Air tickets to get cheaper from Mumbai, but not Delhi

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled that the airport development fee ranging between Rs 100 to Rs 1,300 levied per passenger per trip at Mumbai, Delhi and other airports was illegal since it was not authorized by the Airport Economic Regulatory Authority (AERA). 

While this verdict will lead to lower fares in Mumbai, fliers from Delhi will continue to cough up the tax since the operator obtained AERA's permission to collect the sum in 2010. 

The order by a bench comprising Justices R V Raveendran and A K Patnaik will be welcomed by millions of flyers who have resented the levy as an unjustified burden particularly when airfares and prices in general have soared. They, however, will not get refunds, with the apex court ordering the airport development fee to be deposited withAirport Authority of India (AAI) for upgrading airports and passenger amenities. 

The bench held that the GMR-led Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL) and GVK-managedMumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL) started collecting development fee from passengers transiting through the two airports from March and April 2009 merely on the strength of an authorization from the ministry of civil aviation, and without the requisite sanction from AERA.DIAL got the sanction from the airport regulator in 2010, while MIAL has not been permitted till date. 

Justices Raveendran and Patnaik prohibited MIAL from collecting airport development fee of Rs 100 per domestic trip and Rs 600 per international trip. The airport developer was permitted by the ministry to levy the fee till 2013. 

Though DIAL was permitted to collect Rs 200 per domestic trip and Rs 1,300 per international trip from passengers for three years since March 1, 2009, the court said it could have legitimately done so only from April 23, 2010, when it got AERA nod. 

The bench said it was still open for the petitioners to challenge the April 23, 2010 order of AERA allowing DIAL to collect the fee without determination of the rate. 

However, the court said both MIAL and DIAL cannot keep the money collected from passengers by them and would now have to account for the entire sum they got as development fee since 2009 to AAI. Delhi airport had handled 25 million passengers in the year 2009-10, while Mumbai airport in 2010 had seen a passenger traffic of 28.1 million. 

The airport developer in Delhi was allowed to collect the tax to cover a deficit of Rs 1,827 crore when the project cost was estimated to be about Rs 9,800 crore. But now with the project complete and the cost escalating to Rs 12,718 crore due to, among other reasons addition of the new domestic terminal 1D, the funding gap has gone up to Rs 3,481 crore. To cover the additional gap of about Rs 1,700 crore, DIAL has accordingly asked the Airport Economic Regulatory Authority (AERA) to be allowed the charge the ADF of Rs 200 and Rs 1,300 for four years and eight months from March 1, 2010, an extension of two years and eight months. 

Writing the judgment for the bench and partly allowing a petition filed by NGO "Consumer Online Foundation', Justice Patnaik said: "We declare that with effect from January 1, 2009, no development fee could be levied or collected from the embarking passengers at major airports under Section 22A of AAI Act, 1994, unless the Airport Economic Regulatory Authority determines the rate of such development fee." 

"We direct that MIAL will henceforth not levy and collect any development fee at the major airport at Mumbai until an appropriate order is passed by the AERA under Section 22A of the 1994 Act as amended by the 2008 Act," the Bench said.

Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/Air-tickets-to-get-cheaper-from-Mumbai-but-not-Delhi/articleshow/8095224.cms

57 pilots found drunk on duty in '09-10, 11 lost jobs

NEW DELHI: Air travellers would do well to say a little prayer before taking a flight. Pilots faking flying hours was bad enough, but now it turns out there's a reasonable chance of the pilot turning up drunk for duty. And getting away with it. 

Between January 2009 and November 2010, as many as 57 drunk pilots were detected in random pre-flight medical tests – that is two tipsy pilots every month. Of these, only 11 lost their jobs for endangering passengers; the rest got away with mild punishments including being grounded for up to three months and a pay cut for some time. 

The country's largest airline, Jet-JetLite, led the pack with as many as 23 drunk pilots, none of whom was dismissed, according to a detailed statement by aviation minister Vayalar Ravi in the Rajya Sabha on Thursday. The ranking of airlines according to number of pilots caught drunk, in fact, almost mirrored the market share hierarchy. Market leader Jet was followed by IndiGo (11), Kingfisher (8), SpiceJet (7) and Air India, including IA, AI, AI Express and Alliance Air, (6) and GoAir (2). 

Jet, AI and GoAir did not terminate the service of any drunk pilot, according to the list given in Parliament though some kind of action was taken. IndiGo and SpiceJet sacked four pilots each, while Kingfisher sacked three. The rest got away with lesser punishment. 

Given the weak and divergent action taken by airlines, Directorate General of Civil Aviation(DGCA) had late last year ruled that pilots would have to be compulsorily grounded for three months when caught the first time. If they reported drunk for duty a second time, they would lose the commercial flying licence forever. But, the seriousness of the DGCA in cracking down on drunken flying is not reflected by the carriers. 

