It was a routine afternoon on January 15th, New York TRACON La Guardia departure (L116) was handling outbound flights, including the US Airways Flight 1549, known by its radio call sign as Cactus 1549 (an America West flight). The routine was rudely interrupted at 15:27:36 EST (20:27:36 UTC) by a terse transmission :“Ah this is uh Cactus fifteen thirty nine, …

All airlines in India have been slashing their fares since January. The sheer numbers of special offers, and schemes coming across my desk have overwhelmed me. However, these appear to be coming to an end. Despite a drastic cut in fares of nearly 50 per cent for full service airlines and over 40 per cent on low cost carriers the …

The financial woes at Kingfisher Airlines, forcing them to divert ordered aircraft to other airlines, continue. First it was the Airbus A340-500’s meant for the flagship Bangalore to San Francisco “Silicon to Silicon” flights, that were diverted to Arik when Kingfisher could not take delivery. Now it is the turn of Turkish Airlines THY, who is taking delivery of four …

The US aviation regulator, Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), has delayed permission to a code-sharing agreement between Jet Airways (India) Ltd and United Air Lines Inc., as per the Mint. The code share agreement would have given Jet Airways passengers access to United’s five hubs of Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington, and access to 20 other cities across …

Contact Zone, a first of its kind service at Indian Airports, has been established near Gate 1 of Terminal 2 (International) at New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) for catering to passengers with special needs, like physically challenged passengers, and unaccompanied minors amongst others. Currently, facilitation for passengers requiring special assistance is coordinated directly by the airline. However, security …