Air India's new Boeing 787 Dreamliner will start flying on domestic routes from September 19, with the airline hoping that the fuel-efficient aircraft will bring back its good old 'Maharaja' days by saving costs.
No-frills airline IndiGo on Monday announced placing a firm order for 500 A320 family planes with European aviation major Airbus at the Paris Air Show. This is the largest ever aircraft order placed by any airline with Airbus, IndiGo said in a statement. Financial details of the order were not disclosed.
After over a year of downturn, the domestic aviation sector showed a marked improvement last year with the number of passengers carried by Indian airlines growing by almost eight per cent over 2008.
Jet Airways said on Tuesday the domestic aviation industry would soon witness a shakeout, but hoped the country's largest private airline would come out of it unscathed.
Malaysia Airlines, the operator of Flight MH370 that went missing en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on Saturday, has established a record as one of the Asia-Pacific's best full-service carriers in terms of safety and service.
After the meeting, IPG sources said they would be meeting on Friday evening to take stock of the discussions five of their members had with the Minister and decide on the future course of action.
The rupee has touched a five-year high, crossing the Rs 47 mark. The average value of the currency against the dollar during September was almost 14 per cent lower than in April. More than a third of an airline's costs are dollar denominated. Major heads of expenditure include aircraft ownership, maintenance and spares costs. Also included are international training and a certain chunk of sales and distribution costs.
Sri Lanka will permit three domestic airlines to launch flights to India before they are allowed to operate on other international routes, the Civil Aviation Authority said on Tuesday.
India's domestic air traffic continued on its robust growth path this winter recording the highest number of passengers carried between October and December last year.
Competition Commission of India (CCI) has issued a show cause notice to the parties with respect to the proposed merger of Tata Group airlines Vistara and Air India, according to a source. The fair trade watchdog issues notice asking why an investigation should not be initiated only after forming a prima-facie opinion that the deal could adversely impact competition in the marketplace. Vistara and Air India are the two full-service carriers that are part of the Tata Group, and Singapore Airlines holds a 49 per cent stake in Vistara.
The Cochin International Airport (CIAL), the first international airport in the country outside the ambit of the union government, is planning to launch a dedicated international cargo airline service.
SBI has the largest exposure of Rs 1,500 crore (Rs 15 billion) to the airline which has not been serviced since this January.
So far, government officials or employees were allowed to fly only Air India or its subsidiaries on official duty.
In the previous decade, the government, with Praful Patel as the civil aviation minister, saw the introduction of an irrational 5/20 policy.
Goa's second airport began operations last week and if all goes according to plans, the state will be the base for a new regional airline, Fly91. Promoted by the ex-executive vice-president of now grounded Kingfisher Airlines, Manoj Chacko, and Fairfax India's former head, Harsha Raghavan, the airline will offer no-frills buy on board product and serve unconnected routes with two ATR 72 aircraft. An application for the initial no-objection clearance was filed with the civil aviation ministry last week.
Management and leadership changes, in addition to synchronising operations between all its airlines, are showing visible results for Air India. Data from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) show that there has been a marked improvement in key operational parameters of Air India after the Tata group took complete control of the national airline in January. One of the most dramatic improvements has been noticed in Air India's passenger load factor (PLF) - a crucial metric of capacity utilisation of an airline's fleet that shows how many seats it has been able to fill on every flight.
India's domestic air traffic rose during to 258.07 lakh from January to May 2012 as against 244.98 lakh during the corresponding period of previous year, registering a growth of 5.34 per cent.
The ministry said that states can also develop their own protocol with regards to quarantine and isolation as per their assessment.
The bookings for this three-day offer commences from Monday with a travel validity period between January 16 and October 24 next year, SpiceJet said.
In a move which could affect the Jet-Etihad deal or start-up carriers like Tata-SIA or AirAsia India, DGCA has made it clear that foreign airlines or investors would not have the right to control the management of an Indian carrier.
