New Technology

South Korea's Incheon International Airport was voted the best in the world for 2009 in an annual survey dominated by Asian airports. The survey, by British-based consultancy Skytrax, covered more than 190 airports and is based on the results from 8.6 million passenger questionnaires completed from 2008 to 2009. 'Incheon is an airport that has been in the global top 5 ranking for the World Airport Awards during the past 5-6 years, and it is a great achievement for them to secure this premier mark of customer satisfaction,'Skytrax CEO Edward Plaisted said.

India's flag carrier Air India, which is struggling to cope with a cash crunch, will ask for a Rs.10,000-crore (about $2 billion) bailout package from the central government, a senior official said.

Airline officials, who discussed the airline's financial problems with Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel Tuesday night, will meet top government officials again seeking help.

The minister arrived here Tuesday after attending the Paris air show.

'We are looking for at least Rs.10,000 crore bailout package. I am not sure if the government would agree on this,' said the Air India official, who did not want to be named.

Air India earlier said it was looking for a bailout package worth at least Rs.15,000 crore from the government.

Air India chairman and managing director Arvind Jadhav, Civil Aviation Secretary M. Madhavan Nambiar and other senior ministry and airline officials had met the Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister, T.K.A. Nair, Monday with the demands.

But they did not get any assurance from Nair.

Jadhav last week met Cabinet Secretary K.M. Chandrasekhar.

National Aviation Co of India Ltd (NACIL), which owns Air India, had earlier announced that it would delay the salaries of its over 31,000 employees for 15 days. The management has also asked the top executives of the airline to forgo their one month's salary.

The employees, however, did not accept the management's decision and said they would go for an indefinite strike from July 1 if the management delays their salaries.

According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), the global aviation industry is expected to lose about $9 billion this year.

The Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation (CAPA) says the Indian aviation industry is likely to incur around $2 billion losses this year.

After a thorough interrogation and search Indian authorities confirmed that the military cargo aircraft, which has landed in Mumbai air port yesterday was carrying medicines to the US troops operating in Afghanistan and no weapons or ammunition were on board said IAF spokesperson Wg Cdr Tarun Kumar Singha.

Speaking to ANI Wg Cdr Singha said the aircraft was hired by the US military, from a Russian agency. All the 18 persons including the crewmembers who were in the aircraft were civilians and belonged to the Russian agency.

The hired military cargo aircraft violated the Indian air space near Gujarat yesterday and was forced to land at Mumbai's Chatrapati Shivaji International Airport.

The aircraft was travelling from Diego Garcia island, a military base of the US near Mauritius in the Indian Ocean, to Kandahar in Afghanistan.

Wg Cdr Singha said that according to norms any hired civilian aircrafts for the military purposes has to get an AOR clearance form the IAF on this case the Russian agency did not obtain the clearance, the Mumbai ATR instructed the captain to land the aircraft.

He denied the report of IAF planes escorting the intruded aircraft and said the pilot followed the instruction given by the ATR, so the question of escort does not arise.

The Indian authorities have given the clearance to the aircraft to fly. Shreeraj Gudi

An Italian woman, who arrived late for the Air France flight that crashed in the Atlantic, was not so lucky after all. She has been killed in a car accident in Austria.

Johanna Ganthaler was holidaying in Brazil with her husband and missed Air France Flight 447 after turning up late at Rio de Janeiro airport on May 31, The Times reported.

All 228 people aboard lost their lives after the plane crashed into the Atlantic four hours into its flight to Paris.

The couple, from Bolzano-Bozen province, had managed to pick up a flight from Rio the following day.

Ganthaler died when their car turned across a road and swerved into an oncoming truck.

Her husband was seriously wounded.

Air India has started a new fare war in the skies both on the domestic and international sectors. It has also launched a daily Delhi-Chicago flight via Frankfurt on Sunday.

Air India has started summer special fares at four levels starting at Rs1,891 (all inclusive) and the highest fare would be Rs 2,901 and will be valid for 148 domestic sectors. However, for flights originating from Delhi or Mumbai, passengers will have to pay an airport development fee of Rs 200 per ticket.

Under the new structure, a Delhi-Mumbai one-way ticket would cost Rs 2,611, while the normal fare on this sector on a full fare airline would cost between Rs 5,500 and Rs 6,000. Special fares will be available for tickets purchased 30 days in advance and the tickets will be available till June 30.

However, journey on the advance tickets can be undertaken after June 30 as well. For the Delhi-Chicago sector, the ticket would be at least 30 per cent cheaper in comparison to other airlines flying that route and has been priced at Rs 46,000 for a return ticket (including taxes).

"We would like to offer these promotional fares till March next year. Summer being the peak travel season and with very competitive fares on offer, we hope 80 per cent passenger load factors," said Lalit Kapoor, sales and marketing general manager, Air India.

The airline is also offering tickets that are nearly 30 per cent cheaper than other airlines on other international routes, including London, Frankfurt, Paris, New York, Chicago and Toronto. Kapoor said the airline would also start a service to San Francisco in October, after Air India gets new aircraft in July.

Low cost carriers SpiceJet, Indigo and JetLite have also come up with special fares in the 30-day advance purchase scheme to corner the summer traffic.