Category Archives: Aviation

According to FICCI’s recent report titled ‘Opportunities and Financing  Outlook for Aviation Sector’, there will be a huge number of aircraft deliveries in India in the next few years. The report quoted a CAPA study, which estimated that out of 400 aircraft deliveries by FY22 to Indian carriers, 70-80 per cent of them will be either on direct lease or sale and leaseback transactions. To fulfil growing demand, the Government has envisaged huge capex of around US$ 15.5 billion towards development of Greenfield airports, expansion of Brownfield airports, fleet addition & maintenance by Indian Carriers and strengthening ancillary services like skill development, MRO, Cargo handling, amongst others in the value chain. This development plan by airports and airlines requires strong support from Banks, Lessors, Private Equity Firms and other Financial Institutions to cater their funding requirement.

Boeing has signed a pact with Airports Authority of India (AAI) to come up with a 10-year plan to modernise air traffic management in India. The US Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) will fund the 18-month project which will focus on navigation, communication and modernisation of air traffic management. The agreement aims at developing a road map for AAI to upgrade the Indian National Airspace System. The mordernisation of this system will be based on local and global best practices to use airspace capacity, improve communications and invest in surveillance, navigation and air traffic management. Boeing will analyse current processes and technologies to tap efficiency improvements which can be implemented while maintaining a safe and practical airspace system.

According to the recent figures release by Airports Authority of India (AAI), the aircraft movements, passenger and freight traffic have decreased by -3.4 percent, -5.4 percent and -3.2 percent respectively at all Indian airports taken together during April 2019 over April 2018. During this month, all operational airports (taken together) handled 201.16 thousand aircraft movements (excluding General Aviation Movements), 26.70 million passengers and 275.15 thousand tonnes of freight.

Thailand’s most important B2B travel trade show, the Thailand Travel Mart Plus Amazing Gateway to the Greater Mekong Subregion (TTM+) 2019, kick-started on June 5. Under the theme of ‘New Shades of Emerging Destinations’, TTM+ 2019 has attracted a total of 351 buyers (including 50 Indian buyers), 371 sellers, and around 130 international and domestic media. For the second consecutive year, the event is being held at the Ocean Marina Yacht Club, Pattaya, the biggest marina in Southeast Asia. The mart that lasts for three days comes back this year in a bigger and brighter format that clearly reflects the new sense of direction in a rapidly evolving and highly competitive global environment. The overall focus of the show will be Thailand’s emerging destinations nationwide, 55 provinces with spectacular beauty, heritage, cultural and culinary attractions. Yuthasak Supasorn, TAT Governor, says, “This year’s theme reflects a strong continuation of our long-standing strategy to promote our emerging destinations with the aim of creating jobs and distributing revenue nationwide, from major cities to local communities, while creating sustainability by balancing the number of visitors to the destinations. Both international and domestic buyers will find these 55 emerging destinations perfectly suited to the needs of their clients, especially those who seek off-the-beaten-path holidays and repeaters looking for new products. In fact, we are already beginning to see results. In 2018, we recorded six million (6,223,183) trips by foreign tourists to these cities, a growth of +4.95 percent over 2017.”

In fiscal 2018-19, GoAir has achieved the best On-Time performance (OTP) for 7 out of 12 months. The data for the same was shared by Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). GoAir has been adjudged as India’s most reliable airline as it had clocked best-on-time performance (OTP). The OTP is a key for any passengers as it relates to arrival and departure. It becomes even more crucial as based on this a passenger can plan for connecting flight on time. GoAir has recorded the best OTP of 96.3 per cent in April 2019, according to DGCA data. This is not the first time that GoAir achieved this feat. GoAir has emerged to stay on top of the OTP chart for the 8th consecutive month. In fiscal 2018-19, GoAir achieved the best OTP for an astounding 7 out of 12 months.

In a recently concluded CAPA Airline CEOs in Seoul Summit, SpiceJet’s Chief Customer Service Officer, Kamal Hingorani, states that the annual passenger growth from Indian Tier-II and Tier-III cities is 18% while growth happening in the main metros is about 5-6% and this growth has created the need for the development of new hubs in smaller cities. Traditionally, Delhi and Mumbai have been the only hub airports but according to Hingorani Hyderabad and Bangalore are now being expanded to cater to domestic and international growth. (Souce: CAPA)

SpiceJet has recently announced that it will fly between Guwahati and Dhaka beginning July 1. This will be the first flight under the Central Government’s UDAN International scheme, set to enhance air connectivity between Indian states and international destinations. The airline has also announced that it will be launching 14 other flights on its domestic network from June 20. Frequency increases have also been proposed on the existing routes of Kolkata-Dibrugarh, Guwahati-Dibrugarh, and Bengaluru-Mangaluru. Expanding its network further, the low-cost carrier will also soon fly daily on the Bengaluru-Belagavi route.

Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport has announced that Singapore Airlines has introduced its Airbus A350-900 aircraft on the Kolkata-Singapore sector. The A350-900 features higher ceilings, larger windows, an extra wide body delivering more space and comfort as well as lighting designed to reduce jet lag. Fitted with the new regional business class and economy class cabin products, the A350-900 medium haul business class cabin has 40 seats in a 1-2-1 arrangement that ensures direct aisle access for every customer, while the economy class cabin has 263 seats arranged in a comfortable 3-3-3 configuration.

With effect from 8 June 2019, Delhi will have 22 flights to Bangkok and beyond weekly. THAI offers four flights option from Delhi to Bangkok on Saturdays and four flights option from Bangkok to Delhi on Fridays. Triple daily service continues for remaining days of the week from Delhi. Additional early morning flight is open for booking on websites and GDS. At present the airline has 21 flights operational from New Delhi to Bangkok. Schedule for New Flight: FLIGHT NO. ORIGIN ETD DESTINATION ETA DAY TG335 BKK 2125 DEL 0025+1 5 TG336 DEL 0155 BKK 0750 6

In order to make asset documentation a robust and real time process, Airports Authority of India (AAI) has signed an agreement with NTrust Infotech – Anarock Consortium for asset rationalisation, lease administration and related services on pan-India basis through cutting edge Lease Administration Technology. S. Suresh, Member (Finance), AAI says that this pact will help AAI in rationalising its assets thus by making use of best potential of land and properties and making asset documentation a robust and real time process. The agreement is signed for a period of 3 years. Anil Gupta, Executive Director (Land Management & Business Development), Airports Authority of India informed that by engaging NTrust Infotech – Anarock Consortium who are the global industry leaders, specializing in delivery of technology enabled services, will help AAI who is managing 129 airports all across the country in identifying best potential of land asset which in turn will improve revenue stream for AAI. This will also result in bringing transparency, better management control and monitoring of costs for AAI. AAI is committed towards upgrading itself continuously with best in class system technology and knowledge for streamlining day to day operations bringing higher efficiency and transparency.