Category Archives: Aviation

Ministry of Civil Aviation’s flagship program Regional Connectivity Scheme UDAN has completed 5 years. Minister of Civil Aviation, Jyotiraditya Scindia, said, “It has played a great role in the transformation of Indian aviation industry. So far under this scheme, we have 425 routes aiming to go up to 1000 routes, 68 new airports aiming to touch 100 airports. In next 4 years we are expecting 40 crore travellers through civil aviation in India. That day is not far when along with rail transport and road transport Civil Aviation will become the bulwark of the transportation in India.”

Domestic passenger traffic was around 7% lower in July 2022 compared to around 10.5 million in June 2022, given some impact of the cyclicality in passenger travel, mainly arising from the lean period during monsoon coupled with impact on leisure travel due to hardening of air travel fares, revealed ICRA.

With the return to normalcy in the business environment, domestic passenger traffic grew by 94% on a YoY basis to ~9.7 million in July 2022 (5.0 million in July 2021) and was only ~18% lower compared to ~11.9 million in July 2019 (pre-Covid level). On a sequential basis, however, it was ~7% lower compared to ~10.5 million in June 2022, given some impact of the cyclicality in passenger travel, mainly arising from the lean period during monsoon coupled with impact on leisure travel due to hardening of air travel fares. The airlines’ capacity deployment for July 2022 was ~65% higher than in July 2021 (78,614 departures in July 2022 against 47,692 departures in July 2021). On a sequential basis, the number of departures in July 2022 were lower by around 5% compared to June 2022. Suprio Banerjee, Vice President & Sector Head, ICRA said, “For July 2022, the average daily departures were at ~2,536, notably higher than the average daily departures of ~1,538 in July 2021, and slightly lower compared to ~2,771 in June 2022. The average number of passengers per flight during July 2022 was 124, largely in line with the average of 126 passengers per flight in June 2022 and higher than the average of 105 passengers per flight in July 2019. ICRA believes that the domestic air traffic yields^ have moved up in the range of 25-30% over pre-Covid levels on domestic routes.  The industry earnings in FY2023 will continue to reel under pressure owing to the elevated ATF prices, coupled with the depreciation of the INR against the US$, given that around 35-50% of the airlines’ operating expenses are denominated in US$. Although removal of fare …

Speaking at the launch of the maiden flight of Akasa Air, Jyotiraditya M. Scindia, Union Minister of Civil Aviation, said “Because of the foresightedness and visionary goal and zeal of the Prime Minister that we have seen first time in India, the democratisation of the civil aviation. In next 4 years we are expecting 40 crore travellers through Civil Aviation in India.”

Jyotiraditya Scindia, Union Minister of Civil Aviation has said that India government plans to develop/operationalise 220 airports in the next five years. “Seventy-four airports were functional in the country till 2014. At present there are 141 operational airports including 8 heliports and 2 water aerodromes,” he informed.

Arun Kumar, Director General, DGCA, has said technical snags faced by domestic carriers in recent weeks did not have the potential to cause havoc and that even foreign airlines that came to India reported 15 technical snags in the last 16 days. “The country’s civil aviation space is absolutely safe and all the protocols laid down by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) are followed,” he said.

To satisfy the current and projected rise in demand for commercial air travel, Indian airlines have placed large orders for aircraft. The nation’s airplane fleet is projected to quadruple in size to approximately 2500 airplanes by 2038 and India to become the third largest aviation market in the world by 2024. 

Jyotiraditya Scindia met Roger Cook, Deputy Premier of Western Australia & Minister of Trade, State Development & Tourism, along with the Australian delegation. “We discussed furthering direct flight connectivity btw the two countries. Also, glad to learn about our shared interest in infusing environmental sustainability in the aviation & steel production sectors,” he shared in a tweet.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) expressed concern that a premature return to pre-pandemic slot use rules in the EU this winter risks continuing disruption to passengers. The European Commission has announced it intends to return to the longstanding 80-20 slot use rule, which requires airlines to operate at least 80% of every planned slot sequence. Global slot rules are an effective system for managing access to and the use of scarce capacity at airports. The system has stood the test of time and while airlines are keen to restart services, the failure of several key airports to accommodate demand, coupled with increasing air traffic control delays, means a premature return to the 80-20 rule could lead to further passenger disruption. The evidence so far this summer has not been encouraging. Airports had the 2022 summer season schedules and final slot holdings in January and didn’t evaluate how to manage this in time. Airports declaring that full capacity is available and then requiring airlines to make cuts this summer shows the system is not ready for reviving “normal” slot use this winter season (which begins at end of October). “The chaos we have seen at certain airports this summer has occurred with a slot use threshold of 64%. We are worried that airports will not be ready in time to service an 80% threshold by the end of October. It is essential the Member States and Parliament adjust the Commission’s proposal to a realistic level and permit flexibility to the slot use rules. Airports are equal partners in the slot process, let them demonstrate their ability to declare and manage their capacity accurately and competently and then restore the slot …

Air India has issued an advisory saying that passengers arriving from International destinations and connecting to a domestic destination are requested to recheck-in their bags at first port of entry. This is as per the regulatory requirement regardless of through check-in done till final destination.