As many as 284 foreign pilots were employed by domestic aviation companies at the end of September, with IndiGo having the highest number of overseas pilots at 94, according to the government. Minister of State for Civil Aviation Mahesh Sharma today informed the Lok Sabha there were 284 foreign pilots at various aviation companies as on September 30. Out of them, no-frills carrier IndiGo had...
As many as 17 incidents of tyre burst have been reported by different domestic airlines between 2012 and October 30 this year, with seven of them reported by Air India and its subsidiary Alliance Air, Minister of State for Civil Aviation Mahesh Sharma informed Rajya Sabha on Tuesday. The number of tyre burst incidents in 2012 stood at three, while four such incidents were reported in 2013,...
Chennai // India’s main airport in flood-devastated Tamil Nadu state reopened on Sunday as emergency workers strove to help thousands of residents forced to flee their inundated homes. Anger is mounting among some residents who accuse local authorities of failing to work swiftly to help those affected. The international airport in the state capital Chennai had closed on Wednesday leavi...
Technical flights have started from rain-hit Chennai airport where operations were suspended on Wednesday following flooding but it will take a few days to resume commercial flights, Union Minister Mahesh Sharma said on Saturday. "We started technical flights from Chennai airport. But we are unable to resume commercial flights as the basement of the airport is still waterlogged and po...
A Spicejet de Havilland Dash 8-400, registration VT-SUC performing flight SG-2458 from Mumbai to Jabalpur (India) with 49 passengers and 4 crew, was landing at Jabalpur at 7:30 p.m. L (2:00 p.m. Z) when a herd of 30-40 boars strayed onto the runway prompting the crew to attempt averting the animals by turning left. The aircraft went off the runway and came to a stop on soft ground with the left ma...
Air India Ltd., the state-run carrier that has survived on a 300 billion-rupee (US$4.5 billion) taxpayer-funded bailout, is struggling to pay for spare parts forcing it to ground two Boeing Co. Dreamliners. The aircraft were not operational for about 10 months each as worldwide demand for parts outpaced supply from Boeing, and Air India failed to procure components on credit due to a "...
National carrier Air India has once again been caught violating flight duty time limit (FDTL) of its cabin crew. It was on the Delhi-Australia sector for the past two years, where the airline flew with the same set of crew to test the impact of fatigue on its cabin crew. And with more than 60 follow-ups with the DGCA there is still no action against the errant officials, claim sources. In...
A court in Mumbai, India, has ordered that an impounded Airbus ACJ319 owned by former Kingfisher Airlines founder Vijay Mallya must be sold before March 1. The jet was seized three years ago by India’s tax authority after Kingfisher failed to remit $28 million in service taxes collected from passengers. The ACJ, manufactured in 2006, is on a finance lease from CJ Lea...
Indian budget carrier SpiceJet Ltd., which has surged more than 280 percent this year, said it's received interest from Gulf airlines looking to acquire a stake. "Some of the Gulf airlines have expressed an interest in SpiceJet as we have come back into the market, but this is not the right time to be diluting the equity," Chairman Ajay Singh said in Dubai Sunday, without nam...
After San Francisco, Air India (AI) plans to launch direct flights to Washington DC and other cities in the U.S. AI already operates non-stop flights to three U.S. cities - New York, Chicago and Newark, with operations to San Francisco scheduled to commence from December 2. "AI is actively pursuing to connect more cities in the U.S. (with India). A New Delhi-Washington flight is al...
Further simplifying the procedures and making it easier for the procurement of aircraft by airlines, the Ministry of Civil Aviation has delegated the power to grant initial No Objection Certificate (NOC) or in-principle approval for import or acquisition of aircraft to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). This comes two after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) relaxed norms for r...
The Indian air force has received its eighth and final batch of Antonov AN−32RE tactical transports to be upgraded in the Ukraine. The delivery of the five aircraft completes the total life extension, overhaul and modernisation of 40 aircraft to AN−32RE standard by Plant 410 of Civil Aviation and Antonov in Kyiv, Ukraine. The “RE” in the aircraft’s new de...
