Queen Elizabeth II to be docked in South Africa

South Africa's Tourism Ministry has said that Dubai World plans to berth the Queen Elizabeth II ocean liner at the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town and convert it into a luxury hotel. The company is applying for berthing rights from the National Port Authority, and the Department of Tourism is weighing up the desirability of the plans. A local hotel group, which has declined to be named 'as talks are at a sensitive stage', is engaged in talks with Dubai World to manage the new hotel.

Jet Airways to start Hyderabad-Dubai route

India's Jet Airways plans to launch its fifth daily service to Dubai from Hyderabad. Jet has also announced an all inclusive introductory return fare of Dhs 995 in economy class, valid for travel from Dubai to Hyderabad in the first week of its new operation from August 16 to August 22, with return travel to be completed by September 30, 2009. Jet's Premiere fares start at Dhs 2,000 without taxes. The airline has said it will commence services on the route aboard a Boeing 737-800 aircraft.

Go Air suffers bird hit at Ahmedabad

A GoAir flight from the Sardar Vallabhai International Airport in Ahmedabad had to be cancelled on Friday morning because of a bird-hit. Once again, zon guns, reflecting films, firecrackers and around one dozen bird chasers, all proved useless against the airport birds. Sources said that the GoAir aircraft, G8 321, scheduled for departure to New Delhi at 8:28 am, was taxiing for take off when a kite hit its engine. The pilot aborted the take-off and returned to the hangar with its six-blade engine damaged. Sources said that, in the process, hundreds of other birds were also cut to pieces. Friday's incident takes the total number of bird-hits at the Ahmedabad airport to 3 in the past one fortnight.

"There were hundreds of birds flying all over the runway on Friday morning," a source said. "Before a plane takes off for landing, the runway has to be clear from every direction. Unfortunately, on Friday, when the birds were chased from one side, they flew to the other side of the runway. Finally, the airport authorities decided to cancel the flight. "GoAir officials conceded that the flight was cancelled but they insisted that the circumstances were not under their control. The GoAir spokesperson said 98 of the 102 passengers of the flight were diverted to a SpiceJet flight scheduled for 10:20 am, while four chose to cancel their trip for a refund.

Air India & South African Airways sign code share agreement

National air-carrier, Air India, and South African Airways (SAA), have signed a code-share agreement, which they said would improve travel options between their respective countries. The agreement allows Air India passengers to code-share on SAA's route between Johannesburg and Mumbai, as well as on the domestic sectors between Johannesburg-Durban and Johannesburg-Cape Town. SAA, in return, will code-share on Air India's domestic operations between Mumbai and Delhi as well as operations between Bangalore, Chennai, Trivandrum and Hyderabad to Mumbai. The partnership was effective from June 18 and allows for improved and expanded connectivity between each other's networks.

Jet Airways launches Mumbai-Jeddah flight

Jet Airways, India’s premier international airline, today launched its services to Saudi Arabia with the introduction of its daily service from Mumbai to Jeddah. The airline marked the occasion with the customary inaugural ceremony at the Mumbai International Airport. Jet Airways will operate its maiden flight on the sector aboard a state-of-the-art Boeing 737-800 aircraft. Flight 9W 522 will depart Mumbai at 2135 hrs, and will arrive in Jeddah at 0001 hrs. Flight 9W 521 will depart Jeddah at 0100 hrs, and will arrive in Mumbai at 0835 hrs. With the introduction of its services to Saudi Arabia, Jet Airways now flies to 7 cities in the Gulf, including Kuwait, Bahrain, Muscat, Doha, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Jeddah.

Jeddah is Saudi Arabia’s second largest city, as well as a commercial hub. It also holds great religious significance, as the principal gateway to Mecca, Islam’s holiest city. According to Mr. Wolfgang Prock-Schauer, CEO, Jet Airways, “Jet Airways is delighted to introduce its services to Saudi Arabia. Guests on these sectors may now enjoy the quality in-flight product, warm service and seamless connectivity that has made Jet Airways the carrier of choice on the competitive Indo-Gulf sector in a relatively short span of time.” Jet Airways will also launch a new, daily service to Dubai from Hyderabad, its fifth daily service to the Gulf emirate and second from Southern India; as well as its second daily service to Bangkok from Mumbai, effective August 16, 2009.

