Indian:
Indian has introduced another flight to Delhi from Kolkata in its winter schedule, effective from 29 October 2006. The carrier would also operate an Airbus A319 to Agartala and add a flight to Bangalore. Indian would now have 25 flights a week between Kolkata and Delhi. The frequency of operation between Kolkata and Bagdogra has been increased to three flights a week. The frequency to Kathmandu from Kolkata has been increased to four days a week.
(31 October 2006)

Emirates Airline:
Emirates Airline has launched eight flights a week service to Bangalore, marking its fifth footprint in the South and eighth in the Indian skies. The first flight EK 516, an Airbus A330-200 aircraft touched down at the Bangalore airport last evening. In an expansion drive in India, Emirates has already commenced services to Thiruvananthapuram and Kolkata and added capacity to its Kochi, Chenni and Delhi routes earlier this year. (31 October 2006)

Singapore Airlines:
The ground-handling arm of Singapore Airlines (SIA) is keen on a new airport project in the Indian city of Hyderabad. Singapore Airport Terminal Services (SATS) recently won all three contracts it had bid for at Bangalore's new airport in cargo, passenger handling and catering. Hyderabad airport is scheduled to open in 2008. (31 October 2006)

Air Emirates:
Emirates has launched services to new gateways in North Africa and India and added capacity to its New York and Zurich routes.The carrier marked the beginning of five weekly flights to Tunis, eight flights a week to the Indian IT hub Bangalore, a third daily service to New York and a second daily service to Zurich. The new flights will offer more than 7,500 passenger seats and 400 tonnes of cargo capacity. (30 October 2006)

Air India Express:
Air India Express has launched its inaugural flight to Singapore. The first Indian low-cost carrier to fly to Changi, AIE will operate five weekly non-stop services between Singapore and Chennai in India. AIE's average return fare can go as low as US $600. The flight takes about four hours and includes free boxed meals and some in-flight entertainment. (30 October 2006)

Finnair:
Finnair has launched flights to Delhi, and will double the number of flights to Tokyo in December. On its European network, Finnair will be adding new daily flights from Paris, Munich, Copenhagen and Vilnius, and increasing frequencies on St Petersburg, Budapest and Warsaw routes. The inaugural flight to Delhi will run three times a week using Boeing MD-11 wide-bodied aircraft, but next spring the frequencies will be boosted to five a week. The flight time between Helsinki and Delhi is just six hours and 30 minutes, with outward departures on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and return flights on the following days. (30 October 2006)

Air India:
As part of its plan to upgrade in-flight entertainment, Air India will have digital audio and video-on-demand on every seat in upper and business class sections of the 23 new Boeing 777 aircrafts. The equipment will be procured from the French aerospace, defence and electronics giant Thales and will be delivered by February next year. (27 October 2006)

Karipur Airport:
In order to create more facilities to travellers, Airports Authority of India (AAI) had identified 162 acres of land around the Kozhikode airport for acquisition. The AAI board had approved the proposal in principle. The government will now have to acquire the land and transfer it to the Kozhikode Airport. (27 October 2006)

Air Arabia:
Air Arabia will commence daily flights from Sharjah international airport to Thiruvananthapuram international airport from 5 November 2006. The airline will deploy new A-320 aircraft for the flight operations in the Sharjah-Thiruvananthapuram- Sharjah sector. The flight will have only economy class and the aircraft can accommodate 162 passengers.
(26 October 2006)

Kannur Airport:
The government would expedite the Kannur international airport project, which when established, would be the fourth international airport in the state after Thiruvananthapuram, Kozhikode and Nedumbassery near Kochi. The Cochin International Airport Ltd (CIAL) near Kochi is also India's first joint sector airport, and has been a successful venture within a few years of operations. (26 October 2006)

