Page 46 - Air India

Flag coercive call from management to extend duty: Unions ask A-I pilots

Tata Group-owned Air India's two pilot unions on Wednesday asked their members to flag any "coercive call" from the management for extending flight duty timings beyond the stipulated limits. In a joint communication to their members, Indian Commercial Pilots Association (ICPA) and Indian Pilots Guild (IPG) also said that they are in the process of compiling the records of recent instances (of such calls). The communication comes in the backdrop of the two unions writing to Air India Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Campbell Wilson, alleging that the airline management is "intimidating and coercing" some of their members to extend flight duty timings beyond the prescribed limits. The letter to Campbell was also marked to Tata Group and Air India Chairman N Chandrasekaran, among others. "We wish to bring to your attention a matter of utmost importance concerning potential coercive calls related to the extension of Flight Duty Time Limitations (FDTL)," the pilots unions s

Air India pilots' unions flag concerns over duty timings, safety issues

Air India pilots' groupings have alleged that the airline management is "intimidating and coercing" some of their members to extend flight duty timings beyond the prescribed limits. The Indian Commercial Pilots Association (ICPA) and Indian Pilots' Guild (IPG) have written to Air India Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Campbell Wilson flagging the issues. In their joint letter, dated January 28, the unions also claimed the airline's approach to extend the Flight Duty Time Limitation (FDTL) for pilots amounts to "compromising" with safety of the pilots besides violating established regulations. ICPA represents the narrow body pilots while IPG has members from the wide body fleet of Air India. It has come to the notice that some pilots are facing intimidation and coercion to extend their FDTL beyond the prescribed limits by the Director of Operations and base managers, including threats of jeopardising their career progression, the letter said. The unions also termed the

India has huge potential to be aircraft mfg hub: Scindia to Airbus CEO

Civil aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia on Friday met Airbus Global CEO Guillaume Faury and discussed collaboration opportunities for manufacturing and designing of aircraft. India is one of the key markets for Airbus, which received orders for more than 700 planes from IndiGo and Air India last year. Also, IndiGo, the country's largest airline, has only Airbus aircraft in its fleet. In a post on X, Scindia said he met "Guillaume Faury, Global CEO, Airbus today and discussed further opportunities of collaboration for aircraft manufacturing and designing". As one of the fastest growing economies and with a focus on Make In India, the country has huge potential to become a global aircraft manufacturing hub, he said. India is one of the fastest growing civil aviation markets in the world.

Air India operating 41% more flights since Tata takeover, shows data

The emphasis on international expansion for Air India is driven by higher demand and more lucrative opportunities in that segment

Air India to induct 68 new aircraft in 2024, says CEO Campbell Wilson

The airline started the commercial operations of its first A350 aircraft on January 22, with a flight from Mumbai to Chennai

Air India to take delivery of 5 more A350s by June: CEO Campbell Wilson

Air India will add five more wide-body A350 aircraft to its fleet by June, and the process of upgrading 40 of its legacy Boeing 787 and 777 planes will begin in July, its chief Campbell Wilson said on Thursday. As Tata Group's takeover of loss-making Air India completes two years on January 27, Wilson also said that on average, one aircraft will arrive every six days throughout 2024. There will be an addition of 5 more A350s, which will progressively take to India's skies between January and June 2024, the Air India CEO and Managing Director said in a message to the staff. Air India will also induct 17 A320s and 46 B737s. The airline started the commercial operations of its first A350 aircraft on January 22, with a flight from Mumbai to Chennai. Currently, Air India has 117 operational aircraft and together with Air India Express, the total number of operational planes is 180. Last year, Air India placed an order for 470 planes with Airbus and Boeing. The "process of upgrading 4

Regulator fines Air India Rs 1.1 cr for violating flight safety rules

Tata Group-run airline was under DGCA's scrutiny in 2023, was asked to pay Rs 30 lakh as fine earlier this month

DGCA slaps Rs 1.10 crore penalty on Air India for safety violations

The safety violations took place on certain long-range terrain critical routes, the DGCA said

