Airlines Financial News

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Company Outsider is a weekly newsletter by Sundeep Khanna. Subscribe to Mint's newsletters to get them directly in your email inbox. A toothless regulator and a dominant player in a two-horse race is a recipe for disaster.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. MUMBAI/NEW DELHI : Record flight cancellations and a weak Indian rupee threaten to slam the financials of IndiGo in the December quarter, analysts said. Concerns are also rising that India's largest airline may struggle to hire enough pilots, potentially forcing it to reduce flights to comply with the rules.

What do you call someone who comes down like a tonne of bricks on ambitious youngsters with career aspirations but crumbles like a cookie in the face of a market-leading company flexing its dominance?The rest of the world terms them bullies. In India, we call them regulators.If this strikes you as Macaulay-esque prejudice against Indian institutions, compare the Directorate General of Civil Aviation’s (DGCA’s) capitulation in the face of IndiGo’s blackmail with the Commission on Air Quality Management’s (CAQM’s) imminent clampdown on young men and women looking to earn living by delivering goods and services for e-commerce giants using bikes bought with borrowed money.Come January, even as they struggle to keep up with the monthly instalments on their bikes, gig workers who switch between aggregators or are new to such work will find their livelihood deemed illegal in the National Capital Region.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. The week-long disruption at IndiGo—India’s largest airline—resulted in more than 1,500 flight cancellations and widespread delays across major airports, prompting the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to issue a show-cause notices to chief executive officer (CEO) Pieter Elbers and other executives for failing to ensure reliable operations. The crisis has deeper roots in a decade-long legal dispute over the rights of pilots to regulated work hours and strict enforcement of fatigue-mitigation norms.

Last week was yet another education in how fragile markets truly are. When one private airline faltered, schedules collapsed, weddings were disrupted, families struggled, students fought to reach exam venues and businesses scrambled. A logistical nightmare became a dark reminder of something even more profound: markets, especially concentrated ones, can turn predatory in a crisis unless they’re regulated well.Let us look at the symptoms.

Large corporations are not governed for profitable quarters alone, but for business continuity. And when a company that carries a majority share of national air traffic suffers a system-wide breakdown, questions must be asked beyond operational factors. In particular, of board accountability.True, boards do not run a business’s daily operations.

It is apparent that IndiGo has used its dominance of India’s air travel market to blackmail the authorities into giving it relief—albeit temporary—from compliance with tighter rules on night landings and how long and late into the wee hours pilots and crew can be put to work. In the process, it has penalized the vast majority of air travellers.With the airline’s market share above 60%, its bulk cancellation of flights left passengers stranded and let rival operators fleece fliers with steep fares until the government stepped in to cap fares.This has exposed a regulator powerless to enforce its fiat in the face of determined resistance by a dominant player. This cannot be allowed to stand.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. An unprecedented crisis gripped India’s aviation sector in the past week, leaving thousands of passengers stranded as flights were first delayed and then cancelled. At the centre of the disruption is IndiGo, which has cancelled more than 2,000 flights, blaming “unforeseen operational challenges." In reality, the trigger, the introduction of the Crew and Flight Duty Time Limitation (FDTL) rules, was hardly unforeseen.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. NEW DELHI : With hundreds of flight cancellations and delays affecting thousands of fliers since Tuesday, IndiGo—India’s largest budget carrier by market capitalization—is grappling with one of its most severe operational disruptions, prompting a probe by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). Crew shortages due to new duty-time rules, technical breakdowns at key airports, and heavy winter congestion have precipitated the crisis, according to the airline.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. India's aviation regulator is investigating how Air India operated an aircraft for two days in November without a valid Airworthiness Review Certificate (ARC), a document that ensures compliance with safety standards. The regulator did not name the aircraft type but referenced the registration code of an Airbus A320 (VT TQN), implying that it was a single-aisle (narrow body) jet.

It empowers aircraft leasing companies to repossess planes if airlines fail to pay lease rentals. Once enacted, the bill is expected to align Indian law with international aviation standards and provide stronger protections for lessors, improving the investment climate for aircraft leasing in India.

