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Revue de presse 1-15 Juillet 2019

Mangaluru: A team of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation has commenced its probe into the

Air India Express flight from Dubai skidding off the taxiway at the Mangaluru International Airport

(MIA) here two days ago, airport sources said on Tuesday.

The aircraft was towed to the apron (parking area) of the terminal building on Monday, a day after

the incident, they said.

The plane with 186 passengers and six crew on board skidded off the main taxiway and got stuck in

retrieved the aircraft and towed it to the apron during a lean period in the airports operations on

Monday, they said.

Airport Director V V Rao said the AIE engineers are examining the aircraft for its airworthiness.

Apparently, there was no damage to the aircraft after it veered off the taxiway, he said.

02/07/19 PTI/News18

Mangaluru: A wet runway and over-speeding were the likely cause of the Air India Express flight

veering off the taxiway after landing at the Mangaluru International Airport, airport sources said

Monday.

The 183 passengers and crew on board the Dubai-Mangaluru flight were safe, the airport and airline

go around on Sunday when it was about 1,000 feet from the ground and it landed safely on the

second attempt.

After skidding off the taxiway, the aircraft moved a little further and got stuck in the mud when the

pilot applied the brake.

All the 183 passengers and six crew on board were deplaned at the spot using a ladder platform.

Mangaluru International Airport (MIA) Director V V Rao said the plane may have skidded off the

taxiway due to high speed, while the exact reason can be ascertained only after the probe.

He, however, said flight operations from the airport were not affected after the incident.

The flight INX 384, which departed from Dubai at 12.39 pm local time, landed at the airport here at

5.35 pm.

Mangaluru: A day after an Air India Express Boeing 737-300 veered off the taxiway to an unpaved

portion and its nose got stuck in the grass, thereby affecting operations at Mangaluru International

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Airport for nearly 2 hours from 5.45pm, normal operations resumed at the airport on Monday. The

engineers from Air India Express retrieved the aircraft and towed it to a remote part of the airport

apron sometime between 3.30pm and 4pm.

V V Rao, airport director, MIA, told TOI that the Airports Authority of India provided assistance to AIE

engineers to retrieve the aircraft that got stuck in the grass. The IX384 flight had landed in Mangaluru

from Dubai. “The engineers used the lean period in the airport’s operation schedule to retrieve the

aircraft, thereby minimising possible delays to other scheduled flights,” Rao said. The Air India

Express engineers are assessing the aircraft for its air-worthiness, he added.

given to DGCA. “We had to assess the aircraft location in the strip for clearance from the Instrument

Landing System and runway strip before resuming operations,” he said. The delayed departures were

cleared with approval of DGCA, Rao said. All the flight backlogs were cleared systematically and

normal operations resumed on Monday, he said.

02/07/19 Times of India

While largest airliners in terms of market share like Indigo and SpiceJet have asked passengers to

check flight status to or from Mumbai airport, other airlines like GoAir and Vistara have cancelled a

number of flights due to heavy rains. These flights which have been cancelled are mostly from

Mumbai to places like Kolkata, Delhi, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Chennai and others. Mumbai rains have

been copious and they have continued now for the last five days, with more to come. This has forced

New Delhi: A SpiceJet flight from Jaipur skid and overshot the main runway while landing at the

Mumbai airport amid heavy rains on Monday, although none of the passengers were hurt in the

incident, an airline spokesperson said.

The incident occurred on Monday around 11.45 pm when the aircraft skidded and overshot the main

runway, a source said.

"On July 1, SpiceJet Boeing 737-800 aircraft operated flight SG 6237 from Jaipur to Mumbai. There

was heavy rain in Mumbai and the aircraft, after landing, overshot the runway. Passengers were

deplaned normally. There was no injury to either the passengers or the crew," the spokesperson said.

Due to the incident, a secondary runway is in operation at the airport currently.

