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iah87 · Member Joined: 17 Apr 2007 Posts: 2566

http://www.mumbaimirror.com/mumbai/others/Flyers-hit-as-AI-loyalty-scheme-gets-hacked/articleshow/52964946.cms?

AI flying returns website has taken a hit, I don't know how long this outage will last.

With this I cannot book AI reward flights on UA mileage plus. I tried booking even short hops 4 to 5 months out, showing no availability, which is strange, as I booked a ticket to/from India just 2 weeks and lots of availability showing on both international and domestic flights.

luvleen · Member Joined: 02 Jul 2012 Posts: 179 Location: Bombay

Air India to fly to two more U.S. destinations

http://www.thehindu.com/business/Industry/air-india-to-fly-to-two-more-us-destinations/article8788842.ece

An AMD-EWR non-stop flight and a DEL-IAD non-stop flight discussed. AMD-EWR will begin from Aug 15 whereas DEL-IAD will begin by next year.

Caliguy · Posted: Fri Jul 01, 2016 7:55 pm Post subject:

Jaysit · Member Joined: 19 Dec 2006 Posts: 4346

yashkhullar · Member Joined: 20 Nov 2014 Posts: 44

747-237 · Posted: Sat Jul 02, 2016 12:35 am Post subject:

“AI 922 Riyadh-Mumbai flight hit the aerobridge (used by passengers to board a plane) while parking at the arrival bay. The accident happened because the guidance system of MIAL (Mumbai International Airport) displayed wrong information.

“Due to this wrong information, which is not compatible with this model of aircraft, the left engine of aircraft got into contact with the parked aerobridge,” an Air India official said.

But the airport spokesperson vehemently denied their role in the incident. “The accident has nothing to do with the guidance system of MIAL. The aircraft was being marshalled/ guided by Air India staff during which it collided with the aerobridge. The aircraft suffered some minor damage.”

http://www.financialexpress.com/article/india-news/air-india-flight-with-330-passengers-hits-aerobridge-no-injuries/303852/

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me111993 · Member Joined: 04 Sep 2009 Posts: 3225 Location: MAA/AMD

yashkhullar · Member Joined: 20 Nov 2014 Posts: 44

iah87 · Member Joined: 17 Apr 2007 Posts: 2566

Caliguy · Posted: Sat Jul 02, 2016 9:13 pm Post subject:

sumantra · Member Joined: 28 Oct 2007 Posts: 4685 Location: New Delhi

HAWK21M · Posted: Sun Jul 03, 2016 7:19 pm Post subject:

What were the marshaller & wingwalkers doing when the Aircraft was taxying into the bay....Even the crew never noticed the extend when they crossed the Aerobridge near the flight deck.....multiple lapses.
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747-237 · Posted: Mon Jul 04, 2016 4:32 pm Post subject:

"We will be launching the Ahmedabad-London-Newark flight from August 15 and Delhi-Madrid from December as part of our growth plan," Air India Chairman and Managing Director, Ashwini Lohani, told reporters here.

"We have launched a number of new flights. We have already launched flights from Delhi for San Francisco and Vienna. Next year we are planning to launch five-six more flights, including Washington, Scandinavian countries and Africa. We are heading towards growth," Lohani said, replying to a question on the issue of profitability.

To a query on the current fleet size, he said at present there were 133 aircraft in the AirIndia group.

"In next four years we will have 232 planes," he said.

http://www.business-standard.com/article/pti-stories/ai-to-launch-ahd-london-newark-flight-expand-aircraft-fleet-116070400496_1.html
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747-237 · Posted: Mon Jul 04, 2016 4:35 pm Post subject:

http://www.openpr.com/news/346909/AIR-INDIA-TO-OFFER-FLIGHTS-FROM-NEWARK-TO-LONDON-AS-PART-OF-NEW-DIRECT-SERVICE-TO-AHMEDABAD-STARTING-AUGUST-15-2016.html

AIR INDIA TO OFFER FLIGHTS FROM NEWARK TO LONDON AS PART OF NEW DIRECT SERVICE TO AHMEDABAD, STARTING AUGUST 15, 2016

Press release from: Air India
PR Agency: Herman & Almonte PR

07-04-2016

Starting August 15, Air India will again be flying to London. The flights to London will be the first leg of the carrier’s new one-stop service from Newark Liberty International Airport to Ahmedabad, India. The flights will operate three times a week – Monday, Thursday, and Friday – with new Boeing 787 Dreamliners.

