The CBI has closed a case against former Air India CMD Arvind Jadhav and others over alleged corruption in the appointments of general managers after the central government refused to grant its sanction to prosecute him, officials said. The agency had booked Jadhav, then general manager L P Nakhwa (now retired), and then additional general managers A Kathpalia, Amitabh Singh and Rohit Bhasin after a year-long preliminary enquiry, they said. It was alleged that Jadhav had constituted illegal/irregular promotion panel to recommend suitable candidates for promotion to the post of general manager (operations), they said.
A 1985-batch Karnataka cadre officer, Kharola would be steering the national airline at a time when the government has started the process for its strategic divestment.
Rohit Nandan will continue to work as Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) of national carrier Air India for one month or till Ashwani Lohani takes over from him.
The Government had on August 11 approved three-month extension to Nandan "with the direction that the process of selection of a new CMD may be completed in the meantime.
Highly placed sources said Oil Minister Murli Deora took exception to Menon's proposals during a meeting of the Federation of Indian Airlines and Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel to resolve the crisis arising out of mounting fuel bill arrears. "There should not be any layoffs. Why are you raising it now," sources quoted Deora as telling Menon.
In an open letter to the employees, Air India Chairman and Managing Director Arvind Jadhav said, "Our issues are complex and can only be resolved through sustained dialogue. Any ad hoc decision would only complicate the matter further. You should understand that at this juncture, demands of one category of employees cannot be addressed in isolation."
Air India employees should adopt a "more determined approach" to ensure that the turnaround of the airline becomes a reality.
In one step forward, the Civil Aviation Ministry on Wednesday met for the first time to decide on allowing the Airbus A-380s to operate at some airports, years after some major foreign carriers sought the right to fly these superjumbos to India.
The announcement by Air India CMD Rohit Nandan came on a day when two of the airline's six Dreamliners resumed commercial operations and operated regular flights from Delhi to Bengaluru and Kolkata.
In an attempt to plug revenue loss of Air India, Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh has imposed a blanket ban on excess baggage checked in by ministers and civil servants, which is generally carried free by the airlines
The development comes four days ahead of the launch of a training programme for pilots to fly the Boeing 787 Dreamliners.
Civil aviation ministry has also reached a consensus to give a five-year term to the next CMD of the ailing state-owned airline.
The employees, holding Air India CMD Arvind Jadhav responsible for the present condition of the airline, also demanded his removal and regularisation of the payment of their due salary and productivity linked incentive.
Civil Aviation Minister Vayalar Ravi said the government was considering extending financial support to Air India.
Air India top brass on Thursday met leaders of two pilots' unions and assured them that their problems would be looked into, especially those relating to the wage structure.
The panel, which is a sub-committee of the Air India board, was set up on Tuesday following which the executive pilots withdrew their five-day long agitation against slashing of their productivity-linked incentive and flying allowance by half.
Air India CMD Arvind Jadhav requested all executives in the level of general managers and above to voluntarily forego salaries and incentives for July as a gesture to ease the liquidity crunch faced by the airline, an Air India spokesperson told PTI. The airline is facing a possible industrial unrest with employees threatening agitation in case their June salary is not given by this month-end.
Four committees had been set up in August under various functional directors of the airline, each focusing on a specific segment of the PLI to review the entire issue of performance payments after the unions rejected a 50 per cent 'unilateral' cut proposed by the National Aviation Company of India Limited management.
Giovanni Bisignani, CEO of International Air Transport Association, said Delhi and Mumbai airports were one of the worst contributors to the crisis, for their 207 per cent hike in charges. "There is no room for this nonsense in our future. When demand drops, suppliers cannot divide the same costs among fewer customers. The shape of everything must change," he declared.
With recession eroding profits of the global airline industry, Indian national carrier Air India on Monday said it is taking a "hard look" at its operations and would submit a paper to the government for the revival of the airline.
Air India CMD Vasudevan Thulasidas said the combined entity will have a change management consultant which will enable employees to be IT-savvy.
After Frankfurt, the airline may opt for Munich as its other base in Europe. "Air India would ideally want to have both Frankfurt and Munich as European hubs as the airline does not want to vacate Frankfurt and also wants to establish Munich as a hub for operations after network expansion plans come through," said an Air-India official close to the development, not wanting to be quoted.
The Federation of Indian Airlines, the group formed by various carriers, has appointed Amitabh Khosla from CII as Executive Director to head its secretariat and plans to have a Director General later.
National carrier Air India on Monday said it flew the "world's longest" all-women operated and supported flight from New Delhi to San Francisco.
The Boeing Company's proposed MRO base in Nagpur for maintenance and repair of aircraft may have another partner in addition to state-owned carrier Air India.
The air hostess compared the executive with the Hollywood film maker charged with sexual misconduct by leading actresses.
The senior pilot was suspended in May last year after being found guilty of sexual harassment by an internal committee of the airline. The committee imposed a 'major penalty' on Captain Sachin Gupta, who has now appealed to the next authority against the punishment.
Last year, Air India replaced veg and non-veg sandwiches with veg hot meals on flights
Air India had last year faced about two-month-long strike by its pilots.
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.
Jhulan gets promotion after World Cup super show
A Boeing team of experts would be flying to India to assess the situation arising out of a series of faults in Air India's Dreamliner aircraft, even as the airline insisted that the aircraft is safe.
The ATR 72-600 aircraft was accorded water salute as it landed at the Jaffna airport, about 400-km from capital Colombo.
The ban on Gaikwad was revoked last Friday after a letter from the ministry of civil aviation "advised" it to do so.
Air India would add about 400 daily flights and over 40 new destinations in India to the 27-member Alliance network of over 18,500 daily flights to 1,316 airports in 195 countries.
According to airline sources, the software, which is of Atlanta-based SITA company, was not functioning approximately from 3 am to 9 am on Saturday. Consequently, boarding passes could not be issued at major airports across the world and various flights were delayed.
The Sena also asked why the government was only talking about discipline while flying and not on the ground as well, and why the Centre does not threaten to dissolve a state assembly when there is even one incident of farmer suicide.
As Kashmir valley remains under flood water, Air India has decided to ferry free of cost tourists trapped in Srinagar while Gujarat and Bihar governments are sending 75,000 food and dry food packets for affected people.
The move will help to reduce Air India's distribution cost by 60 per cent
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