There are many road warriors who visit Bangalore Aviation regularly. We road warriors have a list of items we will never leave home, for a trip, without. This is my "crucial items list". Please share your list via a comment.

1. Blackberry
Love this GSM device from RIM. It is the device for the road warrior. The Nokia E series, iPhone, Windows Mobile, Treo, I have used them all, and dumped them; in favour of my Blackberry Curve 8310. I use it for my messaging (e-mail and SMS), basic internet, GPS, music, videos, and much more. Even do my blog with it. Works all over the world, with the exception of Japan and Korea, but then, I don't visit either country too much.

2. Cellular modem and my laptop
As incredulous as it sounds, I find public internet connectivity more difficult to find in India, than most countries I visit. Sure there are tons of Cyber-cafes, but very little connectivity for my laptop. For full featured internet on my laptop, I always pack my Tata Indicom CDMA based "data card" cellular modem. Any day better data throughput in India when compared to GSM, and no roaming charges. At the end of a hard day, in a foreign land with minimal English programming on TV, I crank up my laptop, and play one of my favourite movies. After going through enough brands, even today, I swear by the IBM er Lenovo ThinkPad. Toshiba and HP Pavilion are two brands I swear at.

3. Bose QuietComfort Headphones and eye-shades
These "anti noise" headphones are amazing. Again a TABF (tried all but failed) situation with Senhieser, Sharper Image, and others, I have forgotten. Expensive, but worth every penny. I use the "over the ear" QC2. Cover your ears with it, and flick the switch and it is blissful silence on-board even the nosiest aircraft. I lost one piece on a Lufthansa flight, and was in panic till I bought a replacement. The perfect companion to the headphones -- eye-shades. Cut out the light and catch up on some much needed sleep, whether catnaps on short flights, or extended snoozes on long ones.

4. Books, novels, and magazines
At least for little while, get away from those e-mails, spreadsheets and presentations. I never open my laptop on board a flight. I find reading a great way to educate and entertain myself. Friends often ask me, how come, I know so much about so many subjects. Now you know my secret. I learn from the masters, Tom Friedman, Paul Krugman, Tom Clancy, Nandan Nilekani, Jack Mingo, Harvard Business Review, Siddharth Basu, and a whole lot of others.

5. Business cards and holder
Globally, business cards are a must. In Asia, business card etiquette is an art by itself. Adequate quantity of cards, proper storage in a business card holder, proper presentation, holding the card with both hands, face up, facing the presentee(s), and presenting the card stating your name, in hierarchical senior to junior order. Your business card, don't leave home without it.

6. American Express card
I know this will sound like the ad cliché, but I do not leave for a trip without it. The Platinum Card has no spending limit, offers insurance on car rentals saving me money, Membership Rewards, the Concierge service, and once when I lost my card in the middle of nowhere, customer service came to the rescue.

7. Empty water bottle
Now that we are not allowed to carry water through security, and with diminishing service levels in the air, I make sure I carry a 500ml (20 fl. oz) water bottle on board, even if it is empty. Just before the flight doors close, I request the cabin crew to fill it up. This is the one time in the flight the crew is relatively relaxed and will gladly help. They also know, you will disturb them less during the flight, asking for water. As all of us road warriors know, airplane flights are very dehydrating and water is the best drink to have on board.

Share with us the things that you cannot, or will not, travel without ?

Jet Airways has announced a basket of special deals on its international flights. Remember all fares mentioned herein are exclusive of surcharge and taxes.

Mumbai/Delhi/Chennai/Kolkata – Singapore/Hong Kong/Bangkok

Companion Free Offer on Premiére (business class)
Jet Airways’ international Premiére customers travelling to Singapore and Hong Kong can now avail of exciting Companion Free travel offers.

A Mumbai – Singapore Premiére return fare is available for two persons travelling together for a sum of INR 1,01,250. Hong Kong is INR 94,500, Bangkok is INR 57,065.

Jet also has Delhi – Bangkok, Delhi - Singapore, Chennai - Singapore, Chennai – Kuala Lumpur, and Kolkata – Bangkok sectors.

Special offers for individual travel
Premiére class return fare of INR 54,000 for Mumbai - Hong Kong.

