Tag Archives: Air India

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 …

By Devesh Agarwal and Vinay Bhaskara Late on September 4th, 2011, the first Boeing 747-8 Intercontinental rolled out of a paint hangar near Boeing’s Everett Factory in Seattle in full Lufthansa colors. This first aircraft, which will be registered as D-ABYA, will undergo stringent ground tests ahead of planned initial test flights beginning in November. As per Boeing, this first …

Another edition of the Asian air scene podcast featuring Addison Schonland, Vinay Bhaskara and Devesh Agarwal. We covered the share swap between AirAsia and Malaysia Airlines and what benefits would it offer and what would it take away. In the India scene we covered the suspension of the application of national carrier Air India and the reported fait accompli presented …

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 …

Earlier this morning I had the opportunity to record a podcast on the state of Indian airline market along with IAG’s Addison Schonland and The Gate at FlyerTalk author Vinay Bhaskara. Amongst the topics covered — the mess called Air India, and the mega A320neo order by IndiGo. We hope to make this podcast a monthly affair.

Boeing is bringing the 787 Dreamliner to India for the first time. ZA002 will arrive in Delhi on July 13th. It is scheduled to proceed to Mumbai, but Boeing officials refused to indicate their plans for Mumbai. It appears the plan as of now is for the aircraft to be in Mumbai on July 15th briefly and then return on …

The next time you check in to the Centaur Hotel at IGI airport New Delhi, and hand over your passport and/or credit card, beware!!!!, you are exposing your personal information to the whole world. At a time when the Government of India is imposing draconian rules on internet services providers, and battles are raging on the issue of privacy, or …

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 …

I am off on a two week trip to Europe. Along with work, I have managed to make some appointments with the leading spotters in London, Manchester, Prague, and hopefully Zurich. So if the weather cooperates, I hope to post some pictures from these airports. Flying to London via Doha on Qatar Airways. Yes, yes, after my disastrous trip almost …

Recently, on an on-line forum, there was a great debate on how the legacy domestic carriers could deal with the issue of an empty premium class on many of their flights. Be it Air India, Jet Airways, or Kingfisher, many a time, fliers will observe just about three or four passengers in the premium class which has 20 or more …

India’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation reported domestic performance metrics of the seven Indian carriers for February 2011. Overall traffic was up 18.46% to 4.576 million passengers from 3.863 million passengers a year earlier. Cumulative traffic for 2011 is up 19.62% to 9.511 million from 7.951 in 2010. The Jet Airways group, comprising of Jet Airways, Jet Airways Konnect and …

Both Bloomberg and The Wall Street Journal are reporting that India’s largest carrier Jet Airways is in talks with Air France-KLM, Alitalia and Delta Air Lines Inc. about joining the SkyTeam alliance. Jet has long practised a policy of bi-lateral and code-share agreements and officially, its management has steadfastly refuted any speculation of carrier joining an alliance, but with Air …

National carrier Air India, continues the tradition of operating all women flights on International Womens’ Day, 8th of March. The airline will operate flights with all women crew together with women dispatchers, women load and trim staff, women engineers, women staff at check-in counters, women doctor for crew breathalyser test, women staff for security checks and women conducting the LOSA …

India’s aviation regulator and inspector the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has released its investigative report in the engine fire incident of Air India Boeing 747-400 VT-ESM Konark at Mumbai on September 4, 2009. As per the DGCA, the primary cause for the accident was the complete dislodging of No. 1 strut fuel feed line coupling due to dislodging …

Air India has finally moved to a single airline code (AI) for all its flights, including those from the erstwhile Indian Airlines (IC) and Alliance Air (CD). The list of revised flight numbers is as below.

The Indian budget for 2011-12 has raised the cost of air travel by imposition or raising of service tax. Earlier this morning, the Indian Finance Minister, Mr. Mukherjee, announced that the service tax on air travel by economy class would be raised by Rs. 50 for domestic trips and by Rs. 250 on international. Domestic business and first class passengers …

Matt Cawby at Skyline Photography and author of the great Paine field blog, took this video of Air India’s fourth Boeing 787 Dreamliner VT-AND being wheeled out of the paint shop. Around the 2:00 minute mark in to the video, you will observe the Star Alliance logo just behind the Indian flag on the right side of the aircraft just …

Boeing India president Dr. Dinesh Keskar has announced that Boeing will deliver Air India’s first 787 Dreamliner in the fourth quarter (between October and December) 2011. The plane carries a registration VT-ANA. Pictures available here. The US airframer has been facing criticism from airlines across the world for years of delay. The launch customer, Japan’s All Nippon Airways. Air India …

National carrier Air India has recorded it’s second consecutive month of operational profit. The carrier posted an operating surplus of Rs 49.48 Crores ($11.22 million) in December 2010, up from Rs 21.66 crore in November 2010. While the carrier feels this is largely due to recent efforts at improvement in efficiency parameters and adoption of better yield management strategies, most …