Indian-Aviation

Bangalore-based Air Pegasus, which recently acquired flying permit from aviation regulator DGCA, today said it plans to commence operations from April 12 with flight services to Thiruvananthapuram and Hubli.  "We have received an Air Operators Permit from the DGCA, and plan to launch our ticketing system on April 4 and flight operations by April 12," Air Pagesus managing director Shyson Thomas said in a release. Air Pegasus is the third new airline to receive flying permit from the DGCA, after AirAsia India and Vistara, in last one year.  Promoted by ground-handling services provider Decor Aviation, the regional carrier plans to invest of Rs 100 crore through a mix of internal resources and debt, the company said. The new carrier, which has been given flying permit to allow on regional routes, plans to start operations with two 66-seater ATRs to begin with and add one more such plane thereafter, the release said, adding that services will be scaled up ...

The '5/20 rule', which mandates a domestic carrier to be five--year--old and have a fleet of 20 aircraft to fly on international routes, should be "done away with" as it is adversely affecting the sector, Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju said here today.  Raju, who was here to attend 'Gujarat Aero Conclave-2015, told reporters such rules are pushing back the aviation sector in the country. "I have not seen such rules anywhere in the world. Such rules are pushing back this sector as well as the economy. Centre government's job is to promote Indian carriers. Thus, this rule has to go," the minister said.  To a query on the controversy over Centre's plan to develop some airports in the partnership with private firms, Raju said he is neither against privatisation nor public sector. "Personally, I am not against privatisation. Similarly, I am also not against public sector. Both of them are having their own duties to perfor...

General and business aviation operators have urged the Government to put in place separate regulations for the Scheduled Commuter Airlines (SCA) before finalising the much-awaited new aviation policy.  Besides, the operators have also sought from the civil aviation ministry to issue guidelines for code sharing between SCA and scheduled airlines. "The requirement to prepare separate regulations (Civil Aviation Requirement) for Scheduled Commuter Airlines should be put in place before the new policy is implemented," Business Aircraft Operators Association (BAOA) said in its response to the Government's draft remote connectivity policy.  The Civil Aviation Ministry had on March 18 circulated the draft policy for stake holders consultations with the last date for response being yesterday. According to the BAOA, there is no way SCA would take-off without proportionate rules being issued as per the size, weight, passenger capacity, area of operations among o...

Domestic air travel demand surged in India by 14.8 per cent in February, the highest worldwide, partly on the back of airlines keeping ticket prices lower to stimulate market in lean travel season, global airlines body IATA said in its monthly traffic report today. According to IATA, the overall global demand rose 6.2 per cent in February 2015 over the same month last year with international demand up by 6.8 per cent while domestic demand seeing a growth of 5.3 per cent in the reporting month. "The strongest growth occured in India and Brazil, followed by China, which benefitted from Lunar New Year-related travel," IATA said in a release. "Demand in India began to improve in the latter part of 2014, partly owing to market stimulation, and that has continued in 2015," it said. March and September quarters of the fiscal are traditionally lean seasons for the airlines in the country, and people are wooed with low fares. While the overall seat factor ...

An Air India pilots' body has urged DGCA to look into the issue of deployment of a section of its "stressed" junior pilots in the cockpit, days after the Germanwings pane crash.  Stating that some 30-odd co-pilots were being "forced to work overtime" without any remuneration, the Indian Commercial Pilots Association (ICPA), in a letter to the aviation regulator today alleged that "putting these highly-stressed and financially over-burdened co-pilots in the same cockpit... is a perfect recipe for disaster."  ICPA represents the narrow-body Airbus A320 pilots in the airline. This is the second time in the last 10 days that ICPA has red-flagged safety concerns in Air India to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). Earlier, it had asked DGCA to ground the airline's 26-year -old A-320 fleet citing safety concerns.  The fresh communication to the regulator comes following the action of Andreas Lubitz, co-pilot of the Germanwi...

