The certification will enable Vistara to safely operate under low visibility conditions due to fog or any other poor weather conditions, which is anticipated in the north-east and northern parts of the country typically during the year-end and the beginning of the year, the airline said in a release.
The Director General of Civil Aviation has initiated a probe into the crash-landing of the chopper at Godhra on Wednesday, in which spiritual guru Asaram Bapu and four others were travelling and had a narrow escape. A DGCA team from Mumbai has reached the spot to conduct a probe into the crash-landing of the chopper, official sources said
The preliminary findings of the Directorate of Civil Aviation points that there was no technical snag on the aircraft and they attribute the crash to a human error. A DGCA team, which is conducting investigations, has found that the crash occurred due to a pilot or human error.
Commercial pilot licenses will now be valid for ten years, with the government amending rules as part of efforts to further improve ease of doing business in the aviation sector. Till now, the validity of Commercial Pilot License (CPL) was for five years and after completion of that period, it had to be renewed. The civil aviation ministry amended the Aircraft Rules, 1937.
The suspension of scheduled international passenger flights in the country has been extended "till further orders", aviation regulator DGCA said on Monday.
Around 200 pilots of Go First, the cash-strapped airline that suspended operations on May 2, have joined Air India. As many as 75 of them started training with the Tata-owned airline on Monday. As Go First tries to salvage its operations, it has announced additional pay or retention allowance of Rs 100,000 and Rs 50,000 for captains and first officers, respectively, with effect from June 1.
The outer structure of Navi Mumbai International Airport's first terminal building is almost ready. Exactly behind the under-construction building, stands a partially demolished hill. Executives from the airport company are now hopeful the hill will be flattened by mid-January, paving the way for the first commercial take-off by December next year.
Insolvency tribunal NCLT on Wednesday rejected Go First lessors' petitions to take back the planes leased to the grounded airline, and said the aircraft are available for resumption of operations since aviation regulator DGCA has not deregistered them. A two-member bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) held that physical possession of the aircraft/engines would be "indisputably" with Go First and lessors cannot claim possession during the Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP) of the carrier. According to the tribunal, aircraft and its engines are the sole essence of Go First's business and if taken away, it would result in its "corporate death" leaving no scope for its resolution.
Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Thursday said it's a pity that since switching sides, Scindia has adopted the Modi government's "uncaring attitude" to the public.
Airline stocks have been soaring following a steep decline in crude oil prices and sustained passenger traffic. Analysts have particularly turned bullish on the stocks of InterGlobe Aviation and SpiceJet. On December 20, shares of InterGlobe Aviation (IndiGo) hit a record high of Rs 3,009 on the BSE, having surged 43.24 per cent year-to-date (YTD).
Amid concerns over alleged poaching of pilots, Air India told Akasa Air that petitioning a competitor to collude in restricting the rights of staff to change an employer could potentially violate the competition law. Air India CEO and managing director Campbell Wilson wrote a letter to Akasa Air CEO Vinay Dube against the backdrop of Akasa Air raising concerns about Air India Express hiring pilots from the airline. The letter, dated September 21, followed a letter by Dube to Tata Sons on September 11.
Following the incident at little past 1700 hours, both runways at the airport were shut for a brief period, and one of the runways resumed operations at around 1847 hours, the officials said.
The suspension of scheduled international passenger flights in the country has been extended till February 28, aviation regulator DGCA said on Wednesday.
Aviation Working Group (AWG), a global aviation leasing body comprising major planemakers and lessors, on Monday further downgraded India as lessors have not been able to repossess their planes from Go First more than four months after the airline filed for insolvency. The leasing cost stands as a prominent expense for Indian airlines. With AWG's downgrade, it is likely that lessors will increase the aircraft leasing rates for Indian carriers.
Aviation regulator DGCA has asked Tata Group-owned Air India to repair its aircraft after a passenger complained on social media on Monday about the plane's shabby interiors, including a broken armrest, officials said. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) had last Wednesday grounded a SpiceJet aircraft over a passenger's complaint of dirty seats and malfunctioning cabin panels. The SpiceJet plane took to the skies a day later after all the suggested repairs were effected.
Some flights of Kingfisher, GoAir, JetLite and Jet Airways operated during the 'curfew hours' from April 4 to April 30 -- from 9 AM to 1 PM and 3 PM till 7 PM--in the past few days when the vital ground navigational aids were switched off for repair and maintenance.
In its ongoing drive to cleanse the system of unqualified pilots, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has asked all airlines to monitor the hiring and training of co-pilots in a more effective manner and to file a monthly report on this.
The aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) had last week imposed a fine of Rs 5 lakh on the airline for denying boarding to a specially abled child at Ranchi airport on May 7.
India's domestic air passenger traffic nearly doubled to 1.25 crore in January compared to 64.08 lakh recorded in the year-ago period, according to official data released on Monday. In January, IndiGo saw its domestic market share decline for the fifth consecutive month at 54.6 per cent. It carried 68.47 lakh passengers last month.
