Surat (STV) Airport

[garvigujarat]

All the above are only sayings....i don't think surat would get all this so soon....leave about surat....even the city like ahmedabad has been still striving for good air connectivity.....it makes sense that all this is political....!!
i mean it is so simple that a city like surat {pop.50 lakhs, fastest growing city}
is not having a good air connectivity.....then what is all this....surely politics.....anyways let's hope surat gets more air connectivity soon.....!!

[meetmus2fa]

SURAT: Last month, the owner of a Rs 1,200-crore diamond polishing and export firm owner took 600 guests to Singapore for a family wedding. But, he did not call his business associates to Surat for the wedding reception. Most of his business associates and clients from the US and European countries did not want to travel by road from Mumbai to Surat, so he had to arrange a separate wedding reception party for them in Mumbai. "Many of them were willing to come here but a single chartered flight would have accommodated just 100 people at the most and I had nearly 500 guests," said S Dholakiya from Harekrishana Exports.

In the absence of any regular plane service to Jaipur, one of the most important centres associated with the city, the Agarwal family from Surat had to take a baraat in a chartered plane. The family is in the packaging business and wanted a comfortable and luxurious marriage celebration for their son. The baraat of 140 members was flown down. Like the Agarwals, there are thousands of prosperous Rajasthani families, who travel regularly to Rajasthan.

Nearly 500 businessmen from seven countries did not visit Surat last month as it is not connected with Mumbai by air. India International Jewellery Show (IIJS) was organised by Gems and Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) in Mumbai and almost at the same time South Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SGCCI) organised Sparkle. These businessmen had come to Mumbai to participate in IIJS fair and showed their inclination to visit Surat for a day but as there is no air connectivity, they dropped their plan of visiting the diamond city as they did not want to travel by road or train.

"We are sure that the city is deprived of exposure it deserves due to lack of air connectivity. Our main business sectors like textiles and diamond would grow by at least 25 per cent in couple of years, if we are connected with major parts of the country," said Ajoy Bhattacharya, president SGCCI.

In the last six months alone, Surat and private airline companies lost out business worth few hundred crore rupees as the city despite being number one in development and on the charts of annual family earning parameters is not connected by air to major metros of the country.

The South Gujarat Hotel and Restaurant Association conducted an exercise of counting actual number of business tourist that arrive in city on daily basis and spend at least one night in city in a hotel with tariff upward of Rs 1,500. When asked about travel preference, 30 to 35 per cent of these nearly 15,000 people who visit city daily, opted for air travel. They said if they had the option they would have traveled by air directly to Surat and flown back on the same night saving their time. Most of these business travellers come to Surat from, Mumbai, Kolkata, Delhi, Jaipur, Bangalore and Chennai.

Similarly, about 10,000 traders from textile and jari sector and another 2,000 from the diamond sector travel to parts of India on a daily basis from high income group. They are more than willing to travel by air if connectivity is there and fares are comparable to Ahmedabad and Vadodara.
Source :http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/c...ow/7386718.cms

[meetmus2fa]

'Start flights from any Maharashtra city'

SURAT: Three months ago, a top official from one of the most viable private airline companies put up a proposal for expansion of his carrier to five different sectors of the country. As required he put up a joint proposal to civil aviation ministry for permission to fly commercially on these sectors. Two of the routes were in East and North East, two in the South and one in Western India. The proposal for Western India was a daily flight from Surat to Delhi. Another airline put up a plan for daily flight from Bangalore to Ahmedabad via Surat on both sides.

For the first airline, three proposals were sanctioned but they were told to forget Surat and instead begin a flight from a city in Maharashtra that has population of just seven lakh. However, when it came to the official reply, the airline is still waiting for that.

As many as five top private carriers of the country apart from Air India showed interest in starting flights from Surat. After several rounds of meetings, all of them wanted their share of the pie and were more than willing to begin at earliest.