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New Delhi: Two aircraft have suffered tail strikes on landing in last two days. An Air India Express

(AI-Ex) Boeing 737 bounced slightly on touch down at Calicut and then had a tail strike on Monday.

And in the other case, a GoAir Airbus A320 suffered this on landing at Ranchi Sunday (June 30).

Luckily, in both incidents no one on board was injured and the aircraft involved were also not

damaged.

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) is probing these two incidents of tail strikes.

The AI-Ex flight was coming in from Dammam as IX 382 with about 190 people on board. “After

touching down, the aircraft had a light bounce. After touching down for the second time following

A GoAir spokesperson said the airline’s flight G8-374 on Sunday “had a minor operational glitch. All

the passengers on-board had a safe landing. After inspection, the aircraft has been put back into

service (on Monday).”

These twin tail strikes comes after two incidents of aircraft veering off runway and taxiway on

Sunday. And on Saturday (June 29), an IndiGo Airbus A320 neo operating from Dehradun to

that power this plane.

02/07/19 Times of India

Indian budget carrier IndiGo is currently awaiting regulatory approvals for commencing new flight

services to Riyadh and Dammam in Saudi Arabia, according to sources in the airline.

IndiGo, which has launched its first service to the kingdom with a Mumbai-Jeddah direct flight last

month, is the second Indian budget carrier to launch direct flight services to the country from India.

SpiceJet was the first Indian budget carrier to launch services to Saudi Arabia from multiple locations

in India.

“We are still awaiting necessary regulatory approvals for these flights and hence will not be able to

share the details of the new flights,” an IndiGo executive told Arabian Business.

Sources said IndiGo had set a launch date for its Dammam flight, but had to defer the launch plan as

month.

02/07/19 Arabian Business

A tour manager detained by the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) at the Mumbai airport on

Friday for claiming he was a “human bomb” has denied he made the remark and alleged that the

Ahmedabad-based travel company manager, Akul Patel, 36 – who was detained just before he was to

board an Emirates flight to Oslo – was granted bail by a magistrate’s court on Monday. The CISF,

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however, said that there was no reason for them to pick on Patel among the thousands of

passengers screened at the Mumbai airport on Friday.

“In aviation industry across the world, when a passenger utters words like ‘bomb’ or ‘terror

attack’, it is considered a serious breach of security protocol. We followed the procedure,” said

CISF spokesman Hemendra Singh.

This is the second case in Mumbai of a passenger making light of aviation security protocol. South

Mumbai diamond trader Birju Salla was convicted and sentenced to life in jail in June this year for a

note he left in a Jet Airways flight about an imminent terror attack. According to the investigations

have to mark his presence at the Sahar police station in Mumbai once every fortnight. Talking to

Mumbai Mirror on Monday in his lawyer’s office, Patel claimed his detention was all a big

misunderstanding.

“All I did was answer the four questions posed to me at the security check. Travelling, taking people

on tours is my job. Why would I make such a faux pas? My passport has been impounded. My career

said after he was detained, CISF officials asked him to write a letter of apology and promised that if

he complied he would be put on the next flight to Oslo. “But the moment I finished writing the letter,

they arrested me,” he said.

02/07/19 Vallabh Ozarkar/Mumbai Mirror

Weeks after Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked all ministries to prepare a five-year vision

document each, the civil aviation ministry has chalked out its plan and formulated a list of "high-

impact" decisions as well, sources close to the development told CNBC-TV18.

The vision of the civil aviation ministry under the five-year plan is to create an environment where

the aviation industry is sustainable, affordable, safe and internationally competitive and provides

connectivity to all parts of the country.

capacity entitlements on overseas routes, but foreign carriers have utilised their bilateral rights.

Creation of airport infrastructure by operationalising 100 more airports and enhancing the regional

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sources aware of the development said.

In order to reduce the expenditure on maintenance and aircraft acquisition for airlines, the mission

document also aims to make India a hub of aircraft maintenance and encourage lease financing

within the country.

