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http://www.livemint.com/2010/04/19231749/Aviation--Regulator-suspends.html

Regulator suspends Paramount’s licence

New Delhi: The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) suspended the national scheduled airline licence of Coimbatore-based Paramount Airways Pvt. Ltd effective Monday after it fell short of the five-aircraft minimum requirement.

Paramount had three of its five-aircraft fleet de-registered by DGCA due to a payment dispute with aircraft lessor GE Commercial Aviation Services Llc last month.

“The scheduled operators permit has been temporarily suspended effective 19 April,” said a DGCA official who did not want to be named as he is not authorized to speak with the media. A second DGCA official confirmed the development.

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CHS · Member Joined: 18 Mar 2010 Posts: 311

This was definitely coming, and it's good, for Paramount's sake if not the industry's. Let's see what fable Mr. T comes up with this time...

vikramv2 · Posted: Tue Apr 20, 2010 12:50 pm Post subject:

I guess yu will see press releases trumpeting the airline and launch of routes to timbukto, africa....lol

it is as good as dead now...
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HAWK21M · Posted: Tue Apr 20, 2010 12:59 pm Post subject:

Was on the cards.Matter of time.
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Boeing7xx · Member Joined: 23 Dec 2006 Posts: 477 Location: WSSS

Indeed sad to see an airline go down.

747-237 · Posted: Tue Apr 20, 2010 5:29 pm Post subject:

A couple on interesting news articles:

Paramount grounded on low fleet & loan defaults

http://indiatoday.intoday.in/site/Story/93661/Business/Paramount+grounded+on+low+fleet+&+loan+defaults.html

Paramount grounded for good?

http://expressbuzz.com/cities/chennai/paramount-grounded-for-good/166695.html
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iah87 · Member Joined: 17 Apr 2007 Posts: 2567

sri_bom · Member Joined: 22 Dec 2006 Posts: 2365 Location: Singapore

Indian Directorate of Civil Aviation (DGCA) suspended Paramount Airways' operating license due to an insufficient number of aircraft in operation, following the deregistration of aircraft in a leasing dispute with GECAS and ECC Leasing (Emirates Business 24/7, 21-Apr-2010). The airline denied the suspension. Managing Director, M Thiagarajan, stated the carrier plans to acquire six aircraft within the next two months (Express Buzz, 20-Apr-2010).

Paramount Airways: "We will acquire six more aircraft within the next two months. Two Embraers and four Airbus will be part of the fleet soon. Earlier, we made a mistake of being over-dependent on one leasing company,” M Thiagarajan, Managing Director. Source: Express Buzz, 20-Apr-2010.

haree · Posted: Wed Apr 21, 2010 10:06 am Post subject:

con spirito · Member Joined: 07 Apr 2007 Posts: 577 Location: Inflight

Over ambitious MD resulting in poor management of the airline.
Reminds me of Damania.....

Calling Mr. T.............
Be down to earth and stop giving stupid press releases.
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iceman · Member Joined: 19 Jan 2007 Posts: 55

paramount is nothing but a big joke with mr T as the clown and whatever he says not worth even on toilet paper.

sammyk · Posted: Wed Apr 21, 2010 4:25 pm Post subject:

Over dependent on one leasing firm? Geez, all you had were a handful of aircraft, you just had to pay your bill!

HAWK21M · Posted: Thu Apr 22, 2010 12:48 pm Post subject:

Better Management would help with more silence on the Press front....aka Indigo/Spicejet/Blue Dart.

Less publicity is good in Aviation.
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sri_bom · Member Joined: 22 Dec 2006 Posts: 2365 Location: Singapore

Paramount Airways reportedly announced it has received in-principle approval from the Aircraft Acquisition Committee of the Indian Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) to commence the process to acquire up to 18 aircraft, including ten A321s, six Bombardier Q400s and two Embraer aircraft, at an estimated cost of USD2 billion (The Hindu Business Line, 03-May-2010). The carrier ordered ten A321s, with the option for ten more in Jun-2009. The Indian Directorate of Civil Aviation (DGCA) suspended Paramount Airways' operating license due to an insufficient number of aircraft in operation in Apr-2010, following the deregistration of aircraft in a leasing dispute with GECAS and ECC Leasing.

himmat01 · Member Joined: 19 Dec 2006 Posts: 1392 Location: DEL

It seems that their website is still accepting bookings. I went up to the stage of entering the passenger and credit card details for a booking on IXM-MAA sector om May 6th 2010.
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flightgearpilot · Member Joined: 21 Dec 2006 Posts: 711 Location: VOBL

Sad. License revocation on a technicality? Wonder what is the basis for a rule requiring at least 5 aircrafts?

