We asked colleagues, present and past, to reflect on a man who has made such a difference to their lives and careers. Here it is then, a rich collection of memories that offer enchanting glimpses of the enigmatic Ajit Balakrishnan.
The phenomenon of fog is largely Delhi-centric. 'Airlines may think that we only have conditions of extreme fog on a few days every year, and spending a pilot's time and the airline's money on training can add up to its expenses.' 'So, they may prefer holding it for a few days.'
There is increasing friction between the IAF's military requirements, and the AAI's need to provide infrastructure to many more airlines.
The defence ministry billed the 615-acre factory as India's largest helicopter-manufacturing facility and it has been planned as a one-stop solution for the country's chopper requirements.
Growth is happening faster than we ever imagined. Construction is booming and expansion is gobbling agricultural land.
The civic body's horticulture department fears some of the uprooted trees might be among those tagged as 'heritage trees' by the NDMC, but the team is yet to compile a damage report and ascertain the facts.
Three passengers who travelled on Delhi-Jammu flight on Tuesday, six passengers who were on Bengaluru-Coimbatore flight on Wednesday, two passengers who were on Delhi-Coimbatore flight on Wednesday and one passenger who was on Bengaluru-Madurai flight on Wednesday tested positive for the novel coronavirus, the airline said.
The advanced light helicopter (ALH), carrying five Army personnel including two pilots, was on regular sorties when it crashed at 10.43 am on Friday near Migging, around 25 km south of Tuting, he said.
Tony Fernandes said the aviation sector here was a "double marathon" and not a "sprint".
The incident occurred when the A321 aircraft of the national carrier took off from Pune airport. However, despite the incident, it landed at the Delhi airport safely.
'What's sad today is that there are so many people who cannot find work, not because the country is devoid of that opportunity, but because we are not doing enough in the country.'
London's airspace, one of the world's busiest travel routes, was temporarily closed on Friday due to a computer failure, causing severe disruptions in domestic and international flight operations.
In a historic move, the Army has selected two women officers to train as combat helicopter pilots for its aviation wing, officials said.
The overall Air Quality Index was recorded at 231 on Sunday which falls in 'poor' category.
Domestic air travel demand contracted by 41 per cent year-on-year to around 76 lakh passengers in January with sequential growth also slowing down to 3.5 per cent during the month over December 2020, a report said on Monday. Indian carriers had flown a total of 1.27 crore passengers on domestic routes in January 2020. Indian aviation industry has witnessed a continued recovery in domestic passenger traffic in January 2021.
The Navi Mumbai international airport will boast three interconnected multi-level terminals with a lotus-inspired design, according to the master plan prepared by its outgoing developer. The GVK group, which completed 15 years of airport business, shared the first look of the Navi Mumbai airport. The group in 2018 had commissioned British firm Zaha Hadid Architects to design the main terminal and air traffic control tower. The master plan of the airport was approved by the City and Industrial Development Corporation (CIDCO) in 2019.
The government has decided to restart scheduled international flight services from March 27 after a two years hiatus due to COVID-19, according to civil aviation ministry officials.
Heavy rains accompanied by strong winds damaged many cars, brought traffic to a grinding halt, left trees uprooted and led to power outages in various parts of the capital on Monday.
The Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) has prepared a pool of more than 100 personnel to man additional security counters expected to be handed over to it for easing the ongoing congestion at large airports of Delhi and Mumbai, official sources said Wednesday.
Coordination between defence and civilian authorities has freed up airspace for commercial airlines in India, resulting in routes becoming shorter and costs coming down, apart from mitigating pollution. "Due to various restrictions of the military, only about 58 per cent of the Indian airspace was being utilised. It is close to 70 per cent now," said an official of the Airports Authority of India (AAI). Officials of the AAI said to date 119 routes had been shortened. Sources said since December 2020 the cumulative savings of airlines had been close to Rs 200 crore while there was a reduction in emission of around 45,000 tonnes of carbon.
The flight sought an emergency landing after its pilot was informed about warning about the presence of a bomb in the cargo hold.
India has been raising with China the plight of approximately 22,000 Indian students enrolled in Chinese universities who are unable to go back for physical classes. However, the neighbouring country has till date refused to let them enter.
Aviation is a juicy target. It's a 24x7 industry, which cannot afford delays or loss of customer credibility.
An unidentified aircraft caused a security scare in Mumbai airspace on Saturday after it was spotted by an Etihad Airways flight and reported to the air traffic control, official sources said.
Air traffic controllers failed to notice for 17 minutes that the ill-fated Malaysian jet had gone off the radar and did not activate a rescue operation for nearly four hours, according to a preliminary report on the mysterious disappearance of MH370 released on Thursday.
He said the ministry was looking forward to suggestions from the state governments and discussions were underway with all the stakeholders to arrive at a policy which would bring back growth in the aviation sector.
Hotel companies, which have experienced substantial share price gains in the past six months, are not only expected to post robust revenue growth in the seasonally weak July-September quarter (second quarter, or Q2) of 2023-24 (FY24), with the trend continuing in the second half (H2) of FY24, but according to some analysts, they will also benefit from a structural uptrend in progress. To begin with, larger players in the listed hotel sector are expected to report strong growth in Q2 compared to the year-ago quarter. Led by higher demand from the business segment, the sector is expected to achieve a growth rate of 15-30 per cent.
DGCA's move seeks to ban perfumes for pilots as they have alcohol and can affect the results of breathanalyser tests. But the FAA and EASA have different standards, says senior journalist Shobha John.
The smog reduced the visibility to merely 300 meters in the morning affecting traffic, an official of the India Meteorological Department said.
Restrictions imposed across the globe in 2020-21 due to coronavirus and the increased use of darknet resulted in two-to-three times jump in drug trafficking through couriers and postal services in India during this period, a latest NCB report has said.
Tokyo -- the songs Japan, Love In Tokyo and Sayonara from the 1966 Hindi film automatically pop up in the mind -- is buzzing and crowded like any other metropolis, discovers Deepa Gahlot. The modern apartment blocks are built cheek by jowl, so close together that one can open the window and borrow sugar from the neighbour in the next building. One of the fears of the Indian traveller is the unavailability of vegetarian food. Every city and town in Japan has an array of Indian restaurants that serve every variety of cuisine, right from Gujarati to Punjabi to Andhra and Kerala meals.
Yulu founder Amit Gupta believes bicycle sharing is the next big thing.
Four days on, a massive search and rescue operation to trace the Russian-origin aircraft continues, with these tense circumstances leaving family members in despair.
Domestic air traffic demand in India grew by around 14 per cent with the airlines enjoying an average load factor of almost 79 per cent in May compared to last year, even as the global traffic rose by 6.8 per cent.
The pilot of the ill-fated flight -- IX-1344 -- could not sight the runway in the first landing attempt due to heavy rains. The Kozhikode airport in Kerala has a table-top runway and is operated by the AAI.
Out of the 13 people killed in the IAF helicopter crash near Coonoor on Wednesday, the mortal remains of only Chief of Defence Staff Gen Bipin Rawat, his wife Madhulika Rawat and Brig LS Lidder could be identified, officials said on Thursday.
With Cyclone Phailin set to hit Odisha and Andhra Pradesh coasts on Saturday evening, rail, road and air traffic has been badly disrupted in the states.
India's domestic air traffic rose during to 258.07 lakh from January to May 2012 as against 244.98 lakh during the corresponding period of previous year, registering a growth of 5.34 per cent.
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