In fact, Kingfisher’s delay in announcing the percentage of fare cut has benefited Jet Airways. Passengers have quickly moved over to Jet, and have started bookings tickets on sectors where both airlines have flights. It’s not yet known why the delay in announcing the cuts but an industry source said there were some miscalculations between Jet and Kingfisher alliance on the fare cut decision.

It was learnt that Jet-Kingfisher alliance had agreed to similar amount of fare cuts to be implemented on the same day. But now, Kingfisher is considering both basic fare and fuel surcharge cuts of around Rs 600 and Rs 400, respectively, which would be implemented next week, the industry source added.

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It is preparing the ground for a major policy shift on foreign ownership in aviation. Government sources say foreign airlines may be allowed to own a 20-25% stake in local carriers, but their role on boards and in the management would be limited.

The civil aviation ministry had, in the past, argued that allowing larger foreign airlines to own stakes in fledgling Indian carriers could cause harm to the domestic aviation sector.

“Things have changed. Earlier, only one Indian airline operated internationally. But now, three domestic carriers fly to foreign destinations. Our carriers have grown in size and scale in three to four years’ time. We don’t think the earlier concerns are relevant. If foreign telecom companies can buy stakes in Indian telecom companies, why can’t foreign airlines pick up stakes in domestic airlines?” a government official asked, on the condition of anonymity.

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“Close on the heels of the recent major fare reduction and ‘Spouse Plus’ scheme for the passengers, Air India is now offering attractive incentives for its approved travel agents,” a company press release said today.

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Jet Airways’ subsidiary, JetLite, too reduced basic fares on all its domestic flights with immediate effect. These fares will now be lower by up to 40%, Jet Airways said in a statement on Tuesday. A Mumbai-Delhi economy class basic fare will now be available for as low as Rs 750; the Mumbai-Chennai basic fare is at Rs 595; Ahmedabad-Goa is at Rs 245, while the Delhi-Hyderabad fare at Rs 999, without taxes.

On Sunday, Kingfisher Airlines chairman Vijay Mallya promised to slash fares from January 1. While he did not mention the exact percentage, experts believe it could be in the 10-15% range, which means fares could drop by Rs 500 to Rs 1,000. Jet Airways had already cut its basic fares by 15-40% with effect from Monday.

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With the latest cut, jet fuel in Delhi will cost Rs2,234.07 less at Rs30,457.21 per kilolitre effective midnight tonight, sources at Indian Oil Corporation, the nation’s largest fuel retailer, said.

Jet fuel prices, which make up half of airlines’ operating costs, have steadily fallen and is currently around 45 per cent of their all-time high level of Rs71,028.26 (Delhi) in August, and are at its July 2005 levels.

In Mumbai, ATF will cost Rs31,378.78 per kl from tomorrow against Rs33,719.47 per kl at present.

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According to home minister P Chidambaram, several major corporate groups including Tatas, Oberois, Infosys and Reliance have approached the government for Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) security cover for their installations and establishments on a chargeable basis.

Speaking at a press conference Chindambaram said that the government had received similar requests earlier, from two of the four corporates that have approached the government now.

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GSLV Mark III is a next generation launch vehicle designed to put four tonne satellites into orbit. But more importantly, it is expected to cut the costs of launching satellites by half, to enable Antrix Corporation, ISRO’s commercial arm offer the cheapest space launches in the niche market. The current GSLV can put 2.2 tone satellites in orbit.

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HAL officials noted that under a preliminary inter-governmental agreement signed in October last year, the advanced multi-role fighter is being developed by Sukhoi, part of UAC, along with the Bangalore-headquartered defence PSU.

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The first of these LRMR aircraft will be delivered within four years of the contract being actually signed, with the rest being handed over by 2015, said sources. The LRMR planes will replace the eight ageing and fuel-guzzling Russian-origin Tupolev-142Ms. Customised for India and based on the Boeing 737 commercial airliner, the radar-packed P-8I aircraft will go a long way in plugging the huge gaps in Navy’s maritime snooping capabilities with a range of over 600 nautical miles.

