Airlines

Earlier this month, the government of India began allowing repatriation flights back to India for Indian’s stranded overseas. While all these flights were initially operated exclusively by Air India and Air India Express, they were recently expanded to be operated by private carriers as well. Read: How the government could spin repatriation flights to oil India’s stagnant aviation sector Since …

When the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) announced repatriation flights to bring people back to India, it was unclear whether people would be allowed to fly out of India on the aircraft that would bring stranded Indians back. Yesterday, after a notification from the Ministry of Home Affairs, Air India began taking bookings for flights to the United States, United …

Virgin Atlantic has announced its plan for their “post-Covid19 future“. The airline expects that demand will take three years to return to post corona levels and that it will have to reshape and resize its business to adapt. The CEO of Virgin Atlantic Shai Weiss commented “We have weathered many storms since our first flight 36 years ago, but none …

Yesterday a schedule for the first seven days of repatriation flights to India were released. Unlike the initial evacuation flights that were operated by Air India, the flights that will be operated from 7 May 2020 will be charged. The fares for these flights have been released: Repatriation fares on Air India Repatriation fares on Air India Express For more …

On Monday, the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) announced that it would begin repatriation flights to India from 7 May 2020. Following that a schedule of flights that would be operated by Air India was released. Air India Express will operate flights from the below cities to India: Abu Dhabi Bahrain Doha Dubai Kuala Lumpur Kuwait Muscat Sharjah Singapore Links …

Earlier today we wrote that the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) has released a calendar of repatriation flights that will be operated to bring Indian’s stranded abroad back to India. All the flights will be operated by Air India and Air India Express. Links to register for these flights are available in our earlier story. In addition to the flights …

While passenger air traffic has come to a standstill since the beginning of the lockdown. Cargo movement has become essential for transporting essential and other goods into and across the country. While India has only one domestic cargo-only airline BlueDart (SpiceJet also operates three Boeing 737 freighters under the name SpiceXpress), every passenger flight carries an average of around a …

A couple of weeks back we saw Lufthansa announce its plans to reduce its fleet by retiring some of their A380s and 747s amongst other aircraft. At the time it was also announced that subsidiaries Austrian and Swiss would also see reductions but no further details were given. Austrian has now laid out its future plan. The airline suspended its …

Okay, airlines seem to be taking the Boeing – Airbus rivalry too far. After the recent British Airways A350 vs Emirates 777 accident – yesterday, a Cathay Pacific Airbus A350 had a ground collision with one of the airline’s Boeing 777-300ERs. The right wingtip of the A350 appears to have collided with the left horizontal stabilizer of the 777. The …

A British Airways Airbus A350 collided with an Emirates 777 at Dubai International Airport, early today morning. The two aircraft involved in the incident were: A British Airways A350-1000 G-XWBA, which was the first A350 to join British Airways in July 2019. Emirates Boeing 777-300ER A6-EBR, a 14-year-old aircraft delivered to Emirates in August 2006. The British Airways aircraft was …

Polish Aviation Group (PGL), the parent company of LOT Polish Airlines has cancelled its takeover of German leisure carrier Condor. The Takeover Condor was owned by now-defunct Thomas Cook Group which went into liquidation in September 2019. The airline was given a bridge loan by the German government to keep operating since it had a working business model and to …

The majority of the global aircraft fleet is grounded at the moment and airlines do not expect demand to return to the pre coronavirus levels any time soon. As such, some airlines have begun longer-term planning of their fleets – in many cases accelerating the retirements of their older aircraft. American is retiring it’s Embraer 190s, 76 Boeing 737-800s, its …

The Indian government has ordered a shut down of all passenger flights into and within India. On the heels of suspending international flights, all domestic scheduled commercial flights are to cease operations effective 23:59 hours IST (UTC+5.5) March 24, 2020. Flights have to land at their destination before this deadline. There is no re-start date announced at this time, but …

British flag carrier British Airways is adding an additional three weekly flights to Bangalore. The airline currently operates a daily flight using the newest aircraft in their fleet the Airbus A350-1000 which features the airline’s brand new business class suites. The new flights will begin in April 2020 and be operated using the airline’s three-class Boeing 777-200s. Time-table for British …

Britain’s other major carrier, Virgin Atlantic, rather unexpectedly, announced a seasonal, thrice-weekly service between Manchester and New Delhi starting Winter 2020. The new service will begin from the 26th of October 2020 operating on Monday, Thursday and Saturday on an ex-Air Berlin A330-200 aircraft. Virgin Atlantic added four of these aircraft to its fleet starting March 2018 to deal with …

American Airlines had a code-share agreement with Qatar Airways which it terminated in 2017 claiming unfair government subsidies to the Gulf carrier Both airlines are members of the oneworld alliance Both airlines remain tight-lipped on what developments caused the rapprochement oneworld alliance members American Airlines and Qatar Airways appear to have buried the hatchet and put aside their disputes to …

As the government of India attempts to privatise Air India, media reports suggest the second time around is seeing renewed interest. Reports also indicate the government is keen the Air India brand is retained post any sale. One can see why. The airline is still India’s national carrier and the brand has a high recall value and familiarity quotient. Despite …

The announcement by the owners of Air Italy that it will suspend operations on 25th February brought to an end the short-lived resurrection of the airline that was founded in 1963 and flew by the names of Meridiana, Meridiana Fly and Air Italy under various ownership structures over the years. Qatar Airways, which picked up a 49% stake in the …