Touch Base with Indian A&D Industry

Some were eloquent, others struggled for words and yet others preferred one liners to describe the success of their years of hard work as the Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft soared into skies on Wednesday morning making India a member of the elite club of countries probing the moon.

"It’s a historic moment," said Indian Space Research Organisation chairman G Madhavan Nair.

"Our baby is on way to the moon," said Chandrayaan project director Mylswamy Annadurai.

"Words don’t come," said George Koshy, director of ISRO Space Application Centre, Ahmedabad.

Here are the quotes from top ISRO scientists after the spacecraft was placed in its orbit, a little over 18 minutes after a "perfect, textbook, beautiful" launch from this spaceport off the Andhra Pradesh coast, 80 km from Tamil Nadu capital Chennai.

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India’s trusted space workhorse, the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), proved its mettle for the 13th time in a row today when it successfully launched India’s first unmanned mission to the moon, the Rs 386 crore Chandrayaan-1.

The towering PSLV C-11 breathed fire and left plumes of smoke as it lifted off from the second launch pad of the Satish Dhawan Space Centre here, as India set out on a journey to explore the moon, thus joining a select band of countries.

After an unsuccessful debut (PSLV-D1) in 1993, PSLV has come a long way, and there has been no looking back with the 13 various improvised versions of the launch vehicles reaping the fruits of Indian scientists’ hard toil.

In a textbook launch, PSLV C-11 took off in a perfect liftoff and separation of each stage went off as planned without any hitch.

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After the successful launch of India’s first unmanned mission to moon, Chandrayaan-1, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is planning to send its second lunar odyssey, Chandrayaan-2, an Indo-Russian joint venture, likely by the end of next year or early 2010.

The work on this project would be taken up after Chandrayaan-1 starts its task of researching the moon, ISRO Chairman G Madhavan Nair told reporters here after the PSLV-C11 launched the spacecraft.

"One of the two GSLV missions next year could carry Chandrayaan-2," he said.

The team behind the success of the first mission would work on Chandrayaan-2 also, he added.

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It was truly a historic moment for the entire country. The PSLV-C11, which carries India’s first unmanned moon spacecraft Chandrayaan-1, was successfully put into initial orbit from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre on Wednesday morning at around 6.40 am.

At the end of the 49-hour countdown, the 44.4 meter tall four-stage PSLV-C11 blasted off from the second launch pad with the ignition of the core first stage at 6.22 am.

Large crowds had gathered at Sriharikota since early Wednesday morning to witness this historic event. The crowds cheered at the PSLV, which weighs 316 tonnes soared majestically into the skies. However, the thick black clouds played spoil sport for those waiting to watch the PSLV launch into the skies.

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Private air carriers Kingfisher Airlines and Jet Airways, which have entered into an operational alliance recently, may reduce flights
as they tighten belts to overcome financial crunch.

"We are not going to unnecessarily deploy capacity which we cannot fill…if in non-peak hours Jet flight is not full and Kingfisher flight is not full, it makes sense for us to co-operate and fly one aircraft instead of two. (With this) the economics of airlines will improve substantially," Kingfisher Chairman and CEO Vijay Mallya told reporters here.

He also said the two private carriers would co-operate on international routes, even as Kingfisher’s plans to start non-stop flights to San-Francisco has been put on hold.

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State-owned carrier Air India Head Raghu Menon was censured on Wednesday by the government for his proposal to offer leave without pay
to 15,000 employees.

Highly placed sources said Oil Minister Murli Deora took exception to Menon’s proposals during a meeting of the Federation of Indian Airlines and Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel to resolve the crisis arising out of mounting fuel bill arrears.

Deora cut Menon short when he today again talked of the need to "rationalise" the workforce to trim losses arising out of negative growth and high fuel cost. "There should not be any layoffs. Why are you raising it now," sources quoted Deora as telling Menon.

The oil minister than widened his message on ‘no-job’ cuts to the other participants-Kingfisher Chairman Vijay Mallya and Jet Airways Executive Director Saroj Dutta- present at the meeting.

