

Eyewitnesses said the rotor blade of the helicopterstopped moving mid-air and the aircraft hit the terrace of aresidential building before crashing to the ground.

The bodies of both pilots have been retrieved from thedebris of the ill-fated chopper by the fire service and armyrescue teams.

"There has been no significant damage to the buildingnor is there any civilian casualty," Nashik fire brigade Chiefofficer Anil Mahajan told PTI.

Forensic experts from the army are busy gatheringmaterial from the crash site for an inquiry.

Nashik District Magistrate P Velarasu said there wasno civilian casualty and the helicopter as per the preliminaryinvestigation crashed due to possible technical failure.

"All we can say is that both the pilots on board aredead. The helicopter crashed in a civilian area and there isno civilian casualty. Investigations are on," he said.

The bungalow was locked and its owners, identified asBhagwan Trimbak Patil and his wife Meena, a teacher, were outfor work when the mishap occurred.

In 2006, an army helicopter had crashed close theCombat Aviation Training Centre, about 4 Km from here, killingthree personnel, while an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) hadgone down in a civilian area at Vadner on Pathardi-Delvaliroad last year, but there was no casualty.

2. Air India Signs OnPoint Solution Agreement for Its GE90 Engine Fleet
GE Aviation and India's national carrier Air India have signed a 20-year OnPointSM solution agreement that covers its GE90 engines. The value of the agreement is not being released.
Air India will expand its maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) capabilities at its Mumbai, India facility to include GE90 engine overhaul. The current schedule calls for the Mumbai facility to be certified for basic GE90 MRO by 2012. Eventually, Air India plans to build a new MRO facility in Nagpur, India, that will include GE90 testing capabilities.
As part of the OnPoint solution agreement, GE will provide Air India with comprehensive material support, training and assistance on overhaul workscoping. While Air India develops its GE90 MRO capabilities, GE will provide the airline with overhaul services at GE's MRO facilities to support the carrier's GE90 engine fleet.
"Air India has more than 40 years of providing high-quality MRO services in India," said Nalin Jain, country director for GE Aviation. "Adding GE90 engine overhaul service is the perfect expansion of Air India's MRO capabilities."
"Air India has already established partial capabilities on GE90 engines in Mumbai with the help of GE. Three engine overhauls were recently completed, saving us shipping costs and also reducing our turnaround time significantly. This will help us as we prepare to take on third-party work in the facility," said Mr. K. M. Unni, SBU Head of the MRO SBU and Board Member, Air India.
Air India ordered 23 GE90-powered Boeing 777 aircraft in 2005 and currently operates 20 of these aircraft with the remaining three aircraft to be delivered in the next few years.
OnPoint solutions are flexible, long-term commitments designed to meet customers' unique engine services needs. Backed by GE's world-class support, these solutions help lower our customers' cost-of-ownership and maximize the use of their assets. Available OnPoint services include overhaul, on wing support, new and used serviceable parts, component repair, technology upgrades, engine leasing and diagnostics.

3. Jet Airways Net Profit Up 11%
MUMBAI – Jet Airways (India) Ltd. Wednesday posted an 11% increase in third quarter net profit, missing market expectations as rising sales were offset by higher tax expenses.

India's biggest airline by market share posted a net profit of 1.18 billion rupees ($26 million) in October-December, compared with 1.06 billion rupees a year earlier.

Sales rose 20% to 32.62 billion rupees from 27.23 billion rupees, but the airline's profit was dragged down on a tax expense of 996.4 million rupees, against just 500,000 rupees a year earlier.

It didn't specify what led to the rise in taxes.

The average estimate in a poll of six analysts was for Jet Airways to post a net profit of 2.78 billion rupees on sales of 36.45 billion rupees.

The carrier posted a 24.2% earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, amortization and lease rentals margin during the quarter. It didn't immediately give a comparative figure.

"The EBITDAR margin is more or less in line with our expectations, but the taxes took us by surprise, said Mahantesh Sabarad, a Mumbai-based analyst with Fortune Equity Brokers.

"The good thing is that Jet's tax expense primarily comprises of deferred tax so there is no cash outgo," he added.

The airline's shares fell on the lower-than-expected results. The stock closed down 1.64% at 503.15 rupees on the Bombay Stock Exchange. The benchmark index ended 0.38% lower.

Still, the company's improvement in operating performance reflects a recovery in the aviation sector, long out of the throes of the global downturn in 2008 and 2009. Rising personal income levels and a growth in corporate activity have encouraged more Indians to fly in the past year.

Airlines, especially Jet Airways and Kingfisher Airlines Ltd., have in turn raised ticket prices over the last several quarters to improve margins.

Jet Airways said it flew 3.94 million passengers during the just-ended quarter, up 15% year-on-year. It had a domestic load factor of 77% during the quarter compared with 75% a year earlier.

