Page 3 - Air India Express

Air India San Francisco-Mumbai flight suffers snag; passengers deplaned

Air India flight from San Francisco to Mumbai faced a delay at Kolkata after a left engine snag; passengers were deplaned early morning as a safety precaution

Air India halts full-service ops in Imphal, AI Express to continue flights

Air India has discontinued the operation of its full-service carrier at the Imphal International Airport from June 15, but the airline's low-cost subsidiary AI Express will continue services here, AAI officials said on Monday. The decision was part of the airline's "long-standing and pre-planned" strategy, they said. "It is part of a long-standing, pre-planned strategic decision by the airline, and is in no way related to any recent incident," one of the airport officials said. Altogether, 241 people on board Air India's London-bound AI 171 flight were killed when the aircraft crashed shortly after takeoff from the Ahmedabad airport on June 12. "The move is part of a broader strategic realignment by the Tata Group, which owns the airline. Air India Express, the group's low-cost subsidiary, will continue its operations at Imphal, signalling a shift in service model but ensuring continued air connectivity," said another official of the Airport Authority of India (AAI) here. The Air

Air India Express Guwahati-Kolkata flight delayed by over 18 hours

Flight IX-1226 was delayed over 18 hours due to technical issues, with passengers alleging poor accommodation; Air India Express denied the claims and arranged a new aircraft

Air India Express to start daily Bengaluru-Kathmandu flights from Sunday

Air India Express will launch daily direct flights between Bengaluru and Kathmandu on June 1. "The new route builds on our recent expansion into short-haul international leisure destinations such as Bangkok and Phuket," Aloke Singh, Managing Director, Air India Express, said in a press release. Bookings are now open on the airline's website, airindiaexpress.com, and other major booking channels, with inaugural fares starting at Rs 8,000 for Xpress Lite and Rs 8,500 for Xpress Value. From Bengaluru, the flight will depart at 5.05 am daily and it will depart Kathmandu at 9.05 am. The new route also enables convenient one-stop connections to Kathmandu via Bengaluru from 20 cities across India, including Amritsar, Bhubaneswar, Delhi, Goa, Gwalior, Hindon, Hyderabad, Indore, Jammu, Jaipur, Kozhikode, Kochi, Mangaluru, Pune, Srinagar, Surat, Tiruchirappalli, Thiruvananthapuram, and Visakhapatnam, and Vijayawada. One stop connections through Bengaluru also available from two internationa

Air India, AI Express offer free rescheduling of tickets for armed forces

Air India and Air India Express have offered free rescheduling of tickets or full refunds on cancellations for armed forces personnel who have bookings with the airlines. The announcement came against the backdrop of India's armed forces destroying nine terrorist infrastructures, including that of Jaish-e-Mohammad and Lashkar-e-Taiba, in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) in a 25-minute-long missile and drone strike early on Wednesday. "In the prevailing situation, for those personnel holding defence fares who are booked on Air India and Air India Express flights till 31 May 2025, we are offering full refunds on cancellation and a one-time waiver on rescheduling flights up to 30 June 2025 to support their duty commitments," Air India said in a post on X on Wednesday. A similar post was also shared by Air India Express.

Air India explores new routes for North America flights amid airspace curbs

Air India is looking at various alternatives for its North America flights from the national capital, including operating the services with a technical stop in a city within India, to reduce operational costs that have shot up due to the Pakistan airspace closure, sources said on Friday. Currently, Tata Group-owned Air India operates 71 flights a week to North American destinations and out of them, 54 services are from the national capital. The airline flies to Chicago, New York, Washington, San Francisco, and Newark in the US, and to Toronto and Vancouver in Canada. In his message to the staff on Friday, Air India MD and CEO Campbell Wilson said there have been a number of network-related developments and the airline has temporarily adjusted some of its Europe and US routes in response to recent airspace restrictions, as well as adding a few technical stops. "We have made good progress in identifying other alternatives so aim to reduce the number of overseas tech-stops, and restor

Air India faces $600 mn hit from Pak airspace ban, seeks govt support

The airline has written to the civil aviation ministry, asking for a 'subsidy model' to cover increased fuel and crew expenses because of longer flight times and delays due to the airspace ban

Nipun Aggarwal replaces Campbell Wilson as Air India Express Chairman

Air India Express is a wholly owned subsidiary and low-cost airline under Air India

Campbell to step down as AI Express Chairman; Nipun Aggarwal to replace him

Air India CEO Campbell Wilson will step down as the Chairman of Air India Express and Air India's Chief Commercial Officer Nipun Aggarwal will assume the chairmanship of the budget airline. Wilson, who has been the Chairman of Air India Express since June 2022, will also be moving out of the budget airline's board. In an internal message to the staff on Tuesday, Wilson said he has decided that the time is right for him to step down as Chairman of the Air India Express Board. Aggarwal, who is already on the board of Air India Express, will assume the role while also continuing as Air India Chief Commercial Officer duties. This will enable greater coordination of the group's network and commercial efforts, according to the message. "Concurrently, to ensure operational synergy between the airlines, Capt Basil Kwauk, Air India Chief Operations Officer, will replace me on the Air India Express Board, once the necessary regulatory approvals are secured," the message said. According to .

