Even a hangover can ground pilots: DGCA

New Delhi: Pilots beware! Even a hangover can ground you.
Tightening 'drinking and flying' rules, aviation regulator DGCA has warned that a pilot's licence can be suspended for five years when detected for a second time.
On the first occasion, he would be kept off duty and licence suspended for three months.
"Should an emergency occur, the crew who has alcohol in his system is just that much less capable of dealing with the problem," the Civil Aviation Requirement (CAR) on the issue, which was recently revised by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), said.
The DGCA said that studies had found that even when the blood alcohol levels were zero, there could be some effects of hangover which are due to congeners, which take 15 to 18 hours to dissipate. A hangover could be there for upto 36 hours.
29/06/12 PTI/Daily News & Analysis

Jet Airways suspends pilot for allowing trainee to be co-pilot

New Delhi: Jet Airways had suspended the pilot of one of its flights and another cockpit crew for two and half months for allowing a trainee pilot to take over from co-pilot to land the plane in Mumbai, endangering all those onboard. 

Aviation regulator DGCA had asked the Jet to take action against the pilot and the chief of its flight safety in connection with the incident that had taken place about four months ago, official sources said.

A Jet Airways spokesperson said the action against the pilot and another member of the cockpit crew was taken based on "appropriate investigations and a confidential report".

The commander, who had asked the co-pilot to make way for the trainee pilot on board, was suspended for two and half months. However, he resumed flying after serving out his suspension period.

14/02/12 PTI/Economic Times

Jet and Kingfisher's Return Flight

Jet and Kingfisher's Return Flight

Kingfisher and Jet Airways are betting on two different strategies to come out of the deep financial mess they have found themselves in

Since May 8 this year, a curious new bird has been flying on Indian skies. Maverick businessman Naresh Goyal has sprung a surprise by launching a new low-fare flying service, Jet Airways Konnect, by taking away half the number of flights from his flagship brand, Jet Airways. And he has done something normally unthinkable — he has ripped out the business class and replaced it with economy class seats. Then, in a complete break with his business philosophy, he made Jet Konnect a low-cost carrier (LCC), setting prices that compete with the likes of SpiceJet and Indigo.

– Disconnect with J Class, Forbes India, June 2009
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Almost two-and-a-half years have passed since Naresh Goyal swallowed his pride and launched Jet Konnect, his answer to the low-cost challengers who were threatening to change the ground rules in Indian aviation. In many ways, Jet Konnect turned out to be quite a phenomenon. Even today, it accounts for 70 percent of all the seats that Jet Airways sells in the domestic market. Along with JetLite, it’s roughly twice the number of low-fare seats of Indigo and SpiceJet combined.

Based on these statistics alone, you’d imagine Naresh Goyal would be in clover. Instead, here’s the paradox: If insiders are to be believed, Goyal is almost about to abandon his Jet Konnect service and reboot operations completely. The trigger: Jet reported losses of Rs. 838 crore between April and September 2011.  That’s not all. The airline has also made significant losses in three of the last four years. Debt is already piling up. The situation is so alarming that the canny entrepreneur has begun to look at every strategic option on the table. One thing is now amply clear: His Jet Konnect strategy may have helped him hold market share at 28 percent for a while, but it failed to make long-term business sense. And neither did JetLite, yet another low fare offering, built from the ashes of the erstwhile Sahara. Neither service had the operational efficiencies of a low-cost carrier like Indigo, nor was their cost structure low enough to allow it to sustain a low-fare strategy.

The realisation has dawned that Jet Konnect was no different from Jet’s full service offering (with all its attendant costs) minus the meals. Two weeks ago, the top management at Jet met to explore the possibility of adopting a two-tiered strategy: A full-service airline aimed at premium business travellers and a newly branded low-cost airline with a completely separate management team and a larger national footprint. There’s still no confirmation yet on whether Goyal has given the plan the go-ahead. “It is like trying to unravel a plate full of spaghetti,” admits a senior executive from Jet, on conditions of anonymity.

Even as Goyal figures a way to get out of the classic stuck-in-the-middle syndrome, Vijay Mallya, his bitter rival, has his task cut out in his bid to save his airline. He too has much the same dilemma: The dual strategy of running Kingfisher Red, a low-fare airline, along with his full-service airline Kingfisher has completely backfired. With debts of Rs. 7,500 crore and accumulated losses of Rs. 4,500 crore, Mallya is barely able to meet solvency norms. Like Goyal, his team led by CEO Sanjay Aggarwal is making a desperate attempt to adopt a whole new radical game plan. “We’ve looked at both options: To become full-service and low-cost. We believe there are simply too many players who’ve taken positions in the low cost space. We’ve therefore opted to play the game the best way that we know: Remain focussed on the full-service model,” says Aggarwal.

