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Air India
launches flight to Dhaka after 30 years
New
Delhi: Air India today resumed its services to
Bangladesh with the first flight, after a gap of 30
years, taking off from New Delhi to Dhaka this morning.
E Ahmed, the Minister of State for External Affairs,
who was present at the Indira Gandhi International
Airport, expressed hopes that the flight would go
a long way in improving the relations between the
two neighbours. "Government believes that this frequent,
new air lines and also alluring the people to have
more interaction will always help to strengthen the
relationship between the two countries," said Ahmed.
AI will fly from Dhaka to Kolkata and New Delhi and
allows its passengers to take transit flights from
New Delhi to London, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago
and Frankfort airports. The national flag carrier
will operate on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays
on Dhaka-Kolkata-London routes and Wednesdays, Fridays
and Sundays on its Dhaka-New Delhi routes. The airline
will provide hotel accommodations for passengers destined
for Europe and US cities from New Delhi . The tariff
for Dhaka-London-Dhaka has been determined at 839
US dollars.
The
Delhi-London flight, part of AI's drive to expand
its world- wide route network, is the third long-haul
sector to be introduced in the past three months.
On March 28, the airline introduced its Delhi-Frankfurt-Los
Angeles flight. On May 15, a new flight was introduced
on the Delhi-Amritsar-Birmingham-Toronto sector. ''Introduction
of the new non-stop flight between Kolkata and London
will have enormous significance for West Bengal and
neighbouring states, including those in the north-eastern
region, as passengers will now be able to travel in
a much shorter time and with far greater convenience,''
said AI's Director for Public Relations Jitender Bhargava.
The flight will be operated with Boeing 777-200 aircraft
which has 272 seats in three class configuration --
12 first class, 49 executive class and 211 economy
class seats. While first class seats in B777s are
flat-bed type with privacy partitions, slumberettes
have been provided in executive class. In-arm-video
system with LCD displays and multi-channel audio systems
are available in all three classes. AI has undertaken
an expansion and modernisation plan. The board of
the carrier has already approved to buy 50 more Boeing
aircrafts to add to its fleet of 36 airplanes. The
national flag carrier is buying another 18 Boeing
for AI's economy operations, namely Air India Express.
In the Last financial year, AI made a gross profit
of 1.0 billion rupees. The extension of Air India's
service can go a long way in restoring bonhomie, in
the people-to-people level, between the two countries.
-
June 18, 2005
First
ever state-of-the-art aircraft showroom in Bangalore
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Bangalore:
Ever heard of a aircraft showroom in India? People
of Bangalore can now proudly boast of having the country's
first State-of-the-art aircraft showroom which has
come up in their city. Launched by the IndUS Aviation,
a US-based company with plans to sell light aircrafts
for the price of a high-end luxury car. The showroom
has become a new fascination for everyone around from
the aviation buffs to laymen. The twin-engine aircraft
neatly showcased inside the hall along with other
aviation gadgets are all for sale and that too at
highly competitive prices. "We have got a huge response
from pilots who want a lot of aviation merchandise.
Mostly it's out of curiosity that people walk in because
they don't know what are we trying to do. They just
can't believe that they are seeing an aircraft in
a residential area. So that's the main purpose. When
people walk in out of curiosity, we educate them on
different aspects of aviation. It's for anybody who
is interested. For instance, a middle class man can
join hands with several of his friends and buy an
aircraft or a part of it," said Ravi Kiran Kota, Managing
Director, Indus Aviation. The main aim of opening
an aircraft showroom was to create awareness that
aircrafts are very much within the reach of middle
income people, Mr.Kota added. The Thorp T-211 aircraft,
manufactured by IndUs Aviation, displayed at the showroom
is tagged at forty lakh rupees. By now, the company
has received over a dozen enquiries for the purchase
of the aircraft. IndUS Aviation acquired the production-rights
and for tooling from Thorp Aero, which was manufacturing
the aircraft, and launched its own manufacture of
the airplane. The company also wants to make money
by the sale of huge aviation related merchandise ailable
at the store. "Because of huge aviation boom, we have
a lot of demand for pilot supplies like chips and
charts, flight computers, accessories of pilots, ties,
wings and many other stuff and training DVDs because
lot of people are taking interest in getting their
flying licence," added Kota.
