Airlines India, Indian Airlines

Finnair said it will take on 600 new flight attendants and pilots by Autumn 2007 to support increased traffic to Asia.

Some 200 of these positions are expected to be filled by existing temporary employees being given permanent roles, Finnair said on the Finnish pages of its website.

Finnair has been cutting jobs in support operations, freeing up resources to expand cabin staff, particularly for Asian routes where it is adding new capacity.

Its Asian traffic grew by 23 pct year-on-year during April-June.

PASSENGERS with just one item of hand luggage are being fast-tracked through security in new supermarket-style queues at Edinburgh airport.

The “one-item-or-less” check-in system is being trialled in the Capital in a bid to cut delays at security gates for passengers travelling light.

Business passengers and city break travellers are expected to benefit most from the new initiative, which could be made permanent in September if it proves popular.

Last year, airport chiefs came under fire over lengthy queues for the X-ray machines - delaying passengers for up to 30 minutes at peak times.

New figures released today show that owners BAA have turned this on its head, with nearly 99 per cent of passengers now making their way through security within ten minutes.

But around one in ten passengers are still waiting more than five minutes, and airport chiefs have vowed to continue tackling the problem.

Managing director Richard Jeffrey said: “I appreciate that security queues at Edinburgh Airport have been an area of concern for some of our passengers - that is why last year we put in place the challenging target of getting 95 per cent of passengers through security in under ten minutes.

“These latest figures show we are not only meeting that target but doing substantially better. However, we are far from complacent and are focused on improving performance further.”

The departure lounge at Edinburgh Airport is accessed via the first floor, and passengers must show their boarding cards before joining the queue for the X-ray machines.

The fast-track trial means travellers carrying one bag or less will instead be allowed to pass through a dedicated security gate.

Security manager Amanda Livingstone said: “The feedback from passengers during trials has so far been positive. Further consideration is being given to the logistics and detail of the scheme with a view to possibly implementing some form of ‘fast track’ system.”

The move follows another initiative launched by airport chiefs which allows passengers to buy goods before travelling and collect them on arrival in Edinburgh. The service cuts back on hand luggage carried on board planes.

Last October, one of Britain’s biggest airlines hit out at Edinburgh Airport describing security queues as “unacceptable”.

Nigel Turner, chief executive of BMI, said attempts to improve punctuality were being hampered by peak-time congestion.

In response, BAA created its action plan, with new figures for the first half of 2006 showing that 92 per cent of passengers waited less than five minutes.

A spokesman for BMI said: “We’re delighted with the efforts at Edinburgh Airport and the fact that they have turned the situation around. We do our utmost to make sure our planes run on time, so we’re delighted that the airport is also doing all it can.”

Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation predicts the LCC market share in India will reach 70% by 2010, making it one of the world’s leading LCC markets in terms of total market penetration. Given the growth potential of the market and penetration levels already achieved by LCCs, the Centre predicts that within the next five years, India could see the establishment of a home-grown LCC with the size and scale approaching that of easyJet or Ryanair today.

The prediction comes as the Centre prepares to hold its third annual India and Middle East LCC Symposium in Mumbai on 29/30 September 2006.

“The launch of IndiGo in the past few days will keep the market growing strongly in the months ahead”, stated the Centre’s CEO Indian Subcontinent & Middle East, Kapil Kaul.

“Full service carriers are, on average, bleeding a remarkable 1.5 percentage points of market share every month to LCCs. We do not expect this rate to slow in the short term, given the profile of current fleet orders. LCCs could therefore control over 35% of the domestic market by the end of 2006 and pass 50% some time in 2H07. The Indian domestic market has been growing at almost 50% so far this year. The emerging untapped leisure/VFR sector will drive the domestic market to more than double over the next five years (growing at 25% annually) to around 60 million passengers by 2010 – and LCCs will gobble up most of the new traffic growth”, said Mr Kaul.

“But high fuel costs, low yields and congested airport infrastructure pose major risks to the sector going forward and have the potential to place a major strain on airline finances. While we are not predicting a bloodbath, airlines will need to be careful with capacity and ensure they are well funded”, concluded Mr Kaul.