The Navy is also in the hunt for six new medium-range maritime reconnaissance aircraft for around Rs 1,600 crore to achieve its aim of an effective three-tier surveillance grid in the entire Indian Ocean. Both Navy and Coast Guard have come in for some criticism for not being able to pre-empt the 26/11 terror attacks in Mumbai, even though the two forces maintain that they did not get “actionable intelligence” in time.

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On the last two days of 2008, the situation was no better. The thick fog cover that engulfed the city saw airline companies cancel 24 flights, while almost the same number (22) were diverted.

These are not isolated cases. On Christmas day last year, a thick fog enveloped the city, delaying more than 60 flights.

So why is it that despite the third runway in Delhi being commissioned for low-visibility operations, air traffic operations continue to remain affected? There are various reasons. Not only does there have to be hardware on the ground to guide an aircraft in, pilots also need to be trained to adequate levels to be able to land in low or zero-visibility conditions.

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A passenger wanting to avail himself of these fares will have to make a booking by January 31 and ensure that the date of travel is at least 21 days after the booking has been made.

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A Delhi International Airport Ltd (DIAL) spokesperson said that the low visibility conditions lasted for more than 11 hours from 1 am to 12.15 pm.

An official statement from Kingfisher Airlines said that four of its flights were cancelled today, while one was diverted to Jaipur. Jet Airways said it had one of its flights cancelled due to bad weather, while one was diverted. Around 15 flights of Air India were affected.

Air India executives said that there was some mismanagement in the handling of air traffic, which also led to delays. “For example, our flight from London to Delhi had to be diverted because of congestion, and not bad weather. One would expect congestion to ease after the two runways are operational, but that does not happen all the time. Peak flight hours are too close to each other which leads to cascading delays,” said an executive.

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Rs 7.84 crore duty has been paid by operators, a Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) source said, adding that total customs duty involved was Rs 290.35 crore.

The CBEC had seized 16 aircrafts on which the owners had not paid customs duty.

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“The civil aviation ministry has allowed MIAL to increase aeronautical charges by 10% effective January 1, 2009. Due to this, landing, parking and passenger service fee at Mumbai airport would go up next year,” a person close to the development told ET. MIAL has already issued a circular in this regard to airlines, he added. A 10% increase in airport charges would add about Rs 35 crore to the airport’s total annual revenue.

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The employees were laid-off as the airline struggled to cope with a severe cash crunch, company sources said. The employees who were retrenched included pilots, cabin crew, ground handling staff and area sales managers.

The salary dues add up to Rs 80,000 to Rs 10 lakh for each employee, depending on their position. “GoAir is delaying our dues since the last six months,” said an ex-employee. “When we approach for our dues, the HR people don’t respond properly,” he added.

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“Ram Charan will be on the company’s advisory panel, guiding the CEO and operational team every quarter. We are gearing up to launch services in May-June, with a fleet of three Airbus 310s and three ATRs having 14 air touchpoints. We will be the largest and double the size of existing industry players on day one,” Capt Gopinath, chairman & managing director, Deccan Express Logistics, said. Three more ATRs will be added to the fleet subsequently.

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The airline reiterated its old condition that fares would be dropped as and when the government notifies aviation turbine fuel (ATF) as a declared good so that it attracts a uniform 4% sales tax across the country.

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A senior Jet Airways official declined to comment on the ongoing negotiations, but agreed there was a proposal to buy a stake in the MRO facility. No further details are available at this stage.

German carrier Lufthansa pulled out of a joint venture with Hyderabad International Airport. The airport, nevertheless, has signed an agreement with Malaysian Airlines. The MRO centre is promoted by the GMR group, which also operates the airport. It will handle all types of aircraft, including the A380s.

