Author: Anu Sharma

Dubai-bound Air India plane hits airport wall, makes safe landing at Mumbai

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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The wheels of an Air India Express flight to Dubai from Trichy in Tamil Nadu hit the airport’s compound wall while taking off but made a safe landing mid-way at Mumbai earlier on Friday.

All 130 passengers and six crew members on board the Aircraft were alighted safely.

“After the aircraft departed from Trichy at 1:30 am today, local airport officials observed the aircraft might have come in contact with the airport perimeter wall and the same was conveyed to the pilot in command,” said a source familiar with the matter.

The flight diverted to Mumbai and landed safely at about 5.35 am in Mumbai and taxied on its own power to the parking stand, the source said.

While the pilot in command reported that the aircraft systems were operating normally, it was finally decided to divert the aircraft to Mumbai as a precautionary measure.

The matter has been reported to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) and the airline is cooperating with the investigation, the source said.

The pilot in command and the first officer have been derostered pending investigation, the source said.

A relief aircraft was arranged to continue the flight from Mumbai to Dubai with a fresh set of crew.

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CFM sees an opportunity for its LEAP engines in A320neos of IndiGo, GoAir 

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Jet engine manufacturer CFM International sees an opportunity to power the Airbus A320neos of InterGlobe Aviation Ltd-led IndiGo and GoAir through its LEAP engine, the company said on Thursday.

Currently, A320neos of IndiGo and GoAir are powered by engines from Pratt & Whitney, which have witnessed instances of frequent glitches in the recent past.

“There is an opportunity in the Indian market,” said Philippe Couteaux, Executive Vice-president, sales and marketing. “In the neos, IndiGo, GoAir have made a choice with the competition but we have a relationship with them as well. They know CFM, they have been knowing CFM for years… they see how the LEAP behaves on paper so there is an opportunity on paper now whether the airline wants to take that step.. it is their prerogative.”

The company regularly meets all its customers and hence, met IndiGo and GoAir as well recently, Couteaux added.

CFM International, which is a joint venture between the US-based General Electric and French Safran, already powers Airbus A320ceos (current engine option) of IndiGo and GoAir via its CFM56 engine. However, out of India’s current order-book of 1,000 planes, around 400 are A320neos, mostly expected to be powered by CFM’s competitor Pratt & Whitney.

On being asked about the engine issues faced by Pratt & Whitney-powered Airbus A320neos and the opportunity available thereby, CFM said that it continues to focus on its commitments and sees India as a strategic market.

“I won’t talk about competition. We are focussing on our commitments. We see an attraction (in India). Airlines make the choice. At the time of ordering aircraft… before making the immediate choice of going with the same incumbent.. they always think of what could be the alternative so it’s a natural process everytime,” the company said on the event of 10-year anniversary of LEAP engines.

The company’s current backlog represents seven years of production at current levels on account of 15,450 LEAP engines and 434 CFM56 engines.

While it has planned the production rate of 1,100 LEAP engines in 2018, to be scaled up to 2,000 in 2020, it is still running behind the schedule by up to four weeks.

“We are working closely with Airbus and Boeing to close the gap. We are ramping up production by using dual and multiple sources. In a few months, we will be back to our commitment,” the company said.

CFM International, whose first Indian customer of CFM76 engine was Jet Airways (India) Ltd in 1993, currently powers 64 percent of the aircraft in India.

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LinkedIn India Workforce report: Software engineers most in demand

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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If you are a software engineer, then your chances of employment are brighter than the rest, according to professional network platform LinkedIn’s first workforce report for India.

In its half-yearly report for 2018,  LinkedIn analysed job postings made by companies for India and software engineers have emerged as the most sought after, followed by application developers, solutions consultants, java software engineers, business analysts.

“In particular, job posts for software engineer were highest in eight of the 14 cities. Jobs requiring digital skills fuelled employment growth in the first half of 2018,” the company said.

Retail, consumer goods and entertainment sectors continued to trail in creating job opportunities, while education, legal and design industries took the lead.

“Growth in legal and education industries were driven by traditional roles such as associates, lawyers and researchers for the former and teachers and research assistants for the latter,” LinkedIn said in its report.

The professional platform also said that all sectors are undergoing a wave of digital transformation and are employing cloud, analytics, artificial intelligence and machine learning to increase productivity.

“The top skills profiled for the top posted jobs in H1 2018 (January-June) included a mix of core technical skills like coding and database querying as well as key soft skills such as management, leadership and team management,” LinkedIn said.

The company analysed its over 50-million user base in India, over one million company pages and local trends across 14 areas covering metros and Tier-I cities such as Mumbai, New Delhi, Jaipur, Pune and Ahmedabad.

