The presence of an engine maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) facility in India could have prevented Go First airline from going "belly up", as sending engines abroad for servicing is not an efficient way to operate a carrier, Piyush Srivastava, senior economic advisor, Ministry of Civil Aviation, said in a statement on Tuesday. On May 3, Go First suspended its flights and filed for insolvency, squarely blaming engine manufacturer Pratt & Whitney (PW) for its cash crunch. The airline claimed that about half of its 54 aircraft were grounded on May 3 due to a delay in the supply of engines by the US-based company. PW has denied the charges.
The battle for the skies is moving to a new orbit - fuel-efficient narrow body planes. While Airbus has cashed in on the first mover advantage in this space with its A320 Neo, Boeing, which launched its plane in August last year, is catching up fast.
Its association with India is over 70 years old and spans both civil and military aviation. The Douglas DC-3 transport aircraft used by the air force beginning the 1940s and the iconic Boeing 747 aircraft flown by Air India, both had Pratt & Whitney (P&W) engines. The Indian Air Force's present-day, heavy-lift C-17 Globemaster III and the yet-to-be-inducted C-295 planes, too, have P&W power plants.
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.
In its first move to significantly expand the fleet after the Tatas took over, Air India has leased 25 Airbus narrow-body aircraft and five Boeing wide-body planes. These will enter service starting December, the company said on Monday. A wide-body plane has a bigger fuel tank, allowing it to travel longer distances such as India-US routes.
Overall, with an above world average traffic growth rate of 5.5 per cent, Asia-Pacific will account for 36 per cent of all new passenger aircraft demand
Air India is set to increase capacity on domestic and international routes over the next few months as it overhauls its grounded aircraft. Air India has the approval to operate 2,456 flights per week in the summer schedule. This is more than a 16 per cent increase over 2020. But its international schedule has declined 41 per cent (compared to winter 2019) to 361 weekly departures.
India's state-run aircraft maker Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd is making efforts to get a substantial 'offset' business from Airbus Industrie in Indian Airlines' order for 43 aircraft.
Crew shortage is impacting the operations of Air India, with some flights to the US and Canada either getting cancelled or facing inordinate delays, according to a source. Tata group-owned Air India, which is the only air operator flying on ultra-long haul routes, had faced problems last year also due to the shortage of crew members. An ultra-long haul flight's duration is more than 16 hours.
Inching closer to launch its operations, new no-frill carrier AirAsia India on Saturday took delivery of its first Airbus A-320 as it landed in Chennai after flying in from Toulouse headquarters of the European aircraft manufacturer.
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Monday suspended operations at Redbird Flight Training Academy, one of India's largest flight schools, across all five of its training bases in the country. This action was taken after five accidents involving the institute's planes in the past six months. The DGCA announced it would conduct an audit of the academy's maintenance practices and also proficiency checks of the institute's flight instructors before allowing it to resume operations.
IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack begins by asking why the hijack lasted seven days and ends in wondering if the good guys fought the bad ones hard enough, observes Sukanya Verma.
Jet Airways has announced the induction of the state-of-the-art Airbus A330-200 aircraft into its fleet. \n
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.
Kingfisher has five A330-200s currently operating in its fleet, which ply between India and the United Kingdom. Deliveries are pending for another 15. Contacted by Business Standard, a company spokesperson said the airline did not ". . .envisage making any changes to the order book at this time".
Airline officials said the operational launch may be held in the later part of October.
... changing seats and in-flight entertainment on its older aircraft.
Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on Friday indicated that a decision on purchase of Airbus by Air-India and Indian Airlines is likely to be taken during the current visit of French premier Jean-Pierre Raffarin to the country.
Pilots working with Air India have warned of non-co-operation if restoration of pre-Covid overtime allowance is delayed, and if other practices they say are 'discriminatory' continues. "We cannot assure that our members will undertake flying duties exceeding 70 hours a month. Any coercive action by the management will lead to industrial action to safeguard flight safety and well-being of our members," the Indian Commercial Pilots Association and the Indian Pilots Guild said in a joint letter to Air India's management on Tuesday.
"Indian Airlines has chosen to buy 43 Airbus planes. It's my strong wish the choice be finalised soon," said French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin on Thursday.
India's private carrier Kingfisher Airlines, which placed orders for 30 Airbus A320 aircraft worth $1.9 billion at the ongoing Dubai Air Show, has said the carrier would go public to finance the deal.
A joint forum of Air India unions on Friday sought the labour department's 'urgent' intervention and initiation of conciliation proceedings in the matter of their passage policy and service conditions. On December 24, the forum comprising IPG, ACEU, AIEU and AICCA, in its demand notice to Air India managing director and chief executive officer Campbell Wilson, had protested against the changes in their service conditions. Tata Group took control of the then government-led Air India in January this year.
It offers a real opportunity for the flag carrier to compete on the world stage, backed by a leading conglomerate with deep pockets like the Tatas, observes Indrajit Gupta.
SpiceJet's resurgence, once the new funding is in place, has the potential to disrupt the Indian aviation market in 2024 as the airline will bring its grounded aircraft back to service and lease as many planes as possible to be competitively relevant, aviation consultancy firm Capa India said on Thursday. "Although the market for procuring aircraft in 2024 is exceptionally tight, we expect that SpiceJet will bring stored aircraft back into operations, and will wet or dry lease as much capacity as possible, in order to be competitively relevant. "This will have a material impact on the industry structure, and possibly on domestic profitability," Capa India said in its report.
UB Group's Kingfisher Airlines, which is scheduled to launch domestic operations from April next, would sign a deal with European aircraft manufacturer Airbus Industries for supply of 14 aircraft in Mumbai on December 18.
'Within five years, we should be achieving more on the international front than what it took most airlines 15 to 20 years back.'
Modi made the comments in his address after inaugurating the 14th edition of Aero India at the Yalahanka Air Force station complex on the outskirts of Bengaluru.
Air-India's decision to purchase Boeing's 787 Dreamliners has re-ignited the fight for supremacy between Boeing and Europe's Airbus in the civil aviation market, media reports said in Washington.
Launch on 10 sectors in the winter schedule.
Initial reports say the pilots had asked for a change in route (it was flying to Singapore) because of adverse weather.
SpiceJet is in talks with aircraft makers for a jet deal.
19 per cent of all travel in India (by bus, train or air) was pilgrimage or religious travel (possibly the single largest after business and family-related travel), discovers Ambi Parameswaran.
A day after Air-India gave away its entire Rs 30,000 crore (Rs 300 billion) deal for 50 aircraft to American company Boeing
The Tata group is planning to invest $90 billion in new industries such as mobile components plant, semiconductor, electric vehicles, batteries, renewables energy and e-commerce by 2027. The Tata group's investment in India is far higher than the $75-billion investments planned by Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance Industries and $55-billion investment planned by the Adani group in the next five years in the country, the Economist reported recently. The investment by the Tata group is a shift in its strategy to focus more in the home markets instead of international markets where the group lost money.
Around 200 pilots of Go First, the cash-strapped airline that suspended operations on May 2, have joined Air India. As many as 75 of them started training with the Tata-owned airline on Monday. As Go First tries to salvage its operations, it has announced additional pay or retention allowance of Rs 100,000 and Rs 50,000 for captains and first officers, respectively, with effect from June 1.
It is the first project of its kind in which a military aircraft will be manufactured in India by a private company.
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