Boeing airline customer meeting | Image:Boeing chair Larry Kellner, CEO David Calhoun
Airlines growth story: The summer schedule, a twice-a-year issued travel chart of flight operations, both domestic and international, was released by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) last week. As per the summer schedule, as many as 1,911 international flights will operate between March 31 and October 31, when the summer schedule remains effective.
Besides, almost 20,000 domestic flights will keep India’s skies busy. Although there has been only a marginal increase of 0.01 per cent in the number of flights in the summer schedule compared to the winter schedule of 2023, interesting trends in India’s aviation sector have come to the forefront.
Similarly, the global aviation sector is witnessing an eventful end to FY2024. Similarly, on a global level, airlines are keen on switching over to Sustainable Alternative Fuel (SAF) and are betting big on technology transfer. Which are the top five events making news in the aviation sector in the run-up to FY25? Republic Business takes a deep dive.
Summer schedule
As per the Directorate General of Civil Aviation summer schedule, Indigo, the country’s largest airline by size and traffic, will witness a fall in the number of flights as compared to the winter schedule. This is largely on the back of IndiGo’s grounding of flights owing to malfunctions in the white-body Pratt and Whitney engines. Similarly, low-cost carrier SpiceJet, which has been facing financial issues has also cut down on the number of flight operations in the summer schedule.
As Air India Express, in the summer schedule, has added 529 more flights compared to the winter schedule, the airline’s Managing Director Campbell Wilson has admitted that the takeover of Tata Group has changed the fortunes of Air India.
As the peak travel period, from April to July approaches fast, the route and fleet expansions of airlines are happening thick and fast. Last month, IndiGo announced new domestic routes to tap into the summer travel demand. Budget carrier SpiceJet last week finalised a lease deal for 10 aircraft to enhance summer capacity.
Pilot rest rules issue
India’s youngest airline, Akasa will witness its first maiden international flight on March 28 while its Chief Executive Officer, Vijay Dube has said that new pilot rest rules won’t affect Akasa flight schedule. The Akasa CEO’s comments come in the wake of Federation of Indian Airlines, consisting of IndiGo and SpiceJet, asserting that airlines will have to cancel 20 percent of flights as new rules require them increase number of pilots by 25 per cent.
Last week, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation imposed a fine of Rs 80 lakhs on Air India Limited for violation of pilot rest period rules of DGCA.
DGCA said that it had conducted an audit of the airline in January to check if it was complying with regulations on Flight Duty Time Limit (FDTL). The DGCA observations stated that Air India was marked as “deficient” in providing adequate weekly rest to pilots and crews, both before and after the long-haul flights, and during layovers. As per DGCA, this could potentially lead to human errors on flight.
Boeing CEO to step down
Boeing Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Dave Calhoun will step down from the embattled plane maker at the end of the year after a series of mishaps at one of America’s most storied manufacturers. Media reports have pointed out that Board Chair Larry Kellner has also told the company he doesn’t plan to stand for re-election.
Boeing on Monday said that Stan Deal, president and CEO of its commercial airplanes unit, will retire from the company. Stephanie Pope will now lead the division.
As per media reports, the Federal Aviation Administration has put Boeing under intense scrutiny and recently ordered an audit of assembly lines at a Boeing factory near Seattle, where the company builds planes like the Alaska Airlines 737 Max that suffered a door-panel blowout on January 5.
Investigators say bolts that help keep the panel in place were missing after repair work at the Boeing factory. The incident has raised scrutiny of Boeing to its highest level since two crashes of Boeing 737 Max jets in 2018 and 2019 that killed 346 people.
Capacity deployment
The capacity deployment of airlines in February this year was up by 3.4 per cent compared to the corresponding period last year. The demand-supply imbalance in India’s air travel becomes more
evident at the onset of a high-demand season. As per ICRA, as many as 24-26 per cent of the fleet of Indian carriers is expected to have been grounded in Q1FY25, airlines are looking at expanding their capacities by taking on spot leases so as to meet the upcoming peak season demand.
Notably, even as the capacity deployment of airlines seen during February this year witnessed substantial growth, the planned total seat capacity airlines expect to offer in the upcoming months was lower by 5.6 per cent as compared to the pre-COVID levels of February 2020.
