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.
The AAI owns and manages more than 100 airports, including those shut temporarily Wednesday, in the country.
In a rare move, the DGCA has filed a police complaint against 34 pilots of Jet Airways, IndiGo, SpiceJet and GoAir.
Aviation regulator DGCA has suspended two pilots of Tata Group's Taj Air, a non-scheduled airline that flies Chairman Emeritus Ratan Tata and Chairman Cyrus Mistry among others, for allegedly falsifying medical records.
The DGCA will probe the incident and the air traffic controller concerned has been derostered, one of the officials told PTI.
The routes, for which ticket pricing information has been sought, include those connecting Jammu and Kashmir, Leh and Port Blair.
In a circular, the DGCA said, "Crew should be well aware of the aircraft limitations and of takeoff/landing performance calculations during the adverse weather operations." The regulator also said that the airlines must "make available sufficiently experienced crew in the cockpit".
The decision comes hours after an A320 neo aircraft of IndiGo suffered engine failure mid-air and made an emergency landing at Ahmedabad airport.
Pilots say the initiative is a waste of funds.
The airlines in their representation had said that pilots had to be spared for the renewal procedure, which took a lot of time.
The license of Kingfisher was issued on August 26, 2003, and is valid till December 31 of this year.
As per the new guidelines, internet services will be provided on the device's flight mode and will be available 10,000 feet above sea level or before arrival or after departure.
Spelling fresh trouble for Kingfisher Airlines, aviation regulator DGCA is likely to issue a show-cause notice asking why its flying license should not be suspended or cancelled.
SpiceJet will have to refund fare to passengers due to a flight delay.
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)
The controversy over a DGCA note on beleaguered Kingfisher Airlines refused to die down with new DGCA chief Prashant Sukul saying there was no such document and his predecessor E K Bharat Bhushan seeking a probe into whether it was removed from the official file.
The incident came to the notice of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) only on January 4 and the latest actions are for violations of various norms.
With full-service carrier Jet Airways and budget airline SpiceJet operating 737 MAX planes, the DGCA has decided to seek information about the aircraft from Boeing as well as the two domestic carriers in view of the air crash in Ethiopia.
"We have found that a couple of international airlines are not adhering to the rules. Failure to adhere to rules shall entail strict action," said Director General of Civil Aviation Arun Kumar.
Sobha Puravankara is yet to explain to the safety lapses found by the DGCA.
The aviation regulator has taken some good steps lately.
AirAsia India, whose top officials have promised to offer low and competitive airfares, would have Chennai as its hub and would focus on connecting Tier-II cities to begin with.
Grounded Indian planes will be up in air by end of April says company president
In a relief to fliers, the civil aviation regulator DGCA has rejected the plea of some airlines to allow them to charge for the check-in baggage saying such a fee would be applicable only on baggage which exceeds the free limit of 15 kgs.
The DGCA's unprecedented move came after the regulator's team found that several flights operated by GMR Aviation in the last month, including one on Monday when an aircraft flew Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi to Bhubaneshwar, had skipped some mandatory tests, DGCA sources said.
Regulator in action after grounding pilots for allowing passengers into the cockpit.
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has recommended giving financial autonomy to Air India Charters Ltd (AICL), the company which runs Air India Express, the low-cost brand of Air India operating in the international sector.
The airfares are already 15 per cent higher than last season and due to this shortage it will go higher, said Sharat Dhall, COO of Yatra.com.
The DGCA said, '(the) Crew initiated action only when the master cautions warning i.e after 15 seconds of autopilot disengage'.
With a large number of senior pilots quitting jobs in Indian carriers for greener foreign pastures, aviation regulator DGCA has warned of stringent action, including cancellation of licences, against those leaving without serving proper notice.
The summer schedule of flights of all other domestic airlines such as Vistara, IndiGo, Air India and GoAir have been approved till October 26.
Aviation regulator DGCA has found "human error" among others as the cause of an incident at the Bengaluru airport two years ago involving an Air India Dreamliner plane, in which the aircraft's fuselage panel had fallen off at runway during landing.
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.
The incident was reported on January 30, and it came to light after the United States-based traveller, identified as Meenakshi Sengupta, lodged a complaint against the flight attendant.
DGCA sources pegged SpiceJet's total dues at Rs 1,600 crore (Rs 16 billion), which the airline owes lessors, vendors, income-tax department and airport operators.
About a week ago, DGCA officials conducted surprise checks and grounded a Reliance Industries-owned 14-seater Falcon 900EX.
'If the airlines are not given a clear deadline to change the altimeters by the DGCA, why should they do it voluntarily?' 'It means that the aircraft will be grounded for a while and lose money.'
Ailing Kingfisher Airlines will have to satisfy aviation regulator DGCA about safe flight operations and also make sure that its employees are not disgruntled before it resumes its services, Civil AviationMinister Ajit Singh said.
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With Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju favouring such checks, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation has prepared a monthly programme of surveillance of airports as well as of all schedule, non-schedule and general aviation companies, foreign airlines and the aviation wings of state governments, they said.
Indian civil aviation norms don't apply to foreign aviation companies, experts said.
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