Economy class return fare of INR 7,480 for travel between Mumbai – Singapore, INR 12,635 for Mumbai – Singapore, INR 9,750 Mumbai - Bangkok.

Mumbai/Delhi – London Heathrow

Special offers for individual travel
India and London Heathrow, a special return Premiére fare of INR 85,000 for a 14 day Advance Purchase or APEX. Economy class fares start at INR 15,990.

Double JPMiles
Jet Airways JetPrivilege members travelling on Mumbai/Delhi - London return sectors can earn Double JPMiles until January 15, 2009. This is applicable on First Class, Premiére and Economy class travel.

Mumbai – New York (Newark / JFK)

Special offer for individual travel
Mumbai - New York (Newark / JFK) Economy class return fare of INR 32,600.

For further information and sales and travel validity, customers may visit www.jetairways.com, or contact their nearest travel agent, or call the reservations number (city code) 3989-3333, or call Toll free on 1800-22-55-22.

The recently announced results by The International Air Transport Association (IATA), is nothing short of shocking.

International air cargo is down by a whopping 13.5 per cent in November when compared to November 2007, and passenger growth is down by 4.6 per cent.

Graph legend
RPK - Revenue Passenger Kilometres (sales)
ASK - Available Seat Kilometres (capacity)
FTK - Freight Ton Kilometres (sales)
ATK - Available Ton Kilometres (capacity)


Even for year to date comparisons January to November between 2008 and 2007, global air cargo is down 2.2 per cent


Globally air cargo transports about 35 per cent to 40 per cent of global trade, by value. The negative growth in air cargo clearly shows the rapid fall in global trade, and the broadening impact of the deepening economic slowdown.

Even the middle east, the region showing consistent growth, slipped in to negative territory at -1.6 per cent. The largest air freight zone, Asia Pacific, which contributes 44.6 per cent to global air freight, contracted by the largest -16.90 per cent. Capacity cuts of 1 per cent in passenger and 3.7 per cent in cargo, could not keep up with the rapid declines.

India
As per data from the Airports Authority of India, available till October 2008; India year-to-date passenger performance is significantly worse than the rest of Asia Pacific and global performance. Passenger growth is down to -3.4 per cent vs. -0.8 per cent (Asia Pacific) and +2.2 per cent global.

However on the freight front, India has a Y-T-D growth of 4.2 per cent based on actual tonnage, compared to -4.7 per cent in Asia Pacific and -2.2 per cent globally.


Bangalore
For some unexplainable reason, Bangalore's performance is way below the national standard, at -14.8 per cent and -5.3 per cent for monthly passenger and freight performance, and -8 per cent and -7 per cent for year to date passenger and freight performance.

Highlights of the IATA report :

International Passenger Traffic

• The November passenger decline of 4.6% is a considerable worsening from both the 1.3% demand contraction in October and the 2.9% fall in September.
• Asia-Pacific carriers face the most difficult operating environment with a 9.7% decline in November, following a 6.1% contraction in October. The region also had the most aggressive capacity cuts at -5.1%. While Chinese domestic traffic rebounded after the Olympics, travel to and from international markets continues to decline, reflecting the weakness in both global trade and consumer confidence.
• North American carriers saw international traffic decline by 4.8% - the second largest drop among the regions. Until August, the region’s carriers had been shifting capacity to international markets. With the near collapse of the investment banking sector and consequent reductions in business travel, North Atlantic travel slumped. Carriers have started to cut international capacity with a 0.8% drop in November (following 0.4% growth in October)
• European carriers saw international traffic drop by 3.4% as all the region’s major markets (intra-Europe, North Atlantic, and Asia) slumped.
• Smaller emerging markets fared better. African carriers saw traffic decline by 1.6%. This is a considerable improvement from the 12.9% drop in October, resulting from stronger intra-African traffic. Middle Eastern carriers saw traffic increase by 5.6%. This is up from 3.5% growth in October, but represents a step-change from the double-digit expansion that characterized growth prior to the current financial crisis. Latin American carriers saw a slight decline in growth to 3.3% (compared to 4.5% growth in October), buoyed by the region’s positive, albeit slower, economic growth.

