SriLankan Airlines, the national carrier of Sri Lanka and a member of the oneworld alliance will be adding four more frequencies to its current daily operations to/from New Delhi from July 15, 2017. A total of 11 flights a week will operate to and out of Delhi. The purpose of adding these flights is to provide passengers with added convenience and a wider choice in terms of travel between the two countries and seeking onward connectivity. The morning arrival time in Colombo for the new flight will also give convenient connections to destinations like Maldives, Beijing, Shanghai, Singapore and Bangkok. Commenting on the occasion, SriLankan Airlines, Manager Northern & Eastern India, Chinthaka Weerasinghe, stated, “North India is a key market for us and with most of the industrialists and business families spread across Delhi & neighboring states. While we have always received a strong response from this market, Delhi serves as a key business hub for all multinational corporations. These additional flights will cater to growing business, corporate and leisure demand between Sri Lanka and Delhi.”

Continuing its strategic focus on India, SriLankan Airlines, the national carrier of Sri Lanka and a member of the oneworld airline alliance, will be adding three southern Indian cities namely, Hyderabad, Coimbatore and Visakhapatnam, to its network from July 8, 2017. The introduction of these new routes, along with the scheduled frequency increases in its Delhi and Mumbai services, will see SriLankan operating over 120 flights a week to 14 cities, thus becoming the carrier that serves the highest number of points in India. Commenting on the developments, SriLankan Airlines Chief Commercial Officer, Siva Ramachandran, stated, “India has been a vital part of our strategic expansion where we will continue to explore potential to consolidate our presence. At a time the industry observes consistently developing travel movements around tier two cities as opposed to the traditional hubs, it is timely to offer these connectivity options to our valued passengers. The new routes also reinforces our commitment to strengthen the deep commercial and bilateral ties between India and Sri Lanka.” The new routes will be serviced by Airbus 320/321 aircraft which will feature an array of bespoke services, world-class in-flight entertainment including a combination of practical timings and signature SriLankan Airlines’ hospitality services. These new routes are introduced with the aim of providing passengers with added convenience, seamless travel and easy onward connectivity from Colombo. Currently serving key Indian cities such as New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, Tiruchirappalli, Trivandrum, Cochin, Madurai, Varanasi and Bodh Gaya, SriLankan will be introducing four additional frequencies to its daily services from Delhi and Mumbai in July this year.

Air India Engineering Services Limited, a subsidiary of Air India today has completed a major maintenance ‘C-1’ check for the first time of Jet Airways A330 at its Mumbai facility. A330 was a part of Air India fleet till 2014, however to perform third party maintenance check Air India trained its staff and received necessary licenses to deliver major maintenance ‘C-1’ check for Jet Airways A330. The first Jet Airways A330 aircraft VT-JWR ‘C-1’ Check was inducted on 26th April, 2017 and was handed over to the airline in a short span on 11th May, 2017. The C-1 check for A330 is done every 2 years or ten thousand flight hours whichever is early. Earlier in May, 2016, Air India also completed major ‘C’ check on Jet Airways Boeing B777 aircraft at their Mumbai facility.

In the run-up to the release of the action adventure film King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, VisitBritain has launched an international film tourism campaign to showcase why Britain is a legendary tourist destination. The ‘Where Stories Become Legends’ campaign inspires people to book a King Arthur-themed holiday to Britain using #OMGBLegends. “Our collaboration with Warner Bros. Pictures on King Arthur: Legend of the Sword is a fantastic opportunity to showcase to a global audience of millions the legendary experiences only available in Britain, inspiring people to book a trip right now to discover their own epic stories,” says Clare Mullin, Director of Marketing, VisitBritain. The campaign drives online ‘traffic’ to a VisitBritain King Arthur: Legend of the Sword site on visitbritain.com filled with information on British locations from the film and King Arthur-inspired holiday experiences available in 13 languages.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced that starting August 2017, Air India will operate direct flights between Colombo and Varanasi. The announcement was made during the Prime Minister’s visit to Sri Lanka to attend the International Vesak Day. The new flight would encourage Buddhists from both the countries to visit the religious sites in the respective countries. Modi said that Buddhism and its various strands are deep seated in Indian culture, politics and philosophy and invited people from Sri Lanka to come visit the land of Kashi in Varanasi.

PATA India Chapter’s Secretary Jatinder Taneja has been elected to PATA(HQ) Industry Council Member for the term 2017-19 and PATA India Treasurer Vikram Madhok, is heading the council in the capacity of Chairman, Industry Council. A travel enthusiast himself, Taneja is the Managing Director and moving force behind TSI- Luxury Holidays. A Post Graduate, gifted with strong business acumen, he has continued to keep miles ahead of the competition by emphasizing on well planned, focused business strategy and by offering value added services to the customers.

