Page 4 - Airlines

Merger in full swing: Air India group to introduce uniform crew policy

Some of the new policies have been welcomed by pilots and cabin crew, while others have sparked criticism

Air India introduces new policy on room sharing, allowances for cabin crew

Air India is introducing a revised policy for the cabin crew members of domestic and international flights, wherein certain sections of the members will have to share rooms during layovers, according to a source. The revised policy will also be applicable for Air India Express, which has merged AIX Connect with itself. Among other changes, the source in the know said the allowances for cabin crew of international flights will be increased from USD 75-125 bracket to USD 85-135 bracket. There is no change in the allowances for the cabin crew of domestic flights. An airline spokesperson said that with the merger of Air India and Vistara formalising, there is a need to harmonise these policies for employees of both the organisations. "As part of that exercise, we have communicated the changes applicable to Air India employees. The revised compensation and benefits continue to be competitive and benchmarked to industry standards," the spokesperson told PTI in a statement. Under the re

Air Kerala appoints seasoned aviator C S Randhawa as VP for operations

Startup carrier Air Kerala on Wednesday said it has appointed seasoned aviator C S Randhawa as vice-president for operations and aviation security expert Ashutosh Vashishth as vice-president for security. The Kochi-based company, which received the civil aviation ministry's nod to start an airline in July this year, is in the process of securing an air operator certificate from regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation as it prepares for a likely launch early next year. Air Kerala had last month announced the appointment of aviation industry veteran Harish Kutty as its Chief Executive Officer. "We welcome Captain Randhawa and Captain Vashishth to the Air Kerala family. Their unmatched experience and dedication to aviation will undoubtedly strengthen our commitment to safety, security. "We believe in assembling a team of the best minds in the industry, and the addition of these professionals is a testament to our vision of setting new standards in aviation," said Afi Ahmed, ..

Plutus Wealth increases shareholding in SpiceJet, buys Rs 50 cr worth share

Plutus Wealth Management on Tuesday raised its holding in domestic carrier SpiceJet by acquiring additional shares for Rs 50 crore through an open market transaction. According to the bulk deal available with the BSE, Plutus Wealth Management purchased 75 lakh shares or 0.58 per cent stake in Gurugram-headquartered SpiceJet. The shares were bought at an average price of Rs 66.70 apiece, taking the transaction value to Rs 50.02 crore. Details of sellers of SpiceJet's shares could not be identified on the BSE. Shares of SpiceJet jumped 6.95 per cent to close at Rs 68.13 apiece on the BSE. On Monday, Plutus Wealth Management bought 85 lakh shares, amounting to a 0.66 per cent stake in domestic carrier SpiceJet for Rs 51 crore.

Lufthansa aims to revive 'problem child' airline by 2026: CEO Carsten Spohr

Lufthansa has struggled with competition on its transatlantic and Asian routes, recently cancelling its Frankfurt to Beijing flights as Chinese carriers increased capacity

Delhi HC asks SpiceJet to respond to execution petition on engines return

The Delhi High Court on Monday asked low-cost airline SpiceJet to file its reply to a petition seeking execution of an order directing it to ground three aircraft engines and hand those over to their lessors. The court also asked the airline to file an affidavit listing out its assets and posted the execution petition for further hearing on November 13. Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora also issued a court notice to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), with a direction to its competent officer to remain present in the court on November 13, along with a status report confirming due compliance of the court's August 14 order. The court said in its status report, the DGCA will mention the status of the re-delivery of the engines. The high court had, in its August 14 order, directed SpiceJet to ground the three engines by August 16 and hand those over to their lessors within 15 days. The single-judge bench had directed the airline to offer prior inspection of the engines

