Else customers will face capacity shortages and high fares.
The slot constraint in Indian airports is also going to play a role in pushing airlines to have wide bodies.
India is the first Asian country where Lufthansa will deploy its latest fleet member the B747-800.
Tata Group-owned Air India will buy 250 aircraft, including 40 wide-body planes, from Airbus as the airline expands its fleet and operations. This is the first time in more than 17 years that Air India has placed an aircraft order. It is also the first order placed by the carrier under the ownership of Tata Group. On Tuesday, Tata Sons chairman N Chandrasekaran said Air India has signed a letter of intent to acquire 250 aircraft from Airbus.
At least 20 to 30 departures are being cancelled daily from metros and key airports including Ahmedabad, Bengaluru and Hyderabad.
The US Federal Aviation Authority has approved Boeing's plan to fix the battery-fire problem in the Boeing 787 Dreamliner fleet.
Vistara has accelerated fleet expansion plan from June 2018 to earlier, open to talks with Boeing as well.
The airline informed the ministry that it would operate 75 planes by April-end.
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.
Both the Apache and Chinook helicopters have been pressed into service as part of the IAF's deployment along the LAC in view of the bitter standoff with China in eastern Ladakh, officials said.
The airline might find it difficult to fill posts.
The plane was scheduled to arrive in India during the first half of this week, the officials noted. Senior officials of the national carrier reached the US earlier this month to receive the plane from aircraft manufacturer Boeing, the officials said.
However, while the capacity void in the domestic market has been filled, a vacuum still remains in international connectivity, especially on the India-Europe and onwards route, which was well connected by Jet Airways via the Boeing 777, Airbus A330 aircraft and its hubs in Paris and Amsterdam.
Sources said the process has taken time because of a delay in leasing of aircraft. As per the original plan the aircraft were to be leased through GIFT City, Gujarat, but this is proving costlier than doing it offshore.
The new owner may be allowed to dispose of assets accruing from the 10-26 per cent of the net assets of the company.
The Air India board has cleared a proposal for sending its pilots on deputation to its budget arm, Air India Express, which has been facing shortage of commanders for some time now.
Sale of wide-body aircraft will not affect internatinal flights, says Jet
Two custom-made B777 aircraft, which will be used to fly Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other top Indian dignitaries, are likely to be delivered by Boeing to Air India by September, senior officials said on Monday. In October last year, government officials had said that the delivery of these two planes, which are earmarked for VVIP travel only, would be done by July.
The watchdog has also asked the airlines to ensure various requirements are complied with by engineering and maintenance personnel with respect to 737 MAX planes.
The acquisition will give the Tatas a firm footing on international routes and generate economies of scale.
Pilots will strictly go by the roster and perform all "stabilised approach
The airline has suspended its international operations till Monday.
When the Tatas re-boarded Air India on January 27 last year, the price of aviation turbine fuel was at over Rs 80,000 per kilolitre. Rupee was trading at around Rs 74 to a US dollar. The Omicron variant of Covid-19 was in prevalence - barely a week earlier, India had reported over 340,000 cases on a single day. Seven-day home quarantine of international travellers was the norm.
The civil aviation ministry appears supportive of SpiceJet because it does not want another airline to fail. The real test now will be the capacity of the airline's chairman, Kalanithi Maran, to raise funds. And he needs to do this quickly.
The Rafale maritime fighter aircraft on Monday demonstrated its operational capability at a naval facility in Goa as the Navy plans to acquire a fleet of combat jets for its indigenous aircraft carrier (IAC) Vikrant, people familiar with the development said.
The plane can fly non-stop to Singapore, Doha (Qatar), Kuwait, Abu Dhabi (UAE), Riyadh (Saudi Arabia), Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), Tehran (Iran), Salalah (Oman) and Kunming (China), among other destinations, from various Indian airports.
Air India has deferred inducting the 16th Dreamliner into its fleet as the aircraft experienced technical trouble during recent test flights in Seattle headquarters of the US manufacturer Boeing.
Fifteen of these pilots are expatriates who were hired for flying the Boeing 787 Dreamliners till Air India's crew got trained.
A Boeing support team has arrived to help Air-India in the induction of a Boeing 777 jet into the fleet, even as the airline board is expected to take a final decision on the acquisition of a 50 aircraft fleet next month.
Jet has about 1,200 pilots operating Airbus, Boeing and ATR aircraft.
The new airline has begun recruiting pilots and is close to confirming its top executives, including a Singapore Airlines executive as its chief executive officer.
Troops of India and China were locked in a standoff in Doklam from June 16, 2017 after the Indian side stopped the building of a road in the disputed area by the Chinese Army.
On a full year basis, the airline made a loss of Rs 934.8 crore. The company has incurred a net loss during the current and previous year and, the its current liabilities exceeded its current assets
To attract bidders, the government had decided to hive of around Rs 35,000 crore of the company's debt into a separate subsidiary, leaving around Rs 23,286 crore to be absorbed by the new bidder.
About 40 quit last November as the airline cut down its fleet.
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.
Will operate only after FAA and DGCA gives green light.
Air India got its third Boeing 787 Dreamliner on Tuesday from the new North Charleston facility of the US-based manufacturer.
Public sector lender Punjab National Bank (PNB) has moved the Insolvency appellate tribunal NCLAT against the approval of bids for defunct airline Jet Airways. The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) bench has issued a notice over the PNB's petition along with its interim plea seeking a stay over the execution of the resolution plan. A three-member bench has directed the Resolution Professional of Jet Airways along with other parties including the Committee of Creditors to file a reply within two weeks and rejoinder, if by PNB, within one week.
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