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HOW IT FEELS TO SURVIVE A PLANE CRASH……

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SOURCE:::::: BRISBANE TIMES….AUG 20 2012… AN AUSTRALIAN LADY PASSENGER”S THRILLING MOMENTS IN  US AIRWAYS FLIGHT 1549 WHICH CRASHED IN HUDSON RIVER IN 2009……

Natarajan.

 

 

How it feels to survive a plane crash…..

'Can I go back and get my passport?' ... Australian Emma Sophina survived the crash landing of US Airways flight 1549 into New York's Hudson River.‘Can I go back and get my passport?’ … Australian Emma Sophina survived the crash landing of US Airways flight 1549 into New York’s Hudson River. Photo: Trevor Collens

Emma Sophina describes the feeling of crash landing on the Hudson river.

OK, I am 27, I’ve never been married, but if it’s my time to go, I’m OK with this.

I’ve never been anxious about flying. I’m Australian and I’ve always travelled widely, so I was completely relaxed when I boarded US Airways flight 1549 from LaGuardia airport, New York. Taking my seat, 13F, next to the window, I grabbed the in-flight magazine and settled in for the journey. The flight began with the usual safety speech which I ignored as I’d heard it all before. Leaning against the window, I stared out at the wing and thought about the words to a song I was writing. It was 15 January 2009 and I had been holidaying in New York for a week. I was on my way to Charlotte, North Carolina, to see friends.

Pay attention to the safety instructions ... Emma Sophina (second from right) is rescued from US Airways flight 1549 after the jet crash landed in New York's Hudson River.Pay attention to the safety instructions … Emma Sophina (second from right) is rescued from US Airways flight 1549 after the jet crash landed in New York’s Hudson River. Photo: Reuters

Within minutes of taking off, I heard the strangest popping sound coming from the engine, rather like a car backfiring. I certainly wouldn’t have guessed the noise was down to a large flock of Canada geese flying into the plane’s engines, disabling both of them on impact. My seat shook with the vibrations and suddenly the plane began dropping. Everything went eerily quiet – the familiar drone of the engines had disappeared. Gripping the armrests, I said to myself, “OK, I am 27, I’ve never been married, but if it’s my time to go, I’m OK with this.” A strange peace washed over me, one I’ve never experienced before or since. All my life I had struggled with anxiety and had learned coping techniques, but this was different.

 

Looking around, I noticed some passengers crying and others edging up in their seats to catch a glimpse out of the window. Peering around, I locked eyes with the woman behind me. She was hyperventilating. A man a few seats down was making a phone call. Mostly everyone was quiet, except one passenger at the back who yelled, “Fire!”

Moments later the captain made an announcement: “This is the captain, brace for impact.” I had to figure out how to brace myself because, of course, I had never paid attention to the emergency drill. In the end, I grabbed the seat in front and held on tightly. Just in time. The impact came with incredible force – I’m still amazed I walked away without any injuries. As we landed tail first, we were hurled back into our seats, then plunged forwards. Someone screamed, “We’re in water.” We all jumped to our feet, jostling towards the exit doors.

Passengers are rescued from US Airways flight 1549 after it crashed into the Hudson River in New York on January 15, 2009. Passengers are rescued from US Airways flight 1549 after it crashed into the Hudson River in New York on January 15, 2009. Photo: Reuters

By now, water was rising as the back of the plane was submerged. I could hear people screaming and one instinct took over: I need to get out. By the time I reached the exit door, freezing water was up to my shins. I could see passengers standing outside on the icy wing. Aware of others behind me, I jumped into one of the liferafts. I was soaking and shivering, from the water as well as the wind howling down the river.

A minute later another woman jumped in with me. By now there were several of us in the raft. All of a sudden it hit me: here I was in the Hudson, a single Australian woman in another country with no identification. I leaned over to the lady next to me and asked if she thought it would be OK for me to go back into the plane to get my passport. I realise now how ridiculous this must have sounded – I think it was part of being in shock.

