Recent News

DGCA Circular: Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has issued Air Transport Circular (ATC)-01 of 2021 titled, “Unbundle of Services and fees by scheduled airlines” as per which, some services like preferential seating have been allowed to be unbundled and charged separately from the travellers. Such unbundled services are provided on “opt-in” basis by Airlines and are not mandatory in nature. There is also a provision for auto seat assignment to the passengers who have not selected any seat for web check-in before scheduled departure. Scheduled domestic airlines are not charging any fee for completing web check-in formalities. As far as check-in at Airports is concerned, the Ministry of Civil Aviation has advised all the scheduled airlines not to charge any additional amount for issuing boarding passes at the airport check in counters as the same cannot be considered within ‘tariff’ as provided under Rule 135 of The Aircraft Rules, 1937. Ministry of Civil Aviation / Directorate General of Civil Aviation has been receiving grievances related to air transport. They are redressed as per the established mechanism / extant guidelines in the matter.

Geneva, 25th July 2022: The International Air Transport Association (IATA) welcomed progress by states towards a long-term aspirational goal (LTAG) of net-zero aviation carbon emissions by 2050 in line with the Paris Agreement’s temperature objectives. This is noted in the summary of discussions for the International Civil Aviation Organization’s (ICAO) High Level Meeting held in preparation for the 41st ICAO Assembly later this year. “The ICAO High Level Meeting’s support of a long term goal for states that is in line with the aviation sector’s net-zero by 2050 commitment is a step in the right direction. A formal agreement at the 41st ICAO Assembly would underpin a common approach by states to decarbonize aviation. That’s critical for the aviation industry. Knowing that government policies will support the same goal and timeline globally will enable the sector, especially its suppliers, to make the needed investments to decarbonize,” said Willie Walsh, IATA’s Director General. In October 2021, IATA member airlines committed to net zero emissions by 2050. The path to achieve this will involve a combination of sustainable aviation fuels (SAF), new propulsion technology, infrastructure and operational efficiencies, and carbon offsets/carbon capture to fill any gaps. “Net zero by 2050 will require a global transition for aviation to new fuels, technologies and operations. The significant investments to get there will need a solid policy foundation aligned with a global way forward. That is why it is so important for states to carry the momentum of the High Level Meeting through to a formal agreement at the 41st ICAO Assembly in a few weeks,” said Walsh.

New Delhi, 25th July 2022: The upgradation/modernisation of airports, including provision of night landing facility is a continuous process and is undertaken by Airports Authority of India (AAI) and other airport operators from time to time depending on the availability of land, commercial viability, socio- economic considerations, traffic demand / willingness of airlines to operate to/from such airports etc. Presently night landing facility which is purely demand and need based on operational requirement of airlines and availability of land is not available at 25 operational airports with scheduled flight operations. AAI has undertaken installation of night landing facility at Kolhapur airport. A team of Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has carried out the inspection of the airport on 10th June, 2022. AAI has already initiated action for compliance of the observations made by DGCA during the inspection.

New Delhi, 20 July 2022: To enhance its passenger capacity between Kuala Lumpur and Doha, Malaysia Airlines has doubled up its capacity with addition of second daily nonstop flight commencing 10 August 2022.The addition of new flight is in response to high passenger demand on this route.The additional daily service will depart from Kuala Lumpur at 2:55am via MH164 and from Doha at 8:05am via MH165. It is in addition to the existing daily services MH160 departing Kuala Lumpur at 9:20pm and MH161 departing Doha at 1:30am, bringing the number of Malaysia Airlines flights to Doha to 14 flights weekly. The twice-daily flights will be operated by the A330-300 aircraft with 27 state-of-the-art seats in Business Class, 16 seats in Economy with extra legroom, and 247 seats in Economy Class. The additional daily service will be opened for sale from 25 July and will include Qatar Airways codeshare in both directions. This additional service strengthens Malaysia Airlines and Qatar Airways’ strategic partnership, allowing passengers to travel to over 96 codeshare destinations and enjoying seamless and most convenient connectivity, via the partners’ key hubs in Kuala Lumpur and Doha. The arrival and departure times of the double daily Malaysia Airlines flights offer customers full access to Qatar Airways’ unrivaled network to the Middle East, Europe, Africa and the US via the world’s best airport, Hamad International Airport. While simultaneously building perfect connectivity to Malaysia Airlines’ network to states within Malaysia, as well as South East Asia, North Asia and also to Australasia. Group Chief Executive Officer of Malaysia Airlines, Captain Izham Ismail, said,“We are delighted to increase our frequency to Doha, after a successful launch of daily service in May. We recognise the importance of collaborating with our partners such as Qatar Airways, more so with travel demand picking up steeply for this route following the easing of borders restrictions. By doubling our services to Doha and codeshare flights on Qatar Airways, we will be able to extend our signature Malaysian Hospitality offerings to a broader customer base. This latest addition of strategic collaboration with Qatar Airways will allow Malaysia Airlines to achieve passenger capacity of more than 70% of pre-pandemic levels by the end of the year. As a national airline, we will continuously play a significant role in facilitating safe travel through #FlyConfidently initiatives for passengers to travel with peace of mind.” Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive, His Excellency Mr. Akbar Al Baker, said: “We are delighted with the rapid growth of our strategic alliance with Malaysia Airlines and welcome our partner’s decision to add a second daily non-stop flight to Doha, just a few weeks after the start of their operations between Kuala Lumpur and Doha. This is an impressive example of how our partner airlines can instantly benefit from working with Qatar Airways, both in terms of our growing global route network and our unparalleled service in the air and on the ground at our award-winning airport, Hamad International Airport (HIA). We are committed to further expanding our strategic cooperation with Malaysia Airlines and to jointly develop Kuala Lumpur International Airport, KLIA, as a leading hub in the South East Asia region in view of the strong rebound in global air travel demand.”

