One of the arrangements the Indian government is considering is a tie-up with a sovereign fund to finance the Embraer deal.
India's leading private air carrier Kingfisher Airlines has launched two new international flights connecting the UAE to New Delhi and Mumbai.
Thanks to the leapfrogging Indian economy, the country will need 125 freighter aircraft in next 20 years. At present, India has only seven bigger freighters, owned by Blue Dart Express.
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IndiGo, which has about 550 flights a day, has increased the number of daily flights from Delhi to Hyderabad and Chennai to seven.
Jet Airways has complained to India's aviation regulator about the use of its livery on SpiceJet aircraft, saying the practice could "mislead the public" and is a safety hazard. Jet collapsed in 2019 and lessors repossessed its Boeing 737s. Some of these aircraft were leased to SpiceJet, which operates them without changing the livery. Jet, which is now being revived by the Kalrock Jalan consortium and aims to restart operations in September, has asked the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to ask SpiceJet to stop using its livery.
When the move was first thought of it was at the behest of Jet Airways, IndiGo, SpiceJet and Air India. Only Vistara and AirAsia were opposing it as they were doing the poaching, says Anjuli Bhargava.
As fitness screening for pilots after the recent Germanwings crash come under scanner, mid-term psychometric tests for pilots of Indian air carriers are being mulled by the government to detect any cockpit crew who are too mentally ill to fly.
The airline has also inked a deal to take 12 A320s from Singapore's Tiger Airways on lease.
Air India Express along with SpiceJet and Jet Airways is one of the three main targets for Boeing in the country as it promotes its new 737 MAX aircraft, which is scheduled to enter commercial operations in 2017.
Approval was held up due to CBI investigation into international flying permit of Tata group-owned AirAsia India.
Indian airlines on Wednesday began evacuating stranded people from flood-ravaged Jammu and Kashmir with Air India flying back 270 passengers free, as DGCA asked them to cap total fares including taxes on Srinagar-Delhi and Leh-Delhi sectors at Rs 2,800 and Rs 3,000 respectively.
An airline's birth is a result of passion and enterprise, often not without its challenges and ordeals. And, Tata-run airlines are no exception
Ten years after Kingfisher Airlines was grounded, its former employees continue to wait for their dues. On Monday, the Supreme Court awarded a four-month sentence to the grounded airline's flamboyant owner Vijay Mallya in a contempt case. The apex court also ordered him to deposit $40 million plus interest in four weeks to avoid attachment of his properties.
Paving the way for launch of its flights, Tata-Singapore Airlines joint venture airline Vistara was on Monday granted flying permit by aviation regulator DGCA, almost nine months after it applied for the licence.
Between 2009 and 2028, airlines in India will require 1,032 aircraft, worth about $138 billion, to serve the strong demand for passenger air travel and freight, and to replace ageing fleets with new more fuel-efficient aircraft, according Airbus's Global Market Forecast.
On Indian routes, Air France, British Airways and Virgin Atlantic are offering premium economy seating
A senior DGCA official said 23,403 departures per week have been finalised, covering 103 airports, which is 1.2 per cent higher than the 23,117 operated during the previous winter schedule.
Qatar Airways said on Saturday that it was interested in bidding for the four metro airports and has formed a joint venture with an Indian company for this purpose.
The Delhi-based airline currently has 13 Airbus A320 aircraft in the fleet and it plans to take another seven (A320 Neo) planes by June 2018.
'We are going to have plane crashes left, right and centre.'
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has released a draft procedure that calls for testing pilots, other aviation personnel and crew members for psychoactive substances before they take to the skies. The Indian civil aviation regulator has sought comments from stakeholders over the next 30 days before issuing a regulation to this effect. Asking airlines and airports to do random checks on crew and air traffic controllers, DGCA proposed that violators be suspended for a minimum of three years or their licence be permanently cancelled as maximum punishment.
The precaution was made compulsory after a incident.
Apart from Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai, the codeshare agreement with Lufthansa will cover Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Goa, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Kochi and Pune.
Air travel penetration in India remains small in global terms, with 0.04 annual trips per capita against 0.3 in China and more than two in the United States.
This is the largest single dose of equity infusion into the joint venture since its launch in January 2015.
The disappointment of the year is government's failure in finalising the re-drafted aviation policy.
Qatar Airways is keen to buy equity in IndiGo if the Indian carrier offers 49 per cent stake to it, a top official has said as he sought the opening up of the Indian aviation market for established airline companies.
A part of the proceeds will also be used for operational requirements, sources said in Mumbai. The carrier has already taken the delivery of 11 Dreamliners and three more are expected to join the fleet by March of next year.
IndiGo's ascent is not without its risks, however.
The Indian government's decision in 2012 to allow foreign direct investment in civil-aviation sector up to 49 per cent has enthused new airlines to launch their operations and capitalise on country's 1.2 billion population, a pre-statement to the Global Aerospace Summit said.
The premium economy cabin is getting popular among air travellers from India.
GST impact: Higher lease payouts may hit airlines, cab aggregators.
Rakesh Jhunjhunwala-backed new airline Akasa is in talks with US aerospace company Boeing for buying up to 100 737 Max aircraft. Former Jet Airways CEO Vinay Dube and his family members are promoters while ex-IndiGo president Aditya Ghosh is a board member of the airline. The airline is in negotiation with Boeing and has reached out to the government to recertify the aircraft which has been grounded since 2018 after two crashes killing 349 persons, according to sources in the know.
An AirAsia flight from Indonesia to Singapore with 162 people aboard reportedly went missing on Sunday morning after losing contact with air traffic controllers.
Based on the Skytrax ranking for 2018, IndiGo is number two among the best low-cost carriers in Asia, behind rival AirAsia.
Together with Jet Airways we will have 61 flights to Amsterdam and Paris during the winter season. That also makes us the second largest airline group after Lufthansa, which has 67 weekly flights, and we are catching up to become the first, says KLM CEO Pieter Elbers.
"No airline is making money in India because they are selling below cost. The country is seeing a 25 per cent annual growth rate in air passenger traffic, but some slowdown is also expected. These are some of the pains when markets open up," said John Leahy, chief operating officer (customers), Airbus. Leahy, however, declined to offer details.
The plan is to charge 30 per cent less. Travel sector executives say if IndiGo is able to do so, it could create a new class of flyers.
Improvement in load factors, coupled with an increase in seat capacity after Jet's slots were allotted to low-cost airlines, has resulted in an increase in daily passenger traffic.
