Category Archives: Aviation

Oman Air recently organised a networking evening in New Delhi, Hyderabad and Mumbai to introduce its new Chief Commercial Officer, Paul Starrs, to its top agent partners. Starrs re-joined the airline three months ago after a gap of five years. Speaking at the event in Mumbai, Starrs said, “We have been seeing strong growth from the India market and my focus is to double our efforts in promoting the products here.” Delegates from TAAI and TAFI were also present at the event and presented him with a memento. TAFI also extended to Starrs an honorary membership. He also spoke briefly about the new flight that Oman Air is starting to Moscow in October to be served by Oman Air’s Boeing 737-800. “While we don’t expect too many numbers from India for the Moscow flight in the winter, we hope it will make up for it in the summer season. The direct flight will be operated daily non-stop between Oman and Russia.” Flights to Istanbul and Casablanca were launched in June and in July 2018 respectively.

Vietnam Airlines has withdrawn its IATA commission for travel agents applicable for all tickets issued in India, effective July 15, 2018. According to a statement released by the airline, the commission will be reduced from the existing 3 per cent to 0 per cent. Earlier, Oman Air, Jet Airways and Etihad have also have withdrawn IATA commission for agents.

Cathay Dragon has recently celebrated 10 years of passenger flight operations between Bengaluru and Hong Kong. Since the launch of these flights in 2008, more than 800,000 passengers have travelled from Bengaluru and approximately 32,000 tons of cargo have been carried. In celebration of the 10th anniversary, the airline’s check-in counters wore a festive look and passengers travelling from Bengaluru were given commemorative gifts. The airline has also launched a special offer – 10 per cent discount on fares from Bengaluru to destinations such as San Francisco, Los Angeles, Vancouver, Toronto, Seoul, Narita, Taipei and Hong Kong. This discount is applicable on tickets booked on the airline’s website for travel right until the end of the year. Rajesh Menon, Regional Sales and Marketing Manager – South Asia, Cathay Pacific says,” We have always been very confident of the potential that Bengaluru holds, which is why we launched services in 2008 with daily flights. Karnataka’s GDP growth at 7 per cent is in line with the national average. From South India, the highest traffic to countries like North America, Japan and Australia comes from Bengaluru. At Cathay Dragon we are perfectly positioned to cater to this traffic with excellent connections to these key destinations with our differentiated product and service”.

Raising a toast to 18 years of flying to India, Virgin Atlantic hosted an evening of fun and frolic in New Delhi. Industry partners were recognised at this event, further cementing their relationship with the airline. Virgin Atlantic took the opportunity to thank its Indian partners with a promise to continue to give more to the Indian market. The airline has some new and exciting initiatives in the pipeline.

GVK Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL), the company that administers the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (CSIA) has introduced another initiative to enhance passenger experience at the airport premises. Passengers can now use extended check-in facility that will be available at the hotels in Mumbai. This facility is presently introduced at hotels like Sahara Star, Hyatt Regency, Taj Santacruz, ITC Maratha, Hilton Mumbai International Airport and LaLiT so far. This facility can be used by anyone who has the access to these hotels. By the use of this facility, passengers will be able to save on time and have a stress-free experience at the airport. GVK Mumbai Airport also has equipped Terminals with various self-service check-in facilities. CSIA is the pioneer to introduce facilities like check-in kiosks, generating boarding pass through CUSS, generating Baggage tag through CUSS, and use of self bag drop facility for a faster check-in experience. All the airlines operating out of Terminal 1 of CSIA are now on SBD (self-bag drop facility) making Terminal 1 the only terminal in the country to have a fully automated check in system. The integration of new technology allows the processing of a significant number of passengers to be decentralised from the airport and allows for better use of airport resources.

IndiGo is set to operate flights to and from Surat from August 16, 2018, connecting Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Jaipur. After a successful launch of seven domestic and two international destinations since January 2018, the airline has announced Surat as its 56th destination. Bookings are open with immediate effect with fares starting from Rs 1999. To provide more enhanced connectivity across India, IndiGo will operate three new routes, including Jaipur-Varanasi, Jaipur-Guwahati and Mumbai-Bagdogra. All new services start in August 2018. The new flights are designed to cater to business and leisure travellers who are constantly on the lookout for new and affordable flying options. Customers who wish to plan their travel can book tickets via the official website. William Boulter, Chief Strategy Officer, IndiGo said, “We are pleased to have the opportunity to fly out of Surat starting August 2018. Surat, undoubtedly holds immense potential for IndiGo, and launching operations to and from the diamond city is in line with our growth strategy for the India market. We are also launching three other new routes which includes Jaipur-Varanasi, Jaipur-Guwahati, and Mumbai-Bagdogra.  With these new services, we are providing more flexibility of choice to our customers as IndiGo continues to offer them on time, courteous and hassle-free service and an always affordable flying experience.”  

