2013: A Year Flown By

2013 shaped the future of civil aviation, both worldwide and in India. This review looked back at the main events and milestones of the year.

Aircraft makers and suppliers: global

The three biggest manufacturers, Airbus, Boeing and Bombardier, each had a first flight.

• The Airbus A350-900 first flew on 14 June 2013. It aimed for a 12 month certification with 5 aircraft and entry into service in September 2014. It had 814 orders and Rolls-Royce Trent XWB engines, the largest jet engine on an Airbus. Airbus also began delivering A320s with sharklets, a step toward the neo. The Pratt and Whitney PW1100G geared turbofan for the A320neo first flew on 15 May 2013.
• Boeing launched the 777X at the Dubai Airshow in November 2013, with 259 orders. 747-8 production was cut while the 737 rate rose. The 737 MAX design was finalised on 23 July 2013, and its only engine, the CFM LEAP-1B, was yet to start testing. Split scimitar winglets, which look like those on the MAX, first flew on a United 737-800 on 16 July. The Boeing 787-9 first flew on 17 September, and 787 problems continued.
• Bombardier started the CSeries certification campaign with the CS100 first flight on 16 September 2013. Entry into service was planned for the end of 2014 and might slip to 2015. Sales were not encouraging, though the CSeries pushed Airbus into the A320neo, Boeing into the MAX and Embraer into the E-Jet E2.
• Embraer launched the E2 family, with the E190-E2 due in mid 2018. ATR won orders for 173 aircraft at the Paris Airshow.
• 747-8 and A380 sales were disappointing, as the market preferred the widebody twins.

Textron, the parent of Cessna, was to buy Beechcraft, formerly Hawker Beechcraft, which had come out of bankruptcy. Mahindra Aerospace opened an aero-structures plant near Bangalore in October and aimed to build the eight seat GA-8 Airvan within two years. Continental Motors bought the bankrupt assets of Thielert in June 2013. Aircraft with diesel engines can burn jet fuel at about INR 80 a litre instead of avgas at INR 180 to 190. In April, Honeywell and Safran moved an A320, F-HGNT, for the first time under its own electric taxi system, which claims to save up to 4 percent of block fuel.

Airlines: India

• Air Costa began on 15 October 2013 with two leased Embraer E175s. In late December it received two new E190s, VT-LBR and VT-LVR, making a fleet of four.
• AirAsia India was announced on 19 February 2013 as a venture of Tata Sons, AirAsia Bhd and Telstra Tradeplace, to start in early to mid 2014. Tata Sons and Singapore Airlines also announced a full service international airline, to start by mid 2014.
• IndiGo had the largest market share at 30 percent, and was the only airline to report a profit, INR 787 crore, for the fifth year in a row. It ordered A321neos, so its single type tag was gone.
• SpiceJet, with 20 percent, had its worst quarterly loss, INR 559 crore for the quarter to September 2013. CEO Neil Mills left, Sanjiv Kapoor joined as COO and Bain & Co helped restructure it. An investor was due to be named in January 2014.
• Jet Airways, with 17 percent (22.5 percent with JetKonnect), became the first airline to receive foreign direct investment, INR 2,069 from Etihad (the original gave no unit).
• GoAir, with 9 percent, had 17 aircraft and 72 A320neos on order. Kingfisher faced a winding up petition by 14 banks led by SBI. Air Mantra stopped flying in March 2013 after eight months.
• Air India offered low cost style fares as a full service airline, planned to sell five Boeing 777-200LRs to Etihad, and had problems with its 11 Boeing 787s.
• Possible start ups for 2014 included Air Pegasus (ATR 72), SkyjetAir (A320, nine cities), Zexus Air, ABC Airways and Kairali Airlines.

Domestic passengers in the first ten months of 2013 rose 4.2 percent against 2012, while seat capacity grew only 1.7 percent, so load factors rose. May was the busiest month and September the weakest. International passengers rose 7.2 percent with capacity up 7.5 percent. January had the most passengers, June the best load factors and July the highest capacity.

Air safety: India

IndiGo had two runway excursions, at Bangalore and Mumbai, and a bird strike at Agartala. A SpiceJet Q400 had a tail strike at Tuticorin, a JetKonnect 737 shut down an engine in flight, and Air India's 787s had problems on at least five occasions. The year's only fatal Indian crash killed a trainee pilot from IGRUA.

Regulation: India

The Civil Aviation Authority of India Bill 2013 went to the Lok Sabha in August to give the regulator operational and financial autonomy, after a 2012 FAA audit found severe deficiencies at the DGCA. In September it went to a standing committee. The FAA audited India in September and December, following the ICAO audit in August, and found 33 issues after the first one. ICAO removed the label of worst safety oversight.

Aircraft and licences: India

India added 80 aircraft, including its first Cessna Citation Mustang and its second amphibian, a Cessna 206H. Of 1,647 aircraft, 1,190 (72 percent) were powered fixed wing, 287 (17 percent) helicopters, 40 (2 percent) ultralights and 25 (1 percent) hang gliders. Only about 415 powered aircraft flew for scheduled airlines, with around 150 Boeing 737s, 160 A320 family aircraft, 15 Q400s and 25 ATRs.

The DGCA issued 629 commercial pilot licences, 41 commercial helicopter licences, 375 airline transport licences and 15 helicopter airline transport licences.

Training: India

• In May 2013 the Delhi High Court exempted AME and pilot training organisations from service tax.
• GMR-APFT in Hyderabad was the newest flight school, with three Diamond DA-40D diesel aircraft and a DA-42 coming. Chimes Aviation Academy was converting some Cessna 172Rs to Thielert diesel engines with DGCA approval.
• Honeywell Technology Solutions Lab added instrument training to its engineer PPL programme and wanted staff to see the Garmin G1000.
• In September 2013 the Lok Sabha passed a bill for a National Aviation University, named for Rajiv Gandhi, at IGRUA.
• In July 2013 the DGCA approved FSTC in Gurgaon, a joint venture with SIM Industries of the Netherlands, as a type rating organisation for A320 and 737 NG. In August, CAE opened its simulator centre at Greater Noida, with two A320 Level D simulators, its fifth facility in India.

Air traffic: India

The DGCA certified GAGAN, the GPS aided geo augmented navigation system. It improves GNSS accuracy and allows precise GPS approaches, lower minima, approaches in hard terrain and more direct routes. Mumbai got a new ATC tower and Delhi's was under construction, the tallest in the country.

The last word

2013 was a big year, and with many programmes launched, the author expected 2014 to be better and more interesting for civil aviation, in India and the world.