Last week, after a direction from ministry, airlines provided the maximum fares they would charge based on distance travelled.
In a coalition era, the smallest of parties gets almost blackmail power and that power is in direct proportion to the weakness of the senior coalition partner. Which is why, for instance, even in an era of coalitions, Atal Bihari Vajpayee was a lot more powerful than Manmohan Singh is.
The home ministry said only asymptomatic people would be allowed to travel and it would be arranged by aircraft and naval ships, and the facility will be available on a payment basis.
The team from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, which is probing the Air India plane crash that claimed 158 lives near the Mangalore airport on Saturday, has been divided into four groups to look at a particular aspect of the crash. The four teams will look into engineering and wreckage, operations, air traffic control and aerodrome.A release from the civil aviation ministry states that wreckage group has further been divided into smaller groups.
The apex court asked the government to get back by March 9 about the policy.
The Aircraft Acquisition Committee of the civil aviation ministry, which approved the IndiGo request in principle, also gave similar approval to a proposal of the Chennai-based business class airline Paramount Airways to acquire 10 aircraft from the Canadian aircraft manufacturer Bombardier and European ATR, official sources said.
Worried over security of VIPs and movement of money in poll-bound Bihar, the Election Commission has written to Civil Aviation Ministry to deploy trained security personnel and baggage scanners at the unguarded state hangar in Patna.
The manufacturer of Bell helicopters has offered its assistance to authorities in probing the crash of the Bell-430 chopper which claimed the lives of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Rajashekhar Reddy and four others.
Maintaining that civil aviation flew thousands of tonnes of equipment and passengers across the country on a daily basis, he said grant of infrastructure status would help the industry in its dealings with the RBI as well as the commercial banks, both in the private and public sectors. On Kingfisher's global plan, Mallya said the airline would launch services to Hong Kong and Singapore as soon as its aircraft were ready.
The government has cleared the acquisition of 46 new aircraft worth over Rs 19,000 crore (Rs 190 billion) by three low-cost carriers: SpiceJet, IndiGo and Jet Lite.
The government on Tuesday restored the payment of productivity-linked incentives (PLI) to Air India's functional directors, five months after stopping it. With losses mounting, the Air India Board had approved a cut of up to 50 per cent in the monthly PLI for the airline's executive directors and other functional directors in September last year, as part of cost-cutting measures.
While a demand for allocation of Rs. 2,000 crore has already been made, sources said provision for Rs. 1,200 crore worth of equity could be made in the Budget.
The pilot and co-pilot of an Air India plane involved in Wednesday night's freak accident at the Mumbai airport where a technician died after getting sucked into the engine have been grounded even as the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau launched a probe.
Aviation consultancy CAPA on Thursday said allowing domestic airlines to take advance bookings from April 15 is "unfair" to consumers since a decision on lifting the nationwide lockdown is yet to be taken. During the lockdown period only special flights approved by aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation, medical evacuation flights and those carrying cargo, including medical equipment, to and from different parts of the country are operational.
The Civil Aviation Ministry has recommended an equity infusion of Rs 2,000 crore (Rs 20 billion) in Air India in the next financial year after the beleaguered national carrier gets Rs 1,200 crore soon.
This demand is over and above the Rs 1,200 crore.
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.
Without identifying the airlines, official sources said notices had been issued to some carriers against which the Civil Aviation Ministry had received complaints. The sources said 'affirmative action' would be taken against carriers flouting the refund guidelines issued a few months ago.
Sending a strong signal to domestic airlines over abrupt hike in airfares by some of them during periods of high demand, the Union civil aviation ministry on Thursday warned them of action if they continued with such 'predatory pricing'.
Thirteen years and several hurdles later, the plan has finally got a new "estimated time of departure".
It neither mentions timelines for refund or compensation, nor talks about penal provisions for airlines.
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.
National Aviation Company India Ltd, which runs Air India, is likely to receive government approval for its second equity infusion of Rs 1,200 crore (Rs 12 billion) by next week.
Civil aviation minister Praful Patel has directed Bangalore International Airport Limited, the Siemens-led private consortium developing the new greenfield airport, to increase its capacity to handle passengers.
The PMO directed the ministry of civil aviation and the Air India to find early resolution to stalemate. Besides, the PMO told the civil aviation ministry that a lockout is not an option to resolve the issue.
Fifteen Cabinet ministers and 28 Ministers of State were sworn-in by President Ram Nath Kovind at a ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhavan on Wednesday evening.
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.
Despite the sops, scheduled carriers might not be interested in operating such routes.
The Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government on Friday toughened its anti-hijacking law by declaring that a death sentence will be given to those involved in it.The Cabinet took up a proposal of the civil aviation ministry, to amend the Anti-Hijacking Act of 1982, to deter hijackers from using an aircraft as a missile. The Cabinet approval paves the way for amending Section 4 of the 1982 Act, which provides for life imprisonment and a fine for hijacking.
The civil aviation ministry and Maharashtra have been planning an international airport near Pune for almost 10 years. The airport site would see construction from year 2011 onwards, if the land acquisition happens within a year.
The plan, vetted by the finance and civil aviation ministries, is likely to include proposals relating to the nature of financial assistance it wants from the government, including equity infusion and soft loan.
The government has made clear that the Airports Authority of India will closely monitor the cost of airports built through the PPP route.
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.
Bangalore's information and biotechnology majors have again trained their guns at the government over the closure of the existing HAL airport.
Premier British carrier Virgin Atlantic took the lead in introducing day time flights out of Delhi. British Airways followed suit by introducing its additional flight during day time. German carrier Lufthansa now also operates day time flights to Munich out of Delhi and Mumbai, apart from its night services to Frankfurt.
The Central and state governments must take a long-term, pragmatic view and 'plan big' to ensure a future capacity of at least a 100-million passengers at Mumbai's new airport, which is the norm for all major airports in the world, including the one at Delhi, said a report titled 'Second Airport: What Mumbai Must Learn from International Experience,' carried out by the Observer Research Foundation.
This was decided after Bangalore International Airport Ltd, the private consortium developing the greenfield airport, rejected the civil aviation ministry's proposal of keeping both the airports operational. The Karnataka high court had recently advised the government to reconsider the concession agreement with the private developers, which says that the existing airport in Bangalore should be shut down after the new one starts functioning.
The prevalent practice is that airlines have to pay between Rs 4,000 and Rs 4,500 per filled seat as departure tax.
The prevalent practice is that airlines have to pay between Rs 4,000 and Rs 4,500 per filled seat as departure tax.
The recent Cabinet approval to private and greenfield airport policies has enhanced the powers of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), which is now one of the key licensing authorities for almost all future airport projects in the country.