Page 9 - Aviation Industry

ICRA expects 18-20% growth for airport operators in FY26 on higher traffic

Indian airport operators are expected to see an 18-20 per cent topline year-on-year growth in this fiscal, driven by a sustained improvement in passenger traffic and tariff hike as well as ramp-up in non-aeronautical revenues, ratings agency ICRA said on Thursday. At the same time, ICRA estimates overall air passenger traffic growing at a healthy 7-9 per cent Y-o-Y to reach at 440-450 million in FY26, on the back of an around 10 per cent estimated increase in the just concluded financial year, it said. The overall passenger traffic (domestic and international) is estimated at 412-415 million in FY25, as per ICRA. The ratings agency said its estimation is based on a sample set of airports, including those managed and operated by the Airports Authority of India (AAI), as well as Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Cochin International Airports, which operate under the public-private partnership (PPP) model. Also, given the capacity bottleneck faced by a few airports, the sector will ...

Man urinates on senior corporate exec on Bangkok-bound Air India flight

Air India confirmed the incident in a statement but did not disclose the identities of either the accused or the victim

Parliament clears landmark aviation bill to support aircraft lessors

The issue has been in focus since 2023 when lessors like SMBC Aviation couldn't repossess aircraft from India's Go First after it filed for bankruptcy

Aviation industry falling behind on net zero target, warns IATA chief

Walsh criticised fuel companies as the "cause of the problem", saying they had ignored their own SAF supply promises

New bill to boost aircraft leasing, strengthen banking: Union minister

Civil Aviation Minister K Rammohan Naidu on Tuesday said the Protection of Interests in Aircraft Objects Bill, 2025, will boost the Indian aircraft leasing industry and strengthen the country's banking ecosystem as it will address the inconsistencies in the leasing regulations. Soon after the Rajya Sabha passed the bill, the minister also said the push for the aircraft leasing industry was the need of the hour. The proposed legislation seeks to provide legal backing for the Cape Town Convention that mainly pertains to the leasing of aircraft. In a post on X, the minister said that for too long, inconsistencies in leasing regulations have made it difficult to lease planes in India. The bill will "boost the Indian leasing industry, incentivise domestic lessors, and strengthen our banking ecosystem -- ensuring a more accessible and comfortable aviation landscape. This push for the leasing industry was the need of the hour...," he said. India is one of the world's fastest-growing civi

India's air passenger traffic to see 7% growth in 2025: Alton Aviation

India's air passenger traffic is expected to grow at a strong pace of 7 per cent in 2025, supported by a growing middle class and increasing air travel affordability, according to Joshua Ng, Director of US-headquartered Alton Aviation Consultancy. Bullish on aviation prospects in India, Ng said the country, which contributes approximately 10 per cent of Asia Pacific's domestic and international air traffic demand, has already returned to pre-pandemic levels. "Such growing demand in turn supports India's massive aviation development programmes including setting up of 150 airports across the country," Ng told PTI on Friday. He further noted that "India's passenger traffic is expected to grow at a strong pace of 7 per cent in 2025, supported by an order book of nearly 1,900 aircraft among airlines based in the country." Besides, "the recent merger between Air India and Vistara is also expected to bring more stability to the industry, with Air India and IndiGo emerging as the two prima

Inside Akasa Air's struggles with Boeing delivery delays and idle pilots

The Mumbai-based low-cost airline, Akasa Air, which started operations about three years ago, has a fleet of 27 planes, but has 226 jets - all Boeing 737 MAXs - on order

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

IndiGo Airlines world's second fastest-growing airline in seat capacity

At 10.1% growth in 2024, it is only behind Qatar Airways, which grew 10.4%: OAG

Airbus expects jet deliveries to increase 7% to around 820 in 2025

Guillaume Faury, the CEO of Airbus said he would be happy if space merger talks with Thales and Leonardo led to a venture like the MBDA European missile project

Toronto plane crash: Investigators recover black boxes for further analysis

Delta said earlier that 19 of 21 passengers transported to local hospitals after the plane crash had been released