We waited for what felt like an hour, but was really only 10 minutes, before help arrived. We clambered into ferries and were taken to a restaurant on the New Jersey waterfront where we changed out of our wet clothes into chefs’ uniforms. Staff draped tablecloths around us, worried we might get hypothermia. Anxious to call home, I borrowed someone’s mobile and rang my mum in Australia. I woke her up. “Mum,” I said, “I’m OK, but I’ve been in a plane crash.” She paused for a moment, then said: “OK – but did you get your auntie’s jacket?” I giggle now when I think of this. My life was hanging in the balance and my mum was worried about a jacket I had borrowed.

An hour later, we were all bussed to a hotel near the airport. Over the next few days, airline staff bought me new clothes and a suitcase, and helped me to get a new passport.

Two days later I was on another plane to Charlotte. I found it a little unnerving, but I was keen to overcome any fear I might have. I haven’t had much trauma since the crash. When faced with anxiety, I’m comforted when I recall the peace I felt on flight 1549 – and I definitely pay closer attention to the safety procedures now.

Interview by Nicole Partridge

– The Guardian

 

Read more:http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/travel/travel-incidents/how-it-feels-to-survive-a-plane-crash-20120820-24i2h.html#ixzz247oZS9yY

IMPOSSIBLE TO HIJACK THIS PLANE !!!!!!!!!!!!!…

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SOURCE:::: INPUT FROM ONE OF MY CONTACTS….REAL GOOD STUFF WHICH ACTIVATES AN INSTANT LAUGH…DONT MISS …FIT ONE FOR THE NOMINATION OF MOST HILARIOUS BLOG OF THE DAY…..PL ENJOY READING ….STUFF IS MADE PURELY OUT OF AN IMAGINARY AIRLINE AND NO COMPARISON OF WHATSOEVER IS REQUIRED TO BE DRAWN WITH ANY AIRLINE !!!!!

Natarajan.

> *The Kompletely Finished Airlines (KFA) was on the brink. Its pilots were
> on strike and staff had not been paid salaries for six months.
>
> Banks, which had lent huge sums of money, were closing in. But there was
> one reason why KF Airlines still drew passengers; it was hijack proof. And
> this is how it earned its reputation.
>
>
> One day, an attempt was made by unknown persons to hijack a flight of this KFA..

> Two of the three hijackers on KFA Flight 333, who had dozed off to sleep,
> wake up and spring out of their seats brandishing things that looked like
> sharp weapons. One of them takes hold of the stewardess and yells for all
> the passengers to hear, “Don’t move. This is a hijack. We are taking this
> plane to Karachi.”
>
>
> “Wait a minute,” says a passenger who looks like a banker, “you can’t take
> this plane. My bank has already seized it to recover dues owned by the
> company. This plane is going to Mumbai to be auctioned.”
>
>
> “Just hold on,” says the hijacker, “let me check my tickets. We could be on
> the wrong flight.” After checking his tickets he says, “We are on the
> correct flight. To hell with your bank.”
>
>
> One of the hijackers moves towards the cockpit taking the stewardess along
> while the second one stands guard in the isle. Meanwhile the third hijacker
> takes his place at the rear. The cockpit door is jerked open and the
> hijacker rushes in and shuts it. “There is no need to panic. Stay calm.
> This is a hijack. If you do as you are told your life will be spared.”
>
>
> Seeing the surprised look on the pilot’s face, the hijacker asked, “Who are
> you?”
> “I am the steward, not the pilot,” said the uniformed person in the pilot’s
> seat. “The pilots are on strike because they haven’t been paid salaries for
> the last three months.”
> “Then, who is flying this plane?” asked the hijacker, a little nervous now.
> “Nobody is,” said the steward, “we haven’t even taken off.”
>
>
> The turn of events shocks the hijacker, but he quickly recovers. “I must
> have dozed off. Can you fly this plane?” he asks the steward.
> “But I don’t have a licence,” says the steward.
>
>
> “What if I hold a box cutter to your head?” the hijacker threatens.
> “Then maybe,” says the steward, “but there still is one problem. We don’t
> have fuel.”
> “What?” the hijacker asks.
>
>
> “The oil companies won’t give us fuel because we still owe them a lot of
> money,” the steward blurts out.
>
>
> The hijacker thinks for a while and then pulls out his satellite phone and
> makes a call to Karachi. “Karachi, we have a problem. Can you wire some
> 10,000 dollars to the KFA account to buy some aviation fuel?”
>
>
> Karachi agrees, but the money has to be routed through a series of offshore
> accounts to hide the source and this takes some time. Meanwhile the
> hijacker yells for the stewardess. “Bring me some coffee.”
>
> ]
> “Sorry sir,” says the stewardess, “but the company cut coffee, biscuits and
> toffees from the menu to pay the mortgage on the boss’s luxury villa.”
>
>
> After what seems like an hour a fuel tanker drives to the plane and unloads
> its contents.
> “Can we take off now?” the hijacker asks.
>
>
> “I don’t think we can take off, because this plane has only one engine,”
> says the steward.
>
>
> “What happened to the other one?” asks the hijacker.
>
>
> “It is being used to power the boss’s Formula 1 car.”
>
>
> The hijacker is stunned. He then gets angry that the hijack has gone
> horribly wrong and yells. “I want to talk to your boss.”
>
>
> The frightened steward calls up the boss and gives the phone to the
> hijacker who listens for a while and then hands it back. “What did he say?”
> the steward asks.
>
>
> “Nothing. The mobile company said his SIM card was deactivated because
> bills were not paid for the last six months,” says the hijacker and walks out.
>========================================

