In a serious safety breach, Nagpur airport runway was intruded by a drove of pigs when President Pranab Mukherjee's jumbo Boeing 737 was taxiing towards the runway after landing on Monday, prompting the civil aviation ministry to seek a report.
Whether this happens because DGCA actually cares about the future of the national carrier or for other motives is not clear.
Some 30-odd co-pilots were being "forced to work overtime" without any remuneration.
We live in hope that India and its airlines might finally grow up, notes Anuli Bhargava.
India took the first step towards legalising drones by officially publishing draft rules for drone operations in the Official Gazette on Friday. The rules, termed The Unmanned Aircraft System Rules, 2020, are open for public consultation for 30 days.
The Irish firms had sought to deregister SpiceJet.
All the five passengers were safe.
Jet is the largest player in the Mumbai airport, with over 110 domestic slots and 30 international slots from the city.
DGCA rules require pilots to service a six-month notice.
The Maharashtra government has approved the use of the Kalina Terminal, which is normally used by charter planes, for the IPL teams which arrive in Mumbai.
The move comes after the civil aviation ministry decided to allow Indian carriers to charge passengers for add-on services like their foreign counterparts.
A GoAir plane carrying 168 passengers from Mumbai hit an aerobridge after landing at Chennai airport damaging a portion close to its front door, but there was no report any injuries.
The remarks by the DGCA head is of great significance.
Passengers will have to shell out more money for air travel from now as the civil aviation ministry on Thursday increased the lower and upper limits on domestic airfares by 10 to 30 per cent.
India's aviation safety ranking was on Wednesday upgraded to Category-I.
Rakesh Jhunjhunwala-backed new airline Akasa is in talks with US aerospace company Boeing for buying up to 100 737 Max aircraft. Former Jet Airways CEO Vinay Dube and his family members are promoters while ex-IndiGo president Aditya Ghosh is a board member of the airline. The airline is in negotiation with Boeing and has reached out to the government to recertify the aircraft which has been grounded since 2018 after two crashes killing 349 persons, according to sources in the know.
At present, six A320 Neo of IndiGo & GoAir are grounded waiting for engine replacement
FAA, in audits in September and December, downgraded India to Category-II in safety rankings, clubbing it with Zimbabwe and Indonesia.
International and Indian airlines are refusing to refund cash and giving credit that can be used later.
No-frills carrier IndiGo's market share stood at 36.8 per cent in February while that of Jet Airways was 18.4 per cent.
The circular, issued on Saturday, also reiterated that all visas as well as e-visas issued to Chinese nationals before February 5 have been suspended with immediate effect.
The official said that the licences of the two pilots -- Ajinkya Hanchate and Tushar Dasgupta -- have been suspended for one year and they also have to undergo corrective training.
Air India pilot unions IPG and ICPA on Monday sought Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri's intervention on the wage cut issue and also requested for an "urgent" meeting with him on several other issues. "In our meetings in September, you had given us an assurance to look into our grievances positively. "While other airlines are rolling back the austerity pay cuts for their pilots, the wage cut for Air India pilots further increased from October.
Arun Mishra takes over as Director General of Civil Aviation at a time when questions are being raised on its leniency with airlines. Being also grossly understaffed, it faces an International Civil Aviation Organisation safety audit this December. The new DG talks about these and other issues.
Further relaxation in aircraft capacity deployment coupled with festive season air travel demand helped recovery in the domestic traffic with passenger volume seeing 22 per cent sequential growth in the previous month, ratings agency ICRA said on Wednesday. ICRA also said that the November domestic passenger traffic was close to 50 per cent of the domestic air travel demand in November 2019. The recovery in international passenger traffic, however, is likely to further get delayed in the wake of fresh travel curbs by select countries following the detection of a new virus strain in the UK, it said.
In a fresh trouble for the budget carrier SpiceJet, aircraft lessors have approached the aviation regulator DGCA, seeking its permission to repossess 11 Boeing planes of the airline, even as its revival plan is under review of the Civil Aviation Ministry.
The company will meet DGCA next week and is putting in place a strategy to contain the damage
The airline is expected to submit a fresh flight schedule to the DGCA.
Once the coronavirus lockdown is over in India and commercial passenger flights are permitted again, IndiGo will deep clean its aircraft more frequently, stop in-flight meal service for a brief period and will fill a maximum 50 per cent capacity in airport buses, the airline's CEO Ronojoy Dutta said on Friday. "In situations like these, companies do not manage to growth or profitability but to liquidity. That means our singular focus is on cash flow. We are examining all our fixed costs and looking for ways to minimise them," he said.
Meanwhile, Minister of State for Civil Aviation Mahesh Sharma said that there was no question of any bail out to the beleaguered carrier
Recruitment and import of aircraft still to get going
The Madras high court has ordered the winding up of private carrier SpiceJet Limited and directed the official Liquidator attached to the high court to take over its assets, in a plea filed by a Swiss company over unpaid dues. The court was allowing a company petition from Credit Suisse AG, a stock corporation registered under the laws of Switzerland, which prayed for winding up of the Indian firm under the provisions of the Companies Act, 1956 and appoint the Official Liquidator of the high court as the liquidator with all powers under Section 448 of the Companies Act to take charge of SpiceJet's assets, properties, stock in trade and books of accounts. The "respondent company (SpiceJet) has miserably failed to satisfy the three pronged test suggested by the Supreme Court in Mathusudan Govardhandas & Co v Madhu Woollen Industries (P) Ltd, and hence had rendered itself liable to be wound up for its inability to pay its debts under Section 433 (e) of the Companies Act 1956," Justice R Subramanian said in his order on Monday and directed the private carrier be wound up and the official liquidator take over its assets.
Heeding to the demands of business jet operators, DGCA has amended its proposal to bar them from commercial flying if they did not have a three-aircraft fleet and come up with a new rule reducing the minimum requirement of planes to one.
Jet has pulled out flights from Northeast states and also cancelled its Srinagar flight, leading to reduction in capacity.
Jet Airways' engineers, pilots and senior management have not been paid for January and February, besides 87.5 per cent of their December salary is also due.
A large Dhruv order could significantly boost Indian defence exports. These have grown from Rs 1,940 crore in 2014-2015 to Rs 10,745 crore in 2018-2019.
DGCA asks those likely to be affected by a scheduled air operator's permit to the airline to give suggestions, objections within 30 days.
Jet said three of its aircraft were temporarily grounded for engine normalisation and are expected to rejoin scheduled operations on February 1.
Budget carrier IndiGo continued to be the largest player with a market share of 46.9 per cent ferrying 54 lakh passengers in March.
The airlines have instead suggested compulsory personal protective equipment-like suit, gloves and mask for flyers and crew members.
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