In fact, the government is also looking at the creation of an Indian GDS or global distribution

system. GDS is a software that travel agencies use to sell tickets or book hotel rooms. Currently, the

02/07/19 CNBC TV18

Chennai: Flight diversions and peak hour air congestion may soon be eliminated at Chennai airport

as a command centre for Air Traffic Flow Management which was opened recently in Delhi will

work to allot slots for airlines for take-off and landing.

This will be done by monitoring the air and ground congestions at airports — especially the most

congested ones in Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru.

A senior official said that air traffic controllers sitting in Chennai will be in touch with controllers at

the command centre in Delhi and based on their instruction, they will give clearance to planes for

take off.

This will avoid the need for diversion of planes to other airports if there is a problem at the

destination airports.

Similarly, incoming planes will get a better idea about the number of flights that are lined up over

the airport waiting for landing permission. On an average, around 15 to 20 planes are approaching

to land at a time. And peak hour congestion is a major problem that airlines face in Chennai.

Often, flights to Delhi get diverted to Jaipur and nearby airports because of air congestion at the

national capital.

Flights to Bengaluru from other airports get diverted to Chennai during night peak hours adding

Bengaluru: A remote car parking facility for taxis, fitted with automatic ticket-dispensing towers

Kempegowda International Airport (KIA).

The remote car-parking facility will have the capacity to accommodate more than 1,600 taxis, and the

quotation) for supply, installation, testing and commissioning of a management system for remote

car-parking facility at the airport.

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The facility will accommodate 2,000 cars to help in all-time taxi availability at the terminals,

according to BIAL. With the forecourt area of the new terminal currently undergoing a makeover for

construction of elevated approach and exit roads for the second terminal, the parking facility at

terminal one was proposed to be moved to the newly constructed parking lots.

BIAL is also building a bus-staging facility adjacent to the southern access road and a multi-modal

transport hub in the forecourt area of terminal 2. The hub will serve as an interchange between

multiple transport models, including the future Bengaluru Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL)

ground handling agents at airport. The AEC will be foolproof and impossible to replicate, creating a

mechanism for monitoring/control of the movements of personnel into airport building and

terminals. The project will be implemented in line with the directions of Bureau of Civil Aviation

Security (BCAS) and according to sources, its tendering will be initiated soon.

At present, the restricted entry or exit points at the airport is manned by Central Industrial Security

Force (CISF) and they permit access to all airport personnel entering the building after manually

checking their ID cards called Airport Entry Permit (AEP). AEPs have alphabetical codes, based on

which their access control to different places are validated. This will change once the new biometric

pass system is implemented.

According to a Cial official, manual checking of IDs have the possibilities of human errors and it could

be easily duplicated. “The terminal and airport offices are situated in a huge cluster of buildings

spread across acres. The physical examination of current plastic IDs may compromise security of the

airport. Unauthorized personnel can enter the premises using forged IDs. Moreover, there is no

system to centrally track the movement of personnel inside the buildings and no means of knowing

whether the individual is on duty. New cards will resolve these issues,” said the official.

02/07/19 Times of India

Kolkata: Passengers flying in and out of the city had a harrowing time on Monday as a group of

app-cab drivers held pickets outside the entry-exit points of the airport and stopped every

commercial vehicle that tried to enter or leave the premises carrying passengers. Those who

agreed to their terms were asked to drop the passengers, suspend services and join them, and

those who didn’t and argued, were assaulted and had their mobiles and vehicles damaged by the

protesters.

The rampage went on for the better part of Monday morning and such was the impact that by

flyers at the mercy of pre-paid taxis and touts. Those which stood there, went offline.

But there was none. I stood in the queue for a pre-paid taxi for more than 45 minutes before I finally

managed to get one,” said Sangeeta Jaiswal, who came to Kolkata from Delhi.

outside to fill in the void created by the absence of app cabs.