"If we are asked to take a final call on the issue, we will begin in 15 days," said a top official handling the Western sector operations of a private carrier. "But, the problem is if we put the name of Surat, we don't get a reply at all. How can you expect us to get taxiing space and parking space on Surat airport? At what cost? Do you think, required time slots would be granted by the aviation ministry?" he asked and added, "But, if I replace Surat with Satara or Sangli, that approval will come in double quick time. I hope this attitude changes fast."

On the other side, all these airline operators officially have been giving different reasons for the delay in beginning of the operations. Ajoy Bhattacharya, president, South Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and Industries (SGCCI) said, "Officially be it Indigo, King Fisher, Jet, Spice Jet, Go Air or any one else, they have been telling us that they don't have availability of aircraft. Some are even talking of slot availability." He added, "But in private, their talks give a feeling of negativity despite the knowledge of huge potential on their part." It is apparent that petty regional considerations on the part of the powers-that-be, have taken their toll of Surti cause of air connectivity.

About 100 days ago, Kingfisher had shown preparedness for flying on Surat-Mumbai, Surat -Bangalore and Surat Delhi sector. Jet had shown interest for Mumbai and Delhi, Spice Jet and Indigo for Chennai, and Kolkata segment, whereas Go Air and Ventura had prepared for operating

Source -http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/c...ow/7393115.cms

[Madurai gilli]

MUMBAI/NEW DELHI: Low-cost carrier SpiceJet will launch its regional services from July this year, operating on 16 non-metro routes with Chennai, the capital city of Tamil Nadu, as one of its hubs. The airline plans to have at least three bases, one each in the east, north and South regions, for its operations to smaller cities.

SpiceJet will get first of its 15 Bombardier Q400 (regional jet) in June and will use it to launch the services. By the end of this year, it will have eight of these aircraft in its stable. The rest will join the fleet in 2012, SpiceJet CEO Neil Mills said. "Of the 15 aircraft, we plan to have at least 10 for the south Indian market and two each for the east and the north," he added.

SpiceJet is banking on first mover advantage with the launch of regional services as it sees immense potential in the developing market.

It is also using the strategy to counter the growing market share of its competitor, Gurgaon-based budget airline IndiGo , which recently ordered 180 Airbus A320s and has become the number two airline along with Kingfisher Airlines . SpiceJet, however, is at number four with a 13.6% market share. It operates 169 flights daily with a fleet of 29 aircraft.

"Each competition has a strategy of its own. They (IndiGo), are going with a narrow body expansion plan and are also adding international routes, we have decided to grow organically on the domestic routes. In any case, SpiceJet grew by 20% on the Boeing fleet and in the regional market also we will grow by 20%, so this is the additional growth for SpiceJet as compared to the competition," Mr Mills said.

The regional routes will either fly passengers between a metro and a non-metro or between two non-metros with lesser airfares and with significantly less airport charges for non-metro airports.

Industry watchers seem to be in agreement with SpiceJet's move. "We expect air traffic from non-metro airports to increase to 45% from the current 30% in the next 10 years," consultancy firm Auctus Advisors MD Manish Chheda said.

There is a huge demand and supply mismatch as there are few operators on the non-metro routes to cater to a potential 300 million passengers. "Due to insufficient infrastructure, the industry caters to only 50 million at present," said Ankur Bhatia , executive director at travel solutions conglomerate Bird Group. The Airports Authority of India is developing 35 non-metro airports on a public-private partnership basis.

SpiceJet is also expanding its narrow body aircraft base. It has to get deliveries of five Boeing 737s this year and will announce new routes in the coming summer schedule. The fleet expansion will also happen by leasing more aircraft from the market.

"We have added 60 aircraft in the last four months (orders of 30 each for Boeing and regional jets). Our scheduled deliveries are from 2014 for the Boeing fleet. Between 2012 and that period we are looking to add five to six aircraft per year," Mr Mills said.

For its fleet expansion, the airline has already tied up with US Exim Bank for funding the 15 Bombardier order. It requires close to $450 million (list price) to buy these aircraft. "US Exim will pay 85% of the requirement and the rest we will fund through our cash reserves. Since the airline is doing well now, other funding options are always available," Mr Mills said.

