Category Archives: Aviation

SriLankan Airlines adorns one of its aircraft with customized livery to reaffirm its status as the official airline of the much-awaited ‘Raid Amazones 2022.’ Raid Amazones 2022 is an annual sporting event in which a large number of French female athletes compete in a number of sports and activities against the backdrop of an iconic tourist site. Every year, the event highlights an attractive tourist destination by highlighting inherent elements such as its ecological beauty, residents’ way of life, and culture, which are publicly displayed to the world through worldwide media following the athletes on their tour. The event’s 20th edition will take place in the areas surrounding the iconic Sigiriya rock fortress, which are rich in ecological beauty, cultural heritage, and authentic Sri Lankan village life. The first leg will be held from March 13 to 23, 2022, and the second leg will be held from March 27 to April 6, 2022. The event is likely to attract over 550 participants, including athletes and officials.

SriLankan Airlines adorns one of its aircraft with customized livery to reaffirm its status as the official airline of the much-awaited ‘Raid Amazones 2022.’ Raid Amazones 2022 is an annual sporting event that features a large number of French female athletes competing their way to victory through multiple sports events and activities against the backdrop of an iconic tourist destination. Every year, the event highlights an attractive tourist destination through inherent features such as its ecological beauty, citizens’ way of life and culture, which are prominently showcased to the world through global media that follow the athletes in their trail. The 20th edition of the event will take place in the areas surrounding the iconic Sigiriya rock fortress, rich in ecological beauty, cultural heritage and attributes of authentic village life in Sri Lanka.  The first leg will take place from 13 – 23, March 2022 and the second leg is scheduled from 27 March – 6 April 2022. Over 550 participants are expected to join the event, including athletes and officials. The SriLankan aircraft with the special livery features iconic Sigiriya, the vibrant and unique backdrop of this year’s event. This aircraft will be deployed to bring in athletes and officials from Paris to Sri Lanka for the event and would also continue to fly to many of the airline’s other destinations in its scheduled operations, thus portraying Sri Lanka’s stature as a sports and adventure destination. SriLankan Airlines, a forerunner in the country’s tourism promotion endeavors, expects this to inspire many discerning travellers from France to explore Sri Lanka in the future, supported by the airline’s direct connectivity between the two countries.

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday met with Jyotiraditya Scindia, Civil Aviation Minister, representatives from travel, tourism, and hospitality sectors to discuss various banking-related issues. Travel, tourism and hospitality sectors are among the worst hit due to the COVID pandemic. The industry leaders from these sectors have been pitching for financial support from the government.

Standard Chartered announced it has partnered with the International Air Transport Association (IATA) to launch IATA Pay in India. IATA Pay, which is already available in several European markets, is an airline industry payment platform that brings optionality, convenience and an enhanced experience to consumers when purchasing tickets directly from participating airlines. The service leverages the Unified Payment Interface (UPI), a domestic real-time payments scheme in India, thereby enabling consumers to instantly pay for airline tickets from their bank accounts. 

Pradeep Panicker, Chief Executive Officer, GMR Hyderabad International Airport, has revealed that the new terminal of the airport will be ready by next year and will take the capacity from 12million to 40 million. He was speaking at a special meet organised between Sr delegates of GMR Hyderabad and the tourism committee of FTCCI to discuss tourism opportunities in the state.

To provide further updates on the Vaccinated Travel Lane (VTL) between Singapore and India & Sri Lanka, Singapore Tourism Board will be organising another round of webinar exclusively for the Indian & Sri Lankan travel trade. The ‘Welcome Back to Singapore’ webinar will be held on Monday, February 28 at 11:30am IST/SLST. The virtual session will also touch on Singapore Airlines (SIA) flight operations and the customer experience at Changi Airport and Jewel Changi Airport. To register, contact jaspreet.kaur@ddppl.com or 9650196532

In a shocking discrimination against IATA agents based in India, Air India has restricted sale of tickets from India to Canada to its city offices and web platform. IATA agents based here cannot issue India-Canada tickets, while travel agents worldwide, including the OTA’s having offices outside India, can access and sell AI inventory to Canada. Lodging a protest with Air India in this regard, AI has been practicing this since the onset of the pandemic. Abbas Moiz, general secretary, TAFI, said it is disappointing to see this discrimination by the new management, the TATA Group, too.

As per GlobalData, there were 73 deals declared in the global travel and tourism sector in January 2022, a decrease of 27% from the 100 deals announced in December 2021. Deal activity decreased across the board (under coverage). Deal activity was sluggish in most of the key markets.

The country’s largest airport operator Adani Group has reported a profit (before interest and taxes) of ₹22.96 crore for its airport businesses during the quarter ending on 31 December, compared to a ₹48.95 crore loss during the same period of the previous year, on the back of a recovery in air passenger traffic in the quarter. Adani Group operates seven airports, which includes airports at Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Lucknow, Mangalore, Jaipur, Guwahati and Thiruvananthapuram. The upcoming airport at Navi Mumbai will also be operated by the conglomerate.

Sharing a broad strategy for the new airline, Ilker Ayci, the newly-appointed CEO and MD of Air India said, “Working closely with my colleagues at Air India and the leadership of the Tata Group, we will utilise the strong heritage of Air India to make it one of the best airlines in the world with a uniquely superior flying experience that reflects the Indian warmth and hospitality.” He takes over from 1 April, 2022.