Aviation: More signs of collapse

More clear signs of collapse here, both involving aviation.
Hw long will it be before only the very rich will be able to afford to fly?

Stranded airline passengers told to chip in for fuel

Whip-round: Furious passengers were told to gather £20,000 in cash between them to get back to Birmingham after enduring a delay in Vienna because of Comtel Air's unpaid bills

CBC,

17 November, 2011

Airlines have already begun charging for food, drinks, seat assignments and baggage. Now one is demanding that passengers cough up extra cash for fuel.

Hundreds of passengers travelling from India to Britain were stranded Thursday in Amritsar, India, by the charter airline Comtel, which was asking them to kick in money to cover the cost of fuel and fees.

Passengers will not be allowed to leave for Britain unless they pay 10,000 rupees (about $200) each, Bhupinder Kandra, the airline's majority shareholder, told the BBC.

It was not clear if the passengers were stranded on the plane or at the airport.

But that incident came just days after 180 other travellers flying the same route were stranded on a Comtel plane at a layover in Vienna until they could raise more than £20,000 ($32,000) to fund the rest of the flight to Birmingham, England.

Footage from the first Comtel airline incident broadcast by Britain's Channel 4 news showed a cabin crew member telling passengers: "We need some money to pay the fuel, to pay the airport, to pay everything we need. If you want to go to Birmingham, you have to pay."

Channel 4 news said the crew told the passengers they would have to come up with £24,000 ($38,000) between them. Some passengers said they were allowed to leave the plane to get to cash machines in Vienna to raise the money.

"We all got together, took our money out of purses — £130 [$209]," said Reena Rindi, who was aboard with her two-year-old daughter. "Children under two went free, my little one went free cause she's under two. If we didn't have the money, they were making us go one by one outside, in Vienna, to get the cash out."

The plane then took off and reached Birmingham.

Kandra, Comtel's majority shareholder, told The Associated Press from Vienna that travel agents had taken the passengers' money before the planes left but had not passed it on to the airline.

"This is not my problem," he said. "The problem is with the agents."

But Kandra insisted that the company was solvent and that the "show will go on."

"We have not run out of money," he said. "We have enough."

Airport officials in Birmingham, however, said Thursday that Comtel's weekend flights had been cancelled.

More coverage in the British press HERE

Hellish week for Indian aviation: No fuel, no food and fuming flyers

Financial crises engulf two major carriers, leaving passengers all at sea

Indigo -- the only airline making a profit in these difficult times for the Indian aviation industry

CNN,

10 November, 2011

Everywhere you turn, one of India's fastest growing sectors -- aviation -- is in a mess.

And that's despite global aviation body IATA saying recently that India’s aviation market expansion was the strongest in the world. Except for low-cost carrier IndiGo, Air India, Kingfisher, Jet Airways and Spicejet are all expected to post losses for the quarter ending September.

On November 9 a government panel agreed to provide sovereign guarantee to national carrier Air India’s debt obligation -- which totals Rs 19,000 crore -- towards aircraft loan repayments till 2020.

Earlier in the week it emerged that Air India couldn't even pay for its aloo paratha, let alone its aircraft.

Tajsats, India's largest flight caterer, claims dues of Rs 45 crore and is threatening to put Air India on cash-and-carry mode.

Meanwhile Kingfisher Airlines, a private carrier owned by tycoon Vijay Mallya, recently shut down its budget wing; Kingfisher has not posted profits since the airline's inception in 2005, and is now capital-starved.

State-run oil firm Hindustan Petroleum, the largest fuel supplier to Kingfisher, temporarily suspended fuel supply for the second time in four months because the airline has outstanding fuel bills of Rs 130 crore.

This week thousands of would-be passengers across the country found their travel plans in disarray when Kingfisher canceled 50 flights a day, up from the 34 announced earlier in the week.

The canceled sectors are on main domestic and a few international routes.

What does this mean for passengers?

Only the worst. It means that travelers with confirmed seats are unlikely to find their aircraft leaving on time. They might even find there's no food on board. And with a shortage of seats now, competitors ticket prices are going up.

Customers feel like they're playing a blind game of chance on flight booking websites. Experts like Rajesh Pratap Rudy -- pilot, former Union minister for civil aviation and a BJP member of Parliament -- believe India's aviation sector needs a major policy rethink, reforms and initiatives to level the playing field between competing private and public players.

All of which is cold comfort for the crowd at the departure gate.