Crisis-hit airline Go First has suspended sale of tickets till May 15 and is working to refund or reschedule existing bookings for future dates, aviation regulator DGCA said on Thursday. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) had issued a show cause notice to the airline after it suddenly decided to cancel flights for three days starting May 3. "Go First has intimated that they have suspended sale of their flights till 15 May 2023 and are working to refund or reschedule for future dates, the passengers already booked to fly with them," the regulator said in a statement.
Passengers of a San Francisco-bound Air India flight faced a harrowing time due to an inordinate delay and some of them fainted as the aircraft's air-conditioning system was non-functional.
Akasa Air has reduced its service on 10 routes and stopped operating flights on eight others since the exodus of pilots began in early July. The airline's flights per week reduced from 945 in June to 754 in October, according to aviation analytics firm Cirium's data, which has been reviewed by Business Standard. The airline currently operates flights on 34 routes. Between June and October, Akasa Air ceased operations on the following: Ahmedabad-Kochi, Ahmedabad-Hyderabad, Ahmedabad-Pune, Bengaluru-Hyderabad, Bengaluru-Chennai, Kochi-Hyderabad, Goa-Lucknow, and Goa-Hyderabad.
The certification will enable Vistara to safely operate under low visibility conditions due to fog or any other poor weather conditions, which is anticipated in the north-east and northern parts of the country typically during the year-end and the beginning of the year, the airline said in a release.
The preliminary findings of the Directorate of Civil Aviation points that there was no technical snag on the aircraft and they attribute the crash to a human error. A DGCA team, which is conducting investigations, has found that the crash occurred due to a pilot or human error.
The pilots' flying privileges have been withdrawn for leaving the cockpit unattended and thereby jeopardising flight safety, a senior DGCA official said on Tuesday.
This is the third incident of technical malfunction on a Go First aircraft in two days.
The aviation regulator is investigating the incidents and both planes, with Pratt and Whitney engines, will fly only when cleared by it, the officials said.
The woman said she was constrained to approach the court because Air India and the DGCA failed to treat her with care and responsibility after the incident.
'A passenger on our flight AI130, operating London-Mumbai on March 10, was found smoking in the lavatory. Subsequently he behaved in an unruly and aggressive manner, despite repeated warnings,' Air India said.
As SpiceJet faces heat from the aviation regulator DGCA for multiple flight incidents in the last few weeks, malfunction cases involving planes of IndiGo and Vistara came to light on Wednesday.
The international cargo operations of two major carriers - IndiGo and Air India Group (Air India and Vistara) - are experiencing opposite trajectories despite both the airlines significantly expanding their international flight offerings over the past year. During the fourth quarter of 2023-24, IndiGo's international non-passenger cargo business declined to 6,848 tonnes. This is an 18.2 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y) decrease, according to data from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA)
With airlines reporting multiple technical malfunction incidents, aviation regulator DGCA on Monday said it conducted spot checks and found that there is an insufficient number of engineering personnel certifying planes of various carriers before their departure. Before each departure, an aircraft is checked and certified by an aircraft maintenance engineer (AME). The DGCA has now issued guidelines for airlines on the deployment of AME personnel and directed them to comply by July 28.
SpiceJet is the only Boeing 737 MAX operator in India, with 13 aircraft of the type in its fleet and a total of 205 planes on order.
Some flights of Kingfisher, GoAir, JetLite and Jet Airways operated during the 'curfew hours' from April 4 to April 30 -- from 9 AM to 1 PM and 3 PM till 7 PM--in the past few days when the vital ground navigational aids were switched off for repair and maintenance.
In an unprecedented action, Indian aviation regulator DGCA has directed low-cost airline Spicejet to operate only 50 per cent of its flights for eight weeks. This follows an unusually high number of incidents involving the airline, raising safety concerns. The curtailment of capacity is unlikely to have any commercial impact on the airline owned by entrepreneur Ajay Singh. SpiceJet already operates less than 50 per cent of the flights it had filed for the summer schedule.
In its ongoing drive to cleanse the system of unqualified pilots, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has asked all airlines to monitor the hiring and training of co-pilots in a more effective manner and to file a monthly report on this.
However, both the flights were safely landed.
Indian aviation regulator DGCA has barred 90 SpiceJet pilots from operating the Boeing 737 Max aircraft after finding them not properly trained. "For the moment, we have barred these pilots from flying the Max and they have to retrain successfully for flying the aircraft," DGCA chief Arun Kumar said in a statement. He also said that the regulator will take "strict action against those found responsible for the lapse."
