The unprecedented downturn in travel has led Air India to terminate the training of about 180 young trainee cabin crew who joined last November. The airline confirmed the move. These trainees were to be taken on board on successful completion of their course. AI had been facing a severe shortage of cabin crew last year … Continue reading Air India to withdraw job offers to trainee cabin crew
» Air India
The government started the mission on May 6 to help stranded people reach their destinations using special repatriation flights. Scheduled international passenger flights have been suspended in India since March 23 due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Air India (AI) has sold over 22,000 seats in 15 hours of opening bookings for Vande Bharat Mission-III outbound flights to North America and Europe. The huge pent-up demand to travel out of India and these Air India flights being the only option this month at least, saw AI website getting crores of hits and … Continue reading Vande Bharat: AI sells over 22k tickets in 15 hrs
In a major relief to passengers, Air India has decided that passengers who booked tickets for domestic flights during the lockdown for travel in that period will be allowed to rebook for flights anytime up to August 24, 2020, “at no extra charge”.
The Supreme Court on Monday allowed Air India to keep the middle seats occupied while operating its non-scheduled flights to bring back Indians stranded abroad up to June 6 while observing that the government should be more worried about the health of citizens rather than the health of commercial airlines.
Several Indians in the US, either on H-1B work visa or green card having children who are American citizens by birth, are being prevented from travelling to India aboard the special repatriation flights being run by Air India. As per regulations visas of foreign nationals and OCI cards were suspended last week as part of … Continue reading Visa bar prevents some Indians in US from returning
India will launch the second phase of Vande Bharat Mission from May 16 to 22 under which Air India will operate 149 flights to bring back countrymen from 31 countries. These will include several places where AI does not have regular flights to like Ukraine, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Nigeria.
Students bound for the US are the latest lot of passengers to find themselves caught in the maze of confusing guidelines that decide whether they will be allowed to travel to the US or not. In the wee hours of Saturday, Air India issued a note, listing three conditions under which students with an F … Continue reading Stressful time for students on repatriation flight
Air India crew members, widely hailed as corona warriors for operating rescue flights during the Covid pandemic, are reaching a “breaking point” with their salaries due for the last three months now. As they embark on the Vande Bharat Mission, AI pilots have told aviation minister H S Puri that only “lip service” is being … Continue reading Pay 3 months salary dues, Air India pilots say
For Air India officials and passengers, a major cause of concern with the ongoing repatriation flights to and from different countries are the visa regulations and immigration policies of different lands. Late on Thursday night, Air India was informed by an official from an Indian ministry that US visa rules have changed to restrict passengers … Continue reading No bar on entry of students, OCI card holders to US
Only 10 people were onboard Air India’s 256-seater Dreamliner when it took off from Delhi late Thursday night for Singapore to fly back Indians stranded there. India has allowed people meeting certain conditions to fly out on the Vande Bharat Mission flights to US, UK and Singapore.
The government has extended the deadline to bid for Air India by two months till June 30, as the Covid-19 fallout has disrupted economic activity globally. This is the second extension in the deadline to submit bids by investors for Air India since it initiated the process of stake sale in the debt-ridden national carrier … Continue reading Govt extends deadline to bid for AI by 2 months
Air India unions have opposed the 10% “Covid pay cut” in their March salaries. While PM Modi has urged employers not to cut wages during current crisis, AI unions in a joint letter to aviation minister H S Puri on Friday about the “unilateral pay cut imposed for three months against government instructions.” IndiGo has … Continue reading Air India unions oppose 10% ‘Covid pay cut’
Air India on Thursday temporarily suspended the contracts of around 200 employees including pilots, who were re-employed after retirement, as all domestic and international commercial passenger flights have been suspended in the country till April 14 to curb the COVID-19 pandemic. AI has cut the allowances of all employees, except cabin crew, by 10% for … Continue reading Covid-19 effect: Air India suspends contract of around 200 employees
DGCA on Sunday said it was suspending breathalyser tests, which is done to detect alcohol, for all aviation personnel, hours after an Air India union had requested it to do so citing that these tests could spread coronavirus. The decision comes after SpiceJet said one of its pilots had tested positive for the novel coronavirus … Continue reading Covid-19: DGCA suspends breath analyser tests
In a bid to minimise cabin crew contact with passengers, Air India has for now decided to serve packed meal for some time. It is also stopping service of magazines, newspapers, cold/wet towels, and blankets with immediate effect. The airline is also temporarily going to cut pay by 10% for some employees.
