Neha Jain: http://indianairlinesnews.blogspot.com/5

1. GE Aviation, Air India sign 20-year MRO pact

GE Aviation has signed a 20-year engine maintenance agreement with Air India [ Images ]. The agreement covers the maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) of GE90 aircraft engines.

"Air India will expand its MRO capabilities at its Mumbai [ Images ] 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 that will include GE90 testing capabilities," said a release from GE Aviation.

"Air India has more than 40 years of providing high-quality MRO services in India. Adding GE90 engine overhaul service is the perfect expansion of Air India's MRO capabilities," said Nalin Jain, country director for GE Aviation.

While Air India develops its GE90 MRO capabilities, GE will provide the carrier with overhaul services to support the carrier's GE90 engine fleet.

Air India had ordered 23 GE90-powered Boeing 777 aircraft in 2005. It operates 20 of these and the remaining three will be delivered in the next few years.

The carrier has established partial capabilities to service GE90 engines in Mumbai. "Three engine overhauls were recently completed, saving us shipping costs and reducing our turnaround time. This will help us, as we prepare to take on third-party work in the facility," said K M Unni, SBU Head of MRO SBU and board member.

2.GE Aviation, Air India Sign Engine Maintenance Pact
MUMBAI -(Dow Jones)- General Electric Co.'s (GE) aviation unit has signed an engine maintenance agreement with Air India, the U.S. company said Thursday.

The 20-year agreement covers the maintenance, repair and overhaul of GE90 aircraft engines, the company said.

GE Aviation will provide maintenance support at the national carrier's current facility in the western Indian city of Mumbai and also in the upcoming facility at Nagpur in central India, it said.

It didn't provide any financial terms of the contract.

Air India ordered 23 GE90-powered Boeing 777 aircraft in 2005 and currently operates 20 of these planes. The remaining three aircraft will be delivered in the next few years.

The airline had last March signed an agreement with GE Aviation for maintenance work of GENX-1B engines, used in some of the Boeing 787 aircraft in its fleet.

3. Gulf carriers to counter India's budget filghts

NEW DELHI: As more Indian budget carriers get ready to fly overseas from this year, especially to Gulf, international full service airlines are gearing up to meet their challenge. Etihad, UAE's luxury national airline, is planning to counter the challenge by having all-economy class flights between its hub Abu Dhabi and Indian cities on sectors where LCCs could dominate the market. What's more, the airline says it will offer "competitive" fares with the LCCs and offer free meals along with inflight entertainment (IFE) - something that most LCCs don't boast of.

Apart from this, Etihad CEO James Hogan said here on Thursday that the airline is requesting for permission to have code share on domestic Indian routes with Indian carriers. A team of airline officials will meet aviation ministry officials with request for more cities to be served in India.

"We are allowed to have code share with Indian carriers on routes that both of us may be serving but not for domestic routes. We are requesting the government to allow this as that would allow passengers the convenience of booking one ticket between anywhere in the world via Abu Dhabi and any Indian city on global distribution system. So on one ticket a person can fly from Abu Dhabi to an Indian city like Patna by catching an Indian carrier after landing in Delhi or Mumbai on our flight. Travel would become seamless on code share on domestic Indian routes," Hogan said.

Almost all Gulf carriers fill up their huge fleet of wide body aircraft that fly to all parts of the world from their hubs their by picking up traffic from as many Indian cities as possible. Almost 60-90% of Indians flying Gulf carriers are transit passengers between India and Europe, America, Africa and even Australia.

But with pure Indian LCCs like IndiGo and SpiceJet and budget avatars of Jet, Kingfisher and AI targeting the India-Gulf routes in a big way, the fight for the 30-40% passengers flying just between India and Middle East is hotting up. "There is huge religious; visiting friends and relatives; business and worker traffic between India and Gulf. We fly to eight Indian cities. Flights to Calicut and Trivandrum are all economy. The competition from LCCs is welcome and we are ready for it. All-economy flights can be put on more cities where budget LCCs can become market leaders at competitive rates with free meals and IFE.

4. Staff crunch hits airline regulator

Safety checks on flights operating out of Mumbai — the second busiest in the country — and other airports in western India have dropped drastically because the aviation regulator, Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), does not have enough air safety officers. DGCA’s regional office has

only three air safety officers against the required strength of 18. This office is supposed to monitor safety standards at more than a dozen airports including the city airport — the second busiest in the country. The department, which has 15 vacant posts at the moment, is also meant to scan private airstrips and flying schools in the region.
It’s not just short-staffed but over-worked too. DGCA sources claim that the work pressure is taking a toll on the staff’s health. “Officers have been falling sick with stress related ailments,” said a source.

The issue was brought to the notice of DGCA chief Bharat Bhushan during his visit to the Kalina regional office last month. “Despite repeated circulars sent to the headquarters, the issue has drawn little attention,” said a DGCA official requesting anonymity, as he is not authorised to talk to the media.

The regulator’s chief confirmed the vacancies. “Filling these positions is a time consuming process because air safety is a critical job,” said Bhushan. He added that the regulator had hired 20 fresh graduates as consultants to conduct basic inspections but that only accounted for half the vacancies across the country.

Across all its centres, the DGCA has 82 vacant positions for air safety officers. Out of these about 20 are for full-time employees and another 25 for new recruits to be hired as consultants.

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