Given the size of Kingfisher’s debts, there aren’t too many folks who’d pay much heed to this strategy just yet. So first, Mallya has to find fresh capital quickly — and time is running out. But even if he continues his search for suitors, a significant part of his revival plan depends squarely on whether his new bet on an entirely full-service model is able to win back the patronage of his business travellers at a fare that’s at a reasonable premium over the low-cost players.

So here’s the tricky question: Who has the best chance to emerge out of the rut? Much like everything in life, there aren’t any simple answers. So belt up, and let’s hit the road to understand the delicate survival plan that two of Indian aviation’s best-known entrepreneurs are plotting.

Kingfisher cancels more flights, gets notice

Air passengers all over the country faced tough time as cash-strapped Kingfisher Airlines cancelled more than 30 flights on Wednesday. The airlines said that it was cancelling 50 flights everyday from Wednesday. According to reports, the airline would give details of cancellations to take place in the coming weeks. Lot of passengers were stuck due to the cancellation of the flights and many others had to book tickets in other airlines at higher prices.

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation  has sent Kingfisher a notice over the sudden cancellations. The DGCA has sought a reply by Thursday. 

Last month Kingfisher Airlines (KFA) promoter Vijay Mallya met senior government officials in both the finance and civil aviation ministries to present details about the precarious state of private airlines’ balance sheet, showing how losses will only multiply unless fares are hiked, a government source told HT requesting anonymity.
He had also sought a level playing field, arguing that state-owned Air India enjoys many advantages as it can dig into the government’s coffers to fund its way out of a crisis, an option not available to its private-sector peers.
"He has argued for an immediate need to hike fares to prevent a halt in operations," a government source said.
Mallya’s calling on the ministers came barely 10 days after he announced that KFA will shut down its low-cost arm Kingfisher Red in the next four months.
The capital-starved airline has not made profits since its inception in 2005, had a debt of Rs 7,057.08 crore as on March 31, 2011 and reported a loss of Rs 1,027 crore for 2010-11.
It has been defaulting on payments to oil companies and airports, and had delayed salaries to its employees for August and September.
May have to compensate passengers
Aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said the airline may have to compensate passengers for these cancellations, over and above normal refunds.
Funds are only one of the myriad problems confronting KFA.
High interest liability, vendor payment schedules and inability to meet daily jet fuel payment commitments are making turnaround difficult.
KFA’s tanking scrip has hurt banks. A consortium of 13 lenders led by the State Bank of India and ICICI Bank had picked up a 23.2 % stake in the airline in March, of which SBI and ICICI hold 5.7% and 5.3% respectively.
In seven months, the stock price has fallen nearly 67% to 21.70 on Wednesday.

Finally, intra-Gujarat flights take wing

AHMEDABAD: Come Christmas, honchos wanting fly across Gujarat will get wings. SpiceJet will start operating intra-state flights connecting Ahmedabad and Surat with Saurashtra and Kutch. The launch is being timed with Rannotsav, the annual desert festival organised by the state government in Kutch. The Tourism Corporation of Gujarat Ltd has approved the project.

The company plans to fly 78-seater, Q400 aircraft. Functional airports in Ahmedabad, Surat, Porbandar, Bhuj, Jamnagar, Keshod, Rajkot, Bhavnagar and Vadodara will be linked gradually. Ahmedabad and Surat will be made the hubs, connecting other centres. The company may fix a basic fare for a one-hour flight at Rs 2,400. Kamal Hingorani, vicepresident, SpiceJet said, "We have acquired 30 aircraft exclusively for connecting Tier II and Tier III cities across the country. Gujarat is an important market."

According to him, the airlines has started intra-state operations in Andhra Pradesh. The planes are running at 85 per cent occupancy. He further said that the basic fare cost for a one-hour flight was around Rs 2,400. Earlier, Deccan Charters Ltd, Luan Airways and Ventura Airlines had announced daily flights connecting important destinations in Gujarat. However, the plans have not yet materialisedDCL's plan hit a roadblock when the Director General of Civil Aviation did not approve of the lease agreement under which the company had sought to procure three 60-seater aircraft from Denmark.