Category Archives: Aviation

German Airlines Lufthansa has completed 55 years of operations on Delhi – Frankfurt route on September 1, 2018. In June 1963, there were three flights a week to the far east. On Mondays and Wednesdays, the routing led from Duesseldorf via Frankfurt, Rome, Cairo, Dharan, Karachi, Calcutta, Bangkok and Hong Kong to Tokyo. On Fridays, the route led from Duesseldorf via Frankfurt, Rome, Cairo, Kuwait, Karachi, Kolkata, Bangkok and Hong Kong to Tokyo. As of September in the same year, the stop in India took place in New Delhi, instead of Kolkata. The flights were operated by a Boeing 720. Nowadays, Lufthansa operates the route by a A380 that covers the distance in a bit more than 7.5 hours. Delhi has always been a key market for Lufthansa and over the years, the airline has experienced healthy growth on the route as more customers experience world-class product and services. These include state-of-the-art products and best-in-class services such as in-flight entertainment and enhanced FlyNet allowing in-flight, high-speed internet to help stay connected with business partners or family on ground. Currently, Lufthansa Group and its carriers – Lufthansa, SWISS and Brussels Airlines, offer 61 flights from four Indian gateways, namely Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Bengaluru connecting to 343 destinations in more than 100 countries via its four European hubs of Frankfurt, Munich, Zurich and Brussels.

Domestic air traffic has grown by 21.79 per cent from January-July YOY, according to a latest report by Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). Passengers carried by domestic airlines during January-July 2018 were 800.40 lakhs as against 657.21 lakhs during the corresponding period of previous year. The passenger load factor in the month of July has shown a declining trend compared to previous month primarily due to the end of tourist season, the report said.

In 2017, more than 158 million passengers flew on routes to, from and within India, according to a report by IATA, titled ‘The Future is Bright… But Not Without Its Challenges’. This represents an increase of almost 15 per cent over 2016 and is the third consecutive year of growth in the order of 15-20 per cent per year. The reports for 2018 year-to-date suggest that India is on track to record a fourth straight year of double-digit passenger growth. The strong performance of air passenger demand growth in India has not been confined to just the past few years, however; the total number of air passengers has more than doubled over the past seven years, from a level of 79 million journeys undertaken in 2010, the report said.

With an aim to develop skilled human capital for the aviation industry, The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has appointed Bird Academy as their regional training partner in India. The partnership was made official during a signing ceremony between Alexandre de Juniac, Director General and CEO, IATA and Radha Bhatia, Chairperson, Bird Group. Speaking on the partnership, Conrad Clifford, Regional Vice President- Asia Pacific, IATA said, “India is expected to treble to 520 million passengers travelling to, from or within by 2037. The demand for trained aviation professionals will continue to grow. We look forward to a successful partnership with the Bird Academy to fulfill India’s training requirements.”On the occasion, Bhatia also announced that India will be hosting the next IATA Global Training Partner Conference in April 2019.

Vistara and British Airways have signed a codeshare agreement, further deepening their already existing interline partnership. Under the agreement, British Airways will add its ‘BA’ designator code to approximately 60 Vistara-operated flights each day covering 13 Indian cities, including eight new virtual British Airways destinations, namely Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Bhubaneswar, Chandigarh, Goa, Kolkata, Kochi, and Pune. Additionally, the BA code will also be put on Vistara flights between Mumbai and Amritsar, and Chennai and Kolkata. Sales under the codeshare agreement are open on all channels and major GDS systems for flights starting September 27, 2018. Commenting on this milestone partnership, Sanjiv Kapoor, Chief Strategy & Commercial Officer, Vistara said, “We are delighted to extend our existing interline and through check-in partnership with British Airways to a codeshare agreement. This partnership reaffirms our commitment to taking India’s finest airline brand beyond Indian borders, and it gives us the opportunity of welcoming travellers from around the world to experience the ‘new feeling of flying’ in India with Vistara. We share a lot in common with British Airways, key among which is our focus on delighting customers. We are confident that our respective customers will truly enjoy the reciprocal benefits of this collaboration.” Rishi Kapoor, Head of Alliances, British Airways said, “We have been flying to India for more than 90 years, so it is incredibly exciting for us to be able announce this partnership with such a well-respected carrier.”  

The first flight from the upcoming Navi Mumbai International Airport could start operating by September 2021, Civil Aviation Secretary R N Choubey has said. Choubey, who reviewed the progress of the greenfield project at a high-level meeting in Mumbai recently, said both the state government and the concessionaire are hopeful of starting flight operations in three years. “The state government and the concessionaire are optimistic that they will be in a position to start the first flight possibly in three years time from now,” Choubey told reporters in New Delhi. “We are trying to, off course, even compress it even further to see the first flight earlier because not all facilities need to be build to initiate the flights. But that’s probably the timeline and it’s going at very good speed,” he added. He said there has been “good cooperation” between the concessionaire, the project-affected persons and the state government in executing the airport project. The project is being carried out under the public-private-partnership model and Cidco has been mandated to execute the project. GVK group is developing the project. The group through its subsidiary, Mumbai International Airport (MIAL), holds 74 per cent stake in Navi Mumbai International Airport (NMIAL), while Cidco holds 26 per cent. In February this year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone for the airport, which will give a breather to single-runway and slot-constrained Chattrapati Shivaji International airport in Mumbai. Source: PTI

