The MoCA said on Twitter on Wednesday that it 'has designated all the airlines operating under Vande Bharat Mission & air transport bubble arrangements as designated agencies for this purpose'. 'Passengers may book tickets directly with the airlines concerned. They need not apply/register with the Ministry of Civil Aviation,' it added.
Air India Express on Thursday cancelled 85 flights or around 23 per cent of the total daily capacity as the disruptions due to the cabin crew shortage continue and said Air India will operate services on 20 of its routes to minimise inconvenience to passengers.
The incident took place on Thursday when the aircraft was taxing out for take off with 98 passengers on board and the flight was cancelled, it said.
There was no loud noise of anything breaking when the rods of a portion of a roof collapsed at the Delhi airport's Terminal-1, Krishna Kumar, a cab driver who was at the site of the incident, said on Friday.
Both parties will discuss the issues and there will be a meeting again on May 28, he said.
International airlines are offering affected passengers an option of refund, vouchers, discounts on future bookings, and the opportunity to hold tickets for up to two years following travel bans.
Several passengers have been complaining on social media as domestic airlines have decided not to give refunds in cash for cancelled flights due to the lockdown and instead issue credit for future travel.
The incident which took place on Friday came close on the heels of two mid-air urinating incidents on the international flights of Tata Group-run private carrier Air India late last year.
Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri had said on Saturday that 149 people have been admitted to hospitals, 23 have been discharged, while three are critically injured in the B737 plane crash.
The move by four airlines -- IndiGo, Air India, SpiceJet and GoAir -- to suspend the stand-up comedian raises fears that the government can use the no-fly list to settle political scores, undermine the freedom of citizens.
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.
Seeking to ensure strict adherence to COVID-19 protocols by air travellers, aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Saturday asked airlines to de-board passengers who do not wear their mask 'properly' despite repeated warnings.
The passenger He said that there were pregnant women and elderly people travelling on the plane, but despite it, "the Indigo team declined to help the passengers and asked them to make their own arrangements at a 3rd location".
Indian airlines have also been advised separately to give relief, an official said.
A Romanian aircraft carrying 275 passengers, mostly Indians, on Monday left for India four days after they were detained by the French authorities at an airport near Paris over suspected 'human trafficking'.
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)
In a post on the microblogging platform 'X' on Saturday, passenger Vineeth K said that even though he was getting cheaper fares with Gulf carrier Etihad, he had opted for Air India as it operates a non-stop service to the US.
Among the five Indian nationals, four had just arrived in Kathmandu from India on Friday.
Sources at Mumbai airport said seat occupancy has declined from around 70-72 per cent to 60-64 per cent in last three-four days as passengers are postponing or cancelling trips.
Aviation security regulator BCAS on Wednesday slapped fines totalling Rs 1.80 crore on IndiGo and Mumbai airport operator MIAL over the incident of passengers having food on the airport's apron. The apron is the area around the aircraft where it has finally parked for deboarding.
So far, carcasses of 32 flamingos have been recovered from Ghatkopar area, the police said.
The recent spate of technical glitches in aircraft has prompted the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to issue an order on July 18, making aircraft maintenance engineers (AMEs) with category B1/B2 licences the final authorities in certifying planes. This has put the spotlight on the availability of such personnel. According to the order, airlines were resorting to frequent one-off authorisation by the Category A certifying staff at transit stations, which is not in line with existing regulatory provisions.
The good news is that the government has taken notice of the pain and has formed a task force to improve operating procedure during foggy days.
The new visa-free regime allows travellers to stay for up to 60 days instead of only 15 earlier.
This isn't the first instance of Vistara facing scrutiny from the regulator over improper pilot training.
A child sitting near the window was reportedly pulled by the suction, and his shirt was torn off.
In India, domestic airlines have not secured any relief from the government and are reporting 50-55 per cent loads as domestic air travel resumed on May 25 after two-month suspension.
The country's largest airline IndiGo on Thursday reported more than doubling of its net profit to Rs 1,894.8 crore in the three months ended March 2024 and announced the introduction of business class in select routes this year. The strong performance in the latest March quarter, which also marks six consecutive quarters of profitability, was fuelled by higher traffic, increased capacity and a favourable external environment.
We've heard gooseflesh inducing chants of 'Sachin! Sachin!' reverberate across stadiums in India and abroad. The same chants were heard on a Kashmir-bound Indigo Airlines flight.
Four French judges earlier in the day began questioning the passengers detained by the French authorities at Vatry airport, 150 km east of Paris, since Thursday over suspected "human trafficking".
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) conducted searches at four locations in Punjab on Friday as part of its probe in a terror-conspiracy case involving designated terrorist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun and the Sikhs For Justice (SFJ), a banned organisation associated with him.
'The right engine of GoAir flight G8 802 from Ahmedabad to Bengaluru is suspected to have suffered from a foreign object damage (FOD) while on take-off roll,' the airline said.
Shubham Upadhyay, a resident of Uttam Nagar in the national capital, was arrested for posting two bomb threat messages to draw attention after seeing similar news reports on TV, the police said.
"The AI865 flight on Thursday got delayed as it developed a technical snag. It had to return to the bay. Passengers started knocking on the cockpit door, asking and taunting the pilots to come out," said an airline official. "One male passenger even said that he will break open the cockpit door if the pilots didn't come out," the official said, adding the situation inside the plane "went from bad to worse".
India's largest carrier IndiGo will cut 20 per cent of its flights due to lower demand as a rapidly spreading coronavirus upends the recovery of air travel. The airline was operating around 1,200 flights as on Saturday. Other airlines are being forced to cancel flights as states tighten restrictions to combat the spread of the virus, and people are dropping last-minute travel plans. Airlines carried 2,518 passengers on 260,251 flights on Saturday, compared to 2,794 passengers on 358,856 flights the day before.
A passenger called Himadri Barman tested positive on Tuesday, and Nagendra Singh tested positive on Wednesday, said the director of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport.
No domestic commercial passenger flight would be allowed to operate in the country from March 25 onwards in order to restrict travel amid the coronavirus pandemic, the Union civil aviation ministry said in a statement on Monday.
Captain Sharan and Flight Engineer Anil Jaggia both confirm that the hijackers seemed to know a lot about flying an aircraft. Without help from the ISI or the Pakistan army, it was impossible, points out Utkarsh Mishra.
"We have found that a couple of international airlines are not adhering to the rules. Failure to adhere to rules shall entail strict action," said Director General of Civil Aviation Arun Kumar.
India's domestic passenger traffic slipped to a 10-year low at an estimated 53.4 million in the just-concluded financial year, a report said. However, in the previous fiscal there were no passenger flight operations for almost two months due to the pandemic-induced lockdown. During the financial year 2010-11, all domestic air operators together had flown a total of 53.8 million passengers on local routes, according to ratings agency ICRA. The domestic passenger traffic in March 2021 has been estimated at around 77-78 lakh, a marginal decline of about 1 per cent over February during which airlines had flown around 78.30 lakh passengers, it said.
