UDAN scheme takes off; fares capped at Rs 2,500 for 1-hr flight
Narendra Modi's ministry expansion makes disdain clear for others who are supposedly allies, quite unlike the Vajpayee-led National Democratic Alliance.
Full list of the rejigged Union Council of Ministers
Details were not immediately available ahead of a planned government briefing.
The ministry of civil aviation has recommended three levels of unruly behaviour by passengers, each with a different duration of ban on flying.
When the move was first thought of it was at the behest of Jet Airways, IndiGo, SpiceJet and Air India. Only Vistara and AirAsia were opposing it as they were doing the poaching, says Anjuli Bhargava.
Pusapati was given detailed presentations on various aspects of the sector by senior officials of the Ministry.
In 2015, India's domestic aviation market clocked 81 million flights.
There is no clarity on the stand taken by the PM on many issues plaguing the aviation sector
The ministers quit their posts in protest against central govt to grant special category status to Andhra Pradesh.
What is required is boring leadership that ensures that the basics are right and not genius leadership that dreams of bullet trains, says Aakar Patel.
Hijacking of an aircraft will now entail capital punishment in the event of death of "any person" as Parliament on Monday passed a bill to provide widen the ambit of the law in dealing with this crime.
Earlier, PE firms such as Goldman Sachs and Indigo Partners had evinced interest in the Indian aviation market.
Top Union ministers on Saturday joined a gala event, which had a smattering of Bollywood actors, including megastar Amitabh Bachchan, aimed at publicising the "achievements" of the Narendra Modi government on completion of two years in office.
DGCA sources pegged SpiceJet's total dues at Rs 1,600 crore (Rs 16 billion), which the airline owes lessors, vendors, income-tax department and airport operators.
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.
In early 2017, Amit A Shah warned Nara Chandrababu Naidu that Narendra D Modi was not like Atal Bihari Vajpayee to yield to pressure tactics. Soon, Naidu was to discover this for himself.
'Do we not all exhibit a sense of entitlement every day,' asks Savera R Someshwar.
The decision comes hours after an A320 neo aircraft of IndiGo suffered engine failure mid-air and made an emergency landing at Ahmedabad airport.
The TDP chief said he tried to speak to Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a 'courtesy' to inform him about the decision to quit but he did not come on line.
"As Civil Aviation minister, I apologise to all those affected (by these incidents)," Ashok Gajapathi Raju told a press conference in New Delhi on Thursday evening, in an attempt to end the controversy.
"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.
The theme of the reshuffle is to fulfill Modi's earlier promise of 'maximum governance, minimum government.' Some key ministries are likely to be merged.
The government is keeping its options open.
The disappointment of the year is government's failure in finalising the re-drafted aviation policy.
Concerned about the deteriorating financial and operational performance of the Kalanithi Maran-promoted airline, the DGCA had on Friday withdrawn 186 flight slots of SpiceJet and directed it not to take bookings for flights beyond a month.
Overseas airlines can operate unlimited number of flights into and out of India.
The Payment of Gratuity (Amendment) Bill and The Specific Relief (Amendment) Bill passed amid din.
Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, vice president Rahul Gandhi, Left parties and CMs of various states congratulated Kovind.
Ministers in the Narendra Modi government have been busy making presentations on their 100 days of work. But what these presentations do not mention is that decisions by ministers have been few, with plenty of papers and files moving to the Prime Minister's Office, which is increasingly emerging as a centralised clearance point, even for routine and ordinary issues. Though policy paralysis was a term used freely for the United Progressive Alliance regime, questions are now being raised about pending decisions across ministries and whether at least some ministers have turned redundant.
Most airlines have fattened their profits, turned the corner, or cut their losses, except AirAsia India.
Rains will continue to batter Tamil Nadu for the next seven days and the next 48 hours are "very crucial", the IMD has said.
In the third reshuffle since coming to power, Prime Minister Modi raised the strength of his Council of Ministers from 73 to 76.
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