Tag Archives: Mumbai

In its endeavour to recognise the fast growth of the aviation sector, the Ministry of Civil Aviation and the Airports Authority of India in collaboration with the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI), has announced the Global Aviation Summit, with an overarching theme of ‘Flying for all – especially for the next 6 billion’. Supported by ICAO, IATA, ACI and CANSO, the Summit will be held on January 15 and 16, 2019 at The Grand Hyatt in Mumbai. It aims to focus on the celebration of ‘Flying for All’ and to provide a platform to the aviation fraternity to highlight the challenges of the sector in the newly-developing growth spots. The Summit provides a platform to the stakeholders to brainstorm over the future of the aviation industry and identify the growth areas. Speaking at the announcement of the Global Aviation Summit, Suresh Prabhu, Minister of Civil Aviation and Commerce & Industry said, “The reason behind hosting the Global Aviation Summit here is because India is one of the fastest-growing aviation markets in the world. This Summit will provide a platform to the global aviation fraternity to display the challenges of the sector in the newly-developing growth spots and understand how technology-driven innovation will shape the air travel industry in India.” More than 1,000 delegates, 80 plus speakers, 50 plus CEOs of airports and airlines, 30 plus exhibitors, transport ministers from 35 countries and 35 regulators (DGCAs/Civil aviation authorities from different countries) from the global aviation fraternity are going to participate.

Jazeera Airways has announced the launch of its services to New Delhi from December 15. The airline, which commenced operations in India last year, currently flies to Hyderabad, Mumbai, Kochi and Ahmedabad from the Gulf nation. The airline has also announced special one-way fare starting from Rs 10,599 for an Economy Class journey and Rs 19,146 for Business Class travel on the new route. Rohit Ramachandran, Chief Executive Officer, Jazeera Airways, said, “The introduction of services to New Delhi and the expansion of network will bring more choice to travellers to and from India, connecting them to Kuwait and other cities in the Gulf and the Middle East that are served within the airline’s network.” Source: PTI

Beginning December 2018, Jet Airways will introduce 18 additional flights on select destinations such as Bangkok, Kathmandu and Singapore in ASEAN as well as Doha and Dubai in the Gulf. Further, it will soon add a third daily frequency to Bangkok and Singapore each from Delhi and a third daily service to Singapore from Mumbai. Additional frequencies will also be introduced to the Gulf, strengthening the airline’s status as one of the largest carriers to/ from the region. December will see the introduction of second daily services connecting Mumbai and Delhi with Doha respectively. The addition of a seventh daily frequency between Mumbai and Dubai will also make Jet Airways the only airline to offer unparalleled 24-hour connectivity to the Gulf’s favourite destination with maximum number of daily services. Apart from it, the carrier will offer a fourth daily frequency between Delhi and Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal. Jet Airways also continues to augment its domestic connectivity at these hubs, and will increase operations between Mumbai and Amritsar to daily frequencies, and add a fourth daily frequency on the Delhi-Amritsar route in December. These steps are in addition to new services already introduced at the beginning of winter schedule, including new flights on the Delhi & Bangalore-Vadodara routes, increased frequencies in the Mumbai-Guwahati and Mumbai-Patna markets and an enhancement of capacity from ATR to 737 operations on the Delhi-Jodhpur route. Raj Sivakumar, Senior Vice President – Worldwide Sales & Distribution, Jet Airways, said, “The strategy will enable Jet Airways to offer extensive connectivity via Mumbai to most of its network in south and west India. Similarly, new services to Delhi will offer seamless connectivity to the north and east of …

