Category Archives: Aviation

Passengers travelling to the UAE on Air India flights can now carry 10 kgs more in their check-in luggage as the airline has, with immediate effect, increased the baggage allowance from 30 kgs to 40 kgs. The move is in line with the increasing demand by the travel community for an enhanced baggage allowance on the route. The allowance for hand-baggage, however, continues to be the same at 7 kgs. “As demanded by the people, Air India will allow passengers to carry 40 kgs as luggage in the check-in besides the usual 7 kgs that the traveller carries as hand baggage,” said Ashwani Lohani, Chairman and Managing Director, Air India.

To facilitate employment for Jet Airways’ staff, the government will launch a dedicated web portal. Hardeep Singh Puri, Minister, Civil Aviation, informed that a website would be launched listing staff of Jet Airways and help find employment in other private entities, while addressing the Rajya Sabha on the Airports Economic Regulatory Authority of India (Amendment) Bill, 2019. “Every employee would be listed there and the prospects for their re-employment or employment will be facilitated by the government,” he said.  The Minister, however, said that government cannot assume responsibility for a business failure conducted by a private party. Referring to Jet Airways, Puri said he was sensitive to (business) failure and willing to see what can be done within the governmental system to cushion that failure.

Hahn Air has announced the addition of eight new airlines into its global network of more than 350 air, rail and shuttle companies in the second quarter of 2019. With the new additions, the total number of new partners for this year becomes 22. According to a statement by Hahn Air, six of the newly integrated partners are expanding their distribution reach by using the Hahn Air product HR-169 and thereby making their flights available to travel agents on the Hahn Air HR-169 ticket. The following airlines can now be issued under their own two-letter-codes in selected GDSs: Air Greenland (GL), Air North (4N) from Canada, Cyprus Airways (CY), the Chinese carrier Donghai Airlines (DZ), the Russian airline Nordwind Airlines (N4) and MyWay Airlines (ML) from Georgia. In addition, Neos Airlines (NO) from Italy and Lao Skyway (LK) from Laos became new H1-Air partners of Hahn Air’s sister company Hahn Air Systems. Their flights can therefore be booked by 100.000 travel agents in 190 markets in all major GDSs under the designator H1 and be issued on the HR-169 ticket. Steve Knackstedt, Vice President of the Airline Business Group at Hahn Air, said, “We are celebrating the 20th anniversary of our ticketing business this year. Our partner portfolio has grown from five to more than 350 partners since 1999 and we have continuously developed our distribution services. Today, we offer airlines of any size and any business model tailor-made solutions for all their distribution needs. By forming an HR-169 agreement with Hahn Air, airlines that have already at least one GDS agreement in place can unlock secondary markets for indirect ticket sales. Airlines without GDS connections can outsource their complete …

Devi Ahilyabai Holkar International Airport in Indore gets its first international flight to Dubai on Air India on July 15. Ashwani Lohani, CMD, Air India, has informed that the nonstop flight will be operating a 162-seater A320 Neo aircraft, which will fly directly to Dubai on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday, and would return from Dubai on Tuesday, Friday and Sunday. There will be 150 economy and 12 business class seats in the aircraft. The starting fares are Rs 18,700 (return fare) on economy and the return fare for the business class will be Rs 42,000. Lohani said, “Air India will launch the first international flight from Indore to Dubai. The non-stop flight will fulfill a long-standing desire from the travel fraternity and tourists for direct connectivity to the Gulf.”

CAPA’s report titled, ‘Indian Civil Aviation—The USD250 billion Investment Opportunity’, stated that the investments and economic impact growth of Civil Aviation is estimated to continue to outperform GDP growth through 2040. The industry’s economic impact is estimated to have increased from less than 1 per cent of GDP in 2003 to almost 7 per cent of GDP in 2018. It is projected to increase to almost 9 per cent of GDP, or USD1.1 trillion by 2040. The report states that civil aviation has a multiplier effect on the economy through direct, indirect, induced impact. The comprehensive scale and potential of the industry is yet to be covered in totality which prompted.

