1,900 pink slips at Jet, red and saffron fly into political chance

The much-feared shakeout in the Indian aviation industry began to hit home on Wednesday as hundreds of employees of leading private airline Jet Airways took to the streets in protest after they were fired overnight, a move the company said was in the greater interest of regaining viability and security its economic health.

While the company said it had “released” 800 flight attendants recruited recently for Jet’s planned expansion programme, it added another 1,100 employees to that list later in the day and said they would include probationary and unconfirmed personnel in other areas including cockpit crew and management personnel.

Aviation industry sources said that this seemed like the beginning of a bloodletting in the sector and other airlines, including Vijay Mallya’s Kingfisher Airlines which joined hands with Jet only two days ago to share facilities and cut costs, could follow suit. Kingfisher last month sacked 300 employees, many of them from Air Deccan with which it merged earlier this year.

To read the full article, click here..
To read the ePaper, visit:
http://epaper.indianexpress.com/IE/IEH/2008/10/16/index.shtml

China opens air space for Jet flight to San Francisco

Chinese and Indian civil aviation authorities on Wednesday met here to resolve their differences over fifth freedom rights in their air bilateral agreement and it is learnt that the former has, after a lot of persuasion, agreed to allow San Francisco as a ‘beyond point' for India. Fifth freedom rights refer to the right to carry passengers from one's own country to a second country, and from there to a third country. So, with San Francisco agreed upon as a ‘beyond point' by China, an Indian airline can fly to China and from there to San Francisco. This is good news for private airline Jet Airways which has been keenly waiting to service destinations on the US west coast.

Meanwhile, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has shot off a notice to Chinese cargo carrier Great Wall Airline to submit its documents for security clearance at the earliest. India had permitted Great Wall Airlines earlier this year to fly to Mumbai and Chennai besides Delhi, despite security concerns by the National Security Council secretariat and other agencies.

To read the full article, click here..
To read the ePaper, visit: http://epaper.indianexpress.com