'No doubt such a great human being, so humble and down to earth person.'
Over the past eight months, a team of 80 people has been diligently working to harmonise operating procedures across four airlines run by the Tata group, as part of two mergers, revealed Campbell Wilson, Air India's chief executive officer (CEO), on Friday. The Tata group is consolidating its aviation business by merging four airlines into two: Air India and Vistara are merging to form a single full-service carrier, while AIX Connect and Air India Express are combining to create a unified low-cost carrier (as a subsidiary of Air India).
With the Middle East tensions flaring up, Air India has temporarily suspended its Tel Aviv flights and airlines have charted alternative flight paths to avoid the Iranian airspace.
Indian astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla will be the first Indian to travel to the International Space Station (ISS), flying aboard a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft as part of a joint effort between NASA and ISRO. Shukla, a group captain in the Indian Air Force, will serve as the pilot for the Axiom Mission 4, scheduled for launch no earlier than spring 2025. The mission will also carry the first astronauts from Poland and Hungary to stay aboard the ISS.
According to the officials, generally, a passenger is not served more than 100 ml of liquor during a flight.
The practice will improve OTP for the airline significantly.
Holding that Air India's conduct appeared to be 'unprofessional', aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Thursday issued notices to the officials and crew of the New York-Delhi flight, asking why action should not be taken against them for 'dereliction' of duty while handling the November 26 'urination' incident.
OceanGate was meant to explore the wreck of the sunken Titanic, in the Atlantic Ocean off Newfoundland, Canada.
An Air India pilots' grouping has raised fatigue concerns in the wake of flight crew rosters generated using a new rostering tool, saying that extended waiting periods between duty time will jeopardise crew alertness and performance. "Extended waiting periods, occurring before active flight duties, run counter to enhancing crew readiness and, in fact, contribute to the accumulation of fatigue over time," the Indian Pilots Guild (IPG) has said. In a letter to Air India head of safety Henry Donohoe last week, IPG said it has been recently observed that the relentless pursuit of operational efficiency and economic gains has led to an unintended overshadowing of the primary intent behind Flight Duty Time Limitations (FDTL) regulations.
We had to evacuate 25,000 people without pressing panic button: IPL chairman Dhumal
A pilot and the member of a cabin crew were injured when they scuffled with each other mid-air on Air India's flight from Sharjah to Lucknow on Saturday morning.
After a passenger jet with 181 people on board burst into flames after veering off the runway and colliding with a wall at an airport in South Korea's Muan County on Sunday, authorities believe all but two onboard are feared to have been killed, Yonhap News Agency reported.
An IndiGo aircraft grazed the wings of an Air India Express plane at the Kolkata airport on Wednesday, leaving the wings of both aircraft damaged, officials said.
According to the revised policy, guests should not be permitted to drink alcohol unless served by the cabin crew and that the cabin crew be attentive to identifying guests that might be consuming their own alcohol.
The police on Wednesday registered an FIR and formed several teams to nab the accused passenger.
Passengers of a San Francisco-bound Air India flight faced a harrowing time due to an inordinate delay and some of them fainted as the aircraft's air-conditioning system was non-functional.
The decision to award Qatar hosting rights for the 2022 World Cup has been marred by controversy, including allegations of corruption and human rights violations, since it was first announced 12 years ago, ensuring how the host country treats visitors will be heavily scrutinised.
'After the plane collided with the wall, passengers were thrown out of the aircraft.'
Starting November 12, Vistara aircraft will be operated under the Air India banner, to be identified by a special four-digit flight code beginning with "2".
The move follows the recent probe report by the United States National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) that highlighted safety concerns involving Boeing 737 aircraft equipped with Collins Aerospace SVO-730 Rudder Rollout Guidance Actuators.
In a bid to retain employees and lure more youngsters to join the company, Air India Express would come out with attractive packages for its crew, a top official of the low-cost airline subsidiary of Air India said on Wednesday.
The death toll from a devastating 7.7 magnitude earthquake that struck Myanmar has risen to more than 1,000, as rescue workers continue to recover bodies from the ruins of collapsed buildings.
The sources said that during the boarding, the male passenger behaved in an unruly manner and touched the female cabin crew member inappropriately.
The orders issued last Friday signed by an assistant general manager of the in-flight services, however, did not assign any reason for the suspension, sources said on Friday.
The pilot of the aircraft informed the ATC about the threat after a 'Bomb in flight' message, written on a tissue paper, was found in the washroom of the plane, they said.
Taking its crew to task for lack of discipline, Air India on Wednesday suspended a pilot and ten cabin crew members for delaying some recent flights, including an international service, by not reporting for duty on time.
A child sitting near the window was reportedly pulled by the suction, and his shirt was torn off.
Taking a tough stance to ensure discipline, Air India has sacked 47 members of its cabin crew and issued show-cause notices to 20 more on grounds of absenteeism.
Civil Aviation Minister K Rammohan Naidu on Thursday said India will need at least 20,000 pilots in the coming years to meet the rising air-travel demand in the country -- one of the world's fastest growing aviation market. Addressing a gathering at the UDAAN Bhawan here following the launch of Electronic Personnel License (EPL) for pilots, the Minister said aviation has always been the backbone of connectivity, economic growth, and technological advancements.
Security agencies went into a tizzy after three international flights originating from Mumbai received bomb threats on Monday with one of them, a New York-bound Air India aircraft, getting diverted to New Delhi as travel plans of some 500 passengers went for a toss.
Flight AI173 from Delhi was diverted to Magadan in Russia on Tuesday owing to an engine glitch, the Tata Group-owned private carrier said in a statement.
Facing disruptions due to non-availability of crew, Vistara on Sunday announced reducing 10 per cent of its capacity or 25-30 flights daily and most of the cancellations are in the domestic network as the Tata Group airline strives to stabilise operations. The full-service carrier is to operate over 300 flights daily in the ongoing summer schedule and witnessed significant disruptions earlier this week as many pilots reported sick, resulting in cancellations of flights. "We are carefully scaling back our operations by around 25-30 flights per day, i.e. roughly 10 per cent of the capacity we were operating.
IndiGo's management is of the opinion that Saturday's flight delays caused by sick leaves taken by many in the cabin crew are just an aberration. The airline's on-time performance nosedived to 45 per cent on Saturday as a large part of the cabin crew reported sick to participate in Air India's recruitment process. Privately, Air India executives denied holding interviews on Saturday and the airline did not issue any statement.
The Air India Express Employees Union, which is affiliated with the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, has written a letter to the chief labour commissioner (central) in this regard.
AI gets govt nod to hire 800 more cabin crew.
The airline is currently working to normalise its operations with the support of its pilots and cabin crew and expects to be on track by the end of this week, it said.
Akasa Air has asked the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to exempt it from deploying CAT-III trained pilots on flights to and from two major fog-affected airports, Kolkata and Bengaluru, for specific periods, since there is a shortage of such pilots in its roster.
Nearly two months after the urination incident on its New York-New Delhi flight, Air India on Tuesday said it has closed the internal probe into the case and will assist the flight's pilot-in-command with an appeal against the suspension of his licence by DGCA as the airline deems the action as "excessive".
IndiGo on Wednesday said it was exploring an earlier introduction of wide-body planes in its fleet to meet the growing demand for international travel. Industry sources said the airline was in talks with Norse Atlantic Airways to wet-lease six B787 planes in its fleet.
The threats via microblogging platform X came a day after three international flights originating from Mumbai received bomb threats, causing trouble to hundreds of passengers and airline crew.
© 2026 Rediff.com - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances