Anticipating a weak demand in the traditionally lean January-March period, most domestic airlines on Tuesday reduced fares massively after no-frills carrier SpiceJet announced a steep 50 per cent discount on base fares and fuel surcharges across sectors.
Budget airlines SpiceJet announced that it would provide free air tickets for life to all Indian medal winners at the just-concluded London Olympics.
They say better late than never. For the Tatas, the original owners of Air India, bringing back the airline to its fold is worth the wait even if the attempt to privatise the bleeding national carrier by successive governments has taken over two decades. While many airlines have come and gone from the Indian skies since the time when the first move was made to privatise Air India to date, the salt-to-software conglomerate has never let the love affair with aviation, more so with Air India that its former chairman Jehangir Ratanji Dadabhoy Tata (JRD) had, to go off the radar. It is said that Tata group executives used to complain in private that JRD -- the pioneer of the Indian aviation industry -- spent more time worrying about Air India than the Tata group when he was heading both the entities.
Various airlines, including the defunct Kingfisher, owed Rs 3,030 crore (Rs 30.30 billion) to the Airports Authority of India (AAI) at the end of December last year.
Domestic air traffic clocked slowest growth in 4 years on high fares and flight cancellations.
Etihad, Emirates and Qatar Airways have combined hired more than 100 Indian pilots in the last six months.
Modi's 'UDAN' project faces fund crunch as too many airlines have come on board
Air services to Kathmandu were hit again on Sunday as flights of Air India, SpiceJet and IndiGo failed to land in the earthquake-hit Nepalese capital and returned to New Delhi as ATC personnel at Tribhuvan International Airport were evacuated following a powerful aftershock.
Domestic air traffic in April this year consisted 10.99 million passengers as compared to 11.51 million passengers in the same month last year, signifying a fall of around 4.5 per cent,
Two aborted missions, three different ministers, multiple rule changes and two decades later, Indian taxpayers will no longer have to pay Rs 20 crore per day to keep the loss-making Air India flying. While opposition Congress expectedly attacked the decision as selling the family silver, DIPAM secretary Tuhin Kanta Pandey said what Tata is getting is not a cash cow but an airline which is bleeding where money needs to be pumped in to refurbish obsolete aircraft and dust up strangled ones while being unable to touch any employee for one year and only be able to resize staff after paying a VRS. "It won't be a very easy task there. Only advantage is they (new Air India owner) are paying the price which they think they can manage. "They are not taking the excessive debt accumulated to fund years of losses. We are continuing it as an ongoing concern.... This process has also saved huge amount of taxpayers money going forward," Pandey told PTI.
In a rare move, the DGCA has filed a police complaint against 34 pilots of Jet Airways, IndiGo, SpiceJet and GoAir.
During the January-July period, passenger growth jumped 21.13 per cent to 455.78 lakh.
The airlines have instead suggested compulsory personal protective equipment-like suit, gloves and mask for flyers and crew members.
Ajit Mishra, vice president, research, Religare Broking, answers your queries.
Auditors of Jet Airways, SpiceJet say the "appropriateness of the going concern basis" depends on their ability to meet obligations.
The decision was taken after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that the lockdown across the country will be extended till May 3 to fight the coronavirus pandemic.
The watchdog has also asked the airlines to ensure various requirements are complied with by engineering and maintenance personnel with respect to 737 MAX planes.
Domestic air traffic logged 14.35 per cent growth in November as compared to the corresponding period last year propelled by the festive season rush.
Domestic budget carriers SpiceJet, Indigo and GoAir have rolled out another sale offer with fares starting from Rs 1,699 for a limited period on domestic routes.
Flight services to Kathmandu were on Saturday cancelled or put on hold following the closure of airport there after a powerful earthquake rocked central part of the Himalayan country.
All airports and air carriers are being informed to be ready for operations from May 25. SOPs for passenger movement are also being separately issued by the ministry of civil aviation.
'The need for added safety has bolstered demand for charter flights in the last year and is expected to continue.'
Airfares in Indian market are unsustainable, says a senior Boeing official.
Jet fuel prices are about 33% lower than the same period a year ago.
Ajit Mishra, vice president, Research, Religare Broking, answers your queries.
Within two weeks of many airlines deciding to roll back salary cuts encouraged by a steady increase in traffic flow, a second wave of coronavirus along with rules of compulsory RT-PCR test has hit forward bookings. The fears of last summer, when the pandemic had overturned all the wisdom of airline boardrooms, have returned to haunt the aviation industry. According to an official in the Ministry of Civil Aviation, flight occupancy is down to 60 per cent from 70 per cent in the first week of March. Airline lobby group IATA estimates that low cost airlines need to fly at 80 per cent occupancy to be profitable.
Based on the Skytrax ranking for 2018, IndiGo is number two among the best low-cost carriers in Asia, behind rival AirAsia.
Aviation consultancy CAPA on Thursday said allowing domestic airlines to take advance bookings from April 15 is "unfair" to consumers since a decision on lifting the nationwide lockdown is yet to be taken. During the lockdown period only special flights approved by aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation, medical evacuation flights and those carrying cargo, including medical equipment, to and from different parts of the country are operational.
Strong passenger growth will help domestic airlines improve their top line and margins.
As major airports like Mumbai, Chennai and Hyderabad have a severe cap on the number of fights they can handle, cancellations continued on Tuesday.
As India reached the halfway point in the 21-day coronavirus lockdown on Saturday, some states and rail and airline operators were considering measures to relax restrictions in phases from April 15. Simultaneously, the Centre has drawn up a cluster containment strategy to contain the coronavirus pandemic within a defined geographic area by early detection of cases, breaking the chain of transmission and thus preventing its spread to new areas.
The Air Traffic Controller inadvertently gave instructions to one aircraft to continue taxiing through a particular taxiway mixing its location with that of another plane that led to a near collision at Delhi airport on Tuesday, according to the Airports Authority of India.
Low-cost positioning is passe. Brand experts suggest ways in which the airline can differentiate itself in the minds of customers.
Delhiites woke up to the sound of thunder and lightning this morning and, according to the weather department, the city recorded 117.9 mm rainfall from 5:30 AM to 2.30 PM.
Fierce competition among airline firms has long limited price increases despite crippling operating costs
The airlines have waived charges for transport of relief cargo to Chennai.
All Indian carriers flew 60.22 lakh (6.02 million) passengers in May compared to 57.10 lakh (5.71 million) in April, while the January-May figure stood at 267.22 lakh (Rs 2.67 million) as against 260 lakh (2.6 million) in the same period last year recording a 2.78 per cent growth, latest official air traffic data showed.
The standoff between the government and the opposition in Parliament has showed no signs of easing after it erupted on the opening day of the Monsoon session on July 19.
Around 47 flights from New Delhi alone were cancelled, while 16 flights from Mumbai were not operated following the Air traffic control barring civil aircraft movements at the Srinagar, Jammu, Amritsar, Dehradun, Leh, Pathankot, and Shimla airports, among others, for about four hours since morning.
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