Tag Archives: Civil Aviation Ministry

Investigative agency to file criminal charges in Airbus Indian Airlines aircraft purchase deal

The Press Trust of India and other media is reporting that the India’s federal investigative agency the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is getting ready to file a criminal case against European airframer Airbus, the erstwhile national domestic carrier Indian Airlines (which is now merged in to Air India), senior civil aviation officials, for alleged irregularities in the 43 narrow …

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Opinion: Air India should should take all ordered Boeing 787 Dreamliners

By Vinay Bhaskara and Devesh Agarwal Last week, media reported that the board of Air India’s board had recommended the ailing national carrier cut its order for Boeing 787 Dreamliners from the original ordered 27 aircraft down to 12 Air India aircraft at Mumbai CSI airport Last month, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) published a scathing financial audit of …

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TV Interview: Karan Thapar grills Praful Patel on the Air India C.A.G. report

Noted TV personality Karan Thapar grills former civil aviation minister Mr. Praful Patel in this interview on CNBC-TV18. Mr. Praful Patel is known to be a smooth operator. One might even call him the “Teflon Minister”. It is interesting to see Mr. Patel squirming, trying not to answer directly and trying to divert the what he wants to say, and …

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Star Alliance indefinitely suspends Air India’s membership application. An opening for Jet Airways?

India’s national carrier Air India has achieved a rather dubious first — the Star Alliance network of airlines, has suspended Air India’s membership application indefinitely — the first time it has done for any applicant airline. In a diplomatically worded release, the network says The member airlines of the Star Alliance network and Air India have jointly concluded that the …

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Why the Indian government will not let go control of Air India

Over the last month, national carrier Air India has been pilloried in the press across the the world. Stalwarts like the domestic Indian Express and the international New York Times, have exposed the rot and have even called for the closure of the airline. Exposes into the conflicts between management, board of directors, advisors, bureaucrats, politicians, labour abound, and charges …

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Civil aviation minister and Bengaluru International Airport kick-off centenary year

Civil Aviation minister Vayalar Ravi kicked off the centenary year celebrations at the nation’s capital New Delhi, earlier this morning. Bengaluru International Airport Limited, the airport operator of Bangalore, together with its partners and concessionaires began the celebrations with an auspicious lighting of the lamp followed by unveiling of the official Civil Aviation Centenary Year logo. The two large installations …

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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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Navi Mumbai International Airport cleared for take-off

After 17 months of delay, India’s environment minister Mr. Jairam Ramesh announced approval for the new Navi Mumbai International Airport, which many consider a half-baked idea for meeting the growing civil aviation needs of India’s financial capital. Earlier this month the environment and civil aviation ministries had reached a compromise agreement on the environmental impact of the new Mumbai airport, …

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Minister of Civil Aviation statement on Air India Express crash at Mangalore

As per a release by the Press Information Bureau, Govt. of India, following is the full text of the Statement by Shri Praful Patel, Minister of Civil Aviation in the Rajya Sabha on August 3rd, in response to the Calling Attention Motion tabled by Shri P. Rajeeve, MP, Rajya Sabha regarding “Serious safety problems faced by airline industry in the …

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gfiles magazine accuses systemic and widespread corruption in Indian aviation

gfiles magazine has written a two part article accusing India’s Civil Aviation Minister and other officials of systemic corruption with the ulterior motive of running Air India in to the ground. As the magazine puts it gfiles prayerfully brings to the Supreme Court’s attention, in two parts, the inside story of how a national resource – as well as a …

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DGCA circular forces airlines in India to close check-in counters and boarding gates earlier

On October 21, 2009, India’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation issued Air Transport Circular 10 of 2009 which outlined a series of steps meant to ease congestion of flights at Indian airport, most particularly Mumbai and Delhi. One of the steps outlined required for the commander of a domestic flight to call for ATC clearance delivery within 45 minutes to …

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Digging Air India’s grave with compromise

Last night as we watched the TV news my much better half commented “these Air India pilots are digging their own grave!!” It got me thinking of Julius Caesar’s famous quote, Veni Vidi Vici, but with a twist. Chairman Arvind Jadhav came, the pilots struck, the government compromised, and the continuing down slide at Air India won. Since it’s government …

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India passes FAA IASA audit; hopes for Jet Airways United Airlines codeshare improve

A herculean effort mounted by Secretary Civil Aviation Nambiar and Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) chief Nasim Zaidi helped India pass the International Aviation Safety Assessment (IASA) program audit of the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). During its 2006 audits, the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) had found several violations of 300 guidelines. Shortage of skilled manpower was the …

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Government of India grounds FlyDubai’s India plans

Under pressure from domestic carriers it appears that the Government has grounded the India plans of FlyDubai, the low-cost airline floated by the Al-Maktoum royal family of Dubai. The airline had sought permission for flights to Chandigarh, Coimbatore and Lucknow with tourist destinations like Goa to be added later. Obviously this has made the Ministry of Civil Aviation re-think it’s …

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Strike threat by private Indian airlines fizzles out – why it was doomed to fail

Within the weekend the threatened strike action by the Federation of Indian Airlines (FIA) on August 18th has fizzled out. On Friday July 31, the FIA members barring state owned Air India, took India by storm and announced they would suspend all domestic flights on August 18th in protest of the vindictive tax policies on the aviation industry specifically aviation …

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Continental Airlines apologises to President Kalam but is trapped between conflicting laws

Faced with an uproar in India, a criminal compliant, and unanimous condemnation across party lines in the Indian parliament, Houston, Texas based Continental Airlines apologised to former Indian President A P J Abdul Kalam for frisking him at the IGI airport at New Delhi. Read related story. In its apology to Dr. Kalam, Continental said it did not intend to …

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Government files criminal complaint against Continental Airlines for frisking Abdul Kalam

This story is sure to raise the hackles of many in India as former President APJ Abdul Kalam is a highly respected and loved figure. Upon the directions of the Ministry of Civil Aviation, the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) has today registered an FIR (First Information Report) against Continental Airlines for carrying out pre-embarkation body check of the …

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How do we solve a problem like Air India?

On the morning of May 5th an Airbus A321 operating Air India flight AI-179 with a seating capacity of 172 passengers was accidentally pushed back from the gate at Mumbai airport while the aero bridge was still connected to the aircraft. The door was badly damaged, and the passengers had to be transferred to another aircraft. In the ensuing accident …

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Audio Podcast: Air India on the skids

As per media reports, civil aviation minister Mr. Praful Patel announced in Chennai yesterday, there would be no job cuts despite the hugely over-bloated workforce at Air India. This is precisely the political meddling and easy options approach that I had warned about in my earlier article. Mr. Patel, if you are unable to help Air India management, at least …

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Official report of Presidential helicopter near miss at Mumbai in February

The Joint Investigation team constituted on February 19, 2009 to investigate the serious incident of a near miss between the Presidential Indian Air Force (IAF) helicopter and a Air India flight IC-866 on February 9, 2009 at Mumbai airport has submitted it report to the Ministry of Civil Aviation. To translate the official findings (shown below), the Presidential formation called …

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