Page 8 - Airlines

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

IndiGo to damp lease 3 more Boeing 787-9 for international expansion

Domestic carrier IndiGo on Wednesday said it will induct three more Boeing 787-9 planes in its fleet under a damp lease arrangement with Norse Atlantic Airways, as it prepares to launch flights to Europe from mid-summer this year. Currently, the Gurugram-headquartered airline operates two widebody Boeing 777 planes, wet leased from Turkish Airlines, to Istanbul from Delhi and Mumbai. Earlier this month, IndiGo had announced signing a deal for one Boeing 787 with Norse Atlantic Airways. The delivery of this first widebody B787 is on-track, and it is scheduled to start operations on the Delhi-Bangkok route from March 1, 2025, IndiGo said in the statement. IndiGo has signed "another firm agreement with Norse Atlantic Airways for damp lease of three Boeing 787-9 aircraft. These aircraft will be arriving in India in the second half of 2025 and will be serving long-haul routes out of India," it said. In a damp lease, the lessor provides the maintenance along with the aircraft but not th

SpiceJet posts Rs 26 cr profit in Dec quarter backed by high performance

Budget airline SpiceJet on Wednesday reported a profit after tax of Rs 26 crore for the three months ended December 2024, helped by overall improved performance. The carrier had posted a loss of Rs 300 crore in the year-ago period. "Total revenue surged by 35 per cent to Rs 1,651 crore, driven by strong passenger demand, improved yields and enhanced operational efficiency. Passenger Load Factor (PLF) stood at an impressive 87 per cent," the airline said in a release. Total revenue stood at Rs 1,077 crore in the 2024 September quarter. However, compared to Rs 2,149 crore reported in the three months ended December 2023, the total revenue is lower in the latest December quarter. The results for the third quarter of the current financial year was scheduled to be announced on Tuesday. However, the meeting of the company's board of directors, through video conferencing, started at 1.30 pm and ended only at 11.50 pm on Tuesday, according to a filing made to the BSE at 12.51 am on ...

Lenders to Go First to auction land parcels in March for recovery

About 94.7 acres on block; reserve price set at Rs 1,782 crore