New Delhi, 18th July 2022: The Consultative Committee of Ministry of Civil Aviation in meeting on ‘DIGI YATRA’ discussed and made certain valuable suggestions about the project. Giving the background of ‘DIGI YATRA’, The Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia mentioned that this project is conceived to achieve contactless, seamless processing of passengers at Airports, based on Facial Recognition Technology (FRT). The project basically envisages that any traveller may pass through various check points at the airport through a paperless and contactless processing, using facial features to establish the identity which would be linked to the boarding pass. He said that the privacy issues have been taken care of in the system. It provides for decentralized mobile wallet-based identity management platform which is cost effective and addresses privacy/data protection issues in implementation of Digi Yatra. After approval of the revised Digi Yatra guidelines, an AIC (Aeronautical Information Circular) has been published by DGCA on 18.04.2022. Digi Yatra Foundation (DYF) has been set up as a joint venture (JV) company in 2019 under Section 8 of the Companies Act, 2013 whose shareholders are AAI (26% shares) and BIAL, DIAL, GHIAL, MIAL and CIAL. These 5 shareholders equally hold the remaining 74% of the shares. The Foundation was formed, with the objective of creating the Digi Yatra Central Ecosystem (DYCE). Digi Yatra Foundation will be a pan-India entity and the custodian of the Passenger ID validation process. It will also develop consensus amongst the Aviation Stakeholders in India. It would also define the criteria for compliance and guidelines for the local airport systems. The JV will conduct regular audits, of the various compliances and guidelines (including guidelines on security, image quality, data privacy) defined by the Digi Yatra guidelines for the local Airport Biometric Boarding Systems (BBS). Two airports to be linked with Digi Yatra in first phase In first phase, Digi Yatra is proposed to be rolled out at two Airports namely Varanasi and Bengaluru in August 2022 and at five Airports namely Pune, Vijayawada, Kolkata, Delhi and Hyderabad by March next year. AAI will identify their airports where Digi Yatra would be implemented in phased manner.was held in New Delhi today. The topic for discussion was ‘DIGI YATRA’. Hon’ble members of Parliament, who are members of the committee, took part in the meeting and made certain valuable suggestions about the project.

Davos, 15 July 2022: McKinsey & Company and World Economic Forum (WEF) will drive conversation around spearheading positive change on decarbonisation and targeting true net zero at the Aerospace Global Forum, as partners of the five-day event. Getting to Net Zero in aviation will take a collaboration of a broad set of stakeholders, all with their own objectives and constraints. Knowledge partner and global management consultancy firm McKinsey & Company will host and lead the discussion on the Decarbonizing Aviation – Bringing Together An Ecosystem session, which will explore these differences across the value chain and how players can work together to achieve the ultimate objective. The World Economic Forum’s Clean Skies for Tomorrow and Target True Zero coalitions are working to drive the changes needed to reach the industry’s goal of net-zero emissions by 2050. The Accelerating Sustainable Aviation & Targeting True Zero panel, featuring WEF, will bring together aviation leaders to determine the actions that stakeholders can take now for the future decarbonization of the sector. Discussing the programme, Laia Barbarà, Community Lead, Sustainable Aviation, World Economic Forum, said: “Through the concerted effort of ambitious leaders in government and industry, we can accelerate the path to net-zero aviation by scaling the supply and use of SAF. We are glad to have more than 50 companies along the aviation value chain endorsing our recently launched MPP Aviation Transition Strategy for a 1.5 °C-compliant aviation sector, that highlights the technology deployment, timing, and the cost and scale of actions necessary to deliver a Net-Zero Aviation sector.” Robin Riedel, partner at McKinsey & Company and leader of McKinsey’s sustainable aviation practice, said: “The aviation sector has committed to net zero by 2050 and we are seeing unprecedented investment in this ambition. And yet, the industry’s plan to achieve net-zero has gaps to address. For instance, there remains broad uncertainty on specific solutions or how to best fund the estimated $5 trillion required for the transition—all while maintaining equitable access to air transportation. I am excited to discuss these and other important questions with industry leaders at the Aerospace Global Forum.”