Page 7 - Indian Airlines

Airlines record lowest on-time figures in 11 months in Jan amid fog issues

DGCA and aviation security regulator Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) on January 17 came down heavily on three airlines namely IndiGo, SpiceJet and Air India

Air India begins commercial operations of wide-body A350 aircraft

Private carrier Air India on Monday commenced the commercial operations of its first wide-body A350 aircraft with a flight taking off for Chennai from the Mumbai airport. The 316-seater A350-900 aircraft has a three-class cabin configuration with 28 private business suites with full-flat beds, 24 premium economy and 264 economy seats. "Air India flight AI-589 took off from Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport on Monday for Chennai, with a full-capacity load of passengers," the airline said in a statement. The aircraft will initially fly on domestic routes -- Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, and Mumbai -- for crew familiarisation and regulatory compliance. It will later be deployed for long-haul flights to destinations across continents, strengthening Air India's growing wide-body fleet, comprising its own and recently leased aircraft, the airline said. The first of Air India's own 20 Airbus A350-900 aircraft, registered VT-JRA, arrived at Delhi's Indira

Indian plane not involved in Afghanistan aircraft crash, says Ministry

Indian officials on Sunday said that an Indian plane was not involved in a crash in Afghanistan amid reports that an aircraft from India met with an accident there last night. A senior official said that a Moroccan-registered DF 10 aircraft was involved in the crash in Afghanistan. Another official said the aircraft that crashed in Afghanistan last night was not that of an Indian carrier. The clarification came against the backdrop of reports from Afghanistan that an Indian plane was involved in the crash.

Go First's lenders seek investor bids by January 31, says report

Go First filed for bankruptcy protection in May but lenders have more recently been considering liquidating the airline after failing to secure new investors

Vistara 9th Anniversary Sale starts at Rs 1899; Bookings thrown open

Vistara has introduced discounted one-way charges for domestic travel in India, beginning at Rs 1809 for Economy Class. Premium Economy starts at Rs 2309, while Business Class starts at Rs 9909

DGCA confirms satisfactory checks on B737 Max after Alaska incident

Air India Express, SpiceJet, and Akasa Air have 32 operational B737-8 Max aircraft in their fleet in the country. None of the Indian airlines found anything adverse during the inspections

DGCA orders urgent checks on Max aircrafts after Alaska Airlines incident

Indian carriers directed to check B737-8 Max planes following Alaska Airlines' emergency landing due to depressurisation

DGCA imposes penalties worth Rs 2.75 cr on India carriers in 2023

DGCA said it imposed fines on domestic carriers such as Air India, IndiGo, AirAsia India and SpiceJet for issues related to non-compliance in 2023

Akasa Air set to close order for 150 Boeing 737 MAX narrowbody planes

Contract negotiations are ongoing and a deal is expected to be announced at Wings India, the country's largest civil aviation event scheduled for Jan. 18-21, said two sources familiar with ongoing ta

Flight, train delays continue through the fourth day amid fog in Delhi NCR

As peak winter prevails over the northern states of India, airlines and trains struggle with a fourth day of disturbances because of dense thick fog and high alerts in these states

Eight out of ten fliers faced issues with Indian airlines, says survey

Major challenges identified include issues with in-flight services, boarding, check-in, baggage procedures, and poor aircraft interiors, including seats

Airlines can save Rs 1,000 cr annually with use of flexible airspace: Govt

Airlines will have potential savings of Rs 1,000 crore annually with the flexible use of airspace that helps in reducing flight time, fuel usage and carbon emissions, according to the civil aviation ministry. In a review of the aviation sector released on Saturday, the ministry also said that a record number of commercial pilot licences at 1,562 have been issued this year till December 18 by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). To address the issue of congestion at airports, the ministry said additional space has been created at various airports by restructuring the available terminal infrastructure to augment capacity at several passenger touch points. Meanwhile, the ministry said that earlier about 40 per cent of the airspace was unavailable for civilian use, resulting in aircraft adopting circuitous routes to reach their destinations. The Indian Air Force controls 30 per cent of the national airspace and out of that, 30 per cent has been released as upper airspace .

Air India starts rollout of new brand identity from Delhi, Mumbai airports

The new Air India livery will also feature on the A350 fleet and subsequently on other incoming aircraft

Airlines likely to prune losses to Rs 3,000-5,000 cr in FY24: ICRA

Indian airline industry is expecting to prune its net losses to Rs 3,000-5,000 crore in this fiscal from an estimated Rs 17,000-17,500 crore in FY2023 on the back of improved yields and stable cost environment, credit ratings agency ICRA said on Tuesday. At the same time, ICRA also estimated that domestic air passenger traffic will expand by 8-13 per cent each in FY2024 and FY2025. The rating agency has also maintained its stable outlook on the industry in view of healthy passenger traffic growth, improved yields and a stable cost environment. Building on the fast-paced recovery in FY2023, ICRA at a webinar on Tuesday said it is expecting the domestic air passenger traffic to grow by 8-13 per cent in the ongoing financial year, thereby reaching 150-155 million and surpassing the pre-Covid levels of 141.2 million seen in FY2020. The Industry's net loss (is expected) to shrink to Rs 30-50 billion in FY2024 from an estimated Rs 170-175 billion in FY2023, aided by improved yields and .

SpiceJet initiates fresh funding of $270 mn for Go First acquisition

SpiceJet is among three companies that have shown interest in acquiring the bankrupt airline

IndiGo becomes first Indian airline to carry 100 mn pax in a single year

IndiGo operates over 2,000 flights per day. It flies to 86 domestic and 32 international destinations

Flights cancelled, airfares jump 52-171% as rainfall batters Chennai

Domestic carriers have offered a fee waiver on flight cancellations or rescheduling of the impacted flights to their passengers

Penetration of international air travel remains low in India: CAPA

Even as India has become the third largest market in terms of domestic traffic, the penetration of international air travel remains low, CAPA India chief Kapi Kaul said on Friday. He also pitched for regulatory reforms, saying if corrective measures are not taken, the capacity pipeline will reduce further. "In terms of domestic traffic, we have reached number 3. But in terms of international (traffic), we are ranked at 18. In spite of being the third-largest domestic market, the penetration of (international) air travel remains lowest among the top 20 domestic markets," Kaul said. He was delivering the keynote address at a function organised here by Tata Memorial Trust to mark the 119th birth anniversary of JRD Tata. Kaul said India's seats per capita consumption stands at 0.13, whereas the same for a country like Australia is as much as 3.11. The long-term fundamentals for growth are very strong, he said, adding that "we have only searched the surface of international travel. We

'Can no longer sustain': Grounded airline Go First CEO Kaushik Khona quits

Khona was appointed as the CEO of the no-frills airline in 2020 after the incumbent and current Akasa Air CEO, Vinay Dube, stepped down from the position

Air India passengers onboard flight face water leakage inside cabin

Passengers onboard an Air India flight from Gatwick to Amritsar faced water leakage inside the aircraft last week and the airline has expressed regret over the incident. A short video of water leaking from the overhead area of the Air India aircraft was posted on social media. In a statement on Thursday, an Air India spokesperson said flight AI169 operating from Gatwick to Amritsar on November 24 had developed a rare occurrence of condensation adjustment inside the cabin. Gatwick airport is in the UK. "Some of our guests seated in the affected rows were promptly relocated to other vacant seats and given the circumstances the cabin crew made every effort to make the guests comfortable. Air India is committed to the safety and comfort of guests on board and we regret this unexpected incident," the spokesperson said. Sharing the video on social media platform X, a user said, "fly with us -- it's not a trip -- it's an immersive experience".