AI Express-AIX Connect merger in Oct first week; 'I5' to fly into sunset

AIX Connect as well as airline designator code 'I5' will fly into the past in the first week of October as the merger of the no-frills carrier with Air India Express becomes a reality. "Everything is on track," a senior airline official told PTI earlier this week about the merger process that has been in progress for nearly one year. AIX Connect, which was earlier known as AirAsia India, will cease to exist after flying for 11 years. The aircraft registered under its Air Operator Certificate (AOC) will be transferred to the AOC of Air India Express under the legal merger that is to come into effect in the first week of October, another official said. Currently, Air India Express and AIX Connect operate around 400 flights daily and the operations are set to expand in the coming months. It has a fleet of 88 planes, including 61 Boeing 737 NGs and MAXs, and 27 A320 ceos and neos. With the legal merger, all flights of erstwhile AIX Connect will be operated with the airline designator c

Air India to completely upgrade 27 old A320neo aeroplanes by mid-2025

"Legacy" planes have been part of Air India's fleet before the Tata Group, after privatisation, took control of the airline in January 2022

Shanghai airports cancel hundreds of flights as Typhoon Bebinca draws near

Shanghai's airports are cancelling hundreds of flights Sunday as they brace for impact from Typhoon Bebinca, which is due to make landfall in the early hours of Monday morning, the authorities said. Flights past 8 pm local time will be cancelled at Hongqiao and Pudong airports in the city, the airport officials said in a statement, affecting more than six hundred flights. The city also announced that it was suspending travel on some bridges while restricting that on other highways. Typhoon Bebinca is currently a few hundred kilometers away from the coast. The typhoon's winds are expected to reach 151 km per hour by Sunday night, according to the China Meteorological Administration, which has categorised it as a strong typhoon. State media reported that 9,318 people had been evacuated from one district in Shanghai. Meanwhile, in the nearby city of Zhoushan, restaurants, supermarkets and shops shut down early for the day, and public transportation services were halted. The storm is

India very important market, looking at more frequencies: Malaysia Airlines

Malaysia Airlines is keen to expand its operations into India, which is a "very important market", according to a top airline official. The airline, which currently flies to nine Indian cities, is eyeing new destinations as well as looking to increase frequencies to Trivandrum and Ahmedabad. Part of the Malaysia Aviation Group (MAG), Malaysia Airlines operates daily flights to Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Amritsar, Chennai, Hyderabad and Kochi. It also has four weekly services from Ahmedabad and Trivandrum. "We continue to remain excited about the Indian market. It has been driven by robust economic movement," MAG's Group Managing Director Datuk Captain Izham Ismail told PTI in an interview. "We aspire to expand more into India... that will happen only next year... India is a very important market," he said and added that it will look at expansion once it gets more aircraft. Currently, Malaysia Airlines operates 71 weekly flights to India. The flights to Amritsar were increased from

Air Canada, pilots' union reach tentative agreement to avoid shutdown

Air Canada and the union representing its pilots have come to terms on a labor agreement that is likely to prevent a shutdown of Canada's largest airline. Talks betwen the company and the Air Line Pilots Association produced a tentative, four-year collective agreement, the airline announced in a statement early Sunday. The prospective deal recognises the contributions of the pilots flying for Air Canada and Air Canada Rouge while setting a new framework for company growth. The terms will remain confidential until ratification by union members and approval by the airline's board of directors over the next month, the airline said. The pilots association said its Air Canada Master Executive Council voted to approve the tentative agreement on behalf of more than 5,400 Air Canada pilots. After review and ratification by a majority of members, the deal is expected to generate an additional $1.9 billion for the pilots over the period of the agreement, the union said in a statement. While

Flight schedules may get impacted due to bad weather in Delhi: Airlines

IndiGo and SpiceJet on Friday evening said that flight schedules may get affected due to bad weather in the national capital while the Delhi airport saw diversion of one flight amid heavy rains. On Friday, heavy rains lashed parts of Delhi on Friday afternoon and the weather department has predicted more showers. An official in the know said one flight of AIX Connect coming from Bagdogra to Delhi was diverted to Lucknow due to bad weather. "It's pouring heavily in #Delhi, affecting flight schedules. If you're planning to jet off, please keep a tab on your flight status... and plan ahead, as roads leading to the airport may be waterlogged," IndiGo said in a post on X at 5.03 pm. In a post on X at 5.12 pm, SpiceJet said that due to bad weather in Delhi, all departures/arrivals and their consequential flights may get affected. "Traffic congestion and slow vehicle movement are expected enroute Delhi Airport due to heavy rains. Passengers travelling to the airport are requested to keep

