Curtains' for American Airlines?

Japan Airlines Corp (JAL) is likely to choose Delta Airlines as its overseas partner, ending its ties with American Airlines and the Oneworld alliance. JAL Asia's largest airlines by revenue has denied this it seems.

"We are still in discussions with JAL and we continue to maintain that American Airlines' offer is superior to that of any other rival," said Carlo Niederberger, a public relations official representing American Airlines in Japan.

Looks like the Delta spokeswoman denied to comment on this issue.

If JAL prefers Delta over American, this is adding salt to the wound for the crippled airliner.

AI Flying low

At least seven out of ten flights that the beleaguered state-owned carrier National Aviation Company of India Limited (NACIL) operated from April to October 2009 made cash losses, as per figures released by the civil aviation ministry. The carrier has accumulated losses up to Rs 7,200 crore as of March 2009 and is awaiting government bailout to come out of the red. During this period, the carrier operated 192 flights, of which 133 made cash losses and only 59 were able to achieve operation break even, according to the provisional figures provided by civil aviation minister Praful Patel in the Lok Sabha on Thursday. On these loss-making routes — accounting for almost 60-65 per cent of total routes operated by the carrier — Air India lost Rs 1,924 crore in 2007-08.

In 2008-09, these shot up to Rs 3,214 crore as loss-making routes accounted for 70-75 per cent of total routes. For the period April to October 2009, these routes resulted in losses of Rs 1,522 crore. This figure may come down as compared with the previous year as load factors have improved considerably, said a senior ministry official. The Delhi-New York and Mumbai-New York route figures on the list of loss-making routes, official added. Having embarked on a turnaround plan, the carrier will be undertaking route rationalisation and fleet rationalisation. The carrier will be trimming its fleet from 146 at present to 105 by March 2011, Patel informed the Lok Sabha. The fleet rationalisation will result in reduction of future requirement of pilots, cabin crew and engineers, Patel added. The airline, with employee to aircraft ratio of 203 employees per aircraft, has been trying to come out of the red by undertaking various cost-cutting measures including wage restructuring. Some of the other international airlines that have high employees to aircraft ratio include Air France (408:1), Thai Airways (306:1) and Lufthansa (202:1).

Hypersonic test flight on track

First flight of the X-51A scramjet demonstrator is now on track for early December while captive carriage tests on the NASA-operated B-52H mothership at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., are set to begin in October.

A joint effort by the U.S. Air Force, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne, and Boeing, the hypersonic vehicle is designed to be the first air-breathing craft to demonstrate sustained speeds in excess of Mach 4 using a “logistically friendly” hydrocarbon fuel.The initial vehicle is the first of four X-51As to be launched by April 2010.

First flight, targeted for December 2008 under the original schedule, was later reset for early in the fourth quarter of 2009. But integration issues with the B-52H mothership, along with logistic delays, pushed the first flight target toward late November.The target date has now been moved to Dec. 3

Rolling upright, the X-51A is expected to cover almost 400 miles in five minutes and reach an altitude of around 100,000 feet before the fuel is exhausted and the vehicle ditches in the Pacific test range off southern California.

Air India to terminate induction of 42 trainee pilots

Air India has terminated induction of 42 trainee pilots into the company even though the airline is facing an acute shortage of pilots at the senior level and has about 170 expatriate pilots employed on contractual basis.

The reason given by the carrier, is that as the carrier might defer deliveries of the Boeing 787s, the recruitment has to be put on hold.

However, a senior official from the airline said that even if the recruitment was put on hold because of deferral of deliveries of 787s', the airline already had 178 expatriate pilots who come at enormous costs. The fact is that the airliner has a shortage of co-pilots and DGCA does not allow them to hire expatriate co-pilots. The shortage of co-pilots is such that these expatriate pilots are flying as co-pilots in Air India Express. While an expatriate commander is paid about Rs 5.5 lakh plus hotel bills every month, fresh first officers can be hired for just about a Rs one lakh per month.

The recruitment of these trainee pilots began in January this year and about 1,300 candidates had applied for the job. Of the 1,300, only 42 were selected.

Runway across Adayar

The city will by next year have something in common with Atlanta, Brooklyn and Madeira Island -- a runway across a river.

A year from now, aircraft using the secondary runway at Chennai airport will make its run for take-off over a bridge across the Adyar river. Airports Authority of India (AAI) has started construction works to extend the 2,035-metre secondary runway by 1,400 metres, including 835 metres on the northern side of the river.
AAI is getting technical assistance from IIT-Madras because the river is flood-prone. Mumbai airport has an end of its runway across the Mithi river, but this stretch is used only for taxing.

The existing runway ends on the banks of the river. A bridge, to be designed similar to that of a box culvert, will be constructed across the river and the runway will extend over it towards the north.

The extension of the secondary runway is being carried out at an estimated cost of Rs 430 crore.
KGL Constructions has bagged the contract to build the runway excluding the bridge, while a separate contract will be awarded for the bridge construction.

Oil marketing companies threaten to stop aviation fuel supply for kingfisher airlines.

The state owned oil marketing companies have threatened kingfisher airlines to cease supply of aviation turbine fuel (ATF).

The oil industry had started suppling ATF to kingfisher and jet airways on 'cash and carry basis' from 27th Jan, as they failed to clear their dues from October 22nd to october 31st, though the 90 days credit was over.

Jet has immediately cleared its due of Rs 97.87 crore. But kingfisher still owes Rs 73.03 crore to Hindustan Petroleum for the 10 days supply and Rs 85 crores to Bharat Petroleum for old installments.