Air India will introduce three-times-a-week non-stop service between New York’s JFK International Airport and Mumbai, effective December 7, 2018. The flights will depart at 11:05 am from JFK on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday on 777-300ER planes. They will arrive in Mumbai at 12:10 pm the following day. To celebrate the launch of the only non-stop flight between JFK and Mumbai, Air India is offering special fares on the new route, from December 9, 2018 to May 11, 2019. All flights from the USA feature first, business and economy class and a choice of Continental or Indian cuisine. With the current JFK-Delhi daily service, the new flights bring non-stop JFK-India service to 10 flights a week, while increasing total non-stop services from the US to India to 36, nationwide. These include daily non-stop services from Newark (EWR) to Mumbai and Chicago (ORD) to Delhi, thrice weekly services from Washington (IAD) to Delhi, and nine times weekly flights from San Francisco (SFO) to Delhi. All flights offer convenient connections from the US to major cities across India, including Bangalore, Amritsar, Hyderabad, Chennai, Pune and more. Bhuvana Rao, Regional Head- Americas, Air India, said, “The additional New York to Mumbai non-stop service reflects the growing popularity of India as a business and leisure destination. Our flights are also among the most convenient for passengers travelling beyond Mumbai and Delhi, with customs and immigration formalities completed at the final destination on select connecting flights to major cities across India.”

Sarova Hotels & Resorts recently kick-started its four-city workshop in India, starting off with Delhi. Stakeholders, travel agents and policy makers attended the product presentation in the capital. Representatives of the hotel gave a detailed product presentation on the group’s properties across Kenya. After Delhi, the workshop will be held in Mumbai, Bangalore and Ahmedabad. The delegation also interacted with agents and shared insights on how to promote Sarova Hotels & Game Lodges to Indian leisure travellers and MiCE groups. According to figures released by the Ministry of Tourism on the state of Kenyan tourism in 2017, international arrivals hit 1.47 million in 2017, up from 1.34 million the previous year. The Indian market contributed to 6.2 per cent of these arrivals, as the fourth largest source market; behind the United States of America, United Kingdom and Uganda. “Sarova has been a well-known brand in terms of luxury, cuisine and the quality of services it has to offer for all travel segments be it leisure, MiCE or wedding groups. International arrivals have been on a steady growth since 2015, and the Indian market has been one of the fastest growing source markets. Our four-city roadshow in India gives us a better standing in the industry in tapping into this source market”, says Selina Dima, Travel Trade Manager—Global Sales, Sarova Hotels and Resorts, Kenya. Sarova Hotels has a keen understanding of social and cultural nuances of India that helps them to curate services tailored for guests from the Indian subcontinent.  

Air China recently organised a networking event for its agent partners in Mumbai to award the top performers. It presented a total of 19 awards acknowledging 16 agencies and three airport service companies. Present at the occasion were Subhash Goyal, Chairperson, Stic Travel Group, that distributes the airline in the western, southern and eastern region of India, along with Shao Jun, General Manager, Air China, Mumbai office. The event was followed by cocktails and dinner. Speaking about the new initiatives, Goyal said, “We had conducted a familiarisation tour for our agent partners in 2016 and 2017, offering them all Indian meals to give them an idea of what we are capable of offering our Indian passengers. We plan to conduct another such tour this year as well. We see tourism and trade as the growth drivers for air traffic between India and China. The number of Chinese tourists visiting in India has been low because of visa restrictions but we hope it will increase now with the introduction of e-visa scheme. Also, trade and industrial exhibitions in China are an attraction for Indian companies and we see a lot of Indian businessmen visiting the country.”

Tourism Australia has introduced a second tier to its specialist program in India with the introduction of the Premier Aussie Specialist Program. Membership in the Premier Aussie Specialist category is an acknowledgement of the destination expertise, insider knowledge and strong ties with the Australian travel industry of Aussie Specialist agents with an established record of selling Australia. As part of the launch, 70 agents from across cities like Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chandigarh, Chennai, Coimbatore, Delhi, Ludhiana, Mumbai and Pune have been inducted into the Premier Aussie Specialist Program in India. The programme offers professional validation for retail agents selling Australian holidays to discerning consumers. As part of the membership, Premier Aussie Specialists are invited to attend exclusive travel industry workshops, market updates and training events hosted by Tourism Australia and Australia’s States and Territories. Speaking at the launch, John O’Sullivan, Managing Director, Tourism Australia said, “The Premier Aussie Specialist Program seeks to recognise the invaluable advocacy that travel advisors, who have been selling Australian holidays for many years, deliver for the destination. This group of elite agents are important contributors to our efforts to make Australia a destination of choice for travellers from India and it is a proud moment for us to congratulate and show our appreciation to these industry friends for their incredible passion and dedication to selling Australia.” Tourism Australia’s distribution strategy for India includes an enriched trade engagement programme. As one of the pioneers of the online destination training, Tourism Australia’s Aussie Specialist Program has recruited more than 2,981 travel agents across India.

