Category Archives: Aviation

“Maharashtra is an industrial state and the way aviation sector is witnessing growth, there is a demand for more infrastructure and more airport spaces,” said Devendra Fadnavis, Chief Minister, Maharashtra, at the first Global Aviation Summit in Mumbai. As one of the key speakers of the inaugural session, Fadnavis focused on how aviation contributed to 15 per cent of the national GDP. Welcoming all the dignitaries and ministers to the financial and entertainment capital of India, the chief minister highlighted the importance of growth in the aviation sector and said that Mumbai is proud to be one of the most efficiently managed airports in India. Fadnavis thanked Suresh Prabhu, Minister of Civil Aviation and Commerce and Industry for choosing Mumbai as the venue for the summit. Mentioning the construction of the Navi Mumbai airport, which is touted to be operational by 2020, the minister said that the airport will offer a unique experience to travellers. The airport has capacity to add 1 per cent to our GDP and apart from it, there are 9 airports in the pipeline in the state. While Pune airport is being developed to cater to one of the major IT hubs in the country, Nagpur airport is being developed for its strategic location in national and international flight routes. All metros in India are around an hour’s distance from Nagpur via flight and this connectivity has called for more attention to its infrastructure development, the chief minister added. The connectivity between South East Asia and Europe also passes through Nagpur and hence facilities at the airport are one of the best that have been created. A passenger and cargo hub will also be created in …

GVK Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL), the company that administers Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA) is now equipped with the latest technology that eliminates boarding pass stamping for all domestic airlines operating out of Terminal 2. This makes it the first-ever airport in the country to introduce Digi Yatra proposed by Ministry of Civil Aviation and Bureau of Civil Aviation Security, the watchdog of aviation security in India. Passengers travelling within the country from Terminal 2 can now authenticate their boarding pass at pre-embarkation security check point by scanning the boarding pass barcode or QR code on the mobile phones at the E-gates reader, using the Live Passenger Dataset. This authentication of boarding pass will eliminate the responsibility of CISF physical checking personnel to stamp the boarding pass, thus save their time, bringing a harmonious experience to passengers and improving the overall throughput of security check procedure. With the government’s plan of Digital India, this initiative by CSMIA is a step towards adopting new technology and digitising the travel experience of passengers, making it hassle-free. This pilot feature introduced by CSMIA aims at reducing time involved in completing the many pre-flight boarding checks. It is a forward-looking service that is technology-driven and offers seamless digital experience to passengers. The self-service facility at the airport has drastically reduced the waiting time and queues at various touch points.    

The first edition of Global Aviation Summit 2019 witnessed participation from more than 80 countries. Being organised from January 15-16, 2019 at Grand Hyatt Mumbai, the summit themed on ‘Flying for All’ is touted to be the first-of-its-kind that will cover a diverse range of topics – from domestic aviation market, drone policies, infrastructure investment, freight and cargo policies, aviation financing and much more. It has attendance from more than 100 global CEOs, 35 exhibitors and more than 1200 delegate participation. The inaugural session saw keynote speeches by Sandip Somany, President, FICCI; R N Choubey, Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation; Dr. Olumuyiwa Benard Aliu, President of the Council, International Civil Aviation Organization; Suresh Prabhu, Minister of Civil Aviation and Commerce & Industry; Devendra Fadnavis, Chief Minister of Maharashtra; and Jayant Sinha, Minister of State for Civil Aviation.

Thai Airways will operate triple daily making a total of 21 flights a week from Delhi to Bangkok and beyond. The additional day flights starting from February 3, 2019 will offer more options to passengers travelling to destinations within Thailand (Phuket and Chiang-Mai), Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Cambodia, Vietnam, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Mainland China, Australia and New Zealand. Increase in services to Bangkok will enable the airline to capitalise on the steadily growing round-the-year demand on the highly popular sector, offering guests greater flexibility and choice throughout the day, and helping create a far superior and well-differentiated travel experience for them. Thamanoon Kuprasert, General Manager – India, Thai Airways, said, “Being the first service provider to Thailand from Delhi, Thai Airways has sustained itself successfully in Delhi since 1969 by offering world-class reliable services to passengers for Thailand, Asia, Australia and New Zealand. It is our endeavour to ensure that our passengers enjoy a comfortable and happy journey on THAI. We are constantly improvising as per customers’ expectations.”

Japan-based All Nippon Airways (ANA) is planning to launch its direct daily flight from Tokyo to Chennai starting from October. Speaking on the reception of 3rd Meeting of India- Japan Tourism Council, Suman Billa, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Tourism, says, “We are focused on building the relationship between India and Japan. For this, ANA is planning to launch its operations from Tokyo to Chennai. Though this is the initial phase of discussion, but if it materialises, it will be a daily flight.”

