Aerospace university may come up in Bangalore

Bangalore: It is not just giving a big push to the ambitious aerospace
industry in the state, the Aero India
show is promising to do much more,
for Bangalore, in particular. If all goes
well, Bangalore will get Asia ' s first aerospace university that could
catapult the city into the league of
global aerospace hubs.
The state government has set the ball
rolling to set up a university
exclusively for aerospace as part of its Aerospace Park project, in Devanahalli,
near Bangalore International Airport.
" We will face huge shortage of skilled human resources in realising the
ambitious plans in aerospace sector.
We do not have a holistic organisation
to provide trained manpower for this
high-tech industry," state chief secretary SV Ranganath said at a
conference with a delegation of US
India Business Council (USIBC),
chaired by chief minister BS
Yeddyurappa.
Ranganth appealed to aerospace industry giants of the US to look into
the issue and participate in a big way
in setting up this university.
Director of industries and commerce
department said, " We will hold discussions with major aerospace
industries like Boeing, Lockheed
Martin and Rolls Royce to seek their
participation in establishing the
university. Presently, only a few
countries including the US, UK, Canada and Australia have aerospace
universities. It is high time Bangalore
gets Asia ' s first aerospace university to emerge and join the big league."

Airlines may need to hire more staff under new safety norms

New Delhi: Indian carriers may soon have to hire more pilots and crew to
comply with a new rule that mandates
more rest for flight crew to prevent
fatigue, a reason cited for the decade' s worst plane crash in India last year
that killed 158 people.
" Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) will issue the rules and put it
up for consultation anytime now. I
think it should be applicable in the
next three months, " civil aviation secretary Nasim Zaidi said, adding the
new directives will also tighten control
over airline managements. " It will address a number of issue like rest,
sleep inertia, fatigue and airline
management issues. " The civil aviation ministry has cleared
the proposal this month, he said.
The plan to reduce pilot fatigue comes
after investigations into the fatal crash
of Air India Express flight IX-812 in
Mangalore on 22 May revealed the flight commander slept through 30%
of the flight.
The move will also raise the cost of
running airlines as the carriers have to
increase the number of pilots and
cabin crew for each aircraft. DGCA is preparing the draft guidelines and the
details haven' t been made public.

International Regulatory Authorities to be Consulted on Mangalore Air Tragedy

The Court of Inquiry has submitted the draft final report to
the Government. International Civil
Aviation Regulations the regulatory
authorities of the State of Manufacture
and State of Design have to be
consulted for formal comments on the Draft Final Report before it is finalised.
Accordingly, the views of Federal
Aviation Administration of United
States in pursuance of America have
been sought. Action on the
recommendations will be taken after finalisation and acceptance of the
report by the Government.
The above information was given by
the Minister for Civil Aviation Shri
Vayalar Ravi in reply to a question in
the Lok Sabha on 23 February , 2011. The Minister also informed the House
that all the bodies at the crash site
have been identified.

Aviation industry saw strong recovery in 2010

New Delhi: The civil aviation industry,
which was hit hard by the global
financial meltdown and high fuel cost,
saw a strong recovery in 2010 with
the domestic passenger traffic rising
19 per cent to 51.53 million, the Economic Survey said today.
In 2009, the traffic was 43.3 million.
"The civil aviation sector in India has
resumed a higher trajectory of growth
after emerging from adverse impact of
global financial crisis. The potential for higher levels of growth in the future is
also very high," said the Economic
Survey 2010-11, tabled in Parliament.
It, however, cautioned that Indian
carriers operate in an exceptionally
high-cost environment and higher prices of air turbine fuel (ATF) can
derail the growth of the sector.