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India will need 30,000 pilots in the next 15-20 years as domestic airlines have more than 1,700 planes on order as they expand their network, Civil Aviation Minister K Rammohan Naidu said on Tuesday. Asserting that the ministry is working with a collective approach for the aviation industry, he also said that officials are verifying various aspects of 38 Flying Training Organisations (FTOs) and these organisations will be rated. The minister was speaking at a function to mark the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for an order for 200 trainer aircraft. Indian airlines have placed orders for more than 1,700 aircraft and currently, there are over 800 planes, Naidu said. Presently, there are 6,000-7,000 working pilots and the country will need 30,000 pilots in the next 15 to 20 years, the minister said and also pitched for making India a training hub. India is one of the world's fastest growing civil aviation markets. According to the minister, efforts are being made to
Air India Express now has 100 planes in its fleet by inducting another Boeing 737-8 aircraft, which operated its first flight on Bengaluru-Hindon route. In a release on Monday, the airline said it will be operating over 500 daily flights by the end of this month across a fast-expanding network of 54 destinations across India, the Middle East and Southeast Asia. From a fleet of 26 Boeing 737 NGs and 28 A320 aircraft in January 2022, when the airline was taken over by the Tata Group, the carrier's has almost doubled its fleet to 100 aircraft, according to the release. The 100th aircraft, featuring 'Chittara' tail art inspired by Karnataka's traditional mural painting, was flagged off by the airline's Managing Director Aloke Singh at Bengaluru's Kempegowda International Airport. "In just over three years since privatisation, we integrated and merged the LCC (low cost carrier) airlines, while scaling up rapidly with a modern and fuel-efficient fleet, broad basing our domestic network,
The government is in the process of setting a special purpose vehicle for making regional transport aircraft, Civil Aviation Minister K Rammohan Naidu said on Monday as he asserted that necessary policies are in place for India to manufacture planes and its components. Replying to questions in the Rajya Sabha, the minister highlighted the steps taken by the government to promote aircraft component manufacturing and MRO (Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul) activities, including having a uniform IGST rate. India is one of the world's fastest growing civil aviation markets and domestic carriers have placed orders for more than 1,500 planes as they expand their fleets to meet rising air traffic demand. "We have changed the thought process that we have when it comes to manufacturing of aircraft. We are saying that India is at the stage right now where we can manufacture, we can design and we can maintain an aircraft," Naidu said. Elaborating about the way forward, the minister said the ..
Gulf carrier flydubai on Monday said it continuously looks for opportunities to organically grow its network in India and is not in any discussions for ventures with other airlines at present. The statement comes against the backdrop of reports that the airline along with Busy Bee Airways might be looking at buying the assets of grounded Go First. Meanwhile, Nishant Pitti, the majority shareholder in Busy Bee Airways, on Monday said there are no discussions with flydubai. India has always been a very important market for flydubai, an airline spokesperson said in the statement and added that it continuously looks for opportunities to grow the network organically in India. "We are not currently in any discussions for ventures with other airlines. If this changes in the future, an official announcement will be made," the spokesperson said. On January 20, the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) ordered the liquidation of Go First, the budget carrier that stopped flying nearly two yea
The number of technical glitches in aircraft reported by various Indian airlines has reduced in the last three years, with the count at 273 for 10,69,680 flights operated during the period from January 2024 to January 2025. In 2023, there were 390 technical faults reported for 11,94,777 flights operated that year. In 2022, the number stood at 723 for 9,97,041 flights operated in that particular year, official data showed on Monday. Civil Aviation Minister K Rammohan Naidu said the data available for the last three years (2022-2024) shows there was a decrease in the number of technical glitches reported by the airlines. Technical snags are general phenomena in aircraft which may be caused due to improper function/malfunction of components/ system/ accessories fitted on the aircraft, he said in a written reply. Separately, Minister of State for Civil Aviation Murlidhar Mohol said the government has been encouraging the development of the ecosystem for the manufacturing of aircraft, .
