Wadia group's no-frills carrier Go Airlines on Tuesday said it will acquire eight more aircrafts to increase its fleet to 21 by July 2014 from the existing 13.
The offer is a part of the budget carrier's summer bonanza to air passengers and is applicable for travel across Delhi, Jaipur, Chandigarh, Cochin and Bangalore sectors, the company said. Air India recently slashed its fares by 70 per cent on select routes. Naresh Goyal-promoted Jet Airways has also announced 10-and-20-days apex fares on select routes.
These flights belong to the fleet of Air India, Air India Express, IndiGo, Spice Jet, Vistara, Go Air, and also planes from Air Force.
Grounded carrier Jet Airways on Friday announced the appointment of Sanjiv Kapoor as the chief executive officer. His appointment to the post comes days after the airline brought in former Sri Lankan Airlines CEO Vipula Gunatileka as the chief financial officer. Kapoor, who is currently the president of Oberoi Hotels and Resorts, has been associated with budget carriers SpiceJet and GoAir as well as with full-service carrier Vistara in various capacities in the past.
The city's Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA) has decide to once again consolidate its flight operations to one terminal -- T2 -- from April 21 amid the rising number of Covid-19 cases in the city.
Loans for Indian airlines have dried up as banks have become cautious to lend to the sector.
The load factor of six major domestic airlines--IndiGo, SpiceJet, Air India, GoAir, Vistara and AirAsia India -- stood between 70 per cent and 64.9 per cent in January.
On Thursday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had urged citizens to observe Janta curfew by not going out of their homes from 7 am to 9 am on Sunday amid novel coronavirus pandemic.
Domestic air passenger volume spiked 70.46 per cent in October to 89.85 lakh over the same month of 2020, DGCA data showed on Thursday. The Indian carriers had flown 52.71 lakh passengers in October last year. It may be recalled that domestic traffic along with international flight services remained shut for two months until May 25, 2020, when scheduled air services were resumed in a graded manner.
There could be a fare war in the Indian skies to beat competition from Vistara.
The IPL was suspended on May 4 after multiple COVID-19 cases were reported in its bubble.
Around 1.12 crore domestic passengers travelled by air in December, approximately 6.7 per cent higher than the 1.05 crore who travelled in November, the country's aviation regulator said on Wednesday. Overall, 8.38 crore people travelled on domestic flights in 2021 as compared to 6.3 crore in 2020, showing a jump of 33 per cent, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) stated in its monthly statement. IndiGo -- India's largest carrier -- carried 61.41 lakh passengers in December, a 54.8 per cent share of the domestic market, it mentioned.
Continuing its dominance in the Indian domestic market, Airbus on Wednesday announced that the Bombay Dyeing promoted GoAirline has signed a deal for taking four Airbus A320
While IndiGo carried 16.82 lakh passengers, a 59.4 per cent share of the total domestic market, SpiceJet flew 3.91 lakh passengers, which is 13.8 per cent share of the total market, the DGCA data noted.
SpiceJet has decreased its domestic services by 31 per cent to 2,995 weekly flights in the upcoming winter schedule as compared to 4,316 weekly flights that it got approved for the winter schedule of 2019, the aviation regulator DGCA said on Thursday. Meanwhile, Vistara, another private carrier, has increased its domestic services by 22 per cent to 1,675 weekly flights as compared to 1,376 weekly flights for 2019 winter schedule, the regulator added. The winter schedule begins on October 31 of a year and ends on March 26 next year.
Dispute arose as Indian carriers objected to Emirates flying passengers beyond Dubai, and Dubai authorities complained that Indian airlines have been flying more flights than allocated to its carriers.
Except GoAir, all other Indian airlines have opened bookings for their domestic flights that will start operating from May 25. GoAir will open bookings on domestic flights from June 1 onwards.
Flight occupancy and fresh bookings have dropped over ten per cent in last few days as individuals and corporates defer trips. International travel is already hit due to a series of visa restrictions.
The summer schedule of flights of all other domestic airlines such as Vistara, IndiGo, Air India and GoAir have been approved till October 26.
Companies across the sector are restructuring payrolls of crew, cutting allowances, and extending leave without pay duration as they realise they will have more aircraft and employees compared to customers.
SpiceJet, Air India Express and GoAir have been involved in three, two and one such incidents, respectively, in the past few days, prompting the DGCA to take action against the 12 pilots.
