Page 2 - Air India

Air India sees growth from domestic, short int'l flights in 2025: CEO

Air India will see most of the air traffic growth coming from domestic and short-haul international operations in 2025 as more narrow-body planes are joining the fleet and legacy wide-body aircraft will be going for retrofit next year, the airline's chief Campbell Wilson said on Thursday. The Tata Group-owned airline, which has embarked on a five-year transformation journey, expects to have a fleet of 400 planes by 2027. Currently, the total fleet strength of Air India Group, including Air India Express, is around 300 aircraft. During a select media briefing, Wilson, who has been at the helm of Air India for more than two years, said the airline group has a domestic market share of around 29 per cent and 55 per cent on the metro to metro routes. On top 120 domestic routes, the market share is about 40 per cent, he said. According to him, the retrofit of legacy wide-body aircraft will start in early 2025. "We had hoped to start retrofit of 787s and 777s by now. Unfortunately, the

Flying Air India? You can have the Vistara experience on 5 prime routes

Such flights will operate with 'AI'-prefixed four-digit flight numbers beginning with '2', such as AI2999 from Delhi to Mumbai.

Air India urination case: SC exhorts Centre for guidelines on unruly flyers

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

Air India Express increases flight operations from NE destinations

Low-cost airline Air India Express has announced an increase in flight operations from three major destinations in the northeast Guwahati, Agartala and Imphal as part of its winter schedule. This is part of the airlines' expansion of winter services across the country, it said in a statement here. Air India Express has increased its operations to 106 weekly flights from 63 last winter, from Guwahati. It provides direct connectivity to eight domestic destinations of Agartala, Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Imphal, Jaipur and Kolkata. The airline also provides one-stop connectivity to 18 domestic destinations and six international destinations from Guwahati. In Imphal, the airline hiked its weekly flights to 34 this season, an addition of 20 over last winter, the statement said. Since adding Agartala as a station in September 2024, the airline has increased its flights from 14 to 21 weekly, and connects two destinations Guwahati and Kolkata directly. It also offers one-s

Air India to offer integrated aircraft maintenance engineering programme

Air India on Friday said it will set up a Basic Maintenance Training Organisation (BMTO) that will offer an integrated aircraft maintenance engineering programme and the facility will be operational in mid-2026. The BMTO will be housed close to Air India's new 12-bay Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) facility in Bengaluru that will be operational in early 2026. The Tata Group-owned airline has inked an agreement with Bengaluru Airport City Ltd (BACL), a subsidiary of Bangalore International Airport Ltd (BIAL), to develop a build-to-suit facility for the programme. "The purpose-built campus, spread over 86,000 square feet at Bengaluru Airport City, is expected to be operational by mid-2026," a release said. The programme will include two years of in-classroom academic course work followed by two years of practical on the job training at the MRO. According to the release, the programme is designed to meet Air India's growing fleet maintenance requirements and provides specialis

Air India to set up aircraft maintenance training institute in Bengaluru

Air India on Friday said it is setting up a Basic Maintenance Training Organisation (BMTO), which will offer an integrated 2+2 years Aircraft Maintenance Engineering (AME) programme certified by the Indian aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). The Air India BMTO is a step towards building a robust, future-ready aviation ecosystem in India, the company said. It will serve the ambitions of the airline as it moves ahead in its transformation journey, strengthening the availability of aircraft maintenance engineers as Air India expands its fleet, making it self-reliant, it said in a release. Air India has signed an agreement with Bengaluru Airport City Limited (BACL), a subsidiary of Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL), to develop a build-to-suit facility for the AME programme that will feature modern classrooms, well-equipped laboratories for practical training and a team of qualified trainers. The purpose-built campus, spread over 86,000 square f

Over 370 flights delayed at Delhi airport as smog engulfs national capital

According to Flightradar24 data, till 2 PM, about 110 arrivals were delayed at the national capital's airport. Moreover, about 269 departures were also delayed at this airport

Air India-Vistara will deliver on 'sky-high expectations': N Chandrasekaran

Tata Sons Chairman N Chandrasekaran on Thursday said the best qualities of Vistara are being brought to Air India, which was in decline for a number of systemic reasons when Tatas took over the airline two years back, and fulfil the "sky high expectations". "We are fully aware that expectations for the new Air India are sky high. We expect nothing less, and we expect to deliver nothing less," he said and asserted that the merged entity will be ready for the country's coming aviation revolution. Nearly two years after announcing the merger, the integration of Vistara with Air India was completed on November 12 and Singapore Airlines now has a 25.1 per cent in the enlarged Air India. Vistara was jointly owned by Tatas and Singapore Airlines. "Given our ambitions, this merger should be seen as part of a journey. Different parts of the business were at different points of maturity when the merger commenced, so they will take time to fully align," Chandrasekaran said in a LinkedIn ...