Interestingly, Kalyan outpaced cities like Chennai and Hyderabad and emerged as the leader in attracting talent during January-June.

In terms of international migration, despite trade wars and growing wave of proctectionism, the US remained India’s top partner for talent migration in terms of volume in both directions.

However, the highest migration for in-demand jobs was to Australia, Germany and the UK.

Overall, India emerged as a net importer of skills related to oil and gas sector, and a net exporter of digital skills.

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AirAsia India appoints Tata Steel’s Sunil Bhaskaran as new CEO and MD

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Troubled airline AirAsia India on Wednesday appointed Tata Steel veteran Sunil Bhaskaran as its new chief executive officer and managing director.

“Air Asia India today announced the appointment of Sunil Bhaskaran as the chief executive officer and managing director with effect from November 15, 2018 to oversee the next phase of expansion and growth of the company,” the company said in a statement.

The 54-year old Bhaskaran joined Tata Steel as a management trainee in 1987 and rose through the ranks to his current position of vice president-corporate services.

“We are delighted to welcome Bhaskaran as the new CEO & MD of AirAsia India. With India’s aviation sector growing at a rapid pace, we are confident his extensive experience, ability to drive performance and work seamlessly with all stakeholders will be a great asset for the company,” said S Ramadorai, chairman, AirAsia India.

AirAsia Group CEO Tony Fernandes and Bo Lingam, deputy group CEO, have also stepped down from the AirAsia board, said the source who declined to be named.

Chairman S Ramadorai will be replaced by Tata Sons president Banmali Agrawala, sources familiar with the matter told CNBC-TV18.

Air Asia India is likely to undergo leadership reshuffle under Agrawala, currently the president, infrastructure, defence and aerospace at Tata Sons.

Tata Sons own 49 percent stake in AirAsia India.

The leadership change comes at a time when AirAsia India is facing a turbulent phase in the world’s fastest growing aviation market.

In June, the CBI registered a case of criminal conspiracy against Fernandes, Lingam, nominee director R Venkataramanan and AirAsia India “for paying a bribe to unknown public servants of the Government of India and others” while lobbying for an amendment in the aviation policy and trying to secure a licence to start overseas flights.

The board of the low-cost carrier, a joint venture between Malaysia’s AirAsia Investment Ltd and Tata Sons, has denied any wrongdoing.

The airline has 19 planes and said it will expand its fleet to 60 over the next five years. Under Indian rules, it can launch international flights once it has 20 planes.

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Jet Airways likely to default on September salaries

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Jet Airways, the country’s second-largest airline, continued to face headwinds in raising capital to meet its payment obligations and is likely to default on the September salaries of pilots and engineers, a source privy to the development told CNBC-TV18.

In a meeting held on Tuesday between the airline’s senior management and its domestic pilots’ union, National Aviator’s Guild, the airline has expressed difficulty in paying the first tranche of September salary on October 11, said people familiar with the development.

“The meeting was disappointing. The airline is facing issues in raising funds to meet our salaries. We would be receiving an official communication on the salary delay soon,” said people familiar with the matter.

An email query to the airline on the matter remained unanswered till the time the article was published.

The Naresh Goyal-led airline, in which Etihad Airways holds 24 percent stake, had earlier told its pilots and senior management that salaries for August, September and October will be paid in two instalments, one on 11 and the other on 26 of the succeeding month.

However, the airline had paid just 75 percent payment of August salaries to its pilots, engineers and senior management by September 26 and had assured its pilots on Friday that the remaining 25 percent would be paid by October 9.

According to sources close to the development, the balance amount of August salaries has been received, but it still remains uncertain whether salaries beyond October would be paid on time.

Witnessing financial turbulence since March quarter and troubled by soaring oil prices, depreciating rupee, weak fare scenario and heavy competition in domestic market, the airline has been struggling to meet payment obligations including salaries to over 16,000 employees.

Last week, the beleaguered carrier had received over Rs 250 crore from Jet Privilege, its customer loyalty programme, for advance ticket sale.

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Global tenders for bullet train project likely to be awarded January onwards

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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The National High Speed Rail Corporation (NHSRC) is likely to float 20-30 global tenders for the bullet train project between Ahmedabad and Mumbai from January onwards, sources close to the development told CNBC-TV18.

“We will be floating some 20-30 tenders for civil and electricity work, signalling, station building, coaches and this will happen from January. These will be awarded by June,” the source said requesting anonymity.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ambitious project, which has recently received funding of over Rs 5,500 crore from Japan International Cooperation Agency is, however, facing some issues with regard to land acquisition across Gujarat and Maharashtra.