With flights departing at 10:30 PM on Mondays and Fridays, and 12:20 AM Thursdays, business travelers in northern New Jersey and the metro New York areas can take advantage of the last departure from Newark to London. Departures from London are on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays at 12:30 PM, and arrive in Newark at 3:00 PM.

Passengers whose destination is Ahmedabad also have the option to stop over in London, either at the beginning of their trip or on their way back to the U.S., at no additional charge.

The new direct service via London to Ahmedabad is in addition to Air India’s daily nonstop flights from Newark to Mumbai, which will feature continuing service to Delhi starting August 14th. With its current daily non-stops to Delhi from JFK, the carrier will be offering an unmatched total of 17 flights a week to India from the New York metro area.

Commenting on the airline’s return to London, Air India’s Regional Manager – Americas, Ms. Vandana Sharma, said, “Our new Newark/London/Ahmedabad service offers London-bound travelers in New Jersey and the New York metropolitan areas a new and very convenient option. It also enables us to reconnect with a market which Air India served for years.”

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747-237 · Posted: Tue Jul 05, 2016 3:53 pm Post subject:

http://www.travelbizmonitor.com/Inbound--Domestic-News/air-india-to-operate-direct-flights-on-bengaluruhubli-route-from-july-20-30964

Air India to operate direct flights on Bengaluru-Hubli route from July 20

05 July, 2016

Air India Ltd (AI) is set to commence operations from Bengaluru to Hubli on July 20 with an ATR-72-600 aircraft, stated a release. AI will operate this service under its ‘Connect India’ programme.

Flight AI 9509 on Bengaluru-Hubli shall operate three days a week on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. The flight will take-off from Bengaluru at 1545 hrs and reach Hubli at 1705 hrs.
On the return leg, flight AI 9510 will take-off from Hubli at 1725 hrs to reach Bengaluru at 1835 hrs.
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ryder1650 · Member Joined: 17 Jul 2007 Posts: 554

Does anyone know how the SFO flight is doing? Loads and yields?

747-237 · Posted: Wed Jul 06, 2016 4:42 pm Post subject:

http://www.mumbaimirror.com/mumbai/others/AI-plane-mishap-a-result-of-human-error/articleshow/53071063.cms

AI plane mishap a result of ‘human error’

Jul 6, 2016

A DGCA probe into an Air India aircraft hitting an aerobridge at Mumbai airport on Friday has pointed to human error.

The aircraft with 300 passengers on July 1got stuck in the aerobridge after arrival. The probe revealed that the accident was caused due to a computer glitch which prevented the aircraft from automatic docking. A marshal on the ground wrongly identified the type of aircraft, resulting in it running into the aerobridge.

DGCA chief M Sathiyavathy confirmed that the visual guidance docking system was out of service when the incident was reported. "The aircraft was being guided by a marshal and he mistook the aircraft type and brought in the Boeing 777-200 LR aircraft into the position of a Bowing 777-300 ER. There was a 20 feet difference in the parking position of both aircraft," a DGCA official said.

AI flight number 922 landed in Mumbai at 2.20 pm. After landing the aircraft, a Boeing 777-200 LR, on instructions of the Air Traffic Controllers (ATC) taxied to the allocated contact bay connected to the integrated Terminal 2(T2) by aerobridge.

