AI suspends commander for failing to turn up to operate flight

New Delhi: National carrier Air India has suspended one of its commanders as he failed to turn up to operate the airline's first flight to Mumbai from Bhopal.

The Government-run airline had recently announced the roll out of several new flights and routes as part of the summer schedule, which commenced from last Sunday, with Mumbai-Bhopal being one among those.

"The commander wanted to go to Delhi. But when he came to know that the flight was not heading to Delhi but Mumbai he went missing, leaving the flyers in the lurch," an Air India official said.

The incident took place on Sunday, they added.
This last minute non-availability of the pilot left airline in a piquant situation as cancelling the inaugural flight would have sent wrong signals to the customers, the official said, adding, " Air India some how managed to get a commander for the Airbus A320 plane and operate the flight."

"The commander was immediately taken off the duty and subsequently placed under suspension for this gross indiscipline," the official said.
31/03/16 PTI/Times of India

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Controversial Sikh Businessman Ripudaman Singh Malik Among 21 Sikhs Removed From India’s Blacklist

Chandigarh: Controversial Sikh businessman and 1985 Air India bombing accused and later acquitted Ripudaman Singh Malik, Resham Singh Babbar, accused of being one of the conspirators in former Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh’s assassination case; and Massa Singh, an aide of Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, are among 21 Sikhs whose names have been struck off the “blacklist” of Sikhs by India’s Union Home Ministry.
With the names of 21 Sikhs — some involved in terrorist activities in Punjab in the 1980s and 1990s and others having separatist political leanings — being struck off the so-called blacklist, these persons will now be able to come to India, though some of them may have to face trial in criminal cases pending against them.
The idea, say top government officials, is to bring these people back into the mainstream by making them pledge their allegiance to the Indian Constitution.
The former head of Dal Khalsa International Manmohan Singh Bajaj; member of the Panthic committee that organised Sarbat Khalsa in 1986 Dhamma Singh alias Balbir; Babbar Khalsa International activist Avtar Singh Sanghera are also among the prominent Khalistan ideologues whose names have been struck off the blacklist.
30/03/16 Link

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Air India to add new flights to boost regional connectivity

National passenger carrier Air India on Wednesday said that it will introduce new flights on three sectors under its 'Connect India' programme from April 1.

According to the airline, its wholly-owned subsidiary -- Alliance Air will introduce the new flights on the Delhi-Jammu, Bengaluru-Vijayawada and Kolkata-Agartala sectors to push regional connectivity.

The flights on the Bengaluru-Vijayawada and Kolkata-Agartala sectors will operate five days a week, starting from April 1.

Besides, the national carrier will operate an additional frequency on its existing route of Delhi-Jammu-Delhi three days a week, starting from April 7.
30/03/16 IANS/Business Standard

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Air India to Start Morning Flight to Jammu From Delhi

Jammu: Air India will commence a morning flight from New Delhi to Jammu from April 8 to push regional connectivity.

"Beginning from April 8, Air India will operate a flight in the morning from New Delhi to Jammu and back from April 8," Union Minister of State in PMO, Jitendra Singh said today.

The decision was taken today in a meeting with Union Aviation Secretary Rajiv Nayan Choubey after Singh had proposed additional flights between Jammu and Delhi, particularly in the early morning and evening hours.

"The flight will take off from New Delhi 7.45 AM and will reach Jammu at 8.45 AM. After 45 minutes of halt, it will take off from Jammu at 9.30 AM and will reach New Delhi at 10.30 AM," Singh said.
31/03/16 PTI/New Indian Express

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Air India pilot detects smoke, makes emergency landing

