Page 15 - Airlines

Indian aviation industry suffers from low penetration despite rise in seats

India's total airline seats have doubled in a decade. So, why is the country not seen as realising its aviation potential?

One dead, many injured after turbulence hits Singapore Airlines flight

Singapore Airlines flight SQ321, travelling from London Heathrow Airport to Singapore, encountered severe turbulence, forcing an emergency landing at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport on Tuesday

Standby passenger boards IndiGo flight, later deboarded for ticket holder

In an apparent security lapse, a standby passenger in place of a confirmed ticket holder boarded the Varanasi-bound IndiGo flight at the Mumbai airport on Tuesday and was later deboarded before the plane took off. Generally, an airline staff who can take a flight in case there is a vacant seat is referred to as a standby passenger. In a statement, IndiGo said there was an error during the passenger boarding process of 6E 6543 from Mumbai to Varanasi, wherein a standby passenger was allotted a seat reserved for a confirmed passenger. "The error was noticed prior to the departure of the aircraft, and the standby passenger was de-boarded. This led to a slight delay in the departure of the aircraft," the airline said. Further, IndiGo said it will take all measures to strengthen its operational processes.

High airfares remain a challenge: Thomas Cook India's Madhavan Menon

High airfares remain a challenge that impacts India's leisure and business travellers, Thomas Cook India's Executive Chairman Madhavan Menon said. In an interview with PTI, he shared that airline capacity too continues to be a challenge despite an increase in scheduled flights. "We hope to see the demand-supply constraints ease a bit with new aircraft being introduced into the network, but this will be over the long term," Menon said. On the company's expansion plans, he informed that Thomas Cook India is working on expanding and strengthening its physical network with a combination of owned and franchise outlets and accelerating its digital footprint in the country. "With a focus on viable source markets, we continue our retail expansion with a combination of owned and franchise outlets, across metros/mini-metros and regional India. "Additionally, for our foreign exchange business, we have leveraged existing franchise outlets to set up foreign exchange counters within the same ..

India to be power house for airline growth on travel eagerness: Report

India is expected to be a power house for future airline growth driven by the eagerness of people to travel and growing population, according to a report. In a report, the Netherlands-based ING Bank NV said India is set to deliver strong structural growth figures, and airlines are preparing for this with historically large orders for new aircraft from carriers Indigo and Air India. "The country plans to open a range of new airports, and strategically located countries such as the UAE, with the world's second largest airport in terms of passenger traffic in Dubai are anticipating strong transit passenger growth from Asia," it said. The report focusing on the outlook for the global aviation sector also noted that the long-term global growth outlook -- 20 years -- has generally been tempered in the post pandemic era to a range of 3-4 per cent annually instead of 5-6 per cent, with Europe seeing the lowest growth figure. Further, it said that one of the main reasons is that flying is

Air India Express cancels some flights due to rostering system issues

Air India Express cancelled some flights on Wednesday as the airline grapples with crew rostering system issues, according to sources. The Tata Group-owned carrier, which generally operates around 380 flights daily, has moved to a new rostering system. Since there are some issues with the system, it is impacting the scheduling for cabin crew and pilots, the sources said. At the Delhi airport, seven Air India Express flights -- four departures and three arrivals -- for the period between 1.50 am and 8 pm have been cancelled for Wednesday, sources said. There were also flight cancellations at a few other airports, the sources added. However, the total number of flight cancellations could not be immediately ascertained. There was no comment from Air India Express. The latest development comes a week after the airline witnessed disruptions due to a section of cabin crew reporting sick to protest against the alleged mismanagement at the carrier. The strike was called off on May 9 and

'A-I Express sees no flight cancellation on Tue, operations near normal'

A week after being hit by disruptions due to a cabin crew strike, officials said the operations of Air India Express have almost normalised and there was no flight cancellation on Tuesday. Protesting against alleged mismanagement at the carrier, a section of the cabin crew had reported sick last week. As a result, the carrier had to cancel hundreds of flights since last Tuesday. An official said that operations have normalised and all the scheduled flights were operated on Tuesday. Another official said the airline operated around 345 flights and no flights were cancelled. This is the first day since last Tuesday when there has been no cancellation and out of the total services today, around 201 were international flights, the official added. The strike by the cabin crew was called last Thursday and the Tata Group-owned carrier also withdrew termination letters issued to 25 cabin crew following a conciliation meeting convened by the chief labour commissioner in the national ...

Air India's international cargo business takes wings, not so for IndiGo

Latter's narrowbody aircraft do not offer adequate space

Air India Express slowly restoring its flights, stabilising the network

Air India Express is slowly restoring its flights and stabilising the network, an official said on Sunday while the cabin crew union emphasised that all members who had reported sick have joined duty. The Tata Group-owned airline, which operates around 380 services daily, has cancelled at least more than 20 flights on Sunday, the official in the know said and added that full normalcy is expected by Tuesday morning. There was no official comment from Air India Express. The strike by a section of cabin crew to protest against the alleged mismanagement at the airline had forced cancellation of hundreds of flights since Tuesday night. On Thursday, the strike was called off and the carrier also withdrew termination letters issued to 25 cabin crew following a conciliation meeting convened by the chief labour commissioner in the national capital. The meeting was attended by representatives of the airline and the Air India Express Employees Union (AIXEU). In a release on Sunday, the unio

