Tag Archives: Air India

Unusual incident grounds Air India Airbus A319 for three weeks

An unusual incident has resulted in the grounding of a new, front line, Airbus A319 aircraft of national carrier Air India, for almost three weeks in Bangalore which is conservatively expected to cost the airline more than Rs. 5 Crore ($1.2 million). A damaged VT-SCL sits on the ramp at Bengaluru International Airport. On November 27, 2010 at 00:05 IST …

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Radia tapes allege systematic pillage of Indian aviation and asset stripping Air India

The Outlook magazine and Open magazine have blown the lid of the behind the scenes networks of lobbyists and power brokers in India. [Also read Outlook’s story on the 2G tapes] One of these was Ms. Niira Radia the head of Vaishnavi Communication, a lady so formidable and well connected, she boasted both Mr. Ratan Tata led Tata group and …

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DGCA withdraws report on Kingfisher plane crash-cover-up or shoddy investigation?

Post the Air India Express crash at Mangalore, there have been calls across the country for greater transparency within the administration, policy, regulatory, and investigative units of India’s civil aviation system. With the exception of the famous incident involving President Pratibha Patil’s helicopters in a near-miss with an Air India aircraft at Mumbai, with a view to increasing transparency, for …

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Photos: Air India’s first Boeing 787 Dreamliner VT-ANA on the flightline

The first Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner due for delivery to national carrier Air India, VT-ANA, moved out of the paint shop on the flight line at Paine field in Everett, Washington. This is the 25th aircraft in the production line. By sheer co-incidence, the launch airline for the Dreamliner is All Nippon Airways better known as ANA. Thanks to moonm who …

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Spotted: Photo of Indian Airline’s early A320 VT-ESC in the new Air India livery

Went spotting with a few members of the Aviation Photographers India yesterday. As it rolled off runway 09, I could not believe my eyes, but sure enough, it was soon confirmed, VT-ESC one of the early batch of Airbus A320’s delivered back in the early 1990’s was rolling in wearing a new fresh coat of paint in the livery of …

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Air India to smooth international connections at Delhi T3 for south Indian cities

In a bid to try and wrest back some of the traffic being lost to foreign carriers, India’s national carrier Air India will introduce a daily hub and spoke flight from the southern Indian cities of Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Kochi to Delhi with effect from October 31, 2010, to connect its non-stop north America flights to New York, Chicago, …

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Analysis of fleet share vs. passenger share in the Indian airline industry

Every month passengers are bombarded with statistics by various airlines in India. Best on-time performance, largest market share, most preferred airline …… the list is endless. Mathematical logic would dictate that an airline with the largest fleet of aircraft will have also have the largest share of the market, but an analysis of the passenger market share vs. the fleet …

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Kingfisher Airlines repeats fund raising plans – a move to ease market concerns?

Dr. Vijay Mallya promoted Kingfisher Airlines released this statement today. The conversion between Indian Rupees and US Dollar at a rate of Rs.47:$1 has been added by us in italics. The Board of Kingfisher Airlines Limited, at its meeting held today, approved, subject to shareholders approval, an increase in the authorised Equity Share Capital from Rs. 900 crores [approx $192 …

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Former Inspector General Denzil Keelor slams Mangalore airport

The recent crash of the Air India Express Boeing 737-800 VT-AXV at Mangalore Bajpe airport continues to grab headlines. Numerous analytical reports can be found in the newspapers both national and regional. With the short-comings in the design of the runway at Mangalore, many reports are questioning the independence of the regulator, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation when it …

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Air India Express Boeing 737-800 crashes at Mangalore Bajpe airport

One of the latest Boeing 737-800 aircraft in low cost carrier Air India Express’ (AIX) fleet, VT-AXV, performing flight IX-812 from Dubai, United Arab Emirates to Mangalore Bajpe, India overshot the runway early this morning while attempting to land, and crashed at 06:10 local (00:40Z) into a wooded valley near Kenjar village about ten km NE of Mangalore airport. Initial …

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Why the ministry of civil aviation is torpedoing Air India’s Chairman Arvind Jadhav

Air India’s Chairman and Managing Director is one of the few bureaucrats that receives praise from across the board, especially the private sector. His determined, no-nonsense, aggressive management style has earned him, both respect and angst. Anjuli Bhargava is another of those aviation journalists I have the highest respect for. We agree on almost all points of Indian aviation, most …

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Air India mulls cancelling Boeing 777 order, IndiGo plans massive A320 order

In 2005 both Boeing India chief Dinesh Keskar and Airbus India chief Kiran Rao had smiling faces. They had each locked in big orders. Air India had placed a mammoth order for 68 aircraft with Boeing which included 18 737-800, eight 777-200LR, 15 777-300ERs and 27 787-800 Dreamliners, while low cost carrier IndiGo placed an order for 100 Airbus A320-232. …

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Air India creates history with 22 all-women flights

Marking International Women’s Day, India’s national carrier Air India created history when at a little past midnight earlier today, the first all-women crew performed an ultra long-haul B777-200LR non-stop flight from Mumbai to New York. AI 141 was the first of the 22 all-women crew flights operated by Air India across its domestic and international network. Women form a core …

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India Aviation 2010 air show: Day 1 – Tragedy and happiness

The Aviation India 2010 began on March 3rd with a bang. Along with political stars, state Chief Minister Rosiah, US Ambassador Timothy Roemer, French Ambassador Jerome Bonnafont, almost everyone in the Indian commercial aviation industry was present for the inauguration. Union Minister of Civil Aviation Mr. Prafaul Patel, Air India Chairman Mr. Arvind Jadhav, Jet Airway’s Naresh Goyal, Saroj Dutta, …

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Kingfisher Airlines to join oneworld alliance, will Jet Airways join Skyteam?

Ever since Kingfisher Airlines had a fare war with British Airways on the Bangalore London Heathrow sector over a year ago, there have been behind the scene parleys between the two airlines on cooperation rather than competion. Bangalore Aviation learnt of these negotiations in January, but were requested to hold on till the deal came through. This report on oneworld …

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Air India faces more unreasonable demands by politicians

Everyone in India knows the chair of leading beleaguered national carrier, Air India, is only a bed of thorns. With a complete lack of genuine autonomy the carrier is prey to every politician’s whims and fancies. On a day when one newspaper reported that Air India has hired three consultants to help with their cost cutting goals, another newspaper reports …

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Murky politics swirls around DGCA’s low visibility take-off decision at Delhi

Two weeks ago, India’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) issued a circular changed the low visibility take-off (LVTO) minima for Category C aircraft (Airbus A320 family, Boeing 737 family) to 150 metres for all airlines from the New Delhi IGI airport. While the DGCA claims this move would not affect air safety, the circular has sparked an intense debate …

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A re-structured operations and flight plan for Air India

In December I had the pleasure of meeting with Karl Ulrich Garnadt, the Lufthansa board member responsible for their global network planning. Amongst many subjects discussed, I asked him what he thought would be a good strategy for Air India to adopt for the next five years. In parallel Behramjee has written a well thought out route re-structuring plan. I …

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Kingfisher, Air India, and SpiceJet best airlines to fly during the Delhi winter fog season

The dreaded winter fog season which plagues all transport services operating at the national capital, New Delhi, is fast approaching. Air travel is particularly hard hit with scores flights being delayed, diverted or outright cancelled. In our quest to help air travellers in India, to better plan and minimise the disruptive impact of fog, Bangalore Aviation sent out a questionnaire …

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