International Freight Traffic

• Asia-Pacific carriers (representing 44.6% of global freight) saw freight traffic fall by 16.9% in November - the largest decline of any region. As freight accounts for a larger percentage of revenues for the Asia-Pacific carriers, fourth quarter profits for the region’s carriers will be disproportionately (and negatively) impacted by the downturn in the global air freight market.
• Double-digit freight declines were also experienced by Latin American carriers (-15.7%), North American carriers (-14.4%) and European carriers (-11.0%). Freight traffic for Middle Eastern carriers turned negative (-1.6%), following 1.0% growth in October. African carriers, while being the only region posting freight growth (2.2%), saw a decline from the 3.0% growth posted in October. Plummeting business confidence and the continuing turmoil in financial markets indicates that the worsening trend will be continued in December.

Giovanni Bisignani, IATA’s Director General and CEO said

“The industry is now shrinking by all measures. The 1.0% capacity cut in international passenger markets in November could not keep pace with the 4.6% fall in passenger demand. We can expect deep losses in the fourth quarter,”

“With no end in sight for the worsening global economy, the 2008 gloom will carry over into the new year. Relief in the oil price has been outstripped by the falls in demand and capacity cuts are not keeping pace. The industry is back in intensive care. Improving efficiency everywhere will be theme for 2009,”

While the end to the global economic slowdown is still much further away than expected, the freight performance in India, shows us, the Indian economy is still performing well. We have to defeat the FUD Factor (Fear Uncertainty Doubt) that is in our minds.

IndiGo, Jet Airways, JetLite, and SpiceJet have announced Advance Purchase Excursion (APEX) fares for all purchases made at least 21 days before the flight departure.

Jet Airways offers a fare of INR 250 while JetLite offers a fare of INR 9. The booking and sale validity of this offer is from January 1 to January 31, 2009.

SpiceJet is offering ‘Spicy Hot Fares’ starting INR 99 across its network and is valid till June 30, 2009.

IndiGo's APEX scheme is called 'Early Bird Fares' and start at INR 99.

All fares mentioned above are exclusive of taxes and surcharge, and this is where the kicker comes. The fuel surcharges are still around INR 2,000 for short distance (under 750km) and INR 3,000 for long distance.

I really wish that airlines respect their passengers' intelligence. These APEX fares while welcome, remind me of the earlier times when airlines used to offer a "fly free" concept. After all, we do know basic arithmetic.

Both the European EASA and US FAA have issued emergency Airworthiness Directives ADs for operators of CFM56-5B engines, typically operated on the Airbus A320 family of aircraft, which include the A318, A319, A320 and A321.

Snecma Image
EASA Emergency Airworthiness Directive 2008-228 and the FAA Airworthiness Directive AD 2009-01-01, requests operators of CFM56-5B engines, to monitor Exhaust Gas Temperatures (EGT) for deterioration. If both engines show deteriorations of 80 or more degrees, at least one engine must be replaced according to the new directive. EGT monitoring is a crucial aspect of flight operations.

The emergency directives come after an incident, in which an Airbus A321-200 experienced compressor stalls on both engines during initial climb out on December 15th 2008. While not disclosed, it is suspected, this is the incident involving Air France Airbus A321-200, F-GTAJ, flight AF 2585 from Tunis to Paris CDG, where the flight had to return to Tunis 14 minutes after take-off due to "unspecified engine problems".

The CFM56-5B is a very popular engine with over 60% of Airbus A320 family operators, selecting them.

In India, Indian (now Air India) operates the CFM engine on the new series of Airbus aircraft, part of the 43 ordered by them in 2006. Indian had ordered 20 Airbus A321s, 19 Airbus A319s and four A320s. The older series of Indian's A320 fleet use engines from IAE, as do most of India's private operators, Kingfisher Airlines, Kingfisher Red, and IndiGo, which are not impacted by these ADs.

I must stress that there is no need for passengers to treat these ADs as negative, and Air India has an excellent maintenance record.

Happy 2009.

As we wake up to a new year, I bring you an interesting video I came across on YouTube, which shows the global air traffic over 24 hours. But speeded up to complete in one minute.