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Indian aviation industry may be going through turbulent weather, yet experts see a growing potential for the maintenance, repair and o
verhaul (MRO) segment of the industry, with projected revenue of $1.07 billion by 2013.

Many companies, including Boeing in a tie-up with the state-run Air India, have announced joint ventures in MRO business and others are waiting in the wings for the government to address some tax issues to jump into the market, the experts added.

Speaking during an MRO Asia symposium here, C.S. Tomar, vice president of engineering and maintenance for Kingfisher Airlines, said the MRO market in the country was currently valued at $405 million with a potential for $1.6 billion by 2018.

"It makes economical sense for us to set up an MRO facility," Sitham Nadarajah, vice president for technical development with Jet Airways, told IANS. "With volumes increasing, we will be looking at D-checks for narrow bodied aircraft like Boeing-737s."

The D-checks are done on aircraft every four-five years, during which the aircraft is completely stripped, checked and then restored.

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After taking 52 years to sell its first 100 choppers in India, Bell Helicopter expects to sell its next 100 in less than five years as
the country has emerged as an important market for the US company, a top official said.

"India is our fastest growing market in the whole world," said Bell’s director of communications Greg Hubbard, who was here for the civil aviation show last week.

"When we started our India office in 1995 we had only four percent of the market share; today we enjoy 52 percent market share," Hubbard told IANS.

Bell sold its first helicopter in India in 1956 and delivered its 100th commercial aircraft to leading Indian infrastructure company Abir Infrastructure during the air show here.

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With Jet Airways and Kingfisher Airlines struggling to combat the rising costs, employees of both airlines have begun scouting for jobs in competing, low-cost airlines such as SpiceJet and GoAir.

“We have started sending our resumes to the low cost carriers as our take-home salaries will be almost at par with low cost carriers once Jet’s plan to shift a major portion of our fixed income to the variable component comes into effect in November,” said a ground handling staff member of Jet Airways. Full-fledged airlines currently pay higher salaries compared to the low-cost carriers.

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A Russian company has agreed to deliver 25 civilian airliners to India in a deal worth over 700 million dollars, the Interfax news agency reported on Tuesday, citing a company executive.

"We signed a contract for 25 aircraft, of which five aircraft should be (delivered) before 2012," Pavel Melnikov, managing director of the Russian Aircraft aviation holding company, was quoted as saying.

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Low-cost carrier SpiceJet announced a fresh round of fare cut on Tuesday even as airlines continue to make losses in an adverse econom
ic environment.

The airline announced fares starting with Rs.99 across its network and said the offer will be available for all bookings till March 2009. Earlier Oct 15, SpiceJet slashed fares up to 15 percent on tickets purchased in advance, besides withdrawing congestion charges.

Indian carriers currently charge Rs.150 per ticket as congestion charge against additional flying time owing to traffic at airports.

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Indian carriers, buffeted by softening demand, mounting losses and high jet fuel prices, are resorting to job cuts and reducing capacity to stay afloat.

Carriers have halted expansion plans and an alliance of the country’s top two carriers, Jet Airways and Kingfisher Airlines, is looking to return 14 narrow bodied planes.

Discount carrier SpiceJet cut 19 daily flights of its 117.

Kingfisher said it would reduce the salary of 50 trainee co-pilots, while state-run Air India plans to offer 3-5 years unpaid leave to 15,000 employees in non-core operational areas.

Kingfisher and Jet set up an alliance on Oct. 13 for code sharing, sharing of ticketing, ground services, fuel management, crew training and utilisation.

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Contrary to the job cuts initiated by Indian air carriers, Dubai-based international airline Emirates today said it would hire more sta
ff and would be happy to recruit more Indians as cabin crew in its international operations.

"There would be no job cuts. In fact we are looking for more staff. We will be happy to recruit more Indians as cabin crew," Emirates Airline Vice-President (India and Nepal) Orhan Abbas told reporters here.

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Kingfisher Airlines head Vijay Mallya on Monday indicated that if the slump in the market continues, more job cuts and lay-offs may take place in the aviation industry.

