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Miscellaneous
MIDDLE
EAST NRI TO START REGIONAL AIRLINE IN SOUTH INDIA
KINGFISHER
AIRLINES'S PROPOSED
NON-STOP DELHI-VANCOUVER FLIGHT TO REDUCE TRAVEL TIME BY 10 HOURS
Premier Gordon Campbell during his visit to India in December announced
in New Delhi that Kingfisher Airlines has committed to operate the first
non-stop Delhi-Vancouver flights as soon as possible. It's expected that
the non-stop service will reduce travel time between Delhi and Vancouver
from approximately 25 hours to 15 hours.
The announcement was made after meeting with Dr. Vijay Mallya,
Kingfisher Airlines' chairman and CEO.
Premier
Campbell's during his mission to Asia, Cathy Pacific and China Southern
Airlines had announced increased air service between China and
Vancouver.
Premier
Campbell said: "Building better transportation links between B.C.
and India will build on the already-close social, cultural and business
relationships that exist between our two jurisdictions. The convenience
of direct, non-stop flights between Vancouver and Delhi will create a
major benefit for our whole community."
"I am very excited to have an airline of Kingfisher's quality
coming to Vancouver," said Campbell. "It helps establish our
gateway status for the world's two fastest-growing economies, China and
India, while creating a vital link for our Indo-Canadian community,
business, investors from B.C. and our tourism industry. I want to thank
Dr. Vijay Mallya for his vision and commitment."
Mallya said: "There are thousands of people travelling between
British Columbia and India every month who will benefit from the direct,
high-calibre service that Kingfisher Airlines will offer. I look forward
to the boost this new service will give to tourism and business in both
B.C. and in India, and to offering British Columbian travellers the
excellent service and comfort that Kingfisher provides."
Tony Gugliotta, the Vancouver Airport Authority's senior vice-president
of marketing and commercial development, said: "This new non-stop
service by Kingfisher Airlines is integral to the Vancouver Gateway
Strategy, as Delhi represents the largest market not served non-stop
from Vancouver. We see the market as having enormous potential, not only
through our cultural ties, but through increased business and tourism
linkages. Non-stop service will greatly enhance the convenience and ease
for travel between Delhi and Vancouver."
In the 2001 census, more than 180,000 British Columbians identified
themselves as being Indian in origin. Approximately 28 per cent of all
Indian tourists to Canada arrived through Vancouver in 2006.
MIDDLE
EAST NRI TO START REGIONAL AIRLINE IN SOUTH INDIA
A
Dubai-based NRI has become the first to get a license for operating a
low-cost regional airline in India. The carrier, Star Aviation, will begin
operations with a fleet of four ATRs by mid-2008 in south India. While
this has become the first airline to be allowed under the recently-allowed
regional airline policy, applications of at least four other aspirants are
also under consideration of aviation ministry.
"Dubai-based
Syed Mohammad Salahuddin and his son, both NRIs, were found to be among
the most financially strong and experienced players to have filed
applications for a regional airline. They have a $3.8 billion business
empire and also run a company that has been leasing planes to Air India.
They are also GSAs for most airlines in Dubai," said a senior
official.
Salahuddin
senior was earlier this year given the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman award.
Star Aviation will use ATR 42 and ATR 72 and begin operations with four
such planes.
These
planes will fly between south Indian cities like Bangalore, Chennai,
Madurai, Trivandrum, Kochi, Vizag, Hyderabad and Bangalore. Being an LCC,
its primary competition will be other low fare carriers like Deccan,
SpiceJet and IndiGo.
A
regional airline is allowed from a Metro in the area to any other place in
other regions. The only exception is south where airlines can operate
between Bangalore, Hyderabad and Chennai.
Miscellaneous
Lufthansa
gives Swiss room to grow. Speaking last
week on the occasion of the launch of Swiss International Air Lines' new
daily service to Delhi, CEO Christoph Franz said his carrier's
acquisition by Lufthansa not only will continue to benefit Swiss but
should serve as a model as the industry continues down the road to
consolidation. Swiss said that there remains space available under the
Lufthansa umbrella. "LH always says that it wants to be a driver of
consolidation in European aviation and to lead a multibrand strategy.
There must be space for other airlines," he said, arguing that it
would be in any carrier's best interest to integrate with a solidly
financed company like LH. Swiss has no debt. "Thanks to the LH
integration, we get [financial] conditions we would never get before. Of
course we have to show the owner that our expansion is justified,"
he said. Swiss has been a wholly owned subsidiary of LH since July and
Franz sees it as one of the f! ew European airlines delivering adequate
operating margins. "We have seen strong synergies, more than we
ever expected," he revealed. "Of course we have made progress
in our own restructuring process, like renegotiating supplier contracts,
downsizing and harmonizing the fleet and so on."
Source: Air Transport World
Continental
Airlines trials paperless boarding pass.
Continental Airlines passengers in Houston will be able to board flights
using just a cellphone or personal-digital assistant instead of a
regular boarding pass in a three-month test program launched Tuesday at
Bush Intercontinental Airport. Instead of a paper pass, Continental
Airlines and the Transportation Security Administration will let
passengers show a code the airline has sent to their cellphone or PDA.
The two-dimensional bar code, a jumble of squares and rectangles, stores
the passenger's name and flight information. A TSA screener will confirm
the bar code's authenticity with a handheld scanner. Passengers still
need to show photo identification. The electronic boarding pass also
works at airport gates. Continental will be the first airline in the
U.S. to try cellphone boarding passes. Air Canada has been offering
paperless boarding since September to customers who check in using a
cellphone or PDA. The number of fliers using the new procedure has
doubled each week since Air Canada launched the option. Other airlines
in the U.S., such as Delta and US Airways, hope to offer paperless
boarding passes soon. The practice could become more widespread
globally, too. In November, IATA estimated that more than 90 airlines
are using electronic bar code scanners to check boarding passes. IATA
said the technology is part of a larger trend toward more electronic
ticketing, more self-service kiosks and radio-based baggage
management.
Source: USA TODAY
JetBlue
to introduce free in-flight Wi-Fi services.
JetBlue Airways has announced its plans to offer free, in-flight, Wi-Fi
web connections for laptop computers and advanced cell phones in
partnership with Yahoo and Research in Motion. The new in-flight service
will allow passengers to access customized Yahoo mail and instant
messenger services on their laptops and select Wi-Fi enabled versions of
Blackberry device from Research in Motion (RIM) to access corporate
e-mails. However, general web surfing and e-mail attachments won't be
permitted because of bandwidth constraints. To provide these in-flight
Wi-Fi services, JetBlue will be using a wireless spectrum that its
subsidiary LiveTV bought from the Federal Communications Commission in
2006 for US$7 million. To comply with the federal regulations, JetBlue
will offer internet services only on Wi-Fi signals but not on cellular
signals. Unlike the satellite technology used by Boeing, the JetBlue
system wi! ll use about 100 ground towers, which are cheaper to operate.
In a similar move, AMR Corp.'s American Airlines is planning to test
broader, fee-based in-flight internet services. Some international
carriers started offering in-flight internet service on Boeing through
its Connexion in-flight broadband services, but in 2006 the aircraft
maker decided to scrap its in-flight broadband services after it failed
to get customers in the U.S.. However, Boeing managed to bag internet
featured aircraft deals with non-U.S. international carriers such as
Lufthansa, Japan Airlines, Korean Air, and Singapore Airlines.
Source: ComputerWire
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