The airline will take these aircraft on its books for the first time not entering into a sale and lease back for the Q400s.

For the expansion, SpiceJet will have to hire 150 pilots and 250-cabin crew this year besides the ground duty staff.

"The low cost market space is definitely going to get crowded in India and the competition is bound to increase. It will be tougher for airlines who have not kept their costs under control and our competitors will feel the heat," Mr Mills said.

Surtis..soon you will get a SJ flight flying between Chennai(MAA) and Surat. Out of 15 new bombardiers they're to get, 10 alloted only for South Indian market and 2 each for North and East Indian markets. So, Certainly you can expect a MAA-STV flight and by good time, a connection to Mumbai too.

[NitinPatel]

For the world's biggest diamond cutting and polishing centre, diamonds are forever. But, the global centre is losing out heavily when it comes to getting international buyers and the direct import-export of glittering stones due to lack of domestic and international air connectivity.

If industry players are to be believed, the Rs 75,000-crore diamond industry in the city could become an International diamond trading and jewellery hub provided it has a full-fledged air and cargo facilities from the airport.

Surat, which processes 11 of every 12 diamonds in the world, imports rough diamonds worth Rs 50,000 crore and exports polished diamonds worth Rs 75,000 cr per annum via Mumbai. As there is no air connectivity between Surat and Mumbai, 100 per cent of the precious stones -- rough and polished diamonds -- are sent to Mumbai through the 'angadias' (diamond courier firms) via trains.

Regional chairman of Gems and Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) Chandrakant Sanghavi said, "There are port cities in the world, smaller in term of industrial turnover and population of Surat, which have got more than 25 international and domestic flights per day. It is embarrassing when international clients come to India at our invitation, but can't make it to Surat because of lack of air connectivity."

There are many leading jewellery manufacturing companies based in Mumbai, Kolkata, Delhi, Jaipur etc. who are willing to shift their jewellery manufacturing facilities to the diamond city due to easy availability of polished diamonds at their doorstep, industrial peace, easy availability of workforce, good security etc. But most of the jewellery companies are eagerly waiting for the diamond city to be well equipped in terms of international and domestic air connectivity and cargo facilities.

A jewellery manufacturer from Mumbai Rakesh Shah said, "We are all set to start a jewellery manufacturing unit in Surat. But there is a big question of exporting our jewellery articles from the city due to lack of air connectivity. Once the city gets air connectivity to Mumbai, then we may think of starting our operations."

As per the industry analysis, the city's diamond industry can grow by 20-25 per cent year-on-year basis if the city gets international and domestic air connectivity. "The flight service from Surat to Mumbai and Dubai is expected to solve more than 80 per cent of the issues faced by the diamond industry. We can easily ship our precious stone parcels to Mumbai and can import rough diamonds from across the world via Dubai," chairman of Blue Star Ashit Mehta said.

Last year, the GJEPC had represented the concerned ministries in the central government for providing air connectivity to Surat in the larger interest of the diamond and the textile industry. "It is ridiculous that small centres in India are well connected by air, but a diamond and textile hub such as Surat has only one flight in a day. In the past decade, the city has grown by leaps and bounds and a well-equipped airport is the need of the hour," vice-chairman of GJEPC Sanjay Kothari said.

According to Kothari, international buyers avoid Surat as they know they will have to take a treacherous five-hour train journey from Mumbai. There is a monthly average of more than 1,000 diamond traders from Surat catching international flights from Mumbai to visit Antwerp, USA, Dubai and Hong Kong.

Source

[NitinPatel]

Residents of the diamond city will launch an agitation for more flights out of their city from Wednesday morning. Presently, its full-fledged airport has just one flight to Delhi and back and that too at odd hours.

The South Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SGCCI) will begin a signature campaign against the step motherly treatment meted out to Surat airport. The steering committee under SGCCI president Ajoy Bhattacharya will also bombard new Union civil aviation minister Vayalar Ravi with thousands of SMS.

