Air India

[Aviador]

No way! :shok:

 

[thunderchild]

Afraid so;

http://www.bangaloreaviation.com/2014/1 ... parts.html

 

[Ray Finkle]

Update: Oct. 14, 2014. 21:00 IST
An Air India spokesperson sent us an e-mail and said “Aircraft VT-ANI is currently undergoing reliability improvement retrofit (modification) and will resume operations in November.”

Hmmm.

Incidentally VT-ANS now has a delivery date of November 16th.

After that ANT is due 1st Jan and ANU 12th March.

 

[Ray Finkle]

More conformation from Rohit Nandan, Chairman and Managing Director, that BHX will go daily.

Also on the anvil is the plan to increase the frequency of the Delhi-Birmingham-Delhi B787 flights to daily from the current four-times-a-week service. An addition of extra 1,500 seats a week on route will give passengers greater choice, flexibility and the opportunity to travel from Birmingham airport to Delhi and Amritsar, Nandan said.

Full article: http://www.travelbizmonitor.com/air-ind ... 2014-25774

In other news (which may or may not be related).

NEW DELHI: Uncertainty hangs over Air India's Dreamliner flying in thick fog this winter.

This year, say sources, the airline trained most of its Dreamliner pilots in time for Cat III B operations but DGCA is yet to certify the aircraft for landing in dense fog. "In Delhi, dense fog is expected after a month but the Boeing 787 flies to London, Paris, Birmingham and Frankfurt and these places are already reporting low visibility. If an AI Dreamliner flies to these places and finds foggy conditions, the aircraft will have to look for an alternative airport that can have a category 1 landing, which means the visibility should be over 550 metres," said a source.

Full article: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city ... 116852.cms

 

[Ray Finkle]

After a test flight today VT-ANS is now showing as ready for delivery with a revised delivery date of 19th November (tomorrow), fingers crossed.

VT-ANT also has a slightly earlier estimated delivery date of 26/12/14.

Incidentally Air India's two A330's were withdrawn from service last week so whether that will affect matters I don't know.

 

[Ray Finkle]

Hardly a surprise but according to FR24 VT-ANS hasn't departed today.

Looks as though we may potentially see diversions away if the weather closes in this winter:

Air India Dreamliners may finally fly in light fog

NEW DELHI: Air India's Dreamliners are having a race against time to get prepared for Delhi's winter fog. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) is all set to give instrument landing system (ILS) category II certification to the Boeing 787, allowing it to land in shallow fog.......

......."We will give Cat II certification soon and then each pilot will have to do 50 landings on this to go to the next step of Cat III. Let's see if that can happen this winter," said a senior official.

While the fog in Delhi may still be some time away, poor visibility in the foreign destinations where AI Dreamliners fly is already creating problems for its flyers.

On Sunday, for instance, AI's Delhi-Shanghai flight had to be diverted to Hangzhou (in China) due to poor visibility in Shanghai. AI had to then send 192 passengers to expensive hotels in Hangzhou.

Full article: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/indi ... 253842.cms

 

[Ray Finkle]

Daily from December 21st, it's now bookable

 

[Brum X]

Daily from December 21st, it's now bookable

This is more great news for the airport, really starting to feel positive about BHX. 2015 is going to be a great year. :good: :good: :good: :good: :good: :good: :good: :good:


Also lets not forget, all these increases and new routes/airlines for the airport also = MORE JOBS AND EMPLOYMENT FOR THE AREA.

 

[Ray Finkle]

It is definitely good news for the region.

I'm not surprised it's going to be up and running before Christmas as so far the 18th, 20th and 27th of December and 3rd, 5th and 6th of January are sold out.

2015 is going to be a great year. :good: :good: :good: :good: :good: :good: :good: :good:

I'm a bit 'meh' about 2015 at the moment, but, there's plenty of time for more to come so we'll see on Jan 1st

 

[Brum X]

Why are you a bit "meh" about 2015 ray ????


Flybe and Monarch ?????

