Page 18 - Aviation Industry

Three aircraft lessors take SpiceJet to court over unpaid dues of Rs 77 cr

Celestial Aviation, Willis Lease Finance, Aircastle, and Wilmington had also filed applications against SpiceJet in 2023 for outstanding dues

Air India saves costs by taking insurance cover for merged entity

The insurance cover has been provided by a consortium of Indian insurance companies including Tata AIG General Insurance

Boeing plane's mid-air blowout result of ignorance to safety: FAA panelist

The company is preparing a 90-day plan to overhaul its quality and safety practices in response to the panel's findings

Air India operationalises five new contact centres to assist customers

Air India has operationalised five new contact centres, including in Cairo and Kuala Lumpur, to provide assistance to its customers worldwide. The Tata Group-owned airline has partnered with Concentrix, a California-headquartered customer engagement firm, to manage premium services from centres in Mumbai, Cairo, and Kuala Lumpur. Besides, the carrier has signed up iEnergizer to operate contact centres in Noida and Bengaluru, focusing on domestic inquiries, a release said on Friday. Recently, Air India introduced a premium desk for its premium frequent flyer members as well as business and first-class guests. In the release, the airline said it has implemented a comprehensive back-office insourcing strategy to manage emails, social media, and chat support internally to assist the customers. "A 24/7 grievance management desk promptly addresses all customer queries, escalations and provides round-the-clock support," it added.

US airlines ask govt not to approve additional flights between US, China

Large U.S. airlines and some of their unions are asking the Biden administration to stop approving any more flights between the United States and China because of what they call anti-competitive policies that China imposes on U.S. carriers. The airlines and unions said Thursday that China closed its market to U.S. carriers at the outbreak of the pandemic and imposed rules that still affect American operations and airline crews. These actions demonstrated the clear need for the U.S. government to establish a policy that protects U.S. aviation workers, industry and air travelers, they said in a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. The letter was signed by the CEO of the Airlines for America trade group and the presidents of the Air Line Pilots Association, the Allied Pilots Association, which represents crews at American Airlines, and the Association of Flight Attendants. The number of flights between China and the U.S. has been ...

Vistara working on flight plans beyond May 24, worst is over: CEO

'Challenging start to new financial year', says Vinod Kannan after airline had to cancel 150 flights between March 31 and April 4

IndiGo pips Southwest to become world's 3rd most valuable airline by mcap

IndiGo's share price jumped by 4.73 per cent to Rs 3,806 on Wednesday, thereby elevating its market capitalisation to $17.605 billion

Boeing took shortcuts for faster production of its 787s: Whistleblower

Salehpour, who according to his attorneys worked on the 787 from 2020 through early 2022, told reporters on Tuesday that the issues he described "may dramatically reduce the life of the plane"

Sky-high demand: Politicians drive helicopter rates up 15-20%

BJP, Congress dominate advance bookings, helicopter charter firms say

Air India's aircraft technicians planning strike amid mounting woes

Its staff are upset over lack of career advancement opportunities because they haven't been promoted in the past seven years, according to the letter

Virgin Atlantic jet collides with another plane at Heathrow; no injuries

A Virgin Atlantic jet collided with another plane while it was being towed at Heathrow Airport on Saturday, aviation authorities said. There were no reports of injuries. Virgin said its Boeing 787-9 had completed a flight and had no passengers aboard when its wingtip clipped a stationary British Airways jet while being towed from a stand at the airport's Terminal 3. Images posted on social media showed several fire trucks surrounding the two planes, whose wings were touching. We've commenced a full and thorough investigation and our engineering teams are performing maintenance checks on the aircraft, which for now has been taken out of service, Virgin said in a statement. BA said engineers were also looking at its plane. Heathrow said that no passenger injuries have been reported and we do not anticipate there to be any ongoing impact to airport operations.

Boeing's CEO David Calhoun got compensation worth $33 mn last year

Boeing CEO David Calhoun received compensation valued at $33 million last year, nearly all of it in stock awards, but his stock payout for this year will be cut by nearly one-fourth because of the drop in Boeing's share price since the January blowout of a panel on one of its planes in midflight. The company said Friday that after the accident on the Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 Max, Calhoun declined a bonus for 2023 that was targeted at nearly $3 million. Calhoun announced this month that he will step down at the end of the year as Boeing deals with multiple investigations into the quality and safety of its manufacturing. The company said in a regulatory filing that Calhoun got a salary of $1.4 million last year and stock awards valued at $30.2 million. Including other items, his compensation totalled $32.8 million, up from $22.6 million in 2022. Boeing stock has dropped since Jan 5, when a door-plug panel blew off an Alaska Airlines Max jetliner flying 16,000 (4,800 metres) feet ab

Tata group's Vistara could cut flights amid pilot shortage: Report

The cancellations and delays forced India's civil aviation ministry to intervene and monitor the situation, while the aviation regulator has sought daily information on flight disruptions

Flight schedule to normalise in 2-3 days: Vistara CEO Vinod Kannan

According to sources, he thanked the pilots for accepting the new salary structure proposed as part of Vistara's ongoing merger with Air India

Virgin Atlantic eyes Indian skies, aims to touch 1 million seats by 2025

It launched a new daily direct flight from London Heathrow to Bengaluru on March 31 and will launch its second daily direct service from London Heathrow to Mumbai from October 2024

Domestic and international air traffic cross pre-pandemic peak in FY24

International air traffic in India saw faster growth than domestic air traffic in 2023-24

SpiceJet to soon receive Q400 plane as part of settlement with lessor NAC

SpiceJet on Tuesday said it will soon be receiving a Q400 aircraft as part of the settlement reached with lessor Nordic Aviation Capital (NAC) last year. The airline has settled all past liabilities for the Q400 planes leased from NAC, and under the settlement agreement it already has five Q400 aircraft. "The ownership of these planes has been transferred to SpiceJet," the airline said and added that the sixth Q400 plane is en route to India from Germany. The aircraft is expected to arrive in Delhi soon. The carrier, which is taking various measures to deal with multiple headwinds, recently announced four major settlements with key aircraft lessors. According to the airline, these settlements will result in substantial savings of Rs 1,252 crore.

Mahindra Aerostructures signs $100 milllion contract with Airbus Atlantic

Mahindra Aerostructures on Monday announced it has signed a multi-year contract worth around USD 100 million with Airbus Atlantic for the manufacturing and delivery of metallic components for the entire Airbus commercial aircraft family, including the A320 family planes. Under the contract, the company will supply close to 2,300 varieties of metallic components to Airbus Atlantic in France from its manufacturing base in India, Mahindra Aerostructures Pvt Ltd (MASPL) said in a statement. The contract adds to existing MASPL programmes to deliver parts directly to Airbus at their facilities in France and Germany, it said. MASPL has been a direct supplier to Airbus Group since 2015, and partners with Airbus on numerous initiatives. Developing the relationship with Mahindra Aerostructures will help the company benefit from their robustness, expertise, and high-end technology capabilities in order to strengthen the company's supply base, said Airbus Atlantic Chief Procurement Officer Jos

Aviation body issues rules for deplaning passengers during tarmac delays

Zulfiquar Hasan, Director General of BCAS, said that they have prepared the guidelines and issued to airport operators and airlines

Indian carriers' focus is now on international market to boost revenues

According to Joshi of Network Thoughts, during next few years share of Indian carriers in itn'l traffic will rise, because Air India will induct more capacity and so will IndiGo, with XLR aircraft