Boeing offers Air India $500 million for
Dreamliner delay
NEW DELHI: US aircraft maker Boeing has offered to pay $500 million to Air India as compensation for the delay in deliveries of new-age B-787 Dreamliner aircraft. The package is more than three times what Boeing was willing to pay earlier, but the civil aviation ministry says it is still inadequate.“It appears now that Boeing intends to offer half-a-billion dollars as compensation to Air India,” a senior civil aviation ministry official told ET. “But this is too less and we are trying to ensure better compensation.” Boeing India President Dinesh Keskar refused to give details.
” Air India is our valued customer and we will not discuss the issue of compensation in media,” he said. Air India had ordered 27 Dreamliner jets in 2006, which were to be delivered by September 2008. But Boeing says it can hand over the first of these planes only in the quarter beginning July.
AI Claims $1-Billion LossDreamliner is a 250-seater aircraft made of composite materials and is considered very fuel-efficient. The multi-version aircraft has a list price between $140 million and $200 million. Air India says the delay in handing over the jets has caused the airline both opportunity and operational losses amounting to over $1 billion. The official quoted above said the compensation Boeing plans to offer includes $145 million in liquidated damages, which are part of the contract and should not be included in the compensation value.Liquidated damages on account of delay are usually 0.5% of the total contract value and they are to be paid on a weekly or monthly basis for a specified time as mentioned in the contract.“Air India is not only eligible for liquidated damages, but also for the loss in revenue it suffered because its expansion plans were impacted due to the long delay,” the official said. Air India says it had planned to fly new routes to Australia and Africa, besides expanding services to the US with the B-787s.In January 2009, the airline had sought $710 million from Boeing as compensation for the delays in deliveries of B-787s. The carrier raised this figure to $840 million in August last year. The airline argues the compensation is on the grounds of loss of opportunities, business & market share, inability to use more fuel-efficient aircraft, leasing of jets at high cost, and additional interest burden on pre-delivery payments it made for the planes.Air India, which has a fleet size of 133 aircraft, is under a colossal debt of Rs 40,000 crore and accumulated losses of Rs 13,000 crore. The airline had placed a $15-billion order for 111 aircraft in 2006. Of this, 68 aircraft were to be purchased from Boeing and the remaining from Airbus . Of the Boeing order, 50 aircraft were for Air India’s own fleet and 18 for its low-cost subsidiary Air India Express , which flies on short-haul international routes.Apart from the 27 B-787 s, the other aircraft include a mix of B-777 s and B-737s. In India, Boeing also has an order from Jet Airways for 10 Dreamliners. Boeing’s order book for the B-787 worldwide currently stands at nearly 900 aircraft.
What would you do with 90 superjumbos?
One of the unusual things about Emirates Airline is that while it is one of the largest companies in the Middle East, it is also one of the least studied.Few analysts follow the airline because it is government owned and unavailable to equity investors. So it was somewhat of a rarity when the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) published a report called “What would you do with 90 A380s?”.The title encapsulates much of the awe and incredulity surrounding the Dubai airline’s success, the largest customer of the Airbus superjumbo and the world’s largest airline based on international capacity.While its order book of 90 A380s, which will hold nearly 45,000 seats, is unprecedented, the study comes to a surprising conclusion: Emirates’ growth would not come at great expense to some of its rivals in Europe or Asia.“It is possible to see a scenario in which Emirates takes delivery of all its ordered aircraft without gravely damaging European carriers,” RBS said. Emirates orders, which total nearly 200 wide-bodied jets, could be absorbed by Emirates “growing in line with the market across most route areas,” the study found. In addition, Emirates would find placing the 90 A380s due for delivery by 2020 on viable routes as “surprisingly easy” and “remarkably unchallenging”.The report looked at Emirates but also used it as a proxy for the other big Middle East carriers including Qatar Airways, Etihad Airways and Turkish Airlines, which all serve the long-haul, East to West transfer market.These airlines have “significant growth plans, benefit from lower costs and operate with very supportive governments and high quality infrastructure,” RBS said. It forecast these carriers to maximise their location to gain market share on several high-growth markets where they hold a competitive advantage.They will gain significant market share for travel between North America and South Asia, between Eastern Europe and the Middle East, and between China to the Middle East and Africa. But Middle East airlines will struggle to gain market share where their hubs are not an advantage, such as travel between China and Europe.“The Gulf carriers will not necessarily be the major destabilising force on the network carrier industry that some commentators fear,” the analysis said.Emirates’ fleet of 151 wide-bodied jets is forecast to grow to 249 planes by 2020, after taking into account new deliveries and retirements. In 2015, Emirates should have 60 A380s in operation, which RBS forecasts will be used on 30 routes. These include cities that are outside the flying range of today’s A380 such as Los Angeles, or cities that do not currently have the infrastructure to handle the aircraft today, like Nairobi.Some cities will be served by high-density A380s with primarily economy-class seating, such as Mumbai, Delhi and Jeddah. The rest will be equipped with Emirates’ current configuration of just under 500 seats. That includes seven points in western Europe, such as Munich and Madrid, six in North Asia, such as Shanghai and Osaka, and three points in Australia and New Zealand. There were some surprises in the forecast, such as an expectation that Emirates would fly three times a day into Moscow and Johannesburg.By 2020, RBS forecasts Emirates to receive all of its 90 A380s, and will fly them to 44 destinations. The Emirates strategy will be to aggressively deploy the superjumbo onto long-haul sectors to the US and Latin America, and use them more broadly to China, the report said. New destinations could include Zurich, Istanbul, Chicago, Guangzhou and Mexico City.Some European hubs are vulnerable to Emirates as it opens services to secondary cities on the continent, RBS concluded. Travellers in Germany’s provincial cities, who used to fly to Frankfurt and then internationally on Lufthansa, may choose to fly more directly via Emirates.Both Lufthansa and Air France are “notably disadvantaged” when linking travellers between secondary European cities and secondary points in Asia. Whereas Emirates would fly between Cochin and Birmingham via one stop in Dubai, it would take three stops on a European carrier. As a result, some countries such as Canada and Germany are blocking Emirates’ growth, but RBS found the airline industry to be on a “clear path” towards liberalisation, and suggested European airlines would try to bring Middle East carriers into alliances.There are also things that Emirates will not do, according to the RBS analysis. While it is a major operator between Australia and New Zealand, it is not expected to open services between Europe and the US.And its location in the Gulf is not an advantage in serving traffic between China and Europe, which would result in a “circuitous” routing,
Emirates Group’s Profit Rises 51%
The parent of Emirates Airline on Tuesday reported a 51% rise in full-year profit as the world’s largest international carrier by traffic saw business from premium travelers return to pre-crisis levels.