Air traffic follows the sun, at its peak during daylight, just like most human activity does.

In the initial stages of the video as it is day time in Asia and evening approaches in the Americas, there is massive activity in the USA, and hordes of flights being launched towards Europe over the Atlantic.

At the same time as morning approaches Europe, the flights start descending on to Europe from both east and west, which then return back mid-day in Europe.

There are interesting patterns along the South East Asia to North East Asia routes, and also South America to the Iberian peninsula.

But the flights to, from, and within the United States, whether trans-Atlantic or trans-Pacific is simply staggering.

I also invite your attention to the number of flights over India at night.

The Chinese have a saying "May you live in interesting times". 2008 was certainly "interesting" to say the least. As we bid adieu to the year, I briefly recap some of the topics that made the aviation world interesting.

Private greenfield airports
Bengaluru International Airport at Bangalore, and Rajiv Gandhi International Airport at Hyderabad, ushered in a new era for passengers from the two cities. In Mumbai and Delhi the private managements began extensive modernisation plans.

The government in Bangalore, which had hitherto ignored the old HAL airport and the plight of passengers, too, came on board. BMTC introduced its state of the art Vayu Vajra Volvo airport shuttle buses. Even today, there is no more economical, comfortable, and safer mode of transport to and from the distant airport, than the "VV". Congrats to the team at BMTC.

Aviation Turbine Fuel
The populist fuel taxation policies of both the Union and state governments in India, ensures that ATF Jet A-1 fuel prices in India, are about twice the price, compared to international prices. With crude oil at $150 a barrel a price of ATF just exploded in India, bleeding the airlines dry.

Air traffic implodes
2008 was the year reality hit home. Thanks to the "perfect storm" of sky-high fuel prices and diminished demand thanks to a global economic slow down, air traffic all over the world reduced to painful levels. In India, where many airlines had entered and/or expanded, without a robust business plan, air traffic just imploded. Air traffic which was growing in excess of 30 per cent year on year, contracted by 20 per cent or more. Air cargo shrank more than 13.5%, the largest drop since 9/11. The grandiose international plans of Kingfisher and Jet evaporated, and all domestic airlines suffered. Aircraft were returned, sold off, or de-registered.

The Indian airline industry, which till this year, was the hottest topic in world aviation circles, will contribute 33% of global airline losses, despite being only 2% of the global airline business.

Airline consolidation
The airline industry saw waves of consolidation. Delta and Northwest merged to create the world's largest airline, one which will soon fly to 6 continents (excluding Antarctica). Lufthansa, considered one of the most conservative airlines, continued its buying spree, absorbing Austrian. British Airways is aggressively pushing anti-trust issues for its alliance with American.

In India, the unthinkable happened. The two bitter rivals, Jet Airways and Kingfisher Airlines announced an alliance. It was akin to British Airways and Virgin getting in to bed together.

Staff lay-off
The airlines were bleeding, and employees felt the impact. Airlines, globally, started axing people. In India, we witnessed lay-offs by all airlines. Most were done quietly and slowly, away from public and political scrutiny. Jet Airways made the mistake of not following this route. We all saw the live world soap opera being played out on national television. The sacking, the protests that followed, the political pressure applied behind the scenes, and then Jet Chairman Naresh Goyal tearfully re-instating the "family members" i.e. sacked employees.

But the starry eyed sky dreams of many youth waiting to enter the skies have come crashing back to earth.

Rise of the Gulf
With oil prices rising, and airlines, globally, running for cover, scaling back operations, the one region that was making money, the Gulf, saw its airlines rise. Emirates, Etihad, Qatar, have ordered new aircraft, taken delivery, and expanded operations.

In India, Emirates has replaced Singapore Airlines as the most dominant carrier, and its has even more ambitious growth plans for the world, including India.

Bio-fuel and Green
With sky-high oil prices, the green movement finally found acceptance. Virgin Airlines flew a Boeing 747 London to Amsterdam partly fuelled by bio-fuel. One of the plane’s four engines was powered by a 20 per cent mix of coconut and babassu oil. The airlines' International Air Transportation Association, published a report soon after stating as its goal a “zero carbon future. Air New Zealand just flew a Boeing 747 with one of its four engines fuelled by a 50% mix of Jatropha and Jet A-1. Continental Airlines will do a similar test in early 2009.

