Hyderabad: Facing the heat of the financial crisis that has hit the aviation sector, state-owned Air India today said it is considering a plan to give 3-5 years leave without pay to about 15,000 of its staff."We are planning to offer leave without pay for three to five years. We can consider it for about 15,000 employees," Air India CMD Raghu Menon told PTI.He, however, said those who take up the offer to go on leave would be taken back if they desire so at the same seniority and last drawn pay.

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New Delhi: In a bid to exploit the potential of helicopter tourism in the country, the government is working on several initiatives, including dedicated helipads and separate helicopter corridors, to promote helicopter tourism in the country.Speaking at an industry seminar, Madhavan Nambiar, civil aviation secretary, said, India has immense potential for helicopter tourism but needs the right impetus for growth.“At present, India has a fleet of 150 civilian helicopters in the country, which is expected to rise to 600 in the next few years,” Nambiar said.“There is a great demand for heli-tourism, especially in Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and the Northeast,” S Bannerjee, tourism secretary, said.The government is working out separate corridors for helicopters and is also creating helipads in the Capital and Mumbai, Nambiar said. The proposed helipad in Delhi is expected to be in place before 2010.A helicopter industry official, requesting anonymity, said simplifying procedures, reducing the time on ground and straightening routes, could substantially reduce operational costs.

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Chandigarh: The construction of the International Airport at Mohali will begin next month with the Airport Authority of India spending Rs 550 crore on the project. A joint venture company would be formed for the project between the AAI and Punjab and Haryana governments.PricewaterhouseCoopers would be the consultants for the project. The work will start with the construction of a boundary wall and levelling of the 306-acre land. These decisions were taken in a meeting on Sunday and the Haryana Government was asked to pay Rs 230 crore as its share in the project.The Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) would pay this amount to the Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA).

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Delhi: With the 2010 Commonwealth Games fast approaching, hectic activities are on to construct India’s first fully-automated heliport in West Delhi and a temporary ‘environment-friendly’ facility near Yamuna bed.The national capital is also likely to have one helipad in each of its nine districts, with the city government allocating Rs 1 crore for the purpose.“The Delhi government has already allocated Rs 1 crore for one helipad in every district and many state governments are also earmarking funds for creation of helipads,” state-run Pawan Hans Helicopters Ltd (PHHL) Chairman R K Tyagi said in an interview here.To meet the demands of the Commonwealth Games, a fully-automated heliport would be constructed in the Rohini area of West Delhi, which would act as a hub for chopper operations during the mega event, he said.Another transit facility would come up near the DND Flyover near the river Yamuna. It would be a removable steel and glass structure keeping in mind the environmental concerns, Tyagi said, adding the structures were capable of being dismantled if the need was felt after the Games.

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Turmoil in the US financial sector – triggered by the Lehman Brothers collapse – may prove to be yet another dampener to the international air travel. Aviation experts fear US and the Europe-bound air traffic may be hit due to the crisis which is resulting in loss of jobs.According to International Air Transport Association (IATA), the financial sector meltdown poses a much sharper economic downturn than the fuel price spike. This may lead to negative growth in travel, affecting revenue of airlines.“The collapse of US financial giants would certainly affect US-bound air travel. Europe-bound traffic is also expected to get hit as some of the big financial institutions there are also heading to a possible crisis. Also there are many companies in the country which are directly or indirectly related with these falling giants,” Amadeus India managing director Ankur Bhatia said.Home-grown airlines, such as Jet Airways and Kingfisher Airlines, are, however, not in a hurry to assess the impact of the financial crisis on their international operations. Kingfisher which just started overseas operation by launching a service on Bangalore-London sector doesn’t see any significant dent to its maiden flight at least in the near future.According to industry estimates, corporate travellers comprise about 63%-65 % of the country’s total inbound and outbound international air traffic.

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The National Aviation Company of India Limited (Nacil) is all set to make a pretty penny from its old aircraft by converting them into cargo freighters operations.The carrier, which will have a fleet of eight freighters ready by the end of this month, started converting its old aircraft after they were considered too unsafe or too old to ferry passengers. So far Air India has converted six B737-200 passenger aircraft into freighters and is in the process converting two Airbus A310 passenger aircraft.“The conversion will be done by the end September,” Air India spokesperson Jitender Bhargava said. The national aviation company will soon invite global bids for leasing out two of its A310 freighters. It already has leasing agreements with the department of post and logistics major Gati for the rest of the aircraft.“We will soon put out a Request for Proposal (RFP) to lease out the two A310 freighters aircraft,” an official said. Air India had earlier planned to deploy these configured aircaft in its cargo service but it could not find a profitable route for these freighters and therefore decided to lease them out.The leasing deal is working so well for the carrier that the department of post has requested Air India to give it more aircraft so as to raise the number of freighters to four aircraft. The DoP mainly uses the aircraft for its air mail operations to the northeastern part of the country.The national carrier made around Rs 412 crore from cargo operations in 2000-01. This has more than doubled to Rs 834 crore for the fiscal year 2007-08.The revenues from cargo contribute nearly 10% of the total revenues of the carrier.

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Hyderabad: A single-engine aircraft - Cessna-152 (VTEMR)- crashlanded in the thickly populated Subashnagar area in Sanatnagar here at around 11.09 am resulting in the death of assistant flight instructor Captain Neeraj Jain (24) and trainee pilot P Srinivas of the AP Aviation Academy on Monday morning. Srinivas was charred to death in the aircraft, while Jain died on the way to hospital. Jain was from Gurgaon in Delhi, while Srinivas was a resident of Sainikpuri in the city.Begumpet airport director R K Singla told ‘TOI’ that according to Air Traffic Control (ATC) records the two-seater aircraft took off at 11.07 am from the Begumpet airport and lost contact with the ATC at 11.09 am. "We are yet to ascertain the reason for the accident," he said.A team of officials from the Directorate-General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) would go into the cause of the accident, police said.Eyewitnesses said the aircraft hurtled down and hit an electric pole before hitting the ground. The tail of the aircraft, however, got stuck in a nearby building.

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