In a fresh round of fare cut, budget carrier GoAir rolled out a limited-period low fares scheme, offering one-way ticket prices as low as Rs 999 with a more than four months validity period for travel across its network.  The bookings for the three-day offer starts from Saturday. The fares, offered under the scheme are non-refundable and available only for a limited number of seats, the airline said in a statement today. In case of a cancellation, only airport taxes will be refunded, the airline said adding the travel period booked during the offer period will remain valid from June 23 to October 31, 2015. Aviation regulator DGCA had recently said it was keeping an eye on air fares to check any "exorbitant" and "predatory" pricing by the domestic carriers. The DGCA had asked the airlines to provide the quantum (percentage) of the tickets sold by them at different pricing levels (highest and lowest fares buckets) for each sector over the next few months,...

AirAsia India, the joint venture airline between the Malaysian budget carrier and Tata Sons, unveiled its fourth aircraft with a  livery  dedicated to JRD, the Tata group patriarch and also the founder of India's first airline. It was unveiled by GMR's aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul unit at the Hyderabad airport. Named 'The Pioneer', the aircraft is painted with an image of the JRD Tata standing beside the Puss Moth, the aircraft on which he operated India's first commercial flight on October 15, 1932. This led to the birth of Tata Airlines later nationalised by the Indian government and renamed Air India. Since then, the Tatas had made several unsuccessful attempts to enter Indian aviation until last year when it forged the joint venture with AirAsia. Subsequently, it launched a second venture called Vistara with Singapore Airlines. "AirAsia India's special livery 'The Pioneer' pays tribute to the man who pioneered...

A minute's alleged delay in reaching the cockpit may cost an Air India pilot dear. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has issued a show cause notice to a senior AI commander for reaching cockpit of the aircraft he was to fly 44 minutes before the schedule departure time instead of the required 45 minutes.  The commander was to operate AI 213, Delhi-Kathmandu flight, on February 26, 2015. This alleged one-minute delay was found when the DGCA carried out spot checks of AI flights on that day at Delhi airport.  "During spot check it was observed that (the captain) had reported 44 minutes prior to the departure of his scheduled flight AI 213. Whereas in accordance with the operations manual, (the captain) was required to report 45 minutes before the schedule departure in order to carry out cockpit safety checks effectively," the show cause issued last Friday by DGCA's joint DG Lalit Gupta says.  It adds: "Now the captain is hereby cal...

AirAsia India—the joint venture airline between Tata Sons and AirAsia Berhad— is unhappy with the new guidelines the government has mooted to replace a rule that now requires domestic carriers to fly locally for five years and have a fleet of 20 aircraft. The new guidelines bring into place a credit based system wherein an airline accumulates point basis the distance it flies and is allowed to fly international once it has piled up a critical mass. There are bonus points for flying to remote areas. An accumulation of 300 of these so called Domestic Flying Credits (DFCs) will make an airline eligible to fly long haul international routes such as to the US and Europe. Curiously, for starting flights to shorter distances in Asia or the Gulf, an airline has to accumulate double the points ie 600. AirAsia being a low fare airline would look short haul international routes and that is where the new rule would be cumbersome for it. AirAsia's chief executive Mittu Chandilya ...

Hyderabad's Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (RGIA) achieved a milestone today by clocking 10 million passengers in a year.  The development coincides with the airport's seventh anniversary, which falls on March 23, an official statement said.  Bhanu Khannan who arrived on a flight from Chennai emerged as the ten millionth passenger at RGIA today evening.  Incidentally, another passenger Chandra Shekaran who arrived in the same flight had also traveled in the inaugural flight which had taken off from RGIA, the statement added. During 2014-15, RGIA witnessed traffic growth of 20 per cent over the previous year, led by 22 per cent growth in domestic passenger traffic as well as 15 per cent growth in international traffic, the statements said. Traffic growth numbers are higher than the average growth witnessed by other major Indian airports, it said.  Read more at:  http://economictimes.indiatimes.com