TRIVANDRUM INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT….A NEW GATEWAY TO INDIA….

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Wednesday, 15 August 2012 1:43 PM
SOURCE:::: “THE HINDU”    TRIVANDRUM…
 Nice photograph of equally nice terminal….I am naturally going back to my Trivandrum days  espicially to the DAY …NOV 1 2006….when Hon. PM laid the foundation stone for this terminal and the DAY on which Bhoomi Pooja was performed for the beginning of construction activity at site…some time in the first week of FEB 2007…..I had the unique opportunity of participating in that pooja  in my capacity as Airport Director of  TVM Airport  and placed bricks alongwith precious stones and coins in the first pit dug on that day amidst pooja mantra slogams ….
Very nice to note that this airport is becoming a new gateway to our country ….
Natarajan

Thiruvananthapuram new gateway to India

S. ANIL RADHAKRISHNAN

DREAM VACATION: The Thiruvananthapuram international airport is joining four other airports to become a gateway to India for holidaymakers.Photo: S. Mahinsha
The HinduDREAM VACATION: The Thiruvananthapuram international airport is joining four other airports to become a gateway to India for holidaymakers.Photo: S. Mahinsha
At Thiruvananthapuram airport for citizens of 11 countries
God’s Own Country will soon become the fifth gateway to India for holidaymakers from 11 countries who can get tourist visa on arrival (T-VoA) as the international airport here will join the airports in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata in issuing this passport to a dream vacation.
Citizens of Finland, Japan, Luxembourg, New Zealand, Singapore, Cambodia, Vietnam, the Philippines, Laos, Myanmar and Indonesia can get T-VoA. The Union Ministry of External Affairs has approved it for the citizens of France, Germany and Russia, and nod from the Bureau of Immigration (BOI), which functions under the Union Ministry of Home Affairs, is awaited.
Being introduced as part of a plan of the Union Ministry of Tourism to double the number of foreign tourists visiting the country in three or four years, T-VoA is expected to give a fillip to the burgeoning tourism sector of Kerala. The State registered 7,32,985 foreign tourist arrivals in 2011, earning Rs. 4,221.99 crore in foreign exchange. The recently unveiled tourism policy of the State targets 30 lakh foreign tourist arrivals by 2021.
The Airports Authority of India has informed the State government about the move to introduce the visa. The authority, which manages the airport, has informed the BOI that it is ready to allocate a facilitation centre, an exclusive visa desk, facilities for taking photographs of the visiting foreign nationals, a foreign exchange counter, a holding area, signboards and other infrastructure at the international terminal, official sources told The Hindu.
Thiruvananthapuram figures along with Goa and Bangalore on the shortlist of the BOI for granting T-VoA. Since the AAI has informed the bureau that the facilities sought are in place, T-VoA is expected to be introduced soon, sources said.
The bureau has approached the State police to get officials of the rank of sub-inspector deputed to the visa desk.
A tourist can get a visa on arrival with a maximum validity of 30 days. BOI norms say the objectives of the visit should only be recreation, sightseeing and meeting friends or relatives and no other purpose or activity. Those applying for the visa should not have a residence or occupation in India and should hold a passport with minimum six-month validity.

