Even after getting the civil aviation ministry's nod to levy user development fee on international passengers, the GMR group-promoted Hyderabad airport has decided not to impose the levy for at least a month. GMR has already decided to exempt domestic passengers for the time being. "We have decided to let issues like groundhandling charges stabilise before taking a call," said a Hyderabad airport executive.
This means a passenger flying between Delhi and Mumbai will now know that the minimum fare in the route will be Rs 95 (as being charged by SpiceJet) and can go up to a maximum of Rs 22,800 (as being levied by GoAir), plus around Rs 3,000 as components like passenger fees.
The average age should be around 35 years, the sources said, adding those older should be shifted to ground operations.
Thirteen years and several hurdles later, the plan has finally got a new "estimated time of departure".
On Monday, the five independent directors of the company -- Anand Mahindra of Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd, Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry's secretary general Amit Mitra, Ambuja Realty chairman Harsh Neotia and former air chief Fali H Major -- met Prime Minister's principal secretary T K A Nair and reportedly expressed their anguish over the appointments being made by the company.
The Civil Aviation Ministry has ordered a probe into the incident involving the ground security staff of Continental Airlines which subjected Kalam to security check before he was to board a Newark-bound flight on April 24.
The incident took place on August 30 when Air India flight AI 102 was on its way to New Delhi from New York.
The decision was taken after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that the lockdown across the country will be extended till May 3 to fight the coronavirus pandemic.
Airlines may get to do terminal-side ground handling. Currently, it is an outsourced activity.
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Officials in India's civil aviation ministry are now expected to meet SpiceJet stakeholders within a couple of days to discuss the revival plan
Civil aviation minister Praful Patel, who held this portfolio in the first government of the United Progressive Alliance, too, has so far followed a liberal open-sky policy, sharply increasing the number of seats offered to West Asian airlines on flights connecting India. According to internal figures available with airlines, the total number of seats offered to West Asian carriers rose from 2.5 million in 2004 to 7.5 million last year.
A bench of Chief Justice N V Ramana and Justice Manmohan issued notice to Civil Aviation Ministry, DGCA and others and sought their response by October 30.
Jet Airways' plans to raise $400 million through a share sale to foreign institutions may get delayed as the government on Thursday deferred a decision on the proposal of the private air carrier.
The Kalrock-Jalan consortium - new owners of Jet Airways - has got an assurance from around 30 airports that if the airline restarts operations, 170 pairs of slots can be made available. However, whether those slots will be according to the airline's demand will depend on the order of the insolvency court, which is slated to come next week. Sources said the new management feels it is extremely important that some of those slots are restored or else its business plan of operating Jet as a premium carrier will not be viable.
It is for the first time in the history of Independent India that not a single Muslim is part of the Union Cabinet.
In a development that could speed up the about Rs 9,000 crore (Rs 90 billion) Delhi Airport modernisation work, the Attorney General has supported project promoter GMR Group's plan to take advances from commercial developers. The report may help Delhi International Airport Ltd) achieve financial closure for the Rs 8,900 crore (Rs 89 billion) project for which the company has proposed to raise Rs 3,144 crore (Rs 31.44 billion) by way of trade advances and deposits.
Domestic passengers using the Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi will be able to use the new Terminal-3 only from October 28, a few weeks after the Commonwealth Games are over. The Games will conclude on October 14.
The civil aviation ministry is planning to send air traffic controllers to Australia for training in simultaneous use of converging runways.
The prevalent practice is that airlines have to pay between Rs 4,000 and Rs 4,500 per filled seat as departure tax.
In his order last week, Civil Aviation Secretary K N Srivastava ruled the meanings of transaction fee, commission or convenience fee were the same -- payment of remuneration to an intermediary.
Pant, a 1991-batch Indian Administrative Service officer of Rajasthan cadre, is currently secretary in the ministry of ports, shipping and waterways.
DIAL, the GMR-led consortium modernising Delhi airport, had projected it would get only a Rs 800 crore-Rs 1,000 crore deposit for the entire 45 acre land in the hospitality district, leaving a gap in funding for the modernisation plan. The aviation ministry allowed it make up the shortfall by levying an ADF on passengers. With DIAL managing to persuade bidders for the hospitality district to increase security deposits by close to 50 per cent, the ADF may now be reduced.
This would be a key function of the Airport Economic Regulatory Authority, to be set up to regulate tariffs, said a civil aviation ministry official.
Jet Airways chairman Naresh Goyal said his airlines, if given permission, would start off by flying to Southeast Asian countries.
Plan maybe shelved with the Left mounting pressure on the government.
Even though the two state-owned airlines, Indian Airlines and Air India, have announced a merger, the country is on its way to once again have two scheduled airlines controlled by the government.
Private carrier Kingfisher Airlines on Wednesday got the crucial operational permit from the civil aviation ministry, recognising it as a scheduled carrier and enabling it to launch flights from Monday next.
There is increasing friction between the IAF's military requirements, and the AAI's need to provide infrastructure to many more airlines.
'The BJP's numbers in this government are almost the same as those enjoyed by the Congress under P V Narasimha Rao when the reform process was kicked off in 1991.' 'As before, the only constraints on the prime minister's actions are internal, not external.' 'They come from his own assessment of the political consequences of any action,' points out Mihir S Sharma.
Indian airports in future would have "intelligent terminals" fitted with sensors to operate various facilities - from lighting and air-conditioning to an IT-enabled building management system.
Air Deccan, which was renamed Simplifly Deccan after the merger with Kingfisher last year, is now called Kingfisher Red. According to the data released by the civil aviation ministry on Thursday, IndiGo's market share is 10.3 per cent, while that of Air Deccan trailed behind at 10.2 per cent.
The airport had asked for a UDF of at least Rs 600 from domestic passengers travelling out of Andhra Pradesh. For passengers travelling within the state, it had demanded a user fee of Rs 350. UDF is the fee levied at the airport on departing passengers to enable the airport developer bridge the gap between expenditure and admissible revenue as stipulated by the ministry guidelines.
The presence of an engine maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) facility in India could have prevented Go First airline from going "belly up", as sending engines abroad for servicing is not an efficient way to operate a carrier, Piyush Srivastava, senior economic advisor, Ministry of Civil Aviation, said in a statement on Tuesday. On May 3, Go First suspended its flights and filed for insolvency, squarely blaming engine manufacturer Pratt & Whitney (PW) for its cash crunch. The airline claimed that about half of its 54 aircraft were grounded on May 3 due to a delay in the supply of engines by the US-based company. PW has denied the charges.
