The home ministry on Wednesday dropped domestic air travel from the list of prohibited activities during the ongoing lockdown, paving the way for operations of regular commercial flights. Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla issued the order in this effect in his capacity as chairperson of the national executive committee under the National Disaster Management Act.
The national carrier to get lion's share of the Rs 1,978 crore budgetary support demanded by the ministry for 2010-11.
The cost of any flight from Delhi and Mumbai could rise by up to Rs 3,000 soon unless the airport regulator is able to reverse a court order.
An Air India passenger allegedly urinated on a fellow traveller during a flight from Delhi to Bangkok on Wednesday. Air India has reported the incident to the authorities (DGCA) and is investigating the matter. The airline has also stated that its crew followed all laid down procedures in handling the situation and offered assistance to the aggrieved passenger.
The Centre has appointed senior IAS officers Vumlunmang Vualnam and Neeraj Mittal as new secretaries in the ministry of civil aviation and the department of telecommunications respectively in a major secretary-level bureaucratic reshuffle, a government order stated.
The DGCA has formed two specialised teams to internally monitor IndiGo's daily operations.
'The ministry may like to consider setting up an ombudsman similar to electricity ombudsman and insurance ombudsman, to ensure a time-bound resolution of consumer issues within the airline sector.'
'Earlier, the NTSB was actively flagging technical issues with Boeing. But now, the narrative is shifting toward 'human error'.' 'That term is often misunderstood -- it could mean pilots, engineers, refueling staff -- anyone.' 'But this framing ('human error') conveniently steers the conversation away from mechanical or design faults.'
'Where rostering systems are automated and duty time software interfaces directly with DGCA, the assertion that they suddenly discovered crew shortages is simply implausible.' 'If adequate crew planning hasn't materialised within 12 to 24 months from inception, how will 45 days -- from December 5 to February 12 -- suddenly resolve matters?'
"There are approximately 52,042 employees working in the civil aviation sector in the attached/autonomous/public sector organisations under this ministry. There are no such proposals in the above organisations," minister of state (Independent Charge) for civil aviation, Praful Patel informed the Rajya Sabha.
The Mumbai police have registered a case against an unidentified person after three airlines received bomb threats on their X handle, an official said on Tuesday.
Baghaei also alleged that recent unrest in Iran was fuelled by foreign interference, claiming riots were triggered by "very evident" interventionist remarks by US and Israeli officials.
Taxes on ATF in India are among world's highest, and are seen as key reason for mounting losses of airlines.
Protocols for the Bomb Threat Assessment Committee (BTAC), convened in the event of a bomb threat call to an aircraft or airport, have been tweaked to better tackle the spate of the ongoing 'random' Internet-based threats being made to various Indian airlines, official sources said Tuesday.
This weekend, Donald Trump has begun to say the quiet part out loud -- that he wants to take control of Iran's oil, a formulation more in line with his robber-baron style of international relations.
The Indian government has introduced a next-generation e-passport with enhanced security features, including an embedded RFID chip, to combat forgery and impersonation. The rollout follows successful pilot testing and implementation across India and abroad.
The DGCA will concentrate only on technical and safety aspects.
'The real story of 2025 is that India officially stopped being a 'market of the future' and started acting as the world's primary economic engine.'
In 2017, 60 million passengers flew between India and the UAE, the largest overseas air travel market from India.
The recent helicopter crash near Kedarnath, in which seven lives were lost, has proven yet again that aviation regulatory authorities have not learnt lessons from similar air mishaps in the challenging Kedar valley and have done little to improve flying conditions.
A SpiceJet employee, Mudasir Ahmad Khan, claims he was assaulted by an army officer at Srinagar airport for enforcing baggage rules. He demands action against the officer, while the army says it is cooperating with the investigation.
The Federation of Indian Pilots (FIP) has asked the government to reassess possible technical misinterpretation or mechanical faults in Air India's Boeing 787-8 plane that crashed last month and sought inclusion of subject matter experts in the probe.
'The tone of the preliminary report creates a narrative towards pilot error. This is wrong.' 'Selected conversation has been divulged. It's not as if the pilots did not speak anything else in the cockpit.'
With terror threats looming large over the civil aviation sector, an advisory council of experts will be set up soon to deliberate on and recommend measures to step up aviation security.
A proposal to hike foreign direct investment cap in helicopter and sea-plane operations, MRO facilities, charters, air-cargo and non-scheduled air operations has been moved by the civil aviation ministry for the Cabinet's consideration.
Talking to reporters after a meeting of the state cabinet, he said Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel and the entire cabinet offered tributes to those who had lost their lives in the June 12 plane crash in Ahmedabad during the meet.
The chartered flight, operated by a private firm, carrying Rishiraj Sawant (32) and his two friends returned to Pune airport between 8 pm and 8.30 pm on Monday, abruptly cutting short a trip to the Thailand capital which was not disclosed to the former minister, who is leader of the ruling Shiv Sena, and his family.
The environment ministry has objected to the fact that around 115 hectares (or 7.3 per cent) of total land for the project is mangrove forest. It recently conveyed this to both Cidco and the civil aviation ministry. The matter is now with the prime minister's office. Cidco Vice-Chairman and Managing Director GS Gill said the corporation had sought an appointment with the environment ministry officials to make another presentation on the project in the next 10 days.
India, which plans to start flights to Kabul whenever Pakistani airspace opens, on Wednesday agreed to take a slew of steps, including waiving off expenses, to assist Afghanistan in building up its aviation infrastructure.
There is no clarity on the stand taken by the PM on many issues plaguing the aviation sector
The Delhi airport, the country's busiest airport, on Friday early morning witnessed the collapse of a roof at Terminal 1 amid heavy rains that killed one person, prompting the government to order a detailed probe and an inspection of the structural strength of all airports.
Security at the Mumbai airport has been tightened following intelligence inputs suggesting that terrorists were planning to carry out a hijacking attempt for securing the release of some terrorists.An alert has been issued following a meeting of senior officials of Civil Aviation Ministry, Bureau of Civil Aviation Security and Home Ministry, Civil Aviation Ministry sources said on Thursday.During the meeting, preparedness of 'different layers' were discussed.
The Reserve Bank of India's decision to allow airlines hedge jet fuel in global markets came in for praise from the industry and the civil aviation ministry, but end-users are unlikely to benefit in the form of lower airfares.
Aviation Minister Praful Patel has requested FM to rationalise taxes on aviation fuel in Budget 2008-09.
Incumbent airlines oppose the proposal.
Scindia claimed Tharoor is "lost in his esoteric world of thesaurus", and for him "data mining of selective press articles from the internet qualifies as "research".
Maintaining that civil aviation flew thousands of tonnes of equipment and passengers across the country on a daily basis, he said grant of infrastructure status would help the industry in its dealings with the RBI as well as the commercial banks, both in the private and public sectors. On Kingfisher's global plan, Mallya said the airline would launch services to Hong Kong and Singapore as soon as its aircraft were ready.
The SOEC clause says only airlines owned by a country or its citizens can fly from the nation concerned to India and use the quota of seats allotted under a bilateral pact between the countries.
There is no reason for keeping an entire ministry with a total staff strength of 2,300, just for the oversight of a few aviation sector laws and regulatory bodies, notes A K Bhattacharya.