STRANGE….BUT TRUE !!!!…..AIRPORT SECURITY BREACH AT JFK….

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SOURCE:::”:BRISBANE TIMES”….QUEENSLAND….15 AUG 2012…
Natarajan

‘I needed help!’ stranded jet-skier breaches $100m New York airport security system…..

In an era in which airline passengers cannot get past a US checkpoint with a bottle of shampoo, security experts were shocked on Monday by the case of a man who swam ashore, scaled a fence and walked dripping wet into John F. Kennedy International Airport despite a $US100 million ($95 million) system of surveillance cameras and motion detectors.

“Thank God it wasn’t a terrorist, but we have to look at it as if we had another attack,” said Isaac Yeffet, former chief of security for Israeli airline El Al. “That’s the only way we’ll improve the system.”

Immediately there should’ve been an armed response. Heavy weapons, armoured cars to the area that the perimeter was breached. The airport should have been locked down.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which oversees JFK, quickly added police patrols to the airport perimeter and said it was investigating the security breach.

Breached ... New York's Kennedy Airport.Breached … New York’s Kennedy Airport. Photo: Reuters

Authorities said the trouble began on Friday evening when Daniel Casillo’s jet-ski ran out of fuel in Jamaica Bay. Casillo, 31, swam toward the bright lights of Kennedy’s runway 4L, which juts out into the bay, then climbed a 2.5-metre fence that is part of the airport’s state-of-the-art Perimeter Intrusion Detection System, authorities said.

 

Soaking wet, wearing a bright yellow life jacket, Casillo made his way across two intersecting runways – an estimated distance of nearly three kilometres – before he was spotted on a terminal ramp by an airline employee, authorities said.

According to the police report, Casillo told an officer: “I needed help.”

The intrusion-detection system, made by defence contractor Raytheon, should have set off a series of warnings, said Bobby Egbert, spokesman for the Port Authority police officers union.

“This system is made specifically for those types of threats – water-borne threats,” Egbert said. “It did not detect him climbing over a fence. It did not detect him crossing two active runways.”

Port Authority police interrogated Casillo and charged him with criminal trespassing. Authorities said the airport grounds were clearly marked with no-trespassing signs that indicate it is a “restricted area for authorised personnel only”.

Casillo was released without bail for a court appearance on October 2. A man who answered the phone at the home of Casillo’s girlfriend said the couple’s lawyer had advised them to stop speaking to the media.

“We have called for an expedited review of the incident and a complete investigation to determine how Raytheon’s perimeter intrusion detection system – which exceeds federal requirements – could be improved,” the Port Authority said in a statement.

The agency offered no explanation of what went wrong or whether it was human error or equipment failure.

A spokesman for Raytheon would not comment.

“The catastrophic failure was that nobody sounded the alarm to go to condition red intruder alert,” said former New York City Detective Nicholas Casale, who was deputy director of security for counter-terrorism at the New York metropolitan area’s transit agency.

“Immediately, there should’ve been an armed response. Heavy weapons, armoured cars to the area that the perimeter was breached. The airport should have been locked down.”

The intrusion-detection system employs sensors, motion detectors and video surveillance, Egbert said. A security guard employed by a private contractor is supposed to keep an eye on the footage from a monitoring room, he said. If the guard determines there is a threat, a private security officer is sent to investigate, Egbert said.

From there, it is up to the private security force to decide whether to notify Port Authority police, Egbert said.

The detection system, which was phased in several years ago, has been a source of tension between the Port Authority and the police union. The union contends that manpower – in the form of patrols in the air, on the water and on the ground – is the best way to protect the airport.

