An Air India A321 plane's auxiliary power unit caught fire after landing at the Delhi airport. All passengers and crew members are safe. The aircraft has been grounded for investigations.
The airline plans to scale up its operations at NMIA significantly, from 36 air traffic movements (ATMs) daily on the opening day to 79 daily departures (158 ATMs), including 14 international departures by November this year.
'The crash site must be secured because something small -- like a pipe or hydraulic line -- could hold a critical clue.'
Airline systems across airports, which were impacted due to a global IT outage on Friday, have started working normally, and all issues are likely to be resolved by noon on Saturday, Civil Aviation Minister K Rammohan Naidu said. The ministry is constantly monitoring the operations at airports and airlines to ensure travel readjustments and refunds are taken care of, he added.
The country's largest airline IndiGo on Friday saw its profit after tax slide 18.3 per cent to Rs 2,448.8 crore in the three months ended December 2024 due to foreign exchange loss even as revenue jumped on higher capacity and passenger traffic. The carrier, which had a fleet of 437 planes at the end of December, is planning to induct wet leased planes for long range flights and expects the number of grounded aircraft to come down to 40s by the start of next financial year from the current level of 60s.
The aircraft, later, flew to Guwahati after an improvement in the weather conditions in Guwahati, said KC Meena, the director of the Maharaja Bir Bikram (MBB) Airport at Agartala.
IndiGo, which operates the largest fleet among Indian carriers, has reported the highest number of serious engine-related incidents.
Vistara will operate the last flight under its brand on November 11 and the full-service carrier's operations will be unified with Air India from November 12. The government has given its nod for the foreign direct investment by Singapore Airlines as part of the Air India-Vistara merger. Vistara is a joint venture between Tata Group and Singapore Airlines.
The DGCA has issued multiple fines and warnings to Air India over the past three years, flagging serious concerns in flight operations, cockpit discipline, and internal accountability.
Air India reiterated that its priority remains extending assistance to the families.
An IndiGo flight from Delhi to Goa made an emergency landing in Mumbai due to an engine failure. Passengers were transferred to an alternative aircraft.
IndiGo will start direct flights to a total of 10 international destinations, including London and Athens, in the current financial year, its CEO Pieter Elbers said on Friday. Other destinations include Amsterdam (the Netherlands), Manchester (the UK), Copenhagen (Denmark) Siem Reap (Cambodia) and four places in Central Asia.
'This (crash) is one of those times where there is no concrete explanation yet for what happened. I think that adds to my parents' worry.'
An Air India plane from Kochi veered off the runway at the Mumbai airport on Monday morning, and the aircraft has been grounded for checks.
The Supreme Court has criticized the selective publication of a preliminary report on the Air India crash, calling it 'unfortunate and irresponsible'. The court raised concerns about privacy, dignity of victims' families, and the potential for biased narratives.
'In the inspections, no issues were found with the said locking mechanism.'
Air India's CEO defends the fitness of pilots and aircraft after a preliminary report into the crash of flight AI171 raised questions. He urged against premature conclusions as the investigation continues.
The frame was fixed once the aircraft landed at the next (Pune) airport, in accordance with standard maintenance procedures, the airline said in a statement.
Air India and Air India Express on Tuesday progressively resumed their services to the Middle East, with flights to Dubai and Muscat, respectively, as countries in the region reopened their airspaces.
A few weeks back, hundreds of flights had received bomb threat calls that later turned out to be hoaxes.
Air India has confirmed that 241 people on board its London-bound flight were killed when the aircraft crashed shortly after takeoff from the Ahmedabad airport on Thursday.
'The tone of the preliminary report creates a narrative towards pilot error. This is wrong.' 'Selected conversation has been divulged. It's not as if the pilots did not speak anything else in the cockpit.'
'Delhi airport handles 1,450 aircraft movements per day. Of these, 114 daily movements will be cancelled during the runway upgrade.'
'...from the recovered part of the throttle quadrant -- the control panel that manages engine power -- it is hard to say at this stage if the locking mechanism was damaged in any way.'
The civil aviation ministry on Friday asked airlines to ensure that there is no abnormal surge in airfares for flights to and from the national capital amid suspension of operations at Delhi airport's Terminal 1 following the roof collapse incident.
Air India has cancelled eight flights, including four international services, on Friday due to enhanced maintenance and operational reasons, the airline said.
Air India on Wednesday said it has cancelled its Lucknow-Mumbai flight scheduled for June 17 due to 'operational reasons' and the ripple effect of flight diversions.
Consequently, the return flight AI142 from Paris to Delhi of June 18 also stands cancelled, it said.
The A320 aircraft, operating the flight 6E2006 from Delhi to Leh, returned to the national capital after being airborne for over two hours, as per information available on flight tracking website Flightradar24.com.
Two passengers were offloaded from a SpiceJet flight at Delhi airport after attempting to forcefully enter the cockpit while the aircraft was taxiing. The flight to Mumbai was delayed as a result.
'We consider everyone who lost someone in this tragedy as part of our family -- now and forever.'
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.
Pseudonymous or anonymous nature of the social media handle, analysis of the geopolitical situation and presence of VIPs onboard are some of the new criteria that agencies will keep in mind while considering the seriousness of a bomb threat made to Indian airlines.
Air India's flight to London from Ahmedabad, which has started operating with a new code post the June 12 crash of AI-171, was cancelled on Tuesday due to "operational issues", an airport official said.
The perpetrator was also declared as unruly by the airline, the source added.
IndiGo has delivered impressive operating performance in the past six quarters as it navigated cost and capacity challenges. It has managed to mitigate the impact of faulty engine-related groundings. The airline has also managed costs related to grounding, expensive secondary leasing, increasing airport charges, and pilot compensation inflation and delivered stronger yields and spreads.
Corporate India is embarking on an ambitious investment drive, with capital expenditure (capex) expected to double to $850 billion over the next five years, according to a report by S&P Global Ratings. Indian power & transmission, airlines, and green hydrogen sectors would spearhead the spending, the report said.
Pakistan has extended the closure of its airspace for Indian flights until June 24, 2025, citing the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) rules that restrict such closures for a month at a time. The ban, which was first imposed in May after the April 22 Pahalgam terrorist attack, applies to all Indian-registered, operated, owned, or leased aircraft, including military aircraft. The decision comes after an IndiGo pilot requested permission to briefly use Pakistani airspace to avoid turbulence during a hailstorm, but the request was rejected.
The airline operates nearly 950 weekly flights on 28 destinations within and outside of Saudi Arabia.
Air India CEO Campbell Wilson addresses the preliminary report on the Ahmedabad plane crash, stating no mechanical or maintenance issues were found with the aircraft. He urges against premature conclusions as the investigation continues.
