Page 6 - Aviation News

Datanomics: Staff behaviour is a small but steady irritant in air travel

SpiceJet recorded the highest complaint rate per 10,000 passengers, rising sharply from 3.9 in November 2024 to 13.8 in October 2025

IndiGo top brass to fan out across network with 'rebuilding' message

Before the crisis, the airline operated a total of 2,300 flights per day - about 2,000 domestic and about 300 international

Indigo crisis: PIL filed in Delhi HC seeking direction for compensation

A PIL has been filed in the Delhi High Court seeking to direct the Centre and Indigo airline to pay four times the compensation of the full ticket price to all passengers whose tickets were cancelled during November and December after the new Flight Duty Time Limitation (FDTL) rollout. The public interest litigation, which will come up for hearing on Wednesday before a bench of Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela, also sought an enquiry by a retired judge or Lokpal to identify the negligence and lapses of the Directorate of Civil Aviation (DGCA) in precipitating the crisis. The petition further sought to direct the Union Ministry of Civil Aviation and the Department of Consumer Affairs to initiate a "class action suit" according to the provisions of the Consumer Protection Act against Indigo for the suffering and damages caused to the passengers due to the crisis in the last couple of months. According to the petitioner, Centre for Accountability and

DGCA probe panel on flight disruptions visits IndiGo headquarters

The four-member panel, set up by Director General of Civil Aviation Faiz Ahmed Kidwai to investigate large-scale operational disruptions at domestic carrier IndiGo earlier this month, visited the airline's headquarters on Monday as part of the ongoing probe, sources said. During the visit, they said, the panel members checked multiple aspects of the operations that could have resulted in the disruptions. "The panel members visited IndiGo headquarters on Monday. They remained there throughout the day to take the ongoing probe ahead," a source privy to information told PTI. During the visit, said another source, the probe panel checked multiple aspects of operations, including infrastructure that could have resulted in such a large-scale disruption of services. The four-member panel, comprising Joint DG Sanjay Brahamane, Deputy Director General Amit Gupta, senior Flight Operations Inspector Kapil Manglik, and FOI Lokesh Rampal, has been tasked with identifying the root causes of ...

60% flyers say airlines flouting airfare caps after govt order: Survey

The govt imposed the fare caps on December 6 after passengers complained of a steep increase in ticket prices between December 3 and 6, a peak travel period

IndiGo crisis: Parliamentary panel may summon DGCA, MoCA officials

Parliamentary panel will summon aviation regulators and major airlines to review recent flight cancellations and ongoing safety concerns, including ATC fatigue, pilot shortages and infrastructure gaps

IndiGo crisis: Travel operators ramp up capacities for faster refunds

Travel operators ramp up human and tech support to manage soaring refund and rescheduling requests as IndiGo flight cancellations disrupt peak holiday travel

Delhi HC pulls up Centre over IndiGo crisis; orders passenger compensation

Delhi High Court criticised the Centre and DGCA over the IndiGo disruptions and directed airline to immediately begin compensation under the DGCA's 2010 circular, with the next hearing on Jan 22, 2026

IndiGo board to hire external specialist to trace root cause of disruption

IndiGo chairman Vikram Singh Mehta dismissed allegations that IndiGo engineered the crisis, tried to influence the government's flight duty time limitation (FDTL) rules

IndiGo trims Q3 capacity, revenue forecast after flight cancellations

The budget airline had scrapped at least 2,000 services last week because of poor pilot roster planning, leaving tens of thousands of passengers stranded

'Need to have 5 big airlines': Civil Aviation Minister amid IndiGo crisis

Ram Mohan Naidu said India needs to have five big airlines given the demand, and that has been the effort from the ministry to encourage more airlines to join the industry

DGCA to introduce competency-based training framework for cabin crew

Aviation watchdog DGCA plans to put in place a competency-based training and assessment framework for cabin crew to help in further improve the training imparted to them, according to a senior official. The Competency Based Training and Assessment (CBTA) framework was introduced for pilots in 2022. Shweta Singh, Chief Flight Operations Inspector at the DGCA, told PTI that the regulator is expected to come out with draft norms for the CBTA for the cabin crew in a month. It will be on a voluntary basis for the airlines. She said the efforts are to improve the competencies of the cabin crew. "For example, if there is a fire in the cabin... how will they deal with it? How will they communicate? All those kind of performance indicators (will be) embedded in it (CBTA framework) which will help them to train better," Singh said. She spoke on the sidelines of a conference in the national capital on Thursday. Participating in a session at the conference, IndiGo's Senior Vice President fo

Airlines to operate 26,495 weekly domestic flights in winter schedule

Airlines will operate 26,495 domestic flights every week connecting 126 airports in the winter schedule starting from October 26. The winter schedule is from October 26, 2025, to March 28, 2026. "There are 26,495 departures per week which have been finalised to/from 126 airports as per WS25 compared to 25,610 departures per week from 129 airports in Summer Schedule 2025 (SS25)," the civil aviation ministry said in a release on Friday. The ministry said there will be a 5.95 per cent increase in departures per week in the Winter Schedule (WS25) compared to WS24. In the latest winter schedule, Amravati, Hissar, Purnia and Rupsi will be the new airports that will have flight services, while operations will be suspended at Aligarh, Moradabad, Chitrakoot, Bhavnagar, Ludhiana, Pakyong and Shravasti airports, the ministry said.