With the rule coming into effect, unsurprisingly, airlines reported that no pilots were found drunk in pre-flight medical tests conducted in the Yuletide month of December in 2010, when maximum such cases were detected in the past. The new rule had come into effect by then. 

Before this much-required change in rules, it was up to airlines to ground pilots for whatever period they deemed fit as the matter didn't invite any regulatory action. No record was legally required to be kept of how many times the same pilot had reported drunk for duty.

Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/57-pilots-found-drunk-on-duty-in-09-10-11-lost-jobs/articleshow/7676480.cms

AI wants Rs 17,500 cr more to clean books

To come out of the financial mess, Air India, in its turnaround plan, will be asking for one-time infusion of Rs 17,500 crore from the government. The turnaround plan has been vetted by financial advisory firm Delloite and will be taken up in a board meeting of the airline slated for next month. The matter will then be referred to the government.

“Air India is asking for Rs 17,500 crore to clean its books and start its finances afresh. This demand is huge considering the airline has not been able to perform in the past,” said a senior ministry official, who did not want to be identified.

This government support, which could be in the form of equity infusion and loan waiver, is set to clean Air India’s books, which has a debt of over Rs 40,000 crore on an equity base of Rs 2,145 crore — it received an equity infusion of Rs 800 crore in 2009-10 and Rs 1,200 crore in 2010-11. Out of the Rs 40,000 crore, working capital debt is at Rs 21,000 crore and the rest are loans taken to fund aircraft acquisition.

The national carrier had ordered 111 aircraft worth Rs 46,000 crore and taken deliveries of 80 aircraft till now.

Air India also has an annual interest payment of around Rs 1,800 crore and has accumulated losses of over Rs 15,000 crore. The carrier lost Rs 2,226 crore in 2007-08, Rs 7,189 crore in 2008-09, and Rs 5,551 crore in 2009-10.

The airline is also losing money on a daily basis. Out of the Rs 22 crore the national carrier earns every day, Rs 13.5 crore go to the oil companies and Rs 8 crore to the airport operator and ground handlers and spare-parts companies, leaving the airline with only Rs 50 lakh a day. This translates into only Rs 15 crore a month. The monthly wage bill and interest payment of the airline are about Rs 250 crore and Rs 150 crore.

The five-year turnaround plan also talks about Air India increasing domestic market share to over 30 per cent, operating a fleet of 280 aircraft and around 10 per cent of its employees retiring.

The national carrier with a fleet of 130 aircraft is consistently losing its market share in the domestic sector and flew only 15.4 per cent of the total passengers in January.

The report projects that around 2,600 employees of the airline will retire from the airline in the coming three-year period. Currently, Air India has around 30,000 employees and the airline also plans to shift people to these subsidiaries. It has created a ground-handling subsidiary called Air India-Singapore Airport Terminal Services and is awaiting Cabinet approval for an aircraft maintenance subsidiary called Air India Engineering Service.

Source:-http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/ai-wants-rs-17500-cr-more-to-clean-books/426480/

Warships being sent to evacuate Indians from Libya

NEW DELHI: Warships of Indian Navy are being despatched to evacuate Indians from Libya as the situation in the North African country continued to deteriorate because of clashes between supporters and opponents of Muammar Gaddafi. 

The ministry of external affairs asked the defence ministry to ready the warships to sail for Libya. 

The exact number of warships needed for the operation, which is likely to be a largescale one, and from where they will be despatched is being worked out. 

As the situation in Libya continued to worsen, foreign minister S M Krishna told Rajya Sabha on Wednesday that it may not be possible to spell out how much time it will take to evacuate all Indians even though, he said, the government was doing all it could to ensure their safety. Replying to queries from MPs over the issue, Krishna said all Indian nationals were safe "as of now". 

"It`s an extremely difficult proposition to spell out any timeframe for the evacuation. I can say that the government is serious and is concentrating on evacuating Indians in earliest possible time," Krishna said. 

There are about 18,000 Indians living in Libya, mainly in capital Tripoli and Benghazi. Krishna said there was need for a "much larger scale operation" as each ship could accommodate only 800-1,000 people. The minister also announced that an inter-ministerial committee headed by foreign secretary Nirupama Rao had been formed to coordinate efforts to ensure safety of all Indians in Libya. 

Chinese news agencies reported on Wednesday that Beijing managed to evacuate close to 3,000 people to neighbouring Tunisia by road. 

Krishna said the Indian ambassador to Libya had spoken to all Indian nurses stranded in Benghazi and that they were all safe. He added that because this was an evacuation, unlike the special flights operated earlier by Air India for Indians based in Egypt, no fare would be charged.

Source:-http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Warships-being-sent-to-evacuate-Indians-from-Libya/articleshow/7559139.cms