Airlines India, Indian Airlines

Go Air has tied up with Jammu & Kashmir Tourism Development Corporation to develop tourism in Jammu & Kashmir. The Mumbai based airline is looking at the potential tourist market of western India and wants to develop Jammu & Kashmir a hot tourist destination for its passengers. Recently Go Air had tied up with Goa Tourism Development Corporation to develop tourism in Goa, and it is in talks with tourism authorities of other states also.

J&KTDC has launched special packages to promote the common objective of the tie up. The packages are economically designed for the potential tourists. The winter packages include honeymoon packages for home market and skiing packages for domestic and foreign travelers. Most of the new private airlines are striking tieups and agreements with tourism authorities, hotels, international airlines, etc. to attract maximum passengers.

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.

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.