Page 7 - Indian Aviation

India needs 2,840 new aircraft, 41,000 pilots in 20 years: Airbus forecast

Addressing a press conference on the sidelines of the aviation conclave and exhibition, Wings India 2024, Maillard said Airbus will double its sourcing from India to USD 1.5 billion

Airlines, plane makers set to unveil new orders at Indian aviation event

The activity comes despite the financial struggles of two budget carriers GoFirst and SpiceJet, in the wake of the collapse of two other Indian airlines since 2011

'Hope airfares come to right sweet spot,' says Vistara's chief Vinod Kannan

Emphasising that airfare is a function of supply and demand, full-service carrier Vistara's chief Vinod Kannan has expressed hope that ticket prices will come to the "right sweet spot where customers will travel and airlines can make money". Vistara, a joint venture between Tata Group and Singapore Airlines, currently, operates around 320 flights daily. To a query on concerns in certain quarters about air ticket prices going irrationally high, the airline CEO said the thing with airfares is that people complain when it goes high and no one compliments when it goes down. "There are times in the year due to seasonality...our fares in 2023 were even lower than 2022," he noted. During an interaction with PTI, Kannan said that certain measures are in place to ensure that airfares are not irrational, especially when there are natural calamities or when something unfortunate happens. In such situations, "we want to make sure that it is not a price-gouging opportunity," he said. "If you

DRDO successfully conducts flight-test of new-generation AKASH missile

India on Friday conducted a successful flight test of the new generation AKASH missile from the Integrated Test Range (ITR), Chandipur off the coast of Odisha, officials said. The flight test was conducted by DRDO against a high-speed unmanned aerial target at very low altitude. During the flight test, the target was successfully intercepted by the weapon system and destroyed, they said. "It has validated the functioning of the complete weapon system consisting of the missile with indigenously developed Radio Frequency Seeker, Launcher, Multi-Function Radar and Command, Control & Communication system", the officials said. The system performance was also validated through the data captured by a number of radars, telemetry and electro-optical tracking system deployed by ITR, Chandipur. The flight test was witnessed by senior officials from DRDO, Indian Air Force (IAF), Bharat Dynamics Limited (BDL) and Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL). The AKASH-NG system is a state-of-the-art ...

48 hrs weekly rest, only 2 night landings in rules to avoid crew fatigue

The revision in FDTL regulations is expected to influence flight schedules and may result in certain implications when it comes to operating costs, aviation sources said

DGCA increases rest time among other reforms to address pilot fatigue

The new reforms include weekly rest periods of 36-48 hours for flight crew, increasing the official "night period" by an hour, and limiting maximum flight time & duty periods to 8 hours and 10 hours

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

Fog of confusion

The aviation ecosystem needs to cooperate better

Govt asks airport operators to explore biometric models for smooth travel

The civil aviation ministry, which is taking measures to prevent congestion at airport in the upcoming festive season, has asked airport operators to look at the successful biometric models being used in other countries for smooth travel of air passengers. During a meeting with an advisory group, civil aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia asked airport operators to promote Digi Yatra, which provides for contactless, seamless movement of passengers at various check points at airports based on Facial Recognition Technology (FRT). Currently, Digi Yatra is available for domestic passengers at 13 airports, including Delhi, Mumbai and Varanasi. At the meeting on Tuesday, the airport operators were also tasked with presenting biometric enabled models being successfully used in other countries, according to an official release. On December 15, Scindia said the Digi Yatra facility will be available at 25 more airports in 2024. The release said that a suggestion at the meeting was to ...

India's busiest routes see surprise dip in airfares for year-end travel

Fare 'adjustment' comes as airlines seek to rectify missteps taken before Diwali

CDS General Anil Chauhan to open HAL's avionics exposition in Delhi

State-owned aerospace and defence equipment maker to showcase capabilities in avionics

Is grounded airline Go First even capable of doing test flight, asks lessor

The lessor also said that even physical inspection of the aircraft was not granted by the RP, besides the aircraft not being maintained and records not being provided to them

Air India targets 5x members for frequent-flyer plan in four years

In August, Air India Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Managing Director (MD) Campbell Wilson announced that a thoroughly revamped loyalty programme is set to launch early next year

Go First CEO Kaushik Khona resigns amid airline's uncertain future

Grounded Go First's CEO Kaushik Khona has put in his papers, nearly seven months after the no-frills airline filed for insolvency proceedings. In an e mail to the airline's employees on Thursday, Khona said that November 30 is his last day at the company. Khona had returned to Go First in August 2020 as its CEO. "With a heavy heart, I have to inform that today is my last day with the company. I got an opportunity to work for Go FIRST once again in August 2020 and with your able and active support I tried to perform to my best abilities," Khona said in the e mail. Earlier, he was with the carrier from 2008 to 2011. "... the Board of Directors decided to file for Section 10 application under the IBC and we still continued to provide the best support to the company We were hopeful that we will resume the operations soon and at least from June 2023 but it got delayed" he said in the e mail accessed by PTI. Section 10 pertains to voluntary insolvency proceedings under the Insolvency a

Limiting bilateral rights not the way to grow Indian aviation: IAG Cargo

CEO David Shepherd calls for 'fair competition' between national and international carriers

Go First lenders to vote on liquidation amid lack of suitors: Report

The proposal whether or not to liquidate the airline has been floated and with individual lenders will take the proposal to their boards and submit final votes in 10-15 days, the report said

Always evaluating options: IndiGo amid reports of inducting premium flights

IndiGo on Thursday said it always evaluates available options amid reports that the budget carrier is likely to have a premium class in its flights. The airline, which has a domestic market share of more than 62 per cent, is expanding its operations. It has a fleet of more than 330 aircraft, and 970 planes are on order. "We are always in the process of evaluating options available. As a policy, we do not comment on speculations and will share any information if and when we have anything to share," IndiGo said in a statement. The statement came in the backdrop of reports that the airline plans to have a premium class in its A321 XLR aircraft and also launch a loyalty programme. IndiGo expects delivery of A321 XLR planes in late 2024 or early 2025. "XLR will help us expand our range... when XLRs come in, that can bring us further into Europe to places like Athens... it can bring further into Asia to places like Seoul...," IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers said on November 6.

Domestic air traffic touches new peak with 4,59,526 passengers on Nov 20

For the third straight day, the country's domestic air traffic touched a new peak on Monday as airlines carried 4,59,526 passengers. With the traffic numbers touching a fresh single-day record on Monday (November 20), the civil aviation ministry said that post-Covid, India's domestic aviation turnaround story has not just been overwhelming but inspiring as well. "Positive attitude, progressive policies, and deep trust among passengers are taking it to new heights with every flight, every day," the ministry said in a post on X. On November 20 (Monday), there were 4,59,526 passengers and the total flight movements stood at 5,958, as per the latest official data. The count of domestic air passengers was at 3,94,07 and the number of flight movements was 5,468 on November 20, 2022. Sharing a graphic of the figures, the ministry said, "India's domestic aviation touching new skies, daily". Civil aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia on Tuesday said, "Another day, another record!". In

Foreign airlines see India's potential as global aviation hub for APAC

Executives at Japan Airlines and Thai Airways see India as a transit hub to connect Asia Pacific with West Asia and Africa

Diwali Bonanza: Airfares see up to 9% decline on key domestic routes

On the Mumbai-Ahmedabad route, ticket prices decreased marginally from Rs 3,700 to Rs 3,650 in the aforementioned period