Airlines

Well, the annals of the Indian private airline industry are dotted with many airways taking off and crash landing with some continuing to fly. The list of failed airlines in India is quite long - full service or low-cost - and the major reason was financial crunch due to various factors. Many of these airlines were promoted by well-known.

Adding to the uncertainty, the Mumbai-based airline has also stopped taking bookings for the next two days. The move came after Go First, which has around 5,000 employees, filed an application for voluntary insolvency resolution proceedings before the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), as confirmed by its CEO Kaushik Khona.

In the incident, the pilot allegedly had entertained a female friend, who had entered in the cockpit, which violates DGCA safety norms. A cabin crew member had filed a complaint with DGCA, prompting an investigation. While the cabin crew member seems to have no role in the incident, the entire crew has been derostered pending.

The primary bone of contention is the reduction in flying allowance from 70 hours to 40 hours every month under the new structure, which the pilots believe is unfair. The two unions have warned of possible 'industrial unrest' if the management goes ahead with the new terms without their consent. While Air India has stated that it will "continue to engage with the remainder of its staff", the airline has taken a tough stance on the issue, saying that there are "no recognised unions in Air India".

Full emergency was declared at the airport. "The pilot of the flight requested an emergency landing and it finally landed at the IGI at 5.50 p.m.," a source said. The pilot had suspected that something was wrong, and checked to find that the windshield had a crack. Though it was a minor crack, but as a precautionary measure, he decided to make an emergency landing, officials said.

The unified customer interface of Air India Express and AirAsia India has witnessed a surge of visitors within days of launch with the platform, contributing over 25 per cent of international flight revenue on the first day itself.

Air India's First and Business Class customers who follow the vegan lifestyle will now be able to choose from a selection of plant-based meal options. Moreover, the airline's bar menu now features a range of premium brands of spirits as well as a new wine list that includes French and Italian wines.

Premium Economy passengers will be able to check-in at dedicated counters and have priority tags affixed to their check-in baggage, and also be amongst the first to be invited to board the aircraft. The class will be initially available to customers travelling on select routes operated by its fleet of Boeing 777-200LR aircraft: Bengaluru-San Francisco, Mumbai-San Francisco, and Mumbai-New York.

Upgradation and modernisation of airports is a continuous process and is undertaken by the Airports Authority of India (AAI) and other airport developers from time to time depending on the availability of land, commercial viability, socio-economic considerations, traffic demand and willingness of the airlines to operate to/from such airports.

In February 2023, a total of 359 passenger-related complaints were received by the scheduled domestic airlines. The number of complaints per 10,000 passengers carried for the month of February has been around 0.3 per cent. As per the latest data issued for February by aviation regulator DGCA, IndiGo carried 67.42 lakh passengers during the month, followed by Air India (10.76 lakh) and Vistara (10.53 lakh).