Aircraft-manufacturer Boeing has suspended production of the 737 MAX planes starting January 2020 following an extension in the certification moving into 2020 and uncertainty about the timing and conditions for a return to service of the aircraft, said a company statement. The company added that it has around 400 aeroplanes in storage and would prioritise the delivery of these aircraft. In India, SpiceJet ordered as many as 205 of these planes in 2017, of which 13 have been delivered. The planes are, however, grounded due to the ongoing FAA safety review. SpiceJet is the only major Indian airline with the 737 Max in its fleet. Boeing’s decision on the 737 MAX is expected to pose further problems not only for SpiceJet but also for other airlines worldwide, which have lost huge sums of money due to thousands of cancelled flights and inability to use the fuel-efficient planes in their fleet.

Countries including the US, UK, Canada, Russia, UAE, Israel, Singapore have issued a travel advisory for its citizens, who are heading to or are in India currently. The advisory comes in the wake of ongoing protests that are taking place in several parts of the country owing to the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA). The advisory notified the citizens to stay away from crowded places and areas controlled by protesters. It also advised them to remain to be vigilant and cautious get in touch with the embassy for any additional information. All these countries have also advised their citizens to avoid “non-essential” travel to North-eastern states of the country including Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Nagaland due to the protests.

IndiGo has achieved the feat of having 1500 daily departures across its network of 83 domestic and international destinations. IndiGo expanded its operations to 11 domestic and 8 international new destinations inclusive of multiple exclusive and virgin routes, increasing its portfolio by 22 percent, between January to December 2019. Ronojoy Dutta, CEO, IndiGo said, “We are very pleased to be the first Indian airline to touch 1500 daily departures, with one flight taking off every minute. The simple philosophy of offering low fares and on-time, courteous, hassle-free service has been the foundation of IndiGo’s growth and unparalleled network in India. Flying over 2,50,000 customers every day, we are on a mission to promote trade, tourism and economic growth by increasing mobility and accessibility across the length and breadth of the country”.

Domestic air passenger traffic for November was fastest in 2019, carrying 12.95 million people in November, up 11.2% year-on-year, revealed Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). This was the fastest growth recorded since December last year. This growth can be attributed to SpiceJet, which carried two million passengers in the month, a jump of 43% year-on-year. IndiGo, on the other hand carried six million passengers, up 21%. GoAir’s passenger traffic increased 39.5% to 1.4 million, while that of Air India increased by 10% to 1.5 million. The recent data revealed that passengers carried by domestic airlines during Jan-Nov 2019 were 1311.54 lakhs as against 1262.83 lakhs during the corresponding period of previous year hereby registering annual growth of 3.86%.

India has steadily moved up the ranking in World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business report to rank 63 in 2019 compared to 142nd rank in 2014, reveals the ‘Ease of doing business – India Hospitality Sector’ report by HVS. India has also been ranked as one of the top 10 improvers across 190 countries, mentions the report.

During the month of November, 2019, a total of 3,75,484 tourist arrived on e-Tourist Visa as compared to 2,61,959 during the month of November, 2018 registering a growth of 43.3%. During January- November 2019, a total of 25,51,211 tourist arrived on e-Tourist Visa as compared to 20,61,511 during January- November 2018, registering a growth of 23.8%. The percentage shares of top 15 source countries availing e-Tourist Visa facilities during November, 2019 were highest from UK (12.22%), followed by USA (10.75%), China (8.06%), Russian Fed (7.85%), Malaysia (5.71%), France (4.61%),Germany (4.60%), Australia (4.16%), Canada (3.85%), Thailand (3.25%), Italy (2.32%), Singapore (1.87%), Spain (1.64%), Vietnam (1.50%) and Israel (1.40%).

US-based Delta Air Lines will restart its Mumbai-New York JFK non-stop, daily flight service from December 24, 2019. The airline is starting the flight after a decade as it used to fly this route till 2009. Its last flight in India, connecting Mumbai and Amsterdam, was in 2015. The relaunched flight will take off at 12.55 am from Mumbai on December 24, on a renovated Boeing 777-200LR aircraft and will land at New York’s JFK airport, 16 hours later. Jimmy Eichelgruen, Director- Sales for Africa, Middle East and Indian subcontinent, Delta Air Lines was in Mumbai recently to announce this. He said, “Delta’s return to India will ensure that Mumbai is even better connected to the United States. There will be 14 flights per week and the flying time will be 16 hours.” The airline has an existing interline agreement with Air India and has just established an interline agreement with Vistara. “We will first develop and establish out interline agreements with Indian airlines and once they are stabilized, we will explore codeshare,” Eichelgruen adds. Delta earlier had a codeshare agreement with Jet Airways which suspended operations in April 2019.

GIFT city developed with India’s first intelligent and green infrastructure has welcomed its first international hotel with Grand Mercure Gandhinagar GIFT city. Located on the bank of the Sabarmati river, GIFT city connects Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar in Gujarat. The nine-floor hotel features 151 guest rooms and six meeting rooms. “We are extremely happy to launch Grand Mercure Gandhinagar GIFT city, the first international branded hotel, in the foremost operational smart city of the country. With the support of Brigade Group, we have successfully established three Grand Mercure properties in the country and look forward to collaborating for more hotels going forward,” said Jean-Michel Casse, COO, India & South Asia, Accor.

According to the data released by the Ministry of Tourism, Government, Foreign Tourist Arrival (FTA) in India has registered a growth of 7.8 per cent in the month of November 2019 in compared to the same month last year. FTAs in November 2019 were 10,91,946 as compared to 10,12,569 in November 2018 registering a growth of 7.8 per cent. Whereas, FTAs during the period January- November 2019 were 96,69,633 as compared to 93,66,478 in January- November 2018 registering a growth of 3.2 per cent.

Amitabh Kant, CEO, Niti Aayog in New Delhi has said that tourism is one of the most pampered sectors by the government. He also said that if India has to become a $5 trillion economy by 2025, the tourism sector can be the biggest driver of India’s growth and jobs generations. Sharing his views during the CII Annual Tourism Summit, he said, “ The government has taken right policy decisions as far as promoting tourism is concerned. We have done every possible thing in that direction. The tourism sector has got such a pampered treatment by the government whether it be for a reduction of GST on hotel accommodation tariffs or the reforms in the e-Visa regime. No other sector in the country has received such progressive reforms by the government.” He also said that if growth has to take place with jobs, which India requires, tourism has to be the key sector to drive both growth and jobs. “Tourism has immense multiplier impact in the economy but its impact as far as direct and indirect job creation is concerned, is truly formidable. Therefore, if there’s one sector which greatly creates jobs, it is the tourism sector and that’s what India needs, growth with jobs,” he said. He further said, “But, I am also a believer that tourism is essentially a private sector with stakeholders such as tour operators, tour guide, transport operator, hotels, airlines involved. Therefore, if tourism in India has to grow, the private sector in tourism will have to be the key driver of growth. The government at best can be the catalyst. Secondly, it’s not the numbers of tourist which is critical, I believe that unit …