Cheaper indirect routes pull Indian flyers away from direct Europe flights

Data from OAG, covering December 2023 to November 2024, shows that as much as a third of flyers between Mumbai and London and a fourth of flyers from Delhi to London travel indirectly

Missing commuter plane found crashed on Alaska sea ice, all 10 aboard dead

A small commuter plane that crashed in western Alaska on its way to the hub community of Nome was located Friday on sea ice and all 10 people on board died, authorities said. Mike Salerno, a spokesperson for the U.S. Coast Guard, said rescuers were searching the aircraft's last known location by helicopter when they spotted the wreckage. They lowered two rescue swimmers to investigate. The Bering Air single-engine turboprop plane was traveling from Unalakleet on Thursday afternoon with nine passengers and a pilot, according to Alaska's Department of Public Safety. The Cessna Caravan left Unalakleet at 2:37 p.m., and officials lost contact with it less than an hour later, David Olson, director of operations for Bering Air, has said. There was light snow and fog, with a temperature of 17 degrees (minus 8.3 Celsius), according to the National Weather Service. Officials lost contact with the plane less than an hour later. The Coast Guard said the plane went missing about 30 miles (48 .

Industry's supply chain issues slowed Air India's growth, says Boeing

Airline CEOs in India don't want to talk about any new plane development, they want to talk about timely deliveries: Boeing

JetSetGo enters urban air mobility mkt with new partnerships for air taxis

JetSetGo signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with SkyDrive, a Japan-based company, to explore deployment opportunities for its three-seat fully electric multicopter, SD05

Boeing resumes 777X test flights after grounding in Aug due to engine issue

The grounding came just five weeks after it had started certification flights for the 777-9 with officials from the US aviation regulator onboard

Azul, Gol draw closer to potential partnership to form major Brazil airline

Azul Chief Executive John Rodgerson said in an interview that the combined carrier, which would continue operating two separate brands despite the combined ownership, would be 'a national champion'

An aviation hub: Indian airports must upgrade to attract global travellers

Air India's major competitor domestically, low-cost carrier IndiGo, has also ramped up international operations of late

Boeing's aircraft deliveries, orders in 2024 reflect company's rough year

Boeing delivered less than half the number of commercial aircraft to customers than its European rival in 2024 as the American aerospace giant's output suffered under intensified government scrutiny and a factory workers' strike, according to data released Tuesday. Boeing said it supplied 348 jetliners during the year. That was more than a third fewer than the 528 the company finished for airlines and leasing outfits in 2023 and less than half the number of jetliners that Airbus delivered last year. Deliveries are an important source of cash for plane manufacturers since buyers typically pay a large portion of the purchase price when their orders are fulfilled. More than three-quarters of the planes that Boeing furnished were 737 Max jets, a stark reminder of how integral its best-selling airline model has been to the company's fortunes and challenges. Boeing has lost money since 2019 following the crashes of two then-new Max jets that killed 346 people. The company expected to ram

Domestic aviation sector likely to clock Rs 2k-3k cr net loss in FY25: ICRA

The country's civil aviation industry is projected to report a net loss of Rs 2,000 to Rs 3,000 crore in the current and next financial year as supply chain challenges and engine issues are expected to continue for some more time, according to a report. In the report on Tuesday, rating agency Icra also said that domestic air passenger traffic was estimated at 153 lakh in December, 7.3 per cent higher compared to 142.5 lakh recorded in November last year. "Further, it grew by ~10.8 per cent on a YoY basis and was higher by ~17.5 per cent than the pre-Covid levels, i.e., December 2019. The airlines' capacity deployment in December 2024 was higher than December 2023 by ~7.5 per cent and by ~3.8 per cent over November 2024," it added. Giving a stable outlook for the Indian aviation industry, Icra said there are expectations of moderate growth in domestic air passenger traffic and a relatively stable cost environment in FY25. Moreover, the industry witnessed improved pricing power durin