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A thirteen-member Trade Mission headed by peak trade body Aviation New Zealand and comprising leading Kiwi business figures visited Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai to meet with regulators, the Indian business community and the press, November 2-6.
“The mission aims to deepen aviation business ties between our two countries and highlights New Zealand's surprisingly large role in helping India realise its future in the skies,” said John Nicolson, Chief Executive Officer of Aviation New Zealand. “Our presence also underlines the international confidence in the strength and commercial opportunities afforded by India's aviation market.”
Accompanying Nicholson is a consortium that will supply ready-to-fly pilots to meet the requirements of specific Indian airlines and help ease India's chronic shortage of airline-quality aviators. The consortium members were Kevin England, Chief Executive Officer of Air Hawke's Bay; Capt. Chris Clarke, Group Chairman and Ian Calvert, Chief Executive Officer of CTC Aviation Training; and Chris England, Chief Executive Officer of International Aviation Academy of NZ.
New Zealand is also offering to increase the number of Indian aircraft engines it services through the Christchurch Engine Centre, represented in the delegation by Sales Manager Steve Robinson. Air travellers in India already enjoy the results of the high-tech secure baggage handling systems provided by Glidepath, whose Regional Sales Manager, Rajesh Kalra, was part of the Mission.
Offering expertise and technological solutions to address Indian needs in maintenance, support and skilled staff are Jennifer Lund, Aviation Training Sales at Air New Zealand Airline Training; and Mike Lynskey, Director Business Development at ASPEQ. Software solutions provided by Superstructure Group represented by Chief Executive Officer Ted Thomas will help reduce and address human errors to improve safety on the ground and in the air.
The visit is the second Mission to India by Aviation New Zealand. Since the first was held in May 2008, New Zealand successes here include growing numbers of kiwi-trained pilots working for Air India and other carriers. Indian graduate students have also taken up work as commercial instructors in New Zealand.
There has been a rise in the volume of Indian aircraft engines serviced at the Christchurch Aviation Centre. Kiwi-designed baggage and security systems have been installed in Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata with work in progress at Kochi and Indore.
New Zealand has been in international aviation from the beginning when on March 31, 1903, Kiwi inventor Richard Pearse may have successfully flown and landed a powered aircraft some nine months before the Wright Brothers.
More than 800 aviation businesses now flourish in New Zealand, exporting goods and services worth around NZ$ 800m (Rs 27.8 billion) annually, including sophisticated IT and manufacturing enterprises. The country manufactured its 1,000th aircraft in September 2009.
Aviation is a vital industry for an island isolated from the world. This insular geographic isolation also makes New Zealand an excellent destination for training pilots and the country's varied terrain and uncluttered, open airspace means it is currently host to more than 100 Indian students at 15 flight training centres.
E-WEEKLY November 2009 www.indianaviationnews.com
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