Amid concerns over alleged poaching of pilots, Air India told Akasa Air that petitioning a competitor to collude in restricting the rights of staff to change an employer could potentially violate the competition law. Air India CEO and managing director Campbell Wilson wrote a letter to Akasa Air CEO Vinay Dube against the backdrop of Akasa Air raising concerns about Air India Express hiring pilots from the airline. The letter, dated September 21, followed a letter by Dube to Tata Sons on September 11.
Sri Lanka continues relief and rescue efforts with India's assistance after Cyclone Ditwah caused widespread devastation, killing over 190 people and affecting nearly a million.
Akasa Air's standalone net loss rose 18.7 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y) to roughly Rs 1,983 crore in 2024-25 (FY25), driven by rising employee costs, aircraft maintenance and airport charges, and a sharp increase in foreign exchange (forex) expenses, sources privy to the development told Business Standard.
Air India (AI)'s rise could be at the expense of three "super-connector" hubs - Doha in Qatar, and Dubai and Abu Dhabi in the UAE - as the Indian passenger would any day prefer direct flights of their national airline that is providing excellent on-time service, Arved von zur Muehlen, chief commercial officer of Saudia Airlines, said on Thursday.
The DGCA has asked airlines to inspect the fuel switch locking system in their Boeing 787 and 737 planes after a preliminary probe report into the Air India crash found that the switches were cut off before the accident.
'India is giving selective traffic rights wherever it makes sense to allocate those traffic rights.'
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.
About 1,500 employees of various departments took part in the rally.
'They are saying that there is a pilot shortage which is not correct, but if it was true, did they suddenly come to know this on December 5?' 'If they didn't have crew, why did they seek approval for a winter schedule? To get the approval, the operator has to show crew strength and also a buffer of crew available.' 'If they had a crew crunch, why did they ask for extra flights? Or was it something else that made them so sure that they would get away with this exemption and bans?'
India and Russia have agreed to jointly produce a twin-engine narrow-body passenger aircraft for short-haul flights, marking a significant step in their strategic ties. Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) and Russia's Public Joint Stock Company United Aircraft Corporation (PJSC-UAC) have signed an agreement for the production of SJ-100 aircraft in India.
The mega-merger of state-run carriers Air India and Indian received the final government nod on Thursday, with the Union Cabinet giving a go ahead to the proposal of the Group of Ministers in this regard.
India's last three major commercial aviation accidents --Patna (2000), Mangaluru (2010), and Kozhikode (2020) -- could offer critical safety lessons for the ongoing investigation.
'I don't think it is right to remove him over one lapse. The focus should be on restoring operations, not on removing a key management personnel.'
'All they need is proper leadership.'
Aviation watchdog DGCA has granted IndiGo a six-month extension to operate two leased Boeing 777 aircraft from Turkish Airlines, subject to certain conditions. This decision comes after a previous extension and amidst geopolitical considerations.
Describing their situation akin to "bonded labour", two Air India pilot unions extended their support to Vistara pilots on Thursday, who have raised grievances regarding the duty roster and the revised salary structure. Amid the slew of flight cancellations and delays, Vistara chief executive officer Vinod Kannan acknowledged on Wednesday that pilot utilisation in the airline was high, and announced plans to scale back its flight schedule and overhaul the rostering system to provide pilots with more rest time.
Tata Sons on Thursday announced the appointment of Campbell Wilson as chief executive officer and managing director of Air India. Wilson is the founding CEO of low-cost airline Scoot.
Air India's use of artificial intelligence (AI) has had a huge impact on the airline major's call centre volumes and the technology integration has reduced costs by 100 times, a senior company executive said on Wednesday. The airline launched its own chatbot AI.g, earlier known as Maharaja, in May 2023. The chatbot has answered approximately two million queries since its launch, handling 93 per cent of customer inquiries without needing to pass them on to call centre agents, said Sathya Ramaswamy, Chief Digital and Technology Officer, Air India.
Though India's airlines are certainly bleeding, they haven't yet faced the ignominy of shutting down.
Air India on Thursday unveiled a new brand identity and aircraft livery as the airline moves ahead with its transformation plan since being taken over by Tata Group more than one-and-a-half years ago. The new look re-imagines the iconic Indian window shape, historically used by Air India, into a gold window frame that becomes central to the new brand design system. It symbolises a 'Window of Possibilities', according to a release.
As the majority of Pakistani airspace has remained closed for Indian airlines since the Balakot strike on February 26, the decision to avoid affected Iranian airspace on Saturday is going to further disturb the routes of their international flights towards middle-eastern and European countries, and the US.
