The trails of mega-mergers, tailwinds of expanding fleets, flights and airports will dot the fast-growing Indian aviation firmament in 2025, though the dark clouds of supply chain woes will persist longer. Also, new airline takeoffs, the future trajectory of revised norms to tackle pilot fatigue and efforts to reduce carbon emissions will be on the radar.
Analysts remain sceptical on the profitability from freighter business, saying that once normal air transport resumes and there's abundant belly capacity, the traditional economics of air cargo may not be that lucrative.
The number of domestic air travelers in India grew 2.42 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y) in April, reaching 13.2 million, according to data by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Tuesday.
On Friday, the Alaska Airlines plane's outer section, including a window, fell off mid-air.
The incident was reported when Pakistan airspace was not closed for India.
BBAM seeks $100 million, return of 6 Boeing 737s.
DGCA was irked by was a video on social media that showed passengers dancing on board a midair flight. The regulator has summoned the airline officials seeking an explanation.
Despite the gains from Jet's closure, in 2018 and 2019, the airline continued to make losses in many quarters for a variety of reasons, including some mistakes like taking on Jet's aircraft, which were not in great shape and had business class configuration, a gamble that did not work for SpiceJet.
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the deteriorating financial and operational performance of the Kalanithi Maran-promoted airline, the DGCA had on Friday withdrawn 186 flight slots of SpiceJet and directed it not to take bookings for flights beyond a month.
More than 30 flights of various Indian airlines, including Vistara, Air India and IndiGo, received bomb threats on Saturday, according to sources.
The Bhopal MP was was asked to move to a non-emergency row seat as she was on a wheelchair but she refused, causing the flight to delay of almost 45 minutes. Ultimately, she acquiesced and moved.
Both the pilots of the flight have been grounded, pending enquiry, the airline said, adding the incident took place around 1630 hrs.
SpiceJet's chief operating officer Sanjiv Kapoor has resigned after two years of service.
The airline had told its pilots on Wednesday that they will not be paid salaries for April and May, adding that those who have been operating cargo flights will get paid for the number of hours flown.
Though SpiceJet is likely to resume flights, experts have a doubt on the airline's financial capabilities.
In March 2020, soon after the cessation of airline operations globally and domestic flights within India, many in the aviation sector had written Delhi-headquartered low-fare airline SpiceJet's obituary well before that of most of its rivals. Unlike IndiGo, GoAir (now rechristened Go First), Vistara and even AirAsia India, SpiceJet did not have founders or backers with deep pockets. Although it is the only other listed carrier in India besides IndiGo, it was considered the weakest and the least likely to survive the pandemic. But chairman and managing director Ajay Singh surprised everyone by not only surviving but taking the lead on many fronts. Within a few weeks of the scheduled flight stoppage, SpiceJet was doing as many charter flights as it could get hold of.
Over the past month, SpiceJet has been hit by a spate of bad news. As the airline's losses mount and troubles pile up, analysts worry about its prospects.
Airports across the country witnessed chaotic scenes on Friday after dozens of flights were either delayed or cancelled after a widespread global computer outage that also hit operations like cash withdrawal at some banks, and impacted functioning of some brokerages. Globally, the Microsoft cloud outage led to US airlines cancelling flights, but the tech giant later reportedly said its cloud services outage in the Central US region has been resolved.
Promoters of SpiceJet do not have funds to bail out the airlines of dire consequences.
A Mumbai-bound SpiceJet flight from Jaipur carrying 167 passengers and crew overshot the runway at the Mumbai airport Monday night after landing amid heavy rains, blocking it for traffic.
Cites technical reasons; crew told to apologies to passengers and provide feedback forms for those seeking a refund for pre-booked meals
SpiceJet has announced the appointment of Seema Chandra as Chief Financial Officer with effect from July 1.
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation has been asked to open up bookings of SpiceJet till March 31, 2015, while airport operators have been asked to provide 15 days to the airline company for making payments.
After Air India and IndiGo, SpiceJet is the third carrier to cancel the ticket of the Lok Sabha member.
Low-cost airline SpiceJet on Monday said it has rolled out a special one-way low-fare offer, starting at Rs 826.
Before buying Marans' stake, Singh's shareholding stood at 1.85%.
The incident which occurred on August 11, involving SpiceJet Hyderabad flight from Chennai (SG 511) and Emirates' Dubai-bound Brisbane flight (EK 433), is currently being investigated by the aviation regulator, DGCA sources said.
His Rare Enterprises purchased 75 lakh shares worth Rs 13 crore.
A senior government official informed AAI had agreed not to withdraw the credit facility of SpiceJet till Monday.
Air India, which operates 72 weekly flights from various cities to Dubai, and IndiGo cancelled their services on Wednesday.
SpiceJet will operate two daily flights using wet leased Twin Otter aircraft from Maldivian Aero. PM Modi is expected to inaugurate and travel on first flight.
Amid a massive global outage that hit operations of airlines, banks and businesses across the globe, Microsoft on Friday said that it is aware of the issue affecting Windows devices due to an update from a third-party software platform.
40 executives in the middle to senior level are set to join the airline from rival IndiGo.
Union Minister for Civil Aviation Praful Patel flagged off SpiceJet, India's latest low cost, no-frills airline on Tuesday on the Delhi-Ahmedabad-Mumbai route with a Boeing 737-800 aircraft in an efficient all economy 189 seat configuration.
The technician was carrying out maintenance on the landing gear of the Bombardier Q400 plane when the landing door accidentally got closed.
SpiceJet recently posted a loss of over Rs 1,000 crore (Rs 10 billion) for fiscal 2014.
SpiceJet, India's second-largest private airline, kicked off the process of hiving off its logistics business to its subsidiary SpiceXpress as it looks to raise much-needed capital. On Tuesday, the company sought its shareholders' approval to complete the process and to raise up to Rs 2,500 crore via a qualified institutions placement (QIP). It is in talks with multiple private equity investors as it tries to sell shares in the logistics arm to raise money.
Stating that the road ahead for SpiceJet is "pretty tough", its original founder and new owner Ajay Singh on Thursday said he is in talks with more than one investor for fund infusion into the carrier.
SpiceJet board is likely to pass a resolution within three days after the court order.
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.