The Dubai-based airline shrugged off the impact of turmoil in the Middle East and North Africa as traffic through its hometown hub surged, with double-digit gains in both passenger and cargo volume.Emirates’ rapid expansion and huge order book—at $66 billion it accounts for 10% of outstanding commercial business at Airbus and Boeing Co.—makes it a key barometer of the global airline industry.The airline’s operating margin of 9.9% in its fiscal year to Mar. 31 topped almost every other large international airline, and the record earnings saw a four-fold rise in the bonus paid to staff to an equivalent of 12 weeks pay, pushing labor expenses up 20%“We are fortunate to be based in the Middle East where regional passenger seats grew by 17.8% compared to a global 8.2% growth,” said Sheik Ahmed Bin Saeed Al Maktoum, chairman of the state-controlled group.Sheik Ahmed said profit would have been 1 billion UAE dirhams ($272 million) higher had it not been for the increase in oil prices, with fuel expenses last week accounting for a record 43% of operating costs.Transfer traffic through Dubai accounts for around 60% of the airline’s total business, with passenger numbers up 15% to 31.4 million over the past year, and cargo rising almost 12%.Emirates and rivals such as Abu Dhabi-based Etihad Airways and Qatar Airways have capitalized on their geographical location to use new long-range aircraft to funnel business through their hubs.Nigel Page, Emirates head of the Americas, said the airline has leveraged changing trade patterns to capture business, with flows to and from Africa now going through the Gulf rather than via European airports.The Americas was Emirates’ fastest-growing region last year with revenue up 38% while sales in its largest geography—east Asia and Australia/New Zealand—rose by 31%.Business in the Gulf and the Middle East was still up 14% despite regional turmoil which saw flights to Tunisia temporarily halted, while Libyan services remain shuttered. Flights to the Ivory Coast resume on May 12.Mr. Page said the regional problems had actually helped Dubai’s financial recovery after its own debt crisis as companies relocated staff to the emirate.Emirates Group reported net profits of 5.46 billion UAE dirhams in the fiscal year ending March 2011, compared with 3.62 billion UAE dirhams a year earlier, with revenue—which includes its airport and travel arms—up 29% at 53.1 billion UAE dirhams.The airline unit’s passenger seat factor, a key measure of capacity utilization, rose to a record 80%, from 78.1% in the year before, with profit rising to $1.5 billion from $964 million on a 25% rise in revenue. Capacity rose 16%.Emirates expects delivery of six Airbus A380s and 13 Boeing 777 planes this year, while four new routes will be added: Geneva, Copenhagen, Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro. It is the largest operator of both aircraft types.Last week, Sheik Ahmed said the government-owned airline is in no hurry to sell shares to the public. He said the decision on whether to launch an initial public offering rests with the government, but ruled out any IPO in either 2011 or 2012.
HELICOPTER CRASH CONFIRMED: ARUNACHAL CM FOUND DEAD
After five days of search operation, the rescue team had finally found the wreckage of the ill-fated helicopter, which carried Arunachal Pradesh chief minister, in a place near Tawang with five burnt bodies.
A small group comprising local people with Mr Khandu's family members and some security personnel reached the location of crash at Luguthang near Jung falls in western Arunachal adjacent to Tibet (China) on May
4 and identified the body of chief minister Dorjee Khandu.
The news of chief minister's death spread like wildfire in Arunachal which also angered the people of the northeast Indian State against the Union government in New Delhi for the delay in rescue operation.
They had to wait for 96 hours to get the news about their beloved chief minister, who went missing with four other while flying from Tawang to its capital Itanagar in a helicopter on April 30.
The Indian Army and the Indian Space Research Organisation were also engaged in the search operation and all the time it was announced that the operation remained unsuccessful due to bad weather in the snowy mountainous terrain. But then the question came to the mind of the local residents, if the enemy (read China) encroaches to this region, whether the Indian agency could trace them for prevention? After all many residents of Arunachal and Assam have not forgotten about the
1962 Chinese aggregation during which the enemies penetrated through almost the same locality.
“The situation remains almost the same in Northeast if you look at the security aspect. You see, the Indian agency took more than four days to spot the crash site of our chief minister. Just imagine, if China attacks us through this route, the security agency will be clueless for many days with the excuse of bad weather,” said Bamang Tago, the chairman of Arunachal Citizen Rights.
Speaking to this writer from Itanagar, Mr Tago condemned the central government for 'not taking serious attempt' to rescue the helicopter at the earliest stage. He also criticized the Governor of Arunachal Gen (retired) JJ Singh for his ill-time claim that the helicopter landed inside Bhutan as a precautionary measure immediately soon after the crew members lost contact with the ground.
