Archives for November 2019

From a shy, introvert, temperate wildlife photographer to an astute political organizer and now the Chief Minister of Maharashtra – the rise of Uddhav Thackeray is more than impressive.

MUMBAI:  From a shy, introvert, temperate wildlife photographer to an astute political organizer and now the Chief Minister of Maharashtra – the rise of Uddhav Thackeray is more than impressive.Engrossed in his hobby of wildlife photography, Uddhav hardly took politics seriously till the mid-nineties. He was handling the responsibility of party mouthpiece, Saamna. Yet, he was aloof from politics. Moreover, due to his cousin Raj, who was the shadow of Shiv Sena founder Balasaheb Thackeray back then, Uddhav remained away from the media’s eye for a long time.

Uddhav is not a great orator like his father. But, he speaks from the heart. Raj had oratory skills like his uncle and was a firebrand. Uddhav was sober. It was a complete mismatch for the Shiv Sena of those days. While the party had its government Raj had started controlling the party to a large extent. It was in the late nineties, when Raj lost some of his clout in the party organization due to Ramesh Kini case, that Uddhav got a chance to come forth. 

After the party lost power, Uddhav was made the executive head of the party. He started organising regular meetings of leaders from different regions. Gradually, many aggressive leaders, who believed in muscle power politics, got replaced by moderates.

Before the polls, he started pitching for major share in seat-sharing and the alliance with BJP broke. Uddhav stood against the Modi wave and got 63 MLAs against all odds. Probably that was the moment when he made the promise to himself that he shall have a Sena CM in 2019. That promise has been fulfilled.

The European carrier has a codeshare agreement with Air India, which allows one airline’s passenger to book a ticket on the other airline, using the first one’s ticketing system.

NEW DELHI: With Jet Airways shutting down in April, the Lufthansa airline group is planning to “strengthen” its partnership with Indian airlines like Vistara and Air India in 2020, the top Indian official of the largest European carrier said.

Moreover, apart from launching a Munich-Bengaluru flight service in April, the airline does not plan to start any other flight service in 2020, George Ettiyil, Senior Director, South Asia, Lufthansa Group, said.

Currently, the Lufthansa airline group has an interline agreement with Vistara, which allows a passenger to check-in his luggage at the first airport itself for the whole journey consisting of flights of both airlines.

“With Vistara, we are strengthening our relationship in the weeks to come. Jet Airways was one of our partners here in India and with them having left the scene, we are looking for Indian airlines to partner up with.

Asked if Lufthansa was planning to convert its interline agreement with Vistara to a codeshare agreement, he said, “We are trying to strengthen it. Let us see what the future holds in store. We have the desire to actually strengthen partnerships with other Indian airlines also. So, Vistara is an obvious choice.”

The European carrier has a codeshare agreement with Air India, which allows one airline’s passenger to book a ticket on the other airline, using the first one’s ticketing system. The Indian government is planning to sell Air India to a private player by March next year.

For 2020, the Lufthansa group “will be trying to strengthen our Indian partnerships” so that Indian carriers “can bring passengers from second and third-tier cities to our four gateways”, Ettiyil said. Two brands of the group — Lufthansa and Swiss — operate flight services to India. Swiss has daily non-stop flights connecting Zurich to Delhi and Mumbai.

Lufthansa operates daily non-stop flights connecting Frankfurt to Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Chennai, as also daily non-stop flights connecting Munich to Delhi and Mumbai. From April 1, 2020, Lufthansa will start a five-days-a-week flight service, connecting Munich and Bengaluru. “We currently do not have any immediate plans to grow in terms of adding flight capacity,” Ettiyil said.

“We have seen a continuous growth over the past four years of India’s share on our aircraft. We are trying to grow by allowing more Indian-origin passengers on our aircraft. We have no other plans of any other further flights for 2020,” he added.

Stating that the Bengaluru-Munich flight operations would be the airline’s focus next year, Ettiyil said, “Promising cities are always on the radar. Hyderabad is always something that is there. But one has to always look at profitability.”

The Lufthansa group currently operates only wide-body aircraft for its long-haul operations between India and Europe. However, till January, it had flight operations from Frankfurt to Pune using narrow-body planes. “It was a wet-lease agreement with an operator known as PrivatAir. They unfortunately went bankrupt and we could not find an alternative,” Ettiyil said.

A wet-lease agreement is a renting agreement, where one airline provides an aircraft, its crew, its maintenance crew etc. to another airline. The Frankfurt-Pune flight operations were conducted by PrivatAir for Lufthansa for 10 years.