Couldn't some high net worth individual run an "airline" with just one aircraft catering to demands between a pair of destinations? As long as passengers like the service and are willing to pay for it, what is the problem?

haree · Posted: Tue May 04, 2010 12:29 pm Post subject:

iah87 · Member Joined: 17 Apr 2007 Posts: 2567

sammyk · Posted: Wed May 05, 2010 7:46 pm Post subject:

What is an airline this small doing running three aircraft types and from three different manufacturers no less.

iflytb20 · Posted: Wed May 05, 2010 8:12 pm Post subject:

Er....are they still flying?? I heard them on the RT yes'day night.
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747-237 · Posted: Wed May 05, 2010 10:37 pm Post subject:

I heard that 2 aircraft are parked at MAA with their reg. changed to an "M" reg. Can anyone confirm ?
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iflytb20 · Posted: Wed May 05, 2010 10:51 pm Post subject:

sri_bom · Member Joined: 22 Dec 2006 Posts: 2365 Location: Singapore

Paramount Airways expatriate pilots are calling upon the carrier to settle two months worth of salary payments, since the Indian Directorate of Civil Aviation (DGCA) suspended the carrier’s operating license due to an insufficient number of aircraft in operation. This was caused by the deregistration of aircraft in a leasing dispute with GECAS and ECC Leasing (Live Mint, 05-May-2010). The aircraft were deregistered in Apr-2010.

Indin Pilot · Member Joined: 06 May 2010 Posts: 6 Location: India

Colombian pilots crash into HR office
May 5th, 2010
DC Correspondent
May 4: Colombian pilots on contract to fly Paramount aircraft have been told to pack up and leave as the airline has scaled down its operations to flying just one aircraft.

The airline had employed 12 pilots to fly its two aircraft earlier but now with its operations cut drastically, Paramount took the decision not to renew the contract for six Colombians, which had expired about three months back, a spokesman for the airline said.

He said Paramount had decided to retain the services of six other pilots, including two Australians, one American and one British. While the pilots claimed they had not received their salaries, the airline said the wages were settled till March. “We have written to the chief immigration officer informing him that the contract in respect of these Colombian pilots had expired three months back and there is no renewal, so they can be sent back to their country,” the airline spokesman said.

He said the Colombians had ‘stormed’ into the airline office in Guindy on April 27 and “created a ruckus”. The pilots brought their families, including children, and raised slogans. One of them even threatened the vice-president (HR), who in turn lodged a complaint with the Guindy police.

“We received a complaint from Paramount and questioned one pilot by name Alexander. He gave a written apology and we dropped the proceedings. The pilot said he only wanted an air-ticket to return to his wife and kids in Panama and nothing else,” assistant commissioner S. Senthil Kumaran said.

With the airline terminating their services and even intimating the fact to the immigration office, the Colombians are likely to be flown out of the city in the next few days, sources said.

Indin Pilot · Member Joined: 06 May 2010 Posts: 6 Location: India

Expat pilots seek salary dues from Paramount Airways
A spokesperson for Paramount Airways denied that any salaries were overdue
Satish John and P.R. Sanjai
Mumbai: A group of Colombian and Panamanian pilots of Chennai-based Paramount Airways Ltd have been stranded in India because they haven’t been paid salaries for at least two months, forcing the Colombian envoy to step in.

Colombian ambassador Juan Alfredo Pinto Saavedra wrote on 3 May to the labour commissioner, the International Labour Organization (ILO) and Paramount on behalf of the five Colombian and four Panamanian pilots.

“One of my duties is to ensure that the rights of my fellow countrymen are not being violated,” the ambassador wrote in his letter. Saavedra confirmed to Mint that he had sent the letter, which cited “economic and operative difficulties” aggravated by the grounding of Paramount planes on court orders.

Three of the airline’s fleet of five Embraers have been pulled from service over payment disputes with GE Commercial Aviation Services and one because of engineering issues. Paramount also has a payment dispute with ECC Leasing Co. Ltd from which it had taken two planes on lease.