The incident had sparked off a blame game between Air India and Mumbai International Airport Ltd (MIAL) with both pointing fingers at each other. While senior Air India officials had claimed that the docking system displayed wrong information, which was not compatible with the particular model, leading to the left engine striking into the aerobridge, MIAL strongly refuted this.
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iah87 · Member Joined: 17 Apr 2007 Posts: 2566

sumantra · Member Joined: 28 Oct 2007 Posts: 4685 Location: New Delhi

747-237 · Posted: Sun Jul 10, 2016 3:25 pm Post subject:

http://www.business-standard.com/article/companies/air-india-plans-to-resume-nairobi-flight-116071000142_1.html

Air India plans to resume Nairobi flight

July 10, 2016

Air India is exploring resumption of its service to Nairobi and Dar es Salaam six years after it withdrew from the market.

Air India chairperson Ashwani Lohani said the airline is sending a team to Kenya and Tanzania to assess market potential. He added there have been requests to Air India from these two countries and also from South Africa to introduce flights.

At present no Indian carrier flies to Africa. Air India stopped its Mumbai-Nairobi-Dar es Salaam flight in 2010. It had pulled out of South Africa a few years earlier.
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sshank · Member Joined: 16 May 2007 Posts: 377 Location: NYC

[quote="sumantra"]

sumantra · Member Joined: 28 Oct 2007 Posts: 4685 Location: New Delhi

747-237 · Posted: Mon Jul 11, 2016 8:13 pm Post subject:

http://www.indiatvnews.com/business/india-air-india-could-lose-tag-of-sole-carrier-for-government-staff-move-could-hurt-business-338822

Air India could lose tag of sole carrier for government staff, move could hurt business

11 Jul 2016

Air India may soon lose the privilege of being the sole carrier of government employees. A cabinet note being prepared by the Ministry of Civil Aviation proposes to allow government employees to opt for the cheapest fare, a move that may hit Air India, the first option for several bureaucrats and central government employees for official travel.

Employees are currently mandated to use AI as the first option and only opt for other airline if Air India is not an option. In case if any destination is not connected by Air India, the official has to apply for an exemption from the Civil Aviation ministry.

A report by ET says that the Finance ministry has now sought for abolishing the rules that mandate Air India for official flights. The report quotes a senior Civil Aviation ministry as saying that a cabinet note is being prepared which should reach the Cabinet for approval in 15 days.

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747-237 · Posted: Mon Jul 11, 2016 8:14 pm Post subject:

http://news.az/articles/world/110075

Air India plane makes emergency landing in Baku

11 July 2016

An Air India plane, flying on London-Mumbai route, made an emergency landing at the Heydar Aliyev International Airport in Baku on July 10 evening.

“Air India’s Boeing 787 Dreamliner, flying on London-Mumbai route with 206 passengers onboard, made a successful emergency landing at Baku airport at around 22:00 (UTC/GMT +4 hours) July 10 due to technical reasons,” said the airport without elaborating on the malfunction, Trend reports.

Air India sent another plane to Baku in order to take the passengers to Mumbai. The plane with all the passengers onboard took off from Baku at 14:37 (UTC/GMT +4 hours), said the airport.
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sumantra · Member Joined: 28 Oct 2007 Posts: 4685 Location: New Delhi

747-237 · Posted: Wed Jul 13, 2016 2:26 am Post subject:

http://avherald.com/h?article=49b0e4c4

Incident: India B788 near Baku on Jul 10th 2016, dreamliner turns into steamliner

Jul 12th 2016

An Air India Boeing 787-800, registration VT-ANL performing flight AI-130 from London Heathrow,EN (UK) to Mumbai (India) with 229 people on board, was enroute at FL340 over the Caspian Sea about 140nm south of Baku (Azerbaijan) when the crew decided to divert to Baku for medical reasons to take care of suffering passengers. The aircraft landed safely on Baku's runway 34 about 30 minutes later.

The aircraft remained on the ground for about 39.5 hours, then continued the flight to Mumbai and reached the destination with a delay of 41 hours.