With an average load factor exceeding 80 per cent and the increased demand on Air India’s New Delhi-Tel Aviv flight services, the national carrier has added a fifth weekly flight starting November 26, 2018. The airline will now fly five days a week including Monday in addition to Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday on the 256-seater Boeing 787 Dreamliner. The aircraft departs from New Delhi at 16:50 pm and arrives in Tel Aviv at 20:45 pm (local time). On its return leg, the flight departs from Tel Aviv at 22:15 pm and lands in Delhi on the following day at 8:15 am. In addition to Air India’s announcement, Israeli carrier El Al has introduced a new Boeing 777-200ER aircraft on its Mumbai-Tel Aviv route. The new airplane has a capacity of 279 seats in a four-class configuration of First, Business, Economy Plus and Economy. El Al is the only airline currently servicing the direct Mumbai-Tel Aviv sector with three weekly non-stop flights. The aircraft departs at 12:20 pm every Sunday, Monday and Thursday from Mumbai and arrives in Tel Aviv at 16:50 pm (local time). On its return leg, the plane departs from Tel Aviv at 20:15 pm every Saturday and Sunday to land in Mumbai on the following day at 7:30 am. On Thursdays, the flight takes off at 8:30 am from Tel Aviv to reach Mumbai at 19:45 pm. These announcements have come at a time when Israel Ministry of Tourism has recorded a growth of 58 per cent with 48,800 Indian arrivals to the country from January to September 2018 vis-à-vis 30,800 Indian visitors during the same period in 2016.

Air Italy has announced its entry into the Indian market, offering services from Delhi and Mumbai to Milan effective December 7 and December 14, 2018 respectively. Connecting Italy to two of the main business destinations in Asia, India will be the fourth international addition to the Air Italy network after the successful launch of its operations to New York, Miami and Bangkok from its new hub in Milan-Malpensa. Rossen Dimitrov, Chief Operating Officer, Air Italy said, “We look forward to the connection between Italy and two of the main business and tourist destinations in Asia – Mumbai and New Delhi. With the launch of our India operations in December, we are excited to offer newer routes and a wider travel option to the discerning travelers from India. Our new service will increase convenience for business guests, leisure travellers as well as students, travelling between India and Italy, further strengthening commerce as well as tourism ties between the two countries.” With the addition of the two new routes, Air Italy offers travellers a range of both domestic and international connectivity options from the airline’s hub and access to exclusive destinations. Passengers travelling from India to Milan will benefit from convenient connections via Malpensa to Italian key cities and destinations. Airbus A330-200 will be deployed for the two new routes from India to Milan, operating thrice a week from both cities.

Jumeirah Hotels and Resorts recently conducted roadshows in Bengaluru, Mumbai and Delhi to strengthen the brand’s ties with the Indian travel-trade fraternity. The roadshow was held to further strengthen their relations with the trade and also to introduce the newly-opened properties by the brand – Zabeel House by Jumeirah. Around 18 Jumeirah properties participated in the roadshow, which was attended by over 140 agents in each city. The India market has witnessed a considerable rise in outbound luxury travel in recent years. The group is focusing on expanding and consolidating their ties with the luxury travel segment to reach out to a larger audience and gain a higher market share. The road show serves as a platform to increase brand awareness and gain new consumers. The event was a huge success as the guests were entertained with an hour of stand-up comedy by popular comedian Atul Khatri.