These tests mean a lot for India, which is a major source of Jatropha. But, with oil prices dropping, it remains to be seen whether airlines and government will come together for long term economic security or short term gains.

Dreamliner - the world's rarest aircraft
Aircraft manufacturer Boeing, had a torrid year. Strikes, nut-plate issues, and other production issues has set their commercial aircraft programs, both existing and new, back by as much as two years. With the current economic climate, the delays have become a real risk issue for Boeing. The much publicised, much awaited, Boeing 787 Dreamliner, remains a dream. One of Boeing's customers called the Dreamliner the "world's rarest aircraft".

Airbus A380 superjumbo gets on track
Meanwhile, Airbus has been hard at work getting its A380 superjumbo back on track. While it has a way to go, Airbus has achieved its revised target of delivering 12 A380s this year.

It was rather amusing to read that the pilots on the Emirates A380s were finding the aircraft "too quiet" to sleep. Something we as passengers always crave.

Chandrayaan
ISRO achieved a major milestone and put its Lunar probe on the moon. Congratulations to the entire team at ISRO.

Travel agents zero commission
In a brilliantly executed strategy the travel agents in India achieved what only agents in Japan had achieved before. They made airlines reverse their implementation of zero commission. Not only did they reverse the policy, at the end of negotiations, the agents, actually increased the amount of their commissions.

Ground Handling
In a poorly thought and designed ground handling policy, supposed to be implemented by January 1, 2009, the government has achieved the impossible. They have united the airlines, foreign and domestic, and the employees and their trade unions in opposition to the policy. The fight will run on in to the new year.

Bangalore Aviation
And finally, I finally learnt how to blog. Bangalore Aviation came online on 14-March-2008. To me this blog is a labour of love. I look forward to your support to earn income from this blog, which is donated to education initiatives of Rotary in and around Bangalore. So please do click on the ads of the sponsors.

My sincere thanks to all the readers of Bangalore Aviation for the support you have extended.

May the year 2009 bring you happiness and prosperity. May you be over burdened with loads of cash, lots of love, tons of health, and plenty of peace.

Happy new year in advance.

Devesh Agarwal

Airbus today, met its revised A380 delivery schedule for 2008 of 12 aircraft.

In Hamburg, Airbus delivered its 12th A380 of 2008, to its largest A380 customer Emirates.

MSN020 registered as A6-EDD is the fourth of 58 ordered by Emirates, and the 13th overall A380 delivered out of 198 orders.

Airbus has been steadily improving its A380 delivery performance by reducing time between first flight and delivery.


In 2009, Airbus has set a goal of 21 A380s, which will include delivery to three new customers. Air France, Lufthansa and China Southern. Airbus has implemented the standardised wiring bundles in the "Wave 2" aircraft from MSN026 (4th A380 to be delivered to Qantas early next year as VH-OQD Fergus McMaster) onwards.

In 2008, Airbus delivered 5 A380s to launch customer, Singapore Airlines, 4 to Emirates, and 3 to Qantas. In 2007, Airbus had delivered its first and only A380 to Singapore Airlines.


Click here for a complete A380 production list

Airbus President and Chief Executive Officer, Tom Enders said

We have met our 2008 delivery schedule. That was only possible thanks to a tremendous team effort. This gives us a good basis to further ramp up our production in 2009. With the in-service fleet steadily growing, our airline customers are benefiting from lower operating costs while their passengers are benefiting from unequalled cabin comfort and quietness. The environment is benefiting too. With lower emissions and noise, the A380 is the most eco-efficient aircraft in service today.

As per Airbus the in-service A380 fleet has flown more than 21,000 revenue flight hours in more than 2,200 commercial flights carrying more than 890,000 passengers.

Very commendable. Congratulations to the Airbus team.

National airline, Air India, followed lead of its two private sector competitors Jet Airways and Kingfisher, and today, slashed its basic air fares in the domestic sectors ranging from 35 per cent to 82 per cent as per PTI.

