Beamer to roll out from Chennai

Chennai’s status as an automobile hub received another boost as BMW decided to set up a plant near Chennai. The presence of automobile majors such as Ford, GM and Hyundai has made Chennai the defacto location of choice for new automobile ventures. It remains to be seen whether BMW can achieve critical mass in India. IMO the targeted volume for BMW could be in the range of 200 – 300 cars per annum. Booking of an ultra-premium car (like Mercedes / BMW) is often followed by an Income Tax raid and this very fact will put off the well heeled. When the political mudslinging begins, DMK and ADMK will start claiming credit for this venture.

Southern Skies Update

BusinessWorld reports that Air Sahara’s plans to set up a Southern Hub in Hyderabad has received a big jolt because of the shortage of pilots in sectors like Hyd – Chennai and Hyd – B’lore.

The Telegraph sums up the latest development in the Indian skies

There’s a spate of activity over Indian skies — particularly over South India. In November, Northwest will start flying daily Bangalore-Seattle via Amsterdam. And KLM, the Dutch airline, will be connecting both Bangalore and Amsterdam (daily) and Hyderabad and Amsterdam (three times weekly) from October 31. And Air France is about to start flights from Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad. Meanwhile, moving north, Continental is flying from Newark to Delhi and American Airlines is doing a code-sharing flight with Sahara to Delhi. Going one better than all these, is British Airways which is about to launch two flights daily to Mumbai — of course, when the rains stop in the city.