In an attempt to lower down the operational costs, the Indian airlines is planning to cut down the salaries of the staff by 10% rather than resorting for large scale retrenchment. The decision is said to be taken under the pressure of political parties that see taking away of the jobs from the staff as not as a desirable measure to bring down one’s costs.

The Salary which accounts for about 15% of total operating costs of an Indian airline will be reduced and the contract with some of the foreign pilots and engineers will not be renewed. Same measure for at least a year has also been taken by the Jet Airways (India) Ltd and Kingfisher Airlines Ltd who grouped into an operational alliance last week.

Mumbai, Oct 18 : Vijay Mallya-promoted Kin

Leading commercial plane makers, Boeing Co. said that it would go for production of commercial planes as per its earlier plans. France-based Airbus, on the other hand, decided to stop the production for some time. However, no company got a new order for plane purchase in the first two days of the ongoing Hyderabad air show.

The 19,00 employees of Jet airways, who were earlier shunted from their posts, can now take a sigh of relief, as on late Thursday night, Jet Airways chairman Naresh Goyal apologized to all the 19,00 employees and asked them to resume back to work on Friday morning.

Goyal, who empathized with the agony that the employees might have undergone, said, “The management might not like my decision but sometimes there are disagreements within the family and as the head of the family, I am taking this decision.”

New Delhi, Oct 17: The Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Commission (MRTPC), the anti-monopoly watchdog, on Friday ordered its investigative arm Director General of Investigation and Registration to probe into the operational alliance formed by two leading private carriers Jet Airways and Kingfisher Airlines.

The watchdog ordered an investigation on the alliance, to find out whether the tie-up would result in monopoly and submit a report within 60 days, according to reports.

On October 13, Kingfisher Airlines chief Vijay Mallya and Jet Airways chief Naresh Goel broached a possible alliance to overcome their problems, largely generated by mounting fuel bills in wake of the global financial crisis.

After delivering 99 helicopters to Indian Clients, the US Based rotorcraft manufacturing major, Bell Helicopter, while handing over its 100th helicopter in India at the Indian Aviation 2008 at Hyderabad announced its plan of set up a Maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) base in the country. 

Bob Fitzpatrick, Senior vice-president, Bell Helicopter said that the company was in the initial stage of talks with potential partners for the unit and hope to wrap up the plan within an year.