The fare cut was effective from 1500 hours today, an Air India spokesperson said.

The maximum reduction in fares was 82 per cent on the Chennai-Bangalore route, while on Mumbai-Kolkata route, the reduction would be 35 per cent, Air India said. The basic fare for travel between Mumbai and Delhi now stands reduced by 49 per cent.

While Jet Airways and Air India have revealed their cards in terms of reductions, Kingfisher is yet to take a decision on the quantum of the cut, having only announced a reduction.

In other related developments, civil aviation minister Mr. Praful Patel has just released a bombshell. Apparently the government has decided not to bail out Air India. As per an article in Travel Biz Monitor,

The Central government yesterday ruled out any bailout package for National Aviation Company of India Ltd (NACIL), which runs the country's flagship carrier Air India, but said it could be given the benefit of duty cuts, said an IANS report. “The government will not provide any bailout package for NACIL. There will not be any direct financial assistance, but help in other forms like reducing duties is being done,” said Minister of Civil Aviation Praful Patel, on the sidelines of the foundation stone-laying ceremony of the Kolkata Airport upgrade in the city. NACIL recently projected a loss of Rs.21.56 billion for the current fiscal.

The Company had sought a bailout package of Rs 23.5 billion to help it tide over the shortfall. The airline is also in a financial squeeze due its ambitious plans to upgrade its fleet with an investment of Rs 440-billion with a limited equity base of Rs 1.45 billion. Faced with the acute funds crunch, NACIL approached the Ministry of Civil Aviation with a proposal for equity infusion of Rs 13.5 billion and Rs ten billion as soft loan

I find this hard to accept. Air India owes money by the bucket load to airport operators and oil companies, and to other vendors. By the minister's own admissions on the floor of the Parliament, Air India is by far the biggest defaulter to airport operators. Without the bailout package, there is no way on God's green Earth that Air India can pay back its creditors.

It appears this is going to become another case of passing on Air India's burden to the state owned Airports Authority of India, and to the oil companies ?

The government cannot have it both ways. Either it should stop interfering in Air India operations and sell off the airline, or then play the role of sugar-daddy.

Honeywell did a test flight of this very odd looking Boeing 757.


The small engine attached to the front part of the fuselage is being developed for regional jets and private commercial jets.

See all the pictures here from Cupps at Flightglobal Airspace.

Thanks to Jon at FlightBlogger for the tip. Incidentally, Jon has done a very interesting analysis which compares the impact of fuel prices on the operating costs of the Boeing 777 and the Airbus A330. It is definitely worth a read.

Following the announcement by alliance partner, Kingfisher, Jet Airways, announced "substantial" reduction in basic fares on Economy class, on all its domestic flights with immediate effect.

The special fares are lowered by as much as 40%, but fuel surcharges remain high.

The economy class basic fares will be as low as Mumbai – Delhi INR 2,000; Mumbai – Kolkata INR 4,065; Bengaluru – Mumbai INR 1,220; and Mumbai – Ahmedabad INR 500.

The normal chestnuts of Terms and conditions apply.

For further information, customers can contact the airline call centre on (city code) 39893333, or the toll free number 1-800-22-55-22, or visit the Jet Airways website.

Similar fare reductions have been announced by Jet Airways' low cost subsidiary JetLite. For more information visit JetLite website.

The much publicised bio-fuel test flight of Air New Zealand was conducted successfully. Congratulations to the teams at Air New Zealand, Boeing, Rolls Royce, and UOP division of Honeywell.

The blend of fuel was 50% Jet A-1, and 50% Jatropha oil. The Jatropha plant is grown extensively in India, and bio-diesel is slowly inching its way in to the market. I have opined before, that airlines in India, who are constantly complaining about the cost of fuel should strongly consider the bio-fuel option.

While there are many stories on the flight, I found George Raine's article at the San Francisco Chronicle, and Kris Hall's article at The Dominion Post, the most comprehensive technically.

More details can be found at Air New Zealand's website.

TV NZ has an article along with a video report, which I reproduce below as a convenience to Bangalore Aviation readers.