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government puts aviation turbine fuel under the "declared goods" category.

In a statement on Monday afternoon, Kingfisher Airlines said: "Once the government brings ATF under the declared goods category, we will immediately and significantly reduce fares."

Sources said Jet Airways, which has an operational alliance with Kingfisher, may also take a similar decision if ATF comes under declared goods.

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The proposed expansion coupled with the tumbling crude and ATF prices will help the business break-even faster, said a GoAir executive. He, however, did not disclose the investment required for the expansion. The exact financial performance of the company is not in the public domain. Industry experts say that the company incurred “substantial loss” last year.

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State-owned National Aviation Co of India (Nacil), which runs Air India, is supposed to get back to them on Friday.

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Indian carriers, according to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), are likely to account for one in every three dollars of losses in the global airline industry this year. It is a staggering amount for a country that accounted for only two per cent of the world air traffic.

All airlines, full-frill and low-cost, suffered major losses in revenue but somehow managed to survive by sticking together and joining hands to curtail flights and other costs, as the government also moved in to help them.

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A civil aviation ministry statement said the AAI has fulfilled the criteria for Miniratna title by posting continuous profit for the last three years and positive net worth.

The government has granted the Miniratna status to 55 companies so far.

The Miniratna status would allow the AAI to take up investments up to Rs.5 bn (Rs.500 crore) at any airport without seeking prior government approvals.

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"The design for establishing the first three pharmaceutical zones has been prepared. Besides storage and transportation, these zones will have drug-testing facilities to ensure quality," Dr Surinder Singh, the Drug Controller General of India, told ET.

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ISRO will also sent a man to space astride a Russian spaceship the same year, its chairman G Madhavan Nair said.

Besides, ISRO has lined up a slew of missions, which also include landing a spacecraft on an asteroid and sending a probe to fly past a comet, the ISRO chief told reporters at a function organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) to felicitate the members of the Chandrayaan I team.

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The event is seen as significant on many counts as Leh airfield is situated at an altitude of 10,600 feet and is one of the highest airfields in the world with a temperature variation ranging from plus 5 degrees Celsius to minus 20 degrees Celsius. The objective of the current phase of flight trials at Leh was to expose the on-board systems to the extreme low temperatures while making an assessment of the aircraft performance in the rarefied atmospheric conditions, DRDO officials said.

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At the same time, the official had ruled out any plans by Moscow to strike similar deals with China.

"Yes, there is a real possibility of leasing for ten years several of our nuclear powered multi-role submarines of Project 971 of ‘Shchuka-B’class," the Director of Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation (FSVTS) Mikhail Dmitriyev was quoted as saying by ITAR-TASS.

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ISRO signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Russian space agency Roskosmos on Joint Activities in the Field of Human Spaceflight Programme during the recent visit of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev here. Under the MoU signed by Nair and his Russian counterpart Anatoly Perminov, space scientists from the two countries will jointly build the spacecraft for India’s manned mission.

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Disclosing this to reporters on Saturday, project director of the Astra programme S. Gollakota said the Indian Air Force had made available a Su-30MKI for the trials.

Flights evaluations and specific telemetry were on and the detailed Su-30 was undergoing instrumentation and modifications in order to allow it to carry the missile on its wing tips at the HAL’s Nasik facility. During the trials, the Su-30MKI will carry a dummy Astra missile (with no explosives) which has not been electrically or electronically ‘connected’ to the aircraft’s on-board systems.

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Loans worth Rs 4,950 crore, including a foreign currency component of $350 million, were sanctioned for the ambitious project. Out of this, between Rs 2,500 crore and Rs 3,000 crore has already been disbursed.

As against this, DIAL’s promoters (Bangalore-based GMR, Fraport AG of Germany, Malaysia Airport Holdings, Indian Development Fund and Airports Authority of India) had committed to bring Rs 1,250 crore as equity and an additional Rs 2,750 crore as quasi-equity.

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