New Delhi: In what comes as good news for the aviation sector, the airline companies will soon be allowed to import jet fuel directly. The announcement was made on Tuesday by Union Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh following a meeting of the Group of Ministers. The Cabinet is likely to take a final view on the issue soon as direct import of ATF will require its go-ahead. According to sources,...
02:02 PM, Feb 07, 2012
New Delhi: In more trouble for the UPA government, an India-born Canadian has claimed that he paid Union Minister Praful Patel $ 250,000 as bribe in 2007. Nazir Karigar claimed that the bribe was paid to help Canadian firm Crypto Metric strike a $100-million deal with Air India for a facial recognition security system. However, the deal never came through. Praful Patel, who was the Civil Aviation Minister then, has...
09:26 AM, Feb 03, 2012
New Delhi: Air India has settled a "major portion" of dues owed to state-run oil marketing companies and will pay the remainder on Friday, a spokesman for the ailing national carrier said on Thursday. The oil marketing firms had earlier threatened to halt fuel supplies to Air India, reeling under a debt pile of $4 billion, from Friday for non-payment of dues. "We made some payment yesterday, some even today....
01:29 AM, Feb 03, 2012
New Delhi: State-owned oil companies on Thursday halted supplies of jet fuel to Air India for failing to honour payments even after expiry of the 90-day credit period, partially affecting the airline's flights. Air India officials said on Thursday night around a dozen flights were delayed, mainly in Delhi, Mumbai and Cochin, by a few hours but there were no cancellations or grounding of flights. The oil companies later resumed...
09:51 PM, Feb 02, 2012
New Delhi: State-owned oil companies on Thursday snapped supplies of jet fuel (ATF) to Air India after the national carrier failed to honour payments even after 90-day credit period. "All three oil companies (Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum) have stopped ATF supplies to Air India at the four metros, Trivandrum and Kochi from 1600 hours," an oil company official said. The move follows Air India not honouring its...
04:55 PM, Feb 02, 2012
New Delhi: The Ministry of Civil Aviation has doggedly refused to grant sanction to the CBI to prosecute six people who were responsible for signing a deal with Airbus to procure 43 aircraft for Air India (AI) and cause a loss to the exchequer. The CBI completed its preliminary enquiry into the Airbus procurement deal in 2011 and sought permission from the Ministry of Civil Aviation to lodge an FIR...
06:38 PM, Feb 01, 2012
Mumbai: State-run Air India owes the Airports Authority of India (AAI) 12 billion rupees while debt-laden private carrier Kingfisher Airlines owes 2.35 billion rupees, AAI Chairman VP Agrawal told. "The sector is under a lot of stress, and we can't take a unilateral decision on one airline. Grounding flights (of Kingfisher) will impact revenues and reduce connectivity further," he said. AAI is responsible for managing the civil aviation infrastructure in...
01:48 AM, Feb 01, 2012
Mumbai: State-run Air India owes the Airports Authority of India (AAI) 12 billion rupees while debt-laden private carrier Kingfisher Airlines owes 2.35 billion rupees, AAI Chairman VP Agrawal said. "The sector is under a lot of stress, and we can't take a unilateral decision on one airline. Grounding flights (of Kingfisher) will impact revenues and reduce connectivity further," he said. AAI is responsible for managing the civil aviation infrastructure in...
07:18 PM, Jan 31, 2012
Mumbai: Cash-starved Air India (AI) on Tuesday said it will be following the industry practice on in-flight catering services on all short-haul economy class flights from Wednesday, which will see the national carrier offering only pre-packed snacks and not full meals as done earlier. "In line with the industry practice, AI has decided to revise the on-board catering services in the economy class for short duration domestic flights with effect...
01:51 PM, Jan 31, 2012
New Delhi: Indian airlines and private non-scheduled air operators are together likely to add around 1,000 aircraft and 250 helicopters over the next five years, according to Planning Commission estimates. While the scheduled airlines are likely to add around 370 aircraft in their fleet, non-scheduled operators could induct 300 business jets, 300 small planes and 250 helicopters during this period, owing to heightened demand. A working group set up by...
03:21 PM, Jan 26, 2012
New Delhi: Air India has been put on notice by the Chief Information Commissioner for refusing to reply to specific RTI queries pertaining to a flight that was cancelled and used allegedly to ferry former Civil Aviation Praful Patel's daughter Poorna Patel and some IPL players. On April 20, 2010, a scheduled Delhi-Coimbatore flight was cancelled less than 12 hours before its departure. This flight was then used to ferry...
06:57 AM, Jan 26, 2012
Mumbai: Bankers on Thursday explored various options including conversion of the Rs 18,000 crore loans to SLR as part of the debt restructuring of the ailing Air India carrier and may finalise the bailout package next week. "We are looking at various instruments like SLR, long-term bonds and non-convertible debentures among others as part of the debt recast plan of Air India," Oriental Bank of Commerce Executive Director SC Sinha...
09:25 PM, Jan 19, 2012
New Delhi: The government on Tuesday said it will pay Rs 150 crore ($29 million) in dues it owes to Air India to help the cash-strapped national carrier tide over its financial crunch. "We have agreed to release the Rs 150 crore dues owed by the government to Air India," Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh told reporters, adding "it should be released soon". The development comes as the national carrier,...
01:47 AM, Jan 18, 2012
New Delhi: The Civil Aviation ministry has recommended 49 per cent FDI in the airline sector. Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh said a cabinet note allowing foreign airlines to invest in domestic carriers will be floated. "Government will float cabinet note allowing foreign airlines to invest 49 per cent," Ajit Singh said. Earlier, the ministry was pushing for 26 per cent FDI in airlines. Ajit Singh also said the government...
06:09 PM, Jan 17, 2012
Kochi: A rude shock awaited passengers of an Alliance Air flight when they found the pilot had landed at Kochi though they were told they had reached their destination Kozhikode. The Thiruvananthapuram-Kozhikode-Kochi-Agatti flight with 23 passengers landed at Kochi at 10.30 AM on Monday without proceeding to Kozhikode as the crew was likely to cross the Flight Duty Time Limit (FDTL) if it was operated on schedule, Air India sources...
04:30 PM, Jan 17, 2012
displayed with permission. Use of the CNN name and/or logo on or as part of CNN-IBN does not derogate from the intellectual property rights of Cable News Network in respect of them.
