The Maldivian airline, MEGA Maldives Airlines has chosen Birdgroup to be its GSA in India and it will fly direct from Delhi to Male starting this November. George Weinman, CEO, MEGA Maldives Airlines, says, “We are very excited to start nonstop services from Delhi to Maldives starting this early November. The flights would be three times a week, Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays. The flight will depart from Delhi at 8:50 am and will get into Maldives around lunch time. We first chose Bird group as our ground handler here in Delhi and now we have appointed them as our GSA.” Praful Khosla, Executive Vice President, Birdgroup, says, “We are pleased to be the GSA of MEGA Maldives Airlines in India. After Delhi, we will soon launch two flights from Mumbai to Male also. We will be soon coming u with special fares and special deals for the travel agents.”

The Sri Lankan carrier, Mihin Lanka will stop its services effective October 30, 2016. This decision has been made by the Government of Sri Lanka, as part of its long term strategy to restructure the local aviation industry and strengthen the national carrier’s offering and efficiency. Chinthaka Weerasinghe, Manager Northern India, SriLankan Airlines, says, “There are four routes that we will be taking over in India itself; Madurai, Kolkata, Varanasi and Bodh Gaya. With these operations we will be having overall 103 flights in a week from 11 destinations in India. This will make us one of the top five international airlines operating into India in terms of frequency as well as seat capacity.”

Amidst discussions about VFS Global in India and Nepal to discontinue the processing of Schengen visa applications from October 11, on behalf of Embassy of Spain or Consulate General of Mumbai in India, VFS Global has issued a statement saying, ”At the request of the Government of Spain, VFS Global in India and Nepal will continue to provide Spain visa services until further notice.” VFS Global has served as the visa service provider for the Government of Spain since 2007, in 49 countries, globally.

IndiGo is all set to introduce its first daily return flights connecting Bengaluru to Patna, Varanasi and Imphal from Oct 24. The airline is introducing 47 new flights on its existing route network during October 2016. With this and the induction of five new Airbus A320 aircraft during the month, the airline’s frequency will increase to 883 daily. Additionally, to further extend connectivity, 6E will operate more flights connecting the metros to the key cities including Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Bhubaneswar, Lucknow, Guwahati and Patna. Speaking about the latest network expansion, Aditya Ghosh, President and Whole Time Director, IndiGo said “It gives me immense pleasure to announce our plans to further strengthen connectivity in India by offering more flights and increased frequencies to our growing customer base. With the continuously increasing presence and phenomenal customer uptake, we are hopeful that these flights will prove to be popular and convenient for our passengers, across our network.” Effective October 2016, these flights will provide seamless connection to the airline’s entire network within India. With 883 daily flights connecting 41 destinations, these new flights will enable both corporate and leisure travellers to experience IndiGo’s unmatchable on-time performance.

FCM Travel Solutions, the Indian arm of the Australia–headquartered Flight Centre Travel Group (FCTG), announced an agreement to acquire the business interests of South India’s premier travel company, the Rs 750 crore Travel Tours Group (TTG), in a cash and stock deal. Led by Shravan Gupta, TTG is a four decade old company offering a gamut of travel services including leisure, corporate travel, MICE, Visa, inbound, wholesale and FOREX. Commenting on the acquisition, Rakshit Desai, Managing Director, FCM Travel Solutions said “We are thrilled to welcome TTG into the Flight Centre family.  This partnership propels us into an Rs 3,000 crore enterprise and one of the top three players in all the core travel segments we operate in. India is poised to become one of the world’s major travel markets and this partnership will enable us to achieve our goal of being the largest customer focussed travel player in the country.” Shravan Gupta, Managing Director, Travel Tours Group, who joins the board of FCM and assumes leadership of the leisure business said, “We are very excited to be a part of the Flight Centre group and confident that our combined strength will help achieve our ambitious growth plans at a much faster pace. I’m personally looking forward to leading the leisure business, sharing insights and product knowledge, as well as gaining from the global best practices of the Flight Centre group”. The combined strength will give FCM India a national distribution network and strong leadership across businesses and functions. Upon successful acquisition, FCM India will employ over 1,600 travel professionals across 44 locations in 16 cities. The partnership will bring on-board TTG’s brands, that include – Travel Tours, Travel Air, …

