Category Archives: Aviation

Ministry of Defence has exempted the landing and parking charges for civil aircraft operating from IAF airfields under Regional Connectivity Scheme for 32 airfields and 5 Advanced Landing Grounds. In Joint user airfields, civil apron maintenance is done by Airport Authority of India and remaining airfield area (Runway and taxi tracks) maintenance is done by Indian Air Force. The details of exemption given with respect to the airfields/ALG is given below: 1. Adampur 2. Jammu 3. Agra 4. Jorhat 5. Ambala 6. Kalaikunda 7. Awantipur 8. Kargil 9. Allahabad 10. Kanpur (Chakeri) 11. Bagdogra 12. Pathankot 13. Bareilly 14. Pune 15. Bidar 16. Sarsawa 17. Bikaner (Nal) 18. Silchar 19. Bhatinda 20. Srinagar 21. Car Nicobar 22. Tezpur 23. Chandigarh 24. Thanjavur 25. Gorakhpur 26. Uttarlai 27. Darbhanga 28. Along (ALG) 29. Gwalior 30. Passighat (ALG) 31. Hashimara 32. Tuting (ALG) 33. Hindon 34. Walong (ALG) 35. Jamnagar 36. Ziro (ALG) 37. Jaisalmer

Flynas, headquartered in Riyadh, has launched a new direct flight between Riyadh and Delhi. The flight will operate five times a week- . Stefan Magiera, Senior Vice President- Commercial, Flynas, said, “Flynas has started flying five times a week from Delhi to Riyadh. In October, we will upgrade this flight to daily. Also, in July, we will increase flights between Hyderabad and Riyadh, currently twice a week to four times a week. This represents almost 300 per cent growth between India and Saudi Arabia, the finest network. This growth is only possible with partners and the support of our friends in India and I would like to say a big thank you to all our agents in this market who have supported us tremendously in the past. We are always trying to become better and improve ourselves by listening to our trade partners and I am very happy and proud to announce that we have joined the BSP in India, something that has been designed for the market and we are in BSP India.”

GoAir has inducted 50th aircraft to its fleet and is planning to add one aircraft each month to move forward aggressively. With an Airbus A320 Neo in its kitty, the budget carrier is aiming to touch 100 million passenger-mark in the next two years. The airline flew 13.55 lakh passengers in May, which is 11.1 percent of the total 122.07 lakh domestic passenger traffic in the month. Operating 270 daily flights connecting 24 domestic and four international destinations, the airline has remarkably doubled its fleet size in less than two years. “In 2016, we looked at an aggressive business strategy. That year we doubled our Airbus A320 aircraft order to 144 to accelerate our growth and at the same time staying profitable. Those goals continue to be our guiding principle from a business perspective,” Jeh Wadia, Managing Director & acting Chief Executive was quoted as in a statement.

The number of passengers flying from Visakhapatnam has been on the rise but there has not been a consequential  increase in the number of flights to cater to the demand. Recently, Alliance Air, proposed to withdraw its Visakhapatnam-Tirupati-Vijayawada daily flight from July 16.  Vice President of Andhra Pradesh Air Travellers’ Association (APATA), Naresh Kumar said that there has been an annual increase of 20% in the number of passengers travelling by air. However, there has been no addition of aircraft. However, Vizag Airport Director, Prakash Reddy, talking to daily, says that there is no confirmation on the withdrawal of Visakhapatnam-Tirupati-Vijayawada operations. Source: TOI

IndiGo has announced new flight cancellation and change charges effective from midnight of June 27 for domestic and international flight booking. The order includes a hike in particular categories by Rs 500, to modifications which are done in a three-day period before the flight’s departure. There is no hike, if a passenger is making the change four or more days in advance of the travel dates. The airline said in a statement, “The revision only applies if the change or cancellation is made within 0-3 days of the travel dates. The charges remain the same in case a passenger is making the change four or more days in advance of the travel dates. For domestic bookings, customers can make any changes or cancellations free of charge within 24 hours of booking, if booked at least 7 days before the travel dates.”

