Kolkata (CCU) | Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport

[arijeetb]

Originally Posted by abhipinak

Thanks for the photos Arijeet... Hopefully much more work has been done in the past 6 weeks.....

On the above pic, i hope, they clean up the weeds and have a better landscaped garden or something....

Intend to travel to Kolkata for a week in April mid, if i do get time.... will take pics on and off the airport...

Cheers

thanks Abhipinak. Yes, it would be good if they can spruce up the whole surroundings once the main work is complete. Let us not forget that the entire area above the basement car park will be landscaped, so hopefully they should start this activity as soon as realistically possible and do a great job. We will look forward to your pics

[arindamchak]

http://telegraphindia.com/1120326/js...p#.T2-zRDE3Sf4

Lufthansa deals long-haul blow

SANJAY MANDAL

German airline Lufthansa flew out of Calcutta for the last time on Sunday morning, snapping the city’s only direct link with Europe and leaving it stuck with the label of “unprofitable” for long-haul international flights.

Lufthansa’s flight from Frankfurt landed with 204 passengers on its farewell trip to the city and took off at 3.15am with 184 passengers, following the withdrawal route taken first by British Airways and then Air India.

Like the German carrier, British Airways and Air India had cited low profitability for pulling out of the Calcutta-London route. Lufthansa will continue to have a presence in Calcutta, albeit only to sell tickets for other sectors.

“With this measure, Lufthansa reacts to changing market demand on this route. Lufthansa will continue its sales activities in Calcutta,” said a spokesperson for the airline, which had started operating from the city six years ago.

Officials said the city airport handled around 1.45 million international passengers over the past year, registering a 15 per cent growth. They had been hoping that the increase in traffic and the switch to an integrated terminal, a Rs 2,325-crore project that is nearing completion after missing several deadlines, would encourage more international airlines to set up base in the city.

“Lufthansa’s exit is a shock for us. Now everyone will again start asking whether it makes sense to have long-haul international flights from here,” an official of the Airports Authority of India said.

The new terminal is equipped to handle four million international passengers annually, so questions about capacity utilisation have already started cropping up. But a close look at the numbers within numbers shows why international airlines are reluctant to maintain, let alone expand, the number of flights to and from the city.

“Eastern India provided around Rs 1,200 crore worth of business to international airlines in 2011-12. The figures for north and west are three to four times higher,” a source said.

Lufthansa’s thrice-a-week flight on the Calcutta-Frankfurt route was apparently making the airline bleed. “It was a Catch 22 situation. Lufthansa didn’t have enough passengers to fill its flights seven days a week and was incurring expenditure without returns on days when it wasn’t operating,” the source said.

It didn’t help that aviation turbine fuel costs more in Bengal — sales tax is 25 per cent — than in other states.

“Airlines prefer states in which the governments offer tax sops,” airport director B.P. Sharma said.

Sharma had recently made a presentation on the new terminal at a conference in Europe as part of a campaign to woo international airlines. He said Cathay Pacific and Fly Dubai showed interest while British Airways “was looking at passenger figures”.

A spokesperson for British Airways said the airline didn’t have “immediate plans” to return to Calcutta.

“Low occupancy in business class is one of the triggers for a pullout,” said Anil Punjabi, the chairman (east) of the Travel Agents’ Federation of India. “The annual average occupancy in business class across international flights from Calcutta is around 30 per cent. For flights from Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore, it is 60 to 70 per cent.”

Airlines operating non-stop flights beyond five hours depend heavily on the high-yield business class to make routes profitable. A flight is considered viable if at least 50 per cent of the business-class seats are occupied, airline officials said.

[AbhishekDatta]

Crackdown on errant airport staff
Subhro Niyogi, TNN | Mar 26, 2012, 04.18AM IST

KOLKATA: In a bid to re-instill discipline among the heavily unionized staff, the Airports Authority of India (AAI) has decided to crack down on errant employees. Officials in the organization, that manages 125 airports across the country, said an order has been issued to weed out inefficient or errant employees of over 50 years of age by premature retirement.

The action is expected to impact Kolkata airport most as executives have been unable to discipline inefficient staff as they enjoy the protection of the union that is extremely strong here. No other airport in India receives so many complaints from passengers on shabby maintenance of lounges and toilets and rude staff behavior.

"Let's face it, we have a problem with the staff. It's not as though everyone is inefficient or undisciplined. But a few bad apples spoil the entire basket. The problem is particularly acute in Kolkata where the union has always been very dominant," an AAI official said.

