New Delhi/Mumbai: Crisis-hit Air India on Thursday moved the Supreme Court against striking pilots as it stopped flight bookings for the US, Canada and Europe till May 15 and sacked nine more pilots on day three of their agitation. Over 20 international and domestic flights were cancelled and several delayed, leaving hundreds of passengers fuming. Air India moved a petition in the apex seeking initiation of criminal contempt proceedings against...
12:49 AM, May 11, 2012
New Delhi: The turbulence in Air India escalated on Thursday morning. The Air India passengers continued to bear the brunt of the ongoing stand-off between the airline management and pilots for the third consecutive day as more than 20 flights from Delhi and Mumbai were cancelled. Air India has also stopped booking on some sectors. The airline is not taking any bookings bookings for Delhi-New York, Chicago, Toronto and New...
09:52 AM, May 10, 2012
New Delhi: Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh has expressed regret over the Air India-Indian Airlines merger, saying the division was a mistake. Speaking to CNN-IBN, Ajit Singh said that in retrospect that decision did cause problems. "Their cultures were entirely different. Air India's way of doing things, Indian Airlines way of doing things, their pay scales, their promotion policies and their areas of operation were also entirely different. So that...
07:37 AM, May 10, 2012
New Delhi: There seems to be no end in sight to the deadlock between the Air India management and the pilots with the government, the management and the Indian Pilots Guild sticking to their stands. While the airlines management has moved the Delhi High Court against the striking pilots, the government has hinted at considering downsizing the airline. Aviation Minister Ajit Singh has said that the government may now consider...
01:06 PM, May 09, 2012
New Delhi: Even as the Air India stalemate continues, Indian Pilots Guild President Jitendra Awhad has said that the pilots were ready to go back to work if 99 per cent of their demands were met. He also claimed that the government had closed its doors to talks on the issue. Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh, however, denied Awhad's allegations. Ajit Singh said that the government was open to talks....
10:52 AM, May 09, 2012
New Delhi: The crisis at Air India continues on Wednesday with no end to the stalemate between the management and the pilots. However, reports say that Air India's pilots may strike a deal with the government and return to work. This comes after the cash-strapped national career sacked 10 agitating pilots, derecognised their union, the Indian Pilots Guild, and sealed its offices as around 160 pilots failed to join duty....
07:38 AM, May 09, 2012
Indian Pilots Guild President Jitendra Awhad said that the Air India pilots' strike was not indefinite. ...
11:29 AM, May 08, 2012
New Delhi: Taking a strong stand against striking pilots, the AIr India management has threatened action. The management said, "Striking pilots must return to work by 6 pm today or face action." Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh has also called the Air India pilots' strike 'inappropriate' and 'illegal' as around 100 pilots called in sick. "A strike needs a notice in advance. The Air India pilots have called in sick....
11:16 AM, May 08, 2012
New Delhi: A section of Air India pilots have refused to turn up to work citing health concerns. The timing is crucial as it comes right after talks with the airline management broke down. Nearly 100 pilots in Delhi and Mumbai, who are associated with the Indian Pilots Guild, failed to report to work on Monday night and the number is expected to go up to 250 on Tuesday. Four...
07:31 AM, May 08, 2012
New Delhi: Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh has warned Kingfisher Airlines Chairman Vijay Mallya to pay his dues in order to keep flying. This came just hours before the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) comes out with its report on the cash-strapped private carrier on Monday. Singh said the aviation watchdog will call Mallya again to ensure that safety and passenger convenience is not being compromised. "The DGCA is...
06:16 AM, Mar 26, 2012
Mumbai: Air India on Sunday ruled out any disruption of its operations due to a strike warning from various unions from April 2, saying there is no threat of any strike from any of the registered unions of its employees. In what would have come as a breather to the debt-laden national carrier, the Air Corporation Employees Union (ACEU) on Sunday came out with a statement ruling out any strike....