SpiceJet has recorded the highest Passenger Load Factor amongst all the domestic carriers in India, recording a 93.9 per cent PLF for the month of May, according to recent statistics revealed by DGCA. Closely following this number was GoAir with a PLF of 93.3 per cent, preceding IndiGo at 90.9 per cent. Fourth in line was Air Asia with 87.8 per cent, while Vistara recorded 85.6 per cent, which was followed by Air India at a PLF of 85 per cent.

SpiceJet will commence eight new daily international flights from Mumbai in July, offering connectivity to destinations including Riyadh, Dhaka and Jeddah. The flights on Mumbai-Dhaka-Mumbai route and Mumbai-Riyadh-Mumbai route will start from July 25 and August 15, respectively. Ajay Singh, CMD, SpiceJet, said, “SpiceJet is the only Indian budget airline to operate to Saudi Arabia and our new flights to Riyadh and Jeddah should greatly benefit the thousands of pilgrims travelling from India.”

IndiGo has commenced operations on 6 new connections including 4 RCS routes Kolkata-Prayagraj, Prayagraj-Kolkata, Raipur-Prayagraj and Prayagraj-Raipur. The new routes will be serviced by an ATR aircraft.  These new flights are designed to cater to business and leisure travellers who are constantly on the lookout for new and affordable flying options. The introduction of these flights will further bolster the airline’s connectivity in the Tier II cities with fares starting from INR 1,999. William Boulter, Chief Commercial Officer, IndiGo said, “As part of our continued focus to enhance point-to-point connectivity, we are pleased to commence operations on these six routes connecting Kolkata, Prayagraj (Allahabad), Raipur and Jabalpur. By linking regional centres of growth to metropolitan cities, we are aiming to support trade, tourism and mobility, to fulfil our larger objective of augmenting social cohesion and economic growth in the country.”   Mr. Boulter further added, “IndiGo will continue to expand its network to meet the requirements of both business and leisure travellers. It is our constant endeavour to provide more flexibility of choice to our customers along with on-time, affordable, courteous and hassle-free flying experience while building the best air transportation system in the world.”

Saudi Arabian Airlines (SAUDIA), the national flag carrier of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, is the first airline in the Middle East and Africa Region to receive the International Air Transport Association (IATA) Level 4 New Distribution Capability (NDC) certification. The ‘New Distribution Capability’ is a functionality used by the travel trade for booking air travel for individual and group bookings. It enables travel professionals to access content such images of the inflight cabin; add ancillary products, such as WiFi packages, excess baggage, and more. SAUDIA has deployed the Offer and IATA One Order Certified Order Management Solution from the vendor TPConnects, along with NDC enabled distribution to Travel Agents and Online Travel Agents. TPConnects OfrMS is integrated on top of the assets (Passenger Service System, Frequent Flyer Programme etc) as part of SAUDIA’s strategy in pushing offers including air and non-air ancillaries along with flights, both bundle and a la carte. SAUDIA Vice President, Sales, Mr. Richard Nuttall commented on the recent certification: “Level 4 is the highest NDC certification that includes adoption of additional servicing messages to support reshopping and changing orders. The airline provides the ability to execute Offer and Order Management, which means that Travel Agents integrated with SAUDIA are directly able to easily access the products that are available on the airline’s website, thereby providing a consistent shopping experience for the guests from the travel trade, similarly to the way guests book on the saudia.com website. Continued Mr. Nuttall: “With the support from a number of aggregators and travel agencies, the NDC initiative at SAUDIA is on a path from the early days of experimentation to presently operating full-scale in full force. We are targeting …

Air India will launch direct flights from Kolkata and Indore to Dubai next month. Praveen Bhatnagar from Corporate Communications at Air India, said: “The non-stop flights to Kolkata will be launched on July 16. They will operate on all days of the week except Sundays. We will be adding another flight to Indore from July 17.” On its website, Air India is already offering ‘attractive deals’ on the non-stop flights to Kolkata and Indore. The introductory fares, it says, are on offer till July 31, for travel between July 15 and July 31. Source: Gulf News