Category Archives: Aviation

Dr Mario Hardy, CEO, PATA, has said that, while travel bubbles and green corridors are a great idea, but there is a lot of complexity involved in setting them up. “It is not a simple task. There are bilateral agreements involved between the two countries. It’s not only the immigration department involved but also health departments and ministries of health of the respective destinations. However, the countries need to agree to have enough trust in the healthcare system of the respective destinations to allow people to travel across their borders.”

According to CAPA Fleet Database, monthly aircraft deliveries are starting to recover, but remain low. Total deliveries were already falling YoY in Jan-Feb 2020. This fell further in March 2020 by 58%. Although the number doubled from May 2020 to June 2020, it was still down by 60% YoY.

A report by Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) for June shows that 78.5% of complaints from passengers were regarding refunds. It added that 62% flights were cancelled due to commercial reasons (low load, clubbing of flights). The most complaints in June were against Air India, followed by TruJet and SpiceJet.

IATA has reported that intra-EU passengers have used many vouchers, issued since mid-March 2020 in lieu of refunds, to pay for travel between 15-Jun-2020 and 15-Jul-2020. Airlines are now incurring the deferred cost of transporting these passengers against limited or zero new revenues. IATA stated, “Whilst the issuance of vouchers helped decelerate cash burn a few weeks ago, their use will now accelerate cash burn in the coming months’. The data is based on IATA’s Billing and Settlement Process, which underestimates the use of vouchers because it does not record vouchers as exchanges in all cases.

Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) has set up a single-window clearance mechanism to expedite various investment proposals in the domestic aviation industry. “MoCA has an Investment Clearance Cell (ICC) for prompt assistance and clearance,” the ministry mentioned in a tweet recently. According to MoCA the setting up of the ICC was announced by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in 2020-2021 Union Budget in February this year. The cell was also set up following an order from the Department of Promotion of Industry (DPIT) on July 1 in this regard. The 10-member ICC will be headed by Amber Dubey, Joint Secretary, MoCA. The ICC has been mandated to serve as a single-window system for attracting investment and its terms of reference include accelerating investments, bringing projects to the Empowered Group of Secretaries (EGoS) which require special incentive, policy interventions, expeditious clearances and systematic references, among others, the MoCA order said.

The average lead time, i.e. the number of days between booking date and travel date (how far in advance travellers book their trips), for long- haul travel to South Asia is 73 days, according to ForwardKeys.

Hardeep Singh Puri, Minister of Civil Aviation, has said that international operations will begin in air bubbles now, which will be active with a few countries including France, US and the UAE. He further revealed that air bubbles will operate for a while and only then will regular international operations begin. “Negotiations are at an advanced stage with at least three countries. We formally signed for Air France operating 28 flights from Paris to New Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru between 18th July and 1st August. Apart from that we have an agreement with United Airlines to operate 18 flights between 17th and 31st July. We have requests from Germany also, and the negotiations with Lufthansa are almost done. Some details have to be worked out,” he said.

The re-opening of Colombo’s Bandaranaike International Airport has been suspended indefinitely. The airport was scheduled to re-open in August, but due to the rising COVID-19 cases in the country, operations and repatriation flights have been halted for the time being.

Travelport has launched the Travelport COVID-19 Smartpoint Plugin. The plugin provides travel agencies with the latest information on government restrictions, lockdowns and safety measures across the globe all within the agent workflow. It is available free-of-charge to all Travelport customers globally, using Travelport Smartpoint 8.2 or above, and can be downloaded directly from Travelport Marketplace. The new tool provides detailed information on a range of topics, including: lockdown rules, entry requirements and quarantine measures for travelers. Country-level information can be displayed at the click of a button, allowing agents to advise their customers easily and instantly. Kyle Moore, Global Head of Customer Strategy and Marketing, Travelport, said, “The travel ecosystem today is probably the most complex it has ever been, with government, airline, and hotel policies in every country constantly-changing. We’re making sure our agent partners no longer need to constantly leave their workflow to search for accurate and up-to-date information— greatly improving their efficiency in servicing their traveller customers.” Sandeep Dwivedi, Chief Operating Officer at InterGlobe Technology Quotient, said: With the looming uncertainty across the globe, having a substantial amount of certainty through readily accessible up-to-date information including on government and airline policies shall unequivocally prove beneficial for our network of agents and serve as a ready aid for gaining momentum in operations and transactions. This free built-in plugin in the GDS is a welcome move from Travelport, one that will result in both informed traveller and travel enabler.” The information in the Travelport COVID-19 Smartpoint Plugin is provided by global travel safety intelligence provider, Safeture, and is updated daily. “Our collaboration with Travelport will provide millions of travellers with the information they need to make informed decisions. With …

International Air Transport Association (IATA) announced that airlines in the Asia-Pacific region will be the hardest hit by the COVID-19 crisis, with losses expected to be $29 billion for 2020. This is more than a third of the $84.3 billion industry losses globally.