Airline systems across airports, which were impacted due to a global IT outage on Friday, have started working normally, and all issues are likely to be resolved by noon on Saturday, Civil Aviation Minister K Rammohan Naidu said. The ministry is constantly monitoring the operations at airports and airlines to ensure travel readjustments and refunds are taken care of, he added.
A SpiceJet plane was damaged on Monday when its wing hit a lightning pole at the Delhi airport when the aircraft was pushed back from the parking position to be ready for takeoff to Jammu, DGCA officials said.
The Madras high court has ordered the winding up of private carrier SpiceJet Limited and directed the official Liquidator attached to the high court to take over its assets, in a plea filed by a Swiss company over unpaid dues. The court was allowing a company petition from Credit Suisse AG, a stock corporation registered under the laws of Switzerland, which prayed for winding up of the Indian firm under the provisions of the Companies Act, 1956 and appoint the Official Liquidator of the high court as the liquidator with all powers under Section 448 of the Companies Act to take charge of SpiceJet's assets, properties, stock in trade and books of accounts. The "respondent company (SpiceJet) has miserably failed to satisfy the three pronged test suggested by the Supreme Court in Mathusudan Govardhandas & Co v Madhu Woollen Industries (P) Ltd, and hence had rendered itself liable to be wound up for its inability to pay its debts under Section 433 (e) of the Companies Act 1956," Justice R Subramanian said in his order on Monday and directed the private carrier be wound up and the official liquidator take over its assets.
The pattern of domestic airlines receiving bomb threats to their flights continued for the fourth day as two international flights, one each of Vistara and IndiGo, were targeted in the similar manner on Thursday.
The trails of mega-mergers, tailwinds of expanding fleets, flights and airports will dot the fast-growing Indian aviation firmament in 2025, though the dark clouds of supply chain woes will persist longer. Also, new airline takeoffs, the future trajectory of revised norms to tackle pilot fatigue and efforts to reduce carbon emissions will be on the radar.
The Spicejet aircraft took off at around 12.10 pm, and according to residents of localities adjacent to the airport, who claimed to have witnessed the spectacle, it caught fire immediately.
Passengers are not allowed to walk on the Delhi airport's tarmac area as it is a security risk. There is a demarcated path on the tarmac for vehicles only.
A threat about the presence of bombs on an Akasa Air flight at Biju Patnaik International Airport in Bhubaneswar was received on social media, but it later turned out to be a hoax, an official of the airport said on Thursday.
A bench headed by Chief Justice N V Ramana took note of the submissions of senior advocate Harish Salve that SpiceJet would try to resolve the issue with the Swiss firm. "Senior counsel Harish Salve sought three weeks' time for trying to resolve the matter and Mr K V Vishwanathan (appearing for the Swiss firm) also agreed to the adjournment. "Meanwhile, the high court order is stayed for three weeks," the bench, also comprising justices A S Bopanna and Hima Kohli, ordered.
The civil aviation ministry on Friday asked airlines to ensure that there is no abnormal surge in airfares for flights to and from the national capital amid suspension of operations at Delhi airport's Terminal 1 following the roof collapse incident.
SpiceJet on Monday said the seat belt sign was on and multiple announcements were made by crew members asking passengers to remain seated on its Mumbai-Durgapur flight on Sunday.
More than five years ago on an April evening, cash-starved Jet Airways announced temporary grounding of operations after flying as a full service airline for 25 years. Since then, more than 20,000 jobs and money worth thousands of crores owed to lenders, vendors and passengers evaporated while awaiting an insolvency resolution. And today, the Supreme Court ordered the airline's liquidation, marking the formal completion of a turbulent journey into the sunset and shattering lean revival hopes.
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.
SpiceJet, Air India Express and IndiGo will operate special flights from Hungarian capital Budapest and Romania's Bucharest on Monday and Tuesday to evacuate Indians stranded in Ukraine due to the Russian military offensive.
More than 30 flights of various Indian airlines, including Vistara, Air India and IndiGo, received bomb threats on Saturday, according to sources.