Booking.com has partnered with Air India to offer the airline’s customers access to over 28.9 million accommodation listings, including everything from homes, apartments, villas to world-class hotels and resorts from the Air India website. Stewart Jones, Regional Director – Strategic Partnerships, APAC, Booking.com said, “Air India makes it the perfect partner for us to showcase our global online accommodation offering to their domestic and international customers. As India is poised to become the third largest aviation market by 2020 with its fast-growing outbound travel market, we are happy to combine our strengths with Air India’s to deliver the best travel experience to travellers across the country.” Madhu Mathen, General Manager – Sales and Marketing, Air India said, “Booking.com’s global reach and unique accommodation offerings is a key reason we chose the online accommodation platform as one of our first accommodation partner. As a member of the world’s largest airline alliance – Star Alliance, Air India has passengers that are globe-trotters. Partnering with Booking.com enables us at Air India to provide our customers a broad & unique variety of accommodation options in any city we fly them to.”  

The International Air Transport Association (IATA), at International Aviation Summit held in Delhi, called on the government of India to maximise the potential contribution of aviation to India’s development by addressing infrastructure constraints that limit growth and government policies that impose excessive costs on aviation. Growth forecasts for India indicate a trebling of passenger demand by 2037 when some 500 million people are expected to fly to, from or within India. Already aviation supports 7.5 million Indian jobs and Rs 30 billion of GDP (1.5% of the economy). The Summit, being co-hosted by the Indian Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA), Airports Authority India (AAI) and IATA, commemorates the approaching milestone of 50-straight months of double digit domestic growth for Indian aviation. “While it is easy to find Indian passengers who want to fly, it’s very difficult for airlines to make money in this market. India’s social and economic development needs airlines to be able to profitably accommodate growing demand. We must address infrastructure constraints that limit growth and government policies that deviate from global standards and drive up the cost of connectivity,” said Alexandre de Juniac, Director General and CEO, IATA. India’s aviation infrastructure has benefitted from significant upgrades in recent years. “It is clear that India has the capacity to develop effective infrastructure. But the job is not done. Passenger numbers will grow. And infrastructure must not be a bottleneck in fulfilling the needs of travelers and the economy,” said de Juniac who called for work in four priority areas – develop a comprehensive and strategic master plan for India’s airports, remove all obstacles to successfully opening Navi Mumbai as quickly as possible, modernise airport processes using technology in …

GVK Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL), the company that administers the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (CSIA), has inducted first-of-its-kind Advanced Passenger Evacuation Vehicle for rescuing stranded personnel from inaccessible areas of aircraft. The vehicle covers all types of aircraft currently used in the Aviation industry, including A380 which is the biggest civilian aircraft available now. This highly developed vehicle will be used for rescuing stranded personnel, wherein conventional alighting systems cannot be employed. In the unlikely event of an aircraft veering away from its normal path, this equipment can be rushed to the spot and the attached ladder can be extended up to aircraft door for passengers or crew to be safely evacuated. This ladder can be extended up to a maximum height of 8.3 metres. The escape stairs have high evacuation load capacity of approximately 115 people at one time. This machine is equipped with an engine of 540 HP which will give an acceleration of 0-80 km per hour in less than 40 seconds which is one of the fastest in this category. The vehicle is fitted with high pressure smoke ventilation system which can remove smoke from fuselage/ cockpit and increase chances of surviving. This highly developed machine can also reach off-road surfaces with 6X6 wheel drive system on single wheel configuration

Continuing its focus on growing its domestic presence, Jet Airways is set to introduce 28 new flights in the coming month. Jet Airways’ new services – including industry firsts as well as a mix of non-stop and one-stop flights – will strengthen the airline’s footprint, enabling it to meet the rising demand for domestic and international air travel in emerging cities. The new services will also help connect guests with other cities including metros as well as the airline’s global network via its hubs in Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru. In a series of industry-firsts, Jet Airways will introduce daily flights from Indore, connecting the ‘largest city in Madhya Pradesh’ to Jodhpur as well as to Vadodara. In other notable firsts, Jet Airways is also set to commence flight operations between Chandigarh and Lucknow, Ahmedabad and Jodhpur as well as Vadodara and Jaipur. Jet Airways will be the only airline in the country operating these routes which will improve connectivity between north India and central as well as western India. Raj Sivakumar, Senior Vice President – Worldwide Sales & Distribution, Jet Airways, said, “As air travel gains prominence in emerging cities across India such as Indore, Jodhpur, Guwahati, Visakhapatnam and Vadodara, there is an increasing need to introduce connectivity solution for these cities. New flights, additional frequencies, greater capacity across more sectors are meant to offer our discerning guests additional choice, convenience, connectivity and superior comfort.”