Mumbai: An Air India flight coming from Hyderabad made an emergency landing at Mumbai International Airport Terminal 2 at around 7.30am on Monday after the pilot noticed smoke in the undercarriage.
Airline sources said as many as 120 passengers were on board, and they were evacuated safely using chutes. This is the third such incident in a row at Mumbai airport and the second such in an Air India aircraft. Following the incident, airport authorities were forced to shut the main runway and flights were operated from the secondary runway. A probe was ordered by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, (DGCA).
Flight number AI 620 (an Airbus 319 aircraft) took off from Hyderabad at about 6.15 am. Airline sources said airline officials suspected that the repair work that the aircraft underwent on Sunday night was not done properly, which led to the incident at Mumbai airport. Sources said that when the aircraft was about to land on the main runway at around 7.30am, the pilot noticed black smoke coming from the drum of the aircraft wheel and informed the Air Traffic Control Centre. Soon after, a complete emergency situation was declared at the airport and fire-fighting systems were deployed.
Passengers were in the arrival hall by 9 am and according to airport sources, they informed ground staff that none of them were injured and they came to know about the smoke only after being de-boarded. An engineer on condition of anonymity informed The Asian Age that owing to regular work, the drum of the wheel turned warm and when fuel came in contact with the warm part, black smoke started emanating.
29/03/16  Ashita Dadheech/Asian Age

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Air India tech glitch: Flyers sit inside flight for 7 hrs

Mangaluru: Hundreds of passengers were made at airport security area for seven hours at the Mangaluru International Airport here on Monday night after the Air India Express flight bound to Dammam (DMM) suffered a technical glitch.
The flight took off at 1.57am on Tuesday instead 5.30pm on Monday. Hundreds of passengers were made at security area due as the fault was discovered only after immigration process was completed. The parts for replacement were brought from Mumbai from another flight which landed at MIA at 11.30pm. Confirming this to TOI, Nagesh Shetty, Station Manager, Air India, Mangaluru said that since the fault was discovered only after immigration procedure, the passengers were made to sit at airport security area itself. However, some of the passengers with infants were shifted to private hospital. Others were provided food at the same place.
Some of the passengers had complained that their visa would expire if they did not reach the destination on time. Nagesh said there was nothing AIE could do as it was an unforeseen technical snag.
29/03/16 Kevin Mendonsa/Times of India

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Air India plane makes emergency landing after engine snag

Kolkata: An Air India Delhi-bound flight from Hong Kong with around 154 passengers onboard was diverted to Kolkata, where it landed under emergency conditions after the pilot detected a snag in the aircraft engine.
The snag-hit Boeing 787-800 (Dreamliner) plane is now grounded at the Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport in Kolkata, sources said.
An Air India spokesperson in Delhi said that the aircraft made a precautionary landing at around 2015 hours, and all passengers have been deplaned safely.
Air India is making arrangements to fly the stranded passengers to their destination in its Kolkata-Delhi flight, the spokesperson said.
29/03/16 PTI/Indian Express

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Air India monopoly on Gaya-Delhi route hits Gaya flyers

Gaya: Air India Monopoly hits Gaya flyers as, besides higher fare, the air users do not have much of an option time wise as well. As of now Air India operates a daily service on Gaya-Delhi route. The flight takes off late in the afternoon reaching Delhi at about seven in the evening. Whereas the Gaya-Delhi AI fare for 29 March flight is pegged at Rs 7168, an Indigo flight between Patna and Delhi on the same day costs Rs 5841.
Not only that, the air travellers lose one full working day, as reaching Delhi at seven in the evening does not mean anything to travellers having work either in some govt office or business purpose. For long Gaya air users have been demanding entry of private airlines on Gaya-Delhi route to promote tourism in the state.
Asked about the likely entry of some private airlines to end AI monopoly and provide the much needed relief to air users Gaya airport director Dilip Kumar said that such decisions are taken at a higher level and as such he was not in a position to say anything on the issue.
Kumar, however said that there was great potential for the expansion of the aviation sector with Gaya as the epi centre. The Director said that with the entry of one more ground handling company at the Gaya airport, quality of service was bound to increase.
On arrival Visa facility is available to visitors from more than 100 countries of the world. The airport has already signed an MOU with Abhay Institute of Medical Sciences, a private hospital located in the airport vicinity to provide medical assistance to passengers needing such help.
28/03/16 Abdul Qadir/Times of India