Asked if Lufthansa was planning to restart the Frankfurt-Pune flight operations, Ettiyil replied in the negative. “We have tried for a year (to find an alternative). We have not been successful so far. We don’t have that kind of an aircraft. This aircraft (for the Frankfurt-Pune route) has to be a modified aircraft. It needs to have a bigger fuel tank, less cargo capacity. The economy class should be better than the domestic product,” he said.

Ettiyil added that the modified plane also needed to have an European AOC (air operator’s certificate), with safety standards that were regulated by the European Union (EU). Therefore, due to these specific requirements, the airline was unable to restart the Pune operations as yet, he said, adding, “If we find an alternative to PrivatAir, we will definitely restart it.”

” After PrivatAir went bankrupt in December last year, Lufthansa did conduct flight operations in the December-January period, using its own narrow-body A320 family aircraft, Ettiyil said, adding, “Passengers did not accept that.

Ettiyil said the runway is a challenge at the Pune airport and if the Indian Air Force is able to expand it after buying an additional piece of land, any wide-body aircraft will be able to land there. “Not just Lufthansa, but many airlines would be willing to operate to Pune then, if the air force allows,” he added.

The Lufthansa group continues to sponsor the annual Startup Expo, which is organised in collaboration with TiE (The Indus Entrepreneurs) in Delhi. Ettiyil said the group was open to establishing commercial partnerships with startups in future, if they were relevant to the airline ecosystem.

“Initially, it was pure sponsorship (of the Startup Expo). It was a marketing investment for us. But it grew. For example, Chaayos was a winner at one of our startup initiatives called ‘Runway to Success’. Chaayos’ masala tea is served on every Lufthansa flight that goes out of India,” he said.

Asked if the group was contemplating similar commercial partnerships like the one with Chaayos, Ettiyil said, “Startups that go into travel and mobility, we will definitely have a look at them. We will see if there is anything we can do together.”

Following the meeting with NCP chief, BJP MP Sanjay Kakade said that he ‘met Pawar for personal reasons’.

MUMBAI: Amid the high political drama in Maharashtra and threat of ‘poaching’ of MLAs, the NCP, Congress and Shiv Sena have shifted their legislators to different luxury hotels in Mumbai.

While the Congress moved its MLAs to the J W Marriott hotel in Juhu area, the NCP legislators were staying at The Renaissance hotel in Powai, sources said.

Besides, the Shiv Sena MLAs are staying at The Lalit hotel located near the international airport here, they said.

The Congress legislators were earlier supposed to leave for Jaipur, but later decided to stay in Mumbai in view of the fast-paced political developments here, they added.

On the other hand, BJP MP Sanjay Kakade met NCP Chief Sharad Pawar’s at his residence here on Sunday.

Following the meeting with NCP chief, Kakade said that he “met Pawar for personal reasons”.

The meeting between Kakade and NCP chief comes ahead of Supreme Court hearing on a joint plea of Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress against the decision of Maharashtra Governor inviting BJP’s Devendra Fadnavis to form the government.

Maharashtra government will not be represented by anyone in the Supreme Court today when the apex court will hear a joint plea of Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress against the decision of Maharashtra Governor to invite BJP’s Devendra Fadnavis to form the government in the state, said sources.

Sources informed that since Maharashtra government has not been given any notice by the Supreme Court it has decided not to have its representation in the court.

However, the Standing Counsel of the Maharashtra government has been asked to remain on ‘standby’ and adequately represent the government in case the court asks for or if needed.

Attorney General of India, KK Venugopal is likely to appear for the Raj Bhavan while senior counsel Mukul Rohatgi is likely to represent BJP in the Supreme Court.

The petitioners – Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress – have requested the Supreme Court to order a floor test to be held on Sunday itself. Senior Congress leader and advocate Kapil Sibal will appear in the court on behalf of the petitioners.

The matter will be heard at 11:30 am today.

After a prolonged uncertainty over the government formation that lasted for nearly a month, Devendra Fadnavis on Saturday morning took oath for the second consecutive term as the state Chief Minister, while Ajit Pawar took oath as deputy chief minister.

On the other hand, the Nationalist Congress Party late on Saturday moved 44 MLAs to Renaissance Hotel here on Saturday.

The BJP won 105 seats in the 288-member assembly followed by Shiv Sena 56, NCP 54 and Congress 44.