Despite the physical assault, Air India cabin crew did not use restraining devices to contain the unruly passenger, the source alleged.
commercial airlines and air navigation service providers have to carry out random drug tests on at least 10 per cent of their flight crew and air traffic controllers every year.
Jet Airways has also been asked to provide details of the pilots who are "habitual" of reporting sick and disrupting the airline's schedule, an official said.
The two pilots of a helicopter, which flew Rahul Gandhi in Uttar Pradesh on Monday, were on Wednesday given a virtual clean chit by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, during a preliminary probe into the alleged violation of air safety rules that fuelled a controversy involving the Congress leader.The pilots of the state-run Pawan Hans Helicopters Limited, who appeared before the DGCA's Air Safety Wing in New Delhi, were cleared by a probe panel.
The Delhi High Court on Wednesday allowed a plea to implead DGCA as a party to a PIL seeking quashing of approvals being granted by the Centre to operationalise the $30 million deal between Tata Sons and Malaysia-based AirAsia.
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation has ordered a probe into the near mishap in which 121 people on board an Air India plane had a miraculous escape when the aircraft's tail hit the runway in Mumbai while landing at high speed.
The minister's remarks come against the backdrop of Surya, the ruling BJP's Bengaluru South MP, facing flak from Congress over the incident, which happened on December 10 last year at Chennai airport.
Aviation regulator DGCA conducted 53 spot checks on 48 SpiceJet aircraft between July 9 and July 13 and it did not find any major safety violations, Minister of State for Civil Aviation V K Singh said on Monday. "However, as a safety measure, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) ordered SpiceJet to use certain identified aircraft (10) for operations only after confirming to the regulator that all reported defects/malfunctions are rectified," Singh said in his written reply in Rajya Sabha. SpiceJet planes were involved in at least eight technical malfunction incidents in the 18-day period starting June 19, following which the DGCA had on July 6 issued a show-cause notice to the airline, stating that "poor internal safety oversight" and "inadequate maintenance actions" have resulted in degradation of safety margins.
Jet Airways conducted its test flight to and from the Hyderabad airport on Thursday in a step towards obtaining the air operator certificate. Jet Airways, which has not flown since April 17, 2019, is currently in the process of re-launching operations under its new promoters Jalan-Kalrock Consortium. On Thursday, the airline's CEO Sanjiv Kapoor said on Twitter that the test flight's operation was a very emotional moment "for all the wonderful folks who have been working hard to get Jet back in the skies".
Jet Airways has complained to India's aviation regulator about the use of its livery on SpiceJet aircraft, saying the practice could "mislead the public" and is a safety hazard. Jet collapsed in 2019 and lessors repossessed its Boeing 737s. Some of these aircraft were leased to SpiceJet, which operates them without changing the livery. Jet, which is now being revived by the Kalrock Jalan consortium and aims to restart operations in September, has asked the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to ask SpiceJet to stop using its livery.
IndiGo had on May 9 said the boy was denied permission to board the Ranchi-Hyderabad flight as he was visibly in panic.
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.
Indian carriers transported 12.8 million domestic passengers in March 2023, a year-on-year growth of 21.41 per cent. India's largest carrier IndiGo shored up its domestic market share from 53.8 per cent in Q4 of FY22 to 55.7 per cent in Q4 of FY23, according to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) data released on Monday.
Tata Group-owned Air India CEO Campbell Wilson on Saturday apologised for a flyer urinating on a fellow female passenger on a flight from New York in November, and said four cabin crew and a pilot have been de-rostered and the airline is reviewing policy of serving alcohol on flights.
Terming SpiceJet's offer of rupee one fare across its domestic network as "predatory" and a "malpractice", aviation regulator DGCA on Tuesday came down heavily on the no-frill carrier and asked it to stop such pricing immediately.
"We are visiting Mumbai airport and will also be meeting ATC officials on Tuesday as part of our probe," an official associated with the eight-member probe team said. The team will probe Monday's incident involving a chopper from President Pratibha Patil's fleet that had landed on the same runway, which a Delhi-bound aircraft with 150 passengers on board was using to take off.
A helicopter carrying pilgrims from Guptkashi to Kedarnath crashed on Tuesday amid poor visibility and seven people on board are feared dead.
IndiGo carried 69.09 million passengers last year, compared to 67.9 million in 2019.
Disability rights came under the spotlight again as the country's largest airline IndiGo refused to let a teenager with special needs board its aircraft. While the twitterati as well as fellow passengers have called for strict action, IndiGo has stood by its action saying the airport manager took the decision to ensure safety of other passengers. "Throughout the check-in and boarding process, our intent of course was to carry the family. "However, at the boarding area, the teenager was visibly in panic.
Wadia group-owned Go First will temporarily suspend flights on May 3 and 4 amid severe fund crunch, the airline's chief Kaushik Khona said on Tuesday.
Chandrasekaran also said that "We fell short of addressing this situation the way we should have."
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