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Vijayawada-Delhi late-night flight from April 15

Vijayawada: Vijayawada is having a larger footprint on the country’s aviation map with the Air India introducing a new flight on Delhi-Vijayawada-Delhi sector from April 15. It will leave Delhi at 6.50 p.m. and reach Vijayawada at 9.10 p.m. and in the return leave Vijayawada at 9.55 p.m. and reach Delhi at 12.05 a.m.
The flight will not only be beneficial for domestic travellers but also provide good international connectivity to the US i.e. Chicago, JFK and San Francisco as most of the flights for these destinations depart in early hours of morning from Delhi, according to a press release. The flight will also be useful for international travellers who are coming back from aforesaid destinations to Vijayawada as most of international flights from these destinations are landing at Delhi between 4 p.m. and 5 p.m.
Once Vijayawada airport is declared international airport, this Air India flight will be converted into an international flight on hub and spoke model with Delhi acting the hub.
29/03/16 The Hindu

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AI announces additional direct flight to Hyderabad

Air India Western Region Manager Noor Mohammed was felicitated by top Saudi businessmen at the Jeddah Diwaniyah. Noor Mohammed has done yeoman service for the Indian Hajis and was praised and appreciated at the well-attended function by Saudis.

Hussam Al Kahtani, praised the contribution of Noor Mohammed and introduced him to the gathering. “Saudi Businessmen are really delighted to have Noor among them. And I assure their support to Air India for its growth in the Kingdom,”he said.

Introducing Noor Mohammed, Mir Gazanfar Ali Zaki, general secretary of Indian Youth Welfare Association (IYWA), too praised his services and contribution for Saudi and Indian community. He also said that in the recent community meeting at CGI premises with Minister of State for External Affairs Gen. Dr. V.K. Singh, both Consul General. B.S. Mubarak and Gen. Singh commended Air India’s Haj operation 2015 as excellent. He praised the airline for their services without even a single disruption.
28/03/16 Siasat

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Air India's Dreamliner woes continue

Air India's Dreamliner woes continue with a technical problem forcing the carrier to ground one of its planes in Paris on Friday even as the US aircraft maker is planning to advance deliveries of the remaining six aircraft by a few months.
The grounding of another Boeing 787-800 comes close on the heels of Air India's Kolkata-Delhi fight hitting the same problem last week, forcing a midnight replacement.

Significantly, AI's engineering union had urged the management last year to defer deliveries of the remaining aircraft till Boeing does not address the technical issues and 'pay' compensation for the adverse impact on the carrier's on-time performance due to grounding of the planes

Air India has already inducted 21 such planes in its fleet and six more are to be delivered to it by August 2018.

"The Boeing Dreamliner, which was to operate Air India Paris-Delhi flight, is grounded in Paris due to a technical issue. The airline has rushed its team of engineers to fix the problem," a source said.

Alleging that the Boeing has "perpetually failed" to address the technical issues with Dreamliners, which result in frequent grounding of these planes with Air India, the source said, "Air India needs to talk tough with the US aircraft maker on these problems as the airline is not only losing revenue due to grounding of the planes, but it is also impacting its on-time performance."
27/03/16 PTI/Business Standard

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Terror alert at Delhi IGI airport: Bomb scare in 6 flights of Air India and Jet Airways

New Delhi: Major terror alert has been reported from Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International airport. The bomb scare was received by the airport authorities through an anonymous caller. At least six flights, including Air India and Jet Airways aircraft are feared to be planted with explosives.
Delhi Police has rushed to the airport along with bomb disposal squad. High-level alert has been issued at the airport. All flights have been halted for the next couple of hours. Passengers are gradually been evacuated. The authenticity of bomb threat has not been ascertained as of yet.
27/03/16 Mohammed Uzair Shaikh/India.com

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AI bans passenger upgrades by crew members on flights