The single engine helicopter of the government run Pawan Hans Helicopter Services Limited (Eurocopter Ecureuil AS 350 B3) took off from Tawang, the western part of the State at 10 am with his security officer Yeshi Chodak, a relative of Tawang MLA Yeshi Lamu and two crew members (Captain J S Babbar & Captain K S Malick).
The crew members of the helicopter, which was scheduled to arrive in Itanagar by 11.30 in the morning, lost its radio communication with the ground after some time. The Arunachal Pradesh officials initially claimed that the chopper faced bad weather soon after its take off and later took emergency-landing somewhere in Arunachal-Bhutan border.
Then the Governor JJ Singh informed the media that the helicopter landed inside Bhutan and all passengers were safe.
But the Bhutan authority immediately denied the landing of any helicopter in that part of the country. The Trashiyangtse (of Bhutan) district magistrate S. Duba, while talking to media, expressed his ignorance about any report of an Indian helicopter landing in their territory.
The Pawan Hans HS Ltd, which operates five helicopters in Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Meghalaya, Nagaland and Tripura, now faces a probe against the Arunachal copper crash. Moreover its service is immediately taken into halt after massive protests from various organizations in the region.
Mentionable that the State witnessed a heartrending Pawan Hans chopper crash on April 19 that killed 17 people and injured 6 others. The injured passengers are recovering in Guwahati and New Delhi hospitals.
The ill-fated helicopter was flying from Guwahati to Tawang and crashed near the Tawang town, located at an altitude of over 11,000 feet.
Mr Khandu, 56, took over the charge of chief ministership on April 9, 2007. He replaced Gegong Apang to take charge as the fifth Congress chief minister of the State. With the death onboard in an aircraft, Mr Khandu becomes the second functioning chief minister of India after Andhra Pradesh chief minister YS Rajsekhara Reddy to face such end. Mr Reddy, also a Congress leader, died in a helicopter crash on September 3, 2009 in his own State.
The prime minister Dr Manmohan Singh and the ruling Congress party chief Sonia Gandhi expressed grief at the unexpected death of Mr Khandu. Earlier Dr Singh called on the responsible government officials at Itanagar to enquire about Mr Khandu and others. Following his the direction, two central ministers Mukul Wasnik and V Narayanswami arrived in Itanagar on May 1 and started overseeing the rescue operation.
The Arunchal government announced a reward of Rs 10 lakh for information that might lead to finding the missing helicopter. The Cultural Society of Tawang additionally offered Rs 5 lakh for the relevant information to rescue their leader.
The Indian Air Force helicopters were deployed for immediate rescue operation on Saturday in Tawang-Itanagar route. But bad weather arguably prevented them to maintain their operation for long time. A team comprising nearly thousand personnel from the Army, SSB, ITB were engaged in the operation. Later the Royal Bhutan Army personnel and local Arunachali people were also involved in searching the Pawan Hans helicopter and its passengers.Even the mapping by the Sukhoi radars of Army and also the ISRO satellite could not provide any concrete information about the helicopter, though the images could trace some metallic disposal in west Arunachal. Finally it was the local people who trekked for many hours in the Himalayan mountainous terrain and found the wreckage of the chopper.
Commenting on the delay on the rescue operation, All Arunachal Pradesh Students' Union leader Gumjum Haider asserted that India as a nation was still not well equipped to deal with disasters. Haider also claimed that the common people of the State were more successfully involved in the search operation than the so-called trained and skilled 'men in uniform' and other government officials.
FIRST LOOK INSIDE BOEING 747-800
INTERCONTINENTAL
First Look Inside the Boeing 747-8 Airplane
The 747-8 is the largest and newest 747 version, the longest passenger aircraft in the world. The 747-8 is offered in two main variants: the 747-8 Intercontinental (747-8I) for passengers and the 747-8 Freighter (747-8F) for cargo. he aircraft will be capable of carrying up to 467 passengers in a 3-class configuration over 8,000 nmi (15,000 km) at Mach 0.855.
The 747-8 Intercontinental will have the lowest seat-mile cost of any large commercial jetliner, with 12 per cent lower costs than its predecessor, the 747-400.
The airplane provides 16 per cent better fuel economy, 16 per cent less carbon emissions per passenger and generates a 30 per cent smaller noise footprint than the 747-400.
The 747-8 applies interior features from the 787 Dreamliner that includes a new curved, upswept architecture giving passengers a greater feeling of space and comfort.
The entrance to the plane has a wide-open foyer area that includes a curved staircase to the upper deck.
PAWANHANS HELICOPTER MISSING!!!!
Itanagar, Apr 30 (ANI): A Pawan Hans Helicopter flying from Tawang to Itanagar with Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Dorjee Khandu has gone missing since 10 a.m. today.
The helicopter left from Tawang in the morning and was scheduled to reach Itanagar at 11: 30 a.m, as it takes 70-75 minutes to reach the state capital.
"The Pawan Hans chopper took off in the morning with Chief Minister and two to three other officials. The chopper took off from Tawang and was to land at Itanagar. We are bit worried as we don't have any clear cut information about any emergency landing," said Member of Parliament from Arunachal Pradesh Takam Sanjoy
"I tried my best to contact Defence Minister A K Antony so that rescue and relief operations could be started soon," he added.
A day earlier on April 29, Sanjoy had demanded the Pawan Hans Helicopter Services Limited (PHHL) to deploy a new chopper for the immediate resumption of service on the Guwahati-Tawang route.
The helicopter service on the Guwahati-Tawang route was suspended in the wake of three probes being over a Pawan Hans chopper crash on April 19, killing 17 people and injuring six.
