Aviation sector

Many air passengers alleged that Flight G8 116 from Bengaluru to Delhi took off around 6.30 a.m. leaving nearly 50 passengers while they were still inside the bus at the tarmac. Aviation regulator DGCA said: "We have sought a report from the airline and appropriate action shall be taken afterwards."

Aviation expert Harshvardhan said: "This is unfair and discriminatory. There has to be equity in the treatment of such grave misconduct." Earlier, Trinamool Congress leader Mahua Moitra questioned the DGCA after Air India decided to impose a 30-day flight ban on a man accused of urinating on a co-passenger.

Observing that provisions related to handling of an unruly passenger onboard have not been complied with, it asked why enforcement action should not be taken against the airline executives concerned for dereliction of their regulatory obligations in the matter.

A senior DGCA official said that the regulator is examining their response. "We are examining their response. We will comment afterwards," said the official. As per sources, the airline has said that its internal committee has obtained the necessary documentation and held its first hearing and the alleged perpetrator has requested for additional documents prior to a second hearing scheduled for January 10.

According to Ministry of Civil Aviation data, Indigo airline topped the list with 885 such incidents while Spicejet and Vistara reported 691 and 444 technical snag related occurrences, respectively between the years 2018 and 2022. While Air India (Fleet A) reported 361 such incidents, Air India (Fleet B) reported 38 technical snags.

The losses to the industry were primarily because of the Covid-induced disruption across the globe; currency depreciation (USD/INR); high operating cost environment, especially due to increase in ATF prices which constitute a major portion of the operational cost of airline; increase in crude oil prices in international market; VAT; excise duty; and the ongoing Ukraine-Russia war.

In a tweet on Friday, Union Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said: "Within 9 days, Delhi Airport has installed 5 x-ray machines at the security-check area, taking the total to 18 ATRS/x-ray machines -- a major reason behind ease in congestion at T3." Many took to the micro-blogging to tweet about smooth flow of operations at the T3 terminal.

"We are working closely with the authorities to ensure all the required steps to obtain the approvals are completed well in time and will consider the earliest the go-live date for these aircraft in line with expected receipt of requisite approvals. This wet lease solution will also enable us to better utilize our A321 narrow body fleet to continue our network deployment in light of the global supply chain issues," said the Indigo Spokesperson.

Minister of State for Civil Aviation, Gen V.K. Singh (retd) told the Lok Sabha, in a written reply, that upgradation or modernisation of airports' infrastructure is a continuous process and is undertaken by the AAI and other airport developers from time to time depending on the availability of land, commercial viability, socio-economic considerations, traffic demand/willingness of airlines to operate to/from such airports.

In a written reply, Minister of State, Civil Aviation V. K. Singh said that during the last seven years, four Greenfield airports -- Kannur in Kerala, Shirdi in Maharashtra, Kushinagar in Uttar Pradesh and Mopa in Goa -- have been constructed as international airports.