Flights

Revised flight duty norms to apply from Jun 2025: IndiGo, AI tell DGCA

Two major airlines IndiGo and Air India have told aviation regulator DGCA that the revised flight duty norms for pilots can be implemented only in a phased manner starting from June next year, according to sources. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation's revised Civil Aviation Requirement (CAR) relates to flight duty time limitation seeks to provide more rest time for pilots amid concerns over pilot fatigue. Initially, the new norms were to come into effect from June 1 this year but was postponed. The pilots' bodies -- Indian Pilots Guild, Indian Commercial Pilots Association and Federation of Indian Pilots -- told the DGCA that they want the norms to be fully implemented at the earliest from February 15, the sources told PTI. IndiGo has informed the regulator that the CAR can be implemented starting from June next year, with weekly rest period for pilots to be increased from 36 hours to 40 hours, they said. The impact of the change will be assessed with a view to potentially

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

International air cargo hub at Swami Vivekanand airport back on track

The state will soon connect with Singapore and Dubai as the minister has agreed to start operation of international flights from the Chhattisgarh capital

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

AI Express plans more international flights; aims for 110 planes by Mar '25

Expanding its network and tapping group synergies, Air India Express will focus on connecting smaller cities and towns with metros as well as fly to new overseas destinations, according to senior officials. The airline, which recently completed the merger of AIX Connect with itself, has a fleet of around 90 aircraft and the count is expected to cross 110 by the end of this fiscal. It also aims to fly to a total of 55 destinations by the end of March 2025 and has also rationalised its network as part of Air India Group strategy. Apart from adding domestic routes, the Tata Group-owned airline will start flights to more foreign destinations, including Bangkok and Phuket in Thailand, the officials said. Air India Express Managing Director Aloke Singh said the airline will focus on Tier 2 and 3 cities and towns as they are the growth engines, and the largest chunk of the market is metro to non-metro. "On the regional short haul international network, it will be primarily from Tier 2,

IndiGo announces new flights to bolster accessibility across East, NE India

IndiGo airline on Friday announced a number of new flights and resumption of operations in its winter schedule to bolster connectivity to eastern and northeastern India. The airline announced additional frequencies on the Kolkata-Bangkok route. The new frequencies will operate on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Sundays, starting from November 24, the airline said in a statement. With the new frequencies, the airline will have 11 weekly flights to Bangkok, sources in the airline said. The airline also announced new direct flights between Guwahati and Dimapur, and resumption of operations between Guwahati and Ahmedabad, operating daily from December 10. An IndiGo statement also said that from October 29, the airline has begun maiden direct flights connecting Agartala and Dibrugarh. The tri-weekly flights operate on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. According to the statement, these operations will bolster domestic connectivity and provide business and leisure travellers with ..

Air India's Delhi-Indore-Mumbai flight gets hoax bomb threat; FIR lodged

A message claiming a bomb had been placed on Air India's flight from Delhi to Mumbai via Indore was posted on a social media platform which later turned out to be a hoax, police said on Wednesday. The Indore police in Madhya Pradesh have registered a case in this connection against an unidentified person, they said. The "threatening message" that a pipe bomb was placed in Air India's flight AI 636 was posted on an X social media account at 5.08 pm on Tuesday, an Aerodrome police station officer said quoting a complaint by a local official of the airline. The flight, arriving from Delhi, had already left for Mumbai from Indore at 4.38 pm, he said. "The message about a pipe bomb being placed in the Air India flight was proved to be fake in our investigation," Deputy Commissioner of Police Vinod Kumar Meena told PTI. A case was registered against the unidentified person who posted the threatening message on social media under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita section 351 (4) (criminal intimida

Australian PM Albanese defends himself from free flight upgrades accusation

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Tuesday said he had always acted in a transparent and appropriate way after a new book claimed that he had repeatedly requested free upgrades for personal flights on Qantas Airways. Albanese, who was transport minister in a previous government, was accused in a book released on Monday of developing an inappropriately close relationship with Alan Joyce, who was Qantas chief executive for 15 years until 2023. Qantas is Australia's largest airline and was state-owned until the 1990s. The Sydney-based airline is the country's flag carrier and must by law remain at least 51 per cent Australian owned. According to Qantas insiders, Albanese would liaise with Joyce directly about his personal travel, a published extract of the book said. The insiders were not named. Albanese said he had declared 22 free Qantas upgrades in a register of gifts to lawmakers valued at more than 300 Australian dollars (USD 197). He noted opposition lawmaker Paul ...

