Aviation Sector Growth

AI Express adds 100th plane in fleet; aims at 500 daily flights by Mar-end

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,

Budget 2025: Civil aviation gets Rs 2,400 cr, UDAN funds cut to Rs 540 cr

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

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

Spicejet's domestic market share makes consistent gains towards 2023-end

Meanwhile, India's largest carrier, IndiGo, saw a marginal decline in its market share from 62.6 per cent in October to 61.8 per cent in November

India set to become most exciting civil aviation market, says IATA director

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) said that airline revenues globally will rise in 2024 as the sector is witnessing continued growth in post-pandemic travel

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

New national policy may turn India's airports into global transit hubs

If enacted, the policy will address challenges such as double security checks and immigration bottlenecks to better streamline travel

Southeast Asia woos Indians with more flight seats and free visas

What was striking about Q3 2023 was that the number of airline seats between China and southeast Asia was 53 per cent of the 2019 levels, or 4.24 million seats

Boeing trims annual 737 delivery forecast due to supplier errors

It also plans to meet a delivery target of at least 70 widebody 787 Dreamliners in 2023 and is transitioning from a production rate of four to five jets per month

Akasa Air in the middle of crisis: How bad could the pilot shortage be?

With Indian aviation staring at a potential scramble for pilots, airlines such as Akasa can feel deflated

India needs 1,000+ pilots annually, but training infra in short supply

Given the growth in the aviation sector it is expected that India is likely to require over 1,000 pilots per annum over the next five years

IndiGo Q2 loss widens by 10% due to rupee depreciation, high fuel prices

The company is confident that it will return to operational profitability in Q3

Civil aviation sector to employ 100,000 more people by 2024: Ministry

During 2019, 2020 and 2021, at least 2,368, 400 and 296 pilots were recruited, the aviation ministry stated

Flights to India will return to pre-pandemic levels by October: SIA

Singapore's flag carrier will progressively operate 17 weekly flights to Chennai, up from the current 10 flights per week, it said on Tuesday

Airports sector set to see Rs 1.65 trn capex in coming years: Scindia

India's airport sector is expected to see investments worth Rs 1.65 lakh crore in the coming years, and the government also aims to have 200 airports, Jyotiraditya Scindia said

Flamboyance to fraud: How Indian aviation sector changed in the last decade

Despite phenomenal growth, Indian aviation has been a mixed bag with many lost opportunities

Bringing jet fuel under GST will boost growth: SpiceJet chief at WEF

He said the move would bring down fares, help aviation sector see growth and thus compete globally

Bengaluru, Delhi top air traffic growth in 2016

With 22.5% growth, Bengaluru airport was ranked first among airports handling 15 million-plus passengers annually

India loses out to China to become world's 2nd fastest growing aviation mkt

Demand in neighbouring country spurred by an increase in the number of domestic routes

Slash taxes, charges if you want aviation sector to grow: IATA to govt

On privatisation, IATA says it has been partly a good thing, partly a bad one