Air India flight makes emergency landing at Kochi

An Air India aircraft with crew and seven passengers on board today made an emergency landing at the Kochi airport due to technical snag, airport sources said. The aircraft bound for Agatti in Lakshadweep Islands returned for an emergency landing at Kochi airport after flying for more than 90 minutes.The pilot of the Dornier aircraft, Flight IC 502, noticed a snag after it took off in the morning and alerted the Air Traffic Control (ATC) to make arrangements for an emergency landing, the sources said. The ATC instructed airport officials to introduce local standby system to provide for emergency landing. The plane landed safely. The flight was subsequently cancelled, the sources added.

Jet Airways introduces early purchase apex fares

Jet Airways, India’s premier international airline, its new all-economy service Jet Airways Konnect, and Jet Airways’ all-economy subsidiary, JetLite, have introduced special 5-day base apex fares between INR 150-900 on several key routes across India. These special fares are applicable only on flights departing between 1230 hrs to 1630 hrs and 2030 hrs to 0700 hrs on sectors indicated below, and are available for sale with immediate effect from 13th July 2009 to 27th July 2009. Travel on these fares is however is open till 31st March 2010.

Jet Airways, Jet Airways Konnect and JetLite offer a special base fare of INR 150 on routes including the Srinagar-Jammu, Guwahati-Imphal, Bhubaneshwar-Kolkata, Delhi-Lucknow, Indore-Mumbai, Kochi-Hyderabad, Kolkata-Dibrugarh and Mumbai-Raipur sectors, among others. On routes including the Mumbai-Chennai, Delhi-Mumbai/Pune, Kolkata-Hyderabad, Hyderabad-Delhi and Delhi-Kolkata sectors, the airlines offer a special base of INR 400*. On the Guwahati-Delhi, Mumbai-Kolkata, Bengaluru/Chennai-Delhi and Delhi-Kochi sector, the airline will offer a special base fare of INR 900.

Jet Airways Konnect may fly international routes

Jet Airways Konnect, the two- month old no-frill carrier floated by the premier private airline Jet Airways, is evaluating routes to launch overseas services by the year-end, a top airline official said. "We are evaluating a few routes and if we decide to go ahead, it will all be within this year," Jet Airways Chief Commercial Officer Sudheer Raghavan said, indicating that these services could be launched from the upcoming winter schedule beginning October. He refused to disclose which international routes Jet Konnect was interested in but said the evaluation was being carried out on sectors in which all-economy, no-frill services would be feasible. Regarding Jet Airways, Raghavan said the legacy airline, which started its services to Saudi Arabia with the launch of Mumbai-Jeddah flight two days ago, would start flying to Riyadh from August six.

Asked whether Jet would stop flying to those foreign destinations where Jet Konnect goes, he said "all options" were being studied, including whether meals, which has to be bought on board its domestic service, should be served on its proposed international flights. He, however, maintained that "we don't want to do away with the warmth of our premier service" and the prime difference would be the all-economy configuration of the aircraft. Jet Konnect, which was launched on May 7, would have a fleet of 10 turbo-prop ATR 72-500 aircraft and nine Boeing 737s, most of them being 168 seaters, by July end. The Jet CCO, however, made it clear that in no way would the airline cut its domestic operations to start services on some profitable international routes. By October this year, Jet Konnect would begin operating on all routes it has planned to take over from its full service parent airline, he said.

