An FIR has been lodged against independent MLA from Kunda Raghuraj Pratap Singh alias Raja Bhaiya and his associate Zulfikar Ali, who were injured in a helicopter crash in Pratapgarh, after an inquiry found them having no license to fly the aircraft, police said today.
National carrier Air India became part of the 27-member global airlines grouping Star Alliance, as budget airline AirAsia India launched operations and Tata-SIA joint venture carrier Vistara received the flying permit and announced its intentions to start operations from January 9.
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.
In their pre-budget expectations, they also asked the government to assess the option of developing unused airstrips located in various parts of the country to boost air connectivity.
A helicopter carrying pilgrims from Guptkashi to Kedarnath crashed on Tuesday amid poor visibility and seven people on board are feared dead.
The ministry and the civil aviation regulator have said the government will consider the airline's request for slots as per existing policy.
It is clear that foreign airlines have realised the growth possibilities of the Indian aviation sector and are keenly interested, the minister said.
After the accident on Friday, Virudhunagar MP Manickam Tagore, Ludhiana MP Ravneet Singh Bittu and Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor alleged on Twitter that there were safety lapses on the part of the civil aviation ministry.
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.
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.
From a surge in airfares to rattled aircraft lessors to thousands of employees staring at uncertainty, it has been a month of continued turbulence since cash-strapped Go First suspended flights from May 3. As the government and other stakeholders hope that Go First restarts operations at the earliest, plans are being worked out for the budget airline's revival. A section of Go First staff are optimistic about restarting of operations, another section are pessimistic about the airline's future course considering what had happened to erstwhile Kingfisher Airlines and Jet Airways, according to employees who spoke to PTI.
A video clip of the scuffle inside the aircraft was shared widely on social media on Wednesday. In the clip, a man could be seen being slapped multiple times by a few co-passengers.
Three Indian carriers -- SpiceJet, Vistara and Air India Express -- have Boeing 737 aircraft in their fleets.
An IndiGo aircraft grazed the wings of an Air India Express plane at the Kolkata airport on Wednesday, leaving the wings of both aircraft damaged, officials said.
IndiGo's Sharjah-Hyderabad flight was diverted to Karachi as a precaution on Sunday after pilots observed defect in one of the engines, officials of aviation regulator DGCA said.
Indigo has zero competition on 61.2 per cent of its 838 domestic routes.
'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.'
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 Boeing 737-800 aircraft had 184 passengers onboard and all are safe, an airline spokesperson said.
The intellectual vacuum that the government is often accused of is more than evident in the policy draft.
In his petition, Kamra said he was banned by IndiGo for a six-month period before its internal committee even arrived at a decision while other airlines -- Air India, Spicejet and GoAir -- imposed an indefinite ban on him.
The aviation regulator DGCA said on Friday that it was extending the suspension of scheduled international passenger flights in the country till July 31 but added that some international scheduled services on selected routes may be permitted on a case to case basis. Scheduled international passenger flights were suspended in India on March 23 due to the coronavirus pandemic.
This isn't the first instance of Vistara facing scrutiny from the regulator over improper pilot training.
Aircraft lessor International Lease Finance Corp said on Monday it had successfully removed one of six aircraft stranded in India by the dispute over the suspension of operations at Kingfisher Airlines.
SpiceJet has failed to 'establish safe, efficient and reliable air services' under the terms of Rule 134 and Schedule XI of the Aircraft Rules, 1937, the notice issued by the DGCA stated.
'During our recent rescue flights, the protective equipment being provided to the flight crew has been failing with an alarming frequency or has been plagued with other issues'
"We will not regulate fares but there are cases of airlines charging very high fares in a particular route and such airlines will be asked to explain the reasons for that. They cannot charge such high fares without any valid reason," said a civil aviation ministry official.
The MEA said Indian nationals residing in Iraq are advised to be alert and may avoid travel within Iraq. The DGCA asked airlines to take all precautions in airspace over Iran, Iraq, Gulf of Oman and waters of Persian Gulf.
The ministry has asked the airlines to not to "take benefit of the situation" and charge higher fares for the tickets.
The disappointment of the year is government's failure in finalising the re-drafted aviation policy.
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation has sought a report of the incident from the airline.
Aviation regulator DGCA on Tuesday started the special audit of the facilities of Go First, which has sought approval for restarting operations. A team of officials from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) started the special audit of the facilities of Go First in Mumbai on Tuesday, according to an airline executive. The audit of the facilities will be done on Wednesday also.
Prabhat Kumar, who has been appointed as the DGCA chief three months ago, is taking steps to ensure safety of passengers.
In a statement, the DGCA said it will be conducting "random checks" in aircraft across the country to see if the COVID-19 protocol is being enforced or not.
The court will take cognisance of the chargesheet on August 6. At present, Rai is in judicial custody.
A three-member technical team of the FAA carried out the second round of audit of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation to check whether corrective steps have been taken to resolve 33 deficiencies the US agency had highlighted during the first round in September.
Indian airlines will operate a total of 23,732 flights every week during the winter schedule, which is more than 8 per cent higher than the year-ago period, amid rising air traffic demand. The winter schedule 2023 -- effective from October 29 to March 30 next year -- for the scheduled carriers has been approved by aviation regulator DGCA. Go First, which stopped flying from May 3 and is undergoing an insolvency resolution process, will not be having any operations during the winter schedule.
The decision has been taken after Kamra was found 'guilty' for alleged misbehaviour by an internal committee of IndiGo, an airline official said. The ban on Kamra comes into effect immediately.
Nepal's Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba on Monday inaugurated the country's second international airport built by China that will help connect Lumbini, the birthplace of Lord Buddha and a major tourist and pilgrimage destination, to Buddhist circuits in South Asia as well as to the rest of the world.
On May 28, following the bomb threat, which later turned out to be hoax, all the passengers were evacuated through emergency slides from the aircraft at the Delhi airport.