The PHHL has been operating five helicopters across Arunachal, Sikkim, Meghalaya, Nagaland and Tripura and daily Guwahati-Tawang services for the past nine years. It is one of the major lifelines of the landlocked Arunachal Pradesh.
Sanjoy, who has been vociferously taking up the issue with the Government of India, particularly the Defence Ministry after the MI 17 IAF chopper crash at Tawang on November 19 last year that had killed all 12 defence personnel, including three pilots, said that nothing should to left to chance after the investigation reports are submitted.
He had also called on Civil Aviation Minister Vayalar Ravi on April 21 and in a letter demanded to fix the accountability for poor maintenance and mandatory inspections of the chopper services as per DGCA rules. (ANI)
Mi-17 Pawanhans Helicopter crash
Chopper crash kills 17 in Arunachal, 6 including pilot survive
Published: Tuesday, Apr 19, 2011, 16:28 IST | Updated: Tuesday, Apr 19, 2011, 22:22 IST
Place: Itanagar, Shillong | Agency: PTI
A Mi17 helicopter of Pawan Hans crashed while landing in the mountainous region of Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh today killing 17 persons on board including three crew members but its pilot and five others miraculously survived with serious burn injuries.
Seventeen persons were killed while two crew members including the pilot captain Varun Gupta and four passengers survived with grievous injuries, Tawang deputy commissioner Gamlin Padu said.
The injured were rushed to the civil hospital at Tawang and would be air-lifted to Guwahati tomorrow, he said.
This is the second helicopter crash in Tawang district bordering China. An Indian Air Force(IAF) MI 17 chopper crashed minutes after take off on November 19 last year killing all 12 on board.
The civilian Mi17 chopper of state-owned Pawan Hans, manufactured in 1996, was on a regular flight to Tawang from the Lokopriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport in Guwahati, Pawan Hans sources said. It had valid certificate of airworthiness till August 28 this year.
There were two versions as to what caused the mishap.
Pawan Hans sources said the chopper caught fire, broke into pieces and crashed into a gorge close to the Tawang Civil helipad at around 1357 hours. The helicopter had taken off at 1245 hours, they said.
The exact causewas yet to be ascertained though a technical snag could not be ruled out, the sources said.
An official in the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said that as per initial reports the chopper crash-landed"due to likely wind shear and down draft while landing and caught fire on impact to the ground".
The official said in New Delhi that a committee would be set up to investigate the accident and a high-level team of DGCA officers led by director general EK Bharat Bhushan will visit the accident site tomorrow.
Security forces along with the locals have swung into rescue operations.
A persual of the passenger manifest showed that a colonel-level officer and three women were among the dead. A man, woman, two minors--a boy and a girl-- had Asif as the surname and the four persons could be from one family.
Those killed were identified as Mrs Anita, A Baruah, Dr Tendon, Dr Asif, Mrs R Asif, Mrs Jahara, Ms Asif, Master Asif, Mr A Sharma, A K Saraugi, Ms N Botha, Col Sharma, Mr W Bhatia, Mr T Mustafa.
The three crew members killed were a second pilot captain Tiwari, flight attendant A Dixit and assistant maintenance engineer S B Kulkarni.
Besides captain Varun Gupta, the other survivors were Randiv Kumar Chaturvedi, Dorjee Wangdi, Rishi Bothra, Rajendra Pal and Mrs Karishma Saraugi.
An official statement said that the MI-17 helicopter (VT-PHF) of Pawan Hans Helicopters Ltd was carrying 18 passengers, including two minors, and five crew members from Guwahati to Tawang.
The Tawang district administration has declared a holiday tomorrow to condole the deaths.
Pawan Hans Helicopters operates daily chopper services between Guwahati and Tawang and other remote locations in Arunachal Pradesh and the rest of the north-east.
Chief minister Dorjee Khandu, who was at Tawang to attend a meeting along with Union rural development minister Vilas Rao Deshmukh, expressed shock at the accident.
"I am shocked and pained to hear about the unfortunate incident and have no words to share my grief on the sad occasion," Khandu said in his condolence message.
"I along with my family members, my cabinet colleagues and people of Arunachal Pradesh pay our heartfelt condolences to the bereaved family members to bear this irreparable loss. I am aware how futile my word of condolence would mean to you but we must take solace that souls are immortal," the message read.
Boeing offers Air India $500 million for
Dreamliner delay
NEW DELHI: US aircraft maker Boeing has offered to pay $500 million to Air India as compensation for the delay in deliveries of new-age B-787 Dreamliner aircraft. The package is more than three times what Boeing was willing to pay earlier, but the civil aviation ministry says it is still inadequate.
“It appears now that Boeing intends to offer half-a-billion dollars as compensation to Air India,” a senior civil aviation ministry official told ET. “But this is too less and we are trying to ensure better compensation.” Boeing India President Dinesh Keskar refused to give details.
” Air India is our valued customer and we will not discuss the issue of compensation in media,” he said. Air India had ordered 27 Dreamliner jets in 2006, which were to be delivered by September 2008. But Boeing says it can hand over the first of these planes only in the quarter beginning July.
AI Claims $1-Billion Loss
” Air India is our valued customer and we will not discuss the issue of compensation in media,” he said. Air India had ordered 27 Dreamliner jets in 2006, which were to be delivered by September 2008. But Boeing says it can hand over the first of these planes only in the quarter beginning July.
AI Claims $1-Billion Loss
Dreamliner is a 250-seater aircraft made of composite materials and is considered very fuel-efficient. The multi-version aircraft has a list price between $140 million and $200 million. Air India says the delay in handing over the jets has caused the airline both opportunity and operational losses amounting to over $1 billion. The official quoted above said the compensation Boeing plans to offer includes $145 million in liquidated damages, which are part of the contract and should not be included in the compensation value.