Jet Konnect was floated with planes and routes earlier operated by Jet Airways, which, as a full service airline, was experiencing high operational costs and low yields. The two-class configured planes of Jet were converted into all-economy seaters to begin Jet Konnect operations which were "breaking even" with food being sold on board and less number of cabin crew members on these flights, he said.Within a span of two months, number of destinations operated by Jet Konnect grew enormously, roughly accounting for half of the full-service carrier's operations, Raghavan said. Konnect now operates 129 flights a day compared with about 270 of Jet Airways. By October this year, another about 30 domestic flights would be added to the Jet Konnect network, he said. Domestic passenger load of Jet Airways on several sectors, which were averaging 50-55 per cent, increased to over 70 per cent when these services were switched over to that of Jet Konnect, Raghavan said.

Kingfisher Airlines to launch new international routes

Expanding its global network, Kingfisher Airlines on Saturday announced the launch of flights on eight international routes before the year end. It also announced suspension of its services on Bangalore-London and Bangalore-Colombo routes from September 15, while launching two new flights on Mumbai-Singapore and Mumbai-Hong Kong sectors from the next day. Both these new flights would be daily direct return services and operated by new Airbus A330-200 aircraft, an airline spokesperson said, adding that the bookings for travel on these two sectors would be opened shortly. From the winter schedule, which begins in October end, the Vijay Mallya-promoted premier carrier would start operating on six more international routes, subject to approval by the Civil Aviation Ministry. The routes are Delhi-London Heathrow, Delhi-Bangkok, Delhi-Dubai, Mumbai-Bangkok, Mumbai-Dubai and Mumbai-Colombo. These would be the first international flights the airline would launch out of Delhi.

Air Arabia offers special promotion to Sharjah

Air Arabia, a low-cost carrier (LCC) in West Asia and North Africa, has launched a special promotion scheme that offers round-trip tickets to Sharjah, UAE from any of the 13 destinations in India for Rs 12,999 (inclusive of surcharge and exclusive of airport taxes). The offer, which is valid for travel to Sharjah till July 31 and from Sharjah between July 16 and September 10, also includes a one-month UAE tourist visa from the date of entry subject to approval from the General Directorate for Naturalization and Residence. Currently, Air Arabia operates direct flights from Sharjah to Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Jaipur, Kochi, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Nagpur, Coimbatore, Thiruvanthapuram, Kozhikode, Delhi and Goa.

Air India Express to start domestic flights

Realising that only a budget-airline model can ensure better passenger load factor these days, cash-strapped Air India has decided to begin low-cost domestic operations from September to tap the peak October-December travel season. The airline will launch these flights under the existing brand of Air India Express that at present flies to global destinations. "The premium class market has all but vanished. Domestic full service carriers have massive overcapacities and yields have dropped by 40%," said highly placed sources. While full fare carriers barely manage about 70% loads despite cutting capacity, LCCs (low-cost carriers) report over 80% occupancies.

Since LCC success largely depends on online sales, Air India is aiming to revamp its online booking engine by August end so that a user-friendly system is in place before the launch. It's also going to tweak its frequent flyer programme. Air India was the only full service airline that did not have a domestic LCC in its fold. On the other hand, both Jet and Kingfisher have shifted their planes from full service to their LCC arms on domestic and international routes. Launching the LCC is part of Air India CMD Arvind Jadhav's revamp plan for the airline. Jadhav, who puts in almost 16 hours a day charting the survival and revival strategy for Air India has set two targets increase revenue and lower costs. AI is getting an audit of its inventories done. According to sources, it is aiming to raise up to Rs 1,000 crore from sale of some inventories.

Caspian Airlines flight crashes in Iran

A Tupolev aircraft crashed in Iran on Wednesday on its way to Armenia killing all 168 people on board and one senior Iranian official said A part of the tail of the crashed Caspian Airlines plane. The plane had caught fire in the air after suffering technical problems. In the worst crash in Iran for six years, the Russian-built Caspian Airlines plane ploughed into farmland with 153 passengers and 15 crew on board, gouging a deep smoking crater in the ground. The aircraft, travelling to Armenia's capital Yerevan from Tehran, crashed near the northwestern city of Qazvin shortly before noon (0730 GMT) after about 16 minutes in the air. Eight members of Iran's national junior judo team and two coaches were among the dead as well as a former Iranian MP representing Iran's Armenian minority and, reportedly, the wife of the head of Georgia's diplomatic mission in Iran.