Air India, Vistara CEOs to address staff about proposed merger on May 13

The chiefs of Air India and Vistara will address staff on May 13 on the proposed merger of the two airlines, according to officials. The merger of Vistara with Air India under a deal, wherein Singapore Airlines will acquire a 25.1 per cent stake in Air India, was announced in November 2022. Vistara is a joint venture between Singapore Airlines and Tata Group. The townhall meeting will be held in the phygital mode and employees from Air India and Vistara will be present. The meeting will be addressed by Air India CEO and MD Campbell Wilson and Vistara CEO Vinod Kannan, one of the officials said on Friday. Kannan is also the Chief Integration Officer for the proposed merger. One of the officials said the meeting is expected to focus on the broad aspects and help provide an overall picture about the merger to the staff. Air India has around 17,000 people and Vistara has about 6,500 employees. "We expect to complete merger in a smooth manner," Kannan told PTI on April 5. The merger

AI Express cabin crew calls off strike; airline assures to look into issues

A section of Air India Express cabin crew has decided to withdraw strike and join back for duty after the airline assured to look into all the issues raised by the cabin crew, sources said on Thursday. Besides, the airline has agreed to withdraw the termination letters issued to 25 cabin crew and the management will review the cases as per service regulations, they added. The Tata Group-owned airline has cancelled more than 170 flights since Tuesday night after the cabin crew started reporting sick to protest against the alleged mismanagement at the airline. The decisions on withdrawing the strike and the termination letters were agreed upon during the conciliation meeting between the cabin crew representatives and the airline representatives at the Office of the Chief Labour Commissioner (Central) in the national capital on Thursday.

Air India Express: 85 flights cancelled; Air India to support on 20 routes

If a passenger's flight is cancelled or delayed more than 3 hours, they have the option to either receive a full refund on the flight or reschedule it for a later date without any additional fees

Spirit Airlines forecasts weak Q2 revenue on slow growth in domestic demand

The carrier estimates it will average about 25 grounded aircraft throughout 2024, while competitors expand their capacity in Spirit Airlines' core markets such as Florida

Go First planes need parts; lessors to take longer to fly them out of India

Lessors are likely to take a longer time to fly the Go First's deregistered 54 planes out of the country as the majority of the planes require engine and spare parts, according to industry experts. Out of the 54 planes, around 24 that were in a flying condition when the airline stopped operations last May have not undergone continued maintenance while 30 are without engines and spare parts. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has deregistered all the 54 remaining aircraft of Go First after a Delhi High Court ruling on April 26 that allowed lessors to take back the leased planes. While the insolvency resolution process is on, sources said the airline's revival looks an uphill task, considering that there are not many assets left after the deregistration of the planes. Regarding these aircraft, one of the sources said lessors are likely to take more time to ferry the 54 planes out of the country as at least 30 of them will require replacement of engines. Besides, the pl

Section of A-I Express staff flag concerns, allege mismanagement at airline

A grouping of Air India Express cabin crew has alleged that the airline is being mismanaged and there is a lack of equality in the treatment of the staff. The airline is part of the Tata Group and is in the process of merging AIX Connect (formerly AirAsia India with itself). Air India Express Employees Union (AIXEU), which represents a section of the airline's cabin crew members, on April 26 wrote a letter addressed to Tata Group and Air India Chairman N Chandrasekaran. Copies have been marked to Air India Express CEO Aloke Singh and others. The registered union, which claims to represent around 300 cabin crew members, mostly seniors, has alleged that mismanagement of the affairs has affected the morale of the employees. It has also claimed that Air India Express employees who were interviewed for internal job postings for higher ranks were offered lower job positions even after clearing the interviews. Queries sent to Air India Express on April 26 regarding the letter remained ..

'Indian airlines will need 60 wide-body planes for long routes by FY2032'

Indian airlines will require around 60 more wide-body aircraft to serve long and ultra-long haul markets in financial year 2032, aviation consultancy CAPA India said on Thursday. India is one of the world's fastest growing civil aviation markets but at present, only Air India and Vistara have wide-body planes in their fleets. IndiGo on Thursday announced placing a firm order for 30 A35-900 planes and also has the right to buy up to 70 more aircraft. During a webinar on 'Outlook for Wide-body Aircraft in India', the consultancy said the country's long and ultra-long haul market is "ripe for disruption, provided that Indian carriers lead the charge". Long and ultra-long haul operations can be structurally profitable given the strong demand for non-stop connectivity, it said and added that higher pricing thresholds and stability are visible. Further, it said the wide-body aircraft needed by Indian carriers to serve long and ultra-long haul markets by FY2032 will be around 100, which

DGCA directs airlines to seat kids up to 12 years with their parents

Airlines shall ensure that children up to the age of 12 years are allocated seats with at least one of their parents or guardians, who are travelling on the same PNR the DGCA mentioned

Women pre-book window seats, men prefer aisle in domestic flights: MMT

MakeMyTrip's 'India Travel Trends Report' showed that 50% of all domestic flyers pick flights between 9 am and 6 pm, irrespective of the destination or the origin

Over 1,300 bird-hit cases reported in 2023, the highest in six years

Firecrackers, scarecrows, horns and zon guns being used to scare birds

Delta Q1 earnings tops Wall Street estimates on buoyant travel demand

Demand is particularly strong for premium travel, benefiting carriers like Delta, which has positioned itself as a premium airline. Recovery in corporate travel is also gathering steam