IndiGo, Air India cancel flights to Bali due to volcanic eruption

IndiGo and Air India on Wednesday cancelled their flights to Bali due to ash clouds from a volcanic eruption in the Indonesian island. The Mount Lewotobi Laki Laki volcano located in a remote island in East Nusa Tenggara province erupted earlier this month and has resulted in ash clouds. These clouds could pose a threat to flight operations and as a result, many airlines have cancelled their services to Bali. "#6ETravelAdvisory: Due to a recent volcanic eruption in #Bali, flights to/from the region have been cancelled, as ash clouds may impact air travel," IndiGo said in a post on X. The airline operates a daily flight from Bengaluru to Bali. An official said Air India has cancelled its Bali flight. It operates a flight every day from Delhi to the Indonesian island. The service was being operated by Vistara, which has now been merged with Air India.

Air India-Vistara merger completed; Singapore Airlines gets 25.1% stake

The merger with Vistara will enable Air India to operate 5,600 weekly flights connecting 90 destinations with a fleet size of 208 aircraft

AI-Vistara merger now a reality; SIA to invest Rs 3,195 cr in merged entity

Marking a significant consolidation in the fast-growing Indian aviation space, Air India on Tuesday completed the Vistara merger to create an integrated airline, partly owned by Singapore Airlines, that will be flying over 1,20,000 passengers daily and connect more than 90 destinations. The completion of the much-awaited amalgamation, which was announced in November 2022, comes within six weeks of the integration of Air India Express and AIX Connect. The two mergers have created a full service carrier and a low-cost carrier of scale for the Tata Group, which is seeking to establish a "world class global aviation company with an Indian heart". Earlier in the day, the nearly 10-year-old Vistara -- a joint venture between Tatas and Singapore Airlines -- flew into the sunset and its last flight was from Delhi to Singapore. As part of the merger, Singapore Airlines (SIA) will invest an additional Rs 3,194.5 crore in the enlarged entity. The enlarged Air India will operate over 5,600 wee

Air India-Vistara merger complete; new entity to run 5,600+ weekly flights

Air India-Vistara merger: The combined airline will service 103 domestic and 71 international routes

Vistara's last flight takes off for Delhi ahead of merger with Air India

The flight, UK 782, departed from Odisha's Biju Patnaik International Airport at 8.30 pm, and landed at Delhi's Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport at 10.55 pm

Vistara completes merger with Air India: With cabin mood lights and selfies

The change of guard was visible at the check-in counters at the airport. Long queues near the airline's check-in counters prompted the Vistara staff to seek assistance from team Air India

India's aircraft fleet set to increase by over 5 times in 20 yrs: Report

This growth will boost Indian airlines' share of the Asia-Pacific passenger fleet from the current 8 per cent to 18 per cent by 2043, according to a Cirium report

Air India Express to reconfigure planes with biz class seats from Apr 2025

Air India Express plans to start reconfiguration of planes having business class seats from April 2025, as the airline focuses on operating narrow-body planes with only economy class seats, according to a senior official. The Tata Group-owned airline that merged AIX Connect with itself on October 1 has rationalised its network and currently has an operational fleet of 90 planes, including over 30 aircraft with dual-class seats. Amid supply chain woes impacting fresh aircraft deliveries, the airline has, so far, inducted 35 white-tail Boeing 737-8 planes. Their count will rise to 50 in the coming months. Many of these white-tail aircraft have varying numbers of business-class seats. Generally, white-tail planes are those that were originally manufactured for a particular airline and later taken by another airline. The senior airline official said it will start reconfiguration of the aircraft having business class from April onwards. The carrier wants to offer only economy class se

'Very sad experience': Yogendra Yadav slams Air India's poor service

Yogendra Yadav, known for avoiding public airing of personal issues, said he felt compelled to share his recent air travel experience as it 'may be of use to others'

Indian skies left with just one full-service carrier after Vistara merger

With Vistara merging into Air India, the number of full-service carriers in India will drop to just one, marking the end of a 17-year era of multiple full-service carriers in the country

Air India's 'Fly Prior' lets you rebook an earlier flight at no extra cost

Air India guests have the option to take an alternative flight departing up to 12 hours before their originally booked flight, provided the departure dates of both flights is scheduled on same day

Vistara merger: Air India pilots unhappy over differing retirement age

A section of Air India pilots is unhappy in the run-up to the Vistara merger over different retirement age limits for pilots of the two Tata Group-owned airlines as the management is yet to address the issue, according to sources. At Air India, which was owned by the government since the 1950s and came into the Tata fold in 2022, the retirement age for pilots and other staff is 58 years, whereas at Vistara it is 60 years. Vistara -- jointly owned by Tata Group and Singapore Airlines -- is set to be merged with Air India on November 11 as part of the salt-to-steel conglomerate's consolidation of its aviation business. The sources said resentment is brewing among a section of Air India pilots as the management is yet to formulate a common superannuation age for the integrated entity. Air India did not comment on the issue. "There is a lot of resentment among a section of Air India pilots ahead of the Vistara merger over the retirement age limit. "While the management was prompt in