Air India Express pilot dies of cardiac arrest after landing in Delhi

The pilot safely completed flight operations when he reportedly vomitted inside the aircraft. Soon after, he collapsed at the airline's dispatch office at the airport

How a supply glitch gave Air India 50 Boeing jets made for Chinese airlines

Air India Express has received 41 of 50 white-tail 737 Max jets from its June 2023 order of 190 planes- jets built for others but remained unused in storage

SpiceJet, Air India Express gets approved to operate flights from Kathmandu

Two Indian airlines have been allowed to operate regular flights to and from Nepal, according to the Himalayan nation's civil aviation authority. SpiceJet, which had regular flights to Nepal before the COVID-19 pandemic, and Air India Express, making its debut in the country, have received scheduled approval and slots from Kathmandu's Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA), according to Hansa Raj Pandey, spokesperson at the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN). SpiceJet, which mainly flew from Delhi to Kathmandu before its hiatus, will operate daily flights, while Air India Express has received approval for two flights per day. Currently, Air India and Indigo conduct flights between Nepal and India. With the addition of SpiceJet and Air India Express, there will be four Indian airlines operating regular flights between the two countries. Meanwhile, maintenance work on the taxiway at TIA, which previously required flight suspensions, continued its service without halting flights

Plan to become all-economy airline by April 2026: Air India Express CEO

"The airline aims to carry about 30 million passengers in 2025-26, roughly 50 per cent more year-on-year, as the aircraft inducted in the latter part of 2024-25 will have their full impact in 2025-26"

AI Express to expand virtual interline ties with foreign low-cost carriers

Air India Express plans to have more virtual interline partnerships with foreign low-cost carriers and to deepen its network. The Tata Group-owned airline aims to carry 30 million passengers in 2025-26, higher than 20 million passengers in the current financial year ending March 2025, according to its Managing Director Aloke Singh. Currently, the airline has a fleet of 103 planes comprising 67 Boeing 737s and 36 A320s, and operates around 485 flights daily. Elaborating on the network strategy, he said the airline has grown significantly and the focus is to deepen the network. Among other initiatives, Air India Express will look to have more virtual interline partnerships with foreign low cost carriers and there are six such partnerships at present, Singh said at a briefing on Friday. The virtual interline platform 'AIX Connect' enables travellers to book self-connected itineraries between flights of Air India Express and those of the partner airline. As it pursues growth ...

Air India to cut fares, add new jets and boost reach to woo diaspora

Air India, in order to enhance its appeal, has worked on reducing airport transfer times to within 180 minutes and is further streamlining the travel experience

Supply chain issues may hit aircraft deliveries for 4-5 yrs: Air India CEO

The CEO also said that leasing planes is not an easy solution either

Delhi airport operator takes govt to court over Hindon commercial flights

Indian aviation rules prohibit airports within 150 km of an existing facility, but Hindon airbase is operating just 30 km from Delhi Airport

AI Express adds 100th plane in fleet; aims at 500 daily flights by Mar-end

Air India Express now has 100 planes in its fleet by inducting another Boeing 737-8 aircraft, which operated its first flight on Bengaluru-Hindon route. In a release on Monday, the airline said it will be operating over 500 daily flights by the end of this month across a fast-expanding network of 54 destinations across India, the Middle East and Southeast Asia. From a fleet of 26 Boeing 737 NGs and 28 A320 aircraft in January 2022, when the airline was taken over by the Tata Group, the carrier's has almost doubled its fleet to 100 aircraft, according to the release. The 100th aircraft, featuring 'Chittara' tail art inspired by Karnataka's traditional mural painting, was flagged off by the airline's Managing Director Aloke Singh at Bengaluru's Kempegowda International Airport. "In just over three years since privatisation, we integrated and merged the LCC (low cost carrier) airlines, while scaling up rapidly with a modern and fuel-efficient fleet, broad basing our domestic network,

DGCA fined Air India Express ₹30 lakh in Dec 2024 for rule violation

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation imposed a financial penalty of Rs 30 lakh in December last year on Air India Express for installing and operating a Boeing aircraft with an external livery without its permission, Parliament was informed on Thursday. In a written reply to the Lok Sabha, Minister for State for Civil Aviation Murlidhar Mohol said the violations of safety norms by the airlines are monitored by the DGCA and based on the severity of the violation, actions are taken. He also said the DGCA carries out surveillance/audits at regular intervals vide published Annual Surveillance Programme (ASP) on needs basis to ensure that continued compliance is maintained by airlines. Violations to the extant rules and regulations are dealt as per enforcement policy and procedure manual and enforcement actions as deemed fit are taken by DGCA, he added. According to the data shared as part of the written reply, a total of 23 enforcement actions were taken by three directorates unde

Air India to roll out key initiatives in 2025, may turn profitable: CEO

Air India will see progress on various key initiatives, including refitting of wide body and narrow body planes, in 2025 as well as tighten practices and processes to ultimately become profitable, the airline's chief Campbell Wilson said on Friday. After taking over the loss-making Air India from the government in January 2022, Tata Group has been working on an ambitious transformation plan to turn around the airline, which recently also placed orders for 100 more aircraft. In his message to the staff on Friday, Wilson said 2024 saw the realisation of some of the most significant milestones, including the completion of the mergers of Air India Express and AirAsia India, and Vistara with Air India that "position us as the fourth largest business, by revenue, in the Tata group". Air India group operates 300 aircraft across both brands, flying over 60 million customers annually to more than 100 destinations in India and around the world. While describing 2024 as a transformative year