Plane crashes in Massachusetts, kills two, wounds one on the ground

A plane crashed along a highway in Massachusetts early Monday, sending a plume of smoke into the air and forcing the closure of the major highway, the Massachusetts State Police said in a statement. It was unclear whether there were injuries in the crash in Dartmouth, Massachusetts. In videos taken by people passing by in cars, smoke could be seen billowing up above Interstate 195 from scattered, blazing debris. State police said the plane may have been attempting to land at New Bedford Regional Airport, though officials said it does not appear that the pilot provided the airport with a flight plan or passenger details. Officials shut down traffic moving in both directions on the section of the interstate near the crash, according to the state department of transportation. At the time of the crash, the National Weather Service said a nor'easter had brought rain and winds from 30 to 40 mph (48 to 64 kph) to the area.

Airbus expects supply progress; Spirit deal to close in fourth quarter

The European planemaker is also on its way towards a longer-term goal of increasing underlying output of narrow-body jets to 75 a month in 2027

Cathay Pacific appoints Vinod Viswanathan as head of sales for India, Lanka

Cathay Pacific on Monday said it has appointed Vinod Viswanathan as its Regional Head of Trade Sales for India and Sri Lanka. The airline also announced the appointment of Piyuli Bhattacharjee as Regional Head of Marketing for SAMEA (South Asia, Middle East and Africa) and Arjun Bhatia as Regional Head of Corporate Sales for these regions. All these three key officials will be based at Cathay's regional headquarters in Mumbai, the airline said. Viswanathan, who brings over 15 years of experience in aviation, global distribution, corporate and leisure travel, in his new role, will focus on strengthening trade partnerships, driving strategic initiatives, and expanding Cathay's footprint across key markets. Apart from serving as Cathay's Regional Head of Corporate Sales for the region earlier, he has also performed senior leadership roles with Air Mauritius, Flight Centre Travel Group, British Airways, Oman Air, and Travelport, Cathay Pacific said. Bhattacharjee, in her new role, wil

K Rammohan Naidu asks airlines to ensure reasonable fares in festive season

Civil Aviation Minister K Rammohan Naidu on Friday held a review meeting with officials of airlines to assess their operational and technical performance, and asked them to keep airfares at reasonable levels during the festive season. Representatives of Air India, Air India Express, IndiGo, Akasa Air, Alliance Air, Fly91, FlyBig and IndiaOne Air, among others, participated in the meeting. They presented their performance metrics, including action taken reports on security incidents and passenger grievances, according to an official release. During the meeting with the airline representatives that went on for more than five hours, Naidu emphasised that they should strictly adhere to safety protocols. The periodic meeting also came against the backdrop of two incidents involving Air India's Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft. Naidu asked airlines to adopt best practices in passenger convenience and service quality. "Detailed discussions were held with each airline on identifying ...

DGCA releases first ranking of flying schools, none achieve top grade

Aviation regulator DGCA has come out with its first-ever ranking of flying training organisations in the country, and none of the 35 organisations in the list have managed to get top ratings of 'A+' and 'A'. Out of the 35 Flying Training Organisations (FTOs), 13 got 'B' and 22 received 'C' rankings, according to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). Operational aspects, FTO performance, safety standards, compliance standards and assistance to students are taken into consideration for evaluating the FTOs under four categories. Those having a score of 85 per cent and above are classified as 'A+' and those with score of 70 per cent to less than 85 per cent are categorised as 'A'. FTOs having a score of less than 70 per cent to 50 per cent are in 'B' category and those with a score below 50 per cent are in the 'C' category. According to the regulator, 5 FTOs were excluded from the current rankings as 4 of them were yet to complete 18 months of operations and 1 FTO's approv

Noida Airport to begin operations after Diwali; foreign airlines in talks

The Noida International Airport (NIA), being developed as a greenfield aviation hub in Jewar, Gautam Buddh Nagar, is on track to begin operations by the end of this year. Union Civil Aviation Minister K Rammohan Naidu recently told reporters that the airport would be inaugurated on October 30 and flight operations begin within next 45 days with 10 routes. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has also reiterated the airport's commercial flight operations to commence by 2025 end. Billed to be India's largest airport upon full development before 2050, the project -- which started in 2019 and saw COVID-19 pandemic too -- was initially scheduled to launch operations in September 2024. The airport, which is being developed in four phases, has completed key aeronautical infrastructure for Phase 1, including one runway and one passenger terminal with an annual capacity to handle 12 million passengers. Technical installations and finishing works inside the terminal are underway, wh

SpiceJet to add 8 new Boeing 737 aircraft ahead of winter schedule 2025

Debojo Maharshi, Chief Business Officer, SpiceJet, said the induction will help the airline increase frequency on key routes ahead of the festival season