Liquidated damages on account of delay are usually 0.5% of the total contract value and they are to be paid on a weekly or monthly basis for a specified time as mentioned in the contract.
“Air India is not only eligible for liquidated damages, but also for the loss in revenue it suffered because its expansion plans were impacted due to the long delay,” the official said. Air India says it had planned to fly new routes to Australia and Africa, besides expanding services to the US with the B-787s.
In January 2009, the airline had sought $710 million from Boeing as compensation for the delays in deliveries of B-787s. The carrier raised this figure to $840 million in August last year. The airline argues the compensation is on the grounds of loss of opportunities, business & market share, inability to use more fuel-efficient aircraft, leasing of jets at high cost, and additional interest burden on pre-delivery payments it made for the planes.
Air India, which has a fleet size of 133 aircraft, is under a colossal debt of Rs 40,000 crore and accumulated losses of Rs 13,000 crore. The airline had placed a $15-billion order for 111 aircraft in 2006. Of this, 68 aircraft were to be purchased from Boeing and the remaining from Airbus . Of the Boeing order, 50 aircraft were for Air India’s own fleet and 18 for its low-cost subsidiary Air India Express , which flies on short-haul international routes.
Apart from the 27 B-787 s, the other aircraft include a mix of B-777 s and B-737s. In India, Boeing also has an order from Jet Airways for 10 Dreamliners. Boeing’s order book for the B-787 worldwide currently stands at nearly 900 aircraft.
What would you do with 90 superjumbos?
One of the unusual things about Emirates Airline is that while it is one of the largest companies in the Middle East, it is also one of the least studied.
Few analysts follow the airline because it is government owned and unavailable to equity investors. So it was somewhat of a rarity when the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) published a report called “What would you do with 90 A380s?”.
The title encapsulates much of the awe and incredulity surrounding the Dubai airline’s success, the largest customer of the Airbus superjumbo and the world’s largest airline based on international capacity.
While its order book of 90 A380s, which will hold nearly 45,000 seats, is unprecedented, the study comes to a surprising conclusion: Emirates’ growth would not come at great expense to some of its rivals in Europe or Asia.
“It is possible to see a scenario in which Emirates takes delivery of all its ordered aircraft without gravely damaging European carriers,” RBS said. Emirates orders, which total nearly 200 wide-bodied jets, could be absorbed by Emirates “growing in line with the market across most route areas,” the study found. In addition, Emirates would find placing the 90 A380s due for delivery by 2020 on viable routes as “surprisingly easy” and “remarkably unchallenging”.
The report looked at Emirates but also used it as a proxy for the other big Middle East carriers including Qatar Airways, Etihad Airways and Turkish Airlines, which all serve the long-haul, East to West transfer market.
These airlines have “significant growth plans, benefit from lower costs and operate with very supportive governments and high quality infrastructure,” RBS said. It forecast these carriers to maximise their location to gain market share on several high-growth markets where they hold a competitive advantage.
They will gain significant market share for travel between North America and South Asia, between Eastern Europe and the Middle East, and between China to the Middle East and Africa. But Middle East airlines will struggle to gain market share where their hubs are not an advantage, such as travel between China and Europe.
“The Gulf carriers will not necessarily be the major destabilising force on the network carrier industry that some commentators fear,” the analysis said.
Emirates’ fleet of 151 wide-bodied jets is forecast to grow to 249 planes by 2020, after taking into account new deliveries and retirements. In 2015, Emirates should have 60 A380s in operation, which RBS forecasts will be used on 30 routes. These include cities that are outside the flying range of today’s A380 such as Los Angeles, or cities that do not currently have the infrastructure to handle the aircraft today, like Nairobi.
Some cities will be served by high-density A380s with primarily economy-class seating, such as Mumbai, Delhi and Jeddah. The rest will be equipped with Emirates’ current configuration of just under 500 seats. That includes seven points in western Europe, such as Munich and Madrid, six in North Asia, such as Shanghai and Osaka, and three points in Australia and New Zealand. There were some surprises in the forecast, such as an expectation that Emirates would fly three times a day into Moscow and Johannesburg.
By 2020, RBS forecasts Emirates to receive all of its 90 A380s, and will fly them to 44 destinations. The Emirates strategy will be to aggressively deploy the superjumbo onto long-haul sectors to the US and Latin America, and use them more broadly to China, the report said. New destinations could include Zurich, Istanbul, Chicago, Guangzhou and Mexico City.
Some European hubs are vulnerable to Emirates as it opens services to secondary cities on the continent, RBS concluded. Travellers in Germany’s provincial cities, who used to fly to Frankfurt and then internationally on Lufthansa, may choose to fly more directly via Emirates.
Both Lufthansa and Air France are “notably disadvantaged” when linking travellers between secondary European cities and secondary points in Asia. Whereas Emirates would fly between Cochin and Birmingham via one stop in Dubai, it would take three stops on a European carrier. As a result, some countries such as Canada and Germany are blocking Emirates’ growth, but RBS found the airline industry to be on a “clear path” towards liberalisation, and suggested European airlines would try to bring Middle East carriers into alliances.
There are also things that Emirates will not do, according to the RBS analysis. While it is a major operator between Australia and New Zealand, it is not expected to open services between Europe and the US.
And its location in the Gulf is not an advantage in serving traffic between China and Europe, which would result in a “circuitous” routing,
Emirates Group’s Profit Rises 51%
The parent of Emirates Airline on Tuesday reported a 51% rise in full-year profit as the world’s largest international carrier by traffic saw business from premium travelers return to pre-crisis levels.
The Dubai-based airline shrugged off the impact of turmoil in the Middle East and North Africa as traffic through its hometown hub surged, with double-digit gains in both passenger and cargo volume.
