The Year Gone By

Year 2013 marked three first flights from the top three airplane manufacturers: Airbus, Boeing and Bombardier. The Airbus A350-900 took to the skies on June 14, targeting a 12-month certification programme with five airplanes and service entry in September 2014. The airplane has 814 orders and is powered by the Rolls-Royce Trent XWB, the largest jet engine powering an Airbus airplane. Airbus also began deliveries of its Sharklet-equipped A320 airplanes, taking the family one step closer to the new engine option (neo). The Pratt and Whitney PW1100G geared turbofan engine that will power the A320neo family took to the skies on May 15.

At the Dubai Air Show in November, Boeing launched the 777X, the largest, and claimed to be the most efficient twinengine jet in the world. With 259 orders, it is a successful airplane that dethroned the Queen of the Skies, the Boeing 747 whose production rates were slashed, while the 737’s production rate was ramped up. The only engine powering the 737MAX, the CFM Leap-1B, is yet to begin testing, the design having been finalised in May. The Boeing 737MAX’s design was finalised on July 23. The aviation partner’s split scimitar winglets look similar to the winglets which will feature on the new Boeing 737MAX family. The first such winglet flew on a United 737-800 on July 16. The Boeing 787-9 took to the skies, for the first time on September 17.

Bombardier launched the CSeries’ certification campaign with the first flight of the CS100 on September 16, 2013, with plan for service entry revised till late 2015. Sales of the CSeries are not encouraging, owing to the many firsts associated with the promising airplane and the manufacturer. The CSeries has been a game changer, forcing Airbus into the A320neo, Boeing into the 737MAX and Embraer into the E-Jet E2. Embraer officially launched the E-Jet E2, re-engined, re-winged and stretched versions of the Embraer E-190/195 and E-175 jets, amidst a very encouraging response. The first E-Jet E2 type, the E-190-E2, is expected to enter service mid-2018.

ATR bagged an order for 173 airplanes at the Paris Air Show, an impressive performance in a limited market space. The 747-8 and A380 sales have been disappointing, pointing to the market preference for airplanes with the capacity, range and flexibility of the wide-body twins on offer by Airbus and Boeing.

Beechcraft, which emerged from bankruptcy, will be bought by Textron. Beechcraft, formerly Hawker-Beechcraft, no longer makes the Hawker Business Jets, focusing on propeller aircraft. Beechcraft’s King Air turboprop complements the Cessna line up, which includes single-engine pistons and turboprops, but no multi-engine turboprop to fill the gap between its Caravan and light jets.

Mahindra Aerospace, which was rumoured to be in the race to bid for Beechcraft, inaugurated its aero-structures manufacturing facility at the Narasapura Industrial Estate near Bengaluru, in October. Mahindra aims to start manufacturing the eight-seat GA-8 Airvan at its new plant in the next two years, making it the first private general aviation/commuter aircraft manufacturing company in India.

Honeywell-Safran’s Electric Green Taxiing System (EGTS) International achieved a major milestone when its Airbus A320 registered F-HGNT moved for the first time in April without a tug or its engines, powered by the APU and driven by motors attached to the outer wheels of the main landing gear. The system claims reduction in fuel burn by four per cent and saves the airline money through reduced brake and engine wear, FOD and self pushback without a tug, amongst others. The Honeywell-Safran programme got a boost when Airbus signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to develop the electric taxiing solution for the A320 family.

Indian Airline Industry

Air travel in India witnessed whiffs of fresh air. Air Costa commenced operations on October 15 as a regional scheduled operator with two Embraer E-175 aircraft. End December, the airline received two new Embraer E-190s.

AirAsia India was announced on February 19, as a joint venture between Tata Sons, AirAsia Berhad and Telstra Tradeplace. The airline will operate as a regional scheduled operator, keeping away from high demand Tier-I routes for now. Operations are expected to commence mid-2014. Tata Sons and Singapore Airlines announced, to the chagrin of Telstra Tradeplace’s Arun Bhatia, a full service airline focused on international operations. The airline has applied for no objection certificate (NOC) and operations are expected to commence mid-2014, with a fleet of narrow-body aircraft.