So that Surat residents can write letters demanding better air connectivity, SGCCI will place tables at several places in the city. "This is a struggle that we can't afford to lose,'' said Bhattacharya, appealing to Surtis to put their might behind the campaign.

These tables will be put up below the SGCCI building in Nanpura, outside the Magdalla airport gate, outside the police commissioner's office, the collector's office and outside Surat Municipal Corporation ( SMC) buildings. More arrangements are being worked out and additional tables will be placed in different parts of the city.

"Other forms of agitation like a cycle rally to the airport, dharna, march to the airport and road blocks will follow and if our demands are not met, the agitation will intensify," said a source from the chamber.

Source

[meetmus2fa]

Originally Posted by Madurai gilli

Surtis..soon you will get a SJ flight flying between Chennai(MAA) and Surat. Out of 15 new bombardiers they're to get, 10 alloted only for South Indian market and 2 each for North and East Indian markets. So, Certainly you can expect a MAA-STV flight and by good time, a connection to Mumbai too.

No dear our central govt wont allow spice jet to fly from Surat now a huge protest is required to get more flights from Surat

[MeMumbaikar]

Originally Posted by meetmus2fa

SURAT: Last month, the owner of a Rs 1,200-crore diamond polishing and export firm owner took 600 guests to Singapore for a family wedding. But, he did not call his business associates to Surat for the wedding reception. Most of his business associates and clients from the US and European countries did not want to travel by road from Mumbai to Surat, so he had to arrange a separate wedding reception party for them in Mumbai. "Many of them were willing to come here but a single chartered flight would have accommodated just 100 people at the most and I had nearly 500 guests," said S Dholakiya from Harekrishana Exports.

In the absence of any regular plane service to Jaipur, one of the most important centres associated with the city, the Agarwal family from Surat had to take a baraat in a chartered plane. The family is in the packaging business and wanted a comfortable and luxurious marriage celebration for their son. The baraat of 140 members was flown down. Like the Agarwals, there are thousands of prosperous Rajasthani families, who travel regularly to Rajasthan.

Nearly 500 businessmen from seven countries did not visit Surat last month as it is not connected with Mumbai by air. India International Jewellery Show (IIJS) was organised by Gems and Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) in Mumbai and almost at the same time South Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SGCCI) organised Sparkle. These businessmen had come to Mumbai to participate in IIJS fair and showed their inclination to visit Surat for a day but as there is no air connectivity, they dropped their plan of visiting the diamond city as they did not want to travel by road or train.

"We are sure that the city is deprived of exposure it deserves due to lack of air connectivity. Our main business sectors like textiles and diamond would grow by at least 25 per cent in couple of years, if we are connected with major parts of the country," said Ajoy Bhattacharya, president SGCCI.

In the last six months alone, Surat and private airline companies lost out business worth few hundred crore rupees as the city despite being number one in development and on the charts of annual family earning parameters is not connected by air to major metros of the country.

The South Gujarat Hotel and Restaurant Association conducted an exercise of counting actual number of business tourist that arrive in city on daily basis and spend at least one night in city in a hotel with tariff upward of Rs 1,500. When asked about travel preference, 30 to 35 per cent of these nearly 15,000 people who visit city daily, opted for air travel. They said if they had the option they would have traveled by air directly to Surat and flown back on the same night saving their time. Most of these business travellers come to Surat from, Mumbai, Kolkata, Delhi, Jaipur, Bangalore and Chennai.

Similarly, about 10,000 traders from textile and jari sector and another 2,000 from the diamond sector travel to parts of India on a daily basis from high income group. They are more than willing to travel by air if connectivity is there and fares are comparable to Ahmedabad and Vadodara.
Source :http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/c...ow/7386718.cms

hmm i find this Mumbai surat route surprising.

trains between Mumbai and Surat are plentiful and take about 3 and a half hours.

http://indiarailinfo.com/search/65/297

and it takes about 4 hours by car.


