Page 7 - Indian Airlines

Spicejet to consider capital raise amid losses, market share battle

Spicejet's market share slipped to 7.3% in January from 7.7% in December

Indian airline industry to expand with more than 1,100 planes on order

The country's airline industry is poised for expansion with more than 1,100 planes on order by various domestic carriers. After more than 17 years, Air India, now owned by Tata Group, on Tuesday placed orders for a total of 470 planes with Airbus and Boeing. The total order, comprising wide-body and narrow-body aircraft, is the largest so far by an Indian carrier and also one of the largest single aircraft orders in the world. The country's largest airline IndiGo has around 500 planes on order and Akasa Air has placed an order for 72 Boeing narrow-body aircraft, out of which 16 planes have been delivered. That leaves Akasa Air with 56 aircraft on order. Go First, earlier known as Go Air, has 72 planes on order while Vistara is to receive 17 more Boeing planes. Together, Air India, IndiGo, Akasa Air, Go First and Vistara have at least 1,115 planes on order. Currently, there are around 700 commercial aircraft in the country, with a majority of them being narrow-body or single-aisle

Domestic airlines reported 2,613 technical snags in last 5 years: Singh

Domestic airlines reported 2,613 significant technical snags in their planes in the last five years, Union minister V K Singh told the Lok Sabha on Thursday. The Minister of State for Civil Aviation said the regulations require occurrences relating to system and component failure to be reported to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). "These occurrences, based on their severity are investigated either by the concerned airlines under the supervision of the DGCA or by the DGCA under Rule 13(1) of the Aircraft (Investigation of Accidents and Incidents) Rules, 2017," he said in a written reply. Giving details, Singh said there were a total of 2,613 "significant technical snags" reported by various airlines in the country during the 2018-2022 period. In this period, IndiGo reported 885 snags, SpiceJet (691), Vistara (444), Air India (399), AirAsia (India) Ltd (79), Go Air (54), TruJet (30), Alliance Air (13), Blue Dart Aviation (7), Akasa Air (6) and Fly Big (5), as per the

Indian airlines likely to order up to 1,700 planes in next 2 yrs: CAPA

Indian carriers are likely to place orders for 1,500 to 1,700 planes in the next one to two years and Air India is expected to make the first move with a potential order for 500 aircraft, aviation consultancy CAPA said on Wednesday. The total commercial Indian fleet of around 700 aircraft is smaller than some of the world's largest individual airlines, CAPA said, adding that given the immense potential that exists, it stands to reason that there is a need to induct more aircraft. In a report, CAPA said the Indian market in the post-COVID era is attracting global attention as arguably the most promising aviation market. Almost every carrier in India is expected to order more aircraft in the next couple of years for fleet replacement as well as growth, given that the order book for most incumbent carriers could be considered conservative relative to the growth potential of the market over the next decade and beyond, it said. In India, air traffic recovery has been amongst the stronge

Calicut-bound AI flight lands in Abu Dhabi after flames detected mid-air

Air India Express informed that the aircraft landed safely and all passengers are safe

IndiGo to operate Boeing 777 aircraft on Delhi-Istanbul route from Feb 1

IndiGo on Tuesday said it will start operating wide-body Boeing 777 on Delhi-Istanbul route from February 1. IndiGo so far has been operating only narrow-body all-economy airbus planes.This is for the first time in its over 16 years of operations that the Gurugram-headquartered airline will have twin-aisle planes in its fleet. The Boeing 777 aircraft has a seating capacity of 400 passengers in a dual class configuration -- economy and business, the airline said in a statement. The wide-body operations will help the airline cater to the increasing air travel demand between India and Turkey, it said. The customers will now be able to pre-book meals and purchase alcohol for in-flight consumption, the airline said. According to IndiGo, Turkey has emerged as one of the most popular tourist destinations post pandemic and has been one of the top choices for outbound tourism from India in 2022. "We are inducting Boeing 777 aircraft to operate on one the most popular international routes

UDAN scheme: Odisha CM approves 50 fire service posts for four airports

Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Tuesday approved a proposal for creation of 50 posts of fire service personnel in different ranks for four airports under the Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS) UDAN scheme. These airports are Jharsuguda, Utkela, Rourkela and Jeypore. Of the 50 posts, 9 each will be deployed at Utkela and Jeypore and 16 each at Jharsuguda and Rourkela, an official said. Recently three fire stations have been made functional at three premier medical colleges of state, namely Cuttack, Berhampur and Burla. Besides, two more fire stations have been made functional at Tihidi in Bhadrak and Baruan in Jajpur districts. These stations were running by rationalisation of personnel at different other fire stations. Recently, 16 fire service personnel have been deployed at Rourkela Airport in December 2022.

IndiGo Q3 preview: Airline to turn profitable amid healthy traffic, low ATF

The domestic air traffic capacity reached close to full capacity in Q3, while a pick up in international commercial flights provided the much needed relief to the aviation industry

Go First to get Rs 210 crore under govt's credit line guarantee scheme: CEO

Wadia group-owned Go First expects to receive Rs 210 crore under the government's credit line guarantee scheme next month as the budget airline seeks to boost its financial position and expand operations. The airline, which received Rs 210 crore from the promoters last month, aims to have 53 operational aircraft in its fleet by the start of April this year, its CEO Kaushik Khona told PTI. The airline currently has 37 aircraft in operation. Apart from the coronavirus pandemic headwinds and intense competition, the no-frills airline is grappling with the Pratt & Whitney engine issues that have forced it to ground many planes due to a shortage of spare engines. Under the Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS), which has come as a relief for many pandemic-hit sectors, Go First has so far availed Rs 600 crore. With promoters' infusing Rs 210 crore, the airline will be able to get an equal amount under the ECLGS next month, Khona said. In an interview, Khona said the engine ...