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“In the morning, I was taking a passenger to Birati and the men attacked my car just outside the

airport. I tried to make them understand that I was not driving an app cab but a commercial vehicle

that takes passengers on rent but the men didn’t listen and broke my car glasses,” said Vicky Shaw, a

car rental driver.

02/07/19 Tamaghna Banerjee/Times of India

Mumbai. Besides, IndiGo has increased its services to Kochi and Kannur. Budget carrier GoAir has

also initiated steps to increase the number of flights from the State capital.

Scoot airline has launched daily services to Singapore.

The Airports Authority of India had also intervened to facilitate services on the vacant slots from the

airport, Mr. Vijayan said.

02/07/19 The Hindu

not considered for Madurai since there is hardly any seafood export here,” he said

Exporters and traders have welcomed the facility as it will be very helpful in case of a situation like

flight cancellation. However, their main concern is the appointment of a permanent plant

quarantine officer. At present, there is an officer appointed only on deputation basis.

Director of ABS Xpress operations, S A Sayeed said the plant quarantine officer is not available during

the weekends and on government holidays, due to which nothing can be exported. “Nowadays,

officials from other countries are very strict and they will not allow any perishable item without

officer is mandatory here,” he said.

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For the time being, authorities are testing the system at only the airport’s entry points. In the long

term, it will be extended to all security check points, allowing the passenger to virtually board a

flight using just his face.

The trials will be conducted till July 31 and will be open to all domestic fliers. “As many as 180

passengers voluntarily signed up for FR, though 70% used it on the Day 1. The numbers are certain to

increase,” said a representative of GMR Hyderabad International Airport Ltd (GHIAL).

To begin with, the facility is being extended only to passengers with hand baggage and flying to Delhi,

“If the pilot is successful, it will be used for security checks as well. Instead of displaying the boarding

pass, passengers can just look into the camera to ascertain their credentials. If found genuine, the

system will automatically clear their passage towards boarding,” a GHIAL staff said.

RGIA clocks a daily footfall of close to 60,000 passengers.

02/07/19 Sudipta Sengupta/Times of India

Amritsar: In view of the annual fair at Gurdwara Santsar situated in its vicinity on Tuesday, special

arrangements have been made for devotees at Sri Guru Ram Das Jee International Airport. The

death anniversary of Baba Jawand Singh will be observed on Tuesday at the Sikh shrine on the

airport premises.

Manoj Chansoria, airport director, said passengers departing from the airport had been requested to

reach at least three hours in advance to avoid any inconvenience. He said they had also been advised

to contact their airlines concerned in case of any assistance.

In addition, the airport authorities said vehicular traffic would also be reorganised to facilitate the

movement of devotees. The shrine was set up about 69 years ago when the airport was under the

control of the Indian Air Force.

02/07/19 Tribune

Navi Mumbai: The Nerul police have booked a conman for allegedly cheating a 24-year-old man,

who was in search of a job in the aviation sector, by posing as an executive of the job search portal

Monster.

A resident of Sector 6 in Nerul, the victim has completed a diploma in aviation hospitality after

graduating from a hotel management course. “As I was looking for a job in the airline industry I

checked for vacancies on job portals and uploaded my resume. On April 1, I received a call from a

for an interview with IndiGo,” he said.

different amounts at various stages. In total, I paid ₹1.15 lakh,” the man said. The money was

deposited into accounts in the name of Surendra Singh and Dhiraj Bhola Singh in Union Bank of India

On April 8, the man received an appointment letter from monsterjobsindia@outlook.in for a position

in air ticketing with IndiGo. “They told me there is no training programme in Mumbai, so I opted for

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Lucknow. They said the training would cost ₹1 lakh and I would have to pay half the amount. Since

they demanded more money, I told them to cancel my appointment and refund what I had paid,” he

said.

When there was no refund, the complainant approached the Nerul police and filed a case on June 27.

