Airlines India, Indian Airlines

Air Deccan has announced that the bookings for its summer schedule will start from Sunday, the 12th November 2006. The airline will offer tickets starting from Rs.9 for the months of April, May and June. However, this fare is exclusive of taxes.

Air Deccan has recently sold 1 lac Rs. 9 tickets for the months of January to March. The bookings were opened on 5th of November and the tickets were sold out in a couple of days.

If you have planned out your summer schedule, we recommend you to log on to the Air Deccan website as early as possible on the 12th of November to fix your air fares in advance. You should also bear in mind that the cancellation charges in case of discounted fares are very high, so carefully read all the instructions and rules before booking your flight.

Air Deccan has announced that it will sell one lac tickets for Rs. 9 for travels on all sectors of the airline till 25th March 2006. Air Deccan has made this offer on celebrations of Suvarna Utsava of Karnataka. The state has completed 50 years of its formation. The airline has also announced the launch of its new route from Bangalore to Hampi scheduled to commence from 15th November 2006. The bookings can be made at the website of airdeccan. However this fare is exclusive of all taxes.

The discounted tickets are expected to exhaust soon considering the heavy discounts offered by the airline, so in case you are scheduling a trip before 25th March 2006, book your flights now, Rs. 9 tickets will not be available for long.

Air Deccan is known for its low priced tickets, but the prices have recently been challenged by new entrants like Spicejet and Goair. These kind of discounts would attract the passengers back to Air Deccan.

AIR India is likely to relax its hand baggage rules further from tomorrow, with passengers being allowed to carry duty free items onboard under certain restrictions.

Dubai-based Air India’s Gulf regional director Sanjeev Talwar told the GDN the Bureau of Civil Aviation Safety (BCAS), in New Delhi, was due expected to issue the directive soon.

“We have made a very strong representation that we be allowed to relax the strict rules now in place and bring them on a par with the other airlines operating from the region,” he said.

Mr Talwar said he has been told the request is being considered favourably and an official communication would follow.

Air India had completely banned all cabin luggage on its flights except travel documents, cash, jewellery, medicines (accompanied by doctors’ prescriptions), other documents (such as school certificates and medical certificates) and infant food (allowed only if an infant is travelling), on August 28 after receiving a directive from the BCAS in the aftermath of the terror scare in London early last month.

On September 6, it issued another directive allowing passengers to carry with them laptops and cameras, in addition to the other items on the ‘allowed list’.

Mr Talwar said the request from his office to the BCAS followed demands from passengers, who said they were avoiding the Indian national carrier because of the restrictions.

“We estimate we are losing between 30 to 40 passengers per flight that leaves any of the Gulf destinations,” he said.

“Other airlines are benefiting and we are also losing out on much-wanted revenue.”

Mr Talwar said once the new directive is received, officials at Air India’s online stations in the Gulf, including Bahrain, will be co-ordinating with Duty Free authorities to deliver all purchases in sealed bags to the passengers at the time of boarding the aircraft.

“We are hoping the authorities will co-operate with us in this matter,” he said.

Meanwhile, Dubai-based Gulf regional manager of the Indian airline, Pankaj Srivastava, said the airline was not ignoring the BCAS directive despite not enforcing the ban.

“The threat perception is country specific and we feel the threat to Indian aircraft in the Gulf is not there,” he said.

Mr Srivastava said the threat will be the same for every airline and it is for the local authorities to decide when to enhance the security levels.

“It is entirely the local authorities’ prerogative on what they do,” he said.

“In Bahrain, and elsewhere in the Gulf, the authorities do not fear a risk and we are happy to go along with that.”

Mr Srivastava would, however, not comment on the Air India decision to follow the BCAS directive to the letter.

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.

Budget carrier GoAir has signed a USD 150 million deal with CFM, a joint venture between US aeroengine major General Electric and its French counterpart Snecma Moteurs for engines to power its to be acquire Airbus fleet of aircraft.

GoAir had earlier signed an agreement with Airbus to buy 10 A-320 aircraft with an option to buy another ten.

As per the deal, these aircraft would be powered by CFM56-5b engines, an airline release said here today.

Deliveries of these aircraft are scheduled to begin in mid-2007, the release added.