Weeping relatives and friends gathered at Yerevan airport where a notice on a wall listed people who were on board. Iran is home to thousands of ethnic Armenians. Doctors treated relatives for shock and heart problems. Fina Karapetian, an Armenian in her 30s, said her sister and two nephews, 11 and 6, were on board the crashed plane. "I heard everyone in the aircraft has died. What will I do without Armen and Vahe," she said, before fainting. "The Tupolev plane has been totally destroyed and the corpses, unfortunately, have been totally burnt and destroyed," Qazvin police commander Massoud Jafarinasab said. Iranian television showed footage of debris and body parts and a smoking trench with mangled pieces of metal scattered around. Smoke rose from the site as police and bystanders gathered around.

Senior Iranian provincial official, Sirous Saberi, said the aircraft had had technical problems and tried to make an emergency landing. "Unfortunately the plane caught fire in the air and it crashed," he said. A witness said he had seen the plane's left engine on fire in the air. But state radio said the pilot had made no mention of any technical problem in a taped conversation with a control tower. "On board the plane there were 151 adults, 2 children and 15 crew members," Caspian Airline's representative in Yerevan Arlen Davudyan said. "Fifteen or sixteen minutes after take-off the plane fell near the Iranian city Qazvin about 150 kilometres (93 miles) north of Tehran," he said, adding it was a Tu-154 and the cause of the crash was not clear nor had the black box been found.

Spicejet aircraft suffers birdhit at Goa

About 170 passengers and crew of a Spicejet flight had a lucky escape, when the plane encountered a bird hit while landing at Dabolim International airport on Tuesday. In a bizarre sequence of events, the dead bird, which was removed from the plane, got sucked into the turbine engine of another Spicejet plane.According to sources at the Airports Authority of India (AAI), the SG 803 plane, which was arriving from Ahmedabad via Mumbai, was landing at Dabolim airport at about 1.20 pm, when a bird got trapped in the landing gear of the Spicejet flight. The pilot alerted the air traffic controller (ATC) that the flight had encountered a bird hit and managed to land the plane safely. Seven other scheduled flights were then asked to remain in the sky, until the bird-hit plane was towed away from the middle of the runway.

Operations at the Dabolim International Airport came to halt for about half an hour, following the incident. “There was a possibility that the bird-hit incident could have turned into a major mishap,” said a source. Within half an hour, airline engineers and navy officers towed the stranded Spicejet flight from the runway to parking bay No 6 at Dabolim airport. Later, all seven flights landed at the airport in quick succession. While the stranded Spicejet flight remained at parking bay till late evening as engineers were inspecting the plane, another Spicejet plane, which had landed earlier in the afternoon, was made available to accommodate the 100 stranded passengers back to Ahmedabad. “However, the dead bird, which was removed from the landing gear of the SG 803 flight, was left on the parking bay,” an engineer said.

The second Spicejet flight was preparing to leave the parking bay, when the dead bird got sucked into the turbine engine of the plane. The second plane was then stranded for about 40 minutes, as efforts were on to remove the dead bird from the second Spicejet plane. Engineers removed the dead bird and inspected the aircraft, before the second Spicejet plane was allowed to take off with the 100 passengers at about 3 pm. An airport official confirmed that two Spicejet planes had been affected due to the bird-hit incident. Sources informed that the AAI and Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) have ordered an inquiry into the incident.

Air India crew to fly back home after every flight

Air India pilots and air hostesses may soon fly to overseas destinations and come back as passengers on the return leg of the flight to avoid huge hotel expenses abroad. What’s more, the temporary postings of AI engineers abroad to check the aircraft may also be scrapped. The aircraft engineers could also fly on the plane and check it before the return leg and avoid the huge expense of being posted abroad. ‘‘Some unions representing pilots, cabin crew, and engineers have themselves come forward with this cost-cutting move. Hotel tariffs abroad are in the range of $200-400, in addition to $200 as daily allowance. The foreign stay of crew costs a huge amount and if they return on the same flight, the savings will be enormous,’’ said highly placed sources.

