Category Archives: Aviation

IndiGo, the Indian low-cost carrier that presently flies as far as Istanbul, is looking to make its way into the Europe-Asia market with a plan to offer budget Business Class seats on prospective long-haul routes. The move is part of the airline’s ambitious long-distance network as it aims to launch one-stop trips further into Europe, informs CEO Ronojoy Dutta. Though it is still unclear what the actual offering would be and how much it would cost, the airline is in talks with Airbus SE to buy their new, yet-to-be-released narrow-body jet. IndiGo already flies to 53 domestic and 18 international destinations. Earlier this month, SpiceJet had introduced Business Class on its flights post acquiring 737-800 aircraft from grounded Jet Airways’ fleet, allowing passengers to book Business Class with fares that were 30-40 per cent cheaper than its competitors.  

Saudia announced total traffic growth increased by 115% year-on-year in 2018, handling more than 34 million passengers in the year. The carrier has registered a 154% growth rate for North America, followed by the Middle East (+144%), the Indian subcontinent (+98%) and Mahatta (+77%) in Africa. The carrier handled more international passengers than domestic passengers for the first time in its history.  (Source: CAPA)

Air Peace, a private Nigerian airline, will soon commence its international operations.  The airline is planning to operate long-haul flight services to Sharjah, Dubai, Johannesburg, London, Houston, Guangzhou and Mumbai. Air Peace will deploy Boeing 777 on its international routes. The airline has acquired four Boeing 777 aircraft for its long-haul operations.

AirAsia India has launched a new direct daily flight between Kolkata and Chennai. The airline already has 18 flights connecting Kolkata to Bagdogra, Bengaluru, Bhubaneswar, Guwahati, Indore, Hyderabad, Mumbai, New Delhi, Ranchi and Visakhapatnam. The flight from Kolkata, I5 556, will take off at 3.40 pm and reach Chennai at 06:05 pm. The return flight, I5 557, will take off from Chennai at 6.35 pm and reach Kolkata at 9.10 pm. Speaking on the development, Sanjay Kumar, Chief Operating Officer, AirAsia India said, “Kolkata is a key market for AirAsia India. The addition of this new route will strengthen up our connectivity in the east.”

flynas, the Saudi national air carrier and leading low-cost airline in the Middle East, has announced the launch of its new direct international flights between Riyadh and New Delhi, starting from the 1 July, 2019. flynas stated that it will operate 5 direct flights weekly between King Khalid International Airport and New Delhi India Gandhi International Airport following the opening of flights to Hyderabad last June 2018. the adding of this new destination aims to meet the growing demand for flights between Riyadh and New Delhi, and comes to support flynas’ global expansion strategy. flynas passengers can now book their flights between Riyadh and New Delhi through all flynas’ booking platforms, including sales agents and the flynas website and mobile application, or by calling flynas’ 24\7 call centre on 920001234.

Air India has announced 40% discount on flight tickets bought within three hours of departure. This last-minute ticket buying discount will provide much needed relief to travellers who book tickets for emergency travel and are often charged high prices. This has been facilitated in view of the exorbitantly rising prices of tickets after the shutdown of operations by Jet Airways. The decision was taken at a commercial review meeting of the airline at its headquarters on Friday, the airline statement added. It also said that the travellers can buy flight tickets from all outlets which include Air India’s website, mobile app, and booking counters.

Year-on-year RPK growth slowed substantially in the domestic India market in March 2019, from 8.3 per cent in February, to 3.1 per cent currently, according to International Air Transport Association (IATA). Over the past five years, annual growth has averaged a double-digit pace close to 20 per cent. In large part, the slowdown reflects the disruption of flight operation for Jet Airways, including a number of flight cancellations, as well as construction works at Mumbai airport which also interrupted operations. Rising airfares in recent months are also likely to have weighed upon passenger demand.

The regional arm of national carrier Air India, Alliance Air has announced that it will launch flights to Pune and Bengaluru from Belgaum in Karnataka, six days a week from May 15. The new flight operation is being introduced under the central government’ regional connectivity scheme, UDAN. The airline will use 72-seater ATR aircraft on both the route. Flight 9I-513 will depart from Bangalore at 2.15 pm and arrive at Belgaum at 3.40 pm from where it will depart at 4.05 pm and arrive at Pune at 5.20 pm. From Pune, flight 9I 514 will depart at 5.45 pm and arrive in Belgaum at 7.05 pm. It will depart from Belgaum at 7.30 pm and arrive in Bangalore at 9.10 pm on all days except Tuesday, said the airline in a statement. Alliance Air has so far launched services on 29 regional routes under the Udan scheme, since its launch in April 2017.

Lufthansa, SWISS and Austrian Airlines’ customer service is now also available via Facebook Messenger App. The chatbots can be used by all Lufthansa, SWISS and Austrian Airlines customers. If the digital assistants do not know what to do, the chat can be forwarded directly to a service center employee. In the future, they should also provide specific answers on free baggage allowances, the whereabouts of baggage or push notifications in the event of delays, cancellations or gate changes. The bots are constantly being developed and will also be made available on other channels such as airline apps, airline websites or other messenger services such as Whatsapp. Self-services will play an increasingly important role in the future. In addition to automated solutions, Lufthansa, SWISS and Austrian Airlines will continue to be personally accessible to their customers via their service staff.

SpiceJet has announced a slew of new international flights. The airline has already opened bookings for Mumbai-Bangkok flight which is effective 17 May, 2019. SpiceJet will soon connect Mumbai with Hong Kong, Jeddah, Dubai, Colombo, Dhaka, Riyadh, and Kathmandu. The airline has also announced 77 flights which includes 48 flights connecting Mumbai, 16 flights connecting Delhi and 8 flights between Mumbai and Delhi. The airline has also announced the launch of 12 new domestic flights connecting the key metros of Mumbai and Delhi. To counter the ongoing crisis resulting in a huge shortage of capacity in the Indian aviation market, the airline has been consistently working towards introducing new flights and frequencies to restore normalcy. The airline has in the past few weeks introduced a host of new flights from Mumbai to Madurai, Jammu (via Srinagar), Dehradun, Guwahati, Jaipur, Amritsar, Mangalore, Coimbatore besides additional frequencies to Chennai, Delhi, Patna, Hyderabad and Kolkata.