Aviation regulator DGCA on Tuesday said it has imposed a fine of Rs 10 lakh on Air India for denying boarding to passengers holding valid tickets and thereafter not providing the mandatory compensation to them.
The government is likely to set up a full-fledged inquiry committee to probe the helicopter crash in Arunachal Pradesh that claimed 17 lives.
In what may come as a relief for airline companies, the number of domestic air travellers between January and March showed a healthy increase over the same period a year ago, when the industry was feeling the heat of the global recession.
Despite private sector developer Delhi International Airport Ltd bracing for a long and foggy winter with added infrastructure, the shortage of CAT III pilots in some airlines could still mean long delays for passengers.
Two Air Traffic Control officials in Mumbai were on Tuesday taken off duty -- pending an inquiry by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation -- into the near miss between an Air India plane and a helicopter belonging to the President's entourage. The two officials have been 'de-rostered' during the inquiry, sources said while clarifying that they have not been placed under suspension. The identity of the officials has not been revealed.
Official sources said an ATC official had been suspended pending the DGCA probe, which would establish accountability and find out lapses in the system.
"The AI865 flight on Thursday got delayed as it developed a technical snag. It had to return to the bay. Passengers started knocking on the cockpit door, asking and taunting the pilots to come out," said an airline official. "One male passenger even said that he will break open the cockpit door if the pilots didn't come out," the official said, adding the situation inside the plane "went from bad to worse".
Over 30 passengers have suffered ear and nose-bleed after the crew on Jet Airways flight 9W 697 reportedly forgot to select a switch that helps maintain cabin air pressure
According to latest data, new airlines have a combined market share of 5.4 per cent.
The average fare on the Delhi-Mumbai route has come down to Rs 6,000, compared with a whopping Rs 15,000 in mid-November, according to an airline executive.
In a blow to airlines overcharging travelers during peak season, the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), has mad eit mandatory to publish details of all-inclusive fares on the first day of every calendar month.
The King Air C90 12-seater aircraft had taken off from the Juhu airstrip on a test flight.
Six pilots of Kingfisher Airlines, GoAir and Air India have been de-rostered by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation after they violated guidelines while landing on a short runway at Mumbai airport under rainy conditions. The DGCA also issued notices to the three airlines on the matter asking them to explain why the strict guidelines were not followed.
.jpg)
The ministry would access data on all the tickets sold by different carriers under various price brackets and then analyse the data to give an indication of exactly how many tickets were sold under each price slab.
If all goes well, from December, drones can be used for purpose like mapping, surveying and photography, which till now was illegal due to absence of any guidelines.
The Competition Commission of India (CCI) is studying whether a particular airline has a dominant market share on various routes or city pairs which might lead to anti-competitive practices.
The base will be used by carriers such as Alliance Air, a subsidiary of Air India, to operate 70-seater ATR aircraft to places such as Bengaluru.
Ahead of the visit of technical experts from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation to probe the crash of the helicopter carrying late Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy and four others, the site atop Pavurallagutta hillock has been surrounded and secured by a 30-member security team from the Greyhound force.
A joint team of Directorate General of Civil Aviation officials and the police on Friday located the Flight Voice Recorder of the helicopter that crashed killing Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Rajashekhar Reddy, laying their hands on a piece of evidence that may throw some light on the incident.
Staffers of the Air Traffic Control made two shocking revelations on day one of the proceedings in the Mangalore air crash case -- the flight did not land on schedule and the radar at the airport was non-functional at the time of the crash.
In a clear violation of safety norms Air India allowed three extras passengers on board a fully loaded flight.
The Ukrainian-made AN-124 aircraft, owned by Russian private airline Volga-Dnepr, claimed that they had taken a clearance from the Director General of Civil Aviation to overfly the Indian air space with a call sign attributed to civilian aircraft.
Some major hospitals in the country have sought the Directorate General of Civil Aviation's permission for launching helicopter emergency medical services, but the DGCA is yet to take a final decision.
The first signs of the move will be evident when both the airlines announce their summer schedules in March after receiving the approval of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation. Deccan is likely to bring down and withdraw frequencies between Mumbai-Delhi in the schedule.
It takes only two hours - roughly the time it takes for a plane to fly from Delhi to Mumbai - for a pair of pilots to complete their training on the 737 MAX simulator at Boeing's centre in Noida, the only one of its kind in India. Going by this estimate, all the 90 Spicejet pilots who the civil aviation regulator barred from flying the 737 MAX can be retrained in 90 hours.
This instruction is a temporary measure and shall be in force till March 31 and will be reviewed subsequently.
The government on Thursday approved a number of proposals to amend the 1934 Aircraft Act.
The muti-million dollar deal for takeover of Air Sahara by India's largest private airline Jet Airways broke down late Wednesday night.
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation, which is monitoring individual airports' adherence to safety standards, is in the process of issuing licenses to three airports based on their security compliance.
The DGCA has drafted an amendment to the rules saying 'once a passenger has bought a ticket for travel, it is obligatory on part of the airline that he reaches the aircraft from the departure lounge and at the end of journey from the aircraft to the arrival lounge exit, without incurring any further expenditure.' Once approved, this will be part of the DGCA's detailed Civil Aviation Requirement for carriage by air of the disabled, which has been effective since May 2007.
The Union Cabinet on Friday approved the amendment of the Aircraft Act, 1934, which will lead to considerable enhancement of the regulatory powers of the Director General of Civil Aviation.
Director General of Civil Aviation Kanu Gohain signed the papers in New Delhi granting permission to the Tata Group for the helipad atop the Taj Wellington Mews -- a luxury hotel -- for private use.
A four member team of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, led by R K Tyagi, will visit the site in dense Nallamalla forest on Thursday where the Bell-430 helicopter, carrying Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy and four others, had crashed a week ago.The team landed in Kurnool on Wednesday to start its probe into the crash, which had sent shock waves across the country and raised serious questions about the safety of the helicopters used by VIPs.
"Unless he tenders an unconditional apology to AI employees, and undertakes in writing to abide by the Chicago and Tokyo Conventions & Rules of the Air and follow all cabin safety and public behaviour norms, we must not let him on board," says the letter.
A 61-year-old cardiac patient Virender Rai, who was being flown to Delhi, has been rushed to the Medanta hospital in Gurgaon immediately after the incident.
Hopper, short-haul flights lift performance.
In a major relief to passengers, whose flights got cancelled due to the Covid-19 lockdown, the Supreme Court on Thursday accepted the recommendations of the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to refund ticket fares and also approved a credit shell scheme which will be valid till March 31.
