BUSINESS
Airfares surge up to 35%, hotel rates rise 3 times for Christmas and New Year holidays
While airfares are costly, the good news is most airlines operating flights in the country or flying to India have offered discounts to boost ticket sales during the on-going festival season
BUSINESS
MC Exclusive | Indian Railways reviews proposals to phase out manual coupling by 2030
At least 13 incidents related to manual coupling took place in 2024 alone, claiming the lives of at least seven railway workers. Some 361 railway workers died on duty between 2019 and November 2023
BUSINESS
Govt to setup Rs 4,000 cr National Maritime Heritage Complex Museum at Lothal's Indus Valley civilisation port site by 2029: Sonowal
While the minister did not quantify the value of PPP contracts expected to come from developing infrastructure around Lothal, officials from the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways told Moneycontrol that so far the government has identified contracts worth Rs 5,000 crore which will be invited under the PPP model.
BUSINESS
GMR Airports prepares for next phase of growth with the launch of new AI-enabled operations centre at Hyderabad
The new predictive operations system promises a much more streamlined and hassle-free experience for travellers, while also improving efficiency and cutting costs for all stakeholders
BUSINESS
MC Exclusive: Govt likely to cut FY26 budgetary funding for UDAN scheme
The central government is not keen on continuing to fund the scheme under the current financial model, and a new model is in the works.
BUSINESS
Delhi High Court asks DGCA to consider implementation of new FDTL norms in a phased manner from 2025
Hearing a writ petition filed by the Federation of Indian Pilots (FIP), the Air India Pilots’ Union, the Indian Pilots’ Guild, and the Indian Commercial Pilots’ Guild Justice Tara Vitasta Ganju on December 6 asked the DGCA to hold a meeting with pilots association, airlines and Ministry of Civil Aviation on December 18, 2024 to come out with a timeline for the implementation of the new proposed flight duty time limitation, or FDTL, norms.
BUSINESS
MC explainer: What is the Railways (Amendment) Bill, 2024, tabled by Ashwini Vaishnaw in Lok Sabha?
One of the biggest changes the Bill intends to make include changing the way the Railway Board is constituted. The proposed legislation seeks to set up an independent regulator for Indian Railways, which will grant autonomy to railway zones and improve the finances of the state-run carrier.
BUSINESS
What are the AirHelp 2024 airline rankings and why did IndiGo rank badly on their list? MC Explains
IndiGo has questioned the credibility of AirHelp's survey and pointed out that it has consistently maintained a strong performance, leading in punctuality and recording the lowest customer complaint ratio among airlines of its size and operational scale based on data released by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).
BUSINESS
Akasa Air in no mood to take aircraft on lease despite delays in deliveries by Boeing: Sources
The airline is not looking at the secondary market for leasing planes and, instead, stepping up its focus on operational performance, network consolidation, and market share
BUSINESS
Restoration work of Delhi Airport Terminal 1 delayed till April 2025 to ensure smooth travel during holiday season
MoCA was earlier considering a plan proposed by DIAL to complete Terminal-1 interior restoration by January 2025 and the work on the external side by March 2025. However, following the construction ban in the NCR, the decision to delay construction till April 2025 was taken.
BUSINESS
Air India's international expansion would have been delayed by 5 years if it had waited for new planes, says CEO
Wilson added that as Air India takes delivery of more wide-body planes in the next few years, the service quality of its product will improve significantly
BUSINESS
9 AAI-run airports to install new smart docking systems by Feb, 2025
The government is planning to ramp up facilities and improve efficiency at smaller airports in the country. Installation of the new VDGS systems at AAI-run airports is seen as a step towards that direction, according to officials.
BUSINESS
Simaero to invest €200 million to set up flight simulator facilities in India, calls for doubling pilot training capacity
The French aviation training company says India has the potential to become a major pilot training hub in Southeast Asia if the country develops the necessary infrastructure in the next few years.
BUSINESS
India may not get a Drone 2.0 PLI before FY26 as consultations around allocation, local sourcing throw up challenges
MoCA plans to prepare a new cabinet note on the PLI scheme for drones by February 2025, following which. it will be sent for approval.
BUSINESS
Flying High, Earning Low: Will airline profits be hit this year despite soaring domestic traffic?
Thanks to capacity addition and competition, while air traffic is likely to climb in the coming months, load factors aren’t expected to rise significantly.
BUSINESS
AI Express fleet expansion flies high as Air India offers 20 planes to plug Boeing delays
Air India will hand over 20 Airbus A 320 planes to AI Express. Over the next six months, the airline plans to expand its fleet to 110 aircraft by the end of this fiscal year
BUSINESS
Liquidation of Jet Airways' assets may give creditors around Rs 1,000 crore
While the book value of all of Jet Airways assets may amount to around Rs 1,000 crore, 13 percent of the dues pending to financial creditors, of the airlines and 6.4 percent of the total admitted claims against the airline, auctioning the assets may fetch close to 50 percent of the total value of the assets.
BUSINESS
Govt aims to start next phase of airport privatisation in 2025-26 Budget
As part of the central government's National Monetisation Pipeline (NMP) 25 Airport Authority of India (AAI) airports have been earmarked for leasing between 2022-2025.
BUSINESS
Airlines request govt to extend cut of excise duty for domestic flights before making use of blended ATF mandatory
Airlines have raised concerns that setting a mandatory SAF blending target for domestic flights would led to a significant rise in costs for the carriers, which would translate to a steep rise in ticket prices for passengers.
BUSINESS
Bomb threats impact domestic air travel sentiment in India
When a hoax threat call forces an emergency response, airlines must shoulder immediate costs—landing fees, fuel dumping or additional refuelling, extensive and repeated security screenings and passenger compensation.
BUSINESS
Last-minute flight bookings take off on lower airfares, extended holidays this Diwali
The average spot economy fare on the major domestic routes in India has fallen 20-30 percent during Diwali 2024, when compared to last year
BUSINESS
L&T well positioned to win 4 GW orders from NTPC in Q3, says management
As part of the tenders floated by NTPC, the company that has emerged as lowest bidder for the three project would be offered to complete two projects while the second-lowest bidder would be offered to complete the third project at the price bid by the lowest bidder
BUSINESS
L&T Q2 net profit rises 5% to Rs 3,395 crore, beats estimates
The engineering and construction major’s July-September revenue rose 21 percent to Rs 61,555 crore, beating the poll estimate of Rs 57,303 crore.
BUSINESS
India’s power ambitions could take a hit due to transformer steel shortage
India aims to add 80 GW of new thermal power capacity by 2032. Experts worry that factors such as global supply chain hiccups, copper price volatility and raw material shortages could hurt India’s scaling-up ambitions.