Emirates’ rapid expansion and huge order book—at $66 billion it accounts for 10% of outstanding commercial business at Airbus and Boeing Co.—makes it a key barometer of the global airline industry.
The airline’s operating margin of 9.9% in its fiscal year to Mar. 31 topped almost every other large international airline, and the record earnings saw a four-fold rise in the bonus paid to staff to an equivalent of 12 weeks pay, pushing labor expenses up 20%
“We are fortunate to be based in the Middle East where regional passenger seats grew by 17.8% compared to a global 8.2% growth,” said Sheik Ahmed Bin Saeed Al Maktoum, chairman of the state-controlled group.
Sheik Ahmed said profit would have been 1 billion UAE dirhams ($272 million) higher had it not been for the increase in oil prices, with fuel expenses last week accounting for a record 43% of operating costs.
Transfer traffic through Dubai accounts for around 60% of the airline’s total business, with passenger numbers up 15% to 31.4 million over the past year, and cargo rising almost 12%.
Emirates and rivals such as Abu Dhabi-based Etihad Airways and Qatar Airways have capitalized on their geographical location to use new long-range aircraft to funnel business through their hubs.
Nigel Page, Emirates head of the Americas, said the airline has leveraged changing trade patterns to capture business, with flows to and from Africa now going through the Gulf rather than via European airports.
The Americas was Emirates’ fastest-growing region last year with revenue up 38% while sales in its largest geography—east Asia and Australia/New Zealand—rose by 31%.
Business in the Gulf and the Middle East was still up 14% despite regional turmoil which saw flights to Tunisia temporarily halted, while Libyan services remain shuttered. Flights to the Ivory Coast resume on May 12.
Mr. Page said the regional problems had actually helped Dubai’s financial recovery after its own debt crisis as companies relocated staff to the emirate.
Emirates Group reported net profits of 5.46 billion UAE dirhams in the fiscal year ending March 2011, compared with 3.62 billion UAE dirhams a year earlier, with revenue—which includes its airport and travel arms—up 29% at 53.1 billion UAE dirhams.
The airline unit’s passenger seat factor, a key measure of capacity utilization, rose to a record 80%, from 78.1% in the year before, with profit rising to $1.5 billion from $964 million on a 25% rise in revenue. Capacity rose 16%.
Emirates expects delivery of six Airbus A380s and 13 Boeing 777 planes this year, while four new routes will be added: Geneva, Copenhagen, Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro. It is the largest operator of both aircraft types.
Last week, Sheik Ahmed said the government-owned airline is in no hurry to sell shares to the public. He said the decision on whether to launch an initial public offering rests with the government, but ruled out any IPO in either 2011 or 2012.
A small group comprising local people with Mr Khandu's family members and some security personnel reached the location of crash at Luguthang near Jung falls in western Arunachal adjacent to Tibet (China) on May
4 and identified the body of chief minister Dorjee Khandu.
The news of chief minister's death spread like wildfire in Arunachal which also angered the people of the northeast Indian State against the Union government in New Delhi for the delay in rescue operation.
They had to wait for 96 hours to get the news about their beloved chief minister, who went missing with four other while flying from Tawang to its capital Itanagar in a helicopter on April 30.
The Indian Army and the Indian Space Research Organisation were also engaged in the search operation and all the time it was announced that the operation remained unsuccessful due to bad weather in the snowy mountainous terrain. But then the question came to the mind of the local residents, if the enemy (read China) encroaches to this region, whether the Indian agency could trace them for prevention? After all many residents of Arunachal and Assam have not forgotten about the
1962 Chinese aggregation during which the enemies penetrated through almost the same locality.
“The situation remains almost the same in Northeast if you look at the security aspect. You see, the Indian agency took more than four days to spot the crash site of our chief minister. Just imagine, if China attacks us through this route, the security agency will be clueless for many days with the excuse of bad weather,” said Bamang Tago, the chairman of Arunachal Citizen Rights.
Speaking to this writer from Itanagar, Mr Tago condemned the central government for 'not taking serious attempt' to rescue the helicopter at the earliest stage. He also criticized the Governor of Arunachal Gen (retired) JJ Singh for his ill-time claim that the helicopter landed inside Bhutan as a precautionary measure immediately soon after the crew members lost contact with the ground.
The single engine helicopter of the government run Pawan Hans Helicopter Services Limited (Eurocopter Ecureuil AS 350 B3) took off from Tawang, the western part of the State at 10 am with his security officer Yeshi Chodak, a relative of Tawang MLA Yeshi Lamu and two crew members (Captain J S Babbar & Captain K S Malick).
The crew members of the helicopter, which was scheduled to arrive in Itanagar by 11.30 in the morning, lost its radio communication with the ground after some time. The Arunachal Pradesh officials initially claimed that the chopper faced bad weather soon after its take off and later took emergency-landing somewhere in Arunachal-Bhutan border.
Then the Governor JJ Singh informed the media that the helicopter landed inside Bhutan and all passengers were safe.
But the Bhutan authority immediately denied the landing of any helicopter in that part of the country. The Trashiyangtse (of Bhutan) district magistrate S. Duba, while talking to media, expressed his ignorance about any report of an Indian helicopter landing in their territory.
The Pawan Hans HS Ltd, which operates five helicopters in Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Meghalaya, Nagaland and Tripura, now faces a probe against the Arunachal copper crash. Moreover its service is immediately taken into halt after massive protests from various organizations in the region.
Mentionable that the State witnessed a heartrending Pawan Hans chopper crash on April 19 that killed 17 people and injured 6 others. The injured passengers are recovering in Guwahati and New Delhi hospitals.
The ill-fated helicopter was flying from Guwahati to Tawang and crashed near the Tawang town, located at an altitude of over 11,000 feet.
