Jets face India billboard hurdle on takeoff

NEW DELHI -- Mumbai's towering billboards, which hawk everything from the latest Bollywood movies to soda, block out more than some sunlight. They're also a physical hurdle preventing Air India from reaching its potential on what should be one of its most lucrative routes.

The height of billboards near India's financial hub means the Boeing 777-300 ER jets that the carrier uses for nonstop flights to Newark, N.J., which is near New York City, must fly 51 fewer passengers, or 15 percent below capacity, in order to clear them. That's costing $1.6 million per month in lost revenue, India's junior aviation minister G.M. Siddeshwara told Parliament.

For Air India, which is surviving on a $4.9 billion taxpayer bailout and hasn't made a profit since fiscal 2006, the adjustment means further delays in eliminating losses. The billboards, some as high as a seven-story building, line the main road between Mumbai, formerly called Bombay, and the hub in a northwestern suburb.

"This is a very serious issue," said Mohan Ranganathan, a former commercial pilot and aviation safety consultant based in Chennai, India, who added that signs high enough to represent an obstacle to aircraft would "violate" standards imposed by the International Civil Aviation Organization.

The 16-hour, nonstop Newark service operated by Air India -- the longest such direct flight by an Indian carrier -- requires the twin-engine 777s to carry a high-fuel load, so any weight savings must come in the form of fewer passengers.

Air India spokesman G.P. Rao and Vaibhav Tiwari, a spokesman for GVK Power & Infrastructure Ltd.'s Mumbai International Airport Pvt., didn't respond to calls seeking comment.

United Continental Holdings, the only other carrier to fly nonstop between Mumbai and Newark, uses the smaller 777-200. Mary Ryan, a spokesman for the Chicago-based carrier, said in an email that the billboards don't affect United's operations or capacity.

The basic initial cruise altitude for the 777-200 ER with General Electric Co. engines is 36,600 feet, while for the bigger 777-300 ER with GE engines, it decreases to 34,100 feet, according to Boeing's website.

On the highway to the airport, most of the billboards are located on top of or between residential high-rises. While some of the tallest are to be found 7 miles from the hub, in a residential neighborhood a little over 1 mile away at least 15 billboards can be found along an almost 2,000-foot road -- peddling an eclectic mix of affordable suburban homes, the latest Bollywood movie and deals on domestic flights.

Airports Authority of India, the former monopoly airports operator and a stakeholder in Mumbai airport, acted to remove some billboards after complaints from Air India, according to the minister's statement.

All but two of a total 15 billboards were removed, Siddeshwara told Parliament in reply to a lawmaker's question last week. The two billboards are under litigation, he said.

Information for this article was contibuted by Soumya Gupta in Mumbai and Mary Schlangenstein in Dallas.

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