While the land acquisition exercise is running smoothly in the areas of Surat and Vadodara and one of the five petitions against land acquisition in Gujarat High Court was withdrawn last week, the agency is struggling to acquire land in other districts of Gujarat and large parts of Maharashtra.

“We are facing problems in acquiring land across Palghar, Navsari, Thane,” the source said.

The project’s Bandra Kurla station may also need some redesigning due to the increase in height of the International Finance Corporation’s building, which is being built above the station area.

The project is estimated to cost Rs 1.1 lakh crore.  Japan International Cooperation Agency has  agreed to fund 81 percent of the total project cost, amounting to around Rs 88,000 crore, through a 50-year loan at an interest rate of 0.1 percent with a moratorium on repayments up to 15 years and the remaining cost will be borne by the state governments of Maharashtra and Gujarat.

Of the 508.17-km long corridor, 155.76 km will be in Maharashtra, 348.04 km in Gujarat and 4.3 km in Dadra and Nagar Haveli.

While the designs for six stations of the high-speed rail corridor has already been finalised, design of Thane, Virar, Boisar, Anand, Bharuch, Sabarmati stations is expected to be released in another 15 days, the source added.

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KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Lufthansa to invest in biometric identification, eyes expansion in India operations

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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German giant, Lufthansa, is willing to invest in biometric identification of passengers across the world under a “step-by-step” approach as the innovative programme fastens the boarding process and leads to a seamless travel experience.

“We have started a biometric identification test case at Los Angeles airport together with the authorities there and our first findings are that it’s quite convenient for the customer and boarding is happening much faster,” Heike Birlenbach, senior vice president sales for Lufthansa Hub Airlines told CNBC-TV18.

The airline is upbeat about the policy document released on ‘Digi Yatra’ by India on October 4 for facilitation of a voluntary boarding programme based on facial recognition.

“We appreciate those initiatives and we are already investigating in that area. Now that (Digi Yatra) has been announced, certainly we will look into it. So far, not all authorities in the world are open to it, so we take it step by step,” Birlenbach said.

The airline also plans to invest heavily in innovation with a fund of around 500 million euros and aims to provide more individualised services to its passengers.

Lufthansa is the largest German airline and is also the largest airline in Europe, when combined with its subsidiaries with the Lufthansa Group operating a fleet of over 600 aircraft.

The airline, which has been operating in India since almost 60 years, is exploring expansion of its operations by adding more routes and increasing frequencies on existing sectors, Birlenbach said.

“Certainly India is one of the strategic markets. Presently, we have quite a good coverage in India. We are constantly looking into possible expansion, whether it’s new cities or also higher frequencies. For the time being, evaluation has not yet ended,” Birlenbach added.

The airline currently flies 62 weekly flights from New Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Chennai. It will also resume Pune-Frankfurt route using Airbus A319 from November.

Talking about the impact of soaring oil prices, Birlenbach said airline is making continuous efforts to reduce costs. Air fares are being largely determined by an equation of demand and offerings, and not so much by inflated jet fuel prices.

“We are very much affected by high oil prices. However, there are different things that we are doing. First of all, we need to work on our internal efficiencies to keep costs under control. If you are talking about prices to customers, it’s always demand and offering that decide the price offered in the market, so it’s not necessary that fuel prices will determine the prices that we are requesting from the customers…there cannot be a simple answer,” Birlenbach said.

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Air India eyes over Rs 7,000 crore proceeds from monetisation of land at Mumbai, Delhi and Tokyo

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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The land monetisation exercise at debt-laden Air India seems to be picking up pace as the airline is eyeing big-ticket items for sale in order to cut its loan burden by around Rs 7,000 crore, a senior government official aware of the development told CNBC-TV18.

“We have issued two advertisements over the last one month for sale of properties. The first had properties worth about Rs 400 crore and the other was about Rs 200 crore. We are looking at big real estate items now in New Delhi, Mumbai and some overseas,” the official said requesting anonymity.

The airline is now in discussions with City and Industrial Development Corporation of Maharashtra (CIDCO) for sale of its residential land at Nerul in Mumbai and is hopeful of generating around Rs 1,500 crore from the sale.

“CIDCO had given this 20-acre land to Air India years ago. We have asked CIDCO to dispose it on our behalf. It will take about six months, because a lot of permissions are needed. We expect our share at around Rs 1,500 crore from this land sale,” the official said.

Another major land monetisation programme for Air India will be in New Delhi and this includes the 16,188 square meter land at the prime location of Baba Kharak Singh Marg near Connaught Place and staff quarters spread over 30 acres at Vasant Vihar.

