Indian aviation regulator DGCA has barred 90 SpiceJet pilots from operating the Boeing 737 Max aircraft after finding them not properly trained. "For the moment, we have barred these pilots from flying the Max and they have to retrain successfully for flying the aircraft," DGCA chief Arun Kumar said in a statement. He also said that the regulator will take "strict action against those found responsible for the lapse."
US aircraft manufacturer Boeing said on Tuesday the company will deliver more wide-bodied 777 aircraft to India in 2009 than in the current year, besides the 787 Dreamliner.
The Tata Group-owned Air India has decided to procure its maiden batch of wide-bodied A350 aircraft of Airbus and the first plane is likely to be delivered to the airline by March 2023, sources have said.
New airline Akasa Air on Monday said it is on track to receive its first Boeing 737 Max plane by mid-June and launch commercial operations by July. The airline on Monday released the photographs of its first Max plane from the Boeing production facility in the USA's Portland as it gets ready for delivery. "The airline recently reaffirmed its commitment of being on track to receive its first aircraft in India by mid-June and launch commercial operations in India by July 2022," its statement mentioned.
'The boys did it. First-ever Thomas Cup for India.'
Air-India has taken three Boeing 777s on lease for a five-year period beginning December 2004.
Air-India plans to expand its 33 aircraft fleet by dry leasing two Boeing 747-400 aircraft and increasing the number of seats during the summer season.
The US grounded the entire fleet of the Chinooks over fuel leaks that caused a "small number" of engine fires.
Moving ahead with its fleet expansion plan, cash-strapped Air India has sought a long-term loan of USD 475 million from banks and financial institutions to acquire three long-haul Boeing-777s.
Air India on Thursday unveiled a new brand identity and aircraft livery as the airline moves ahead with its transformation plan since being taken over by Tata Group more than one-and-a-half years ago. The new look re-imagines the iconic Indian window shape, historically used by Air India, into a gold window frame that becomes central to the new brand design system. It symbolises a 'Window of Possibilities', according to a release.
Air India's decision to buy five Boeing 787-9 is illogical.
According to flight radar, the Indian plane with a ground speed of 454 knots entered north of Lahore at about 7:30 pm on Saturday and returned to India at 8:01 pm, the Dawn newspaper reported.
I want a room full of medals before retiring, says Chirag Shetty
Air-India is to acquire 18 aircraft of 160-seater plus category, worth over $1.5 billion, during the next five years, even as it has decided to scale down its requirement of long-range aircraft from 17 to 10 planes.
Air India on Monday said it will progressively induct 30 new aircraft, including 5 wide-body Boeing planes, from December this year, as the Tatas-owned airline looks to boost its domestic and international services. The airline has signed leases and letters of intent for inducting 5 wide-body Boeing and 25 Airbus narrow-body planes over the next 15 months. "These new aircraft, which will enter service from late 2022, will increase the airline's fleet by over 25 per cent.
At the recently concluded Dubai airshow, Akasa, Rakesh Radheyshyam Jhunjhunwala's new airline, signed a $9 billion deal with American aircraft maker Boeing to buy its 737 MAX planes and a $4 billion one for engines with CFM, a joint venture between GE of the US and Safran of France. Unlike his financial doppelganger Warren Buffett, who divested billions from his airline stock portfolio at the start of the pandemic, Jhunjhunwala is wagering his billions in a brand new airline. The legendary investor bought a roughly 40 per cent stake in SNV Aviation in September, Akasa's holding company, started in March by three former Jet Airways colleagues. With aviation still to recover from its pandemic slump, the big question around his foray into domestic aviation, due to take off in summer 2022, is whether it is another pie in the sky.
Its association with India is over 70 years old and spans both civil and military aviation. The Douglas DC-3 transport aircraft used by the air force beginning the 1940s and the iconic Boeing 747 aircraft flown by Air India, both had Pratt & Whitney (P&W) engines. The Indian Air Force's present-day, heavy-lift C-17 Globemaster III and the yet-to-be-inducted C-295 planes, too, have P&W power plants.
Jet's air operator certificate will lapse on May 19.