Mr Khandu, 56, took over the charge of chief ministership on April 9, 2007. He replaced Gegong Apang to take charge as the fifth Congress chief minister of the State. With the death onboard in an aircraft, Mr Khandu becomes the second functioning chief minister of India after Andhra Pradesh chief minister YS Rajsekhara Reddy to face such end. Mr Reddy, also a Congress leader, died in a helicopter crash on September 3, 2009 in his own State.
The prime minister Dr Manmohan Singh and the ruling Congress party chief Sonia Gandhi expressed grief at the unexpected death of Mr Khandu. Earlier Dr Singh called on the responsible government officials at Itanagar to enquire about Mr Khandu and others. Following his the direction, two central ministers Mukul Wasnik and V Narayanswami arrived in Itanagar on May 1 and started overseeing the rescue operation.
The Arunchal government announced a reward of Rs 10 lakh for information that might lead to finding the missing helicopter. The Cultural Society of Tawang additionally offered Rs 5 lakh for the relevant information to rescue their leader.
The Indian Air Force helicopters were deployed for immediate rescue operation on Saturday in Tawang-Itanagar route. But bad weather arguably prevented them to maintain their operation for long time. A team comprising nearly thousand personnel from the Army, SSB, ITB were engaged in the operation. Later the Royal Bhutan Army personnel and local Arunachali people were also involved in searching the Pawan Hans helicopter and its passengers.Even the mapping by the Sukhoi radars of Army and also the ISRO satellite could not provide any concrete information about the helicopter, though the images could trace some metallic disposal in west Arunachal. Finally it was the local people who trekked for many hours in the Himalayan mountainous terrain and found the wreckage of the chopper.
Commenting on the delay on the rescue operation, All Arunachal Pradesh Students' Union leader Gumjum Haider asserted that India as a nation was still not well equipped to deal with disasters. Haider also claimed that the common people of the State were more successfully involved in the search operation than the so-called trained and skilled 'men in uniform' and other government officials.
FIRST LOOK INSIDE BOEING 747-800
INTERCONTINENTAL
First Look Inside the Boeing 747-8 Airplane
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The 747-8 Intercontinental will have the lowest seat-mile cost of any large commercial jetliner, with 12 per cent lower costs than its predecessor, the 747-400.
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The 747-8 applies interior features from the 787 Dreamliner that includes a new curved, upswept architecture giving passengers a greater feeling of space and comfort.
The entrance to the plane has a wide-open foyer area that includes a curved staircase to the upper deck.
PAWANHANS HELICOPTER MISSING!!!!
Itanagar, Apr 30 (ANI): A Pawan Hans Helicopter flying from Tawang to Itanagar with Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Dorjee Khandu has gone missing since 10 a.m. today.
The helicopter left from Tawang in the morning and was scheduled to reach Itanagar at 11: 30 a.m, as it takes 70-75 minutes to reach the state capital.
"The Pawan Hans chopper took off in the morning with Chief Minister and two to three other officials. The chopper took off from Tawang and was to land at Itanagar. We are bit worried as we don't have any clear cut information about any emergency landing," said Member of Parliament from Arunachal Pradesh Takam Sanjoy
"I tried my best to contact Defence Minister A K Antony so that rescue and relief operations could be started soon," he added.
A day earlier on April 29, Sanjoy had demanded the Pawan Hans Helicopter Services Limited (PHHL) to deploy a new chopper for the immediate resumption of service on the Guwahati-Tawang route.
The helicopter service on the Guwahati-Tawang route was suspended in the wake of three probes being over a Pawan Hans chopper crash on April 19, killing 17 people and injuring six.
The PHHL has been operating five helicopters across Arunachal, Sikkim, Meghalaya, Nagaland and Tripura and daily Guwahati-Tawang services for the past nine years. It is one of the major lifelines of the landlocked Arunachal Pradesh.
Sanjoy, who has been vociferously taking up the issue with the Government of India, particularly the Defence Ministry after the MI 17 IAF chopper crash at Tawang on November 19 last year that had killed all 12 defence personnel, including three pilots, said that nothing should to left to chance after the investigation reports are submitted.
He had also called on Civil Aviation Minister Vayalar Ravi on April 21 and in a letter demanded to fix the accountability for poor maintenance and mandatory inspections of the chopper services as per DGCA rules. (ANI)
Mi-17 Pawanhans Helicopter crash
Chopper crash kills 17 in Arunachal, 6 including pilot survive
Published: Tuesday, Apr 19, 2011, 16:28 IST | Updated: Tuesday, Apr 19, 2011, 22:22 IST
Place: Itanagar, Shillong | Agency: PTI
A Mi17 helicopter of Pawan Hans crashed while landing in the mountainous region of Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh today killing 17 persons on board including three crew members but its pilot and five others miraculously survived with serious burn injuries.
Seventeen persons were killed while two crew members including the pilot captain Varun Gupta and four passengers survived with grievous injuries, Tawang deputy commissioner Gamlin Padu said.
The injured were rushed to the civil hospital at Tawang and would be air-lifted to Guwahati tomorrow, he said.
This is the second helicopter crash in Tawang district bordering China. An Indian Air Force(IAF) MI 17 chopper crashed minutes after take off on November 19 last year killing all 12 on board.
The civilian Mi17 chopper of state-owned Pawan Hans, manufactured in 1996, was on a regular flight to Tawang from the Lokopriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport in Guwahati, Pawan Hans sources said. It had valid certificate of airworthiness till August 28 this year.
There were two versions as to what caused the mishap.
Pawan Hans sources said the chopper caught fire, broke into pieces and crashed into a gorge close to the Tawang Civil helipad at around 1357 hours. The helicopter had taken off at 1245 hours, they said.
