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.
Once again, there seems to be an airfare war in India.
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.
The first Airbus A-320 aircraft of Tata-SIA joint venture Vistara airline, painted with its logo and livery, landed at the IGI Airport in New Delhi on Wednesday, taking the carrier a step closer to its launch.
Currently, Vistara has more than 22 planes and operates around 850 flights every week.
Vistara will operate from its base Delhi and fly to Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Goa, Chandigarh, Srinagar, Jammu and Patna in the first year as per its plan submitted to DGCA while applying for the AOP.
In a December 2012 interview, Ratan Tata, then preparing to step down as chairman of Tata Sons, expressed doubts about the Tata group re-entering the aviation sector, calling it a space plagued by "destructive competition". But beneath that frustration lay nearly two decades of failed attempts to conquer the Indian skies. In 1994, Tata, along with Singapore Airlines, had plans to launch a joint venture (JV) airline in India.
The airline would offer access to in-flight connectivity only on Dreamliners and Airbus 321 aircraft on international routes.
More than 25 aircraft of Jet Airways has been grounded by lessors due to non-payment of lease rentals. The airline, which started the winter schedule with 103 planes, is now down to 83.
Vistara has poor load factors currently, it needs to bring down fares a bit to improve flight occupancy.
Vistara announced the new fare model giving its economy class customers the choice to forego complimentary meal for a ticket price which is Rs 500-1000 cheaper than the standard fare.
Vistara has six Airbus A320s in a three class configuration.
Air India will be commencing its scheduled operations -- two daily flights from the national capital -- to Dhaka on Wednesday.
The international cargo operations of two major carriers - IndiGo and Air India Group (Air India and Vistara) - are experiencing opposite trajectories despite both the airlines significantly expanding their international flight offerings over the past year. During the fourth quarter of 2023-24, IndiGo's international non-passenger cargo business declined to 6,848 tonnes. This is an 18.2 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y) decrease, according to data from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA)
Indian airline companies are likely to announce the suspension of flight operations to and from Tel Aviv, Israel, amid rising tensions between Iran and Israel.
In 14 days, more than 350 flights operated by the Indian carriers have received hoax bomb threats. Most of the threats were issued through social media.
A total of 17 pilots of Air India, IndiGo and Vistara died due to COVID-19 in May when the country saw the peak of the coronavirus pandemic's second wave, sources said on Thursday.
The city will be the 10th destination for Vistara.
The bulk of Indian carriers flying to Dubai are low-cost carriers, which include IndiGo, Air India Express, and SpiceJet.
Vistara has expanded its network of agents.
An unprecedented decision to form a ministerial-level committee was driven by fears of witch-hunt by investigating agencies.
Earlier, budget carrier SpiceJet said it would hire 500 from Jet, including 100 pilots. Air India Express has also inducted around 25 commanders from the grounded airline.
Chief Operating Officer, Sanjiv Kapoor will be leaving the company effective October 31, 2015 after two years with the organisation.
Over the past eight months, a team of 80 people has been diligently working to harmonise operating procedures across four airlines run by the Tata group, as part of two mergers, revealed Campbell Wilson, Air India's chief executive officer (CEO), on Friday. The Tata group is consolidating its aviation business by merging four airlines into two: Air India and Vistara are merging to form a single full-service carrier, while AIX Connect and Air India Express are combining to create a unified low-cost carrier (as a subsidiary of Air India).
Vistara was launched on January 9.
The certification will enable Vistara to safely operate under low visibility conditions due to fog or any other poor weather conditions, which is anticipated in the north-east and northern parts of the country typically during the year-end and the beginning of the year, the airline said in a release.
The decision has been taken after Kamra was found 'guilty' for alleged misbehaviour by an internal committee of IndiGo, an airline official said. The ban on Kamra comes into effect immediately.
Vistara is keen to take to global skies.
With respect to the cancelled flights, customers can opt for a full refund or alternative travel dates free of cost.
Led by the retiring duo of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, the players danced to the electrifying tunes of Chak De India alongside a jubilant crowd.
Vistara has accelerated fleet expansion plan from June 2018 to earlier, open to talks with Boeing as well.
To make space for the extra row, Vistara has opted for the smartLav concept offered by Airbus
Over 70 per cent of Jet's fleet has been grounded, leading to massive cancellations.
Paving the way for launch of its flights, Tata-Singapore Airlines joint venture airline Vistara was on Monday granted flying permit by aviation regulator DGCA, almost nine months after it applied for the licence.
Indigo, the largest player in the domestic aviation space, cannot afford to ignore new entrant Vistara.
Vistara was operating from Delhi, Mumbai, Ahmedabad and Goa.
Vistara needs to launch more aircraft into service.
Vistara will have to face stiff competition from Jet Airways, AirAsia
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.
With the Middle East tensions flaring up, Air India has temporarily suspended its Tel Aviv flights and airlines have charted alternative flight paths to avoid the Iranian airspace.
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