'For the moment, we have barred these pilots from flying the Max and they have to retrain successfully for flying the aircraft,' DGCA chief Arun Kumar said in a statement.
Grounded Go First's CEO Kaushik Khona has put in his papers, nearly seven months after the no-frills airline filed for insolvency proceedings. In an e mail to the airline's employees on Thursday, Khona said that November 30 is his last day at the company. Khona had returned to Go First in August 2020 as its CEO.
The two pilots of a helicopter, which flew Rahul Gandhi in Uttar Pradesh on Monday, were on Wednesday given a virtual clean chit by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, during a preliminary probe into the alleged violation of air safety rules that fuelled a controversy involving the Congress leader.The pilots of the state-run Pawan Hans Helicopters Limited, who appeared before the DGCA's Air Safety Wing in New Delhi, were cleared by a probe panel.
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation has ordered a probe into the near mishap in which 121 people on board an Air India plane had a miraculous escape when the aircraft's tail hit the runway in Mumbai while landing at high speed.
Of the 14 people aboard the plane, including the pilot, eight sustained minor injuries and were treated in a local health centre.
The Delhi High Court on Wednesday allowed a plea to implead DGCA as a party to a PIL seeking quashing of approvals being granted by the Centre to operationalise the $30 million deal between Tata Sons and Malaysia-based AirAsia.
'Just because of my background and poor academic qualifications, most people disbelieve what I have done.'
Jet Airways has also been asked to provide details of the pilots who are "habitual" of reporting sick and disrupting the airline's schedule, an official said.
"We are visiting Mumbai airport and will also be meeting ATC officials on Tuesday as part of our probe," an official associated with the eight-member probe team said. The team will probe Monday's incident involving a chopper from President Pratibha Patil's fleet that had landed on the same runway, which a Delhi-bound aircraft with 150 passengers on board was using to take off.
An airline official said the ban is with immediate effect and is in addition to the 30-day ban it had imposed on the individual earlier.
Shares of low-cost airline IndiGo hit record high on the bourses soon after reports of pilot crisis at Vistara emerged. The development also saw airfares surge by around 25 per cent on select routes. Shares of IndiGo hit a lifetime high of ~3,68.5 on April 2, 2024, and has gained 2.4 per cent on the bourses in April.
Aviation regulator DGCA has allowed IndiGo to wet lease wide-body Boeing planes from Turkish Airlines for up to six months and has rejected the domestic carrier's request for leasing the aircraft for up to two years, according to sources. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) turned down the request of the country's largest airline to wet lease the aircraft for a longer period, citing that the move could become diversion of traffic rights in collusion with a strong foreign carrier that will mainly feed the latter's hub abroad with more passengers from India, the sources said. IndiGo, which currently has only narrow-body planes in its fleet, decided to lease wide-body aircraft to operate more flights on international routes to meet rising demand.
Terming SpiceJet's offer of rupee one fare across its domestic network as "predatory" and a "malpractice", aviation regulator DGCA on Tuesday came down heavily on the no-frill carrier and asked it to stop such pricing immediately.
Earlier this month, Air India issued show cause notices to the Pilot-in-Command and four crew members of the flight and derostered them pending investigation.
The sources said that during the boarding, the male passenger behaved in an unruly manner and touched the female cabin crew member inappropriately.
The incident which took place on Friday came close on the heels of two mid-air urinating incidents on the international flights of Tata Group-run private carrier Air India late last year.
The suspension of scheduled international passenger flights in the country has been extended "till further orders", aviation regulator DGCA said on Monday.
According to e-mails accessed by ANI, the Air India cabin crew supervisor had reportedly sent out emails on November 27 at around 1 pm to the head of the Inflight Service Department (IFSD), base operations in India, Lead HR head of IFSD, and head of the northern region of IFSD and of complaints (customer care), informing them about the incident.
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) is probing the incident of an Air India flight, AI 123, from New Delhi to Rome losing radio contact over Italy on October 16.
DGCA report shows IndiGo's continued dominance in market share with 30.7%, followed by SpiceJet at 20.9%.
Days after its recent downgrade by the US aviation regulator, DGCA has set up two dedicated technical teams for surprise inspections on the aircraft of foreign airlines and charter firms and carry out extensive safety checks.