Read more articles on biofuel at Bangalore Aviation.

Airbus A330-343E, F-WWKZ, CN 978, pictured here in the cold grey skies of Toulouse, France, will soon be heading to the lush tropical city-state of Singapore, as 9V-STA, and joining the fleet of Singapore Airlines, who will become the newest operator of the Airbus A330 aircraft.

Singapore Airlines will introduce its new Airbus A330-300, powered by Rolls Royce Trent 700 engines, in a mid-range regional aircraft, positioning, replacing the existing Boeing B777's, on routes to Australian and Japanese cities, progressively from end March 2009.

SQ A330 Seat Map
The aircraft will be configured with 285 seats in a two class configuration. 30 Raffles Class (Business Class) in a 2-2-2 abreast layout, and 255 in a 2-4-2 layout. The new cabin features will be revealed in January, but the aircraft does feature a new Business Class seat, specially designed for regional and medium-haul flights. All seats will feature the new KrisWorld, Singapore Airlines award-winning in-flight entertainment system.

The first of 19 new A330-300s will be delivered to Singapore Airlines by Airbus in mid-January. Initially, the aircraft will be used to complete pilot conversion, and thereafter, operate some short sectors between Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, and Singapore and Jakarta, during late February and March, to fine tune the crews and operations, but these cities will not continue with the A330's.

Singapore Airlines will use the A330's initially to select Australian cities (Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide) and then add Japan (Nagoya and Osaka).

Singapore Airlines will induct the A330's into commercial service on March 30, 2009, with an inaugural service to Brisbane, which marks the 25th anniversary of the commencement of Singapore Airlines services between Singapore and Brisbane.

The planned deployment of the A330-300 is:

End March 2009
Brisbane, SQ245/246, SQ235/236, daily
Brisbane, SQ255/256, 5 flights per week

April 2009
Perth, SQ224/225, 5 fights per week

May 2009
Perth, SQ223/226, SQ215/216, daily

June 2009
Adelaide, SQ268/269, daily
Nagoya, SQ671/672, daily

Then a long break till March 2010
Osaka, SQ617/618, daily

For more information visit the Singapore Airlines website.

In an incident, that will definitely not please either the airline, or the airframe manufacturer, the world's largest commercial airliner the Airbus A380 superjumbo, operated by Australian carrier Qantas was grounded in Fiji due to a computer glitch.

VH-OQB, the second aircraft in Qantas' A380 fleet, recently delivered, and which commenced operations just one week ago, was on a routine flight QF 12 from Los Angeles (LAX) to Sydney (SYD) having departed LAX December 26th. It was forced to divert and make an emergency landing at Nadi in Fiji, in the early hours of Sunday, December 28th, when a passenger fell ill on board.

The landing was reportedly smooth. In fact, Fiji had just reached an agreement that Nadi airport would be used in emergency situations by the A380, and the Fijian aviation authorities hailed the landing. Many Fijians rushed to the airport to see the behemoth.

It is then the problems began. As per the Sydney Morning Herald

The ill passenger was taken off the plane and the flight was expected to resume shortly afterwards. But the plane ended up staying on the tarmac for a further four hours after an indicator light in the cockpit came on and required examination by an engineer.

Qantas said the light did not indicate a serious safety issue.

The airline sought approval from the Civil Aviation Safety Authority to allow a Fiji-based A330 engineer to check the plane. However, before it could get approval, Qantas had to cancel the trip, because the flight crew would have breached their allowable working hours.

All passengers were accommodated in local hotels and a 747, sent to pick up the passengers, is expected to fly them to Sydney this morning.

The replacement Qantas Boeing 747-400 reached Sydney as flight QF 8012 with a delay of 25 hours.

Qantas has been having a spate of incidents recently, and I don't know if the bad luck of the airline is rubbing off on the new A380s.

30 December update.

Received a comment from a person claiming to part of the crew, who clarified that there was no glitch, but more of an issue of crew limits. Read the full comment below.

If true, I am indeed very happy.

Singapore Airlines has announced a new low fare sale from India to select destinations in South East Asia and Australia.

