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Tag: Aviation News

  • Smoke detected in cabin of IndiGo’s Raipur-Indore flight; DGCA begins probe

    The cabin crew of an IndiGo Raipur-Indore flight noticed smoke within the aircraft after it landed at its vacation spot on Tuesday, officers of aviation regulator DGCA mentioned on Wednesday.

    All the passengers had been in a position to disembark from the plane safely, they mentioned.

    The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) is investigating the incident, the officers added.

    IndiGo didn’t reply to PTI’s request for an announcement on this matter.

    Officials mentioned the cabin crew noticed smoke within the cabin after the A320 plane landed.

    Aviation regulator DGCA issued a show-cause discover to SpiceJet on Wednesday following eight technical malfunction incidents involving the airline’s planes within the final 18 days.

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  • Vistara plane engine fails after touchdown at Delhi airport, passengers protected

    An engine of a Vistara plane on approach from Bangkok failed after it landed on the Delhi airport however all passengers disembarked safely, aviation regulator DGCA stated on Wednesday.

    The airline stated one of many engines had developed a “minor” electrical malfunction after the plane landed on the Indira Gandhi International Airport on Tuesday.

    After vacating the runway, the engine quantity 2 of the plane was shut down as pilots needed to do single-engine taxiing utilizing engine no 1, DGCA officers stated.

    However, as engine no 1 failed on the finish of the taxi approach, a tow truck was delivered to take the plane to the parking bay, they stated.

    All passengers safely disembarked from the aircraft, they stated.

    In a press release, a Vistara spokesperson stated: “After landing in Delhi, while taxing to the parking bay, our flight UK122 (BKK-DEL) had a minor electrical malfunction on 05July, 2022. Keeping passenger safety and comfort in mind the crew elected to tow the aircraft to the bay.”

  • 7 in 17 days: Frequency of malfunctions on SpiceJet flights a trigger for concern

    On a tricky day for SpiceJet, two of its plane have been pressured to make precedence landings after they developed technical glitches on Tuesday. Including the 2 new ones, as many as seven such incidents have occurred on SpiceJet flights within the final 17 days.

    Here is the checklist of all technical glitches reported on SpiceJet plane within the final 17 days:

    June 19

    * A Delhi-bound Boeing 737-800 operated by the Gurugram-based low-cost airline made an emergency touchdown in Patna, minutes after take-off from there, after one in all its engines suffered a fowl hit. The plane was carrying 185 passengers and 6 crew members.

    * A Bombardier Q400 Dash 8, developed a cabin pressurisation subject after departure from Delhi. As the plane climbed out of Delhi, the pilots famous that the cabin strain didn’t construct up consistent with the altitude acquire. Following this, the crew determined to return and the plane landed safely again in Delhi.

    June 24

    * The fuselage warning mild on a SpiceJet Q400 plane (Guwahati-Kolkata) lit up when it was on ‘rotation’, forcing them to desert their journeys and return. The pilots of the flight discovered that the warning was coming from the luggage door on the rear finish of the aircraft, the officers stated.

    June 25

    * An identical incident befell on SpiceJet’s Patna-Guwahati flight on June 25. A SpiceJet Q400 plane was pressured to ditch its take-off roll on the Patna airport after the plane’s fuselage door warning mild lit up. Here too, it was discovered that the warning had come from the luggage door on the rear finish of the plane.

    July 2

    * A Jabalpur-bound flight operated by the low-cost service on a Bombardier Q400 Dash 8 aircraft made an emergency touchdown in Delhi after the smoke alarm was triggered. The plane took off from Delhi early Saturday, and whereas climbing previous 5,000 ft, the crew observed smoke within the cabin together with the bathroom smoke alarm sound going off, a high official on the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) stated.

    July 5

    * A SpiceJet Boeing 737 Max plane on its approach to Dubai from Delhi with 150 folks on board landed in Karachi, Pakistan on Tuesday after it developed a technical glitch. Pilots of the Dubai-bound flight observed uncommon gas discount in one of many aircraft’s gas tanks, following which they determined to divert the aircraft to the closest airport, officers stated. The flight was cruising at 36,000 ft within the Pakistan airspace when the glitch was noticed, a supply stated.

