Gulf Air to cancel Jet lease deal

Bahrain's national carrier Gulf Air has walked away from a deal to lease four Boeing 777 aircraft from India's Jet Airways, citing economic conditions. Gulf Air said it had an option to lease the aircraft after an existing six-month contract expires, but has decided not to go ahead, the Gulf Daily News reported. "After careful analysis of various commercial and other business considerations, Gulf Air has decided not to pursue the dry lease option for the foreseeable future," the daily quoted the airline as saying. Dry leases are contracts under which airlines lease planes without staff. Gulf Air said in February it had agreed to lease four Boeing 777s as part of its efforts to replace its fleet. The existing six-month contract is a wet lease agreement, which typically includes staff. Meanwhile, Gulf Air has placed a $270 million order for CFM56-5B engines to power 15 new Airbus A320 family aircraft. The aircraft are scheduled for delivery between 2009 and 2013. The carrier has also signed a 10-year On Point Solution agreement of $100 million with GE Aviation for the maintenance, repair and overhaul of the engines. "Selecting the CFM56-5B engine demonstrates our continued trust and confidence in this product's excellent technical capability," said Gulf Air chairman Talal Alzain.

Source: Business Standard

Arvind Jadhav is new CMD of Nacil

Arvind Jadhav, a 1978 batch Indian Administrative Service officer, has been appointed the chairman and managing director (CMD) of National Aviation Co. of India Ltd (Nacil), which runs the Air India branded airlines. The appointment has been approved by the Prime Minister’s Office late on Thursday evening, a senior government official told Mint. Jadhav’s candidature was suggested by a committee headed by cabinet secretary K.M. Chandrasekhar last week after the government decided to replace the incumbent CMD Raghu Menon. Jadhav is likely to take office on Monday

Source: Livemint

Government to replace AI-IA CMD Raghu Menon

In a surprise move, the government has started the hunt for a new Air India -Indian Airlines CMD to replace Raghu Menon, the current CMD, who has still two years to go. Menon, an IAS officer of 1974 batch, was appointed CMD last April.Cabinet secretary K M Chandrasekhar is scheduled to have a meeting of search committee with heads of other ministries on Friday to finalise the chairman of Airport Economic Regulatory Authority (AERA) and now finding Menon's successor has also been added to this meeting's agenda.The move to begin search for a new AI CMD has been kept secret as the mega airline is struggling to get over merger issues, especially with distrust running deep between former AI and IA employees. "The merger has been only on paper. At a time like this, the news that the government is trying to get a new head for AI would just send a message to worried employees that the owner (the state) is struggling to find someone to run the airline," said sources.Aviation secretary M M Nambiar will also attend Friday's meeting with the cabinet secretary. According to sources, Menon might be appointed head of AERA. While he had applied for the post first time round, the government had called for applications for the post again and that time he did not reapply.

Source: Times of India

SpiceJet plans acquisition

Low-cost airline SpiceJet will plan to acquire another airline company after a year, according to its CEO Sanjay Aggarwal.
Mr. Aggarwal said consolidation in the airline industry would certainly happen after 12-18 months. “If and when it happens, SpiceJet would be rather a buyer than a seller,” he said.
The company registered 12.5 per cent growth in February, against less than eight per cent in September last. Low-cost carriers had a growth potential of 1.5 times of gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate.
Mr. Aggarwal said the company commenced a detailed analysis of the potential in connecting Tier-II cities and acquiring smaller aircraft for the purpose. It was also extending its services on international routes for which the company would become eligible from May 2010.
Explaining that the smaller aircraft might have 40, 70 or 100 seats, Mr. Aggarwal said 1.3-lakh passengers were being carried by all airlines in the country every day. He said there was a potential for growth, as at least 8-10 per cent of the 15 million train passengers could be attracted to use airlines.
He said the company was trying to become more passenger-friendly by addressing the needs of travellers. At present, the company was operating 115 flights with 19 aircraft. Two more flights to Ahmedabad and Bangalore were being introduced from Hyderabad.
While in the U.S. and Europe, low-cost airlines would use low-cost airports, the industry was suffering due to lack of infrastructure in India. There was no scope for minimising airport charges in places like Hyderabad and Bangalore.