Page 4 - Aviation Industry

RAT deployed on Air India's Birmingham-bound plane, aircraft lands safely

The operating crew of Air India's Amritsar-Birmingham flight reported that the Boeing 787's Ram Air Turbine (RAT) unexpectedly deployed during the final approach on October 4, but the aircraft landed safely, the airline said on Saturday. RAT deploys automatically in the eventuality of a dual engine failure or total electronic or hydraulic failure. It uses wind speed to generate emergency power. Air India said it has cancelled its Birmingham-Delhi flight as the aircraft has been grounded for inspection. "The operating crew of flight AI117 from Amritsar to Birmingham on 4 October 2025 detected deployment of the Ram Air Turbine (RAT) of the aircraft during its final approach. All electrical and hydraulic parameters were found normal, and the aircraft performed a safe landing at Birmingham," the Tata Group-owned Air India said in a statement. The airline, however, did not share specific details, including the number of people on board. Alternative arrangements are being made to ...

PM Modi to inaugurate Navi Mumbai International Airport on October 8

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the Navi Mumbai International Airport on October 8. The airport received its aerodrome licence from the aviation safety regulator DGCA on September 30. The project is being developed in multiple phases by Navi Mumbai International Airport, in which Adani Group has a 74 per cent stake, and the remaining 26 per cent is with the Maharashtra government's land development authority CIDCO. The Prime Minister will inaugurate the airport at 2.40 pm on October 8, and it will be operational from December, CIDCO Vice Chairman and Managing Director Vijay Singhal said at a briefing on Saturday. Navi Mumbai International Airport will be the second airport in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, and its airport code is 'NMI'. Once fully complete, the airport will be able to serve 90 million passengers and manage 3.2 MMT of cargo each year, making it one of the largest aviation hubs in Asia.

India-China direct flights to resume from October 26 after 5-year freeze

IndiGo will resume nonstop flights between Kolkata and Guangzhou from October 26

DGCA's ranking reveals serious quality problems in India's pilot training

A granular look at the ranking criteria the DGCA has applied is concerning.

Mumbai airport sees over 5 million international arrivals in Jan-Aug: MIAL

Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport in the city has handled over 5 million international arrivals in the January-August period this year, primarily driven by passengers from the UAE, UK, and Thailand, private airport operator MIAL said on Saturday. The facility has witnessed the international arrivals at the airport clocking a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 21 per cent in the past three years, reflecting the city's ever-burgeoning prominence on the global travel map and echoing the spirit of World Tourism Day that celebrates the power of travel in connecting cultures and economies, it added. Every year, September 27 is observed as World Tourism Day globally. Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA) is run under a joint venture, Mumbai International Airport Ltd (MIAL), which is 74 per cent owned by the Adani Group and the remaining 26 per cent by the Airports Authority of India. Between January and August this year, arrivals rose steadi

Airbus directors to visit Delhi as govt pushes for Make in India plans

The Airbus board will hold its first meeting in Delhi, reflecting India's growing role in aerospace as the Centre urges global firms to manufacture locally under Make in India

Cyberattack disrupts check-in, boarding systems at major European airports

A cyberattack targeting check-in and boarding systems has snarled air traffic and caused delays at some of Europe's top airports, officials said Saturday. The Brussels airport says the attack means that only manual check-in and boarding was possible there, and the incident was having a large impact on flight schedules. There was a cyberattack on Friday night 19 September against the service provider for the check-in and boarding systems affecting several European airports including Brussels Airport, it said in a statement. Authorities at Berlin's Brandenburg Airport said a service provider for passenger handling systems was attacked on Friday evening, prompting airport operators to cut off connections to the systems. London Heathrow Airport, Europe's busiest, said a technical issue affected a service provider for check-in and boarding systems. Collins Aerospace, which provides check-in and boarding systems for several airlines across multiple airports globally, is experiencing a .

oneworld Alliance considers Indian airline partner as market expands

Given that many of its members currently serve India, the alliance is also considering ways to leverage their joint presence in country like with a loyalty deal or a joint lounge initiative, CEO said

Air India Express to launch direct Bengaluru-Bangkok flights from Oct 18

The airline already connects Bangkok with Lucknow, Pune, and Surat, and operates direct flights between Hyderabad and Phuket

SpiceJet adds 8 more Boeing 737s, boosting fleet ahead of festive season

SpiceJet has signed multiple settlements in recent years to resolve disputes with lessors and other creditors, but has continued to struggle with capacity expansion

Delhi Airport's upgraded Terminal 2 to reopen on October 26 with new tech

Delhi Airport's refurbished T2 will resume operations on October 26 with 120 daily flights of Air India and IndiGo, featuring self-baggage drop and India's first autonomous aerobridges

Aera to hold airport operators accountable for third-party service quality

Aera draft regulation makes airport operators responsible for overall service quality, including third-party providers, linking tariffs to performance benchmarks

Air India enters into codeshare partnership with Kazakhstan's Air Astana

Air India has entered into a codeshare partnership with Kazakhstan's flag carrier Air Astana. "The codeshare partnership enables cooperation between the two carriers on trunk routes between Kazakhstan and India, covering Air Astana routes operated between Almaty and Delhi, and Almaty and Mumbai. "With this, Air India will place its 'AI' designator code on Air Astana's flights to and from India, providing its customers convenient access to Almaty, a rapidly growing tourism and business hub in Central Asia," Air India said in a release on Wednesday. Both airlines already have an interline partnership that came into effect earlier this year. A codeshare partnership allows an airline to book its passengers on its partner carrier on a single ticket. Air India passengers travelling to Almaty from points beyond Delhi and Mumbai will be able to conveniently travel on a single ticket and check-in their baggage through to Almaty at the point of origin, the release said. Currently, Air Indi

Abu Dhabi-bound IndiGo flight returns to Kochi after mid-air technical snag

An Abu Dhabi-bound IndiGo flight returned to Kochi early on Saturday due to a technical snag after being airborne for over two hours, according to sources. There were more than 180 passengers and six crew members onboard the aircraft, they said. There was no immediate comment from IndiGo. The flight 6E-1403 (COK-AUH) departed from Kochi at 11.10 pm on Friday and returned to the city at around 1.44 am on Saturday due to a technical snag, the sources told PTI. They also said that the passengers were flown to Abu Dhabi in another aircraft which took off at around 3.30 am and a new set of crew operated the flight as the earlier crew had to be replaced due to flight duty time restrictions. As per information available on flight tracking website Flightradar24.com, flight 6E1403 which had returned mid-way, was operated with an A320 neo aircraft.

GST hike to make premium air travel costlier; IATA expresses disappointment

GST on Premium Economy, Business, and First class air travel rises to 18%, while economy fares remain unchanged. IATA expresses disappointment, warning of negative effects on India's aviation sector

DGCA comes out with draft guidelines for fatigue risk managment system

Aviation safety watchdog DGCA has come out with draft guidelines for a fatigue risk management system for airlines, with the proposed framework set to complement the existing flight duty time limitation norms. Amid concerns in various quarters about fatigue among airline crew, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has already put in place revised Flight Duty Time Limitation (FDTL) norms for pilots, which are being implemented in a phased manner. In the draft advisory on 'Fatigue Risk Management System (FRMS) Implementation for Flight Crew Members in Scheduled Air Transport Operations', the regulator said the circular provides detailed guidance on FRMS approval processes, implementation requirements, and oversight mechanisms to enhance flight safety through scientific, data-driven fatigue management approaches that complement existing prescriptive FDTL regulations. FRMS should have maximum flight time, flight duty period, and duty period limits based on scientific ...

Kolkata-bound IndiGo flights returns to Nagpur after suspected bird hit

A Nagpur-Kolkata IndiGo flight returned to the airport here following a suspected bird hit after take-off on Tuesday morning, a senior airport official said. As a precautionary measure, the plane, carrying 160 to 165 passengers, had to return to the Nagpur airport, the official told PTI. The flight has been cancelled, the official added.

CBI books AAI employee for siphoning off ₹232 cr into his personal accounts

The CBI has registered an FIR against a senior manager of the Airport Authority of India for allegedly siphoning off more than Rs 232 crore into his personal accounts through a complex trail of fictitious accounting entries in three years during his posting at the Dehradun airport, officials said. The alleged embezzlement by Rahul Vijay, senior manager, finance and accounts, was detected in an internal audit, which flagged abnormal capitalisation of assets in the financial records between 2019-20 and 2022-23, they said. The Airport Authority of India (AAI) constituted a committee to verify the findings, which highlighted a complex trail of fictitious accounting entries, asset inflation, and unauthorised fund transfers from the authority's accounts to Vijay's personal accounts. Chandrakanth P, senior manager (finance), AAI, filed a formal complaint with the CBI on August 18, which became the basis of the FIR to be probed by the Economic Offences Unit of the agency. Vijay's alleged .

BS Infra Summit: India becoming a global gateway, say airport CEOs

Delhi and Noida airport chiefs say India is on the cusp of becoming a global aviation hub, driven by rising transfer traffic and expanding international connectivity

BS Infra Summit: India's airports gain capacity but bottlenecks loom

India's airports now have capacity ahead of demand, with $11 bn investment, dual-airport hubs in Delhi & Mumbai, but concerns remain on airspace, parking bays and staffing gaps