The year gone by has also forced all airlines to turn the lens sharply on their own costs, workings and internal dynamics, opening their eyes to their vulnerabilities. Fewer, leaner, nimbler players will emerge from the carnage.
For any airline to be eligible for restructuring, the current ratio has to be equal to or higher than 0.4, while 'debt to Ebitda' has to be equal to or less than 5.5.
The move by four airlines -- IndiGo, Air India, SpiceJet and GoAir -- to suspend the stand-up comedian raises fears that the government can use the no-fly list to settle political scores, undermine the freedom of citizens.
IndiGo maintained its lead position with 49 per cent share of the domestic passenger market in May. SpiceJet's market share increased to 14.8 per cent in May, giving it the number two spot. The market share of Air India, GoAir, AirAsia and Vistara were 13.5 per cent, 11.1 per cent, 6.3 per cent and 4.7 per cent, respectively, in May this year.
A total of 17 pilots of Air India, IndiGo and Vistara died due to COVID-19 in May when the country saw the peak of the coronavirus pandemic's second wave, sources said on Thursday.
A free and open aviation market, where the government keeps the interest of consumers higher than saving any airline.
Since the beginning of 2020, i-bankers have collected nearly Rs 1,800 crore by way of IPO fees. Interestingly, the India fees this year form just 1 per cent of the global fee pool of $13.7 billion from IPOs.
'Everyone says never waste a crisis.' 'When we went into Covid and we were in total lockdown, we were at work.' 'The planes were not flying and we wondered what to do.' 'We looked at each of our performance metrics -- what are customers complaining about, how do employees feel, how do investors feel?'
Markets regulator Sebi has kept in abeyance the processing of Go Airlines' draft papers for an initial public offer worth Rs 3,600 crore. Go Airlines (India) Ltd, which has announced rebranding itself as 'Go First', filed preliminary papers for an initial share sale worth Rs 3,600 crore in May. The proceeds will be mainly used to repay dues. The "issuance of observations (has been) kept in abeyance", according to Sebi's latest update on processing status of Go Airlines' draft offer documents. The information was updated on June 25. In Sebi parlance, issuance of observations implies its go-ahead for the IPO.
The decision has been taken after Kamra was found 'guilty' for alleged misbehaviour by an internal committee of IndiGo, an airline official said. The ban on Kamra comes into effect immediately.
IndiGo, Vistara, Air India, SpiceJet have cancelled their flights, while GoAir and AirAsia India announced waiving date change/ cancellation fee.
At the recently concluded Dubai airshow, Akasa, Rakesh Radheyshyam Jhunjhunwala's new airline, signed a $9 billion deal with American aircraft maker Boeing to buy its 737 MAX planes and a $4 billion one for engines with CFM, a joint venture between GE of the US and Safran of France. Unlike his financial doppelganger Warren Buffett, who divested billions from his airline stock portfolio at the start of the pandemic, Jhunjhunwala is wagering his billions in a brand new airline. The legendary investor bought a roughly 40 per cent stake in SNV Aviation in September, Akasa's holding company, started in March by three former Jet Airways colleagues. With aviation still to recover from its pandemic slump, the big question around his foray into domestic aviation, due to take off in summer 2022, is whether it is another pie in the sky.
Though India's airlines are certainly bleeding, they haven't yet faced the ignominy of shutting down.
In his petition, Kamra said he was banned by IndiGo for a six-month period before its internal committee even arrived at a decision while other airlines -- Air India, Spicejet and GoAir -- imposed an indefinite ban on him.
When Jet Airways shut operations, the slots which were allocated to it were temporarily distributed among various airlines. And, the airlines that were called upon to immediately create infrastructure so that the public at large does not face any hardship have invested huge amounts of money to created infrastructure to utilise such slots. "In view of this, though the allocation of slots to such airlines is temporary the same can't be withdrawn from them without any legitimate basis.", the affidavit said.
Aircraft lease rentals are fixed costs and account for around 15 per cent of an airline's expense and since these are paid in dollars are also subject to currency fluctuations.
The DGCA advised airlines to remain ready to operate additional flights from the Srinagar airport if the need arises.
IndiGo, India's largest airline, is in talks to raise fresh funds as a second wave of pandemic has led to collapse in travel demand. The airline may look to raise Rs 3,500-4,000 crore. On Monday, only 97,761 passengers flew. With flyers cancelling bookings, airlines had to put aside flights and operated only 1,306 of them.