The exact causewas yet to be ascertained though a technical snag could not be ruled out, the sources said.
An official in the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said that as per initial reports the chopper crash-landed"due to likely wind shear and down draft while landing and caught fire on impact to the ground".
The official said in New Delhi that a committee would be set up to investigate the accident and a high-level team of DGCA officers led by director general EK Bharat Bhushan will visit the accident site tomorrow.
Security forces along with the locals have swung into rescue operations.
A persual of the passenger manifest showed that a colonel-level officer and three women were among the dead. A man, woman, two minors--a boy and a girl-- had Asif as the surname and the four persons could be from one family.
Those killed were identified as Mrs Anita, A Baruah, Dr Tendon, Dr Asif, Mrs R Asif, Mrs Jahara, Ms Asif, Master Asif, Mr A Sharma, A K Saraugi, Ms N Botha, Col Sharma, Mr W Bhatia, Mr T Mustafa.
The three crew members killed were a second pilot captain Tiwari, flight attendant A Dixit and assistant maintenance engineer S B Kulkarni.
Besides captain Varun Gupta, the other survivors were Randiv Kumar Chaturvedi, Dorjee Wangdi, Rishi Bothra, Rajendra Pal and Mrs Karishma Saraugi.
An official statement said that the MI-17 helicopter (VT-PHF) of Pawan Hans Helicopters Ltd was carrying 18 passengers, including two minors, and five crew members from Guwahati to Tawang.
The Tawang district administration has declared a holiday tomorrow to condole the deaths.
Pawan Hans Helicopters operates daily chopper services between Guwahati and Tawang and other remote locations in Arunachal Pradesh and the rest of the north-east.
Chief minister Dorjee Khandu, who was at Tawang to attend a meeting along with Union rural development minister Vilas Rao Deshmukh, expressed shock at the accident.
"I am shocked and pained to hear about the unfortunate incident and have no words to share my grief on the sad occasion," Khandu said in his condolence message.
"I along with my family members, my cabinet colleagues and people of Arunachal Pradesh pay our heartfelt condolences to the bereaved family members to bear this irreparable loss. I am aware how futile my word of condolence would mean to you but we must take solace that souls are immortal," the message read.
Published: Tuesday, Apr 19, 2011, 16:28 IST | Updated: Tuesday, Apr 19, 2011, 22:22 IST
Place: Itanagar, Shillong | Agency: PTI
A Mi17 helicopter of Pawan Hans crashed while landing in the mountainous region of Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh today killing 17 persons on board including three crew members but its pilot and five others miraculously survived with serious burn injuries.
Seventeen persons were killed while two crew members including the pilot captain Varun Gupta and four passengers survived with grievous injuries, Tawang deputy commissioner Gamlin Padu said.
The injured were rushed to the civil hospital at Tawang and would be air-lifted to Guwahati tomorrow, he said.
This is the second helicopter crash in Tawang district bordering China. An Indian Air Force(IAF) MI 17 chopper crashed minutes after take off on November 19 last year killing all 12 on board.
The civilian Mi17 chopper of state-owned Pawan Hans, manufactured in 1996, was on a regular flight to Tawang from the Lokopriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport in Guwahati, Pawan Hans sources said. It had valid certificate of airworthiness till August 28 this year.
There were two versions as to what caused the mishap.
Pawan Hans sources said the chopper caught fire, broke into pieces and crashed into a gorge close to the Tawang Civil helipad at around 1357 hours. The helicopter had taken off at 1245 hours, they said.
The exact causewas yet to be ascertained though a technical snag could not be ruled out, the sources said.
An official in the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said that as per initial reports the chopper crash-landed"due to likely wind shear and down draft while landing and caught fire on impact to the ground".
The official said in New Delhi that a committee would be set up to investigate the accident and a high-level team of DGCA officers led by director general EK Bharat Bhushan will visit the accident site tomorrow.
Security forces along with the locals have swung into rescue operations.
A persual of the passenger manifest showed that a colonel-level officer and three women were among the dead. A man, woman, two minors--a boy and a girl-- had Asif as the surname and the four persons could be from one family.
Those killed were identified as Mrs Anita, A Baruah, Dr Tendon, Dr Asif, Mrs R Asif, Mrs Jahara, Ms Asif, Master Asif, Mr A Sharma, A K Saraugi, Ms N Botha, Col Sharma, Mr W Bhatia, Mr T Mustafa.
The three crew members killed were a second pilot captain Tiwari, flight attendant A Dixit and assistant maintenance engineer S B Kulkarni.
Besides captain Varun Gupta, the other survivors were Randiv Kumar Chaturvedi, Dorjee Wangdi, Rishi Bothra, Rajendra Pal and Mrs Karishma Saraugi.
An official statement said that the MI-17 helicopter (VT-PHF) of Pawan Hans Helicopters Ltd was carrying 18 passengers, including two minors, and five crew members from Guwahati to Tawang.
The Tawang district administration has declared a holiday tomorrow to condole the deaths.
Pawan Hans Helicopters operates daily chopper services between Guwahati and Tawang and other remote locations in Arunachal Pradesh and the rest of the north-east.
Chief minister Dorjee Khandu, who was at Tawang to attend a meeting along with Union rural development minister Vilas Rao Deshmukh, expressed shock at the accident.
"I am shocked and pained to hear about the unfortunate incident and have no words to share my grief on the sad occasion," Khandu said in his condolence message.
"I along with my family members, my cabinet colleagues and people of Arunachal Pradesh pay our heartfelt condolences to the bereaved family members to bear this irreparable loss. I am aware how futile my word of condolence would mean to you but we must take solace that souls are immortal," the message read.
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