National carrier Air India will launch flights to three new destinations in the US as well as to Stockholm, Nairobi and Tel Aviv this year, its chief Ashwani Lohani said on Tuesday.

Making it the fifth non-stop destination in the United States, a direct service would start to Washington from July 7, followed by a flight to Los Angeles from September 1 and then to Dallas.

NEW DELHI: Air India has said that they will operate bigger Boeing 777 aircraft between Delhi and Chennai sector starting today to clear the summer rush during the holiday months.

“From today, our evening flight between Delhi and Chennai would be operated by a 300-seater Boeing 777. The flight will leave for Chennai in the evening and return to Delhi late in the night. We hope to fill our planes due to the summer travel rush that starts now,” said a senior Air India official, who did not want to be identified.

A Hong Kong-bound Air India flight from Mumbai via Delhi with 256 passengers on board was on Wednesday delayed by nearly three hours due to icing on the exterior parts of the aircraft.

The Boeing 787 Dreamliner plane had flown in from sub-zero temperature and was scheduled for departure from the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport here at 7.45 pm.

A senior Air India (AI) pilot has been accused of flouting the airline's norms for conducting final release check of a junior pilot.

According to AI's training manual, approved by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), the final release check of a first officer (co-pilot) can be conducted only by a Type Rated Instructor (TRI).

An Air India flight with around 300 passengers on-board was grounded here on Wednesday before its departure for New York due to hydraulic failure in one of the aircraft engines.

All the passengers have been accommodated in a nearby hotel and the flight has been rescheduled for 5 PM today, an Air India spokesperson said.

Air India has decided to formulate certain rules to reduce the activities of unruly passengers. After an increase in the number of incidents of passengers being denied boarding by Indian airlines, Air India has also decided to impose fine on passengers for the delay. According to the news agency ANI, for a delay up to 1 hour, a fine of Rs 5 lakh will be imposed. In case the delay is between 1 to 2 hours, a fine of Rs 15 lakhs will be imposed and for any delay beyond 2 hours, the passengers will have to pay rs 15 lakhs as fine.

Government-owned Air India today announced a discounted Star award mileage redemption offer for passengers planning to travel within the USA. The six-day offer that commenced from Thursday, will remain valid till April 18. The travel period under the offer can be taken any time during the next 330 days, Air India said in a release.

Besides, the offer allows passengers to revive and redeem their flying return points that were not availed and have expired now, it said.

In line with the reduction of interest rates in the market Air India, burdened with a neck-high debt of over Rs 46,000 crore, has asked 16 of its lenders to cut down the interest rates by as much as 2 percent in a letter. In order to settle its debt, the airline is also in talks with the Ministry of External Affairs and also with a state-owned infrastructure company NBCC to generate money by selling off 98 of its properties, some of which are in India and some are overseas.

An Air India pilot has been grounded for three months after he tested positive in the mandatory pre-flight alcohol test, minutes before operating a flight to Abu Dhabi from here.

The pilot was rostered to fly the Air India Express IX 115 Delhi to Abu Dhabi flight, which was scheduled for departure from Indira Gandhi International Airport at 8:50 pm yesterday.

Refusing to apologise to the Air India official whom he allegedly thrashed, Shiv Sena MP Ravindra Gaikwad on Saturday said he would only tender an apology from Parliament for disrespecting its dignity.

Asserting that it was a small conflict, Gaikwad said the staff of the airline is mad and around eight such cases of indulging into brawl have been registered against him.

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