Air India begins commercial operations of wide-body A350 aircraft

Private carrier Air India on Monday commenced the commercial operations of its first wide-body A350 aircraft with a flight taking off for Chennai from the Mumbai airport. The 316-seater A350-900 aircraft has a three-class cabin configuration with 28 private business suites with full-flat beds, 24 premium economy and 264 economy seats. "Air India flight AI-589 took off from Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport on Monday for Chennai, with a full-capacity load of passengers," the airline said in a statement. The aircraft will initially fly on domestic routes -- Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, and Mumbai -- for crew familiarisation and regulatory compliance. It will later be deployed for long-haul flights to destinations across continents, strengthening Air India's growing wide-body fleet, comprising its own and recently leased aircraft, the airline said. The first of Air India's own 20 Airbus A350-900 aircraft, registered VT-JRA, arrived at Delhi's Indira

A-I CEO lists features of Airbus A350, says it's 'highly fuel efficient'

Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia on Thursday inaugurated India's and Air India's first Airbus A350 aircraft on the first day of Wings India 2024

Airbus forms JV with Air India to launch pilot training centre in Gurugram

Airbus has partnered with Tata group-owned Air India for setting up a pilots training facility in Gurugram, Haryana, under a 50:50 joint venture, the company said on Thursday. Besides, the European aviation major also announced a collaboration with GMR Aero Technic to offer aircraft maintenance engineering training courses at the latter's facility in Hyderabad. Spread over 3,300 sq mt, the Tata Airbus training centre will be equipped with 10 full flight simulators (FFS), flight training classrooms and briefing and debriefing rooms as part of the complete Airbus Flight Training Device setup, Airbus said. The facility, which is expected to be operational from early 2025 with the initial installation of four A320 FFS, will offer A320 and A350 flight training to some 5,000 new pilots over 10 years, it said. It will offer courses approved by India's DGCA and European aviation safety regulator, EASA, Airbus said. Under its collaboration with GMR Aero Technic, Airbus said it will provide

Merger into Air India likely by mid 2025, says Vistara CEO Kannan

Kannan emphasised that the airline is cash flow positive and will not require any capital infusion from its stakeholders in the near future

Air India's virtual travel assistant is now on Whatsapp. Details here

Air India's virtual travel assistant will help travellers to ask questions across a wide spectrum of over 1300 travel-related topics and access a host of features

Vistara expects all legal approvals for merger with A-I in 1st half of 2024

Vistara CEO Vinod Kannan on Monday said all legal approvals for its proposed merger with Air India are expected to be in place in the first half of 2024. In November 2022, Tata group announced the merger of Vistara with Air India under a deal wherein Singapore Airlines will also acquire a 25.1 per cent stake in Air India. At a briefing here, Kannan said the legal approvals for the merger are expected by the middle of 2024 and the operational merger is anticipated by early or middle of next year. He also said that all competition approvals are expected in the current quarter ending March. On September 1, 2023, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) approved the proposed merger. Currently, Vistara has 67 planes in its fleet. The airline is a joint venture between Tatas and Singapore Airlines.

Untrained pilots in fog: DGCA issues notices to Air India, SpiceJet

Hundreds of flights were delayed during the fog season in December

DGCA issues notice to Air India, SpiceJet for rostering untrained pilots

A senior DGCA official confirmed that the notice was issued to airlines after it was found that a large number of flight diversions that were reported at Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi

Air India appoints P Balaji as chief of regulatory and corporate affairs

P Balaji resigned from telecom operator Vodafone Idea on Tuesday after a decade-long stint. He is set to assume his role at Air India on January 11

Aviation watchdog DGCA carried out 5,745 surveillance activities in 2023

Regulator DGCA carried out 5,745 surveillance activities with respect to airlines, airports and approved organisations in 2023 as part of its efforts to ensure compliance and enhance safety standards in the aviation space, The activities included 4,039 planned surveillance and 1,706 spot checks and night surveillance. Subsequently, the findings resulted in 542 enforcement actions, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said in a release on Wednesday. The number of surveillance activities rose 26 per cent last year compared to 2022. Also, the number of enforcement actions increased 77 per cent last year compared to 305 enforcement actions taken against non-compliant personnel, airlines, and other operators in 2022. These enforcement actions included financial penalties against airlines such as Air India, AirAsia (India), IndiGo and SpiceJet. Besides, the watchdog had temporarily suspended its approval to Air India's training facilities, as per the release. Enforcement acti

Air India to fly wide-body A350 jet from Jan 22 on domestic routes

Aircraft that has three-class cabin configuration will later be used for 'destinations across continents'

Air India's new Airbus A350 to enter commercial service on January 22

The first flight of the A350 aircraft will be between Bengaluru and Mumbai at 7:05 am on January 22