Jet Airways, IndiGo, GoAir cancel several flights after Pak's F-16 jet shot down

New Delhi: Shortly after Indian Air Force jet crashed in Kashmir's Budgam district on Wednesday, nine airports were closed for civilian air traffic. However, the government has withdrawn the order to restrict civilian flights from nine airports in North India. The NOTAM (Notice to Airmen to alert aircraft pilots of potential hazards along a flight route) has been withdrawn and flight operations will resume.

It may be noted that several flights en route to Jammu, Leh and Srinagar airports were diverted to their origin stations. Jet Airways, GoAir, Indigo have already announced temporary suspension of flights to and from Srinagar, Amritsar, Dehradun and several other destinations due to airport closure. Flight operations have been temporarily suspended at Shimla, Bhuntar and Gagal airports as well.
Low-Cost carrier IndiGo informed passengers that flights to and from Srinagar, Jammu, Chandigarh, Amritsar and Dehradun have been temporarily suspended. The airline tweeted saying, "Due to airspace closure, flights to and from Srinagar, Jammu, Chandigarh, Amritsar and Dehradun have been temporarily suspended. To opt for cancellations or alternate options click on Plan B". As per Plan B, passengers can change the time and/or date of their flight at no additional cost.
The airline also said, "Due to airspace restrictions, flights to and from Srinagar, Leh, Chandigarh and Jammu are currently on hold."
Jet Airways also announced flight suspension and tweeted, "As per instructions from Delhi ATC regarding airport closure, flight operations to/from Amritsar, Srinagar, Jammu & Leh have been suspended until further notice. We request our guests check their flight status before proceeding to the airport."
27/02/19 ETNowNews.com

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GoAir flight suffers mid-air turbulence, 2 flight attendants injured

Kolkata: Two flight attendants were injured when a Kolkata-bound GoAir flight from Bhubaneshwar experienced severe turbulence mid air on Tuesday.
Airline officials said none of the passengers suffered any injuries. The two crew members were administered medication at a dispensary at Kolkata airport. However, none of them had to be hospitalised and doctors and airline officials stressed their injuries were minor in nature.
“On 26.02.19 GoAir flight G8 761 Bhubaneswar to Kolkata experienced severe turbulence wherein two crew members suffered minor injuries and were administered medication at the dispensary at Kolkata airport. None of the passenger was hurt. It must be noted that for the last two days weather has been extremely unforgiving. Flight captain and co-pilot had a successful and safe landing thereby adhering to the highest safety standards for our passengers,” an airline spokesperson said in a statement.
26/02/19 Tamaghna Banerjee/Times of India

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Go Air, Sri Lankan Airlines to use Airbus’ cloud-based platform

Sri Lankan Airlines and Go Air have signed agreements with Airbus to use the manufacturer’s cloud-based platform Skywise Core.

Go Air, the first Indian customer on Skywise, will use the platform to reduce operational interruptions,maximise aircraft utilisation and flight operations. This will benefit the airline’s existing fleet of about 50 aircraft and the future deliveries.

“With the growth of our A320 fleet, we are delighted to join Skywise. We are convinced this digital platform will support our daily operations,” said Jeh Wadia MD and Acting CEO of GoAir, India.

Skywise will help Sri Lankan Airlines anticipate maintenance tasks for its A320 and A330 fleet, allowing them to track and analyse their operations and performance data. This will benefit the airline’s present fleet of 30 aircraft and those on order. “We are confident that Sri Lankan Airlines will benefit from Skywise within our current digital transformation,” said Capt Rajind Ranatunga, Chief Officer Service Delivery.

