The Indian Air Force today got the delivery of the first indigenously assembled Hawk MK-132 advanced jet trainer by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL). Air Chief Marshal, F Major was the one who was formally handed over the aircraft.

By the handing over the HAL’s first Adour powered Hawk AJT at Bangalore, it is for sure that there would the beginning of a new chapter for the public sector company engaged in defense production.

“The IAF is acquiring 66 Hawk MK-132 AJT aircraft of which 24 are being supplied by BAE Systems in a flyaway condition. The remaining 42 will be built by HAL at its aircraft division here under licence in three phases,” as reported by Mr Ashok Baweja, chairman, HAL

Sydney - Another day, another safety scare for Australia's Qantas Airways Ltd.

Engineers at Singapore's Changi Airport discovered a body panel had fallen off a Qantas jumbo flying between Melbourne and the island republic, a spokeswoman said Friday.

"It had absolutely no flight safety implications," the spokeswoman said.

But there were implications for the passengers from Wednesday's mishap: a six-hour delay before the flight proceeded to London.

Stockholm - The SAS Group, the operator of the joint carrier Scandinavian Airlines, reported a second-quarter pre-tax loss over record high fuel costs and overcapacity, the group said Thursday as it announced new belt-tightening measures.

The SAS Group posted a second-quarter pre-tax loss of 106 million kronor (16.8 million dollars) compared to a pre-tax profit of 762 million kronor in the corresponding business period of 2007.

Second-quarter sales were 17.7 billion kronor, up 8.7 per cent on the corresponding business period 2007.

New Delhi, Aug 14 : Following the financial crisis due to the rising fuel prices, the Cabinet Secretary will chair a maiden high-level committee meeting today to look into the problems faced by aviation industry.

Constituted by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on July 9, the panel will recommend measures for sustained growth and healthy development of the industry.

Indian air carriers have jointly suffered an estimated loss of Rs 4000 crore last year, which is expected to double in this fiscal.

Some of the panel members are: Secretaries of the Ministries of Finance, Civil Aviation, Revenue, Petroleum and Natural Gas and the Planning Commission, IDFC Chairman Deepak Parekh and IIM Ahmedabad Professor, Dr Raghuram.

As we all know, the hike in the fuel prices led to hike in the domestic airlines prices. Thus, expensive tickets attracted fewer passengers. It is for the second month that the domestic airlines carried fewer passengers.

Singapore - Singapore Airlines has become the world's first carrier to implement an automated document check facility that simplifies the task of checking travel documents, SIA said on Wednesday.

Jointly developed by experts from 11 Star Alliance member carriers, the facility processes all visa, travel and immigration requirements of the countries in the customer's itinerary and eliminates time-consuming manual verification by staff.