From January- July 2019, a total of 15,34,293 tourist arrived on e-Tourist Visa as compared to 12,68,077 during January-July 2018, registering a growth of 21.0%, according to Ministry of Tourism (MOT). During the month of July, 2019 total of 1,77,084 tourist arrived on e-Tourist Visa as compared to 1,58,337 during the month of July, 2018 registering a growth of 11.8%. The percentage shares of top 15 ports in tourist arrivals on e-Tourist Visa during July, 2019 were highest from New Delhi Airport (38.5%) followed by Mumbai Airport (17.4%), Chennai Airport (10.8%), Bengaluru Airport (10.4%), Hyderabad Airport (5.3%), Kochi Airport (4.9%), Tirchy Airport (2.9%), Kolkata Airport (2.4%), Ahmedabad Airport (1.6%), Trivandrum Airport (1.1%), Calicut Airport (1.1%), Amritsar Airport (1.0%), Jaipur Airport (0.5%), Dabolim (Goa) Airport (0.4%), Coimbatore Airport (0.3%) and Sonauli Land Checkpost (0.3%).

Bird Travels has been appointed as the GSA for Somon Air in India. Somon Air is a private airlines based in Dushanbe, Tajikistan. Bird Travels will soon be launching online operations from Delhi to Dushanbe (subject to government approval).

Ashwani Lohani, CMD, Air India, revealed that Air India Group operates 159 aircraft and commenced new/increased frequencies at 83 domestic and 51 international destinations, and established 35 UDAN routes in the last 5 years. The revenues have grown from Rs.16,000 crore during 2012-13 to Rs.23,900 crore in 2017-18 while the passenger load factor has increased from 72% to 79.6%. Air India has record number of women pilots i.e. 11% of total strength of pilots compared to average 2-3% even in advanced countries.

The third season of the eight-city show Global Panorama Showcase (GPS) concluded with a resounding success in Pune city. The b2b session on August 30 saw a full house with exhibitors interacting with top agents from Pune and surrounding cities of Maharashtra like Nashik, Aurangabad and Kolhapur even. Speaking some of the new announcements, Harmandeep Singh Anand, Managing Director, GPS, said, “We are happy to announce the new dates for our next season of GPS Nagpur which is January 27-28, 2020. We have had a fantastic 2018 and we will soon announce our dates for EcoConnect for all four cities of Jaipur, Indore, Guwahati, and Vizag. We have also announced an exciting Edwin with Trulyy India to Rajasthan and Gujarat in December 2019. After that we will do Edwins to Oman and Zanzibar. “

The Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) has said that it will make body scanners mandatory at all major airports in next one year. It has also said that all airport across the country will have body scanners in the next two years. The BCAS is an attached office of the Ministry of Civil Aviation and the regulatory authority for civil aviation security. A full-body scanner is a device used to scan an individual’s body for security screening without making any physical contact. A full-body scanner is a device used to scan an individual’s body for security screening without making any physical contact. However, passing through the body scanner for the passengers will be purely voluntarily and those with implants, medical conditions, pregnant women will be frisked manually and through metal detectors. “Since the nature of threat is changing a lot of technological upgrade is happening in terms of aviation security. We have ordered installations of body scanners as normal scanners cannot detect trace of plastic explosives and other threat material,” said Jyoti Narayan, Joint Director General, BCAS. He added that radiation detection systems have already been launched to check cargo for CBR and plastic explosives. The official said that the BCAS is taking several other steps to ensure smooth movement of passengers at the airports without risking security. For instance, new CTX machines are being installed at airports to prevent passengers from taking out laptops and liquid from hand baggage during security scan.

Hardeep Singh Puri, Minister of State (I/C) for Civil Aviation, Housing & Urban Affairs and Minister of State for Commerce & Industry,  launched an aviation job portal for people looking for jobs in this sector. Puri revealed that the portal aims to provide a common platform for job seekers to register their job interests across various civil aviation sub-sectors. “Aviation Jobs portal is a unique initiative to harness the growth potential of the aviation sector to contribute to employment and re-employment in skilled aviation jobs in India. Both candidates and employers would be able to access a wider choice. Candidates will be able to seek job opportunities matching their profiles. Employers will be able to shortlist those suitable to serve their HR requirements as per their company policy through an online medium,” he added. Prospective Employers, who have completed their KYC under the Ministry of Corporate Affairs MCA-21 database would be eligible to register themselves on the portal. The portal can be accessed at the following link: http://aviationjobs.co.in/available on the website of the Ministry. Aviation Jobs makes no recommendations regarding employers. Job seekers and employers are encouraged to perform their verifications when applying for or accepting employment offers.

Going with the PM’s vision to encourage environment-friendly products, national carrier, Air India, has announced ban on usage of single-use plastic on the flights of its subsidiaries, Air India Express and Alliance Air, from October 2. “Air India is going to ban single-use plastic from October 2. In first phase it will implement in all flights of Air India Express and Alliance Air flights. In 2nd phase, it will be implemented in Air India flights,” an Air India spokesperson said. For special meals that are ordered and paid for by passengers in advance, the crew of Alliance Air and Air India Express will only use eco-friendly birch wood cutlery from October 2, the spokesperson added. Source: PTI

Travel Luxury Show 2019 is scheduled from September 14-15, 2019 at the Crowne Plaza Jaipur. The show promises 60 prefixed one-one-one meetings with the most sought after luxury buyers. The show will connect sellers to the travel trade luxury buyers across India, targeting Tier-II and Tier-III cities.

Travstarz Cruises, the cruise division of Travstarz Global Group, along with Dream Cruises organised a product presentation for travel agents and tour operators in New Delhi. Attended by around 150 agents, the presentation was followed by a networking cocktail and dinner. Pankaj Nagpal, MD and CEO, TravStarz Global Group, said that after starting their cruise division in November 2018, they have seen a great demand for cruise products and since they are the PSAs for Dream Cruises, they wanted to update the members about different products in their portfolio. He insisted that the last season for cruises was quite good and they are hoping to increase it further going forward.

A Reserve Bank of India (RBI) report has revealed that Indian travellers have spent record amount of forex abroad in the first quarter of financial year 2019. With travel topping the chart for being the prime reason for buying/spending forex, followed by education, maintenance of close relatives and gifts. International travel cost the country US$1.6 billion out of the total US$4.2 billion forex purchased by Indians in Q1 (April-June 2019). There’s a 42 per cent increase from the US$1 billion spent on international travel out of a total US$ 3 billion spent done during April-June 2018. RBI’s numbers show that of the total US$13.8 billion spent by Indians in Financial Year 2018-2019, US$ 4.8 billion (35%) was on travel, US$ 3.6 billion (26%) on education, followed by US$ 2.8 billion (20%) for maintenance of close relatives and nearly US$ 1.4 billion on gifts to the relatives overseas. The sector that has crashed in terms of overseas spending is purchase of property or equity investments. According to World Tourism Organization, Indians are spending more than twice the amount on international travel as per June 2019, as opposed to what they spent in 2017. The numbers of Indians already having travelling overseas so far this year is close to 5 crore; quite a hike from the 2.4 crore Indians who travelled abroad in 2017.