“We are delighted to see GoAir and Sri Lankan Airlines join the growing number of airlines connected to Skywise. This makes us even more confident in our ability to bring more value to the industry through data sharing, and I would like to thank our valued customers for their forward-looking approach,” said Marc Fontaine, Airbus Digital Transformation Officer.
23/09/18 Business Line

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Jet Airways, GoAir, SpiceJet Offer Discount On Flight Tickets

Amid intense competition in the country's civil aviation sector, airlines such as Jet Airways, GoAir and SpiceJet have up with new discount offers on domestic and international flight tickets. These offers come at a time when the demand for aviation sector is soaring, boosted by a robust growth in passenger traffic registered over past few months. According to the latest data released by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), the number of flyers on domestic routes increased to 13.89 crore in 2018 from 11.71 crore in 2017, a growth of 18.6 per cent

Jet Airways is offering up to 50 per cent discount on domestic and international flight tickets in a special promotional sale scheme. The offer, which is valid till February 25, 2019, is applicable on base fare in both premiere and economy sections for one-way and return journeys, noted the carrier on its official website- jetairways.com. Under this offer, passengers can travel to international destinations from February 21, 2019. For domestic travel, passengers need to book flight tickets in advance. Passengers booking tickets for domestic travel in economy section can commence travel from March 1, 2019.

GoAir is offering domestic and international flight tickets at a starting all-inclusive price of Rs. 1,899 and Rs. 5,099 respectively in a limited-period sale. Bookings under the sale - valid for travel between March 1, 2019 and November 3, 2019 - can be made till February 23, 2019, according to airline's website - goair.in. However, the travel dates vary from destination to destination. Under this offer, the cheapest flight ticket is available on Bengaluru-Kannur route starting from Rs.1,899, applicable on travel between March 11 and March 31, 2019.
SpiceJet has announced the commencement of 12 new direct flights. The new flights will be launched from March 31, 2019 on Bhopal-Surat, Gorakhpur-Mumbai and Jaipur-Dharamshala routes. The airline also announced daily flights connecting Bhopal and Delhi. SpiceJet is offering flight tickets from an all-inclusive Rs. 2,499 on the Bhopal-Mumbai sector and Rs. 3,299 on the Bhopal-Delhi sector. Tickets for flights on the Bhopal-Surat and Gorakhpur-Mumbai routes are priced from Rs. 3,457 and Rs. 4,399 respectively, according to the airline.
23/02/19 NDTV

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GoAir Offers Flight Tickets From 1,899 Rupees

GoAir is offering domestic and international flight tickets at a starting all-inclusive price of Rs. 1,899 and Rs. 5,099 respectively in a limited-period sale, according to airline's website - goair.in. Bookings under the sale - valid for travel between March 1, 2019 and November 3, 2019 - can be made till February 23, 2019. the carrier said on its website. However, the travel dates vary from destination to destination. GoAir's offer on flight tickets comes amid high competition in the country's civil aviation sector.
Under this offer, the cheapest flight ticket is available on Bengaluru-Kannur route starting from Rs. 1,899, applicable on travel between March 11 and March 31, 2019. Tickets for a journey from Chennai to Kannur start at Rs. 2,399, applicable on travel between March 4 and March 31, 2019, according to the airline's website.
22/02/19 NDTV

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GoAir records best ON Time Performance

GoAir, the world’s fastest growing airline, has recorded the best On-Time Performance (OTP) of 75.9% for the month of January 2019, as per DGCA statistics. This is 5th successive month that GoAir has recorded best OTP and it is the result of GoAir’s continued focus on enhancing customer experience.

Despite January month posing weather challenges across sectors, GoAir attained the best OTP amongst scheduled domestic airlines as per Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), Government of India data. DGCA records OTP for all the airlines at four metro airports viz. Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore and Hyderabad.

Besides, data pertaining to the number of complaints per 10,000 passengers for the month of Jan 2019 shows that GoAir has had least complaints. GoAir had only 0.3 complaints per 10,000 passengers. The average for the industry is 0.73 complaints per 10,000 passengers. For the month of December 2018, GoAir’s passenger complaints were 0.2 per 10,000 passengers, again the lowest among key players.

