The civil aviation ministry and Maharashtra have been planning an international airport near Pune for almost 10 years. The airport site would see construction from year 2011 onwards, if the land acquisition happens within a year.
Company working on 'win-win' solution.
The Central and state governments must take a long-term, pragmatic view and 'plan big' to ensure a future capacity of at least a 100-million passengers at Mumbai's new airport, which is the norm for all major airports in the world, including the one at Delhi, said a report titled 'Second Airport: What Mumbai Must Learn from International Experience,' carried out by the Observer Research Foundation.
The home ministry said only asymptomatic people would be allowed to travel and it would be arranged by aircraft and naval ships, and the facility will be available on a payment basis.
The country needs a whopping Rs 36,000 crore (Rs 360 billion) investment for developing airports, two-third of which is expected to come from private players, a senior civil aviation ministry official said on Wednesday.
"We are considering operating to Paris, Amsterdam, Rome, some places in Germany and other parts of continental Europe. Shanghai and Beijing are also being looked at. We have applied to the Civil Aviation Ministry for traffic rights (to these destinations). We are hopeful of getting approvals soon", Jet Chairman Naresh Goyal said.
Among executives who have been approached are former president and CEO of IndiGo Aditya Ghosh, Wolfgang Prock Schauer, current president and Chief Operating Officer at IndiGo and Sanjay Kumar, Chief Strategy and Revenue Officer of IndiGo.
Without identifying the airlines, official sources said notices had been issued to some carriers against which the Civil Aviation Ministry had received complaints. The sources said 'affirmative action' would be taken against carriers flouting the refund guidelines issued a few months ago.
Ministry caps number of flights out of Delhi, Mumbai.
Adopting a 'carrot and stick' approach towards the 11-day Air India pilots' stir, government on Friday indicated it could take back all those sacked, barring the Indian Pilots Guild (IPG) office-bearers, if they resumed duty, as it alerted the IAF to set up medical boards to check pilots who have reported 'sick'.
A medical summary issued by the Civil Aviation ministry said most of the AI pilots, who called in sick, were neither found at home by doctors sent by the airline nor reported to doctors empanelled by the carrier.
This is the first time an airline has made such a request to the ministry after the Tata-Singapore Airlines deal fell through in 2001 (Singapore Airlines was to have a 49 per cent share in the joint venture). The Indian government does not allow direct or indirect investments in domestic airlines, a move that was meant to protect domestic carriers. Mallya's request marks a sharp change from domestic players' stand.
There are about 400 unused airports and airstrips across the country.
Jayanth Pooviah, director and chief executive officer of Deccan Charters, confirmed the development.
The Centre on Thursday said Indian passengers from Ukraine can return via Qatar, with aviation industry experts stating that civilian flights will restart from Ukraine only when its airspace opens.
Bangalore's information and biotechnology majors have again trained their guns at the government over the closure of the existing HAL airport.
Premier British carrier Virgin Atlantic took the lead in introducing day time flights out of Delhi. British Airways followed suit by introducing its additional flight during day time. German carrier Lufthansa now also operates day time flights to Munich out of Delhi and Mumbai, apart from its night services to Frankfurt.
In the previous decade, the government, with Praful Patel as the civil aviation minister, saw the introduction of an irrational 5/20 policy.
In a major boost to private airlines, especially IndiGo and SpiceJet, the civil aviation ministry has lifted the freeze on them to expand abroad.
The airport operations are likely to be disrupted as the employees have threatened to start an indefinite 'non-cooperation movement' from march 12 after the government today rejected their demands for continuing operations of Bangalore and Hyderabad airports. The existing airports in both the metros are to be closed down once the new greenfield airports launch their operations.
Non-scheduled commercial flights are being arranged and this operation will begin from May 7 in a phased manner.
The civil aviation ministry is soon going to move the Union Cabinet on the proposal to allow private domestic carriers, now operating to SAARC countries, to fly to ASEAN nations.
The first hurdle is how long Jet Airways can enjoy rights over its parking slots at various airports.
Amid the demand from the Union civil aviation ministry for induction of Rs 1,200 crore (Rs 12 billion) as fresh equity into Air India, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday said the government is actively considering helping the national carrier.
Confirming the circulation of the note, official sources said the Union Cabinet may take up the issue within the first fortnight of 2012.
Air India is the second Indian carrier to get a large bailout this year.
Air, rail and road traffic was severely affected in New Delhi on Monday as dense fog reduced the visibility to almost zero. According to senior officials of the Indian Metrological Department, the disruption is likely to continue for a few more days. There is little hope of the weather improving and it is likely to hit traffic in Delhi and neighbouring states of Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Punjab, officials said.
On Sunday, Rashtiya Lok Dal chief Ajit Singh was sworn in as Union Cabinet Minister. And the next move of the Congress, in the run up to the Uttar Pradesh elections, is to grant reservations to Jats in the central list of Other Backward Classes. Neerja Chowdhury analyses
The government has cleared the acquisition of 46 new aircraft worth over Rs 19,000 crore by three low-cost carriers: SpiceJet, IndiGo and Jet Lite. The new planes will arrive in a staggered delivery schedule beginning November. The acquisitions were cleared on August 30 at a meeting of a civil aviation ministry empowered committee.
