Category Archives: Aviation

Lufthansa has announced a new flight on the Munich-Bengaluru route, which will connect Kempegowda International Airport, Bengaluru five times a week from Munich from 31 March, 2020. The aircraft to ply on the route will be A350-900 with a configuration of 48 seats in Business Class, 21 seats in Premium Economy Class and 224 in Economy Class. Lufthansa already operates a daily flight from Bengaluru to Frankfurt. The airline has also announced its plans to increase the capacity in the Business Class with a different seat configuration on its flights from Chennai and Bengaluru to Frankfurt from summer 2020. George Ettiyil, Senior Director Sales South Asia of the Lufthansa Group Airlines, said, “Bengaluru Airport connects India’s IT and tech hub, Bengaluru, but also many next tier cities from the rest of the South Indian Region. South India has a growing number of discerning travellers, who travel frequently abroad and increasingly demand a more premium travel experience whether for business or leisure purposes. We are confident that, with this expansion, Lufthansa is catering to the growing needs of this region to explore Europe for business but also leisure.” The flight will depart from Bengaluru on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday at 01:45 hours and would land in Munich at 07:30 hours. From Munich it will depart on Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday at 11:55 hours and will arrive in Bengaluru at 00:05 hours the next day.

Addressing in Lok Sabha, Union Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri gave an assurance that the tourism industry’s long-pending demand for air connectivity between the Taj city and major destinations would soon be addressed. He said airlines are ready with plans to start flights connecting Agra with Varanasi, Bengaluru, Bhopal, Mumbai, Lucknow, Delhi and Jaipur. The Minister announced that four of these flights will begin in December. Source: IANS

Starting from September, Korean Air will increase the frequency of direct passenger flights between Delhi and Incheon, Korea, from five days a week to daily. Korean Air uses a 218-seater A330-200 on its Delhi route. The airline currently operates direct passenger flights from both Delhi and Mumbai to Incheon. The Mumbai-Incheon route is operated three days a week (Monday/Wednesday/Friday). Korean Air also offers flights to various Japanese cities including Tokyo, Osaka, Fukuoka and Nagoya, most efficiently for those travelling to Japan from Delhi. The Delhi-Incheon flights arrive early in the morning, and flights from Incheon to Japan are scheduled throughout the day.

In a recent update by Union Civil Aviation Minister, Hardeep Singh Puri, MP’s from Kerala conducted a meeting recently and discussed issues regarding air capacity and frequency in the state. He says, “In the meeting it turns out that with 684 international flights offering nearly 1.4 lakh seats and 929 domestic flights with about 1.6 lakh seats every week, Kerala is amongst our best connected states.”

Travelport announced that it is actively working with multiple airlines and partners to offer Next Generation Storefront (NGS) capability. NGS is an industry initiative to enable travel agencies to display airfares just like airlines show their branded fares on their own websites. Developed by industry body ATPCO, it aims to deliver a richer and more informed shopping experience for travellers. The storefront allows users to compare and choose between multiple branded fare offers and across different airlines’ flights – all on one screen. Industry partners working with Travelport to pioneer NGS development are WhereTo, an online booking tool, and Travel Technology & Solutions (TTS), a global leading player in the development of innovative solutions for the travel and tourism industry. Travelport pioneered such innovation when it launched Rich Content and Branding in 2014. More than 270 airlines now benefit from this solution which provides travel agencies the brand and ancillary data they need to help travellers make informed decisions other than just the price. Travelport is in a leading position to provide travel agencies with information on ancillary products and other available options to deliver NGS. As the ATPCO standards continue to evolve, Travelport will facilitate exact comparisons across airlines’ full range of products, whether for online agencies, corporate booking tools or Travelport’s own travel agency desktop solution, Smartpoint. The new displays will show different branded categories such as Basic Economy, Standard Economy and Economy Plus in a single display alongside one another, enabling users to select their preferred branded offer for each leg of their journey. Sandeep Dwivedi, Chief Operating Officer at InterGlobe Technology Quotient (ITQ) commented, “ITQ through Travelport has always strived hard to provide the best travel …

According to the sixth annual Global Travel Forecast, published by CWT and GBTA, India’s strong economic growth is fuelling a greater demand for business travel and driving up prices. Airfares are forecast to increase 5% (in local currency terms; 0% in USD terms), while hotel rates and ground transport prices are expected to climb 6.8% (1.8% in USD terms) and 4.5% (-0.5% in USD terms), respectively. While the global economy is doing well overall – and expected to grow a solid 3.6% in 2020 – a raft of uncertainties are set to put a damper on pricing. “Earlier this year we saw a spike in airfares after Jet Airways ceased its operations in April, so we’re already at a high base in 2019,” said Vishal Sinha, CEO, India, CWT. “With other airlines adding capacity to fill the vacuum, fares have begun to normalize and we expect that to continue next year. However, if the rupee weakens against the dollar, Indian carriers could be faced with bigger fuel bills and we might see that being passed on to travelers.” “Hotel rates are also expected to rise, as the demand for rooms outpaces supply, especially in secondary cities like Chandigarh, Jaipur and Ahmedabad. At the same time, the commercialization of mid-tier properties by players like Oyo are also pushing prices upwards.”

According to a recent report by Airports Authority of India, all operational airports handled 210.84 thousand aircraft movements and 28.93 million passengers, during the month of June 2019.  Out of this, 5.63 million were international movements and 23.30 were domestic passengers. While, the growth in international passenger movement from last year during the same month was 2.7 per cent, domestic passenger market witnessed 4.6 per cent growth.

The latest IATA Economics Chart of the Week states that with favourable forecasts in income per capita and population, there has been continued development in India’s air transport where the market appears positive, despite the recent disruption. “This is consistent with our long-term passenger forecast which expects the growth in India to propel it to the world’s 3rd largest air transport market by the mid-2020s,” says report.

Guruprasad Mohapatra, Chairman, Airports Authority of India (AAI) has said that the government is working on a proposal to privatise 20-25 airports, managed and operated by the authority and a final decision will soon be taken. “We have privatised six airports recently. We are now planning to privatise 20-25 airports in next phase with an expectation that there will be a significant participation by foreign airports. The Airports Authority of India is in the process of identifying airports with annual passenger traffic of 1-1.5 million. We will recommend them to the Ministry of Civil Aviation and they will take a final decision,” said Mohapatra in a press briefing.   Explaining about the planning related to the second round of privatisation, he said, “What we have done is we have appointed a consultant to understand relative attractiveness of various airports for private sector investments. It is open for everyone to bid. There are tremendous possibilities. With this (success in first round), I am sure that in the next round of privatisation we do, I am hoping to see a lot of foreign airports participating in it.”   In November last year, the government had decided to privatise airports in Lucknow, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Mangaluru, Thiruvananthapuram, and Guwahati for operation, management and development through public-private partnership (PPP) model.  

Ethiopian Airlines has opened reservation for its new route in India- Bengaluru which will operate four times a week on Boeing 737-800. The airline will operate on Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday at 11 PM, local time and will reach Bengaluru the next day at 8 AM, IST. The new route is expected to increase more tourists travelling from Africa directly and will help connect flights to Europe and beyond.