This new concept could be introduced on almost all AI international flights except the ultra-long haul Delhi/Mumbai-New York that have a flying time of over 16 hours. This aircraft reaches JFK Airport in the morning and then takes off late evening. Clearly, such a long return trip, within the space of 12-13 hours is not possible for the crew or engineers. Other flights, like India-Frankfurt or London, could however be under the ambit of the proposed change. In fact, Jet Airways has some months back started this policy on nearby Gulf and Southeast Asia sectors. The idea — save hotel accommodation and daily allowances. Apart from this, the problem of having an unduly large number of Indian Airlines pilots positioned in Delhi and Mumbai could also be resolved by an equitable distribution all over the country.

Pilots fly as passengers to other stations from the two metros to operate flights out of those cities. Thy get a certain portion of their flying allowance even while they fly as passengers to operate flights and the airline shells out several crores under this head. While most AI employees blame mismanagement in the past few years and government interference for the mess, they are now actively participating in the process to save the airline. While pilots and air hostesses has approached the management with the return-on-same-flight concept, the junior-level employees are offering to work extra at no extra cost.

Jet Airways to start second daily Bangkok flight

In response to growing customer demand, Jet Airways, India’s premier international airline, will introduce its second daily service to Bangkok from Mumbai aboard its state-of-the-art Boeing 737-800 aircraft, effective August 16, 2009. The airline currently operates a daily service to Bangkok from Mumbai, as well as from Delhi and Kolkata. Effective August 16, 2009, flight 9W 68 will depart Mumbai at 1305 hrs, arriving in Bangkok at 1855 hrs. Flight 9W 67 will then depart Bangkok at 2055 hrs, arriving in Mumbai at 2340 hrs. According to Mr. Wolfgang Prock-Schauer, CEO, Jet Airways, “With its world-class in-flight product and warm service, Jet Airways has emerged as among the leading carriers on the Indo-Thai sector in a relatively short time. With more travellers choosing to fly to Bangkok with Jet Airways, we are delighted to introduce our second daily service between Mumbai and Bangkok, effective August 16, 2009, to cater to this additional demand.” The airline currently flies to 18 international destinations, including New York (both JFK and Newark), Toronto, Brussels, London (Heathrow), Hong Kong, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Colombo, Bangkok, Kathmandu, Dhaka, Kuwait, Bahrain, Muscat, Doha, Abu Dhabi and Dubai.

Delta to stop nonstop flights to India

After confirming in June that it would move its nonstop flight from Atlanta to Mumbai, India, back to New York, Delta Air Lines Inc. has now suspended the service altogether, leaving the airline with no nonstop flights between the United States and India. Delta said the decision was prompted by lower projected passenger demand. The airline’s last nonstop flight from the U.S. to Mumbai will be on Oct. 21 from Atlanta, the airline said in a statement. The last direct flight from Mumbai to Atlanta will be on Oct. 23. Delta will offer flights between the U.S and India through Amsterdam on Delta subsidiary Northwest Airlines and through Paris on Air France, a Delta partner. Delta said in June that it would move the Atlanta-Mumbai flight back to New York on Oct. 24. The nonstop service to Mumbai was moved here last year from New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport. The inaugural flight from Atlanta on Nov. 1 carried a Georgia trade delegation.

