The Ministry of Railways has announced a number of measures on the IRCTC website. “Now, a 35-second compulsory wait has been applied before booking an online ticket to prevent faster booking through any other unscrupulous means,” said A.K. Manocha, Chairman and Managing Director, IRCTC, at a combined conference. Sanjaya Das, MD, CRIS, U. Hazarika, Executive Director, C&IS Railway Board and other senior officials from the railway board were present. Manocha said that due to increased demand of e-ticketing and capacity constraint, the Next Generation e-Ticketing (NGeT) System’s capacity to book tickets has been upgraded to book 15,000 tickets per minute. Furthermore, only two tatkal tickets can be booked for single user ID in opening tatkal hours from 10-12 hours. Statistics from the Ministry of Railways reveal that 18,30,21,842 tickets were booked online during 2014-2015. Among the total tickets booked, the share of internet ticketing passengers to total passengers travelled was 54.52 per cent. To further strengthen its Passenger Reservation System (PRS), the Ministry of Railways has taken various measures on the IRCTC website on the lines of internet ticketing, Next Generation e-Ticketing System (NGeT), scripting, and various other security measures to control hacking.

The UK Visas and Immigration office has informed that there will be changes in visa and immigration application fees over the next four years. Danielle Humphries, Entry Clearance Manager, UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI), informed that for 2016-17, UK Visas linked most closely to economic growth and prosperity, such as visitor, work and study visas will be restricted to an increase of 2 per cent. During the same period, fees for all sponsorship categories will be held at the current rates. There will be up to 25 per cent increase for settlement and nationality fees. There will be up to 33 per cent increase for optional premium services offered by the Home Office such as the super priority and priority visa services. The proposed maximum fee for entry clearance as a visitor for a period of six months or less is £95, as against the current maximum of £85. The proposed maximum fee for entry clearance as a visitor for a period of more than six months up to and including 12 months, calculated at fixed amount, is £200 as against the current maximum of £162. The current maximum for entry clearance as a visitor for a period of more than 12 months, calculated at annual rate, is £162 p.a. which has been proposed to increase to £200 p.a. “We are confident that our proposed fee increases strike the right balance between ensuring we continue to provide a competitive level of service and maintaining a fees structure that remains attractive to businesses, migrants and visitors,” Humphries said, adding, “We have no current plans to raise fees to the maximum amounts, and most individual fees will remain significantly below these levels.” …

Owing to high security alert in the run up to Republic Day celebrations, IndiGo has extended its normal closure of check-in time of 45 minutes to 60 minutes to minimise flight delays and congestion in the security hold area. The airline has asked its passengers to arrive 15 minutes prior against the original check-in time i.e. 45 minutes effective January 19 to January 31.

Sunil Kumar, President, TAAI, said, “We will be rolling out circulars inviting our members to join the Joint Bank Guarantee (JBG) scheme by February first week and close the process by March 31, 2016. Those agents who are chosen by the National Committee for the scheme will be able to get on board with IATA effective July 1, 2016. They were anyway paid their insurance or guarantee till June 30, 2016. So, TAAI’s JBG scheme will be in place from July onwards when the new term starts for the new guarantee cover.” He however refused to share any updates on TAAI’s annual convention. This was discussed during TAAI’s Managing Committee meeting held on the sidelines of the IITT exhibition in Mumbai recently.

During January-September 2015, South Africa received 58,373 Indian arrivals to the country, shared Monika Iuel, General Manager-International Marketing, South African Tourism, at the Delhi leg of 4-city South African Tourism roadshow. She stated that they are hoping for exponential growth with the help of various campaigns, due for launch in 2016. Talking about the initiative, Hanneli Slabber, Country Head, South African Tourism, said that the Chalo South Africa and T20 World Cup campaigns set to launch on March 1 and March 10 respectively, will surely be beneficial in upping the tourist arrival number to the country. After Delhi, the South African Tourism roadshow moves to Hyderabad on January 21, and ends at Mumbai on January 22.