03:34 AM, Mar 26, 2012
New Delhi: Heeding to the demands of private airlines, government on Friday announced throwing open of 11 new international routes which will allow them and state-run Air India to further expand their global network. The sectors opened up are Mumbai-Dar-es-Salaam, Delhi-Guangzhou, Delhi-Yangon, Delhi-Tashkent, Delhi-Ho-Chi-Minh City, Delhi-Hanoi, Delhi-Almaty, Delhi-Macao, Delhi-Addis Ababa, Delhi-Melbourne and Delhi-Sydney, officials said. Private airlines had been asking the government to open up international routes under the bilateral...
07:52 PM, Mar 23, 2012
New Delhi: Virtually ruling out closure of debt-laden Kingfisher Airlines (KFA), Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh on Thursday said promoter Vijay Mallya will have to take call on shutting down the business. "Rules say that we cannot cancel licenses of an airline as long as it has five planes and certain equity," Singh told private news channel CNBC TV18 in an interview. The Minister said if Kingfisher closed down it...
08:07 PM, Mar 22, 2012
New Delhi: Cellphones do not cause any problem with aircrafts' communication or navigation system, a top executive of Cell Antenna - a company that provides cell phone signal enhancement services, has said. Comments of Howard Melamed, the chief executive officer of Cell Antenna, is in contrast to the long held belief that use of cell phones during take off or touch down of aircraft's as mobiles can disturb aircraft's navigational...
12:51 PM, Mar 22, 2012
New Delhi: Premier British carrier Virgin Atlantic, which had stopped its Mumbai-London services in 2009, would re-launch these daily flights from October, saying India's "phenomenal growth" in air traffic had led to this resumption. The first Virgin flight would depart from London's Heathrow airport on October 28 and the return flight the next day, a Virgin spokesperson said in New Delhi. The daily flights would serve the UK and open...
03:41 PM, Mar 15, 2012
Houston: Passengers on board four aircraft had a narrow escape as their planes were struck by lightning in Houston airspace. According to the Houston Airport System officials, lightning hit United flight 1001 from Houston to Bogota on Friday afternoon. Airline officials said 124 people were on board. The plane was sent back to Houston and landed safely. A United Express flight from Houston to Mobile, Alabama was also struck by...
09:12 AM, Mar 10, 2012
Mumbai: The list of woes for Kingfisher Airlines has become longer. Oil companies have stopped fuel supply to the crisis-hit airlines due to non-payment of dues. Sources said negotiations were on. Six Kingfisher flights at Mumbai airport were delayed due to no fuel supply on Wednesday. This came on a day when the International Air Transport Association (IATA) suspended Kingfisher Airlines. It means that the international bookings of the carrier...
09:18 PM, Mar 07, 2012
Mumbai: The on-time performance report of flights at the city airport for January 2012 reads like entries made in the school diary of a habitual adolescent latecomer, except that the latter is more innovative. The excuses run the whole gamut, from the very grave to the mildly serious to the somewhat frivolous and the rather hard to digest. They are repetitive, some cited as often as over 300 times. And...
12:56 PM, Mar 03, 2012
New Delhi: A section of financially-battered Kingfisher Airlines staff on Thursday boycotted work to protest alleged non-payment of salaries since November last, but flights were not affected. The employees, mainly technicians, began boycotting work late on Wednesday night alleging they had not been paid salaries for the past four months, as the airline's Aircraft Maintenance Engineers took over the entire operations which ensured maintenance of its flight schedules, airport sources...
04:29 AM, Mar 02, 2012
New Delhi: Crisis-hit Kingfisher Airlines will face a crucial day on Wednesday. The management will meet their lenders' consortium led by the State Bank of India (SBI) to convince them to put additional capital in the troubled airline. Sources told CNN-IBN that the lenders will give further capital to Kingfisher only if the promoters make an additional equity infusion of over Rs 1500 crore. The other half could be funded...
07:31 AM, Feb 29, 2012
