Lion Group’s Malaysian affiliate, Malindo Air, will start its Varanasi operations from July 18. Boeing 737-800 will be deployed on this route which will operate three times a week- Thursday, Saturday and Tuesday. Malindo will be the only airline serving Varanasi from Kuala Lumpur. Right now, Malindo serves destinations like Amritsar, Bengaluru, Delhi, Kochi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Trivandrum and Tiruchirappalli etc. India has been an important market for Malindo since shortly after the airline launched.

In a bid to strengthen its connectivity, GoAir has announced 28 additional flights, starting April 26, offering passengers multiple FlySmart options. The new flights will be connecting 12 destinations, namely, Mumbai (8 flights), Delhi (7), Nagpur (3), Ahmedabad (2), Goa (1), Chandigarh (1), Ranchi (1), Jaipur (1), Lucknow (1), Patna (1), Pune (1) and Kochi (1). The new flights for the first time are: Delhi-Nagpur-Delhi and Delhi-Kochi-Delhi. The 28 additional flights cover the length and breadth of the country and is believed to alleviate the shortage of flights and inconvenience caused to passengers due to the Jet Airway’s flight cancellations. Jeh Wadia, Managing Director, GoAir, said: “GoAir is pleased to announce 28 flight options this summer in addition to our existing flights. There are two sectors that GoAir is launching for the first time, namely, Delhi-Nagpur-Delhi and Delhi-Kochi-Delhi. GoAir is committed to provide travelers a value for money proposition through highest standards of customer service and affordable air fares – as low as Rs 1368 on select routes. GoAir is also committed to provide secure and efficient transportation at all times with attention to essential details. Proud to say that for the 7th month in a row, GoAir has ranked top in ‘On-Time-Performance (OTP)’ signifying our efforts towards operational efficiency.” In Mumbai, all flight numbers starting from G8 2000 to G8 2999 will depart and arrive at Terminal 2, effective 26th April 2019.

Ramesh Daryanani, Vice President, Global Sales – Asia Pacific (excluding Greater China), in a recent interview to Tourism Breaking News, said, “India is a very important market for us. Across all our brands, the luxury ones are performing well. The performance of JW, Ritz Carlton, Sheraton Grand are robust and Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru are our top performing markets.”

Contiki has appointed MakeMyTrip as one of their preferred sales agents (PSA). The OTA will feature Contiki’s bestseller trips and promote them through its website as well as their retail outlets and B2B channels. India is a growing market and key area of focus for Contiki, with trip bookings increasing three-fold over the past five years. With Make My Trip, Contiki hopes to further expand its reach and inspire young travellers to embark on a trip of a lifetime to Europe and beyond. With three main travel styles, Discoverer (‘see it all, do it all’), Iconic Essentials (‘stretch your budget’) and In-Depth Explorer (‘go local’), travellers have a wide variety of trips to choose from, ranging from trips spanning a few days to over one month. “Our agent partners have shared that over 80% of their millennial customers make enquiries about international travel, and most specifically Europe is trending. More importantly, the majority of our customers are searching for their trips via mobile and digital devices. As Contiki offers trips specifically for 18 to 35-year-olds, and with our diverse range of 300 trips across 6 continents, we are excited to embark on this partnership with MakeMyTrip to connect with young travellers seeking worldwide adventures where they can travel with no regrets. We know that our customers are after local insight, and are looking for experiences that they may not be able to find on their own. With this in mind, Contiki is the best choice where we’ve got everything covered – from the essentials to the awesome people from all around the world that choose to travel with us!” says Timothy Su, Senior Sales & Marketing Manager, Asia. Commenting on …

With Jet Airways suspending its operations temporarily, as many as 440 slots are vacant at Delhi and Mumbai airports. There are 280 vacant slots at Mumbai and over 160 at the Delhi airport. The Civil Aviation Ministry in a statement has said that allocation of the slots of grounded Jet Airways at various airports around the country is purely temporary and is being allocated to airlines inducting additional aircraft. The ministry said that vacant slots have been allocated for a period of three months to reduce the inconvenience of passengers and facilitate induction of additional capacity. It further said that the historic rights of Jet Airways, as per provisions of the Ministry of Civil Aviation’s guidelines for slot allocation, will be protected. The slots will be made available to Jet Airways as and when it revives operations. The government said that to ensure the slots are allocated in an equitable and transparent manner, it has set up a committee of representatives from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, Airports Authority of India, private operators and slot coordinators.

