Hit by the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic and soaring fuel prices, airlines are flying towards record losses with a likely loss of a whopping Rs 20,000 crore for the full fiscal year, warns a report. The airlines are flying towards their steepest-ever net loss of over Rs 20,000 crore this fiscal, which will be 44 per cent more than Rs 13,853 crore they bled last fiscal, Crisil said in a report. This will push back the industry's recovery beyond fiscal 2023, the report based on three large listed airlines--Indigo, Spicejet, and Air India--which together command 75 per cent of the domestic traffic, warned.
SpiceJet says tickets in three day sale will be 75 per cent lower than last minute purchase fares.
A robotic mini-submarine deployed to unprecedented depths underwater to hunt for the crashed Malaysian airliner has searched nearly two-thirds of the focused area of the Indian Ocean floor, as it ended its eighth mission on Monday with still no sign of any wreckage of the plane.
Air-India's budget service to destinations in the Gulf from Kerala is expected to start in April, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy told the state assembly on Tuesday.
The coming years will be among the most exciting of your professional lives, IndiGo's new chief executive officer (CEO) Pieter Elbers wrote to the airline's staff after taking charge on Tuesday. Elbers, who spent three decades at KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, replaces Ronojoy Dutta at the top post. "Earlier, IndiGo communication summarised it all in just three words: 'Towards new heights' and-let me add here: 'across new frontiers'. "With that vision in mind, you should feel assured that the coming years will be among the most exciting of your professional lives," Elbers said.
India on Thursday approved capital acquisition of a plethora of indigenously-developed military hardware including indigenous BrahMos missiles, marine diesel engine, artillery gun system, electronic warfare suits and utility helicopters at a cost of Rs 70,584 crore as part of a mega procurement plan.
From rocking body-con dresses to giving us boss lady vibes and slaying the desi look, Namrata Thakker lists her stunning sartorial choices for Liger promotions.
'Not a single bullet was fired, but we were warning the enemy not to continue with their antics!' IAF Veteran Air Commodore Nitin Sathe finds out how the Light Combat Helicopter, which will be inducted into the IAF on October 3, was designed, developed and flown.
In June IndiGo had implemented a mandatory leave without pay program for 1.5 days to 5 days. Subsequently, in July, IndiGo announced 5.5 additional days of LWP for its pilots, taking the effective number of LWP to 10 days. As cost cutting measure, the airline had also let go of 10 per cent of its employees and implemented a pay cut across the board.
Sources said the process has taken time because of a delay in leasing of aircraft. As per the original plan the aircraft were to be leased through GIFT City, Gujarat, but this is proving costlier than doing it offshore.
They all spoke of their disappointment at the decisions, given the historic moment of it being held in the Middle East.
Ten years after Kingfisher Airlines was grounded, its former employees continue to wait for their dues. On Monday, the Supreme Court awarded a four-month sentence to the grounded airline's flamboyant owner Vijay Mallya in a contempt case. The apex court also ordered him to deposit $40 million plus interest in four weeks to avoid attachment of his properties.
Today, he lies in an unknown grave in a corner of a farmer's field in Pakistan, having given his all for his country. A riveting excerpt from Ian Cardozo's Beyond Fear: True Stories on Life in the Indian Armed Forces.
The central government has told the high court that under 'Operation Ganga', in addition to commercial aircrafts, Indian Air Force flights have also been pressed into operation to evacuate the Indians who have crossed into Romania, Poland, Hungary and other neighbouring countries of Ukraine.
The increase has been effected from the second fortnight of this month.
One of cricket's greatest players passed into the ages on Monday. Rediff.com salutes the legend.
IndiGo, India's largest airline, is in talks to raise fresh funds as a second wave of pandemic has led to collapse in travel demand. The airline may look to raise Rs 3,500-4,000 crore. On Monday, only 97,761 passengers flew. With flyers cancelling bookings, airlines had to put aside flights and operated only 1,306 of them.
Sri Lanka's ousted president Gotabaya Rajapaksa left Singapore for Thailand after his short-term visit pass expired on Thursday, according to a media report.
