Of the 48 flights, which are not being operated as part of the curtailed schedule, 42 are of IndiGo and six of GoAir.
IndiGo which has close to 40 per cent market share, at present has 129 aircraft and operates 883 daily flights to 44 destinations. It also has around 400 aircraft on order.
Rahul Bhatia, a promoter of the company, has been appointed as the interim CEO.
Initially, starting with a slightly curtailed capacity, the airline will increase the operating capacity over the subsequent months, also reopening selected international flights, depending on the existing international travel guidelines: IndiGo.
Many argue that the airline could achieve its full potential if Nusli Wadia were to run it the way he does Britannia.
The civil aviation ministry has mandated airlines and ground-handling companies to phase out airport equipment older than 12 years and switch to electric or fuel-efficient variants by May 2022. While companies have welcomed the ministry's green initiative, they said that the deadline for implementation is tight. This is especially in the wake of financial challenges faced by the aviation sector during the pandemic.
SpiceJet's resurgence, once the new funding is in place, has the potential to disrupt the Indian aviation market in 2024 as the airline will bring its grounded aircraft back to service and lease as many planes as possible to be competitively relevant, aviation consultancy firm Capa India said on Thursday. "Although the market for procuring aircraft in 2024 is exceptionally tight, we expect that SpiceJet will bring stored aircraft back into operations, and will wet or dry lease as much capacity as possible, in order to be competitively relevant. "This will have a material impact on the industry structure, and possibly on domestic profitability," Capa India said in its report.
The pilot wrote in his letter to airline's management that he was 'disheartened' to learn the carrier took action against the comedian without consulting him and solely on the basis of social media posts.
Kamra allegedly heckled Goswami, the editor of Republic TV, on IndiGo's Mumbai-Lucknow (6E5317) flight on Tuesday.
The carrier said for domestic flights the fees for cancellation and changes would now be Rs 3,500 and Rs 3,000 respectively, if it was done within three days of the flight's departure. Before this announcement, IndiGo charged a flat rate of Rs 3,000 and Rs 2,500 for cancellation and detail changes on domestic tickets.
The IAF pilots, who are middle-aged, are willing to fly any number of hours, as they are keen to make quick money before they retire
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.
This is the second incident in six months of an untoward incident involving IndiGo staff.
With airlines reporting multiple technical malfunction incidents, aviation regulator DGCA on Monday said it conducted spot checks and found that there is an insufficient number of engineering personnel certifying planes of various carriers before their departure. Before each departure, an aircraft is checked and certified by an aircraft maintenance engineer (AME). The DGCA has now issued guidelines for airlines on the deployment of AME personnel and directed them to comply by July 28.
From croissants to Galouti kebabs and Medu vada, Indian carriers, both low-cost and full-service, are revising their in-flight menus to offer passengers a differentiated fare as competition is heating up amid the boom in air travel with the waning of Covid-19. On Monday, Air India, which was taken over by the Tata Group on January 27, unveiled its new domestic in-flight menu comprising gourmet meals, new appetizers, desserts, and local dishes. Air India's economy class passengers would now be served dishes such as Mushroom cheese omelette, Dry jeera aloo wedges, and Garlic tossed spinach and corn for breakfast, and Vegetable biryani, Malabar chicken curry, and mixed vegetable poriyal for lunch.
Travelling from South India to Kashmir in December was magical for Ganesh Nadar as he feasted his eyes on the beauty of the snow-capped Himalayas.
Kamra was banned by India's largest airline for six months on Tuesday for allegedly harassing Goswami on the Mumbai-Lucknow flight. SpiceJet, GoAir and Air India also imposed a similar ban on Kamra without specifying any period.
Dutta was president of United Airlines, where he worked for nearly twenty years. He also served as the president of Air Sahara for two years. Moreover, he was an advisor to the restructuring of both Air Canada and US Airways.
