Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh is thinking of toughening the route dispersal guidelines, so that domestic carriers mandatorily fly to more Tier-3 and Tier-4 cities.
The government has decided decides to abolish Airport Development Fee in Delhi and Mumbai from January 1, 2013.
The government on Thursday said no proposal for any kind of bail out package for loss making private airlines was under its consideration.
The airline on Thursday night extended its partial lockout till October 12 as talks between its management and employees failed to break the deadlock over non-payment of salaries for the last seven months.
A bench of justices H L Dattu and C K Prasad sought response from the government, the national carrier and CBI on a petition filed by an NGO, Centre for Public Interest Litigation, alleging that various decisions taken during the tenure of Patel were meant to benefit private airlines and caused huge loss to Air India.
IndiGo carried 12.05 lakh passengers last month, followed by Jet Airways-JetLite combined flying 11.01 lakh.
Though the Dharmadhikari report expects Air India would be cash surplus by eight years, the efforts are on so that it happens earlier.
Air India pilots and cabin crew will now have to put in more flying hours as Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh has directed the national carrier to go by the rule book.
Civil Aviation Minister Vayalar Ravi said the demands of the striking Air India employees could not be accepted.
Nath said talking about "mandir-masjid" will not generate employment.
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Observing that the prime reason for these losses was high fuel cost which constituted almost 40-50 per cent of an airline's total costs, Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh said the aviation turbine fuel (ATF) prices were high due to rising base price and "very high VAT imposed by state governments."
The disappointment of the year is government's failure in finalising the re-drafted aviation policy.
Union Minister Praful Patel was formally elected president of the All India Football Federation on Tuesday, thus bringing down curtains on ailing Priyan Ranjan Dasmunsi's 20-year reign at the helm. Patel, the Civil Aviation minister in the UPA government, was elected unopposed at the Annual General Meeting of the AIFF at its headquarters in Delhi.
"I hope the entire airline (Air India) will come back to full operation from tomorrow (Wednesday), otherwise the Air India management will be free to take any decision that it feels is necessary," Patel said in a veiled threat.
The plan for 2010-14 envisages revenue enhancement and expenditure reduction over different phases, airline sources said.
Ajit Singh said 90 pilots were undergoing training and would be available for flying in August.
The bodies of the last four of the trapped labourers were pulled out from the site of the avalanche-hit Border Roads Organisation (BRO) camp in Chamoli on Sunday, taking the death toll to eight as authorities ended the nearly 60-hour rescue operation.
Private airport developers in Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Bangalore, say landing and parking fees account for a significant proportion of revenues, so offering these services free would be unviable.
Concern was voiced in Parliament today over ongoing strike by Air India pilots which has been going on for two weeks with members alleging that the extreme "arrogance" by the government was not helping resolve the matter even as the national carrier had lost Rs 300 crore.
Civil Aviation Minister Vayalar Ravi on Thursday asked managers of state-run airports to tighten up their belts for competing with private-led ones and fulfil their customers' expectations.
It's part of the carrier' turnaround plan.
National carriers stood second-last among eight of the scheduled domestic airlines in percentage terms of on-time performance in departures during 2008, government said on Tuesday.
The government on Saturday asked Air India pilots to end their five-day stir before coming for talks as Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh reached out to the Opposition to find ways to end the impasse which has led to the cancellation of at least 16 flights.
The airline's current board has only one independent director -- N Vaghul, ex-chairman of ICICI, while the remaining nine are either from the civil aviation ministry or the airline itself. On the requirement of funds for reviving the national carrier, Patel said that a revival plan on the financial side is expected from SBI Caps soon.
The Nationalist Congress Party on Monday named Chhagan Bhujbal as the next deputy chief minister of Maharashtra.Earlier, a meeting of the NCP legislature party had authorised party president Sharad Pawar to name the new leader.Pawar's nephew and state Water Resources Minister Ajit Pawar and former deputy CM R R Patil were the other aspirants for the post.
State of Air India reveals one of the sorriest aspects of Indian public life.
Displaying a washing machine on its press conference dais, the Congress on Saturday taunted the Bharatiya Janata Party over the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) filing a closure report in a 2017 corruption case against Nationalist Congress Party leader Praful Patel and said the ruling party's 'fully automatic washing machine' works on the principle -- 'join BJP, case closed'.
Delhi high court on Tuesday issued contempt notices to nine of the striking Air India pilots for defying its order to call off the agitation which entered the seventh day.
Indian Airlines and Air-India are expected to hike airfares by ten per cent following a green signal from Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel.
A bill to award death penalty to hijackers and give the right to security forces to shoot down an aircraft which may be used as a missile is likely to be brought in Parliament in the next session.
The Group of Ministers, which is reviewing the recovery path of Air India, will meet next month to discuss the infusion of Rs 1,200 crore (Rs 12 billion) as equity and review the steps taken by the national carrier for achieving a turnaround.
"The GoM on the civil aviation sector, headed by finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, is meeting tomorrow as the government has broadly agreed to support Air India in its restructuring process," civil aviation minister Praful Patel said on Tuesday.
The NCP's flag was handed over by Praful Patel to K Muraleedharan, DIC-K president, signifying the merger.
The election authorities on Tuesday gave a clean chit to Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh's son and Rashtriya Lok Dal leader Jayant Chowdhury who was caught on camera accepting money from a local leader in Mathura and allegedly violating the model code of conduct.
In a setback to the Managlore airport, Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel said he would "re-look" into the international status given to the Mangalore airport following Saturday's air crash.
Besides the not-so-hidden unease between Modi and Adityanath, Modi chose to address the Lok Sabha to ensure that he could personally claim all the kudos, observes Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay.
Out of 23 floors, Air India occupies six and three of these have been leased out. The rest are largely unused.
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