The latest IATA Economics Chart of the Week states that with favourable forecasts in income per capita and population, there has been continued development in India’s air transport where the market appears positive, despite the recent disruption. “This is consistent with our long-term passenger forecast which expects the growth in India to propel it to the world’s 3rd largest air transport market by the mid-2020s,” says report.

Guruprasad Mohapatra, Chairman, Airports Authority of India (AAI) has said that the government is working on a proposal to privatise 20-25 airports, managed and operated by the authority and a final decision will soon be taken. “We have privatised six airports recently. We are now planning to privatise 20-25 airports in next phase with an expectation that there will be a significant participation by foreign airports. The Airports Authority of India is in the process of identifying airports with annual passenger traffic of 1-1.5 million. We will recommend them to the Ministry of Civil Aviation and they will take a final decision,” said Mohapatra in a press briefing.   Explaining about the planning related to the second round of privatisation, he said, “What we have done is we have appointed a consultant to understand relative attractiveness of various airports for private sector investments. It is open for everyone to bid. There are tremendous possibilities. With this (success in first round), I am sure that in the next round of privatisation we do, I am hoping to see a lot of foreign airports participating in it.”   In November last year, the government had decided to privatise airports in Lucknow, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Mangaluru, Thiruvananthapuram, and Guwahati for operation, management and development through public-private partnership (PPP) model.  

Amatra Hotels and Resorts has launched two properties in Haridwar and Mussoorie, Uttarakhand. The company is also looking to have 3,000 rooms and inventory of over 45 hotels in the next 3 years across strategic locations in India. In India, the company is looking to acquire properties in Goa, Rajasthan, Kerala, Delhi, Himachal Pradesh and few other leisure locations across the country. In 2019, it plans to add five hotels to increase its total tally to 7 hotels. “We are launching these two properties in India with a clear focus to provide unmatched and distinct luxury in India, which is affordable for the masses. As we create a different league of identity for us in luxury hospitality, travellers will witness many firsts in this segment. We are also looking to acquire properties in other regions across India and will launch few more properties this year,” Sabry Salahudeen, Chief Growth Officer, Amatra Hotels said. The resort chain offers value for money offerings in the leisure category with handpicked properties in key destinations across the leisure landscape of India.

The Hotel Monitor 2020 by American Express Global Business Travel (GBT), predicts that hotel prices in most key cities will experience only modest rises in 2020. Bengaluru is one of the top business destinations in India. Demand from business travellers will lead to rise in room rates by 5% in 2020, even as supply grows at double-digit rates. Ashish Kishore, Managing Director at American Express Global Business Travel India, said “India is leading the way in global technology advancements, which we’re seeing through the increase of business travel opportunities to Bangalore.” Joakim Johansson, Vice President, Global Business Consulting at GBT, said: “Despite signs that the global economy is facing challenges, the number of people travelling for business and leisure continues to grow. But, in most cities, a full hotel development pipeline means this sustained level of demand will not feed into big rate rises.”

In the wake of protests at Hong Kong International Airport, several countries including Japan, South Korea, Ireland, Canada and UK have issued an advisory to passengers travelling to Hong Kong. This protest is to draw attention of international visitors to a controversial extradition bill. Reports indicate demonstrations are likely to continue to take place in Hong Kong over the weekend. The local police has granted approval for the rally at the airport, but banned another protest planned for Sunday in Yuen Long. However, the organisers of this weekend’s protest said they would go ahead with their march despite the ban.

In a bid to keep Kerala’s prime tourist spots plastic and garbage free, Kadakampally Surendran, Minister for Tourism, Co-operation and Devaswoms, Government of Kerala, launched the ‘Clean Kerala Initiative’ piloted by Responsible Tourism (RT) Mission in co-operation with stakeholders in the tourism sector. Flagging off the project and a two-day workshop at Chaithram Hotel in Thiruvananthapuram, he lauded the role of RT Mission in rejuvenating the tourism sector by promoting good practices. “If we want to attract tourists, we have to create beautiful and hygienic destinations. So, we have to effectively implement the plastic and garbage-free mission. Local bodies, by associating with RT, can play a vital role as we need scientific intervention by adopting paper bags, cloth bags, glass bottles, etc,” he said. Nine destinations – Kovalam, Munnar, Alappuzha, Kumarakom, Wayanad, Fort Kochi, Kollam, Thekkady, and Bakel have been identified for implementation of the new project in the first phase from a list of 21 destinations. The project will take these tourist centres to a Green certification platform by making them the focus of eco-friendly and responsible tourism activities. “The government’s policy is that the development of tourism will be ensured by giving priority to the interests of people and due consideration to the environment. One can’t ignore the tremendous impact created by RT Mission in achieving this goal,” the Minister pointed out.

Ethiopian Airlines has opened reservation for its new route in India- Bengaluru which will operate four times a week on Boeing 737-800. The airline will operate on Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday at 11 PM, local time and will reach Bengaluru the next day at 8 AM, IST. The new route is expected to increase more tourists travelling from Africa directly and will help connect flights to Europe and beyond.

The overall cancellation rate of scheduled domestic airlines for June 2019 has been 0.59 per cent, according to DGCA. Air Deccan recorded highest cancellations at 18.67 per cent, while the least were with IndiGo at 0.10 per cent. TruJet recorded 2.64 per cent and Air Asia was at 2.33 per cent. Vistara was at 1.11 per cent followed by Air India at 1.07 and SpiceJet at 0.58. GoaAir had only 0.22 per cent cancellations in June.

Union Civil Aviation Minister, Hardeep Singh Puri has informed in Lok Sabha that India’s civil aviation sector is experiencing dynamic growth and air passenger traffic on an annual basis is expected to touch 1 billion in the coming years. Currently, the number of air passengers on an annual basis is around 345 million. He also informed that government has taken a decision to privatise six airports, including at Lucknow and Ahmedabad. Out of the six, three have been awarded to Adani group and issues related to two others have been resolved. Earlier this month, the Cabinet approved leasing out Ahmedabad, Lucknow and Mangaluru airports to Adani group.   In 2018, the government decided to lease out airports at Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Lucknow, Guwahati, Mangaluru and Thiruvanathapuram. All the six airports were won through bidding by Adani group.

A total of 11,097 keys for midscale hotels were signed in 2018, as compared to 9052 keys in 2017 and 9284 keys in 2016, revealed a report by HVS ANAROCK. The report stated that the value-driven volume customer, seeking a full- service hotel continues to drive the growth in midscale space, leaving far behind the branded economy segment, which is yet to fully find its footing in the Indian market. To add further fuel to fire, the relatively new-kids-on-the-block and considered to be outliers, such as Oyo, Treebo and Fabhotels have very quickly come to dominate the economy segment, setting the goal post a further drift for the mainstream brands.