“The accused had created an email id which looked like that of Monster. The fact that they used

another domain to create the account shows it was a fake id created for the purpose of cheating

people,” police inspector Bhaguji Auti said. Mr. Verma has been booked under Sections 420

(cheating) and 406 (criminal breach of trust) of the Indian Penal Code and sections of the IT Act.

The incident took place at 1:30 pm on Sunday. A flight engineer carried out a check up of the the

airplane which was then declared grounded. The plane was to take-off for Bengaluru at 2.20 pm but

it was not allowed to take off till 7.30 pm.

Passengers who were due to travel to Bengaluru were forced to wait at the Ranchi airport. They were

onboarded on flight G6/116 incoming from New Delhi and the plane proceeded to Bengaluru.

01/07/19 India TV News

(like Pakistan airspace that has been closed for overflying since February 27), we will have no option

but to pass on the cost to flyers,” the AI-Ex official added.

01/07/19 Saurabh Sinha/Times of India

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New Delhi: The Airport Authority of India (AAI) spent Rs 4 crore in 2018-19 to maintain its 26 non-

operational airports, according to an official document.

In 2017-18, the AAI had spent Rs 2.66 crore to maintain these 26 airports, the document stated.

The AAI owns and manages around 100 operational airports across the country. However, it also has

26 non-operational airports with it that have no flight operations currently.

Some of these 26 airports are in the following places: Donakonda in Andhra Pradesh; Daparizo in

Arunachal Pradesh; Rupsi and Shella in Assam; Jogbani, Muzaffarpur, Raxaul in Bihar; Deesa in

Gujarat; Chakulia and Deogarh in Jharkhand; Panna, Satna and Khandwa in Madhya Pradesh.

30/06/19 PTI/Economic Times

The Delhi High Court on Monday granted anticipatory bail to an Air India pilot who was suspended

for allegedly violating aircraft rules, including evading a breath-analyser test and forgery.

Justice Mukta Gupta granted relief to Arvind Kathpalia on his plea apprehending arrest in a case

lodged against him on the direction of a lower court. He is also accused of tampering with evidence,

criminal conspiracy and intimidating a doctor working with the airline in January 2017. The court had

earlier restrained police from taking coercive steps against Kathpalia, who was removed as the

director of operations of Air India last November after failing to clear a pre-flight alcohol test, with

the government citing “serious nature of the transgression and (his) failure to course-correct”.

According to police, Kathpalia had operated a flight from New Delhi to Bengaluru without undergoing

the mandatory pre-flight breath analyser test on January 19, 2017. Further, even at Bengaluru he

refused to undergo a similar test, police had said. Later, on his arrival in New Delhi, he had allegedly

gone to the Pre-Flight Medical Examination Room and made a false entry in the Pre-Flight Breath

Analyzer Examination Register for the flight he had operated.

The Delhi Police had opposed his anticipatory bail plea saying it was not a normal case of forgery

as the consequences were grave and he also threatened the doctor on duty. A trial court had

earlier directed the police to lodge the FIR for alleged violation of aircraft rules, tampering with

New Delhi: A Lucknow-bound passenger was arrested at the Delhi airport for allegedly carrying 14

live bullet rounds in his baggage, an official said on Saturday.

A Central Industrial Security Force officer, deputed at the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) to

bag of passenger Athar Abbas Naqvi on Friday, he said.

to Lucknow," the official said.

The man was handed over to the police which charged him under various sections of the Arms Act as

the Indian aviation rules, he added.

30/06/19 PTI/NDTV

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30/06/19 New Indian Express

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The Sahar police had just the previous day (June 27) slapped the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act

(UAPA) for the first time against unknown persons for sending a bomb scare mail to the Mumbai

airport. The email had said that three flights were laden with explosives.

30/06/19 V Narayan/Times of India

aircraft in operation, and this number is expected to reach 1100 planes by 2027. The theme of the

Budget for aviation particularly focused on giving a boost to the domestic capabilities and setting

up of leasing companies in India and making India a Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) hub.

