Page 5 - Airlines

Civil aviation minister Naidu holds meeting with airlines' representatives

Civil Aviation Minister K Rammohan Naidu, along with senior officials, held a meeting with airlines' representatives on Tuesday, and discussed about flight disruptions due to airport closures, lowering tax on jet fuel and other issues, according to sources. At the meeting, which came in the backdrop of disruptions in flight operations in recent days in the wake of the military conflict between India and Pakistan, the minister also asked the airlines to look at ways of acknowledging the contributions made by the armed forces, including through in-flight announcements, the sources said. The sources also said that some airlines mentioned the loss of Viability Gap Funding (VGF) during the days of the closure of the airports. Some airlines also told the minister and officials that travel sentiment seems to be weak as there have been cancellations, especially with the peak summer travel season around the corner, as per the sources. A total of 32 airports in the northern and western part

Emirates earns $5.2 billion, ranks among world's most profitable airlines

Long-haul carrier Emirates reported on Thursday that it earned annual profits of USD 5.2 billion, making it one of the world's most-profitable airlines. The Dubai-based carrier served 53.7 million passengers out of its hub of Dubai International Airport, compared to 51.9 million passengers in the fiscal year prior. It had aftertax profits of USD 4.7 billion that same period. The overall Emirates Group, owned by Dubai's sovereign wealth fund known as the Investment Corporation of Dubai, saw annual profits of USD 5.6 billion, compared to USD 5.1 billion the year before. "Our excellent financial standing enables us to continue building on and scaling up from our successful business models," said Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktom, Emirates' chairman and chief executive. "While some markets are jittery about trade and travel restrictions, volatility is not new in our industry," he said. "We simply adapt and navigate around these challenges." Emirates' financial year runs from April 1 to

Global airlines re-route, cancel flights due to India-Pakistan conflict

Images from flight tracking websites showed a long line of airlines passing over Oman, UAE and Kuwait after the attack, raising the possibility of airspace congestion

Airlines avoid Pakistan's airspace as tensions rise after India's strike

More than a dozen Indian airports near the border with Pakistan will be closed until at least 12 p.m. local time, according to social media posts by domestic carriers

Indian airlines carried 14.5 mn passengers in March; 8.79% higher YoY: DGCA

Indian airlines carried 1.45 crore passengers in March, an increase of 8.79 per cent compared to the year-ago period, according to official data released on Saturday. The Indian carriers had flown a total of 1.33 crore passengers in March 2024. "Passengers carried by domestic airlines during March 2025 were 145.42 lakh as against 133.68 lakh during the corresponding period of the previous year," the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said in its monthly domestic passenger traffic report. In the month gone by, IndiGo transported a total of 93.1 lakh passengers with a market share of 64 per cent while Air India Group (full-service carrier Air India and low-cost carrier Air India Express) flew 38.8 lakh passengers with 26.7 per cent market share. The two other major carriers - Akasa Air and SpiceJet - flew 7.2 lakh and 4.8 lakh passengers, respectively in March 2025, cornering market share of 5 per cent and 3.3 per cent. IndiGo delivered the highest on-time performance (O

Airlines run 59 flights from Srinagar, govt says fares remain reasonable

Airlines on Wednesday operated 59 flights from Srinagar, including seven additional services, to ferry tourists and bodies of 25 Pahalgam terror attack vicitms to their destinations along with 123 accompanying family members. The Civil Aviation Ministry said air ticket prices on the route were being kept at reasonable levels amid a large number of tourists looking to return from Jammu and Kashmir in the aftermath of the terror attack, the deadliest in the Valley since the 2019 Pulwama incident. At least 26 people, mostly tourists, died in the Pahalgam bloodbath on Tuesday. A senior ministry official said 52 scheduled and seven additional flights were operated from the Srinagar airport on Wednesday to clear the rush of stranded passengers. Twenty-five bodies were sent to their destinations by flights along with 123 accompanying family members, the official said. As many as 3,337 passengers flew out of Srinagar in 20 flights between 6 am and 12 pm on Wednesday. IndiGo, Air India and

Mainframe business critical and India a vital cog: IBM's Ric Lewis

While many consider it a legacy technology, and perhaps no longer at the forefront of today's technology conversations, it remains indispensable to innovation in enterprise businesses

Air India launches major jet revamp to lure back disgruntled passengers

The multi-year turnaround programme will initially focus on the airline's 27 Boeing Co. 787-8 Dreamliners that are more than 10 years old in some cases

NCLAT rejects Busy Bee Airways plea challenging Go First liquidation

Busy Bee is backed by EaseMyTrip co-founder Nishant Pitti

Air India's first legacy B777 returns after heavy refresh, upgrades

Air India on Wednesday received the first of its legacy Boeing 777-300 ER aircraft after heavy refresh and the refresh of the remaining 12 planes is expected to be completed by year-end, according to officials. Since the refit of the legacy B777 aircraft, which was to start last year, has been delayed due to supply chain issues, the airline decided to go for heavy refresh of these planes. Heavy refresh of an aircraft includes having new carpets, seat covers, cushions and fixing broken seats. Air India has a total of 40 legacy wide-body planes -- 13 B777s and 27 B787s. The heavy refresh of the B777-300 ER was done in Singapore and completed in around 50 days. The heavy refresh of all the legacy B777s is expected to be completed by the end of this year, the officials said. The refreshed aircraft will be deployed on the domestic route for one or two days and later for ultra-long operations. The B777s are mainly deployed for ultra long haul flights connecting Toronto, Vancouver (Cana

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

SpiceJet flight from Jaipur to Chennai lands safely after tyre gets damaged

Despite the ttyre issue, the flight crew continued to the destination after confirming that all other operations and aircraft parameters were normal

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

Nearly 37 flights from India disrupted by Heathrow Airport shutdown

Heathrow Airport, one of the busiest in the world, handles approximately 1,280 flights daily, including around 37 to and from India

DGCA, IIT audit findings put Terminal 2 on the repair runway: DIAL

Delhi Airport has three terminals: T1 with a capacity of 40 million passengers per year, T2 with 15 million, and Terminal 3 (T3) with 45 million

Indians at forefront of Riyadh Air's 1.4 mn job applications: CEO Douglas

He mentioned that almost 93 per cent of the air traffic between India and Saudi Arabia is point-to-point, and there is a huge scope of increasing flight frequencies between the two nations

Adani's new $2.1 billion Navi Mumbai airport draws low-cost carriers

Tata Group's low-cost carrier Air India Express and smaller rivals SpiceJet and Akasa are also in discussions to eventually relocate all of their operations

Qatar Airways to place large wide-body aircraft order soon, says CCO

He added the contract would be announced next month, declining to say whether it will be signed with Airbus, Boeing

Airfare to rise not more than 1.5% if tariff proposal accepted: DIAL

"Overall, the average domestic ticket price will increase by no more than 1.5-2 per cent, while international fares will rise by 0.5-1 per cent," the CEO said