“This has all been structured to remove the police from the situation,” Egbert said. “Technology doesn’t catch terrorists. Boots on the ground do.”

 

STRANGE BUT TRUE !!!!!…..SURF COMPETITION AT AIRPORT !!!!!!

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Euro surf competition held at airport

 SOURCE:::::BIGPOND TIMES  …..BRISBANE
NATARAJAN

Sunday, August 12, 2012 » 06:25am

Thrill seekers compete in the European championships in surfing on a stationary wave in Munich Airport.

Thrill seekers compete in the European championships in surfing on a stationary wave in Munich Airport.

Advertisement

Thrill seekers have gathered at Germany’s Munich Airport for a surfing competition with a difference.

Reuters reports the second European Championships in surfing on a stationary wave is a two-day event that requires competitors to surf an artificial wave.

An open air pool was set up between the two terminals of Munich Airport in which the waves are produced by a simulation machine.

Contestants are judged on their skill and creativity.

Sarah Czepluch is the defending champion and says she surfs whenever she can.

‘On the one hand, you really have to work hard to be able to do it, but when you can, it is really great. I don’t think there is anything better in sports than riding a wave,’ she told Reuters.

Event organiser Jan Vogt said the competition attracts a range of international travelers.

‘You are able to build this wave wherever you want, in the middle of the city, where there is otherwise no water. We just want to bring surfing all over the place, to the middle of the city, so that everyone has the opportunity to stand on a board,’ he said.

Once the competition is over, the machine will remain in place at the airport to allow members of the public to try their hand at surfing.

CIVIL AVIATION IN INDIA….LOSING AUTHORITY

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SOURCE:::::ARTICLE BY SAGNNIK DUTTA IN” FRONTLINE “….

A THOUGHT PROVOKING ARTICLE ON THE MODERNISATION AND PRIVATISATION POLICY OF OUR GOVT….. IS THE POLICY ADOPTED BY GOVT. IN PUBLIC INTEREST ???….QUESTION REMAINS UNANSWERED….PL READ FURTHER .

Natarajan

The Airports Authority of India becomes another victim of the government’s obsession with “modernisation” and privatisation.

Terminal 3 of the Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi. Privatisation has made the airport one of the costliest in the world.
In a major embarrassment to the government and the private developers of Delhi’s international airport, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) recently slammed the airport regulator for allowing an exorbitant 346 per cent increase in the user development fees (UDF) to be levied on passengers.

Speaking at the annual general meeting of the association in Beijing on June 10, the IATA’s Director General and Chief Executive Officer, Tony Tyler, criticised the Airports Economic Regulatory Authority (AERA) for failing to protect the “public interest” and for making Delhi airport among the most expensive airports in the world. The criticism of the government regulator in an international forum raises concerns about the extent to which privatisation and restructuring of airports serve the public interest. The IATA’s admonition also raises serious concerns about the flip side of the “modernisation” and “restructuring” of airports.

Another significant concern that remains unaddressed as we approach the discourse of modernisation is the plight of the workers of the government entity, the Airports Authority of India (AAI), which is still engaged in significant operations in developing about 60 non-metro airports along with the mega projects in Delhi and Chennai. The trajectory of privatisation, especially in the case of the Delhi airport, points to the undue haste in paving the way for the success of private players, often at the cost of the employees of the existing government entity. Even if one goes by the logic of introducing competition as a method of improving services in a free market economy, a level playing field should be provided to the public sector.

However, the pace of airport privatisation in the last six years has been carried out without giving due consideration to the problems of workers of the government entity. All parliamentary standing committees constituted for the purpose have recommended that AAI workers’ concerns be taken care of following the modernisation exercise, but critical issues remain unaddressed. The latest in a series of decisions that might bleed the public sector unit is the proposal to carve out a separate Air Navigation Services unit from the existing company.

An agreement, termed the Operations, Management and Development Agreement (OMDA), was signed in 2006 between the AAI management and the Delhi International Airport Private Limited (DIAL), led by the GMR Group, whereby the project of designing, developing, constructing and managing the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport in Delhi was assigned to DIAL. The AAI leased the premises of the airport to DIAL for a period of 60 years at an annual lease rent of Rs.100.