The project was stuck for over a year due to “documentation issue”, but some days back, NBCC Ltd, which has been entrusted with the task of redevelopment of these properties, has issued advertisement inviting bids for architectural designs and the airline is expecting to reduce its debt burden by Rs 4,000-5,000 crore on the back of these two, the official added.

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) had approved a financial restructuring and turnaround plan for Air India in 2012. Under this, monetisation of real estate assets in Air India to the tune of Rs 5,000 crore was also approved over a period of 10 years with an annual target of Rs 500 crore from 2012-13 (April-March) onwards.

However, till March, the airline could only sell properties worth over Rs 500 crore as against expectation of Rs 3,000 crore.

“Air India was unable to meet the target under asset monetisation plan due to problem with the land titles. The high-value properties were allotted to Air India for specific purposes, which had end-use restrictions and did not have clear marketable titles as they were allotted on perpetual lease basis,” minister of state for civil aviation, Jayant Sinha, said in a written reply to Lok Sabha in March.

Further till July, sale of 30 properties have been taken up by eauction through MSTC, a public sector undertaking and revenue of Rs 724 crore was realised by the airline, as per government data.

While the airline has already put most of its overseas properties for sale, the next lot for monetisation would be for the remaining global real estate and then, the focus will now be largely on its domestic spread.

“Now in the next lot, we are talking about selling our properties in Japan, London and Nairoboi to generate about Rs 100 crore. Most of the properties in overseas have been sold. This is the last lot left. There are two flats in Tokyo, office space in London and some open land in Nairobi,” the official said.

The Maharaja carrier has also recently entered into a redevelopment agreement with Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHDA) for some of its old flats. Proceeds from sale of redeveloped flats will be again used to reduce the debt.

“Under this, MHADA will demolish and redevelop some of our old flats and they will give us over 60 ready-made flats. These flats can then be sold. We are also talking about redevelopment of Juhu complex as well,” the official said.

The efforts to maximise sales from land monetisation come at a time, when the government is working on a financial assistance programme for it and steps are being taken to reduce the debt to make the airline financially viable. The government had failed to elicit even a single bid when it initiated a divestment process in March for 76 percent stake in Air India.

Gradually, the airline, which is reeling under a debt of over Rs 48,000 crore, also plans to sell more properties across Jaipur, Jodhpur, Udaipur, Chandigarh, Pune, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Chennai pushing for it in an attempt to maximise revenue from land monetisation.

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Face to become boarding pass, roll out of Digi Yatra at Bengaluru, Hyderabad airports in February

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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The face of a passenger face will soon be able to serve as his or her boarding pass under the Digi Yatra initiative of the union civil aviation ministry, in an attempt towards seamless travel experience.

In a policy document released on Thursday, the civil aviation ministry said that facial recognition will form the basis for this biometric-based travel experience at check-in point, security area, boarding gate and the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) will issue draft regulations today for public consultation in this regard.

CNBC-TV18 had exclusively reported on October 3 that the government has finalised a common set of standards for biometric-based boarding based on facial recognition, which would include creation of a Digi Yatra identity.

“Under the Digi Yatra, a passenger can get a Digi Yatra ID by sharing minimum details like name, email ID, mobile number and details of one approved identity proof, where Aadhar ID is not mandatory. This Digi Yatra ID will be shared by passengers while booking the ticket. Airlines will share the passenger data and Digi Yatra ID with the departure airport,” the civil aviation ministry said.

A passenger, who has created the Digi Yatra ID has to undergo a one-time verification at the departure airport during his or her first travel.

In case a passenger opted for Aadhar based verification, the identity will be verified online. On successful verification, facial biometric will be captured and stored in the Digi Yatra ID profile of the passenger.

In case, the passenger has chosen any other identity for creating Digi Yatra ID, verification will be done manually by security personal and facial biometric will be captured and stored in the Digi Yatra ID profile.

“When the passenger reaches the airport and scans the barcode or boarding pass at the gate, a camera will capture the face for comparing with Digi Yatra ID photo. On successful verification of the travel details and facial matching, the electronic gate will open,” the civil aviation ministry said.

Hence, at subsequent check points, the passenger will gain entry through face recognition.

“Airlines, airports and Bureau of Civil Aviation Security are on board for Digi Yatra. It’s a forward-looking, futurstic approach,” union minister for civil aviation Suresh Prabhu said.

The Digi Yatra central platform, which will get created by February, will be operated by a joint venture of Airports Authority of India (AAI) and other private airports.

