Over 50 per cent of all traffic to Jeddah consists pilgrims headed to Mecca and Medina.
Private airlines wait for permission to fly abroad, foreign carriers walk away with the traffic.
The load factor of six major domestic airlines--IndiGo, SpiceJet, Air India, GoAir, Vistara and AirAsia India -- stood between 70 per cent and 64.9 per cent in January.
Foreign airlines can now pick up 49 per cent stake in India's domestic carriers, a step that is expected to give a boost to cash-strapped aviation industry.
Airlines have to deal with high operating costs - fuel, taxation, airport charges - in a very competitive environment.
By cutting international flights, Indian firms forefeit market share.
The Federation of Indian Airlines, the group formed by various carriers, has appointed Amitabh Khosla from CII as Executive Director to head its secretariat and plans to have a Director General later.
The 30-day visa-free entry is also currently enjoyed by eight ASEAN countries for the purpose of social visits, tourism and business.
"The strategic divestment transaction of Air India successfully concluded today with transfer of 100 per cent shares of Air India to M/s Talace Pvt Ltd along with management control," DIPAM secretary Tuhin Kanta Pandey said in a tweet. A new board, led by the strategic partner, takes charge of Air India, he added.
rediffGURU Dr Vivek Mahajan, interventional cardiologist at Fortis Hospital, Kalyan, explains how young Indians can correct their lifestyle in order to protect themselves from sudden and unexpected cardiac arrests.
The government is taking the first steps towards opening of the Gulf region to private airlines -- by setting a high-level committee under the aegis of the aviation ministry -- to examine the contentious issue.
'The ministry may like to consider setting up an ombudsman similar to electricity ombudsman and insurance ombudsman, to ensure a time-bound resolution of consumer issues within the airline sector.'
IndiGo, Jet, SpiceJet and GoAir demand level playing field in aviation policy, say government can't favour only two new airlines.
About 70,000 employees consisting of all unions in the civil aviation sector, including Indian Airlines and Air-India, have threatened an agitation
Virtually addressing employees of Air India across the globe, he said for the airline to be the best again there will be an organisational redesign, and it will "require a huge transformation, probably the largest transformation and the change all of you would ever go through". The carrier will expand its "outreach both domestically and internationally" and it has the desire to connect India with every part of the globe, he added.
Air India's use of artificial intelligence (AI) has had a huge impact on the airline major's call centre volumes and the technology integration has reduced costs by 100 times, a senior company executive said on Wednesday. The airline launched its own chatbot AI.g, earlier known as Maharaja, in May 2023. The chatbot has answered approximately two million queries since its launch, handling 93 per cent of customer inquiries without needing to pass them on to call centre agents, said Sathya Ramaswamy, Chief Digital and Technology Officer, Air India.
The Delhi airport, the country's busiest airport, on Friday early morning witnessed the collapse of a roof at Terminal 1 amid heavy rains that killed one person, prompting the government to order a detailed probe and an inspection of the structural strength of all airports.
It is clear that foreign airlines have realised the growth possibilities of the Indian aviation sector and are keenly interested, the minister said.
Within two weeks of many airlines deciding to roll back salary cuts encouraged by a steady increase in traffic flow, a second wave of coronavirus along with rules of compulsory RT-PCR test has hit forward bookings. The fears of last summer, when the pandemic had overturned all the wisdom of airline boardrooms, have returned to haunt the aviation industry. According to an official in the Ministry of Civil Aviation, flight occupancy is down to 60 per cent from 70 per cent in the first week of March. Airline lobby group IATA estimates that low cost airlines need to fly at 80 per cent occupancy to be profitable.
China's state-run Sichuan Airlines has suspended all its cargo flights to India for 15 days, causing major disruption to private traders' efforts to procure the much-needed oxygen concentrators and other medical supplies from the country despite Beijing reiterating its readiness to help India to deal with the latest surge of COVID-19 cases.
Here stood a man who embodied the legacy of whatever Brand Tata stood for, embellished it, and departed into the long night, leaving the brand legacy for others to further enrich, notes R Gopalakrishnan.
Air One plans to launch services from May to link cities on India's western coast and is positioning itself as a "clear differentiator" in the low cost airline market.
However, the names which are doing rounds are Jet Airways and Kingfisher Airlines. The latter is yet to start its international operations, which is a major requirement for joining an alliance. The merged Air India has already been invited to join its competing Star Alliance. OneWorld brings together some of the biggest names in the airline business, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Finnair, Iberia, Japan Airlines, Qantas and Royal Jordanian.
At present domestic airlines are not allowed to fly on international routes until they have 20 aircraft in fleet and have completed five years of operations.
Many argue that the airline could achieve its full potential if Nusli Wadia were to run it the way he does Britannia.
There will be work today, there will be work tomorrow, there will be work the day after, but nothing will make up for the eternal regret of not seeing a friend when he was dying.
'As part of our D33 strategy, the plan is to establish 30 unicorns in Dubai within the next 10 years.'
IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack begins by asking why the hijack lasted seven days and ends in wondering if the good guys fought the bad ones hard enough, observes Sukanya Verma.
Unidentified gunmen have shot dead a 'businessman' in Karachi who Indian intelligence officials said was Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorist Mistry Zahoor Ibrahim, involved in the 1999 hijacking of Indian Airlines plane IC-814 and fatal stabbing of passenger Rupin Katyal.
Unidentified gunmen have shot dead a 'businessman' in Karachi who Indian intelligence officials said was Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorist Mistry Zahoor Ibrahim, involved in the 1999 hijacking of Indian Airlines plane IC-814 and fatal stabbing of passenger Rupin Katyal.
Nepalese authorities on Tuesday started handing over to family members the bodies of those killed in the January 14 crash of a Yeti Airlines passenger plane with 72 people on board.
"We have found that a couple of international airlines are not adhering to the rules. Failure to adhere to rules shall entail strict action," said Director General of Civil Aviation Arun Kumar.
The passengers included 10 foreigners, according to the state-run Nepal Television.
The 'Maharishi Valmiki International Airport, Ayodhyadham' has become the 68th civil airport terminal in the country to come under the umbrella of the specialised aviation security group of the central force.
Sebi on Friday barred fugitive businessman Vijay Mallya from the securities markets and restrained him from associating with any listed firm for three years in the matter of routing of funds to the Indian securities market using overseas bank accounts with UBS AG. The Indian government has been attempting to extradite Mallya from the United Kingdom to face fraud charges related to his now-defunct company Kingfisher Airlines. Mallya has been living in the United Kingdom since March 2016.
According to sources in the aviation ministry, only State-owned Air India and private carrier AirAsia India have agreed to pay the surcharge.
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.
FIA is a body of four established domestic private airlines -- Jet Airways, IndiGo, SpiceJet and GoAir.
