Air India to train staff in bid to improve its on-board services

In his first media interview after being appointed Air
India’ s chief training officer, Stephen Sukumar said the airline is in talks with
some of the world’ s best hotel chains to train its employees in an attempt “ to bring back some of the once
legendary shine of Air India on-board
service” . And for ground staff, the airline has
developed training programmes
benchmarked to those of other Star
Alliance members, he added.
By the middle of next year, Air India
will join Star Alliance, a global grouping of airlines with 27 members
including Lufthansa German Airlines
and Continental Airlines Inc.
And the airline has renegotiated all its
training contracts and lowered total
training costs by 29%, when compared with the last fiscal year,
according to Sukumar.
However, the airline’ s annual report doesn’ t have a break-up of the amount spent on training.
The appointment of Sukumar, the
former chief training officer at German
airline Deutsche Lufthansa AG, has
been controversial and the
government has appointed a two- member committee to review his
appointment.

Country ’s first seaplane Jal Hans takes wings

New Delhi: Civil Aviation Minister
Praful Patel launched Jal Hans, the first
seaplane of Pawan Hans Helicopters
Limited, at a ceremony held in Mumbai
today.
Seaplanes would also be introduced in other areas of India like
Lakshadweep, Goa, Orissa. Seaplane, a
fixed-wing aircraft capable of taking
off and landing on water, is ideal
when island is far from land or when
there is no landing strip. Unlike regular aircraft, these do not require a large
runway.
This is the first time that seaplane
operations have been introduced in
India. Jal Hans is a Cessna Caravan
208. A Amphibian fitted with modern navigation features of any large jet.
With a seating capacity of 10, of which
eight are passenger seats, it can travel
up to 250 km in about an hour and
land on most calm waters. It can also
land on ground using the wheels configuration.
The first seaplane service will be
operationalised in the Andaman and
Nicobar Islands. It will connect Port
Blair with Havelock and subsequently
other islands in north Andaman. At Port Blair, it will operate from the
airport, at Havelock and Diglipur, it will
operate from a waterdromme.

DGCA to no longer probe accidents

Mumbai: Finally, India will have an
independent process to investigate air
accidents and serious incidents with
the Civil Aviation Ministry forming a
Committee of Investigations in January
next year. The formation of an independent
body would, among other things,
mean the DGCA would also come
under the scanner during probe for its
policies and decisions that may have
played a part in an air crash or incident.
'The Committee will be headed by a
director and four other officers. With a
pool of independent experts from the
aviation industry, the Committee
would have 15-20 members," said civil aviation secretary Dr Nasim Zaidi.
Currently, DGCA officials conduct
probe into most of the accidents. "The
same authority cannot be the
prosecutor, investigator and the
judge," said Zaidi, referring to the need to keep the DGCA away from probe
into accidents.
In case of accidents involving major
loss of life, like the Mangalore aircrash,
an independent Court of Inquiry was
formed for the probe. "If a Court of Inquiry is needed to be formed, the
committee of investigations will co-
ordinate in the matter," said Zaidi. The
ministry's approval for the formation
of the Committee is pending.
Meanwhile, DGCA officials will continue to investigate incidents that are not
serious in nature.