The Symposium will cover issues including international and domestic market prospects, as well as the potential viability of long-haul low cost models serving the Indian Subcontinent region.

A new rule aimed at improving the quality of trainee pilots has just made it a tad more difficult to earn a pilot’s licence.

In a revision to Rule 38 of Aircraft Rules 1937, brought into effect by the directorate-general of civil aviation on Monday, students appearing for commercial pilot’s licence ground training exams should either have a private pilot’s licence or 50 hours of flying experience.

They should also have taken classes from a DGCA-approved ground training institute. As a majority of the students start flying only after clearing the ground training exams, the new rule would be sending about 3,000 students (who were to appear for exams in October) scurrying into the handful of over-burdened flying schools of India in the next few weeks.

That would spell trouble, as most of the flying schools in the country are struggling with poor infrastructure.

“There are hardly any flying schools with a fleet of more than six aircraft and coupled with dearth of instructors, it takes at least 3-4 months just to log in 50 flying hours. Moreover, most of the flying schools are overbooked. So not many students will be able to give exams this October,” said a chief flying instructor.

“In short, the rule means at least 1.5 lakh flying hours needs to be logged in all, if these 3000-odd students have to do 50 flying hours and be eligible to appear for the October exams,” said a DGCA official.

DGCA K Gohain was not available for comment. Till now, the most common route to get a commercial pilot’s licence (CPL) was thus: clear the directorate general of civil aviation’s (DGCA) ground training exams first, then join a flying institute to log in 200 hours of flying and finally apply for the CPL.

“The new rule is aimed at improving the training standards as doing practicals along with theory helps in better understanding. It will also check the haste to earn a CPL and the standards of pilots will be better,” said a DGCA official.

The other problem is that a number of ground training institutes, run by pilots, including those working for airlines, are not DGCA approved.

Like ClipAir, for instance, which is run by Capt Vishesh Oberoi and Capt Kiran Patel of Jet Airways? “Though our institute is not DGCA approved, we follow the DGCA syllabus,” said Capt Patel.

The new rule though specifically says that students should train in DGCA-approved institutes. “From now, the students will have to check the credentials of the ground training institute before enrolling for classes,” said Tanmay Bhatia, a student who will be appearing for one subject in October.

The president of the pilots’ union at American Airlines blasted the CEO over a recent pay raise and accused management of failing to work with labor to fix the struggling Fort Worth-based carrier.

American’s parent, AMR Corp., disclosed in a regulatory filing last week that Chairman and Chief Executive Gerard Arpey would get a 23 percent pay raise, to $650,000 from $526,650. Arpey and several other executives also received benefits related to stock-based compensation.

That set off a reaction at the Allied Pilots Association, which is preparing for a new round of contract negotiations with American.

“Regrettably, the concept of shared sacrifice and shared reward is now dead,” union President Ralph Hunter said in a memo to pilots. “Despite their protests to the contrary, senior management abandoned ‘Pull Together/Win Together’ when they succumbed to temptation and rewarded themselves ahead of everyone else who made American Airlines’ recovery possible.”

“Pull Together/Win To-gether” is Arpey’s slogan for labor-management peace and part of his plan for turning around the nation’s largest carrier. He has included union officials in confidential briefings on the company’s financials, and a spokesman said the officials were told of Arpey’s raise before it was disclosed to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The spokesman, Roger Frizzell, said AMR’s board raised Arpey’s pay after comparing his salary to those of executives at similarly sized companies and other airlines. Arpey rejected pay raises in 2004 and 2005, although he got a 1.5 percent increase given to all employees.

“Gerard has done a very strong job for the company,” Frizzell said. “There are always going to be executive-compensation issues at any company in this day and age.”

AMR nearly fell into bankruptcy in 2003 but has returned to profitability and two weeks ago posted its best second quarter in eight years.

Employees were outraged this year to learn that about 1,000 managers would get cash bonuses - three executives were to get more than $1 million each - as a reward for a run-up in AMR’s stock price.

In protest, leaders of the flight-attendants’ union pulled out of a labor-management program to find cost-saving measures. The company’s board tried to defuse the situation by changing the bonus plan to make most of the payments in stock instead of cash.