The airline, who had initially stated the aircraft diverted due to operational reasons as result of a minor technical issue, reported on Jul 12th that the cabin got very hot due to the failure of the recirculation fans of the air conditioning systems, which prevented the cooled air to get to the cabin.

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sshank · Member Joined: 16 May 2007 Posts: 377 Location: NYC

747-237 · Posted: Mon Jul 18, 2016 2:29 am Post subject:

http://www.asianage.com/mumbai/new-upholstery-and-curtains-air-india-get-facelift-895

With new upholstery and curtains, Air India to get facelift

Jul 18, 2016

Air India has decided to give a new look to its aircrafts. The interiors will be refurbished with new upholstery and curtains, said highly placed sources from the airline. The sources also added that the last refurbishing had been done ten years ago and currently they are in bad condition.

On Saturday, in a meeting of Air India officials, which took place in Santa Cruz, CMD Ashwini Lohani, also ordered to change the colour of the curtains and seat covers of all the flights from its current brick red, informed the official sources.

The airline plans to mix and match yellow and maroon colours and make a unique colour scheme for the upholstery. The revamping work will be done in Mumbai. According to the sources, when the aircrafts comes to Mumbai airport for a long halt, the necessary changes will be worked on.

Airline officials believe that the whole process will cost an estimated Rs 10,000 per fleet. In the same meeting, CMD Lohani vowed a cleaner aircraft and ordered a regular wash of the flooring carpet, in every four months, which was irregular earlier.

While the officials are also saying that for the refurbishing work, tender will be declared by the airline and then the order will be placed.

However, a few other officials from the airline have a completely different opinion. According to them, the seat covers are already in a bad shape and it is necessary to change them, as they are almost ten years old.

But they reveal that three years ago, carpets were ordered through a tender and airline had paid an estimated Rs 60 crore. But the products were never delivered.

So this time, the officials want to throw some caution in, while placing the order. “The top officials need to be careful this time, said an official,” further pointing out that the gates, joints and various other equipment of the several aircrafts of the airline are also in a terrible conditions and they also need to be changed.

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Jeh · Posted: Mon Jul 18, 2016 10:33 am Post subject:

sumantra · Member Joined: 28 Oct 2007 Posts: 4685 Location: New Delhi

thanks for the detailed reply, Shashank, but I guess we are not disagreeing, since you have missed something I wrote, above.

HAWK21M · Posted: Mon Jul 18, 2016 4:06 pm Post subject:

[i]AI plane mishap a result of ‘human error’

Thats the reason SOPs are in place...Where was the person pointing to the spot to guide the marshaller.
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747-237 · Posted: Fri Jul 22, 2016 5:20 pm Post subject:

http://www.dnaindia.com/money/report-air-india-sees-pune-dreamliners-improving-regional-connectivity-2236798

Air India sees Pune, Dreamliners improving regional connectivity

22 Jul 2016

The non-availability of slots at city's Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (CSIA) may prompt Air India to use Pune as its base to ramp up the regional connectivity in Maharashtra, linking regions like Nanded, Amravati, Nashik and Shirdi.

As part of its plan to develop civil aviation infrastructure in the state, the government has been holding meetings with the scheduled and unscheduled airlines, inviting them to enhance regional connectivity. The state government has even envisaged a blueprint for the same, which is along the lines of the one recently released by the Central government.

"We may connect these cities may be by using Pune as our base and connecting it once with Mumbai. There is a severe shortage of slots availability at CSIA," said Mukesh Bhatia, regional director (western region), Air India on the sidelines of an event to announce the launch flight to Newark from Ahmedabad via London, beginning August 15.

Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (CSIA) has almost reached its saturation level. The state has 28 airports and airstrips, of which four are under construction or proposed, two are private and one is not in use.

Air India officials said that in order to negate the problem of lack of slots at major airports, the airline has plans to put more wide-bodied aircraft on these routes. "This will give us an opportunity to fly more passengers at one time. Apart from that, the passengers will get to avail the comforts of flying in a wide-bodied aircraft like Dreamliner on domestic routes" continued Bhatia.