    * The outer windshield of a SpiceJet plane, flying from Kandla in Gujarat, cracked mid-air at present after which the aircraft made a precedence touchdown in Mumbai. Officials stated the Kandla-Mumbai flight of SpiceJet was at 23,000 ft altitude when the windshield’s outer pane cracked.

    The Directorate General of Civil Aviation is investigating all seven incidents.

    Meanwhile, shares of the price range service fell over two per cent on Tuesday following studies that the SpiceJet Boeing 737 Max plane needed to land in Karachi. The SpiceJet inventory fell 2.33 per cent to finish at Rs 37.65 apiece on the BSE whereas on the National Stock Exchange (NSE), it declined 2.20 per cent to settle at Rs 37.70 per share.

  • Air India decides to acquire Airbus A350 plane; first airplane’s supply probably by March 2023

    The Tata Group-owned Air India has determined to acquire its maiden batch of wide-bodied  Airbus A350 plane.  According to sources, the primary airplane is prone to be delivered to the airline by March 2023. It is a wide-bodied airplane like Airbus A350 has a much bigger gas tank that permits it to journey longer distances reminiscent of India-US routes.

    The variety of aircrafts bought stays unclear. Air India has not purchased a single plane since 2006. In 2006, it purchased 111 aircrafts, together with 68 from the US-based plane producer Boeing and 43 from European plane producer Airbus.

    Air India’s pilots are educated to function the wide-bodied plane of Boeing. Therefore, they should endure “conversion training” to function A350 plane of Airbus. According to sources, Air India has began asking its senior pilots if they are going to be inquisitive about getting the “conversion training” to function A350 plane.

    According to Air India’s web site, the airline has a complete of forty-nine wide-bodied aircrafts. This consists of eighteen Boeing B777, 4 Boeing B747 and twenty-seven B78. The service has seventy-nine narrow-bodied planes in its fleet too.

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    The Tata Group took management of Air India on January 27 after efficiently successful the bid for the airline on October 8, 2021.

    Since April, the airline’s chairman N Chandrasekaran, who can be the chairman of the Tata Group has reorganised the highest administration of the airline, bringing in senior and middle-level executives who’ve labored in different Tata corporations reminiscent of Tata Steel and Vistara.

  • A BPO, discounted Air India tickets & unpaid dues: ‘Racket’ unravelled by Covid

    When a Chandigarh-based journey agent known as Air India’s buyer care centre in February final yr to hunt readability on a Kathmandu flight he was about to e book for a passenger, he unwittingly grew to become a part of a racket that ended up in losses of over Rs 50 lakh for him and a number of others like him. The operation, which concerned reserving Air India tickets via a two-decade previous BPO firm, IGT Solutions, with out making funds to the airline ran easily till the second wave of Covid hit the nation, after which it began to unravel and are available aside on the seams.

    Last February, the agent known as a Gurgaon-registered Air India buyer help quantity looking for a clarification on the identify sample for tickets he was reserving for a Kathmandu-bound flight. The Air India name centre, which is managed by IGT Solutions, assured that he’ll get a callback from one in every of their help executives. Soon, he obtained a name from an individual claiming to be an Air India consultant, serving to him together with his concern.

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    Shortly after, he once more acquired a name from the identical consultant, however this time with a suggestion. “The man claimed to be from Air India and asked me how much I paid for the Kathmandu ticket. When I told him the amount, he offered me the same ticket at a significant discount of Rs 10,000 to the quoted price,” the agent mentioned. “I checked with my friends here, who are senior travel agents, and they advised me to take the offer but to make the payment only after the passenger has travelled on the said ticket,” he added.

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    The alleged Air India consultant agreed to his cost phrases and issued him a ticket. The agent’s buyer travelled to Kathmandu with out trouble and he paid the cash to this particular person. “For the next 15 days, we followed this model of payment only after the trip is complete … since the person never failed, I decided to make payments at the time of booking,” the agent mentioned, including his different colleagues additionally began reserving via this particular person.

    All this went on like clockwork till India acquired hit by a lethal Covid wave in May 2021, which impacted folks’s journey plans and so they began cancelling tickets. Some of the agent’s clients cancelled tickets to locations comparable to Canada, anticipating a refund. But he by no means obtained that refund to cross it on to his clients. Other journey brokers additionally discovered themselves caught on this lure. “As of date, refunds of about 60 tickets (mostly to flights to Canada) totalling Rs 52 lakh is due … and I am just one agent — there are several more,” he mentioned.

