Defending its decision to raise the number of seats under the India-United Arab Emirates (UAE) air services pact, the Civil Aviation Ministry, in a note to the Cabinet Secretariat and key ministries, has said no additional points of call have been allowed to the Gulf country.
The government has cleared the acquisition of 46 new aircraft worth over Rs 19,000 crore (Rs 190 billion) by three low-cost carriers: SpiceJet, IndiGo and Jet Lite.
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, in-flight meal service was not permitted on domestic flights since their resumption on May 25. On international flights, only pre-packed cold meals and snacks were being served depending on the flight duration since May this year.
The directive from the civil aviation ministry came after the airlines together failed to utilise over 13 per cent of the slots allocated to them last year, official sources said. The domestic carriers have already filed their summer schedules which shows a marginal increase in the number of flights each week -- from 11,048 last year to 11,116 this year.
Even as the labour ministry gave an in-principle approval to the civil aviation ministry's proposal to classify pilots as executives instead of workmen, the pilots' unions said they would respond strongly to the move.
Jet has pulled out flights from Northeast states and also cancelled its Srinagar flight, leading to reduction in capacity.
Airline companies under the Federation of Indian Airlines plan to make a presentation to the civil aviation ministry saying they will be forced to axe 8,000 employees if the government implements the new ground handling policy from January 1, 2009. About 29 per cent of the 28,000-odd employees working in the private carriers are involved in ground handling.
For harried passengers flying peak hours from metros, no respite from delayed flights and landings is in sight.
The government is likely to consider infusion of Rs 800 crore (Rs 8 billion) as equity in the cash-strapped Air India on Wednesday, but wants the airline to take "extraordinary" measures to achieve a financial turnaround.
AAI planned to achieve gross sales of Rs 7,760 crore (Rs 77.6 billion) in 2013-14 which is approximately 23 per cent higher than the target of 2012-13, the state-run airports body said in a release.
IndiGo confirmed the incident but said the aircraft did not face any technical issue in the past.
Earlier, liquor bottles went missing from the same flight and Air India's Vigilance Department conducted an enquiry.
The average age should be around 35 years, the sources said, adding those older should be shifted to ground operations.
This demand is over and above the Rs 1,200 crore.
Even after getting the civil aviation ministry's nod to levy user development fee on international passengers, the GMR group-promoted Hyderabad airport has decided not to impose the levy for at least a month. GMR has already decided to exempt domestic passengers for the time being. "We have decided to let issues like groundhandling charges stabilise before taking a call," said a Hyderabad airport executive.
A bench of Chief Justice N V Ramana and Justice Manmohan issued notice to Civil Aviation Ministry, DGCA and others and sought their response by October 30.
This means a passenger flying between Delhi and Mumbai will now know that the minimum fare in the route will be Rs 95 (as being charged by SpiceJet) and can go up to a maximum of Rs 22,800 (as being levied by GoAir), plus around Rs 3,000 as components like passenger fees.
Thirteen years and several hurdles later, the plan has finally got a new "estimated time of departure".
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Officials in India's civil aviation ministry are now expected to meet SpiceJet stakeholders within a couple of days to discuss the revival plan
On Monday, the five independent directors of the company -- Anand Mahindra of Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd, Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry's secretary general Amit Mitra, Ambuja Realty chairman Harsh Neotia and former air chief Fali H Major -- met Prime Minister's principal secretary T K A Nair and reportedly expressed their anguish over the appointments being made by the company.
Airlines may get to do terminal-side ground handling. Currently, it is an outsourced activity.
The Civil Aviation Ministry has ordered a probe into the incident involving the ground security staff of Continental Airlines which subjected Kalam to security check before he was to board a Newark-bound flight on April 24.
Civil aviation minister Praful Patel, who held this portfolio in the first government of the United Progressive Alliance, too, has so far followed a liberal open-sky policy, sharply increasing the number of seats offered to West Asian airlines on flights connecting India. According to internal figures available with airlines, the total number of seats offered to West Asian carriers rose from 2.5 million in 2004 to 7.5 million last year.
Jet Airways' plans to raise $400 million through a share sale to foreign institutions may get delayed as the government on Thursday deferred a decision on the proposal of the private air carrier.
In a development that could speed up the about Rs 9,000 crore (Rs 90 billion) Delhi Airport modernisation work, the Attorney General has supported project promoter GMR Group's plan to take advances from commercial developers. The report may help Delhi International Airport Ltd) achieve financial closure for the Rs 8,900 crore (Rs 89 billion) project for which the company has proposed to raise Rs 3,144 crore (Rs 31.44 billion) by way of trade advances and deposits.
Aviation consultancy CAPA on Thursday said allowing domestic airlines to take advance bookings from April 15 is "unfair" to consumers since a decision on lifting the nationwide lockdown is yet to be taken. During the lockdown period only special flights approved by aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation, medical evacuation flights and those carrying cargo, including medical equipment, to and from different parts of the country are operational.
The civil aviation ministry is planning to send air traffic controllers to Australia for training in simultaneous use of converging runways.
In his order last week, Civil Aviation Secretary K N Srivastava ruled the meanings of transaction fee, commission or convenience fee were the same -- payment of remuneration to an intermediary.
