High drama unfolded at the airport in Thiruvananthapuram on Friday when the pilot of an Abu Dhabi-Kochi Air India flight pressed the hijack button in panic after passengers created a ruckus in the cockpit following diversion of the plane to Thiruvananthapuram
After the sacking of 101 pilots during the recent 58-day strike, Air India on Friday said it has received representations from 34 of them expressing willingness to join duty.
The recent spate of technical glitches in aircraft has prompted the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to issue an order on July 18, making aircraft maintenance engineers (AMEs) with category B1/B2 licences the final authorities in certifying planes. This has put the spotlight on the availability of such personnel. According to the order, airlines were resorting to frequent one-off authorisation by the Category A certifying staff at transit stations, which is not in line with existing regulatory provisions.
In a bid to restructure its top hierarchy, Air India plans to hire some senior executives, including a Chief Strategy Officer and a Chief Operating Officer for its low-cost international arm Air India Express, airline sources said on Tuesday.
Virtually addressing employees of Air India across the globe, he said for the airline to be the best again there will be an organisational redesign, and it will "require a huge transformation, probably the largest transformation and the change all of you would ever go through". The carrier will expand its "outreach both domestically and internationally" and it has the desire to connect India with every part of the globe, he added.
A last-minute change in his travel plan saved Congress Member of Legislative Assembly from Kerala A P Abdullakutty from meeting the fate of 158 passengers who died when an Air India Express plane from Dubai crashed near Mangalore airport on Saturday morning. Abdullakutty initially planned to catch the ill-fated flight to Mangalore since he had to reach his home town Kannur urgently. But he was a bit late to reach the Dubai International Airport and changed his ticket.
The plane was flying low and just five minutes before the landing it overshot the runway and burst into flames. In all there were 137 adult passengers on the flight, 23 children and 6 crewmembers.
Abhay Pathak, Air India's regional manager, said so far, only one flight to India -- IC 968 Sharjah-Trivandrum-Trichy-Chennai -- has been cancelled.
'Our sensors allow the missile to locate and identify the target even if it's on the move.'
"We are meeting the chairman on Thursday to express our view point on his recent directive, barring Air India staff from travelling in business-class/first-class," an Indian Pilots Guild member said. The IGP is opposed to the move on the ground that it would not fetch any financial benefits to the national carrier, the pilot said, adding, "During the meet, IPG would offer alternative strategies which will result in effective means of controlling costs and boosting revenue."
As a part of its route rationalization and cost-cutting measures, Air India plans to replace its twin-class aircraft with all-economy ones belonging to low-cost subsidiary Air India Express on few Gulf routes from this month end.
Barred from flying, Gaikwad has to take a train to travel to Mumbai.
Nikunj Saraf, Vice President Choice Wealth, will answers your queries.
An Air India plane with around 160 passengers on board overshot a runway on landing in Mangalore on Saturday and burst into flames. Police said that there could be several causalties. Emergency services have been pressed into action at the site of the accident.
Air India is arranging for grief counselors in an attempt to help the family members of the victims of the Air India crash overcome the tragedy. One 'Angel' -- a Special Assistance Team member of Air India -- is also being attached to each survivor and to the families of the deceased victims to assist them in any possible way. There were eight survivors in the crash of the Air India Express from Dubai, in which 152 passengers and the six-member crew were killed.
Civil aviation minister Praful Patel, who held this portfolio in the first government of the United Progressive Alliance, too, has so far followed a liberal open-sky policy, sharply increasing the number of seats offered to West Asian airlines on flights connecting India. According to internal figures available with airlines, the total number of seats offered to West Asian carriers rose from 2.5 million in 2004 to 7.5 million last year.
Sena has not supported Gaikwad's act but senior party leaders have expressed reservations over the airlines' action against him
Asserting that it was a small conflict, Gaikwad said the staff member of the airline is mad and around eight such cases of indulging in a brawl have been registered against him.
'Our friends are going to get killed. Taliban are going to kill us. Our women are not going to have any more rights'
Finalisation of the date for joining the elite club will be decided only by Air India, Star Alliance vice-president for corporate office, Christian Klick, told reporters here during a media interaction.
For the first time, a Chinese news channel has employed an artificial intelligence robot as a weather reporter on its live breakfast show, raising concerns among the country's journalists as it could threaten their jobs.
The overall responsibility of the low-cost carrier, Air India Express, would be that of Joint Managing Director Vishwapati Trivedi, with P P Singh being appointed its Chief Operating Officer. Both of them would be based in Delhi, sources said.
The government is ready to support Air India, but wants the airline to improve its performance.
Rodney Wallis, a British aviation expert, told the Air India inquiry commission that 'many aviation security experts will back a good dog over a piece of equipment any day.'
US aircraft manufacturer Boeing has asked Air India to avoid flying its Dreamliner planes near thunderstorms as it enhanced the risk of icing on engines and the airline has changed its operating procedures accordingly.
As revealed by the airline in response to a Right to Information application, Nacil paid Rs 93.29 crore (Rs 932.9 million) towards salaries and expenses to the agencies, which provided expatriate pilots to Air India and Air India Express last year.
Launch on 10 sectors in the winter schedule.
The Boeing 737-800 Air India Express flight LX536, which was scheduled to leave at 12.10 pm (local time) on Tuesday, was delayed by nine hours after the 'tyre glitch' forced the pilot to abort the take-off.
The national carrier recently invited expressions of interest to appoint a real estate firm to advice it on the deal.
'Could robots vote for effective political leadership?' 'Arguably they could do this better than humans.' 'They are far better at fact-checking for obvious lies, and far better at gauging the sincerity of statements by analysing body language, facial movements and vocal tonality of speakers,' says Devangshu Datta.
The national carrier's capacity is expected to grow by 9.2 per cent with the addition of six more Boeing 787 Dreamliners to the fleet, they said. As of February this year, the airline has 13 Dreamliners in its fleet out of a total order of 27.
In this weekly self-help series, mental health and life coach Anu Krishna tells you how to take control of your life.
From the Gulf countries to Malaysia and the UK to the US, the multi-agency operation christened 'Vande Bharat Mission' will see the state-owned AI operate 64 flights till May 13 in the first phase to ferry around 15,000 Indian nationals from 12 countries.
The families of victims of the Air India Express crash in Mangalore last year are entitled to a minimum compensation of Rs 75 lakh each, the Kerala high court held on Wednesday.
Air India's new chief Ashwani Lohani is a man of many parts. Here are 10 interesting facts about him.
"Unless he tenders an unconditional apology to AI employees, and undertakes in writing to abide by the Chicago and Tokyo Conventions & Rules of the Air and follow all cabin safety and public behaviour norms, we must not let him on board," says the letter.
In the age of robots and automation, skills such as people management, coordination and negotiations will be relevant, says Babita Shekhar.
'Whoever owns the best chip industry will be the Saudi Arabia of the era of data,' predicts Rajeev Srinivasan.
"In view of the above, the West Bengal government has been requested by MHA to initiate action against the officer and intimate the action taken in this regard," it said.
The service includes a doll, a double bed, some condoms and lube.
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