Category Archives: Associations

Focusing on benefits of attending PATA Travel Mart 2024, Noor Ahmad, CEO, PATA, revealed that the event is expected to witness 57% participation from the leisure segment buyers and 31% from buyers with M!CE & leisure (both), while 8% from MICE segment. The PATA Travel Mart 2024 is scheduled from August 27-29, in Bangkok, Thailand.

Kapil Kaul, CEO & Director, CAPA India, addressing the CAPA India Aviation Summit said, “India’s airline fleet is set to double by FY2030. It took the Indian industry around 90 years from the time of the first commercial flight to reach a fleet size of 700 aircraft. But the rate of growth is so strong that carriers could add a further 600-700 aircraft in just the next 5-7 years.”

Airlines must stay vigilant about governments “going rogue” on globally agreed aviation standards, as the Dutch government did when it moved to cut Amsterdam Schiphol Airport’s capacity without consultation, Willie Walsh, Director General IATA, said. Such actions had the potential to create a retaliatory mess, he warned.

Kapil Kaul, CEO & Director, CAPA India, addressing the CAPA India Aviation Summit said, “The industry’s average fare in FY2024 was almost the same as in FY2023. IndiGo’s average airfare in FY2024 was just 1.3% higher than FY2023 but 36% higher compared to FY2020.”

Riaz Munshi, President, OTOAI said, “People are more mature; we have seen a 20-30 per cent increase in experience and luxury travel, which is a significant number. We anticipate these numbers will continue to grow, making experience and luxury travel the most rapidly growing segment in the travel industry.”

Amitabh Khosla, Country Director-India, IATA said that India’s air traffic had already surpassed 2019 levels, both for domestic and international flights, in 2023 itself.  “So certainly, we are witnessing rapid growth, as demonstrated in the unveiling video of the 2025 AGM. There is a significance amount of activity and technology driving aviation growth in India, ” he added.

IndiGo will host the 81st IATA Annual General Meeting and World Air Transport Summit in Delhi, India, on 8-10 June, 2025. Expressing his views on the IATA AGM’s return to India, Pieter Elbers, CEO, IndiGo, said, “IndiGo is proud to be the host airline for the event and looks forward to welcoming the global aviation community to Delhi in 2025. India’s rise in the global aviation landscape over the last years has been nothing short of remarkable.”

Commenting on the Ministry of Tourism’s ‘Coolcation’ campaign, challenging the notion of India being too hot for summer travel. Rajiv Mehra, President, IATO, said that the issue lacks publicity abroad. It (publicity) needs to be increased (abroad) to highlight the places in India where people can visit during this period,” he said.

Rajiv Mehra, President, IATO said, “We are requesting that, after the new government comes in, it’s fine for promotions to be done from the embassy. However, like officers from the Ministry of Commerce or other such departments who are posted in embassies or high commissions abroad, at least in the 20 key market embassies or high commissions, people at the rank of Deputy Director General (DDG) should be posted there under the overall supervision of the ambassador or high commissioner. Only then will we be able to achieve our goals because these are the people who understand what tourism is.”

India’s passenger Load Factor Level reached 86.6% in April 2024 as per IATA with a year-on-year change of -1.7% in load factor. Additionally, revealed that the total passenger demand, measured in revenue passenger kilometers (RPKs), was up 11.0% compared to April 2023 as global passenger demand rose to 15.8%  and domestic demand rose to 4%