When asked how soon the services would start from these cities, Bhatia added, "For Shirdi, we may start as soon as it is ready for operations and for other airports as and when the resources are available and other formalities get complete."

The airline officials said that they will also be seeking to connect a few of the airports by taking assistance from the state government in the form of viability gap funding (VGF).

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yashkhullar · Member Joined: 20 Nov 2014 Posts: 44

AI has closed first class reservation on the AI 111/112 from 29th July even though the plane scheduled is still a 77L. Can anyone provide more info on this?

747-237 · Posted: Fri Jul 22, 2016 11:52 pm Post subject:

747-237 · Posted: Fri Jul 22, 2016 11:58 pm Post subject:

http://www.business-standard.com/article/news-ani/air-india-set-to-start-domestic-same-day-return-flights-for-5000-116072201450_1.html

Air India set to start domestic 'same day return flights' for Rs. 5000

July 22, 2016

Air India has announced that it will be providing "unbeatable metros fare" to domestic passengers willing to return the same day from Monday.

In aviation industry there is huge fare war and Air India wants to beat all airlines and attract passengers through lowest fares.

Speaking to ANI, S. Venkat, Air India Finance Advisor, said, "We are going to introduce new scheme for our all passengers who want to return same day flights in metro cities. Fares will be minimum Rs.5,000 and maximum Rs.10,000."

"This is very attractive fare for all passengers. I am sure this scheme will attract the flyers as the fare is affordable. Earlier, we had launched "equal to Rajdhani fare" scheme, which had received good response. Now, we are launching the special fare scheme," he added.

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sabya99 · Posted: Sat Jul 23, 2016 6:40 pm Post subject:

Fare war is going on over Indian subcontinent on both domestic and International flights for sometimes. It seems AI is in tough competition with ME3 airlines. Recent observation: AI is the cheapest. Just AI have to be more polite and humane!
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747-237 · Posted: Sun Jul 24, 2016 4:34 pm Post subject:

http://www.hindustantimes.com/business-news/boeing-to-deliver-two-dreamliners-to-air-india-this-year-four-more-in-2017/story-mzK0GQhcOJKcs1AmyrhUNN.html

Boeing to deliver two Dreamliners to Air India this year, four more in 2017

Jul 24, 2016

Boeing will deliver two Dreamliners to Air India this year and four more next year to complete the airline’s order of 27 of these aircraft, even as the national carrier grapples with glitches in its fleet of 787-800 planes.

Boeing’s senior vice-president, sales, (Asia Pacific and India) Dinesh Keskar said two Dreamliners would be delivered this year.

“The delivery of Dreamliners start in November this year ... It (delivery) is on schedule. First plane in November and the next in December. Four more in 2017,” he told PTI in an interview.

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747-237 · Posted: Mon Jul 25, 2016 8:56 pm Post subject:

Air India invites sealed offers from Qualified and Eligible Banks / Financial Institutions for arranging Bridge financing towards acquisition of two B787 aircraft.

http://mmd.airindia.co.in/aimmd/tender/RFP%20-%202%20B787%20Bridge%20Loan.pdf
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747-237 · Posted: Tue Jul 26, 2016 1:50 am Post subject:

Air India (Regional) has added a new ATR72-600 to the fleet today, as VT-AIZ.
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747-237 · Posted: Tue Jul 26, 2016 4:31 am Post subject:

The PMO has asked the airline to improve its performance on all fronts. It wants on-time performance improved to at least 85 per cent, revenues increased by 10 per cent and industry standards met on load factor, or capacity utilisation, and has also asked the airline to carry out a proper survey before inducting new aircraft.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/transportation/airlines-/-aviation/pmo-unimpressed-with-air-indias-improved-financial-performance-sets-new-targets/articleshow/53388821.cms
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