Category Archives: Aviation

The Egyptian cabinet has approved a six-month deferral plan on utility payments for tourist establishments and private airlines. The payments will start from October. Also part of this is the postponement of real estate tax on tourism facilities for three months, which can be paid in instalments as well.

All airlines will be relocated to the airport’s other terminals and all operations at Singapore Airlines will be consolidated in Terminal 3. The airport is aiming to use this move to speed up on-going construction and upgrading work at T2 and shorten the project time by up to a year.

According to the latest update by CAPA on the state of the Indian aviation industry, Indian carriers will require a domestic fleet of around 300-325 aircraft from Oct-2020 onwards, and an international fleet of 100-125 aircraft. The total fleet size of 400-450 aircraft would still mean that the current fleet of 650 represents a surplus of 200-250 aircraft for a period of 6-12 months. While a gradual path towards normality could be expected during Q3 and Q4, the Indian aviation sector is likely to shrink significantly, even if some of the vulnerable airlines manage to survive. This estimate may still be conservative and assumes that Q1 FY2021 will be almost written-off, with traffic limping back during the weak second quarter, followed by a gradual trajectory towards normality during the second half of the financial year.

The travel trade community has received a reprieve as a result of urgent meetings initiated by travel trade associations on behalf of their members with Pradeep Kharola, Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation, in terms of refunds on air tickets. The respite however due to this intervention is only from two international airlines – Singapore Airlines and Lufthansa Airlines. Both airlines have updated their offer and will now give full refunds as well, in case the customer wants, but there could be a delay due to backlog. Singapore Airlines however has further offered bonus to people who wish to claim their refunds as credits rather than take cash refunds (over and above the value of ticket).

According to a report released by CAPA India, domestic air traffic is expected to drop to 80-90 million passengers in the current fiscal against an estimated 140 million passengers. The delivery of more than 200 planes to Indian carriers are also likely to be deferred by up to two years. International traffic is expected to fall from approximately 70 million in the previous financial year to 35-40 million passengers or maybe even less in the current fiscal. As a result, the majority of the fleet is likely to be surplus to requirement during the first half of the current financial year. While giving the forecast, CAPA India said it is an initial estimate and would be continually revised. A gradual path towards normalcy could be expected towards Q3 and Q4, the aviation consultancy firm said.

An official statement by IATA has said that travel agents can make payment settlements later without penalties, in the wake of the global crisis of COVID-19. The statement read “For travel agents, we’re allowing settlements to be made a bit later, without penalties. While remittance periods have been kept in accordance with BSP Calendars, we are taking a flexible approach and preliminary figures confirm this, showing that default rates in 2020 are a bit below the year-ago period—despite the stresses on the system in 2020.” In addition, recognising the fact that it may be difficult or impossible to get audited financial statements, or arrange a financial guarantee, “IATA is offering to extend deadlines for these statements by up to a month.”

DEX Aviation is now going to represent Alitalia as GSA (General Sales Agent) for India. According to a statement released by DEX Aviation, the company has become the nationwide GSA for the Italian carrier starting 1st April 2020. Lucio Rigo, Country Manager- India, Alitalia, said that they are hoping that things normalise soon and the industry picks up again, so that they would be able to serve Indian passengers again.

According to the latest data provided by International Air Transport Association (IATA), the airline industry could be staring at an estimated $35 billion of ticket refunds. This, clubbed with significant fixed and semi-fixed costs of which many cannot be avoided over a short period of time, can amount to the airline industry using up to $61 billion from its cash reserve in the second quarter (Q2) of 2020. This comes after IATA’s impact assessment released earlier, which showed that the industry was looking at a net loss of $39 billion in Q2 2020.

Hardeep Singh Puri, Minister of State (I/C), Civil Aviation, has said that they will be looking at resuming international flight operations on case-by-case basis once the lockdown period is over after April 15, 2020. They will be looking at which countries these flights are coming from. “The Government direction has been very clear that the lockdown is till April 15, and after that we will be considering the resumption of flights on a case-by-case basis. Even flights that will bring Indians back would not be allowed to come, until the lockdown is lifted.”

As part of India’s fight against COVID-19, the Ministry of Civil Aviation has launched ‘Lifeline Udan’ flights for movement of medical and essential supplies across the country and beyond. Under this initiative, 62 Lifeline Udan flights have been operated during the five day period from 26th to 30th March 2020, transporting over 15.4 tons of essential medical supplies. 45 out of the 62 flights have been operated by Air India and Alliance Air. The carriers involved in Lifeline Udan operations include Air India, Alliance Air, Indian Air Force (IAF) and Pawan Hans. Support is being provided by Airports Authority of India (AAI), AAICLAS (cargo and logistics subsidiary of AAI), AI Airports Services (AIASL), PPP airports and private ground handling entities. Private carriers like IndiGo, Spicejet and Blue Dart are operating medical cargo flights on a commercial basis.