Singapore Airline along with its Indian JV partner have got clearance from the aviation ministry.
A proposed strike by almost all sections of Air India employees next Tuesday on various demands, including implementation of agreements relating to wages and cadre policy, has been declared illegal.After a meeting on Saturday, top officials of the Civil Aviation Ministry and the National Aviation Company of India Limited (NACIL), which runs Air India, decided to "take serious view" if the employees went ahead with their threat, official sources said.
This proposal is a part of the comprehensive aviation policy that the ministry has submitted to the Cabinet and which has now been referred to a Group of Ministers.
India is preparing to resume the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra, a pilgrimage to Mount Kailash in Tibet, after a three-year hiatus. The decision comes as part of efforts to improve relations between India and China, which have been strained since a military standoff in 2020. The two countries have also agreed in principle to resume flight services between them.
The civil aviation ministry and the directorate general of civil aviation plan to award the low-cost carriers some key morning and evening peak-time slots (a fixed time for departure or arrival of a particular flight) lying unused with the full-service carriers at metro airports like Delhi and Mumbai. DGCA officials and airline officials confirm that airlines like Jet and Kingfisher are not using around 10 per cent of their slots during the peak periods.
The Centre has agreed in principle to grant 'mini-ratna' status to Airports Authority of India (AAI) to enable it to take up projects worth up to Rs 500 crore (Rs 5 billion) without taking government approval. Such a decision would also enable AAI to form joint ventures with private companies to modernise airports and aviation infrastructure across the country, sources in the civil aviation ministry said.
Etihad plans 75 per cent travel beyond Abu Dhabi; airports cry foul.
Urging the government to initiate talks with Abu Dhabi on the bilateral air services agreement, Jet has written to the Civil Aviation Ministry seeking its nod for expanding its services through Abu Dhabi and expansion of bilateral aviation ties with that country.
The full-service airline has faced multiple challenges in its run.
The move would cap the discontent among pilots at not having enough flying hours and even help the state carrier gain grounds in terms of passenger carriage.
Wide-body aircraft like B747 and A350 have a bigger fuel tank and can therefore travel longer distances in comparison to narrow-body aircraft like B737 and A320. A wide-body aircraft also needs a longer runway length to take off or land. The table top runway 10 of the Kozhikode airport is approximately 2,700 metres long. Wide-body aircraft operations were permitted at this airport from 2019.
Air India's appointment and removal of three senior officers was a circus all the way.
The air carriers' liability and insurance draft bill has proposed a five-fold increase in compensation in case of death or injury, the report said.
In fact, almost the entire increase in the allocation for the civil aviation ministry was cornered by the National Aviation Company of India Limited; it was earmarked Rs 8,165.64 crore as against the revised estimate of Rs 4,136.89 crore for 2008-09. The ministry received a total allocation of Rs 12,164.76 crore, compared with the revised 2008-09 estimate of Rs 7,490.06 crore, a hike of almost Rs 4,675 crore.
The government has begun consultations on relaxing the eligibility criteria for allowing Indian carriers to fly abroad, Rajya Sabha was informed.
Indian and UK carriers will each be operating 15 flights per week during the aforementioned period to and from Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad only, he said.
GMR evinces interest in the project.
Govt moots new regional connectivity policy; plans to offer subsidy on non-viable destinations.
Air India is seeking government approval to raise a Rs 2,000 crore loan and refinance $819 million aircraft debt, which would help tide over the financial crisis.
Last week, after a direction from ministry, airlines provided the maximum fares they would charge based on distance travelled.
GMR Hyderabad International Airport Ltd, the consortium operating the new Hyderabad airport, has offered to halve ground-handling charges even as the civil aviation ministry allowed the domestic carriers to undertake their ground-handling till January 1, 2009. This will give the two sides enough time to resolve the contentious issue, which almost jeopardised the opening of the new airport and forced a postponement once.
A Bengaluru-bound A320 ceo aircraft, carrying 184 people, aborted takeoff at the Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi due to fire in one of its engines Friday night.
Bilateral traffic rights define the number of weekly flights or seats a country's designated airlines are allowed to operate in another country's specified points.
The Union health ministry said 6 persons who returned to India from the UK have tested positive for the new strain of the virus.
Raghu Menon, special secretary and financial advisor in the civil aviation ministry, has been appointed the chairman and managing director of Air India, ending weeks of speculation over the issue.The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet approved the name of Menon, a 1974 batch IAS officer of the Assam-Nagaland cadre, after a keen race for the top job in the National Aviation Company of India Limited (NACIL), which runs the merged national carrier.
Biggest problem that Nandan faces is being able to simultaneously improve Air India's earnings and decrease debt.
Aviation turbine fuel accounts for 35-40 per cent of the total operating cost of an Indian airline.
Initially, starting with a slightly curtailed capacity, the airline will increase the operating capacity over the subsequent months, also reopening selected international flights, depending on the existing international travel guidelines: IndiGo.
NACIL will meet all of its proposed investment from the internal and extra budgetary resources, the Budget documents presented in the Parliament today showed. The company had invested Rs 4,136.89 crore in 2008-09. Of the total Plan outlay of Rs 12,164.76 crore for the ministry of civil aviation, the government announced budgetary support of Rs 190 crore for the sector.
To meet the needs of the increasing air traffic in the country, the Civil Aviation Ministry will talk to state governments to develop a 'national grid' for aviation by re-activating 400-odd airfields lying disused in parts of the country.
The Dharmadhikari committee on pay fixation and promotion issues in government-owned Air India says minimal pay increments should be given till the airline makes an operating profit.
Objections were being raised by senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Jaswant Singh, Communist Party of India's Gurudas Dasgupta, Dinesh Trivedi (Trinamool Congress) and Janata Party chief Subramanian Swamy over the deal, each of whom had shot off separate letters to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
The Bureau of Civil Aviation Security was allocated Rs 40 crore (Rs 400 million) for procurement of security and IT items along with radiological detection equipment.
GMR, GVK have taken up the issue with civil aviation ministry.
Observing that highly exorbitant rates were being charged closer to the travel dates, Civil Aviation Ministry officials, however, made it clear that the government had no intention to decide airfares which have to be determined by the market.
India must do away a pointless policy that mandates that a domestic airline must have been in operation for five years and have 20 aircraft before flying.
The government is understood to have decided to infuse additional equity in Air India and give a soft loan to counter the financial crunch, as a high-level committee on Saturday asked the Civil Aviation Ministry to move a note on the issue for consideration of the Union Cabinet. There was no official confirmation of the quantum of equity infusion and the soft loan the government could give to the national carrier.
The two parties have been in talks for a month and a half.
Promoters of SpiceJet do not have funds to bail out the airlines of dire consequences.
