Seeking "divine intervention", staff of Pakistan's national carrier PIA sacrificed a black goat at the airport tarmac in Islamabad before an ATR-42 aircraft took off nearly a week after the French-built turboprop planes were grounded following a crash that killed 47 people.
Goa's second airport began operations last week and if all goes according to plans, the state will be the base for a new regional airline, Fly91. Promoted by the ex-executive vice-president of now grounded Kingfisher Airlines, Manoj Chacko, and Fairfax India's former head, Harsha Raghavan, the airline will offer no-frills buy on board product and serve unconnected routes with two ATR 72 aircraft. An application for the initial no-objection clearance was filed with the civil aviation ministry last week.
The operation of Alliance Air's small ATR-42 aircraft to North-East remained suspended for the second day on Wednesday with its pilots abstaining from duty to protest the non-fulfillment of their pending demands.
The PIA plane PK-661 with 48 people, including famous pop singer-turned-Islamic preacher Junaid Jamshed, his wife and Deputy Commissioner Chitral Osama Warraich, on board crashed on Wednesday in Saddha Batolni village near Havelian while en route to Islamabad from Chitral in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province.
The state-run carrier will shortly invite bids to replace its fleet of 11 ATR-42s and Bombardier CRJ planes with newer fuel-efficient turbo prop planes to improve its operating result.
Kingfisher Airlines has increased the salary of a section of its pilots, fearing an exodus to rival carriers. Airlines including SpiceJet and IndiGo are in an expansion mode and will be adding 29 planes this financial year, opening new job avenues for pilots.
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.
These vacancies are likely to emerge as Indian airlines plan to induct more than 900 aircraft into their fleets in the coming years.
Needed: Cabin Crew (Technical) and Flight Safety Instructor for Air Deccan.
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 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.
An Alliance Air aircraft on Tuesday suffered "extensive" damage after a Jet Airways tarmac bus ferrying its crew rammed into the vacant stationary plane at the international airport in Kolkata.
The civil aviation authority confirmed that there are no survivors.
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.
Maharaja will soon come to help wait-listed passengers of Rajdhani trains as such travelers will be provided with the option to fly by Air India by paying little extra.
An Indonesian airliner carrying 54 people went missing on Sunday after losing contact with ground control during a short flight in bad weather in the country's mountainous easternmost province of Papua, officials said.
The apex court asked the government to get back by March 9 about the policy.
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