Neha Jain: http://indianairlinesnews.blogspot.com/ 30

1. The pigsty that is civil aviation in India (Part II)

The next time you take a flight, demand photocopies of licences, insurances, minimum equipment list and airworthiness documents to satisfy yourself that it’s safe to fly. Else, just walk off the aircraft. It’s the only weapon air travelers have to make a reasoned argument about deficiencies in airlines. And we have a responsibility to try and clean this mess

It is not amazing anymore what a weekend with some cricket can do to divert attention from real issues in India. Be it corruption scams, energy crisis, water shortage, or the latest on pilots with fake licences generated through methods used by much-maligned auto-rickshaw drivers. Actually, at least the
auto-rickshaw drivers are often honest about things, and now and then seem to also be part of attempts to improve or fix the system-as many of us would have observed by the slogans and couplets painted on their vehicles.

Have we ever seen any such attempts on airplanes? No way. Fancy in-flight magazines aside, nothing. The idea is-don't make noise. Mainstream media will not make a noise-airlines are among their largest advertisers, and besides, all those free seats and upgrades mean a lot too. Airline employee unions will not make noise-too many of their friends and family members want to be pilots, I guess,by any means possible. Airlines themselves will not make a noise-the idea is to simply remain technically "airworthy" and the insurance companies will look after the rest, and as for reputation, a new colour scheme as well as "re-branding" is good for everybody if an incident should occur.

And aircraft manufacturers, will they make a noise about their planes being flown by auto-rickshaw driver incarnates? No way! They have to-right you are-sell more planes. As simple as that. That the airline manufacturers, Boeing and Airbus, have been concerned about the issue of fake and even sub-standard pilots in and around India, has been open knowledge for some time now.

So now, time for airlines, manufacturers and their employees to go in for "noise abatement procedures", a process which we know airlines are good at. Meanwhile, a few junior to mid-level officials of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) will apparently carry the can; some more sacrifices shall be made to the Gods of Lucre, and life will go on. The International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) will be prevailed upon not to place India on their blacklist (again), as India packs a punch there, and the "flying schools" will re-invent themselves.

And the head of the DGCA has the nerve to call this an "aberration". That's really, really, rich. Noisily rich.

The "noise" in Delhi this weekend has been all about the Mohali cricket match. And the attention has all been towards a summit on "luxury", which for those who go deeper into these things, is a desperate attempt by the purveyors of expensive beads and baubles to try and desperately recover from the sudden drop in sales in Japan and China-one due to the tsunami and the other due to a change in spending patterns. Cricket is cricket, in India, so that's something else. But on "luxury", an 80% discount at the Hugo Boss showroom close to where I live says it all-luxury is aspirational in India, but we want it at 80% discount.

On the other hand, the "non-noise" silence and ostrich-head-in-the-sand approach being taken by pilots as well as airlines in India, is not only deafening, it is positively criminal. Commercial pilots and their multiple associations and unions, who have in the past not hesitated from going in for labour action for minor and silly reasons and manipulated the media brilliantly, have simply not even bothered to comment or come before the media so far. Barring a few sad looking young pilots, bleating plaintively as they are escorted away to spend quality time with pickpockets and whores, complaining that they spent so much money and now deserve sympathy-nothing.

2. InterGlobe launches range of supercars and bikes
InterGlobe General Aviation has launched a wide array of super-luxury transportation portfolio in India on the back of increasing demand for luxury products. The company estimates $14.72 billion worth of luxury products coming into India by 2015 compared with $4.6 billion in 2009.

The range to be sold under a new brand named 'The Estd' spans across products such as light jet planes, supercars, custom-built motorcycles and luxury yachts. We've put together a collection of the products launched by the company for you to enjoy along with the technical and pricing details.

3. Oil firms push Air India for roadmap on repayment of past dues

NEW DELHI: State-run oil firms have demanded that cash-strapped Air India set up a roadmap to clear over Rs 2,400 crore in past fuel bills and make upfront payment for all future purchases of aviation turbine fuel (ATF).

Air India has defaulted on payment of about Rs 2,000 crore in jet fuel bills since last year and the total outstanding now amounts to over Rs 2,400 crore after including Rs 400 crore in interest, industry officials said.

"Indian Oil, Hindustan Petroleum and Bharat Petroleum already incur huge losses on selling petrol, diesel, domestic LPG and kerosene way below their production cost and to expect them to sell ATF at subsidised rates is not acceptable," an official said.

Oil firms have put Air India on cash-and-carry since December. Air India buys jet fuel worth Rs 18.5 crore per day from the three state oil firms, but it pays only Rs 13.5 crore.

This led the oil firms to threaten to stop supplies of ATF beyond what Air India pays for.

At a meeting called by Cabinet Secretary K M Chandrasekhar last week to resolve the payment impasse, Air India sought discounts similar to the ones given to private airlines.

Oil companies give a Rs 1,600-1,800 per kilolitre discount to private airlines on promise of assured payment. After adding finance charges for a 90-day credit period, the discount comes to Rs 3,600 per kl.

"Even if this discount is stretched to Rs 5,000 per kl, the Rs 18.5 crore per day fuel bill will not become Rs 13.5 crore. After including some more concessions, the fuel bill at best will come down to Rs 17 crore a day, a far-cry from the Rs 13.5 crore paying capacity of Air India," he said.

Officials said Air India was discussing only the payments for future ATF purchases and there was no word on how the state carrier will clear the past outstanding.

"Air India talks of getting the same discounts as private airlines, but does it know that ATF purchases by airlines such as Jet Airways and Kingfisher Airlines are covered by a bank guarantee?", an official asked.

Both Jet Airways and Kingfisher have brought down their outstanding to manageable levels and have provided bank guarantees to cover against any default.

IOC, HPCL and BPCL sell petrol, which the government had freed from its control in June last year, at a discount of about Rs 4.50 a litre to its imported cost. In addition, they sell diesel at a loss of Rs 15.79 a litre or Rs 283 crore per day.

Furthermore, the three retailers are losing Rs 24.74 per litre of kerosene and Rs 297.80 per 14.2-kg LPG cylinder.

The three firms are losing a cumulative Rs 432 crore in revenue every day on selling diesel, domestic LPG and kerosene below cost, officials said, adding that for the full fiscal, the three are projected to lose Rs 78,061 crore in revenues.

4. DGCA mulls online pilot registry

NEW DELHI: The government is planning to create an online national registry of pilots with a complete dossier on each one, in a bid to check pilots getting licences and jobs on the basis of fudged papers and endangering air safety. The director general of civil aviation, Bharat Bhushan, will be examining the feasibility of this project in association with an agency like Nasscom.

The plan is to put all the documents of every pilot on an online registry from the moment he or she applies for a licence, which can be accessed by airlines at the time of hiring pilots, said an official.

The biggest problem, so far, has been in getting report cards from DGCA's examination branch at R K Puram. These, then, have to be submitted at the head office licences. Shockingly, recent cases revealed that pilots were able to submit fudged papers here and get licences without any cross-checking. Once the original results and all other relevant papers are put online, this problem could be addressed to a large extent and also reduce human interface that can lead to malpractices.

Owing to the massive staff crunch at the directorate, especially when it has to undertake checks on 40 flying schools and almost an equal number of aircraft-maintenance engineering institutes, the two men spearheading the clean-up job, aviation secretary Nasim Zaidi and Bhushan, have decided to take personnel from Airports Authority of India and Pawan Hans to complete this job in next two to three months.

NEHA JAIN

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