It takes only two hours - roughly the time it takes for a plane to fly from Delhi to Mumbai - for a pair of pilots to complete their training on the 737 MAX simulator at Boeing's centre in Noida, the only one of its kind in India. Going by this estimate, all the 90 Spicejet pilots who the civil aviation regulator barred from flying the 737 MAX can be retrained in 90 hours.
The sources said that during the boarding, the male passenger behaved in an unruly manner and touched the female cabin crew member inappropriately.
The fairy tale turnaround story has, however, taken a few knocks after a second wave of the pandemic has brought a series of default notices and has posed the toughest test for the 55-year old Singh to save the airline he founded and sold to the Marans only to assume control later.
The number of domestic air travelers in India grew 2.42 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y) in April, reaching 13.2 million, according to data by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Tuesday.
On a full year basis, the airline made a loss of Rs 934.8 crore. The company has incurred a net loss during the current and previous year and, the its current liabilities exceeded its current assets
Airports across the country witnessed chaotic scenes on Friday after dozens of flights were either delayed or cancelled after a widespread global computer outage that also hit operations like cash withdrawal at some banks, and impacted functioning of some brokerages. Globally, the Microsoft cloud outage led to US airlines cancelling flights, but the tech giant later reportedly said its cloud services outage in the Central US region has been resolved.
On Friday, the Alaska Airlines plane's outer section, including a window, fell off mid-air.
The bone of contention between the two sides relates to changes in the purchase terms.
'The combination of star power, compelling storytelling, and action-packed drama promises to set the box office ablaze and kickstart the new quarter on a spectacular high note.'
Amid a massive global outage that hit operations of airlines, banks and businesses across the globe, Microsoft on Friday said that it is aware of the issue affecting Windows devices due to an update from a third-party software platform.
SpiceJet had bet its fortunes heavily on the new version of the 737 of which it has 13 planes in its fleet and another 193 aircraft on order
These slots, under the air bubble pact, will later be extended to operate regular flight services once international flight services resumes.
SpiceJet announced it has started a five-day "1+1 offer sale" where it was offering one-way base fares starting as low as Rs 899, excluding taxes, on its domestic network.
Kalanithi Maran claims deal with Ajay Singh is dead; SpiceJet spokesperson says Maran's claims are baseless and false
Air India, which operates 72 weekly flights from various cities to Dubai, and IndiGo cancelled their services on Wednesday.
Maran had sought attachment of SpiceJet promoter Ajay Singh's shares by an administrator unless the payment was made.
Budget carrier SpiceJet on Thursday said it has been designated as the "Indian scheduled carrier" to operate flights to the US.
Domestic air traffic rose 4.8 per cent on an annual basis to 126.48 lakh in February, while more than 1.55 lakh passengers were affected by flight delays during the same period, according to official data released on Friday. In February, Air India's market share rose to 12.8 per cent from 12.2 per cent while that of IndiGo marginally dipped to 60.1 per cent from 60.2 per cent in January. The domestic air traffic climbed to 126.48 lakh in February compared to 120.69 lakh in the year-ago period, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said.
Indigo has zero competition on 61.2 per cent of its 838 domestic routes.
A SpiceJet official allegedly told some Jet pilots that they were doing a "charity" by hiring them.
Experts expect a net loss of Rs 26.7 billion for IndiGo and Rs 10.1 billion for SpiceJet in Q1FY21 driven by low traffic volume, low fleet utilisation and poor coverage of fixed costs.
Analysts remain sceptical on the profitability from freighter business, saying that once normal air transport resumes and there's abundant belly capacity, the traditional economics of air cargo may not be that lucrative.
SpiceJet is the first Indian low fare airline to establish such an arrangement with a foreign airline.
There was no loud noise of anything breaking when the rods of a portion of a roof collapsed at the Delhi airport's Terminal-1, Krishna Kumar, a cab driver who was at the site of the incident, said on Friday.
Despite the gains from Jet's closure, in 2018 and 2019, the airline continued to make losses in many quarters for a variety of reasons, including some mistakes like taking on Jet's aircraft, which were not in great shape and had business class configuration, a gamble that did not work for SpiceJet.