GoAir Spokesperson said, “We thank our customers who have made this possible. It is a matter of great pride and a testimony of our passenger first policy. There is a great deal of emphasis on Operational Excellence across GoAir and the results of these efforts are heartening to see.”
21/02/19 NewsBarons

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GoAir Offers Flight Tickets From 1,499 Rupees

GoAir is offering domestic and international flight tickets at a starting all-inclusive price of Rs. 1,499 and Rs. 4,999, respectively in a sale offer, said the airline on its website - goair.in. Bookings under the sale offer can be made till February 20, 2019. The sale is valid for travel between March 1, 2019 and September 30, 2019, according to the airline's website. However, the travel dates vary according to the destination. GoAir's offer on flight tickets come amid high competition in the country's civil aviation sector.
Under this offer, the cheapest flight ticket is available on Bengaluru-Kannur route starting at Rs. 1,499 for travel between March 4 and March 31, 2019. Tickets from Ahmedabad to Kochi start at Rs. 2,299. Flight ticket on Bengaluru-Phuket route start at Rs. 6,299 for travel between March 11 and September 30, 2019.
19/02/19 NDTV

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Airfare offer: 8% GoAir flight ticket discount for these travellers

Go Air has come up with an offer for senior citizens by giving them 8% discount on the base fare. Now, senior citizens can freely enjoy their vacation with a comfortable travelling fare.


With the offer named 'Fly Smart  and travel more in your wise years!', senior citizens can now enjoy an 8% discount on base fare.

To avail this offer, you have to visit the Go Air website  www.goair.in. The discount would be 8% on base fare on domestic and international flights.

This offer can be availed by senior citizens above the age of 60 years.

It is mandatory for the passengers claiming booking under this Senior Citizen special fare need to carry a valid photo ID Card (like – Aadhaar card, Senior citizen card, Driving license etc. issued by a Government body) indicating their date of birth, and display it at the time of check-in at the airport. Bookings under this fare are not transferable.

In the absence of any valid documents, the passenger claiming booking under special fare for senior citizen will not be able to claim benefits, under the offer and their booking will stand cancelled and if the passenger still intends to fly then the passenger will be required to pay differential fare as per the rate prevailing on the date of booking

This offer is on a first-come and first-serve basis.
16/02/19 Zeebiz

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Goair CEO Cornelis Vrieswijk quits within 9 months, cites personal reasons

Mumbai: The Wadia group-promoted no- frills airline Goair has seen ethe xit of its third chief executive in the past four years with the resignation of Cornelis Vrieswijk Wednesday, within nine months of taking over the job.
The Dutch national Vrieswijk was a former executive of the American low-cost airline Easyjet and boarded Goair only last June when it was preparing to fly international.
He joined Goair six months after the departure of then chief executive Wolfgang Prock-Schauer on a bitter note and then checked into the rival IndiGo as its chief operating officer from January 2018.
The airline has cited "family matters," as the reason for Vrieswijk's abrupt exit and said managing director Jeh Wadia will be discharging the additional responsibility of the chief executive till a replacement is found.
"It is unfortunate that despite best efforts, my family did not shift to India but rather wants me to be back with them in Amsterdam," Vrieswijk was quoted as saying in a statement issued by the airline.
The latest domestic carrier to fly international, Goair currently operates across 24 domestic and three international destinations.
"At the nominations and remunerations committee meeting held by the board on February 8, Vrieswijk expressed his desire to relocate to Amsterdam since his family was not wishing to settle down in Mumbai.

"The board understood his compulsions to move back and accepted his reasoning to move on," the airline said, adding he will stay on to ensure a smooth transition.
13/02/19 PTI/Business Standard

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IndiGo, GoAir, SpiceJet Offer Discount On Flight Tickets

Airlines are regularly coming up with new offers on flight tickets in order to lure passengers and increase their customer base. These offers come amid high competition in the country's civil aviation sector, boosted by robust growth in passenger traffic registered over past few months. Currently, passenger carriers IndiGo and SpiceJet are offering domestic flight tickets at a starting all-inclusive price of Rs. 899. Rival airline GoAir is offering domestic and international flight tickets at a starting all-inclusive price of Rs. 1,418 and Rs. 6,738 respectively in a special 'Valentine's Day' sale offer.

