Category Archives: Aviation

India Government will commence bidding for UDAN under round four of the regional connectivity scheme. The next phase of UDAN is expected to include routes vacated by Jet Airways such as Allahabad-Lucknow, Allahabad-Patna, Delhi-Ozar, Allahabad-Indore, Nagpur-Allahabad among others. Bids are also likely to be invited for routes cancelled by airlines like Zoom Air, Air Odisha, Deccan Charter etc, those which did not get any bids in the last round of the regional connectivity scheme and a large number of routes of north-eastern region will also find place in the upcoming bidding round, sources said.

Civil Air Terminal at Hindon Airport has recently commenced its commercial flight operations, Pithoragarh-Hindon. Air Heritage will be operating on this route. However, Star Air has also announced that they will operate flights for Hubli-Hindon-Hubli with effect from 6 November. Star Air will fly EMB-145 (Jet engine), a 50-seater aircraft on this route.

Airports Authority of India (AAI) and GMR group could turn competitors as the bidding process for the Greater Noida airport begins. Official sources said the AAI is in the process of taking legal opinion for placing its bid for the proposed international airport in the national capital region (NCR). It is also consulting the parent Civil Aviation Ministry on the plan and is confident of getting the go-ahead.

AirAsia India has announced that it will start daily flight on Delhi-Jaipur route from October 20. The flight will depart from Delhi airport at 10.35 am and will arrive in Jaipur at 11.45 am. The return flight will depart at 12.15 pm from Jaipur and will arrive at 1.25 pm at Delhi airport.

India slipped to the fourth position in domestic air passenger traffic in August with passenger volume growing 3.7% in the month over the period year-ago, IATA data show. The average global demand for domestic travel, however, climbed 4.7 per cent in the month under review compared to August last year. China witnessed the highest air travel demand at 10.1 per cent in August followed by Russia, which logged 6 per cent growth during the month.

In a communique sent to all airlines, DGCA has stated, “Domestic carriers should make all efforts to send SMS in case there is a delay in flight beyond 30 minutes or a boarding gate change has taken place at the airport.” The regulator has asked the travel agents to share the mobile number of passengers with the airlines for ease in sending flight information updates.

The domestic passenger traffic is forecasted to grow six to eight per cent this fiscal. According to the CRISIL Research, Low Cost Carriers (LCCs), on their part, are expected to post strong double-digit growth of 25-30 per cent in passenger traffic for fiscal 2020. The traffic forecast assumes capacity, in terms of available seat kilometres (ASKM), increase of more than 45 per cent and 30 per cent by SpiceJet and Indigo, and 15-20 per cent by the rest of the players, including Go Air, AirAsia (India) and Vistara. The capacity addition of players is supported by deregistration of aircraft of Jet Airways, which were under operating lease (accounting for about 85 per cent of the airline’s fleet) and re-leasing them to players such as SpiceJet and Vistara.

The Ministry of Civil Aviation has approved Alliance Air plan to launch foreign operations by starting flights to Sri Lanka even as the airline’s parent Air India remains on top of the government’s disinvestment agenda. Alliance Air has been allowed to operate 7 flights a week from Chennai to Palaly and Batticaloa in Sri Lanka. The move has triggered speculation among Air India employees that government may not sell Alliance Air

The Indian Railways’ plan to rope in private players to run its trains has drawn the attention of few airlines as well as travel portal MakeMyTrip, said sources in the Ministry of Railways. Two big players from the catering sector have also shown interest, said sources. Under this public-private partnership (PPP) model, railways remains the owner of the train, while an outsider takes care of ticketing, catering and cleaning. The overwhelming response from the biggies has prompted the rail ministry to put the plan on the fast track. It will soon finalise the terms and conditions for private players to operate the trains before calling for bids. “This has been conveyed to the interested parties,” said a source. Source: PTI

In a recent update, Air India has announced that it will commence direct flight to London’s Stansted Airport. Fliers can now fly to Amritsar from three Airports of UK. The flights will operate thrice a week from October 31. The airline has also geared up to launch another non-stop flight to Nairobi from November 27 and Doha from October 29.