Category Archives: Aviation

British Airways has announced the introduction of the new direct route between London and Durban to a global audience attending Africa’s Travel Indaba in Durban. This long awaited decision was announced by Sihle Zikalala, MEC–Economic Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs, KwaZulu Natal, to delegates at the event. The new route adds to the airline’s existing twice-daily flights between Johannesburg and London, and daily flights between Cape Town and London. “This new route adds to our growing number of international flights‚ connecting us to key destinations such as the Gulf region‚ the Middle East‚ the Indian subcontinent‚ Australia as well as Beijing‚ Shanghai‚ Tokyo and Seoul through the hub in Abu Dhabi. The trade opportunities presented by this direct flight between Durban and London is set to add huge value to our economy‚” Zikalala said. The route is a huge leap forward for the tourism sector, propelling foreign direct investment, improving business potential and ensuring the economic empowerment of South Africans.

Pakyong Airport in Sikkim has got licence for scheduled operations, paving way for direct connectivity to Sikkim, which will boost tourism and economic growth in the norteastern state. Suresh Prabhu, Civil Aviation Minister announced the development via Twitter. “The Pakyong (Gangtok) Airport at Sikkim got license on May 4, 2018 for scheduled operations. It is an engineering marvel at a height of more than 4,500 ft in a tough terrain. It will pave a way for direct connectivity to the state of Sikkim, giving boost to tourism & economic growth”, Prabhu said. Pakyong airport, 30-km from the state capital of Gangtok, will be the 100th operational airport when it begins operations, Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha said. Low-cost airline SpiceJet has been granted permission to fly to Pakyong from Kolkata under the Civil aviation Ministry’s regional connectivity scheme.

Forging ahead with the fourth destination in India after Hyderabad, Ahmedabad and Kochi recently, Jazeera Airways will now fly to Mumbai starting May 9 to expand its growing network of Indian routes. Responding to the travel demands of its customers, the airline will provide strong connectivity through Kuwait on to 14 destinations across the Middle East. Jazeera Airways will operate daily flights to and from Mumbai starting May 9 departing 20:30 pm from Kuwait arriving 03.00am in Mumbai Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport. Rohit Ramachandran, CEO, Jazeera Airways said, “Our network in India is developing well and is continuing to support the travel needs of over 920,000 Indians from Kuwait, as well as offering Indian citizens connectivity across the Middle East. With our increasing passenger numbers, Jazeera Airways is proud to open its own dedicated terminal at Kuwait International Airport in May. This is an exciting phase for the brand as it reiterates the long term commitment of honouring Jazeera’s support for the Vision 2035.”    

Qatar Tourism Authority (QTA) has announced the opening of a representative office in Mumbai. QTA’s representative office in India will oversee a wide range of promotional initiatives, including workshops, sales visits, travel agent destination training through QTA’s online Tawash programme, partnerships with tour operators, familiarisation trips, media campaigns and a variety of innovative activities to raise Qatar’s profile as a leisure and business tourism destination among Indian tourists. Rashed Saeed Al-Qurese, Chief Marketing and Promotion Officer, QTA commented, “The rapid growth of India’s outbound tourism market in recent years, coupled with QTA’s intensified efforts to diversify and grow visitor source markets, makes it the right time to establish our on-the-ground presence in India.” He added, “The steps taken to make accessing Qatar easier are particularly targeted at visitors who are seeking to experience our country’s luxury hospitality and unique cultural offerings, all while benefiting from the convenience of relatively short flights.” Qatar aims to have 5.6 million tourist visitors by 2023. Qatar recorded 1,56,726 Indian visitors from January to April this year, an increase of 15 per cent compared to last year. Qatar has become an increasingly accessible destination for Indian travellers, especially after Qatar waived entry visa requirements last year for 80 countries including India.

Continuing with its agenda to inspire the spirit of sportsmanship among the travel trade, Emirates Airlines will organise the third edition of its ‘Emirates Cricket Trade Tournament 2018’ for the travel trade in November in Mumbai. The League matches will be held on November 17-18, 2018 and the semi-final and final matches will be on November 24-25, 2018 at Islam Gymkhana. The cricket trophy was also unveiled in a pre-event networking event where it invited all the team members. Essa Sulaiman Ahmad, VP-India & Nepal, Emirates, was present at the networking party and wished the players all the best. The matches will be powered by DTCM, Amadeus and Reckon Travels & Holidays. The previous edition played in 2016 had 416 players in 32 teams playing 45 games over four days over two weekends.

Ariana Afghan Airlines, one of the largest airlines in Afghanistan, has recently commenced operations of its flight on the Herat-Delhi-Herat route. The Delhi-Herat flight will arrive in Delhi at 13:20 hours and depart Delhi at 14:30 hours. The airline flies once a week on Mondays. The first flight was inaugurated by Nader Omar, President, Ariana Afghan Airlines. The Delhi-Kandhar and Delhi-Kabul flights will arrive in Delhi at 13:05 hours and depart Delhi at 14:35 hours.

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs approved the investments for expansion and upgradation of integrated terminals at Chennai, Guwahati and Lucknow airports by Airport Authority of India. Airports Authority of India has been assigned for the project with a total estimate of about Rs 5,000 crores to modernise, upgrade services, build new terminal buildings or upgrade the new terminals in Chennai, Lucknow and Guwahati. Jayant Sinha, Minister of Civil Aviation, made the announcement regarding the approval of the investment by Cabinet and assured that work for it would begin at the earliest.  

Ukraine International Airline (UIA) has started operating its first non-stop scheduled connection from Kiev to Delhi from May 1, 2018. The flights are being operated on Boeing 767, providing passengers with options of three class configuration. Currently UIA will operate its flights thrice a week and the fourth frequency will be added to the operations on June 7, 2018. Subhash Goyal, Chairman, STIC group, GSA for Ukraine International Airline, said, “This historic step will bridge the gap between the two nations and tourism sector will witness about 20-25 per cent growth by the end of 2019.”

Tajik Air, the national air carrier of Tajikistan, has recently commenced operations of its second flight on the Dushanbe-Delhi-Dushanbe route. The 2.15 hours long flight will arrive in Delhi at 13:30 hours and depart Delhi at 15:00 hours. The airline flies twice weekly on Tuesdays and Fridays.

The proposed international airport at Jewar in Greater Noida will not only bring places in Uttar Pradesh such as Kanpur and Allahabad closer to NCR under the regional connectivity scheme UDAN, it will also benefit locations in neighbouring states, a techno-economic feasibility report for the airport has stated. The Uttar Pradesh government is of the view that once the airport begins functioning from 2022-23, people travelling by air in the state will increase significantly. Air traffic in Uttar Pradesh is currently growing at a rate of 28.8 per cent. The PwC report stated that when the airport starts functioning, Shimla, Ludhinana, Pathankot, Gwalior and Adampur would be benefitted by it. These places, including Bhatinda would be benefitted by both the Jewar airport and the IGI airport in New Delhi under the Centres UDAN scheme. The capacity deployment to Kanpur and Adampur at present remains the highest. It said 88 per cent of Jewar airport traffic would be domestic and the rest international, adding that adjoining districts of Uttar Pradesh such as Agra and Gautam Budh Nagar would be the main contributors to the fliers volume to the airport. The report said the demand for air travel from the Dellhi-NCR region will increase manifold in the coming years and it will be determined by factors such as “natural growth in air travel demand due to economic progress and model shift from railways to air”. Source: PTI