The aviation regulator last month started reviewing the airline licence of Paramount after its fleet strength fell short of the minimum five aircraft that it’s required to maintain.

M.M.J. Rao, regional labour commissioner in Chennai, said he hadn’t received any letter from the embassy of Colombia yet, but said he had called a meeting with pilots and airline management to resolve issues on Thursday as a “precautionary measure”.

A spokesperson for Paramount Airways denied that any salaries were overdue. “We have not terminated any contracts of our pilots. They left the country on their own as we did not extend their contracts. We don’t need so many pilots when we are flying just one aircraft. Moreover, these are Embraer pilots (who) are not eligible to fly Airbus planes that we will shortly induct to our fleet,” the Paramount spokesman said.

On Monday, Paramount Airways secured in-principle approval from the ministry of civil aviation to import 10 Airbus A321 planes. Umberto Jarrin, 43, a pilot from Colombia, said he hadn’t received his salary for four months. Jarrin said officials at Paramount had kept promising him and his colleagues that the issue would be settled soon.

The spokesperson for Paramount said their contracts had expired several months ago.

satish.j@livemint.com

d3vski · Posted: Thu May 06, 2010 12:30 pm Post subject:

To the columbian pilots:

Your contracts were not renewed three months ago so time to pack your bags. The gravy train for you guys is well and truly over. Bye Bye!

Nothing wrong in what Paramount did. The contracts were not renewed and they duly informed the Immigration authorities that they are no longer sponsoring the pilots.

Happens all the time in the west, companies decide not to renew contracts, the foreign worker is expected to leave on his own accord.

ALT STAR · Member Joined: 24 Dec 2009 Posts: 70

Paramount seemed to have stopped Ops for a while cause we couldnt hear them on the radio and there was no one manning the counters at chennai.no staff in sight.And these three airplanes just sat there for quite a while (two of them deregistered)
Then one fine day we hear the "paraways" callsign en route to VOMD.They seem to have started ops on the one A/c still registered to them.Im not sure if they are operating any other route other then madurai.All three A/c were on ground today as well. Confused

Lots of stories flying about.Them buying Dash 8s is one i am hearing very often.
Anyway i hope things work out for the crew and staff of the airline.Times are tough and its sad to see something like this happen.

iah87 · Member Joined: 17 Apr 2007 Posts: 2567

This whole episode for Paramount is turning ugly. I am sure there was a reason for the Colombian and Panamanian pilots to hang around Chennai after their contract was cancelled.

I seriously doubt if DGCA will reissue an operating certificate to this airline in the near future.

ameya · Posted: Thu May 06, 2010 10:34 pm Post subject:

With right money and right contacts, anything is possible in DGCA

con spirito · Member Joined: 07 Apr 2007 Posts: 577 Location: Inflight

Indin Pilot · Member Joined: 06 May 2010 Posts: 6 Location: India

The one reason behind Bank of India's NPA woes
Published on Tue, Feb 02, 2010 at 22:22 | Updated at Tue, Feb 02, 2010 at 22:24 | Source : Moneycontrol.co

A single account has been responsible for an unprecedented rise in Bank of India’s rise in non-performing assets (NPAs), CNBC-TV18 reports quoting sources.

The account belongs to Paramount Airlines and the bank has over Rs 200 crore of exposure to the carrier, which has been unable to pay interest for over two quarters now, it is learnt.

Bank of India, which has already classified its exposure to Paramount Airlines as an NPA, is contemplating legal action against the company and has got approval from its board.

When contacted, there was no response from either Bank of India or Paramount Airlines on the issue.
Any one has the latest on the above?

Indin Pilot · Member Joined: 06 May 2010 Posts: 6 Location: India

Hopes crashland: 2 foreign pilots leave India

Mamta Todi
First Published : 11 May 2010 05:06:00 AM IST
Last Updated : 11 May 2010 12:21:33 PM IST

CHENNAI: Carrying bitter memories of India, two foreign pilots left Chennai on Monday for their respective countries. While Capt Juan Carlos Vesga from Colombia had relocated to this city along with his wife and two daughters in 2008, Capt Leonardo Reichlin had chucked a job with Copa Airlines in his home country, Panama, and come down to Chennai in February this year.