    Simultaneously, Air India grew to become conscious of an accounting discrepancy in direction of the quantity it anticipated to obtain from IGT Solutions for tickets it believes had been issued by the BPO firm on the airline’s behalf. “Legitimate tickets were issued but the airline did not receive payments towards these bookings. Typically, such discrepancies arise on a rolling basis and they get settled in a few days, weeks or months. But when this particular mismatch lasted for a longer period, we approached IGT Solutions and asked them to look into it,” an Air India govt advised The Indian Express. He refused to share the overall quantity that the airline is because of obtain on account of those tickets.

    IGT Solutions, on its half, has filed a primary data report (FIR) at Cyber Crime Police Station, Gurgaon, final month towards unknown individuals the place it has mentioned “multiple tickets were issued through Air India system with no payments being received by the airline, which was notified by Air India to IGT”.

    “The company also looked into the bookings made using the IGT employees’ log-in ids and passwords while these employees were not even authorised, nor trained for issuing of tickets and in few instances were not in the shift at the time when fraudulent tickets were made,” learn the FIR dated May 7, which was reviewed by The Indian Express.

    In the FIR, IGT Solutions mentioned after the discrepancy was found, it supplied sure IP addresses to Air India from which it offers the decision centre companies, in order that the airline can prohibit entry to all different IP addresses. “As this control was not put in place, to our utter shock, we find that few/may be many tickets have been issued without any payments,” learn the grievance filed by IGT Solutions’ Senior Manager-Fraud Investigations Manmeet Bakshi.

    Multiple messages despatched to Bakshi looking for remark for this story didn’t elicit a response. IGT Solutions didn’t reply to an in depth set of queries despatched by this newspaper. IGT Solutions, was InterGlobe Technologies earlier whereas it was owned by Rahul Bhatia — the billionaire promoter of funds airline IndiGo. The name centre firm was acquired in 2019 by AION Capital — a JV between world PE fund Apollo Global Management and ICICI Ventures — in 2019 for $230 million. AION Capital is reported as more likely to promote 85 per cent stake in IGT Solutions to personal fairness main Baring PE Asia for over $800 million.

    Responding to e mail queries, an Air India spokesperson denied involvement of its staff within the fraudulent ticket bookings. “We are, however, aware that M/s IGT, which looks after the contact centre for Air India, has filed an FIR against unknown persons and not against any Air India Employee. A discrepancy was observed and IGT has followed their procedure on this issue,” the spokesperson mentioned. In a follow-up question in regards to the circumstances by which the alleged fraudster may have accessed the agent’s particulars, the spokesperson mentioned: “Air India has always been having zero tolerance for any kind of malpractice or impropriety in any area of its activities…we made it quite clear that Air India is in no way addressed in the FIR, mentioned by you, and is not aware of any allegation of involvement of its own personnel in the case”.

    After months of not receiving their cash, the agent and others travelled to Delhi in July final yr to confront the alleged fraudster. “He promised to refund the money. But it is still due. He has not returned to his home since July last year. My only hope is on the police investigation,” he mentioned.

  • SC grants three weeks to SpiceJet to resolve monetary points with Swiss agency

    The Supreme Court on Friday granted three weeks’ time to SpiceJet to resolve its monetary dispute with Swiss agency Credit Suisse AG, and stayed the operation of the Madras High Court verdict allowing winding-up petition and directing the official liquidator to take over the belongings of the low-cost airline.
    A bench headed by Chief Justice N V Ramana took word of the submissions of senior advocate Harish Salve that SpiceJet would attempt to resolve the problem with the Swiss agency.
    “Senior counsel Harish Salve sought three weeks’ time for trying to resolve the matter and Mr K V Vishwanathan (appearing for the Swiss firm) also agreed to the adjournment. Meanwhile, the high court order is stayed for three weeks,” the bench, additionally comprising justices A S Bopanna and Hima Kohli, ordered.