Over 25 domestic, international flights receive bomb threats on Friday

More than 25 domestic and international flights operated by Indian carriers received bomb threats on Friday, according to sources. An IndiGo spokesperson on Friday said 7 of its flights, including 6E 87 from Kozhikode to Dammam, got security-related alerts. The sources in the know said around 7 flights each of IndiGo, Vistara and SpiceJet got the threats while 6 flights of Air India received the threats. IndiGo's six other flights -- 6E 2099 (Udaipur to Delhi), 6E 11 (Delhi to Istanbul), 6E 58 (Jeddah to Mumbai), 6E 17 (Mumbai to Istanbul), 6E 108 (Hyderabad to Chandigarh) and 6E 133 (Pune to Jodhpur) received the threats. "Flight 6E 2099, operating from Udaipur to Delhi, received a bomb threat. Following security agency guidelines, the aircraft was redirected to isolation bay before take-off and standard operating procedures were followed. All passengers were safely disembarked," the airline spokesperson said in a statement. In 12 days, more than 275 flights operated by the India

Bomb hoax calls to be made cognizable offence: Kinjarapu Rammohan Naidu

A cognisable offence is one in which the police can arrest without a warrant and begin an investigation without court approval, typically involving serious crimes like murder or theft

Bomb threats: Delhi Police writes to social sites to get offenders' details

Intensifying its probe on the hoax bomb threats received by several domestic and international flights, Delhi Police on Thursday wrote to social media platforms seeking details of the accounts that posted threatening messages. Delhi Police on Wednesday registered an FIR in connection with the bomb threat to Bengaluru-bound Akasa Air flight carrying 180 people and also launched a probe in seven other similar cases reported at Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport this month. A senior police officer said a dedicated team has been formed to probe bomb threat cases. A team of cyber cell of Delhi police, Intelligence Fusion & Strategic Operations (IFSO) has also been roped in for the probe. On Wednesday, police approached the social media platforms to suspend the handles that posted threatening messages and remove the posts. "It is suspected that the handler used VPN (Virtual private network) or dark web browser to set up the accounts on X and then posted the messages from more ...

Accused behind threat messages being identified: Civil aviation secretary

The issue of multiple hoax threat messages to various airlines, which have disrupted many Indian flights, came up before a parliamentary committee on Wednesday as the civil aviation secretary told parliamentarians that accused are being identified and action taken. Civil Aviation Secretary Vumlunmang Vualnam suggested in the meeting of the Standing Committee on Transport, Tourism and Culture, which is headed by JD(U) MP Sanjay Jha, that investigators have gathered some information and are taking action. They are working on a few other cases of such hoax messages, he added. He, however, cited the sensitivity of information due to the ongoing probe into the matter to decline to share more details, sources said. They said Jha raised the issue of the number of hoax threat calls that airlines have received in the past couple of days, leading to diversion of flights, including one bound for Chicago. At least 10 flights have been disrupted due to bomb threat messages, mostly on social me

2 IndiGo flights delayed, 1 Air India flight diverted due to bomb hoaxes

IndiGo flight 6E 57 was scheduled to operate from Mumbai to Jeddah

Three international flights from Mumbai receive bomb threats, say officials

Security agencies went into a tizzy after three international flights originating from Mumbai received bomb threats on Monday, with a New York-bound Air India flight getting diverted to Delhi. Apart from the Air India flight, two IndiGo flights -- one to Muscat and another to Jeddah -- also received bomb threats, as per officials. The IndiGo flights received the threats before they took off and the planes concerned were moved to isolation bays for security checks on Monday morning. Air India in a statement said, "Flight AI119 operating Mumbai to JFK on October 14 received a specific security alert and on instructions of the government's security regulatory committee was diverted to Delhi." "The aircraft is currently stationed at the Indira Gandhi International Airport, and all standard safety protocols are being diligently followed to ensure the safety of the passengers and crew on board," a senior (Delhi) police officer said. All passengers have disembarked and the aircraft was b

IndiGo's punctuality drops to 54% on Saturday due to systems outage

The airline's OTP between October 1 and October 4 was somewhere between 74.9 and 80.3 per cent, according to the Ministry of Civil Aviation's data

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

AIX Connect's merger into Air India Express is complete, says DGCA

Air India Express' fleet size has grown to 88 aircraft

Qatar Airways prohibits pagers, walkie-talkies on Lebanon flights

The airlines said that the restriction applies to checked and carry-on luggage, as well as cargo

Indian carriers soar on international routes but foreign rivals lead

On the popular India-Singapore route, Singapore Airlines and its subsidiary Scoot remain dominant despite competition from IndiGo, Air India (A-I), A-I Express, and Vistara

Malaysia Airlines plans to bring flights to more non-metro cities in India

Malaysia Airlines plans to fly to more non-metro cities in India as well as increase the frequency of flights to Ahmedabad and Trivandrum, a senior airline official said on Friday. The carrier, part of the Malaysia Aviation Group (MAG), currently connects nine Indian cities with Kuala Lumpur and operates 71 weekly flights to India. Dersenish Aresandiran, Chief Commercial Officer of Airline Business at MAG, said Malaysia Airlines plans to increase frequencies to Ahmedabad and Trivandrum. The airline also plans to operate to more non-metro cities in India where there are no restrictions due to bilateral flying rights, he told PTI on the sidelines of a briefing here. The bilateral flying rights between India and Malaysia, based on the number of seats airlines from either side can operate, is mostly utilised for metro routes in India. So, Malaysia Airlines can have more services to non-metro cities in the country as there are no restrictions of the bilateral flying rights. Currently,