To promote the flights to Amsterdam, together with CSIA Mumbai, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines has installed an experiential activity at the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport targeting the international flyers. The installation is made so thematically that the flyers can have a taste of ‘Mini Amsterdam’ during their transit time and before they board the flight from Mumbai. As Holland is known to be the biking capital of the world, KLM India has installed a cycling activity, which is a nice way for passengers to spend time while waiting to board their flights. The activity also gives a chance to the flyers to win goodies, airline discount vouchers, food coupons and much more. It is communicated via social media and will be live until end of June. From Mumbai, passengers fly on KLM’s latest Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner, which has 30 World Business Class seats, 45 Economy Comfort seats and 219 Economy Class seats. Speaking about this activity, Max Smits, General Manager, Air France – KLM, Indian Sub-Continent said, “We are happy to collaborate with MIAL (Mumbai International Airport Limited) regarding this activity to boost the KLM presence out of Mumbai and inspire flyers to choose KLM for travel to Amsterdam and beyond. KLM started its direct service from Mumbai to Amsterdam last year during winter 2017 with three weekly flights. For the winter schedule of 2018, we will be adding another flight making it as four weekly flights from Mumbai.”

Jet Airways has commenced an additional flight between Delhi and Bangladesh capital Dhaka with effect from June 27. The four-day-a-week operation on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Saturdays, is in line with the airline’s Think India, Think Jet Airways policy. This new service will complement the existing daily operations between the two cities, providing guests more flight choices between Bangladesh and India. Jet Airways 9W 280 will depart from Delhi at 1035 hrs (LT) and arrive into Dhaka at 13:45 hrs. On its return leg, Jet Airways 9W 279 will depart from Dhaka at 15:15 hrs (LT) and reach Delhi at 1725 hrs (LT). Gaurang Shetty, Whole-time Director, Jet Airways, said, “There was a need and potential to develop the operations between the capitals of India and Bangladesh. The new service presents an opportunity for businesses and leisure travellers to explore the potential of our neighbouring country. Guests from Dhaka can benefit from the connectivity options provided by Jet Airways’ extensive network across India and across the world through its hubs in New Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru.” The airline has deployed a state-of-the-art Boeing 737-800 Next Generation (NG) aircraft on this route, offering Premiere and Economy guests the best in-flight product and services.  

GVK Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL), the company that administers the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (CSIA), achieved yet another milestone by becoming the only airport in the country and second globally, to achieve a three-year extension of ACI’s Airport Carbon Accreditation (ACA) ‘Level 3+ Neutrality’ certification. This certification is conferred by the Airports Council International (ACI), the global authority of International Airports. ACA ‘Level 3+ Neutrality’ accreditation is the highest level of environmental achievement available to airports for their contribution in offsetting carbon emissions. This certification assumes greater importance given that CSI Airport, Mumbai has the credit of being the busiest airport with a single runway with more than 48.5 million passengers having travelled to and from Mumbai. The accreditation will be valid till May 2021 and is the outcome of continuous efforts for environmental protection, energy management and reduction of carbon emissions in airport operations. Three year renewal of ACA Level 3+ requires an airport to fulfill stringent requirement of achieving reduction (verified by third party) in GHG emissions of one of its Scope 3 activity, in addition to the reduction of Scope 1 & Scope 2 emissions.  

Sanjay Kumar, Chief Commercial Officer, IndiGo, has resigned from the airline, with effect from July 15, 2018, to pursue other career interests. William Boulter, currently Chief Strategy Officer, will be taking over as Chief Commercial Officer. Rahul Bhatia, Interim CEO, IndiGo, said, “I would like to thank Sanjay for all he has done for the company in making IndiGo the airline it is. We are successful at what we do and Sanjay’s contribution has been very significant in getting us to the level we are today. I am grateful for all his hard work since he joined in January 2007 and wish him all the best in his future endeavours.” Kumar said, “The last 12 years at IndiGo has been the most satisfying and rewarding experience of my career. I am extremely proud to have been a part of commercial success of the airline. I would like to thank the founders and all colleagues for their support during this time.”