New Delhi: India's civil aviation sector was the worst performer globally in July as the domestic passenger traffic contracted 1.1 per cent year-on-year, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) said on Thursday. "After expanding at 20 per cent plus rates through 2010 and early 2011, the Indian market stopped growing at the end of 2011," IATA said, adding that the contraction was due to a combination of many factors, including...
05:21 PM, Aug 30, 2012
Singapore: Asia would need almost 200,000 pilots over the next two decades, with China and India accounting for the bulk of the demand, a study by US aircraft manufacturer Boeing has said. Fast-growing airlines in Asia, particularly in China, India and Middle East, would need as many as 185,600 new pilots and 243,500 new technicians over the next 20 years, the study said apparently advising pilots to make a beeline...
01:08 PM, Aug 29, 2012
Mumbai: Mumbai-based pilots of near-bankrupt Kingfisher Airlines have decided to strike work indefinitely from Wednesday over non-payment of salaries. "Mumbai-based pilots have decided to go on a strike from tomorrow (Wednesday) onwards due to management's failure to keep its commitment on March salary payment," a source in the airline said. The proposed strike by a section of pilots could hamper the private airline's flight schedule "in a big way", he...
08:47 AM, Aug 29, 2012
New Delhi: Flag carrier Air India, reeling under accumulated losses and loans of around Rs 67,520 crore ($12 billion), is planning to carry advertisements on its aircraft to mobilise additional revenue. "We have plans to allow advertisers to put up ads on the aircraft. Ads can be placed on the tail or the hull of the aircraft," a highly placed source in the national airline told IANS. The airline is...
04:47 PM, Aug 26, 2012
New Delhi: Worried over their uncertain future and poor financial condition of Air India, over 600 employees of the national carrier have either resigned or taken voluntary retirement since 2009. Twenty-four pilots and management pilots and 163 cabin crew and executive cabin crew have either resigned or taken VR since 2009, citing various reasons, a senior Air India official said. Six engineers, including executive engineers, 171 executives and general category...
11:28 AM, Aug 26, 2012
New Delhi: With Air India's first Boeing 787 Dreamliner landing inNew Delhi on Wednesday, a definitive delivery schedule for the aircraft would be firmed up soon as two more are ready for delivery, official sources said. The last hurdle in taking delivery of this plane has been cleared with the Law and Justice Ministry giving its nod to the compensation settlement agreement which Air India would sign with the US...
09:30 AM, Aug 26, 2012
New Delhi: In an attempt to plug revenue loss of Air India, Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh has imposed a blanket ban on excess baggage checked in by ministers and civil servants, which is generally carried free by the airlines. Singh, in a letter to Air India CMD Rohit Nandan, said that the airline should stop the practise of carrying excess baggage without charges immediately on domestic and international flights,...
03:00 PM, Aug 25, 2012
New Delhi: Congress ally, the Trinamool Congress, has yet again forced the ruling coalition to put another of its key economic proposal envisaging 49 per cent FDI in aviation on hold. Trinamool Congress Chief Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday sought more consultations on the proposed plans, giving a big jolt to the government's effort to revive the civil aviation sector. The decision came as a setback to private airlines like Kingfisher,...
07:23 AM, Aug 23, 2012
New Delhi: As Parliament remained stalled on Wednesday for the second successive day on coal blocks allocation issue, key UPA ally and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee suggested an all-party meeting to end the logjam. Making the suggestion at the UPA Coordination Committee meeting held here this evening, sources said, she said the Lok Sabha Speaker should be requested to take the initiative to convene the all-party meeting. Her remarks...
12:14 AM, Aug 23, 2012
New Delhi: Parliament's Public Accounts Committee (PAC) will soon decide on taking up the three CAG reports on coal blocks, Delhi international airport and power projects tabled in Parliament on Friday. "The time will be decided to take up the reports shortly and future course of action will be decided as per rules," PAC chairman and BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi said. He said the committee will seek necessary documents...
02:07 PM, Aug 17, 2012
New Delhi: The CAG report on the Delhi airport said that the decision by the Civil Aviation Ministry to award the contract for the Delhi airport to GMR caused humongous losses to the tax payers and passengers. It said that land was given to the company at much lower rates than even to government organisations like the DGCA and the BCA. The CAG has pegged the losses at about Rs...
01:42 PM, Aug 17, 2012
New Delhi: All three CAG reports on coal, power and aviation were tabled in the Rajya Sabha on Friday. The report on coal blocks allocations puts the presumptive loss to the Government at Rs 1.86 lakh crore, which is much bigger and greater than the 2G scam itself. CNN-IBN has accessed the final draft of the CAG report on coal block allocations that also raises questions on the role of...
12:50 PM, Aug 17, 2012
New Delhi: Twenty two Kingfisher Airlines flights have been cancelled from Delhi on Wednesday after a section of pilots and engineers failed to report to work. Sources said that the pilots are protesting against non-payment of salaries for over five months. Kingfisher Airlines owner and liqour baron Vijay Mallya is in the capital and is likely to address the issue on Wednesday. The airline's operations have been disrupted time and...
11:44 AM, Aug 08, 2012
New Delhi: State-owned Air India will resume most of its international operations by the end of the month. The airline was forced to scale down its international operations massively following the recent two-month strike by a section of pilots. "We will be ready to restart our full international operations by the end of August. We will restore New York, Chicago and Paris flights by then... Also resume flights to Hong...
07:31 PM, Aug 05, 2012
New Delhi: Air India has been ordered by a consumer forum to pay Rs 35,000 as compensation to a woman for demand of bribe from her son by its airport staffer to allow him carry extra luggage on his way to Singapore for studies. The forum ordered compensation for complainant Beena Shah saying that the demand of the bribe amounted to causing harassment to her as her son was entitled...
04:51 PM, Jul 31, 2012
New Delhi: Facing the threat of downgrading of the aviation safety net, the task is cut out for new DGCA chief Arun Mishra, who said his prime focus would be to take all measures to ensure safe and secure flying in India. UN-body International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) is scheduled to carry out a safety audit of the aviation regulator this year-end, even as the Directorate General of Civil Aviation...
04:47 AM, Jul 30, 2012
Hyderabad: In an attempt to create better air connectivity for the people of the state, the state government is coming out with a State Civil Aviation Policy in August. This is also expected to fetch good amount of revenue to the government in the form of dividends payable for the equity it will provide for the project which will be in public-private partnership. The government plans at least six new...
12:24 PM, Jul 27, 2012
New Delhi: A Group of Ministers (GoM) on Wednesday approved a compensation package sought by Air India from US aircraft maker Boeing for a four-year delay in delivery of Boeing 787 Dreamliner planes. "The GoM considered it and now we will send it to the CCEA (Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs). ... It will be taken up whenever the next CCEA meeting is held," Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh told...
05:34 PM, Jul 25, 2012
Honolulu: A $2.2 million expedition that hoped to find wreckage from famed aviator Amelia Earhart's final flight is on its way back to Hawaii without the dramatic, conclusive plane images searchers were hoping to attain. But the group leading the search, The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery, still believes Earhart and her navigator crashed onto a reef off a remote island in the Pacific Ocean 75 years ago this...
01:33 PM, Jul 24, 2012
New Delhi: With the view to celebrate the 115th birth anniversary of the first aviatrix to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean - Amelia Mary Earhart, Google has today replaced its usual logo with a doodle that features Earhart climbing up the aircraft "Lockheed 5B Vega," which she used to fly alone across the Atlantic Ocean in 1932. But, besides the fact that Amelia Mary Earhart was the first woman...
10:16 AM, Jul 24, 2012