Urination incident: Air India amends existing in-flight liquor policy

Air India faced heavy backlash from everywhere including the Directorate General of Civil Aviation for its poor handling of the back-to-back incidents of unruly behavior of passengers on its flights

SVPI airport plans development projects to cater passenger traffic demand

Sardar Vallabhbhai International Airport (SVPI) at Ahmedabad has planned a slew of development and expansion projects to cater to future passenger traffic demand, the private airport said on Tuesday. The facility, owned by Adani Group, currently has the terminal capacity of 8-million passengers annually, while it is expected to handle 20-million passengers per annum by 2025-26 thereby necessitating the expansion work, which include a new integrated terminal building and refurbishment of existing terminals, it said. According to the company, while the majority of the capex projects are related to development of airside and terminal capacity matching with projected exponential passenger growth, it is also pertinent to understand that the existing terminal infrastructure is not fully sufficient to handle the current and extraordinary growing demand. In the current financial year, the passenger movement at the SVPI is expected to be around 12-million, the company said. In addition t

DGCA slaps Rs 30 lakh penalty on Air India for urination incident in flight

Aviation regulator DGCA has imposed a penalty of Rs 30 lakh on Air India as well as suspended the license of pilot-in-command of flight in which a person allegedly urinated on female co-passenger

Pratt & Whitney opens India Engineering Center facility in Karnataka

The new IEC facility is co-located with Pratt & Whitney's India Capabilities Centre (ICC), which opened in 2022 to provide integrated global supply chain support.

Domestic air traffic continues to rise, records annual growth of nearly 47%

Domestic air traffic continued to register growth as passengers carried by domestic airlines during Jan-Dec 2022 were 12.32 crore as against 8.38 crore during corresponding period of previous year

Aviation watchdog to seek report from SpiceJet on incident at Delhi airport

Aviation watchdog DGCA will seek a report from SpiceJet on an incident at Delhi airport this week where passengers of a Bengaluru-bound flight had to wait for a long time at the aerobridge. A passenger had shared on social media a video and his experience about co-passengers having had to wait for a long time at the aerobridge on Tuesday at the Delhi airport. It happened with passengers of SpiceJet flight SG 8133 from Delhi-Bengaluru. On Wednesday late evening, SpiceJet said the flight was delayed due to weather disruption that led to incoming crew exceeding their duty time limit. A senior DGCA official on Thursday told PTI that the regulator is looking into the incident and "will seek a report from the airline". In its statement on Wednesday, SpiceJet said the flight was delayed on account of weather disruption in the network and the aircraft's previous rotation. "As a result of this, the incoming crew was not legal to operate the subsequent flight to Bengaluru and crew was arran

Didn't intend to outrage complainant's modesty, accused man in Delhi court

Shankar Mishra, the man accused of urinating on an elderly woman co-passenger on an Air India flight, told a Delhi court on Wednesday his act was not driven by sexual desire nor aimed at outraging the complainant's modesty, as he sought bail in the case. The complainant's counsel opposed Mishra's bail application, claiming she was being threatened. I'm regularly receiving messages, threatening me. Accused's father sent me a message and said 'karma will hit you' and then deleted the message. They're sending me messages and deleting it. This needs to stop... Air India instead of separating the accused and complainant, tried to mediate the crime, the counsel said. Metropolitan Magistrate Komal Garg reserved the order on the bail application of Mishra. Nobody should have to go through something like that. It was revolting. I feel bad for the poor lady. It was appalling However, was the unzipping aimed at sexual desire? No. Was any of this act aimed at outraging her modesty? No, the ...

As fog engulfs Delhi, as many as 10 flights delayed due to low visibility

As many as 10 flights, scheduled to depart from Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGI), was delayed because of dense fog, sources informed on Wednesday

Air India peeing case: Airline de-rosters 4 cabin crew members, 1 pilot

CEO says airline could have handled peeing incidents better; airline reviewing in-flight policy on serving alcohol to fliers

Air India urination case: Delhi Court sends accused to 14-day custody

Mishra had allegedly urinated on a 70-year-old woman in an intoxicated condition in business class of an Air India flight on November 26 last year

Air India pilot made woman wait 2 hrs before allocating seat, says Co-flyer

Pilot of the November 26 Air India flight from New York that witnessed the unsavoury event of an inebriated man urinating on a female passenger, made the traumatized flyer wait for close to two hours before allotting her a fresh seat, a co-flyer said in his complaint. Sugata Bhattacharjee, a US-based doctor of audiology who was seated next to the accused in business class on the flight to Delhi, in a handwritten complaint to the airlines stated that the distressed passenger was made to go back to her soiled seat despite four seats in the First Class being vacant. In the complaint, a copy of which was reviewed by PTI, Bhattacharjee said he was seated on 8A (window) in the first row of business class, next to the accused Shankar Misra who was in seat 8C. Shortly after lunch was served and the lights were switched off on board AI 102 of November 26 (JFK New York to IGIA, New Delhi), the inebriated male passenger seated in Business Class seat walked to the elderly woman's seat (9A), ...