09 Dec 2019

India Aviation Industry Newsletter 9 December

All-cargo air service links ancient Chinese capital with India Two new cargo air routes were launched between Xi'an and Chennai and Mumbai, according to the Airport New City in Xixian new area of Xi'an, northwest China's Shaanxi Province. Both services are operated twice a week by Sichuan Airlines using an Airbus A330-200F aircraft, with a maximum cargo capacity of 65 tonnes.

Chennai Airport’s integrated terminal building to be ready by Sept 2020

The new T2 integrated terminal building at the Chennai airport is expected to be ready by September 2020 to handle international passenger traffic movement, according to CV Deepak, Officiating Airport Director, Airports Authority of India (AAI), Chennai International Airport.

In a first, Bengaluru airport gets parallel runways into use

The Kempegowda International Airport, Bengaluru has commenced operations on the new ‘South Runway’ with the first flight taking off from the 4,000-metre-long and 45-metre-wide airstrip. This makes the Airport the first in the country to operate independent parallel runways, enabling aircraft to land or take-off simultaneously on both runways. “It is a historic day for us at Bengaluru airport as we commenced operations on the new runway,” said Hari Marar, Managing Director and CEO, Bangalore International Airport Limited. The South Runway will begin with limited operations before gradually scaling up flight operations. The runway will initially have CAT I certification, and, as operations stabilise, will progressively manage CAT III B operations, enabling landing and take off in extremely low visibility conditions. The new runway will be coded RWY 09R/27L, while the existing runway will be renamed RWY 09L/27R (from RWY 09/27).

India's air passenger traffic grows 3.6 pc in Oct; pace slower than seen in '18: IATA

India's domestic air passenger traffic grew 3.6 per cent in October but the expansion was slower than last year, reflecting "general economic slowdown" and disruptive impact of Jet Airways' collapse, according to IATA. IATA stated RPK growth picked up by almost two percentage points to 3.6 per cent year-on-year, supported by the start of the main tourist season. In September, the same stood at 1.9 per cent. "Nonetheless, passenger volumes continue to expand at a much slower pace than seen in 2018, reflecting the general economic slowdown and disruptive impact of the collapse of Jet Airways earlier in the year," it noted.

IndiGo says PW engine issue is likely to have an impact on future capacity

With DGCA ordering IndiGo to replace all A320neo aircraft with unmodified Pratt and Whitney (PW) engines by 31 January the airline designated this matter as one of the "revenue headwinds" of 2019-20, and said it is "likely to have an impact on future capacity” Vistara And Lufthansa Sign Codeshare Agreement Vistara has signed a codeshare agreement with Lufthansa this enables the latter to add its ‘LH’ designator code to nearly 18 Vistara-operated flights flying across ten Indian cities. These include Delhi, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Goa, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Pune. Commenting on this codeshare deal, Vinod Kannan, chief strategy officer, Vistara says, “Our codeshare with Lufthansa is another important step in this direction and helps us widen our customer base outside of India. We are delighted to strengthen our partnership with Lufthansa, an airline we share many things in common with, and bring to our customers a delightful, world-class flying experience.” Adding to this, George Ettiyil, senior director sales, Lufthansa Group Airlines says, “By teaming up with Vistara we will strengthen and expand our position as the leading and most popular European airline in India – a country all set to become the third-largest aviation market in just a few years’ time.” Acumen Aviation © 9 December 2019 All Rights Reserved.