SpiceJet is looking for investments from external parties, including airlines, and also plans to add seven more Boeing planes to its fleet, the carrier's chief Ajay Singh said on Tuesday. In recent times, SpiceJet has faced turbulence -- especially with many of its flights suffering technical snags -- and subsequently, the airline has faced actions from aviation regulator DGCA. SpiceJet chairman and managing director Ajay Singh said it is doing the utmost to work through the stress that it has faced and the strategy is to raise resources.
On one hand, South Indian states have been complaining about denial of a proportionate portion of the sharable funds from the Centre, based on population. On the other hand, they stand to lose Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha seats that again are based on population, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
SpiceJet will induct more Boeing 737 Max aircraft over the next few months and it hopes to start broadband internet service on its planes soon, its chairman and managing director (CMD) Ajay Singh said on Monday. The airline has a fleet of 91 aircraft, out of which 13 are Max planes and 46 are older versions of Boeing 737 aircraft, according to its website. In his email to employees on the 17th anniversary of the airline, Singh said the carrier continues to fly with the highest loads month after month and expects to soar even higher in the coming months.
The US aircraft manufacturer has already agreed to create a maintenance, repair and overhaul facility in Nagpur as part of its India commitments following the Air India order.
From the seas to the stars, this partnership will now be deepened by the defining role of technology, the statement said.
Crew shortage is impacting the operations of Air India, with some flights to the US and Canada either getting cancelled or facing inordinate delays, according to a source. Tata group-owned Air India, which is the only air operator flying on ultra-long haul routes, had faced problems last year also due to the shortage of crew members. An ultra-long haul flight's duration is more than 16 hours.
On Monday, the Boeing B737 Max aircraft with registration number VT-SZK operated the Mangaluru-Dubai flight, DGCA officials noted. After the aircraft landed, an engineer did a walk around inspection and found the nose wheel strut was compressed more than usual, they said.
Brokerages lowered their earnings estimates following muted results in Q1FY24. While analysts remain optimistic about the stock's medium-term prospects, they highlight near-term concerns stemming from lower realisations due to changes in the product mix and margin pressures resulting from new plane additions.
'Within five years, we should be achieving more on the international front than what it took most airlines 15 to 20 years back.'
Planemakers have started pitching their latest aircraft to a privatised Air India which has been acquired by salt-to-steel conglomerate Tata Sons. European aerospace major Airbus on Monday said that it is in talks with the airline to sell its long haul aircraft Airbus A350-900. The wide-body aircraft is capable of flying non-stop between India and United States- one of the most popular and revenue generating routes.
It offers a real opportunity for the flag carrier to compete on the world stage, backed by a leading conglomerate with deep pockets like the Tatas, observes Indrajit Gupta.
Full service carrier Air India on Thursday announced a new multi-year global distribution services partnership with US-based Sabre Corporation. The collaboration enables travel agents and corporations around the world to access Air India fares and seats through Sabre's extensive global travel marketplace, Air India said in a statement. In addition to the distribution services, Air India said it is utilising Sabre's consultancy expertise to help determine optimal routes for its existing and new fleet.
The Boeing 737-800 aircraft had 184 passengers onboard and all are safe, an airline spokesperson said.
'While we do some metro-to-metro flying, we have got a lot of metro-to-non-metro cities like Bengaluru-Visakhapatnam, Bengaluru-Bhubaneswar, Bengaluru-Guwahati and Bengaluru-Kochi.'
The commercial flight operations of Rakesh Jhunjhunwala-backed Akasa Air will be launched in July instead of June. "As we get closer to the airline launch date, we can now confirm refined estimates on our timelines. "We expect our first aircraft delivery by early June 2022, with the intention to start commercial operations in July 2022," Vinay Dube, CEO, Akasa Air, told PTI.
Air India is set to increase capacity on domestic and international routes over the next few months as it overhauls its grounded aircraft. Air India has the approval to operate 2,456 flights per week in the summer schedule. This is more than a 16 per cent increase over 2020. But its international schedule has declined 41 per cent (compared to winter 2019) to 361 weekly departures.
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