Dare i say a mumbai surat route by plane might not save you that much time and is just too expensive when in comparison with a train? the frequency will not be as good as a train. At the most 3-4 flights a day. Compared to lots of trains.


I know quite a few Surati businessman. they catch a plane to mumbai airport and from Mumbai aiport they catch a taxi to Bandra/Dadar . From there train to Surat. They even told me that if there is a direct mumbai to surat flights they would still take the train cause its way more cheaper.


Personally dont think Mumbai Surat flights are profitable. Might be better to run chartered flights.


surat to bangalore chennai hyderabad and the other cities in India barring Ahmedabad(which is nearly the same distance of mumbai and served well by railways) i think there should be demand.

[himmat113]

^
If there are flights running full between BOM and PNQ, I see no reason why BOM-STV flights cannot be a success.

[ashishp]

Originally Posted by MeMumbaikar

hmm i find this Mumbai surat route surprising.
trains between Mumbai and Surat are plentiful and take about 3 and a half hours.

Originally Posted by himmat113

^
If there are flights running full between BOM and PNQ, I see no reason why BOM-STV flights cannot be a success.

Both are valid points,

Surat has potential,
it needs more flights,
its surprising that Surat has no air connectivity with rest of the world....hmmm...politics.

[MeMumbaikar]

Originally Posted by himmat113

^
If there are flights running full between BOM and PNQ, I see no reason why BOM-STV flights cannot be a success.

true.

Infact i find it surprising that there are flight between the two airports.

there are 10 flights in a week from pune to mumbai from what i know.

If there is demand i dont see why a similar arrangement cant be made for Surat. Or atleast one flight every day.

All i can think of is that this route (pune to mumbai) has been in operation since a long long time. (i could be wrong). Might be harder for cities like Nashik and Surat to muscle in.


Personally i would just take a train. Surat lay on the route between Mumbai and Delhi. If IR can upgrade its track to a decent level time will be cut to less than 3 hours.Plus you can travel directly to Mumbai central.

I travel to pune once in a while from mumbai, and it takes me about 2 hours and 30 min to reach the centre driving comfortably without any rush or tension.Personally can never see myself taking a plane ride.

even the people from pune (a lot of time) drive to mumbai airport and then catch a flight from there.

[meetmus2fa]

Originally Posted by MeMumbaikar

true.

Infact i find it surprising that there are flight between the two airports.

there are 10 flights in a week from pune to mumbai from what i know.

If there is demand i dont see why a similar arrangement cant be made for Surat. Or atleast one flight every day.

All i can think of is that this route (pune to mumbai) has been in operation since a long long time. (i could be wrong). Might be harder for cities like Nashik and Surat to muscle in.


Personally i would just take a train. Surat lay on the route between Mumbai and Delhi. If IR can upgrade its track to a decent level time will be cut to less than 3 hours.Plus you can travel directly to Mumbai central.

I travel to pune once in a while from mumbai, and it takes me about 2 hours and 30 min to reach the centre driving comfortably without any rush or tension.Personally can never see myself taking a plane ride.

even the people from pune (a lot of time) drive to mumbai airport and then catch a flight from there.

Only Rajdhani & Shatabdi takes 3 and half hours to reach Surat other than that most of the train takes more than 4:30 hrs and in the morning after 8 no trains and u will directly get the train arnd 11 clock.

Many times i had missed my train as borivalli is far from airport it takes almost 30 mins to reach borivalli instead of all train stopping borivalli trains shud be stop at Andheri station so if my flights get delay also max time i will reach station on schedule time as station is only 10 mins drive from airport

[meetmus2fa]

Originally Posted by himmat113

^
If there are flights running full between BOM and PNQ, I see no reason why BOM-STV flights cannot be a success.

Simple ans Surat is not in Mahrasthra

[meetmus2fa]

SURAT: Before the people of the diamond city take to streets for better air connectivity, it has been decided to give the Centre one more chance.