Till now, action could not be taken against the errant employees as the management feared agitation by union would cripple services at the airport. But that has now changed with the human resource department issuing a circular that sites rule 12(5) of AAI (General Conditions of Service & Remuneration of Employees) Regulations, 2003 to prematurely retire inefficient and undisciplined staff. A five-member committee has been formed with the airport director as chairperson to review the performance of employees up to the post of senior manager who have already crossed 50 years.

full

[Suncity]

Originally Posted by arindamchak

http://telegraphindia.com/1120326/js...p#.T2-zRDE3Sf4

Lufthansa deals long-haul blow

SANJAY MANDAL

Lufthansa will continue to have a presence in Calcutta, albeit only to sell tickets for other sectors.

Not entirely true

LC takes off for new destinations in China

http://www.ifw-net.com/freightpubs/i...0017947762.htm

Lufthansa Cargo’s summer schedule, which comes into effect on 25 March, lists flights to 303 destinations in 99 countries.

The latest all-cargo addition to LC’s global network is Chongqing. The Chinese city will be served with four MD-11 freighter flights a week.

Freighter flights to Detroit are to be stepped up to twice a week.

Back in the timetable is a weekly service to Kolkata. Flights to the Indian city were discontinued last year.

“We have selectively extended our route network and brought new and attractive growth markets into the timetable,“ said Lufthansa Board Member Product and Sales Andreas Otto.

[Suncity]

Originally Posted by AbhishekDatta

Crackdown on errant airport staff
Subhro Niyogi, TNN | Mar 26, 2012, 04.18AM IST

KOLKATA: The action is expected to impact Kolkata airport most as executives have been unable to discipline inefficient staff as they enjoy the protection of the union that is extremely strong here. No other airport in India receives so many complaints from passengers on shabby maintenance of lounges and toilets and rude staff behavior.

full

I guess the complaints are not making it up the chain?



Airport Complaints
Mar 19, 2012, 04.30PM IST

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/b...w/12329188.cms

Over 2,800 complaints were registered at various airports for issues like poor service, bad food, lost luggage or other problems, with Delhi and Hyderabad topping the list.

followed by Bangalore and Nagpur airports with 186 and 170 complaints respectively.

Of the six private-run airports, Mumbai and Cochin registered the lowest number of complaints with 32 and 34 complaints respectively, official figures show.

Of the AAI-run airports, most number of complaints were received at Ranchi, Madurai, Ahmedabad, Calicut and Jaipur airports. Ranchi topped the list with 190 complaints followed by Madurai and Ahmedabad with 144 and 141 complaints. 117 at Calicut and 112 were registered at Jaipur and Calicut airports.

Of the metro airports, 82 complaints were registered at the Chennai airport while the least of 10 at the Kolkata airport, official figures show.

[jaadu]

There is nothing in CCU to complain .. the whole experience is pathetic from reaching the airport to getting trolleys , outside baggage checkin , inefficient staff , rude immigration , stinking toilets , horrible amenities .. people just won't bother to complain because no one will listen. BTWI dont trust TOI numbers anyways.

anyways I hope the new terminal changes that and I sincerely hope they dont bring in the same workers there too !!

[Suncity]

Originally Posted by jaadu

BTWI dont trust TOI numbers anyways.

Those are GOI numbers.

So when the journalist says "most" I am sure he has some data to back it up. Otherwise it is an opinion.

The airport is not the best - it is overloaded. No point in just blaming the low level staff when the AAI management [executives] is shortsighted and incompetent. That is what is a problem with many of Bengal's journalists. They pass their opinion and judgement as "news". They forget that opinions are for the editorial pages or discussion forums.

The issue of citing a 2003 rule as a circular now to improve work culture is hilarious "news". Were these officials in HR snoring for so many years or the executives swatting flies?

Jaise unions waise officials/executives of AAI. Useless. Opinion of course.

[studdmanster]

Kolkata Airport's new Terminal work set to miss deadline

[Suncity]

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[AbhishekDatta]

[AbhishekDatta]

http://sujalaamskycity.com/

nice website

[barnomoy]

Originally Posted by Suncity

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From this pic I am having a sureshot idea that the filling of the gap, as origibnally planned, has been extended more. These new pillars we see are an extension to the gap area filling.

I guess this portion (along with the gap) has provided much of the increase from 180,000 sq m to 230,000 sq m overall area of the integrated terminal.

