Airlines India, Indian Airlines

The civil aviation ministry is likely to move a Cabinet note on the proposed merger of public sector carriers Air-India and Indian Airlines in November after it receives a report from consultancy firm Accenture.
“There are no impediments in the process. Everything is going on as planned,” civil aviation minister Praful Patel said.

He said the consultancy firm, appointed to prepare a roadmap for the merger of the two carriers, would submit its report by October.

“We hope the Cabinet note on the matter should be ready in November after we receive this report,” Patel said in response to questions, adding that the proposed merger process was moving on track and would be completed as planned within the current financial year.

Official sources said there were some key areas like human resources, operations and infrastructure, which needed to be looked into in greater detail, before the proposal could be finalised. A decision on the future of their subsidiaries, Alliance Air and Air-India Express, would also have to be taken, the sources said.

The merger of Air-India and Indian Airlines will create a mega carrier with about 130 aircraft.

Jet Airways, India’s premier airline, has maintained its track record of winning prestigious awards by being conferred laurels by the World Airline Entertainment Association (WAEA) for its in-flight entertainment system with two coveted awards – Best Overall In-Flight Entertainment and Best Single In-Flight Entertainment .

Jet Airways was judged the “best overall” airline for in-flight entertainment in the Small Fleet Category based on number of aircraft. United Airlines was awarded the same in the Large Fleet category among leading passenger airlines world-wide by the World Airline Entertainment Association at its 27th Annual Conference & Exhibition held at Miami, USA on September 15, 2006.

Jet Airways also got the best in-flight Audio programme award and earned the distinction of second runner up for the best in-flight magazine.

The “Avion Award” was conferred to Jet Airways by a 23-member international media panel that evaluated in-flight audio, video, magazines, and interactive media from 42 leading passenger airlines worldwide at the Exhibition. Sponsored by the World Airline Entertainment Association, the “Avion Award”, now in its 18th year, honours excellence in several categories of airline in-flight entertainment.

Canadian police destroyed a suspicious package on Tuesday that was found on an Air India flight heading to England.

The airliner turned back to Toronto on Monday night after a passenger discovered the package in one of the plane’s washrooms and alerted the crew.

About an hour into the flight, the pilot radioed a request to fly back to Toronto.

“Our explosives disposal unit became involved, retrieved the package, examined it remotely, and then determined that it needed to be detonated,” said Pete Brandwood, spokesman for Peel Regional Police.

“The contents of the package are still under investigation.

Brandwood said the package “was something untoward, or uncommon, to be found in the bathroom of an airplane” but declined to describe it further. He said the bomb disposal squad were not sure what the object was, but destroyed it as a precautionary measure.

About 150 passengers spent the night at the infield terminal at Toronto’s Pearson airport to keep them secluded while police investigated and searched the plane, airport spokesman Scott Armstrong said.

“The event is virtually stood down, whatever security concerns there were have been eliminated,” he said.

The Monday evening flight, which was headed to Birmingham was cancelled and passengers were being taken to area hotels on Tuesday afternoon.

Last week, a Dubai-bound Air India flight was diverted to a military airbase due to an erroneous alert issued by Indian aviation authorities.

In 1985, Air India Flight 182 was destroyed in a bomb attack during a flight from Canada to India, killing 329 people in history’s deadliest bombing of a passenger airline. A near simultaneous attack on a second Air India flight killed two Tokyo airport workers.

In a bid to meet the market demand, Air India Express has announced direct services to Mangalore, Amritsar and Delhi from October 3.

With the commencement of services to the three cities, Dubai will now be linked to six destinations in the country by Air India Express, India’s budget carrier. It already has
services to Kozhikode, Kochi and Trivandrum.

The Mangalore flight of Air India Express, will meet the long standing demand of passengers hailing from both north Kerala and from Karnataka, a press release said here.

The three-times-a-week service to the city of the Golden Temple, Amritsar, and to Delhi, will cater to the requirements of North Indians for a direct service at affordable fares.

The airline commenced its services on April 29, 2005, with operations to the three Kerala cities.

It has services to Dubai, Sharjah, Abu Dhabi and Al Ainfour cities in the UAE, the release said.

A Dubai-bound Air India flight was diverted to a military airbase due to an erroneous alert issued by the Indian aviation authorities, the Wam news agency reported.

Wam had earlier said the flight, which was due to land in Dubai last night, had been diverted due to “security and safety” concerns.

“The aviation monitoring centre (in Dubai) had received an alert from the aviation monitoring centre in India. After correspondence between the two sides it was discovered that the alert was wrong and contained wrong information,” Wam said.

Dubai airport is one of the busiest in the Middle East and security in the city, the Gulf region’s trade and tourism hub, is normally tight.

On Monday, Al Qaeda’s second in command Ayman Al Zawahri said in a video posted on the Internet that Gulf Arab states and Israel would be the militant network’s next targets.