Airports Authority of India‏ (AAI) has signed its Annual Performance Contact for FY2019-2020 with the Ministry of Civil Aviation. The MoU specifies various parameters and targets to be delivered during the year. AAI has undertaken an ambitious CAPEX target of Rs 5,160 crore towards the infra-development of airports.

The latest issue of the UNWTO World Tourism Barometer from the World Tourism Organisation shows that international tourism continued to grow over the first quarter of 2019. Though at a slower rate when compared with the last two years, the 4% increase registered in early 2019 is a very positive sign. The Middle East (+8%) and Asia Pacific (+6%) experienced the highest increase in international arrivals. Numbers in both Europe and Africa were up by 4%, and in the Americas growth was recorded at 3%. “International tourism continues to perform strongly worldwide fuelled by a positive economy, increased air capacity and visa facilitation”, says UNWTO Secretary-General, Zurab Pololikashvili. “Growth in arrivals is easing slightly after two years of exceptional results, but the sector continues to outpace the global rate of economic growth.” Europe, the world’s largest tourism region, reported solid growth (+4%), led by destinations in Southern and Mediterranean Europe and Central and Eastern Europe (both +5%). Growth in Africa was driven by the ongoing recovery in North Africa (+11%). In the Americas, the Caribbean (+17%) rebounded strongly after weak results in 2018, following the impact of hurricanes Irma and Maria in late 2017. In Asia and the Pacific, results for the first three months showed a 6% increase led by North-East Asia (+9%) and a very solid performance from the Chinese market. “With this growth comes greater responsibility for translating it into better jobs and better lives”, Pololikashvili stresses. “We need to continue investing in innovation, digital transformation and education so that we can harness the many benefits tourism can bring while at the same time mitigating its impact on the environment and society with a better management of …

Thomas Cook (India) has launched Holiday Basket – an innovative EMI-powered holiday solution, offering Indian travellers inflation-proof credit based holidays. Thomas Cook India’s data reveals an upwards of 30% demand from young travellers between the age group of 25 – 35 years, who believe in instant gratification even in travel; and through the launch of holiday Basket, it aims to tap into these growing aspirational travel demands. According to recent reports, demand for personal loans for travel purposes grew by 55%, out of which 85% are millennials. A recent survey by Thomas Cook India further validated the strong potential of EMIs for travel, reporting a healthy double digit growth in enquiries from customers across various subsets, especially India’s millennials and middle-class segment. Interestingly, Thomas Cook India’s internal data reveals two key insights on travel trends amongst Indians: 1) a growing aspiration to travel twice in a year with one international long haul vacation and one domestic short haul vacation; and 2) the most preferred domestic destinations for a first time traveller include Andaman, Kerala, Ladakh, Goa, Himachal and the North East, and Bhutan, Thailand, Singapore, Mauritius, Dubai, Bali, Phuket, and Sri Lanka, as international choices.

Virgin Atlantic is relaunching flights between London Heathrow and Mumbai, India, with flights on sale from May 28, 2019. The first service is set to commence on October 27, 2019 and will complement the airline’s long-established route between London and Delhi. The daily service will also provide seamless connections via Heathrow between India and the US. The new flights will depart and arrive Heathrow in the morning to align with connecting flows to and from US. The configuration will be 31 Upper Class, 35 Premium, 192 Economy. The Mumbai flights will be operated on Virgin Atlantic’s Boeing 787-9 aircraft, offering customers Upper Class, Premium and Economy Light, Classic and Delight cabins. Virgin Atlantic offers a full-on board service in each of its cabins, providing complimentary food, drink and over 300 hours of entertainment across films, TV and music channels. All of the airline’s 787-9 are fully Wi-Fi enabled.

The Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) has released its 2018 Asia Cruise Industry Ocean Source Market Report, which says that the number of cruise passengers from India has gone up by a solid 28.1 per cent. Peter Kollar, Head of International Training & Development, CLIA, says, “While actual figures of Indian cruise passengers have risen over the past three years, the scale at which this has occurred has been a little askew mainly due to a low base point – in 2017, a total of 172,400 cruise passengers came from India, while in a report released this week commissioned by CLIA, new consolidated figures show that 220,900 Indians cruised in 2018, up a very strong 28.1 per cent.” The report offers an in-depth look at the growth, demographics and trends of the top source markets in Asia, including India. Asia is the third-largest cruise region after North America and Europe. CLIA’s report on the India market states that 80 per cent of Indians cruise in Asia (up 4.7 per cent), with a considerable fly-cruise market out of Singapore. Further afield, 8.4 per cent are sailing in Europe, while nine per cent are cruising to the Americas with the strong allure of Alaska, Caribbean and South America. One of the remarkable figures for India over the past few years is the average age of these passengers. Overall, India boasts one of the youngest markets in the world, with the average age of an ocean cruise passenger being 37 years old. This figure is one that the local industry is well-placed to capitalise on as it allows time for continued exposure of cruising to the Indian public and grow awareness, and is …

AirAsia India aims to start international operations by October this year, confirmed the airline’s Chief Operating Officer, Sanjay Kumar. He said, “Our plan is to first fly to the Southeast Asian market and start with flights to Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur. Our target is that we will fly about 7-8 per cent of our total available seat kilometres to international locations in the first year of operations.” Kumar said while the Indian locations have not been decided, it would be perhaps from Delhi, Bengaluru or Kolkata. The eventual plan is to fly from most of the 19 destinations that it currently flies in and add in another two for international destinations. However, the plan for the second year is to go beyond Southeast Asia to West Asia, China as well as CIS countries in the next phase, which would require about four planes. The CIS countries are Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Ukraine.   The airline, which received its 21st plane recently, is set to double its fleet by April next year, after which it will have 40 Airbus A320 planes. Most of the additional planes will come in the later part of this year and in the beginning of next year and Air Asia is already talking to prospective companies to take aircraft on lease. However, it is expected to add in two more aircraft to the fleet in June and July.  

Goldstone Hotels & Resorts has recently entered the hospitality industry as a boutique management company. The brand already has properties in Dehradun, Shimla, Udaipur, Nahan and Dhanaulti under its umbrella and will further expand to locations like Dharamshala, Manali, Patna, Prayagraj, Bareilly, Amritsar and Ahmedabad.  The brands under Goldstone Hotels and Resorts are- Comfort, Elite, Heritage, Exotic and Luxury. Apart from this, Goldstone Hotels & Resorts also strives to cater to the needs in the Home Stay Service Apartments & Co-living under its brand- Gold Stay’s.

Korean Air has announced that starting June 1, the airline will cease to operate First Class Cabin on Airbus A330-200 which operates on Delhi (KE 482/KE 481) and Mumbai (KE 656/KE 655) routes. The airline has a total of six first-class cabins, which will be discontinued starting next month. As per the revised configuration, the airline will only have two-class configuration on both the Delhi and Mumbai routes. The business class seats would increase from 24 to 30 and the economy class cabin would remain to have 188 seats. The statement from Korean Air also informed that the above mentioned aircraft and routes, ‘the two-class configuration’ will also be implemented on several other aircraft and routes including Toronto, Vancouver, Brisbane, Auckland, Nadi, and Vladivostok.  

KLM,  the flag carrier airline of the Netherlands, will add one extra frequency between Amsterdam (AMS) and Mumbai (BOM) on Thursdays, starting from 2 September 2019. As of 30 September 2019, KLM will add another frequency on Wednesdays, making a total of five flights per week. All additional flights will be operated by a Boeing 787 Dreamliner. The flight schedule of the additional flights is as follows: KL 877 AMS d. 12:15  BOM a. 00:05+1 KL 878 BOM d. 02:20  AMS a. 08:00  

The Ministry of Tourism, Government of India will organise Incredible India Roadshows in the US and Canada and Africa in June and July 2019 respectively as per following schedule: USA & Canada Roadshows; June 24, 2019- Washington DC, June 25- Boston, June 26-Vancouver, June 27- Seattle, June 28-San Francisco and Africa Roadshows; July 01-Johannesburg, July 03-Durban and July 05-Port Louis. A high-level delegation from the ministry will accompany them, details of the same will come forth in due course. All trade and hospitality associations have been requested to circulate the above schedule for the roadshows and forward consolidated list of confirmed participants to the Tourism Ministry for necessary action.