Aviation safety regulator DGCA has imposed a penalty of Rs 30 lakh on Tata Group-owned Air India for allegedly allowing one of its pilots to operate a flight without complying with certain regulatory requirements. The DGCA in order of January 29 also said that it has found "recurrent rostering issues...," about the airline. The order to slap penalty came after the response of a show-cause notice to Air India's head of operations and head of rostering, among other executives, on December 13, 2024 was found "unsatisfactory." The pilot "operated a flight on 7th July despite not having the mandatory recency requirement of 3 take off and landings, leading to violation of para 3 of civil aviation requirement," the regulator said in its order. Air India did not respond to a PTI query on this issue. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) in its order also said that "the (rostering) controllers (at Air India) overlooked the multiple spurious alerts reflecting on CAE window, as pe
The budgetary allocation for the civil aviation ministry has been cut by nearly 10 per cent to Rs 2,400.31 crore for the next financial year, with the regional air connectivity scheme UDAN set to get a lower amount of Rs 540 crore. The allocation in the Union Budget 2025-26, presented by the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in Parliament on Saturday, is less compared to Rs 2,658.68 crore in the revised 2024-25 Budget. Out of the total allocation for the next fiscal starting from April 1, 2025, UDAN will get Rs 540 crore, which is 32 per cent lower compared to Rs 800 crore in the year-ago period. Interestingly, Sitharaman has announced that UDAN (Ude Desh ka Aam Naagrik) scheme will be modified to connect 120 new destinations. As per the budget papers, the allocation for the DGCA and BCAS have increased marginally to Rs 330 crore and Rs 95 crore, respectively, for 2025-26. For the Customs Cost Recovery (CCR) charges to Airport Authority of India (AAI) and AAI Cargo Logistics and
Chartered aircraft and fleet services operator JetSetGo on Tuesday said it has entered into strategic partnerships with EVTOL technology firm SkyDrive and Eve Air Mobility for the development and deployment of urban air mobility (UAM) services in the country. As part of these partnerships, announced at the on-going Urban Air Mobility Expo and Conference, which is a part of the CII-organised Bharat Global Mobility Show, JetSetGo signed an initial pact with SkyDrive to explore deployment opportunities for its three-seat fully electric multi-copter 'SKYDRIVE'. Along with this, a Letter of Intent (LOI) was also finalised for a pre-order of up to 50 aircraft. The collaboration will validate use cases and market demand, with initial projects starting in Gujarat and with possible future expansion to other regions across the country, JetSetGo said. Besides, JetSetGo also signed a letter of intent with Eve Air Mobility to integrate Eve's advanced urban air traffic management (UATM) solution
The civil aviation ministry is looking to have a regulatory sandbox for advanced air mobility solutions that will also help address urban congestion. Emphasising that the time for electric air mobility has come, Civil Aviation Secretary Vumlunmang Vualnam on Tuesday said, "Our doors are open to promote and support advanced air mobility". He was speaking at the International Conference on Air Mobility in Greater Noida which was organised by the civil aviation ministry and industry body CII. Advanced air mobility solutions include eVTOLs (electric Vertical Take Off Landing) aircraft. For advanced air mobility, the secretary said, "We are looking at a regulatory sandbox within India". It will help entities working on R&D activities as well as developing solutions. Officials from the DGCA have started field visits to firm up sites where the trials and other activities related to advanced air mobility. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has set up six working groups ...
Aerospace startup Sarla Aviation on Friday unveiled its prototype air taxi, Shunya, at the Bharat Mobility Global Expo amid its plans to introduce electric flying taxis in Bangalore by 2028 to revolutionize urban transport in India. With speeds reaching up to 250 km per hour and optimised for short trips of 20-30 km, Shunya is expected to significantly reduce travel times across congested urban areas, the company said. The Bengaluru-based platform named after India's first woman pilot Sarla Thukral recently secured USD 10 million in Series A funding led by Accel, with participation from notable angel investors including Flipkart co-founder Binny Bansal and Zerodha co-founder Nikhil Kamath. Founded in October 2023 by Adrian Schmidt, Rakesh Gaonkar, and Shivam Chauhan, Sarla Aviation prototype Shunya is designed to accommodate up to six passengers and can carry a maximum load of 680 kg, making it the highest payload eVTOL (electric vertical Take-off and landing) in the market. "Shuny
Aviation watchdog DGCA has withdrawn the Line Training Captain approval given to an Akasa Air pilot for lapses in landing of a passenger aircraft in March 2024, till further orders, according to sources. Besides, the permission given to the pilot for carrying Short Take Off and Landing (STOL) has been withdrawn. This is the latest incident of Akasa Air coming under regulatory scanner for lapses. In an order issued on Monday, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) in an audit of Akasa Air conducted in October last year found that the pilot had made a hard landing, which means the aircraft had made an abnormal contact with the runway, the sources said. The incident was closed with a counselling session and no corrective training was imparted to the pilot concerned, as per the order. DGCA found that the replies by the airline and the pilot to its show cause notices, issued in November 2024, were not satisfactory. As a result, the sources said DGCA has decided to withdraw t
Regional air connectivity will continue to be a priority for the government and air passenger traffic is projected to touch 40 crore by 2029, Civil Aviation Secretary Vumlunmang Vualnam said on Monday. Speaking at a conference in the national capital, he also said the ecosystem is being developed for operations of seaplanes. Emphasising that there is "huge potential" for growth of the country's aviation sector, he said that 10 years ago, passenger traffic was at 11 crore and the count has doubled to 22 crore. By 2029, the number is expected to touch 40 crore, he said and added that there is aspiration among people for air travel. The Regional Air Connectivity (RCS) scheme or UDAN aims to enhance regional air connectivity from unserved and underserved airports as well as make air travel more affordable. Vualnam said RCS will remain a priority for the government and efforts are also on to push operations of helicopters and seaplanes. Under UDAN (Ude Desh ka Aam Nagrik), which was .