The airline managed to fill 80% seats on average--a number it has maintained over the last few quarters--on its overseas flights, compared with 82.5% a year earlier.

The company is expected to have load factors of 76% on its domestic flights and 80% on international operations in the fourth quarter, said Senior Vice President M. Shivkumar on news channel CNBC-TV18.

Jet Airways spent 10.97 billion rupees on fuel--its biggest operating expense--up 24% from the year earlier quarter. Total expenditure climbed 17% to 30.72 billion rupees.

4. IndiGo Airways: India's hottest low-cost carrier

NEW DELHI, India — India's IndiGo Airlines may be the world's hottest low-cost carrier. But the company's lightning fast sprint to the top of the food chain offers something else for market watchers: a new spin on the so-called "bottom of the pyramid."

This month, close on the heels of the record-setting, $15.6 billion purchase of 180 passenger jets from Airbus, IndiGo topped state-owned Air India to become the country's second-largest carrier — matching liquor baron Vijay Mallya's full-service Kingfisher Airlines with an 18.6 percent share of the market. It also announced it would start international service with flights to Singapore, Bangkok, Dubai and Muscat this summer.

Since 2008, when the company booked its first profit even as high fuel prices and the economic downturn ravaged its competitors, IndiGo's net income has grown more than five times — from a shade under $20 million to more than $120 million. And the Center for Asia Pacific Aviation reckons its one of the hottest airlines to watch in 2011, saying, "Airports in the Indian subcontinent, Gulf and Southeast Asia take note: IndiGo is coming."

With Boeing forecasting that Indian air traffic will grow 15 percent a year over the next five years and that India will require more than 1,000 commercial jets over the next 20, according to the Wall Street Journal, that may just well make IndiGo the fastest growing airline in the world's fastest growing aviation market. And questions about how it will pay Airbus for all those shiny new planes — which will be rolling in until 2025 — has already boosted excitement about a possible IPO.

But it's the secret behind the five-year-old, low-cost airline's meteoric rise that's most intriguing.

Like Tata Motors did with the much hyped, sub $2,500 Nano, IndiGo used the promise of India's huge, untapped market to lure partner organizations into offering bargain-basement prices — which was key to the low-cost airline's initial purchase of 100 A-320 jets from Airbus in 2005.

But where Tata has stumbled at the bottom of the pyramid — the late business professor C.K. Prahalad's term for the largest, but poorest segment of consumers — IndiGo redefined the low-cost model to compete for business with full-service carriers by offering more than cheap tickets.

"IndiGo's investment in the training of its staff and its [aircraft] fleet killed whatever difference might have existed between an LCC and a full-service carrier," said Kapil Kaul, South Asia head of the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation. "The service is the same, the planes are all new, the buses are brand new."

Thus, while Tata struggled to sell the Nano to the lower middle class, first-time car buyers it targeted — partly due to bad publicity surrounding a few vehicles catching fire — IndiGo was able to turn regular business travelers into loyal customers because it never acted like a budget airline.

From the beginning, its purchase of all new aircraft helped it avoid maintenance problems, and superior planning helped it to match or exceed the on-time performance record of its full-service competitors — even though rapid turnaround of its planes was the key to the company making money.

According to India's Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), in 2010 IndiGo topped market leader Jet Airways with an on-time performance record of 85 percent — though Kingfisher notched 86 percent — and beat out its nearest low-cost competitor by a substantial margin. Moreover, thanks to its first big order of new planes, it had the lowest flight cancellation rate of any Indian carrier.

"The first order of 100 aircraft [from Airbus in 2005] was game-changing. They got a wonderful order, and a good price that gave them the leverage that a startup carrier requires," said Kaul, citing the superior maintenance support that the purchase gained them from engine and airframe manufacturers. "That [big one-time buy] ensured they became part of the manufacturers' business model." With the recently announced purchase of 180 more A-320s, the company is set to increase its advantage.

But IndiGo also went beyond the basics to reinvent the first-time flyer segment. When Air Deccan, the pioneer low-cost carrier in India, acquired by Kingfisher in December 2007, was struggling to fight the impression that their planes operated like public buses with wings, IndiGo pushed best practices even when there was no compelling reason to do so.

In a country where other carriers shared passenger-stair vehicles and the top airline still had to have disabled passengers carried up the staircase to plane height by ground crew, for instance, IndiGo brought in larger, handicapped accessible passenger ramps from day one. Similarly, the company equipped check-in staff with hand-held scanners that allowed passengers without baggage to avoid the dreaded scrum at the counter. And at least in the beginning, flight attendants manning the beverage carts addressed even lowly economy class passengers by name (with the aid of the seating chart).

"They've been way ahead of the other LCCs in terms of public perception for reliability and reputation," said Ajay Prakash, president of the Travel Agents Federation of India. "I, too, would recommend IndiGo over the other low-c