Besides the regular pilot supplies, the aircraft showroom
has a wide variety of gifts, model aircrafts, and
much more.The company plans to manufacture light aircrafts
at competitive cost for export to the foreign countries
besides promoting their use in India. As a part of
the company's expansion plan, some more showrooms
are to be opened in other metros such as in the New
Delhi, Mumbai and Hyderabad.The company also plans
to open a flight-training academy with state-of-the-art
facilities in Bangalore in the near future. IndUS
Aviation, established in 1994 by a NRI(non-resident
Indian) Ram Pattisapu, is dedicated to providing high
quality, low cost aircraft for the general aviation
and sport flying communities in America. It was in
1946 that the original airplane of Thorp T-211 was
designed by John Thorp. Later, it was upgraded and
completely re- engineered and re-certified by US Federal
Aviation Authority in 1990. The company also sponsors
the Build-A-Plane (BAP) programme to create career
opportunities for the underprivileged youth in the
field of aviation in our country.
-
June 16, 2005
Concorde
to be reborn (Go
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London:
Years after the aviation world bid farewell to
Concorde, Japan and France are making plans to develop
a successor to the world's first supersonic passenger
jet aircraft. Japan's trade ministry has said that
Japanese and French companies will split an annual
investment of 1.84 million dollars for research into
the project over the next three years. The BBC reported
that the plane will have as many as 300 seats and
cut the flight time between New York and Tokyo to
six hours. Japanese and French officials, who signed
the agreement at the Paris Air Show, are also very
pleased at the boost the industrial co-operation would
give to the ties between the two countries. "This
is truly significant industrial co-operation. Bringing
their respective advantages together... should lead
to the ability to offer highly advanced aircraft and
services in the future," said Japan's Trade Minister
Shoichi Nakagawa. "To research closely in this area
with the Europeans does represent something new,"
said Yoshio Watanabe, an official with The Society
of Japanese Aerospace Companies, which is heading
the new initiative in Japan. While Japan had successfully
tested an engine that could theoretically reach speeds
of up to five times the speed of sound, France is
expected to bring its own expertise and working knowledge
of the aircraft to the drawing table, given the fact
that Air France operated Concorde and France had jointly
with England, developed the original Concorde.
June 16, 2005
Air
India plans to introduce service to Seoul (Go
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Mumbai:
Giving further boost to its ongoing expansion
plan Air India is now planning to link Seoul and introduce
non-stop flights from Delhi to Kuala Lampur and from
Mumbai to Singapore and Kuala Lampur. Talking to mediapersons
Chairman and Managing Director of Air India V Thulasidas
said here on Monday that there would be three non-stop
services each from Mumbai and Delhi to Kuala Lampur
and four services between Mumbai and Singapore. The
service is likely to start from the next month, he
added. "One Mumbai-Kuala Lumpur route the service
will operate via Delhi and Hong Kong four times a
week while three other services would operate upto
Hong Kong, said Thulasidas. Three more leased Airbus
A310 has recently joined the Air India fleet. These
leased Airbuses will be used for the proposed service.
"The airline is looking for more aircraft to be taken
on lease for deployment on other sectors also both
for Air India and Air India Express," said V K Verma,
Commercial Director, Air India. AI Express, the budget
airline, presently operating flights mostly out of
Kerala to the Gulf.
- June 6, 2005
Fast
entry system at airports to start from October (Go
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New
Delhi: As part of its efforts to enhance facilitation
to foreign tourists, the Home Ministry has announced
to introduce an Advanced Passenger Information System
(APIS) from Oct.1, which would provide passengers
with hassle-free entry at the international airports.
This move of the Government has come following continuous
demands from the Tourism Ministry and the Civil Aviation
Ministry. The new scheme will facilitate pre-checking
of the passengers and faster clearance of their luggage
as the information relating to them will be sent by
the airlines to the immigration authorities of the
country as soon as the flight takes off for India.
The introduction of the APIS will enhance the various
facilities provided to the foreign tourists, including
the recently launched Swagat Seva pilot project at
the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport. The
official sources have told that the authorities are
also planning to make separate counters for Indian
passport holders returning from abroad. They said
that the Tourism Minister, Renuka Chowdhury, has taken
up the issue with the Home Ministry after holding
several rounds of meetings also with the Civil Aviation
counterpart Praful Patel.
-
June 1, 2005
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