The DGCA has ordered an inquiry after a passenger, who was supposed to take an Indigo flight to Patna, boarded another flight of the airline and landed at Udaipur.
Wadia Group-owned Go First Airways' (Go First) insolvency plea could trigger a 'momentum rally' in shares of rival airlines, Interglobe Aviation (parent company of IndiGo) and SpiceJet, as they look to gain bankrupt airline's market share, said analysts. On the bourses, shares of InterGlobe Aviation hit a 52-week high of Rs 2,235.95, surging 8 per cent on the BSE in Wednesday's intra-day trade, before settling 4.5 per cent higher at Rs 2,164 apiece. Those of SpiceJet and Jet Airways, meanwhile, rallied up to 6 per cent in the intra-day trade, and ended 1 per cent and 5 per cent higher, respectively, following the development, which was announced post market hours on Tuesday.
Some aircraft technicians at IndiGo are on sick leave since Friday demanding a revision in salaries. The protest comes days after the airline partially restored salaries of its pilots and cabin crew and made changes to its human resource (HR) policies. Some technicians in Hyderabad reported sick on Friday night while those from other bases skipped work on Sunday demanding a revision in salary, an industry source said.
Responding to that, Rama Rao suggested the airlines recruit more staff who can speak the local language like Telugu, Tamil, Kannada on regional routes.
IndiGo has restored annual increments for more than 4,500 pilots as a financial turnaround helped the airline make a profit in Q3 FY23 after three quarters of loss. An email from the airline's management last week informed pilots of the restoration from April. "The component of annual increment for Indian captains (Rs 10,000 per month) and Indian first officers (Rs 5,000 per month) on the Airbus and ATR fleet which was stopped due to Covid will restart from April 1, 2023," the airline's senior vice president (flight operations) Ashim Mitra said in the staff email.
Amid concerns of espionage, the Rajasthan administration has intensified security measures along the India-Pakistan border, with authorities in Jaisalmer and Sri Ganganagar banning the use of Pakistani SIM cards.
Security agencies went into a tizzy after three international flights originating from Mumbai received bomb threats on Monday with one of them, a New York-bound Air India aircraft, getting diverted to New Delhi as travel plans of some 500 passengers went for a toss.
IndiGo barred a specially-abled child from boarding a flight as he was in "a state of panic"
The sources in the know said around 7 flights each of IndiGo, Vistara and SpiceJet got the threats while 6 flights of Air India received the threats.
The incident took place on Thursday when the aircraft was taxing out for take off with 98 passengers on board and the flight was cancelled, it 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's management is of the opinion that Saturday's flight delays caused by sick leaves taken by many in the cabin crew are just an aberration. The airline's on-time performance nosedived to 45 per cent on Saturday as a large part of the cabin crew reported sick to participate in Air India's recruitment process. Privately, Air India executives denied holding interviews on Saturday and the airline did not issue any statement.
A senior government official confirmed that after a meeting with other stakeholders, the decision has been taken and airlines and airport authorities have been informed about it.
As SpiceJet faces heat from the aviation regulator DGCA for multiple flight incidents in the last few weeks, malfunction cases involving planes of IndiGo and Vistara came to light on Wednesday.
Airlines waive cancellation and rescheduling fees and boost flight capacity from Srinagar.
The flight was operating from Delhi to Doha in Qatar and was diverted to Karachi in Pakistan.
The minister's remarks come against the backdrop of Surya, the ruling BJP's Bengaluru South MP, facing flak from Congress over the incident, which happened on December 10 last year at Chennai airport.
Meanwhile, only three runways are operational at the airport now as one runway is closed for maintenance works.
A 22-year-old youth and a person with disability died, while at least 11 were injured, in separate rain-related incidents in the national capital on Wednesday evening. The incidents occurred amid sudden changes in weather in Delhi, as a rainy storm marked by hail wrecked havoc across the city, throwing traffic out of gear as far as Delhi-Noida, Delhi-Ghaziabad, and Delhi-Gurugram roads and uprooting several trees.
Opposition Congress targeted Bengaluru South MP Tejasvi Surya, amid reports that the passenger, who accidentally opened the emergency exit of the plane was the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha chief.
The airline demanded more than a thousand rupees for him to carry 41 inch hockey stick
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.
Two IndiGo flights, one headed to Muscat and the other to Jeddah, also received bomb threats before they took off and the planes were moved to isolation bays for security checks.
Stand-up comedian Kunal Kamra has once again found himself at the center of a controversy, this time for his comments about Maharashtra's Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde. Kamra has been a controversial figure for years, with his comedy often targeting politicians and other public figures. This latest incident has led to a backlash from Shinde's supporters, who have vandalized the venue of Kamra's show. Kamra has a history of making controversial remarks, including heckling a TV anchor on a flight and making comments about the judiciary.
A man arrested for allegedly sharing a bogus bomb alert on an IndiGo flight from Nagpur to Kolkata last month has turned out to be an Intelligence Bureau (IB) officer.
'A passenger was deplaned by the police at the Delhi airport from Raipur-bound flight 6E 204. Some other passengers have also decided to deboard on their own accord,' it added.
'Dharmendra was paying a little extra attention to me and she didn't like it.'
A video clip of the heated exchange onboard the flight on December 16 was shared on social media on Wednesday.
'Just look at China: They have five or six major airlines and some smaller ones.'
The Mumbai police have issued a notice to a teenage boy, his father and another person from Rajnandgaon in Chhattisgarh to join questioning in connection with bomb threats posted on social media targeting three flights, officials said.
A sharp correction in stock prices, signs of rural recovery, and lower raw material costs have not been enough to change brokerages' cautious stance on the top-listed paint companies. Concerns over rising competition and weak demand continue to weigh on sentiment.
He, however, cited the sensitivity of information due to the ongoing probe into the matter to decline to share more details, sources said.
Indigo has zero competition on 61.2 per cent of its 838 domestic routes.
IndiGo had the best on-time performance (OTP) of 95.4 per cent at four metro airports in February, while Go First secured the number two position with 94.1 per cent in the same month, according to data released by aviation regulator DGCA. Bengaluru, Delhi, Hyderabad, and Mumbai were the four airports where Indigo had the best OTP, the data released on Monday said. In January, the situation was inverse as Go First had logged the best OTP of 94.5 per cent at the four airports while IndiGo was at number two with 93.9 per cent OTP.
NCPCR chairperson Priyank Kanoongo also asked the Directorate General of Civil Aviation to initiate an inquiry in the matter and take necessary action against the airline and its manager.
With only a few days to go before the country celebrates Holi, several airline companies offered discounts on fares on the occasion of the festival of colours. While two airlines are providing discounts on both domestic and international networks, another has the offer only for the domestic sector. Low-cost airline Akasa Air said it is offering an all-inclusive one-way fare starting at Rs 1,499 on domestic routes.
The entire construction of the Navi Mumbai airport project is expected to be completed in five phases.
The flight, which was scheduled to depart at 8.20 pm, had to be grounded following the hoax threat, they said.
As many as 19 flights have received bomb threats in three days and a Riyadh-bound IndiGo flight was diverted to Muscat due to the threat, according to officials.
'That refresh programme -- because they are big aircraft and we cannot ground them all at the same time -- will last well into 2027.'