A parliamentary standing committee headed by Sitaram Yechury, Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader, was formed to look into the workers’ issues. The committee, in its report in 2008, said that the AAI employees should not be put through any hardships owing to the changing decisions of the government. The Airports Authority of India Employees Union (AAIEU), in a lawsuit filed in the Delhi High Court in 2008, challenged several clauses of the OMDA as being harmful to the interests of AAI employees.

A Comptroller and Auditor General report tabled in Parliament in August 2011 pointed out that the AAI had incurred a loss of at least Rs.100 crore on account of the faulty implementation of the OMDA.

Speaking to Frontline, S.R. Santhanam, all-India president of the AAIEU, explained, “The case questioned some of the clauses of the OMDA as they were found to be discriminatory towards the employees of Airports Authority of India.” He also questioned the need to concede space to private players when in 2010 the government itself had conferred miniratna status to the AAI.

The union challenged three specific provisions of the agreement. The OMDA stated (Article 6.1.2) that general employees were to be retained at the airport for the duration of the “Operation Support Period” of three years from the effective date. At the end of the operation support period, employees would be free to choose between the private player and the AAI. However, as per Article 6.1.7 of the OMDA, the ones who continued with the AAI were to be deployed at establishments other than the IGI Airport. Article 6.2 of the OMDA states that DIAL shall have the right to appoint the senior management and, on the expiry period of the transition phase, no employees of the AAI will remain at the senior management level of the IGI Airport. The union found these clauses discriminatory towards the cause of workers. The matter is pending with the Delhi High Court.

In an official e-mail response to Frontline’s queries, DIAL said: “The said writ is pending for adjudication before the Delhi High Court and on the last date of hearing, i.e., March 22, 2012, the matter was adjourned on the request of AAI for filing the Report of the National Productive Council. The next date of hearing in the matter is September 13, 2012.”

Development fee

Employees of the AAI allege that the airport development fee (ADF) that is charged currently by the private developer at the Delhi airport is not shared with the AAI. Given the fact that the AAI continues to be a 26 per cent shareholder in the Delhi airport and is entitled to 45.99 per cent of the total revenue earned at the airport, the employees feel that the government entity should be entitled to its share of the fee. The ADF has been charged by the private developers since 2009 at the rate of Rs.200 per passenger for domestic flights and Rs.1,300 per passenger for international flights.

When contacted by Frontline, a source in GMR, however, said that the ADF was not a form of revenue but a viability gap funding necessary to meet the expenses incurred on expansion, construction and maintenance of infrastructure. The source said: “A total amount of about Rs.13,000 crore was required for developing infrastructure at the Delhi international airport, of which Rs.2,500 crore was raised through equity, Rs.5,500 crore through debt. Of the remaining Rs.5,000 crore, about Rs.1,500 crore was raised through land rental deposits by leasing out 45 acres [18 hectares] of land for a period of six years from 2006 onwards to private players for commercial purposes. The remaining Rs.3,500 crore was proposed to be raised through ADF to be implemented from 2009 onwards, which was approved by the AERA. Therefore, ADF is a form of viability gap funding and it is not a form of revenue for the company. Thus, it cannot be shared with the AAI. Also, ADF can be charged by the airport developer as per Section 22 of the amended Airports Authority of India Act, 2003.”

The DIAL e-mail said, “ADF is not an income of DIAL but a capital recovery. It is a pre-funding for capital expenditure. The amount received from ADF is used to create assets which will be used by them free of cost and at end of concession it will be transferred to AAI free of cost. Amount collected towards ADF goes to reduce Asset Base of the Airport Operator. This means lower charges for customer in perpetuity. There is no return being allowed on these assets to airport operator, nor is depreciation forming part of building block.”

Employees of the AAI, however, feel that the amendment in question was brought about purposely to facilitate additional charges to be imposed by private players. Santhanam said, “Even after the amendment of the Parliament Act and the insertion of Section 22A in the Act, the Authority is entitled to the ADF. The government routed the ADF to a private entity without giving it to the AAI, which was entitled to it.”