Thomas Cook (India) has chosen Rudrapur for the launch of its ‘Thomas Cook Mini’ in Uttarakhand-a strategic deployment of small technology assisted outlets to aggressively harness the growth potential emerging from India’s Tier III markets like Rudrapur. The Thomas Cook Mini outlet at Rudrapur was inaugurated Tilak Raj Behad, Chairman of Uttarakhand State Seed and Organic Production Certification Agency and former Cabinet Health Minister, Govt. of Uttarakhand, in the presence of Ambreesh Rastogi and Ankul Kumar, Associate Vice Presidents, Foreign Exchange, Thomas Cook (India) Ltd. Thomas Cook India’s internal research having highlighted the powerful growth potential of Rudrapur (a significant source market for Foreign Exchange segments of Overseas Study/Students, Outward Remittances and Prepaid Cards), the Company conceptualised a strategy of small technology assisted outlets to rapidly penetrate this underserved market, and hence the launch of its innovative Thomas Cook Mini. The Thomas Cook Mini outlet at Rudrapur has been designed optimising space and will be manned by a 2 member team, equipped with technology via mobile devices/tablets for seamless online connectivity to central systems, thus facilitating quick customer transactions.

MakeMyTrip has launched its alternative accommodation platform – Rightstay. The application is an independent platform from MakeMyTrip App and is currently available on Android and web. It provides alternative stay options like villa, residential apartments, homestays and guest houses. RightStay enables customers to rent unique places that offer great, authentic experience at affordable prices. With RightStay, MakeMyTrip intends to disrupt the homestay and non-hotel stay options segment. Talking about the new business, Rajesh Magow, Co-Founder and CEO-India, MakeMyTrip, “The alternate accommodations are going to be the next big thing and this segment has the potential to completely disrupt the online travel industry. We are in constant pursuit to provide excellence in the services and experience offered to the customers. Being the market leader, the onus of category creation is on us and Rightstay is a step in our measures towards the rapidly evolving accommodations segment in the country. We have deployed a dedicated team for Rightstay and we are committed to drive this business to great heights.” Commenting on the launch Deepak Tuli, Senior Vice President – Growth Business, MakeMyTrip said, “It is our constant endeavor to be the one stop destination for consumers’ travel needs. In search of authentic experiences, travellers are now looking for diverse accommodation options. With Rightstay, we want to be able to offer a ‘home away home’ experience to our customers. We hope to leverage the demand, traffic and brand advantage that we have and create a unique position for ourselves in the alternate accommodation category. We already have a head-start with more than 10,000 properties across 200 cities live on Rightstay.”

The Lux Hotels has tied up with Red Titanium, a social media marketing company, to offer digital auditing. Bhupesh Kumar, Director, The Lux Hotels says, “Other than social media marketing, Red Titanium also does online audit for properties and I thought why not do it for our members and see how it works. They are generous to have offered to do the audits free of cost for some of our members. The audit has been done for some of the members which will help them to understand where they stand in the social media scenario.” Amit Solomon, Managing Partner, Red Titanium says, “If we first do it free of cost that will catch people’s interest and bring down their apprehensions about going digital.”

The Institute of Hotel, Cargo and Tourism Management (IHCTM), a training division of Namaste Tourism, has announced a special trade discount for those who wish to attend its ‘Managing the Travel Business’ program with diploma awarded by International Air Transport Association (IATA) Montreal, Canada. The total fees for the course including the training, examination and registration for IATA along with applicable service tax is Rs 71,300. However, the institute is offering members of the trade a 20 per cent discount on early enrolment before 26 November, 2016. This will take the total course fee to Rs 46,900. This offer is exclusive for the travel trade. Subhash Motwani, Director, IHCTM, says, “The travel industry is changing every day and the Management – level 3 IATA program can equip a tourism professional with the latest global trends of travel and tourism industry. The course will include topics such as Managerial Skills, Negotiation Skills, Special Interest Tours, MICE, Technology In Travel Industry, Financial Management & Accounting, BSP Agent, Billing Reports & Remittance and Marketing.” Classes will be held in Mumbai at Colaba and Mahim centres starting from December 5 onwards.

The Vintage Bike and Car festival 2016 is set to be an annual event as the first edition of the event organised by Goa Tourism and Goa Tourism Development Corporation concluded in Panjim. A record participation of 83 vintage cars and 40 vintage bikes set the streets of the capital city roaring as the vintage automobiles made their way down memory lanes on a two-hour long rally. Minister for Tourism, Dilip Parulekar flagged off the rally at Paryatan Bhavan this morning in the presence of Nilesh Cabral, Chairman  of  GTDC and other dignitaries and officials. Parulekar said, “It is overwhelming to see such a huge participation at the Vintgae Bike and Car festival 2016 and should be an annual event that will boost tourism in the State of Goa. Goa Tourism and GTDC organise such unique events in the State to promote tourism and the Vintage Bike and Car festival will help boost heritage tourism in a big way.”