As per the ad in today's Times of India, Bangalore edition, the fares round-trip ex-Bangalore to Singapore is INR 16,830, Denpasar/Bali/Kuala Lumpur/Penang/Langkawi/Kuching/Bangkok INR 23,980, Sydney/Perth/Brisbane/Melbourne/Adelaide INR 41,350. These include taxes and surcharges.

Fares are for economy class travel. Tickets must be purchased by January 15, 2009 and will be valid for travel from December 29, 2008 to March 31, 2009 for Singapore and South-East Asia and from February 01, 2009 to June 30, 2009 for the Australian destinations.

Similar offers are available from other Singapore Airlines cities in India.

One can also expect SQ's competitors, Malaysia Airlines, Thai Airways, and Jet Airways, to follow suit.

Since the travel agents' boycott of Singapore Airlines commences today, I recommend Bangalore Aviation readers to visit the Singapore Airline website.

In his weekly column "Rational Expectations", Sunil Jain has written an excellent article titled "Mr. 20 per cent" highlighting the financial shenanigans played by the operator of Indira Gandhi International Airport, GMR promoted Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL), and the resultant negative impact not just on Airports Authority of India (AAI), but also on DIAL itself.

His postscript says it all

If DIAL hadn’t tried to shortchange AAI and had its plans thwarted last year, it could have given 46 per cent of the deposits to AAI and still kept Rs 9,500 crore (54 per cent of Rs 17,590 crore) — if prices fall by half now, it gets to keep just Rs 4,475 crore! Playing by the book helps.

It is important to remember, the owners of GMR are rumoured to be "close" to various politicians of the ruling United Progressive Alliance, as well as the Ministry of Civil Aviation, the parent of AAI.

Read the full article.

PTI reports, Kingfisher Airlines, has said that it would effect fare cut across its network from January 1.

Without specifying the quantum of reduction in fares, in a statement today, Kingfisher Airlines Chairman, Dr. Vijay Mallya said

Kingfisher Airlines will begin the New Year on an aggressive note by slashing fares on its network,

The current low prices of Air Turbine Fuel (ATF) allows Kingfisher to pursue an opportunity to significantly increase market share by offering the fine five star flying experience at reduced fares.

Bangalore Aviation readers will recall, until now, Kingfisher, and its alliance partner Jet Airways, had been saying, fares would be cut only after the government classifies ATF in the Declared Goods category. The proposal of the Civil Aviation ministry is before the Parliament.

This long standing demand of airlines across the board, will ensure there will be a uniform four per cent sales tax on air fuel across the country, unlike the present, where sales taxes range from four per cent to 32 per cent, depending on the state, and accounts for over 35 per cent of airlines' operational costs.

However, several state governments oppose the uniform taxation as it would cause revenue loss to them.

Over the last four months, there has been a sharp decline in ATF prices. While some air carriers earlier this month reduced the fuel surcharge between Rs 200 and Rs 400, they did not touch the basic fare.

Mallya's decision could have its inspiration in the fact that Low Cost Carrier (LCC) IndiGo recently beat both Kingfisher Airlines and its LCC Kingfisher Red, to take third place in market share.

There is no doubt, the losses at the airline are significant. Just two weeks ago, there was news about four Kingfisher aircraft being de-registered. Doubts are rising on the impact of these losses on Dr. Mallya or his core alcoholic beverages business.

December 29, update.

The Times of India is reporting the fare reductions will be in the range of 10% and 15%. Jet Airways is expected to cut its fares by a similar amount, and Air India will follow suit. The LCCs IndiGo, SpiceJet, and Kingfisher Red are also working on the fares.

Harun Ornek captured two of the Boeing 777-300ER's recently wet-leased by THY Turkish Airlines from Jet Airways. The aircraft retain their Indian registrations and flags.

VT-JED has been named Akdeniz (meaning the Mediterranean Sea in Turkish).

VT-JEE has been named Karadeniz (meaning the Black Sea in Turkish). Observe the Indian flag.

This picture of VT-JEE from jetphotos.net.

To see an extensive photo gallery of the luxurious interiors read this article.

If you see this gallery, next to the flight deck window on the captain's side the phrase "Operated by Jet Airways for Turkish Airlines" has been added.