AirAsia's Rs 5 basic fare offer has triggered competition and criticism from rivals, with market leader IndiGo launching a Rs 1 basic fare on AirAsia's inaugural routes and SpiceJet Chief Operating Officer Sanjiv Kapoor questioning the silence of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on the price war.
The airline's pilots and engineers at Delhi, Bangalore and Chennai have rejected the three-month salary offer.
Domestic airlines flew 1.29 crore passengers in April, a rise of more than 22 per cent compared to the year-ago period, according to official data released on Friday. However, the domestic air traffic number last month at 128.88 lakh was marginally lower than the 128.93 lakh recorded in March. In April 2022, the number of passengers carried by airlines stood at 105.47 lakh.
Kingfisher has hastened to point out that a suspension was not a cancellation.
Disciplinary action was taken against Passi after Spicejet wrote to the DGCA charging him with nepotism.
The DGCA has derostered the Air Traffic Controller (ATC) who was on duty at the time of the incident on Saturday, while IndiGo has initiated a probe into the matter
'Airlines are free to fix the ticket rates after taking into consideration various factors.'
On October 5, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, or DGCA, finally wrote to the troubled Kingfisher Airlines, asking it to show cause why its licence should not be revoked.
Last Friday, DGCA issued a show cause notice to the airline why its operating permit should not be suspended.
Seeking to avoid inconvenience to air passengers due to delays on foggy winter mornings, the government has instructed all airline operators to provide refreshments to travellers as they wait for their flights.
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.
Both the Ambani brothers use this helipad daily to travel to their offices in Navi Mumbai. It sees 15-20 flights daily.
Among the impacted flights, Air India's flight AI 185 from the national capital to Vancouver that was to depart early in the morning was rescheduled.
'Vital clues' have been collected by the high-powered committee of Directorate General of Civil Aviation, from the helicopter crash site in the dense Nallamalla forest range in Kurnool district of Andhra Pradesh on Thursday, official sources said.Former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy and four others were killed when their helicopter crashed in Nallamalla forest area on September 2.The five-member DGCA expert team is led by R K Tyagi.
In a bid to ease air traffic congestion and ensure safety, government has decided to introduce separate flight corridors for helicopter operations at Delhi and Mumbai airports.
The Bombay High Court on Friday asked the Directorate General of Civil Aviation to conduct an inquiry into allegations of pilots procuring flying license after submitting forged mark sheets.
One more pilot was arrested for allegedly using forged marksheets to procure commercial flying licences, taking the total number of people arrested in such cases to 19.
The DGCA order came in the wake of members of the Parliament raising the issue in Parliament on Thursday and asking the government to act.
Police on April 5 arrested two staffers of DGCA for allegedly helping people to obtain pilot licences using forged documents.
Avinav Kaushik, belonging to private airline Indigo, was apprehended here recently following investigations.
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation began an inquiry into the emergency landing of a helicopter on the terrace of a five-storey residential apartment building as the chopper was dismantled on Friday.
The company agrees to give interim funding till the airline gets an equity partner
The disappointment of the year is government's failure in finalising the re-drafted aviation policy.
Domestic air traffic rose 4.8 per cent on an annual basis to 126.48 lakh in February, while more than 1.55 lakh passengers were affected by flight delays during the same period, according to official data released on Friday. In February, Air India's market share rose to 12.8 per cent from 12.2 per cent while that of IndiGo marginally dipped to 60.1 per cent from 60.2 per cent in January. The domestic air traffic climbed to 126.48 lakh in February compared to 120.69 lakh in the year-ago period, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said.
Licence suspension would be revoked only after stakeholders are convinced of the airline's revival plan, say sources.
Civil Aviation Minister Suresh Prabhu said appropriate action would be taken in case anything is 'found wanting'.
They were being investigated by the inspector of accidents, appointed by the DGCA.
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation may allow domestic airlines to permit passengers to use mobile phones and access mail on PDAs in-flight.
The Nepalese citizen was handed over to security agencies on arrival at the airport in New Delhi.
A police team has been set up by the Kerala government to ascertain the truth behind the hijack alarm in the Abu Dhabi-Kochi Air India flight on Friday. A team of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation officials is set to arrive in Thiruvananthapuram to probe the case.
Following the incident at little past 1700 hours, both runways at the airport were shut for a brief period, and one of the runways resumed operations at around 1847 hours, the officials said.
Dubai's Emirates Airlines has cancelled its 16 special flights to India, which were originally planned to meet the Christmas and New Year holiday rush.
India's domestic air passenger traffic nearly doubled to 1.25 crore in January compared to 64.08 lakh recorded in the year-ago period, according to official data released on Monday. In January, IndiGo saw its domestic market share decline for the fifth consecutive month at 54.6 per cent. It carried 68.47 lakh passengers last month.
Two pilots and eight crew members of a Jet Airways flight were suspended on Saturday after 14 passengers sustained injuries when emergency evacuation was carried out following a suspected fire in the aircraft in Mumbai. After a preliminary probe, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation indicated "serious procedural lapses" in the emergency procedures carried out on Friday night by the cockpit and cabin crew, took them off duty and later suspended them.
AI Express operates 195 weekly flights, mostly from Kerala.
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.
Govt is mulling an increased scrutiny of airline pilots' mental state.
The Director General of Civil Aviation has initiated a probe into the crash-landing of the chopper at Godhra on Wednesday, in which spiritual guru Asaram Bapu and four others were travelling and had a narrow escape. A DGCA team from Mumbai has reached the spot to conduct a probe into the crash-landing of the chopper, official sources said
The inaugural flight took off in the presence of Minister of State for Civil Aviation, Mahesh Sharma, along with a number of other people.
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