[soumalya747]

Kingfisher suspends operations from Kolkata, Hyd, other cities


Ailing Kingfisher Airlines on Tuesday said it has temporarily suspended operations from several major cities, including Kolkata and Hyderabad, and has asked nearly half of its 7,000-odd employees to stay at home till it managed to infuse fresh funds.

The airline, burdened by a debt of over Rs 7,000 crore, also did not rule out laying off some staff saying a decision on the issue would depend on various decisions to be taken by the government and its bankers about funding and related issues.

With a major cash-crunch leading to delayed payments of salaries and other dues for over three months, a spokesperson said the airline was putting in place a ‘holding plan’ pending re-capitalisation and "there are several stations to which operations have been temporarily suspended".
Airline sources said the cash-strapped carrier, which used to fly to about 60 destinations, would now fly to less than 30 cities. Among the destinations from where operations were being temporarily suspended were Kolkata, Hyderabad, Patna, Lucknow, Thiruvananthapuram and Bhubaneshwar.

They said that between 40-50 per cent of about 7,000 staff have been asked to stay at home, but they would remain on the Kingfisher rolls.

Regarding speculation about the airline's plans to retrench some staff, the spokesperson said "we are in a 'holding' pattern right now and are waiting for various decisions from the Government and our consortium of bankers on FDI policy, working capital funding, etc.

All of these will have a major impact on the staffing decisions we will have to make."

The Kingfisher spokesperson said the airline has begun this year's summer schedule by operating approximately 120 daily flights with 20 dedicated aircraft.

For the past two months, it was flying 28 planes and 140 flights as part of a curtailed winter schedule as against 400 daily flights with 64 aircraft it had proposed earlier.

Kingfisher has also paid Rs 44 crore towards TDS arrears, which was due on or before March 27, as directed by the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal in Bangaluru, the spokesperson said.
A consortium of 13 PSU banks, including State Bank of India, have an exposure of Rs 5,608.07 crore to Kingfisher as on February this year, including Rs 1,408.45 crore for SBI alone. The airline has an accumulated loss of over Rs 6,000 crore.

[Suncity]

Originally Posted by Jim856796

Is the plan to apply the facade of the new integrated terminal to the old domestic terminal a dead/cancelled project or is it still active? Heard about the plan on the thread's first post.

No one in the forum is sure when that will happen and if it will happen.

[kajusen]

Hey forummers I have a Question . Has AIR INDIA EXPRESS stopped their Kolkata - Singapore service ????

actually their online booking list does not have any entry for Kolkata .

[raj145_91]

Air India Express operates the Dhaka-Kolkata-Singapore sector. I used it last november. Load factors were good enough, so I guess it is still on.

[Suncity]

Originally Posted by kajusen

Hey forummers I have a Question . Has AIR INDIA EXPRESS stopped their Kolkata - Singapore service ????

actually their online booking list does not have any entry for Kolkata .

Looks like Air India Express has dumped Kolkata.

http://www.dgca.nic.in/Int_flt_sched..._flt_index.htm

Also Air India just has a paltry number of international connections:

Two daily flights to Delhi
Twice weekly to Yangon
4 Times a week to Kathmandu.

Meanwhile Bangladeshi airline GMG is also dropping Kolkata as it is stopping all flights.

If you want to travel to Singapore by Air India you need to fly to Delhi or Mumbai and then fly. Unless of course you take Singapore Airlines or Silk Air.

[killerk]

Originally Posted by Suncity

Looks like Air India Express has dumped Kolkata.

http://www.dgca.nic.in/Int_flt_sched..._flt_index.htm

Also Air India just has a paltry number of international connections:

Two daily flights to Delhi
Twice weekly to Yangon
4 Times a week to Kathmandu.

Meanwhile Bangladeshi airline GMG is also dropping Kolkata as it is stopping all flights.

If you want to travel to Singapore by Air India you need to fly to Delhi or Mumbai and then fly. Unless of course you take Singapore Airlines or Silk Air.

other than Ms. Mamta Bannerjee, is there anyone else from Kolkata who would want to fly Air India so badly??

[Cov Boy]

Thanks for the pics guys, finally AAI gets their act together on this one.

The new airport looks great & will create a much better impression when arriving into the city.

Only gripe is that the roads could be marked properly with lane markings with regards to the beautification of the main corridors.

[avishar]

Twice weekly to Yangon!Who goes to Yangon?