Air Deccan:
Air Deccan would launch a direct non-stop flight between Madurai and Bangalore from 30 October 2006. The direct service is expected to meet the growing demands for low-cost connectivity between towns and cities in south India. The flight, a 72-seater ATR-72, would leave Bangalore at 1715 hrs and reach Madurai at 1845 hrs. In the return direction, it would leave Madurai at 1900 hrs and reach Bangalore at 2030 hrs. (25 October 2006)

Air India, Indian:
According to Accenture , the consultant for the Air India and Indian Airlines merger, the cost savings and revenue appreciation arising out of the synergies between the airlines would be nearly three to four percent start with. The consulting firm has examined possible synergy in the areas pf sales and distribution, fuel procurement, material procurement, passenger amenities, ground handling, parking facilities and other allied services. It is believed that the merger will provide an opportunity to leverage the assets and c apital of both airlines and build a stronger sustainable business in terms of capability and infrastructure. Its combined fleet strength would be higher than many other competitors including Emirates, Singapore Airlines, Malaysian Airlines and similar other carriers in the South East Asia Region. (25 October 2006)

Regulations and Airports:
The Airport Economic Regulatory Authority (AERA), proposed to be set up by the government, would be mandated with regulation of airport charges by specifying price caps, monitoring and assessment of service levels as set by the government and review and assessment of capital and operating expenditure of these airports. Setting up AERA will help streamlining and making the PPP policy for airports transparent. (24 October 2006)

Airfares Take Off:
Air travel in India is all set to become costlier from November. With more airlines being launched, and the growing competition between them, the airlines had reduced their fares to unsustainable levels. With the peak season beginning next month, airline officials feel it is the best time to hike fares and cut losses. The extent of the hike is yet to be decided.
(24 October 2006)

Delta-Kingfisher Deal:
Kingfisher Airlines will carry within the country passengers of Delta Airlines of the US, which is starting a direct non-stop flight between John F Kennedy Airport in New York to Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport in Mumbai. The Delta begins its non-stop flight on November 1 and the journey is expected to take 14 hours. A major feature of the arrangement is that Kingfisher's flights to Delhi, Chennai, Ahmedabad and Bangalore from Mumbai will start within two hours of the Delta flight arriving in the city. This would cut down the destination time for weary passengers from the US considerably as currently they have to spend hours at the Mumbai airport to get the connecting flight to other cities. (23 October 2006)

Indian:
Indian has acquired first of its ordered 43 new aircraft from Airbus Industrie with the rest joining the fleet in the coming years. With the joining of this plane, the number of aircraft in Indian's fleet has gone up to 74. The rest of the 42 aircraft will be added in a phased manner. This process would start in year 2007. Earlier in February this year, Indian had placed an order for 43 Airbus aircraft - 19 A319s, 20 A321s and 4 A320s -- at an estimated cost of US $2 billion. The delivery of these aircraft will be stepped up from June 2007, with six aircraft to be delivered in 2007, 12 in 2008, 18 in 2009 and the last 6 aircraft in 2010. (23 October 2006)

China Aircraft Services:
China Aircraft Services (CASL), a joint-venture between China National Aviation Corp and Hutchison Whampoa, plans to expand its line maintenance business into India and the Middle East in the next few years to capture growth opportunities there. CASL is also investing 300 million HKD to build a maintenance hangar at Hong Kong International Airport.
(20 October 2006)

Emirates:
Emirates Airlines will start a new passenger service to Bangalore from 29 October 2006, bringing good news for travellers to southern India's largest city and technology hub. The new service, operated on both A330-200 and Boeing 777-200 aircraft, gives Emirates a full eight, non-stop, direct weekly frequencies in addition to its existing weekly freighter flight. The expansion of cargo services to Bangalore coincides with Emirates SkyCargo's recent major fleet expansion announcements. Most recently, the carrier signed a contract for 10 Boeing 747-8s worth USD 2.8 billion and announced a commitment to purchase rights for 10 additional aircraft. (20 October 2006)