However, the government is still finalising the equity share of state-run AAI in the venture and is seeking NITI Aayog approval for the same.

The initiative is likely to kickstart at Hyderabad and Bengaluru airports in February, while AAI is expected to implement it at Varanasi, Vijayawada, Pune and Kolkata by April and will then gradually duplicate the exercise at other airports.

“Digi Yatra will provide a pan-India powerful platform for future. Airports will have the possibility of providing innovative services and consent based targeted services in future. Any service provider involved in facilitating travel of passenger from door to door will be able to use this platform in future through innovative solutions. The ultimate beneficiary will be the passenger,” the ministry said.

Besides, airport operator will be able to do better resource planning and the real-time data of passengers within the terminal will enable the operator to take proactive action to avoid congestion.

“Security will also benefit from the ability of the technology to verify the passenger at every checkpoint in a non-intrusive way except that physical frisking of the passenger as per security procedures will continue. Intentional boarding pass exchange by passengers or wrong boarding by mistake will not happen,” the civil aviation ministry said.

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KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Government looks to divest ground handling arm of Air India by March, plans more flights from Mumbai

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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The government is planning to divest Air India Ltd’s ground handling arm before the end of the current financial year ending March 31 and is undertaking measures to cut costs across the board at the debt-laden airline, according to a senior government official.

Air India Air Transport Services, which is primarily involved in ground handling and cargo handling services, along with Air India Express are the only two profit-making subsidiaries of Air India out of its five arms, according to a reply given by the union civil aviation ministry to the parliament earlier this year.

“We are planning to divest the ground handling business, but no definite time frame has been laid down. However, it may happen before the end of this financial year,” the government official told CNBC-TV18 adding that, date for floating the expression of interest will be fixed as soon as the “accounts are finalised” for 2017-18 (April-March).

The government will also look at divesting other arms of Air India, after seeing the response in this disinvestment exercise, the official added.

“Depending on the experience gathered, we would look at other subsidiaries since there is lot of value attached to it,” the official said.

Other subsidiaries of Air India include Air India Express Ltd, Air India Engineering Services Ltd, Airline Allied Services Ltd and Hotel Corp of India Ltd. It also has a joint venture called Air India SATS Airport Services Pvt Ltd.

The attempt to divest the arm comes after the government failed to solicit even a single bid for 76 percent stake in Air India earlier in the year.

The airline, which had outstanding loans of over Rs 48,400 crore as on March 31, 2017, is also updating its lenders regarding more details about the debt transfer required under the special purpose vehicle.

CNBC-TV18 had reported last week that the government has decided to transfer Rs 29,464 crore of Air India’s debt to a special purpose vehicle to clean up the distressed carrier’s balance sheet.

In order to obtain approval from its lenders, the airline also conducted a meeting with a consortium of bankers on September 17 to “work out pre-conditions for shifting of loans” as shifting of loans from one entity to another will comprise second restructuring and would hence, require approval from the Reserve Bank of India.

“Banks wanted more details about this. We are in the process of updating them,” the official said.

Meanwhile, the government is also working at improving the yield of the airline in the view of soaring oil prices and depreciating rupee.

“The yields are being slowly increased to negate the effect of an increase in fuel prices. Load factors on domestic has gone up to 82 percent and on international sectors have gone to 80 percent. More flights out of Mumbai are being launched. Costs are being reduced across the board,” the official further added.

While there are no plans to increase fleet of the carrier at the moment, the airline is undertaking monetisation of its land assets at a fast pace and has appointed Cushman & Wakefield to market its properties, the official said.

Chicago-based consultant Cushman & Wakefield was also asked to ascertain the value of Air India Ltd’s building at Nariman Point, Mumbai, which is expected to be sold to Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust.

“Advertisements have appeared in local newspapers. NBCC has been entrusted with the task of monetising Delhi properties namely Vasant Vihar and Baba Kadak Singh Marg,” the official said.

Under a turnaround plan approved in 2012, the airline was required to generate Rs 5,000 crore over a period of 10 years starting March 2012 by monetising its assets.

The national carrier has realised Rs 724 crore by monetising some of its assets and the proceeds are being used to reduce the airline’s debt, minister of state for civil aviation Jayant Sinha had told Lok Sabha in a written reply in July.

The government has been infusing equity into the carrier since 2012 in order to help the airline pay all government-guaranteed aircraft loans and interest.

The turnaround plan also includes budgetary support amounting to Rs 30,231 crore spread over 10 years till March 2021 and equity support for payment of principal or interest of non-convertible debentures.

The airline has already received equity infusion of around Rs 27,200 crore till March.

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KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow