Indian aircraft suffers puncture on landing

Ninety-four passengers of an Indian Airlines plane had a close shave when three of its tyres burst after landing at Raja Bhoj airport in Bhopal around 8 am on Wednesday. The incident took place when the pilot of the Mumbai-Indore-Bhopal-Delhi IC 133 had to apply emergency brakes after spotting foxes on the runway, sources said, adding that all the passengers were safe. "It was an extremely rough landing. Later, the pilot announced that he had to use emergency brakes because of the sudden appearance of foxes on the runway," said Sadhna Pathak, a passenger. However, Airports Authority of India (AAI) officials denied the presence of foxes on the runway. Bhopal airport director Shakti Dev said, "There couldn't have been foxes running around in the airport. We have a huge boundary wall surrounding the airport and the wall is well-sealed.

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Amadeus signs deal with Indian

Global travel technology major Amadeus signed a special agreement recently with the national carrier Indian wherein the airline's domestic flights will be booked on Amadeus in India. This unique facility will allow travel agents and bookers on the Amadeus system in India to directly book all Indian domestic flights including pure domestic bookings. Furthermore, all bookings and transactions will be in real time on the highest level of access, enabling bookers to give seamless and efficient service to their clients. The decision by Indian to select Amadeus India is a strategic step as it provides them with a wider distribution network and enables the airline to be more competitive in terms of expanding customer reach and enhancing sales efficiencies and services. Elaborating on its agreement with Indian, Ankur Bhatia, managing director, Amadeus Indian subcontinent, said, "As travel technology experts, India is a significant market for Amadeus, given the tremendous potential and dynamic growth of its travel sector."

Dr Vishwapati Trivedi, CMD, Indian, said, "Delivering first-rate customer experience right from the travel planning phase till one makes it to the desired destination, without compromising on quality has been the mantra for Indian. It is a known fact that Amadeus India is the largest, and the leading GDS in the Indian subcontinent and our tie-up with them in the region is another step towards this commitment. With Amadeus, our reach will further extend to the vast network of travel agencies across the globe and will enable us to provide our end customers a good, consistent product." Amadeus India claimed that it does over 50 per cent of the travel agency business of Indian which by far is the largest compared to any other GDS. Amadeus will now provide Indian with the E-ticketing Server (ETS).

Amadeus ETS helped the carrier to increase operational efficiency and aid travel agents by reducing the workload associated with traditional tickets. Since 2004, over 300,000 E-tickets have been issued using Amadeus technology. In March 2004 Amadeus partnered with 12 major international airlines by offering e-ticketing solutions. As of date, around 45 carriers offer E-ticketing. In 2005, 14.30 million tickets were issued (paper and e tickets) on legacy carriers alone. E-tickets issued in 2005 were 500,000, which is a mere 3.4 per cent of total tickets. However, industry growth of 25 per cent (year on year) clearly spells a huge potential for the E-ticketing segment. Today, almost 1,000 travel agents in India have the capability to issue E-tickets. India was the fastest growing market in 2006 for E-tickets in Asia Pacific, with over 200 per cent growth in the usage of E-tickets.

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Indian carried a record 8.37 lakh passengers in December

State-run carrier Indian said it carried 8.37 lakh passengers on domestic routes in December 2006, surpassing all previous month records. In percentage terms, this represented a growth of over seven per cent compared to the year-ago period. The airline's international flights also carried a record 2.11 lakh passengers in December 2006, a growth of 20 per cent over December 2005. The carrier, which operates mainly on the domestic network, also flies short-haul international routes. Almost 45 per cent of Indian's capacity is deployed on its international network. However, in the months of December and January, Indian supplemented its international capacity by operating flights to carry Haj pilgrims to Jeddah and also to various points within India, a spokesperson for the airline said. The increase in traffic was attributed to improvement in on-time performance, quality of product and services on board and various marketing initiatives.

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Indian & Air India merger nears take-off

The group of ministers (GoM) on Monday “broadly approved the merger of Air India and Indian, taking a big step towards materialising the mother of all mergers in the Indian skies. However, the GoM, headed by defence minister Pranab Mukherjee, put off a final decision till human resources (HR) issues are resolved in consultation with the employees of the two corporations. “The GoM in its second meeting on Monday broadly approved the merger, but asked me to talk to the employees and address their issues before a final decision”, civil aviation minister Praful Patel said. Patel said he would undertake a dialogue with the employees of the two corporations within a week and the GoM will meet in a fortnight to give the final go-ahead for the merger, which then can be effected before the beginning of the next financial year.

The GoM, Patel said, endorsed the recommendations of the committee of secretaries (CoS) on the two key issues of income-tax and stamp duty. The revenue department has indicated that it will make the necessary exception under Section 72A of the Income-Tax Act to ensure that the merger of Air India and Indian into a new corporation does not impose a tax burden. On stamp duty payable to state governments on transfer of assets, the GoM noted that the estimated burden of about Rs 50 crore is “well within the merger costs” of Rs 150 crore. “In any case, we will talk to the state governments to lessen the burden,” Patel said, adding that the maximum incidence of stamp duty would be in Maharashtra where Air India has its “most valuable properties”. Patel said he is hopeful of taking the employees into confidence and resolving their issues through a dialogue. “I have already said that the merger will not lead to any job loss. We will ensure that no employee is worse off as a result of the merger,” he added.

Patel said the integration of the operations of the two airlines would be achieved over a period of time of six months to two years. “Immediately, just about 150 key personnel of the two airlines will be integrated to drive the merger process,” Patel said. Even in the case of these personnel, he did not envisage any problem of integration. “The merged entity would have enough room for these senior people.” Patel said the merged entity would have six separate business units dealing with separate functions such as aircraft maintenance, ground handling, cargo, catering services, domestic operations and international operations. The two low-cost subsidiaries of the two airlines - Air India Express and Alliance Airlines - will also be brought under one subsidiary of the merged entity to operate low-cost services.

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