Travels And Aviation NEWS: Jet Airways conferred 'Regional Deal of the Year 2010' award by Airfinance Journal

Jet Airways, India’s premier international airline, has been awarded the “Regional Deal of the Year” for 2010 by the Airfinance Journal, a leading financial magazine serving the commercial aviation industry worldwide. The award to Jet Airways was for structuring an innovative operating lease for its six ATR aircraft, under a deal with Calyon Bank, France and Investec in London. Under this deal, the airline took delivery of six new ATR aircraft between October and December 2010. This is the second such award accorded to the airline by Airfinance journal.

The first such award received by Jet Airways, in 2002, was for the US exim guaranteed financing deal that the airline did with the Standard Chartered Bank, Mumbai, and SBI Bahrain, and accomplished the delivery of 10 B737s aircraft between February 2001 & May 2003.

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Alasdair Whyte – Publisher, Airfinance Journal will present the award to Jet Airways at a ceremony in New York in April.
Receiving the news of the award Nikos Kardassis, CEO, Jet Airways said, “Given the cyclical nature of the aviation business, it is critical that airlines innovate their operations to stay ahead of the growth curve. Innovating to drive operational excellence and rationalize costs is a Continuous Strategic Imperative for us at Jet Airways, testimony to which is this award by the Airfinance Journal. The airline has been awarded for structuring a unique finance deal for six ATR aircraft, wherein finance was secured at the most competitive rates resulting in attractive lease rentals for us. With the delivery of these aircraft, Jet Airways has been able to replace the six JetLite CRJs and ensure that we continue to have one of the youngest aircraft fleet in the world.”

Airfinance Journal’s 2010 Awards recognize deals that were innovative; tapped new sources of finance or found new participants; and, as always, reward borrower ambition and lender commitment.

About Jet Airways
Jet Airways currently operates a fleet of 97 aircraft, which includes 10 Boeing 777-300 ER aircraft, 12 Airbus A330-200 aircraft, 55 next generation Boeing 737-700/800/900 aircraft and 20 modern ATR 72-500 turboprop aircraft. With an average fleet age of 4.95 years, the airline has one of the youngest aircraft fleets in the world. Flights to 71 destinations span the length and breadth of India and beyond, including New York (both JFK and Newark), Toronto, Brussels, London (Heathrow), Milan, Johannesburg, Hong Kong, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Colombo, Bangkok, Kathmandu, Dhaka, Kuwait, Bahrain, Muscat, Doha, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Jeddah, Sharjah, Riyadh and Dammam.

About Jet Airways Konnect
Jet Airways' Konnect service operates on key domestic routes, and is designed to meet the needs of the low-fare segment with value-for-money fares. Jet Airways Konnect links seven major metros - Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad and Kolkata – with several destinations across India, operating over 170 flights daily. Konnect Select’ is a premium economy product introduced on certain Jet Airways Konnect flights. This new front cabin class features wider and more comfortable seats, with a 44-inch seat pitch. The services include complimentary in-flight reading material, a welcome drink, and complimentary hot meals on-board.

About JetLite
JetLite is a subsidiary of Jet Airways India Ltd. and was acquired by Jet Airways in April 2007. Positioned as an all-economy, no-frills airline, JetLite operates a fleet of 19 aircraft, which includes 18 Boeing 737 series and 1 Canadian Regional Jets 200 Series aircraft. The airline flies to 27 domestic destinations and 1 international destination (Kathmandu), operating over 110 flights a day, on average.

Jet Airways, Jet Airways Konnect and JetLite have a combined fleet strength of 116 aircraft and operate over 500 flights daily.

1. Ailing AI spends more than it earns
While the Air India (AI) management has been claiming that they are turning around the country's national carrier, the truth is that the airline earns Rs 36 crore a day from its operations, while it spends Rs 57 crore.

These figures were disclosed in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday by the new civil aviation minister Vayalar Ravi. "We are paying compulsory payment abroad of Rs 16 crore and committed payment here in India is Rs 20 crore. But the total expenditure comes to about Rs 57 crore," Ravi said during the Question Hour.

AI does not even have enough money to pay its fuel bills and owes over Rs 2,280 crore to the public sector oil companies for jet fuel till the end of February this year. "The government has infused Rs 1,200 crore. Out of this, we have given Rs 475 crore to the oil companies. As it is, it is true that Rs 1,900 crore is still pending," Ravi said in the Lok Sabha.

Besides, an amount of Rs 12.5 crore is being paid daily by AI to oil companies on cashand-carry basis. Till date AI has paid Rs 1,147.5 crore under this scheme. Ravi said that the oil companies were not yielding to the government's requests of any concession. "They (oil public sector undertakings) have extended the credit facility to all the private airlines but not to Air India," he said.

"We are requesting that AI must get the treatment which is being extended to the private companies," the minister added. Air India, which is teetering under a massive debt burden of Rs 40,000 crore, suffered a loss of Rs 3,450 crore in the first half of the current fiscal, the minister said earlier this month.

According to the provisional estimates, the losses before tax for the first half of the current financial year (April-October) are approximately Rs 3,450.57 crore, Ravi told the upper house of Parliament on March 3.

2. Fake Pilots Busted for Forging Documents

Reports now show that 3 commercial airline pilots have been grounded after local aviation regulators in India were able to determine that they forged documents. These fake documents were used to help the pilots’ credentials, meaning, overall the pilots have been flying illegally.
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation in India was forced to ground an Indigo Airlines pilot. They grounded Parminder Kaur after she continually landed her Airbus A320 improperly. This caused a lot of damage to the plane. During the training, it was finally determined that her paperwork was false and she did not pass the Airline Transport Pilot License exam.
The scary thing about this is that she has been flying planes full of people and she did not even know how to safely land the plane. However, the bad news did not stop there. Aviation authorities have already been examining the documentations of other pilots as well. So far they have found two other pilots that have phony licenses and are flying for Indigo and the carrier called MDLR. Of course, MDLR has since gone out of business.
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation chief, Bharat Bhushan, said that they are currently examining pilot license. So far they have found two more cases. While the licenses have already been revoked, these cases have been referred to the police for even further action.
The discovery of these fake papers does worry Indian officials. It is not known what is going to happen to the men and women that used these fake papers to get jobs. Either way, officials will continue to check papers to see if any more fake pilots surface.

3. AAI to spread wings with R10k-cr via tax-free bonds

The Airports Authority of India (AAI), which runs 125 airports across the country, is optimistic about raising around R10,000 crore via issuing tax-free bonds in financial year 2011-12, sources said. The proceeds will be used to upgrade 35 non-metro airports, whose development has been shelved in the past due to unavailability of funds. Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee had announced in the Budget 2011-12 that issuance of tax-free infrastructure bonds worth R30,000 crore will be allowed in the ensuing financial year.
Ajay Prasad, former secretary of civil aviation, told FE, “AAI is AAA rated and there should not be any problem for it to raise funds via tax-free bonds.”

In this case, tax-free bonds will be offered by AAI to encourage public investment in government-based projects. These bonds will be low-risk in nature and unlike other investments, the interest earned is exempted from taxes. Also, these bonds will create a good opportunity...

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