Category Archives: Aviation

The Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport has started a three-month trial of bio-metric facial recognition entry system for domestic Vistara flyers out of Terminal 3. The participation in the trials is purely voluntary and at the discretion of the passengers, said the spokesperson of the Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL). With the facial recognition technology, passengers’ entry would be automatically processed based on facial recognition system at all checkpoints, including airport entry, entry into security checks, and aircraft boarding. “A suitable consent form will be signed by passengers. This trial will run for three months. Subsequent roll-out plans will be made. The enrolment process for passengers with valid flight tickets and government ID proofs will start at the registration kiosk. After this, their facial details will be captured by a camera.” he added. After successful completion of the trial, the facial recognition facility would be officially launched at Terminal 3, and subsequently at other terminals at the Delhi airport.

The latest Travelport research shows Indian travellers are leading the way in voice search, with 69% using the technology. With a population of 400 million that speak over 20 languages, there is a large section of people from Tier II and III cities who are becoming more comfortable with lingual voice commands over typing—they are literally finding it easier to use their ‘voice’ to search, reveals the Mobile Travel Trends 2019 report by Travelport. Google is predicting that India will soon become the world’s first voice-driven internet market, with voice being both the primary input and output.

The Indian domestic Revenue Passenger Kilometres (RPK) market recorded an 8.9% annual growth rate, up from 8.2% in June, reveals IATA Air Passenger Market Analysis. The market has not yet returned to the double-digit growth rates that were the norm in the past 4-5 years. Yet it seems to be adjusting well to the disruption caused by the demise of Jet Airways; capacity is also back on track (7.1% yoy in July vs 3.4% in June).

Passengers flying via Air India will avail a meet and greet service called ‘Namaskar Sewa’ from 23 September. This service can be availed at Rs 750 for domestic passengers and Rs 1500 for international fliers. In this service, dedicated personnel will receive customers at the airport entry gate and assist them till they are seated in the aircraft. Air India, which is already offering similar services to first class passengers, will be starting the initiative on a pilot basis at the Delhi airport in September. The Namaskar Sewa will be provided to passengers for a nominal fee, according to an airline official. He stated further that the initiative would be focusing more on international passengers, particularly those in transit, as they have to go from one terminal to another. Air India would have a dedicated team of up to three personnel to help passengers who register for the services through the web link ‘namaskarsewa.in’. “The number of personnel will depend on the number of customers or group’s size,” the official shared. The initiative is being rolled out at a time when Air India is dealing with stiff competition and grievances regarding services from passengers. After Delhi, the Namaskar Sewa will be rolled out at Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Kolkata airports, where Air India has sizeable international operations.

Forty years ago on September 1, 1979, the first flight of SriLankan Airlines was made, the aircraft rising gracefully from Colombo’s Bandaranaike International Airport to wing its way to Bangkok. It was the modest start of the National Carrier’s four decades as the mainstay of air travel and air cargo transportation for the island nation’s economy. Today, SriLankan Airlines is a global award winning airline that carries millions of passengers each year with a route network of 109 cities in 48 countries, including codeshare operations in partnership with the world’s finest airlines. It is firmly established as one of the leading airlines in the Indian Ocean region, being the largest carrier to both Sri Lanka and the Maldives, and the largest foreign airline in India. Vipula Gunatilleka, Group CEO of SriLankan Airlines said: “Our objective is to become the most customer-centric airline in Asia, both in the air and on the ground, building on our four decades of excellence in customer service for which we have won numerous international accolades with our emphasis on safety, punctuality and service.” A member of the prestigious oneworld global airline partnership, SriLankan Airlines also connects travelers to over 1,000 cities in 160 countries through its oneworld partner airlines. Travelers get to enjoy SriLankan’s all-Airbus fleet of modern aircraft with their latest on-board comforts such as flatbeds in Business Class and sophisticated in-flight entertainment that complement its world class service. With SriLankan being repeatedly named one of the most punctual airlines in the world, they also get to enjoy on-time departure and arrival, a rarity in air travel. But SriLankan isn’t only an airline. To support the operations of every airline that flies to Colombo, …

Amber Dubey, Partner and Head- Aerospace and Defence, KPMG, has been appointed as the Joint Secretary at Ministry of Civil Aviation, Government of India, under the lateral entry scheme. An IIT and IIM alumnus, Dubey has been an aviation expert for years and is a known name in the industry. He is among the nine professionals to be appointed as Joint Secretaries in various ministries. The appointment will be on contract basis and has been done in Level 14 of the Pay Matrix as per the 7th Central Pay Commission for a period of three years.

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan recently informed that 30 additional daily flights would be introduced from the four airports in the state in the next three months. Five more flights would be introduced from Thiruvananthapuram to Delhi. The additional flights would be introduced during the next winter schedule of airlines companies, a release quoting the Chief Minister’s office (CMO) said. The assurance in this regard was made by the Union Civil Aviation Secretary Pradeep Singh Kharola at a meeting of CEOs of various airline companies called by the chief minister here in the backdrop of airline companies reducing flights from the Thiruvananthapuram airport. Vijayan pointed out that Kerala had reduced excise duty on ATF from 25 per cent to five per cent in 3 airports —  Kozhikode, Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram, while in Kannur airport it was brought down to 1 per cent.

In a bid to ease the increasing passenger traffic at Indian airports, 10-15 aircraft are being added every month. Union Civil Aviation Minister, Hardeep Singh Puri, said, “Today we have in air 690 aircraft. We are adding 10-15 aircraft per month. We are looking forward to a scenario when we will have 2,000 registered aircraft flying.” Puri further informed that Delhi Airport alone deals with 70 million passengers per annum and both Delhi and Mumbai Airport put together roughly deal with 34 per cent of passengers in the country. “When Jet Airways ceased operation we had 540 aircraft in the sky but a false narrative was floated that Indian skies will be adversely affected. We are adding new aircraft to maintain fleet as per the traffic requirement,” he concluded.

The overall cancellation rate of scheduled domestic airlines for the month of July 2019 has been 1.74%, according to Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). Air Asia recorded least cancellations at 0.25 per cent, followed by GoAir at 0.46 per cent. Vistara was at the third spot recording 1.27 per cent of cancellations, while IndiGo was fourth at 1.33 per cent. SpiceJet recorded 1.59 per cent cancellations, while Air India was at 4.14 per cent.

Ashwani Lohani, CMD, Air India, revealed that Air India Group operates 159 aircraft and commenced new/increased frequencies at 83 domestic and 51 international destinations, and established 35 UDAN routes in the last 5 years. The revenues have grown from Rs.16,000 crore during 2012-13 to Rs.23,900 crore in 2017-18 while the passenger load factor has increased from 72% to 79.6%. Air India has record number of women pilots i.e. 11% of total strength of pilots compared to average 2-3% even in advanced countries.