Kingfisher Airlines to launch Bangkok flight

Kingfisher Airlines plans to start is first flight to South-East Asia in August with the low-fare Kingfisher Red service to tap into the peak winter tourist traffic in the region after September. The Kingfisher Red flight, which will not offer any business class seats, will fly daily between Kolkata and Bangkok starting 14 August on an Airbus SAS-made A320 aircraft, according to the carrier’s website. It will be the airline’s fifth low-cost international service. The carrier recently launched a Kingfisher Red service between Bangalore and Dubai, and has daily flights from Bangalore and Chennai to Colombo as also from Kolkata to Dhaka. On the Kolkata-Bangkok route, the Kingfisher Red service will have to compete with three direct daily flights including ones by National Aviation Co. of India Ltd-run Air India, Jet Airways (India) Ltd and Thai Airways, which could lead to cheaper fares on this sector.

Flydubai delays India launch

UAE low-cost carrier flydubai said it will delay the launching of its operations in three locations in India this month due to operational difficulties. “Flydubai had planned to begin operations to India with flights to Lucknow on July 13, Coimbatore on July 14 and Chandigarh on July 23. However, due to operational issues, we have had to delay these flights,” Ghaith Al Ghaith, flydubai chief executive officer said. Al Ghaith said all passengers who have booked flights to India will be contacted within the next few days and will be given a full refund, plus a voucher for a free return flight to India or anywhere on the flydubai network. The voucher will be valid until the end of November 2009. Flydubai had planned its inaugural flight to Chandiragh on July 23, but was reportedly refused permission by the Indian Air Force, which controls the airport.

Passengers evacuated from British Airways flight

Hundreds of passengers aboard a British Airways Boeing 747 preparing to depart for London from the Phoenix airport were forced to use slides to evacuate the jet after fumes filled the cabin. No serious injuries were reported among the approximately 350 passengers and crew who evacuated the jet at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport at about 8 pm MST (0300 GMT) Phoenix fire department Capt. Shelly Jamison said. About 15 people were evaluated for minor scrapes and bruises, but only one person was taken to a hospital with shoulder pain. The jumbo jet had just pushed back from the gate when smoke was reported in the cabin, Jamison said.

When fire crews arrived minutes later, the passengers and crew used escape slides. The jet was next to the terminal at the time. Fire crews found smoke in the cabin and in the cargo compartment, but no active fire was discovered, Jamison said. No official cause has been determined, but she said fire crews believed the smoke and smell were likely caused by an electrical problem. British Airways and the airport sent a bus to collect all the passengers to take them back inside the terminal.

Abu Dhabi forecasts rapid growth in cruise tourism

The Arabian Gulf emirate of Abu Dhabi is eyeing a 59% growth in cruise passenger arrivals in the 2009/2010 season. Forecasts by the Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority (ADTA), which manages and the emirate's tourism industry and promotes the destination, point to some 199,113 arrivals in the season, which will run from the end of November to the beginning of May, compared to a passenger arrivals total of 125,200 last season. 'The forecast is based on the 100% occupancy level achieved by the cruise ships using Abu Dhabi as a 'port of call' last season,' explained Ahmed Hussein, Deputy Director General, ADTA. 'The increase is due to the inclusion of Abu Dhabi in Royal Caribbean International's weekly itinerary for its 'Brilliance of the Seas,' which has a passenger capacity of 2,501 and the fact that Costa Cruises is to boost its service to the UAE capital by introducing larger, brand new vessels with increased passenger capacity.'

Due to sail into Abu Dhabi next season are the 1,266 passenger capacity 'Aida Vida' of Germany's Aida Cruises, and the recently commissioned 'Costa Deliziosa' and 'Costa Luminosa', both of which have a 2,828 passenger capacity in addition to Royal Caribbean's 'Brilliance of the Seas.' ADTA is planning to set up a hospitality tent to welcome the passengers as they disembark from the ships for day visits to the emirate. Meanwhile, ADTA has commissioned a market study into the UAE capital's cruise potential. 'We are looking to establish the viability of Abu Dhabi as a home port for cruise vessels as opposed to its current status as a port-of-call,' explained Ahmed Hussein. 'We also want to better gauge whether we have future potential beyond the European fly-and-cruise market which we are currently serving. 'Cruise business delivers much greater economic impact to the destination and also provides it with an excellent opportunity to market itself to an influential audience which would be open to return visits.