Category Archives: Associations

Kapil Kaul, CEO & Director, CAPA India, addressing the CAPA India Aviation Summit said, “The industry’s average fare in FY2024 was almost the same as in FY2023. IndiGo’s average airfare in FY2024 was just 1.3% higher than FY2023 but 36% higher compared to FY2020.”

Riaz Munshi, President, OTOAI said, “People are more mature; we have seen a 20-30 per cent increase in experience and luxury travel, which is a significant number. We anticipate these numbers will continue to grow, making experience and luxury travel the most rapidly growing segment in the travel industry.”

Amitabh Khosla, Country Director-India, IATA said that India’s air traffic had already surpassed 2019 levels, both for domestic and international flights, in 2023 itself.  “So certainly, we are witnessing rapid growth, as demonstrated in the unveiling video of the 2025 AGM. There is a significance amount of activity and technology driving aviation growth in India, ” he added.

IndiGo will host the 81st IATA Annual General Meeting and World Air Transport Summit in Delhi, India, on 8-10 June, 2025. Expressing his views on the IATA AGM’s return to India, Pieter Elbers, CEO, IndiGo, said, “IndiGo is proud to be the host airline for the event and looks forward to welcoming the global aviation community to Delhi in 2025. India’s rise in the global aviation landscape over the last years has been nothing short of remarkable.”

Commenting on the Ministry of Tourism’s ‘Coolcation’ campaign, challenging the notion of India being too hot for summer travel. Rajiv Mehra, President, IATO, said that the issue lacks publicity abroad. It (publicity) needs to be increased (abroad) to highlight the places in India where people can visit during this period,” he said.

Rajiv Mehra, President, IATO said, “We are requesting that, after the new government comes in, it’s fine for promotions to be done from the embassy. However, like officers from the Ministry of Commerce or other such departments who are posted in embassies or high commissions abroad, at least in the 20 key market embassies or high commissions, people at the rank of Deputy Director General (DDG) should be posted there under the overall supervision of the ambassador or high commissioner. Only then will we be able to achieve our goals because these are the people who understand what tourism is.”

India’s passenger Load Factor Level reached 86.6% in April 2024 as per IATA with a year-on-year change of -1.7% in load factor. Additionally, revealed that the total passenger demand, measured in revenue passenger kilometers (RPKs), was up 11.0% compared to April 2023 as global passenger demand rose to 15.8%  and domestic demand rose to 4%

Sharing his comments on the increase in Schengen visa fee from June 11, 2024, Ajay Prakash, National President, TAFI, says, “People don’t mind paying it if they get visas on time. But if you charge more money and still make people wait for a visa, you are shooting yourself in the foot. But it is not a huge increase to push people away to other countries. It is not about the cost alone, it’s also about the speed and ease of visas.”

Domestic airfares in India have surged up to 40% in key routes due to higher traffic and capacity constraints in the last six quarters. The fares on top 20 domestic routes had not moved significantly during the last two decades, says CAPA India. India is now one of the world’s fastest-growing civil aviation markets, with an average of 4.5 lakh passengers daily, it stated. 

The World Economic Forum published its 2024 edition of its Travel & Tourism Development Index (TTDI) which measures factors and policies that enable sustainable and resilient development of the tourism sector. It offers insights into tourism economies’ strengths and areas for improvement, and the interconnected nature of tourism development, as well as facilitating strategic planning and multistakeholder dialogue to encourage sustainable growth.     United States The United States is the top scorer in the TTDI and the largest contributor to T&T GDP, both within the Americas region and globally. While the recent increase in sector wages has helped contribute to climbing operation costs, it has also helped partially bridge the T&T sector’s historically low wages in countries such as the United States. Thanks to typical advantages ranging from favourable business environments and open travel policies to well-developed transport, tourism and ICT infrastructure and natural, cultural and non-leisure attractions, United States ranked highest.   Portugal The growth in ‘bleisure’ travel and digital nomads has created new opportunities for businesses and destinations that can offer favourable conditions for business travel and leisure activities. In particular, economies that combine strong ICT infrastructure and healthcare standards, relatively reasonable cost of living, favourable visa policies and rich tourism attractions rank among the most attractive for digital nomads, with countries like Portugal and Spain ranking among the top for attractiveness for this new market.   Uzbekistan Newly ranked developing country of Uzbekistan experienced the greatest growth in TTDI scores between 2019 and 2024. While most high-income economies have experienced slight changes in their TTDI scores, the performance of Uzbekistan (+7.8%, 94th to 78th) has shown the most improvement in both score and rank compared to …