    SpiceJet has rushed to the highest court docket in opposition to the January 11 order of a division bench of the excessive court docket upholding a latest verdict of a single choose bench ordering it’s winding up and directing the official liquidator connected to the excessive court docket to take over the belongings.
    Credit Suisse AG had moved the single-judge bench of the excessive court docket alleging that SpiceJet did not honour its dedication to pay the payments for over USD 24 million (a million is the same as Rs 10 lakhs) raised by it in the direction of upkeep, repairing, and overhauling of the plane engines and parts.

  • Jet: Boeing 777 aircraft in Dutch custody offered; insolvency course of to shut now

    Jet Airways on Saturday mentioned certainly one of its wide-body Boeing 777 plane, which was underneath the custody of the Dutch Administrator as a result of insolvency proceedings towards the corporate within the Netherlands, has been offered, and the proceedings will primarily be utilised to shut the method.
    Jet Airways is going through insolvency proceedings within the Netherlands in response to a grievance, the place it was declared bankrupt in response to a grievance by two European collectors.
    “This is now to inform that as per the information received from the Dutch Administrator, the equipment (the aircraft) under the custody of the Dutch Administrator has been sold to IAGCAS 777, LLC, for USD 9-million under the Dutch Insolvency Process,” Jet Airways Monitoring Committee-authorised consultant, Ashish Chhawchharia, mentioned within the firm’s regulatory submitting.

    Jet Airways mentioned within the submitting that the sale of kit is as per the phrases of the protocol, whereunder it’s agreed that the proceeds from the sale of kit shall be first utilised for the closure of Dutch Insolvency Process in Netherland, to make sure that the corporate isn’t any extra declared bancrupt.

  • Indigo flight’s tyre bursts whereas touchdown in Hubballi, passengers secure

    A Hubballi-bound Indigo airplane suffered a tyre burst whereas touchdown right here, airport authorities stated on Tuesday.
    However, all of the passengers and crew members had been secure.
    In an official assertion, the Indigo Airlines stated, “IndiGo ATR operating 6e-7979 from Kannur to Hubballi reported Tyre Burst at Hubli upon arrival yesterday (Monday) evening. All passengers and crew are safe. Aircraft is currently under maintenance maintenance checks at Hubballi.”
    According to an official on the airport, the airplane had touched down first 8.03 pm on Monday however as a result of cross wind, it took off instantly and went round.
    It landed once more at about 8.35 pm.
    “Probably due to hard landing and cross wind, the tyre burst,” the official stated.

    All passengers had been disembarked on the airport itself and the runway was cleared by 2 am on Tuesday.
    “The flight operations are now normal. We have informed the ATC about the incident,” the official added.

  • Duty-free giants hand out free flights to lure buyers

    Last month, Hyun Jung-a boarded a flight from South Korea’s Incheon Airport. Around two hours later, she was again in the identical airport and loading up on duty-free procuring, regardless of by no means touchdown in a foreign country.
    The Air Busan Co. flight, organized by Lotte Duty Free for its VIP prospects, was Hyun’s first because the pandemic started and it didn’t price her a cent. Because the route briefly departed Korean airspace and went over a Japanese island, the 130 passengers on board certified to buy at duty-free shops in Seoul sometimes reserved for individuals who have traveled internationally.
    Destination-less flights like these are an try by duty-free operators to salvage an business decimated by Covid-19. Before the virus, enterprise was booming — the worldwide duty-free market was price $85 billion in 2019 and on observe to achieve $139 billion by 2027, in response to Verified Market Research.

