Cloud Trips

Jet Airways puts 2 mln seats on sale at discounted price of Rs 2,250 across India

New Delhi: India's second largest carrier Jet Airways India Ltd Tuesday put on sale 2 million tickets at flat Rs 2,250 for travel upto anytime till Dec 31, terming it the country's 'biggest airticket sale'.
Passengers can book the tickets before Feb 24 to avail the seats at discounted price.
"Experience India's biggest air ticket sale with 20 lakh (2 million) seats on over 450 daily flights across 57 cities within India," Jet Airways said on its website.
With the move, the carrier may improve cash flows by Rs 4.5 billion on the back of advance bookings, which will be done at a magnum opus scale.

UNION BUDGET 2013:

• Budget: What could get costlier or cheaper
• Tax Amendments expected in Budget 2013
•  What is fiscal deficit and why does it matter?
• People responsible for Budget 2013-14
• FDI in retail: Proposals cleared ahead of the Budget
• Budget 2013: Good news for low-cost homes
• What salaried people want from the budget
• UPA's Budgets since it came to power in 2004
• Budget 2013: Education of India’s past 5 Finance Ministers

The offer comes a month after rival carrier SpiceJet Ltd had announced a sale of 1 million tickets at discounted price of Rs 2,013 for travel between Feb and Apr.
This time, however, Jet Airways has doubled the number of discounted tickets.
Meanwhile, the country's largest budget carrier IndiGo Airlines Pvt Ltd has also announced a similar price cut on travel portals without elaborating sectors and validity of discounted tickets.
The discount is likely to give a much needed respite to air travellers, who were paying high air fares due to grounding of Kingfisher Airlines.

UNION BUDGET 2013:

• Budget: What could get costlier or cheaper
• Tax Amendments expected in Budget 2013
•  What is fiscal deficit and why does it matter?
• People responsible for Budget 2013-14
• FDI in retail: Proposals cleared ahead of the Budget
• Budget 2013: Good news for low-cost homes
• What salaried people want from the budget
• UPA's Budgets since it came to power in 2004
• Budget 2013: Education of India’s past 5 Finance Ministers

Kingfisher pilot breaks rules, flies woman in cockpit

A senior pilot of Kingfisher Airline faces probe after cabin crew lodged a complaint against him for flying a woman in cockpit during a Delhi-Mumbai flight on August 19.

NEW DELHI: The head of Kingfisher Airline's pilot training flew a woman in the cockpit on a Delhi-Mumbai flight and when the cabin crew protested, told them to stay away during the journey. The crew of the flight IT 304 of August 19 have now lodged a complaint with the management, saying the pilot flouted DGCA rules by flying an unauthorized person in the cockpit.

"We will investigate the matter," Kingfisher spokesman Prakash Mirpuri said. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation too has ordered a probe and warned of strict action if the pilot is found guilty.

This incident comes at a time when the DGCA is conducting a safety audit of Kingfisher and Air India Express — airlines identified as being in severe financial distress by a DGCA audit last December.

The Kingfisher cabin crew did not press the case against the pilot on August 19 itself as the commander is one of the seniormost pilots of the airline.

In fact, the pilot, GM(training), was among the handful who also fly promoter Vijay Mallya's personal Airbus corporate jet.

Employees have always steered clear of this select group, but with salaries pending since March, the fear is diminishing. As soon as the flight landed in Mumbai, the cabin crew lodged a complaint.

Sources point out that the Kingfisher commander broke many rules while taking the woman into the cockpit, no matter that a co-pilot was present.

"Taking a flyer in the cockpit is itself not allowed. But in this case, asking the cabin crew not to come to the cockpit during the flight is another serious breach," said a source.

"DGCA rules stipulate that when one of the pilots leaves the cockpit for any reason, a crew member must remain there till the former returns. The reason is that since 9/11, the cockpit doors are locked and if for some reason the only pilot in the cockpit gets incapacitated, there must be someone else to open the door for the other pilot."

Dhanushkodi - at land's end

Barely 20 km from the town of Rameswaram in Tamil Nadu, Dhanushkodi gets its name from Dhanush (bow) and Kodi (end). The name alludes to an anecdote in the Ramayana, where Lord Rama broke the bridge constructed by his army of monkeys between the mainland and the island of Lanka with a stroke of his bow. Barely 50 yards long, Dhanushkodi is the sole terrestrial border between India and Sri Lanka. It was inhabited until 1964, when a terrible cyclone wrecked the village and swept a passenger train into the sea. Though Dhanushkodi today is a ghost town, it is still visited by pilgrims. Yahoo! reader J MADHU RANTHAKAN presents a photographic travelogue of a journey to land’s end.

A distant view of Dhanushkodi town from a vehicle. Pilgrims from all over India visit Rameswaram Temple to bathe in the holy wells and in the sea. It is a well-known pilgrimage site. Only a few, though, know the mythological and historical importance of nearby Dhanushkodi.

 

A distant view of Dhanushkodi town from a vehicle. Pilgrims from all over India visit Rameswaram Temple to bathe in the holy wells and in the sea. It is a well-known pilgrimage site. Only a few, though, know the mythological and historical importance of nearby Dhanushkodi.

 

Road leading to Dhanushkodi from Rameswaram. It was on this island in January 1897 that Swami Vivekananda, after his triumphant visit to Chicago to attend the Parliament of Religions in September 1893, set foot on Indian soil from Colombo.

The walls of the church still stand.

 

Air India crisis continues, 14 flights cancelled

New Delhi/Mumbai, May 14 (IANS) The agitation by Air India pilots entered its seventh day Monday with the management cancelling 14 international outbound flights, also throwing domestic operationsinto disarray, an official said.

'We have cancelled around 14 flights for the day. The contingency plan will be implemented within two or three days whereby a guaranteed minimum international operations will be operated,' a senior Air India official with the Operations Arm told IANS.

'We are monitoring the situation and informing the passengers in advance.'

Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh had Sunday regretted the move by the government to merge the erstwhile Indian Airlines and Air India and had said there should have been due diligence.

Trouble started for the airline May 8 when pilots belonging to Indian Pilots Guild (IPG) took mass sick leave protesting the move to provide Boeing-787 Dreamliner training to pilots from the erstwhile Indian Airlines.