The Southern Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SGCCI) has decided to present its case for more flights from Surat airport to the prime minister and Union minister for civil aviation Vayalar Ravi for the last time.

"We have gathered support from all quarters in the city, but we want to petition the decision-makers in Delhi one more time," SGCCI president Ajoy Bhattacharya said.

However, the campaign to garner support for the cause from city residents, industries, trade bodies and politicians will continue. An action committee will be formed in the next three days to chalk out strategy. The members of the action committee, which will include corporates from giant industries in Hazira, local NGOs, trade association, academics etc. will approach the MPs and ministers of south Gujarat, FICCI, ASSOCHAM and CII for their support.

"The exercise of approaching ministers and other concerned departments in Delhi will go on for a month. If nothing happens, we will launch an agitation,'' Bhattacharya said.

Source-http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/c...ow/7414232.cms

[MeMumbaikar]

Originally Posted by meetmus2fa

Simple ans Surat is not in Mahrasthra

so how come there are no flights from Surat to Ahmedabad?

they both are in Gujarat right?


the distance between Surat and Ahmedabad is nearly same to the distance between Surat and Mumbai.

and takes about the same time by train.


Surely a direct surat to ahmedabad route is certainly more feasible?

emirates/qatar operate out of Ahmedabad and surely thats your route to the world?

[meetmus2fa]

Originally Posted by MeMumbaikar

so how come there are no flights from Surat to Ahmedabad?

they both are in Gujarat right?


the distance between Surat and Ahmedabad is nearly same to the distance between Surat and Mumbai.

and takes about the same time by train.


Surely a direct surat to ahmedabad route is certainly more feasible?

emirates/qatar operate out of Ahmedabad and surely thats your route to the world?

Ans to your question is below link
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/c...ow/7393115.cms

and Starting flight is not in state givt hands they had to get nod from central ministry

[MeMumbaikar]

Originally Posted by meetmus2fa

Ans to your question is below link
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/c...ow/7393115.cms

and Starting flight is not in state givt hands they had to get nod from central ministry

your link says Oops its broken

[meetmus2fa]

Originally Posted by MeMumbaikar

your link says Oops its broken

Check post no 83

[gtmashok]

Originally Posted by MeMumbaikar

so how come there are no flights from Surat to Ahmedabad?

they both are in Gujarat right?


the distance between Surat and Ahmedabad is nearly same to the distance between Surat and Mumbai.

and takes about the same time by train.


Surely a direct surat to ahmedabad route is certainly more feasible?

emirates/qatar operate out of Ahmedabad and surely thats your route to the world?

I have been following this thread for a long time and i just joined SSC. I have a few questions.

But when people say that Mumbai will lose out big, I am confused. Which part of mumbai airport will lose out? The airlines? The airport itself?(which makes no sense since millions of mumbaikars use the airport and surat residents cannot possibly a large percentage of the users). So where is the evidence for this argument?

On a side note, for international flights from Surat, are businessmen the only ones to fly to intl' destinations? Or will there be more frequent fliers to intl' destinations? Otherwise, many airlines may not find it as a viable proposition to fly to Surat.

[meetmus2fa]

Originally Posted by gtmashok

I have been following this thread for a long time and i just joined SSC. I have a few questions.

But when people say that Mumbai will lose out big, I am confused. Which part of mumbai airport will lose out? The airlines? The airport itself?(which makes no sense since millions of mumbaikars use the airport and surat residents cannot possibly a large percentage of the users). So where is the evidence for this argument?

On a side note, for international flights from Surat, are businessmen the only ones to fly to intl' destinations? Or will there be more frequent fliers to intl' destinations? Otherwise, many airlines may not find it as a viable proposition to fly to Surat.

Mumbai airport will loose its revenue

Not only the Business men are flying to international destinations but majority of NRI's from Surat and near by towns such As bardoli,Navsari etc etc flew thru mumbai

You will come to know how much revenue Mumbai airport is getting from Surat just go through the threads you will come to know