 

[Ray Finkle]

I've replied on the Route Development thread, click the link below, I warn you though it's a long one

topic427-570.html

 

[Ray Finkle]

Not strictly BHX related but a picture of Air India's two A330's, VT-IWA and VT-IWB, which are now at St Athan, Wales after arriving from BOM.

 

[Ray Finkle]

Nothing new just the airports article about AI going daily. I won't post the whole article it as there's no new info so click the link if interested.

Air India to Commence Daily Flights From Birmingham

 

[Ray Finkle]

I found some interesting figures on another forum showing the market share of Air India's top routes out of Delhi. These are the BHX stats:

Numbers are YTD Oct'14 and MAT Oct'14

YTD : April to October
MAT: Oct'13 to Oct'14

The below is for individual ODs only ... purely O n D


Delhi - Birmingham
---------------------------

YTD BKG % MAT.BKG %
TOTAL AIRLINE 100% 100%
AIR FRANCE - AF 1% 1%
AUSTRIAN AIRLINES AG DBA AUSTRIAN - OS 0% 0%
DEUTSCHE LUFTHANSA - LH 6% 4%
EMIRATES - EK 25% 27%
ETIHAD AIRWAYS - EY 0% 0%
JET AIRWAYS INDIA - 9W 1% 1%
KLM - ROYAL DUTCH AIRLINES - KL 1% 1%
NACIL D/B/A AIR INDIA - AI 56% 57%
SWISS INTERNATIONAL AIR LINES (LX-724) - LX 7% 5%
TURKISH AIRLINES INC. - TK 2% 3%

It's no real surprise that AI have nearly 60% of the business and that Emirates are second with around a quarter, what did surprise me though was Lufthansa being as low as 6% and even more surprising was Turkish Airlines at only 2% and KLM at 1%, both lower than Swiss. It would be interesting to see where Turkmenistan would be.

There are also stats for LHR, JFK, CDG, FRA, HKG, MEL and SYD, if anyone is interested I'll post them?

 

[Ray Finkle]

I'm not surprised it's going to be up and running before Christmas as so far the 18th, 20th and 27th of December and 3rd, 5th and 6th of January are sold out.

The new flights look to be selling very well. To add to the above the 11th, 13th and 25th of December are now sold out aswell as Sunday January 4th which, as one of the new flights, has only been on sale just over a week

 

[Brum X]

This is good to see, i have no doubt these flights will be popular.

Now i wonder if Turkmenistan have anything up there sleeves in the future to spoil the party ???

 

[Brummiegem]

Not sure about Turkmenistan but EK may have!!!

 

[thunderchild]

I notice that Air Canada are launching YYZ-DEL next year - think that rules out any chance of AI re-launching YYZ, either direct or through BHX again.

 

[Ray Finkle]

I'm not surprised it's going to be up and running before Christmas as so far the 18th, 20th and 27th of December and 3rd, 5th and 6th of January are sold out.

The new flights look to be selling very well. To add to the above the 11th, 13th and 25th of December are now sold out aswell as Sunday January 4th which, as one of the new flights, has only been on sale just over a week

Tomorrow's flight (13th Dec) is sold out and to add to the above list, Sun 21st Dec (another of the recently added flights), Mon 22nd Dec and Fri 26th Dec (again another recently added flight) are also showing sold out

 

[Brum X]

I'm not surprised it's going to be up and running before Christmas as so far the 18th, 20th and 27th of December and 3rd, 5th and 6th of January are sold out.

The new flights look to be selling very well. To add to the above the 11th, 13th and 25th of December are now sold out aswell as Sunday January 4th which, as one of the new flights, has only been on sale just over a week

Tomorrow's flight (13th Dec) is sold out and to add to the above list, Sun 21st Dec (another of the recently added flights), Mon 22nd Dec and Fri 26th Dec (again another recently added flight) are also showing sold out

There does seem to be quite a few "Sold out" flights over the Christmas/New Year period, do you think next year we could be seeing a couple of 777s from Air India to take up some of the slack ???????