So many things happened in the year of 2009. Exciting and new things. Things which smelt of newness, which took us all in aviation to new headings and new altitudes. But first of all I, on behalf of all of us in CCT need to apologise to all our readers for the delay in taking out the e-zine. The delay was long and due to really unavoidable reasons. We promise you to never repeat such a delay performance and to be on the schedule.

GMR Hyderabad International Airport Ltd. (GHIAL) and MAS Aerospace Engineering (MAE) which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Malaysia Airlines have sealed an agreement in the opening months of 2009 to set up a 50:50 joint venture airframe maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) company in Hyderabad. Despite the economic down turn and slow down in aviation, there are still over 350 domestic aircraft in operations currently in India. In the near future at least another 250 aircraft is expected to head towards India. In the next ten years even by very conservative predictions another 2000 brand new planes are expected to join our domestic fleet. In this light the decision to establish a joint venture MRO is very futuristic considering that Hyderabad is only two hours flying from all major metros and only four hours or less flying from all the SAARC countries. The availability of a MRO which caters to both narrow and wide body aircraft and strategically located in India will not only serve India but the entire region of SAARC. This will ensure growth in the country and boost in foreign exchange also.

The air passengers in Delhi are delighted to have the luxurious experience of a world class brand new domestic departure terminal 1D this season starting from April. This terminal is capable of accommodating 10 million passengers per year and has 72 check in counters and four level inline baggage checking system. This has enabled the air passenger to relax and no longer to queue up to get their baggage x-rayed before checking in. Now the passengers can simply walk up to the check in counters, deposit their luggage and collect their boarding passes. Also now there is more space for passenger amenities. The check in system is also very user friendly with 72 check in counters and 16 self check in kiosks spread across eight rows based on common use terminal equipment system.

In the north eastern part of India Airports Authority of India contributed to the comfort of the air travelers by inaugurating a brand new Terminal Building in Dibrugarh Airport in Assam .The building is centrally air conditioned having all modern amenities like escalators, PA systems, baggage handling systems, CCTV for surveillance etc and can hold 500 passengers at a time. In the state of Sikkim AAI has taken up the development of a new Green field Airport at Pakyong for operation of ATR-72 type of aircraft with the investment of approximately 310 crores of rupees.

In order to have transparency in airfares among all air carriers in India the DGCA India has directed that airlines to display the fare as composite fare, so that the air passenger are not confused. The ATF prices have become stable after a very long time and at a level they used to be in the year 2005.Such trend is welcome to initiate an upturn for the aviation industry.

With all these exciting fore ward taking developments we are sure that aviation in India is poised for a new adventure with heading toward excellence and passenger comforts...and we are sure that the passenger who is our KING/QUEEN shall enjoy their flight to higher altitudes more than ever before.

Aryama Sanyal