Category Archives: Aviation

Garima Singh, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation, emphasized on the development of connectivity in the region. There are altogether 15 airports ensuring efficiency of travel in the region. She also spoke about the new Greenfield Airport Project which is under development; the aim is to inaugurate it by 15th August ’22, in line with the celebration of 75 years of Independence. The commencement of operations at Tezu Airport in Arunachal Pradesh along with some other important projects was also brought forward in the discussion. Initiatives are being undertaken to enhance air connectivity for the development of tourism in the North Eastern Region.

Jyotiraditya Scindia, Union Minister of Civil Aviation, has said that they will be launching the Airsewa 3.0 portal under which they are deciding on the process of grievance escalation in airline companies as well, so that higher officers can close those grievances. Also, in terms of refunds, he said, “Getting refunds for passengers is not just the responsibility of the travel agents, but even the airlines will be responsible for closing the refunds.”

The government keeps September 15 as the deadline to receive financial bids for Air India. Despite the pandemic and changes to the share purchase agreement to accommodating the queries of the bidders, the government is hoping to achieve the critical milestone of financial bids. Speculations are for more than two bidders, though no confirmation from the government.

As per relief in guidelines given by Health and Family Ministry, airlines need not provide safety gears like masks, hand sanitizers, face shields or body covers to passengers. However, airlines need to ensure that passengers board aircrafts with their masks covering both mouth and nose. Travelers are required to follow Covid-appropriate behavior of wearing mask, hand hygiene and physical distancing.

Air Tanzania has announced the resumption of its services between India and Tanzania. The first flight out of DAR was on 30th August, 2021 and return from Mumbai was on 31st August 2021. To start with, this will be a bi-weekly service every Tuesday and Saturday out of Mumbai with convenient departure timings of 05.50 hours arriving in Dar es Salaam at 09.20 hours. It will operate B787-800 new Dreamliner aircraft. Once the situation normalises, the flights are likely to increase to thrice a week.

According to Ministry of Civil Aviation’s (MoCA’s) latest notification, India has started flights between 49 cities under the Air Bubble arrangement with 18 countries in September. These special flights will be operated by airlines under an air-bubble pact between two countries, their territories. The schedule of these flights is available only till September 30.

The first passenger flight has taken off from Tezu, Arunachal Pradesh to Guwahati, Assam under the UDAN initiative to improve the air connectivity in the Northeastern Region, it was revealed in a tweet by the DoNER Ministry. Tezu is believed to be a stunning location to explore and it is believed that the flight service will make a comfortable trip for travellers and pilgrims in North East Region.

The latest Boeing 737 model is equipped with a manoeuvring characteristics augmentation system (MCAS), which is responsible for pushing the aircraft’s nose down when it senses a high angle of attack that may lead to an aircraft stall. Aviation safety regulator DGCA on Thursday allowed operations of Boeing 737 MAX planes, which were banned almost two-and-a-half years ago following two deadly crashes of this model that together killed 330 people. With India opening up the skies for the 737 MAX planes, China remains the only major aviation market to still have a ban in place.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has opened applications for tourist visas from all countries starting August 30. As per the new UAE travel guidelines, tourists will need to be vaccinated with one of the Covid-19 vaccine shots approved by the World Health Organization (WHO). This also applies to tourist visa holders from countries where travel to the UAE is restricted, authorities announced on Saturday.

Air Austral has officially received the first of the three A220-300s it ordered from Airbus in October 2019. The A220-300 acquisition process was successfully finalised on 27th July 2021. The second and third aircraft will be delivered shortly. Air Austral is continuing with its progressive strategy and is now the first French airline to have added this type of latest-generation aircraft to its fleet. The three new aircraft will streamline and modernise Air Austral’s medium-haul fleet by replacing two Boeing 737-800NGs and the ATR 72-500. “The arrival of this new aircraft is a significant moment for Air Austral, even more so in the current health crisis which we have been enduring for more than a year now. I would like to thank and congratulate the teams and partners who made this important and strategic acquisition possible for Air Austral, and for its future. This is an essential and responsible investment for us: the Airbus A220-300 will open up new horizons for us. It is the aircraft we needed to reinforce our pioneering position in the Indian Ocean and offer long-term profitability. The A220-300’s level of comfort and performance means that we have been able to make a major leap in operational and environmental efficiency. Our regional service is going from strength to strength. We look forward to sharing this new travel experience with our customers and will do so once the health situation improves. We are, more than ever before, ready for business recovery.” Marie-Joseph Malé, Air Austral CEO “We extend a warm welcome to Air Austral, who has just joined the ever-growing community of A220 customers and operators. With the efficient A220, Air Austral will be able to extend …