Mitsubishi Aircraft Corporation has announced that the first delivery of the Mitsubishi Regional Jet (MRJ) will be delayed from mid-2018 to mid-2020. The delay is due to reconfigurations in the aircraft’s electrical and a few other systems. The company had previously planned to deliver the first MRJ to launch customer ANA by mid 2018. The MRJ was initially meant to …

Bengaluru Kempegowda International airport will partially shut operations from February 8th to 18th due to the Aero India air show to allow for show rehearsals and flying displays. The airport will close from the 8th to 11th February for show rehearsals and from the 12th to 18th for the show itself. The airport operator, BIAL, has informed the airlines who …

2016 was a bumper year for Indian aviation. The country missed the 100 million (10 crore) passenger mark by a whisker, coming in a 99.88 million. The growth though appears at the cost of yields and Indian carriers can absorb this as long as oil prices remain at their low levels. 2016 also saw the birth of Air Carnival and …

Iran Air has taken delivery of it’s first Airbus A321 at a handover ceremony in Toulouse. The aircraft EP-IFA is the first aircraft the airline has taken direct delivery of from a western manufacturer in decades. The aircraft is the first delivery for Airbus out of the firm order of a 100 aircraft the airline placed in 2016. The order …

Low cost carrier SpiceJet has maintained the highest on time performance (OTP) of all the domestic carriers operating from Delhi Airport in the month of December. Winter usually sees many delays and diversions in the smog of the capital – SpiceJet has posted the highest OTP at the metro for the last three months. Coming in the second slot was …

Low cost carrier IndiGo has grown it’s fleet to a 125 Airbus A320’s. The airline took delivery of it’s 125 aircraft VT-ITH in it’s 125th month of operation. The aircraft is Indigo’s 13th Airbus A320neo. The airline is also adding 10 additional frequencies connecting Hyderabad to Goa, Coimbatore, Bhubaneswar and Visakhapatnam effective the 1st of January. Aditya Ghosh, President and …

An all business class aircraft is a rare sight amongst the world’s airplanes. While it’s not unheard of for a carrier to operate a all business flight – British Airways A318’s from London City to New York and Singapore Airline’s now discontinued A340 service to the US being some of the well known examples, it is a rare configuration. Qatar …

At this year’s Royal International Air Tattoo held at RAF Fairford, the US military was displaying two of it’s most advanced fighter aircraft – the Lockheed Martin F-22A Raptor and the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II. The F-22 was born out of the US Air Force’s Advanced Tactical Fighter program. The program began in 1981 with the goal to develop …

Mumbai Airport has become the first Indian airport to introduce a self drop facility for check in bags. The airport has deployed SITA’s Scan&Fly bag drop units, which will allow passengers whom have checked in online to tag and drop their baggage themselves before proceeding to the gate. The self drop facility is available to passengers of Air India, Jet …

It had been a good 11 years since I had last flown British Airways (BA), an experience, in my early teen years, I had vowed to never repeat. July may be the worst time to buy tickets to Europe, and the Farnborough Air Show ensures fares are high across the board. Additionally, since I was gunning for oneworld status, my …

American air framer, Boeing has finalized an agreement with Iran Air for 80 aircraft that includes 50 737 MAX 8s, 15 777-300ERs and 15 777-9s. The deal is valued at $16.6 billion at current list prices. The deal which was first announced in June and finalized on Sunday, has come just as the political atmosphere in the US is changing. …

American airframer, Boeing has begun final assembly of the 787-10 at it’s North Charleston plant. The 787-10 is a 18 foot stretch of the 787-9. The -10 will maintain a 95% commonality with it’s smaller sibling and will carry 40 more passengers to a maximum listed range of 6430 nm, as against 8500 nm of the 787-9. The first 787-10 …

A couple of weeks back thanks to the BIAL and the Aviation Photographers India, I had the opportunity to go airside at Bangalore Airport and do some night photography. Most of Bangalore’s international traffic operates at night and hence the night is a great time to see different airline’s apart from the regular Indigo, Jet and Emirates. Aside from the …

Canadian airframer, Bombardier has delivered it’s first CS300 aircraft to the launch customer, Latvian flag carrier AirBaltic. The carrier will launch its first CS300 flight from Riga to Amsterdam on 14 December. The CS300 will replace the carrier’s aging Boeing 737-300 and -500 aircraft and join it’s existing fleet of 12 Q400’s. The CS300 is the larger variant in Bombardier’s …

European airframer Airbus built five A380’s for the initial flight test program of the world’s largest commercial passenger aircraft. It still retains two aircraft in its test fleet which are used for on-going long term testing and for making improvements on the A380. F-WWOW (MSN 1) is fitted with the Rolls Royce Trent 970 engines, while F-WWDD (MSN 4) is …

US airframer Boeing has announced a $18.6 billion order from middle-eastern carrier Qatar Airways. The order includes a order for 30 787-9 Dreamliners and 10 777-300ERs, valued at $11.7 billion at current list prices and most importantly a Letter of Intent for up to 60 737 MAX 8s, valued at $6.9 billion at current list prices. The order builds on …

European airframer Airbus has begun final assembly of its first A330neo at its final assembly line in Toulouse, France with the joining of the aircraft’s wings to the centre fuselage at station 40. According to Airbus, both the A330-800 and -900 feature A350-inspired wing with Sharklet wingtips, the new AirSpace by Airbus cabin and will reduce fuel consumption by 14 …

Middle eastern carrier Qatar Airways has announced that it will be the global launch customer of GlobalBeacon, a technology solution by Aireon LLC and FlightAware, designed to provide up-to-the minute global tracking of all aircraft equipped with Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) in 2018. The system will make the airline compliant to ICAO’s 2021 flight tracking recommendations, three years before the …