As it stands right now, India doesn't have a single aircraft leasing company, at least not a big one to

cater to demands of domestic aviation players such as IndiGo, SpiceJet, GoAir or Vistara. All these

airlines are heavily reliant on leasing companies for aircraft. More than 90 per cent of their aircraft

are leased.

Leasing companies are based out of India primarily because they don't find viable business

opportunity in the country. Aircraft leasing requires huge investments from lessors, and India doesn't

have competitive debt and equity raising mechanism for such kind of investments.

"There are two issues with leasing. One is the asset funding and interest rates, and the other is

cash flows that would come over a period of time. At the same time, at the end of a lease

agreement, the lessors have re-leasing risk. Lessors have to be sure that they can earn revenues over

a number of years. The budget is trying to say that there will be attempts at developing the aircraft

financing and leasing activities in India," says Kinjal Shah, vice president at ratings agency ICRA.

Typically, aircraft leasing is for eight to 10 years, after which the chances of re-leasing are risky. That

could be due to the age of the aircraft or improvements in aircraft technology (such as fuel-efficiency

etc). Big leasing companies working with Indian carriers include Avolon, SMBC Aviation Capital,

countries and high tax rates in India.

06/07/19 Manu Kaushik/Business Today

The Budget announcement to further relax Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the civil aviation

sector may help the government to find buyers for Air India as well as Jet Airway, which will also

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced in the Budget today that the government will look

at relaxing FDI norms for sectors like Aviation, Media and Single-brand retail. In the same speech, she

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also announced that the government will continue to go ahead with the divestment of various

Central Public Sector Undertakings, including Air India.

This will not be the first time that the government is trying to divest its stake in Air India. An earlier

attempt by the government to divest 76% stake in the national carrier did not find any taker.

The government now intends to sell 100% in the national carrier and the move to relax FDI may

interest buyers of Air India.

However, there is no clarity on the Substantial Ownership and Effective Control (SOEC) clause yet.

The SOEC clause bars any foreign investor from taking complete control of the operations of the

The aviation sector is set to get a major boost with the government proposing to make India a hub

of maintenance repair and overhaul (MRO) activities and aircraft financing, besides relaxing

foreign direct investment rules for overseas carriers.

Policies would be changed to foster growth in MRO services, a long-standing demand of the

industry. Further, aircraft leasing businesses, including leveraging opportunities at the financial

special economic zone—International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) -will also be on the agenda.

The Budget has also increased allocation to the regional connectivity scheme (Udan) by around

10% to `480 crore in FY20. India boasts of the third-largest domestic market in the world behind USA

and China. It carried 139 million passengers in 2018, up 18.6 % year-on-year.

Aviation experts noted that the government will have to create a level playing field in terms of

rationalising tax levies on MRO and aircraft leasing activities to fulfill its ambitions. For instance,

the domestic MRO activities are taxed at 18% as compared to 5% in nearby countries Sri Lanka,

Singapore and Thailand, forcing airlines to do service jobs on aircraft overseas. These services

include periodic engine checks, propellers and airframes, besides the intensive and multiple checks at

the end of lease tenor of aircraft. The proposed enhancement of foreign direct investment in

aviation could ease divestment of national carrier Air India and Jet Airways, which is facing

bankruptcy proceedings.

well for the proposed disinvestment of Air India as well,” Peeyush Naidu, partner, Deloitte India,

explained.

The ministry of civil aviation had set up a working group last year to formulate policies for aircraft

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05/07/19 PTI/Business Standard

and ultimately rehabilitation.

But in the 21st century, we’ve got a parallel legal system, where we’re all participants, and we’re all

judge, jury, and executioner. This isn’t an original thought – it’s explored in detail by Jon Ronson’s

excellent book, So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed.

In the case of Burns, the Internet, outraged by what she’d done, set about dismantling her life.

