by Elsie Clark | Dec 3, 2025 | Connectivity
India’s Civil Aviation Minister, Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarapu, has confirmed that ‘regular’ jamming and spoofing incidents have been taking place at the country’s airports since 2023.
In a written answer presented to parliament, the minister reported that his department was aware of GPS disruption at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi Airport, as well as at Kolkata, Amritsar, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Chennai.
The source of the jamming and spoofing is yet to be confirmed, though as of yet it has not led to any harm. With critical flight control software relying on GPS, any interference can have disastrous safety consequences. The Airports Authority of India (AAI) has asked the Wireless Monitoring Organization to trace the source.
The minister’s statement adds:
[AAI] is implementing advanced cyber security solutions for IT Networks and Infrastructure. […] Cyber security is ensured by continuous upgradation. As the nature and type of the threat changes, new protective measures are being taken.
The number of GPS spoofing and jamming incidents has risen substantially in recent years, especially in the Middle East and Eastern Europe. In September 2025, a plane carrying Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, was even forced to land in Bulgaria using paper maps due to GPS interference.
States in Scandinavia and the Baltics have also complained of repeated GPS spoofing, blaming Russian activity for the disruption. At the same time, the European Space Agency (ESA) is investing in quantum positioning technology to try and overcome the security weaknesses of GPS.
Join us at Aerospace Tech Week 2026, where expert panels will be discussing the future of cybersecurity in aviation, including combatting GPS spoofing and jamming.
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by Elsie Clark | Sep 19, 2025 | Avionics, MRO IT
Avionics on IndiGo’s fleet of 430 A320 Airbus aircraft will now be maintained by Thales.
The new agreement lasts for 11 years, and includes IndiGo’s growth plans to increase its fleet to 800 craft. Thales’s Repair By The Hour (RBTH) and Avionics By The Hour (ABTH) solutions will be deployed to reduce downtime and ensure critical components are available.
The repairs will take place at IndiGo’s new avionics MRO facility near Delhi Airport in India. An additional 5-year contract has been signed with AvioBook Flight, a Thales company. AvioBook is the only Electronic Flight Bag (EFB) solution authorised by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) for paperless EFB, and provides pilots with essential digital tools to manage their crews.
Parichay Datta, Senior Vice-president, Engineering, IndiGo, said:
We are pleased to partner with Thales, a leading aerospace company trusted worldwide for its expertise in avionics support, to augment IndiGo’s maintenance and repairs capabilities.
With IndiGo’s growing scale and fleet, this association aligns with our commitment to offer a hassle-free and safe flying experience to our customers, while ensuring operational excellence and reliability
India has surpassed Brazil and Indonesia to become the world’s third-largest domestic aviation market. Earlier this week, IndiGo announced plans for a route to Athens from January 2026, as it expands its European strategy.
Since its founding in 2005, the airline has become the largest airline in India by passengers carried and fleet size. The partnership with Thales represents a significant step forward in the company’s efforts to guarantee its growing number of pilots and passengers with safety and efficiency.
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by Elsie Clark | Sep 17, 2025 | Flight Ops IT, Innovation
Air India has adopted SITA OptiFlight’s advanced climb optimisation solution, OptiClimb, and SITA eWAS for improved operational sustainability. The data-driven insights provided will reduce the airline’s carbon emissions by 35,000 tons each year.
The Indian national carrier has adopted the software as part of is intensive modernisation strategy, which includes retrofitting its current planes and purchasing more aircraft. The SITA technology has now rolled out across its fleet of Airbus A320s and Boeing 737s, with the widebody fleet to be added soon.
The SITA OptiFlight suite helps airlines optimise key phases of flights, especially energy-intense phases. Without compromising safety or performance, the intelligence tools provide custom climb-out schedules for each aircraft, reducing fuel burn.
SITA eWAS, on the other hand, is a complementary programme that provides pilots with weather updates and predictive forecasting. The availability of this real-time data helps the crew avoid turbulence and re-route efficiently.
Sumesh Patel, President, Asia Pacific at SITA, said:
Air India’s deployment of SITA OptiFlight and eWAS is a strong example of how smart digital technologies can cut emissions, save fuel, and unlock real operational value across every flight.
Basil Kwauk, Chief Operations Officer, Air India, added:
Sustainability and efficiency are core to our transformation into a world-class airline. With SITA OptiFlight and SITA eWAS, we’re taking meaningful steps to modernize our operations, reduce our carbon footprint.
Fuel savings across the fleet as a result of SITA’s optimisations are expected to be in the region 11,000 tons. The announcement comes after Air India signed a memorandum of understanding with IndianOil for the supply of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) in August 2025 – a further component of its net-zero emissions strategy.
Join us at Aerospace Tech Week 2026, where our dedicated Flight Ops IT and Sustainability tracks will be exploring how to improve aircraft operational performance while reducing emissions,
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by Elsie Clark | Sep 4, 2025 | Innovation, Sustainability
The Indian Ministry for Civil Aviation has officially presented its sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) feasibility study at a two-day workshop in New Delhi.
Launched in partnership with the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and the EU, the study presented key findings on SAF’s growth potential in India ahead of ICAO’s Innovation Fair in Montreal. The workshop sets a comprehensive roadmap for SAF adoption across India, from production to deployment.
At the summit, Minister Ram Mohan Naidu noted:
SAF offers a practical and immediate pathway to decarbonise aviation, with the potential to reduce lifecycle carbon emissions by up to 80% compared to conventional jet fuel.
The Minister added that scaling SAF production could reduce India’s carbon emissions by 20 to 25 million tonnes annually. Now one of the world’s fastest-growing aviation markets, SAF could be critical to scaling Indian aviation while maintaining net-zero emissions targets.
As a country with over 750 million metric tonnes of biomass and nearly 230 million metric tonnes of surplus agricultural residue, India is well-positioned to become a global hub for SAF manufacture and export. Additionally, the country’s young aircraft fleet is already among the most energy-efficient in the world, providing a solid foundation for further sustainable development.
India’s government has set ambitious targets for SAF deployment: 1% of total fuel for international flights by 2027, and an increase to 5% by 2030. Production at the first certified SAF refinery, Indian Oil’s Panipat, is expected to begin by the end of 2025.
While SAF could potentially reduce the carbon emissions of the energy-intense aviation sector significantly, its long-term feasibility has been challenged. A 2024 report from the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) labelled sustainable fuels ‘a false solution’ that are impossible to scale effectively in line with net-zero emissions targets.
Meanwhile, Shell announced on 3 September 2025 announced that they were cancelling the construction of their flagship biomass fuel facility in the Netherlands. The oil and gas giant had already paused the project in 2024 due to technical difficulties, but will now shelve it entirely. Machteld de Haan, head of downstream, renewables and energy solutions at Shell, said:
As we evaluated market dynamics and the cost of completion, it became clear that the project would be insufficiently competitive to meet our customers’ need for affordable, low-carbon products.
With India preparing to scale SAF investment, the world will be watching closely to determine whether SAF can deliver on its promise to reduce emissions.
Join us at Aerospace Tech Week 2026 for our Sustainable Aerospace summit, where industry leaders will discuss the future of SAF and operational sustainability.
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