The new law that seeks to facilitate designing and manufacturing of aircraft in India as well as facilitate the ease of doing business in the aviation space will come into force from January 1, 2025. The new Act -- Bharatiya Vayuyan Adhiniyam, 2024 -- that replaces the 90-year old Aircraft Act, was cleared by the Parliament earlier this month. According to a notification issued on Tuesday, the "central government hereby appoints the 1st day of January, 2025 as the date on which the provisions of the said Act, shall come into force". Among others, the Act provides for regulation and control of the design, manufacture, maintenance, possession, use, operation, sale, export and import of aircraft and connected matters. The legislation will also remove redundancies and replace the Aircraft Act, 1934, which has been amended 21 times. India is one of the world's fastest growing civil aviation markets.
IndiGo has launched daily direct flights between Chennai and Penang in Malaysia on Saturday, becoming the 37th international destination for the private airliner. The new route caters to the growing demand for travel between the two cities, offering both business and leisure travellers a convenient and affordable option, IndiGo said in a statement on Saturday. "We are extremely pleased to further expand our network into Malaysia with the launch of direct flights from Chennai to Penang, our third destination in Malaysia, alongside Kuala Lumpur and Langkawi. With the inclusion of these flights to Penang, IndiGo will now operate 28 weekly flights to Malaysia from 2 cities in India" IndiGo Head of Global Sales Vinay Malhotra said in a statement. At the inaugural ceremony, Chennai Airport director C V Deepak handed over the boarding pass to the first passenger on Saturday. "Your gateway to Malaysia's crown jewel! The inaugural flight (6E1045) of IndiGo from Chennai to Penang was marked
CISF has set up a quality control unit to "enhance" the "operational efficiency" of its aviation security wing that provides a counter-terrorist cover to 68 civil airports of the country. An spokesperson for the paramilitary force said on Saturday that the Internal Quality Control Unit (IQCU) will play a "crucial" role in establishing "world-class" security procedures and technology for the airports that are used by lakhs of domestic and international passengers every day. The initiative is in compliance with the National Civil Aviation Security Quality Control Programme (NCASQCP) of 2024 issued by the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) and the Aircraft (Security) Rules of 2023, he said. The BCAS, under the civil aviation ministry, frames security policies for the Indian civil aviation sector. The new unit will bring about uniformity in civil aviation security procedures and training, recommend new technology available world over, allow internal audits of CISF security units
The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed the Centre and aviation regulator DGCA to frame more comprehensive guidelines to control unruly air passengers and observed "something creative" had to be done. A bench of Justices B R Gavai and K V Viswanathan was hearing a plea filed by a 73-year-old woman, on whom a male co-passenger allegedly urinated in an inebriated condition on board an Air India flight in November, 2022. The septuagenarian sought directions to the Centre, the DGCA and all the air carriers to frame a standard operating procedure (SOP) to deal with similar incidents. The bench, hearing the plea, asked Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati to instruct the authorities concerned to examine and suitably modify the existing guidelines on unruly passengers, in line with the international norms. Interestingly, Justice Viswanathan shared his own experience while travelling with Justice Surya Kant when they encountered a similar incident. "We had a recent experience. Two passengers w