The new year brings new challenges to India's suffering airline industry with signs of worse things to come. Amid the increasing debt crisis, mounting jet fuel costs, soaring losses and an inability to raise fares in a cut-throat market, airlines in India face the daunting task of protecting their air operator permits and convincing regulators that they meet safety standards at the same time as they are cutting costs.

Several international carriers are threatening to reduce or eliminate service to Indira Ghandi International Airport (IGI) because of a dramatic increase in fees proposed by the facility’s operator, Delhi International Airport Pvt. Ltd. (DIAL)

NEW DELHI — India will finalize the schedule for the next launch of its heavy Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mark III (GSLV-Mk III) by May or June of this year. Ground testing is in progress for the GSLV-Mk III, which can lift a 4-ton spacecraft. “Once all the parameters are tested it will be launched on an experimental mission,” says K. Radhakrishnan, chairman of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO). It will be fitted with an Indian-made cryogenic engine. The previous two launches of GSLV were unsuccessful.