Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel has often played the role of a crisis manager to sort out differences between the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party, of which he is a prominent leader. The minister is now playing a similar role on the personal front, trying to defend himself amid reports of his alleged involvement in the controversial deals surrounding the Indian Premier League.
The state-run airline is reeling under major financial losses and a plan of action has already been put in place to revive its lost status.
In a security scare, a dummy stun-grenade was on Saturday found on board an Air India jumbo plane as it landed at Jeddah in the wee hours, which the airline attempted to downplay but was rebuffed by Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju who called it a "failure".
The Rashtriya Lok Dal, with five members in the Lok Sabha, on Monday formally joined the United Progressive Alliance amid speculations that its chief Ajit Singh would be included in the Cabinet as the civil aviation minister. With the RLD joining the ruling coalition, its strength has gone up from 272 to 277 MPs. In the backdrop of speculations that Ajit Singh will be inducted into the Cabinet, Digvijay Singh was asked who will be the next civil aviation minister.
According to sector experts, UDF charges are likely to go up in the absence of ADF.
Air India on Friday took back six out of its 57 employees, sacked following a flash strike days after the May 22 Mangalore air crash, and revoked the suspension of 27 others.
Families of each of those killed in the Mangalore plane crash will get up to Rs 76 lakh as compensation.
With an unprecedented "boom" in aviation, the country is running short of pilots. Most carriers, state-owned as well as private, are in a scramble to lay their hands on trained pilots.
A number of countries like Canada, Turkey, Belgium, Italy and Israel have banned flights from the UK as the British government warned that the potent new strain of the virus was "out of control" and imposed a stringent new stay-at-home lockdown from Sunday.
Meanwhile, Minister of State for Civil Aviation Mahesh Sharma said that there was no question of any bail out to the beleaguered carrier
The decision on additional grant would also be taken keeping in view the high cost debt 'both current and long term' taken by Air India.
The Dreamliner will allow Air India to finally match the right kind of routes with the right kind of planes, while launching new ones. Some say it won't solve the airline's problems.
The fewer the number of central ministries that matter, the better the efficacy of India's reforms.
The government is looking at a new timeline for Air India disinvestment and financial bids will be invited in the coming days, Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri said on Friday. Noting that there is no choice but to either "privatise or close" Air India, he said the government will have to keep the airline running till it gets divested. "We are looking at another timeline now, what is called data room for prospective bidders to look at... that is opened up, 64 days for the financial bids to come in. "After that it is the question of taking a decision and handing over the airline," the Minister of State for Civil Aviation said.
Highly placed sources said Oil Minister Murli Deora took exception to Menon's proposals during a meeting of the Federation of Indian Airlines and Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel to resolve the crisis arising out of mounting fuel bill arrears. "There should not be any layoffs. Why are you raising it now," sources quoted Deora as telling Menon.
Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel has directed promoters of the Mumbai International Airport Limited to keep in mind local sensibilities while undertaking the upgrade and modernisation of Mumbai airport. The ministry denied allegations that the government had given permission for the change of the name of the airport and location of the Shivaji statue.
IndiGo barred a specially-abled child from boarding a flight as he was in "a state of panic"
Air India management has derecognised the pilot's union and terminated the services of 98 pilots.
The government will blacklist contractors who are responsible for delay in ongoing projects of airport modernisation."Tenders for capital work are not being issued to the contract agencies responsible for delay in projects," Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel told the Lok Sabha. Patel said the terminal building projects at Jaipur, Udaipur, Srinagar, Vizag and Agatti have been delayed.
The government on Monday decided to immediately dispatch search and rescue teams of the National Disaster Response Force, medical teams and relief material to earthquake-hit Turkey following Prime Minister Narendra Modi's instructions to offer all possible assistance to the country.
In popular perception, the villain of the piece is former civil aviation minister Praful Patel.
Bengal Aerotropolis Projects, a special purpose vehicle, which is developing India's first airport city, or aerotropolis, in the Asansol-Durgapur region, today entered into a technical services arrangement with Singapore-based Changi Airports International.
The high tax regime makes aircraft service above 50 per cent more expensive than international rates and might spell trouble for over a dozen MRO projects -- several of them involving foreign direct investment that have been announced so far.
The visual control tower at 95 metre would provide all-round view of the airport. The complex will also have meteorological facilities, search and rescue and anti-hijacking measures.
A day after FIPB cleared the Tata-Singapore Airlines' (SIA) airline venture, Tata group Chairman Emeritus Ratan Tata and SIA chief Goh Choon Phong on Friday met Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh exuding confidence of launching flights by May-June next year.
. Therefore, it is now the government's urgent responsibility to end the impasse, restore confidence in the airline and its staff and allow it to continue with its recovery before it manages to sink it, once again.
With Air India considering further crackdown on the striking pilots, the government on Monday said it is for airlines management to decide for how long to keep them on their payroll when they are not working.
Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh said on Thursday alternative plans were being made to ensure that operations of the state-run carrier were normalised within two-three months so that the revival plan could be put in place.
The US Homeland Security has apologised to Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel who was questioned by the immigration authorities in Chicago as his name and date of birth happened to match with that of a person on America's watch-list.
Air India CMD Rohit Nandan was asked to join the meeting at the fag end.
As the stir by over 200 Air India pilots entered the 13th day on Sunday, Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh said the unions have to look at the health of their organisation and understand that this is an era of competition.
Fourteen pilots and 31 cabin crew members have been found reporting for duty under the influence of alcohol till March this year, Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh said on Wednesday.
"Aircraft movements, passenger and freight traffic registered negative growth rate of -00.10, -06.80 and -01.00 per cent during 2008-09," civil aviation minister Praful Patel said in a written reply to a query in Lok Sabha. The minister also said that the foreign airlines had increased their operations by 85 per cent in the last five years in the country.
Meanwhile, accusing Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel of being responsible for the state of affairs in Air India, the CPI(M) has demanded the immediate revocation of the order to derecognise the unions and sacking of employees for going on a flash strike.
The Day in Politics: Featuring Dr Singh, Messrs Kejriwal and Sisodia and Mamatadi.
Kingfisher Airlines, which is reeling under more than Rs 7,000 crore (Rs 70 billion) of debt, owes dues of about Rs 280 crore (Rs 2.8 billion) to the Airports Authority of India.
The government is understood to have approached industrialist Ratan Tata to head an advisory board of the ailing Air India.
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