This isn’t hypothetical, and it’s not up for debate. It happened, the details of which are indelibly

etched within the public record. During her case, Judge Nicholas Wood acknowledged that she’d

been the target of a vicious campaign of cyber-bullying on social media.

“You are a woman, not just of good character but a positive and impeccable character – a righter of

wrongs. What this has done, thanks to social media, [has meant] you have had death threats and

face-to-face confrontation, because social media reduces people to a handle, a profile, or just an

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opinion.

06/07/19 Matthew Hughes/TNW

Mumbai: Acting quickly on the government's second attempt to sell the financially-crippled national

carrier Air India, its chief Ashwani Lohani has called a meeting of all the 13 unions Monday to

discuss the terms of privatisation, according to sources.

The government Friday reiterated its intent to exit Air India with finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman

stating in the budget speech that government will go ahead with privatisation of the flag carrier

and has just earmarked a paltry Rs 1 lakh from the budget for the airline, that has been somehow

macroeconomic parameters, the government would not only re-initiate the process of strategic

disinvestment of Air India, but would also offer more central enterprises for strategic participation by

the private sector."

Lohani along with AI board members are expected to meet all the 13 unions Monday, the source

added.

05/07/19 PTI/Economic Times

The proposed enhancement of foreign direct investment in the civil aviation sector announced in

Union Budget 2019-20 could ease the proposed divestment of Air India.

conservation of foreign exchange as millions of rupees are spent in US Dollars for leasing aircraft

and paying rentals which can now be made in Indian Rupees. India can become a hub like Dublin in

Ireland for leasing companies to set up businesses in India,” he pointed out.

The implementation of proposals stated in the Union Budget 2019-20 will help create jobs in the

maintenance, repair and overhaul facilities in the country.

Commenting on the Budget proposals, Ravi Menon, Executive Director, Air Works said that the

proposals are not about cost reduction. “Hopefully, the intent stated will create a level playing field

in the region in terms of cost competitiveness. The larger benefit will be the progressive

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06/07/19 Eastern Mirror

registered against the accused and he was taken into custody.

Shamshabad DCP N Prakash Reddy told The Hindu that the accused had a flight to Chennai at 8 a.m.

and reached airport around 1.30 a.m. Since then he was consuming liquor at a bar inside the airport

and around 6.30 a.m. he went to a smoking room. After coming out the man saw a CISF Officer and

gave false information about the bomb, Mr. Reddy said.

06/07/19 Abhinay Deshpande/The Hindu

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foreign exchange fluctuations. Airlines are increasingly moving toward an asset-light model, under

which they sell aircraft to lessors for a profit, only to lease them back, which helps them keep a

younger fleet.

The centre will also examine relaxing foreign direct investment rules in the aviation sector, Ms

Sitharaman said, without giving details. Indian laws now allow foreign airlines to take a maximum of

49% stake in local carriers, preventing them from taking effective control and ownership of the local

company.

A 60-member team from MIAL’s Airside Operations, Maintenance, Projects and Fire team along with

about 100 contract staff of AIC, worked day and night over 90 hours through incessant rains and

created pathways to facilitate the disabled aircraft to be pulled onto firm ground after it was lifted

from the mud by the Air India team using their Disabled Aircraft Recovery Kit (DARK) equipment.

Even as rains were pouring continuously, MIAL team worked 24 X7 to create a pathway of around

130 x 20 metres using stone bed and gravels. On top of the stone bed, steel plates and FRP sheets

were placed to enable the towing equipment to move the aircraft weighing around 41 tonnes after it

was emptied of all cargo and fuel.

The lack of nose gear of the disabled aircraft presented a huge challenge to the MIAL team even as

they worked during pounding rain. To mitigate the impact of non-availability of the nose gear, a

trailer had to be positioned at the front of the aircraft to support it while the aircraft was being

pulled from behind using towing aides.