IndiGo, with the largest market share of 30 per cent, reported a profit of Rs. 787 crore and was the only profit-making airline in 2013 and for the fifth consecutive year. The airline’s promoter Rahul Bhatia hinted at a possible broadening of focus, eyeing Tier-II and Tier-III cities with smaller regional aircraft. The airline ordered Airbus A321neo aircraft to be available in 2017. Ending September, SpiceJet, with a 20 per cent market share, reported its worst ever quarterly loss of Rs. 559 crore. The airline is in need of funds, its Chief Executive Officer Neil Mills quit and the airline is unhappy with the Q400 fleet. Its customer satisfaction ratings have slipped. The airline took onboard Sanjiv Kapoor as the Chief Operating Officer who roped in Bain & Co to help restructure the airline. An investor for the airline is expected to be disclosed early 2014.

Jet Airways, with a 17 per cent market share (22.5 per cent when clubbed with JetKonnect) became the first airline to receive foreign direct investment of Rs. 2,069 crore from Etihad by way of merger that has triggered anti-merger sentiments in court. The airline’s Q2 losses touched Rs. 1,000 crore. GoAir with a nine per cent market share, still under 20 aircraft, has 72 Airbus A320neo on order. The airline plans to begin international operations when eligible. The low-cost carrier plans to have a separate business class product and is reportedly in talks with three airlines for foreign direct investment.

Kingfisher Airlines, which lost its operating permit late 2012, slipped further into despair when the Karnataka High Court admitted a petition filed by a consortium of banks seeking winding up of the airline. Air Mantra, a regional scheduled airline from the Religare group, ceased operations in March, eight months after launch.

Air India continues to baffle, offering competitive, low-cost airfares on domestic sectors while operating as a full service airline. The airline has obtained permission to sell five Boeing 777-200LRs to Etihad at prices same as that of a new aircraft. It is the only operational airline to have not received a narrow-body aircraft this year. The airline has faced a lot of issues from the 11 Boeing 787s in its fleet.

Two new airlines scheduled to start operations in 2014 are Bengaluru-based Air Pegasus with ATR 72 aircraft and Delhibased SkyjetAir which has plans to cover nine cities with Airbus A320 aircraft. Startups Zexus Air and ABC Airways may operate with Embraer-170/175 airplanes. In November 2013, Kairali Airlines announced plans to start operations in April 2014. The fleet may comprise ATR 72 airplanes.

Passenger traffic on domestic routes in 2013 rose by 4.2 per cent compared to 2012, but seat capacity grew by only 1.7 per cent, leading to higher overall load factors. In line with the previous year’s trend, the month of May witnessed the highest traffic, capacity and load factors, while the month of September witnessed the lowest traffic and load factors. However, capacity was surprisingly high in September.

International passenger traffic grew by 7.2 per cent compared to 2012, but seat capacity grew by 7.5 per cent leading to slightly lower overall load factors. In line with the previous year’s trend, January witnessed the highest passengers but the load factors like last year were best in June. February witnessed a sudden slump to the lowest traffic, while in 2012, September recorded the lowest traffic. Unlike last year, the highest capacity was in July, which led to the worst load factors.

Air Safety: India

IndiGo had two runway excursions, one at Bengaluru and another at Mumbai. There was a bird strike at Agartala. A SpiceJet Q400 suffered a tail-strike at Tuticorin. A Jet-Konnect Boeing 737 experienced an engine shutdown in flight, while Air India’s 787s proved to be problematic on at least five occasions. A trainee pilot from the Indira Gandhi Rastriya Udan Academy (IGRUA) was lost in the only fatal accident in 2013.

Aviation Administration

The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) of India Bill 2013 was introduced in the Lok Sabha in August to provide full operational and financial autonomy to administer and regulate civil aviation safety and manage safety oversight over air transport operators, air service navigation operators and operators of other civil aviation facilities. This bill follows the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Audit of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) in 2012, which found “severe deficiencies” and “unsatisfactory situation” in the DGCA. The CAA will be able to independently recruit professionals to fill posts. But in September, the CAA Bill was sent to a Standing Committee and is expected to take two years to form once passed.

