Tata group-owned Air India plans to hire expat pilots for its Boeing 777 planes as the airline is facing a shortage of pilots amid plans to expand its fleet as well as international operations, according to sources. The carrier is looking to rope in around 100 pilots for the wide-body Boeing 777 fleet and has approached various agencies that provide expat flight crew to airlines, the sources told PTI. The loss-making Air India, which was under government ownership for nearly seven decades till the Tata group took over in January 2022, had stopped hiring expat pilots many years ago to save costs.
The letter shared with the media on Saturday comes amid Maharashtra losing several big-ticket projects to neighbouring Gujarat.
The Indian troops guarding the nearly 3,500-km Line of Actual Control (LAC) maintained an assertive approach in sync with the broader national security doctrine and procured a variety of military platforms and weapons to enhance their combat capabilities.
Some scheduled flights as well as those for which ticket sales are open would be affected.
The Airbus A330-343 aircraft, scheduled to depart from the Colombo airport to Moscow on June 2 with 191 passengers and 13 crew members, was not allowed as the owner of the aircraft -- Celestial Aviation of Ireland -- had filed a case against Aeroflot, pending arbitration on the lease of the aircraft in London.
If all 102 grounded planes could fly, there will theoretically be 400 more Delhi-Mumbai flights every day.
After the Russian aviation sector was hit by crippling Western sanctions for war against Ukraine, China refused to supply Russia with aircraft parts.
Ajit Pawar said CM Shinde is not capable of getting big projects to Maharashtra.
For the first time, the country's largest airline IndiGo will soon lease up to four wide-body Boeing 777 planes to cover the shortfall in its international operations, according to officials. The airline said the wet-leasing of "certain aircraft" will be done as an interim measure. IndiGo, which has so far only been operating narrow-body Airbus planes, ATRs and freighters, will now be having wide-body aircraft in its fleet.
Finland's flag carrier Finnair on Friday said it will connect Helsinki with India's financial capital Mumbai with a direct flight, starting July this year. Mumbai will be the airline's second destination in India after Delhi, where it has been flying since 2006. The to-be launched flight on Mumbai-Helsinki and vice versa will be open for bookings from April 5 onward, Finnair said in a statement.
'For Indian firms supplying global majors, coronavirus is both a threat and an opportunity.'
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.
While Pakistan enjoys rough parity with India in legacy weapon systems, it is beginning to enjoy superiority in drone warfare, thanks to the RPVs supplied by China, explains Ajai Shukla.
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.
The cost of acquiring the advanced light helicopters from the state-run Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) has been estimated at Rs 3,850 crore while a batch of rocket ammunition will cost Rs 4,962 crore, the defence ministry said.
The Tibet-bound plane was carrying 113 passengers and nine crew members, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
The Tata group may have to deploy upwards of $1 billion to improve the airline's passenger reservation system, upgrade and refurbish Air India's fleet, primarily the wide-body aircraft which are the mainstay for the airline's international operations, people in the know said. While the group has not yet decided on how it intends to integrate Air India with its existing airlines AirAsia India and Vistara, sources said the first task will be to refinance Air India's existing loans, upgrade its aircraft gradually, and rewrite multiple business contracts with vendors and suppliers. "They will have to do 100 things to stabilise the airline and will have to put in a lot of money," DIPAM secretary Tuhin Kanta Pandey said, confirming that many aircraft are grounded.
Jet Airways is seeing a churn in its senior management ahead of its planned take-off this year. Sudhir Gaur, accountable manager and acting chief executive officer, is the latest to quit the company. Finance head M Shivakumar and head of management information system (MIS) Farazad Patrawalla moved out a few weeks earlier. Gaur had been part of the initial team selected by the Kalrock-Jalan consortium, which secured approval from the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) last June to revive the airline.
Several hundred Indian firms that manufacture or assemble Rs 10,000 crore worth of aerospace components annually for manufacturers like Boeing, Airbus, Lockheed Martin and Bell Helicopters now face disruptions relating to covid-19.
At the recently concluded Dubai airshow, Akasa, Rakesh Radheyshyam Jhunjhunwala's new airline, signed a $9 billion deal with American aircraft maker Boeing to buy its 737 MAX planes and a $4 billion one for engines with CFM, a joint venture between GE of the US and Safran of France. Unlike his financial doppelganger Warren Buffett, who divested billions from his airline stock portfolio at the start of the pandemic, Jhunjhunwala is wagering his billions in a brand new airline. The legendary investor bought a roughly 40 per cent stake in SNV Aviation in September, Akasa's holding company, started in March by three former Jet Airways colleagues. With aviation still to recover from its pandemic slump, the big question around his foray into domestic aviation, due to take off in summer 2022, is whether it is another pie in the sky.
On Thursday, Virgin Atlantic, for instance, cancelled its morning flight between London and Delhi. And Air India rescheduled its London-Ahmedabad flight by several hours. With the Heathrow restrictions to remain in place till September 11, air traffic between India and London is likely to see slower growth over the next two months.
The acquisition will give the Tatas a firm footing on international routes and generate economies of scale.
The 2019 Paris Air Show will run until Sunday at Le Bourget Airport.
The recent migration of marquee investments from Maharashtra to Gujarat seems to have rekindled the Marathi manoos sentiment.
The objections were filed after Airbus failed to repay Rs 196 crore, availed by the aircraft-making company on behalf of Mallya-controlled Kingfisher Airlines
The aircraft, which has been grounded since March following two fatal crashes which killed 346 on board, is crucial to Indian low-cost airline SpiceJet's fortune, which has up to 205 aircraft on order. With the grounding, the airline's capacity expansion plan is suffering.
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 airline would offer access to in-flight connectivity only on Dreamliners and Airbus 321 aircraft on international routes.
As a model of transport, the A380 strikes a parallel -- a shared fragility -- with giant container ships, observes Shyam G Menon.
HAL is poised to sell the Philippines at least seven Dhruv Advanced Light Helicopters and eight Dornier 228 aircraft for Rs 30 billion, reports Ajai Shukla.
The Champions League final was set to be staged at Zenit St Petersburg's stadium on May 28.
Hemant Shivsaran lists the number of projects the Modi government has announced since August to woo Gujarat voters.
For Indians, Sri Lanka is one of the favourite venues for destination weddings. But last month, when a family from Delhi chartered a Vistara Airbus A320 to Colombo, it packed much more than the standard paraphernalia of clothes, gifts and jewellery. The family ferried meals from Delhi for all the guests and to cover their entire stay in Colombo due to the food and fuel shortages in the island nation.
The BJP said the email purportedly by an Airbus executive referred to a helicopter deal and not Rafale.
Analysts remain sceptical on the profitability from freighter business, saying that once normal air transport resumes and there's abundant belly capacity, the traditional economics of air cargo may not be that lucrative.
With this, the biggest buyer of Airbus SE A320neo planes seems to be moving away from Pratt & Whitney engines, which have been experiencing glitches. CFM International will deliver the first engine by 2020.
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.
Airbus claims the new aircraft is 15 per cent more fuel efficient than the exiting versions of A320
To make space for the extra row, Vistara has opted for the smartLav concept offered by Airbus
DGCA has also permitted the airline to deploy newly-inducted planes for capacity expansion.
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