SpiceJet's domestic market share shrinks to 2.3%, shows DGCA data

Overall, Indian carriers carried a total of 13.1 million domestic passengers, which was 5.7 per cent more year-on-year

E P Jayarajan travels by IndiGo 2 yrs after self-imposed boycott of airline

Over two years after he decided to never travel by IndiGo, former LDF convener E P Jayarajan on Thursday night travelled to Delhi on the airline from Karipur airport here. Jayarajan had in July 2022 decided not to travel by that airline after it imposed a three-week flying ban on him for his involvement in a scuffle onboard an IndiGo aircraft that was also carrying Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. Confirming that he travelled on the low-cost airline, the CPI(M) leader said that he opted for Indigo in order to quickly reach Delhi to pay his respects to late party general secretary Sitaram Yechury who died on Thursday. Jayarajan said that Yechury was bigger than everything else and reaching Delhi quickly was more important than what he had stated about the airline two years ago. On June 13, 2022, two Youth Congress workers shouted slogans against the chief minister inside the IndiGo aircraft from Kannur, after it landed at Thiruvananthapuram airport. Jayarajan, who was also ..

Boeing machinists vote to strike after rejecting 25% pay raise over 4 years

Machinists at Boeing voted Thursday to go on strike, another setback for the giant aircraft maker whose reputation and finances have been battered and now faces a shutdown in production of its best-selling airline planes. The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers said its members rejected a contract that would have raised pay 25% over four years, then voted 94.6% to reject the contract and voted 96% to strike. A two-thirds vote among 33,000 workers was needed to strike. Very little has gone right for Boeing this year, from a panel blowing out and leaving a gaping hole in one of its passenger jets in January to NASA leaving two astronauts in space rather sending them home on a problem-plagued Boeing spacecraft. As long as the strike lasts, it will deprive Boeing of much-needed cash that it gets from delivering new planes to airlines. That will be another challenge for new CEO Kelly Ortberg, who six weeks ago was given the job of turning around a company that h

Abu Dhabi's Etihad Airways plans IPO no earlier than 2025: Report

Etihad, which started operations in 2003, spent billions of dollars buying minority stakes in other carriers to create larger network through its Abu Dhabi hub

Delhi HC upholds order allowing grounding engines leased to SpiceJet

The division bench rejected cash-strapped airline SpiceJet's plea, saying it did not agree with the single-judge order and asked the parties to settle

AI Express to phase out biz class seats by 2025; to have 100 planes by Dec

Air India Express, which is set to complete the merger of AIX Connect with itself next month, will phase out business class seats in its aircraft in 2025, according to a senior airline official. Currently, the carrier, part of Tata Group, has a fleet of 85 aircraft -- 25 A320 family planes and 60 Boeing 737s. By year-end, the total number is expected to be around 100. The airline has 34 white tail Boeing 737-8 aircraft and out of them, 29 have business class seats of varying numbers. Their count will rise to 50 by the end of this year. Generally, white tail planes are those that were originally manufactured for a particular airline and later taken by another airline. The airline official told PTI that aircraft with the business class seats will be phased out by reconfiguring them next year as business class does not fit into the Air India Express model. These white tail aircraft have varying number of business class seats, the official added. In the existing fleet of Air India ..

54th GST Council meet: GoM to decide future of GST compensation cess

Relief to foreign airlines, secretaries panel on IGST

Slight improvement, but airlines continue to struggle with punctuality

SpiceJet, which has been dealing with major financial difficulties, was at the bottom of the chart, recording an average daily OTP of just 49.85 per cent, as per the ministry's data