The FAA conducted two safety audits in September and December following the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) audit in August. The ICAO’s earlier audit had deemed the DGCA to have the worst safety oversight, a tag that was removed after the recent audit. Thirty-three issues with the DGCA were identified by the FAA after the first audit. India’s aviation safety status as deemed by the FAA will be known in a few weeks.

Aircraft

India added 80 aircraft this year, including the country’s first Cessna Citation Mustang and the country’s second amphibian aircraft: a Cessna 206H. Out of a total of 1,647 civil aircraft in the country, 1,190 (72 per cent) are with fixed-wing airline, business and general aviation airplanes and 287 (17 per cent) are helicopters and 40 (two per cent) are ultra-light, fixed-wing sport aviation aircraft and 25 (one per cent) are hang-gliders, most of which are powered.

Of the 1,190 powered airplanes, 415 fly for scheduled airlines. Of these, only 150 are Boeing 737 family and 160 Airbus A320 family aircraft. There are 15 Q400s and 25 ATR-42 and 72 aircraft.

Flying Training & Licensing

The DGCA issued 629 commercial pilot licences, 41 commercial helicopter pilot licences, 375 airline transport pilot licences and 15 airline transport pilot-helicopter licences in 2013. The Delhi High Court issued a judgement in May exempting AME training and pilot training organisations from paying service tax.

The newest flying training school to mushroom is GMR-APFT based out of Hyderabad International Airport, which has three Diamond DA-40D diesel engine airplanes and is soon to get a DA-42 twin-engine aircraft. Chimes Aviation Academy has initiated the process of converting some of their Cessna 172Rs to Thielert-powered diesel engine airplanes. DGCA approval for the conversion has been granted.

Honeywell Technology Solutions Lab, which started its engineer-PPL training programme in 2011, has upgraded the course in 2013 to include instrument exposure. This is currently being done at Chimes Aviation Academy, under a corporate private pilot licence (PPL) programme. The company is keen on providing its employees exposure to the Garmin G1000 system, with the hope of the engineers bringing back some good features and possible innovations to Honeywell’s general aviation product line.

In September, the Lok Sabha passed the bill for the setup of a National Aviation University in the name of Rajiv Gandhi National Aviation University at Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Udan Academy. The National Aviation University aims to facilitate and promote aviation studies, teaching, training and research with focus on emerging areas of studies such as aviation maintenance, management, aviation regulation and policy, aviation history, aviation science and engineering, aviation law, aviation safety and security, aviation medicine, search and rescue, transportation of dangerous goods, environmental studies and other related fields and also to achieve excellence in these and connected fields in emerging areas and such areas as deemed necessary. The university will also be a knowledge partner to safety and security regulators by providing required academic inputs to help them execute their enforcement responsibility better.

In July, the DGCA approved a Flight Simulation Technique Centre (FSTC) at Gurgaon as a Type Rating Training Organisation for Airbus 320 and Boeing 737 NG family of airplanes. The FSTC is a joint venture company with SIM Industries BV, Netherlands and a Lockheed Martin Company. In August 2013, CAE operationalised its full flight simulator centre at Greater Noida Industrial Area, about 40 kilometres southeast of Delhi, to provide “wet” and “dry” type-rating, recurrent, conversion and jet indoctrination training for commercial aircraft pilots. The facility has two Airbus A320 Level D simulators and is CAE’s fifth training facility in the country.

Air Traffic System

The air traffic system in India moved closer to greater efficiency, reduced flight times, reduced delays and reduced fuel burn with the DGCA’s certification of the GPS-aided geo augmented navigation (GAGAN) system. GAGAN improves the accuracy of a GNSS receiver, allowing for tailored arrivals, GPS approaches with localiser like precision, ability to operate with lower weather minima, arrivals and approaches in areas with challenging terrain and more direct flight routes.

Mumbai got a new air traffic control (ATC) tower and Delhi’s tower is under construction. These two ATC towers are the tallest in the country. The Mumbai ATC tower has already been inaugurated.

The Final Word

2013 was a big year for aviation, but with many programmes having been initiated in the same year, 2014 is going to be a better, more exciting and interesting year for civil aviation, globally and for India.