New Delhi: Air India has barred its aircraft crew from upgrading passengers with immediate effect. Pilots and senior cabin crew of full service carriers (FSC) very often ask their family or friends to sit in a higher class if seats are available there.
A note sent by AI chief Ashwani Lohani's office earlier this week said: "It has come to our notice that at times upgradations are done within the aircraft by cockpit/cabin crew. A serious view has been taken of the same and personal responsibility shall be fixed in such cases. It is reiterated that no upgrades shall be done without a message from the chairman's office."
While the move is to enforce discipline in the organization, upgrades by crew are a common practice in airlines. AI crew has not taken this missive kindly and Lohani — a chairman known to be close to his employees — has reportedly agreed to allow this practice on a limited basis. For example, if a pilot is operating a flight and his family is in the same plane, he may allow them to be upgraded subject to availability and keeping the chairman's office in loop.
"The airline's focus is on increasing revenue. Being an FSC with business and first class on its aircraft, it is imperative for AI to sell these premium seats. Over the years, AI premium classes are full of upgrades recommended by politicians and bureaucrats. We want to restore the feeling of a premium class in these cabins and be able to sell them to the high and mighty," a source said.
26/03/16 Times of India

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Air India wants banks to take fresh haircut to turn a profit

New Delhi: Air India is looking for a restructuring of its loans from banks to reduce the interest burden and become profitable.
The national carrier - which has been in the red and has got several rounds of funding from the government - is looking to get the lenders to cut the interest rate on loans of Rs 10,500 crore, on which it is paying 10.1%.
"Debt restructuring is a must. Every year, Rs 4,000 crore goes towards debt servicing alone. But we will seek debt restructuring only after becoming operationally profitable either this fiscal or next. We have so far not begun the process of debt conversion," AI chairman Ashwani Lohani told TOI.
Backed by the sovereign guarantee, the loss-making public sector airline is able to access funds at a much lower rate than other players. For instance, banks typically charge two percentage points higher than the base rate. Currently, SBI's base rate is 9.3%.
Air India has loans of Rs 48,400 crore, including working capital and term loans of Rs 22,000 crore, aircraft-related debt of Rs 19,000 crore and Rs 7,400 crore that it had raised via non-convertible debentures (NCDs).
26/03/16 Saurabh Sinha/Times of India

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AI announces revised schedule of departure of flights

Kozhikode: The Calicut-Mumbai Air India flight will depart from here at 8.55 AM with effect from tomorrow, as per the revised scheduled announced by the airline Currently the flight departs here at 7.45 AM. The airline in a release said that the Calicut-Dubai flight will leave at 11.20 AM instead of the current timing of 10.00 AM,
The departure of Calicut-Sharjah (AI-997) flight has been advanced to 9.30 PM from the current timing of 12.10 AM, it said.
26/03/16 PTI/India Today

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AI pilots top safety breach list

New Delhi: Twenty Air India pilots reported drunk for duty, 33 flew without getting mandatory proficiency checks done on time and 12 invited friends or relatives into cockpits, says a government report that shows the state-run airline led domestic carriers in such violations.

The civil aviation ministry dossier has listed 165 breaches of safety rules among all airlines from January 2013 to February this year, leading to warnings, suspensions or cancellation of licences. Air India was followed by Jet Airways and IndiGo, while a few such incidents by pilots of GoAir and SpiceJet were also listed in the report.

Senior ministry officials said the dossier had been prepared on the basis of incidents reported to the aviation regulator, the directorate-general of civil aviation. "From time to time, we look to see if there has been any spurt in such cases and if necessary, we issue fresh guidelines to airlines to stop such occurrences. The dossier is part of that exercise," a joint secretary said.