SpiceJet has announced the launch of 12 non-stop flights and frequencies from January 20. The airline, in a statement, said, “With the new flights, passengers from Dehradun, Jammu, Jaipur, Amritsar, Varanasi, Madurai and Vijayawada can now easily travel to a host of other cities.” It said, “SpiceJet will be the first Indian carrier to introduce daily direct flights on the Dehradun-Jammu, Dehradun-Jaipur and Dehradun-Amritsar routes,” . The airline has also enhanced frequencies on the Jaipur-Varanasi (2nd frequency), Chennai-Madurai (4th frequency) and Hyderabad-Vijayawada (3rd frequency) sectors. The flights on all the routes are daily, except on the Chennai-Madurai route, where the flights will not operate on Tuesdays. Source: PTI

In a major setback to state-run Air India, the High Court of Punjab and Haryana has overruled the national carrier’s decision to shift domestic ticket-booking business exclusively on Travelport, asking it to continue using the services of Amadeus and others to book domestic and international flights. Air India had discontinued services of all other global distribution system (GDS) portals from December 5, 2018. The judgement of the HC read, “An interim direction is issued to Air India Limited to continue to allow using GDS of Travelport, Sabre and Amadeus, as was being used prior to Decemeber 4, 2018 and till further orders, Air India inventory will be made available to Amadeus also, as was being done prior to December 4, 2018.” The court has given Air India three weeks’ time to respond to the judgement with relevant documents. The court noted that under Article 12, the Air India was duty-bound to invite bids before giving exclusive rights to any agency for GDS. It is further contended that Air India was duty-bound to call bids in the form of tenders and that Amadeus could not be arbitrarily excluded from sale of tickets for domestic flights. Source: Moneycontrol  

Air Italy and Vistara have signed an interline commercial agreement to offer single tickets for all customers from Italy to a range of Indian destinations with effect from January 7. Under the agreement, Air Italy will offer its customers the opportunity to fly to and from Chennai, Goa, Amritsar, Bengaluru, Kochi, Kolkata and Hyderabad, in connection with its Milan Malpensa-Delhi and Milan Malpensa-Mumbai flights launched respectively on December 6 and 13, 2018. Rossen Dimitrov, Chief Operating Officer (COO), Air Italy, said, The commencement of our partnership with Vistara is great news for passengers of both airlines. We are glad to strengthen our relations with our Indian partner which has rapidly expanded its network and services in a very short time. Our India-bound customers departing from the US and from Italy can now benefit from a wider selection of cities in addition to Delhi and Mumbai within a single ticket. Our aim is to ensure our passengers a smooth and enjoyable flight and along with our commercial partner to enable them to discover every part of this magnificent country.

Facilitating the movement of passengers during Kumbh Mela (January 15 to March 4), Air India has announced the launch of new flights to Allahabad from Delhi, Ahmedabad and Kolkata. The new flights will operate from January 13 to March 30, according to an official statement. Air India said the new flight on Delhi-Allahabad route will operate on five days of the week–Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, while flights on Ahmedabad-Allahabad route will operate on Wednesday and Saturday. The flight on Kolkata-Allahabad route will operate on three days of the week–Tuesday, Friday and Sunday, the airline said. Source: PTI

In an earnings conference call for Q2 FY2019 of the Jet Airways management with analysts, Vinay Dube, CEO, Jet Airways, has said that the airline remains focused on its airlines business turnaround. He said, “Instead of witnessing an increase in fares to recover cost increases, the industry fares and yields are in fact down. Such a low-fare environment is neither sustainable for the industry nor good for the consumer in the medium term, and it is imperative that fares rise in the short term. However, hope is not a strategy, and we remain focused on our airlines business turnaround, which we are happy to report, is on track.” Underlining some of its efforts, he added, “Our operational reliability and on-time performance is the best we have seen over the last three years. The airline’s arrival on-time performance for this quarter was 84 per cent, which is a substantial 15 per cent point higher than Q2 of last year.” Sharing the results of the second quarter for fiscal year 2019, Dube said, “This quarter, we reported a loss of Rs 1,261 crore at a consolidated level. Excluding the impact of foreign exchange losses due to the depreciation rupee, the loss was Rs 823 crores.” Speaking about the challenging times the industry in general has been witnessing, Dube said, “While aviation in general is not an easy business globally, in India both the opportunities and challenges faced by the sector are at a totally different level. The opportunity is staggering because of our highly underpenetrated aviation market with a fast-growing economy and a growing population. But the challenges are equally staggering, as airlines battle for market share, not profitability, by dumping capacity …