The domestic air travel in the first three months of this year witnessed a sharp fall with the number of passengers carried declining by almost 12 per cent over the same period last year.
Brazil had the fastest growth compared to the previous year as the demand was up by 17.9 per cent.
Air-India on Tuesday announced special fares for travel on the domestic sector, much lower than the apex fares announced by the domestic carriers, with immediate effect.\n\n\n\n
Russian defence aerospace major Sukhoi is close to bagging its first civilian Indian client with its regional 60- to 90-seater jet Sukhoi Superjet 100.
The future certainly looks good for Bangalore.
Seeking to further democratise air travel with dependable and affordable services, airline Akasa Air is aiming to start flights in late May or early June after getting its first Boeing 737 MAX aircraft in April. Bullish on the long term growth potential of the country's civil aviation sector, ace investor Rakesh Jhunjhunwala-backed carrier is looking to have 18 planes in its fleet by the end of March 2023. Despite COVID clouds continuing to cast a shadow on the airlines, Akasa Air CEO Vinay Dube is more than optimistic as he asserted that "if you look at the long term future of commercial aviation in India, it is as exciting as anywhere in the world".
Air India chief Campbell Wilson on Friday said that a majority of pilots have accepted the new compensation package offered last week, amid protests by Air India pilots' unions against the revised salary structure and service conditions. The loss-making airline, which was taken over from the government by the Tata Group in January 2022, has announced a new compensation package for pilots and cabin crew. In his weekly message to Air India staff on Friday, Campbell said the airline is making investments in workplace technology and training as well as in new and improved employee benefits.
When the Tatas re-boarded Air India on January 27 last year, the price of aviation turbine fuel was at over Rs 80,000 per kilolitre. Rupee was trading at around Rs 74 to a US dollar. The Omicron variant of Covid-19 was in prevalence - barely a week earlier, India had reported over 340,000 cases on a single day. Seven-day home quarantine of international travellers was the norm.
Boeing India president says with the rising prices of aviation fuel, the airlines do not have any option but to increase the fares.
Singapore Airlines on Tuesday said Vistara will be merged with Tata group-owned Air India. Tata group owns a 51 per cent stake in Vistara, and the remaining 49 per cent shareholding is with Singapore Airlines (SIA). As part of the transaction, SIA will also invest Rs 2,058.5 crore in Air India.
Tatas and Singapore Airlines have assured the government that control of their proposed airline venture would always remain in Indian hands, while seeking approval to offer passenger services on both domestic and international routes.
The Tata group-owned Air India will induct over 90 aircraft in two years as it looks to widen its footprint and grab a larger market share. The plan includes 56 planes from the mega aircraft order that the airline has now finalised with Airbus and Boeing. These will be in addition to previously announced leases of 36 planes that include Airbus A320Neo, A321Neo, and Boeing 777 aircraft.
Carriers like Indian, Jet Airways, Kingfisher Airlines and Paramount Airways, apart from a host of start-up airlines, are sewing up deals to acquire 50-70 seater aircraft for less congested routes.
United Airlines, the world's second-largest carrier, received regulatory approval to install wireless Internet access to its fleet in a partnership with Verizon Communications Inc.
The government's regional connectivity scheme UDAN has witnessed a slow progress of implementation, as not even 50 per cent of the route have been operationalised and the second wave of the pandemic, which started from mid of March 2021, may impact it further going forward, according to a report. Rating agency ICRA in its report on Tuesday said that there is likely to be a further delay of two years in achieving the target of operationalising as many as 100 unserved and underserved airports and starting at least 1,000 RCS routes by 2024. Aimed at enhancing regional connectivity through fiscal support and infrastructure development, the maiden flight under the Ude Desh Ka Aam Nagrik (UDAN) scheme was flagged off by Prime Minister Narendra Modi from Shimla for Delhi on April 27, 2017.