TN rallied to beat Air India while Indian Airlines got the better of BSF in the quarter-finals of the Nehru hockey tournament.
Pilots' bodies at Tata Group-owned Air India have accused the airline management of making unilaterally "rapid" and "regressive" changes in the service conditions of pilots. In a letter to Air India Chief Human Resources Officer Suresh Dutt Tripathi on Tuesday, Indian Pilots Guild (IPG) and Indian Commercial Pilots Association (ICPA) also stated that "all unilateral violations of their rights and service agreements are creating industrial unrest and shattering employee confidence in the current management". The communication comes amid Air India reducing drastically the annual limit of privilege leave accumulation to 60 days from 300 days earlier, as per a source.
'IndiGo will receive a sharp rap on the knuckles -- a punishment, a huge penalty. 'I look towards them creating a compensation fund.' 'I would like to think they would do that for all the passengers who are affected on every single day since cancellations began.'
Air India significantly altered the composition of the aircraft order it placed earlier this year with Airbus, the European plane manufacturer has said. In February, Air India had placed the world's second-largest single-tranche aircraft order for 470 planes: 250 with Airbus and 220 with Boeing. In July, Airbus disclosed an order comprising 70 A321neo, 140 A320neo, 34 A350-1000, and six A350-900 aircraft for Air India.
Virtually addressing employees of Air India across the globe, he said for the airline to be the best again there will be an organisational redesign, and it will "require a huge transformation, probably the largest transformation and the change all of you would ever go through". The carrier will expand its "outreach both domestically and internationally" and it has the desire to connect India with every part of the globe, he added.
"The strategic divestment transaction of Air India successfully concluded today with transfer of 100 per cent shares of Air India to M/s Talace Pvt Ltd along with management control," DIPAM secretary Tuhin Kanta Pandey said in a tweet. A new board, led by the strategic partner, takes charge of Air India, he added.
Executives from India's leading airlines are conducting internal meetings to devise alternative routes for their international flights that currently pass through Pakistani airspace.
The Boeing 787-8 aircraft -- VT-ANB -- was 11.5 years old and had flown for more than 41,000 hours, according to aviation analytics firm Cirium.
The unions claimed that wrong policy decisions of the previous government, poor practices, lack of accountability and general mismanagement by top administration and allowing private carriers to flourish at the cost of Air India were some of the factors for the current state-of-affairs
Private carrier Air India on Tuesday unveiled its new collection of uniforms, designed by Manish Malhotra, for its cabin and cockpit crew. The new uniforms will be introduced in a phased manner over the next few months, starting with the entry of service of Air India's first Airbus A350 aircraft, the company said in a statement. "Air India's crew uniforms are amongst the world's most storied in aviation history, and we firmly believe that Manish Malhotra's innovative ensemble will script an exciting new chapter for Air India's future narrative," said Campbell Wilson, chief executive officer and managing director at Air India.
'Pakistan is uncomfortable with the Indian presence in Afghanistan. They want the Taliban to ensure that there is no Indian presence in Afghanistan.'
Passengers complained of last-minute alerts, lack of communication and long queues as flight operations continued to be hit nationwide.
India has advised its citizens to defer travel to Nepal due to ongoing unrest and anti-government protests. The Ministry of External Affairs has also urged Indian citizens currently in Nepal to exercise caution and avoid public areas.
Full service carrier Air India on Thursday announced a new multi-year global distribution services partnership with US-based Sabre Corporation. The collaboration enables travel agents and corporations around the world to access Air India fares and seats through Sabre's extensive global travel marketplace, Air India said in a statement. In addition to the distribution services, Air India said it is utilising Sabre's consultancy expertise to help determine optimal routes for its existing and new fleet.
The trails of mega-mergers, tailwinds of expanding fleets, flights and airports will dot the fast-growing Indian aviation firmament in 2025, though the dark clouds of supply chain woes will persist longer. Also, new airline takeoffs, the future trajectory of revised norms to tackle pilot fatigue and efforts to reduce carbon emissions will be on the radar.
Air India is running into losses
The Supreme Court has raised concerns about the preliminary report on the Air India crash and has asked for a more independent and thorough investigation.
Divestment-bound Air India is looking to sell securities of its two provident trusts AIEPF and IAEPF, and has sought applications for transaction advisors to help with the proposed sale of the securities. The Air India Employees Provident Fund (AIEPF) trust and Indian Airlines Employees Provident Fund (IAEPF) trust are governed by the Provident Fund Trust Act, 1925. The two trusts' investments together amounted to Rs 4,500 crore as of August 31, 2021, according to the tender document, seeking RFPs for the appointment of the transaction advisors.
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