Page 16 - Airlines

Shortage of pilots, cabin crews 'far more serious' than visible: Capa India

Indian carriers expected to add 82 planes in FY25

IndiGo looking at various options for financing fleet of wide-body plane

IndiGo is looking at various financing options for the wide-body planes that are expected to join the airline's fleet in 2027. Speaking at a session at the CAPA India Aviation Summit 2024 here, IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers on Wednesday said having a strong balance sheet is an asset. In April, IndiGo announced placing a firm order for 30 A350-900 aircraft and also the option to buy 70 more such planes. "We keep all options open...we are already (looking) at various financing options," Elbers said with respect to wide-body aircraft. At present, IndiGo has a fleet of more than 360 planes apart from two Boeing 777 aircraft leased from Turkish Airlines. The wide-body planes are expected to come in 2027 while the A321 XLR aircraft will join the fleet next year. With XLRs, IndiGo can operate more routes and destinations, Elbers said and added that its huge plane orders are part of a long term plan. IndiGo will also be introducing business class seats later this year. In June last year, In

SpiceJet aims to raise $250 mn in coming months, says CEO Ajay Singh

SpiceJet Chief Ajay Singh on Wednesday said the airline will be raising around USD 250 million in the next couple of months as the budget carrier works on boosting its operations. The airline is tackling multiple headwinds, including lessor and debt woes, with Singh saying the carrier has faced "significant black swan events". "It is difficult to kill SpiceJet....and we are trying to fix the problems," he said and asserted that the airline's balance sheet will be cleaned up over the next two quarters. Recently, the airline raised USD 150 million and is looking for more funds. The airline plans to raise USD 250 million in the next couple of months and there is a bright enough future, Singh said at the CAPA India Aviation Summit in the national capital. Currently, the carrier has wet leased some aircraft as many of its planes are grounded due to various reasons. "We will grow our own fleet," Singh, the Chairman and Managing Director of the airline, said. Singh also said it is crit

Airbus unveils concept of unmanned wingman protecting manned fighter jets

It answers increasing need to augment capabilities of manned aircraft with unmanned platforms

Killer turbulence makes global airlines turn to IATA's Big Data programme

Turbulence Aware was launched by IATA in 2018 to help airlines mitigate the impact of turbulence, the No. 1 cause of passenger and crew injuries in the air

Global airlines raise profit outlook for 2024, projects $1 trn in revenue

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) said it expected the worldwide industry to generate $30.5 billion of profit this year

IndiGo airlines reschedules and cancels some flights due to Cyclone Remal

According to the Kolkata Airport Authority, a total of 394 flights that were scheduled for arrival or departure including domestic and international have been suspended from Sunday noon to Monday 9 am

'Domestic airfares on northward trajectory; still among lowest globally'

Domestic airfares are sailing northwards, surging up to 40 per cent in key routes on higher traffic and capacity constraints in the last six quarters. Still, ticket prices are among the lowest in the world, according to experts. India is one of the world's fastest growing civil aviation markets and on average, 4.5 lakh passengers travel on domestic flights daily. While only a small percentage of the country's population travels by air, capacity constraints are a key challenge as many aircraft are grounded mainly due to supply chain issues. Aviation consultancy firm CAPA India said that average fares on the top 20 domestic routes had not moved significantly in nominal terms for the last two decades, until the last six quarters during which they have been up by close to 40 per cent. The routes include Mumbai-Delhi, Bengaluru-Delhi, Bengaluru-Mumbai and Delhi-Hyderabad. The trend has been driven by serious capacity shortages with an average of 150 aircraft on the ground due to supply

India mulls GST relief for foreign airlines; fitment committee to review

Foreign airlines with offices in India have been issued GST notices for failing to pay taxes on services imported by Indian entities from their headquarters

Singapore Airline's deadly turbulence leaves 20 people in intensive care

More than 100 people had required medical care immediately after the flight landed in Bangkok

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