Alliance Air, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Air India is set to launch its daily direct operations under UDAN scheme Hyderabad, Kochi and Goa from Mysuru. Commuters have the option of travelling from Hyderabad to Mysuru and returning the same day with onward options of Kochi, Bengaluru and Goa from Mysuru. All flights will operate with a 70-seater ATR-72 in view of the short runway of the Mysuru airport (1740 metres) which cannot support larger aircraft at the moment. Mysuru Airport Director, Manjunath, says, “Talks are under way for flights from Mysuru to Belagavi and Shirdi as well and may become a reality in due course.”

Vistara has launched its international operations with its maiden flights to Singapore from Delhi and Mumbai. The full service carrier owned by Tata Sons and Singapore Airlines will commence two daily flights to the South Asian nation, one each from Delhi and Mumbai from August 6 and 7, respectively. Bookings for flights to Singapore are now being opened progressively on all channels. The airline will fly its With increasing demand and available war chest for rapid expansion, starting for Rs. 21,877 for the economy class and Rs. 76, 890 for the business class for the flight from Delhi, while the fare starts from Rs 20,778 for the economy class and Rs 63,331 for the business class from Mumbai. Speaking on the launch, Leslie Thng, Chief Executive Officer, Vistara, said, “We present to the world today a shining new symbol of warm Indian hospitality with a contemporary approach and world-class service. We’re excited to start with Singapore as our first international destination, which we see as a very important market, given the opportunities it presents for corporate, business as well as leisure travel. As we soon take the ‘new feeling of flying’ to more international destinations, we hope to provide our customers from overseas the finest way to experience India, and inspire travellers from across India to explore more of the world.” Flight no UK115 from Delhi starting August 6 will depart to Singapore at 23:45 and reach its destination by 08:15 hours (+1), while, flight UK116 will fly back to Delhi from Singapore at 09:30 hours (+1) and land the IGI International airport at 12:45 hours on August 7. Similarly, flight UK 105 from Mumbai will fly to Singapore on …

GMR Infrastructure has announced it has executed definitive agreements for the proposed investment of Rs 8,000 crore by Tata Group, an affiliate of GIC and SSG Capital Management in its Airports Business. The proposed investment of Rs 8,000 crore will consist of Rs. 1,000 crore equity infusion in GAL, and Rs. 7,000 crore towards purchase of GAL’s equity shares from GIL and its Subsidiaries. GMR will now focus on potential restructuring of the business by way of a demerger of its Energy, Highways, Urban Infrastructure and Transportation businesses, leading to separation of its Airport Business, subject to customary consents including corporate & regulatory approvals.

France will introduce a new charge on plane tickets from next year, with revenue used to fund environment-friendly alternatives, informs the country’s transport minister- Elisabeth Borne. She says, “The “ecotax” costing between 1.50 euros ($1.7) and 18 euros ($20) will apply to most flights departing from France.” The only exceptions will be for domestic flights to Corsica and France’s overseas territories, and connecting flights that pass through France. It will not apply to flights arriving in France. Air France has strongly disapproved of this announcement. According to a recent statement by Air France- “This new tax would significantly penalise Air France’s competitiveness, at a time where the company needs to strengthen its investment capacity to more rapidly reduce its environmental footprint, notably as part of its fleet renewal policy. This measure would be extremely penalising for Air France, of which 50% of its flights are operated out of France, and notably for its domestic network, where losses amounted to above 180 million euros in 2018. In addition, last month, the government had ruled out taxation at national level due to the unfair competition that this would cause.” The statement further reads- “The government’s decision is all the more incomprehensible as this new air transport tax would reportedly finance competitive modes of transport including road transportation and not the energy transition in the air transport sector. Such a transition could have been facilitated by supporting the implementation of sustainable biofuel industries or disruptive innovations. The Air France group is committed alongside all the industry players to reducing its CO2 emissions by 50% by 2050, in accordance with the Paris climate agreement objectives. Air France has been contributing to the European Union’s …

Air France-KLM will increase its passenger-carrying capacity between India and Europe by more than 25 per cent from this winter, a senior executive of the airline said. Jean-Noel Rault, the General Manager (Indian sub-continent), Air France-KLM, said,”If you ask about the commitment of Air France-KLM to the Indian market, as of winter, on the yearly basis, it would be over a million seats to India. Currently, we are over 800,000 seats. It would be over 25 per cent increase.” Similarly, Air France is also planning to increase its frequency on Delhi-Paris route from five to seven during the winter season this year. Source: PTI