The resignation of Captain Gopinath on Saturday came as a severe blow to the Aam Aadmi Party. "The party has lost its focus and I did not feel the need to continue," said the Air Deccan founder, who had joined the party in January this year.
Modi's 'UDAN' project faces fund crunch as too many airlines have come on board
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For Jet's revival, Mr Jalan should be on the scene long enough for everyone to get to know him, appreciate his skills, and not vanish into thin air within a matter of months or even weeks, observes Anjuli Bhargava.
'Our focus is not going to be metro to metro routes.' 'We will begin by focusing on metro to non-metro (routes).' 'Metro to tier-2 cities or tier-3 cities is where there is a lot of space for affordable, efficient carriers.'
'When resources are few; when frugality demands repairing a broken thing rather than replacing it with a brand new and expensive option, enterprising commoners in rural and urban India improvise on a daily basis and solve their problems with whatever they have,' observes Shivanand Kanavi.
The low fares will come with a discernible sea-change in service quality and minus the luxury which comes as an essential part of any long-haul travel
This is not a train for the regular commuter, evident from the number of large sized bags in the overhead bin, observes IAF Veteran Air Commodore Nitin Sathe.
Many corporate figures, who are not full-fledged businessmen, have felt the need to make a change in the system. That's why they are joining the AAP, Captain Gopinath tells Rediff.com's Vicky Nanjappa
Majority of India's international routes have been captured by foreign airlines.
India remained the world's fastest growing domestic aviation market with 51 straight months of doubled-digit traffic growth but the woes of passengers as well as carriers manifested in myriad forms.
The decision was taken after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that the lockdown across the country will be extended till May 3 to fight the coronavirus pandemic.
Kingfisher Airlines, owned by liquor baron Vijay Mallya, has run up a debt of Rs 4,000 crore. The airline, which is merging with Deccan Aviation, is understood to have a top line of around Rs 3,000 crore and is expected to make losses of Rs 900 crore on a yearly basis. This is in addition to the losses of around Rs 650 crore suffered by Deccan Aviation.
The biggest let down for India's aviation sector has been the failure of the government to privatise Air India, says Anjuli Bhargava.
As we celebrate the actor's much deserved award, Divya Nair presents 10 landmark films in Suriya's career, ranked in order of performance.
The move by Mumbai airport to have the drop-off point for autos at a distance from the terminals reeks of class distinctions, says Mahesh Vijapurkar.
For his 60th birthday in December, which he called his third 20th birthday, Mallya flew in Enrique Iglesias to perform at his villa overlooking the beach in Goa.
The 10-member jury was headed by filmmaker Vipul Shah. The awards were announced by jury member Dharam Gulati.
Unless Naresh Goyal pulls the proverbial rabbit out of his hat or reveals an unexpected ace of spades, the airline he built from scratch - many refer to it as "his baby" - may slip out of his grasp, says Anjuli Bhargava.
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.
IndiGo which has close to 40 per cent market share, at present has 129 aircraft and operates 883 daily flights to 44 destinations. It also has around 400 aircraft on order.
The Bad Boy Billionaires series has a lot in common: The three billionaires' hefty ambition, dangerous arrogance and untrammeled power, observes Dhruv Munjal.
'Earlier, when they were selling tickets at Rs 1,000, a family of five could travel by flight.' 'When it comes to realistic pricing and the price becomes Rs 5,000, a family of five will have shell out Rs 25,000.' 'How many will be able to afford that?' 'You will see people switching back to train travel which is more realistic.'
The Queen faces fresh new challenges on personal and professional front, a teacher gets romantically involved with her pupil, a boy and his truck embark on fun-filled adventures, a game of thrones over panchayat politics and more OTT recommendations from Sukanya Verma this week.
A senior official in the central labour commissioner's office said the efforts of the government were to resolve the cases amicably and not to press for legal action against employers. "Everyone is going through tough times. We could initiate legal action if we want but that's not the idea. We want to address the issues amicably," the official said.
An overriding ambition to rule the domestic skies prevented Jet Airways from becoming a strong and formidable player in the international market. The Sahara buy added to the complexity of its operations and a dilution of what the airline stood for, says Anjuli Bhargava.
Aditya Ghosh, with no prior aviation background or MBA degree, managed not only to become the CEO of an airline but even piloted it to the top with almost half of the market.
When Wing Commander Rajiv Kothiyal resigned in 2002 as one of the most qualified test pilots in the Indian Air Force and quickly found a flying job in a start-up airline, Deccan Airways, he felt he had won a jackpot.
In the previous decade, the government, with Praful Patel as the civil aviation minister, saw the introduction of an irrational 5/20 policy.
Some pilots are already in touch with Gopinath while others are betting on Kingfisher's revival.
If India is to urbanise successfully, it has to focus on Tier 2 cities with a population of one-five million, observes T N Ninan.
Captain Gopinath's dream of making every Indian fly will now remain just that. But this will rise to another: Mallya's dream of making Kingfisher one of the world's top airlines.
The Aam Aadmi Party's spectacular electoral debut in New Delhi is now creating ripples down south.
'Lending to Mr Mallya was the bankers' season ticket to corridors of power and glamour. Borrowing from them was like a favour Mallya did to them,' says Shekhar Gupta.
Green light likely for services on underserved routes between regular airports
A copious amount of blood, beating, crying, saving, sacrificing, nationalism fills up its staggering three hours running time. Emotions run sky high, but you feel nothing, sighs Sukanya Verma.
Even as growth in traffic on chartered flights has fallen 6 to 8 per cent over the past year, rising fuel prices are forcing private charter operators to raise tariffs a substantial 20 per cent from September 1. India has more than 50 non-scheduled operators, which include helicopter operators like Global Vectra, aircraft operators like Ran Air and Taj Air and companies like Deccan Aviation Ltd that fly both helicopters and aircraft.
The government is keeping its options open.
Some airline companies suggest that the fare difference vis-a-vis the Indian Railways is offset by shortage of seats.
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