The most frequent violation was operating flights without getting proficiency checks done on time. Pilots are required to get such tests - which test their ability to handle emergencies like terror alerts or turbulent weather and other key skills - done every six months. "Many pilots don't take the tests seriously enough. In such cases, they are given warnings if it is the first time. For the second time, the pilots are suspended," a DGCA official said.
24/03/16 Sumi Sukanya/Telegraph

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We are trying to revamp Air India through all measures: Mahesh Sharma

The civil aviation policy is on the anvil as the government is in the final stages of ironing out the creases. The controversial 5/20 rule, which has become a bone of contention between the incumbent and newer airlines, is set to be changed. In all probability, the five-year clause may go, but airlines may still need to have 20 aircraft if they want to fly overseas. Auctioning of bilaterals is another area which needs to be tackled. And the turnaround of Air India continues to be a priority area for the government. Minister of state (MoS) for civil aviation Mahesh Sharma, in an interview with Bilal Abdi and Sumit Jha, discusses all these issues. Excerpts:

The incumbent airlines are demanding removal of route dispersal guidelines if the 5/20 rule is removed to ensure a level playing field. What is your perspective on this?

Our stand is very clear — the route dispersal guidelines will stay. We may tweak the percentage to be deployed on tier III routes by reducing it from 50% to 35%. The final aviation policy will ensure that there is a level playing field on the whole 5/20 and route dispersal guideline issue. We have different options for tweaking the 5/20 rule, 20 aircraft can remain, but the requirement of five years may go. This is one of the proposals.

What is the rationale behind auctioning of unused bilaterals?
We have still not taken a decision on it. It will be premature to talk about it at this point of time. The group of ministers are at the final stages of clearing the policy, but many of the policy decisions are complex, so we are still ironing out some of the issues.
25/03/16 Sumit Jha and Bilal Abdi/Financial Express

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AI announces additional direct flight to Hyderabad

Air India Western Region Manager Noor Mohammed was felicitated by top Saudi businessmen at the Jeddah Diwaniyah. Noor Mohammed has done yeoman service for the Indian Hajis and was praised and appreciated at the well-attended function by Saudis.

Hussam Al Kahtani, praised the contribution of Noor Mohammed and introduced him to the gathering. “Saudi Businessmen are really delighted to have Noor among them. And I assure their support to Air India for its growth in the Kingdom,”he said.

Introducing Noor Mohammed, Mir Gazanfar Ali Zaki, general secretary of Indian Youth Welfare Association (IYWA), too praised his services and contribution for Saudi and Indian community. He also said that in the recent community meeting at CGI premises with Minister of State for External Affairs Gen. Dr. V.K. Singh, both Consul General. B.S. Mubarak and Gen. Singh commended Air India’s Haj operation 2015 as excellent. He praised the airline for their services without even a single disruption.
25/03/16 Saudi Gazette

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Air India stake sale not in Govt radar as of now: Sharma

New Delhi: The government has ruled out stake sale in Air India even as it continues to infuse cash into the ailing national carrier.

While speculation was rife over strategic disinvestment of 49 per cent in Air India, Minister of State for Civil Aviation Mahesh Sharma told Bloomberg TV India late on Wednesday the was no proposal as of now to offload stake in the state-owned airline.

Although the draft Civil Aviation Policy has outlined the need to revamp Air India, sources said the decision to divest stake in AI will be taken by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Sharma trashed news reports that a committee has been to look into disinvestment of Air India.

The government has infused more than Rs 23,000 crore in equity in the last eight years—Rs 3,300 crore in FY16, Rs 5,780 crore in FY15, Rs 6,000 crore each in FY13 and FY14, Rs 1,200 crore each in FY11 and FY12 and Rs 800 crore in FY10.

The carrier, which is reeling under a debt burden of over Rs 40,000 crore, was also given sovereign guarantee to raise $300 million through external commercial borrowing.
24/03/16 Veena Mani/Business Broadcast News 

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Bomb threat received for Jeddah-bound AI flight

Mumbai: The Air India on Thursday received a bomb threat for its Jeddah-bound flight.

The threat for the flight was received at Air India Bengaluru office, after which Bomb Threat Assessment Committee was convened. The committee, later, declared the threat as "non specific".

The committee also recommended for intensifying security measures for flights on this route, including 100 percent hand baggage checks and secondary ladder checks, and thorough security check of baggage and cargo.
24/03/16 ANI News

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