IndiGo
IndiGo is offering domestic flight tickets at a starting all-inclusive price of Rs. 899. The booking period of IndiGo's flight ticket offer ends on February 9, 2018, said the airline on its official website- goindigo.in. This special sale is valid for travel between February 20, 2019 and April 15, 2019.  IndiGo's offer is valid only on non-stop flights on various sectors across airline's network.

GoAir
GoAir is offering domestic and international flight tickets at a starting all-inclusive price of Rs. 1,418 and Rs. 6,738 respectively. The booking period of GoAir's flight ticket offer ends on February 9, 2018. This special sale is valid for travel between February 14, 2019 and February 17, 2019. The cheapest flight ticket is available on Mumbai-Goa route starting at Rs. 1,418. Tickets from Ahmedabad to Jaipur start at Rs. 1,547.

SpiceJet
SpiceJet is offering domestic flight tickets starting from an all-inclusive Rs. 899. The offer is valid till February 9, 2019. The travel period on discount offer is valid till September 25, 2019. The airline is also offering an additional 10 per cent off on flight tickets and free priority check-in on booking through SBI credit card.
09/02/19 NDTV

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Ahmedabad-Kolkata flight returns minutes after take-off

Ahmedabad: A Kolkata-bound GoAir Airbus Neo aircraft was forced to return to SVPI airport minutes after take-off on Wednesday, due to a suspected technical snag in the engine.
Soon after take-off, the pilot informed Air Traffic Control (ATC) about the snag and requested an immediate landing. Some 185 passengers were aboard the flight. A GoAir spokesperson said, “GoAir Flight G8-532 from Ahmedabad to Kolkata after being airborne returned to Ahmedabad due to a suspected technical glitch.”“After normal landing, all the passengers were accommodated on another aircraft and were cared for,” the airline said.
Four inbound, outbound flights  to city airport cancelled: Some four flights were cancelled to and from the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International airport on Wednesday. These include three flights operated by Indigo Airlines, namely, 6E-586 from Bengaluru to Ahmedabad, 6E-719 from Hyderabad to Ahmedabad and 6E-823 from Ahmedabad to Bengaluru. Sources confirmed that the flights were cancelled due to operational issues. Yet another SpiceJet flight, SG-739 from Srinagar to Ahmedabad was also cancelled due to bad weather.
07/02/19 Times of India

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GoAir flight develops engine snag after take-off, lands back safely

A GoAir Airbus Neo aircraft flying from Ahmedabad to Kolkata had to return back on Wednesday due to a snag in the engine.

Soon after takeoff, the pilot informed Air Traffic Control (ATC) about the snag and requested for an immediate landing.
Earlier on January 31, an IndiGo flight from Lucknow to New Delhi was grounded as a precautionary measure after the pilot noticed a glitch in its engine, a statement said.
06/02/19 ANI/Business Standard

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Near miss of Jet, GoAir flights averted over Lucknow skies; air traffic controller grounded

New Delhi: Two commercial flights of Jet Airways and GoAir with over 200 people on board came perilously close to each other over Lucknow skies on Monday evening. The “traffic collision avoidance systems” (TCAS) equipment on these two aircraft got activated, after which pilots pulled the two planes apart. The Airports Authority of India has de-rostered an air traffic controller pending inquiry.

Jet Airways’ Boeing 737 was operating as 9W-606 from Guwahati to Delhi and GoAir’s G8-145 was en route from Delhi to Ranchi. A senior air traffic control (ATC) official said: “At 7.22 pm (IST), 9W-606 was cruising at 28,000 feet and was asked to descend to 26,000 feet due to turbulence. There was reciprocal traffic (from other side) with G8-145 cruising at 27,000 feet.”