SpiceJet has announced the launch of two new flights to Jaipur and Hyderabad. With the introduction of these two new flights, SpiceJet now connects 10 Indian cities with Dubai every day. The airline is offering an introductory one way offer of Dh359 (all-inclusive) between Dubai and Jaipur. The Dubai-Hyderabad fares are available at Dh397 (all-inclusive) on a first-come-first-served basis. The flights will commence on February 16, 2016, for which bookings are now open. “With the launch of our Jaipur-Dubai sector, SpiceJet will become the first private airline to operate a direct flight on this route. SpiceJet will also be the only airline to fly five times per week on this route. The Hyderabad-Dubai flights are so timed as to allow business travellers to India’s IT hub make the most of every working day,” said Shilpa Bhatia, Senior VP Commercial, SpiceJet. The airline will deploy its Boeing 737-800 aircraft on these routes.

Thailand’s Absolute Hotel Services (AHS) is expanding its upscale Eastin hotel brand in India, with the launch of a new property in Darjeeling, West Bengal. Set atop a mountain surrounded by nature and views of the valleys and foothills of Kurseong, the land of the white orchids, Eastin Hotel Kurseong, Darjeeling, will open its doors in April 2016. The property will offer a total of 100 rooms and suites, a signature all day dining restaurant, a vegetarian restaurant, lounge bar, café terrace, banquet and meeting centre for the MICE market. The hotel will also provide wellness centre including one double and two spa treatment rooms, foot massage, ayurvedic massage, gym, meditation and yoga classes. AHS operates a collection of Eastin, Eastin Easy and U Hotels in several locations across India. AHS has re-branded the property as Eastin Hotel Kurseong, Darjeeling, from its earlier name Eastin Easy Kurseong Darjeeling. It is the first international 4-star deluxe resort hotel in Kurseong, Darjeeling district.

RwandAir, the national carrier for Rwanda, will start direct flights from Rwanda into Mumbai effective September 2016. Clarence Fernandes, India representative, Rwanda Development Board, which also promotes tourism, reveales, “RwandAir will be coming in with four weekly flights from Mumbai to Dar-e-salaam and Dar-e-salaam to Kigali on A-330 with first, business and economy class. They will initially come in with 244 seats and as the demand increases the airline will scale up to 274 seats. This will be the shortest route, connecting Mumbai and Kigali. Dar-e-Salaam has a large Indian population so it was most practical to do a stop-over here.”

The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) is offering an aerial view of Mumbai for 20 minutes at a cost of Rs 2,995 per person. IRCTC has tied up with private chopper company, Aman Aviation, which will use the US-made Robinson R-44 helicopter carrying three passengers at a time. To book a helicopter ride, passengers can log on to www.irctctourism.com. In the initial phase, the rides will be operated to facilitate an aerial view of the suburbs of east and south Mumbai. Helicopter rides for south Mumbai will likely be undertaken on Mondays and Thursdays whereas joy rides for east Mumbai will be available on any given day except Wednesday. Booking will be closed four days prior to departure of the flight. Thirty seats will be available every day.

SpiceJet achieved the highest passenger load factor (PLF) of 92.1 per cent followed by IndiGo at 88.5 per cent and Air Costa at 87.1 per cent for the month of December 2015, according to data provided by Ministry of Civil Aviation. The domestic airlines carried 20.34 per cent more passengers during December. The number of passengers carried by domestic airlines during Jan-Dec 2015 were 810.91 lakhs as against 673.83 lakhs during the corresponding period of previous year thereby registering the growth of 20.34 per cent. The On-Time Performance (OTP) of scheduled domestic airlines, computed for four metro airports viz. Bangalore, Delhi, Hyderabad and Mumbai showed Vistara topping the chart with 90.6 per cent followed by GoAir at 79.3 per cent (excluding Hyderabad) and Jet Airways at 78.5 per cent.