Lawmakers have been scrutinizing the company since a January 2024 mid-air emergency involving a new 737 MAX 9 that was missing four key bolts raised fresh questions about Boeing's quality and safety culture, as well as regulatory oversight. «New leadership at Boeing will get a chance to tell Congress how they are implementing new safety standards and creating a stronger safety culture,» said Senator Maria Cantwell, the top Democrat on the committee. Ortberg will tell senators Boeing made «serious missteps» in recent years but has since made «sweeping changes», according to a copy of prepared testimony seen by Reuters and confirmed by the planemaker. «Boeing has made serious missteps in recent years — and it is unacceptable. In response, we have made sweeping changes to the people, processes, and overall structure of our company,» Ortberg will say in his written testimony.

ITA Airways has officially received approval to start the integration process into Star Alliance following a verdict by the Star Alliance Chief Executive Board (CEB). Building on its induction into the Lufthansa Group earlier this year, this decision paves the way for its entry into the world’s largest airline alliance. “In early 2026, ITA Airways is expected to officially join the Star Alliance network as a full member. The decision by our Chief Executive Board underscores the strong confidence our members have in ITA Airways. As a gateway for Italy, its addition strengthens our global network, offering seamless and connected journeys to more travellers worldwide," said Star Alliance Chief Executive Officer Theo Panagiotoulias . Joerg Eberhart, CEO and General Manager of ITA Airways, said, “We are excited to join the Star Alliance network and to bring the excellence of Made in Italy into the alliance, further enhancing its global reach. This is a significant milestone in ITA Airways’ growth, and we look forward to offering our customers the future privileges of the world’s largest airline network."

Shiv Chanani of Baroda BNP Paribas MF shared a measured outlook for the equity markets in a conversation with ETNow. He emphasized that while aggregate valuations have become more reasonable, the market is expected to stay selective and bottom-up in nature.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. In India, CDSL Ventures Ltd (CVL) is granted recognition by Sebi to act as an accreditation agency for investors. The person will have to carry out the accreditation process on his own, visit the CVL portal, and submit proof of identity, such as PAN, Aadhaar card or passport.

autonomous flying taxis for commercial use, marking a significant step in its low-altitude economy. The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) has granted air operator certificates to EHang Holdings and Hefei Hey Airlines, allowing them to operate passenger drones for urban sightseeing tours, the South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported.

British Airways is reportedly considering launching a biweekly service between the two cities. The announcement came after West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee raised the issue during her recent visit to the United Kingdom. On Thursday, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) said on social media that British Airways is acting on Banerjee's request, with plans for direct flights already in progress. However, the airline has yet to issue an official statement regarding the matter.

GMR Airports has said that regulator AERA has accepted various principles of variable tariff plan for the Delhi airport and that the existing aeronautical tariff has been increased around 148 per cent for the fourth control period ending March 31, 2029. The Airports Economic Regulatory Authority (AERA) has approved higher and variable user development fees for economy and business class travellers while the User Development Fee (UDF) has been left unchanged for domestic passengers. The UDF for international passengers has been hiked. The revised tariffs for the fourth control period — April 1, 2024 to March 31, 2029 — will be applicable from April 16, 2025. GMR Airports has said AERA has accepted various principles of variable tariff plan as proposed by the Delhi airport and accordingly, UDF has been split across both embarking and disembarking passengers.

Airport Economic Regulatory Authority (AERA) hasn’t allowed Delhi Airport to increase charges on domestic departing passengers from Rs 129 for the period of 2024-2029. The GMR group-owned airport had sought higher User Development Fee (UDF) ranging from from Rs405 to Rs 610 depending on peak hours and non-peak hours. UDF is a fee levied by operators to recover the expense they have incurred upgrading infrastructure at airports. A Parliamentary Affairs Committee had earlier expressed their dissatisfaction over “arbitrary” rise in user development fees (UDF) and ticket prices, arguing that the existing framework lacks mechanisms to hold private operators accountable.

Airline baggage fees have long been a frustrating issue for budget-conscious travelers, leading some to find creative ways to avoid extra charges. One such traveler, Grace Hale, took an unconventional approach by pretending to be pregnant to bypass Ryanair’s luggage fees on her flight from England to Scotland. Hale, a 20-year-old from Dallas, Texas, was flying from Stansted to Edinburgh and found herself unable to fit all her belongings into her carry-on. Determined not to pay the hefty baggage fees, she came up with an unusual solution. «It’s ridiculously expensive if you want to take a bag on a Ryanair flight, so I just get the carry-on option and shove everything inside,» she told What's The Jam.