05/07/19 Mrityunjay Bose/Deccan Herald

Directorate General of Civil Aviation has permitted the company to operate daily direct flights to

Dubai. GoAir also has bagged permission to operate flights from Kannur to Kuwait from July 29

onward.

Passengers, particularly those residing in north Kerala working in the Gulf had been demanding for

direct flights from Kannur to Dubai since the airport was commissioned.

06/07/19 Daijiworld

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According to Goyal's plea, the LOC was issued against him on the request of the Serious Fraud

Investigation Office (SFIO) which comes under the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA).

He has sought quashing of the LOC as well as several office memorandums which lay down the

guidelines for issuing the travel ban.

Goyal said he came to know of the LOC on May 25 when he and his wife, Anita, were offloaded

from a flight to Dubai with an onward connection to London.

He has contended that no ECIR/FIR has been registered against him and he has not been named as

an accused in any case warranting issuance of the LOC.

following the ban imposed by the DGCA over runway safety concerns.

The DGCA on Friday granted nod for Air India to operate Boeing 777-300 ER, Boeing 777-200 LR,

Boeing- 787- 8 Dreamliner and B 747-400. Emirates has been given permission to operate Boeing

777-300 ER and Boeing 777- 200LR.

The decision was taken on the basis of the safety assessment on the compatibility study done by the

two airlines.

The DGCA has stipulated that the operations of jumbo flights will be restricted to day time during the

first six months.

Following the DGCA ban, the Airports Authority of India (AAI) had carried out a series of mitigation

measures including strengthening and re-carpeting of the runway and grading of runway strip to

cater to the requirement of large aircraft. AAI had also taken steps to increase the runway end

safety area (RESA) and has installed simple touchdown-zone lights on both runways.

05/07/19 Rajeev K R/Times of India

Sources said that the Surat-Delhi Air India flight was scheduled to depart at 7.45 am, but took off at

2:30 pm due to the snag.

A passenger, who did not wanted to be named, said, “We were told there was some technical

problem in the aircraft. While many passengers left for their homes, those who had come for the

business meet or other engagements preferred to sit at the airport till 2.30 pm. It was a harrowing

experience.”

The flight had arrived from Delhi and it boarded passenger from Surat.

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A total of 5 bullets were recovered from the passenger's bag.

The woman could not give a satisfactory reply as to why she was carrying the ammunition that is

banned to be brought in the airport terminal area or to be carried inside an aircraft, the official said.

06/07/19 PTI/India Today

lot of parties had shown interest, none of them actually submitted bids. A few companies such as

IndiGo suggested that they weren't comfortable in a joint venture with the government.

This year, it is expected that the government may divest up to 100 percent stake in the debt-ridden

carrier, making the deal a lucrative one for the buyer.

As first reported by CNBC-TV18 last year, the government had decided to transfer debt amounting

Rs 29,464 crore along with other non-core assets to the newly created special purpose vehicle to

attract bidder interest for the carrier.

As per the provisional figures of FY 2018-19, the total debt of Air India Ltd as on March 31, 2019, is

Rs 58,351.93 crore. While no party has come forward till now to buy Air India, IndiGo has shown

interest, however, only for the international segment.

05/07/19 Anu Sharma/CNBC TV18

The commercial aircrafts are very expensive and need finance and leasing options for any aircraft

carrier to induct planes in their fleet. Finance Minister also announced that the Government will

examine opening up FDI further in aviation.

Sitharaman, 59, became only the second women in the history of independent India to present the

Union Budget. Prior to the presentation, the Union Cabinet headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi

approved the Budget for 2019-20. She handed over a copy of the Union Budget to President Ram

Nath Kovind before her maiden budget speech. Breaking away from the brown Budget briefcase,

She said the interim budget focused on 10-point vision to boost economy. In the current year, India's

infrastructure, digital economy and job creation in small and medium enterprises," Sitharaman said.

05/07/19 News18.com