"If the slump in the market continues then the number of flights will have to go down…. and when we ground the planes it will have effects," Mallya, a former MP, told reporters outside Parliament. He was responding to a question on whether airlines may lay-off more employees in the near future.

He, however, refused to say whether he had met any minister or government official over the crisis in the aviation sector. Jet Airways chief Naresh Goyal today held a meeting with Finance Minister P Chidambaram.

Jet had recently removed 1900 employees only to reinstate them a day later, allegedly due to government pressure. However, Goyal had said that he changed his decision on humanitarian grounds.

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Notwithstanding fears that the days of low-cost flying are numbered, budget airlines such as SpiceJet and IndiGo have found a new booster — corpo
rate travel. The load factors of these airlines are improving as corporates choose low-cost travel in an attempt to cut costs.

SpiceJet’s corporate business has doubled in the last three months, while IndiGo also saw significant gains in corporate travel. These airlines are allowing the corporate customers to reschedule and cancel their tickets. Corporate travel now comprises nearly 30% of the total business of budget airlines.

SpiceJet has reduced the airfare on advance purchase of tickets and discontinued the congestion surcharge of Rs 150. Rival IndiGo also withdrew the congestion surcharge on Thursday.

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When the Chandrayaan-launched moon impact probe (MIP) hurtles down towards the lunar surface, amongst other payloads it will be carrying an item of special significance for ISRO scientists – the Indian flag. A successful conclusion of the MIP sub-mission will see India becoming only the fourth country after the US, Russia and Japan to plant its flag on the lunar surface.

Given the increasingly envious response that the Indian lunar mission is already evincing in foreign capitals, unused as they are to the thought of Asian nations such as India and China successfully launching increasingly sophisticated space programmes, the launch of the MIP will indeed be a proud moment for ISRO and the nation.

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In a surprise move ensured to delay its air cargo plans for quite a while, Indian flag carrier Air India has decided to exit the cargo space and lease out its freighters. This, even though, cargo is a big revenue earner.

According to reports, Air India is seeking to lease two of its Airbus 310s, which were converted to freighters. The carrier is also converting six Boeing 737-200s into freighters, each with a payload capacity of 12 to 15 tonnes, which will bring its freighter fleet strength to eight.

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Kingfisher Airlines has put an end to its pilot recruitments for now, and has opted not to honour the ‘letters of intent’ it had issued to its co-pilots earlier this year.

Reports quoted unnamed sources while saying that the airline had issued letters of intent to young pilots promising them jobs as co-pilots once they completed their Type Rating training from institutes abroad. They reports say that a number of these trainee pilots have since then completed their training programmes successfully and have even received their Indian licences, but have not heard from Kingfisher Airlines.

Reports quoted sources as saying that the trainee pilots had been informed that Kingfisher Airlines does not need crew and that the communication was given to the students as and when they completed course and thereafter contacted the airline for the job promised to them earlier.

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Amongst its primary cost cutting measures will be the pay and perks of the top 200 of its people.

Jet Airways, the largest private airline in the country, is planning to slash the pay of its top 200 officials by anywhere between a quarter or a third in order to combat costs. The firm is also reported to be undecided on the payment of a Diwali bonus this year.

Reports quoted officials of the airline as saying that the proposed salary cut would impact Jet employees who make Rs10 lakh or more each month, and could be effective as early as next month. Reports say an official announcement is likely just before the weekend, ahead of India’s largest festival, Diwali.

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American defence contractor and industrial corporation Raytheon is optimistic about securing business worth $1 billion from the Indian civilian sector alone over the next 5-10 years.

The $21.3 billion company is reported to be at the head of the race for a $196 million contract for the supply of technology to be used in India’s first satellite-based global aviation navigation system, GAGAN.

Raytheon’s director of business development and strategic planning Fred A. Treyz III, while visiting India’s civil aviation show at Hyderabad last week said that India has ”tremendous business potential” for his company, and that although Raytheon was looking at around $100-200 million in business over the coming two to three years, ”this figure can easily go up to $1 billion in the next 5-10 years."

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