The cancelled flights account for almost 10 per cent of the airline's operations
"We offer our sincere regrets to the affected family for the unfortunate experience and as a small token of our appreciation of their lifelong dedication would like to offer to purchase an electric wheelchair for their son," he added.
Cyclonic storm Fengal has commenced making landfall close to Puducherry and it may approximately take 4 hours for it to cross the coast completely, an India Meteorological Department (IMD) official said. The process of the cyclone's landfall commenced at about 5.30 pm on November 30. The IMD said the forward sector of spiral bands associated with the cyclone has entered into the land and is likely to move west-southwestwards and cross north Tamil Nadu-Puducherry coasts between Karaikal and Mahabalipuram close to Puducherry as a cyclonic storm with a wind speed of 70-80 kmph gusting to 90 kmph during next 3 to 4 hours.
The new visa-free regime allows travellers to stay for up to 60 days instead of only 15 earlier.
The move by four airlines -- IndiGo, Air India, SpiceJet and GoAir -- to suspend the stand-up comedian raises fears that the government can use the no-fly list to settle political scores, undermine the freedom of citizens.
The growth in India's domestic aviation capacity in calendar year 2023 (CY23) was the sixth highest among 20 major domestic markets, compared to the pre-pandemic year of CY19. The domestic capacity in the country surpassed the pre-pandemic level seen in CY19 and was up 5 per cent in CY23. It trails Mexico, Columbia, China, Vietnam, and Spain, which have shown higher growth, according to data shared in a seminar organised by global travel data provider OAG on global aviation trends in 2023.
IndiGo will seek board approval for Dutta's appointment soon. Till then, promoter Rahul Bhatia will continue to act as interim CEO.
The phenomenon of fog is largely Delhi-centric. 'Airlines may think that we only have conditions of extreme fog on a few days every year, and spending a pilot's time and the airline's money on training can add up to its expenses.' 'So, they may prefer holding it for a few days.'
Experts expect a net loss of Rs 26.7 billion for IndiGo and Rs 10.1 billion for SpiceJet in Q1FY21 driven by low traffic volume, low fleet utilisation and poor coverage of fixed costs.
The introduction of these new flights would help IndiGo cross 650 flights mark as the it would offer a total of 671 flights per day connecting 39 destinations.
Coordination between defence and civilian authorities has freed up airspace for commercial airlines in India, resulting in routes becoming shorter and costs coming down, apart from mitigating pollution. "Due to various restrictions of the military, only about 58 per cent of the Indian airspace was being utilised. It is close to 70 per cent now," said an official of the Airports Authority of India (AAI). Officials of the AAI said to date 119 routes had been shortened. Sources said since December 2020 the cumulative savings of airlines had been close to Rs 200 crore while there was a reduction in emission of around 45,000 tonnes of carbon.
Given its network and fleet, it has garnered the highest share of passenger growth.
This came even as the airline recorded the fastest domestic passenger growth rate of 26 per cent.
Cyclone Fengal expected to make landfall near Puducherry.
IndiGo said operations of the ATR fleet would be handled by an independent team that would be responsible for in-flight services, dispatch and control, and revenue.
'We have seen some videos wherein mediapersons are standing too close to each other in the 6E264 flight on Wednesday. It seems to be a violation of safety and social distancing protocols'
Though India's airlines are certainly bleeding, they haven't yet faced the ignominy of shutting down.
Key stimuli of the government's relief package will be a tax break on jet fuel, waiver of parking and landing charges at airports for the next six months and deferment of payment to oil companies by three months.
Move aimed at giving more headroom to foreign investors.
With the Middle East tensions flaring up, Air India has temporarily suspended its Tel Aviv flights and airlines have charted alternative flight paths to avoid the Iranian airspace.
Airline to deploy around 50 planes in the next seven months
'My one recommendation would be to first quell the violence and then encourage dialogue and build the trust among the different communities.' 'This is not easy but necessary, for violence cannot be the way forward.'
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