The Civil Aviation Ministry on Thursday night set up a four-member committee to probe the cause of Andhra Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy's helicopter crash in which he was killed.
The Kalrock-Jalan consortium - new owners of Jet Airways - has got an assurance from around 30 airports that if the airline restarts operations, 170 pairs of slots can be made available. However, whether those slots will be according to the airline's demand will depend on the order of the insolvency court, which is slated to come next week. Sources said the new management feels it is extremely important that some of those slots are restored or else its business plan of operating Jet as a premium carrier will not be viable.
In the season of aviation action, Rakesh Jhunjhunwala-backed Akasa Air has secured the crucial no-objection certificate (NoC) from the civil aviation ministry. It expects to start operations next summer. The airline will now have to apply for the Directorate General of Civil Aviation for operations permit. Aviation sector has been in the limelight with the Tata Group winning the Air India bid last week.
Taking note of numerous complaints on refund on air tickets, the government on Thursday issued a new set of rules which stipulate that the amount should be refunded within seven days of the tickets being cancelled. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) issued the rule or Civil Aviation Requirement (CAR), making it effective forthwith.
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.
The directorate general of civil aviation has shot off a letter to all airlines seeking details of the sudden and steep fare hikes announced on Wednesday. The move came close on the heels of civil aviation minister Praful Patel's remark that the ministry was against cartelisation, widely believed to be behind the latest fare hikes.
India is likely to introduce the performance-based navigation system in its air space by June-July this year, a top civil Aviation Ministry official said. The performance-based navigation will make the longitudinal distance shorter by about three nautical miles from the existing 5-7 nautical miles. The civil aviation regulatory body of the country, DGCA, was also working on reducing the lateral displacement in order to meet the challenge of the growing air traffic in India.
Drones or unmanned aircraft are being used for several purposes such as mapping, survey and commercial photography, while e-commerce giant Amazon is looking to use them for deliveries to its consumers in the US.
The strike would impact all the operations of the airlines. The union has threatened strike if its demand for continuing the employees' present permanent jobs with the state-run AAI is not heeded to and they have to join private airport operators like Mumbai International Airport Ltd (MIAL) and Delhi International Airport Ltd (DIAL).
'DGCA cares a damn for human life.'
An Air India pilots' grouping has raised fatigue concerns in the wake of flight crew rosters generated using a new rostering tool, saying that extended waiting periods between duty time will jeopardise crew alertness and performance. "Extended waiting periods, occurring before active flight duties, run counter to enhancing crew readiness and, in fact, contribute to the accumulation of fatigue over time," the Indian Pilots Guild (IPG) has said. In a letter to Air India head of safety Henry Donohoe last week, IPG said it has been recently observed that the relentless pursuit of operational efficiency and economic gains has led to an unintended overshadowing of the primary intent behind Flight Duty Time Limitations (FDTL) regulations.
Liquor baron Vijay Mallya-promoted Kingfisher Airlines has become the first private airline in the country to get Category III certification from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation.
The bankruptcy tribunal had on July 5, prevented the Directorate General of Civil Aviation from deregistering the Boeing 777 plane, which has been under the possession of a Dutch cargo provider since April.
Jet-Sahara deal: HC asks govt for documents
The guidelines would also enable the proposed merger of national carriers Air-India and Indian.\n
SpiceJet announced it has started a five-day "1+1 offer sale" where it was offering one-way base fares starting as low as Rs 899, excluding taxes, on its domestic network.
Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia on Tuesday flew on SpiceJet's special flight between Delhi and Gwalior using Boeing's 737 Max plane that has been allowed to return to service after two and half years. All Max planes were grounded in India by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on March 13, 2019, three days after the crash of an Ethiopian Airlines 737 Max plane near Addis Ababa, which had left 157 people, including four Indians, dead. Along with Scindia, SpiceJet CMD Ajay Singh and Boeing India president Salil Gupte were also present on the special flight on Tuesday.
Air India's financial and operational performance as part of its turnaround process came up for a review at the airline's Board meeting in New Delhi.
The recent spate of technical glitches in aircraft has prompted the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to issue an order on July 18, making aircraft maintenance engineers (AMEs) with category B1/B2 licences the final authorities in certifying planes. This has put the spotlight on the availability of such personnel. According to the order, airlines were resorting to frequent one-off authorisation by the Category A certifying staff at transit stations, which is not in line with existing regulatory provisions.
The rapid growth of airlines and air passengers would necessitate an additional 2000-3000 commercial pilots in the country during the next 5-10 years, Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel told the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday. \n
The trial run for one week would be applicable for domestic passengers.
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.
Nearly two months after the urination incident on its New York-New Delhi flight, Air India on Tuesday said it has closed the internal probe into the case and will assist the flight's pilot-in-command with an appeal against the suspension of his licence by DGCA as the airline deems the action as "excessive".
Scheduled international passenger flights have remained suspended since March 23, 2020 in the wake of the pandemic and they will now restart from Sunday.
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The civil aviation ministry had last week suspended all flights between the European country and India from December 23 to December 31 as a mutated variant of the coronavirus was detected there.
The commercial launch of the new Bangalore international airport is likely to be deferred by two to three weeks from the scheduled date of March 28 in view of the delay in completing the air traffic control (ATC) facility, the nerve centre of the airport.DGCA had expressed concern over several safety provisions, including the incomplete ATC facility at the airport. Flights will continue to operate from the existing HAL airport.
The airline said it has filed a police complaint about the incident, but did not specify when the 30-day ban came into effect.
The civil aviation ministry has issued guidelines for scheduled carriers to launch global operations, making it mandatory for them to have at least 20 aircraft, five years of domestic operations and security clearance from the Union home ministry.
The pilot and co-pilot of an Air India plane involved in Wednesday night's freak accident at the Mumbai airport where a technician died after getting sucked into the engine have been grounded even as the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau launched a probe.
The whereabouts of Mahinda Rajapaksa is being speculated since his resignation on Monday.
Insolvency tribunal NCLT on Wednesday rejected Go First lessors' petitions to take back the planes leased to the grounded airline, and said the aircraft are available for resumption of operations since aviation regulator DGCA has not deregistered them. A two-member bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) held that physical possession of the aircraft/engines would be "indisputably" with Go First and lessors cannot claim possession during the Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP) of the carrier. According to the tribunal, aircraft and its engines are the sole essence of Go First's business and if taken away, it would result in its "corporate death" leaving no scope for its resolution.
Aviation consultancy CAPA on Thursday said allowing domestic airlines to take advance bookings from April 15 is "unfair" to consumers since a decision on lifting the nationwide lockdown is yet to be taken. During the lockdown period only special flights approved by aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation, medical evacuation flights and those carrying cargo, including medical equipment, to and from different parts of the country are operational.
The aviation regulator DGCA had on May 21 issued seven bands of ticket pricing with lower and upper fare limits.
Several countries like the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates, Australia and Singapore have already banned travellers from India as well as other South Asian countries.
Pilots may soon get to fly beyond the age of 61 years.
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