The QRSAM system is unique in its ability to operate on the move, searching for and tracking enemy targets; and then fire on a short halt.
Neeraj Chopra is set to switch his training base from Turkey to Finland which will host the Paavo Nurmi Games
'Airlines will be asked to submit a detailed plan on the viability of the location.'
The Indian Space Research Organisation on Sunday faced a blip in its plan to tap the small satellite launch vehicle market, as an anomaly in the placing of the satellites by the rocket led to deviation on its path thereby becoming 'no longer usable', Chairman S Somanath said on Sunday.
Once the coronavirus lockdown is over in India and commercial passenger flights are permitted again, IndiGo will deep clean its aircraft more frequently, stop in-flight meal service for a brief period and will fill a maximum 50 per cent capacity in airport buses, the airline's CEO Ronojoy Dutta said on Friday. "In situations like these, companies do not manage to growth or profitability but to liquidity. That means our singular focus is on cash flow. We are examining all our fixed costs and looking for ways to minimise them," he said.
With no clarity yet on seat sharing with old ally Shiv Sena, Bharatiya Janata Party president Amit Shah on Thursday told the alliance partner to find a quick resolution to the impasse while making it clear that there will be no compromise at the cost of self-respect.
The 52-year-old Congress leader reached Surat in the afternoon via a scheduled commercial flight along with sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and proceeded to the sessions court.
Air travel will now become a little expensive as the government has decided to increase the lower limit on airfares by five per cent amid rising aviation turbine fuel (ATF) prices, Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Friday. The upper limit on airfares will remain as it is for now. Just a month back, the Centre had increased the lower and upper limits on domestic airfares by 10-30 per cent due to rising ATF prices. While announcing resumption of scheduled domestic flights in May last year, the aviation ministry had placed limits on airfares through seven bands classified on the basis of flight duration.
'I am seven months into the job, but it feels like seven years.'
So should airlines play the keening, trance-like Siddi folk music from the Kutch peninsula? The Sufiana Kalam of Kashmir? Carnatic music? Rabindra Sangeet? Bihu melodies? Classical music from the Hindustani gharanas? Ghazals? Bhajans? Bollywood hits?... asks Kanika Datta.
Spanish prosecutors are seeking a two-year prison term and a 10 million euro ($9.8 million) fine for Neymar.
How scrap material became a magnificent Rudra Veena... How children learnt about animals, the real way... How the BRO is strengthening India...
People have said they would be inclined to travel for leisure during the festival and year-end season.
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.
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.
With growing revenues, a spreading business empire, and surging aspirations, companies are seeing a strong demand for luxury products from Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities.
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The Indian aviation market's recovery has been significantly impacted by caps on fare and capacity that has been placed by the government since May last year, said Willie Walsh, the director general of global airlines body IATA, on Tuesday. When India resumed the scheduled domestic flights on May 25 last year after a two-month break in view of COVID-19 lockdown, it had allowed the carriers to operate not more than 33 per cent of their pre-Covid domestic services. This capacity cap has been gradually increased and it now stands at 65 per cent.
Shivangi Singh is part of the IAF's Golden Arrows squadron based out of Ambala in Punjab.
He is scheduled to testify on Friday.
An overriding ambition to rule the domestic skies prevented Jet Airways from becoming a strong and formidable player in the international market. The Sahara buy added to the complexity of its operations and a dilution of what the airline stood for, says Anjuli Bhargava.
Tatas-owned Air India plans to acquire no-frills carrier AirAsia India and has sought approval from the Competition Commission for the proposed deal. AirAsia India is majority-owned by Tata Sons Private Ltd with a shareholding of 83.67 per cent and the remaining stake is with AirAsia Investment Ltd (AAIL), which is part of Malaysia's AirAsia Group. Full service carrier Air India and its low-cost subsidiary Air India Express were acquired by Talace Private Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Tata Sons Private Ltd, last year. Besides, Tatas operate full service airline Vistara in a joint venture with Singapore Airlines.
