Air India Express, the international budget arm of Air India, is examining the possibility of leasing some Boeing 737 aircraft of grounded carrier Jet Airways, which are parked at different airports due to non-payment, through a firm decision is yet to be taken, a top company official said Sunday.

Before halting operations temporarily mid-last week due to severe cash-drought, the private carrier was forced to ground 69 planes owing to non-payment of rentals to lessors.

Air India chairman Ashwani Lohani is likely to meet State Bank chairman Rajnish Kumar Friday over the national carrier’s plans to lease five wide-body Boeing planes from the now grounded Jet Airways.

Weighed down by a mountain of debt and falling revenue, Jet Airways announced suspension of its entire operations from Wednesday night and owns 16 wide-body planes, 10 B777-300ERs and six Airbus A330s.

New Delhi/Mumbai: Budget airline SpiceJet Ltd and national carrier Air India Ltd have stepped in to stabilize India's aviation industry and ease the pain from wage losses caused by Jet Airways (India) Ltd’s descent into insolvency and operational shutdown.

SpiceJet is making all possible efforts to soften the blow to the aviation industry caused by Jet’s suspension of operations on Wednesday, said the airline’s chairman and managing director, Ajay Singh.

New Delhi: A boarding pass issued by Air India with pictures of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani has come under criticism, days after the PM's photo on railway tickets created a furore.

The airline said the passes featuring the photographs, which were third-party advertisements, would be withdrawn if they are found to be in violation of the Model Code of Conduct.

New Delhi: National carrier Air India on Friday requested its "inactive" crew members to "immediately" join work at a time when the airline has been forced to cancel and reroute a number of US and Europe-bound flights due to closure of Pakistan airspace since February 27.

Air India announced it is suspending its flights on Delhi-Madrid and Delhi-Birmingham routes from March 16 till further notice due to “operational reasons”.

As Pakistan has kept its airspace closed since February 26 due to the Balakot air strike by Indian air force, Air India’s expenditure on flights to Europe and the US have significantly increased.

Air India is incurring a loss of around Rs 3 crore daily on its Europe, US flights due to the closure of Pakistan airspace, a senior airline official said on Thursday. Last Wednesday, Pakistan closed its airspace to all overflying flights forcing airlines from India and other nations to take a detour. This has led to increase in flight duration and has put a strain on Mumbai’s air traffic controllers, who are working extra shifts to handle the increase in traffic.

National carrier Air India will be flying 12 international flights as well as 40-plus domestic flights with an all-women crew on Friday, Women's Day.

Air India will be deploying its B787 Dreamliners and B777s aircraft to operate to 12 international medium and long-haul flights solely operated exclusively by women pilots and attended by women cabin crew.

Ajay Singh-promoted budget airline SpiceJet, which is making efforts to improve its distribution in the international market, has appointed travel technology solutions provider Amadeus as its first global distribution partner.

The entire ticketing inventory will continue to be available to domestic travellers through existing channels as well as with Amadeus with a different pricing, the airline said in a statement.

Accommodating passengers from its cancelled flights has become harder for Jet Airways as at least two airlines have cancelled their ‘flight interruption manifest (FIM) agreement’ with the airline.

This comes at a time when the cash-strapped airline is cancelling more than 100 flights daily due to grounding of its planes.

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