Section 22 of the Airports Authority of India Act, 1994, allowed the AAI to charge fees or rent “for the landing, housing or parking of aircraft or for any other service or facility offered in connection with aircraft operations at any airport, heliport or airstrip”. The amendment in 2003 resulted in the insertion of Section 22A, which enabled the airport developer to levy additional charges for funding or financing the costs of upgradation, expansion or development at the airport at which the fee is collected. The ADF is proposed to be charged until February 2014 with the approval of the AERA.

The IATA’s criticism of the AERA has brought to the fore legitimate concerns about the burden of both the ADF and the UDF being passed on to passengers. The user development fee at the airport was determined by the AERA and conveyed to DIAL through a government notification in April 2012.

The UDF, which was initially proposed to be charged from April 2009 to March 2014, finally came into effect from 2012. The fee has begun to be charged from electronic bookings from May. Now a passenger will have to pay an amount in addition to the already existing ADF.

The IATA has said that with the new charges, the Delhi airport will become the most expensive in the world. DIAL, however, has justified the move. In an official statement to the IATA Director General, it said, “It is pertinent to highlight the fact that the airport charges of Indian airports were not increased during the last 10 years except by [a] nominal 10 per cent in 2009.” In a 44-page statement, DIAL further says that as per an analysis carried out by the United Kingdom-based aviation consultant Leigh Fisher, Delhi airport has the highest passenger charges only on the long-haul international segment, which constitutes only 10 per cent of the total volume of passengers at the airport.

Employees of the AAI also accuse the government of taking away the major revenue-earning airports of big cities such as Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Bangalore and leaving the AAI with the task of modernising non-metro airports. A tripartite committee report was constituted in February 2006 comprising representatives of the Ministry of Civil Aviation, the AAI and the AAI Employees Joint Forum. The committee, in its report submitted in 2009, observed that the AAI was undertaking development and modernisation of approximately 60 airports, including non-metro airports, besides mega projects in Chennai and Kolkata. The committee had also recommended that the existing airports be kept operational even if greenfield airports came up.

The closing down of commercial operations in 2008 at the Begumpet airport in Hyderabad following the establishment of Shamshabad airport hurt AAI employees. Santhanam said the Begumpet airport was making steady profits before commercial operations were closed down in 2008. “In fact, the airport showed a growth of 39.25 per cent in traffic revenue collection in the first eight months of 2008,” he said. The tripartite committee had recommended, for the benefit of the AAI, the reopening of commercial operations at the old airports in Hyderabad and Bangalore, which is yet to happen.

Splitting the AAI

In another step towards the agenda of aggressive privatisation, there is a proposal to carve out a separate unit for air navigation services, which until now has been the sole responsibility of the AAI. Air navigation services include providing communication, navigation and surveillance facilities to aircraft in flight in a dedicated airspace. The AAI controls a large airspace of 9.5 million square kilometres, of which 5.9 million sq km is oceanic.

With the proposal to bifurcate the AAI to create a separate unit for air navigation services, the revenue earned through activities such as route-navigation facilities will no longer be available to the AAI. Route navigation facilities are services available to international aircraft when flying over a country’s airspace. The carriers pay a fee to the airport operator for landing and parking of aircraft at airports.

Sources in the Ministry of Civil Aviation said that such a proposal was under consideration. Also, Section 12 of the AAI Act of 1994 says that “it shall be the duty of the Authority to provide air traffic service and air transport service at any airport and civil enclaves”. As per the 90th report of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Transport, Tourism and Culture, headed by Nilotpal Basu of the CPI(M), route navigation facility charges and terminal landing charges constitute more than 50 per cent of the total income from all aeronautical charges.

A series of policy decisions pushing for aggressive privatisation have been carried out in a manner whereby the functions and responsibilities of the AAI have been diminished in a gradual manner even while it is engaged in significant operations in modernising airports in several parts of the country apart from the metros. It is perhaps high time one questioned what larger public interest is served by such privatisation.