The move would cap the discontent among pilots at not having enough flying hours and even help the state carrier gain grounds in terms of passenger carriage.
This is part of the initiatives that the ministry is undertaking to use technology in order to make airport check-in seamless and formation of a no-fly list.
Small aircraft operators want better infra at regional airports.
Etihad plans 75 per cent travel beyond Abu Dhabi; airports cry foul.
Use cases for drones are, however, immense - industrial inspections, geospatial surveys, agricultural surveys, and general surveillance and security.
A proposed strike by almost all sections of Air India employees next Tuesday on various demands, including implementation of agreements relating to wages and cadre policy, has been declared illegal.After a meeting on Saturday, top officials of the Civil Aviation Ministry and the National Aviation Company of India Limited (NACIL), which runs Air India, decided to "take serious view" if the employees went ahead with their threat, official sources said.
Crisis-hit SpiceJet hopedul of a turnaround.
Urging the government to initiate talks with Abu Dhabi on the bilateral air services agreement, Jet has written to the Civil Aviation Ministry seeking its nod for expanding its services through Abu Dhabi and expansion of bilateral aviation ties with that country.
In fact, almost the entire increase in the allocation for the civil aviation ministry was cornered by the National Aviation Company of India Limited; it was earmarked Rs 8,165.64 crore as against the revised estimate of Rs 4,136.89 crore for 2008-09. The ministry received a total allocation of Rs 12,164.76 crore, compared with the revised 2008-09 estimate of Rs 7,490.06 crore, a hike of almost Rs 4,675 crore.
The warning had come after SpiceJet's dues to AAI (including interest at 12 per cent) exceeded Rs 300 crore (Rs 3 billion) this month -- from Rs 230 crore (Rs 2.3 billion) early December last year.
Confirming the airline industry's estimates of a slowdown in the aviation sector, domestic passenger traffic for the calendar year 2008 showed a decline of 5 per cent compared to the previous year. Also, the Kingfisher-Kingfisher Red combine ousted Jet-JetLite as the largest Indian carrier combine in the month of December 2008.
The civil aviation ministry and the directorate general of civil aviation plan to award the low-cost carriers some key morning and evening peak-time slots (a fixed time for departure or arrival of a particular flight) lying unused with the full-service carriers at metro airports like Delhi and Mumbai. DGCA officials and airline officials confirm that airlines like Jet and Kingfisher are not using around 10 per cent of their slots during the peak periods.
The Centre has agreed in principle to grant 'mini-ratna' status to Airports Authority of India (AAI) to enable it to take up projects worth up to Rs 500 crore (Rs 5 billion) without taking government approval. Such a decision would also enable AAI to form joint ventures with private companies to modernise airports and aviation infrastructure across the country, sources in the civil aviation ministry said.
Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission made a presentation in which he pointed out the detailed process through which these targets were finalised and the high level of ambition they represent.
Last week, after a direction from ministry, airlines provided the maximum fares they would charge based on distance travelled.
Kingfisher Chief Executive Sanjay Aggarwal met officials at the ministry of civil aviation to discuss the revival plan, which was earlier rejected by the regulator.
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.
The Rs 4,675-crore Navi Mumbai airport project, which is being developed by CIDCO, may be delayed by a few months in the wake of serious objections being raised by the environment ministry. The project that has Cabinet clearance and approval from the International Civil Aviation Organisation will now be taken to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for final clearance since the environment ministry has raised issues relating to the site.
Govt moots new regional connectivity policy; plans to offer subsidy on non-viable destinations.
The pilots and other senior staff have not been getting their full salaries since December.
Even though Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel will move this proposal only on Thursday in the Cabinet meeting, the government is already going ahead with the proposal regardless of the response from other concerned ministries like finance, environment and forests, and tourism and the planning commission.
The Bureau of Civil Aviation Security was allocated Rs 40 crore (Rs 400 million) for procurement of security and IT items along with radiological detection equipment.
NACIL will meet all of its proposed investment from the internal and extra budgetary resources, the Budget documents presented in the Parliament today showed. The company had invested Rs 4,136.89 crore in 2008-09. Of the total Plan outlay of Rs 12,164.76 crore for the ministry of civil aviation, the government announced budgetary support of Rs 190 crore for the sector.
GMR evinces interest in the project.
Rubbishing the allegation that his ministry went out of its way to facilitate the Jet-Etihad deal, Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh said he was open to "any inquiry" into the decision to increase air traffic rights to Abu Dhabi.
In an email, a SpiceJet spokesperson said: "A few foreign airlines/investors have evinced interest in SpiceJet. It will be very premature to comment on the possibilities of any fresh equity issuance to such interested parties."
In a letter to Air India Chairman and Managing Director Rajiv Bansal, the ICPA said, "In the press conference by Honourable Minister Shri Hardeep Singh Puri dated 16th July 2020, you had stated 'we are in negotiation with the pilots', which is far from reality." "It was not a negotiation, but the 'diktat' of the MoCA (ministry of civil aviation) which was conveyed to us. We would also like to place on record that the so-called negotiation was 'not harmonious' in any aspect," the Indian Commercial Pilots' Association (ICPA) noted.
Bilateral traffic rights define the number of weekly flights or seats a country's designated airlines are allowed to operate in another country's specified points.
Raghu Menon, special secretary and financial advisor in the civil aviation ministry, has been appointed the chairman and managing director of Air India, ending weeks of speculation over the issue.The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet approved the name of Menon, a 1974 batch IAS officer of the Assam-Nagaland cadre, after a keen race for the top job in the National Aviation Company of India Limited (NACIL), which runs the merged national carrier.
This proposal is a part of the comprehensive aviation policy that the ministry has submitted to the Cabinet and which has now been referred to a Group of Ministers.
The government indicated on Saturday that an early decision was likely on the proposals of fleet acquisition by Air-India and Indian Airlines as well as of privatisating the four metro airports.
Air India's appointment and removal of three senior officers was a circus all the way.
GMR, GVK have taken up the issue with civil aviation ministry.
The Delhi International Airport Limited's (DIAL) ongoing tussle with the Airports Authority of India/Ministry of Civil Aviation (AAI/MoCA) isn't likely to get resolved in a hurry, though things appeared settled when, a few weeks ago, Aviation Minister Praful Patel said at a press conference that the government would go by the Attorney General's (AG) opinion on the dispute.
India must do away a pointless policy that mandates that a domestic airline must have been in operation for five years and have 20 aircraft before flying.
The ministry of civil aviation said on Thursday that about a third of operations will be allowed under strict norms when domestic flight services restart on Monday after a two-month hiatus due to the coronavirus pandemic, and all the airlines will have to adhere to the upper and lower limits of fares prescribed by the government.
While no exact dates have been announced yet, the flights could take off from San Francisco, New York, Chicago and Washington DC, the officials said.
GMR Hyderabad International Airport Ltd, the consortium operating the new Hyderabad airport, has offered to halve ground-handling charges even as the civil aviation ministry allowed the domestic carriers to undertake their ground-handling till January 1, 2009. This will give the two sides enough time to resolve the contentious issue, which almost jeopardised the opening of the new airport and forced a postponement once.
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