Indian Airlines:
Indian Airlines, in its new avatar, has decided to take the competition unleashed by the new low cost carriers head on. With its present market share down to 24.2 per cent, IA needs to fight back, and soon. Thus it too will soon start a low frills carrier service on regional routes, with flights of durations less than 90 minutes, using smaller aircrafts like Canadian Regional Jets (CRJs), Bombardiers and ATR Turboprops. It will be operated by its subsidiary Alliance Air and will operate on routes like Delhi- Chandigarh, Mumbai -Pune, Delhi - Jaipur, Mangalore-Bangalore etc. The company intends to induct the aircrafts required - new six regional jets, and an equal number of ATR Turboprops over the next two months. Regional jets and Turboprops normally have a seat capacity of between 50 to 70 passengers. (19 October 2006)

Lufthansa:
Lufthansa continues to expand services from London City with the introduction of two new destinations - Hamburg and Nuremberg –and a tripling of capacity to Munich from the start of the winter timetable. All services will be operated by Lufthansa Regional partners. The new frequencies will increase the number of destinations served by Lufthansa from London-City from four to six and will boost the total number of flights from the Docklands airport to 68 a week, an increase of 36 per cent, when the winter timetable comes into effect on Sunday 29 October 2006. This follows a 40 per cent increase in services from London City in the summer. (19 October 2006)

Air Deccan:
Air Deccan is lining up expansion plans and reaching destinations which have not been yet tapped by other airlines. The airline plans to launch flights to Kulu, Mumbai-Kandla, Jamshedpur-Kolkata this month. (18 October 2006)

Air India:
Air India is intent on enhancing its long haul strategy with a particular focus on direct flights on key routes to North America, Africa and Europe. The imminent merger with Indian will translate into a fleet re-allocation that will enable Air India to ramp up its existing long haul routes and add new ones significantly to Mauritius, Australia and Eastern Europe besides the possibility of direct flights to New York on the ultra long haul Boeing aircraft that should be delivered next year. (18 October 2006)

SpiceJet:
SpiceJet has announced new flights to Goa and Chennai from 25 October 2006, with an additional flight to Mumbai, and unveiled its plans to connect Ahmedabad to Jaipur, Kolkata, Pune and Hyderabad by December this year with the induction of more aircraft to the fleet. The airline recently added two new-generation Boeing 737-800 aircraft to its existing fleet of six aircraft, making it one of the fastest growing airlines in the country. The airline, with a turnover of Rs 438 crore in 2005-06 is targeting to increase it to Rs 1,000 crore by the end of the current fiscal. The company is also in the process of deciding the mode to raise $50 million - $60 million for its expansion plans following a recommendation by JM Morgan-Stanley of the UK. (18 October 2006)

Kingfisher Airlines:
Abu Dhabi-based Gulf Aircraft Maintenance Company (Gamco) has won a contract from Kingfisher Airlines to provide maintenance for 10 aircraft. Gamco will undertake maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) of the 10 aircraft, components and engines. The contract value was not disclosed. (17 October 2006)

Jet Airways:
The cut-throat competition in the skies coupled with higher fuel costs and introduction of new international flights saw India's largest private airline Jet Airways cruise deeper into losses in the second quarter this fiscal. The airline ended the quarter with a net loss of Rs 55.13 crore as against a profit of Rs 68.59 crore a year ago. With this, the airline has posted a net loss of Rs 100.11 crore in the first half of the current financial year. Its pre-tax losses on the international operations alone widened by nearly 293 percent in the second quarter to touch Rs 111.4 crore as against Rs 28.3 crore a year ago. (17 October 2006)

Airport Project:
GMR Hyderabad International Airport Ltd. (GHIAL) has decided to provide additional facilities at the new airport for catering upto 12 million passengers to meet the growing demand for air travel. For meeting this additional expenditure, GHIAL has decided to inject an additional investment of Rs5.23 billion including the investment in fuel farm facilities. The company intends to raise the amount for the additional investment by way of 100 percent debt from leading banks. With the infusion of this additional investment, the total project cost will now be Rs. 22.83bn. (16 October 2006)