Bracing against coronavirus impact, Indian carriers, like their global counterparts have begun cost-cutting measures starting with salary reductions. On Thursday, IndiGO, India’s largest carrier in terms of market share announced across the board cuts in salary. Earlier, Air India and GoAir had announced similar mesaures.
In a bid to cut costs amid the massive coronavirus blow to travel, Air India has reduced the crew allowances and lowered fuel reimbursement limit by 10% for all officers.
The government on Friday extended the deadline for submitting bids for buying 100 per cent stake in Air India till April 30. The deadline was originally set at March 17. The government had allowed access to the “virtual data room” of Air India to interested bidders late in February and allowed them further time till … Continue reading Govt extends deadline to bid for Air India
The board of Tata Sons is veering around to back the proposal to acquire Air India, which has been put on the block by the Centre. However, the board, which met on Friday, wants Tata Sons and its aviation partners—Singapore Airlines and AirAsia Malaysia—to resolve structural issues before putting out an expression of interest to … Continue reading Tata Sons board tilts towards bid to acquire AI
As the government has restarted the process of Air India’s disinvestment this year, Vistara chairman Bhaskar Bhat on Monday said that they were evaluating the national carrier and the decision on bidding will be taken later.
Now passengers coming on flights from Italy and Iran will be screened on arrival in India for coronavirus. Earlier, passengers coming on flights from China, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Singapore, Nepal, Indonesia, Vietnam and Malaysia were being screened and now those from Italy and Iran will also be screened.
A person and a jeep on the runway reportedly forced an Air India aircraft on take off roll at Pune to do “early rotation” — meaning lift the nose wheel earlier — to avoid a mishap. This rotation led to the Airbus A321 to have a tail strike but the plane took off safely. The … Continue reading Jeep on runway forces AI plane to lift off early
SpiceJet will finally discontinue its daily Delhi-Hong Kong flight from Saturday (February 16). Air India and IndiGo had suspended their flights to Hong Kong earlier this month due to coronavirus outbreak. SpiceJet crew was reportedly very unhappy with the airline’s decision to continue flying to Hong Kong.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has appreciated the ‘high level commitment to duty showcased by the officials of Air India and ministry of health who conducted evacuation operation of Indian citizens stranded in the Chinese city of Wuhan.”
Tata Sons chairman N Chandrasekaran said on Wednesday it is “too early” to take a call on Air India, in which the government has decided to sell its entire 100 per cent stake.
Indian carriers have now cancelled all their flights to China, in wake of the coronavirus epidemic. Air India’s Delhi-Hong Kong, the only remaining flight by an Indian carrier between the two countries, will be suspended from February 8 to March 28, 2020.
While the terms of the second divestment attempt have been considerably sweetened by relaxing eligibility norms for bidders, allowing them to take on a much lower debtcum-liability burden and the government exiting fully, AI’s biggest strength could be its network.
IndiGo and Air India — the only two Indian carriers that fly to China — have started curtailing their flights to the country due to the coronavirus outbreak . While IndiGo will suspend its Delhi-Chengdu and Bengaluru-Hong Kong daily, it will continue the Kolkata-Guangzhou flights ‘for now’. Air India will suspend its Delhi-Shanghai from January … Continue reading IndiGo, AI cancel several China-bound flights