Hahn Air Systems is introducing a new online tool, the H1 Carrier Portal, to help airline partners keep track of H1-Air reservations with the aim to ultimately improve customer service. The global consolidation service generates incremental bookings for airline partners of all sizes and business models by connecting them to all major GDSs and therefore making them available for sale via over 100,000 travel agencies worldwide under the H1 code. The Hahn Air Systems H1 Carrier Portal allows the company’s 67 partners to access clearly arranged lists of all bookings generated via the H1 code, including useful information such as date, the booking number of Hahn Air Systems or the respective carrier, the GDS PNR, origin and destination. A detailed view shows the names of all passengers booked under the Hahn Air Systems code H1, their booking classes, compartments and HR-169 ticket numbers. At the same time, the H1 Carrier Portal features a convenient search functionality that allows retrieving details of a specific booking based on the booking number or the GDS PNR. Information provided include the ticket status (valid or invalid for travel), connecting flights, special service requests such as wheelchair or pet in cabin, as well as contact details from passengers or travel agencies, if available. “We designed the H1 Carrier Portal to support the staff of our partner airlines in further optimising their passenger service”, explains Alexander Proschka, Head of Hahn Air Systems. “By having easy access to all details related to a booking, the operating carrier can inform passengers in advance in case of delays or cancellations and proactively re-organise their itinerary. At the same time, our tool helps our partners’ check-in staff to identify H1-Air …

India remains one of the strongest markets for Carlson where they have 84 hotels in operation and 140 hotels in the pipeline. The brand will soon be launching its new brand- Radisson Red in the Indian Market. Raj Rana, Chief Executive Officer, South Asia, Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group, says, “Radisson Red is the newest addition in our portfolio. The first flagship property is under construction in Mohali, Chandigarh. It’s a beautiful hotel and we expect that to open in the first quarter of 2018. We believe that it will be a very successful brand because the cost of investment in building a Radisson Red is less than a typical upscale hotel and also it has been planned in such a way that the cost of operating the hotel is also lesser. For example, F&B services are all on a single plate and there is no concept of multi-kitchens. A lot of planning has done to make sure ease of operation and therefore better margins for the investors and good success for us.”

Rashmi Verma (IAS), of 1982 batch from Bihar Cadre, has joined as the new Secretary, Ministry of Tourism, Government of India. Before this, Verma was serving as the Secretary in Ministry of Textiles. Not new to tourism, she has previously served as the Chairman & MD of Bihar Tourism Department as well as Additional Director in Ministry of Tourism, Government of India. She will be replacing N. K. Sinha, Secretary, Ministry of Culture, who had taken up the additional charge as Secretary Tourism after Vinod Zutshi retired from the position.

OYO has launched OYO Townhouse in Hyderabad. This is the first launch of OYO Townhouse – a brand-new category of “friendly neighbourhood hotel” – outside Delhi-NCR. This will be the 5th hotel in the Townhouse portfolio since it was launched in January this year. After Jubilee Hills, the company plans to introduce OYO Townhouse hotels at other popular locations in the city such as Banjara Hills, Hitech City, Gachibowli and Panjagutta. The rooms will be priced at INR 2,500 and upwards. Ritesh Agarwal, Founder & CEO – OYO, said “This is our first Townhouse offering outside Delhi NCR and we are excited to choose Hyderabad for our debut outside home turf. Hyderabad has transformed into a cosmopolitan city representing a millennial outlook towards experiences and expectations. OYO Townhouse’s efficient hospitality and multi-utility concept fits perfectly into this millennial lifestyle. It delivers a seamless experience through a format that operates as 25% hotel, 25% home, 25% cafe and 25% merchandise store in one place, providing a perfect complement to our guests’ lifestyle. OYO Townhouse represents our ongoing commitment to innovate and create world-class hotel experiences from India.” Elaborating on the philosophy behind Townhouse, Ritesh added, “Townhouse will deliver an all-encompassing experience to guests. We are excited to showcase and deliver this proposition in Hyderabad today. We are confident that our guests will love the experience of these tastefully done hotels staffed with Managers trained to deliver authentic and unique Townhouse service.” The hospitality industry in India suffers from a major disconnect between demand and supply of quality living space, forcing travellers and city-dwellers to compromise on decision variables of location, comfort and pricing. OYO Townhouse addresses this gap by creating a …