    Sales plunged as international locations restricted worldwide journey. Globally, just one.8 billion folks took scheduled flights final 12 months in contrast with 4.5 billion in 2019, the International Civil Aviation Organization has mentioned. Annual income for Swiss duty-free large Dufry AG, which operates shops worldwide, fell 71%.
    While buyers on flights similar to Hyun’s gained’t fill the monetary void, they at the least usher in some much-needed enterprise.
    “I saw a lot of people with bags full of duty-free items,” mentioned Hyun, who purchased a Chanel bag, footwear and cosmetics. “I tell all my friends that it’s worth taking the flight because of the duty-free shopping opportunity.”
    Hotel Shilla, South Korea’s second-biggest duty-free operator after Lotte, is providing 114 seats on two so-called flights to nowhere on May 23 and 30 to prospects who’ve spent greater than $550 at its shops since May 3. Lotte is placing on one other 5 flights this month.
    Duty-free operators and different shops are among the many final in South Korea to get well from the pandemic, with the nation’s retailers and wholesalers shedding 182,000 positions in April even because the economic system added 652,000 jobs from a 12 months earlier, the statistics workplace reported Wednesday.
    The business is in much less of a squeeze the place home air site visitors has rebounded and tax-free procuring zones are in place. The palm-fringed Chinese island of Hainan has develop into an much more in style getaway for vacationers from the mainland now starved of worldwide journey. That’s helped the province’s duty-free gross sales, which greater than doubled to 27.5 billion yuan ($4.3 billion) final 12 months, in response to the Ministry of Commerce.
    Duty-free procuring has been permitted for home vacationers in Hainan since 2011. In July, the federal government raised the spending restrict to permit folks to purchase extra and it’s extending some duty-free procuring to Beijing, Shanghai and different cities to faucet the rising buying energy trapped in China.
    Catering to the demand in Hainan, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.’s logistics unit is beginning each day cargo flights from Singapore to ship cosmetics, purses and different items to the island. Japan’s main duty-free retailer, Laox Co., which was acquired by Chinese retailer Suning Holdings Group Co. in 2009, is planning to enter Hainan as quickly because the second half of this 12 months, establishing shops designed equally to its shops in Japan.
    “The trend of visiting Hainan to do luxury shopping is here to stay for the Chinese,” mentioned Jonathan Siboni, chief govt officer of data-intelligence agency Luxurynsight.
    International air journey, whether it is occurring in any respect, is tending towards shorter-haul, regional routes, and from locations the place vaccination applications are at a extra superior stage. Seven of the world’s busiest worldwide routes within the first 4 months of the 12 months included U.S. hyperlinks, similar to Cancun-Houston and New York-Santo Domingo, in response to aviation analytics firm Cirium.
    Share costs recommend traders are upbeat. Dufry’s inventory has climbed greater than 100% because the finish of September, whereas Hotel Shilla is close to the very best in almost 15 months in Seoul.
    Paris-based Lagardere Travel Retail, which operates duty-free shops, eating places and different retailers in airports, is relying on prospects from nearer to house to assist it by an unsure summer season in Europe after its income slid 56% from a 12 months earlier to 341 million euros ($414 million) within the first three months.
    “We’re betting more on retired Europeans traveling,” mentioned Frederic Chevalier, the corporate’s chief working officer for Europe, Middle East and Africa. McKinsey forecasts passenger flows between Asia and Europe will solely return to 2019 ranges “beyond 2024,” mentioned Anita Balchandani, a accomplice on the agency.
    With vaccination charges lagging in locations similar to South Korea — which has delivered sufficient jabs for simply 4% of the inhabitants, Bloomberg’s Virus Tracker reveals — retailers might depend on gimmicks like flights to nowhere for some time.
    “The contribution from the flights to nowhere is small but it’s better than having nothing,” mentioned Sung Junewon, an analyst at Shinhan Investment Corp. In Seoul. “Every little bit counts.”
    Seven South Korean carriers have operated these flights, carrying about 8,000 passengers in complete. Authorities are additionally contemplating plans to permit abroad flights into Incheon, the place passengers can spend a couple of hours procuring with out leaving the airport earlier than flying again to their unique departure level.

    Park Ju-hyun, a 31-year-old workplace employee from Seoul, paid about 90,000 gained ($80) for a flight-to-nowhere ticket in March. It was her first time on a airplane since a visit to the Philippines earlier than the pandemic, and it was effectively price it for the procuring, mentioned Park, who spent about $600, totally on cosmetics.
    “It was nice to be back at the airport,” she mentioned.

  • Vistara to begin flights between Mumbai and Male from March 3

    Vistara on Saturday stated it can begin flights between Mumbai and Male from March 3 onwards below the air bubble association shaped between India and the Maldives.
    The airline will deploy its three-class A320neo plane on this route, stated its press launch.
    The service’s flights between Mumbai and Male would function 3 times every week – Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday.
    Scheduled worldwide flights have been suspended in India since March 23, 2020, as a result of coronavirus pandemic.
    However, particular worldwide flights have been working since July final yr below air bubble preparations shaped between India and round 24 nations.