The eight major unions, representing a cross-section of staffers ranging from pilots, engineers to ground staff, wrote to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
India is on the verge of entering 'big league' in the world aviation scene with the launch of satellite-based navigation system, GAGAN, next year, Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel said on Tuesday.
Protesting delayed payment of salaries and allowances, a section of Air India pilots today warned they would not undertake flying duties from April one if their dues were not cleared by then.
Jet Airways, SpiceJet, Kingfisher and other airlines have told the government that they would curtail services frequency and air routes to cut losses after oil companies raised the prices of aviation fuel.
The government is looking to sell 10-20 per cent of its holding in national carriers Air-India and Indian Airlines in their initial public offer, Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel said on Monday.
Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh on Tuesday ruled out any move to regulate airfares saying the government only wants the system to be made transparent.
Even though Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel will move this proposal only on Thursday in the Cabinet meeting, the government is already going ahead with the proposal regardless of the response from other concerned ministries like finance, environment and forests, and tourism and the planning commission.
The government has also introduced procedures for consideration and approval of applications and have set times lines for various stages of processing
Civil Aviation Minister Vayalar Ravi said the air carriers had sought a meeting with the prime minister.
"As Civil Aviation minister, I apologise to all those affected (by these incidents)," Ashok Gajapathi Raju told a press conference in New Delhi on Thursday evening, in an attempt to end the controversy.
A group of ministers will soon meet in New Delhi to decide on allowing foreign entities to pick up stakes in the airline sector in India, Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh said on Wednesday.
NACIL had submitted a proposal in October 2008 for equity infusion of Rs 1,231 crore (Rs 12.31 billion) and provision of soft loan of Rs 2,750 crore (Rs 27.5 billion), with an interest of approximately 5 per cent payable over 15 years.
'I would like the fleet acquisition to materialise at the earliest. It is a high priority item.'
The empowered group of ministers will take up tomorrow the modernisation plans of Delhi and Mumbai airports even as the government has cautioned low cost carriers on the present fare structure introduced by some of them.
Air India has six Dreamliners and has ordered 21 more.
The four recommendations came from Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel, Minister for Overseas Indian Affairs,Vayalar Ravi, member of US Congress Joseph Crowley and Dalis Adler, staff associate, sub-committee on the Middle East and South Asia under the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.
The charges for these would be a fixed amount and announced well in advance by the airlines 'which shall not vary with the base fare for a particular flight'.
Janata Dal-United president Sharad Yadav has demanded that a case under 302 of Indian Penal Code (punishment for murder) should be filed against Vijay Mallya in connection with the suicide case of the wife of a Kingfisher Airlines employee.
The Supreme Court has admitted for hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) alleging a major scam during the tenure of Praful Patel as the Civil Aviation Minister in the UPA-I government.
The aviation regulator DGCA had on May 21 issued seven bands of ticket pricing with lower and upper fare limits.
Cites technical reasons; crew told to apologies to passengers and provide feedback forms for those seeking a refund for pre-booked meals
Air India also estimates that its EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation) would increase.
Union minister and Congress leader Vilasrao Deshmukh and two Nationalist Congress Party candidates were elected on Monday to the Rajya Sabha from Maharashtra. NCP leaders Govindrao Adik and Ranjitsinh Mohite Patil were elected to the Upper House of parliament against the seats vacated by Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel and Supriya Sule after their election to Lok Sabha.
Three international flights of Air India were cancelled from here and Mumbai as the agitation by a section of pilots entered the second day on Wednesday.
The government will start working on selling the ground-handling arm of erstwhile national carrier Air India and the Expression of Interest (EoI) is expected in the next fiscal, an official said. "We already have the Cabinet approval for selling the subsidiaries of Air India. "So we will come out with an EoI inviting bids for one of the ground-handling arms in the next fiscal," an official told PTI.
Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia on Tuesday flew on SpiceJet's special flight between Delhi and Gwalior using Boeing's 737 Max plane that has been allowed to return to service after two and half years. All Max planes were grounded in India by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on March 13, 2019, three days after the crash of an Ethiopian Airlines 737 Max plane near Addis Ababa, which had left 157 people, including four Indians, dead. Along with Scindia, SpiceJet CMD Ajay Singh and Boeing India president Salil Gupte were also present on the special flight on Tuesday.
Terming as "unfortunate" the loss of lives in the Malaysian Airlines tragedy, Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju on Friday said there was no Indian on board the aircraft.
In a written reply to the Rajya Sabha, Civil Aviation Minister Vayalar Ravi said Vijay Mallya-promoted Kingfisher Airlines along with Paramount Airways did not settle dues on a regular fortnightly basis.
In a coalition era, the smallest of parties gets almost blackmail power and that power is in direct proportion to the weakness of the senior coalition partner. Which is why, for instance, even in an era of coalitions, Atal Bihari Vajpayee was a lot more powerful than Manmohan Singh is.
A five-member committee, headed by IIM-Ahmedabad's Prof Ravindra H Dholakia, was set up by Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh after a review meeting of the ailing national carrier's functioning.
In the wake of recent hike in airline fares owing to rise in aviation turbine fuel prices, the Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel on Thursday met Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram and sought reduction in excise duty on the fuel in the Budget.
SpiceJet announced it has started a five-day "1+1 offer sale" where it was offering one-way base fares starting as low as Rs 899, excluding taxes, on its domestic network.
Taking a serious view of the strike by a section of Air India employees, the government on Wednesday asked the management to take 'strong' and 'decisive' action against them as they have indulged in an 'irresponsible' behaviour causing inconvenience to travellers.
The Union Cabinet on Thursday referred the proposal for allowing People of Indian Origin to invest in domestic airlines on par with NRIs to a Group of Ministers.
More flights will be added from India to Saudi Arabia this year.
Ruling out the possibility of union ministers Sharad Pawar and Praful Patel resigning in the wake of the IPL controversy, the Nationalist Congress Party on Thursday dismissed reports about the involvement of any of its leaders or their relatives in any financial wrongdoings in the cricket league. Party spokesman D P Tripathi saw nothing wrong in Civil Aviation Minister Patel's 'personal office' forwarding projections of new franchisee valuations to Tharoor.
Virtually ruling out closure of debt-laden Kingfisher Airlines (KFA), Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh on Thursday said promoter Vijay Mallya will have to take call on shutting down the business.
'If an airline is willing to get the funding, it will fly in unviable routes.'
Modernisation and expansion of the Kolkata and Chennai airports are being carried.
Government has already set aside a provision of Rs 1,200 crore (Rs 12 billion) in the Budget for infusing equity in Air India in this financial year.
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