During descent from 28,000 feet to 26,000 feet, the Jet Airways’ flight found itself dangerously close to GoAir coming in opposite direction at 27,000 feet. This activated TCAS in both cockpits. This collision avoidance system issues two types of advisories to pilots: first, a traffic advisory (TA) to give an advance warning to the crew of two planes that they are headed in the same direction and in second stage resolution advisory (RA) that asks the crew to take evasive action to avoid mid-air collisions.

“RA was issued in the cockpits of both Jet and GoAir cockpits and the pilots took the required action to pull the planes apart safely. The air traffic controller (who asked Jet to descend) has been de-rostered with immediate effect and a probe is on,” said the senior ATC official. The incident happened when the two aircraft were about 28 km west of Lucknow.

A GoAir spokesman said: “The resolution advisory system was triggered on flight G8 145 (which had 95 passengers) operating Delhi-Ranchi route on February 04, 2019. As a standard operating procedure, this has been immediately reported to the regulator.”
06/02/19 Saurabh Sinha/Times of India

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GoAir A320 crew shut down wrong engine after birdstrike

Indian investigators have disclosed that the crew of a GoAir Airbus A320 shut down the wrong engine after experiencing powerplant vibrations following a birdstrike on take-off.

The aircraft (VT-GOS) had been departing runway 09 at Delhi, bound for Mumbai, on 21 June 2017.

At around 115kt the aircraft suffered a birdstrike on the right-hand CFM International CFM56 powerplant.

While an automated advisory alerted to high vibrations on the right-hand engine, this was not called out by the first officer, says the Indian government’s inquiry into the event.

Although the first officer queried whether the captain wanted to reject the take-off – as the jet was still far below the V1 decision speed of 146kt – the captain opted to proceed and diagnose the situation once airborne.

The inquiry says the captain had received “no input” regarding the engine vibration.

Once airborne the first officer “misinterpreted” the N1 speed reading of the right-hand engine as a vibration of the left-hand engine, the inquiry states.

The first officer called out a beyond-limit vibration of the unaffected left-hand engine and, as a result of the incorrect assessment, the left-hand engine was incorrectly shut down around 30s after rotation.

Thrust of the problematic right-hand engine was increased and the aircraft was left to climb on this engine alone for over 3min.

The first officer, says the inquiry, “repeatedly” advised the captain, incorrectly, that the left-hand engine was experiencing out-of-limit vibration.

Air traffic control directed the aircraft to stop climbing at around 3,300ft and the captain subsequently realised that the vibration was actually affecting the right-hand engine.

The crew, recognising the error, began to restart the left-hand engine but – before it was fully operational – reduced the thrust on the right-hand engine to ‘idle’.

Investigators point out that, at this stage, the aircraft was flying only on idle thrust from an engine which had been suffering technical problems. The initial attempt to restart the left-hand engine resulted in a fault, and the crew increased power on the right-hand engine while rectifying the situation.
Once the first officer confirmed the left-hand engine was available, the thrust on the right-hand engine was again reduced to ‘idle’ and that on the left-hand engine set to ‘climb’.

In the process of starting the engine, says the inquiry, the aircraft “lost a considerable amount of energy” but the crew “did not notice” that the airspeed was bleeding away, to as little as 127kt.

Combined with the crew’s manual handling, because the autopilot kept disengaging, this resulted in the activation of the A320’s stall-protection system. This activation persisted for 28s until the aircraft had descended to 2,600ft.

The crew continued to receive vibration alerts for the right-hand engine, which remained in an out-of-limit state for 6min.

Investigators add that the crew returned to Delhi to land, but initially had to execute a go-around because the aircraft was too high on the approach. The aircraft landed on runway 10 without further incident, on a single engine, on its second attempt.
05/02/19 David Kaminski-Morrow/Flight Global

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Airlines resume operations of suspended flights

Patna: With clear skies and the gradual retreat of winter season, the airlines started resuming services of their suspended flights from Friday.
GoAir on Friday resumed the operations of its four flights suspended for the past two months. Besides, IndiGo is also slated to resume operations of its three flights from the city airport from February 16 and one flight from March 2.

