Air India posts first cash profit in 2 years

Mumbai: Air India has managed to post cash profit at the operational level in its domestic business after almost two years.
Reviewing the performance of the national carrier, the Minister of Civil Aviation, Mr Praful Patel, said on Friday that on the domestic side, the airline has managed a cash profit of Rs 87 crore in the half-year ended September 30 against a cash loss of Rs 472 crore in the same time last year.
On the international side, Air India's cash loss has also gone down to Rs 500 crore from Rs 1,142 crore.
In the last six months, the airline's load factor increased by 5 per cent and its yield per passenger has gone up by 13 per cent, compared to same time last year.

Air India plans to revive Vayudoot

New Delhi: National Aviation Company of India Ltd (Nacil), which owns Air India, is planning to revive the defunct Vayudoot airline to improve connectivity to small towns and cities. It had earlier planned to sell the brand.
Delhi-based Vayudoot was launched as a subsidiary of erstwhile Indian Airlines in January 1981 to serve the northeast region. Vayudoot grew to operating in 100 stations across the country.
However, due to deep financial crises, Vayudoot was merged with Indian Airlines. It ceased operations in 1997 and the airline’s employees were absorbed by Indian Airlines or Air India.
In its new avatar, Vayudoot will be a feeder service bringing traffic from small towns to larger cities and state capitals and from there to other national and international destinations.
As part of the plan, Vayudoot will operate from states like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand and the northeast region, which have over 50 small airstrips or airports, mostly not in use.
The official added that the plan is to operate four types of aircraft depending on demand: 15-20 seat, 50-seat, 120-180 seat and 300-seat aircraft. Plans are being made to lease these aircraft and also to ascertain the cost of reviving the airline.

63 airports operating without license in country, says DGCA

Nagpur - As many as 63 airports in India, including those in Mumbai, Delhi, Kochi and Hyderabad, are being operated without a valid licence, Director General of Civil Aviation has told the Bombay High Court.

The Nagpur Airport is also among the defaulters who have not procured licence from DGCA, an affidavit filed by the civil aviation authority contended.

The affidavit was filed on Wednesday in the court of Justice Sharad Bobade and Justice Mridula Bhatkar in response to a PIL challenging transfer of Nagpur airport to MIHAN India Pvt Ltd (MIPL) from Airports Authority of India (AAI).

After receiving assurance from MIPL that till June 30, 2011, it will remove 25 deficiencies from the total 59 pointed out by the DGCA in regard to infrastructure and functioning of Nagpur airport, the court directed the DGCA to ensure this should be complied with within a month.

The court also directed DGCA to take further steps to issue licenses for running the airports.

Through a government notification, it has been made clear that no person would be able to operate scheduled air transport service to/from an aerodrome from June 30, unless it was licensed, DGCA said.

121.5 Phase out

Switch to 406!

The International Cospas-Sarsat System has ceased satellite processing of 121.5/243 MHz beacons on 1 February 2009. All beacon owners and users should replace their 121.5/243 MHz beacons with 406 MHz beacons as soon as possible.

Only 406 MHz beacons are now detected by the Cospas-Sarsat satellite system. This affects all maritime beacons (EPIRBs), all aviation beacons (ELTs) and all personal beacons (PLBs). However, other devices (such as man overboard systems and homing transmitters) that operate at 121.5 MHz and do not rely on satellite detection are not affected by the phase-out of satellite processing at 121.5 MHz.

The decision to terminate 121.5/243 MHz processing was made in October 2000 at the 25th Session of the Cospas-Sarsat Council (CSC-25).

Why Switch?

Cospas-Sarsat made the decision to cease satellite processing at 121.5/243 MHz in response to guidance from the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and the International Maritime Organization (IMO). These United Nations organizations mandate safety requirements for aircraft and maritime vessels and have recognised the limitations of the 121.5/243 MHz beacons and the superior capabilities of the 406 MHz alerting system.

The digital 406 MHz beacons offer many advantages over analog 121.5/243 MHz beacons. With a 406 MHz beacon, the position of the distress can be relayed to rescue services more quickly, more reliably and with greater accuracy.

	406 MHz Beacon	121.5/243 MHz Beacon
Signal	Digital: unique identification, registration data provides information on the owner/vessel or aircraft	Analog: no data encoded, higher false alert rate
Signal Power	5 Watts pulse	0.1 Watts continuous (typical)
Coverage	Global	Regional
Position Accuracy	Within 5 km (Doppler), 100m if GNSS (GPS) position is encoded in message	Within 20 km (Doppler only)
Alert Time	GEO alert within 5 minutes	Waiting time for LEO satellite pass 45 minutes average
Doppler Position Ambiguity	Resolution possible at first satellite pass	Two passes required to resolve position ambiguity

With a 121.5/243 MHz beacon, only one alert out of every 50 alerts was a genuine distress situation. This had a significant effect on the resources of search and rescue (SAR) services. With 406 MHz beacons, false alerts have been considerably reduced (about one alert in 17 is genuine) and when properly registered can normally be resolved with a telephone call to the beacon owner using the encoded beacon identification. Consequently, real alerts can receive the attention they deserve.

When a 406 MHz beacon signal is received, SAR authorities can retrieve information from a registration database. This includes beacon owner contact information, emergency contact information, and vessel/aircraft identifying characteristics. Having this information allows SAR services to respond appropriately. Make sure your 406 MHz beacon is properly and accurately registered!

For more information

For the detailed Cospas-Sarsat Phase Out Plan for 121.5/243 MHz Satellite Alerting Service, please see document
C/S R.010 "Cospas-Sarsat Phase-Out Plan for 121.5/243 MHz Satellite Alerting" .