WebinarsNew
Explore Business Standard
India is a fantastic market that demonstrates the real value of aviation, but high fuel costs is a challenge for the local airlines, IATA chief and IndiGo's incoming CEO Willie Walsh said on Monday. Speaking at briefings after the conclusion of the IATA Annual General Meeting (AGM) in the city, Walsh said India has great opportunities, as well as some as challenges. Howeever, taxation could slow down the growth potential, he added. "The net position in India is very, very exciting and that is proven by the growth that we've seen in the domestic market... I think (there) would be a very significant growth in the international market in due course as well," he said. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) is a grouping of more than 370 airlines and accounts for around 85 per cent of the global air traffic. Talking about the challenges in the Indian market, Walsh cited high fuel costs. "That is an additional burden when fuel (price) is denominated in dollars and you've see
Air India has detected large-scale discrepancies in the utilisation of its leisure travel policy, involving more than 4,000 employees and has initiated corrective actions, including imposing penalties on the erring staff, according to sources. Loss-making Air India was acquired by the Tata Group in January 2022, and the airline, which has faced multiple headwinds in recent times, is also in the midst of implementing an ambitious transformation plan. The airline has more than 24,000 employees. The sources in the know told PTI that the large-scale discrepancies in the use of Air India's Employee Leisure Travel (ELT) policy were detected after a detailed internal investigation. The ELT policy allows a specified number of free air tickets for individual employees and their nominees, including spouse and parents. These are subject to certain conditions. Many employees were found to have misused the policy by showing those not related to them as relatives to avail the benefits. Some were
Air India will operate a relief flight on Tuesday to bring back 228 passengers who are stranded in Ulaanbaatar after their San Francisco-Delhi flight was diverted to the Mongolian capital on Monday due to a technical issue. The relief flight will return with the passengers on Wednesday morning, the airline said. There were 245 people in the plane, including 228 passengers and 17 crew members, a source said on Monday. "Air India will be operating a relief flight to ferry the passengers of flight AI174 (San FranciscoDelhi of 02 November), which was diverted to Ulaanbaatar on Monday. The ferry flight AI183 is scheduled to depart Delhi this afternoon and return with the affected passengers on Wednesday morning," the airline said in a statement. The relief flight will be operated with a Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft. The statement also said the airline along with local authorities and the Indian Embassy in Mongolia, has been looking after the passengers and crew, including providing t
Continued staffing shortages in air traffic control facilities around the country were again causing delays at airports on Friday as the government shutdown neared the one-month mark. US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has been warning that travelers would start to see more flights delayed or cancelled as the nation's controllers continue to work without pay during the shutdown, which began Oct 1. Every day there's going to be more challenges, Duffy told reporters Thursday outside the White House after a closed-door meeting with Vice President JD Vance and aviation industry leaders to talk about the shutdown's impact on US travel. The Federal Aviation Administration reported staffing-related delays Friday at a number of airports, including in Boston, New York City, Nashville, Houston, Dallas and Newark, New Jersey. The airports in Boston, Nashville and New York City were experiencing delays averaging two hours or longer. Aviation analytics firm Cirium says flight data showed a
A Nagpur-Kolkata IndiGo flight returned to the airport here following a suspected bird hit after take-off on Tuesday morning, a senior airport official said. As a precautionary measure, the plane, carrying 160 to 165 passengers, had to return to the Nagpur airport, the official told PTI. The flight has been cancelled, the official added.
A Parliamentary panel on Wednesday suggested a time-bound plan to grant administrative as well as financial autonomy to DGCA and flagged that the staffing crisis at the regulator is an "existential threat to the integrity of India's aviation safety system". Besides, the committee said the current imbalance, where aircraft induction is outpacing airport growth, is putting unsustainable pressure on existing facilities, degrading service quality, and dangerously straining safety margins, as it pitched for developing a comprehensive National Capacity Alignment Plan to synchronise airport infrastructure development with airline fleet induction schedules. The Department-Related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Transport, Tourism and Culture -- headed by Rajya Sabha member and JD(U) leader Sanjay Kumar Jha -- submitted its report on the 'Overall Review of Safety in the Civil Aviation Sector' on Wednesday. One of the recommendations is to establish a time-bound mechanism for the closure