SpiceJet will start 28 daily flights connecting Mumbai and Delhi with other cities on its domestic network from April 26. “We hope these new flights will help minimise passenger inconvenience caused as a result shortage of capacity in the Indian aviation market,” said Shilpa Bhatia, Chief Sales and Revenue Officer, SpiceJet. In addition, SpiceJet has further announced new non-stop international flights to Hong Kong, Jeddah, Dubai, Colombo, Dhaka, Riyadh, Bangkok and Kathmandu from the Mumbai effective May-end. The new flights from Mumbai are on the Mumbai-Jaipur-Mumbai, Mumbai-Amritsar-Mumbai, Mumbai-Mangalore-Mumbai and Mumbai-Coimbatore-Mumbai sectors. The airline has also enhanced operations with additional frequencies from the city on the routes of Mumbai-Patna-Mumbai, Mumbai-Hyderabad-Mumbai and Mumbai-Kolkata-Mumbai. “SpiceJet will also introduce two new frequencies each from Delhi to Patna and Bengaluru besides three additional frequencies on the Mumbai-Delhi-Mumbai sector,” SpiceJet said. The new flights from Delhi to Mumbai and Bengaluru will operate from Terminal 2 and have a 4-digit flight number starting with 8. Additionally, 4 digit flight numbers starting with 6 would be used for flights departing and arriving at Mumbai’s Terminal 2. (Source: PTI)

The Directorate General Civil Aviation (DGCA) recently released statistics on domestic airlines traffic where the number of domestic passengers was up by 5 per cent from Jan-March with IndiGo in the lead with 44 per cent market share. Passengers carried by domestic airlines during Jan-Mar 2019 were 354.53 lakhs as against 337.90 lakhs during the corresponding period of previous year thereby registering a growth of 4.92%.

Sarovar Hotels has announced the opening of Nirvana Sarovar Portico in Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh. Gorakhpur is Sarovar’s 5th city in Uttar Pradesh after Agra, Jhansi, Lucknow, Vaishali and Vrindavan. The hotel features 67 rooms including suites, with all modern amenities. The hotel also includes conferencing and banquet spaces and facilities for up to 350 guests. Ajay K. Bakaya, Managing Director, Sarovar Hotels, said “This beautiful, new hotel is a fantastic addition to our growing portfolio in Uttar Pradesh. With its significant development, Gorakhpur is an emerging destination with rising number of visitors from overseas and across the country. It is an important location for us to further tap the market and grow our business. This is set to be one of the best hotel in the city and will cater to the needs of Corporate, Groups, Leisure and Conferences.” Sarovar Hotels is targeting to have 100 hotels under its portfolio in the near future. Expected openings in 2019 include hotels in Bangalore, Bihar, Goa, Gujrat, Mumbai, Punjab, Tanzania, Uttarakhand.  

The Election Commission of India has levied a ban on serving alcohol after 11 pm which has pushed many tourists away. Concerned over the impact of the time restrictions and inflow of tourists, hoteliers in Goa submitted a representation to the Director, Department of Tourism seeking relief from the ECI on the same. The representation stressed on the need for a relaxation in timings as the tourism season is currently at its peak and is expecting a further surge for the weekend festivities. In November last year, the state government made a draft public for comments- Tourism Policy and Masterplan by KPMG Advisory Services and Tourism and Leisure Advisory Services. Post which, the stakeholders of tourism industry were upset since there wasn’t much for small-scale restaurateurs and businesses while the big players were taken more into consideration. In the future, tourism officials want the state to plan a roadmap in such a way that doesn’t hamper the inflow of tourists. Goa has concluded its polls on April 23 and Panaji assembly by-poll will be held on May 19.

The Tata group has signed a formal agreement with the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) for operating Taj Mansingh, New Delhi. Earlier, the hotel was given to the Tata group in 1978 on a 33-year lease, which ended in 2011. The company had since been given nine temporary extensions. The Tata group has retained the lease at a license fees of Rs 7.03 crore per month including GST. Earlier, they were paying Rs 3.94 crore per month as license fees. From April 11, NDMC will get 32.5 per cent more revenue as against about 17.25 per cent. “This is an achievement for us that we could finally plan the public auction, settle the legal litigation, auction the property and finally implement it on the ground,” a senior NDMC official said. (Source: PTI)