Last week, eight other pilots from Colombia and Panama, left Chennai - some of them with their families - after waging a losing battle with their management, which terminated their contracts suddenly. All the expat pilots, trained in flying Embraer aircraft, accused their employer of not paying salaries and other dues for the last couple of months, though the airline spokesman categorically said they had no business staying in India as their contracts had expired.

For their part, the pilots argued that their contracts were signed in 2008 and beyond and were valid for three years. Though there is a clause that the contract was renewable every year with mutual consent, the pilots claimed that their consent was not taken before terminating it. If the company was to terminate the contract unilaterally, it would have to pay the salary for the two-month notice period, which was not done, the pilots said.

Even after their names were taken off the roster, the pilots stayed back in Chennai in a bid to get their dues from the company. Two weeks ago, they barged into the airline office with their families. But the company called in the police. They wrote to their respective embassies seeking their intervention. Colombian Ambassador Juan Alfredo Pinto Saveedra wrote to the Deputy Chief Labour Commissioner in Chennai, V J Mathew, urging him to sort out the matter, and marked a copy of the letter to the International Labour Office for South Asia.

The pilots, as a group, met some members of the media and poured out their grief. Vesga said he had to sell the furniture at home to make both ends meet. Some of them claimed that since the management did not pay their house rent, they were under tremendous pressure from the landlords. Capt Hector Pachon claimed that he had to pay rent from his pocket for four months to keep the landlord at bay.

They said the company was not even paying their return airfare to their respective countries, which they were entitled to, but the airline spokesman strongly denied that charge, saying that they could collect their ticket fare any time.

Since there was no way the pilots could get the unpaid salary, they decided to leave Chennai. “The company finally gave me return tickets for me and my family up to Houston (Rs 1,35,286). To reach my home in Bogota (Colombia) I have to spend another Rs 1,06,920. The company told me that they would not pay for the full distance. I just had to take whatever was offered,” Vesga said on the eve of his departure.

“Unfortunately, I leave India with bitterness. For three months I did not receive the salary. The contract was never cancelled. I did flights for the company until April 14. You can check the logbook,” he said. Pachon, who left Chennai on Friday with his family, paid Rs 1,07,330 as airfare from his pocket. “Since April 19, 2010, I has been asking for my tickets,” he told Express.

Reichlin, who underwent simulator training in Singapore at his own expense of US $6,500 in February, was very angry: “If the company knew it was in trouble why did it call me for the job? They agreed to pay me US $6,000 for first three months and US $7,000 thereafter. However I got only one pay cheque for February. Even now they are not paying for my return ticket. They say they’ll reimburse it later. Living in India is no longer possible because I have three kids to support back home in Panama.”

HAWK21M · Posted: Thu May 13, 2010 11:55 am Post subject:

Thats the sad part when An airline starts to go downhill...The Employees suffer.
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flightgearpilot · Member Joined: 21 Dec 2006 Posts: 711 Location: VOBL

Such typical high-handedness. An all too familiar attitude that is all pervasive in this part of the world, unfortunately.. Crying or Very sad

Sorry guys, on behalf of my country. Apologies for the bad behaviour of my countrymen.

If the company didn't have money, they could have issued promissory notes, alternate forms of payment in kind or something innovative, just so that the relationship is not damaged. Who knows, the company may have failed, but the returning pilots could still put in a good word for the company and the country, which would have helped in the long run. But no. Some people in this part of the world only know just two things -- boot licking or high-handedness.

747-237 · Posted: Mon Jul 12, 2010 4:20 pm Post subject:

The former VT-PAF has now been registered M-YRGN for Celestial Aviation, stiill in basic Paramount colors.
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Jeh

747-237 · Posted: Mon Sep 06, 2010 4:15 am Post subject:

iah87 · Member Joined: 17 Apr 2007 Posts: 2567

Does this mean that all of Paramount's aircraft have now been removed from India.

ameya · Posted: Mon Sep 06, 2010 11:01 am Post subject:

Looks like the end of paramount and the end of entertainment as well.

Mr.T must be hiding form media. Its time to throw those news articles at him and see his reaction.

Ejetter · Member Joined: 11 Jun 2010 Posts: 31

Embraer is fighting in Supreme Court to re-possess VT-PAB & VT-PAC. While VT-PAB is just a piece of scrap, PAC will be flown out once Embraer wins the case. Please see the thread "End of Paramount"