Effective August 15, 2016, Air India’s existing Ahmedabad-London service will be extended across the Atlantic to Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey. With the new schedule, the national carrier’s flights from Ahmedabad to London Heathrow will continue to Newark every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. The flight will depart Ahmedabad at 0530 and arrive in London at 1015 and then it will take off again at 1230 and arrive in Newark at 1500. The returning flight will leave from Newark at 2230 every Monday and Friday and land at Heathrow at 1015 the next morning and then it will again depart London at 1230 and reach back in Ahmedabad at 0200 the following morning. However, on Thursdays, the return flights will leave Newark at 0200 and arrive in Ahmedabad at 0330 the next morning, including the stop in London. The flights are now available for booking, and will be operated using Air India’s two-class Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft.

Ministry of Tourism is pushing for medical e-visa for attendants who will accompany patients travelling to India for medical purposes, revealed Suman Billa, Joint Secretary-Tourism, Government of India. “There are several aspects that are being looked into to develop medical tourism facilities in the country. Currently, the patient has to report to the FRRO within 15 days of entering the country. However, we are trying to empower the hospital to file the FRRO clearance for the patient.” Billa added that MOT is also trying to simplify the requirement of providing medical certificates from local doctors – a mandate applied for several African nationalities who travel to India for medical purposes.

India Convention Promotion Bureau’s (ICPB’s) ninth Conventions India Conclave from Oct 13-15, 2016. It will be held in Leela Ambience, Gurgaon. Delhi is the partner state for the Convention. Its main aim is to promote Delhi as the Convention Capital of India. Chander Mansharamani, Vice Chairman, ICPB, says, “Our focus will be mainly on B2B. We are getting approximately 50 buyers from outside India and there will be approximately 200 Indian buyers who are the decision makers of  holding various conferences and exhibitions in India.” Mansharamani also informs that ICPB has identified ten states where it is planning to have chapters. The first one would be in Mumbai  with the Maharashtra government. He says, “ICPB likes to take that kind of area where we can go and bid for international conferences.”

The two terminals of Indira Gandhi International Airport New Delhi, T3 and 1D, will soon be connected through metro. The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) is planning a link between the two terminals under its Phase IV of construction. As per the plan, the Tughlakabad-Aerocity corridor will be extended till the domestic airport, providing connectivity between the Airport Express link and 1D. The alignment originally proposed in Phase IV started from Tughlakabad and terminated at Aerocity. At present, passengers moving between the two terminals have to take a shuttle service, provided by airlines as well as Delhi Transport Corporation.

Singapore Airlines is planning to launch an additional weekly flight to Kolkata by the end of this year. This would mean that starting  December 2016, the airline’s existing thrice weekly direct service between Singapore and Kolkata will increase to four flights per week. There will be an additional Wednesday flight adding to the Monday, Friday and Saturday departures from Kolkata. SIA’s Kolkata flights depart Singapore’s Changi Airport at 2055 and arrive in the West Bengal city at 2240. The return flights then leave Kolkata’s Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport at 2355 and arrive back in Singapore at 0640. Flights are operated using a twin-aisle Airbus A330 aircraft and complement SilkAir’s service on the same route.

The IATA Agents Association of India (IAAI) is all set to hold its convention — ICON 2016 — in November at New Delhi. The decision to hold the convention was unanimously taken at the National Management Committee Meeting of IAAI, which was held at Kochi, Kerala on July 22-23, 2016. This will be for the first time that Convention will be held in Northern India which is seen as the result of excellent growth and popularity of IAAI in the region. H S Chawla (Delhi) will be the Chairman of ICON 2016 Reception Committee. Jagdeep Bhagat (Delhi) is nominated to be the Convention Chairman, while VKT Balan (Tamil Nadu) and  Aveek Ghosh (Uttar Pradesh) have been nominated as Convention Co-Chairman. Vipin Chandra (Kerala),Madhav Reddy (Andhra Pradesh), Manish Synghal (Maharasthra), Tushar Jain, Vikas Arora, Sanjay Kumar Bhardwaj, Harish Verma from IAAI Northern Region will be part of the convention team.

In the wake of the 3-month state emergency, Turkish Airlines has announced that all its operations and flights function uninterrupted and will continue to do so. A statement released by the airline reads, “Turkey’s flag carrier that serves 290 destinations in 116 nations across the globe, Turkish Airlines will continue to make the world closer for all its passengers around the world with its exceptional flight experience. The airline stands united with the people and thanks the authorities for the precautious actions to protect the nation from all possible threats.”

The Railways will provide free Wi-Fi at 100 station from 2016-17 and 200 stations by 2017-18. The following stations already have free Wi-Fi facilities-Kacheguda (Telengana), Visakhapatnam (Andhra Pradesh), Vijayawada (Andhra Pradesh), Patna (Bihar) Pune (Maharashtra), Ernakulam (Kerala), Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh), Ranchi (Jharkhand), Bhubaneshwar (Odisha), Raipur (Chattisgarh), Ujjain (Madhya Pradesh), Guwahati (Assam), Jaipur (Rajasthan), Allahabad (UP), Lucknow (UP), Lucknow Jn. (UP), Gorakhpur (UP), Sealdah (West Bengal), Puri (Odisha) & Kalyan (Maharashtra). This information was given by the Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Communications and Minister of State for Railways in a written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha.

The Ministry of Tourism has sanctioned 25 projects under the Swadesh Darshan scheme worth Rs. 2048 crore so far to 21 States and Union Territories since its launch of in January 2015. These States and UTs include Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Kerala, Puducherry, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Bihar, West Bengal, Sikkim, Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur and Tripura. For northeastern states, the Ministry has sanctioned 9 projects worth Rs. 821 crores covering all the 8 states. For Tribal areas, the Ministry has sanctioned 3 projects for Rs. 282 crores to Nagaland, Chhattisgarh and Telangana. For Buddhist Circuit, the Ministry has sanctioned 2 projects worth Rs. 108.11 crore to Bihar and Madhya Pradesh. The Ministry of Tourism has launched the Swadesh Darshan Scheme in 2014-15 with an objective to develop theme based tourist circuits in the country on the principles of high tourist value, competitiveness and sustainability in an integrated manner by synergizing efforts to focus on needs and concerns of all stakeholders to enrich tourist experience and enhance employment opportunities. Under this scheme, 13 Thematic Circuits have been identified, for development namely: North-East India Circuit, Buddhist Circuit, Himalayan Circuit, Coastal Circuit, Krishna Circuit, Desert Circuit, Tribal Circuit, Eco Circuit, Wildlife Circuit, Rural Circuit, Spiritual Circuit, Ramayana Circuit and Heritage Circuit.

Come August, TravelShop Turkey is organising workshops for the travel trade in New Delhi, Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, and Bengaluru. The 6-city workshop will begin with New Delhi on August 1, then move to Ahmedabad (August 2), Mumbai (August 3), Kolkata (August 4), Chennai (August 5), and Bengaluru (August 6). The workshops will showcase Turkey’s latest programs for the Indian market. Participants will also get an oopportunity to learn how to sell Turkey as destination, meet with Culture & Tourism Counsellor, TST staff, Turkish Airlines staff, meet with Turkish hotels, and win free Fam trips all around Turkey. “As we know Indian market is very sensitive, specially for food, jain, veg and non veg. thats why it would be good for you to come and get the latest information for visa, payment methods, guides, itineraries, activities, night life and transportation,” said Murtaza Kalender, General Director, TravelShop Turkey.