Out of the four GoAir flights that resumed operations on Friday, three fly on the Delhi-Patna-Delhi route, while the fourth is for Bengaluru-Patna-Bengaluru route. A GoAir executive said the flights resumed operations after visibility in northern India and Bengaluru improved. With the resumption of services of four flights, the GoAir is now operating ten flights from Patna airport.

Santosh Kumar, assistant general manager (air traffic management) at Patna airport, told this newspaper that as many as four flights of IndiGo airlines are also likely to resume operations between February 16 and March 2.

Of the four IndiGo flights, 6E- 6367 will operate on Delhi- Patna-Delhi route and depart from Patna airport at 8.55am. Flight 6E-339, on the other hand, to fly from Patna to Mumbai via Lucknow at 11am. Flight 6E-634 will fly from Patna to Goa via Kolkata at 9.45am, while 6E-441 from Patna to Varanasi will resume operations from March 2 at 7.40am.
02/02/18 Faryal Rumi/Times of India

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Change in timings of four Mumbai flights

Mohali: Four flights between Mumbai and Chandigarh have been re-scheduled in the wake of closure of Maximum City’s runways. Some slots have also been cancelled.
Both the runways at Mumbai airport will be closed for repairs thrice a week (Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays) from February 7 to March 30 between 11am and 5pm. Besides, Jet Airways Jaipur flight will be suspended between February 11 and March 30 due to operational reasons at the airport there.
Chandigarh International Airport Limited official spokesperson said, “Due to closure of runways at Mumbai airport, some changes have been made as per availability of slots. As many as 240 flights will be cancelled daily from Mumbai airport during the period.” The affected flights include Indigo (6E-495), whose scheduled 11.40am arrival has been advanced to 9.45am. The departure of the same flight to Mumbai has been cancelled.
Air India flights will remain unaffected
The affected flights include Indigo (6E-495), whose scheduled 11.40am arrival has been advanced to 9.45am. The departure of the same flight to Mumbai has been cancelled. The scheduled 12.55pm arrival of GoAir flight (G8-581) here has been advanced to 10.55am. It will depart for Ahmedabad from Chandigarh at 11.25am. It will return at 3.15pm and then depart from Chandigarh to Mumbai at 3.45pm against its scheduled departure of 1.25pm.
01/02/19 Times of India

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Baby in ICU, anxious dad at mercy of airline

It was a nightmarish evening for Delhi-based businessman Manoj Rastogi as he paced around at the
Ahmedabad airport on Thursday evening.
His toddler son was admitted in the Intensive Care Unit at a hospital in Delhi and he was anxious to return to him. Unfortunately for him, his return flight to Delhi on Thursday night was cancelled and airline allegedly refused to make an alternate arrangement for him.
The GoAir flight to Delhi was scheduled to take off from Ahmedabad at 10.20 pm with about 150 passengers on board. According to passengers, at almost 8 pm, the airline informed them about the cancellation of the flight without giving any reason for it.
“Flight G8 714 from Ahmedabad to Delhi was cancelled owing to the inclement weather at Srinagar. The cascading effect of this affected further rotations from Srinagar and in turn the overall schedule. Passengers are being accommodated on an alternate aircraft and are offered full refund,” said an official statement from GoAir.
The passengers, who had already arrived at the airport, created a ruckus demanding alternate arrangements.
The airline reportedly offered to refund the tickets or book them on the next available flight. However, the passengers claimed that the refund would not be enough for a new was no arrangement for accommodation if they agreed to take the next flight a day or two later. This would mean they would have to pay from their own pocket to stay back at a hotel.
01/02/19 Alok Brahmbhatt/Ahmedabad Mirror

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