Category Archives: Aviation

Tata group has increased its stake in AirAsia India to about 51%. This has been done in order to consolidate airline’s positioning in the aviation sector. Now, Air Asia holds controlling stake in two airlines — the second being Vistara that is 49% owned by Singapore International Airlines. Earlier, both Tata group and AirAsia had 49% stake each with Tata Trusts managing partner R Venkataramanan and group executive S Ramadorai holding the rest. (Source: ET)

Indian travellers spend 51 per cent of their transport expense on airlines, as per a latest study titled ‘How does India travel?’ by Bain & Company and Google. The Indian airline industry is one of the fastest-growing in the world. With 10 new airports in the last four years and the decrease of nominal prices by 18 per cent in 2017–18), airlines dominated the transport spending despite operational pressures. Bus price hike due to GST, falling passenger footfalls and preference for self-drive hampered growth in bus travel. Railways’ growth remained stagnant and it lost share to airlines for long-distance travel (>500 kms) and to road for shorter distance travel.

In the wake of a temporary suspension of Jet Airways, airlines that have codeshare agreement with Jet, disclose the way forward for dealing with the crisis. Fiji Airways spokesperson says, “Fiji Airways has temporarily stopped codeshare bookings with Jet Airways flights. Guests holding existing bookings are being re-booked on alternative flights via either Singapore or Hong Kong.” Virgin Atlantic in a statement, said, “We understand that a number of Jet Airways flights have been cancelled.  As with many airlines, we operate a codeshare agreement with Jet. Any customers who have booked directly with Virgin Atlantic should check our website www.virginatlantic.com for the latest advice.  All other customers on Jet operated flights should contact them directly. Etihad Airways spokesperson reveals, “Following the announcement that Jet Airways has suspended its operations, Etihad continues to re-accommodate and support affected guests. Our teams are assisting guests with their travel arrangements and re-booking those affected onto the next available flights. We continue to work with Jet management, lenders and key stakeholders in the context of the lender-managed effort to restructure the company.” Aeromexico comments, “Regarding our codeshare, Aeromexico is taking actions to reduce the impact of our customers. Fortunately, the number of affected passengers is minimal and we have already reached them and we are working to get them to their destination. We are offering them the necessary support and we are relocating them in other flights with help of other SkyTeam partners.” “Delta is aware of Jet Airways’ financial situation and its inability to operate its normal schedule. Delta is assisting Delta customers booked on Jet Airways flights to support their reaccommodation via alternative travel options. We apologize for any inconvenience caused to Delta customers impacted …

SpiceJet has announced to add five more 90-seater Bombardier Q400 planes to its fleet, which will take its regional fleet size to 32. The move is aimed at increasing airline’s domestic capacity on the regional routes. Three of these planes will join the fleet in the next ten days while the remaining two will be inducted by June, said SpiceJet in a statement. On the new induction, Ajay Singh, Chairman and MD, SpiceJet said, “As part of our efforts to augment capacity and minimise passenger inconvenience, SpiceJet will induct five more Q400s in addition to the 16 B737s we announced last week.The sudden reduction of aviation capacity should in no way hamper air connectivity to the smaller towns and cities of India and as the country’s largest regional operator, SpiceJet will make all possible efforts in this direction.” The airline has a fleet of 48 Boeing 737, 27 Bombardier Q-400s and one B737 freighter.   (With Inputs from PTI)

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has asked airlines to reduce fares on 10 domestic routes to “reasonable levels” as ticket prices on these routes have soared to 30 per cent in last one month, according to a senior official. Speaking about various steps being taken to address capacity and other issues, Civil Aviation Secretary Pradeep Singh Kharola said the DGCA reviewed airfare movement in 40 high density sectors. It was found that airfares rose 10-30 per cent on 10 routes and on those routes, airlines have been asked to reduce the ticket prices to “reasonable levels”, Kharola said. (Source: PTI)

Air India has announced that it will be launching its flight from Mumbai to Colombo, starting May 1, 2019. With a frequency of five times a week, the new flight would connect the financial capital of India with the Sri Lankan capital. From Mumbai it will be flying every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday at 23:00 hours and from Colombo, the departure would beat )2:30 hours evry Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday.

In a bid to make it easier for customers to find affordable fares during the busy season, IndiGo will start operating 10 additional flights out of Mumbai (Terminal 2) and 8 additional flights from Delhi (Terminal 2), starting May 5, 2019. These flights will also connect to IndiGo’s existing domestic and international network. The bookings for these flights are already open. The destinations to be connected by these additional flights with Delhi include Nagpur, Kolkata, Bhubaneswar, Bhopal, Varanasi, Vadodara, Chennai, and Bengaluru. From Mumbai, these flights would connect Bhopal, Ahmedabad, Goa, Indore, Chennai, Kochi, Amritsar, Ranchi, Lucknow, Coimbatore and Bengaluru. Most of these flights are The new flights are designed to cater to business and leisure travellers who are constantly on the lookout for new and affordable flying options.

Travellers flying from the Kempegowda International Airport will have to spend more for tickets booked from April 16 to August 15 as the User Development Fee (UDF) has been increased. The UDF (User development fee) rates for domestic and international embarking passengers shall be Rs 306 and Rs 1226 respectively instead of Rs 139 and Rs 558.

Chandigarh International Airport will now be functioning round the clock. Earlier, the Air Traffic Control (ATC) was functional for a limited number of hours. With this, the city will see better connectivity to international flights with the extension of the watch hours to 24 hours. Also, the runway upgrade for full-sized wide bodied aircraft is almost complete.

V Resorts, one of India’s leading leisure hospitality start-ups, with over 150 properties spread across 22 states, has announced the raising of $10 million in Series A funding to mark their next phase of growth.  The fresh round of investment is led by various HNIs. Existing investors, including Bedrock Ventures and RB Capital, also participated in the round. Through this investment, the company has plans to expand its footprint in India and also enter new markets across South Asia and the Middle-East, with a target of reaching 1000+ properties and 15,000+ rooms in the next three years. Within India, a significant part of the growth will be focused on entrenching markets such as Andhra Pradesh where the company is already in talks with the Andhra Pradesh Government to promote state-wide tourism.  The company, with its in-house tech infrastructure, also plans to invest more on the technology platform, giving customers a 360-degree independent travel experience, and plans to now build its own SAAS products for the hospitality industry.