The ATR 72-600 aircraft was accorded water salute as it landed at the Jaffna airport, about 400-km from capital Colombo.
Fresh trouble seems to be brewing for liquor baron Vijay Mallya, with Mumbai International Airport(MIAL) deciding to sell a mid-sized corporate jet owned by his group company.
A small aircraft of Kingfisher Airlines with 29 people on board a flight to Hyderabad was involved in an accident on the runway at the airport in Bengaluru on Thursday night shortly before take-off, leaving two passengers injured. All passengers of the IT 2427 flight were evacuated from the turbo-prop ATR plane, used for short-haul journey, whose nosewheel was damaged after it hit a dog that strayed into the area and the aircraft slid on the runway on its belly.
A section of pilots of Kingfisher Airlines on Tuesday went on a strike over non-payment of salary and other dues for the past five months, forcing cancellation of five flights.
The airline, which operates 24 daily flights including linking Delhi to Port Blair and Bhubaneshwar, would, however, provide free drinking water to all passengers.
Air-India has no plans to operate on the domestic sector, Minister of state for Civil Aviation Rajiv Pratap Rudy informed the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday.
'The regional market has been brought to life. This is a big development in India's aviation sector,' says Civil Aviation Minister Jayant Sinha.
Apart from the main company, five of Air India's subsidiaries and a joint venture firm have been included in the strategic sale plan.
Air India plans to induct all these 19 aircraft between this fiscal to March 2018.
Most of the Air Deccan aircraft that await repainting are small single-aisle ATR jets. When contacted, the Kingfisher Airlines spokesperson said re-painting of aircraft is typically done when the aircraft visits the maintenance, repair, overhaul workshop for scheduled maintenance checks.
Would all the planes standing around in the floodwaters able to fly out this weekend, if the waters recede? Or would they need to go for a health check-up?
Depending on the fleet size and its age, airlines buy 30-50 per cent of the components that they need, and take the rest on lease. Expenditure on spares and components is a considerable part of engineering and maintenance, which account for over 9-10 per cent of the total operating expense of an airline. For instance, Air India, which has a large and ageing fleet, has to provide $35 million-$40 million for spare parts during any time of the year.
The aircraft to be operated would be an ATR-42 type capable of carrying around 40 passengers, Deshmukh said, adding he was holding talks with a senior Kingfisher official on Monday for following up the issue with DGCA in Delhi. The Ojhar airport is restricted for Indian Air Force activity and is occasionally used for VIP flights.
DGCA rules require pilots to service a six-month notice.
The Airports Economic Regulatory Authority has turned down Bengaluru International Airport Ltd's (BIAL) proposal to increase User Development Fee (UDF) by 239 per cent for domestic and 79 per cent for international departing passengers from the airport.
The fare for the inaugural flight is Rs 1 and the tariff for the first three months is Rs 999.
In face of growing competition in the aviation market, Indian Airlines on Monday said it planned to lease 12 wide-bodied aircraft and six turbo-prop ATRs to launch feeder services.
Low fare carrier Air Deccan on Monday launched three new daily flights between Kolkata and Aizawl, Bagdogra and Bhubaneshwar using 48-seater ATR-42 aircraft.
Shortly after the Calcutta High Court directed them to resume duties, the agitating pilots of the small ATR-42 aircraft of Alliance Air indicated that they would join work from Friday.
The civil aviation authority confirmed that there are no survivors.
Rediff.com takes a look at the major aviation disasters of recent times.
There is enough room for growth in smaller Indian towns as per US and European aircraft manufacturers
Air Deccan, India's first low-cost airline that made flying affordable for the middle class, is relaunching its operations from December 23.
The Southern Naval command on Wednesday called off its 14-day long rescue operations in flood-hit Kerala, saying there were no more requests for evacuation as waters receding in affected areas.
The first to take off will be Air Pegasus, promoted by Bengaluru-based ground-handling firm Deccor Aviation.
Flight PK-303 from Lahore was about to land in Karachi when it crashed at the Jinnah Garden area near Model Colony in Malir, just a minute before its landing, officials said.
IndiGo's co-founder and interim CEO Rahul Bhatia said profitability was significantly impacted by costs pressure from the increases in fuel price and the depreciation of rupee as well as competitive fare environment.
The international operations of Air India seem to be the main attraction for IndiGo, which has also flagged concerns about some foreign overseas airlines being allowed "disproportionate access" to the Indian market.
Air Carnival can make quick progress by stepping into the space that SpiceJet has left empty.
There are no Jet flights to and from Kolkata, Patna, Guwahati and other airports in the region. It also cancelled flights to London, Amsterdam and Paris from Mumbai, New Delhi and Bengaluru scheduled for April 12.
The pilot-turned-airline owner and his partner Biraja Jena plan to launch FlyBig, which has secured 16 routes under the fourth phase of UDAN, the government's regional connectivity programme.
Rediff.com takes a look at the major aviation disasters of recent times.
Jet Airways has also been asked to provide details of the pilots who are "habitual" of reporting sick and disrupting the airline's schedule, an official said.
The national carrier's market share has declined from a near-monopoly to 16.6 per cent as of September 2014.
The indirect tax department on Thursday hinted that Vijay Mallya, owner of the grounded Kingfisher Airlines, may face prosecution in a service tax evasion case.
