Category Archives: Aviation

Nok Air has unveiled its maiden flight service to Don Mueang International Airport, Bangkok. Hyderabad is the first and only Indian destination from where Nok Air has started direct flights to Bangkok. The new route will be operated by Nok Air’s Boeing 737 MAX 8.

Despite having a natural geographical advantage, Indian airports have, to date, not been able to realise the opportunity that exists, according to CAPA India. According to its research, for years India has ceded traffic to offshore hubs. In fact, over the last couple of decades, there has been a structural evolution from hubs to mega-hubs, particularly in the Middle East, supported by world class airlines with large widebody fleets. It will discuss this and more at its research briefing on ‘Prospects for airport hubs in India’ at 4pm IST today.

The ver.di trade union has announced that employees at seven airports in Germany will go on strike for higher wages on February 17. Severe disruptions to all planned flights are expected. Airports in Dortmund, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Hanover, Munich and Stuttgart will all be affected.

Air India has announced orders for 470 Boeing and Airbus passenger jets. It is buying 220 Boeing aircraft valued at $34bn and 250 passenger jets from Airbus. Air India is seeking to reinvent itself by expanding its operations and modernising its fleet to tap surging demand for affordable air travel. India is going to be the world’s third-largest market in the aviation sector,” Modi said, adding that over the next 15 years, it is estimated India will need more than 2,000 aircraft.

flynas, the Saudi air carrier, announced that its passengers can apply for an electronic Stopover Visa through its website. The “Stopover Visa” is issued after purchasing the airline ticket, and the validity of the visa extends to three months and the stay in the Kingdom up to 4 days. The visa application will be passed automatically to the unified national visa platform at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to process and issue the digital visa immediately and send it to the beneficiary via e-mail. Expecting that the new service will contribute to increasing the visitors to the Kingdom, including Umrah and Pilgrim visitors, tourists, and businessmen, Bandar Almohanna, CEO and Managing Director of flynas, said, “the Saudi Vision 2030 has laid the foundations for cooperation among the regulatory and executive sectors on one hand, and with the private sector on the other hand, to serve the Kingdom’s goals in all sectors. Today, we see a practical application of this integration and cooperation by enabling the national carriers to facilitate a request for issuing a Stopover visa, which facilitates procedures of obtaining a Stopover visa for whoever wishes to visit the Kingdom”. Almohanna stressed that this service will contribute to strengthening the Kingdom’s position as a global hub for travel and business by facilitating quick business visits, making the Kingdom a point of contact between countries and continents. He indicated that the new service comes in line with the civil aviation strategy to reach 330 million passengers and link the Kingdom’s cities with 250 global destinations and 100 million tourists annually. Thousands of tourists are expected to benefit from the Stopover visa to attend the various cultural and entertainment events in …

SriLankan Airlines will start operations from additional three cities in India, including Ahmedabad, to lure more Indian travellers to the island nation. Currently, it flies out of nine Indian cities, revealed Richard Nuttall, CEO, SriLankan Airlines.

Ajay Singh, CMD, SpiceJet, has said, “The budget is growth oriented and yet prudent and responsible. Coming as it does in a year when India has assumed the presidency of the G20, it is an object lesson in how an economy should be managed in a crisis.”

Jyotiraditya Scindia, Minister of Civil Aviation, has said that tourism and civil aviation are two sides of the same coin. “These two sectors are conjoined twins in terms of seeing development of each other’s sector,” he claimed.

Campbell Wilson, CEO, Air India, has shared that Air India has completed one year of returning to the TATA Group. An infographic on the achievements in the last year, which claims that the airline’s average daily revenue has doubled in the last one year.

Sharing his views on high airfares, Rakesh Narayanan, Vice President, Regional GM (Asia Pacific), Travel Solutions Airline Sales, Sabre, says, “We see strong airfares for domestic and international flights, including for leisure travel, which tends to book in advance, and for close-in corporate travel. It is also important to note that the average fare disparity between purchase dates is very small. Historically, there has been a more pronounced difference in the average fares based on advance purchase periods. Airlines are continuing to face challenges in bringing capacity back. However, higher air fares encourage carriers to increase the number of seats they plan to fly. We’re already seeing this with the large US network carriers, and we expect to see this trend elsewhere globally. Currently, we do remain in a capacity-constrained period with higher-than-normal fares, but it’s important to note that consumers remain eager to fly despite these challenges. The good news is that airlines and airports are working aggressively to improve their operational throughput. They want to increase aircraft utilization and seat capacity and, as capacity meets demand, we expect fares to rationalise.”