Airlines India, Indian Airlines

Kingfisher Airlines has leased two Airbus A321 aircrafts from Pegasus Aviation Finance Company. At present Kingfisher has a fleet of 10 Airbus A-320s and 3 Airbus A-319s. Pegasus Aviation Fianace company is the world’s largest commercial aircraft lessor, it owns and manages a fleet of more than 200 aircrafts and it is a privately held company. As per the terms of lease, the ownership of the new aircrafts will be taken by Pegasus and Kingfisher will concurrently lease these airbus A-321s from Pegasus, the lessor.

Kingfisher started its operations in May 2005 and presently it is the fourth largest airline operating in India with a market share of about 9 percent. With the addition of Airbus A-321 Aircrafts to its fleet the airline expects to launch more flights and add more destinations to its network. The company was also very delighted on striking a deal with world’s largest commercial aircraft lessor.

Kingfisher will be the first in India to use Airbus A-321 carriers. It has state of the art technologies and is powered by IAE V-2500 engines and a seating capacity of about 150.

Budget carrier Air Deccan on Friday said it had signed a $150 million contract with Germany’s Lufthansa Technik to repair, maintain and overhaul its fleet of 14 Airbus A-320 aircraft.

Air Deccan, run by Deccan Aviation Ltd., in a statement said the agreement “also encompasses setting up of a home base of spares to support” it in Bangalore.

Lufthansa Technik is the aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul division of German air carrier Deutsche Lufthansa.

Deccan Aviation shares ended 1.1 percent higher at 102.80 rupees in a firm Mumbai market.

An order for six Dreamliners from Monarch Airlines highlighted an August during which Boeing sold 30 aircraft, a steep drop from the 90 ordered in August 2005 but higher than the 22 orders posted by competitor Airbus during the month.

In addition to the Monarch order, Boeing sold eight 737NGs to Shanghai Airlines and 10 to SpiceJet, including five dash 900ERs. Unidentified customers placed orders for two 737-800s and two 787-8s and Boeing Business Jet took one 787-8 and one 737-900BBJ.

In the first eight months of 2006, Boeing sold 561 aircraft, the largest single order coming from Southwest Airlines, which booked 79 737-700s in April (ATWOnline, April 21). It sold 619 aircraft from January through August 2005.

Airbus’s 22 August orders comprised seven A321s from US Airways, five A319s and five A330-200s from CIT Leasing, three A330-200s from ILFC, one A330-200 from Air Mauritius and one A320 from an unidentified customer. Through August, the manufacturer sold 222 aircraft.

The much-touted Airbus A380 superjumbo may be facing production delays back home, but India is cruising ahead with preparations to greet the biggest mechanical bird.

Civil aviation minister Praful Patel said India has identified airports in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai as the designated gateways, which would be made ready to handle the 555-seater Airbus superjumbo A380 by next year.

Two aircraft bays are proposed to be constructed in Delhi, while the B-3 taxiway at Mumbai would be widened to equip these airports to handle the massive aircraft, Patel said.

“Besides, one bay would be constructed in Kolkata, while one bay has already been constructed in Chennai for A380,”the aviation minister said in Parliament on Thursday.

In addition, the government is proposing to streamline the landing systems at Delhi and Mumbai airports, besides improving the air traffic control procedures for the purpose.

The other improvements, Airports Authority of India sources said, include greater international passenger handling capability in terms of both space and logistics, twin aerobridges etc.

“The existing runway at Delhi and Mumbai airports are already capable of handling an A380 departure and landing, but the other facilities are being created,”the source added.

With its larger 79.8-metre wingspan giving greater lift and its new generation engines, the A380 can take-off and land in less distance than other large aircraft. This makes it capable of using existing runways.

This wingspan, however, makes the A380 too large for most airport docking bays. London Heathrow airport operator BAA Plc alone had budgeted $842 million to build larger facilities to handle the plane.

Major world hubs which have already geared up to take the A380 include San Francisco and Singapore.

Airbus had a few months back said while it would deliver the first A380 to Singapore Airlines in 2006, the manufacturer would slow down deliveries from next year onwards due to problems with the installation of electrical wiring harnesses.

This had angered airlines because the delay disrupted their plans for deploying the big plane.

Addressing another query in Parliament, Patel said GMR-led consortium — which won the rights to modernise Delhi airport — has been granted security clearance.

The security clearance of a Greek national, Ionnis Papastiefanou, who is COO of the JV company Delhi International Airport Limited, has also been secured.

Airbus A380 test aircraft manufacturer’s serial number 009 (MSN009) is set to perform around 95% of the Engine Alliance GP7200-powered A380 certification testing.

The certification trials are expected to last around nine months in all, with flying scheduled for completion at the end of June 2007. The first test phase will be dedicated to performance work to assess the engine-airframe combination over a series of take-offs, lapse-rates, climb and cruise points, with the bulk of this taking place through September and into November this year. The aircraft will then be progressively devoted to systems development work from December into January 2007, with the formal certification test phase running from around February onwards.

The test period will include several weather-related “hard spots”, says Engine Alliance president Bruce Hughes. “We’ll try to do natural icing around April, and there’s a spot for cold weather testing in the January/February period. Then we’ve got a chunk for our hot weather testing in September/October,” he adds.

A full team of mechanics and field representatives will also accompany the aircraft, and later the second GP7200-powered A380, during the flight tests. This will include some personnel from Emirates, which will be the first airline to take the GP7200-powered variant beginning in October 2007.

A large complement of software and control engineers are also taking part in the tests and will help define precise management through the full-authority digital engine control (FADEC) by linking real-life performance and operability data with test runs using the Toulouse-based ‘iron bird’ test rig.