Pre-Monsoon Heating & Monsoon Rainfall

This is the report from Indian Met Department (IMD) showing Suppressed Surface Heating over northwestern parts of the Country and the ensuing Monsoon Rainfall. The full report can be found on the IMD website. Click on the Title to view Report.

Jet may phase out JetLite, bring operations under Jet Konnect

New Delhi: Jet Airways plans to bring all its low-fare operations under the Jet Konnect brand and phase out the JetLite brand completely.
The country’s largest airline by passengers carried believes that this move will simplify operations and remove the current confusion over two similar low-fare brands — Jet Konnect and JetLite.
Though no timeline is available for this transition, sources in the aviation industry and some officials of Jet confirmed that internal discussions have been held on phasing out JetLite.
These talks have gained momentum after the recent Bombay High Court order, which ended a messy legal battle between Jet and Sahara India Commercial Corporation.
The battle has its origins in Jet’s April 2007 purchase of Sahara Airlines — which operated Air Sahara — and later rebranding it to JetLite.
This court order will now enable Jet to carry out several business operations, including developing land, selling and leasing back of planes and rebranding JetLite, all of which had come under a cloud because of the litigation.
09/05/11 Sindhu Bhattacharya/Daily News & Analysis

Jet, Indigo, Kingfisher and others worried on Air India fare cut

Mumbai: National carrier Air India's move to lower fares by up to 20% on certain routes since January this year to prop up its falling market share is making other airlines see red as they face the prospect of taking a hit on their profits.

Airlines are worried that the national carrier's dash for market share has come at a time when oil prices have risen to record highs due to the Libyan crisis, raising their operational costs as much as 50% in some cases.

" Air India is offering all their seats at prices that are lying at the bottom of the yield bucket. They are reducing fares by as much as.`1,000 and competing with us by dropping fares, especially on the Delhi-Mumbai routes," said the CEO of a low-cost airline who did not wish to be identified. "A drop of .`100 in yield will bleed airlines by .`3 crore."

Despite having the largest fleet, Air India was recently overtaken by low-cost airline IndiGo in terms of market share. The national carrier has a market share of 15%. It has long lagged behind Jet and Kingfisher , the two large sector airlines. Air India's move has had some impact in January-March 2011 quarter, say analysts.

"Air India has dropped fares in the last quarter by 20%-30%. This forced other airlines to follow suit. With fuel costs up by more than 40%, this drop in fares by Air India has become a game changer for the fourth quarter of the last financial year," said Kapil Kaul , CEO, (Indian sub-continent & Middle East), CAPA.

Air India defends the strategy by saying that its market share has gone up and it has become competitive.

Eyewitnesses in Bhutan say they saw chopper trying to land

Official sources in the Arunachal Pradesh Government have said they are attempting to get in touch with some witnesses in Bhutan who have claimed seeing a chopper descending in their area, and then taking off in a north easterly direction.
The statement came as the search operation for missing Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Dorjee Khandu and four others was called off on Sunday due to inclement weather and receding light. The Government of India is trying to get in touch with the Bhutanese locals.
Meanwhile, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has released images of the area where its two satellites were used to try to find the missing chopper.
The chief minister's principal secretary, Yeshi Tsering, has also revealed that he received a phone call from a person who told him that the chief minister was safe in Bhutan. He suggested that it could have been Khandu. But this is yet to be corroborated and confirmed.
Pawan Hans has defended itself by saying that the missing helicopter was four-months old and in perfect condition technically.
In a statement, Pawan Hans said VIPs had used the chopper previously without experiencing any problem.
The defence of the chopper came as Chief Minister Khandu's adviser Kiren Rijiju said there was need to take a strong view on the maintenance capabilities of Pawan Hans.
He said the maintenance of choppers by the organization was erratic. He also said that as of now there was no official confirmation about the chopper landing in Bhutan.
The missing Pawan Hans AS350 B-3 helicopter that took off from Tawang at 9.50 a.m. on Saturday lost communication with the ground after it flew past the Sela Pass along the Chinese border about 20 to 25 minutes later. The helicopter was scheduled to land in Itanagar at 11.30 a.m. on Saturday.
On Saturday, several media reports quoted Arunachal Pradesh Governor General (retired) J J Singh and Chief Secretary Bam as saying that the helicopter had landed safely somewhere in eastern Bhutan adjoining Tawang district and that the same helicopter was flying back to Guwahati with the chief minister on board.
Bhutan, however, later denied that any Indian helicopter had landed in its territory, but said a search operation was launched following request from New Delhi.
Apart from Khandu, the people on board included crew members Captain J S Babbar and Captain K S Malick, Khandu's security officer Yeshi Choddak and Yeshi Lamu, sister of Tawang legislator Tsewang Dhondup.

No trace of Arunachal CM, ISRO roped in to trace chopper

New Delhi: Government on Saturday night alerted the Department of Space and ISRO for help in locating the whereabouts of the missing helicopter carrying Arunachal Pradesh chief minister Dorjee Khandu and four others.

Union Home Secretary G K Pillai said that Indian satellites have made two passes over the probable area from where the Pawan Hans helicopter went missing 20 minutes after takeoff from Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh but has not picked up any signals.

He said Pawan Hans helicopter carries a a location transponder that can communicate at 406 MHz frequency in the event of any emergency or it could also be manually operated.

The chopper was last in communication with the base when it was overflying Sela Pass, 20 minutes after taking off from Tawang, and all communication was lost after that.

There was confusion in the afternoon with claims made by Governor Gen (retd) J J Singh first and then by the chief minister's office and defence spokesperson that the chief minister had landed safely in a place called Daporijo in Upper Subansiri district. The CM's office said the helicopter had landed in a place in Bhutan.

The five on board included crew members Captain J S Babbar and Captain K S Malick, Khandu's security officer Yeshi Choddak and Yeshi Lamu, sister of Tawang MLA Tsewang Dhondup.